Transcription
Megan, hi. We're so excited to have you here today.
Thank you. I'm thrilled to be here. First, I want to just say congratulations to you on everything that you've done and everything that you're doing.
Thank you. I appreciate that. It's been a very full, uh, it's been a full few months for sure.
Yeah. So, this conversation is about your journey, your journey, and I want to start. We have 20 minutes.
Yeah, we do. It's been a journey. We do. We can go over just lunch after your jour. I want to talk about you as a founder, as a CEO, as an innovator, as a creator, as an investor. Uh, we have the CEO of Netflix here. I did binge your show, "Love, Megan." There's nothing you can't do, which is amazing. But talk about how this became a business.
Well, with, um, I think always credit where credit's due. Um, you know, I know Ted Sarandos will be here later on today, and Ted has been such an incredible partner in the partnership my husband and I have had with Netflix for the past few years, and then Bella Bajari as well has just been so incredibly supportive. And I think just naturally, I was doing what I've always loved to do, and people couldn't see that more broadly. But what I'd love to do was always make things in my kitchen, do small flower arrangements, make a lot of jam. And, uh, when I was sending those as gifts one day, Bella said, "There's a show here." And I hadn't, at the onset, thought that that was something that I wanted to, to share in that way. And creatively, we worked as partners to really find a way for it to land and for me to be able to share it and, and just have fun, which is really, I think, the goal in this chapter, for me certainly. And then you just watch the extensions of that where Netflix coming on as my business partner for the brand, as ever, is really an extension of the evolution of our partnership together. And they complement each other.
Well, what I love about the show, raise your hand. You've seen the show. Okay. If you haven't, you're gonna, Ted's gonna be very happy. Megan's gonna be very happy. You're all gonna be watching the show. It's amazing. What I love about the show is that you bring in your family, you bring in your friends, you bring in like the team, the crew, you make them part of the show.
That was very important to me. And so that, talk to me a little bit about, um, you care for so many people and you, you talk about joy and love. Everything that you do comes with caring for the people that are on your show and around you. Uh, you're CEO. There's a lot of glam, but we know there's a lot of grit and grind. How do you care for yourself?
Oh, thank you for asking that. Well, look, I think part of, for me, part of what's really, really important is that love language of taking care of people also really feeds me. And I think that is, in many ways, part of my self-care, which can feel confusing for a lot of people. You, how do you show up for all these people and not feel depleted? But a lot of times, if you're doing it in a way where you, you are giving in a way that is thoughtful and intentional and so authentic, it actually energizes you as opposed to depleting you. So, as an example, when you mention the crew as a character, when I said, "How are we going to do a cooking show or a crafting show that doesn't feel like a typical stand and stir, which we all remember from back in the days where you stand and look at Cameron, you're stirring something." I didn't necessarily want to do that, and I didn't want a reality show. And so the only way to feel as though you were still in conversation with me, I felt, was I had to be talking to the people in the room with me, and that was the crew. And, you know, on Suits, we had a crew of over 200 people. So, and on this show, it's a crew of 80 people. Uh, which also, when people say, "Why didn't you do it in your house?" It's like, well, my kids are coming home for their nap, and 80 people in the kitchen isn't really the childhood memory I would love for them to have. Um, so we were really fortunate to find something close by. But I think, look, all of that is part of how I take care of myself, and tapping into what really ignites my joy is part of that, and being creative has really, really been anchored in that for this moment.
And the show, the series has already been renewed.
Yes.
Congratulations.
Thank you. I don't know if it's been renewed and filmed, but, uh, it has.
That's okay. That's amazing. Season two is coming. So that's your, your like first platform, or one of your platforms. The second is your product line, as ever. Uh, it's my understanding the first drop was sold out in 20 minutes.
45 minutes.
Okay, 45 minutes. But yes, after a year of work and development and, um, manufacturing, we, we had a feeling that it would have some buzz surrounding it. Uh, 45 minutes was not something I could have anticipated. I'm super grateful for the support.
Yes. Such a surprise. That's so exciting.
Thanks.
And your third platform, which I love, is your podcast, "Confessions of a Female Founder," and you've had some of the most incredible, uh, women on your show. You're really supporting women, and I love that. We need more of that. What are your confessions?
Well, as a female founder, there are quite a lot of them on the episodes, I will say. So, "Confessions of a Female Founder" felt as though it was the perfect compliment for what I was building at this point in my life. Between the series and between the brand, I thought, how interesting is it to be able to listen to the conversations of someone building a business while they're doing it? And that includes all of the pivots and twists and turns and redirections that happen. As any entrepreneur will tell you, every day is full of surprises. And, um, you know, on the show, the other show on the Netflix series, I will say surprise and delight in the business of building, they're not always delightful surprises, but they are great teachable moments. And so I think some of the confessions that I have shared on the show include, I'll give you an example, the unboxing experience where I was so concerned on the aesthetic of how something would be received because it goes back to presentation and hospitality in so many ways. I said, "Do we have the dimensions on the box?" No. I said, "But I need to get the dimensions." They were finally able to give them to me, what the 3PL was going to have and the tissue paper, but I needed to see it and feel it. I needed my hands in it, which I think is part of, for me, my authentic self is really being involved in the creative and the granular. So I went online, I bought all these cardboard boxes, bought all the tissue paper and the filler and everything that should go inside. And I just sat there in my kitchen replicating this unboxing until I realized, I think this is going to be the right metric and size that we're looking for. But the confession of that is that's not glamorous. That's not what, I don't think people imagine I'm doing in my kitchen, but it's important. And a lot of those are revealed throughout the eight episodes of the series with Lemonada, which is a female-founded podcast production company that I'm working with. They're fantastic. But I think confession for you today that I could very comfortably say is I'm happiest. I'm the happiest that I've ever been. And, and that part to have a partner and a husband who is just so supportive, and to have healthy kids that are so joyful in the freeness of their life and the safety of their life that we create for them. I never, of all the things that have happened in my life, I never would have imagined getting here at this point. I would feel just so happy and grateful. And I really do.
Well, [Applause] and that really does come out in your show. Uh, you obviously have to just let some things go. I love, I love that you're high-low. This all looks wonderful, but you can do some of it. You can like, it's not perfection. It's just, no. I love how a journalist, um, from Business Insider, uh, lived your life for a week, or tried to, to live the show for a week.
Okay. That I didn't hear about.
What? Yeah. What was their week?
Oh, my team's like, "Don't talk about it." Other media company, but I, I love that. And you can, you not on the script. You can, you can live this life. You've brought this life to the world in such a beautiful way. And, you know, backstage, we were just talking about, we kind of need hope. I, I like to say fun, but hope. And, you know, you're really, you're really focused on that.
So, well, I think we appreciate it. Thank you. I mean, I think hope maybe is one word for it. Also, just people wanting to reconnect with each other, really wanting to have a sense of community and to feel grounded in something that's real and that's not that complicated. I think as a working mom, you know, and again, these are three projects that we're all launching really at the same time. So behind the scenes for the past year and a half have been incredibly busy and ambitious, but to see it all come to life and try to give yourself the space and the grace to make mistakes, to know that you're not going to get it right every day. And at the same time to prioritize what we're going to put out as our next tranche of SKUs, as equally important to me as Archie losing his first tooth this week, which is about to happen, and I just hope we're back home in time for it. Um, that it all matters. And when you look at your life through that perspective, which frankly, being a parent gives you the most illuminating perspective because what is seemingly so big somehow becomes so microscopic in importance compared to what's happening with your children. That's certainly how I feel.
That you just make time to do it all. And I think maybe that's what is hopeful. That's what feels like the dream.
Well, you are a very high-profile person. You are under a lot of microscope scrutiny. How do you just stay focused, minimize the noise, not get distracted? Give us some like tools, tactics. We all have that in our lives.
Well, when I was backstage listening to Ryan speak and he gave that quote, which you all would have heard, what did he say? Tina Fey said, "If you're feeling good about yourself, just you don't want to, I, what did he say?" Verbatim. If you're feeling good about yourself, go online. Right. Yeah. Just go online. Um, so I don't do that. Uh, I've made a very, very conscious effort to create boundaries for myself and for my mental health, for my well-being, and certainly to role model that as well for my children. I'm conscious of not just raising a very strong and confident young woman, but also having a son, I think is, it's just as paramount of importance for young men to be raised with a confidence and sense of self that is going to empower the women around them too. So I try to model that behavior, but again, like it starts with whatever is going on internally. And when I am able to not even just tune out whatever that noise is, to really not give it any credence, that has become so much a part of my day-to-day life, and things will get brought to my attention if on a need-to-know basis. Outside of that, I'm kind of late on the boat for a lot of things going on, and I'm okay with that. That's part of what I find to bring me peace. It also helps me have very, very strategic focus on the intention of the products, the creative, or the producerial work that we're doing that I want to bring to the table. So, it does give me a lot of space to focus because I'm not in the same swirl that a lot of us find ourselves in.
Well, speaking of the Ryan interview, I was with the journalist who did the interview. We were in the green room and I said, "Give me some tips. What should I ask Megan?"
You don't need tips. Oh, you're doing great.
I always need tips. And she said, "Flower sprinkles."
Oh my gosh.
Talk about flower sprinkles. You would think you, what a, it's like a little fairy. If I could just be tossing them around all the time, the obsession that has come with flower sprinkles. I would explain to this audience who might not have watched the show yet about flower sprinkles.
Uh, so I just, it sounds of all things to be talking about for Time 100. Let's talk about flower sprinkles. Um, but let's, because I think it speaks to the tiny moments of joy that are so effortless and just create a little bit of magic that we're all craving in our everyday. They're tiny little flower petals that are dried. I started putting them on salads. I started putting them on scrambled eggs. It didn't actually matter. On a yogurt parfait. The level of charm that you find people have when they see these tiny little dried petals is something I can't fully wrap my head around, but I appreciate that there is a love for the detail and the small level of delight that can be added. So, take flower sprinkles really as an analogy and think about what you could do in your everyday life that can just have a little splash of magic on unexpected moments.
And as a CEO, you're going to patent that and that's your IP and no one can steal it.
Going to be very effective. Thank you.
Uh, we had Nicole Kidman as, uh, one of our women of the year in February, and she's also a CEO in addition to everything else that she does. She's incredible. She said that, uh, I think there were like 19 to 20 directors, female, that she's worked with, and Lucy Feldman asked on our stage, who's the one that you haven't, that you like to work with? And she said, Katherine Bigelow. So she made some noise, made a call. Oh, this. Yeah. Who have you not had on your show or your podcast? Who would you want to get and mention today?
Oh my, is this the hook? Is this the bait that we're putting out? Um, you know, I will say I've been so fortunate that even before the series had aired in talking about what the premise was and how conversational and more relatable we wanted it to be, I was able to get legends like Alice Waters, who I just, I just love her so much. And we've now become friends having her on the show. Um, and also other friends as well, who you, we haven't revealed things about season two. And Ted will come here later, but I can apologize in advance for saying, you know, José Andrés is going to be on season two. We love José so much. So, I think my wish list has been, I've, I've been fortunate to have the people that I want on the show. And if I think of someone else, I'm gonna have to figure out a way to tell you. So, you could put that out there. Um, but no, I've, I've been really lucky. We have a great, great lineup.
And, uh, we're out of time, but we said we might go over a few minutes. I told you you can't fit a full journey in 20 minutes, and we're, we are time, so we have to stay on time. But I'm going to ask you my last question.
Sure.
What's next? What's your fourth platform? What are you excited about the rest of this year and into 2026?
Thank you for asking. I think obviously focusing on our family and our children is the most important and first platform. It all stems from there. But beyond that, as I continue to uplift other female founders, that's really using the platform of "Confessions of a Female Founder" to do that, to continue to expand my portfolio of investment into female-founded companies because they are so underresourced and under-supported. That is very, very important to me. Um, and then the extension of as I continue to invest in them, in investing in myself with the business of as ever, scaling that to growth, and then there'll be more surprises.
Can't wait. Thank you, Megan. Congratulations again on everything. So happy to have you here.
Thank you.