Meet Anri Rogers | Founder of M.E.O.W

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anri Rogers and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anri Rogers, alright, let’s jump in with a deep one – what’s you’re definition for success?
My Empowerment of Women (M.E.O.W.) – What was your thought process behind starting your own business?
When the world shut down in 2020, I felt disconnected from society. During that time, I wrote down the type of community I wanted to be involved in and surrounded by. I started looking up groups here in San Diego, and during the process, I thought to myself… “why don’t I start this community that I want to be a part of?” That’s when My Empowerment of Women (M.E.O.W.) launched! Consistency was key when starting a business like M.E.O.W.

Social Impact: How does your business help the community or the world?

My Empowerment of Women (M.E.O.W.) started two years ago from our desire to connect to other young professional women in the San Diego area. It has now become a monthly meet-up group where we work with women entrepreneurs who lead classes for the women in our network. We not only highlight women entrepreneurs and all the different ways women are following their passions and creating compensation for those passions. We are also creating a network of women who want to connect with other like-minded individuals who are focused on self-development and mental health. We have created a bi-weekly podcast where we aim to inspire by advocating self-love, self-development, mental health, and entrepreneurship. Our goal is to inspire all women to go on that journey of self-discovery and to show how we can support one another as we go on our journey to self-actualization. We hope to create safe spaces for women to be themselves, build community and share stories that can inspire women to be brave and follow their truth.

Risk-taking: How do you think about risk? What role has taken risks played in your life/career?

Risk for us is a necessary ingredient to make significant changes in our lives. One of our main messages in M.E.O.W. and what we encourage all the women who come across our network is to be brave. We can’t make meaningful changes without risking our comfort zones and stepping into the unknown. When we started the M.E.O.W meetups, we took a risk and just hoped that other women wanted to join us and connect. Two years later, we are so grateful that we took the chance because we have connected with many everyday local women who inspire us to follow our passions. We took a risk when we started our podcast—sharing our voice, stories, and the stories of many other women who are being brave and stepping into their power. It has been a beautiful journey. We have grown so much and can’t wait to see all we create as we continue to evolve and take necessary risks as they show up in the development of our network/brand.

What is the most important factor behind your success / the success of your brand?

Our most important factor has been creating community, leading with the heart, and desire to inspire other women positively. Building community has been essential for our success because it has attracted many women to join us every month. Without our ladies showing up and being present, we would not be able to create the events we look forward to experiencing every month.

Another significant factor has been staying consistent with our meetups and releasing our Podcast episodes. We make it a point to stay on track with our events and podcast releases. Consistency is vital because it keeps us on track and our network of badass ladies know to count on us for meaningful heart base events/content.

How to know whether to keep going or to give up?

We talk about this all the time; should we keep going when we don’t see the results we want? Recently, we both realized that the goal is to create a community and inspire other women. When you do things from the heart and with good intentions, the feeling to keep going is constant. We are learning as we go, and through trial and error, our events and podcasts have evolved and are still evolving. We believe that when you’re passionate about a specific goal or creative endeavor, keep going and remember the core reasons why you began the project in the first place. As long as you keep believing in your mission and it brings you joy, keep going and know that everything takes time. Consistency is vital, and with just the love and desire to make a difference, eventually, everything will fall into place. We wholeheartedly believe that just enjoying the process of connecting women and inspiring other women as we go is the motivation that keeps us going to continue what we are creating. We might not know precisely the destination, but we know that we wholeheartedly enjoy the process.

Work-life balance: how has your balance changed over time? What do you think about the balance?

I have a full-time job, so work-life balance is key to my mental health and motivation. I try my best to have fun with the process of creating our events and podcasts, and when I’m feeling overwhelmed with life and/or work, I remind myself that M.E.O.W. is supposed to be a fun outlet for me. Balance is key, and communication on where I am and what I can accomplish keeps me motivated. I don’t try to force things. I do my best and allow the right opportunities to come to me, and let the heart guide me.

What makes you happy? Why?

What makes us happy is creating community, and connecting with all kinds of people who inspire us and leave us with amazing life lessons. We love people and to hear the feedback from all the women we have touched or inspired in positive ways. It makes us so happy when we hear from different women who have created strong bonds with other women and are now working or collaborating and knowing that we were able to connect with them because they came to one of our events. We love creating a show where we discuss all types of topics, and hearing the feedback that our words touched them or the message is what someone needed to hear makes us happy because we feel like we are making a difference, even if it is small, it means a lot to us.

Why did you pursue an artistic or creative career?

We believe that everyone is creative and that creativity is a powerful energy that creates momentum in our lives. Creating our network and podcast has been healing for both of us and for our self-expression. As women, we are constantly told who to be, who not to be, and how to be like everyone else but ourselves. So creating M.E.O.W. has allowed us to be authentic and express ourselves freely from our hearts. We understand that we are not for everyone, and our messages might not resonate with everyone, but for the right people, they will, which brings us so much joy. We love to create and in the development of M.E.O.W. We both have grown and learned so much about the talents and passion hiding within us. It’s helped us step into our bravery and authenticity.

How do you define success?

We think success can be defined differently for everyone, but success is having the opportunity to do the things we love and the privilege to create the life we desire. Success is having the freedom to lead our lives authentically and be able to share knowledge and resources with others. Success is being happy and content with our life and allowing alignment to occur as we move through each chapter with as much grace as possible.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My favorite part of the city is Little Italy because of the food and I think it’s the most fun part of the downtown area. I love the beach so we try to go as much as possible. Bird Rock, Mission Bay is usually where we go. Encinitas is great too! I would love to move there someday. There’s always something to do in San Diego! Love this city.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shout out to all the ladies who consistently help us bring these events together and all the ladies who show up. We want to give thanks to Loni McWilliams author of Sky Lion for always leading some of our events and sharing her space. She has been a great addition to our MEOW Fam. and we wish we could name all the ladies who have led our classes because we have learned so much from them.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/my_empowerment_of_women/

Other: Here is our podcast (Spotify + iTunes): https://linktr.ee/myempowermentofwomen Here is our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/my_empowerment_of_women/ Here is our TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@my_empowerment_of_women?lang=en