Episode 4 – Meggan Roxanne – Turning pain into purpose

0:12Hi guys, I'm Rochelle Humes and this is Ladies Who Launch. Each episode will dive into the journeys of aspirational women who started from scratch and built their dreams into thriving empires. These are the founders, the risk takers, the go getters that are changing the landscape and making their mark in the world of business. We're here to celebrate their wins, dive into their challenges and share the invaluable lessons they've learned along the way. Ladies Who Launch is about sharing the inspiring stories that could empower you to take your own leap. So get ready to be uplifted by the resilience, creativity and unstoppable determination of today's most extraordinary women.

0:52This is your Girls Group Chat for business and beyond.

1:00Our guest today's journey began in a truly unexpected way. During a challenging period of depression in 2010, she turned to Tumblr sharing motivational quotes that resonated deeply with others. What began as a personal outlet quickly gained traction evolving into The Good Quote, a multifaceted brand that now engages with over 24 million followers globally across all platforms. Through her work in digital art and motivational writing, she uses her vulnerability and authenticity as powerful tools for connection and personal growth. She's incredible. You're going to love her. Please welcome to the podcast, Megan Roxanne.

1:41I am so happy to talk to you today. Genuinely, I have been so excited for this chat because your story continues to fascinate me so much and deep diving into you and researching about you, it's just so fascinating to me that there are so many people that connect with you and your words. And we're talking like, if we're looking at Instagram, like over 24 million people, which is just, you know, obscene. But they don't know the person behind the account. And which I love because now we're finding out a little bit more about you, but people are connecting to you and they don't really know you, which I think is such a powerful tool.

2:24We're seeing so much kind of founder led content at the minute, which is also so interesting. but to see what you've created and kind of what empire that you are sat on but you've done that without being the person that has to drive it if that makes sense like visually and like publicly and I think it's so so fascinating and we're in an age where everyone wants to be a content creator everyone wants to be an influencer but I'm so interested and how your journey began. Okay thank you so much for your kind words by the way it has been it has been a journey it's been 10 years now actually I think when I first started A Good Quote it was just for me to be able to find a community that was it so I had no intentions of being the face or being an influence or anything it was just to find a community I was going through waves of depression.

3:21I was in a place where my friends and myself were in separate places. They were in uni. I was dropping out and life just didn't make much sense for me. And I stumbled across a blog on Tumblr and I named my blog Christian Wisdom. And I took lyrics from positive, well, from hip hop songs. I took the positive lyrics from there and I shared those as quotes. And then I would expand on it with my own writing. And I noticed that my perception on things, it intrigued people and before you know it I grew a following and on Tumblr I grew to about 1.6 million gosh and it was so fascinating because if I'm being honest with you Rochelle I started I survived of selling Facebook pages during uni so I was selling I was growing Facebook communities Facebook pages and I was selling them and that's how I was paying my rent right so I knew how to I knew how to grow communities.

4:15But for myself on Tumblr, I wasn't expecting 1.6 million to follow. That's just, that is a huge number. So when you were obviously doing that to make a living, so you were, you know, building communities on Facebook. So that wasn't for yourself. No. So that would be for... Anybody who wanted to have like a meme page or a comedy page or a sports page. I just knew how to grow communities. This is something I've always... And is that like something that's so like... in you is that like are you good at like putting people together are you like as in life not just kind of like on social media like have you got a big community around how I'm just so interested in you having the skill set to do that and it shine the way that it does do you know I just looked to create a feed that I wanted to see and so when we're online and we're seeing curated feeds there's a few pieces of content each in in each of them where okay I'm going to follow this page because you know some of the things interest me but I never found anything that kept me like captivated so I decided to create it for myself and I realized if I mix a little bit of um you know comedy with some inspiration and maybe something that's popular right now I can keep people coming back yeah and so I started to study what made newspapers and magazines popular I started to study how this is going to sound so crazy but I started to study how people were able to create influence you know how was the everyday man able to become I don't know a pioneer or something I did a lot of studying in Pablo Escobar to be honest with you because yeah I mean he's just fascinating he was amazing but what actually amazed me of him was not what he did was the fact that he had 250 ,000 people working for him at one stage yeah that's insane so I wanted to study the psychology behind that and I was and I just started to put the methods into my own practice and I was able to use that to build communities and so when I got to 1.6 million on Tumblr I thought okay we're going to turn this community into I don't know I wanted to do concerts I wanted to have like in-person events yeah and then I met my business partner and he was just like no Facebook have just acquired Instagram we're going to take this concept over there and we're going to make this blow I genuinely believe this is going to work and I I was so comfortable on Tumblr but I trusted his vision that was like your safety yeah it really was because there was no and that does happen doesn't it when you because I I feel like that way about TikTok right and I get it and I know and my team are constantly like you need to do TikTok it's the thing it's but I like what I know and I know what I like and I'm that person and I'm comfortable in it I know how to use Instagram and I'm there and that's kind of my happy place but it it does take somebody else sometimes isn't it to bring you out of your comfort zone yeah what does your partner do at the moment he is a partner at sheridan's law firm right and so he works on the good quote like part time and he handles all of the um contracts all of the partnerships and collaborations right he comes on board as creative as well he has some fantastic ideas and we just create and enjoy you know it's it for me the good quote was again an extension of christian wisdom it was really just to create a community and just to see where we go from there and in the very beginning we did so many things we worked with labels we had a merch company a merch brand sorry we had an agency and through the agency we were able to work with amazing thought leaders and help people grow communities but deep down there was always a deeper need to connect and at this point I feel like we're at the place where we can do that I've been through so much in my personal journey that all of the buzz and everything it doesn't really intrigue me anymore I want to know I want to ensure that the good quote creates some sort of serenity for somebody you know because that's essentially what I created it for that's what you were seeking yeah so I want to be able to reach the person that doesn't have a community because as you asked earlier you know do I have a big community I do you know being from the West Indies that guy over there if you've known him for a long that's your cousin and also whether you want whether you want that or not yeah that's your aunt it's so funny because uh i never forget this and alaya my eldest is 11 now and she must have been about five at the time and the doorbell rang and i said she was like oh um auntie's at the door like that she'd had a little look at the camera she's like auntie's at the door i'm like okay auntie who and she's like i don't know auntie it's just so funny because that is just how you're raised everyone's auntie everyone's uncle everyone's your brother everyone's your cousin and that is kind of how life is but like you say you're fortunate that yeah I'm fortunate that was my normality but I know that when I was going through my depression it wasn't because not many people within that community knew how to connect with me so I felt really isolated and so when I went online I realized oh my gosh a lot of people are dealing with the same thing as me how I don't want to gather people when we all be sad together like how can I turn this energy and uplift others while I'm also uplifting myself.

9:25So at this point, so when this was like really, I mean, it still is at the heart of what you do and I suppose that's what you want to pull it back more to be now, that first original spark of yours. You gain these 1.6 million on Tumblr. You meet your partner and he says, no, this isn't it. We're moving over to Instagram. And then what? We grew really fast on Instagram. I told everybody on Tumblr that we're migrating over to Instagram and people followed us and you know in the first I think at least within the first quarter I've always get this number wrong so you have to forgive me but we received our first million followers very quickly within the first six months and on Instagram at the time it was so rare to see this and we had so many celebrities following and people in general and one of the things I loved about the concept of picture quotes because I didn't really see many people doing picture quotes before me I can't think of anyone else that was doing it.

10:21I tried to I was like deep diving into my research and honestly you I don't think there was and I really don't the idea of taking words and because obviously Instagram is so visual you know Twitter you had so many you know what characters to get into one to get into one post and I just I just didn't see that and now I the reason I stumbled across your page is I share a quote every single morning and I and since I saw yours and that's why I've always been a fan but I find it so interesting that actually that was something you would try now all you see is a different quote on Instagram but that was you trailblazing yeah and you know what it really hit me when I would just be out with my friends because my friends didn't know at first that this is what I was doing I didn't tell anybody no because it was my own little thing you know especially when I was on Tumblr and I started to see people sharing it on their Blackberry messages as they're like, Oh, the good old days.

11:20Little ping. Yeah, but everybody started to make it their display pictures. And I remember there was a friend of mine who was going through something and she put up a quote that, you know, summarized how she was feeling. And I didn't have to go through a long winded conversation to find out. It was right there. So I was just like, are you okay? And she was just like, no, and sent the picture. And I was just like, wow, this is changing the way that we're able to communicate our emotions and it just made me realize that you know one thing especially from a West Indian community you know depression and all those kind of things it's not really something that we discuss off the table isn't it right it's very taboo conversation but it's like in this aspect you can just put your feelings in a picture quote and share it and people will already know and there's no judgment behind that and to me that was just so empowering and so yeah so my friend she actually would utilize the quotes to um express how she's feeling at the time and it just fast-tracked our conversation we didn't have to have anything long-winded I can see her picture quote was quite sad and you know I'll be like is that how you're feeling and I just realized that these quotes were empowering it was a it was enabling us to share how we feel without actually having to have that conversation and so when I went onto Instagram it just exploded it exploded it was everywhere on pin and stress it was everywhere and it was just it was a bit overwhelming to be honest with you but I loved it I loved the fact that people were able to resonate and people were able to feel seen yeah because when you're going through these moods it's really as you say isolating and you know it's it's crazy to think that a picture quote can make you feel it speaks to you doesn't it when you as soon as you see something you're like this is and there'll be ones that are like share to my friend because we'd we'd spoken that day and I know this is exactly how she's feeling and it does it's that conversation starter yeah you know we're all good at saying we all need to talk more we need to listen more but actually that's exactly what it does it articulates how you're feeling you just need to share so so well I'm interested in so cushion wisdom and then when it's once it migrates it's now the good quote That's a good quote, yeah.

13:31Why the, is that because it was something completely different or because you were sort of in this, going down the same path but bringing it over to Instagram? Why the name change? I think because, if I'm being honest with you, who's really going to invest in Cush and Wisdom? I mean, Cush stands for number one. A lot of people, babe. But I wanted to reach, I wanted to reach a wider audience. Yeah. And so it's such an interesting story. So I, a friend of mine called Latoya, she put me in touch with a woman called Tanya, who happens to be Sil, the singer, his sister. Oh, wow. And so she invited us to her house.

14:10I think she was living in West Hampstead at the time. Never, ever in my life seen a black woman live in a house like this before. So I was just, I was in awe from the front door. And we sat down and she was just like, Christian wisdom's not going to work. You have an amazing idea here, but it's just not going to work. Like, I don't want to see, you know, this idea, you know, what's the word I'm looking for? I think it's skyrocket, but I don't want to see this work. I don't want to see this fail. So you need to create something that everybody can relate to. And, oh, sorry. So there's an artist in Trinidad called Marshall Montano.

14:41And he had a song at the time called The Vibes Can't Done. And I just thought, okay, the quotes put out positivity. In Trinidad, we call that good vibes. what about the goods as in just the good and because the page you know was growing so quickly um on Christian Wisdom I thought we might have the opportunity to expand it across different platforms not just the quote page but different things so we just sat in a room and I just thought of the good quote the good fitness the good health like everything the good and we secured the name that day in Tanya's house and then I launched a page there and posted the first quote put the good quote underneath and it just it just went those moments where you just know that you're stumbling on like an idea of genius there's nothing that's like more rewarding and more fulfilling than those like like you say you're in you're in tanya's house everyone's got a buzz for it it's that feeling you just want to bottle don't you it was so exciting i i loved the whole journey of building and starting as you say it's like it's it's just it's like the energy in the in the atmosphere around you at that time it's like you don't know what it is you're going to build but you just you know that something's coming and you just have to honor that and you can't explain the feeling no but it's just electric yeah and so that's the stuff that makes you want to wake up every morning and keep going and you know there were times where it got difficult because it was very consuming yeah the scheduling tools didn't come out yet so yes we were posting every hour of the day and I was sleep deprived for years because I was posting all the time and then I found a follower of mine messaged me from India and he was just like I can help I can help you know because my timing started to become very sporadic so I would post for like 12 hours a day and he would post 12 hours throughout the night and that is literally how we kept it going and then the first scheduling tour came out about a year later and we just went on there and that is literally Oh my gosh.

16:41So you were literally, so you were posting on the hour, every hour, 24 hours a day. See, people talk about consistency. That's a whole different level. Yeah, it was obsessive. So you're literally like before your follower in India messaged you and said, I can help you this. That was you. I was sleeping like 50 minutes of each hour. It wasn't good for my mental health. But the following, every time I woke up, it was just more people just kept coming. So if I took a day off, it would kind of stagnate. But the more I kept posting, the more consistent I was, the followers just grew. And it was crazy.

17:16Like to this day, we still get about 10 ,000 followers a day. Gosh, that is crazy. It's so crazy to me. Yeah, we get unfollows too. Yeah, but that's just that nature of the beast, isn't it? But it's just insane that after 10 years of just sticking to the same core concept, people still follow, like people still find a value for these quotes. and it's just been it's just been eye-opening it's just been amazing I think it's just I mean it's just a kind of a journey of so many kind of tales here isn't it the fact that you're that gut feeling of you wanting to build a community yourself for yourself for like-minded people that actually it turns out everyone else they do the same community you being consistent and then it building it into the big kind of beast that it is today.

18:05I'm so interested to know how it works in terms of, because I didn't realise that it was actually a business behind it. And I think that is what the beauty is of this, by the way. I'm sharing quotes because I'm like, oh, that speaks to me. Oh, I love that. I'm going to send that to my friend. I didn't know actually that it is a business. And this interests me for, you know, in a whole different kind of vein. How does it work? What is the business behind The Good Quote? OK, so we try to test the waters in so many different ways because at first it did start off as a hobby. And if I'm being honest with you, if I had to do this all over again, I would have definitely hired somebody to run the business for me so that I can focus on the creative direction.

18:52Because that's your, that's my passion. That's kind of your drive. yeah and i'll give you an example you know when we were in science class when we were younger i like to see the explosions i hated the method i hated the method and so me just give me the bunsen burner i'll be happy i forgot about bunsen burner but yeah literally like i want to light this up and have some fun with some flames i don't want to write take notes i don't want to do that and i've realized that you know one of the mistakes that i made was that i didn't recognize that earlier on so I feel like I've I've wasted a lot of time and I think we could have definitely definitely been in a different position by now if I had have acted on that quick quicker but it's hard though it's hard when it's your baby and you kind of micromanage the whole thing because you're the one setting your alarm every hour of the night you're the one and it's a really hard thing to go here you go yeah this is run this for me while I sit back a little yeah and it's also difficult to stick to the main reason why you started and then involve business into it you know so we tried so many different things we had a merch store um I mean I did merch on Christian Wisdom I used to sell um jumpers that had a slogan that said cool story bro yes yeah yeah I remember and I sold loads of those and um so I took that entire concept back over to the good quote and we started putting quotes on on garments and stuff and that did really well um but my my love wasn't that at the time you know my love was just connecting and so we found a lot of thought leaders and um motivational speakers and we we launched an agency and we started working with these people uh one of our best case studies is a writer called Najwa Zabian she came to us with 200 followers and she was like I don't have much of a budget to start but I really want to be a writer and we were just like yeah let's let's work and she's now on 1.2 million I think and she sold so many thousand copies of her book and that was such a great project to work on just to see like how we can take somebody who's almost unknown to becoming like a figurehead in her niche when it comes to writing and so we did the same thing with our agency and we still do that we still have a few clients that we work with but my passion again is always going to be with people I want to know that the good quote is giving valuable products that's actually helping change lives that's what I want to do because if I go to sleep each night and know that oh okay we've got we've done this for this person we've sold this we sold that but there's still people that follow us that are not getting the answers as to why they're depressed or why they have anxiety then what I'm doing isn't working right and that's literally what I realized in my break that I've taken off that when I come back to the good quote I have to put more intention in where it is that I'm driving it towards if that makes sense and the kind of I suppose for you always remembering the higher power of what you're doing yeah and the kind of the roots of it yeah and it's so easy for that to slip away or sort of, you know, the track to move a little when there is a business behind it because it all then becomes, you know, and the careers that you've helped launch and be a part of, we're talking Jay Shetty, we're talking Stephen Bartlett, like people that we all seek advice from and quotes and, you know, that it's, but like you say, I suppose that can run away a little bit when it's exciting and when this is happening and it moves so fast well yeah as a disclaimer those guys already had their whole business already set up we just helped expand their community and it was great it was amazing to see expansion so important yeah definitely definitely and you know Jay has been a really great friend he's definitely helped me along the way and both Stephen and Jay endorsed my book which was amazing and during that process I was struggling with visibility but just to see where my page can take somebody it gave me a lot of confidence to start my journey and so around 2020 when Covid happened I was really getting ready to like step out and I got myself a penthouse in in London on the Thames and I was really like ready and stepping into your own power I was really like ready to change the trajectory of my life and then my mother got diagnosed with stage four breast metastasis and six months later she passed away and during that entire journey it was difficult because I we went to St Lucia and Covid went wild and then we got stranded there and then my mum passed away in St Lucia and then I had to take my mother's body from St Lucia to Trinidad to bury her and then I got stranded there for a year and a bit and so everything that I was preparing for everything that my mother and I was like you know really pushing for me to do because she knew about my struggles with visibility and finally got to that point where she was going to see all of this hard work yeah you know come to fruition and she went you know she left and um well passed away and it just it was just like I just got a funny way that you're like this is this is you know and I I'm sorry first of all I'm sorry that this is a conversation that we're having but life really does have a funny way of going okay this is what you think this is what you think this is where we're going and then boom and I can only imagine there's no bigger curveball and no bigger heartache than being so prepared to live your best life that you but that you and your mum both think you're about to step into and then having your whole world fall apart like that yeah it was insane I lost both parents in the space of six months my mother passed from cancer my father passed from COVID pneumonia I didn't actually know my father but the impact of his passing was still really strong and I was in a foreign country which I've always I've been going to Trinidad since I was seven you know and it's part of my culture I identify as a British Trinidadian you know but to be there without my mother without any guidance of how to navigate myself around this island it was it was crazy but I discovered who I was in that entire process oh yeah I I didn't have any money um I didn't have any money I spent all of the money that I had to my name trying to find holistic ways to heal my mum and I ran out of money to the point where I had people sending me money to help pay for my mother's funeral and I think at that point I realized wow my life has literally gone from cloud nine to rock bottom in the space of like a couple of months yeah and I realized that this is an opportunity for me to rise or I'm going to stay here and this is I'm just going to be a has-been you know I'm just going to be somebody that had it all and and and lost it and didn't have the ability to get herself back up so I love talking about the story in Trinidad because I met so many people out there but I learned so much more about myself I learned that I can survive I learned that I can raise myself out of crazy situations I learned how to network I learned how to communicate I learned how to deal with my emotions I learned how to survive honestly and it was it was something that fueled me and by the time I got back to London I was like yeah I'm ready to go let's go and then I had the task of having to look after my grandfather and so that just took so much for me and before you know it there was always something coming on my plate and it was just like am I supposed to get back onto this platform should I just sell it like I'm trying I can totally understand how it was in particularly if you believe in signs and it's like okay this feels like every time I'm trying to pull myself back up which is actually impossible whilst you're grieving it feels impossible it does you You can't, there's no kind of, they say that grief is the price you pay for love, right?

27:03Yeah. And that really, I lost my best friend a couple of years ago and it really, well, it'd be three years this year. And it just pulled the rug underneath me and it was in a tragic way. And I just think your world can just turn upside down like that overnight and you're so unprepared. but there is this there's also something that happens whilst grieving that gives you that inner okay right come on it gives this is my reason almost it gives you that kind of higher purpose almost not for the person not just for the person you lost but actually no this is what I'm supposed to do you've literally hit the nail on the head it's like you are rebirthed and you realize that you know you you see firsthand how short life is and how final death is and you start to weigh up you know like what is all of this what what's what's it all for you know and I think that's that's where your mind goes doesn't it and you think right okay I've got some I've got a new fire that's like you say it's like a rebirth so so you you have this new fire it kind of gets put out again yeah and then my business partner Wale he realized well he saw because we've known each other for years you know and that's that as much as we do business together that's a really good friend like anyone who's in Wale's life will is blessed to be honest with you because he's a very rare person and he's always been very supportive of me and because he's seen me at my best element he's seen me at my best it's almost like he's always encouraging me even if I'm at the lowest point of my life where it seems like everyone has given up on me he knows what I'm like when I'm on cloud nine so he's always like encouraging me and he came to me and he was like you need to write a book you need to write a book and I was just like oh Rochelle the way I handled grief was not great you know I drank and smoked yeah but nobody yeah you're not given a roadmap for there's no roadmap for anybody I don't believe nobody tells us how to handle that initial stage I think that's because grief is so personal yeah yeah and I just think it looks so different for everybody and everybody has a different outlet or a different kind of route to take and I just it's not like okay this is how we deal with this and this is how and I remember saying when I become a mom gosh there's no manual for this and like but again every manual is different but for grief I think it's a completely different beast yeah it is all together you you almost oh it's crazy it's like life is going on and you're just still and you're starting to see everything around you change but there's no there's nothing within that actually makes you want to continue with everybody else you have to wait for that to come and you don't know how long that's going to take and so for me I I self-medicated with marijuana and the reason why is because I had so much flashbacks so many flashbacks of my mother's passing and leading up to it and you know when you watch the person that you love become weaker and weaker and weaker to the point they pass away it's devastating because this is your first hero you know and so yeah I just think with with grief it just gives you a whole new perspective on life and it's really do or fail and nobody's coming to save you that's the obvious that is that is the that is what I take from life yeah no one's coming to save you no and I think once I realized that I I had to get back up and you know what while I suggested that I write a book it was probably the best thing that I've ever done I was raised to be a writer my mother loved writing you know and I would write her short stories every day after school when I was a kid and we would read rather than watch tv and just so many things in my life was surrounded by literature so by the time the opportunity came for me to become a writer I took it and you know what Rochelle I'll be honest with you I met my agent in Soho House this feels very standard right now okay so so I wasn't in a good place I wasn't I was still heavy in my grief this was about a year and a half into my grief right and when I met my agent and I sat down with him to him look I'm not in a good space right now do you but I have a great story to tell and if you take a chance with me I can guarantee we're gonna do something really great together and he was like as long as you just keep showing up that's all I care about like we'll get this done and so he created a list of all of these publishers that we're going to meet I didn't have a book title I didn't have a manuscript I didn't have anything I just knew that the title was going to be how to stop breaking your own heart just beautiful because it was the last thing I told my mum that I was going to create it's the last title that I gave to my mother when I said to her this is the first book that I'm going to release I have three already and she co-signed all of them.

32:01So that's literally what I'm doing now. And so this was the first one. And, you know, we went from publisher to publisher to publisher and I just didn't feel the energy in some of these rooms. You have to feel that. Yeah. It's so important. And for me, it's really important that I'm in a space where there's a diverse team. I need to be able to know that if I'm having some sort of difficulty in this area of my life, I need to know that somebody in that room can relate to me. Yeah. And you're telling your story. You need to feel like it's hitting... falling on the right ears right so that was really important and I met the CEO of Hay House um years ago in Arizona when I went to um a mentor of mine called Joe Polish I went to his annual event and I he introduced me to the CEO of Hay House and he actually said to me you should write a book but back then Rochelle this was like 2017 I was like a book and also you're like what am I going to write about yeah yeah yeah I'm living my best life you know like also I'm up every hour I thought a book was something I was going to write in my late 50s or something I know what you mean it feels like a real mature thing yeah so I declined I was like I took his business card but I was just like not right now so it's crazy how it just was full circle that that's the one that I felt most aligned with and you know I told them my story and they agreed on the title and before you know it I was writing my book and the whole process of writing the book was so hard because I think that's when I grieved the most I think I everything in my life started to slow down and I only had one thing to focus on which was the book and before you know it my head was just consumed with grief so I flew to Thailand and I stayed out there for six months and I wrote my book out there and then I flew to Bali and I stayed out there and I continued to write my book got back from Bali at the beginning of this year launched the book um launch the book launch was on Valentine's Day um launched the book the end of June and became a Sunday Times bestseller the first week of July so yeah it's been it's been non-stop since the day that I signed that contract it's been non-stop and I realized that the moment I move into this new path I'm going to be expected to do so much more than what I'm currently doing yeah and I wasn't ready for it I really wasn't And so I realised that, you know, during this entire journey of this book, there's so much more I could have done.

34:40But I was sure I was so tired. But also you have to think about and there's and I think looking at something after the fact, there's always so much more that we could have done. And that's the beauty of starting something and being the first because you look back and you think, God, I would have done that so differently. However, you are talking such a pivotal moment in your life. If you're writing a book whilst you're grieving, I don't think you can ever look back and say, I would do it any differently because, and maybe that was the tool that you needed at the time. Oh, it got me out of my funk.

35:14As much as I didn't perform the best during this year, I still became a Sunday Times bestseller. I still sold thousands of books. I still wrote a book. You wrote it. I was going to say, whether you released the book, you actually wrote the book. And sometimes I just sit there. Yeah, you can't overlook that. I'm just like, yo, last year I was high, like, usable, not doing anything, isolated in my house. And a year later, this is what I was able to do. You're a published author and a Sunday Times bestseller. And so my point when I'm telling this entire story is that sometimes we get so lost in our head.

35:50We get so lost. And we don't take account of the things that we are accomplishing, even if it's just small things every day. and I had to really look at everything and recently because I'm literally coming out of it now yeah that's why next year 2025 I don't care what happens I am going at 100 miles per hour because I was really hard on myself this year you know and I didn't give myself the grace that I keep posting about I didn't give myself you know the time to like really nourish where it was that I was at you know grief is really heavy and I wrote a book while I was grieving that's something that I can stand in front of the mirror anytime I'm having a bad day and be like nope not you you did xyz you can do this and so it goes all the way back to why it is I started the good quote and why it is that I now need to talk more to my community I now need to be creating a founder story I need to tell people because I've been through as I said in my book I've been through the trenches of trauma I've been at the very bottom of the pits you know and I've come right back up so I can now speak firsthand you know about everything that I really had to overcome because when I first started this journey I was just like everybody else I was in the midst of it but I've done a lot to come back out of it and now I feel like I'm in a much better position to lead this this business into a completely different direction and I'm just really excited I can see Your whole face is like lighting up.

37:19I can see that you're looking ahead. Yeah. Which I think is when you're in the hole that is grief, looking ahead is not something you can do. No. And when you look ahead, you only worry. Yeah. And what about this? And what about this milestone? And what about that milestone? And this person isn't going to be there for that milestone. It's just the whole thing is so anxiety-inducing, you know. And if you didn't suffer with anxiety, that will be the time that, you know, it probably will rear its head. I didn't really have anxiety before this, you know. It's often the case. Yeah, and now I'm just like having to do breathing exercises all the time.

37:55And, you know, I think one thing that's made me realise is that my body grieved as much as my spirit, as much as I did. My body is touch deprived because it hasn't been hugged by my mum for a long time. My body is still going through its process of trying to understand And this new world about a lot of the people that I lost, because I didn't just lose my mom, I lost like 16 people in the space of two years because of COVID. And so there's so much that I didn't take account of. And I realized that, you know, I can't lead anywhere until I sort myself out. And I think this year, I was able to really do the shadow work and start again.

38:34And I think for any founder that's going through this, I would suggest take a break. Do not try and do both. Like take a break, get the heavy load of the weight off first and then hire the right people around you while you're still healing and slowly make yourself back into business. Like slowly bring yourself back. And do what you do best. Yeah. Because I think there's also when you are a founder and when something is your baby, there's always that pressure to show up. and I think it's so refreshing to hear you say step away for a second take a step back because we that is that's not spoken about enough no it's not I mean even this this year I think the mental health week or mental health day the concept of it was in the workplace and I purposely didn't participate because I don't believe there is much mental health um spaces within the workspace because when you're talking to other founders there's there's there's no time for you to pause you are constantly required to show up and I don't agree with that because if I did if I didn't take a break I don't think I would be sitting here right now I don't think I would have anything to show I don't think I would still have my business I think a lot of things would have disappeared and it upset a lot of people when I took a break you know did it oh yeah definitely because in this world we're only allowed like what is it three weeks off three days off to grieve it's just outrageous to me it's it's honestly outrageous so when I'm here with three years taking three years well a three years step back you know and being more part-time with everything people don't have the same patience yeah and I suppose it's the grace and you can and I actually I went to a funeral recently and it's so funny we were dealing with a brand I was going to potentially work with and my team reached out and said listen we're going to have to pull a shoot this week we're going to have to sorry next week because she's unfortunately now got a funeral and it was very recent and the reaction when my team articulated that to the brand was oh okay well are we going to be able to get the shooting for the by the end of the month and that that kind of attitude we instantly I just thought I'm just not that's the energy that isn't for me yeah and you know and I think the old me wouldn't have even told that story without naming the brand but instantly I think you have to go with that and I think yes of course there's a luxury the more that you work and the more success that you gain there you can say no and I and I recognize that there was a time of my life where I was a yes person and it wasn't till I'm 35 and it wasn't until I ended my 30s that I'm actually like you know I'm a parent at the time I then had two children am I going to constantly be in this world forever that I've got this working class mentality that I can't shake because I'm self-employed and I'm like okay yes what if that then they don't ask me again or and I was that person for so long and I think life happens I think I've got older I've you know grief has then become part of me and I think I do you know evaluate situations very differently yeah yeah I I just I know it's it might seem uh this advice might not work well with the everyday person um and for those who are grieving and having to work you know and don't have the option of taking time off I would say try and at least create an hour each night to just having alone time to yourself and if it's not an hour half an hour if it's not half an hour 15 minutes of just deep breathing something where you can just come back to your center because this world is not going to wait and that's one thing that I realized and even though I had the privilege which I'm really grateful for to be able to take three years off I don't think it was the best choice because I'm now three years behind and I've had to I'm having to do as much catch-up as possible you know to get back to where it is that I believe I should be but when I look at my mental health and I look at my overall my body because during grief I didn't even know, but grief makes your body change.

42:47I put on like 20 kg since I've been grieving. I didn't realize that through grief, there's so many emotional turbulences, up and downs that you go through. You're not even able to still stick to your own routine. I look completely different. Like I'm 20 kg heavier than I was before. So that's made a huge impact on my overall self-esteem. There's loads of things that is attached to grief that you're actually having to sort out as well as grieving. And I think this world doesn't provide that much grace. So you have to provide it for yourself. Yeah, you're so right. And it's such an interesting thing that we're so, something that is grief is something that is so personal.

43:27And I think you're right. It's sort of, people have got a bit of patience because they know they have to and they're doing the right thing. But that kind of, it tires quite quickly. And I think you're right. You have to give. and I remember reading something and for me it become Pilates that's a Pilates was the thing that I put my put myself in and it was finding something and cardio and anything scary at the time terrified me meditation at the time I didn't really understand and it felt like something that I just wasn't going to be able to get into it seemed a little bit like strange to me which now I love meditating which is so funny but at the time I was like oh this isn't going to work and And I was kind of just really like guarded with it.

44:10But Pilates really become the thing for me that I was so in my own body that I was out of my mind. Because it was the only thing that I could, I had to focus on what I was being told to do in that hour. And I couldn't think about anything else. And that became my version of me time. So I become like Pilates obsessed and like become this poster girl for it without even realising. because I kind of wanted to share that with people because for me, I'm like, and I was up and I was doing it at five every day and that become like almost a religion for me because I wasn't in my mind and that hour was magic.

44:46I think for me, it's walking. I think everyone finds that thing, don't they? Yeah. I didn't really see walking as anything that I have to focus on. We all walk everywhere. I started to walk in the park and I live opposite this really big forest type park. And sometimes I just go for one hour, two hour walks and being in nature, it doesn't matter what time of the day or whether it's cold or hot, it does so much for you. And I found that to be very grounding. Pilates for me, I think it's amazing that you find that because I find it so hard. Yeah, it's hard. But I think also, I think, and I also like the fact that I don't find it easy.

45:26And that's made me like, every time I get a bit better, where I'm like oh I couldn't do that you know and I think that sort of like self-competition a little bit has made me but you just whatever it is however that looks whether it's like and I say this to everyone whether that's like taking a bath and like calling a girlfriend and you zone out and you listen to their day whatever it is that kind of takes you out of that space is really so important so like you say it is a privilege to be able to take a long lengthy time off of work That is a huge privilege. But, you know, the world isn't accepting to that.

45:57But just taking those moments for you in the juggle of life is just so important. I'm so interested in it's now I'm finding out so much about you. It is so apparent why your brand is the way it is, why the good quote is what it is, because it's so you. And for a founder not to be so visible. I'm like well of course the good quote is yours I'm sat here talking and you're talking in quotes about even realizing it you know what your words are so powerful for somebody that is thinking of starting you know wanting to create content or wanting to fall into that space or wanting to build a community what would your advice be because we hear it a lot we hear people talk about you know the community is everything and engaging with your followers and if somebody is that okay this is what I want to do but I don't know what the first step would be to take what would you say what would your advice be I get asked this a lot you know and I was doing my makeup today my Emmy way was asking me the same thing yeah because this is this must what you know everybody must ask your advice when it comes yeah I think so the first thing I would say is to I'm just going to go based of all the mistakes that I've made that has slowed me down right so the first thing is to get over the whole visibility issue so a lot of people are scared to put their face to their brand a lot of people are focusing on creating faceless brands I don't see the value in a faceless brand anymore I don't I don't I would have been in such a better position with my community had I put myself out there so now I'm having to introduce myself after everything has already been built a lot of the time people might not even care they just want what the good quote can provide and that's it but the good quote could have been something completely different had I have been the face of it years ago so I would tell people just start with your face your beautiful face starts with it also understand that we all have a unique light that we're meant to contribute to this world and if everybody was to contribute them their light to this world in a way that's authentic and not judgmental unto self you would go so much further so don't worry about sticking to all the aesthetics your life is unique to you and it's going to be interesting to somebody and instead of trying to get all of the big numbers try and at least get 10 people to actually invest in you then try and get 100 then then 500 then a thousand because it's so much better having a smaller number of people who are actually invested in various ways than a big group of people who generally just only like what it is that you're giving and don't care too much about your personal journey so I don't know if this is no it's I get it is because and as you're speaking I'm at it's actually like life it's when you actually think about it and maybe sometimes we deep it too much one of for want of a better phrase but actually it's like I'd rather have one great friend yeah or you know a couple of amazing ride or dies than a whole room of acquaintances that are you know aren't your people so I suppose it's this putting that into and if we dive deeper into that quickly do you know how lonely it is to be in a room full of people who don't actually know you the worst so why would you want to do that for your business yeah so start off slow don't look at people that have 40 ,000 and 50 just start off slow and be consistent with whatever it is that you're doing and create a unique spin on it.

49:33People are nosy on social media. They're so nosy. So you don't have to put your entire business out there, but take aspects from your life that are interesting, that merge of what it is that you're doing and create a unique spin. Because I'm most likely going to remember the girl that's doing something completely different. Even if her concept is the same, then all of these people who are doing exactly the same thing look exactly the same way and then the second thing I would say is network network I mean we've already got our friends okay so they can take a bit of a step back if you're seeing other people within your target reach and they're from your local area message them see if they'll go out for a coffee and network networking has changed my life I have traveled the world based of a dm I can't I can't stress it enough it's just so powerful isn't it oh it's insane do you think insane like a thing that we're just not it's quite a like when you're raised in Britain it's quite like a bit of well I'm not gonna it's a real it is isn't it because I lived in LA for quite a you know a quite a short stint really but it was like a year or so and and everybody there networking is a given like you'll be at a dinner and they're like do you know who you need to meet right tomorrow you're coming and everybody's so forthcoming with connecting people and it's so exciting where there's a real British way of being very, that stiff upper lip and very, well, I'm not going to think that, you know, I don't want her to think that I'm bothered or it's a really strange mentality that I actually hate.

51:01But, and it's almost, I was speaking about this on another episode where we were touching on that embarrassment to fail loudly. Okay. And I think that's such a toxic trait because, you know, it's just a lesson. So if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. and that's that but we've all come very proud and very kind of embarrassed for that to happen but actually it's quite a brave thing to reach out and dm somebody but it's finding that confidence and putting yourself out there i suppose do you know what i do i talk to people as if i already know them love that i just i don't think too much about it i just pretend that that person's my best friend and i try not to keep it too informal but i still give it the respect that it needs but i don't overthink it because at the end of the day we're all in the same bubble we're all trying so if somebody doesn't want to meet me then that's not my person there's still 20 other people I'm reaching out to that day so and and the third thing for me would be like get over the fear of failing in public we all fail we literally are all going to fail and we try again that's the beauty of it because when you look back at your highlight reel and you realize you've got a beautiful story within in the journey of you trying to create this brand within itself so you know if January you had an issue if in February you know you you got you got close to where you need to get to but you failed again and this is all a great story it all makes a great story like don't focus on the the intricacies just keep being consistent with it and if you fail failure to me is an opportunity to win because I get to see what didn't work so I'm not going to go forward ignorantly doing the same thing knowing that it didn't work so we scratch that aside we get back to the drawing board and we find another way to pivot it's learning so you've got experience we don't have the time okay like we don't have the time I'm sorry but you know when I first started social media it was so new and I didn't know how far it was going to go like seeing where it is now compared to before Instagram was even here the way things are expanding and growing the competition is only getting worse you do not have time the fact that you can I can put my phone in my hand and there's access to like millions of people right there and I'm thinking oh I don't I don't want to do that that's silly yeah there are people out there that would love to be able to not only have the opportunity but have the time have the resources to just do what you're doing and you're here with all of this and you're still questioning yourself you would not want to swap realities with that other person so just in respect of the fact that you have this opportunity at hand privilege you have to go for it you have to and this is again all the things that I did wrong you know I took too long to do certain things and now at 35 it's like oh my gosh I've got smile lines I don't look like these other girls but I still have to put myself out there because if I don't I'm not going to find my community and what normalizes you are the failures.

53:58You know, people are so patched up. I call them Dubai. You know, when you go to Dubai and it's so perfect. It's so perfect. It's not realistic. We need to see where you've made mistakes. We need to see that part of your journey. So I just think being authentic, putting as much intention into it as possible, being as present as you can, networking, being consistent. These are the main things and just go for it. Just honestly go for it. and the more you're networking the more you will find your place because if you stay in your room or if you stay around the same circles because your friends are not going to help you get to where you need to get to I love my friends yeah but they're not going to get me to get out of that comfort zone and go meet people because when you have those conversations and they have to be authentic you can't meet somebody with the intention that yeah after I meet this person they're going to get me here yes it can't be transactional but you you have to meet that person and know if you're yeah yeah sorry to interject sorry no you're right you have to meet that person and know if you connect because that I'll do you you know this if you do that it just doesn't I mean if we're exchanging resources what's the value of me doing that you know are you even a decent person because I've spent a long time building this this this connection of somebody and you want that connection I don't even know who you are yeah so I'm not going to give that to you but if it is that we're building a bond then yeah we can do that and I think you know connections take a while to build but it expands your whole community and before you know it your community are sharing your content to their community and that is how I believe you can go that's the growth that's that's where it is because it's more authentic yeah and yeah I think that's I think that's really it no I mean that's that's that's incredible advice thank you I'm going to do something now that we call the rocket round.

55:47Okay. It's basically quick fire. Okay. And I ask every guest the same questions. Okay. Okay. So the first one, I mean, I feel like you've kind of just rounded this one up in a nutshell. But the first question is, what are the non-negotiables for launching a business? I think you have to have a good marketing campaign. Definitely have to have a good marketing campaign. And the speed of which that you're moving, it needs to be quite rapid, in my opinion. There's so much competition out there. And also you need an email list. I think personally, that's the most important thing for me is growing that email list and having that ready before you launch so that you can introduce them, give them like a sneak peek and then, yeah, launch afterwards.

56:31Those are my three non-negotiables. Love that. Love that. When did you first realise that you truly launched? 2015 2015 when we had about two and a half million followers and we we relaunched our clothing brand and we sold out in the first three days gosh yeah and then um paypal suspended our account for 180 days and I was like yeah I was like yeah we hit the jackpot inside yeah well it was insane it was insane that's crazy I love that um I think I know this already but what do people usually seek your advice and help for social media advice is always number one and then definitely like how to get out of low moods I think those are the two things that people always come to me for yeah yeah what brand do you wish that you'd founded I love essentials I love feel I've got essential that's why I'm wearing it yeah I love track suits I really I feel so comfortable because on a day to day I just feel so good it's like a duvet but at the same time um Tefla I love the Tefla brand I love his journey I love the fact that it took 10 years for him to get to to launch well not to launch but 10 years for things to start moving I love the community that they've built around the brand and when I look at it I just think I wish I started that yeah I love Teflabrand there you go there you go if you could choose one female figure as a mentor past or present who would it be Tracey Ellis Ross I love her she's born one day before me oh is she yeah literally um I think she's so amazing yeah she's just got that energy yeah it's like electric hasn't she I think persona wise I just think she's so authentic she's doesn't you can't question her she's just in her element she's the definition of like unapologetically yeah isn't she yeah there's another do you know who I really admire and that's just based on health is a woman called dr mindy anybody who's around me knows i'm obsessed with dr mindy i don't know her um we're both signed to hay house actually and she focuses more on fasting and she has literally helped transform my life this year just based on watching her interviews and i would love to be mentored by her okay so where's the camera which one dr mindy you need to call me there we go dr mindy what you want i'm now intrigued by you oh yeah she'll change your life that was like the best advert anyone could ever give anybody she's transformed your life yeah no she has Mindy you're on next guest um and lastly if you could trade one of your current skills for a superpower that would help your business what would it be and why one of the things I love about myself is that my creativity and like the insights that I get so I would trade that for the ability to scale more efficiently I think that's one thing that I'm lacking that I'm looking to hire you know moving forward yeah I would like that yeah I think I think if I had that because the creativity is something that's always embedded so it's something that's never going to go you can take some of it I'm always going to reproduce more but the fact I just love how people scale when I sit down and watch documentaries or interviews and seeing how people were able to take an idea into a multi-million i'm just like how did you do like yeah how because i'm such an emotional babe so like if i'm if i'm having a bad day i really i'm just i'm just not really that great for that day and i don't like that about myself and that's why it's important to have such a good team around you yeah but if that if i had to swap their skill yeah get rid of the emotions and just scale yeah love that i would have like 10 skyscrapers by now stop we'd be dangerous yeah completely um now it's time to leave a tip I asked every guest to leave I mean and you've to be honest done it throughout our chat but a real sort of tangible piece of advice to listeners that are perhaps looking to emulate what you've done or see you as an inspiration what would your tip be something that you wish you knew when starting out don't doubt yourself that's it don't doubt yourself you you will go so much further in life if you actually believe that you're capable of doing it imposter syndrome perfectionism go to therapy and get that sorted out because it is going to be an obstacle in your journey moving forward so wipe it nip it in the bud asap if you feel that you have those attributes go and get some help and go sort it out because it's going to hold you back and I think that's one of the main things that I wish was never a part of my journey and that's me being 100 % transparent don't doubt yourself I don't doubt myself anymore yeah you know but in the past doubting myself has slowed me down and it's crazy when you're busy doubting yourself and other people are in awe of what it is that you've accomplished it's such a oxymoron it's so sad it is it's really something that because I never wanted to get to my deathbed with a regret but I genuinely believe that over the years within this decade of growing this business there have been years that I've doubted myself and I think that's something that I will get to the end of my life and be like damn man what did I waste that time why did I do that yeah so again if you recognize that you have imposter syndrome or perfectionism or self-doubt or you sabotage in any way, sort it out because it's not going to disappear.

1:02:26And in fact, it's going to get worse. It's a hindrance. It is going to get worse. So yeah, that's my advice. Yeah, do the work. Do the work and excel. And lastly, we hope that our listeners will listen to this in their lunch hour and you're going to fuel them up to get through those last meetings or get through the rest of the day. So I am so curious as to how everybody spends their lunch hour, what they eat, how it looks, where you are. So for you, what's a typical day when you're when you're working and you're head down, whether you're writing or, you know, or you're at the business or however that looks.

1:03:06How do you spend your lunch hour? Do you know what? I just found this girl about a couple of months ago called Santra Seba, I think, on YouTube. she's a black girl and she she sings in 432 hertz oh my gosh oh she's got like a million followers on instagram and she's there with this guy and he's playing like a sound bowl and it just restores me and i literally switch everything off i play that and i like to have an intentional intentional relationship with my food right because i'm fueling my vessel my body which i absolutely love it's a time for me and my body to have that that deep connection with ourselves so I don't like to watch tv when I'm eating I don't like to bring any other forms of distraction rather than me chewing like I just try my best to to just food myself and some high frequency music and just take that time to really zone out I love that yeah so you make the conscious effort basically to switch off Switch off completely.

1:04:07No phone time, no screen time. No eating at the desk. Nothing. Don't talk to me. I'm eating. This is the time that I'm fueling my body and I'm calming my mind with this high frequency music. And while I'm in that space, just thoughts. It's like I'm downloading so many thoughts and it's just a really intimate moment between me and myself. And what are you eating? Salads. I love salads. We've had so many salads and I'm such a good. but like there's a there are offensive salads in the world like I don't just want a bit of lettuce and it's dry like I want everything like what's your dream with it get your yeah there's not enough sexy salads in the world not at all do you know what there's oh what's it called the salad project salad project I know about it girl I know you can pick every ingredient in front of you they can have it all yeah they can have it all I love the salad project and there's a salad within that i think it's tie me up i think it's i think everybody knows everybody knows in the room that's the best one okay so so that's your chicken there you go and like all the flavor like salads it makes it sound like oh i eat a salad for lunch no it's not the girlies the girlies it's not it has to be you can have a real seasoned fun salad you know and i try my best to replicate it at home yeah because i'm really trying to step away from meat i'm working more with temper par right now so i'll put like some all-purpose seasoning some jerk stuff on there and then try and use as many of the ingredients because i i took pictures of everything just get more tomato yeah got it yeah and so i just i'm just having fun with salads at the moment and they're very nutritious and they're filling and you know i love salads i love that more of the sexy salads please I've absolutely loved this chat Me too We've covered it all off We have From launching businesses To dealing with horrendous times And grief to sexy salads This has been the most unreal conversation Thank you so much Thank you so much for having me, Rasha I really appreciate it Thank you I love this

1:06:19I love that That felt like such a different conversation It was so nice to get to know Megan. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Don't forget to follow us on Apple or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts to make sure that you don't miss out because next week we're going to meet another incredible lady who launched. If like me, you're a watcher, we like it visual, then follow us on YouTube and don't forget to like and subscribe.