One of the things I loved most about the Duchess of Sussex’s Archetypes podcast was her somewhat inadvertent focus on Asian-American excellence. Meghan loves Indian-Americans, Korean-Americans, Chinese-Americans and more. It’s amazing and she’s a real ally to the Asian-American community. Well, for the second episode of Meghan’s Confessions of a Female Founder podcast, she interviewed Indian-American female founder Reshma Saujani. Saujani is the founder of Girls Who Code and CEO of Moms First. At the start of the pod, Meghan directly asks Reshma about being the daughter of Indian immigrants and how hard she tried to fit in throughout her childhood. It’s so interesting and this is a great episode! Meghan and Reshma talk about Reshma’s love of politics, American law, Reshma’s comeup, Reshma’s many failures and life lessons. They also talk about how they both had miscarriages:
Meghan Markle is reflecting on the heartbreaking miscarriage she suffered nearly five years ago. The Duchess of Sussex commented on her experience on the April 15 episode of her Confessions of a Female Founder podcast, where she was joined by Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code and CEO of Moms First. Having listened to Saujani, 49, express the challenges she faced while working on Girls Who Code, Meghan, 43, shifted the conversation toward the difficulties of continuing to “perform” while privately navigating the pain of a miscarriage.
“I’ll bring this up if you’re comfortable talking about it because I know you’ve spoken publicly about as you’re doing Girls Who Code, all the interpersonal things that are happening for you at that time and the miscarriages that you’ve experienced,” Meghan said. “I’ve spoken about the miscarriage that we experienced. I think in some parallel way, when you have to learn to detach from the thing that you have so much promise and hope for and to be able to be okay at a certain point to let something go, something go that you plan to love for a long time.”
On the podcast, Saujani described Meghan’s insight on her miscarriage [in Meghan’s NYT column] as “really insightful” and as if the Duchess of Sussex was “reading my diaries.”
“I don’t think anyone’s seen it that way like, said it that way for me,” said Saujani. She then shared that she handed her business over to her team for a chance “just to breathe” after a “path of serial miscarriages.”
When Saujani later brought up not having to choose between being a “girl boss and a trad wife,” the pair bonded over their love of being mothers. “I love being a mom. Oh my gosh. I love being a mom so much. It’s my favorite thing,” Meghan said. She added that it can be difficult to step into another room to take a break from her children as they’re constantly on her mind.
“Let me just scroll through pictures of them endlessly on my phone,” Meghan said. “Then my husband’s like, ‘My love, can you just give yourself a minute? Why don’t you go work out? Why don’t you go take a bath?’ ”
“I’m like, I know, but I just want to cuddle,” she continued. “It’s the parenting paradigm where it is so full on, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. But I think what’s really key about what you said, and the pandemic may have been the thing that shifted this when working from home and parenting from home where they are completely converged [it] can feel incredibly overwhelming.”
While this isn’t in People’s coverage, Meghan and Reshma also talk about how this isn’t the first time they’ve spoken – they met in 2018, at Kensington Palace, when Meghan was pregnant with Archie. Anyway, I love how Reshma is very talkative and Meghan seems curious about Reshma’s life beyond the female-founder of it all. I’ve seen a lot of dumb criticism about Meghan’s interviews for focusing on the personal as well as the professional, but isn’t the larger point of COAFF that women’s professional lives are tied to their personal lives in ways that men’s careers simply aren’t?
Photos courtesy of Lemonada Media, Meghan’s IG.
I really enjoyed this episode.
Thoroughly enjoyed this episode as well.
Enjoyed the episode. It was inspiring and revealing about a woman’s life and entrepreneurship. Those looking for a blueprint from each of these founders for success will be disappointed, I’m sure. However, I don’t think that appears to be the purpose of the podcast. The format is conversational, and really talks about all the realities of being a woman and a mother while trying to achieve big professional goals. I think Meghan’s podcasts are, collectively, going to be in effect, a version of her memoir. As well as learning about her guests, learning lot about her mental and emotional life. The conversations between two women will also inform male listeners a lot about women.
I totally agree with you. Being a female (starting) entrepreneur is completely different from men starting and running a business.
My take aways form this episode:
– She wouldn’t be hired as the CEO of her own company if she’d applied. Isn’t that true for many (male) business bulders too? I mean look at the tech guys, lol.
– Our daughter may have to keep fighting for what we fought for, because they are less entitled to the benefits that we as parents have gained or enjoyed growing up. Isn’t that true talk, given the curent administration’s crazy politics?
I really enjoyed this episode, even more than the first. While it may not provide a blueprint for starting a business, it points out that it takes a lot of effort and persistence to get where you want be, and also, sometimes the thing we strive for may not necessarily be the right thing for us. Sometimes circumstances that appear to be a disappointment, ends up placing us in right path for the best opportunities.
I didn’t know the founder behind Girls Who Code has no coding background 😭😭 That was a very interesting episode. I didn’t know there were criticisms about personal chat. I enjoy those parts. I usually search the background of the very successful people I read about. It always gives you an idea about how they created their own success. I am glad, Meghan is asking personal questions, not just talking about business.
Haven’t had time to listen but will soon. Excited for it.