WoW Woman in FemTech | Lorna Ive, founder and CEO of PeriMenoPost
Interview by MarijaButkovic
Lorna Ive is the founder of PeriMenoPost, an award-winning grassroots campaign focused on raising awareness across all stages of menopause. She is a freelance social media strategist, a wife, and a mum to a busy household of six. In her free time, she is a gin connoisseur and hodophile, a country music lover, a Ms Great Britain finalist and a Femtech fan! She lives in Wadhurst, East Sussex, UK.
Lorna, what is the idea behind PeriMenoPost and how did you come up with it?
My lightbulb moment for PeriMenoPost was to create a digital online menopause resource for women to be able to have access to correct information, to be a part of a community, and to gain support for all stages of menopause. I did not want another woman to experience the same journey as me. There were very little early menopause supportive communities out there at that time. Information was mainly aimed at post-menopause women only. I'd previously had an idea a year before PeriMenoPost was founded, I knew what I needed to create and had a clear vision with my personal experience of what I could offer with my insights and my knowledge. I had no idea how or where to start. Everything began to snowball once I trained as a Social Media Strategist with Digital Mums. My lightbulb moment then became real!
PeriMenoPost started in January 2019 and began as an organic LIVE grassroots campaign to raise awareness to start conversations surrounding the word menopause, breaking down the taboo and supporting women within a safe community.
When did all start and do you have other members in your team?
PeriMenoPost started in January 2019 and became a limited company in May 2019. Now an award-winning company, PerIMenoPost has been building ever since. Offering a Business Membership Club, regular blogs, two seasons of podcasts, relevant content across social media sites, an exclusive FB group, and a recently launched dedicated Twitter Hour for Menopause #PMPHour. At present it is just myself at the helm of the ship, I would like the business to grow and to be able to employ a team of women around me. I would like to be in a position to offer midlife women a chance to work with myself to learn and upskill, and most importantly to feel empowered at this age. Women of midlife age can feel somewhat invisible and feel left to one side by society. I feel it is important for a woman's self-esteem, social mobility, and independence to be included, nurtured, and encouraged.
How long did it take you to be where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle?
My biggest obstacle I would have to say would be other people's viewpoints of menopause. Mainly negative, partly down to the taboo of the word menopause. The beauty of my age is wisdom and with that, a newfound sense of confidence has definitely pushed me to give my ideas a try! I would say starting my own businesses has been the best decision I have ever made! My advice would be to anyone in a similar position, a similar age to myself if you are passionate about your business idea and you know you have found a solution you have to give it a try! At times I still feel a complete newbie in the world of business. At first, I found it quite daunting but I have turned this around and I’m now pushing myself to discover more and I am now enjoying the process as I'm learning along the way! One thing I have learned is that you can never stop learning, it will help your business to grow and at my age, it definitely helps to keep one’s brain active.
What are your biggest achievements to date?
My marriage and my four children are my biggest achievements and they have all been so supportive of my business and work. I was very lucky to have launched my campaign last year prior to the #BBCMenopause last year. This was a great chance to find out how fast-paced and how much fun a successful campaign works!
A defining moment for my campaign was during last summer. PeriMenoPost’s input and my campaigning paid off, my local area of West Kent CGg commissioning committee made the decision to overturn its formulary. It was changed to provide every woman in West Kent with HRT treatment from their GP's. Previously HRT had only been offered by Gp’s within certain surgeries and postcodes. Women were being forced to fund privately or go without HRT Treatment. This was a tremendous feeling and a massive boost, I felt I had completed my mission and was helping to make a difference to women's lives locally and nationally. I was featured in Goldie Magazine with my story and formed a great collaboration with the Editor, Rebecca Smith. She was fully supportive of PeriMenoPost. I have met some amazing people and have made great connections along the journey. I was introduced to Women of Wearables by a fellow Tweeter in women's health. I am proud of PeriMenoPost Podcasts and I still can’t quite believe that I have produced two seasons! I thoroughly enjoy meeting people and talking!
A downside to working alone is that you can miss the conversation, podcasts are a win-win for me personally! I want to offer followers a varied and interesting podcast and everyone has a story to tell and wants to offer their help. PeriMenoPost Members Club offers Menopause brands or services an exclusive membership to my audience with bespoke and tailored marketing from myself. I feel I have achieved more than what I had set out to do and I am looking forward to how far PeriMenoPost can grow further. Again as I have mentioned previously the beauty of midlife you have experience and you reach a certain age that you feel if you never try you never will! This was certainly the case for me on a personal note!
I decided to enter the first-ever Ms Great Britain 2020. I was chosen as a finalist that was held in February 2020. It was the most exhilarating experience I have ever done! I am now hooked! The whole team was so supportive of me and as one of the two oldest finalists, we had an absolute ball! I am very proud of this personal achievement, I wanted to show midlife women to not let menopause define you and to grab every opportunity that comes along! I am definitely entering again! Now a fully signed up member and part of the #PageantFamalam
Since August 2020, I am still floating on cloud 9 with the recent good news of my award win from the Theo Paphitis Small Business Sunday award, PeriMenoPost is now a #SBS Winner! Words cannot describe when I saw my tweet and my tweet handle announced as a winner, a much-welcomed pat on the back for my hard work and determination had been recognised. I am looking forward to this collaboration, learning, and meeting Theo in real life and how to grow my business further.
What are the challenges of being an entrepreneur in the niche you are in? How about being a female founder/entrepreneur?
I haven’t found many challenges in the niche of women’s health. Mainly peoples viewpoints still need to be open-minded that as a generation that will be working until we are 66 and beyond. Menopause needs to be supported and there is a huge demand for women to gain information and treatment. Keeping on top of trends, topics, news. Coronavirus quiet but I have found podcasts and my biz club has kept stable. I am discovering that being a founder at my age 49, to be one of empowerment and offering the freedom of flexible working. I have always worked for an employer and I would never have thought at my age I would be working for myself! I am looking into possible crowdfunding and taking my business further and as I understand it can be hard to build relationships with male orientated companies still and it is much better to approach female venture/funding companies. Interestingly, I have spoken with male business owners who are interested in finding out how to support and be inclusive about menopause within the workplace and want to help their employees.
What are the projects you are currently working on?
My current projects are focusing on building PeriMenoPost Members Club, building membership for women to join within the exclusive Members Club. Recording more seasons of podcasts with female entrepreneurs and menopause campaigners. To build on meetups and launch ambassadors for Meet Mighty Menos. I have another business idea that I am about to embark on involving women and upskilling, I am quite excited about this. I am very interested and would like to learn more about coding and apps as I feel this could be the next step for my business. Fem Tech is my thang and I would love to collaborate, learn, and discover more within this industry. Next year I turn 50 and I would like to achieve a few personal achievements, travel more, and learn to surf!
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
The #WomenIntech Industry is very important and empowering to myself and my business. The power of social media has helped to change the conversations for many women’s health issues, which is greatly needed. I particularly have found the recent online webinars with WOW and Femtech fascinating and inspiring. I think it is fantastic that the awe-inspiring women are able to create useful, clever inventions that are going to help current and future generations of people with their lives making all our futures healthier. I am very curious and interested in this industry as it is dynamic, fast, varied, and fascinating.
What is the most important piece of advice you can give to all female founders and female entrepreneurs out there?
My advice to female founders/entrepreneurs would be to find a work/life balance. If you can source help in the form of admin staff, to help you run a service that will help you to focus on your main strengths and cores of your business. Ensuring a life/work balance is good for your mental health and wellbeing, during lockdown with homeschooling and everyone working from home. I set a routine with setting alarms on my phone to ensure I get fresh air, exercise, and a lunch break! Working from home can at times be isolating and lonely, it is important to network, again during COVID-19 I have found this a great resource and have enjoyed meeting people from all over the UK as I networked online. Networking is a great toolkit to learn and to make contacts. I discovered that asking for help was a huge shift forward for my own business, to not struggle on your own always ask for help.
What will be the key trends in the health tech and fem tech industry in the next 5 years and where do you see it heading?
I predict more health and wellbeing digital platforms with an emphasis on people having access at their fingertips through apps. More online communities especially for people working from home, maybe another social media site may be created as a result. I would also like to predict and it would be amazing for more women to become self-employed and to set up their own digital online businesses. More women collaborations within the FemTech Industry.
Who are your 3 inspirational women in health tech and fem tech?
My 3 inspiring women are as follows:
Michelle Kennedy, CEO and Founder of the Peanut app. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to her talk at the recent Women of Wearables FemTech conference. I admired her drive and determination and she knew what was missing, she filled a gap in the market with her great concept! She demonstrated her business skills and is aware of her strengths. A great role female role model for future women health techies.
Colette Courtion, CEO and Founder of JOYLUX Inc - I watched Colette speak very recently during a WOW event and I was blown away by her vision, confidence, and dedication with her vision and concept. JOYLUX is a great product to help women of all ages but in particular women of my age will hugely benefit from her product. I found her discussion empowering and she very clearly and confidently discussed how to build your idea into a concept, how to attract funding. The highs and lows of funding and how to move your concept further with medical trials and marketing. I feel she leads the way for femtech proving that an idea can turn into a reality that will hugely benefit many women's lives.
Lastly, I would have to say my Fellow Digital Mums co-founders. The duo that is Kathryn Tyler and Nicky Cochrane, are absolutely dedicated and committed to helping women to upskill and to be able to work flexible hours. Encouraging women to keep their skills updated and to work from home allowing women to be at home with their children and to achieve that work/life balance that works for families. I especially enjoyed learning with DMs and have become an analytics nerd as a result of my studies and have a love of Twitter Hours since becoming a Social Media Strategist! The online learning platform they developed was brilliant whilst learning the course with up to date technology. I wouldn't be here today and PeriMenoPost would not have started had I not applied and studied the course and set my idea into motion.
Photography: Neil Dedman Photography
Website: https://perimenopost.com/
Social media:
This interview was conducted by Marija Butkovic, Digital Marketing and PR strategist, founder and CEO of Women of Wearables. She regularly writes and speaks on topics of wearable tech, fashion tech, IoT, entrepreneurship and diversity. Follow Marija on Twitter @MarijaButkovic.