Building Something That Lasts

As Meggan prepares to turn 43, life doesn’t feel settled so much as full.

With four children—14, 7, 5, and 2, with Milo turning 3 next month—and a business that has been part of her world for over a decade, her days are full in a way that doesn’t separate neatly. Everything overlaps. Home, work, responsibility, growth. It all exists at the same time, constantly asking her to shift where she’s needed most.

BEAST Craft BBQ, the restaurant she and her husband David opened in 2014, is part of that story. But it is only one part. What defines Meggan’s path is not just what they built, but how she grew into the roles that came with it.

✨When Adulthood Took Shape✨

For Meggan, adulthood didn’t begin with marriage, and it didn’t begin with motherhood.

When she had her first child at 28, her experience didn’t immediately match the version of motherhood she had imagined. There was love, of course, but there was also something lighter about it. Her relationship with her first child felt more like companionship in those early years—like having a constant sidekick beside her as she moved through life.

“She was my child, but she was also kind of like my friend… my buddy.”

It wasn’t that the responsibility wasn’t there.

It just hadn’t fully settled in yet.

That understanding came later—gradually, and then all at once—as more was added to her life.

Up until opening the restaurant, she had been doing all the things that look like adulthood from the outside—working, building a life, raising her first child. But creating the restaurant shifted something internally. The responsibility was no longer contained to her own life. It extended outward—to employees, to customers, to something that depended on her ability to show up, whether she felt ready or not.

They didn’t have the luxury of hesitation.

The opportunity came together quickly—a space, a conversation, a decision. Somewhere along the way, Meggan found a smoker on Facebook Marketplace, and what had been undefined suddenly had direction.

They invested what they had. Did the work themselves. Opened before they felt fully prepared.

“We weren’t ready to open, but we had to.”

It wasn’t positioned as a grand moment.

It was simple.

Let’s do it.

And they did.

What they had wasn’t certain. It was an opportunity, and the willingness to move on it.

✨Building the Business, Finding Her Role✨

As BEAST Craft BBQ grew, so did the expectations around it.

A turning point came when a widely talked-about RiverFront Times article brought a surge of attention, pushing the restaurant into a new level of visibility.

“That’s when it was like… okay, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

What started as a single restaurant in Belleville quickly became something that required more time, more energy, and more of both of them than they could have anticipated. In the early days, there was no separation between life and work. It was all intertwined—long hours, constant problem-solving, and the kind of pressure that forces you to figure things out as you go.

As BEAST Craft BBQ grew, so did the scope of what they were building. The restaurant gained traction, and with that came new opportunities—along with new challenges. They expanded into additional spaces, including locations connected to St. Louis City SC and Washington University, finding ways to grow the brand beyond a single storefront.

There was also the expansion into The Grove—an ambitious move that reflected both confidence and momentum at the time. But like many decisions in business, it came with lessons that only become clear in hindsight.

“We learned a lot… probably more than we expected to.”

When COVID hit, it forced decisions they hadn’t planned on making so soon. Stepping away from that location wasn’t easy, but it became part of the larger reality of owning something that doesn’t always move in a straight line.

Those experiences didn’t stop them—but they changed them.

They became more aware, more intentional, and more focused on how to build something that could last beyond constant effort.

But while the business expanded outward, Meggan found her place behind the scenes.

Meggan’s role in all of this has never been defined by visibility.

She is not the one in front of the camera. Not the one most people immediately associate with the business. But her presence is embedded in ways that are just as important.

She understands how things should feel—how a brand connects, how it’s experienced, how it extends beyond what’s right in front of someone. From packaging ideas for their sauces to thinking through how the business shows up in the community, her perspective shapes the parts of the business people don’t always see.

“I don’t like to be front and center… but I do like knowing I have a part in what’s going on.”

She is not drawn to the spotlight, but understands exactly what it takes to build something people remember. She admits, “David is the brand.” A role she is passionate about supporting.

Over time, she has begun to recognize that what she brings—structure, creativity, and the ability to see both the details and the bigger picture—is not secondary.

It is foundational.

BEAST Craft BBQ was never just about the food.

It was about what they were creating around it—something that brought people together, something that felt consistent, something people returned to not just for a meal, but for the experience of it.

At its core, it is a partnership.

David brings the culinary vision, the systems, the discipline of the kitchen. Meggan brings the structure behind the scenes—the branding, the presentation, the way the business connects beyond what’s on the plate.

Neither works the same without the other.

✨Clarity, Diagnosis, and a Shift Forward✨

Motherhood, too, continued to evolve.

Seven years passed between her first and second child, with the business growing rapidly in between. Then came more children, closer together, each adding a new layer to a life that was already full.

By the time she had her fourth, just days before turning 40, everything had shifted.

Motherhood no longer felt like companionship. It required structure, presence, and constant decision-making. There was less space to ease into things and more need to simply show up and handle what was in front of her.

And then came a period that tested everything at once.

COVID reshaped daily life. School moved into the home. She began to recognize that her daughter needed more support than she had previously realized. At the same time, the business required attention in entirely new ways.

There were stretches where something had to give.

And for Meggan, that meant stepping back from the business—not because she wanted to, but because her family needed her to.

Those years weren’t about moving forward.

They were about holding everything together.

At 40, Meggan received an ADHD diagnosis—something that, in hindsight, made sense of much of what she had experienced for years.

“For the first time, my brain wasn’t going in ten different directions.”

What had once felt like constant mental noise began to settle. The ability to focus, to organize thoughts, to follow through in a more structured way—it all shifted.

It didn’t change who she was.

But it changed how she moved through her life.

And in many ways, it marked the beginning of a new level of clarity.

Now, at 42, she is stepping back into the business with a different perspective.

Not from the beginning, but from experience.

Her role is becoming more defined—moving into operations, organization, and the kind of behind-the-scenes structure that allows everything else to function more smoothly. At the same time, she and David are making decisions not just about growth, but about sustainability.

The goal is no longer just to build something successful.

It’s to build something that doesn’t require everything from them all the time.

Working on the business, not just in it.

That shift has extended beyond the business as well. For the first time in years, there is space to focus on their health, their routines, and the life they are creating outside of what they’ve built.

It is not about doing more.

It is about doing things differently.

Meggan reflects that earlier in life, there’s a tendency to look outward—to measure, to compare, to wonder if you’re doing enough or doing it the right way. Over time, that noise quiets.

When asked what she would tell her younger self, her answer is simple, but it carries weight.

Make time for the things you want to try.

Not later. Not when everything settles down.

Now.

Because the things that continue to pull at you—the ideas, the interests, the curiosity—don’t go away. They wait. And too often, they get pushed aside in favor of what feels more urgent.

“There’s more opportunities out there than you think.”
“If you’re going to do it, do it…”

✨GlowInto Reflection✨

Meggan’s story reflects something seen across many of the women of GlowInto.

There is rarely a single defining moment where everything becomes clear. More often, it’s a series of decisions made in real time—stepping into responsibility before feeling fully ready, building alongside a partner, adjusting when life shifts unexpectedly, and continuing forward without a perfect plan.

The paths are different, but the pattern is familiar.

Because sometimes, the most meaningful parts of a life aren’t the ones that draw attention first.

They are the ones that quietly hold everything else together—steady, dependable, and essential in ways that don’t always get named, but are always felt.