Beauty Behind the Brand: Meagan Francis
Recently Modestine®’s founder, Laura Cepeda, was featured on the Mother of Reinvention Podcast with Meagan Francis to talk about teatime. (Listen here!) We are thrilled to interview Meagan for our Beauty Behind the Brand series, where we highlight women with brands that empower you to lean into what feels good, into what makes you feel full and free.
We’re interviewing Meagan to share her story of reinvention, motherhood, and encouragement to 40-something year old women on the journey that is life. Meagan, we’re so excited to connect with you, can you tell us who you are outside of motherhood?
Like most moms, I wear so many hats. There are my "official" roles: friend, sister, and business owner. And then there are the parts of me that aren't as easy to define, like dreamer, thinker, and nature-lover. Outside of caring for my work and my people, I'm as happy cuddled up in bed with a hot cup of tea and a book as I am singing karaoke or paddling a peaceful river in my kayak. I've been a mom long enough now (25 years!) that it's become nearly impossible to separate my role of Mom from the other things that make me who I am: they all just flow together.
We completely understand! Moms are multi-faceted beings, it’s truly a superpower! Can you share with us your motherhood experience?
I became a mom at barely 20 and went on to have four more children over the next 11 years - it changed everything about the freewheeling, aimless way I was living before that. Centering my young adulthood around children gave me a sense of purpose and possibility that I wasn't finding in my college classes and it's hard to imagine what my trajectory would have looked like without them. It also led to my career - creating content (first articles and books, and later, podcasts) about motherhood to help other moms.
You truly are a pillar of encouragement within the community, we love that about you! Would you mind telling us a bit about your brand and mission?
I've been writing and talking about motherhood online since the early 2000s. Since 2015, I've been producing a weekly-plus podcast, The Mom Hour, with my friend and co-host Sarah Powers. Our mission is to help moms find more satisfaction in their lives as mothers, by offering encouraging and non-judgmental support and ideas around the issues all moms face. "It's all gonna be OK" has long been my motto and has become the unofficial motto of The Mom Hour as well. More recently I launched a new podcast, Mother of Reinvention. Mother of Reinvention was created to help support midlife moms as they face the challenges and opportunities that come along with getting older, watching kids grow up, and following new dreams. We will soon be launching a private community where we can discuss topics like health and wellness, parenting teens and adults, and career pivots in a safe, supportive space.
Thank you for sharing, we know our community will find comfort and friendship through your brands! We have one last question, where do you feel you need support?
As a midlife woman, two areas stand out to me.
First: raising older kids is really hard, and we don't talk about it nearly enough or with nearly enough honesty. A big part of that is because our stories start to belong more to our kids than to us, and since most of us get our advice and online socializing in public places now (social media) it's really hard to be honest and raw without encroaching on our teen and adult childrens' privacy. Also, there's so much shame: logically we know our kids are their own people and make their own choices, but when they screw up, we can't help but feel that we will be judged. Teen and adult kid problems aren't cute and relatable the way a toddler throwing a tantrum can be. I'm hoping to be part of the solution for that by creating a private community where there can be more honesty with less shame.
Second: Information overload and aggressive marketing work together to create a big problem. There are so many "cures" touted for everything from perimenopause symptoms to midlife weight gain and even things we can't control at all, like the physical signs of aging. I feel that midlife moms are especially vulnerable to misinformation and simple overwhelm. For myself, I'm trying to look at life, health, wellness and self-care as holistic. It doesn't matter if I have the most nutritionally perfect diet in the world or the physique of a 35-year-old if my stress levels are through the roof or I injure myself from over-doing it. That's why I love Modestine's messaging around self-care through ritual so much! Taking care of ourselves can and should be pleasurable and nurturing. I find that when I am taking time to honor all the parts of myself, spiritual, physical, mental and emotional, I feel the best and obsess the least.
We hear you! Part of Modestine’s values is to make wellness accessible and share rituals that bring women to their fullness. We’re so glad we were able to hear from you and look forward to sharing this journey of womanhood with you!
Find Meagan online:
You can sign up for her email list to learn more at motherofreinventionshow.com
