Meghan Markle is back in the podcast booth.
On Tuesday, the Duchess of Sussex launched her new podcast, "Confessions of a Female Founder." She previously hosted the "Archetypes" podcast with Spotify, though she and Prince Harry ended their relationship with the brand in 2023.
In the first episode, Meghan interviewed her close friend Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder and CEO of Bumble.
The duo's conversation, recorded in February, focused primarily on Herd's business experience.
However, Meghan also opened up about her worries about her own company, As Ever, which launched on April 2.
As Ever anxiety
Meghan opened the podcast by sharing how "overwhelming" she finds starting a business, which was a little over a month away from launch when the episode was recorded.
"Let's be honest, launching a business, it can be so overwhelming," Meghan said. "Even with the best of teams, it'll keep you up at night because every single decision, every micro detail, in that moment, it feels monumental."
"For example, a month ago, I was absolutely consumed with packaging," she said. "Boxes, that's all I could think about. And I would sit there doing the unboxing in my head."
Meghan detailed the concerns about boxing that would run through her mind, from whether she should have tissue paper or packing peanuts in the packaging to where the label should go on the box.
"And then I'm sitting there and I'm like, 'Does any of this actually matter?'" she said. "Of course, it matters. It matters in the beginning, but how much does it matter?"
Meghan said she decided to speak to Herd to get her take on how much to focus on those details.
Launch stress
As they spoke, Herd said she felt she wasted time being stressed, leading Meghan to question how you can just stop feeling it.
"But can you turn it off?" Meghan asked. "I say this because last night, I was just — you know when your brain goes in a loop? Those 3 a.m. loops?"
She continued: "It's just like, you can't stop overthinking the thing, and 'How are you going to address that?' and 'Oh gosh, but that packaging,' and 'I want the packaging to look like this,' and 'That's not the unboxing experience I had in mind,' and 'How are we going to pivot?'"
Herd advised Meghan to spend less time worrying about problems that will not be a "defining issue in your business."
Meghan agreed, but she told Herd she struggled to get out of her own head "especially at launch" when she was struggling with the "pressure" of a "first impression."
"I try to compartmentalize and say, 'OK, all I can control is this extension of my essence and my aesthetic and what I want to share with people,'" Meghan said. Still, she said she struggles to understand she can only try her best and cannot control what other people think of her work.
Early success
Despite Meghan's anxiety, early intel indicates As Ever's launch was largely successful. Though the company hasn't released sales figures yet, its collection sold out in under an hour, and its honey sold out in just five minutes.
In fact, the biggest hiccup As Ever faced was informing some shoppers that it couldn't fulfill their honey orders because the brand ran out of stock more quickly than anticipated. It promised them first access to its next product drop as a consolation.
As Ever's success follows a solid start for the Duchess of Sussex's Netflix series "With Love, Meghan," which premiered on March 4. The show hit Netflix's top 10 after it dropped, and the streamer announced that season two of the series will air in the fall of 2025.
Overall, Meghan's pivot to lifestyle is off to a strong start, despite critics watching her every move.
A new episode of "Confessions of a Female Founder" will air on April 15.
