on Instagram<\/a>. She started racking up followers under the name Megan Thee Stallion. Then she scored a record deal. Her song \u201cHot Girl Summer\u201d became the anthem of the season in 2019, followed by collabs with Beyonc\u00e9 and Cardi B, followed by massive fame, fortune, three Grammys, nearly 75 million social media followers, a documentary, a swimsuit brand at Walmart, a tequila brand, a Popeyes franchise, fancy clothes, fancy cars, fancy friends\u2026<\/p>\nBut wait. This could have gone another way, and she knows it.<\/p>\n
People could have seen her on social media. They could have clicked \u201clike,\u201d and maybe even followed her. And then they\u2019d have moved on to the next video, the next personality, the next thing to forget. She could have chased that high, producing more of the exact same thing, video after video, desperate for attention. After all, this is what befalls most<\/em> people who blow up on social, or who have a momentarily hot song, or who score their 15 minutes of fame: they get the attention they crave, then ride it straight into obscurity.<\/p>\nWhy? Because most people don\u2019t understand something extremely important, Megan believes.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople share things for the sake of being seen \u2014 versus being understood<\/em>,\u201d she says. \u201cI never was trying to just be seen. I wanted you to feel<\/em> something. When you see me, I want you to feel like, \u2018Oh my gosh, I know<\/em> her. Or I want<\/em> to know her.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\nBeing seen versus being understood<\/em>. That is what made her a success. As Megan became famous for her music and swagger, she also unfurled a more complex personality: She loves anime. She talks openly about therapy. Her father was incarcerated for the first eight years of her life, and both of her parents died before she was 25. (She\u2019s 31 now.) \u201cI was forced to be independent,\u201d she says. \u201cNobody\u2019s going to help me. Nobody\u2019s going to give me anything.\u201d Her fans know this well. She calls them hotties, and she loves her hotties. She essentially tells them: We\u2019re all out here striving, just trying to do our best.<\/em><\/p>\nThis<\/em>, she believes, is why the hotties love her so much. Yes, she is talented, and she makes really good music. But there\u2019s a lot of talent out there in the world, and songs only last a few minutes. So if you want longevity, no matter what industry you\u2019re in, then you must optimize for the thing that lasts longer. It isn\u2019t about being seen, or (if you\u2019re building a brand) silly stunts or performance marketing. It\u2019s about translating that visibility into a deeper, ongoing relationship. People must feel invested in you<\/em>, not just the\u00a0thing you make.<\/p>\nTo make that happen, you must open up to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing real is not about being seen the most,\u201d she says. \u201cIt is not about being the loudest. It\u2019s about how much you can share being your true self, saying what you believe, no matter what it is. It\u2019s authenticity over approval.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/figure>\nImage Credit: Kanya Iwana<\/em><\/p>\nOk, but let\u2019s<\/strong> say you\u2019re not Megan Thee Stallion. Does anyone want to understand you<\/em>?<\/p>\nYou\u2019d be surprised.<\/p>\n
People connect with people, not with brands. So if you\u2019ve built a business, then you<\/em> are a valuable marketing asset. You<\/em> are a key way that people discover your brand, and a core part of why they\u2019ll trust it. But this requires being comfortable enough to put yourself out there. You must be the person on social media, and on camera, and on podcasts, and in DMs interacting with your customers.<\/p>\nIn other words, you must be open to being understood.<\/p>\n
Founders often hesitate to do this. They worry that they\u2019re not good on camera, or that nobody will care what they have to say.<\/p>\n
So here\u2019s the magic trick: Don\u2019t think of it as putting yourself<\/em> out there, and then feeling exposed and vulnerable. Instead, think of it like playing a character. You\u2019re inhabiting a role. This character is a version of you, but it\u2019s not all<\/em> of you. It\u2019s just the parts of you that are most relevant to your audience \u2014 the parts that deeply understand your consumer\u2019s problem, can relate to their pain points, and are eager to articulate and deliver solutions.<\/p>\nOnce you start thinking this way, you can craft and control this character. How does the character act? What does the character talk about? Is the character cheery and optimistic, or more serious and straightforward? If you\u2019re a mom that makes a snack bar for kids, then your character might be: \u201cI\u2019m a mom like you, and I know how hard it is to find good food for your kids. So I talk about parenting and nutrition and picky eating. I\u2019ll do it with knowledge and some humor \u2014 because that\u2019s what us moms do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now it\u2019s clear. You are a distinct character speaking to a distinct audience. Once you establish this, never stray from it. Your audience should get the same version of you every time \u2014 a person whom they can trust and relate to, who has information that\u2019ll be helpful to them, and whom they want to buy from.<\/p>\n
You know who went through a process like this? Megan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I had to learn how to separate Megan Pete and Megan Thee Stallion,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
I ask her to break down the differences. First, who is the real Megan?<\/p>\n
She was born Megan Jovon Ruth Pete. She attended a historically Black college near Houston while chasing her dreams\u00a0of being a musician, and then, once successful, finished her degree in health administration. \u201cI\u2019m the first person in my family to be a millionaire,\u201d she tells me. \u201cI come from a lot of teachers. My uncle was in the military. These are real, necessary jobs. I think I\u2019m the first person in my family to say, \u2018I want to be a musician. I\u2019m going to go for it, guys.\u2019 And I know what it feels like to struggle. I know what it feels like to not be so sure about what\u2019s going to happen tomorrow. \u200aI know what it feels like to want something so bad and you\u2019re not sure if you\u2019re going to get it, but you keep working for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Megan didn\u2019t create the name \u201cMegan Thee Stallion\u201d for the stage. It\u2019s just a nickname she got in high school, and she started using it on social media then. Then, when she became famous, she had to think long and hard about the difference between this character and herself. You can hear it in the way she speaks now, often referring to Megan Thee Stallion in the third person. She\u2019ll say things like: \u201cWhen people meet Megan Thee Stallion\u2026\u201d or \u201cWhen people see Megan Thee Stallion on TV\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
And who, in her telling, is Megan Thee Stallion?<\/p>\n
This began with a question of necessity. Megan Pete wondered: Who does her audience need<\/em> Megan Thee Stallion to be? First, she realized, they need this character to be consistent. Her hotties will travel the country to follow her shows; she says she\u2019s touched to see many of the same faces in the crowd every night. And if a fan meets her, she always wants it to be a good experience for them. \u201cWhen I\u2019m interacting with my people and my hotties, I want them to feel like \u2014 when they had that experience with Megan \u2014 it don\u2019t matter if they were having a bad day, because once they met me, their day was better,\u201d she says. \u201cThey might have felt some type of relief.\u201d<\/p>\nBut Megan is a human being. She also has bad days. It\u2019s not always easy to provide consistent, unshakeable, reliable good\u00a0feelings \u2014 which is why it\u2019s helpful to define the difference between Megan Thee Stallion (reliably fan-oriented) and Megan Pete (a human who\u2019s permitted a fuller range\u00a0of emotions).<\/p>\n
So how do you turn your full, complex self into a simplified, predictable character?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a shortcut: Think of your character as a brand, and start by defining its brand attributes. If you\u2019ve built an actual<\/em> brand, then you\u2019ve already gone through this process \u2014 shaping your brand\u2019s attitude and voice, and how your brand speaks and engages with people. These become the guidelines for your brand, so that everything you produce can be consistent.\u00a0<\/p>\nNow do something similar for your character: Start by picking three attributes for your character. Maybe it\u2019s optimistic, helpful<\/em>, and funny<\/em>. Or maybe it\u2019s kind, generous, <\/em>and trustworthy<\/em>. Then filter every decision, and every interaction, through those words.<\/p>\nMegan wanted her brand to deliver consistently good feelings to others. \u201cI want Megan Thee Stallion to be based off of the type of person I am,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s not me all the time, but it is the gist of what my values are.\u201d So she asked herself: Who delivered those good feelings for her<\/em>? Who could she conjure when she needs to be consistent? The answer: Her grandmother and her great-grandmother, whom she called her \u201cbig mama.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cEverybody in the neighborhood knew my big mama,\u201d Megan says. Big mama was an anchor in her Houston community \u2014 the woman always handing out snacks and cookies, or giving someone a little cash if they were in need. \u201cEverybody could walk by my big mama\u2019s house and they know they can talk for however long, and she\u2019d always be nice,\u201d Megan says. \u201cShe\u2019d tell me, \u2018It doesn\u2019t matter where anybody comes from, or what they look like, or who they are. You should always be kind, you should always be nice.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\nImage Credit: Kanya Iwana<\/em><\/p>\nSo Megan decided:<\/strong> That would define the Megan Thee Stallion brand. The core of the character is her big mama.<\/p>\nBut of course, Megan Thee Stallion isn\u2019t just<\/em> nice. She\u2019s not out there being Mister Rogers. This character has swagger. She\u2019s saucy and raunchy and the life of the party. The hit song she collaborated with Cardi B\u00a0on, \u201cWAP,\u201d stands for\u2026well, if you don\u2019t know, go look it up. And for a while, as Megan started to become famous, she realized that she was blurring the lines between herself and her character.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cI was Megan Thee Stallion all the time.\u00a0I was on<\/em> all the time. And people treated me that way,\u201d she says. \u201cLike, even people that had known me for so long in my life, they no longer treated me like the Megan that they grew up with. They started treating me like Megan Thee Stallion. And I didn\u2019t like that. I\u2019m like, This is so crazy<\/em>. You know me, so why are we sitting here and you\u2019re recording everything I do? Or why are we talking about other famous people all the time?<\/em> It was hard for me to experience.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nThis forced her to be more intentional about who she is, and with whom. Megan Thee Stallion\u2019s life is frequently transactional; she might meet dozens or hundreds of people a day, and then never see them again. Meanwhile, like many celebrities, Megan Pete\u2019s life has become increasingly private, and is rooted in deep and trusting relationships. \u201cI had to learn who\u2019s going to be long-term, and who\u2019s just the reason in the season,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Can this get confusing? Sure. But it can also be clarifying.<\/p>\n
Megan is talking about a kind of detachment \u2014 where her character is a part of her, but not all of her. Which means that her work<\/em> is also a part of her, but not all of her. We can all benefit from this separation, as we pour so much of ourselves into the things we make. \u201cI had to learn that, when I go home, I can\u2019t take my whole day with me inside of my personal life,\u201d she says. \u201cLike, whatever happened to Megan Thee Stallion today, I should not take that home to my real friends and my real relationships and my family. This is two different lives I\u2019m living.\u201d<\/p>\nImage Credit: Kanya Iwana<\/em><\/p>\nI meet Megan<\/strong> in late March in New York City. And here is how I find her: I go into the side entrance of the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Broadway, which is currently home to Moulin Rouge!<\/em>, which Megan would perform in for eight weeks. I go past security. Walk up seven narrow flights of stairs as theater staffers make jokes about it being a cardio workout, and then arrive at a row of tiny dressing rooms. Megan\u2019s is one of them, just as tiny as anyone else\u2019s. She sits on a small, cushioned bench, and I sit in a swivel chair maybe two feet away, and that\u2019s as comfortable as it gets in here. Above her, the words \u201cgrit\u201d and \u201cdetermination\u201d have been taped to the wall; she didn\u2019t put them there, but they suit her well.<\/p>\nWhen we meet, she admits to some nerves. Moulin Rouge!<\/em> was days away from opening at the time. But also, she doesn\u2019t do many interviews; she tends to speak directly to her fans instead. So just before I arrive, she\u2019d jotted down a bunch of notes on her phone \u2014 things she wants to tell me and didn\u2019t want to forget. As we talk, she holds her phone, which is wrapped in a brown case sprouting what look like bunny ears, in case she wants to reference her notes.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s clear: She knows her words carry weight. And she wants to be understood.<\/p>\n
In the beginning, she didn\u2019t set out to be an entrepreneur. She set out to be a musician \u2014 because that\u2019s her passion, and it also seemed like the path to a financially stable life. She was watching famous musicians from afar, who seemed to have everything they wanted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I started performing, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, this doesn\u2019t translate into money as well as I thought,\u2019\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Why? Ask any musician! Recording contracts are often predatory, and music rights are complicated. A musician can write a song but not own<\/em> the song, which means usage and royalties are limited. Meanwhile, a music stream earns next to nothing \u2014 and even if you get billions of them (as Megan has), it takes a long time for that money to show up. Musicians can also make money with brand partnerships, but those are transactional \u2014 here today, gone tomorrow, with no long-term benefits.<\/p>\n\u201cAs artists, we give so much to the culture. Our image and sound is used for so many things \u2014 movies, sports, radio, everything that influences the culture,\u201d Megan says. \u201cBut a lot of times you realize that you\u2019re helping so many brands grow and expand with your image and likeness and all the cool things that you do and say \u2014 but you look around one day and you\u2019re like, Dang, I don\u2019t have anything<\/em>. Like, I don\u2019t have anything to my own name. Nothing is mine.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\nBy 2019, as Megan\u2019s career was blowing up, she also felt like it was unsteady. She was surviving on fleeting things \u2014 the popularity of a song, today\u2019s ability to sell out an arena. She craved more stability, but didn\u2019t know how to find it.<\/p>\n
Then she signed with Roc Nation, the talent agency and entertainment company cofounded by Jay-Z. Megan became close with the CEO, Desiree Perez, and they had a mind-opening conversation.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe taught me that I need to own something,\u201d Megan says. \u201cShe said, \u2018You are not going to survive by making money for everybody else. You need to figure out a way to be your own boss.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Damn, you\u2019re right. I\u2019m really out here by myself. What am I going to do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Consider the irony. As Megan said earlier, she understood the difference between being seen and being understood. She knew that visibility by itself was fleeting, and that her career would only be built on deeper relationships with fans. But at the beginning, she only applied that idea to social media. Now she was discovering the much larger version of that truth: Being a famous musician, which had been her dream, was just another version of \u201cbeing seen.\u201d It was fleeting and fragile. True success would come from shifting perspective: She needed to see her goal of being a musician as simply the starting point<\/em> for an entirely different set of opportunities.<\/p>\nEvery entrepreneur should think similarly. The thing you build is not the endpoint. It\u2019s just the opening salvo, the beginning of a conversation. If you build a product and find a market fit, then you can\u2019t just sit around selling that product. Competitors will join you. Consumers might lose interest. So you instead must ask yourself: What has this product taught me about what else my consumer wants?<\/em> You build to own people\u2019s loyalty. Then you build to own your category.<\/p>\n\u201cOwnership really matters,\u201d Megan says. So she became dedicated to the concept. In 2024, at age 28, Megan became one of the youngest artists to have full ownership of any masters and publishing going forward \u2014 meaning she now controls the full rights of her new music\u2019s usage, and fully benefits from its earnings. In 2025, she launched a tequila brand called Chicas Divertidas, as well as a swimwear brand called Hot Girl Summer sold in Walmart stores nationwide. She\u2019s now expanded it into swimwear for men (Hot Boy Summer) and dogs (Hot Dog Summer). In January 2026, she opened a Popeyes franchise in Miami Beach with an exclusive combo called the Thee Megan Meal. And she has more projects and products to come, including a fragrance, an anime series, and more.<\/p>\n
I ask her: How does she decide what opportunities feel right? She surely has endless business possibilities in front of her; she could, in theory, launch anything she wants.<\/p>\n
Megan says that she\u2019s guided by two questions. The first is: Would this make her mom proud? Her mom was her first manager and her first great champion, and this thought remains Megan\u2019s guiding sense of purpose. And the second question is: Would her fans think this makes sense?<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aI feel like everything I do is already familiar. It just makes sense, because my audience knows me. They know my personal interests,\u201d she says. \u201cSo when I\u2019m doing something, they\u2019re like, \u2018Yes, this is Hot Girl Summer, she has been Hot Girl Summer \u2014 this is her brand, this is her thing \u2014 so, Hell yeah, I want a swimsuit from Megan Thee Stallion. Megan Thee Stallion is the life of the party, she likes to turn it up, so, Hell yeah, I want to taste the tequila she likes to drink. I went to Prairie View University, and everyone on campus knows we were tearing up two-piece Tuesdays at Popeyes, so it\u2019s like, Hell yeah, it makes sense that Megan Thee Stallion has her own Popeyes.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words: By opening herself up to her audience, she also primed them to feel invested in whatever she\u2019s invested in. She never has to sell to them, because her products just feel like an extension of their relationship.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Because when you are seen, you have a chance to be understood. And when you are understood, you can become larger than whatever made you seen in the first place. You can blaze a path, and people will follow you, as your goals and ambitions grow, and your staying power becomes stronger. \u201cYou have a free voice,\u201d Megan says. \u201cAs long as you stand on that, that is your brand.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rest sells itself. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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