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

Not only is this not a niche podcast, as ever it’s not even original and has already been done and lifted with a slight title change!

The host has to be at least curious and inquisitorial in their questioning to get anything resembling gritty honesty and real openness around the salient issues (namely the dirty business of business). None of that has happened in the first 2 podcasts. As the captain of the ship, it's down to MM to have the courage to guide matters into treacherous waters where both host and guest may be challenged. Instead, they remain in the lovely, Montecito swimming pool, floating around on giant pizza slices and blowing bubbles up each other's rears. This does not make for a compelling listening experience.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6RiR53itOUBDKVAeW89fL5

I’m not sure niche applies when you have name recognition like Meghan does.

An interviewer has to recognise the power of their own voice, especially if they are more well known/reported on. Had Oprah suddenly decided after Meghan had alleged racism in the palace to share her reality of racism and included people of power she would of drowned Meghans interview. It's being able to empathise whilst allowing the interviewee space to talk. The reality is that isn't a podcast of business women as that isn't going to be that popular, this is a vessel for Meghan to speak the interviewees are part of the set.

The woman interviewed for session 2 has her own Lemonada podcast:

https://lemonadamedia.com/show/my-so-called-midlife-with-reshma-saujani/

Of course she isnt - she has just secured the services of a huge end to end merch supplier that stock generic tat who then market and distribute directly on the clients behalf.

Her contribution would be selecting the products and agreeing the packaging design on white label generic products.

https://www.snowcommerce.com/

It’s also basically a continuation of Archetypes - Meghan using her guests as a springboard for prattling about herself. It wasn’t very popular the first time 🤷‍♀️

I just saw that Confessions of a FF debuted at number 10 on Spotify, whereas Archetypes debuted at number 1. So it’s definitely not as successful as Archetypes initial was, and I don’t think we can state that Archetypes was deemed universally successful.

Indeed @smilesy!
but do have a look at the one I posted upthread , confessions of a girl boss, it seems to be the sort of thing that people thought they would get from Meghans podcast .

Hang on, I thought With Love & As Ever were meant to be a farm-to-table products??!

Agree.

I listened to a bit of the podcast, but stopped (it's not really my type of podcast - am currently enjoying the BBC Sounds series on Glasgow gangsters).

To me it seemed very lightweight and didn't cover anything we didn't already know.

We know it can be shit for women in business (work in general) - trying to balance family/children/work. We've known this for decades. However we have moved on from the "Superwoman" vision. We understand we have to compromise, just pushing ourselves doesn't give us everything.

So (some of) the Confessions from Female Founders I want to hear about are:

What made it easier for you to succeed in your business? What support did you have? What did you have to give up? What failed for you or what would you do differently? What mistakes have you made and how did you move on? What have you done in your business to support other women? What do you do within your business to encourage other women? What support have you implemented within your business (WFH/remote working/flexible hours/pay structure/leave/training etc etc)? What legislation do you feel needs changed/brought in/ended and why? What have you tried to implement that didn't work or you feel has negatively impacted your business?

To me, that's the kind of info that would help would be entrepreneurs or business owners just starting out. There are much deeper questions that you could delve into, and my questions are all pretty basic and surface level.

From what I have seen she does in the first week seemed to have had respectable ratings ( by which I mean top 10 for general podcasts and low digits for business podcasts) But this is from reports as I don't know how to find out podcast ratings. Re the niche - Yes business is a niche area but Meghan does have a pull all of her own and this podcast has had huge publicity. Time will tell over the series how much is curiosity , reviewers etc listening to the first few and how much is sustained interest.

What I do wonder though ( and it's just a personal thought) is whether this might fall between two stools. That is , I think there would be a very solid listenership to Meghan talking about herself and her interests in an authentic I know I know but I can't just think of a better word) and interesting way , and I think there is room for another very well crafted, hugely listenable business podcast. But I wonder if this is not quite hitting either mark.

An example (and no idea of the ratings ) I loved the Freakonomics podcasts. On paper economics and people's behaviour re incentives etc wouldn't interest me , but the interviewers were excellent and guests were well informed and interesting and it delved deeply into things to give new perspectives. (My opinion) Now this may not be a very good comparison , but I think Meghan's podcast perhaps skims the surface a bit which might not be enough for people interested in Meghan nor people seriously interested in entrepreneurship.

But ultimately, that is one person's musing and the sustained listening figures will tell.

ETA I have somewhat echoed some of @MrsFinkelstein 's post there. Sorry , slow typing and needed to let the dog out 😊

Haven't listened to any of it and don't intend to but from what I've read this seems to sum it up nicely.

Rachel yapping on about herself. Who could possibly have predicted that?

Yep Cathy , usual self grandiosity !

I’ve listened to Podcasts and I find them a little lite on the business side of things and a bit heavy on describing the domestic juggling all working mums/dads have to do.

MM did have one hustle she shared in episode 2 … ‘if you want someone to give you money ask advice’ and ‘if you want advice, ask for money’. She reasoned that if you wanted money but asked for advice, that would open a conversation after which you’d be more likely to get the money anyway if they liked the idea. I think that sentiment sums up how she’s hustled her way around men in general and I feel she totally played Harry from the beginning (eg she wore a perfume favoured by Lady Di at their first meeting). I think she is a master manipulator.

She is one of those characters that is damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t. Neither her or Harry have helped themselves whatsoever with Opera, Netflix series, the Spare book etc. They totally hang their families out to dry.

That said at least MM keeps finding hustles to keep the sheckles rolling in, a bit like an upmarket Katie Price. Harry it appears seems to rely on compensation from his never ending court cases. I strongly suspect another book too.

I think most of these, 'I'm famous so I'll start a podcast' ventures are now doomed to fail.

Michelle Obama's recent podcast had performed poorly for example.

I'm a big podcast consumer and successful ones grow because there is a genuine shared interest or passion for a particular topic or because the host over time has a variety of guests which explore topics in new ways.

It's not a format which thrives if it has big production and promotion it thrives when the conversations feel natural and you feel you get to know the host and guests. You become part of a club that 'gets it'.

Archetypes and this new podcast feel the opposite. Forced vehicles for MM to promote herself, not a natural step linked to an interest or specialism.
The conversations sound performed rather than organic.
We know we're being sold something here. The product is MM.

Podcasts don't works that way they are clubs you choose to join.

I just think the metaphor is cold. She put it out there - people will react!

FFS, not again! Ad nauseum, ad infinitum.

Why not? That's what your beloved Meghan and Harry came out with? Haven't seen you criticise them for that?! They put it out there!

Don't you be so bloody disingenuous! Most of the posts deleted were by you!

I for one wish you would stop repeating yourself. We heard it all the first umpty million times!

She doesn't seem to shared any 'nuggets of wisdom' about her own "founding"!

And I couldn't agree more with this, "equating love for work and love for family raises my hackles". It's horrible, I don't care what anyone says!

And I firmly stand by mine too - it didn't happen.

I also think she is leaning away from being open about her “female founder” position - certainly in the guests she has invited onto her podcast so far. The founder of Bumble had a bruising experience in a business that did not consider the needs and wants of their female customers, and so set up a new, women-centric business to do so. The founder of Girls Who Code was looking to relate more seats at the tech and STEM table for young women who traditionally didn’t have that door open to them

As ever does not have such a spinnable origin story. Meghan has identified consumer products that she has put her branding and packaging onto, and is looking to make as much money as possible by selling hem to her fans. It’s not high-minded or aiming to do better, it’s aiming to make money. More the Alan Sugar approach to business than looking to make the world a better place.

I bet we’re not going to get Meghan discussing “how I looked to maximise my return per unit” or “why I outsourced my distribution network to increase profitability and avoid a known start-up failure point” - even though both of those would be actual practical advice to other women looking to set up their own businesses. They might veer a bit to close to the rug she doesn’t want you looking under while she tells us she’s creating joy….

Not quite sure what that would be? She doesn't seem to know a lot about anything!