Meghan Markle got candid about the highs and lows of being a businesswoman in her new podcast series, Confessions of a Female Founder, which launched on April 8.
The Duchess welcomed her first guest of the show, Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, to chat about succeeding in the business world against all odds, and how all-consuming it is.
"Launching a business, it can be so overwhelming," Meghan revealed. "Even with the best of teams, it will keep you up at night, because every single decision – every microdetail – in that moment, it feels monumental."
"For example, a month ago, I was absolutely consumed with packaging," she continued. "Boxes – that's all I could think about. And I would sit there doing the unboxing in my head. Is there tissue paper? What about the packing peanuts, but they're biodegradable and where does the sticker go and hold on and what size the box is going to be?"
She then asked her friend Whitney: "Can you turn it off? I say this, because last night I was just – you know when your brain goes in a loop, those 3 am loops? And it's just like, you can't stop overthinking, and how are you going to address that?"
"And, oh gosh, but that packaging – I want the packaging to look like this," she added. "And that's not the unboxing experience I had in mind. And how are we going to pivot? And does it matter?"
© InstagramWhitney had some sage advice for the As Ever founder after her products sold out within an hour of launch.
"Don't take this route to the top of Everest. The view is not worth it," she said on the show.
"Don't do it, because the one thing you can never get back is your precious time. And the amount of time, Meg, that I wasted on being stressed, being miserable, being overwhelmed, being paranoid about what shoe was going to drop – I actually think I would have been more successful had I not been like that."
Meghan launched her new lifestyle brand on April 2 with nine artisanal products that were sold out within an hour.
Due to a system glitch, she was forced to issue an apology to those who bought her Wildflower Honey with Honeycomb product, which was still available for purchase on the website despite being sold out.
"The excitement created a volume of traffic on the site that even we couldn't have anticipated (with everything selling out in an hour)," said a statement from the company.
© As Ever"The orders were happening so quickly that the backend of the site didn't have a chance to keep up. The Limited-Edition Honey that you purchased was, unfortunately, already sold out. We are working on replenishing inventory and will gladly send you an item of your choosing to thank you for your understanding."
As Ever features products like teas, fruit preserves, honey, crepe mix and flower sprinkles. It comes after she rebranded from American Riviera Orchard in February.
© Twitter"Last year, I had thought, 'American Riviera, that sounds like such a great name.' It's my neighborhood; it's a nickname for Santa Barbara, but it limited me to things that were just manufactured and grown in this area," she explained in an Instagram video at the time.
"I thought about it, and I've been waiting for a moment to share a name that I had secured in 2022, and this is the moment, and it's called As Ever," she gushed.
For more about Meghan's lifestyle brand, see below...
