Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Stewart.
Hi Megan, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My journey has never been a straight line, but there has always been a common thread: I love building things that create opportunities, experiences, and community for other people.
I originally grew up in Seattle, Washington, and moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 2017. Professionally, I spent many years in corporate America, including eight years at Capital One, where I worked as an Executive Assistant supporting senior leaders. That experience strengthened my skills in operations, project management, problem-solving, relationship building, and, perhaps most importantly, learning how to take a vision and turn it into something executable.
But entrepreneurship and community impact have always been part of who I am. In 2012, I founded the PCOS Awareness Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advocacy, education, support, and awareness for people affected by PCOS, now recognized as PMOS – Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome.
Over the years, I also explored several entrepreneurial ventures, each of which taught me something different about business, customers, marketing, and what it really takes to build a brand. Eventually, those experiences came together in one of my biggest ventures: REIGN The Venue.
REIGN was created because I saw an opportunity in Fredericksburg for a modern, versatile event space where people could gather for everything from weddings and milestone celebrations to corporate meetings, nonprofit events, networking experiences, and community programming. I wanted to create more than four walls that people could rent. I wanted to create a space where people felt welcomed, where businesses could connect, families could celebrate, organizations could make an impact, and memories could be made.
REIGN officially opened in January 2024, and the response reinforced that there was a genuine need for what we were creating. Today, REIGN continues to evolve as we look for new ways to serve our clients, support our community, expand our offerings, and create sustainable revenue streams. Community engagement has been part of the vision for REIGN from the beginning, not something added after the fact.
My entrepreneurial journey has continued to expand beyond REIGN as well. My partners and I own Serenity Salon Suites and Podcast Studio, along with BLKThrottleCo and Blackstone Coffees.
I am still very much in the middle of my story. I don’t consider where I am today the destination. Every business, nonprofit initiative, partnership, challenge, failure, and win has taught me something that I have carried into the next chapter.
Ultimately, I want the things I build to outlive me. Whether it is a business that creates jobs, a venue that becomes part of someone’s most meaningful memories, or a nonprofit that helps someone feel seen and supported, I want my work to leave people and communities better than I found them. That has become my definition of success.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. I think one of the biggest misconceptions about entrepreneurship is that once people see the finished product, they assume there was a clear path to getting there. For me, there rarely has been.
One of my biggest challenges has been learning how to build while still carrying the responsibilities of everyday life. I work a demanding corporate career while simultaneously running a nonprofit, developing businesses, managing events, and pursuing new opportunities. There are many late nights, early mornings, weekends spent working.
Funding has also been a challenge. I have learned how expensive it is to turn a great idea into an actual operating business. There are expenses customers never see—rent, renovations, equipment, furniture, technology, insurance, staffing, marketing, maintenance, and countless unexpected costs. Building a business has taught me how to be resourceful and how to make decisions when the resources available don’t always match the size of the vision.
Another struggle has been learning that as an entrepreneur, particularly in the beginning, you become the CEO, salesperson, marketer, customer service representative, bookkeeper, problem solver, and sometimes the person taking out the trash at the end of the night. Learning to build systems, trust other people, and allow a team to support the vision has been an important part of my growth.
There have also been ideas that didn’t work, investments that didn’t produce the return I expected, partnerships that weren’t the right fit, difficult customer situations, and moments when I questioned whether something was worth continuing. Entrepreneurship has required me to become comfortable with adjusting the plan without abandoning the vision.
Through all of it, I have learned that resilience isn’t always doing something extraordinary. Sometimes it is simply waking up the next morning, reassessing what happened, making the next best decision, and continuing forward.
I don’t view the difficult parts of my journey as separate from the success. They are part of it. Every challenge has made me a stronger operator, a more thoughtful leader, and a more resourceful entrepreneur. Myself and my partners encounter challenges everyday— we have just become much more confident in our ability to figure out what comes next.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
REIGN The Venue is a modern, versatile event space located in the heart of Fredericksburg, Virginia. Operated by Crowned Ventures LLC, REIGN was created to be more than a beautiful place to host an event. I wanted to build a space that could serve people in many different seasons of life and business—from weddings, birthdays, repasts, and milestone celebrations to conferences, networking events, workshops, nonprofit gatherings, corporate meetings, and community events.
What we specialize in is flexibility. I never wanted REIGN to be a venue where clients felt as though their event had to fit into our mold. Instead, we created a neutral, adaptable space that allows each client to make it their own. We can accommodate events of up to 120 guests, and many of the essentials clients would otherwise have to source separately are already available through the venue, including tables, chairs, Wi-Fi, a stage, projector, sound equipment, conference and VIP spaces, and an outdoor patio.
What truly sets REIGN apart, however, is the experience we are trying to create around the space. I believe people remember how you made them feel. Whether someone is celebrating one of the happiest moments of their life, gathering family after the loss of a loved one, hosting their first business event, or bringing a community together around a cause, that event matters to them. We want our clients to feel that it matters to us, too.
We have intentionally created offerings for different needs, including traditional event packages as well as wedding, repast, nonprofit and community options. We also understand that today’s venue needs to function for more than social celebrations. REIGN was designed with technology and amenities that allow us to support presentations, meetings, trainings, conferences, and other professional gatherings as well. That versatility has become an important part of our identity.
Community is another major part of the REIGN brand. I am a business owner, but I am also a nonprofit founder, so I understand firsthand how important accessible spaces, relationships, partnerships, and community support can be. From the beginning, community engagement has been identified as one of the keys to REIGN’s success. I want REIGN to be a business that succeeds because it is genuinely valuable to the community around it.
Brand-wise, that is probably what I am most proud of. REIGN has developed an identity that feels elevated without feeling unapproachable. The name itself represents the experience we want people to have—we want every client to feel that their occasion deserves care, attention, and a little royal treatment.
I am also proud that REIGN continues to evolve. I don’t believe in building a business and then deciding that it is finished. I constantly listen to our clients, watch how people use the space, identify gaps, and look for opportunities to improve the experience and expand what we can offer.
Ultimately, I want readers to know that when they support REIGN, they are supporting an independently owned business that genuinely cares about the people who walk through its doors. We are building something rooted in hospitality, community, entrepreneurship, and connection.
Our goal is simple: whatever brings you through our doors, we want you to leave with a memory worth keeping.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
One of the biggest shifts I see is clients moving away from cookie-cutter events. People want their wedding, birthday, corporate event, conference, or community gathering to feel like them. That means venues will need to become increasingly adaptable rather than offering one predetermined look or experience. That is one of the reasons we intentionally designed REIGN as a versatile space that can accommodate everything from corporate gatherings to weddings and social celebrations.
I also think we will continue to see a shift from simply renting a space to providing an experience. Clients increasingly value convenience. They don’t necessarily want to coordinate ten different companies just to host one event. Venues that can provide technology, furniture, décor options, vendor relationships, planning support, and other services under one roof will have an advantage. At REIGN, many of those essentials are already incorporated into what we offer, including tables, chairs, Wi-Fi, audiovisual capabilities, a stage, conference space, VIP space, and an outdoor patio.
Technology will also continue to reshape events. Even as people value in-person connection, they have become accustomed to digital convenience. I expect things like virtual venue tours, streamlined online booking, digital event management, interactive technology, hybrid experiences, and more sophisticated audiovisual capabilities to become increasingly standard rather than considered extras. Technology integration is already an area we have identified as an opportunity for REIGN’s continued growth.
I also believe there will be a growing emphasis on meaningful, intentional gatherings. Bigger doesn’t always mean better anymore. People are becoming more thoughtful about where they spend their money and are looking for experiences that create genuine connection. That creates opportunities for more intimate celebrations, networking events, workshops, nonprofit gatherings, educational experiences, and community-centered programming in addition to traditional weddings and parties.
From a business standpoint, I think successful venues will also have to become more creative about how they use their square footage. A venue that only generates revenue on Saturday nights is leaving a tremendous amount of opportunity on the table. I see the industry moving toward spaces that can transform throughout the week—perhaps hosting a corporate training in the morning, a networking event that evening, a community program another day, and a wedding over the weekend.
That is very much how I see the future of REIGN. I don’t just see us as an event rental company. I see REIGN becoming a hospitality and experiences brand that happens to have a physical space at its center.
At the same time, I think one thing will become even more valuable as technology advances: genuine human connection. People can attend meetings virtually, shop online, communicate through social media, and accomplish almost anything from a screen. But there is still something irreplaceable about gathering in the same room.
As long as people have reasons to celebrate, connect, learn, mourn, network, build relationships, and create memories together, there will be a need for spaces that bring them together. The venues that understand both the business of events and the importance of those human moments are the ones I believe will continue to evolve with the industry.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.reignthevenue.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reign_fxbg
