Latest / The Pressing Play Podcast / Ep10 Pressing Play on Women's Health with Wizz Selvey Co-Founder of Valerie
Transcript
- Joanne Fiddy: welcome to the podcast! Yay! I clap everybody in! ⁓ Wizz: Thank you, I love that. Joanne Fiddy: ⁓ It's like such a joy. Like thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I admire you from afar. I met you a year ago in the red room in London and you introduced me to Valerie and I'm a massive fan. I've been using it now for a year and I absolutely love it. It helps me so much with my hormone health and that's why I wanted to get you on here. I feel more people need to hear about it. So let's start there. Can you tell us more? about your journey and how you got into the perimenopausal hormonal health world. Is this something you expected 20 years ago to be doing? Wizz: Absolutely not. And yeah, for a long time people have said to me you should start a brand, and I've always said, no, no, I've seen how hard it is. ⁓ and then here I am for my sins. ⁓ but yeah, I really saw yeah, the need for it. but yeah, my background has been in retail, so I've spent the last 20 years in the retail industry. So I used to work in buying ⁓ Selfridges across accessories, fashion, and then latterly headed beauty buying. ⁓ and then Joanne Fiddy: Hello and welcome back to the Pressing Play podcast. Today's guest is Wiz Selvi, co-founder of Valerie, women's health brand redefining how women actually feel day to day. ⁓ years of being told she was fine, despite feeling anything but, Wizz decided to stop accepting normal as the answer. And what followed was the creation of Valerie. ⁓ developed real women testing formulations. Yeah. if you would like to try Valerie, simply use the code Joanne 58840 and get 30% ⁓ off your first order. Wizz: Yeah, I've also had a consultancy business for the last last eight years and working with lots of different brands and retailers, everything from kind of big corporate retailers and brands to also a lot of startup brands as well, with helping them to scale, how to ⁓ navigate getting into retailers, and then once they're in them, trade with them as well, ⁓ and do a lot of business coaching as well for founders and entrepreneurs in general. yeah, I've kind of I suppose I have quite a varied career and enjoyed working with lots of different types of people and businesses. Joanne Fiddy: Designed to support energy, focus, emotional balance, and that real life tired but wired feeling, so many women experience in midlife. What makes Valerie different is its liposamel technology, delivering nutrients with up to five times better absorption than traditional pills or powders. Because, as was discovered, women don't just want supplements, they want things that genuinely work. Wizz: then I was in my late 30s ⁓ ⁓ ⁓ I was just completely flawed. I had what I thought was burnout ⁓ maybe long COVID. this was kind of started around six years ago. ⁓ And it kind of coincided with the COVID period as well. ⁓ And ⁓ I had such extreme fatigue. ⁓ I couldn't get through the day without napping. Luckily it was work from home then. Joanne Fiddy: Don't we all, my loves, huh? Alongside Building Valerie, Wiz brings over 20 years of expertise in retail, beauty, wellness, and consumer trends, giving her a unique perception on why women's health has been underserved for so long, and why the conversation around perimenopause is finally changing. In this episode, we talk about her personal journey, the symptoms nobody prepares you for. Wizz: I had heart palpitations, I had this like really severe anxiety that came up, ⁓ I really kind of was struggling in social situations, I had hormonal acne that came back like I had when I was a teenager, and all of these different symptoms that I just yeah, couldn't really explain. and ⁓ went through whole process of going to my doctor and being told having tests and being told everything was fine, being offered antidepressants, Joanne Fiddy: And why Valerie decided to challenge the language around perimenopause entirely, and what it really means for women to stop tolerating off and start feeling like themselves again. This is a brilliant conversation about energy, identity, hormones, modern womanhood, and why women deserve better than Googling their symptoms at 3 a.m. Wizz: And by the time I'd gone to see the doctor, which was a few years, a few years in, I yeah, I'd done a lot of work on myself and a lot of kind of coaching and talking therapy. So at that point, I didn't want to take antidepressants. I was starting to feel better in myself, but I just still had this extreme tiredness and anxiety. ⁓ no discussion of hormones. my female doctor just said try not to get so stressed. ⁓ I came off the phone crying. ⁓ Joanne Fiddy: You Not surprising. Not surprising. Wizz: Which is a story that I hear over and over and over again. Now I'm in kind of the hormone space and talking to women all of the time, ⁓ women in their late thirties, their forties, their early fifties. yeah, what my story is just so common, unfortunately. then I went to get a load of tests done privately, kind of with a naturopathic nutritionist, and realized how severely depleted I was in essential vitamins and minerals. so started taking loads of supplements. I was taking twenty Tablets in the morning, 20 at night, six at lunch. I'd like this chart printed up in the kitchen of what to take when. It was absolutely mad. And yeah, gradually started to feel better. But again, thought there must be a better way of this, costing me a fortune. yeah, and then I bumped into my co-founder who I knew socially, but we never knew what the other one did, which is quite interesting. So it's a little sliding doors moment, and he was developing a a brand with a background in supplements and nutrition and scaling e-commerce brands. and again his own personal experience with his mum experiencing perinone cause at 42 and beginning antidepressants that didn't work for her ⁓ because it was hormonal and ⁓ yeah realizing there's massive gap in the market here and was looking for a co-founder. So yeah, we joined forces and yeah, brought Valerie to the market. ⁓ Joanne Fiddy: And do you what, love it. I just feel like you're good humans doing good things. And it just really, and it just comes from such a heartfelt place. And because I've also been there where you're taking so many supplements and especially with brain fog. How many times can you remember to take absolutely everything? And the way you have it, you have the daily essence, you also have the night essence as well. Talk me through the different variations that you have. Wizz: Okay. Yeah, so we developed two products ⁓ to go together. So an AMP and a PM form formula. So you take the morning essentially in the morning and the evening and the evening. but again, recognising that women need different support at different times. ⁓ so the morning ones were really focused on ⁓ energy. ⁓ so yeah, fake focus really helps on brain fog, really good mood and hormone regulation, but also lots of other benefits like thyroid health, immunity, hair skin, and nails, all sorts of things. and ⁓ then the evening one is really helping you to women to wind down into the evenings. So lots of women are getting interrupted sleep. They ped they're knackers but their head hits the pillow and then their main their brain starts worrying or they're waking up at 3 a.m. so yeah it's over time it will help you sleep more deeply. So it's not going to knock you out like a melatonin or a ⁓ sleeping tablet, but you should wake up starting to wake up feel more refreshed. So that's got things like it's got ten different supplements in including magnesium, ashwaganda, Ltheanine, transplantrol, canomile, things Joanne Fiddy: Yeah, Asha Wanga as well is just such a lovely, calm, I heard you talk about how Asha Wanga, how it adapts to the situation that you're in. Could you tell me more about that? Wizz: Yeah, so Ashwagand is a a adaptogenic, which means it's helps your body adapt to stress. so yeah, really good for calming the nervous system, making you feel ⁓ just feeling little bit more relaxed. I was certainly really helps when I was feeling quite anxious and it's what I hear from a lot of women as well, where ⁓ it has a very calming effect. So we actually put that in the morning and evening as well. Joanne Fiddy: Yeah, I do. I notice it and I love, I have to say for everyone, it comes with a really wonderful gold spoon, which I have to do fight my children that I've got little ones and they always want to steal it. So I'm like, no, it's mine. And, but you just, you just shot it. I love it. You can shot it or you can put it in water and it tastes absolutely delicious. How important was that for you to have something that tasted wonderful as well as having the right supplements as well? Wizz: Ha ha. Yeah, really important. And we wanted to make it like a ritual as well. And ⁓ we use what's called a liposome or nanotechnology, which means it's much more bioavailable than pills and powders. So the nutrients are encapsulated in billions of little liposomes, which basically means that it protects nutrients that go through your system. So you're gonna absorb about ninety eight percent of compared to pills and powders and gummies where you absorb about ten percent of it. So that comes in a liquid format. so that you say you can shot it off the the goldy looking spoon, we call it. you can mix it in water so and you keep it in the fridge as well once it's opened. So again, it kind of ⁓ is a You take most people go in the fridge in the morning, so it's a reminder to take it because, again, like you said, the growth fog, you can be forgetting things. ⁓ the morning one's got 12 supplements in one, so again, neither was taking 40 sips supplements a day, which is mad. ⁓ I've now got everything that I need kind of in one, which is ⁓ which is really good. ⁓ and ⁓ lots it's really funny when you watch people. Try to try in person because everyone calls this like really weird face once they're going to take it, thinking this is going to be horrendous. Then they take it, they're like, ⁓ actually, it's nothing like they thought, but it's actually it's very strong taste as well, so it's very fruity and it's very tangy and a little bit creamy, is the best way to describe it. it's a wild berry fibre, and it's quite unusual because it's got this creaminess because the the liposomes are made from ⁓ sunflower lipids, so it's bit creamy and oily, but then it's fruity. Joanne Fiddy: Yeah. ⁓ Wizz: ⁓ because we've we flavoured it with natural wild berries and so it's got natural flavours in. ⁓ so yeah it it could be quite strong if you have it straight, ⁓ which actually lots of people love as well. But it's interesting because the evening one is vanilla flavour so it's bit sweeter, which actually again a lot of people like because it kind of sometimes you have you have that chocolate craving in the evening, if you have it after dinner, you kind of it kind of zaps that need for sugar craving because you're yeah, you're having ⁓ yeah this shot of vanilla. Joanne Fiddy: Yeah. Yeah, it is because those sugar cravings, they ramp up, don't they? They do ramp up. You feel that you're more hungry. I love, know when I take it, I just feel so much more energized. It gives me a buffer. Like I said, my massif, it does give me a buffer in my life. I have small children, I'm in perimenopause and I think I sometimes need that little buffer to keep going and that is such a huge part of my morning ritual. Wizz: Yeah, they can do Joanne Fiddy: And ⁓ with evening essential, can you take it if you do fast? How does that work? Wizz: Yeah, I mean I'm not an expert on fasting. so some some people fast in there's like super strict. and some people yeah, are fine to have kind of a little bit or a few calories. So again, I think it really depends on what your fasting protocol is and I suppose who you're working with or so who's advising you on that. it's got very minimal calories in and it's ⁓ it's made from yeah, vanilla and it's made from natural wild berries with the flavourings. so again, I think it really depends on who who that is that you're you're working with on a a fasting element. I I think fasting is an interesting one and it's not something I think is a good thing to do in paramedicals. ⁓ So yeah and think works for for everybody's bodies different. I certainly know for myself like fasting is the worst thing that I could be doing. and I think a lot of women start to put on weight ⁓ in Perimenopause and start to really struggle. So they look at fasting as a solution, but actually you need really need to be fueling your body and it can be really raising your cortisol, then is having an effect on your your and progesterone as well and really starts to make them a bit more haywire as well. So yeah, I would definitely listen to your body and it does work for some women, but I think the majority of people it doesn't and I think it's making symptoms worse. Joanne Fiddy: I could not agree more because I've noticed when I've tried it, I awake, I find that it absolutely spikes my cortisol in the evening. So I'm, it doesn't work for me. But just for anyone out there that does, because everybody is different, I just to talk about that one. Recently, which I love and I'm fascinated, I really want to talk about more, is in your latest campaign messaging, you've just talked about dropping the perimenopausal word from your... Wizz: Yeah. Definitely. Joanne Fiddy: branding in your campaign, please tell us more about that and your reasoning behind it. Wizz: Yeah, I mean it's been a really interesting journey. We all launched nearly two years ago and mean having worked with brands for a long time and saying I would never launch a brand, one of the main reasons as well as it being hard, ⁓ there's just so many brands out there unless there's a true gap in the market, I I think it's quite hard. ⁓ well it is hard, it's hard anyway, but it's even harder. if there's lots of brands out there out there doing the same thing. And ⁓ I was with what's happening in the world at the moment, there's a lot more to talk about menopause, which is hugely exciting. Joanne Fiddy: Hmm. Wizz: Lot more celebrities and public figures talking about their experience, which is which is great. It's bringing much more awareness to what menopause is. So when we were looking at the market, we were like, well, hang on, what about perimenopause? Because there's still a lot of misunderstanding about what it is, how early it starts. ⁓ certainly for myself, I never questioned in my late 30s that I could be experiencing parametopause. It never crossed my mind, my doctor never talked about it, no one else ever thought about it. But actually, there's a study in America where sixty-five percent of women are experiencing symptoms of perimenopause in their late 30s from 35 to 40. And what we were seeing is women were resonating with our marketing or and saying, Well, yeah, I need more energy, or yeah, I've got brain fog, or I'm waking up at 3 AM, or all of these different symptoms and resonating with my story. And they were hearing all of this, and then they were looking, I think coming to look at product or we'd see them in person at events and they'd be like, ⁓ but I'm I'm not perimenopausal yet. ⁓ but I probably need to be thinking about it or I am, but I can't deal with that. Or ⁓ yeah, no, it's just too much. ⁓ there's a lot of denial, not ready to think about it. And I think there's a huge amount of societal pressure and also judgment around perimenopause and menopause. And it's a big emotional thing for a woman to go through to think about end of fertility. end of being a woman, kind of all whatever things linked to that, that people have different perceptions in their mind. which is really sad ⁓ in lots of other cultures it's almost celebrated, ⁓ but it's certainly not in the UK. ⁓ ⁓ ⁓ men turn into a silver fox and women become invisible, it feels like. ⁓ and have to be pretty and they're criticized and and we're we're seeing this ⁓ and more. Well, it's not going away and I don't know whether it It feels like in some ways it should be getting better with body positivity and age positivity with different types of models and things like that. But really, is it like we've seen the rise of GLP ones and the skinny heroin chic of the nineties that we grew up with? It's it's back with a vengeance, more than it ever was. So have we moved on really? and the trolling that happens online to women is unreal. Again, lots of women are now being very public about it, saying calling out the trolls and saying, Why do you think you should be able to say this? And also thanks to my algorith algorithm. So it's some really bold women that are standing out against that as well. So it's kind of also no surprise that it's a hard thing for a woman to be emotionally ⁓ and mentally thinking about as well. So there's been a lot of identity friction around perimenopause. so we have yeah, we've flipped or flopped about this, but then we've made this big decision to drop the P word, ⁓ Paromenopause. and 'cause so many people were resonating with the brand in other ways with our marketing campaigns, with the product and seeing the benefits. So that's been a ⁓ kind of a big decision that we've made that yeah, we're really excited about and don't regret launching with a big focus on perimenopause. But again, I think you have to listen to what's happening, listening to your customers that People are out there and adapt with what's happening. And there's still still a lack of education about what perimenopause is, and that's gonna take quite a number of years to reach the masses. Joanne Fiddy: Definitely, And I think there's ⁓ so much to unpack in there, isn't There's all the beliefs that we have. Like, do we have any role models growing up about perimenopause? No, it was just like a hot joke. ⁓ There is that denial that is taking And again, I love what you said, that kind of ⁓ the ⁓ ageing or the anti-ages culture we right now, ⁓ it's not friendly to women. ⁓ You it would have changed by And we see that ⁓ 90s, know, ⁓ her and shit coming that was grow up with. And also if you think about it, if menopause is puberty in reverse, all those little beliefs we have as teenagers are coming through. We see all those people on screen getting smaller and smaller. So absolutely, how do you find that your customers have received that? How have they received the fact that you have now dropped the perimenopausal word on your product? Wizz: Yeah, I think ⁓ they've we've received it really well and I think one of the biggest things is we have so many raving fans and so many people that love the product that they want to tell their friends about it and then again I think with anything, if we find something that works, whether it's a face cream or a hair product or great lipstick or a supplement, we we tell all our friends. But then they're like, ⁓ they're telling their friends but then but they're they're getting up this barrier with their friends that they don't want to talk about. They're like, ⁓ no, that's not me and they're like ⁓ my friend is so perimenopausal, but she d she just can't see it or she won't discuss it. so I think they've really found that that's helpful to be able to, I suppose, to discuss it more. Because often people come to me going, How can I help my friends? Like what do I do? Like, how do I communicate this to them when I know this would help? So I mean, my biggest bit of advice is always I suppose talking about your own experience, ⁓ rather than saying, I you're in parametingopause because of XYZ. But it's it's always a process with women. Joanne Fiddy: Yeah. Mm. Wizz: ⁓ and often I hear women and they say, actually what now I look back because they recognise their impairmentopause, they say, actually, this started three to five years ago. Once they start, once they've joined the docs, they can then look back ⁓ and start to see it. But that's a long time. So if people people will start getting support earlier, then I think it it will help. And lots of people are in that mindset of wanting to think have a longer, healthier life. as well. ⁓ and it's not about lifespan, it's about health span. So people are thinking about strength training 'cause they yeah, want to protect themselves later in life. And and so yeah, I think that it's tapping into the mindset of of people as well of yeah, how it will help them. Joanne Fiddy: Yeah, definitely. And I love what you said when you love something, you talk about them. And I was like, I want you on the pod because I love what you do. So this is absolutely right. So I everyone to hear about you. So I was like, come on the pod, please come and talk to us. Cause I really love what you do. And I love that version about hindsight, you know, when we look back, if you could talk to yourself back then, maybe go back five or six years. Wizz: Ha ha ha Yeah. Joanne Fiddy: What advice would you give your 30 something self? And for women listening to this as well in their 30s who probably need to hear this as well. Wizz: Gosh, I've changed so much. I would yeah, look at my cycle, learn about my period. Like, I I I read a book when I was 39 about my period, and I was like, wow, yeah, it's wild. Like, I I think what's really exciting is there's a whole younger generation, and I hear this all the time, but I hear women kind of women in their like Joanne Fiddy: wild yeah Wizz: late teens or early twenties and they're going, ⁓ my mom's going through this, I'll be telling them all about it, because they're tracking their cycles, they understand what's happening to their body. And they're telling they're teaching their mothers about perimenopause. Because we just haven't had that. I think the biggest thing and it is to embrace ⁓ my femininity. was really in ⁓ yeah, I denial sounds like a strong word, but I was I again, I think growing up I'm nearly forty four and growing up I again had amazing equal opportunities but everything you did was to you can do everything as well as a man. So what do you do? You have to act like a man. You have to be strong. You have to ignore your periods. Just yeah. Went off the pill so yeah didn't have many symptoms and just took a neurophone if you didn't didn't feel great. You power through. So a generation of women now that are going through perimenopause and menopause have always powered through. We're used to feeling awful so we just carry on. feeling awful. So we don't take control of how we feel. so yeah, I think my biggest bit of advice to anyone or any age is to tune into your body, embrace your feminine qualities because actually we have gifts. We have so many more gifts that are different to men. We're much more intuitive, we're kind of yes, we're more emotional, but emotions could be a good thing. It doesn't have to be a bad thing. yes may cry in more often or maybe we cry at work, but then you look at men and have the highest ever suicide rate because they they can't be emotional. They don't know how to be emotional as well. So emotion's good. because have to process those emotions, which again I never used to do. So I think it's embracing my femininity, my womanhood, ⁓ understanding my cycle that I'm gonna feel different every month of my cycle. ⁓ yeah, just being a bit kinder to myself, really. Joanne Fiddy: Yes, yes, because we are living and working in that patriarchal society where it doesn't matter where we are in our cycle. As you say, it was just go, go, go, go, go. And there are ups and downs, there are peaks. There's times when you do feel full of ideas, you know? You're like, yes, I feel great. Other times you want to put a little hoodie on, you want to just work from home and that's okay too. I mean, how many times I remember just having to hide a tampon up my sleeve. or just scuttle away or just it was seen as a bad thing. And like you say, it's embracing who you are, your femininity and taking that as we go through to the next chapter as well. What are you looking forward to post-menopause? Wizz: I mean it's really interesting because actually not many people are talking about postmenopause and how great it can be. And it's interesting the women I talk to ⁓ and tell them what I do. And some women again are like, ⁓ I I want to know about permenopause, I think it's coming, even if they're probably in it. Some of them are, ⁓ god, I don't want to think about that yet. Some of them are like, ⁓ I'm definitely in it. But there's this heaviness with all of them. When I spent when I when I meet a woman and she goes, ⁓ I've done it. She's just her energy is high. She's like, I'm Joanne Fiddy: Yeah. Wizz: that's all done with, I'm post-metaphors, it's great. Like her whole energy is different and it's so exciting to see. And there's a whole I think wave of women that are just like, yeah, this is it. Like this is great. And i I mean sometimes what is also depressing is sometimes symptoms don't go away. ⁓ but they can change and we and still have s have some. you still definitely have to be look still looking after yourself. But ⁓ there's a There's a whole new lease of life, I think. And we talk about estrogen progesterone and and ⁓ testosterone going down, but we have other hormones that start to go up as well, like our FSH levels. ⁓ all again, this whole perimenopause and menopause is a kind of a rewiring of the brain as well. So we start to become kind of more intuitive, more emotionally intelligent. So there's lots of other things that are that are happening to us as well, which is really interesting. So think there's lots, lots to look forward to. and yeah, the longer the more there's more s more focus on women's health and and what's happening to women's bodies now, which is exciting. Joanne Fiddy: is, there really is. And I ask all my guests this, what are pressing play on next? Wizz: ⁓ what my pressing play on next. Gosh, the to-do list is huge. have some exciting collaborations coming up as a brand, ⁓ which is good. ⁓ yeah, we've had some really ⁓ big wins the last few months, which is great. At the beginning of the year we launched into Liberty and also Holland of Barrel Online, so ⁓ that's been exciting, ⁓ yeah, exciting for us. ⁓ yeah, and yeah, working on new product development, which is also exciting as well. So ⁓ yeah, things I could kind of talk a bit about but not say too much about. ⁓ Joanne Fiddy: Yeah, completely underserved. I love a watch this space. Well, thank you so much for being on the Pressing Play podcast, especially in the heat wave. It is such a hot one. I know we're both got the fans going on behind the scenes and I just want to say a massive thank you. I appreciate it so much. Wizz: But watch his face. Yeah. ⁓ pleasure, it great to have you great to chat with you today.