The reviews are coming in for Meghan's podcast 'Confessions of a Female Founder'ions of a

[LaBarruci]

Not listened to the first in Meghan's podcast series, a conversation with the founder of Bumble, Whitney Wolfe Heard, but the Mail has collated all the press reviews so far, with links. The Guardian, Telegraph and i-Paper are unanimous: the podcast is cloyingly dreadful.

The reviews for Meghan Markle's latest podcast are in! Two stars for Confessions of a Female Founder https://mol.im/a/14584193 via https://dailym.ai/android

Or even Meghan. She's gained sufficient notoriety to be recognisable just from her first name. I've said on another thread that Prince William is set on removing the Sussex title when he becomes king because of Meghan using it commercially with As Ever (according to Neil Sean). Meghan's Merch is a possible brand name...

It shows he doesn't have a clue. It's not a good look for Invictus either. They should have been having exactly those discussions. Perhaps they did. Or perhaps they will have their knuckles wrapped.

It does seem a risky thing to do. When he was deployed to Afghanistan the UK press kept quiet but he had to be withdrawn because of foreign press refusing and writing a story. It is proof though that interest in and knowledge about his movements isn't quite as intense or accurate as he believes.

No, nor probably as much at risk as he claims.

Back to the podcast for a moment. Lemonada can't be very happy with the reviews. I know nothing about how a podcast production company works but would have expected some direction from their team. The new podcast suffers from the same two linked weaknesses as its predecessor: too much Meghan, too little focus on the interviewee. The podcast could have been so interesting if Meghan had put herself in listening and learning mode (as if): how was the idea developed, funding sources, growth expectations v reality, what went well/badly and how did that feel, building a board, approaches to customer insight, adapting to changes in consumer habits, who were your supporters and mentors and what did they add, vision for the next 5/10 years.

As it is, it's a mom chat and little else. Such a missed opportunity.

The way Lemonada will make money is through the volume of listeners listening to the adverts. You can also pay to be a subscriber to ad block - not sure how many people do.

At the moment, listenership is high so Lemonada will be happy.

What isn't clear is how many people will continue to tune in. Archetypes dropped off significantly after the Serena Williams and Mariah Carey episodes as the guests were less interesting. I can't see this being completed by many, as you say too much Mom talk.

I listened to the first 15 minutes and found it dull. I then heard a bit on a different channel where she talks about Lili climbing onto her lap during meetings and she obviously thought it was super cute and made her super mom. In an era where companies are trying to push people back into the office, she does wfh parents a real disservice. It's real no no, now we are not in Covid times. I also wondered if she would be happy for her employees to bring their babies to work and not be laser focused on their work.

I do agree @IdaGlossop her fame shot into the stratosphere when she married Harry. She is one of the few people who are recognised just by their first name . It does look like she isn't using the title for the podcast - so for that good. I would say she could drop the DoS for her shopfront as well, just be Meghan , and also just be Meghan Sussex when she is an executive producer (WLM) .

Really useful post, thank-you. At least Lemonada is making money.

Good point about WFH and people returning to the office. On the odd occasion I had to collect DD from nursery because she had a temperature and also had a deadline to meet, I really learnt the lesson that you cannot work in any meaningful way with a small child in the room. Sadly, with mothers in most families being the prime childcare, it's women who get the flack for trying to combine the two.

Podcasting is a really hard way to make money because the market is saturated. Any man and his dog can get the right equipment these days and it is very hard to find something that hasn’t already been done.

One week of middle-ish download figures won’t be enough to pay off what ever Lemonada paid her. They would need regular, faithful listeners by the thousand, as well as a constantly growing audience. Which isn’t what happened with Archetypes. Podcasts should grow, not shrink.

That being the case, I wonder about quality control by Lemonada. Perhaps they did attempt to steer Meghan but she knew best (as ever).

I would be interested in how much control Lemonada have over the content. As they will produce and edit it in the same way as Spotify did, they must have had some. I can't imagine MN faves Richard Osman and Marina Hyde are allowed to go completely off piste by Goalhanger or Gary Linekar will step in and rap them over the knuckles.

She should indeed drop it and totally agree it might even help, but I'd bet they'll hang on to it like superglue, the huge fuss about the kids titles indicates that.

If Sussex were removed, she'll be Princess Harry and that would soon be Princess Meghan. It would be even worse, really, because while I reckon a lot of people both sides of the pond don't really understand Royal Dukedoms, they sure as Hell recognise Princess.

Interesting take on the podcast from the Independent here: Bottling your essence: Meghan Markle and the death of self-help speak (msn.com)

I also wondered if she would be happy for her employees to bring their babies to work and not be laser focused on their work.

Well from the most recent in the press about MM bullying allegations - now with a named witness happy to speak out - it wouldnt seem so - some highlights:

The Daily Mail's Rebecca English:

'One person sobbed down the phone to me after a particularly harrowing day,' English wrote, 'They clearly felt emotionally broken and could no longer cope with the pressure they were being subjected to.'
The established royal journalist continued: 'Others have indicated to me they were being asked to behave in a manner they did not feel professionally comfortable with, particularly in their dealings with the media.
'Several aides have also told me that Meghan in particular was very good at "drawing" staff into her confidence, flattering them as if they were the only person in the world she could trust and asking them to help her with various duties.
'Toxic, hostile, distrustful, poisonous: all words I have heard regularly used over the past few years to describe people's experiences working in the Sussexes' household.'

Former staff members were alleged to have post-traumatic stress disorder, defined by the NHS as an anxiety disorder caused by very distressing or frightening events.

Melissa Touabti reportedly resigned as she was 'traumatised' by her boss's behaviour, according to historian Robert Lacey......by several accounts the duchess "went mental" at her hapless PA.'

The writers name the trusted team as Amy Pickerill or 'Pickle' to friends, who would become Meghan's private secretary; Heather Wong, who worked for the Obama administration as Secretary of Public Affairs; Edward Lane Fox, Harry's private secretary and former captain in the Household Cavalry, and Jason Knauf, a PR professional who was poached from the Royal Bank of Scotland.
But by the end of 2019, all of these key players had fled from Harry and Meghan's employment and, according to Lacey, some formed an informal fraternity titled the 'Sussex Survivors Club'. In 2018, Meghan was subject to an internal investigation with Knauf writing a formal human resources complaint that read: 'I am very concerned that the Duchess was able to bully two PAs out of the household in the last year.'

The TImes reported that the 'febrile' atmosphere within Kensington Palace saw staff, on occasion, weeping. Two say they were bullied by the duchess, a third that they had been 'humiliated' by her. The newspaper quotes one aide, who was anticipating a confrontation with Meghan, as saying: 'I can't stop shaking.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/royals/article-14579839/sussex-survivors-club-prince-harry-meghan-markle-staff.html

Confessions of a female founder sounds as of its going to be a no holds barred expose on sexual antics.

Founder of what? I have no idea despite attempting to listen til I felt myself drowning in treacle and gave up.

It's not professional nor useful imo. Too much navel gazing.

It's disappointing that Meghan, advocate for the Parents' Network and supposed champion of women, was bigging up the co-founder/founder of two controversial online dating apps without even addressing online safety and how she is working on 'evolving' the 'engineering' of this (to indulge in a bit of CoaFF-speak).

More on Whitney Wolfe Herd. Not really the founder of anything according to TechCrunch and Forbes exposes.

I know, that the hell is he doing in Ukraine? Have they not got things tough enough right now?! Pratting around looking like he's representing the RF!

He hasn't said he's representing the royal family. He's there as a part of Invictus and visiting a Rehabilitation centre. He was invited.

You listened and really couldn’t work out what Whitney was the founder of? It literally told you in the first few minutes.

Unfortunately that's showing as 'video unavailable / disabled by the video owner'. What's the URL? I'll cut and paste it and have a look.

I suppose it's just coincidence then that mainly of her products are linked with the UK... She's trading on the very fact of being royal!! It's her only selling point!

She's not a "female founder" either. She is "founding" at best.

If you want to discuss her elsewhere then you are free to start your own thread..

It was smallish though. She didn't have the reach she does now, and it's the title and her marriage that have given her that.

Yes that is true. She has a much higher profile now. I still think though that going forward she would do better as Meghan rather than the Duchess.

Well he shouldn't have been and nor should he have accepted.