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This is Being Studios.

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Audio Reality from Lemonada.

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Hi, I'm Megan, and I'm so

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excited for you to hear my

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new podcast, Confessions of

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a Female Founder, from

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Lemonada Media. I'm sitting

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down with female entrepreneurs

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and friends to uncover

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what often goes unseen

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when building something great.

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The setbacks. the sleepless nights, and the

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laser focus that got them to where

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they are today. We're diving into the

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type of insights everyone wants to know

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as they're building a business. And even

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if you're not, don't you want to

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see what's happening behind the scenes? And

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I'm able to tap into all of

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this wisdom from them as I'm building

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my own business as ever. So we're going

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to play you a little sneak peek at

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the first episode featuring my friend Whitney Wolfherd,

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founder of Bumble. And after you listen, you

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can search confessions of a female founder wherever

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you get your podcast, or you can find

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a link in the show notes to take

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you there. I can't wait for you to listen. I'm

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sure the first time I ever heard about you

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was in Time magazine being the

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youngest self-made billionaire, female billionaire. Huge!

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What on earth did that feel like? Well, you

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know it's funny. It's funny. It's like. It's like.

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It's like. It's like... At my on paper

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richest, I was my inward poorest.

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What does that mean to you? That

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means that what it took out of me

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to hit those milestones actually

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robbed me of my real wealth,

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the ability to connect with

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myself, to take time for myself,

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to focus on my physical

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mental spiritual health, to focus

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on my physical mental spiritual

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health, to focus on my

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physical mental spiritual health, to

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focus on my the things

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that actually make you the

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wealthiest in life. So while

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my financial wealth on paper

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was this like crazy headline

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and like world record thing,

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whatever, didn't even matter. because

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all these other buckets were so

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low and so what has been

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beautiful and I wrote a letter

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to myself over the summer actually

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our stock in all-time low and I

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wrote a letter to myself that day

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and I said today is one of

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the best days of my life I

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said because my other buckets of wealth

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are so overflowing that it just doesn't

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matter what a stock price is today

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it's not how I measure my worth.

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But what made you in that want

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to write a letter to yourself? How

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would that become a part of a practice

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for you? I just thought, you know,

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I better clock in and I better

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check in because I want to remember

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this day. I want to remember this

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day. I want to remember that I

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got to a place of self-growth where

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on a day that should feel like

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The worst day in terms of riding

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the waves of success right things always

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go up and down and I just

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remember I wrote myself a letter and

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I just said this is like the

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best day ever I Have healthy children.

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I love my husband. It's beautiful where

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I am I hiked I meditated like

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I just reflected in this moment of

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gratitude of all the things I do

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have and I think it's a really

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good reminder to people that you have

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to take stock of how you measure

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your happiness, your wealth, and how

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you define it. Take stock

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and your actual stock. That's

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right. I think it's amazing how evolved

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you are. It takes a lot

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of years for most people to

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be able to have that level

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of wisdom in an internal compass.

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It really does. And I mean,

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especially when you've spent a career

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doing the work, the business work.

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How would you? approach that or what

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advice I guess would you give to people

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who are listening that say okay well you're

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saying you felt so depleted and the buckets

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were so low or so empty in all

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these other categories but it's because of that

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you were able to still get to this

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number and get those metrics and isn't that

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the goal and then you could fill

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up your cups again, would you do

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it differently? Totally, totally. And I think,

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you know, the one thing I can

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offer to the world is actually a

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blueprint of, hey, don't take this route

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to the top of Everest. It's not

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worth it. The view is not worth

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it. Don't do it because the one

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thing you can never get back is

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time. Yeah. Is your precious time. And

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the amount of time, Meg, that I...

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wasted on being stressed, being miserable, being

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overwhelmed, being paranoid about what shoe was

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gonna drop. You know what? I actually

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think I would have been more successful

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had I not been like that. But

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can you turn it off? I say

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this because last night I was just,

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you know, when your brain goes in

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a loop. those three a.m. loops and

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it's just like you can't stop overthinking

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the thing and how are you going

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to address that and oh gosh but

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that packaging and I want the packaging

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to look like this and that's not

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the unboxing experience I had in mind

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and what how are we going to

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pivot and does it matter? I think

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you have to really take a deep

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breath and say you know what how

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big of a deal is this and

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I would size it up? Is this

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going to matter? Yes, is it going

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to matter in five hours? Yes or

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no? Is it going to matter in

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five days? Yes or no? If it's

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not going to matter in five years,

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like throw it out the window. Who

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cares? Like if this is not going

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to be a defining issue in your

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business, your life, your family in five

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years, like, you'll be fine. And so

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when you're ruminating in the middle of

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the night, you're like, oh, but the

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box came out the wrong texture. Well,

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is that a problem in five months?

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But not really, because you can switch

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that box. You can get a new

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box in the next few weeks. Right.

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And will anyone else know what the

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box was supposed to look like? No.

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Right, that's the other piece, but I

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think so much of it is... especially

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at launch. Yeah, I get it. Trust

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me, I get it. And first impression

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and the pressure and you try to

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compartmentalize it and say, okay, all I

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can control is this extension of my

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essence and my aesthetic and what I

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want to share with people. But you

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know, I think in that focus on

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the details, at what point can you

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release some of the attachment to it?

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Right? To be completely attached to the

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process and attached to the intention, but

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in some ways detached from the outcome.

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I mean, you have to detach from

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the outcome. You have to. It's a

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little bit like the way we talk

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to our children. It's, did you try

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your best? You know, like, did you

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really give it your all? And if

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you didn't, like, if you... you know,

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if you missed the meetings for the

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packaging and you let it slide till

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the final hour, then like, yeah, that's

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not great. But if you gave it

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your all and like you really, you

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know what, you did what you could,

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your team did what they could, and

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this is the way it ended up,

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like, it's gonna be good. It's gonna

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be great. And I also think that

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candidly... energy is everything and I think

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if you're so stressed launching your customers

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will feel the stress like that. And

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so it's almost like shake it off

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it's like it's you know i don't

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i'm not comparing our customers up for

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our businesses to the way our children

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pick up on energy but there's something

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deeply intuitive and brilliant about the way

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children can read energy you know if

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you're stressed children can feel it i

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also feel that there's an intangible invisible

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energy attached to launches attached to products

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attached to all this and so you

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kind of want to like do a

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happy dance for your products and send

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them out the window because like that

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happy energy is going to land inside

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someone's kitchen counter and you want that

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for them. And so I think it's

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kind of like just shake it off.