Listen to The 4 Year Anniversary Episode Here:
Celebrating four years of chemical insights, Victoria Meyer takes a unique look back at what started as an ambitious idea and has now transformed into the number one business podcast in the chemical industry. Reflecting on the journey from 2021 to 2025, Victoria shares her personal and professional growth, marking pivotal shifts that have shaped both her career and the wider chemical landscape. From energy policies to digital transformation, Victoria discusses the ever-evolving dynamics of the industry and her mission to foster meaningful connections and insights through The Chemical Show.
This special anniversary episode offers listeners an engaging reintroduction to Victoria herself, diving into her background in chemical engineering, her passion for growth, and her role as an entrepreneur, media business owner, and executive coach. As she outlines the past and future of The Chemical Show, including industry trends and the strategic direction of the chemical industry at large, Victoria invites her audience to continue the journey of learning, connecting, and innovating together.
- Victoria Meyer’s background and origin story
- The evolution of The Chemical Show: 2021 to today
- Industry resilience and adaptation
- The power of community and connection
- The future of The Chemical Show
Killer Quote: “I believe that people learn from people. And that’s one of the fundamentals of The Chemical Show, that we are all going through the same stuff. And it’s really nice to know that, number one, we’re not alone. Number two, it’s how others are approaching opportunities and challenges…” – Victoria Meyer
Watch Victoria Reflect on The Chemical Show Journey Here:
Celebrating 4 Years of The Chemical Show: Victoria Meyer Shares Her Journey, Industry Insights, and What’s Next
Welcome back to The Chemical Show, where chemical means business. Thank you for joining us today. I am so excited to share with you that drum roll…… This is our four year anniversary episode. Four years, and what a journey it has been. So first of all, thank you. Thank you for joining us along the way. Thank you for being a loyal listener, for being a new listener. Thank you for being an early listener, for sharing it with a friend, with a colleague, and more.
Subscribe To The Chemical Show On Your Favorite Platform
Since starting The Chemical Show in 2021, it has really changed the game, and it has changed my business. It’s changed my relationship with people across the industry. I think and I hope that it has really made a difference for you, for others in the industry, for companies, for leaders, and more. So thank you. As part of our four year anniversary, I really wanna take this opportunity to do several things. Number one, reintroduce myself. People are like, how often do you have an introduction call or introduction podcast? I’m like, not very often. So I’m gonna use part of the time today to share a bit more about myself. As you know, if you’re a loyal listener of The Chemical Show you know I always start with origin story, and I’m gonna start with my origin story and what got me here.
It’s gonna be a bit of a “then and now” reflection on the chemical industry and where we were four years ago versus where we are today. Those are very different places and yet also very similar. The word I wanna plant in your mind is resilience because we talked a lot about resilience in 2021 when we launched the podcast, and we are talking a lot about resilience today in 2025.
Then thirdly, I wanna share with you just more about The Chemical Show, where we are, and where we are growing to be. Because, as I said, this journey that started four years ago, well it started probably before then, but the podcast has been an inflection point for myself, for my business, and for you, I hope. So once again, thank you, and let’s get going.
So first of all, I’m gonna start with a bit about myself. If you guys are familiar with the Jay-Z song, public service announcement allow me to reintroduce myself. Well, I’m gonna reintroduce myself to you. So, who am I? Victoria King Meyer. I am today the host and the founder of The Chemical Show, The Chemical Summit, and an executive advisor and coach across the chemical industry. Where I started my journey, though, was where a lot of people in the industry started. Right? So I’m a chemical engineer by training with an MBA. I pursued a career in the chemical industry and in chemical engineering much like many other students and many of my guests who were like, well, I was good at math and science. I like problem solving. And that led me to be encouraged to study engineering.
I grew up on a farm in Northern Illinois. In fact, you guys who are watching this on YouTube or seeing clips may notice, hey, that looks like a different recording environment. It is. I’m actually at a podcasting conference in Chicago and recording this episode. Where I’m sitting today is not far from where I went to university. So I went to Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago to study chemical engineering, and it’s not far from where I grew up in a small town outside of Chicago. I grew up on a farm where you really learn these skills of problem solving and hard work. I spent my summers bailing hay and milking cows and doing all those farm kid things, before I went off to college in Chicago at IIT, as I mentioned, and started a career in the chemical industry.
So everything from project engineering to manufacturing at companies including Amoco, back when there was an Amoco. Most of it’s now INEOS as you guys know, and LyondellBasell or predecessor company to that. After that I took a pause and went and did an MBA at the Kellogg School at Northwestern University because part of my story is, I always knew I was starting in engineering and then moving into management, whatever that meant at the time.
My post MBA career took me to Houston where I joined Shell, and I spent a big part of my career inside of Shell Chemicals doing everything from strategy to M&A, selling businesses, buying businesses, running businesses, turning around businesses, and finally starting businesses. So part of my story and where you see my focus when I talk to certain people across the industry or attend certain events is a big part of my time at Shell. I was global marketing manager for the alcohols and ethoxylates, so the surfactant space, soapy stuff. That’s where I got really well versed and well known and understanding of ACI and its members’ companies. So it’s one of my go-to places. I love it. It’s like going back home and convening with people across the surfactants business.
I also spent a lot of time in polyethylene, including early in my career in manufacturing and then later starting up Shell’s polyethylene business, which as people might have heard me say, it took thirteen years to start up. I wasn’t there the whole time. Went from Shell to Clariant and then left Clariant in 2017 and kicked the tires on a few things and said, I can do more value outside of companies than inside of companies. That’s where I started Progressio Global and my consulting business, working on strategy and growth, helping companies in and adjacent to the chemical industry grow their businesses, implement strategies more effectively with their employees and with their customers. For me personally, it’s always been about growth and people, people both inside the company and outside the company in creating that customer focus.
Along the way, and when you are a consultant and a professional service provider, people say, oh, you should build authority. Well, one of the ways to build authority, as they say, to become known is through podcasting. I had fallen in love with the medium of podcasting. And in 2021, decided to launch The Chemical Show podcast. Some of you guys have heard this story. I was actually on a goal setting retreat with my husband in November 2020 and out for a walk and had been thinking about this, wanting to start a podcast, not sure what it was gonna be about. And this moment of clarity came, it’s The Chemical Show. Keep it simple.
Went back to our hotel room, bought the website right away. It was available. Spoke to one of my business coaches a couple days later who said, would you like me to introduce you to my podcast company that I work with that can help you launch your podcast? I said, yes, and the rest is history. I’m gonna get into a little bit more about The Chemical Show and the business and what that is.
But really coming back to me, and this is part of my reintroduction of introducing you to Victoria and what gets me going and why I do what I do. I love to engage with people. You guys can see this. I believe that people learn from people. That’s one of the fundamentals of The Chemical Show, that we are all going through the same stuff. And it’s really nice to know that, number one, we’re not alone. Number two, it’s how others are approaching opportunities and challenges, and that ties into what we’re doing on The Chemical Show. It ties into what we do with The Chemical Summit, which I can explain more about in a little bit, and also some of the mastermind groups that I’ve launched, including The Chemical Executive Mastermind. So if you don’t know about that, stay tuned. You’re gonna be hearing more, not just on The Chemical Show, but as we go out in our email campaigns and and outreach, etcetera.
I started as a chemical engineer, dipping my toes into the chemical industry. And today, what I would tell you is, fundamentally I’m an entrepreneur. I’m a media business owner. I’m a coach, and I’m a public speaker, and those are the things that I love to do. My core values, and these are the things that come through in The Chemical Show, in The Chemical Summit, in my coaching and speaking, and the other things I do is number one, connections. I love building connections, connecting people with each other, helping make those connections.
Number two, insights. This idea again that we can all learn from each other. And for me, a big part of my DNA is continuous learning. As I mentioned earlier, I’m at a podcasting conference and I talked to somebody, they’re like, why are you here? I’m like, to become better. To become better for myself, for you, my listeners, and the chemical community as well as inside The Chemical Show, and to become better with that in my business and more. And then three is growth, and I’m very growth-oriented. Everything I have done along the way really is about growing businesses, growing people, and achieving growth. So that’s me.
I had this question recently, so I ran into somebody and it ended up in Slack. Victoria, what do you do? Like, what’s really what you do? And so what I would tell you is when I started The Chemical Show, this actually has marked a pivot for me. I do very little consulting today. Like, are you still consulting? A little bit. I do advisory work there. So what I would say is number one, I have a media business, The Chemical Show, that also has an extended network beyond that, and there will be some additional podcasts coming, so stay tuned. And with this media business, I collaborate and consult with companies and leaders on how to make an impact through new media.
So you guys have heard some of the sponsorship ads and messages throughout. I talked to companies that are gonna have guests on The Chemical Show about how do we make a more effective story for them, for you, and to create that impact. So that’s number one.
Number two, I host an event, The Chemical Summit. So if you do not know about The Chemical Summit, I’m just gonna tell you that is a place that you need to be. This is the third year for The Chemical Summit. It is held on September 30th and October 1st in Houston, Texas. It is a small conference, and I really mean it is small, 150 people. And it is about connecting leaders together. So we have stories on the stage and speakers on stage, but more importantly, building connections in the audience amongst attendees who are talking about, what just happened up there? Do you believe that? How are you guys approaching that? Because once again, I believe people learn from people, and we are all in this together.
The third piece of my business portfolio is executive coaching. I do one on one coaching with executives and an exclusive executive mastermind, The Chemical Executive Mastermind, which is a twelve month small group program where we’re bringing in leadership learnings as well as creating a peer group advisory ecosystem to help leaders become better leaders. One of the things that became really apparent to me when I moved from big corporate Shell to Clariant and then to working with small companies is, all too often, leaders are alone. Right? We kinda forget that there are other people doing the same thing, learning from each other, and more and so back to this people learning from people and helping people grow. The Chemical Executive Mastermind is that third part of that ecosystem.
The fourth is strategic advisory work. So I haven’t fully left corporate behind, and it’s really much more focused on helping start ups move into commercialization, helping companies and leaders in transition, and really applying my network, the knowledge that I’ve built through The Chemical Show, the community, and more. And then the fifth thing is professional speaking, whether at corporate events, at conferences, coming in and engaging, sharing insights, wisdom, knowledge, helping you grow, helping your businesses become more. So, that’s it for the reintroduction part.
That’s kind of the part one of this. And, if any of that resonated with you, send me an email. Let me know. If you have any questions, let me know. Happy to answer those for you.
Now, my podcast journey. We’re gonna look back on The Chemical Show. You guys might remember episode number one, April of 2021, and my first guest was Brad Beauchamp, who is the CEO of Carpenter Company. I reached out to Brad. He was one of the first guys I went out to and said, hey. Would you be willing to do this podcast with me?
And he said, yes. And by the way, we did our interview, and he promptly introduced me to a dozen people, many of whom were also on that first year of the podcast. So I owe big kudos and big thanks to Brad for being the number one guest and helping launch and grow The Chemical Show. Brad, if you’re listening, thank you. Today’s episode is episode number 210. Awesome. Hard to imagine when we I just began, that I would get to this 210.
I’m proud to say that we are the number one business podcast in the chemical industry. We were recently recognized by Plastics News as a 2025 social media account to follow. And, I’m really excited that people reach out to me, approach me, talk to me at conferences and elsewhere and say, hey, you are doing a great job. I can’t believe it’s you. I love your podcast. I loved this episode, or I like this. You know, people tell me different things. One person said, I love the origin stories.
You know what? Me too. I love, you know, this aspect of when you talk to this leader. Me too. The reality is I have a great job, and a great business. Frankly, I think it’s a real privilege to be able to speak with leaders, have great conversations, ask them questions that maybe you would like to ask, get to know them better, and get to share their stories. That is really just a huge blessing to me. Here’s another question that people ask me sometimes. Who’s your favorite guest? I would say, I don’t have a favorite guest.
You are all my favorites. And, you know, I will tell you every episode, every guest brings different aspects of value and fun and, wow, that was cool. I can’t believe they did that. I can’t believe they said that. I’m so appreciative of what they’re going through. What I really enjoy, and this is true of people across the chemical industry, and you know this, is I get to talk to smart people with interesting topics every day or every week, and that’s really great. How do I find guests? So that’s always a good question too. Recommendations and referrals.
So people will reach out and say, I really suggest that you talk to this person. I’m like, great, make an introduction. Companies reach out to me and say, we’d like to be on the podcast. I’d like to have a guest on the podcast. And I say, great. Let’s talk about what that is and how that fits. Or we reach out and find people. So wide variety of ways. A lot of referrals, because as you guys know, a warm referral is better than a cold call any day.
So let’s talk a little bit about the then and now. I wanna just switch and pivot to that piece of the podcast episode. So when I started The Chemical Show in April of 2021, and you think about where the chemical industry was then.
We were one year into the COVID pandemic. In some ways, maybe it was a bit of the heydays. Right? So business felt pretty good in many parts of it. There was a lot of demand. Conversations were dominated by supply chain. Right? Both the whipsaw of plants, of consumer behaviors, of work from home, which change consumer behaviors and just the dynamics going on then. I went back looked and I’d done an episode, I’ll link to it in the show notes, of the top 10 events from 2021.
When we started the podcast, it was event and supply chain dominated. Really about the physical changes in the industry. So first of all, energy and energy policy. The US Gulf Coast had faced winter storm, Yuri, in February of 2021. Do you guys remember that when the power grid went down in a heartbeat, and chemical plants went down in a heartbeat, and things froze up, caused tremendous damage, caused a lot of supply chain disruptions, and really changed the game of what was going on at that point in time?
Number two is China energy policy and rolling blackouts. So it was proceeding the Winter Olympics. And number three was UK natural gas and energy pot shortages. The weather, Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana. So more weather related stuff. Labor shortages and issues and supply chain. Back in 2021, it was all about the physical changes going on in the industry. Plants, weather, energy, supply chain, and more.
Fast forward, April 2025. Here we are finishing up four years of The Chemical Show, entering year five. This time, it’s all about the policies. Some of the topics are the same, but we’re all about the policies. Number one, new administration. You guys know all about that both in The US and elsewhere, setting new policies. So geopolitics and trade policies related to the Russia-Ukraine war, which has happened in the last couple of years, Middle East and the challenges and the conflicts that are there and kinda China and everyone.
We are seeing tremendous oversupply and industry rationalization in a way that we didn’t anticipate. So you will hear in an upcoming episode when I talk to Kendall Justiniano, next week it’s gonna get published. We talked about just some of the rationalization that’s going on in the industry. The fact that we have entered a deep trough, one that we’ve not really seen for twenty years. And so this is playing a big effect on the industry. And then, the third piece is in 2021, we talked a lot about sustainability. 2025, we are talking about sustainability again. And it’s about getting real and figuring out where the impact is still really important. The goals are there, and there’s a continued focus.
But it’s really much more about being measured, being resilient, and making things happen. And then, of course, we are on this journey in the 2020s of digitization. Heck, we’ve been on this journey for more than the 2020s. I started doing digitization when we called it E-business, back in the 2000s. Right? So here we are 2025 with chemical companies still trying to figure this out. Much more about AI and harnessing AI and augmentation. The world is a different place, and yet some of the fundamentals are still the same. Supply chain, sustainability, resilience, and a continued recognition that the chemical industry is a key critical driver for much of what’s happening in the world.
So where are we going? Let me just direct you to Episode 180 where I recorded six trends influencing the chemical industry in 2024 and 2025. I think that’s a great episode to look back at. I will also link to the most recent episode featuring Kurt Barrows and Tony Potter from S&P Global that talked about the 2025 chemical industry outlook because, again, I think that is a great topic for us to get focused on here on our four year anniversary and as we go forward. So what’s next? The Chemical Show is going to continue to grow. We’re gonna continue to do more live events. So LinkedIn live, other live events to get you more engaged, or to keep you engaged.
We’re going to be continuing to bring great leaders and guests and stories to The Chemical Show audience to you. And then the third piece is that I think we’re gonna be starting to make this a little bit more personal. So often we bring in that perspective from leaders about where it’s at, but I really think back to this idea that The Chemical Show and the community that we’ve built is about people connecting with people, sharing stories, understanding that we are all in this together, and we are journeying on this current path to success. So, stay tuned.
Thank you. Thank you for joining me on this journey. Happy four year anniversary. As this gets published, we may be adding in a few messages around some special promos we have, but, you know, here we are. Once again, thank you for joining me today. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being on a four year journey of The Chemical Show, and keep listening, keep following, keep sharing, and we will talk with you again soon.