Latest / Women Disrupting Tech / How Umaversity Helps Women Reclaim Power, Pleasure and Health with Jo Sarah | Ep. 108

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How Umaversity Helps Women Reclaim Power, Pleasure and Health with Jo Sarah | Ep. 108 · Women Disrupting Tech

0:00
Not knowing enough about your mental body and sexual
0:04
well-being, it means it affects relationships, your love
0:08
relationships, your family relationships, your friendly
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relationships. Like it really extremely affects
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yourself worth and how also we experience our pleasure as a
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woman and this disconnection. It's stills energy, creativity,
0:23
confidence, ultimately what we don't talk about enough.
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It costs society more than we realize.
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Welcome to Women Disrupting Tech.
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My name is dear Keanukas, and on this podcast I give the women
0:46
who work in tech the platform they need to inspire and empower
0:50
each other. Join me on a journey into the
0:53
world of entrepreneurship, funding biases, and role models
0:58
to discover the strategies for success in the tech industry.
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In other words, how women can disrupt tech.
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Are you ready to listen? Hey, welcome back to Women
1:15
Disrupting Tech and thank you for tuning in to episode 108.
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Before we start, a quick heads up.
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This episode contains explicit language and conversations
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around topics that you may find sensitive, including sexual
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trauma, shame, and systems of oppression.
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That said, I encourage you to stay with us because what you'll
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hear in this episode is important, human, and above all,
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deeply healing. With that, let me tell you what
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happened when I sat down with Joe Sera, the founder and CEO of
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Humaversity. Joe Sera is a woman on a mission
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to help others reclaim their health, pleasure, and
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well-being. I could tell you that this was a
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beautiful conversation, and it was.
2:05
But at the start it made me uncomfortable because when Joe
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Serra explained that the silence around Women's Health is
2:14
strategic and that patriarchal, colonial and capitalist systems
2:19
benefit when women are disconnected from their bodies,
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I felt the sting. It felt like I was being
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implicated in something that I didn't want to be part of, and
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frankly, I didn't think I had any influence over.
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But here's the thing. Discomfort is also part of
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growth. And Joe Sarah wasn't blaming me
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or wasn't blaming at all. She was inviting me to listen.
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To listen differently, to show up differently, and to lead
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differently. In this episode of Women
2:53
Disrupting Tech, we talk about why the female anatomy is still
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missing from many biology books, how shame and lack of knowledge
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about the female anatomy fuel burnout and trauma, and why
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university educates women about their health and sexual
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well-being with a blend of science and global ancestral
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wisdom. This episode told me something
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simple but radical. We don't teach women how their
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bodies work, and this comes with huge consequences that affect us
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all. In that sense, the system is
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broken. But since systems are built by
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people, those same people like you and me can change them for
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the better. So when you're ready to listen
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and learn how humor versity helps women reclaim their health
3:45
and sexual well-being, please. Welcome to women disrupting Tech
3:49
Joe Sera. Hey Joe Sera, good morning.
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Welcome to women disrupting tech.
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Good to have you. Can you tell us briefly a bit
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about yourself and what got you started on this journey?
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Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm super excited to do this
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episode with you. So I am Joe Serra, I'm founder
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and CEO of UMA Varsity and also keynote speaker and unapologetic
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advocate for Women's Health, mental body and sexual
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well-being. I grew up between cultures,
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Vietnamese, Dutch, Indian and also in different countries of
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Asia and I witnessed how shame, silence and system systems
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really stripped women of their power.
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And what drives me today is simple but so important is to
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give women the knowledge, the tools and the support they need
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to take ownership of their health, their pleasure and
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power. And besides this, I'm also
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advocating for diversity, inclusivity, equity and
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belonging in workplaces and encouraging women to take also
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ownership of their their businesses, their empowerment
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and their desires. But mainly it all starts with
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the foundational piece and that is your well-being.
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And that's why I founded university.
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OK, so when we spoke before, you told me that sort of everyone
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knows the anatomy of a man and for women this is very
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different. What do you think causes this?
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Is that also the shame part? Well, I think first of all, not
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only women don't know their anatomy, but we all don't know
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the female anatomy that much because the female anatomy has
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not been excessively explained, just like the male anatomy
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explained in the in the biology books only.
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For example, only three years ago did the clitoris, the full
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clitoris complex actually, was it actually displayed in one
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high school biology book in the Netherlands, let's say.
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So that's only three years ago. And so there we have so much to
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learn and it all starts with education.
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And I think why women grew up knowing so little about their
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bodies was because silence is strategic.
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Patriarchal, colonial and capital systems benefit when
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women are disconnected from their bodies, unfortunately, and
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we're taught to feel ashamed, like you said, and also fear our
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periods, ignore our pleasure, and doubt our intuition.
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And education systems, as I said before, rarely name the
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clitoris, which is the number one pleasure organ for women,
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let alone teach us about how our hormones affect performance, our
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our performance or our sexuality.
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And I, I really believe that that ignorance isn't accidental.
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It keeps power and overall well-being out of our hands.
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And it's not, I don't think it's per SE one person's fault, but
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it's what there are. Yeah.
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Our systems and society have been been placing because of
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patriarchy and colonialism and capitalism.
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And. Yeah.
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And it, it the the effects of not knowing enough about your
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body is catastrophic. It's really big because it it
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doesn't only affect women in their personal lives, but an
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area, every area of their life. OK.
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Can you elaborate a bit on that because it's the the personal
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lives if you are on your period then generally from what I hear,
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I am not a woman so I don't know.
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But from what I hear, you don't feel that well.
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But how does that impact your life, both personally and
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professionally? Yeah, so when women don't know
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enough about their bodies and what's happening in their bodies
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and the effect it has on their mental health and their sexual
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health, then often when you don't know something, you
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actually think it's you, you become ashamed.
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You just we're, we're so told to push through the pain and when
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women don't understand their well-being, their cycles,
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hormones, sexuality, right? We're also more prone to being
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misdiagnosed, which happens all the time.
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Or we're prone to being shamed, feeling shame, but also told to
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push through the pain, which happens so much and
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professionally that that means burnout, underperformance, also
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being seen as emotion, too emotional, which happens a lot,
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a lot of gaslighting on the work floor, but also happens that you
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have higher stress levels because you're pushing through
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the pain, which would be maybe addressed if you got diagnosed
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right. Or if you could actually plan
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your work around your cycle and according to your cycle to
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empower yourself if you can actually, if you know how to
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friends is when you become a new mom, how to go into the
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postpartum period with your the education and tools instead of
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just pushing yourself in that period and having having no clue
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and then not being able to recover fully.
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So then getting back to work is is is hell is.
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And that's what we hear a lot in our communities and women around
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us. And personally, not knowing
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enough about your mental body and sexual well-being.
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It means it affects relationships, love
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relationships, your family relationships, your friendly
9:22
relationships. It extremely affects yourself
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worth and how also we experience our pleasure as a woman.
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And this disconnection. It's ills, energy, creativity,
9:35
confidence. Ultimately, what we don't talk
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about enough, it costs society more than we realize.
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Can you double click on that? How much the the the is there?
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What is the business case here? For instance, well, we all know
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that women are the backbones of the family.
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Women are the ones that give birth, take care of the children
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a lot, but also we're the the caring ones in society.
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But at the same time, we're expected to do that at the same
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time when we receive a lack of care for us as women, we, we
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translates to us pushing through, getting misdiagnosed.
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And also it affects also how we can empower those around us.
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It affects how people see us as women.
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There's there's so many ways that a lack of well-being can
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can affect our sons, our our fathers, our partners, our
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colleagues at work because it's not per SE always their fault.
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But if the women don't know, they suffer.
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And this suffering just translates into every area of
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society in every layer. So, so how can we change this?
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I mean, there there's obviously the education part, which we'll
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discuss quite in depth, I think, but there's also the, the
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societal part that needs to change in terms of role models.
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And it may be not per SE around at least what I'm hearing you
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say about the, the, the care role, but also about how we look
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at women, how we look at women's sexuality, about their desires.
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Because I agree that it's, well, female health is underfunded.
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That's a fact. I think 3% of all the the health
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investments go to to female health.
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It's under researched. That's also a fact.
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I think we know less about menopause than we know about
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most rare diseases in men. But how do we make that shift in
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society to, let's say, facilitate that women can be
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their full selves? Well, I, I think it does start
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with education because it starts with awareness first.
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And if you, if nobody, if you don't get educated, you cannot
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become aware of what's missing or what is there that you should
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address. So it does start with education,
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but it also starts with creating safe spaces to talk about this
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and to actually talk about this. And I am all about the taboo,
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the breaking of taboos, the the dismantling of myths around
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Women's Health because they are very hurtful and often based on
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patriarchal and colonial beliefs and also capitalist beliefs and.
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Can can you name a few few of those myths?
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OK, let me think. There's so many.
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Well, there's just one that comes to mind is that, for
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instance, every woman is super emotional when, when it's the
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time of the month, right? That that's a wrong thing.
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Often that translates to PMS and because of PMS, but actually
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this very, extremely emotional, how people perceive it is
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actually a disbalance of hormones, especially in the
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luteal phase, the phase before you enter the menstrual phase.
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And so a lot of our experts, they, they, they, they teach on
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this and it is actually solvable through many kinds of natural
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ways, nutrition education. And, and another myth is that
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every woman, for instance, can orgasm through vaginal
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penetration. This is not true.
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And what, and this myth is actually very hurtful because a
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lot of the times because of this myth, men just penetrate first
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thing and they forget about the pleasure of the woman.
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And also because women believe this sometimes as well, they
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also allow this. And then what it ends up
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happening is that that there has been sex between a man and a
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woman and a woman has not enjoyed it and the man has.
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And this is so there's a there's a huge orgasm gap because of
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this as well, especially in heterosexual relationships
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because with with friends in between lesbians, there is no
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orgasm gap. Because they know how to
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stimulate each other. Exactly, and because they also
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are aware of it. Why don't we teach this at
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schools? Well, this is interesting.
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Or at least the the the biology part of it.
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Yeah, this is, it's interesting. I've been in education for over
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15 years and what I've noticed is that, for instance, in the
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Netherlands, we have a week of, of, of education around the
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birds and the bees. It's called the.
14:27
And every year parents decide to, to keep their at home
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because they don't want their kids to learn about the birds
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and the bees. But in these, in these lessons,
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it's really in why don't we teach about anatomy in schools?
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I think it's because the adults are still very ashamed.
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They're taught shame about sexuality and they're like, I
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don't want my kid to learn about sex yet because sex is XYZ.
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That's what it means to them. But they don't allow their their
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own child to learn about it in the most neutral way and to
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discover it themselves. Many studies have actually shown
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is that when you only teach your kids when they're teenagers,
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it's often too late because at that time they're more
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rebellious. They don't want to talk.
15:13
It is from their parents. So it's important to teach your
15:16
kids. Well, I think it's important to
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teach your kids first what, what boundaries are and consent in
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which part of their bodies nobody is allowed to touch
15:25
without consent. I also think I, when I have a, a
15:28
child, I will teach my child the correct anatomical names for
15:33
their anatomy from the beginning and not some other words that
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you know, are kind of more cute because I also want my child to
15:42
feel ownership of their anatomy. So I think that's very
15:46
important, learning the anatomy, the the anatomical names, but
15:50
also the boundary consent. And those two things are very
15:53
essential for young children to learn because this also can help
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them give the the words and the signals when something is
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crossing and someone is crossing their boundaries.
16:07
Because unfortunately, we just actually released an episode on
16:10
this university podcast about sexual trauma and it's insane.
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I have yet to encounter a woman that has not experienced sexual
16:20
trauma in any any type of form. And this is and a a lot of the
16:24
sexual trauma actually happens when they're younger, when
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they're children. So they enter adulthood damaged.
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Yeah, there's a lot of damage that happens.
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And also when sexual trauma occurs to you when you're a
16:39
child, your sexual journey or the, your sexual education gets
16:45
accelerated, gets distorted. And so the rest of your adult
16:49
life, you are affected by this. And if you don't have the right
16:53
education or experts to guide you into through healing, you're
16:58
damaged. And sex becomes either something
17:00
that you you seek for validation, what we've, this is
17:03
what we've expert just has told me as well.
17:06
And also what we've seen or sex becomes something that you
17:09
absolutely want nothing from, or you don't see sex as something
17:12
that can bring you pleasure. So there's, there's all kinds of
17:17
very heavy effects if we don't educate our children.
17:22
And I often get the question actually, why don't you start
17:24
with, you know, why why doesn't, why didn't you start with
17:27
university to educate children? And it is because I've seen that
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if we every week in the Netherlands with the with the
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birds and the bees week that the parents keep their children at
17:37
home and the parents complain at school and there's so much
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resistance. And I just knew if in order for
17:45
us to create a better world for the generations to come, we have
17:49
to start with this generation that is deciding what sexuality
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and well-being means for women in this world.
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And that is the adults and that's why I decided we're
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focusing solely on adults. So 18 plus and or 16 plus.
18:06
Sometimes we also, we also provide education in colleges
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and stuff. But yeah, so this is actually
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what I I really believe and I strongly believe in what I want
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to make change for. And how does Uma Varsity play
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into this? How is it addressing this these
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gaps in knowledge and and access to to information?
18:26
Yeah. So OMA Versity is a learning and
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a community platform where we empower women to take ownership
18:32
over their mental body and sexual well-being.
18:35
And we do this through education that is science based and
18:38
culturally rooted. So includes the different
18:42
medical modalities all over the world from different cultures.
18:44
We have expert guidance with experts from also all over the
18:48
world that have a lot of experience themselves, but also
18:52
a lot of experience with patients and clients.
18:55
And we do this through the support of a community where we
18:59
encourage women to discover how their body, mind and sexuality
19:04
really work and how to thrive. But we also encourage women to
19:08
share and connect multiculturally.
19:10
So between cultures, but also between generations because a 5
19:15
minute conversation can change your life.
19:18
And so we learn through different ways and we provide
19:21
knowledge exchange in different ways.
19:23
And we work with over 100 trusted international experts
19:26
right now provide taboo breaking education.
19:30
So we really provide the safe space to talk about everything
19:35
when it comes to Women's Health. There is no food in our
19:38
community, in our platform. OK, so how do you create that
19:42
safe space? Because I think that's one of
19:46
the very most important parts of of building a community.
19:50
Yes. So from the very beginning, I
19:52
knew that I'm just one woman, one person with one perspective.
19:57
So instantly I knew that I needed to find experts around
20:01
me, but also ambassadors, so women who are already in
20:06
advocating in their own way for Women's Health and together.
20:09
And I made sure that as much as I could.
20:12
That that these these experts and ambassadors were culturally
20:16
inclusive, gender inclusive, that they also had the the right
20:21
values that coincide with our values at university.
20:25
So the first thing of our biggest value is leading with
20:29
love. So at our events and our online
20:33
offline events, we always leave with love and we make sure that
20:37
everybody understands that everything you say needs to add
20:40
value. You're allowed to be here,
20:43
you're allowed to Share your story.
20:45
We will not judge. So it's really important to to
20:48
also communicate and make sure that there's a non judgmental
20:52
environment. There's an environment where you
20:55
don't just share, Share your story and that's A and and
21:00
that's it. No, we also have the experts and
21:03
education and the supporting and loving, loving community that
21:07
can help you go from having a problem to healing and then to
21:13
feeling empowered and to having to taking ownership over your
21:17
body. And so we're basically we're a
21:20
sexual hormonal well-being university that we all wish we
21:24
had but never existed that we feel safe at.
21:27
Because I'm also an advisor in diversity, inclusivity, equity
21:30
and belonging. I try to make sure that there's
21:35
a foundational, like a foundation of safety everywhere.
21:39
We go so that includes making and making sure that our experts
21:43
are from different cultures are from different generations are
21:46
from different genders that our education also includes.
21:50
For instance, we use the term women plus we're still trying to
21:53
create a more inclusive term. But with women plus we mean
21:57
everyone that identifies as woman or feminine and or has a
22:01
vulva. And it's also for instance non
22:04
binary people that have a vulva but don't see them as a woman,
22:09
but they also deserve to learn about their vulva for instance.
22:14
Even if they don't, I. Identify as women.
22:17
Yeah, Yeah. OK.
22:18
But we try to include this as well in our education as well as
22:22
we've had also panel talks like Beyoncé's womanhood where we had
22:27
a person that has an intersex experience.
22:30
We had a trans woman who decided to not transition with hormones,
22:36
a trans woman who who did decide to transition with hormones and
22:39
they're like, there's. It was such an interesting panel
22:43
because a lot of people in the audience had no idea what
22:46
actually really plays in their lives when you are not just a
22:53
woman, you know, you have. There's so many different very
22:56
especially people with intersex experience.
22:58
There are a lot of people with intersex experiences and that it
23:02
just doesn't get talked about enough.
23:04
It was also really hard to find a person that was willing to
23:07
speak about it. But I found I find it found it
23:10
so important that we had that voice on the stage because
23:15
that's this is how we learn as a society.
23:17
This is how we can support people that we meet every day
23:19
with intersex experiences that are transgender, that are non
23:23
binary, that are a woman, that that that is a woman who has
23:27
experienced sexual trauma, who doesn't know about her pleasure,
23:30
who has suffered postpartum trauma.
23:32
Let's let Yeah, this goes on. Is it?
23:35
Is it difficult, by the way, to find women to talk on panels who
23:40
want to or who feel comfortable talking about their sexual
23:44
trauma? Because I I can imagine that
23:48
also is part of the shame that rests on, on being assaulted for
23:54
a rape that you don't. There's a lot of women that
23:58
don't speak up about it. Well, I haven't had any
24:02
difficulty finding women or people speaking up about topics
24:06
that are very, I, that, that a lot of people feel shame about
24:10
or fear or, or there's a lot of taboo or stigma around.
24:14
I think it's because I really thought about, hey, if I was
24:19
asked to speak about this and this topic, how would I want to
24:23
be approached in, in the 1st place?
24:25
So the way we approach these people to speak about these
24:29
topics is first of all, in a very open and loving way, in a
24:33
way that we guarantee safety, that we communicate and inform
24:37
them on how we're going to guarantee the safety.
24:40
But I also think as the leader of home adversity, one of my
24:43
values is leading by example. That also means that if I ask
24:48
other people to be vulnerable, I need to be vulnerable myself.
24:52
And I've done that from the very beginning, being vulnerable
24:54
about my experiences, being open to talk about it.
24:57
That's how basically the months and years before home adversity,
25:01
it kind of started. I was very open and vulnerable
25:04
about my experiences and I saw how I just get, I got so many
25:08
women come back to me say, because you spoke up about your
25:11
experiences about your and you were vulnerable.
25:15
This is what I did to my life and this is how improved my life
25:18
and my awareness of my sexuality about my well-being.
25:21
And we also make the people, when we approach people to
25:24
speak, we also make them aware of that, that, that the impact
25:27
they can have. We've only gotten very good
25:32
feedback from the people that spoke with it.
25:34
We felt so safe to speak and we loved the questions from the
25:38
audience and we loved the, the impact.
25:40
And still to this day, even two years later, people from the
25:43
first event still get messages from people like, Oh, I love
25:46
when you say that, that that really affected my life.
25:49
So a lot of the times they become allies from for our
25:52
mission and they support what we're doing.
25:55
Yeah, yeah. And it's also then what I mean
25:59
you say is that it's also really important to create those role
26:03
models for women and to to your point, to be 1 yourself.
26:10
I take that very seriously. Yeah, with self compassion of
26:13
course, but. Yeah.
26:14
How do you balance that? Just taking it from my own
26:18
experience as a starting ally. You want to do everything
26:21
perfect but how do you balance that with self compassion?
26:26
Yeah, this is a very, I love this question.
26:28
This is something that I've been researching and experimenting
26:32
with a lot. First of all, for me, it starts
26:35
with I created a platform around well-being as a woman.
26:40
So in order to lead by example, to be the role model, I also
26:45
need to take care of my own well-being.
26:47
And I have a very rare health issue with my esophagus that
26:53
effects a lot of my life. I have trouble keeping food in
26:57
my body. I vomited out because my
26:59
esophagus doesn't work. And so there's also what it
27:03
means in this case for self compassion is sometimes
27:08
accepting that on a day that my health isn't the best, but then
27:12
also taking it more easy, finding a work, work life
27:16
balance, work work health balance, resting, setting my
27:20
boundaries for certain things, but at the same time also
27:24
finding acceptance. And when I have it, when I do
27:29
have a hard time with my health or with some other issue that I
27:33
am kind to myself, there's this voice that we all have.
27:37
It's the inner critic. And I've learned to not let it
27:41
be a perfectionist because The thing is, I can be a extreme
27:44
perfectionist. I'm very ambitious, very driven,
27:47
but I, I noticed that the way I spoke to myself and still speak
27:51
to myself sometimes, it's something that you're ever
27:53
learning. I feel it didn't add value to
27:56
what I was doing. It meant everything worse.
27:58
And so I started seeing like I, I reprogrammed my mind set and
28:06
reprogrammed this, this inner critic into being more a coach,
28:09
an editor than a, than an inner critic.
28:13
How do you do that? It starts first.
28:15
Well, it started with. Me.
28:16
It starts with awareness. Be aware.
28:18
Oh, my inner critic is now saying this.
28:21
Exactly. It started with, hey, what, what
28:24
I'm actually telling myself, this inner critic, this voice is
28:27
not helping in this situation is it's making me feel worse.
28:29
It's making me feel sad, angry, even though it's something maybe
28:34
out of my control or it's something that has happened.
28:37
And what it also did is that it, it fueled my fear of failure and
28:42
it fueled my insecurity and lowered myself worth.
28:47
But I realized that making mistakes is the way I learn, the
28:51
way we all learn and in order and also the way you grow.
28:54
And so for instance, I have a every year I have a word.
28:59
Last year it was self compassion and I focus on these words.
29:02
And this year my focus is experimentation.
29:06
But experimentation to do that successfully is only possible
29:12
when you have self compassion because you allow yourself to
29:15
make mistakes, mistakes with quotation marks so that you can
29:20
learn. But if you, if you can't do you
29:23
can't do it with self compassion, then what it does is
29:26
that you just punish yourself for making mistakes and you
29:28
become afraid to try new things. And I, in order for me to lead
29:34
university in the best way, and also in this untouched,
29:39
unexplored space of Women's Health, right?
29:42
Two years ago, there was barely anything about Women's Health.
29:45
Right now there's way more, thank God and thank the
29:48
universe. But we're still navigating in a
29:51
very new space that has, that hasn't been explored, but has
29:57
been so present in societies from the very beginning.
30:01
Women's Health has always been there, but we haven't educated
30:05
or found improvements or researched enough because you,
30:07
as you said, it's under research underfunded.
30:10
And so it does take as the the CEO of a university, it does
30:15
take a lot of pivoting. It does take a lot of research,
30:18
a lot of trying things out. How can we make women feel the
30:22
safest to learn, share and connect and grow and explore
30:26
their well-being? And how can we provide that in
30:29
the best way? And that takes for me self
30:32
compassion in order to be experimental.
30:36
Yeah, I think then a lot of founders need to have self
30:40
compassion because they need into your point.
30:43
Really the only way to learn is to make the mistakes, because
30:47
otherwise you don't find out what is wrong.
30:50
Exactly. I always like the the Edison
30:53
quote here that I found. I didn't feel I just found
30:57
10,000 ways that it doesn't work.
30:59
Exactly. And that is so that that that is
31:02
like such valuable knowledge, knowing what doesn't work, you
31:06
know. And so for me, it's, it's really
31:10
important to lead this way also because we have a lot of female
31:16
founders in our community that do see also, Hey, Joe, Sarah is
31:22
leading university this in this way.
31:24
And I also coach female founders a lot with business strategy and
31:28
with manifesting their desires. My book.
31:30
And I think it's just important that as a leader, you're
31:35
vulnerable, that you have self compassion, that you are also
31:39
not afraid to speak up about what you believe in and that
31:43
you, you, you add value to those around you, to yourself.
31:49
That those are things that I really try to do every every
31:52
day. I'm not perfect at all.
31:55
I feel successfully every day. And I say feel successfully
31:59
because I am a person that I look at, hey, what, what did go
32:02
wrong? And how can I, how can I be
32:05
better tomorrow? So that's.
32:07
Yeah, how, how do you learn? Because that's also something we
32:10
don't teach our girls to speak up.
32:14
How how do you do that? How do you learn?
32:16
Your teach yourself that. Yeah, that's a really good one.
32:19
I had to learn this myself because I was always a person
32:22
that knew. I still am a person that I know
32:25
what I as a young girl, I knew what I wanted, but as a girl,
32:29
you get often silenced. And also, hey, just don't say
32:34
this. You're not this is inappropriate
32:36
or you or especially by boys or men that are taught to be like,
32:41
oh, I'm dominant in the conversation and it's not their
32:43
fault. It's just what they're taught.
32:45
And so it started learning how to speak up is first actually
32:49
learning who am I? What am I here to say?
32:53
What am I here to do in this life?
32:55
And you don't have to have a perfect answer and this answer,
32:57
all these answers also change as you grow and as you become older
33:01
and as you experience more of life.
33:03
But knowing in the moment answer like who am I?
33:08
What are my values? What do I stand for?
33:11
What, what is my message really helps you to become clear on
33:16
what you have to say and starting in your your inner
33:20
circle, speaking up about what you want, what you don't want,
33:24
what you believe in, what you don't believe in, and then
33:27
expanding that to bigger circles.
33:29
That is, I think, the way to go, but it starts with with knowing
33:33
yourself first. Knowing yourself 1st and then
33:38
moving to telling other people in in in a small, let's say
33:43
trusted circle and then expanding gradually that circle
33:47
outside. Yeah, exactly.
33:50
OK, so I. Want to?
33:51
There's so many other tips I can give as well, but this is the
33:56
the first few steps and knowing that your voice is powerful and
34:00
it's a it's a tool to spread your message.
34:03
Yeah, and that you deserve to use that voice.
34:06
Exactly. Because that's why you have it.
34:11
In the 1st place, yeah. And everybody deserves to be
34:13
heard. Doesn't matter what you've done
34:16
or where you come from, everybody deserves to be heard.
34:18
That's also another thing when it comes to leadership, that's
34:21
really important for me is to stay curious, stay open and
34:25
curious. Also, all of these things that I
34:28
said before that I hold myself accountable to, that I feel
34:31
responsible for. It's also for me a way to keep
34:35
my ego in check because everybody has ego.
34:37
Everybody has. And I, I really don't want to
34:41
lead university with ego because it's such a safe space for many
34:45
women and it's such an important space and we have a huge
34:47
mission. And so keeping your ego in check
34:50
also starts with being open and curious and asking questions
34:54
instead of assuming. And this is a very human thing
34:58
to do, human assuming. It's also what your brain is
35:01
wired to do. But I am a very curious person,
35:04
so I do like to ask a lot of questions.
35:07
I remember as a girl, I already liked it so much that my parents
35:10
said, OK, stop with the questions.
35:12
I would always ask why? Why was my question always, why
35:16
is that? Why is this?
35:17
And but I it makes you see all the intricacies and the
35:22
beautiful colors and the nuances in life and in people when you
35:27
are curious. Yeah, I fully agree there.
35:30
So I want to talk a bit about go back a bit to university,
35:35
because when we spoke before, you explained that you use five
35:39
different ways of knowledge exchange.
35:43
Can you walk through what they are and give an example of each?
35:47
Yeah, sure. So first let me start with maybe
35:51
the knowing the meaning of Uma versity.
35:53
So Uma means woman in Surnamese and it also means the people,
35:57
the nation, the goddess and and the mother in different
36:00
languages. And versity refers to like a
36:02
university where you can grow and explore.
36:05
So we're basically a university on women's well-being.
36:09
And at a university you have different ways of learning.
36:13
But when I was creating Uma versity, I was thinking, OK,
36:17
there's this huge problem and lack of education and lack of
36:21
ownership over women for women on their their well-being.
36:25
How can I solve this in the best way?
36:27
That it's holistic, that it's all-encompassing.
36:30
So I really researched a lot and I found five ways of how we
36:37
learn best and how we can learn fully.
36:39
And everybody learns in a different way.
36:41
So the five ways are intellectual.
36:44
And that's how we provide the intellectual ways.
36:47
What we do through expert talks, where experts give master
36:50
classes. This is the classic thing that
36:53
you see at universities as well. Learn.
36:55
We have social knowledge exchange where we learn from
36:58
each other through conversations, panel talks.
37:02
And yeah, panel talks that are multicultural, multi general
37:06
gender, multi generational. And we also learn physically, so
37:11
mind body through workshops when you take the knowledge that
37:15
you've learned and actually practice it in your body, around
37:19
your body, with your body. And then we also have emotional
37:22
and spiritual, and this is often through art, music, poetry, and
37:27
through some other modalities as well, like for instance, human
37:30
design, astrology also. These are just some things, but
37:34
through art and music and poetry, sometimes something
37:38
about your well-being, your health can just hit a different
37:41
snare, like a different string because you hear it through
37:46
music or through poetry or art or you see it.
37:50
And that's why we also provide emotional, spiritual.
37:53
And then lastly, we provide a marketplace where female owned
37:57
businesses and foundations for women are there to seek help, to
38:02
give help and support and women can find the right products, the
38:06
right possibilities for them. So it's intellectual, social,
38:09
physical, emotional, spiritual in a marketplace.
38:13
So how do you find the right companies for the marketplace
38:18
And on the back of that, how do you find the right experts for
38:21
for the panel talks and for on the platform because you have
38:24
over 100 experts. I was just really curious how
38:28
you vetted those. Yeah, it's, it's been a very
38:32
beautiful journey. What would it starts with
38:36
knowing and and living and, and building a company that knows
38:41
its values and so on adversity. Our values are very clear how
38:44
first of all, we vet our experts and our partnerships, the
38:49
collaborations, the foundations and the companies that we work
38:52
with. We vet them based on, are they
38:55
in line with our values? Can we see that in their
38:57
actions, in their messages and how they provide their services
39:00
and their products? That's how because that's also
39:04
what we owe our women that are part of our platform that they
39:08
know, hey, I'm here, I'm safe, I can explore it and discover my
39:13
and heal my within my well-being.
39:15
So we have a whole onboarding process for our experts and that
39:19
also involves that we, that myself or on my team actually
39:24
experience friends as a session with this expert.
39:27
And in, in that we also have to be vulnerable.
39:29
We, we go into that session with this expert and we just, when I
39:35
do it, for instance, I'm very vulnerable.
39:36
I'm just another woman. I'm not the CEO of women
39:39
versity. No, I'm just another woman.
39:41
And I, I'm actually there to follow a session from this
39:43
expert. And then my intuition, my gut
39:47
feeling and also the onboarding criteria that we have kind of
39:52
then will lead into, hey, is this expert right for Umoversi
39:55
or not? Can this expert provide a safe
39:58
space? Can this expert actually, does
40:00
this actually have enough experience?
40:01
Can you sense that through a session?
40:03
Can you? And then we, and then only after
40:07
that we let the expert provide education, provide the expert
40:12
talks. We, we refer our women to the
40:16
experts, but I do. But why?
40:18
One thing I really want to say is I think.
40:22
What really differentiates university from a lot of other
40:26
Women's Health platforms and what I think it's really
40:27
important that we should do more in this world is not just have
40:32
experts or education based on science only, because science is
40:39
still very behind on Women's Health.
40:42
And if we only base all of our education and, and, and all of
40:49
our expertise on that, then we can wait for many years until
40:54
it's there because it's underfunded, under researched.
40:56
But at the same time, there is, there are so much knowledge
41:01
around the world that has has been around for thousands of
41:04
years. Look at traditional Chinese
41:06
medicine, Ayurvedic, Ayurvedicenna, I can just go on
41:09
the list goes on and on, right And these medical modalities,
41:14
these these, this expertise has been around for so long and has
41:17
helped so many women around the world.
41:19
And what we do at university is we we bring that all together in
41:23
one place because often women from those cultures stay within
41:27
the culture. But what if you can actually
41:29
learn from each other's cultures how Women's Health problems are
41:34
treated? So for instance, we had a panel
41:37
on my female body around the world and we had a panel of
41:41
members who were all non western.
41:44
And they, for instance, we, there was a question about how
41:47
do you deal, how, how in your culture do you deal with, with
41:52
menstrual pain? And there were four different
41:55
answers and four answers that we didn't see in the Western world.
42:01
So it was no, there was no paracetamol or painkillers.
42:05
There were teas, there were herbs, there were certain
42:07
massages, all kinds of tools that as a woman in the audience,
42:12
you can think, oh, wait, let me try this instead of pumping my
42:15
body full with pills or you know, and, and this is what
42:19
we're doing. We're connecting women through
42:21
connecting women to experts from around the world that have
42:24
knowledge that also experts that combine science and culturally
42:29
rooted expertise. A lot of our experts actually do
42:33
both science and the different and and non scientific medical
42:37
modalities. And this combination is very
42:40
beautiful and is is goals because it it does advance.
42:43
So just to give an example there there are women that have vulvar
42:48
pain, so pain in the vulva and a lot of and this is still an
42:53
under researched problem and this is when having.
42:57
Sex or even without sex? Even without sex is possible as
43:01
well. Both.
43:02
So one of them vulva pain types is vulvadenia and we have an
43:06
expert that combines science and Chinese medicine and she
43:12
actually has heal, helped women heal through acupuncture.
43:16
And then she doesn't put the needles in the vulva.
43:18
She puts in different areas of her body and at the same time,
43:23
doctors don't know and can't explain sometimes where it is.
43:27
So this combination of the two, to be honest, I don't want to
43:31
say the two because there's Western science and there's so
43:34
much. On the other hand, and another
43:37
reason why we're combining these two is because when you only
43:41
base your experts and your knowledge that you providing
43:44
your platform on science, you on western based science, you also
43:49
exclude a lot of cultures. And we want to include all the
43:52
colors as much as possible. So there's so much benefit to
43:55
this. And this is what we've been
43:56
doing from the start and it's been so enlightening and we've
44:01
given so many women extra tools because of this.
44:04
Yeah, yeah. I.
44:06
Think pulling knowledge, it's basically what you do is you use
44:11
worse knowledge from around the world that is not necessarily in
44:15
line with traditional western medicine.
44:17
Which to your point is really like OK just take a paracetamol
44:22
and make sure you stick it out until the pain subside.
44:26
By pulling knowledge you actually enable and help a lot
44:30
of people deal with their problems exactly.
44:35
I think for some. Rare.
44:37
Conditions also men would benefit from it.
44:40
There's a lot to let let's say the even in simple things like
44:44
or practically simple things like meditation, there's a lot
44:48
of good already. Exactly.
44:51
Yeah, yeah, I agree. And, and, you know, to be
44:54
honest, I wish what we're doing was there for every gender.
44:57
The only reason we're focusing on Women's Health is because
45:02
it's the most under. Yeah, it's the biggest problem.
45:06
Exactly. And we're we're like.
45:08
Half of the world. And also another thing, I am a
45:13
woman, so it doesn't feel OK for me to speak about a man's body.
45:17
But we do welcome everybody to join the conversation and to
45:21
learn together. So we do have a lot of men, a
45:23
lot of other genders that come to our events and that join
45:27
their partners, their sisters, their mothers in learning.
45:31
How important is that? It's extremely.
45:35
Important. Because.
45:36
You feel supported not only when you're at the event or learning
45:40
at a master class or in our online Women's Health on script
45:43
pedia called UMA Pedia, but you're also feeling supported in
45:47
your home, in your work, like we are also advocating and we are.
45:51
We're providing education in companies, on the work floor, at
45:54
universities, at colleges. We're providing our we're
45:58
putting our experts in providing education there.
46:00
And then you, you not only feel supported in work, but also in
46:04
your study, in your in your relationship.
46:06
It's so important. So we always include all genders
46:10
in awe all of our education as much as we can.
46:14
There are sometimes that we keep it women only when it friends is
46:19
about sexual trauma. Then it it's a bit more.
46:22
We want to create a safe space for women to be open about the
46:25
sexual trauma and sometimes having the gender that was the
46:29
perpetrator in the room can trigger a lot and also not make
46:33
them feel safe. That's the only time that we
46:35
have had women only events, but all of the other events are open
46:40
to everybody to learn. And this I'm not saying by the
46:42
way, is it by the way important to think for?
46:45
Men to understand what trauma does too.
46:50
Absolutely. It's so important.
46:52
And this is also why, for instance, we have our podcast,
46:55
we just did an episode on, on reclaiming cells of after
46:58
trauma. And our expert Lisa, she
47:01
explained so much about what actually what's the damage that
47:04
has happened. And we've had, for instance,
47:08
events where we had how to become sex positive after sexual
47:12
trauma. And that was an event that was
47:14
for all genders. And it was an event where you
47:17
could learn how to also heal together in a relationship or in
47:21
your family. So it's very important.
47:24
And we do create that space as well, OK, Because.
47:29
I was wondering what what men and allies can do to support
47:33
women on their journey to better, better health of
47:39
mentally and boldly and sexually.
47:42
Well, yeah, one thing you can do is.
47:44
Educate yourself as a as a, as a man to support, educate yourself
47:49
about women's well-being. Be curious, be understanding,
47:53
supportive, but also come to our events and bring the women that
47:57
you know to our events and to our community because we're here
48:02
for you and we love. And I love that the the.
48:06
Men in our community are, so they're vulnerable.
48:10
They're open to learn and they are also very accepted and
48:15
answered when they have. When they have questions,
48:17
they're answered with love. OK, so.
48:20
There's no, there's no shame in coming there for a man.
48:24
Absolutely not no. So I.
48:26
Want to wrap up with a? Question about the future of
48:29
humor first T because you have a big hairy audacious goal helping
48:35
one. Billion.
48:37
Women Plus reclaim their sexual and mental health.
48:41
Let's say in 10 years from now you've achieved that goal.
48:45
What's the next step after that? Wow, that's a beautiful question
48:49
and. So in 10 years, we want to
48:51
become the number one place where women, women and their
48:55
allies and their partners come to learn and share and connect
48:59
about their well-being. And after those 10 years, I
49:02
think at that time, I think we'll already have university
49:06
hubs in different areas of the world and we're just going to be
49:10
expanding. I would love to, to create
49:13
systems where where women's well-being is a standard and
49:19
have researched a lot of researchers ongoing to, to
49:22
improve Women's Health. But for now, the big hairy
49:26
audacious goal is to to empower 1 billion women to learn, share
49:31
and connect with their mental body, sexual well-being.
49:36
So we're and, and we're becoming the first place where women go
49:40
to for their well-being in our app, all in one app.
49:44
And we want to have the biggest online Women's Health
49:46
encyclopedia. We already have it now and it's
49:49
expanding every day. It's called Umapedia.
49:53
And there's so many research resources out on there and
49:56
everything is categorized. It's easy to look for things.
49:59
And we also want the biggest online expert center where you
50:02
can book a session with an expert that is trusted, that is
50:04
vetted, that we suggest and that we definitely recommend.
50:09
And I definitely would love to have a, a nonprofit at one point
50:14
foundation that does the research and that we can also
50:18
collaborate with other foundations.
50:20
I with the UN, with the World World Health Organization.
50:27
That's where I. Want to be at in the in the next
50:30
10 years? And The funny thing is where we
50:32
are right now, I thought we would be there in 5 to to seven
50:36
years, but we're already here after 2 1/2 years.
50:39
So it might be that we reach the goal sooner.
50:42
But The funny thing is 1 billion women is only 1/4 of the women
50:46
in the world. So, but I do believe if we, if
50:50
you start with a quarter, it's going to be like a ripple
50:54
effect, a ripple effect. Exactly so.
50:57
I guess then the the next goal would be 2 billion women and in
51:01
the end 4. Yeah, or half the.
51:04
Population that let me. Put it that way, yeah.
51:08
And we're we're trying to also include.
51:10
Tech in this in the solutions that we offer, so building AI
51:14
custom trajectories and making sure that women have the
51:18
personalized help that they need because we are moving as a
51:20
society to that. So they're already working on
51:23
this kind of a solution for women as well.
51:25
OK. Just a question about.
51:27
It how do you keep bias out of the AI?
51:31
Because AI is, well, people are biased.
51:35
There are certain people who built AI are biased by default.
51:38
And sort of you can't move around that.
51:41
So how do you make it as unbiased as possible?
51:44
Yeah. So this is I.
51:46
I think being completely unbiased is a very hard thing to
51:51
do in general, even like with even AI or not because we're
51:55
humans as you said. But but I think it's really
51:57
important to keep that feedback loop from the women receiving it
52:01
very unobstructed. So always asking the feedback
52:05
from the women, hey, how was this for you?
52:07
Or are you missing? And then working on that, being
52:10
open to improve and being open to see your bias.
52:14
And also when you're programming to make sure that you have
52:19
several checks within your organization, outside of your
52:22
organization, within the community to make sure that it's
52:24
unbiased as possible. So that's my answer.
52:28
OK, so my mission is to make. Inclusion in texture new normal
52:32
by the end of 2032. What would be your one thing
52:37
that you would suggest that I should do to get there for you
52:42
personally or? For your mission for me.
52:46
Personally, as part of the mission, I think to make it.
52:50
Even more inclusive, I would look at different culture like
52:54
cultural solutions that aren't happening right now different
52:58
because there there's so much stick happening in different
53:00
cultures that we are kind of not spotlighting, but I think make
53:05
it multicultural and multi generational inclusive.
53:09
I think that's very important. OK, I'll work on making.
53:13
It so multicultural and multi generationally inclusive as
53:17
well. That's amazing.
53:19
I love that. So, Joe Serra, thank you very
53:21
much. For this amazing conversation,
53:23
if people want to learn more about you and my first tea,
53:27
where would you like to send them?
53:29
Well, thank you for having me. First of all, I.
53:31
Really like this conversation. You can find us at
53:34
umavarsity.com. So UMA is UMA and varsity.com
53:38
and we're also on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok
53:42
and all all the socials. And we also have UMA Varsity
53:45
podcast where we have interviews with experts from all over the
53:48
world, but we also have episodes called Uma Varsity Talks where
53:52
we discuss brutally honest experiences we go through as
53:55
women. So it's a, it's a beautiful
53:57
combination of both. So whether you're curious,
54:00
healing or ready to lead, we're here for you.
54:03
And we have also a community that you can join or you can
54:06
join us and then you can get access to Omar PDR or online
54:10
Women's Health and Square PDR. You can ask your questions to
54:13
experts that are all in our community as well.
54:16
We have different channels, different topics that we that
54:20
you can ask specific questions on.
54:22
We have resources and you can become a member.
54:25
And, and at the end of the year, we will also be launching A
54:29
crowdfunding to expand even more we have internationally and
54:33
build our all in one app. So we can also support us by
54:37
following us on our socials and going to our website.
54:40
We have weekly newsletters and our episodes, podcast episodes
54:45
come out every two weeks. We have monthly expert master
54:48
classes and offline events. And yeah, we're expanding
54:52
globally and we have women from all over the world joining and
54:55
it's and also some men over the world joining as well.
54:59
And so it's a really beautiful community and please join.
55:02
And it's it's, we would love to have you.
55:05
Yeah. And we'll include.
55:06
Those things, all of them in the show notes, especially the one
55:10
to the crowdfunding and also to the podcast.
55:13
So Joe, Sarah, thanks very much for an amazing conversation.
55:17
And listeners, thank you very much for listening.
55:19
And until the next episode, keep being awesome.
55:27
Well, that's a wrap for episode 108 of Women Disrupting Tech
55:31
with Joe Serra on how university helps women reclaim their health
55:37
and sexual well-being. Joe and I hope that you found
55:41
our conversation as inspiring and as healing as we intended it
55:45
to be. And if you have any questions or
55:47
comments for Joe or for me, please leave them in the
55:51
comments on Spotify, Apple or YouTube.
55:54
I do read all the comments and I will make sure that they are
55:58
answered. If you'd like to learn more
56:01
about Joe Serra or Yuma Versati, please check out the links in
56:05
the show notes. And you can find the show notes
56:08
at womendisruptingtech dot blog. Link is also in the description.
56:13
By the way, if you've enjoyed this episode, please consider
56:17
giving a rating or a review on Apple or Spotify.
56:21
If you leave a rating or a review, this helps new listeners
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56:39
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Tech, you can also follow the podcast on social media, on
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57:16
So don't forget to subscribe to my Sub Stack for more about
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57:28
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57:32
On LinkedIn, just search for my name, Dear Kyon Hukus, and
57:36
you'll find me. With that, I wish you a
57:39
wonderful day. I hope to see you in the next
57:42
episode and until then, keep being awesome.