The Story Behind NIXI Body’s Leak-Proof Knickers – with Kelly Newton

Welcome to the Bring youg Product Idea to Life podcast. This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling products or if you'd like to create your own product to sell.

I'm Vicki Weinberg, a product creation coach and Amazon expert. Every week I share friendly, practical advice as well as inspirational stories from small businesses. Let's get started.

Today on the podcast, I'm speaking to Kelly Newton, the co founder of Nixi Body. Washable, absorbent and very discreet knickers for periods and little bladder leaks.

Designed to be discreet and comfortable keeping women moving through menstruation, motherhood and menopause. I had a fantastic conversation with Kelly.

She is so full of energy and enthusiasm for her product, for her business, for, let's face it, bladder leaks. We spoke about bladder leaks. We spoke about incontinence. These are topics that we need to be speaking about.

And Kelly does so with such honesty and warmth. Her story is incredible.

She's also shared with us very kindly the plans that she has for the business in future, which I hope lots of you will find really inspiring. And I would love now to introduce you to Kelly. So hi Kelly. Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you. Thank you for asking me.

Oh, you're so welcome. I mentioned before we started recording, I heard your story on another podcast, which I won't name, and it was so interesting.

I really wanted you to come over and talk for my listeners as well. So thank you for doing this. Can we please start by you giving an introduction to yourself, your business and what you sell?

Okay, so I'm Kelly Newton and I'm the co founder of Nixie Body. And Nixie Body are washable, absorbent and very discreet knickers for leaks and periods.

They've been designed to keep women active, so to keep them moving through all life stages, menstruation, motherhood and menopause.

Brilliant. Thank you. And can you please share the story behind Nixie Body? So what inspired you to create this product?

And we'll talk a little bit about how about sort of the how, but let's start with the why first of all, please.

So it's, it starts back to really when I was about 14, when I started my periods, and my periods were always really, really heavy, but just got on with it. Just kind of thought that was normal.

Didn't really have much education around periods back in the 80s, early 80s, so it kind of suffered throughout all of my years until I was about 39. And I was eventually diagnosed with endometriosis. So had A couple of laparoscopies. And then it was decided that I was still in a lot of pain.

I was still bleeding really heavily. In fact, I bled. They put me on the coil and I bled every day for nine months on the coil.

So it was decided probably the best way forward for me was to have a hysterectomy, which I was quite happy to do. We had two boys we actually fostered as well for 19 years, me and my husband. So we had six.

Always had six kids in the house, and I knew I didn't want any more children and I just wanted the bleeding to stop. So had my hysterectomy. And I clearly remember the surgeon saying to me as I came around that he'd left my ovaries in.

So I didn't go into early menopause. Sadly, within the year, I started to have lots of symptoms of the menopause.

But in the back of my mind, I was like, this can't be the menopause, because the surgeon said he left my ovaries in. And my mum started the menopause at 42. So I'd obviously followed suits, same as my mum.

So had lots of the, like, mental symptoms of the menopause, like depression. I was. I was in the right state, to be honest with you. I was in a terrible state. Palpitations, panic attacks.

And then my first physical symptom was bladder leaks. So, as I said, always someone who's really active. Played lots of sports from when I was nine years old.

I was playing hockey at the time, and every time I stretched for the ball, I would be a little bit. I was like, oh, my God, what's happening here? I just. I was so grateful not to have periods anymore, not to have to wear pads.

And then all of a sudden, I'm having to wear pads again because of the bladder leaks. I looked around online to see what I could wear other than that. And there are some reusable knickers, so I ordered some from Amazon.

And they were huge. I mean, there's nothing wrong with a big pair of knickers. I love a big pair of knickers, but these were really kind of. They were massive.

They were really bulky. I felt like I was wearing a nappy. They rustled when I moved. Felt like I had a crisp packet stuffed in my knick.

And it wasn't conducive to me feeling particularly confident, you know, in life and on the pitch as well.

And started talking to friends of mine that I played hockey with, and we were kind of all like, you know when you laugh and joke about these situations because you're embarrassed, really. And they were all saying, oh, they felt the same, that, you know, they were leaking every time they moved.

They're all like, we're all women of a certain age. So I thought there's got to be a better way to do this. So on.

In a pad that I found on the side in the house, I drew a pair of knickers that I thought would be able to support me still through my bladder leaks, but was still nice. I felt attractive in and that you couldn't see underneath a tight pair of gym leggings.

And obviously because I was going through menopause in a bad way, didn't do anything with it. And then my husband found the pad about a year later and said like, what's this picture of a pair of knickers in my pad?

And I told him and he said, this is a brilliant idea, you should do something with it. And kind of went from there. Really? Yeah. Founder found I tried to do everything in the uk.

I wanted to get everything made in the UK because it's seemed like the right thing to do, but it was really, really difficult. I found Google was my friend. I didn't know what I was doing. I said I've been a foster carer for 19 years, I had no experience in business whatsoever.

So I googled how to make a pair of leak proof knickers. What's the best material that I should be using, most absorbent material and all of that.

But I ended up looking on a couple of sites in China and found some Chinese manufacturers that were making like period knickers, leak proof knickers.

So I ordered a couple of different samples from the different manufacturers and a couple of them were really, I really like the way they were made, they're really good quality. When I spoke to the manufacturer, they spoke really good English.

So I then found the technique technical designer to help me to bring my knickers to life basically. And I said if I send over my tech pack, would you be able to make me a sample? And they said, yeah, no problem, it's £150. So.

And they source the fabric as well. They've got the fabric there and that's when. That's how I managed to get my first sample. Made.

It took probably about two years for me, from the idea to going ahead with it. Yeah. So that. That was the start of Nixie Body.

Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing that and I'm so sorry that you had such a rough time with the. You know, with everything.

Really, up until this point, it sounded like it was one thing on top of another.

Yeah, yeah. It didn't stop there, actually. I mean, from that, obviously, I've got. I know that I've got stress and urge incontinence.

I've got an overactive bladder. I also have prolapse. If there's anything going to go wrong, it just appears to go wrong with my body.

But to be honest with you, I take it in my stride now. I'm much better at educating myself. I'm obviously working in the women's health field now and work with lots of experts, so I. It's manageable.

I can deal with it. Still not brilliant. But, you know, I've tried as hard as I can to. To do all the things I can to. To stop myself from leaking.

I don't drink caffeine anymore. That's such an irritant for me. And it wasn't until somebody told me, you know, caffeine's not great for your bladder.

You suddenly put two and two together and think, oh, my God. Yeah. Every time I have a coffee, like, first thing in the morning, I'm. I'm literally, I have to go straight to the toilet. It really affects me.

So there's lots. I do see a women's health physio still. She's a really good friend of mine now, which used to be.

I used to work with her and I used to feel so embarrassed going to see her, but she's so lovely and I recommend that, if you can afford it, to go and see a women's health physio.

I know not everybody's in that same situation, but, you know, I've done lots of things I can to try to make it easier for myself, but I'm still not in, like, 100% place where it's. It's absolutely perfect, which is why I do still wear my knickers every single day.

I mean, we still wear knickers every day, but I wear my knickers every day.

Oh, well, I'm really sorry to hear that, but I'm really pleased that you'll be.

You know, you seem to be, like, tackling everything head on, which I think is brilliant, because I think some of these issues can be really hard for people to talk about, you know, even with maybe friends, let alone in public on a podcast. So thank you for sharing so openly. By the way, I'm with you on the caffeine thing. I also have some bladder issues and I cut out caffeine.

Best thing I ever did.

Makes such a difference. And alcohol as well. It's a dretic, isn't it? So that again, it really affects my bladder.

But it's really good what you say about talking about it, because I used to feel quite embarrassed about it at the beginning, but now I talk about it all the time.

I spoken about it on lots of different TV programs, and I know that it really helps other women because it is such an embarrassing situation to be in like people. Periods, I think are a taboo, but I think. I actually think bladder leaks are probably the last taboo. Nobody wants to be known as that person.

So when they see somebody like me who's talking about it quite openly, people can relate and it opens up conversations and hopefully gets people to think about their situation and get support from that. So, you know, I'm that person. I'm really, really happy to talk about it.

And what I'm really lucky with as well is my husband's super supportive and I've got two boys who are 23 and 25 who are very proud of me and what I've done and that. I used to feel so embarrassed when they were at school.

I used to think, please God, don't let any of their friends find any videos or photos of me, you know, talking about this and my business, because they would get absolutely annihilated. But they, they're brilliant. They're so supportive. And I think that makes it, you know, so much easier for me to be able to talk about.

That's brilliant. And I also think coming back to your product was that there is so much embarrassment and shame around any kind of incontinence.

And you said and periods as well, to an extent. But I think one thing that makes your products really great is the fact you said they're so discreet.

Because I have friends with tackling various issues now. And I've heard lots of complaints about pads.

You know, you can't wear certain clothing if you're wearing traditional, not tradition, or maybe some other brands of the knickers or if you're wearing pads, you know, they show up. If you wear something tight fitting, like you were saying, if you wear like leggings, for example, it's kind of noticeable.

And I guess that must really impact how you go about your life.

If you're thinking, oh, well, I can't go to the gym because I can't wear my gym leggings, or I can't go to yoga, or I can't wear this dress I want to wear or whatever it is. And I think that's really sad.

Yeah, absolutely. It's stopping you from doing the things that, one, are good for your mental health, but, like, two, physical health.

We all want to move our bodies and if you've got that, oh, my God, everyone's going to know that I am on my period, or B, that, you know, I'm wearing a pad and everyone can see it.

So how we designed our knickers, or how I designed the knickers, was they've got like a seamless scalloped edging, which cannot be seen underneath the tightest of gym leggings.

I mean, if you go onto our social media, we've got plenty of videos where you can see, you know, comparing ours to our nearest competitor who says that theirs are BPL free and they're so not.

We know that they're not, but we also designed the gussets that sits underneath the crack of the bum, whereas the other period knickers go across or all the way up to the top. And so, you know, ours have been tested. They can hold just as much as these other knickers, but you cannot see them at all.

And we get amazing feedback. I mean, if you look at our feedback, our reviews, literally every single one will say, game changer or absolutely no vpo. How do these work?

It's just, it's amazing. And one of our knickers holds up to four tampons worth, which is, you know, and still completely invisible underneath your gym leggings.

For me, it's a. If you're an active person and we've, we've, we've, you know, we've gone consciously down that road because of my love of sport and moving my body.

There are obviously lots of other period underwear brands on the market, but we've really niched down on, you know, these have been designed for sports. So we're almost like not even an underwear company anymore. We're like an activewear company.

So these knickers should be in your gym bag when you're going to the gym or if you're going on a long walk. These are the knickers you're going to turn for. Turn to when you're going out, moving your body.

So we've kind of differentiated ourselves from the other period knickers, which was quite scary at the beginning because I remember somebody saying to me, you know, who's your target audience?

So when you think about your target audience for a leak proof pair of knickers, you're thinking of anyone from the age of nine who started their periods up to 100-year-old woman who's suffering with bladder leaks and you've got all of those life stages in between. But. And someone said, well, you need to really double down on who your audience actually is.

Your audience is too vast, you need to focus in on something. And it was like, well, okay, this, it needs to be sports because this is why I designed them. This is exactly why I designed them.

And it was nerve wracking in the beginning to think we might be cutting off some of our buyers, our audience, but actually it served us really, really well. So it was a real conscious decision to do that.

That makes a lot of sense.

And I can I get the fear though, because I think whenever you niche down, you automatically think I'm turning away all these people because I'm saying this isn't for you. But actually you're not. And I'm sure you're also getting customers who aren't looking for sports, they're just looking for knicker swear.

Anyway, I think you're right by niching down, it really tells people, this is for me because especially a product where there's choice. Because like you said, you're not the only products on the market.

But I think because you are the one, you know, with that specific niche, people who are looking for that will go to you. Because I don't know about you.

When I'm looking for anything specifically a product I never bought before, something quite new, you look around and you go, well, which, which one shall I get? Because there are 10 brands selling pretty much the same thing.

As far as I can tell, it's actually, as a consumer, it's overwhelming, but you're actually doing people a favor by saying, well actually if you know, this is designed for sports because then if that's what you're looking for, you go, okay, good, I'll get that one.

Yes.

And it's easy, easy decision.

Yeah, absolutely. But like you say, nerve wracking at the beginning because you think you're cutting off some of your, you know, your, your buyers.

But yeah, no, it's worked really well for us. It's a, it's.

We're really, really pleased and it's opened up so many avenues as well because we're now in the shop in Regent street because of the sports. Do you know about this, that I've mentioned the store.

You haven't tell us about the store.

But she got the T shirt on. So there's a fabulous lady.

I've done lots of programs and events around football, around women's sports, and through those I've met other women, other female founders who have made products for sports to keep girls and women playing and moving their bodies. So there's. She's actually one of my mentors, she's a really good friend now of mine called Laura Youngson and she is the founder of Ida Sports.

And they have made, designed and made football boots specifically around the biomechanics of a woman's foot, which is very different to a man's foot. You've got the big brands like Nike and Adidas, who maybe now are just starting to bring things out, boots out.

But what they did recently was they launched a pair of football boots for the women only, but they were unisex, so it's like, well, actually they're not for women because again, women's feet are very different to men. So Laura had this amazing idea. We're all in this WhatsApp group, there's about 10 of us.

And she was like, you know, we need to have a sports shop just for women.

Women should be able to go in and feel comfortable buying their sports underwear, their sports bras, they need to be measured correctly to make sure they've got the right size sports bra on kit as well that's designed specifically for women. There's nothing out there. There's literally no one stop shop for women to buy their products.

And if you go into JD Sports or any of those other big kind of sports shops, there's a piddly little section in the corner for women's goods, you know, and they're not actually designed for women, they're just the pink tip and shrink tip, basically.

So there was a competition that Westminster Council did a couple of years ago and they were looking for brands, new brands to come in to regenerate the West End, like Oxford Street, Regent Street. They want to get rid of the candy stores, the money laundering fronts and they want to bring new life to London.

So Laura pitched to Westminster Council and I think about 800 brands pitched and she won one of the stores and her whole concept was it's going to be a sports shop for women with all products that have been designed by women for women and it's going to have a football pitch in the store. And they were like, yeah, we Love this. It's never going to happen.

You're never going to find somewhere to put this football pitch in the middle of London. And we found a store, so we launched about three weeks ago, four weeks ago now, at 245 Regent street next to the Apple Store.

We're one road away from Oxford Circus. We have a mini football pitch upstairs. We have football boots, football shirts. There's obviously our knickers.

There's another brand of knickers that are just for sports underwear, not for periods and leaks. We've got a couple of different sports bras as well. Netball boots, golf kit, leisure wear, fit. You name it, you know, we've got it in there.

And we've got more brands coming in throughout our tenure. So we're there for until the end of October. So, yeah, so that's that.

If it wasn't for us kind of honing in on sports, we wouldn't have had this opportunity to actually be selling our knickers in Regent Street. So, yes, it's. It's, again, worked out really well for us.

That's amazing. And I'm in London this week. I'm going to go pop in.

You must come and see us. Definitely. I'm going there today, I'm there again tomorrow. So we're running a run club from there tomorrow.

Then we've got like goodie bags and stuff for all the people and all of the proceeds go to the Endometriosis foundation, who we are great supporters of. So, yeah, definitely pop in and see us. Vicki, that would be great to see you.

I will do. And that's, by the way, that is truly amazing.

And like, it just shows that by niching down how you've got an opportunity that if you'd stayed broad, as you say, it wouldn't have happened.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. So it makes sense. It's definitely made sense to us. And I was recently asked to be a mentor to a lady who's setting up a football kind of kit store.

And we were talking again and I said to her the same question that was asked to me, who's your target audience? And she said. And I said to her, let me tell you a story. And I told her the same story. She's like, oh, my God, that makes total sense.

I need to rethink this. And I honestly think it will make such a difference to her business as well.

I think so.

And I hope for anyone who's hearing this, it'll really encourage really niching down and not just saying your products are for women or for women in their 40s, whatever it is, but to really think about who it is, because that's a brilliant example of how niching down has bought these opportunities that just wouldn't have come about otherwise.

And, I mean, you know, you don't have to. You can pivot as well. So once you've. So we really kind of focused on the running aspects. We do a lot of.

We do the running show, the national running show, we do the London Marathon, we go to quite a lot of the running events and that served us well. So we've really grown that audience. So now we're looking at growing in football and we're going to take it one stage at a time.

You know, we're actually the underwear that. We have a partnership with England Netball, with their underwear provider.

So netball is kind of a focus of ours, but football is also a focus and we can take one kind of section at a time and just keep building up and growing. So, yeah, you don't need to say, right, I'm just going to do that and that's it. I'm never going to do anything else. You can pivot.

You can totally pivot. It makes sense to do that once.

You start to grow with that in mind. So your products, when you designed them, was it incontinence that you had in mind? So this would be great for people suffering incontinence.

You don't want to wear pads, is that right?

Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, it was. It was literally because of my issue with bladder leaks. So it was never going to be for full incontinence because that's.

I wouldn't want to run with barrackers full of wee if I wanted to. It's just for light bladder leaks. So what happened was I obviously, I launched them. I was working at the time in a medical center in London and the.

My md, she had really bad endometriosis. So I said, look, here's some of the knickers. Just try them, see how you get on. And I know also what happened was my.

I had four teenage foster daughters in the house, all had periods, and every week I was throwing away, like, a massive bag of pads and tampons. And that was, you know, when you're thinking, God, this is just my house, like, how much waste we're producing.

So I thought, then these must work also for periods. It's exactly the same technology. So they're obviously, they can.

They can survive a heavier period than they can blood a leak, because obviously weed comes out faster than blood. But also, if you're particularly clotty, then that doesn't absorb clots and you need to wipe it out. But the technology is exactly the same.

You've got the gusset.

On the top of the gusset you've got moisture wicking cotton and that pulls the moisture away from your skin skin into a second layer which is, it's almost like a cloth that you use in your kitchen. Like a micro Microsoft. Micro Microsoft that just kind of sucks everything up.

And then underneath that is a, it's called a breathable tpu and that stops anything from penetrating the outside. So it's exactly the same technology for bladder leaks and periods.

But just the most that our knickers will hold is our poly, which isn't as discreet as the rest of our knickers. And that holds about 25 mil. Probably holds more than that. But I always like to go under what we've been approved as.

Yeah, it feels safer for me to do that. Yeah. So I know for sure that it would definitely hold about 25 mil of weed, which isn't a lot, but it is if you, if you are, if you've got like that.

So latchkey incontinence. So I'll get, I'll come to the bottom of my drive. I'll be absolutely fine. I do not need a wee at all.

And I will see my front door and I literally can't walk for like 20 seconds. I have to stand across my leg and as soon as the key goes in the door I will start to we.

And I can get to my toilet with no leaks whatsoever because of the knickers. So. But not a full way. Yeah, it's always need to make that really clear.

No, that's good, thank you. So what I was wondering is that you. So you design the knickers for Bladder Lake.

So was it having like you say four foster daughters in the house at the time that made you go, oh, okay, these could be used for periods as well?

Yeah, that was it. Yeah, it was that. So the girls started to wear them.

But also the lady that I worked with, Dion at work, she had super heavy periods because of her endometriosis. So she tried them as well and she was really, really impressed. And then obviously Connie, my co founder, she wore them for period.

So we were kind of like, right, okay, so they do work for both. Let's just just say that they're leak proof knickers and anyone can wear them.

And we do get like it's actually a 50, 50 split of who buys the knickers. Probably I'd say this just from the, like, the questionnaire kind of things that we've done with our buy our. Oh my God.

Our customers, when they come back, it's generally a split of 50, 50, maybe 51, 49 in favor of like bladder leaks. That's what women are wearing them for. So I think that's, you know, it's a pretty nice split, isn't it?

That still blows my mind. Absolutely blows my mind. I remember getting my first review that wasn't from my friend.

From a friend of mine thinking, oh, my God, I don't even know this person and they've left me a review and they love them and, you know. Yeah, it's quite. Yeah, kind of, you know, it's overwhelming sometimes to think what a difference that you're making to people's lives. And it's.

It does, it does make me cry still sometimes, which is really sad.

It's not. And it's amazing. And you are making a real difference.

I think when you think back, I don't want to make you cry, but when you think back, to think that this is, you know, all those years ago when you were looking for a solution for yourself and now it's become a product that thousands of people presumably have brought and are using. I just think that's amazing.

Yeah. I still can't believe it. And I know even up to about two years ago, I'd say to like, Connie, my co founder. Oh, it's just.

Still makes me nervous about this, that and that she's like, what are you nervous about? Like, we've been going for four years now. We've got these many, like five star reviews. All of these people want to work with us.

She said, I've got absolutely no worries about our product at all. I've got. I'm totally convinced that we have an absolutely amazing product. And I feel like, really in the.

Only in the past year do I feel like, no, you know what, I've got a really good business, I've done something really good here. I feel like I'm definitely a different person to what I was six years ago. Obviously going through the menopause, I wasn't in the best place anyway.

But coming through the menopause, I'm still You know, I'm still having all of the symptoms, but I'm so much more confident now than I was six years ago. I. I used to get really anxious about a lot of stuff and mine now, you know, I just take it a day at a time. I could do what I can do.

I don't stress out as much about things. I feel like touch with the business is in a really good place. We've got. There's four of us working on it.

We're just about to employ one more person as well. Yeah, it's. Yeah, it's pretty mad. I don't, I don't. My husband definitely doesn't recognize me. I don't do any of the cooking or he does everything now.

He's kind of taken over the role that I had. And he works, he still works, but I am. I work literally from 8 o' clock in the morning.

But sometimes if I'm up at half five in the morning because I haven't slept, I'll start work at half five in the morning and I'll work through till 11. But I love it. I love working. I love building what we're building. It's. It's incredible.

And meeting all of these amazing people and yeah, I feel really blessed.

That's amazing.

And did you ever think so right at the beginning, so let's say six, seven years ago, did you ever think that you could be the sort of person who would work all these hours in your business and be your own boss? And did you ever see that for yourself?

No, no. I've always been a really hard worker. I've always worked for other people.

And I wouldn't say that I'm particularly like, oh, I want to be this person, I want to raise, I want to be a manager, whatever. I was just really happy just doing the work. I'm always had a really good work ethic.

But now working for yourself, it can be quite stressful because you think, God, I need to make sure I've got this money, that's money in each month because I've got to pay everybody. So there's a lot of. Feel like there's a lot of pressure. We did get funding last year, which has really, really helped us.

And we've got one amazing investor who gave us the money. We closed our round in, I think, six weeks. So. And that was one.

We had lots of investors who wanted to invest, but there's just one investor who wanted to give us a whole amount of money who just said, I just want to leave you to it, you know what, you're doing a great job. I invest in people. I think what you've done is amazing. I think that you're amazing.

And I think that first of all, there was a lot of fear behind that because I was like, oh my God, this is a lot of money that he's given us and I need to make sure that I get it back. But then there was a whole, oh my God. He, he's a really successful businessman and he believes in us. So we're doing something right.

So yeah, I'm just going to do it. We're going to make it work. So, yeah, there's, I feel like there's been a shift definitely since we've had the money.

There's been, there's not that fear so much sitting on my shoulder because we've, we've got that money as a buffer. We know what our Runway is, we know what we can and can't invest in. And it makes us like a hundred times more determined to make this work.

And we will make it work. It's going to happen. It's going to be, yeah, we're going to be selling the business in about five years and it's going to be worth our while.

Definitely. Hopefully I'll still be alive.

Oh, you will. So is that the end goal? I mean, I wasn't going to ask that, but since you've managed it, is that the goal that eventually you will.

Sell the business for me? Definitely. I'm 54 this year. I'm, I'm not spring chicken anymore. I am feeling tired. I'm getting tired.

I still would like to work in the business, or maybe not in the business. I'd still want to work, not give up work altogether. But the goal for, for me is to sell the business within five years. That's what I want to do.

Connie is 20 years younger than me. She, you know, she's a co owner of the business. I know that she's talked about she wouldn't want to sell all of her shares.

She'd still want to be involved in that. And I'm like, knock yourself out, Connie. You can do that. But I, I would still like to be doing some part time work, but also I want to go and travel.

I want to go and do all the things I didn't do when I was younger. Didn't, didn't want to do, didn't have the confidence to do, but feel like I can do that now. So, yeah, I just, I did a trip to India this March.

The experiences I had on that trip and the women that I met, honestly, I had a shift in confidence in my outlook in life and yes, made me realize that I do really love working, but actually there are other things out there that I'd like to push myself to the limit to see if I can do it. Things that I didn't have the confidence to do when I was younger. So, yeah, getting old is great.

I think that's brilliant. And I also think you're the first person I think that I've actually flat out asked, okay, what's, what are your plans?

And I think it's great because I think a lot of us, myself included, and I am a little bit young, a little bit younger, but I guess at some point I do need to think about the next 10, 20 years, you know, what's the goal? Where do I want to end up? So I think this is actually a nice reminder to think of that because I think a lot of us aren't.

We're just going along thinking, well, I suppose I'll retire one day. I think it's really positive to have a goal in mind to say, okay, this is what I want. Because then you're working towards something.

Definitely. Yeah, definitely. That's my goal. I mean, it was my goal five years ago. Obviously. Haven't sold the business in five years. So it was a 10 year plan.

It has to be a 10 year plan. But I feel like, you know, we're putting everything in place for us to make that happen.

So, yeah, yeah, I can't keep working at the pace I'm working forever. It would kill me. Absolutely kill me.

As much as I love it, but I almost feel like I've got a lot to give back, you know, I'm from a huge council estate in Kidbrooke. I left school at 15. I've always had a good job, you know, didn't know what I wanted to do, but I've always worked.

But I want to be able to give back because I know kids these days just don't have the opportunities that I was able to have. Even though I Left school at 15 and lived on a big council estate, these kids don't have those opportunities anymore.

And I know when I've given up work, when I've sold the Business, I will be investing back into my community without a shadow of a doubt. That's really, really important to me, to support other people, to be able to do what I've done.

Yeah, because I've had, I mean, I've had lots of mentors over the past few years, amazing mentors, you know, men and female. And, you know, if it wasn't for them, I don't know if I would still be in this situation. So people need to have support.

Whether that's in a financial way or it's, you know, using my knowledge and my skills, then that's what I want to do. So, yeah, I know what I'm going to be doing in five years time.

That's amazing. And honestly, I think you're in the minority. I don't know how many of us do. So I think that is brilliant.

Thank you.

So it sounds like. So when you started this business, obviously you were putting your all into it, it was just you.

So let's talk a little bit, if you don't mind, about Connie, your co founder.

So can you tell me how Connie came, You know, how Connie joined the business and how that has changed the business and perhaps how you work and how you work together.

Yeah. So I obviously started the business of absolutely no business experience whatsoever. I had my main computer on and my laptop and I was Googling.

How do you set up a Shopify account? I had no idea how to do anything, did a photo shoot, didn't really plan any of that.

And then social media, my husband was saying, you've got to be on social media.

So there was a free course locally to me in Croydon and he had, he was working for a small business at the time, so we both went along so we could learn how to do social media. And I remember the guy who was taking it, it was a free course, so it was a bit cool crap. And the guy was a bit rubbish.

He was taking it and he would, somebody would ask him a question, he wouldn't know the answer and either my husband or this girl at the back knew the answer. So he said to this girl at the back, like, what do you do? And she said, oh, I'm a content. What did she say?

She was a content creator or a writer, she wrote content. And she was an ex journalist, she worked in Women's Health And I remember turning around and going, who. Who keeps answering the questions?

And this girl's like, me. And I said, right, meet me afterwards, I need to talk to you. Because I thought, I need someone to do the Content for my website.

I'm not very good with words and I wasn't around at the time, so we had a chat afterwards, took a card, then we met for a coffee. And at that stage I had like a prototype of the knickers. So I remember we were in a cafe in London and I've got my knickers out on the table.

I'm like, this is my product, this is what I'm doing. And she was like, oh, my God, I absolutely love this. We got really, really well.

So she actually started doing my social media for me and I was paying her and it got to the stage, I thought, you know what? I'm literally paying her. We wasn't. I didn't know about ads or anything like that. And I thought, I can't afford to keep paying her.

So we had a conversation and she said to me, look, I love you, I love the knickers, I love the business, I want to be part of this. Can I take some shares? And, you know, and then you don't pay me. So that's what we did. And we literally did that for four years.

And I got paid to build this business up. So she is my co founder. She's. She's in her 30s. She just had a baby, little Ted, about seven months ago, who's absolutely gorgeous and she's amazing.

She does all of our marketing. We've now got Becca, who is our social media manager. She works with Connie very closely, who's absolutely incredible as well.

And, yeah, quite frankly, I couldn't do it without Connie. I am very, very good at networking. I love. I bring people in, I build really good relationships with people. Connie closes the deal. That's.

She's so eloquent when I can't string a sentence together, especially with the menopause. She. She finishes my sentences for me, or she starts them and finishes them. You know, she's absolutely amazing.

Although she's got a bit of baby brain at the moment. But we're letting her off because she's been very generous to me with my. With my brain fog. So, yeah, that's how I met Connie.

And, yeah, we're a cracking team. I think we are a package. We have the same sense of humor. We both think. We both think we've got adhd.

Like, we literally will start one sentence and then just don't finish it because we're talking about 10 other different things. And that's where we've got Claire. Now. Claire is our chief of operations. She keeps us in line and she makes sure.

That we're all going down the same road and singing from the same hymn sheet. So, yeah, Connie's been a really, a major part of the business and I couldn't have done it without Connie.

That's amazing. And can I just ask, do you have any advice for working so well as a partnership?

Because it sounds like obviously you got on straight away and that's great. She believes in you and in the product and, you know, you to her. But how about sort of the day to day running of the business?

Because obviously at first it was just you and I know now you've got a bigger team, but let's go from it being just you to you and Connie working alongside each other. How do you think, you know, how do you think you manage that so that. So that you are working together so well?

Because I think that isn't necessarily always the case in partnerships.

Yeah, I think there needs to be a lot of respect. Obviously we've come in, we didn't know each other particularly well and when I started the company, I hadn't even really traded before I met Connie.

So, you know, she was there from the very beginning. It was, it was, the relationship was. At the beginning I was, I was paying her to do my social media. So we've got on really, really well.

Honestly, we've. We really clicked from the, from the beginning. It was so lovely. But I think we're both those kind of people. But I do get on with.

I tend to get on with most people that I meet, so there's a respect there. She. She's very good at what she does. We've probably had little.

Kind of like we had, we had a talk the other week actually, because she'd been quite snappy with me and then I'd snapped back and we were a bit with each other. But I'm really appreciative of the fact she's got a baby, a newborn baby. She's absolutely knackered, he's teething.

And it doesn't come from a place of, you know, she hates me. It comes from a place of tiredness and that's probably when there's been any kind of snappiness.

I think it's both because I'm not sleeping particularly well because of the menopause and she's not sleeping particular well because the baby. So there might be a little bit of a clash. But other than that, we have great respect for, for each other. We get on. I love spending time with her.

She's funny, she's engaging and hopefully she would say the same about me. Yeah, I think we were just super, super lucky to find each other. But I do think that these things are meant to happen.

I'm a great believer in, you know, everything happens for a reason. I do believe that. So I do believe that I was meant to be on the course that day and I was meant to meet Connie, vice versa.

But then I'm a little bit weird like that. I'm a very lucky person. Everybody that knows me knows that I'm a very, very lucky person.

If something good is going to happen, it's going to happen to me. But I, and I know that I'm lucky. But I also believe that you make your own luck in this world and it's actually hard work to be lucky.

I work really hard to be lucky. And Connie loves being on my coattails when I'm getting all of the luck in, so it rubs off on her as well. So, yeah, there's not.

I can't really say what you need to look out for. I just think we were just very, very lucky to meet each other at the time that we did. It was the right time.

She was just about to leave the job that she was doing to go to go freelance. So it was like a real good sliding doors moment, I suppose. Yeah.

I like those synchronicities. I love that you describe yourself as lucky.

I.

And I think that you're right. You do create your own luck because you have to be open.

I think I don't really sound too woo woo, but I think if you're open to opportunities and you're open to things, coming in is much more likely to happen than if you're really closed and you're going down one path if your blinkers on. I think that you, you definitely have to be open to receiving luck.

Yeah, definitely. And kindness. I think kindness comes into a lot of it. You know, I. You treat people how you want to be treated.

So I will be kind to absolutely everybody. And I do tend to kill people with kindness, especially because I'm like the, I am not like, I am the customer service person.

So if I get somebody who's being a little bitchy or have left a review and not a very nice review, which is very rare, I will absolutely kill them with kindness to the extent where they're apologizing to me because I'm being so kind. But again, that's, that's in my nature. I'm not just doing that, you know, for whatever reason, customer service is so important to me.

The most important Thing is, our customers, we wouldn't have a business about our customers. And I need to make sure that everybody's happy. But that's in life as well, I think. Yeah.

I am very kind to everybody and I think that I reap that back like tenfold. So it's not a bad thing. It's a good thing.

It's a really good thing.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

And do you get much feedback from your customers? And I don't mean, I don't mean negative feedback. What I mean is, do your customers engage with you? Because you seem like a really open person.

So I'm wondering, are you getting all of this feedback and inspiration from your customers?

Yeah, absolutely. So I get emails, we get DMs in our social media. When we're at events, people come up.

We've built some really lovely friendships, like customers who I would say are definitely friends. I class them as, you know, friends because of they come and see us every year at the London Marathon. They come every year. They've been coming.

We've been doing the national running show for about four or five years now.

We've got our customers from the beginning and they bring their custom, like their friends in to come and be our customers or they're standing at our stand and they're telling everybody about how wonderful our knickers are. We get cuddles and kisses and I get cards in the post like I had.

We're just about to move, so my notice board is down, but I have a whole box of cards that people have sent me to say, you've actually changed my life, you know, and it's lovely. It's. Yeah, you can't get any better than that. And I think that's through.

Obviously we've got a great product, but we've built a really wonderful community through what we're doing as well. And community is everything. You can't beat community.

Definitely. And has any of the input from customers changed your product or not change or influence your products?

Because I know you don't just have the one pair of knickers anymore. You've got a bit of a range now. So has that come about from receiving feedback?

Yeah, yeah, definitely. So when I first started, the first product we did was our Sarah knicker.

It's quite a low cut knicker, but I won't wear it anymore because I've got a bit of a belly. I like a big pair of knickers now, but I remember we started in a size 8 and we went up to a size 16.

Which I was just thought, because I've got no experience, I thought, yeah, that's fine, that would fit everybody. And then people started saying, what about the big girls? Don't the big girls have periods? Like, you only go up to a size 16?

I was like, my God, didn't even think about that. So then we. Our next range that we did, I took out to a size 30. So we started from a size 8 and we got to a UK 30.

Nobody else is doing that in period knickers. But then you get someone who go, what about. I'm a 32, what about me? And it's like, oh, my God, where do we draw the line?

We have to draw the line somewhere. We're a really small company, completely self funded.

And then we had a little bit of a backlash at the beginning on our ads, learned how to do Facebook ads and we were talking about bladder leaks and it was women, women coming in saying, you shouldn't be advertising these. Nobody should be having bladder leaks. And we still get that to some degree now.

And we're like, listen, we know that bladder leaks aren't normal, but they're very, very common. Like menopausal women. It's one in two. Menopausal women will suffer with them.

So they are there to help you with, to support you, to strengthen your pelvic floor, to keep moving your body. But we're not saying they're the answer, but we got quite a lot of backlash from that.

And that really annoys me as well, people saying, you should just go and see a women's health physio and that will sort you out. Not everybody has the money to pay for a women's health physio. And trying to see somebody on the nhs, you're going to be waiting a couple of years.

I had to go and see a gynecologist recently, so last June, they booked me in an appointment. It was cancelled. It was cancelled again. It was cancelled again. I don't think I saw somebody till six months later. And that's through the nhs.

But we can't afford to go private, we haven't got private cover. So I'm in the same boat as everybody else. But marginalised women, they certainly can't afford to go and see somebody privately.

So are you saying that you just need to go and see a women's health physio? That's not helpful. And actually you're diminishing somebody else's problems by saying that. So, yeah, so we've had.

We had a little bit of backlash like that. But, yeah, other kind of. We're love women saying, I want these in cream, I love these, I need these in cream. I want to wear these every single day.

Can you not. Can they not have the absorbent gusset in just like. They don't. They don't.

Actually, some women, and quite a few at one stage saying, I want to wear this as my everyday knickers, but I don't want the absorbent gusset. I'm like, why? I don't know how I can make them to be normal. I just go and buy normal knickers.

But people have changed their whole knicker drawer to our knickers because they love them so much, because they're so comfortable, which is honestly like, just like the nicest thing ever that people can. Can say and do that for you. So, yeah.

Oh, that's really interesting and I. I'm sorry that you had the negative feedback.

That was actually something I wanted to ask you about because I was so sure I was going to ask you, have you had any pushback talking about incontinence? And I was sure the answer would be yes. But it's. Which, yeah, it sounds. It does sound like a shame to me because like you say, it's.

It's not a solution. But while you're waiting for your physio, whether that's private or NHS or whatever you need, you need something.

And actually the pads that you throw away every night, they add up.

Yeah, exactly. And also they're not good for your vaginal health or your hormonal health.

And we have lots of people saying that since they've switched from pads, disposable pads to reusables, they've found that their periods aren't as heavy, their cramping isn't as bad, and that's to do with the plastics and the chemicals that are in these disposable pads. And the cause are completely chemical free and plastic free, so we've got no worries with that. But, yeah, it's. It's so much.

They're so much better for you. But, yeah, at the beginning, if I had a negative review or I had somebody being negative on my ads, it would destroy me. Absolutely destroy me.

I'd be so upset.

But I'm in a place now where I'm so confident about my product, if somebody's saying to me, I wore them for my run and they leaked everywhere, then I know that they are probably not light bladder leaks and they're not going to be suitable for you, like one lady bought a Sarah knicker. I remember this review. A Sarah knicker is like 10 mil, which is very, very light bladder leaks, like a cough or a sneeze or very, very light periods.

And she put on her. On her review, I have very heavy leaks and these knickers didn't work for me.

And you're trying to be polite and say to people, well, that wasn't the knicker for you. These say they are for light leaks. You know, you obviously needed something with more absorbency.

And it's very difficult with bladder leaks to know exactly how much you're leaking each day. And each time it differs from day to day, from the morning to the night. With your periods, you kind of have more of an idea of what your flow is.

But bladder leaks, it's very different. So it's when you get negative feedback and someone saying they weren't absorbent enough.

For me, it's quite difficult because you feel, well, actually they're not. Obviously you're heavier, you're leaking more than you think that you are. But it's very difficult to measure that. So. Yeah, but I don't get as upset.

I cry over if I get a bad review anymore, I suck it up, I share it with the team and we have a little moan up together. And then I'll go back and kill them with kindness and, you know, and then my days, I'll just carry on with my day. It's fine.

That's a really good attitude. And has it changed how you talk about or market your products?

Say, for example, when you first were getting these reviews, did you have to change anything? You know, for example, to help customers realize which knicker might be the best for them? Things like that.

Were there anything like in the early days, I'm thinking that you had to change because you hadn't really thought about how customers might decide which product they needed.

Do you know what? We're evolving all of the time of our language, I think, and that's from feedback from customers. Customers.

So, yeah, at the beginning, we used to put four incontinence. And actually incontinence is. It's too wide a word. So we needed to narrow it down really on like, light bladder leaks. These are not for.

And we very clearly say these are not for full incontinence. These are for light bladder leaks. And that's coughing, sneezing, stretching.

I know that one particular pair of knickers that we have, the Suzy, they work for me on, they've passed the trampoline Test. So, you know, I can. I can say that. But we've got certification. I get all of the knickers tested at a lab to see how much they can absorb.

So, yeah, yeah, our language evolves. It's constantly evolving.

I think over time, letting kind of, you know, when we get advice from, when we get feedback from customers, that makes sense.

And I know you sell lots of different sales channels, so you sell on your website, you sell on Amazon, you sell a number of retailers. Retailers. How have you found balancing this and do you find you get the feedback you get varies, depending on the sales channel.

Does your messaging have to shift? I'm just quite curious.

Yeah. I mean, so we sell more on our website than anywhere. And then I think our second best seller is QVC.

So we launched on QVC just under about 18 or 19 months ago. So we've got really good feedback on QVC. Apart from that was really annoying. So we launched.

Our first products that we sold on QVC were two pairs of Polly's and then we had a separate pack with two pairs of Suzes.

And then they wanted to do the Suzes in the black and the cream, so we sent the order to them, but they didn't put it on the website as it was two black and one cream. So people were receiving knickers that they weren't expecting.

So we got a one star review because somebody was upset that they'd received a cream pair and they only wanted the black pairs. But that feedback was not anything negative about our product. It was just the fact that QVC hadn't kind of listed it properly. We are on Amazon.

We were on Amazon a few years ago and we sold really well. I hated Amazon. I did hate Amazon. I feel like the Amazon buyer is very quick to be negative and that really was. Yeah, that. I struggled with that.

But we've just set back up on Amazon and we do need to do some work on that to get that going properly. Yeah, I've struggled with Amazon, to be honest with you. We sell on Parkrun. We sell really well on Parkrun. That's a great outlet for that for us.

Again, it's because of the running and the movement of the body. We sell to Boots. Boots. Boots has been a nightmare as well.

I've not enjoyed Boots, but again, we're bringing somebody in to kind of take that over and hopefully that will. That will be better for us.

But it's been a real difficult journey for us and speaking to lots of people who, in boots have had the same situation as well I don't think boots are really cut out for small, small brands, so that's been hard. And we actually sell for quite a few lingerie companies, sports shops, local sports shop, independent sports shops.

And again, yeah, yeah, just kind of like period wellness kind of websites as well. Yeah. But with the majority, the biggest majority is our D2C, our own website, which has grown mad amounts in the past six months.

Again, since the investment. Since we've been able to invest more into the company, into ads and stuff like that, we've really, really started to grow on, on our own D2C.

And I guess what that also shows as well is I guess on your own website you can also talk about the product. There's no restraints is what I'm trying to say.

So Amazon, all these other sales channels, some like I guess qpc, they're managing how the way, the way the products listing Amazon has all these restrictions.

But on your own website, I guess you can say what you need to say, there's no restraints and that I think that's probably one of the reasons you're doing best on there.

Because this is a product that presumably requires a little bit of explanation because people have to get who it's for, what it does, which pair of knickers is better for me. And your own website is going to be the best place for people to navigate that.

Yeah, we can tell a story, we can tell our story on our website. Again, a lot of our product, it's about education.

We, we are educating constantly and I feel like sometimes we're sick of hearing ourselves talking about how to wear the knickers. The best knickers for you. But we have to keep doing it because our audience is getting bigger and bigger. So we're having to educate new people.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. We're in control of that on our website and we're not really on Amazon and Amazon is so like on Boots, our first product. Photo, Picture.

Image has to be of the packaging. It's like you can't actually get a real feel of what we're selling by our packaging. So that's been difficult.

And again, on, on Park Run, we're not one of their partners, we're just in their shop. So we can't do a lot of work with them.

Again, educating people to be on part, you know, to sell through part one, you have to be a partner, you have to pay to be a partner, so you can't afford to do that. So, yeah, the storytelling is really important to us and I think our social media does that really well.

We've got, you know, a great Instagram and TikTok and we can really tell our stories on those two channels as well.

Definitely.

And have you got any advice for anyone else who's maybe selling a product that maybe challenges of status quo a little bit or there's something that needs a bit more education? Is there anything that you would suggest others think about doing?

I would say find your. Find your community, definitely. Because once you find. I think our biggest advocates are. The biggest way we sell is through word of mouth.

We've got so many people who will shout about us, which is so lovely. So find your community. Definitely. And don't be embarrassed to talk about these things.

I mean, if you're doing it in a really polite kind way, I don't like when people are really outwardly like in your face about it. So I'll talk about stuff, but I'm talking about my experiences and I think that people really grab onto that.

They can see that I'm just a normal person, mum, you know, wife, whoever. And I'm experiencing these issues and I'm talking about it, but in a. In a positive way.

I suppose it's language and just being careful about how you speak about things. But yeah, finding your community and being open and honest with people I think is really important. It's not easy. Don't take, don't.

When people are criticizing you, don't take it to heart. Have good conversations with people. You know, I don't know how to explain it. It's really difficult.

Connie's really good when, if we get a comment, Connie. I'll leave it to cold Connie, because she's so eloquent and she'll go back and I just think, oh, wish I could. Wish I could say that.

How she says it, you know, she's. I think people relate to that. Be relatable. That's. That's it. Be relatable.

That's great advice. Thank you. And I think you're right that you can't always take it tight because sometimes this feedback can actually be so useful.

Something I talk to people about all the time is when they get.

If they get negative reviews is that it might, it might, that might actually be a clue that there's something about your product or the way you've listed it that people just don't understand. And actually that review gives, you know, that gives you a clue that leads you into, you know, you can then take action to rectify that because it.

I think that a lot of this can be miscommunicated not misunderstandings, people just not quite understanding what this is, who it's for. And if people don't tell you that, you would never know.

Yeah, there's lessons to be learned from. From negative reviews, definitely. When I got that one review, the first negative review I got, I was just going to bed, I was an idiot.

About 11 o', clock, my husband's already asleep and I just thought I'd check my phone quickly and had a one star review and I cried myself to sleep that night and I woke up the next day and I'm saying the person, I'm not doing this anymore. Just deal with it, go back to them and say, how can I make this right? Obviously this wasn't the right pair of knickers for you.

Let me send a pair that I think will work better for you. And I did that lovely conversation with a woman who then came back a couple of weeks later and said, can I take down my review?

I want to leave you another review. And she left me a five star review. So it's tackling it head on.

It's like anything in life, you know, if you don't deal with it, try and brush it onto the carpet, it's still there, you know, it's. And it's there at the back of your head. It's making you feel, you know, not great about yourself.

So I think going in, pulling on your big pair, you know, your big girl pants and dealing with the situation head on is. It's so much easier. You're not going to go to bed worrying about it all night.

It's, it's dealt with, you know, to the best of your ability and if someone still doesn't accept that, then that's your issue. Not, not. It's their issue, not yours. And you just have to let it roll off of you. So, yeah, done a lot of growing.

Oh, thank you so much for everything you've shared. I've kept you much longer than I said I would, so thank you for bearing with me, but I've loved this conversation.

Thank you, Vicki.

I have one more question before we finish that. That's okay. Because I asked this to every single guest and that is what would your number one piece of advice be for other product creators?

Do it. Just do it. Don't like you. Don't be sitting there asking everybody's advice and let people put you off doing it.

If you have an idea and you think it's going to work, you just have to go out and do it and find your tribe, find the people who are going to support you who will, you know you can bounce ideas off of. Definitely find mentors.

Mentors are so important and just find as many programs that you can go on like accelerator programs, NatWest, Santander, HSBC, they all do these amazing programs that will help you, give you the tools to be able to make your business work. You've just got to be brave and do it and I'm really glad that I was brave enough to go out and start my business.

That's brilliant advice. Thank you so much Kelly.

You're welcome. Thank you Vicki. I've loved talking to you.

Thank you so much for listening right to the end of this episode.

Do remember that you can get the full back catalogue and lots of free resources on my website vickyweinberg.com Please do remember to rate and review this episode if you've enjoyed it and also share it with a friend who you think might find it useful. Thank you again and see you next week.