EP 12: Meggie Williams on “Riding the Scooter in the Rain”
Meggie Williams is the Founder & CEO of Skipper — a tech-driven, pet care service for busy people who love pets. She’s the recipient of Charlotte Agenda‘s “30 Under 30” Award and Charlotte Business Journal’s “40 Under 40 Award.” In this episode, she shares how “the biggest failure” in her life led to her “proudest accomplishment.” She continually uses clear principles (at work and
in her personal life) to help her make smart decisions. At Skipper, when thinking about their growth and their customers, they say: “we always do the right thing, all the time.” Living by that principal makes it easy for them to make hard decisions. And regarding her personal life, she says “If I find myself making a decision that’s keeping me small, I gut check myself. Because that’s not how I make decisions. That’s not how I live my life.”
In this episode, we discuss:
-
The difference between two types of failures: macro & micro
-
How & why she started Skipper
-
How failure is less about the event itself — and what you do with it
-
Why one of Skipper’s core values is “ride the scooter in the rain”
-
Why trust is at the core of their business — and how that makes it easy to make hard decisions
-
How she & her husband decided to leverage their house and personal savings to grow the company
-
Where her confidence comes from
-
How Skipper’s internal motto (“we always do the right thing, all the time”) guides their growth
-
Why being a Founder of a start-up is so lonely, but why doing it alongside other entrepreneurs in Charlotte “has been one of the greatest privileges in my life.”
-
How a soccer injury ended one phase of her life — and began another
-
Her theory on two types of fears: big vs small
QUOTES:
“Failure is an opportunity that pushes you to make a change.”
“I feel like the whole journey from starting the company has been about doing things until they don’t work – and then understanding why they don’t work and taking that next step. That’s how we go forward. Just keep failing. If you’re not failing, you’re not actually going anywhere. That’s become our mantra and the team has embraced that as well. It’s made us really fearless about doing new things.”
“The worst case scenario is never that bad; short of death, we can figure out how to thrive. And I think that’s kind of liberating.”
“It’s when we’re pushed out of our comfort zones that you discover a whole new aspect of yourself and who you can be. That’s exciting. That’s the journey.”
“I have a very fond relationship with failing because in so many instances — in almost all of them — they have made me a better person. They have made me more self aware and more empathetic. It’s made me think in a different way. It pushes me to act differently, and I love that. Failing is just the path to self discovery.”
“I think people are afraid of failure because they put too much stock into what other people think about them and they put too much value on the people who are judging them.”
“When it comes to fear, your frame of mind is a choice. And of that’s not the most liberating thing you can adopt as a mindset… then what else is? Because you can take any situation and decide how you’re going to feel about it.”
Links:
Join the conversation:
Website: walkskipper.com
Instagram: @skipper
Facebook: @skipper
Twitter: @walkskipper