Today's guest is a realtor turned international tax accountant turned startup CEO. She teaches and mentors women looking to leave their 9-5 jobs to start their own businesses and is passionate about empowering women, a believer in constant reinvention and never takes herself too seriously. I'm excited to introduce you to the Co-Founder and CEO of One For Women, an online gift company that sources its products from women makers and gives back to non-profits that support women: Meg Wheeler!
The Notes
Meg shares about her business and how it came about.
- Meg was working in finance and international tax.
- When she returned from maternity leave, her position was shifting in a direction that didn’t resonate with her, so she took it as a sign that something needed to change.
- She knew she wanted to have a bigger impact in the world.
- She was inspired by her desire to “show up” in the lives of her friends to create an online gift company.
- OneForWomen creates gifts for everyday moments such as job promotions and breakups.
- All the makers of the products are women and a portion of the profits go back to support non-profits that support women.
- Her co-founder is her mom, who has always been a very inspiring and strong influence her life.
Meg shares how she and her mom operate together within the business.
- Meg takes on the analytical and business responsibilities and leaves the creative responsibilities to her mom.
- Defining these roles within the business has been critical to their success.
- They had to make a decision that someone would need to be the boss to have the final say and they agreed that would be Meg.
- She has enjoyed helping her mom learn about the business world since her primary reference point in her career has been teaching.
- Her mom did offer some push back when Meg approached her with the business idea just because the role would be so foreign to her.
- There have certainly been hard moments but they are committed to working through them for the sake of their relationship.
Meg shares some reflections about going to work with her mom growing up.
- Her parents worked in the theatre department at Penn State and she always came along to the evening performances, with her sleeping bag and toys in tow.
- She was fascinated by the shows and the costumes and all the action and loves that she got to be part of her parents’ work in that way.
Meg shares what her road in motherhood has looked like.
- Honestly speaking, it didn’t always seem obvious that kids would be easy to incorporate in their busy and active lifestyle.
- This caused a bit of tension between her and her husband at the time.
- When he expressed that he would be content in their marriage with or without kids, this ironically moved Meg to consider how they could make life work with kids.
- She engaged with lots of women to consider how she could make a career and having kids work.
- This process was so meaningful for her because it made her decision to be a mom so intentional.
Meg breaks down her timeline of her business and family growing.
- The election in 2016 really impacted her experience of being pregnant and grappling with the reality that she was going to have a boy.
- At first she was disappointed, but then she recognized the opportunity she has to raise a good man who respects the rights of women.
- She had taken maternity leave, and returned to find the shift in direction for her position, which is when she started OneforWomen.
Meg talks about some strategies she learned for balancing work and motherhood when Jack was first born.
- Her maternity leave was a great time for her to think about having the chance to “design her own day”.
- She is adamant about knowing her why and her mission and these things help her evaluate her decisions when she’s not confident.
- She learned that when her business and motherhood got overwhelming, it was important to just set one goal per day which really kept her focused.
Meg shares how her business supports other women in business and how people are utilizing the products.
- Women are finding so many creative moments to honor with gift box sets from promotions to pregnancy losses and many more.
- The gift giving is even contagious when the recipients end up coming back to buy someone else a gift set.
- Part of their strategy is to buy the product of all the women makers to have in stock so that the businesses have cash in hand.
- They also like to help support non-profits that help women rise up in some way, whether it be in business, or in another influential way such as through education or health.
- The gift sets range in price from $20 to $80, and they are even going to be creating mini versions of some of the biggest gift sets.
Meet Meg Wheeler
Meg Wheeler is the Co-Founder and CEO of One For Women, an online gift company that sources its products from women makers and gives back to non-profits that support women. She also teaches and mentors women looking to leave their 9-5 jobs to start their own businesses. A realtor turned international tax accountant turned startup CEO, Meg is passionate about empowering women, a believer in constant reinvention and never takes herself too seriously.
When Meg’s not kicking butt, you’ll find her lost in a good book, scribbling big ideas frantically in her Moleskines and dipping her toes in the sand. Her life goals are to never live a day without adventure, kiss her husband early and often, and keep the ratio of rescue dogs to children in her house to 2 to 0 (a goal she is failing at with the birth of her son, Jack). She sees herself as a badass in disguise, a girl in the ‘burbs who rebels against conformity and has an opinion about everything, and she secretly thinks she’s cool because she’s met Prince William and kissed Zac Efron. She has a s’more for dessert every night and her other guilty pleasure is cookies, but she doesn’t ever really feel that guilty about it.