Latest / Tom's Hirschsprung's Podcast / Episode 37 - With Toni Schneider

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Episode 37 - With Toni Schneider · Tom's Hirschsprung's Podcast

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Speaker 1: You are listening to Tom's Hirshbrung's podcast, where I provide
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Speaker 1: a look into the remarkable experiences of the most inspiring
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Speaker 1: people around Hirshprung's disease and sports. Hello and welcome to
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Speaker 1: episode thirty seven of Tom's Hirshbrung's podcast. I've got something
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Speaker 1: a little bit different for you today, all about stonemas
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Speaker 1: and how to take care of stonemers and products you
0:51
Speaker 1: can use to take care of stoners. And joining me
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Speaker 1: today is the COEO of Ostik, Tony Schneider. Tony, welcome
0:58
Speaker 1: to the podcast.
0:59
Speaker 2: Thank you for very much for having me. It's a
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Speaker 2: pleasure and honor to be here.
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Speaker 1: Oh no, you're very very welcome. Thank you so much
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Speaker 1: for coming along. And as I mentioned in the intro,
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Speaker 1: you are the COO of Ostik. I never quite understand
1:13
Speaker 1: what COO stands for.
1:15
Speaker 2: Could you just my husband things?
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Speaker 3: This is a chief operations officer, But essentially my role
1:25
Speaker 3: is to kind of operationally run the business.
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Speaker 2: But you know, we're a small team, so we kind
1:32
Speaker 2: of everybody MUCKs in and does a bit of everything.
1:36
Speaker 2: But yes, that's that's the official official.
1:40
Speaker 1: Role, official official one fantastic and just on osteek itself.
1:45
Speaker 1: For people who are unaware of Oustique's existence, would you
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Speaker 1: like to give me just a little bit of sort
1:52
Speaker 1: of background on how it started between sort of the
1:56
Speaker 1: three bounders and how it went from there.
2:01
Speaker 2: Amazing, absolutely so. Stephanie Monte, who is our founder, her
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Speaker 2: brothers have cronos disease and for any of your listeners
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Speaker 2: who don't know what that is, that is infirmatory bound
2:15
Speaker 2: disease and often a common prelude to needing stone surgery,
2:20
Speaker 2: alongside things like alstrative colleitists, trauma, cancers, et cetera, et cetera.
2:27
Speaker 2: And at the time she was also at Brunel University
2:33
Speaker 2: studying design engineering, and it's really her personal and professional
2:37
Speaker 2: life collided because when one of her brothers, younger brothers,
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Speaker 2: was faced with the prospect of having stone surgery, as
2:44
Speaker 2: the family, they didn't really know what that meant, what
2:48
Speaker 2: that would be, how that would change his life, et cetera,
2:51
Speaker 2: et cetera. And when stephaniely started looking at what kind
2:55
Speaker 2: of products were available, she very quickly noticed that there
3:00
Speaker 2: were a number of products, but actually they all kind
3:02
Speaker 2: of looked and did the same, and there was this
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Speaker 2: repeated I would say unmet need that people were talking about,
3:11
Speaker 2: whether it was about leakage or odor control or how
3:15
Speaker 2: these bags were making people feel. And as I said,
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Speaker 2: that person and professional life collided, and so Ostique was born.
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Speaker 2: And you know, having same surgery impacts one in five
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Speaker 2: hundred people worldwide, and it cuts across every demographic, age, religion, ethnicity,
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Speaker 2: and background. So you know, very quickly you realize that
3:40
Speaker 2: this could be anybody. And so as a mission, as
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Speaker 2: kind of our north star, you know, Ostiki is is
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Speaker 2: transforming the lies of people with chronic bow disease through
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Speaker 2: innovative products and the power of shared experiences. And I'm
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Speaker 2: sure we'll talk about kind of all of our offerings shortly,
4:01
Speaker 2: but ultimately our intention is to restore dignity and improve
4:06
Speaker 2: patient's quality of life in any way that we possibly can.
4:12
Speaker 2: And then I joined Stephanie. Stephanie and I went to
4:15
Speaker 2: school together, and as did Olivia. All three of us
4:19
Speaker 2: were to school together, so we've all known each other forever.
4:23
Speaker 2: I'd followed Stephanie's journey with our steak and she'd want
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Speaker 2: to innovate UK grant and secure some investments, so that's
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Speaker 2: when I joined. But Prior to that, I was a solicitor,
4:35
Speaker 2: I was a lawyer, and I'd worked as a divorce
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Speaker 2: lawyer and then in house at a TV production company
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Speaker 2: making shows like Master Chef, The Island Hunted There, so
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Speaker 2: like a real kind of different background. But Stephanie and
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Speaker 2: I were very and are very yin and yang, and
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Speaker 2: I fully believe in the mission and what we're trying
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Speaker 2: to do. It was an easy decision for me to
5:02
Speaker 2: hang up my lawyer boot and join Stephanie. And that
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Speaker 2: was the back end of twenty eighteen, beginning of twenty nineteen,
5:11
Speaker 2: and then.
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Speaker 4: After haranguing in Nibia for a few years because she
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Speaker 4: is the you know, the best thing since starts spreading
5:21
Speaker 4: from the marketing and kind of creative perspective, managed to
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Speaker 4: persuade her to come on board as well.
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Speaker 2: And I think that's really transformed usty in the way
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Speaker 2: and how we want to be seen in the community
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Speaker 2: and what we want to do for the community. Sorry,
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Speaker 2: rambled on there. That's that's us, Steep, that's us.
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Speaker 1: No, that's obviously fine. You go along as you as
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Speaker 1: you please. Generally, the less I say the better in
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Speaker 1: terms of what else, the less I have to talk
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Speaker 1: the better it is. You mentioned with you and Stephanie
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Speaker 1: that you were ying yin and yang, and what do
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Speaker 1: you mean by that?
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Speaker 2: I mean, well, Stephanie is definitely the creative. She's very much,
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Speaker 2: you know, product focused and into kind of the big,
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Speaker 2: the big grand ideas, and I'm more about making it
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Speaker 2: happen from an organizational perspective and making sure that we
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Speaker 2: can make that vision come true by doing the boring
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Speaker 2: stuff like the legals, like the finance, like those kind
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Speaker 2: of things that aren't as creative and glaand but are
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Speaker 2: totally necessary when you're running a business. And we compliment
6:43
Speaker 2: each other with our skill set where where I and
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Speaker 2: I think that comes not just actual the work itself,
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Speaker 2: but just as people that whenever I'm feeling stressed, she
6:55
Speaker 2: kind of helps me simmer down, and vice versa. We
6:58
Speaker 2: kind of can really lie in each other. And you know,
7:02
Speaker 2: working with friends is always I would say, it's always difficult,
7:05
Speaker 2: always challenging, But I think the one thing, the real
7:10
Speaker 2: truth of it is trust and and and that is
7:16
Speaker 2: in and of itself, such a wonderful thing to be
7:19
Speaker 2: able to have with your business partner that you absolutely
7:22
Speaker 2: trust them and that you know that you are both
7:25
Speaker 2: you know, the same vision, the same goal, You're totally
7:28
Speaker 2: aligned and you've always got each other's back, and that
7:32
Speaker 2: that's been an absolute wonder to be able to work together,
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Speaker 2: and the same with Olivia. I'm very very lucky that
7:41
Speaker 2: I get to work with my friends and that we
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Speaker 2: can see the business flourish but also support and champion
7:50
Speaker 2: each other and just and trust to one another.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that's fantastic. It's always great when you can
7:56
Speaker 1: find a job that you love, that you can work
7:59
Speaker 1: with friends that you trust each other. And I guess
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Speaker 1: it's the sort of saying, isn't it, where you know,
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Speaker 1: if you enjoy what you do, you don't work a
8:07
Speaker 1: day in your life. You know you end up you know,
8:10
Speaker 1: working with friends and going to work and going to
8:13
Speaker 1: work as such, and inverted commas is a is a joy,
8:17
Speaker 1: which is fantastic. I'm so pleased for all of you
8:19
Speaker 1: that you've managed to manage to find that and founded
8:22
Speaker 1: that the fantastic Ostique group.
8:25
Speaker 2: Still hard work, though I will say that feel couper
8:29
Speaker 2: duper hard, but but yes, you're absolutely right.
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Speaker 1: No, not not insinuating you just go to work and
8:35
Speaker 1: party to paint towers so I'm sure. I'm sure it's
8:39
Speaker 1: as well mention in a bit that there is a
8:42
Speaker 1: lot of hard work, a lot of product product IP
8:47
Speaker 1: stuff that go into that, and a lot of things
8:49
Speaker 1: that you're involved, certainly from a legal perspective. So yes,
8:53
Speaker 1: So anybody thinks that OSTI just go to work and
8:56
Speaker 1: party for eight hours, that they don't, they actually do.
8:58
Speaker 1: They do.
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Speaker 2: They do a lot of we work, very very odd.
9:04
Speaker 1: But one of the reasons also I wanted to chat
9:07
Speaker 1: to you in terms of stonemas is because I see
9:12
Speaker 1: a lot of products around that weren't around when I
9:16
Speaker 1: had my STONMA. So if anybody who doesn't know, I
9:19
Speaker 1: had a stona for about fourteen years from the age
9:22
Speaker 1: of nine to twenty three, I'm now thirty two. So
9:27
Speaker 1: a lot of these products are coming out now and
9:32
Speaker 1: they're and there's so many sort of great designs, and
9:38
Speaker 1: like you mentioned with the sporting side of it, was
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Speaker 1: sort of all of the inspiration around the products taken
9:47
Speaker 1: from Stephanie or was it taken from sort of market
9:50
Speaker 1: research with other people you spoke to.
9:55
Speaker 2: So already great question, and I mean stephinitiely probably would
10:00
Speaker 2: be slightly better place to answer that specifically, however, I
10:06
Speaker 2: will say seven the idea with Stephanie and the intention is,
10:12
Speaker 2: as it said, to improve quality of life and to
10:14
Speaker 2: bring to market a product that was both functionally superior
10:19
Speaker 2: but also esthetically beautiful. And how that has transformed over
10:26
Speaker 2: the years, because what starts as an idea than when
10:29
Speaker 2: you start to actually see that come to fruition, it
10:33
Speaker 2: often evolves and changes, whether that's due to commerciality, restriction,
10:41
Speaker 2: all sorts of things, and being a medical device company
10:45
Speaker 2: were subject to regulated regulations, so I say thirteen four
10:49
Speaker 2: eighty five CEE marketing, UKCA marking, So there are lots
10:54
Speaker 2: of things that we need to comply with, and often
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Speaker 2: all of that combined will see the product kind of
11:03
Speaker 2: evolve in and of themselves. But it was very intentional
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Speaker 2: that we would produce something that was better and not
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Speaker 2: just a little bit better, that really took into account
11:19
Speaker 2: users' needs. And so it was both Stephanie's intention to
11:23
Speaker 2: come with a better product, but through all of the
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Speaker 2: market research, through a huge amount of focus group work
11:30
Speaker 2: that we would do with patients, with nurses, with family members,
11:36
Speaker 2: because it doesn't having stone surgery obviously is a huge
11:40
Speaker 2: impact on the individual, but I think a lot of
11:43
Speaker 2: the stuff that we had seen, and all that we
11:45
Speaker 2: do is it can impact an entire family because everybody
11:50
Speaker 2: wants to help and get involved and do so. It's
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Speaker 2: making sure that we were always kind of ears and
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Speaker 2: eyes open to getting as much feedback as we possibly
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Speaker 2: could to then come to market with something really useful.
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Speaker 2: You know, at the time, we were doing a lot
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Speaker 2: of work with boud Research UK and so a number
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Speaker 2: of our focus groups were well with patients and users.
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Speaker 2: So that also really helped direct the direction of travel
12:21
Speaker 2: with our products. And it's really important that we don't
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Speaker 2: think for people, you know, and there's so many amazing
12:30
Speaker 2: nuggets of information that you get just just by listening.
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Speaker 2: You know, a lot of ustimates will say because we
12:38
Speaker 2: in the beginning thought, you know, how much output could
12:43
Speaker 2: a bad take and really kind of you kind of
12:45
Speaker 2: get stuck in these in these spaces and a lot
12:48
Speaker 2: of people say, well, you just do the tap test
12:51
Speaker 2: or you can feel it, and it's you only really
12:53
Speaker 2: know that if you are kind of in the thick
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Speaker 2: of it. So absolutely working with those people who are
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Speaker 2: living with stonmers has had a huge impact on the
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Speaker 2: direction of which we've designed our products. And services.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, definitely, and we'll move on to those as
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Speaker 1: well in a bit. And there's one of the other
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Speaker 1: reasons why I was quite keen to have you on
13:19
Speaker 1: and when I came across our steat is the fact
13:22
Speaker 1: that you are very people focused, as you just mentioned,
13:26
Speaker 1: and that definitely aligns with what I've done my entire career,
13:30
Speaker 1: whether it be in teaching, coaching, and what I do
13:32
Speaker 1: now in sports developments, all about working with people and
13:38
Speaker 1: trying to get the best for people, whether it be
13:40
Speaker 1: stoner bags, whether it be different products or whatnot. And
13:45
Speaker 1: in terms of products as well, I'd like to talk
13:49
Speaker 1: a little bit about the app that you have, which
13:52
Speaker 1: again is something I haven't seen anywhere else. Really, would
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Speaker 1: you like to You can probably explain it a lot
14:00
Speaker 1: better than I can about the Osti Connect.
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Speaker 2: App, absolutely, and the Austie Connect app is something which
14:10
Speaker 2: was really kind of something Team or Steak had already
14:13
Speaker 2: had in mind, but was really Olibya's baby, and really
14:20
Speaker 2: ostee Connect was born from listening to the community that
14:28
Speaker 2: really is the antithesis of who we are. That we
14:31
Speaker 2: really heard that a lot of people felt very isolated
14:35
Speaker 2: and alone, and that you know, a nineteen year old
14:41
Speaker 2: guy facing stone surgery or living with a stonma from
14:46
Speaker 2: having IBD. Their experience what they have coming up in
14:51
Speaker 2: their life is very different to a sixty five year
14:55
Speaker 2: old woman who is a cancer survivor. And again, the
15:00
Speaker 2: chances of people who living with students meeting one another
15:04
Speaker 2: is very difficult in and of itself, and then to
15:07
Speaker 2: find somebody who's actually had a similar lived experience to
15:13
Speaker 2: help you and to kind of be real comrades is
15:15
Speaker 2: even harder. And that's not helped by gdprsues, where you know,
15:22
Speaker 2: nurses and hospitals aren't able to share that kind of
15:25
Speaker 2: information with other patients. And equally, yes, support groups exist online,
15:32
Speaker 2: but they can they can sometimes not always be sometimes
15:36
Speaker 2: quite negative spaces, or sometimes people feel that they can't
15:43
Speaker 2: necessarily say what they want because it's in these bigger groups,
15:48
Speaker 2: and so and then and then, and so, what we
15:52
Speaker 2: really saw is that there was a real opportunity to
15:55
Speaker 2: be able to connect people sort of peer to peer
16:01
Speaker 2: and provide support through a platform which you know, with
16:04
Speaker 2: the intention to combat loneliness and isolation, but also just
16:09
Speaker 2: to kind of part my friends, just shoot the shit
16:12
Speaker 2: together and help one another. And as I said in
16:16
Speaker 2: a really tailored and specific way. So Ostie connects the
16:22
Speaker 2: low rambling over. It's the first digital support platform to
16:28
Speaker 2: intelligently connect people that have been down a similar path.
16:33
Speaker 2: And it's been designed to support someone through their lifetime
16:37
Speaker 2: as an ostumate. So whether that's whether they're facing surgery
16:41
Speaker 2: or it's a prospect that they might have surgery during
16:45
Speaker 2: their time as an ustimate, and even if they are
16:49
Speaker 2: considering stona reversal surgery and you know, life after with
16:54
Speaker 2: having had a STAMA, and users can simply update their
16:58
Speaker 2: preferences when if they like, and they'll be matched with
17:02
Speaker 2: other people in that kind of similar similar space. It
17:07
Speaker 2: provides invaluable personalized access to support, advice and friendship. And
17:15
Speaker 2: we also offer lots of other things on the app.
17:17
Speaker 2: So there's a forum so that you can get more
17:21
Speaker 2: opinions from other people if you want. You'll have access
17:25
Speaker 2: to all of our blogs, you have access to our
17:28
Speaker 2: own podcast, chatting Shit with our Steak. So it was
17:34
Speaker 2: born to really foster meaningful relationships that otherwise couldn't be found.
17:43
Speaker 1: Excuse me, that's really interesting that you and I'll pick
17:47
Speaker 1: up on one point you said there that it's not
17:49
Speaker 1: just for people who are facing stona surgery or have
17:53
Speaker 1: had stonma surgery, but also for people like me who've
17:56
Speaker 1: had stona reversal as well and then having I was
18:02
Speaker 1: doing a podcast the other day with somebody who's going
18:06
Speaker 1: in for stona reversal and they wanted to know, you know,
18:09
Speaker 1: what my life was like after stona reversal. But it's
18:14
Speaker 1: interesting that you have people on there who've had that
18:17
Speaker 1: as well, so you can sort of not necessarily sort
18:21
Speaker 1: of come out of the other side, because it doesn't
18:22
Speaker 1: really work like timeline or a circle or anything like that,
18:26
Speaker 1: because some people have stomas and don't have them reversed.
18:29
Speaker 1: They have of choice, some people have to and whatever.
18:34
Speaker 1: But I find it interesting that that there are stona
18:36
Speaker 1: reversals on there, and the the other part that I
18:41
Speaker 1: really like is that there are apart from obviously the
18:44
Speaker 1: support that it gives one another, is that there are
18:48
Speaker 1: lots of blogs on there as well. There's lots of
18:52
Speaker 1: people's stories about how they've done this and that, and
18:55
Speaker 1: there's also a great variety as well. So do they
18:59
Speaker 1: kind of come to you would say I want to
19:01
Speaker 1: do a blog, or do you contact them or does
19:04
Speaker 1: it how does that work.
19:06
Speaker 2: It's a real mix. For the blogs perspective, it's a
19:09
Speaker 2: realness and having that variety is very intentional. As it said,
19:16
Speaker 2: the reasons why somebody may need stone surgery are a plenty,
19:20
Speaker 2: and there is and every individual, every human, we are
19:24
Speaker 2: all individual. We should not all be lumped together as well.
19:28
Speaker 2: You've got a stonma, therefore you know your your You're
19:32
Speaker 2: I say, in an inverte of commons, just annousment that
19:34
Speaker 2: that's not right, that's not true. And as it said,
19:37
Speaker 2: somebody's reason for having it can be very different. How
19:40
Speaker 2: somebody feels about their stoma can be very very different.
19:44
Speaker 2: Somebody might look at their stoma and you know, it's
19:47
Speaker 2: given them a new lease of life where they've been
19:49
Speaker 2: in chronic pain. Other people might dislike it entirely, even
19:54
Speaker 2: though it's been life saving. And as I said, a
19:57
Speaker 2: lot of the things that we do with our blogs
19:59
Speaker 2: is make sure that we are encapsulating everybody on time
20:05
Speaker 2: to be as inclusive as possible. I mean, today on
20:09
Speaker 2: our Instagram we've been posting about PPG. We've done stuff
20:15
Speaker 2: on Hirschbrung's disease. You know, we've done crones, we've done
20:19
Speaker 2: her litis, we've done, cancers, we try, and also talking
20:23
Speaker 2: about eurostomates because a lot of the time your ostomates
20:26
Speaker 2: can sometimes feel very isolated and alone because they are,
20:31
Speaker 2: you know, less a population within the stonework world. So
20:35
Speaker 2: for us, it's really important that we are as inclusive
20:39
Speaker 2: as we can be. Some people reach out to us
20:42
Speaker 2: and say I'd love to be able to share my story,
20:45
Speaker 2: and which case we do, and others we know we'd
20:48
Speaker 2: try and reach out to them if we think they'd
20:52
Speaker 2: be great. But ostik is about uplifting the community and
20:57
Speaker 2: shining a light on as many people people and as
21:00
Speaker 2: many differences as well as similarities as we can.
21:07
Speaker 1: Definitely, and that was another reason I wanted to do
21:09
Speaker 1: on as well, because if you take a look at
21:13
Speaker 1: the Instagram, you take a look at the website, from
21:15
Speaker 1: any social media that you do, it's very positive. It's
21:19
Speaker 1: very you know, yes, you might have a star won,
21:21
Speaker 1: you might not like it or whatever, but you know
21:24
Speaker 1: you can still do this, and you can still do that,
21:26
Speaker 1: and you have and we'll talk in a moment about
21:29
Speaker 1: the different products that you have, but you have specific
21:31
Speaker 1: ones for exercise or marathon running or whatever it might be,
21:36
Speaker 1: and I think that's all of that's fantastic. I'd like
21:39
Speaker 1: to if I may just switch gears a little bit
21:43
Speaker 1: and talk about your team. I know you've mentioned three
21:48
Speaker 1: members of your team. I'd like to mention or talk
21:52
Speaker 1: about one very special member of your team, if I may,
21:56
Speaker 1: Who's Ralph? Would you like to mention about Ralph?
22:00
Speaker 2: Ralphie our morale officer. Do you know this? This Ralphie
22:06
Speaker 2: is my family dog. And if you go on our
22:09
Speaker 2: website or steed dotk dot uk and meet the team,
22:12
Speaker 2: you will see Ralph our morale officer. She's very very handsome.
22:18
Speaker 2: This he actually the idea of this came from we
22:21
Speaker 2: were working with the company in South Africa and they
22:24
Speaker 2: had a Head of Joy, head of Happiness, and his
22:28
Speaker 2: sole job within the company was to promote happiness and
22:32
Speaker 2: joy and it was something that Stephanie and I absolutely love.
22:38
Speaker 2: And I'm dog mad. I am dog mad. I love dogs.
22:42
Speaker 2: I really love dogs. I'm a real dog person and
22:45
Speaker 2: Ralphie is my family dog. And just you know, just
22:50
Speaker 2: again injecting a bit of humor and a sprinkling of joy,
22:57
Speaker 2: and I think and hopefully it's you know, very Cunny
23:00
Speaker 2: mentioned that hopefully does come across in all of the
23:03
Speaker 2: things that we tried to do. It's all quite serious stuff,
23:07
Speaker 2: but we try to do it with a touch of humor,
23:12
Speaker 2: a touch of joy and try and bring some positivity
23:17
Speaker 2: to something that can often be not that joyful. I
23:23
Speaker 2: will stay in brackets. Earlier this year I got my
23:26
Speaker 2: own dog called Ronnie. I could never swat Ralphie out,
23:32
Speaker 2: so Ronnie Ronnie is his deputy. He may or may
23:35
Speaker 2: not for eature on the website, but Ronnie is a
23:39
Speaker 2: cockapoo who is ten months old and is the love
23:42
Speaker 2: of my life. And my husband is aware of that.
23:45
Speaker 2: And Ralph Ralphie is still my number one boy. I'm
23:48
Speaker 2: looking at the photo now. He's just so cute. He's
23:52
Speaker 2: such But you also have a doggie. You're also a
23:54
Speaker 2: little bit dog mad? Oh?
23:55
Speaker 1: Absolutely yes. Teddy. Teddy is the dog that I look
23:59
Speaker 1: after and she's eight. She's a sproker again, ball mad.
24:06
Speaker 1: She is also my running partner as well. I take
24:10
Speaker 1: her something canny Cross that he is about where we
24:17
Speaker 1: meet up in part of the canny Cross group. We
24:20
Speaker 1: meet up once a week and take our dogs running
24:25
Speaker 1: sort of about seven eight nine of us whoever turns
24:28
Speaker 1: up really, But yes, Teddy. Teddy's discovered running in the
24:31
Speaker 1: last couple of years and absolutely loves it. I wasn't
24:36
Speaker 1: sure how she get on when I started, but she's
24:39
Speaker 1: she loves it. Unfortunately, now she now she likes to
24:43
Speaker 1: just do the same route each time, so I don't
24:47
Speaker 1: know whether she's a little bit autistic or whatever it
24:49
Speaker 1: might be. I don't know, but she does. She does
24:52
Speaker 1: like the same root each times. I'm trying to introduce
24:54
Speaker 1: her to new routes, but but no, she loves it.
24:57
Speaker 1: And she's also in a similar way to Roddie. She's
25:00
Speaker 1: absolutely ball mad as well. She is never without a
25:04
Speaker 1: tennis ball and she'll always collect them in the garden
25:08
Speaker 1: and then just put them all in the same space.
25:10
Speaker 1: So she at least she's got like eight at a time,
25:13
Speaker 1: so if she ever loses one or one break, she's
25:15
Speaker 1: always got a huge stash of them. Is Ronnie simple?
25:19
Speaker 1: Does Ronnie have her like a specific ball?
25:22
Speaker 2: He does. He loves a tennis ball. He goes nuts
25:25
Speaker 2: when the tennis balls are out. We did steal a
25:29
Speaker 2: ball from one of my nephews, which is a squeaky
25:32
Speaker 2: ball that lights up, which is a little bit spiky,
25:35
Speaker 2: which he also loves. He likes to have that one
25:38
Speaker 2: relatively close by to him. But I mean, he's not
25:41
Speaker 2: fascy any ball. He'll run and break, but he brings
25:44
Speaker 2: it back. And we're actually talking today's somebody out on
25:48
Speaker 2: the field. All good things about Ronnie are really he's
25:53
Speaker 2: kind of in his nature as opposed to things we
25:57
Speaker 2: have done. He's just yeah, he's a really really good boy,
26:00
Speaker 2: and he loves to play ball. He just loves to play.
26:02
Speaker 2: He's very friendly. He thinks everybody's his friend, including Ralphie.
26:07
Speaker 2: He's now bigger than Ralph he was smaller so but
26:12
Speaker 2: no I Ralphie is arm morale officer and if nothing else,
26:17
Speaker 2: it's to make people smile.
26:20
Speaker 1: Do they get on Ralph and Ronnie.
26:23
Speaker 2: They don't not get on. They get on a little
26:25
Speaker 2: bit too well in the sense of in the beginning,
26:28
Speaker 2: Ralphie was a little bit enamored with Ronnie. But they're
26:34
Speaker 2: kind of constant. So my mum is less willing to
26:38
Speaker 2: have Ronnie boy, which is really annoying because that was
26:41
Speaker 2: one of the reasons that we will get a dog.
26:43
Speaker 2: And if you know, if we need to go away
26:44
Speaker 2: or do something, I'll just drop him at my parents.
26:48
Speaker 2: That has not happened, and I'm saying, Mum, if you're listening,
26:52
Speaker 2: I'm very upset about it. But they do get on there.
26:57
Speaker 2: They're they're they're very good dogs. They're very very good dogs.
27:01
Speaker 1: Fantastic and I know he's over the website as well.
27:06
Speaker 1: I mean a lovely picture, if I may say so,
27:09
Speaker 1: a lovely picture of Ralph, and I've tended to find
27:13
Speaker 1: a lot. I've been doing quite a bit of just
27:15
Speaker 1: experimenting on Instagram, and every time I post a picture
27:18
Speaker 1: of Teddy, it gets way more likes than if I
27:21
Speaker 1: do a picture about any kind of work stuff. So
27:24
Speaker 1: if you now see a picture of any kind of
27:26
Speaker 1: podcast stuff and then a picture of Teddy next to it,
27:29
Speaker 1: is to get you to click on the podcast stuff.
27:33
Speaker 1: So I've been doing a bit of experimenting. So if
27:36
Speaker 1: you've seen lots of dog pictures recently, that's that's why
27:39
Speaker 1: I've been doing that, just to get people to look
27:42
Speaker 1: at and hopefully click and listen to the podcast. But
27:48
Speaker 1: i'd like to also, I know we mentioned the Ostik app,
27:54
Speaker 1: and we mentioned very briefly at the start about different
27:57
Speaker 1: products that you have, and i'd like to mention also
28:03
Speaker 1: a little bit more about the skins, because we sort
28:06
Speaker 1: of briefly, briefly touched on it. But there's a lot
28:10
Speaker 1: of a lot of points that I think I've seen
28:14
Speaker 1: which are quite different to other bags or other bag products.
28:20
Speaker 1: The fact that it's also waterproof as well, so you
28:25
Speaker 1: can can you take it swimming and et cetera.
28:28
Speaker 2: So so OSTI Connect. The app available on Android and iOS,
28:35
Speaker 2: and all the links and stuff of how to get
28:37
Speaker 2: there is on our Instagram and on our website. Was
28:40
Speaker 2: also on the website is the Austique skins. Now they
28:44
Speaker 2: are revolutionary Osterome bag covers as opposed to we have
28:50
Speaker 2: a range of Stama bag as well, the Anova Solo range,
28:55
Speaker 2: which we can talk about, but the skins themselves are
28:59
Speaker 2: Stama bag covers and they are compatible with the majority
29:03
Speaker 2: of colostomy and iliostomy bag brands. And you know, we
29:08
Speaker 2: we've got space on the website that if you want
29:10
Speaker 2: to check if it, you know, will fit with the
29:13
Speaker 2: type of bag that somebody is using, you can just
29:15
Speaker 2: email us. We've also got measurements on there or the
29:19
Speaker 2: size of the skins, and you're right, our skins are
29:23
Speaker 2: really they come in a range of colors, including skin tones.
29:28
Speaker 2: They are bigger at environmentally friendly the material themselves. The
29:34
Speaker 2: material is so beautiful, luxurious and soft. It's washable and reusable,
29:44
Speaker 2: whether that's through a hand wash or a gentle wash
29:47
Speaker 2: through the washing machine and then checking it in the
29:50
Speaker 2: tumble dryer. They are the skins are waterproof, they are sweatproof.
29:57
Speaker 2: They have a pocket at the bottom so that you
30:03
Speaker 2: can tuck your bag, whether it's a drainable or clothes,
30:06
Speaker 2: you can tuck the bag into that pocket at the bottom.
30:09
Speaker 2: And that has been amazing for people who, as you say,
30:12
Speaker 2: if you do like sports, or just generally, because it
30:15
Speaker 2: stops all the scratching and getting in the way if
30:18
Speaker 2: you're if you you know, we had somebody who was
30:20
Speaker 2: a marathon runner who said this is absolutely game changing
30:23
Speaker 2: because her legs were being sliced from the edges of
30:27
Speaker 2: her bag and this completely stopped that. And it's also
30:30
Speaker 2: got an opening at the bottom, so if you have
30:32
Speaker 2: a drainable bag and you're wearing a skin, you don't
30:34
Speaker 2: need to take it off. You can just empty and
30:37
Speaker 2: drain drain from your Stama bag and then roll it
30:40
Speaker 2: back up and put it back in the pocket. So
30:44
Speaker 2: they are really different, they are really easy to use,
30:49
Speaker 2: and again we try and be as environmentally friendly where
30:52
Speaker 2: we can, and they're they're vegan material, and we kind
30:57
Speaker 2: of we offer a few different things, whether we have bundles,
31:01
Speaker 2: so you've got the introductory bundle, an Essentials bundle, a
31:05
Speaker 2: workout bundle, and an Intimacy bundle and bundles are three
31:09
Speaker 2: skins which you purchased directly from the website. They're forty
31:13
Speaker 2: three ninety nine, or you can buy individual skins which
31:16
Speaker 2: are sixteen ninety nine, and again they're really what we
31:21
Speaker 2: hope is something that makes something feel luxurious. Somebody described
31:28
Speaker 2: it as like a Louis Vuitton handbag for her simmer
31:32
Speaker 2: bag because it really is premium in its feel and
31:36
Speaker 2: its quality. And again that's we try and give back
31:43
Speaker 2: something that ultimately makes people feel better and empowered, whether
31:49
Speaker 2: they're looking for the ultimate discretion and that you know,
31:52
Speaker 2: with a skin tone or something more bold, bright and
31:55
Speaker 2: beautiful to match swimwear or a workout outfit, or or
32:00
Speaker 2: just because that's really what skins are there for.
32:05
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I think it's I think it's fantastic and just
32:09
Speaker 1: just a range of things that you that come with
32:12
Speaker 1: it and how you can use it, and obviously the
32:15
Speaker 1: environmentally friendlies is a big one for me. I really
32:18
Speaker 1: really like that as well. And another thing you can
32:21
Speaker 1: purchase on the website is an Ostique gift card, and
32:27
Speaker 1: I'd like to talk if I may a little bit
32:28
Speaker 1: about Colostomy UK and your your partnership with them, because
32:32
Speaker 1: if you do purchase a gift card, fifty percent of
32:36
Speaker 1: the proceeds goes to heliostomy and internal Power.
32:40
Speaker 2: That's not the gift card, that's our Thoughtful Card.
32:44
Speaker 1: Range Thoughtful card. Sorry, yes, so we have.
32:47
Speaker 2: A card range with Thoughtful and if so any of
32:50
Speaker 2: your listeners who don't know what thoughtful is. It's like
32:53
Speaker 2: Moonpig but a little bit naughtier. I really like the
32:57
Speaker 2: Thoughtful cards. And yes, so we have a range of
33:00
Speaker 2: Stama cards available to purchase from Thoughtful and we give
33:04
Speaker 2: fifty percent of the proceeds to glustom UK and in
33:06
Speaker 2: Theostome UK, the Eliosome Association and you know, our card
33:13
Speaker 2: are intentional to be inclusive, you know, and that they
33:17
Speaker 2: really came about. We did a photoshoot for the skins
33:21
Speaker 2: and it was one of our models stoe amiversaries and
33:26
Speaker 2: we'd sert far and wide to be able to get
33:29
Speaker 2: a Stonemiversary card, and you just couldn't. There was nothing
33:34
Speaker 2: representing Stonmas or chronic illness or anything of that ilk
33:40
Speaker 2: So we're like, okay, we'll we'll make that happen, and
33:45
Speaker 2: so we did.
33:48
Speaker 1: No, that's fantastic. But again it kind of speaks to
33:51
Speaker 1: what we said at the start, where you see a
33:53
Speaker 1: gap in the market and you just go for it.
33:57
Speaker 1: And I love that sort of that that business way
34:00
Speaker 1: doing things where you gone, right, okay, it's the necessity
34:06
Speaker 1: is the mother of invention in terms of you see
34:10
Speaker 1: an issue, you see a problem or something that needs fixing,
34:16
Speaker 1: or something that isn't there that could make people's lives better,
34:19
Speaker 1: and you go for it. And I really love that
34:23
Speaker 1: sort of that business way of doing things. I think
34:28
Speaker 1: it's absolutely fantastic. But there are a range of as
34:33
Speaker 1: you said, a range of products that you can buy
34:38
Speaker 1: on the website. I'd like to also just talk a
34:41
Speaker 1: little bit about because there's not just products on your
34:44
Speaker 1: website and blogs and support groups that we talked about,
34:47
Speaker 1: but there's one thing in particular, when there's a YouTube
34:52
Speaker 1: video on there about how to change an oscar bag.
34:56
Speaker 1: So there's sort of instructional videos on there as well.
35:00
Speaker 1: So is that sort of the idea for the website
35:02
Speaker 1: as well as just being sort of a shop and
35:03
Speaker 1: blogs and support groups, you'd have sort of instructional videos.
35:08
Speaker 1: I think you've got a glossary on there as well,
35:10
Speaker 1: you sort of go through or manner of things of
35:14
Speaker 1: what's ulcerative colitis and et cetera, et cetera. Was that
35:18
Speaker 1: also an idea for the website as well?
35:21
Speaker 2: Absolutely? So there's a resource section for anybody, and anybody really,
35:29
Speaker 2: whether you are a person living with a stoma or
35:32
Speaker 2: a family member or whatever the case may be. There
35:35
Speaker 2: are a lot of terms that people don't know, and
35:38
Speaker 2: so much of what we are trying to do is
35:40
Speaker 2: really to break down the pooh to boo and to
35:43
Speaker 2: be able to educate everybody as to invisible disabilities and
35:50
Speaker 2: what life is like living with the stoma. And it's
35:52
Speaker 2: really important that we're not just kind of in our
35:55
Speaker 2: echo chambers talking to ourselves, but actually we're doing our
35:59
Speaker 2: best to reach audiences far and wide, and you know,
36:04
Speaker 2: we see that there's you know, with Louise Thompson and
36:07
Speaker 2: Adele Roberts and Tracyman. You know so much now is
36:13
Speaker 2: being done to really shine a light on these kind
36:16
Speaker 2: of issues, but absolutely being able to provide resources to
36:21
Speaker 2: help the community more generally is really important. And you know,
36:25
Speaker 2: we have our own Stoner bags as well, the Anova
36:28
Speaker 2: Solo range, and they are currently a flat, one piece
36:35
Speaker 2: closed and a one piece drainable, and they themselves come
36:39
Speaker 2: with a whole number of usps that have really been
36:44
Speaker 2: designed and developed by listening to patients and to really
36:49
Speaker 2: focus on unmet needs. So we have our base plate,
36:54
Speaker 2: which somebody might call a wafer, is patented novel shape
37:02
Speaker 2: which uses kind of multi adhesive to really improve that
37:07
Speaker 2: adhesion to reduce the propensity for leakage, whilst also at
37:11
Speaker 2: the same time providing unparalleled comfort, flexibility and adhesion to
37:18
Speaker 2: really try and maintain skin health and reduce skin complications.
37:23
Speaker 2: Our bag is the world's first silent ostome bag. And
37:29
Speaker 2: I might if I if I may do a little
37:34
Speaker 2: I mean hopefully or not hopefully, I'm gonna do a
37:37
Speaker 2: little experiment where I'm gonna show you a traditional bag
37:43
Speaker 2: bear with bear with well do I sol squirement.
37:47
Speaker 1: I should have made this a video podcast. Really we
37:51
Speaker 1: might release the.
37:53
Speaker 2: This is more for sound. So if I I wonder
37:56
Speaker 2: if you can hear this, that's a traditional bag. Now
38:03
Speaker 2: I'm going to do ours. Hopefully you didn't hear.
38:12
Speaker 1: That very barely, and that is because.
38:18
Speaker 2: We have very intentionally brought to market the world's first
38:22
Speaker 2: style of bag, and whilst we totally understand that that
38:25
Speaker 2: is not a medical requirement, hopefully people will see that.
38:30
Speaker 2: So much of what we try to do is really
38:33
Speaker 2: approach stonemacare holistically that actually having a bag that doesn't
38:37
Speaker 2: rustle and that it is quiet can really improve somebody's
38:41
Speaker 2: quality of life, reduce anxiety, and it is really important
38:46
Speaker 2: that we look at other factors like that. We also
38:48
Speaker 2: have a high performance filter to prevent unpleasant odors and
38:53
Speaker 2: eliminate gas build up. So our Nova Solo range is
38:57
Speaker 2: also available and that will all be kind of on
38:59
Speaker 2: the website as well. But yes, resources, blogs, our podcasts,
39:07
Speaker 2: our shop are kind of one stop shop. And also
39:11
Speaker 2: so much of what we try to do is also
39:13
Speaker 2: just give people information and if you know, if it's
39:16
Speaker 2: not our steep products that are good for you, then
39:20
Speaker 2: we'll help you find something that is. You know, the
39:23
Speaker 2: power of choice. What people don't realize is that people
39:26
Speaker 2: living in the same have the choice as to what
39:28
Speaker 2: bags they want. And if your bag isn't working for you,
39:33
Speaker 2: or you need like a whole bunch of ancillary products
39:36
Speaker 2: to make that bad work for you, you should change.
39:38
Speaker 2: Your bag doesn't need to be to ours. But we
39:41
Speaker 2: also want to be able to educate the community that
39:45
Speaker 2: you deserve dignity and the best, and if something you've
39:50
Speaker 2: got isn't working, then then there is more out there.
39:56
Speaker 2: So our website is and everything that we do is
40:00
Speaker 2: really just said trying to shine on a light on
40:03
Speaker 2: these taboo subjects and to do as much as we
40:06
Speaker 2: can to uplift the community.
40:09
Speaker 1: It's fantastic that comes back to your people focused, doesn't it.
40:12
Speaker 1: It comes back to you want the best for people,
40:16
Speaker 1: You want to help people. And again, as I mentioned
40:19
Speaker 1: at the start, if this had been around, you know,
40:21
Speaker 1: when I was nine years old and had my stomer,
40:24
Speaker 1: I'm sure i'd have had you know, a bag as well.
40:27
Speaker 1: But I had something called a tegaderm which I seem
40:30
Speaker 1: to talk to people about and they don't seem to
40:32
Speaker 1: know what it is. But the best way to describe
40:35
Speaker 1: it would be if you've ever had a tattoo. You
40:39
Speaker 1: have sort of that cling film sticky cling film material
40:43
Speaker 1: around the tattoo just to protect it. So I had
40:46
Speaker 1: that over the Stonma. I think I'd a far preferred bag, definitely,
40:51
Speaker 1: and I wish Obviously I don't have the Stona anymore,
40:54
Speaker 1: but if it had been around, I've definitely taken one
40:56
Speaker 1: of your bags up, because I think they had been.
41:00
Speaker 1: They're absolutely fantastic. But every time I mentioned the word
41:03
Speaker 1: take ADERN to anybody, they never, they've never, they've never
41:06
Speaker 1: seen it before and and don't necessarily know what it is.
41:12
Speaker 1: Have you heard of take a dn before?
41:14
Speaker 2: I'm being completely honest. Now get down, because that something
41:18
Speaker 2: we're gonna We're going to put something out there about
41:21
Speaker 2: take a DNS.
41:21
Speaker 1: Then I'll send you a photo of what I do. Yeah,
41:26
Speaker 1: of what I used to used to use to cover
41:29
Speaker 1: the Stonma. But yes, it wasn't I don't think you're
41:32
Speaker 1: looking back at it. It was the greatest adventure, but
41:34
Speaker 1: it's one of those things people tell you to do
41:36
Speaker 1: it and you just do it because you don't know
41:38
Speaker 1: any better. But yeah, so that's that's what I had.
41:43
Speaker 2: You could have gone on to our steep connect and
41:45
Speaker 2: asked you could have posted in the forum or asked
41:48
Speaker 2: the individual have you ever heard of this?
41:50
Speaker 1: I wish I had, I wish I had if you've
41:53
Speaker 1: been around twenty years ago, that would have definitely been
41:56
Speaker 1: that would have tyfinitely been something I'd have done. But
42:00
Speaker 1: also just just as we wrap up towards the end,
42:03
Speaker 1: as we record this, it's back end of August by
42:07
Speaker 1: the time you'll hear at the mid September, and then
42:11
Speaker 1: World oster Me Day is coming up on the fifth
42:14
Speaker 1: of October. Now, I know you do sort of a
42:17
Speaker 1: lot of sort of constant posting, and you post about
42:21
Speaker 1: a lot of great things and products. Was there anything
42:25
Speaker 1: specifically you were looking at doing for World oster Me
42:28
Speaker 1: Day or or month I guess with being October, or
42:35
Speaker 1: was it sort of carrying on the great work that
42:37
Speaker 1: you do already.
42:39
Speaker 2: It's a bit of a watch this space kind of
42:42
Speaker 2: thing for what we'll actually be putting out on World
42:45
Speaker 2: as Me Day, And as you say, we try and
42:47
Speaker 2: cellar or brate ostumates all year round, but there is
42:52
Speaker 2: is there will be some a special video coming out
42:55
Speaker 2: on on World as to Me Day and and young
43:00
Speaker 2: watch this Space.
43:02
Speaker 1: Oh, exciting, intriguing, as as the best started thing a surprise,
43:06
Speaker 1: so you'll have to wait and see.
43:08
Speaker 2: To wait clearly.
43:10
Speaker 1: Yes, and just very lastly again, thank you so much
43:14
Speaker 1: for coming on. And I know we've mentioned the website
43:18
Speaker 1: quite a bit, but where can people find O Steak
43:21
Speaker 1: find your products and purchase them.
43:25
Speaker 2: So as I said, if you go on to your
43:29
Speaker 2: app store, whether you are an Android user or a
43:33
Speaker 2: I Phone user, just type in a Steak connect O
43:37
Speaker 2: S T i q U E connect and you'll be
43:42
Speaker 2: able to download our apps straight from there. Or if
43:44
Speaker 2: you go onto our website or Steak O S T
43:47
Speaker 2: i q u E dot co dot UK, all of
43:50
Speaker 2: the resources so whether you're looking for skins, how to
43:55
Speaker 2: get a Steak Connect, our blogs, everything else, our podcast
44:02
Speaker 2: all linked there. You can find us on all of
44:05
Speaker 2: the different social media platforms of Steak Limited or Steak Ltd.
44:10
Speaker 2: Please follow us and if you want to write a
44:14
Speaker 2: blog or be part of the community. We welcome everybody
44:18
Speaker 2: and anybody, so we're everywhere where A click.
44:23
Speaker 1: Away, Yes, fantastic, thank you by going for me. Just
44:27
Speaker 1: thank you so much for everything all of your team,
44:30
Speaker 1: including Ralph does for for everybody with Ostermates with Stone
44:36
Speaker 1: is the great product you put out and the constant
44:39
Speaker 1: raising awareness that you do. And thank you so much
44:41
Speaker 1: for joining me.
44:42
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me. I really appreciated it. Speak
44:45
Speaker 2: to you soon.
44:49
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the podcast. Find us on
44:52
Speaker 1: Instagram Tom's Underscore Hirshbrun's Underscore podcast. Listen to previous episodes
44:57
Speaker 1: on Spotify by searching Tom's Hirshprung podcasts