Hello amazing people,
Megan Fairley from Notion and Megan Fairley, on top of running Notion and Megan Fairley I do a lot of Mental Health advocate work to raise awareness to the connection between mental illness and redundancy. Why because I have struggled with mental illness in the last 3 years since my Cadburys redundancy, this is not the first time I have struggled with mental illness I also ended up depressed when I was 19 years old. There was no counselling support for a 19 year old with depression, no counselling support when I was 10 years old watching my brother in a coma for 3 months after a horrific car accident. I talk about my mental health struggles because I want to heal and I don’t want anyone else to go through what I have been through. It can be very lonely, very draining when battling with mental illness, and having constant trauma continually hitting you is hard. The bruises are not visible on the outside but the inside of my body is so scared. The opposite of depression is expression and feelings are just that feelings they do not define who we are as a person they need to come out or else they poison the mind. It’s tough enough struggling with depression but then on top of this trying to run a business and being bullied by people who are just simply threatened by your business is hard, so hard. Unless you have been through it, it is hard to understand the pain and hurt attached to being bullied on top of depression, it makes you feel so worthless like what’s the point of even being around any more. Yes our Cadburys redundancy was hard but for me what came after with building Notion Fashion was harder. I wanted more happiness in my life. I didn’t want the bullying any more, I KNOW MY WORTH and deserve more respect. So I opened up a new lane, Megan Fairley and the inspiration of owning my story “Chocolate Queen”. I am so proud to be a Chocolate Queen.
The Mental Health Thing
Doing the mental health advocate work on top of Notion and Megan Fairley took me to starting a community facebook page called @projecthope.beyond because as a Front Line leader from Cadburys I believe there should have always been a greater emphasis on educating and connection with the community and people of New Zealand on the culture and the feels inside of our Cadburys Building. Because it was such a special culture, based on 4 key values: love, laughter, respect and kindness. It is a culture our world needs so much right now. I felt a drive and a need to somehow get the story out there. In 2019 I got a very special opportunity to walk back inside the old girl, Cadburys Dunedin. She still had some old equipment like the moulding plants sitting inside her, I thought I would cry. I didn’t, instead I knew this might sound like crazy Megan but I could hear the laughter coming out of the walls inside the building, it reminded me of all the good times. I had forgotten about these good times, with the redundancy I had been thinking about the bad sh*t like reading those scripts the night before the closure announcement to my staff and hearing the staff screaming their heads off with anger as they packed the polycarbonate plastic moulds into cardboard boxes. All of this stuff f**ks you up if it is not talked about. On Sunday the 29th of November 2020 the @projecthope.beyond team walked into the old Cadbury’s building in Dunedin for the last time. We had to do something, Dunedin City to do nothing to celebrate the old girl would be so sad, the building itself never had any control over whose name ever went up inside or outside of the building. It stood over 150 years so let’s give the building some respect for providing us with a home of great memories. It’s funny how it always felt like the public was more angry and sad towards Cadburys than the actual staff who were at the end getting hurt and being put under so much incredible pressure. If you look at my site Megan Fairley you will notice I don’t support Cadburys, I don’t eat Cadburys Chocolate, my stand is simple you hurt people, disrespect them, use them I’m out!! We hustle with a heart. You go low and we go high!! So high that we took back our old home Cadburys Dunedin to raise money for two charities I Am Hope NZ and Life Matters. The fundraising started in 2019, from this Lady who was being bullied whilst trying to get her business off the ground and battling depression at the same time. It’s not just good buy to Cadburys it’s good buy to 2020, 2019 and 2018, it’s been an incredibly tough 3 years, and honestly 2020 has been one of the hardest battling through another redundancy, ongoing counselling support after this redundancy, fraud to both my partner and myself, all with no wage subsidy support or covid-19 redundancy support. I lived off nothing and yet I still stood up to run events to raise money for those struggling with mental illness. Since 2019 $7,129.46 has been raised for mental health and we will continue to push on once we have had a rest!! Remember you never know what kind of battle people have got going on in ones head, and my battle has gone much further than Cadburys Dunedin. My internal bruises come from more than just Cadburys, my bruises came from the New Zealand fashion industry as well.
Book The Chocolate Queen to Speak
I think 2021 will be the most interesting year ever. I speak, I am happy to come to your event or group and speak about my journey of battling mental illness, bullying, building a business, my mindset and how we have become so resilient to be able to get this far and what tools we added into our daily mix to keep ourselves going. I have a pretty huge story and love to tell it more importantly to help others, I don’t want others to feel lonely with their struggles, I want them to know that they are normal and they are not alone. I am not an influencer with 300k on social media I am simply Megan Fairley and I am a Chocolate Queen with a hell of a story, who has the guts to talk about the real sh*t. I can be booked at hello@meganfairley.co.nz
Thank You Chocolate Queens & Kings
Thanks to all the incredible strangers who I have met on this social journey and have been so incredibly supportive, it is so interesting to see strangers become like family and family become strangers. You are not strangers now, you are now in the Chocolate Queen & King Family.
Megan xx
Photos: Top photo fundraising on the Cadburys Carpark @projecthope.beyond. Middle photo: Mikroverk Moulding plant, 2019. Installed 1984, now gone.
Mental Health support: 1737 ring for support