Female Founders: Erin Meagher of Beneficial Blends On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Money, money, money. That’s three. But it took a lot more money to get to where I am today than I knew it would. However, I’m glad I didn’t know beforehand because it may have dissuaded me from starting. There is something to be said for being a naïve founder! Nothing wrong with that. Also, owning a business isn’t just all about the business. You’re going to find things out about yourself that you either didn’t know or maybe want to know. I am ever-evolving as a founder, CEO and leader. You can’t just work on your business, you have to work on yourself too.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Erin Meagher.
Erin Meagher is the Founder and CEO of Beneficial Blends, LLC, turn-key, certified manufacturer of food, beverage, dietary supplements, cosmetics, aromatherapy and CBD products for food services and retailers nationwide.
As an experienced CPG developer and manufacturer, supply chain expert and SGF practitioner, Erin has led Beneficial Blends’ high growth, ranking top 500 in the INC5000 and named a Fastest Growing Company by Tampa Bay Business Journal.
Erin is active with the Coconut Coalition of the Americas, US Hemp Roundtable and Hemp Industry Association and serves her local community of Tampa Bay through her involvement with Make It Tampa Bay and the Tampa Economic Development Council Board.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I started off as a high-school business teacher before launching Beneficial Blends in 2009. I’ve always been interested in business and the way things work. Once I found out about the health benefits of coconut oil, I knew that I wanted to share that with others and launch a brand. So really, I’ve been educating about healthy eating and living since starting the company.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
We don’t have enough time to cover all the interesting stories! There really are so many, from funny to surprising to sad. One story I tell a lot is about how it was the eve of my first ever tradeshow, and we were shopping for last-minute items in T.J.Maxx. It was 2010 at the time, and T.J.Maxx had begun repositioning and including food items in the store. I remember holding up an item and going, “Eww, who buys food at T.J.Maxx?” The next day at the tradeshow, three buyers from T.J.Maxx came by and wanted our coconut oil in their stores. Needless to say, people really do buy food there, and we worked with them as a partner for five or six years, I believe.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
A silly mistake my coworkers and I made one time was giving out our real cell phone numbers. We hired an employee for a tradeshow using Craigslist, and she was great the first day, but then we realized she had pink eye. We were serving food and told her she shouldn’t finish her shift or come back the following days. She proceeded to blow up our phone every half hour or more for the rest of the night. It got progressively worse as she was obviously inebriated. We learned about Google voice after that, and it has saved us quite a few headaches.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
There isn’t one particular person, but throughout my career and even before I started the company, there has been a collection of wonderful people who have been so helpful. Recently I had a contract issue with a new group I was working with, and a fellow business owner stepped in to help me navigate the situation. It’s great when you have such a strong support system around you.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
I’m not sure I can speak for all women and the women who aren’t starting companies, but if I had to guess, I would imagine an aversion to risk holds women back from starting companies. It’s also possible that women are starting companies, but they aren’t seeking traditional funding outside of their friends and family. It makes sense that women want to make sure they can follow through on what they are promising or building and maybe approach entrepreneurship with a more methodical approach than men. If these businesses they are starting aren’t making news because they are on a smaller scale, then it continues the narrative that women aren’t founders — and that may not be true. We just may not be as good at singing our own praises as our male colleagues.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
As a society, we have traditional norms that need to be rethought to open the path for more women founders. We can’t own and run organizations and still be seen as the sole homemaker and childrearer. Representation also matters in all areas of life. Our children need to see more women in leadership roles to help normalize the idea.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
Diversity and innovation. Women have different approaches and ideas than men, but men still run four out of every five companies. What are the advances in tech, health care, education, and more that we are missing out on because women haven’t added their value to the marketplace yet? (in an entrepreneurial sense, not that they don’t add value to society). It’s exciting to think about the advances the world can make as a whole if we have more women founders.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
You definitely work for yourself as a founder and have more freedoms or say coming and going from the office, but businesses do run you. You may be your own boss, but the company and its employees are your responsibility. You can’t walk away any time you want, like if you were an employee. You must persevere in the face of adversity.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
There is definitely a difference between a founder and even a CEO or top-level executive. A founder has built something up and lived and breathed each moment of their company. They are often scrappy, driven, very ambitious and impatient but can get a lot accomplished in a short amount of time. Top-level leadership becomes a different animal because it’s often more bureaucratic. It’s problem-solving, working through the right processes and channels with the right people. Not everyone should be a founder because people should find their key attributes and follow that path.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
Money, money, money. That’s three. But it took a lot more money to get to where I am today than I knew it would. However, I’m glad I didn’t know beforehand because it may have dissuaded me from starting. There is something to be said for being a naïve founder! Nothing wrong with that. Also, owning a business isn’t just all about the business. You’re going to find things out about yourself that you either didn’t know or maybe want to know. I am ever-evolving as a founder, CEO and leader. You can’t just work on your business, you have to work on yourself too.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
This year, my company made a $25,000 donation to the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Center and Research Institute that I am very proud of. After all, an article about using coconut oil for Alzheimer’s is what first sparked my interest in starting Beneficial Blends. I’m very grateful that we can help further research into cures for the disease.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I think there’s a big movement around just being kind. I would love to see more of that. I would also love to see educational courses for emotional intelligence be available for young children and teenagers to learn empathy and vulnerability. Why aren’t we actively teaching our next generations how to deal with emotions in a proactive way? Instead, we rely on lots of therapy as adults to work through our previous traumas and issues. Seems backwards to me.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I’m not afraid to reach out to others that inspire me. I won’t name names, but I’ve done it unsolicited in the past, and I’ve learned a great deal from those people. If we are naming names, I’d say Sara Blakely because she is also from the Tampa area and has built an incredible brand that she just had a super successful ‘exit’ on. To pick her brain and be surrounded by her positive energy would be a dream come true!
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Erin Meagher of Beneficial Blends On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.