Waxing lyrical about how much you learned from “making mistakes” is very on-trend in the business mentorship world these days.
So perhaps we shouldn’t be too astonished that Meghan Markle, who has yet to sell a single pot of jam a full year after blitzing Instagram with her preserves, has announced that she will debut a new business tips podcast early next month.
The duchess’ decision to reinvent herself as the first royal business guru since, er, Prince Andrew, just days after she rebranded as the perfect hostess in her much-mocked Netflix show With Love, Meghan, may leave some of her potential audience scratching their heads about just who she is supposed to be.
The announcement of her Confessions of a Female Founder podcast comes two years after she and Prince Harry were unceremoniously relieved of a multi-million dollar podcast deal with Spotify after Meghan’s show, Archetypes, which featured her speaking to famous female friends, bombed with audiences and critics.
In a don’t-let-the-door-hit-you-on-the-way-out moment, the couple were described as “f---ing grifters” by one Netflix executive shortly after the deal was terminated.
The new show, which features Meghan speaking to female friends who have established “massively successful businesses,” is being released by her new podcast partner, Lemonada Media, the company behind hits such as Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Samantha Bee’s Choice Words.
Meghan broke the news of her latest reinvention in a post on Instagram, writing: “I’m so excited to share with you something else I’ve been working on: “Confessions Of A Female Founder,” my new podcast with @lemonadamedia!
“I’ve been having candid conversations with amazing women who have turned dreams into realities, and scaled small ideas into massively successful businesses.
“They’re opening up, sharing their tips, tricks (and tumbles), and letting me pick their brains as I build out my own business, As Ever. It has been absolutely eye-opening, inspiring... and fun! (Because what’s the point if we can’t have some fun on this wild adventure?)”
Lemonada described the show as inviting listeners “to be a fly on the wall as Meghan sits down for candid conversations with female founders and friends about the success, the struggles, and the never-before-told stories of building a business.”
Meghan told Deadline in a statement: “I’m so proud of what we’re creating, and the candid conversations that I’m able to have with other female founders as we unpack the twists and turns of building a business.
“Through my friendships and relationships, we’re able to dive into the type of insights that everyone wants to know as they’re building a business, and that I’m able to tap into as I’m building my own business with As Ever.”
It remains to be seen just how deep Meghan gets into issues such as: not being allowed to use Sussex Royal as a brand name, the size of the advance for her children’s book The Bench, described in a New York Times review as “tortured”, what happened when Netflix cancelled her animated series about gutsy women, Pearl, who did the due diligence on the name American Riviera Orchard, junked after a trademark dispute, what’s the best way to manage staff and whether or not Netflix will renew her contract after her new show got panned and only just squeaked into the streamer’s global top 10.
