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Meaghan Murphy – Spreading Joy, One YAY at a Time
271 Plays18 days ago
Meaghan Murphy – Spreading Joy, One YAY at a Time
Some people have a rare gift—the ability to lift spirits, brighten a room, and turn even the smallest moments into celebrations. Meaghan B. Murphy is one of those people. A true powerhouse of positivity, she embodies her YAY lifestyle, making it her mission to help others find joy in the everyday.
As the Editor-in-Chief of Woman’s Day and former Executive Editor of Good Housekeeping, Meaghan has spent years shaping content that uplifts, inspires, and empowers. She’s also the author of Your Fully Charged Life, a book that Oprah Daily calls one that “will make you feel good at the turn of every page.” Whether she’s sharing practical advice on TODAY or Live with Kelly & Mark, hosting her feel-good reality show My Perfect Day, or simply being the Chief Spirit Officer of her New Jersey hometown (yes, that’s a real title!), Meaghan is on a mission to infuse the world with contagious enthusiasm.
But her story is about more than just positivity—it’s about resilience. A breast cancer previvor, Meaghan has faced life’s challenges with the same energy and optimism that define her career. She knows firsthand that choosing joy is an act of strength, and she’s built a life and career, proving that small mindset shifts can lead to big transformations.
On the ReBloom Podcast, Meaghan shares how she transformed her zest for life into a thriving career, navigates challenges with humor and heart, and why she believes in embracing a fully charged life. Get ready for an inspiring conversation filled with laughter, wisdom, and plenty of YAY moments!
Website: www.meaghanbmurphy.com
Instagram: @meaghanbmurphy
@theyaylist
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Rebloom' and Intentional Living
00:00:01
Speaker
Hey, everyone. Welcome to Rebloom, the podcast where we explore the power of change, rediscovery, and living with intention. That's right. We're your hosts, Lori and Jamie, two friends who really love a good story about transformation.
Embracing Authenticity and Joy
00:00:16
Speaker
In each podcast, we're going to chat with inspiring guests who've made bold pivots in their lives or careers. They've let go of what no longer serve them to embrace something more authentic, joyful, and true to who they really are.
00:00:31
Speaker
And the best part, many of them reconnect with passions or dreams they discovered as kids. It's about finding the seeds planted long ago and letting them bloom again. So if you're ready for real conversations about reinvention, purpose, and following your creative heart, you're in the right place.
Conversation with Megan Murphy
00:00:52
Speaker
Let's dive in and see what it takes to re-bloom.
00:00:57
Speaker
Lori, our listeners are in for the biggest treat today. What a conversation we had with Megan Murphy. Oh my gosh. I took so many notes in this talk.
00:01:11
Speaker
ah Just so many nuggets that I am going to apply to my own life. I loved, um she talks about the need to have, the things that you need to have every day in your life to have a day of gratitude and yay. And yeah know just even thinking about that, but I started pondering what are those things for for me to you know, just be happier every day. And I love the different buckets that she talks about in her book um that help you to live a fully charged life, which is the title of
Megan Murphy's Career Journey
00:01:50
Speaker
her book. I can't wait to get it. So it was it was an amazing chat. This is an amazing, authentic conversation. And dear listeners, you're going to love it. Enjoy.
00:02:05
Speaker
Hey Lori, how are you? I'm terrific. And this is going to be a really good interview today. um I found Megan recently because she featured my friend Lee Stanley from Curly Girl, I think on the Today Show. And I just did a comment. I just said, cool. And then all of a sudden, I'm like going down the rabbit hole, finding out who she is. And then we're talking. And lo and behold, now she's on our podcast.
Social Media and Opportunities
00:02:32
Speaker
We are so excited. Welcome Megan Murphy. How are you today? So good. Thank you for having me. Oh my gosh. Thank you for joining us. I mean, and that is the beauty of social media. Sometimes you reach out, you send someone a direct message and boom, they're talking to you and here you are. Yep, pretty cool.
00:02:51
Speaker
Oh, pretty cool. Well, let me give our listeners just a quick thumbnail. I don't even know that I can do it quickly. We might need a whole nother podcast, Megan, just for your resume. You are incredible. Megan has been the editor of Good Housekeeping. She is currently the editor in chief of Women's Day. She has been on the Today Show. She's been on Kelly and Mark. She's had A series um on and and NBC, she's been a chief spirit officer. She's written a book called Your Fully Charged Life. She's worked for incredible brands like Teen. ah She's been on MTV and Victoria's Secret. She even helped to launch the pink line. Like, oh my gosh, everybody know everybody loved that line. um Megan is huge end into fitness.
00:03:41
Speaker
She's worked for self. And Meghan, we cannot wait to hear all about your incredible journey. So thank you so much for joining us today.
Megan's Teenage Years and Magazine Career
00:03:50
Speaker
Yay. I say yay a lot. Thank you for having me. Well, I know. I'm your host. Did you have a yay? Yeah. Daily doses of yay on your feed. No doubt. We need a lot of yay. So start, were you initially interested in journalism, communication? How did you get going on your journey?
00:04:10
Speaker
So it's a kind of an interesting um trajectory. I write about it in my book, but I had some tumultuous. I like to call them tumultuous teen years. It sounds more romantic, but.
00:04:23
Speaker
um I had a raging eating disorder. I was hospitalized a number of times. My best friend passed away. um I hit rock bottom and then I made my mess my message and I wrote about it. And in writing about it, I won a scholarship, um an essay contest. I was named a Horatio Algernational Scholarship scholar. I won $10,000 and I was featured on an Oprah-esque um NBC special Don Johnson and Bob Costas presented an award tradition Trisha Yearwood performed. It was like this whole big thing and how that magazines approached me teen ah teen YM at the time and was like, oh we want to tell your story and I said, oh, I'll write my story and I'd love to be an intern I can start Monday. See you then What happened I wound up having this magazine career and
00:05:13
Speaker
Um, everything by virtue of having made my mess, my message, um, being vulnerable, sharing my struggle and connecting with other people in a very public way was really the launch pad for my career. Wow. That's super important. Super, super important to do. That's incredible. wave And brave and brave to do that. Wow. What age was you then? You know, it was, I was only 16. I was 16 when my friend passed and I was like 17.
00:05:43
Speaker
really, really in and out of inpatient and outpatient treatment and really, really struggling. Um, and it took a lot of work and a lot of guts to get better. And, you know, I think part of my healing was, and it's always been, is is sharing and connecting. Like for me, my healing magic is always in connecting with other people and understanding that other people have been through hard things too, and kind of, kind of connecting on how we all get through it. Wow. So which magazine did you start that career with? So that was at YM magazine. It was called Young Miss, Young Modern, Young and Modern. I mean, the name changed several times, but it was YM. So I started my career. They made me a contributing editor when I was 19 years old.
00:06:31
Speaker
And I was actually going to college and working at the magazine. And then my boss at the time got called over to Time Inc. to start another new magazine for teens, yet to be named. And she brought me with her. And then we created Teen People magazine.
00:06:46
Speaker
So at that point i remember that yeah I was finishing college. I studied acting at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers. I was working on that magazine and then I wound up getting a job too as on MTV. So I was a host on MTV in the 90s.
00:07:01
Speaker
working on launching teen people, finishing my, my degree. That's so interesting. Yeah. That's interesting that you blended acting in their writing, which really makes sense for where you are now and some of the things you're doing. Well, and that's the thing is so like, I, you know, I was in a, like I was in the Miss New Jersey pageant and I started auditioning for commercials. Like I always loved to perform. I really,
00:07:28
Speaker
I liked to be somebody else. I liked to step outside of myself. I loved, I just loved a script, and I loved to be out there performing as somebody else, um which is ironic because now I kind of perform a lot as me.
Creative Influences and Family Life
00:07:42
Speaker
Right. but i stillvis Megan and not like mom Megan.
00:07:47
Speaker
um But yeah, so it was this really interesting synergy of like, oh, I could write, I could host, I could act, I could be on camera. Like even when I started at MTV, I was writing my own scripts and all of the treatments. Like I was on the Carson Daly show um and I also wrote treatments for MTV news, even if it wasn't what I was performing.
00:08:08
Speaker
i I love that now. So, Lori often asks so this question about your childhood, and I'm immediately thinking, where does this confidence come from? Was your childhood very creative? Did you did you feel like I mean, that's that's pretty early to to be so creative and be that confident too. So I would say my mom was a teacher. um And I grew up in a house that felt like a classroom in some ways. Like I can remember her putting like brown paper on the kitchen wall and just like having markers and crayons available at all times to just like
00:08:43
Speaker
draw on the kitchen wall on this like paper that was hung. I love her. Yeah, she your body and shit thing god they she's still here, yay. yeah But like she would make like macaroni angels for the Christmas tree. She would sew our you know our holiday outfits. So like my mom was always creating um and always teaching. and like So like my home now is just an explosion of ah celebration and decorations in life at all times. I mean, it's like I always i joke that it's like
00:09:15
Speaker
part kindergarten classroom, like part, you know, peer one, I don't know. Like it's like, if you feel like you're kind of like at home goods and like a holiday party and a classroom all at once. Oh, I bet your kids love that. And that's when no they don't, they don't really love it. My kids, friends love it. And I know that my kids will someday do this in their own homes. It wasn't like I was like, Oh, mom, I appreciate all this stuff in my house.
00:09:42
Speaker
No, i my appreciation is now I do it in my own house, right? It wasn't like kids can't, like my kids are 14, 12 and 11. I'm cringy, right? But their friends come over and they're like, oh, gosh, Mrs. Murphy, do you have any projects for us? And it's like, yes, I do. Who wants to make a choice for you? At times. Oh, that's amazing. Oh, yeah. I love that. So when we interviewed Todd Oldham recently, he described his childhood growing up where they had like a craft table in the middle of their family room. And so that's just part of his being. And I feel like it's part of yours.
00:10:20
Speaker
I don't feel like we called it crafting. It wasn't like, let's do a craft project. it's just like We were just always making. That's the difference, right? like it wasn't like let's make like it was just There was always paint. There was always like some crazy thing happening with like dried noodles or flowers or glue. like you know it was just always We were always making.
00:10:45
Speaker
That sounds like my house, especially when my grandsons come over. Yeah, they'd walk in the door and say, I want to do a project, Mimi. And it's funny now too, because like my youngest son who's 11, like I'm, I'm like evolving what projects look like, right? Because he's all of a sudden very into like editing. So like he loves to take CapCut and to like, you know, splice videos together and add captions and music. And I'm like, that's a way of creating too. Oh, absolutely. Embrace that. Whereas like he might not want to get the hot glue gun out anymore.
00:11:19
Speaker
but you might wanna take that project that we made where we you know made these ornaments with cookie cutters and old cards and like like and that yeah like embracing that some of that digital creation. That's a really good lead into some of the things that we talk about on this podcast um being titled Rebloom. People are, well, who were interviewing. They're often moving from one thing that maybe wasn't them or wasn't authentic to them.
00:11:48
Speaker
into something that is and I love that you're recognizing that in your kids and then kind of helping them to embrace that side that they're drawn to creatively because creativity doesn't have to look one way to every person.
Evolution of Megan's Career
00:12:04
Speaker
You know, it can be gardening, it can be cooking, it can be making bourbon, it can be anything as long as it's connecting to what you love and what you're passionate about.
00:12:14
Speaker
And I think like within but with my kids, too, like this is this is kind of a funny story. like you know I know my daughter is very, very creative, but I can't force my creativity upon her. So like she doesn't want to make traditional projects or traditional crafts. But the other night she was studying, and she thought we all all had gone to bed, and the elf on the shelf does some shenanigans in our home, and she had had somehow helped the elf create this insane shenanigans where like there was chocolate poop throughout the kitchen and throughout, and I was like, and I said to my husband, I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm so proud of her.
00:12:53
Speaker
that was so creative. I love this so much. And he's like, Oh my God, I like, you're getting excited about, you know, chocolate deer poop. And I'm like, yes. Beautiful expression of her creativity, like outside of what I might want her to do, like, which would be to go boxwood wreath you know Yeah, exactly. And they don't like to do what they don't let you like to do. And I think it's so, but it's so fun too because as a teacher and Lori and I both teach and when you share even as, or as a mom, I have, I have kids as well. And you know, you say, okay, this is the way we're going to do it.
00:13:32
Speaker
And then you watch them go off in a completely different direction. You're like, I didn't even think of that. And that's the beauty of it. That's the beauty of just going, oh, wow. that Yay, you. that's And that that's what makes us all individuals. It makes it so so amazing.
00:13:46
Speaker
That's one thing I love about when I teach the creative retreats is, you know, I'll share the techniques with a medium, but then people use them in ways that I never thought of. It's really, really fun. But we digress. We need to get back. We digress. We're back to you. I know. We need to get back to Megan's journey. So bring us along. Yeah, you're doing editing, and you're moving along, and tell us what was a pivot point along this journey of yours.
00:14:15
Speaker
so i went So I've been a magazine dinner for 30 years, which is like so scary and hard to say out loud. No, I don't feel like I have enough life to have been doing this for 30 years. But I would say there's consistent pivot points in my in my life and in my career. And it all kind of stems from the the fact that I'm really good at being where I am.
00:14:36
Speaker
I'm very, very good at being present and I attribute a lot of my acting background and training to that to like just to really like be grounded in the present and be aware and wherever wherever your feet are, that's where you are. So I've always really been very attuned to what I was doing and where I was at in my life and my career sort of mirrors that. So when I was a teenager, I was making teen magazines.
00:15:03
Speaker
And then when I was
Motivation Behind Megan's Book
00:15:04
Speaker
in my 20s and I was dating and in the city, I was a cosmopolitan editor. I was a senior editor at Cosmo magazine. How about that? At that time in my life, because that's where I was. I know. The quizzes, where you were were you responsible for the quiz? Yeah, I wrote the Cosmo quizzes. I'm super proud of that. And then in my so-called self-formative years where I wound up getting engaged and getting married and starting a family and having my three kids like that was where I worked at self magazine I worked at self magazine when I was really really honing and fine tuning myself for nine years as the deputy editor and the fitness director and then this is this irony is not lost on me when I bought my first house in the suburbs I moved over to good housekeeping magazine and I became the executive editor of good housekeeping for seven years
00:15:55
Speaker
um And then during the beginning of the pandemic, I was tasked with taking over Woman's Day. I've been the editor in chief of Woman's Day for four years. And amongst all of that, um I wrote a book. I wrote a book that came out in February 2021. It's called Your Fully Charged Life. And that was a really important part in my journey and my career as well. The magazine industry has changed dramatically since I started when I was 19 years old or 18 years old.
00:16:26
Speaker
I used to make 14 issues a year. Now we make six issues a year. I used to have 50 people on my staff. Now I have myself. um So like the the industry has changed very much. And so a big piece of my journey was I want to own my IP. I want something that is mine. I want to write this book so that when a magazine goes away,
00:16:51
Speaker
or something somebody else owns that I work for goes away, I have something that is mine that I can speak to, that I can represent, that feels like my voice that I own. right and So that was very important to me. I got up at four o'clock in the morning and wrote and worked on this proposal in this book for three years while running a magazine you know um and raising three small tiny children and and then in even I mean, it was an unthinkable times for me, but I knew I had to have something I owned and I created.
Gratitude and Life Reflections
00:17:29
Speaker
Let's take a quick minute and thank our amazing sponsors. Our podcast is proudly brought to you today by Jet Creative and Urban Stems. Jet Creative is a women owned marketing firm committed to community and empowerment since 2013.
00:17:46
Speaker
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00:18:05
Speaker
And a huge thanks to Urban Stems, your go to and our go to source for fresh, gorgeous bouquets and gifts delivered coast to coast. Use Bloom Big 20 and save 20 percent on your next order. And don't forget to subscribe to this podcast and follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Rebloom podcast. Thanks to our sponsors and thanks to you for joining us today.
00:18:34
Speaker
So I have two questions for you. One is just going back a little bit on what you shared about how your adventures mirror what's happening in your life. Was that intentional on your part? Did you seek out those things? And then my second question is I want to get back to the book and talk more about that and what's in it. So I can only see those the pattern.
00:18:59
Speaker
now in hindsight, right? Like, as I was bopping around in my career, it wasn't like it was not calculated. I'm not a person, I follow my heart, I follow my passion. If I don't care deeply about something, I can't do it well. So it just made sense that what I cared about, kind of coincided with the audience of the product, right? Like, certainly, right now, you couldn't pay me to write for, you know, dating advice for 20-somethings. Like, I have punch me in the face. Like, I didn't know what to say. Well, because we have no idea. Now it's also just yet. But how when they're just going and calling people? And calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and calling them and
00:19:54
Speaker
and And that's how that happened. My book, knowing I needed to write the book, was a different journey. um My father was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. um nine He's all begun nine years in January. um And at that time,
00:20:12
Speaker
um It was a really a deep period of self-reflection and ah something my dad celebrated in me was my transformation. So when I was this angsty, really troubled child, nicknamed Grumpy, Negimeggy, to get to this place where I was a happy mom kind of thriving, I mean, I really did some really hard work.
00:20:37
Speaker
to get to this place of positivity. And he said, like, that's your that's your thing. Like, that's what you need to share and maybe do it in book form and challenge accept it. I was like, you're right. i' have This legacy of positivity is what I want to leave behind. and i And I want to share how I did this. Right. As a journalist, especially, I'm an evangelist for information. So if I care about something or I figure something out, I absolutely want everyone to know about it. And I figured out how to live differently. I figured out how to live with joy and optimism even when things were hard. And I felt very compelled to tell that story and to write that book.
00:21:16
Speaker
um So we just interviewed a woman, her name is Hildy Dunn, and she's she was a life coach for 15 years, but then she went through an experience with her father also.
00:21:27
Speaker
um being He was diagnosed, I'm not sure what he was diagnosed with, but he ultimately passed, and now she's a death doula. and i And I sort of had some epiphanies because I lost both parents, my mom in 2020 and my dad in 2021. And I do feel like sometimes when you're faced with something like that, it really makes you take stock of of where you are. And I love that your dad was the encourager for you to really um think about your life in that way. I love that. And I think it's also because it's like, you know, I hadn't really thought about
00:22:05
Speaker
in thinking about and in watching him think about his legacy, it forced me to think about my own. and like yeah like what How do I want to leave this planet? And how do I want to be remembered? And like, why am I here? What is my gift, my contribution?
Resilience and Mental Health
00:22:21
Speaker
And i like, I really really worked hard to to transform from Negi-Megi into somebody who really is joyful and optimistic. Well, and You know, I think this book is so important and so important for young people. So um to let you know too, Megan, we lost our daughter a year ago and a little over a year ago and she lost her battle with mental illness. And, you know, I think that these young folks, young people, it's tough. It's very tough and they need to to see someone that has worked so hard
00:23:00
Speaker
yeah and been able to come out on the other side. And I think that's the challenge. they're in their When they're in the thick of it, they can't see the other side. And for you to write something that helps them to see, yes, it was hard, it was tough, but there is a bright and beautiful light, that's an important gift. It's an important gift for others. That breaks my heart. because i i mean i think you know Mental illness is no joke, and you know we I deal with that in my own family.
00:23:29
Speaker
um And I think one of the biggest resilience tricks that I learned was having resilience role models. And like when you, when it's really, really hard just to find somebody, whether it's somebody on Instagram or a celebrity, a neighbor, somebody who's done the hard thing that you're going through, just for proof that it's de doable. I mean, I think that is so important. Like, I mean, I had a double mastectomy recently and and it was, it was hard. And in those moments where I'm like, this sucks. Why? Oh my God. this looking to the woman who a year later is back at the gym and feeling great. It's like you just need a roof. You just need to know it's possible. Even just that little modicum of possibility makes gives you a little bit more strength to do hard things.
00:24:15
Speaker
It does. And I've been very honest about our journey, and particularly on social and I share, I try to share things that are joyful, because just a little bit of joy brings me joy. it But it also I've been very honest about our journey, which has helped others to to understand and to see that, you know, we will never we will never be healed, ah but we will move forward. And to give people that, to show people that light. And what you're doing is helping people, whether it's um through your ah initial bout of, I mean, the initial disease of anorexia, which is, I mean, to get through that, I mean, that's, I mean, you love, ya yay you, that's i that's that's very difficult. And you were a young child. I mean, you look back, a very young child trying to get through that,
00:25:07
Speaker
And back when people didn't really have all the tools either, there were not a lot of tools in any parent's tool chest to help you. My best friend was also anorexic and she passed away, jumping out of the car to be hospitalized with me. It was very traumatic. Oh my gosh. And when I look at that on that now, I'm like, oh my goodness, that was hard That's yeah horrible. Because now that I'm a mom and I have teenagers and I'm like, I was 16, my daughter's 14. I can't imagine her having to go through that. Yeah. You did. Yeah. And mean you did. Wow. And having these kids and and but providing that light that you're doing for that fully charged life at any point, whether you're young, whether you're in your 20s, whether you're in
00:25:57
Speaker
I mean, that is what, and that is Lori, that is our goal here to say, life is short. Follow your passion, follow your heart, exactly what you have done. And what Lori and I try to do, we try to, and we're trying to hopefully help others to say, you can do that. Like, yeah because if you can see that joy, if you can see that life, that light and life, you can do it, you can
Happiness and Wellness Tips
00:26:24
Speaker
do it.
00:26:24
Speaker
Tell us about some of the advice and things that you share in the book that would be helpful to our listeners. So the book is called your fully fully charged life. and And really what I sought to do was to take Dr. Martin Seligman, who is the forefather of positive psychology. So back in length the, because it was like the late eighties, early nineties,
00:26:47
Speaker
Dr. Martin Seligman looked at the field of positive psychology, and he said, maybe we got this all wrong. Like, we're looking at what's wrong with people and trying to fix it. What if we did the opposite? What if we looked at was what was right with people who are thriving and happy and tried to tease out and emulate those key characteristics? And he came up with the perma theory of wellness. The P is for positive emotions, the E is for engagement, the R is for relationships, the M is for meaning, and the A is for accomplishment.
00:27:18
Speaker
And he found that people who fill those buckets and live richly in all of those areas thrive. And so what I really set out to do was to fun filter those theory, fun filter the theory and teach people how to do that in many aspects of their life on a daily basis. um And you have the different chapters, the positive charge, the extra charge, the recharge. Really what my book does is give you a toolkit for living fully charged or perma charged, really. um And there's lots of news you can use actionable tips, micro actions, little things you could do on a daily basis to inch the happiness needle and to live differently. And the key is some of them you can roll your eyes out. Like I go on and on about how important it is to make your bed. But if you think that's crazy and you never wanna make your bed, I don't care. Something else is gonna stick. But I know for sure that making your bed
00:28:16
Speaker
fills the A in accomplishment, sets you up for a day of success. Lots of research around it. That's so funny you brought that up because my husband, he's always like, why don't you make your bed? And I do make my bed, but I make my bed in my way. It's not his military style. I do make the bed every day. i and But I agree with that. I think if you get up, I just I don't know, it just makes me feel like we're put together, you start in a little more organized way. After all the research says, right? You cannot control what is going to happen in your day, and your to-do list may never get to done, but if you start by making that stinking bed, check. That is one thing that you have done before you even leave the house, and it really does fill you with a sense of accomplishment first thing in the morning. It does. Wow. Yeah.
00:29:07
Speaker
But I love that. I love that. I'm going to share that one with my whole family and I'm going to be better about it. You just made my husband very happy. I could be leaving for the airport at 3am and I will push my husband out of the bed and make it.
00:29:22
Speaker
because i can't like it just it is my It's literally the only thing I can know I can accomplish and control in my entire day and so I want yeah to do it. So you're you're playing in many lanes. You are an editor of a magazine, you're a fitness expert, you wrote a book, you're on TV a lot. ah How do you manage all of that and stay positive every day? Because I know a lot of people would get very stressed out and they might have a meltdown.
00:29:53
Speaker
Yeah. So I do get stressed out, right? But I've got a toolkit to process most of that stress. um I know my non-negotiables, right? And like, I think part of what I do in my book is help you figure out what your non-negotiables are. I have to move. I need movement every day. That could be a class even better because I also need community. So like, I love to go to my bar of method class because I move my body and I see my people.
00:30:22
Speaker
um And they're not like blood relatives. It's just my community. I don't even know everyone's last name, but they're my community. I need to show up for people and I need people to show up for me, so I need a sense of community. I need movement. um I need sunlight and vitamin D in some capacity.
00:30:41
Speaker
um Like those are things that I know I need to have on a daily basis to be okay. And so I give myself those things. I'm also really good at saying no. um I'm a relentless no-sayer so that I can say yes to what matters. I don't give out yeses easily because I don't want to, like I don't want to say yes to something that doesn't really matter.
Authenticity in Media and Public Speaking
00:31:06
Speaker
Well, I'm glad you said yes to us. Yeah. I was thinking the same thing. Thank you for saying yes to us because I believe that this matters. Yes. Oh, did you? Three years. And I love, I love podcasts. I love chatting. I love deeper dive. Like, because everything on social media is so quick and I just love conversations. It is. I love connection. I love people. I love hearing people's stories and telling stories. I find it very inspiring to talk and to listen.
00:31:33
Speaker
I absolutely agree with that. And I was a very reluctant podcaster because I've shared this. You know, Jamie said to me, we're beat we're doing a podcast. And I'm like, I don't have the personality for that. I don't know the tech about that, all the things. But we've kind of muddled through together and, you know, faced some fears and did it. And we're we're so proud of ourselves now. We're into like our 20 something episode. And so it's now.
00:32:01
Speaker
But the conversations we're having, like the one today, like I'm just writing down copious note. And i I don't have your book yet, I will admit, but I will be ordering it and giving it to friends because I think the message behind it is so important. I i i love that you wrote this book. I just love it.
00:32:22
Speaker
yeah And that's a lot of what our our listeners have told us. And exactly, we we we felt the need to do this, we felt the need to have conversations, and to make these pivot points, ah to make people feel that they could do them if they followed their heart, if they, if and that other people were just as scared, but they went and did it and they and they put things into their life that balanced their life and and let them go ahead and do it. And Yeah, this is a brilliant book for people to have on many levels. Well, I want to tell you the scariest rebloom for me was public speaking. And I know this sounds insane because I'm on national television all the time. But yeah my biggest fear that I had to conquer was to start speaking
00:33:14
Speaker
tied to my book. um It was just really, really intimidating for some reason because when I go on the Today Show or I go on live with Kelly, like I'm a TV host, I'm a character, right? Like I'm just sort of, you know, presenting information, but like so there was something very like raw and vulnerable for me to be in front of 250 people talking about my book or sharing tips and strategies. I didn't know how to make a PowerPoint. like how am i go to wake What are my visuals? How am I going to do this? What's the AV? How do I hold the mic? um And now I speak all the time. But gearing up for that first speech, I mean, I was a hot mess.
00:33:54
Speaker
well So I was a speech teacher at a university for 18 years. So you are not alone. You are not alone, I can tell you. You're in a very big club. But, you know, it's it's doing exactly what you did. It's putting everything together, but it's also practicing. And the more you get out there and the more you do it, it it gets easier. But it's scary. It's really, really scary. guess what You can get paid to do it. So that's like how my business has evolved.
00:34:22
Speaker
And i I so appreciate that you shared that because someone might look at your resume and your Instagram, your social media and think, oh, I could, not you know, she would never have a fear. She's so confident. She can do all these things. Look at her. And the fact that you shared that and the fact that you've shared very vulnerable, hard things throughout your life, I think is so brave and so um I just applaud you for that.
00:34:52
Speaker
yeah and well you for sharing Well, but I think what people want to hear is they want to hear authenticity and they want to hear the truth. And I think we can all begin to see that sometimes, as you said, what we see on social isn't real.
00:35:09
Speaker
And I know that people have appreciated our authenticity about what we're going through, because it may look one way. And it also, you know, these are the things sometimes that we do, but it's not really who we are. And and we need to share a little bit of that. And I think that's the most important thing that we can do to connect with others is being like also just thinking about like, I always think about why am I sharing this?
00:35:35
Speaker
Am I sharing this to make someone laugh? Am I sharing this to teach someone something? Am I sharing this to inspire someone? Or am I sharing this to heal myself? right therere It's never just look at me or look at this. There has to be some intention behind whatever it is you're putting out there and then it can't help but be authentic.
Future Endeavors and Gratitude
00:35:54
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. I recently shared that i I came close to being scammed and I felt so stupid because I get i get those all the time and I never fall for it. In this one, I almost did. It ended up, it worked out fine. But I wanted to share the story because maybe it will help somebody else to not go down that road. Yeah. And it was really amazing to me the responses because I think when you are real and you share something and you're sharing it,
00:36:25
Speaker
because you want to be in service of someone or help them or you know, I think there's some beauty to that. Definitely. I would agree. I would agree. So of all the pivots that you've had, Megan, along the way, what have been some of your favorite stops in this journey so far?
00:36:45
Speaker
You know, I'm not a very reflective person. Like, I'm like so grounded in gratitude and the here and now that I don't spend a lot of time like musing about what was or what will be. um That would take me like a long walk to figure out what the favorites were. Yeah, that's okay. um Do you have anything on the horizon? Do we have new things that you're looking toward on the horizon?
00:37:15
Speaker
So I did a new reality show. I hosted a reality show called My Perfect Day. It streams on a streaming platform called Very Local. um We did six episodes. I was super, super proud of that. I'm like a fairy godmother who goes in and grants deserving people their wishes. Oh, I love that. Love it. I lived in Kansas City all last winter.
00:37:38
Speaker
I really loved making that. i I hope there's more TV in my future. i that It was one of the greatest joys of my career was getting to you know to celebrate these people and to show them that they mattered and to give them a perfect day. ah It was the best job I ever got to do. That's amazing. I'd be yeah super blessed if there was more of more TV in my future.
00:38:02
Speaker
um you know a lot more public speaking, a lot of more spokesperson work. I will continue to make the magazine on a smaller scale. And um you know that's really where I'm at. I see all of that happening.
00:38:18
Speaker
I see all of that and managing three three children, three very busy children. My daughter is a freshman in and high school, so that's my greatest life challenge right now. Yeah, that's going to be fun. I wish I'd met you earlier because Jamie and I, are we're part of a conference that I'm co-hosting next year called Live Courageously Rebloom. You would have been such a good speaker for that, so but we already have the lineup, but maybe the the next next one.
00:38:47
Speaker
I really enjoy connecting with people. I'm an introverted extrovert, but I enjoy a good conference. Yeah. Well, I'm an introverted extrovert. Lori's just an introvert. Yeah, I'm an introverted extrovert. Totally. That's my podcast. What? I mean, I love teaching. I do love that because Cause I'm with, I'm with kindred spirits when I'm teaching cause they're all creative people and we just, you don't have to make small talk with that in those groups. We just get each other right from the get go. Yeah. I love that. Well, Megan, what is some advice that you love to give when you're out speaking or when women talk to you or people talk to you about their own journey and what do you like to share with them?
00:39:36
Speaker
So I feel very strongly that gratitude is the secret sauce in life. And figuring out to have an attitude how to have an attitude of gratitude that works for you is so fundamentally important. um For a long time, I felt like, oh, to practice gratitude, I have to keep a gratitude journal. And it has to be laborious. It has to be this homeworky thing where I write five things I'm grateful for. And I could never really make that click and stick.
00:40:05
Speaker
until I changed that practice into what I call finding the yay and asking myself or my family what made me say yay today, did I really, really learn how to ground myself in gratitude? And that practice actually started when I was losing my father. When I was having a hard time getting out of bed every day and facing my day, I gave myself this job of focusing on one thing that didn't stink every day and documenting it and sharing it on social media. So it could have been like daffodils blooming on the end of my walk. It could have been foam latte and on a latte in the shape of a heart. It was something that even in this really hard time was good, enforcing myself to see it and document and share it, and that really cemented this gratitude practice in my life where I pause to appreciate something no matter how hard my day is or how hard the thing is that I'm going through, um and if you're able to find
00:41:04
Speaker
a way of pausing to appreciate the good in your life. You will be, you'll live longer, you'll be happier, you'll be healthier. You won't have any FOMO because you know what you have is enough and you're not missing out on anything. um This, my gratitude practice and figuring out how to make gratitude work for me was my secret sauce. And if I can give anybody any little taste of that, I think that's really, really important.
00:41:32
Speaker
you' You've made me teary a couple times during this talk. Don't cry because I love to cry. if ah bawling I'm just thinking of i'm just thinking of like and I'm going to choke up.
00:41:47
Speaker
ah It's just ah it's just a yay. That's all you have to do is I'm tearing up too It's just you know, some days are hard and it's just a little yay. That's all you know. I love to cry. It is like, like I find it so cathartic. My kids are like, are you crying mom? They do like a tear check and I'm like, I'm probably you crying. Yeah, I love it. the Crying's good. You have to reset. I like, I enjoy tears.
00:42:12
Speaker
um Yeah. but Sometimes my tears are in like at inappropriate, so-called inappropriate times. Somebody cries, I'm like, oh, yes, permission to cry. Let's go. Well, I always say when I give a gift and it made someone cry, that's the best gift because you yeah when you cry, your heart is touched. I mean, that's what's coming out. and I'm a deep empath. My heart is touched a lot. Yeah. yeah well And I think sometimes it's the release that we need. we had just my daughter My daughter lives in New York and i we just went to see Hell's Kitchen. And I had purposely picked, I was like, okay, we have to be careful because you know we didn't want to be triggered by anything. And I'm like, yep, this is Alicia Keys, this will be great. And it's really upbeat and we're going along. And then at the end of the first act, there's this very powerful song. And this woman is singing about losing her son and being forever young.
00:43:09
Speaker
all three of us are bawling. And they look at me and they're like, you picked this, you picked this. But my daughter said, you know, sometimes that's the, help like, we need it. Sometimes we need to let it out. And so, and, and I ah giggle about it, but it it it obviously it touched our hearts and souls. It made us think of our other, our other daughter. It it was just, it was really special. So tears are good. Tears are good. It just shows your love.
00:43:35
Speaker
yeah and My friend, Rabbi Steve Leader, who wrote The Beauty of What Remains, he always talks about grief like in these waves. You just never know when you're going to get wiped out and you just have to let the water rush over you. Well, your strength, your tenacity, your um pivots along the way are just a huge inspiration to to us and I know will be a huge inspiration to our listeners.
00:44:04
Speaker
incredible, incredible conversation. I feel like I could talk to you for hours. I know, hours and hours. And um for our listeners, please, please, please, we will have the link to Megan's book. Please grab that. I think it's going to be my go to gift for my friends. I know that for sure. How about you, Laura? Also the audible, which I'm very proud of because oh there's You have to audition to do your own audio book because it's a hard it's hard work. I was a voice actress back in my acting days. So I was very, I was like, oh my gosh, if I don't get this job, that's gonna be bad. But I am the, I'm the voice of the Audible too, which a lot of people like to like walk with me. You can hear my scratchy voice. And like, an o it was very powerful for me. I had to do the audio book during COVID.
00:44:54
Speaker
and like reading the words. And i I talk about my father and my friend I talk talk about all of the things through the book. And there are moments where I'm choked up and I'm crying. And it like while like it was a really beautiful cathartic process for me. So I'm very proud of it.
00:45:12
Speaker
I'm glad to know that too, because I love a good audio book. So and it's going to that fact that it's in your voice and it's authentic like that. I love it even more. so Spanish language version is not in my voice because okay.
00:45:23
Speaker
yeah yeah ah You'll be my new walking companion. hope You will. I'll get the audio. Well, Megan, thank you so much for joining us today. We are so appreciative that you said yes or yay to us. And we hope that, you know, you just, you know, keep thriving and we cannot wait to connect with you more and follow along. And thank you for joining us today. I really want to stay in touch. I just think you're really, you're really wonderful. I'm so glad you're here.
00:45:56
Speaker
Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Will, to our listeners. Peace, love, and re-blue. Life is too short not to follow your passions, so go out there and let your heart plant you where you are meant to be and grow your joy. We will be right here sharing more incredible stories of reinvention with you. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you never miss an episode of Rebloom. Until next time, I'm Jamie Jamison. And I'm Lori Siebert. Peace, love, and Rebloom, dear friends.