It Was Never About The Jam

Meghan shares future plans about As Ever with Emma Grede, as the brand prepares to launch its wine on Diana's birthday

Meghan worn Ralph Lauren to her podcast with Emma Grede. Credit: Emma Grede IG

Happy Sunday!! Well, it seems like the whole world is scorching right now, it’s so hot and humid. I hope wherever you are, you stayed cool this weekend. It’s almost July, but feels like deep August. Even Ascot was blistering this week. I’m sure the horses were terribly uncomfortable, as well.

Yesterday was William’s birthday and Kate, along with the children, Orla, and puppies, wished him a happy birthday on Instagram. Kate added a picture she had taken of William holding the puppies. It’s adorable. I remember the outrage when Kate first started releasing pictures she had taken of the family. The attacks came fast and furious, with some accusing the Middletons of making the Royal Family “middle class”. It was explained at the time, that William and Kate wanted to share their family in a more relaxed, friendly way. All these years later, that change in tactic, of family pictures from William and Kate, has proven correct. Sharing with the public, genuine, real family moments has become a beloved royal tradition. Kate has been shaping a markedly different approach since she first married William. One with warmth, wisdom, and love.

William with Orla’s puppies!! Credit: Princess of Wales

Also, in honor of William’s birthday, there was a profile in The Times by Roya Nikkhah. The paywall is down for this piece and we have a link to it in our Instagram stories. It included comments from Jason Knauf and Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, who served as the private secretary to William, Harry, and Kate. So close is he to William, that he became George’s godfather. Valentine Low, in his book, called Lowther-Pinkerton “family” to William and Kate. (He also returns for special royal events, like he did for the coronation, to advise and consult.) I think it’s a very good piece and discusses how William and Kate hope to make their reign different. Not different, as in “jarring”, Knauf stresses. But in keeping with the modern times, while also honoring the historic legacy of the British Royal Family. Just like running the Duchy, which will also pass to George when William becomes King. I think William and Kate look upon their reign as preparation for their children. What will they leave to them and how can they shape it in a way that best serves GCL for the future? I think that matters greatly to them.

This week, Meghan was on the podcast, Aspire with Emma Grede. A few weeks ago, Emma was on The goop Podcast. By chance, I actually listened to Emma’s episode on Gwyneth’s podcast, and it was good. It provided the perfect background info to listen to Meghan’s Aspire episode and have excellent context. Emma is the co-founder of SKIMS, Good American (Khloe’s jean company), along with a few other brands. Her backstory is very different than Meghan’s.

Emma has flawless skin. Credit: Emma Grede IG

Emma is from the UK, the oldest of four girls and really took on the major responsibility of raising them. As her Father had left and her Mom was working hard, just to pay the bills. It’s my understanding from what she shared on Gwyneth’s podcast, Emma did a work/study in high school because they couldn’t afford her education to continue without having a job. It was a tough upbringing, no college after high school. Emma made her way to Los Angeles where she was working as a broker, bringing A-list talent to brand deals. (Gwyneth said she has known Emma for years and they did marketing/brand deals together.) Soon, Emma realized that in those deals, everyone else was making a lot more money than she was. She decided to develop her own brands with the same A-list talent that she had been brokering deals with. Before long, she was partnering with the Kardashians. I think Good American was her first big brand. Then came SKIMS. Emma is a co-founder of these brands, bringing together the celeb end, the business structure, and the investors. She’s the real deal. I knew that her questions and conversation with Meghan would be unlike anything we have heard, because with her background, she knew what questions to ask. And she could spot when Meghan tried to dodge and weave away from the real answers.

Here’s the breakdown of that podcast episode. I think some of it will surprise you. It also reinforces the claims from Puck (which were in our newsletter earlier this month) that Meghan isn’t really “running” As Ever, it’s Netflix. And most of the narrative, surrounding the criticism of As Ever, is focused on the wrong things. Meghan even hints during the podcast that she wants to partner with Emma on a clothing brand, which is Emma’s strength. “You and I can talk about that later,” Meghan coos. It will be interesting to see if anything ever comes of that.

Behind the scenes at their podcast taping. Credit: Emma Grede IG

The first thing that struck me as different about Emma’s episode with Meghan, how she looked. Someone in DMs on IG said, this is the best Meghan’s looked in a long time. And they were right, especially her clothes. Emma power dresses and Meghan didn’t want to be a slouch standing next to her. I also think it reflected the seriousness with which Meghan took this interview. She knew that Emma wouldn’t be easily fooled. I think that’s why Meghan didn’t even try any funny business about who is actually responsible for running As Ever.

One of the first things Emma drilled into, how the partnership between As Ever and Netflix is structured, who does what. Meghan described her role figuratively as, “don’t bake the cake without me!” Adding, “there’s an entire team that can put that cake in the oven, but I want to check it before it goes in that oven.” Stating that, “people can feel when I’m involved” in making “my vision”. And she gets a lot of “joy” from being part of the “creative process”. Details, she added, matter to her. And even for the newsletter, she’s “one of the people” looking at it. I don’t think Meghan realized how awful these comments sounded.

It's clear that Meghan is not developing As Ever products or working on the day-to-day business side, etc. She’s likely signing off on the final versions and that’s it. Netflix is developing all of this and Meghan is the face, it’s a celebrity brand. There’s nothing wrong with that, but let’s be clear about what is happening. She’s leveraging the royal part of her name and that’s what she’s selling.

Meghan does a bit of storytelling about the steps in developing As Ever and I don’t think this part was truthful, at all. She claims that she expected to sell only “locally” and maybe at the farmer’s market. Even getting a license to make foods from home. If she actually did that, I think it was simply going to be used as a marketing tool. She does this very “aw shucks” and then Netflix came and changed everything.

I’ve described this in our newsletters before and her description during the podcast, reinforces my belief. These smallish drops (although now, I’m sure the second drop had revenue of over $1 million, maybe 2 or 3 times that or more, but it’s all relative) are serving a purpose. They aren’t the final endgame. Meghan explains that it all started with a “humble pot of jam”. Adding, “I don’t care who you are, everyone is charmed by jam.” Before she walks Emma through how that jam becomes a licensing bonanza, asking, “What does that do?” It lends itself to products in the home, the kitchen, hospitality, moving into the “broader space”, Meghan explains. (Meghan is full of buzz words, that she repeats over and over, until they grate. Unable to reword anything, because she truly doesn’t understand what she’s describing.)

As I have said before, this is why Meghan started with a small site, selling “humble” things, as she said. Because the vision is to walk the consumer to the large-scale licensing of As Ever. But, to make that look organic and authentic, you preface that with something “humble” and “charming”. That’s why we are seeing smallish runs from her site first.

Meghan wore a very different look to the taping of her appearance on the Jamie Kern Lima podcast. Credit: Jamie Kern Lima

Meghan mentions that since Netflix is a global company, As Ever will sell globally too. This surprises Emma and I think it’s a genuine surprise. “You are going global…” Emma says, trailing off. Meghan almost squeaks, “…How can we not?!? It’s in the spirit of sharing!” But, Emma’s not buying it. “It’s better for the P&L…” Meghan laughs, “There is that!” Later in the conversation, Emma says that As Ever can be a “truly global brand”, adding that “few people” can ever do that. And that, is the power of the Royal Family. It’s not the power of Meghan Markle, it’s the power of the Royal Family.

Also confirming the exclusives in Puck, As Ever has been developed by Netflix to stand alone, after With Love, Meghan is no longer airing. They are clearly hoping to grow it with the show. Then develop it large enough, that the consumer base is there, even without the show. Exactly as Puck reported.

Are these audacious plans? Yes. Can they really be achieved? Maybe. And that is only possible because of Netflix. It’s the power of Netflix and the royal part of Meghan’s name. This is a celebrity brand. Meghan’s not running it, she’s just licensing her name, through As Ever and, very likely, other deals that are probably in development right now. The big question is, how much does Meghan’s “ick” factor hurt her? Will it stop consumers from embracing her brand?

When criticism of As Ever focuses on the jam, it misses the bigger picture. Launching the wine on Diana’s birthday, crystalizes what’s going on. Emma says in the podcast that Meghan deserves a “piece” of all this for herself. I think she’s referring to all the global attention, etc., that’s happened. Meghan tries to claim during the podcast that fashion brands were making a lot of money off of her and she never saw a dime. (FYI – I do not believe this at all. I’m sure Meghan and Harry were even compensated for the Oprah interview.) That’s the goal in all of this. Meghan and Netflix expect to build a global consumer brand. That was always the goal. “Humble” and “charming” jam was just the starting point to sell a story. I think Netflix is hoping that her fans and the curious come to buy and then, with time, people actually like the products and become repeat customers because of that. An evolution of the brand.

In an interesting exchange on the podcast, Emma asks Meghan if she ever feels imposter syndrome. Of course, Meghan says no. Then Meghan defines imposter syndrome as “posturing as if you know everything”. She adds that we all need help sometimes. That’s not imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is the nagging doubt that you don’t deserve your success or accomplishments. Does Meghan really not know the definition of imposter syndrome or did Emma’s question hit too close to home?