Latest news with #Sneex
Sky News AU
4 days ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
Meghan Markle reveals she was taught to feel 'guilty' about being wealthy in latest podcast episode
Meghan Markle has claimed she was taught to feel shame for having money in the latest episode of her podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder. In the episode, which dropped on Tuesday, the Duchess of Sussex sat down with close friend and Spanx founder Sara Blakely, who shared how she turned a modest USD$5,000 investment into a billion-dollar brand. "It was successful, I was profitable from my first month in business at Spanx," Blakely said. "It was wild. But I was also really bootstrapped and not every business is set up that way- sometimes you have to put in way more money to get your product off the ground." Blakely encouraged listeners to examine their mindset around money and success, noting that many people hold limiting beliefs. "A lot of people have not realised they have not got great narratives around success or around obtaining a lot of financial freedom and money for themselves," she said. Meghan appeared struck by the insight, responding: "But that is so hard to understand, because I genuinely believe I would love to be able to adopt that level of a mindset. "I think so many women especially, we're taught to not even talk about money, and there's lots of guilt mentality surrounding having a lot." The 43-year-old former royal added, "At the same time, there's a scarcity mindset" where people believe they will "never have enough". Blakely, who recently launched a new footwear brand called Sneex, shared her personal philosophy on wealth: "I always tell women in particular, money is really fun to make, really fun to spend and really fun to give away. "And I think money just makes you more of who you already were… Like, if you're a jerk, and you get a bunch of money, you become a bigger jerk." Meghan instantly replied: "Yep." The podcast, aimed at inspiring budding entrepreneurs, comes amid reports that Meghan "thinks she's going to be a billionaire," with The Telegraph citing a well-placed source who says she's hired a team of top-tier executives to get her there. Since stepping back from royal duties in 2020, Meghan and Prince Harry are believed to have amassed a combined fortune of around USD$60 million, thanks to lucrative deals with Netflix and Spotify, book royalties, speaking engagements, and investments. They also continue to receive some income from Harry's inheritance from his late mother, Princess Diana. Despite this, Meghan's ambition shows no signs of slowing. Speaking to Fast Company on Tuesday, she revealed her lifestyle brand As Ever (formerly American Orchard Riveria) sold out its first collection in just 45 minutes. "Meghan says that even though the team spent a year preparing the line and forecasting demand, all the products on the site sold out in 45 minutes," journalist Elizabeth Segran wrote. "Now, they're trying to plan As Ever's next phase." According to the outlet, Meghan plans to take stock of what worked before rolling out more products. "I want to really focus on the hospitality angle of As Ever, but as we take the learnings, we can understand what the customer's needs are seasonally," the former Suits actress said. She also hinted that fashion could be her next frontier. "The category of fashion is something I will explore at a later date. I do think that's an interesting space for me," she said. Interestingly, in addition to her podcast and lifestyle brand, Meghan recently launched an online shopping platform allowing fans to purchase high-end items she endorses, earning commission on select pieces.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Meghan Markle Talks Heels, Pregnancy, and Building Her Business on ‘Confessions of a Female Founder'
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." There are a lot of questions surrounding Meghan Markle's time as a working member of the Royal Family. What really happened between Meghan and Kate Middleton before the wedding? What did Kate and Prince William say about the constant tabloid hate? And how, exactly, did Meghan walk around in stilettos while eight months pregnant? Unfortunately, the As Ever founder isn't going to be spilling the tea on her years as a Royal anytime soon, but Meghan did reveal how she wore stilettos while pregnant in the final episode of the first season of her podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder. Speaking to Spanx founder Sara Blakely, who recently launched her line of sneaker heels, Sneex, Meghan reminisced about how she wore stilettos throughout her first pregnancy. 'I always wear my five-inch, pointy-toed stilettos,' she said of her preferred event footwear. Remember, when she was pregnant with Archie in 2019, Meghan was a fully working Royal, which meant a lot of walking in heels. According to Meghan, a friend was recently taken aback by a photo of Meghan, very pregnant, standing in stilettos, saying to her, 'You have the most enormous bump and your tiny little ankles are bracing themselves in these high heels.' The entrepreneur revealed that while her center of gravity certainly shifted during pregnancy, she was carrying most of her weight in the front. 'So, you're just going, 'How on Earth am I not just tipping, you know, face planting?'' she recalled. The secret—other than core strength—is simple: you need someone to hold onto. 'I was clinging very closely to my husband, like, 'Please don't let me fall.'' Elsewhere in the podcast, Meghan also talked about launching her lifestyle brand, As Ever, while also raising her two kids, Archie, now 6, and Lilibet, 3. 'It's something that I think people often forget,' she said. 'People forget that Lili is 3 and Archie's [6]. So you look at the past five, six years of my life, it's with being pregnant or with a newborn or with a toddler and then another one.' Building a company while parenting two small children does sound extremely challenging. But, on the bright side, at least she didn't have to do it in stilettos. You Might Also Like Here's What NOT to Wear to a Wedding Meet the Laziest, Easiest Acne Routine You'll Ever Try
Cosmopolitan
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Cosmopolitan
Meghan Markle ‘Confessions of a Female Founder' Season 1 Finale
There are a lot of questions surrounding Meghan Markle's time as a working member of the Royal Family. What really happened between Meghan and Kate Middleton before the wedding? What did Kate and Prince William say about the constant tabloid hate? And how, exactly, did Meghan walk around in stilettos while eight months pregnant? Unfortunately, the As Ever founder isn't going to be spilling the tea on her years as a Royal anytime soon, but Meghan did reveal how she wore stilettos while pregnant in the final episode of the first season of her podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder. Speaking to Spanx founder Sara Blakely, who recently launched her line of sneaker heels, Sneex, Meghan reminisced about how she wore stilettos throughout her first pregnancy. 'I always wear my five-inch, pointy-toed stilettos,' she said of her preferred event footwear. Remember, when she was pregnant with Archie in 2019, Meghan was a fully working Royal, which meant a lot of walking in heels. According to Meghan, a friend was recently taken aback by a photo of Meghan, very pregnant, standing in stilettos, saying to her, 'You have the most enormous bump and your tiny little ankles are bracing themselves in these high heels.' The entrepreneur revealed that while her center of gravity certainly shifted during pregnancy, she was carrying most of her weight in the front. 'So, you're just going, 'How on Earth am I not just tipping, you know, face planting?'' she recalled. The secret—other than core strength—is simple: you need someone to hold onto. 'I was clinging very closely to my husband, like, 'Please don't let me fall.'' Elsewhere in the podcast, Meghan also talked about launching her lifestyle brand, As Ever, while also raising her two kids, Archie, now 6, and Lilibet, 3. 'It's something that I think people often forget,' she said. 'People forget that Lili is 3 and Archie's [6]. So you look at the past five, six years of my life, it's with being pregnant or with a newborn or with a toddler and then another one.' Building a company while parenting two small children does sound extremely challenging. But, on the bright side, at least she didn't have to do it in stilettos.
Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Meghan 'clung' to Harry while pregnant so she wouldn't fall over at royal events
In the final episode of her podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, Meghan candidly opened up about why, during her pregnancies, she would 'cling' to Prince Harry to make sure she didn't fall over The first series of Meghan's podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, has come to a close, with the final episode seeing Meghan sit down with the founder of SPANX, Sara Blakely. Towards the end of the wide-ranging discussion, which saw the women discuss everything from manifestation to family, Blakely discussed her new venture with the Duchess: a company called Sneex, which makes a brand new kind of hybrid shoe that combines heels with trainers. During their chat, the Duchess discussed her own experiences wearing uncomfortable high-heeled shoes at royal events during her first pregnancy with Prince Archie, a period of time which also saw her seriously struggle with her mental health. Meghan also admitted that in both her pregnancies, she gained quite a lot of weight - 4.6 stone or 29 kilos - which made wearing stilettos even harder. "A friend just said to me the other day, 'I just saw this picture I had forgotten about when you were so pregnant with Archie'" Meghan explained in the candid discussion, "I mean I gained 65 pounds with both pregnancies, 'and you're in these five-inch' - I always wear my five-inch pointy-toed stilettos - they're like 'You have the most enormous bump, and your tiny little ankles are bracing themselves in these high heels'. "But all of my weight was in the front, so you're just going 'How on earth am I not just tipping, you know, face-planting, I'm always clinging very closely to my husband like 'Please don't let me fall!' "Well, you created the antidote," Meghan said. During her pregnancy with Archie, Meghan was still a working royal and had to attend a myriad of high-profile events. A royal tour in Australia meant she and Harry "had to" announce her pregnancy in October 2018, they revealed in their self-titled Netflix documentary. From the Fashion Awards to the Commonwealth Day service, there were many formal events where Meghan donned her trademark stilettos, but one in particular at the Royal Albert Hall, she revealed in 2021, was also the night that she shared with Harry that she was suffering from suicidal thoughts. Meghan admitted to Oprah that she was "haunted" by photographs of the pair at the Sentebale event, which took place at one of her lowest points, particularly when seeing "how tightly his knuckles are gripped around mine". For his part, Harry has expressed regret over how he handled Meghan's admission, "What took over my feelings was my royal role. I had been trained to worry more about 'What are people gonna think if we don't go to this event? We're going to be late.' Looking back at it now, I hate myself for it.' He said in the couple's documentary series, 'What she needed from me was so much more than I was able to give." During the episode, Sara dived into why she wanted to "invent a comfortable high heel" because she never bought into the common idea that "beauty is pain" and explained that after four years of trying to make a "traditional stiletto" that was ten times more comfortable than what we're all used to, she called it quits, and made a major pivot toward a totally new kind of shoe altogether. "It was more comfortable, Meghan," Blakely explained, "but it wasn't exponentially more comfortable, so I looked at my team, of just two girls that I absolutely adore, and I, through tears, said, we're going to pull like the plug. We tried, and it's not there. "Because as someone who invents and creates products, especially if I'm going to launch a new company or brand around it, I always say I have a mental check that it needs to be 10x better than anything else out there, and it was maybe 4x better, but to me, that wasn't a big to spend my time and energy". Sara then decided to see if it were possible to "merge a sneaker with a stiletto". Meghan then shared that when launching her recent lifestyle brand - As Ever - she herself had to "pivot" away from ideas to which she had been pretty wedded about how her jams would look, realising that as she wanted to scale the size of her company, her original "charming and darling" designs of "jam hats" wouldn't be possible to implement. Over the course of her podcast series, Meghan has made a series of candid admissions during her chats with impressive female businesswomen, including the revelation that she suffered from postpartum preeclampsia, a "rare and scary" condition, which is caused by high blood pressure after birth and can potentially result in serious health issues such as organ failure or strokes. "The world doesn't know what's happening quietly,' Meghan said. 'And in the quiet, you're still trying to show up for people, mostly for your children, but those things are huge medical scares." Her guest Whitney responded: 'I mean, life or death, truly.' Meghan also opened up about suffering from a miscarriage in 2020, saying to one of her guests, "I'll bring this up if you are comfortable talking about it... I have spoken about the miscarriage we experienced. And 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 OK at a certain point to let something go, something go that you plan to love for a long time." Confessions of a Female Founder is Meghan's second foray into the podcasting world. It follows her first show, Archetypes, which was produced by Spotify and cancelled after one series. Get Royal Family updates straight to your WhatsApp! As the royals get back to their normal duties after a difficult year, the Mirror has launched its very own Royal WhatsApp community where you'll get all the latest news on the UK's most famous family. We'll send you the latest breaking updates and exclusives all directly to your phone. Users must download or already have WhatsApp on their phones to join in. All you have to do to join is click on this link, select 'Join Chat' and you're in! We may also send you stories from other titles across the Reach group. We will also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose Exit group. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. The new podcast, produced by Lemonada Media, has received a pretty mixed response from critics. One called the series "sycophantic" and another said it was "45 minutes of platitudes." However, the first episode did make the Top 10 overall podcast charts and took the number one spot amongst business podcasts, though it has since dropped off.
CNN
17-05-2025
- Business
- CNN
How this visionary self-made billionaire gets her ideas
Sara Blakely became one of the youngest female self-made billionaires when her shapewear company Spanx took off. CNN's Sara Sidner sits down with her to find out how she's succeeded and where her new shoe company Sneex is going.
