Clarity has turned one!

To paraphrase Bill Gates – “people overestimate what they can do in a week but underestimate what they do in a year”

This past year has been quite a ride. I’m delighted that women have embraced both me and Clarity https://clarity.app/  I am so grateful.

To help celebrate Clarity’s first year I wanted to share a couple of interesting statistics about the app, and reflect on the 3 biggest lessons I’ve learned along the way.

Fun App Facts

• We have had 6500 new users
• We are in 30 countries
• Our top 3 sessions are InstaCool, Body Scan and InstaCalm
• Most preferred background sound as are Ocean Waves, Distant Ocean Waves and Campfire
• And our gender split is 82% female 18% male*

*I’m not sure who the men are but I’m grateful that they have taken an interest and are hopefully getting some enjoyment from listening to us! 

My top 3 Lessons

My background is as a women’s health acupuncturist and a tech chief operating officer (amongst other things). Learning to weave these two parts of my life together has been like the fulfilment of a dream. The translation of something that I personalised for an individual in clinic had to be crafted for a mass audience and I had never done this before. I have had to test and learn, revise and try again.

To create the sessions I looked into the latest research to make sure that I’ve (where possible) used the latest finding to create the best sessions I possibly could. I have loved this journey even if at times I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing.

I thought I would share my top 3 things I learned this year, enjoy!

1. Read books, read blogs, reach out

For the past 20 years I have been working in and around women’s health. In the past year there has been a real rise in the information and access to research available for women. I think this will go a long way to help to stop some of the stigma, shame and taboo there is around how we age and what it means to be menopausal.

Menopause can sometimes be confusing, isolating and confronting. You really need to know that you’re not alone and there are many practitioners (both western and integrative/complimentary), working to meet your individual needs.

If there is a symptom that’s worrying you, you now have a tonne of resources, from books to blogs via podcasts and Instagram. You do need to be selective and challenge some of the information, ask yourself how it feels for you and try (where possible) to find evidence based information. From there you can test things to see what will work for you. You are a work in progress.

Happily there are some amazing resources now available for women, my top 3 (of many favourites) this year have been:

Books

The age well project – This is a well rounded book with lots of evidence based information written in a way that’s easy to consume and packed full of good ideas

My menopausal vagina – A little tough at times to read, this is a beautifully written book by Jane Lewis outlines her journey with vaginal atrophy. If you’re struggling with vaginal dryness or vaginal pain of any sort then I highly recommend it.

The menopause monologues If you want to normalise your experience of menopause then this book is a must. It’s a proper roller-coaster of ladies (and some men’s) experience of menopause. You will laugh and you will cry but you will feel like there are others out there that are going through something similar to you and I think it’s important to know you’re not alone.

Blogs

Positive Pause I love these ladies and enjoy their adventures as they talk to experts in a wide range of areas. If you see that they are putting on an event near you I highly recommend attending.

Menopause health matters  I love this blog, it’s got factual and relevant information for wellness as well as aspirational fashion and lifestyle sections.

In the groove I get this blog regularly in my inbox and it’s always packed with interesting information and lots of giveaways.

Tribes

There is information, help and support that is easily available to you, so go out and find your tribe. The practitioners are getting easier to find on twitter, Instagram or Facebook – just search for #menopause on any of your social channels and ask a question. You can also head over to the Live Better with Menopause site where they have people just like you as well as experts in the field that you can learn from others or ask questions.

Having talked to many perimenopausal and menopausal women and specialist practitioners this year my learning is:

Get curious and get connected

2. Resilience 

One of the biggest lessons that I’ve had along the journey to create Clarity is that things take longer (and cost MUCH more) than you expect. I’m in the process of going for investment for the next part of our adventure – between the feedback from early forms of the sessions and app design to the vision I have for Clarity there have been some hard knocks I’ve had to take on the chin.

With hindsight each of these nuggets have tested my thinking and meant that I had to either change course or stick to my guns. This has been a hard road to navigate but I’ve learned so many lessons. I feel like we have really improved the app and vision for the future. I will be forever grateful to the people who have given me their time and thoughts. While I may not always like it I will always welcome any and all feedback. If you would like to have an advanced update of what we will be up to next you can email me here and I can let you know.

Sometimes your plans do take longer than you expect, but by keeping at it and continually listening and learning you can look back and see how far you’ve come and be really proud of what you’ve achieved.

The ability to separate yourself from the product and the ability to take a hit on the chin and get back up again seems to be my super-power. I’m embracing it to create the best company I possibly can to help the women who I feel deserve better as they prepare for and go through menopause. If you would like to add your feedback we are preparing our next update now and would love to know what you would like to see improved or added – you can fill in our questionnaire here (closes Sat 22nd June so get in quick!)

 I’ve made it through all the bumps in the journey by believing what I advise. I’m practicing mindfulness daily – most days a few times through the day. I also practice hot yoga 3-4 times a week, it’s not for everyone but this really works for me. Prioritising my sleep and making sure that I take time to eat good (non-processed food) and have an occasional gin while hanging out with the people I love really keeps me balanced.

My lesson here comes from an unlikely source for me – Rocky Balboa “But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” 

3. No one does it alone

I am a solo founder, but I’ve absolutely not done this alone. I am lucky to have a lovely supportive and generous husband. He can see when I’m struggling and knows me well enough to put me in the hot yoga studio or to take me for a long drive and talk with me about my plans. My family cheer me on from the sidelines while having absolutely no idea what I “do” with my day 🤣

I’ve been amazed with the support that I’ve only had from women I’ve worked with. The women in the menopause industry are wonderful and working as hard as they can to find a way to improve the lives of their clients.

My wonderful and incredibly supportive friends that are tech entrepreneurs, medical specialists and regular people just trying to get on in the world have lent me an ear, laughed, cried and commiserated with me and at times kept me sane.

The team of people that work with me from Tails who does my sound recording and Jason the sound engineer who makes me sound much better than I am, Sasha who has kept our brand vision. Matt who has done our app illustrations. Amanda and Faith who have helped with marketing and Mike my developer who has had the ability to translate my vision into the beautiful product you can now use anytime on your phone.

I’m astounded at how generous you have all been with your time, loyalty, network and friendship. Thank you.

But my final thanks and deep daily gratitude goes to you the Clarity user. I created it because there was no apps tailored for helping menopausal women and I couldn’t keep doing it without you. To all the women that have sent me incredible and humbling emails of support. My menopausal friends that testing the sessions scripts for me and given me ideas to improve it.

To the ladies that send me funny emails informing me of my spelling mistakes or giving me ideas of what they would like to see in the app. The men that have downloaded the app – I don’t know who you are but I think you’re awesome. 🤩 The women that continue to listen on a daily basis. The women that share Clarity with their friends and the last but not least the women who subscribe to the app – I honestly couldn’t do it without you.

My final lesson is that despite what you see in the news every day, people are awesome.

I am every day grateful.

Becks