[00:01:11] Ladies, you’re in for a fascinating episode. Welcome, Kate.

[00:01:15] Hi. Thanks so much for having me.

[00:01:18] Nice to have you. So if you could tell us a bit about your background and sort of what led you to create your own product business.

[00:01:27] Sure. So as you said, I’ve been in physiotherapy for 15 years. I studied in Australia at the University of Queensland. For the most part, I am a I’ve been a sports physiotherapist for the duration of that. And pelvic physio is something that I’ve been into for the last about two years after the birth of my two kids. I became interested in it and then took the plunge to sort of change up my career and head down a different angle, if you will, to physiotherapy.

And so I was fully certified a year and a half ago, and then as I have gotten into it, I recognised that a lot of my sports practices and my approaches to that therapy could lend itself to pelvic because I don’t look at it as much of a difference. I very much view how I would treat an ankle or a knee very similarly to how I would treat a vagina. Because ultimately our bodies are made up of bones, muscles, soft tissue, ligaments, and that’s all that’s going on in our vaginas as pelvic floor muscles and ligaments and bones.

So we need to apply the same approaches. And then the product business came with one of those like funny thing was where I saw a sex toy, looked at it, and thought, that’s kind of like a myofascial tool. If we just change the curve and put it in surgical grade stainless steel, it would be like any myofascial tool I use in sports practice.

[00:03:10] So that was sort of the idea. And then I had brunch with my best friend and she had just started dating an industrial designer. And she was like, well, just tell him you can make it for you. And that’s how it started.

[00:04:07] How did you think about having something like a device?

[00:04:13] Right. So my son was born six years ago and we set records at the hospital with him because he was 11 pounds, 5 ounces. And I had read about perineal massage n books. And it was sort of advised for me to do it. But by the time I got to my eighth month, I could barely reach there to wipe. So it was difficult. I really didn’t know what I was doing. I also had no idea about pelvic physio six years ago and I am a physio. So the other thing that it says in these books is like, oh, if you don’t know how to do it, just have your partner do it. And that I mean, absolutely.

Congratulations to the couples who feel comfortable for that to happen. But I don’t know how much I would trust my husband to massage my shoulders, let alone my vagina. So when I saw this sort of sex toy, I thought, well, that would be so much easier to do the perineal massage. If I just had a little bit more reach, I could angle and leverage the pelvic wand to be able to get to those muscles and do it effectively.

So I basically I ordered the sex toy to see what that looked like and I realized why it wasn’t going to do the job because of the curve on it. And I mean, I tried to use it for that and I realized where it had its limitations and then realized I just needed to change the curve and and figure out how to do that.

[00:05:58] Oh, wow. So if we could take a step back, then you actually didn’t know that there was an issue, really, and you were a physiotherapist. You didn’t know that this issue existed, correct?

[00:06:11] Not six years ago. No. But as when I got into pelvic, I you know, I’m teaching women how to do perineal massage. That’s something that duals and midwives and OBGYNs now even recommending.

[00:06:29] And we use sort of a technique called the peace sign release, which is sort of just where you’re applying pressure is in those three spots and that women sort of look at me when I tell them to do this. And the one thing that overwhelmed me with telling women to do it is they would look at their nails. And women have like these lovely manicured nails. And they all would just look at their nails like, I’m going to, like, scratch myself.

And so then I was like, OK, could you get a glove and do it? But then we’re still trying to figure out how we get around this bump that’s in front of us to get down there. So I I just thought, you know, we need to have something to make this more effective, because I think that it is it will definitely change and mitigate the risk of potentially having an epesiotomy or tears. So we recommend it. We just need to make it easier, right?

[00:07:38] Yeah. So I think that like a lot of people don’t realise that this is an issue for like- for how many women do you think this is an issue?

[00:07:48] Well, I think that all women, as soon as we get pregnant, we start mitigating risk. Right. That’s really our first responsibility as a mom is, you know, we we stop drinking coffee, we stop drinking alcohol. Maybe we’re not having sushi. Maybe we’re not having pasteurized cheeses. But there’s all small risks. So we know that every woman who’s about to give birth has the potential of tearing or having the risk of an epesiotomy for that baby had to come out the whole size of a lemon.

Right. So. So it’s it’s any woman who is pregnant has some risk. And how do we mitigate that risk? How do we prep those pelvic floor muscles for having a baby exit through them? So, you know, perineal massage is the practice that we recommend to mitigate that risk. What can we do to make it more effective?

[00:08:44] Great. And I know you have a quiz on your site, your Web site, and it just talks about, you know, how do you know if you have an issue and that you would need this product? And there were a lot of conditions there. And I thought, oh, most women must have it.

[00:09:00] Most women must have this issue if they’ve given birth. So things like, you know, incontinence. Nobody wants to talk about it. But I think it’s really important that we prevent it and I don’t think a lot of women know that they can work with it and go to a physiotherapist for it.

[00:09:31] Right. Right. Yeah. I mean, four years ago, I had my second child and I still didn’t know about pelvic physio. So that was only four years ago. And that’s pretty unbelievable. So I do think that there is an upward trend.

[00:09:47] You know, bless Instagram for, you know, getting the message out. I think that there are tremendous accounts that are doing so much for the education to destigmatize this area and have women aware that you may have a lot of symptoms that are common. But sort of the phrase as they are common, they’re not normal.

So let’s not normalize that because you’ve had a child, you know, like it’s just obvious that you probably pee a little when you sneeze. You know, you might. That is a common symptom, but it doesn’t have to be normal. So how do we change that?

[00:10:22] Correct. Right. So tell us about your product. Why is it different? Like, why do you think it’s different than any other product out there?

[00:10:32] It’s a pelvic wand. There are other pelvic wands out on the market. Ours is casted in surgical grade stainless steel, which is sort of the premium grade of steel that you can have, especially for internal. And the benefit of that is that you can warm it up. And especially when we are trying to relax muscles, we think about, you know, soothing baths and hot packs and things like that.

So being able to warm up that tool is just really soothing, comforting. And women can really kind of get into a state of relaxation when they’re doing it, which is always going to promote a muscle, just sort of let go a little bit. The second reason that ours is beneficial is that you can warm it up, you can cool it down.

So when we start thinking about postpartum, when all of our pelvic muscles are swollen and sore instead of we’re always going to use that sort of frozen maxi pad for those first six weeks or so, because we really can’t insert anything. You’ll be advised by your doctor, a birth provider. But after that six weeks, I’ve noticed that women are still swollen and sore.

And if you cool it off, maybe under just cool water, you may have to sort of build up to what cold you can take. And you can insert that. And it’s this soothing, cool internal cold pack for women, which I would have like put ice cubes up there if I was allowed.

[00:12:11] Absolutely. Yes.

[00:12:13] So. And then it’s just it’s beautifully ergonomically designed. There are two different size ends. And, you know, if it’s just for general release, then you might be using our smaller end if you are preparing for birth, you want to use or you want to work up to using that wider end because you got to get to the size of a baby’s head. So, you know, get some stretch on those muscles with the wider ones.

[00:12:41] Oh, interesting. And do people actually know how to use – does it come with instructions or something like that?

[00:12:48] So we definitely have instructions up on our website. And then right now we’re in the process of working on a webinar that basically will be sent out to women as soon as the product is purchased, they’ll get more of a much more basically almost me in the room explaining how they would use it. I’d walk them through that. So, yes, that’s in the works. We’re hoping to get that done in the next month.

[00:13:13] Awesome. And so it’s on the market right now. Correct?

[00:13:16] It is. Yeah. And it just started to sell a week and a bit ago.

[00:13:21] Awesome. Have you had any feedback so far?

[00:13:24] Yeah. Before we launched we sent about 12 samples out to very influential and experts in the field. So it was sent to a couple of OBGYNs. It was sent to a team of pelvic physios throughout North America. And then there was a couple of more fitness experts who work in the pre and post-natal sort of field.

So they all received one and everyone has been overwhelmingly positive. I have been really, really happy with the response. So that’s really exciting. But know professionals are like, this is great. This is this is this is needed.

So it’s really transferring like all of the business development and all of the testing and prototypes. I feel good that we got it right. And now it’s really just about brand exposure.

[00:14:26] So that’s so cool. And going back to how did you develop the product? You said you came across a product designer.

[00:14:35] Yes. So my best friend’s boyfriend is an industrial designer. And I sent him an email and said, hey, this is going to maybe be a little weird, but I want to take this and make it into this. And he was super professional and was asking me like almost very filtered professional questions to, you know, get to what we’re exactly doing.

And then him and his business partner are two men. So I had to sort of overcome a couple of hurdles, explain them. And the first thing they did was basically mock up a couple of different designs. And then what they did was they cut those figures out of cardboard. And I have to say, you know, it was almost laughable the sizes that they came up with, because I actually hadn’t specified length or width or things like that. And so they showed me a couple of mock-ups, just like cardboard cut-outs.

And they were huge. I was like, where do you think this is going? So. So that was a little bit. But then we got into a couple of measurements. I was like, OK, guys, this is like this is as big as it needs to be. And and then it was changing different angles, different curves. How deep one curve would be, because you really have to get the curve right so that the leverage is achieved without it pushing up against the top part of your vagina. And the top part of your vagina is your urethra, which is where you pee. And that can be very uncomfortable to sort of to touch.

Right. So we got it wrong many times that the angle was not right. And I was like, nope, this isn’t going to work. So the cool thing that they kept doing is once we settled on a couple of designs, we 3D printed it. And then that was kind of the other interesting conversation with two men. They were like, you know, we’re unsure of the material that they’re using, they 3-D print this and you know where it’s going to go and how smooth does this need to be? Because the 3-D printer is a bit rough when it prints it out. And I was like, guys, it’s cool. We’re just gonna throw a condom on it. And then it’s good.

And they’re like, oh, yeah. OK. Right. Yeah. That’s a good protector. Yeah. OK. So. So then we just kept 3-D printing and trying them on myself on some very good friends. Yeah. You got to convince or close your close, close girlfriends to be like I need you to try something. So I have good friends and I really appreciate them. So they tried it. And my my very good friend, I was trying to explain to her what to do. And at one point she just got frustrated and she’s like, just do it for me. I think we’re at that point, I think to do it. I don’t care. I was in the room.

[00:18:02] Oh, you’re a physiotherapist that’s ok.

[00:18:03] Yes, I am. I am. But, you know, like, there is a reason why you shouldn’t treat friends and family. I know. But I was like, just you know, you’re trying to move it to the left and just push down here. And she finally was like, just do it for me. Just do it. I don’t care. Just go.

[00:18:20] What a good friend.

[00:18:21] So. Yeah, exactly. So. And then we got to the end and it was it came down to between two designs. And it was really just letting friends, family trial both. And let me know which one is easier to use. Which one effectively gives you the stretch that should feel like this but you still feel like it’s easy in your hand to use and leverage. And you know that we flipped both ends and made sure that that worked.

[00:18:54] And it was almost unanimous which which one they liked better. So then we went to getting that casted in the steel. And then we started testing with the different temperatures and making sure that all worked and everything else. And then there was one extra prototype, but that’s the one. And then it was moving forward to start getting the first production run made.

[00:19:22] So nice. And how did you find the manufacturer and do all that?

[00:19:27] So that was my. That was the industrial designers. They use a lot of manufacturers in China. And we made the decision to go to China versus locally. The main reason is that the device is casted in surgical grade stainless steel, which I mean, price point is not a big difference between here and there, but where it comes down to huge differences, each individual curve is hand polished so that it just has that mirror finish. So it really kind of looks like that Tiffany’s pelvic wand.

[00:20:04] And because it is hand polished, that’s where it is, what it is. Labour rates are cheaper.

[00:20:12] So it was a manufacturer that we went through. There was about six that bid on our project and we went through who was ISO certified, who, you know, was reliable on a timeline, who could ship it. It was a cost issue.

[00:20:31] It was also, you know, there’s a couple of places that bid, but that casting wasn’t necessarily their thing. It wasn’t their specialty. So we went with a manufacturer that it was their specialty. They met all of our ISO certifications. They gave us certificates of conformity, which just means that the stainless steel they say it is it is right.

Which is sort of that extra reassurance that the the metal we’re getting is the highest quality. So each batch that we do is also serial numbered so that we know exactly when it was made and which steel was used based on that certificate.

[00:21:16] So there’s a couple of safeguards to make sure the quality is there each time.

[00:21:22] And going back to the the stainless steel shine polish, does it have to be that way or just aesthetically you wanted it to look polished?

[00:21:32] Well, we want it to be the smoothest, most luxurious feel that it could have because of where it’s going.

[00:21:43] So, you know, lubricant, we always are going to advise that you use a lubricant. But because it is so smooth, it’s actually pretty. It’s easy to use without as well. So there’s a there’s a couple of different demographics that we would still advise using a lubricant, but you could use it without because of how smoth that is, which we were really happy with the finish that we saw in the finished product.

[00:22:11] Nice. And then did you have to go through any safety testing per se or no?

[00:22:17] This. Yeah.

[00:22:18] The safety testing that we’ve done is we cut into multiple samples to see that it was surgical grade stainless steel all the way through. And then we tested it in a dishwasher because we say that you can put it in a dishwasher.

So we made sure that you can. We tested it for like it got put into salt solutions of varying – I guess how salty the solution is to see if it would rust at all, and we just want to make sure that we say it’s a lifetime product.

[00:22:59] You need to buy one of them. So we want to make sure that there’s nothing we’re missing on that. And then the rest of the safety stuff is really in our instructions. Right. So, you know, like McDonald’s has on their coffee cups, coffee is hot.

We have made it very clear what you shouldn’t do with our product for safety reasons. So the whole thing should not be inserted inside of you. Right. You see the X-rays in the E.R.s right. Who knows

[00:23:33] Just it shouldn’t be put in the freezer, because if you think about a metal bowl and your tongue, you don’t want it sticking to tissues. So we made sure that that is very clear. Right now other pelvic ones on the market are designed for rectal use and ours is not. So we’re very clear about that as well.

[00:23:57] So it’s more just in the instructional I don’t want to say warnings, but that’s where we sort of took safety to make sure that no one’s going to improperly use it above and beyond what instructions we say to use it.

[00:24:13] OK. Got it. Great. And then you came up with the KR curve or Kegel Release Curve. How did you come up with that name and the brand and everything?

[00:24:24] So I told you, I think in our initial conversation, my brother helped me and the kegel is such a SEO word. Right. Search engine optimization. So many women look up what is a kegel, right. And a kegel is a pelvic floor contraction. And what we know is that women are probably too tight. And almost the first thing we give women is like clean the slate. Let’s release these muscles, get them to an optimal length of relaxation again so that then they can contract better.

So kegel was definitely the first word that I wanted to be in the title, because it I think a lot of women look it up. And I want women to be getting the right message that you want to be able to contract, but you also want to be able to relax these muscles. And then it became like, what’s the second word? Is it relax? Is it release? Is it rejuvenate, revive all the R words that sort of give that sense of relaxation? And really, we’re we’re releasing these muscles, right? When you get a massage, you’re having your muscles released. And then I didn’t want it to be called the pelvic wand.

I didn’t like wand – it felt magical and mystical and that someone else was going to do it. And I didn’t use words like Rod or Stick or things like that. So my brother said, we’ll call it a curve. It’s a curve. And women have curves. And it’s very feminine to say curves. You know, we associate that word almost with femininity. So you said call it the curve. That’s the Kegel Release Curve. And then I very much liked that because kegel release and KR are my initials. And it just puts a little bit something that it’s mine.

[00:26:31] Yeah, I love I love the curve. I actually love the whole name. And I remember when I first saw it, I’m like, oh, it’s really interesting. It drew me in. And you’re right, the curve made it feel feminine. The product is beautiful. It does feel like Tiffany’s product that gets so luxurious.

And and it’s not like something that’s so medical or you feel like you’re giving yourself himself care rather than than medicine. And it’s not a surgical thing. It’s more like self care. This is about helping my body. And so I was immediately drawn to it. I love the name. I love the branding.

[00:27:10] Amazing. Yeah. I’m glad you brought up the medical side of it, because I think that’s another standout feature for our product, is that when you do land on other pelvic wand Websites, it feels very medical where you’ve landed as you’ve been diagnosed with a condition and this tool will help you with that condition.

And my main mission probably over the next five years is taking pelvic health from a diagnosed condition to a preventative health care position. Right. So. We really wanted to make this product more of a lifestyle product, something that exactly, you brush your teeth and look after your vagina, it’s a it’s a part of self care that as a female we should be employing at younger ages.

And we didn’t get the education. I would think that, you know, my generation and I’m in that you know, 40 something age category, my mother taught me how to use a maxi pad. And that’s kind of where my feminine health started and stopped. And I don’t fault my mother for that. She would have gotten nothing more than that. Right. But, you know, now that I have a daughter, it’s different. And I know way too much for that to be the only thing I pass on to her.

So we need to be educating the next generation, because the statistics are that one in three women will suffer from some level of incontinence. That is a crazy statistic. And and I. And. And pregnancy isn’t changing. There is one exit strategy for delivering a baby with sort of an emergency C-section being our other procedure. So if that’s not changing, then what has to change in our care? Right. And I believe that it’s preparation. It’s education. And then it’s rehabilitation.

So we need to employ those so much sooner. 20 year olds should know how their vaginas work. And I know it’s not a thing that’s discussed. And so I’m going to change that. Absolutely.

[00:29:33] So do you believe that every women should be doing this from the age of, say, 20, or does it start when you have childbirth or after childbirth? Like, what would you say?

[00:29:46] I would say that from the moment you become sexually active, you should know how your vagina works because understanding even what is happening with your pelvic floor with sex would allow someone to understand what they’re feeling down there, and it’s too often that female exploration of our genitalia is not encouraged.

And unfortunately, I think women at younger ages have those negative experiences with sex. And then it becomes a very cyclical negative experience because what they attribute pain in that area, too, is the experience and not necessarily what those muscles are doing, because muscles are just going to guard and protect us from negative interaction.

Right. So you hurt your knee, your quadriceps, the front of your quad gets tight because it’s guarding and protecting your knee joint. Right. So sex ultimately is a workout for our pelvic floor muscles. And sometimes they respond the next day by getting tight. And I think if we understood some of that, you know, that women could go ahead and stretch those muscles out, actively, relax those areas, so that maybe the next time that sexual experience happens, it’s not associated with a negative interaction.

So if we’re having sex at 18 or 19, understand how your pelvic floor works. Understand that you can give it a stretch and relax it. Understand that you can contract it, make it stronger. We go to the gym, we strengthen every other part of our body. But what are we doing for our pelvic floor?

[00:31:40] And what about for women who are later in their years past 50? Is it too late? What can they do?

[00:31:47] We had the too late question, but no, absolutely not. That’s the best thing about how our vaginas are constructed. It’s primarily muscles, which means that at any given point in your your age, you can strengthen anything. Right. And you know, my my favourite is one of my favourite patients. It was ninety three years old and he was having trouble sitting and standing. And his he was talking about how he was slowing down. And all we did was strengthen his legs.

And he you felt rejuvenated again, you know, and that’s 90. And if those muscles can strengthen, so can everywhere else. We have tricks up our sleeve to facilitate these muscles, working better, working harder, working even maybe it’s longer. Maybe it’s they don’t have the endurance to hold on. And then a lot of the times it’s a reaction time thing.

Right. So how fast can we get these muscles to to turn on when we sneeze or when we cough or when explosively laugh all of a sudden? But that’s those are all just training features. You think about how a soccer athlete trains on the field. They do a lot of jogging and then they do sprints and then they do fit footwork. Let’s just do it with your vagina.

Quick footwork with your vagina. We’re going to jog it out. We’re going to like you like hard sprints where you get strong. So, again, this is where my sports background is. I just translated into pelvic and go, why aren’t we doing the same thing? Is it? It’s no different.

[00:33:31] So most of us have heard that we should be doing pelvic floor exercises and strengthening and releasing and so on. So is this replacement of that or is that in addition to all those exercises?

[00:33:44] It’s a timing thing, right. And what I mean by that is that absolutely we’re not throwing pelvic floor contractions out the window, but I think that’s the only thing that’s ever been told to us. And the first thing is, as you know, are you even able to contract that effectively? So that’s the first assessment.

But before we should even be contracting something over and over again, if it’s sitting there in a guarded, tense state, you don’t have a lot more capacity to contract any further because it’s already in a contracted state. So we want to optimise that length, which is relaxing that muscle. And once we have an effective length. Right, and you have the ability to sit in a relaxed state, then we say, OK, now contract does that all of a sudden feel stronger and more effective? So it’s it’s more where we time the right exercise for the right task at hand, basically.

[00:34:53] Sir, are you saying that your pelvic floor muscles might be super tight because you’re doing all these exercises, but the key is to release them.

[00:35:03] Well, yes, we want to. Yeah, we want to release them. And that’s because every muscle in our body has what we call a resting length. So it’s a length that it’s sitting at that would be really effective to then contract. OK, so if it’s already in a contracted state, it doesn’t have much more room to give. There’s not much more capacity. So we give it that length and then we watch it contract really, really well. Right. So you think of a jellyfish swimming at the aquarium if it’s just up. Right. And not flat. It’s not floating along. It can’t get any higher. But if it flattens back out and then contracts together, then it can move through the water.

[00:35:52] Got it. So you need that sort of contrast. And I think that’s what most people miss. They don’t know that because we just we’re always told to do these exercises. I remember a physiotherapist saying, you know, when you get to a stop sign or a stoplight, that’s when you could do like the trigger to do the exercises.

But anyway. I think that is really important to know that we must release it and work on that as well. Yeah. Yeah. And then. So once you launched your product. So how was that experience when you’re about to launch your product? Tell us about that.

[00:36:28] So the launch. It was. It was good. No one I mean, I think no one had taught me how to launch anything. So it was sort of like, you know, is this like like rocket launch or soft launch? How does that work? And so it was sort of defining what does it mean to launch?

[00:36:51] And it for us, it was really about just like, you know, turning the switch on someone being able to buy the product and basically accepting money for the product. And someone had asked me, are you taking pre-orders? Are you going to take in money to sort of like almost like fund the first section of this? And I for me, that wasn’t something I wanted, only because it is more of a I don’t want to say it’s a medical device because we can’t say that, but it’s a massage tool.

And I didn’t want there to be any problems. So, you know, we really were rigorous in our testing. And then we decided on a date that we were going to allow anyone who had joined our wait list, which was something that we had done for two months before. was just taking people’s email address as they were interested in the product. And then we were going to offer them one week to be able to buy our product. And then that just helped us on the back end to make sure that everything was sorted out in terms of it’s on Square Space.

So just making sure all the credit card, all the taxes, everything was in order. And there was one glitch that week. So we were happy we did it that way. And then basically the Monday, the switch flipped and it was for sale. So, yes.

[00:38:22] So you did actually have sort of a launch plan because you took a wait list, you had a wait list of people who said they put their hand up saying that I would buy your product, basically.

[00:38:33] Yes. Yeah.

[00:38:33] And then you have you actually gave that or you submitted the order to the manufacturer? Yeah. Yeah. And did you just do an initial minimum order run or how did you do that?

[00:38:45] Yes. So we decided with the manufacturer. They had like a minimum order quotient. And so, you know, we we had to buy that amount and that’s fine. And then they actually in the end actually broke it up in two lots for us, which was nice. So the first lot is on the ground and able to sell and then they’ve started the second lot. So, yeah.

[00:39:16] Awesome. And so then how can people find the product? Is it just through your website or through professionals?

[00:39:24] Yes. So right now what we’re doing is it’s just through the Website. We ship in Canada, the U.K., Australia and the United States. And it usually anything in North America, we can get to people within a week. UK and Australia about two weeks is where we’re at. And then we are looking to start having a wholesale agreement for professionals.

And then I think the the bigger thing that I’m excited about is actually having this in baby stores so that it can get onto gift registries. And it becomes that product that your girlfriend buys you for your baby shower. Because maybe she’s gone through it and knows that, you know, the best gift that you can give a pregnant woman is saving her vagina.

So, yeah. Because, I mean, that was the one thing. I don’t think I wouldn’t have maybe walked into a sex store and bought this. Right. So, again, we need to make it accessible to women who are already in these types of stores.

So you’re already buying baby products. You’re already preparing. This is a preparation tool for pregnancy. So let’s get it in the same genre or say marketplace basically for these women to make it easy to buy or have someone buy for you.

[00:40:53] Yeah, that’s great. I think a key piece for you will be education because I think there’s still a lack of education out there. Do you have a plan on how to get sort of that education and awareness of the topic and then of your product?

[00:41:08] We’re going to start creating one of the things as I’ll be doing webinars for professionals. All right. So almost like the doulas will be one because everyone has a slightly different scope of practice. So we really want to curtail it to what’s in their scope of practice, what could they teach and where can’t they go?

And then midwives have a different even OBGYNs and then pelvic physios. So some of those will get grouped together. But ithe biggest thing is getting it out to those professionals because like I said, we’re the ones already recommending perineal massage. This is just an applicator to make that easier. So it’s a process that we all agree is beneficial.

How do we make it easier? So we’re going to hit the professionals first. And then we’re hoping that they will be our educators to the general population.

[00:42:06] Right. I think that you’re you’re right. I think the professional’s first. That’s where people go to for trusted advice on a sensitive topic and then friends as well, like friends will recommend it for sure.

[00:42:17] Absolutely. The more people we get it into the hands of, you know, I have three women who have already given me feedback who are pregnant and they’re like, no, I’ve used it. And like, I warm it up and it’s working. So, you know, they tell their friends, which that’s really that’s how this…I mean, I didn’t learn about sex in a book or from my mother or you know, it’s from girlfriends.

It’s girlfriends giving you pearls of wisdom over different things. I mean, even, you know, hey, have you tried this vibrator? Have you used this, you know, toy or things like that at all in our smaller circles of friends? And that’s how I think this brand is going to build.

[00:43:02] And there any key wins that you’ve had to date that you’d like to share?

[00:43:08] The people who want to promote it. I think there’s a couple of really influential pelvic physios that have been excited and want to sort of do an education session with me. There’s a fitness professional who has a very large following in North America who got onto it. She herself is pregnant.

And so she’s going to be using the tool and wants to do an Instagram live. And then there’s an OBGYN in New York City who has a very large following, who I’m meeting up with in about a month, which I’m excited for. So, yeah. So it’s more who is liking the product already, which excites me.

[00:43:57] It’s nice. It’s awesome. What was it like telling your family about this product? And I know you mentioned in your you’re from a Catholic upbringing, so I was curious about that.

[00:44:09] Yeah. All girls. Catholic school. Yes. So probably my brothers. Well, OK. The one brother actually knew. But he’s the brother that kind of knows everything. He’s like the close brother. I’m one of six kids. If that tells you how Catholic we are.

[00:44:27] And then my sisters probably knew maybe six months in. And then my one sister finally was like, have you told mom and dad yet? And I was like, yeah, no, I haven’t, actually. And then my dad knew that I was really busy. Like he just knew that I was doing something because I said, I’m working or I’m working.

And he finally said he was like, what are you working on? Like, I thought you had standard clinic hours. Like, where are you that you’re. And so I had to finally spill the beans on what I was doing, and I don’t think they’ve seen the website and I don’t think they’ve seen the product. They know that I’m helping women with incontinence.

They think that that’s very noble. And, you know, my father is a businessman and I think he sees the value in that I’ve created a product that people will need and use. And so he’s proud of that. But I kind of think that I could have told him I made a shoe horn and he would feel the same way.

[00:45:40] So, you know, they’re old fashioned. They’re old school, and I love them. And, you know, if this company takes off, you know, Pandora’s Box will open one day for them.

[00:45:52] You know, right now they’re just getting filtered information about it.

[00:45:57] Okay.

[00:45:58] Well, one day you might be on TV with it.

[00:46:03] No one tell mom and dad about this.

[00:46:06] And so you started this business, you had no experience in product development, marketing whatsoever. What would be some advice you’d give people who are starting out? They want to develop a product or they’ve just started to think about an idea. What would you say to them?

[00:46:24] There is a lot of self-doubt that comes into play. And I think the thing that helped me is, I mean, even from the very first brunch where I told my best friend about this idea and she said, oh, tell my boyfriend he is the industrial designer. And an hour after I left brunch, I emailed him. I didn’t wait on it. I just acted on it because I think if I let it go another week or maybe in two weeks, you create enough of your own self-doubt.

That it’s not going to work or someone may not need this. Or what about this or what about that or how much is this going to cost? And I think at every step of the process, if someone has told me to do something. If someone has told me about a professional who could help me, I just acted on it so that it continued the whole thing moving forward.

And that momentum has got me to where I am. So I think if you have a good idea, keep acting on it until it stops you versus you stopping itself. Because someone may bring up some relevance as to why you can’t do something. But I think don’t let yourself be a limited the limiting factor to that. Right.

[00:47:50] Yeah, I think that’s such good advice. I think we all stop ourselves from doing things. And it’s really our own limiting beliefs or comments from other people or is just we think it’s just not going to work and we don’t even bother taking action. So taking imperfect action all the way and our instincts. Intuition. And yeah. So it’s so incredible to see what you’ve built, what you created and what you’ve launched. I’m really excited for you.

[00:48:19] I believe that this is going to change women’s lives. And I’m so excited to see where you go with this. So thank you so much. And where can people find you, your product and everything? Can you tell us all the details?

[00:48:32] Yeah, absolutely. So the Web site is www.kegelrelease.com. But if you type in K R. curve dot com, you can get there as well, which is a little easier. You can find us on Instagram @kegelreleasecurve.

[00:48:54] On Twitter we are KRcurve and then we are on Facebook as well as KRcurve. And then you can find me on Instagram at kateroddy_6ixphysio.

[00:49:10] And then I have my own website just for my pelvic physio practice and that is KateRoddyPhysio.com and otherwise I practice in Toronto in Canada and I met King and Sherburne downtown for pelvic. So yeah.

[00:49:29] Thank you so much for all of this for all this wisdom and we are excited to see where this takes you. [00:49:39]