Decode Midlife Supplements with Julie Kucinski of Hormonal Wellness Brand Wile
Show Snapshot:
Hormonal? Meet Julie Kucinski, a cofounder of Wile, which offers 100% plant-based supplements and tinctures to support women over 40 with emotional, menopausal, and hormonal wellness. We get into plant power, managing midlife mental health, and why sublimating anger can wreak havoc on well-being, both mental and physical. Bonus, we explore the idea of reframing hormones as a su
In This Episode We Cover:
1. The celebrity encounter that put Wile on Katie’s radar.
2. Why Wile offers wellness for “grown” women.
3. Stress, anger, mood instability, the juggle of modern life – and the impact on women.
4. Sublimating your anger? You may be on the brink of eruption.
5. Reframing the idea of “hormonal” as a superpower.
6. An A-to-Z on herbal extracts, adaptogens, ashwagandha, reishi, kava, hawthorn berry, roselle flower, and more.
7. Serena Williams, Judy Greer, Whole Foods, and the big names giving Wile buzz.
8. When whiskey and shopping are not the answer – time to try wellness.
9. How midlife gives us the capacity to surprise ourselves.
Quotable:
We are fully embracing the word “hormonal.” That word has been stigmatized, turned into an insult and a joke that is meant to demean women. And the fact is, we’re all hormonal, it’s part of being a living creature... and they really are in many ways, our superpowers. The hormones that women have in our bodies are some of the reasons that we’re able to multitask and juggle so many balls so well.
Wile is a company that offers wellness for grown women. And we say “grown” because to us—I have no problem with the word “midlife”—but all the terms around being older than 35 years old in our culture are so loaded. And to us, this life stage is all about being grown, which is at full peak, at full freshness, at full flower, at full ripeness.
I think this country of ours worships youth, it worships a very narrow idea of beauty. Ageism, in my mind, is very rooted in misogyny, and it’s up to our generation. I truly feel it’s up to Gen X and the older millennials for us to flip this conversation the way that so many millennial brands have flipped the conversations on periods and body inclusivity. Our generation has dealt with a lot of stuff. We had a lot of conditioning when we were younger, and I think now that we are older and wiser and have some money in our pocket, and have some life on us we can say, ‘You know what? No. I reject that narrative.’
Supplements to improve mood, resilience, sleep
Wile has a special offer for ACA listeners. Get 20% off with code AGE20.
Transcript
Katie Fogarty [0:21]:
Welcome to A Certain Age, a show for women who are unafraid to age out loud. Age 40 is a tipping point in women’s lives and health; we have experience, wisdom, confidence, and power. But we also have fluctuating hormones that make us moody, sleepless, sweaty, crampy, angry, you name it.
My guest today is Julie Kucinski, the cofounder of the hormonal wellness brand, Wile Women, which offers plant-based wellness products to manage mood, emotional wellness, and the effects of perimenopause. Wile Women is having an incredible month, they’re landing on the shelves at Whole Foods, and just closed a 3-million-dollar investment round from venture capitalist heavy hitters including Serena Williams. We are going to talk all things plant power, managing midlife mental health, and why women’s menopausal health is finally having a moment in the business and brand world. Welcome, Julie.
Julie Kucinski [1:18]:
Thank you, glad to be here.
Katie [1:19]:
Yeah, I’m excited. We’re going to be diving into Wile Women and your products and how they work but I want to tell you a very quick story first.
So, a couple of weeks ago, I was in Brooklyn at a women’s networking event. It was run with some menopause brands and Stacy London of the menopause company, State of Menopause was talking, she was one of the guests. I got to connect with her afterwards and she was talking about her hot flashes and the feeling of sweatiness. And I was saying to her that I never really had a hot flash, but I would have these incredible bouts of what I called toxic rage. And in fact, the very first episode of this podcast was called “On Menopause: Is Toxic Rage the New Hot Flash?” Because I was having volcanic fury! And she looked at me and said, “You need Wile Women.” And I was like, “What the heck is Wile Women?” So, of course, the moment Stacy London, What Not to Wear says, “You need something” I went and googled it, which is how I found you.
Julie [2:29]:
I love it.
Katie [2:30]:
So, you have a fan in Stacy London. I’m really excited for you to share with my listeners what Wile Women brings to the women’s wellness equation, why you launched it, what your products do.
Julie [2:44]:
Thanks. I will say, Stacy has been a great friend to Wile. She is amazing, she is really reaching out to all the brands in this space and trying to bring us all together, and there will be some exciting things coming up in the fall.
Katie [2:57]:
Yay.
Julie [2:58]:
But we can’t thank her enough, she’s been more than generous, she’s fabulous. So, quick shoutout to Stacy London.
So, Wile is really a company that is for, well we say, “Wellness for grown women.” And we say “grown” because to us, I have no problem with the word “midlife” but all the terms around being less than 35 years old in our culture are so loaded. And to us, this life stage is all about being grown, which is at full peak, at full freshness, at full flower, at full ripeness. And we want to really frame that in a positive way. But as you mentioned Katie, I think the crazy part about it is, you don’t really know what’s coming for you until it hits you, right. And we always say we’re for perimenopause and life because everything that you go through, for some women it starts mid-30s, for some later, but everything you go through in these life stages is very intense. We as women carry a very large part of the weight of all of it. And the rage, with everything going on in the world, and I don’t know your life, but at this point we’re in the primetime of divorces, and aging parents, and children, and career shifts, and look at the news... We’ve got a lot going on.
Katie [4:22]:
Yes. I will say, the news and my husband set me off. He was like, "What’s happening?” Literally volcanic fury, and I had to stop... I wasn’t going to get divorced, but I did have to stop watching the news. I’m like, “I can't have these triggers.” And no one told me that was coming. Sometimes I joke, I say that hot flashes have a very good PR agent, they are synonymous with menopause. And we don’t get told that up to 34 other things are happening, including what doctors call mood instability. As anyone who is listening knows, if you’ve experienced mood instability, it feels a lot more like anger.
Julie [5:03]:
And we all know women have been told we’re not supposed to be angry; we’re not supposed to show anger. And we all know the terms and words that get thrown out at women when we show any kind of anger. So, I think also, we’re kind of taught and conditioned to suppress it, to not talk about it, and it comes out in other ways.
Katie [5:23]:
Yes, that’s why it’s volcanic, because it explodes. That’s why it explodes. But you know, it’s not just anger. I think when we get to midlife, the themes I hear from the guests on the show is that people do feel more comfortable and confident in expressing themselves. Midlife is about feeling confidence in ourselves, our opinions, our ability to share them. But what I was really blindsided by was the fact that I felt a little out of control. I am fine with righteous anger, but I was not fine with the sort of unpredictable anger that was sidelining me and making me feel very vulnerable and out of control. It was not anger positive.
So anyhow, enough about me. Tell me about your products, what they offer, what they bring to the table for women who are listening to this thinking, “I feel moody, I’m having sleepless nights, I’m feeling that mood instability.”
Julie [6:20]:
Absolutely. So, we are fully embracing the word “hormonal.” In fact, we have a whole line of merch with the word “hormonal” emblazoned across the top of the hat and the chest because to us, that word has been stigmatized, turned into an insult and a joke that is meant to demean women. And the fact is, we’re all hormonal, it’s part of being a living creature, it’s part of being alive in this world, and they really are in many ways, our superpowers. The hormones that we as women have going on in our bodies are some of the reasons that we’re able to multitask and juggle so many balls so well. There are real physiological and mental advantages to this chemistry.
So, one thing we want to say is, we want to reframe this whole conversation and say it’s not all bad, even the menopausal journey and perimenopausal journey, it’s not all bad. As you’re saying, as some of those hormones shift, all of a sudden, people find they want to people please less, they aren’t ask hooked in as other things as they were before either.
So, we want to reframe hormones and we also say that stress is the other female hormone because we do carry a lot of weight, have a lot of cortisol in our lives, and as we get older, it affects us differently, our bodies produce it differently and it has stronger effects on us than it did at younger ages and than it does on men.
So, to us, the stress and mood equation of this life phase is very important, and we see in our quizzes and the women that we survey and talk to, that’s what women really are struggling with. I’ve had women say to me, "I can handle a hot flash now, I know what to expect. It’s everything else.” A hot flash will come and go, a crazy period will come and go, it’s inconvenient, it’s difficult, it’s stressful, but it doesn’t last all day. The stress might. The feelings of sadness or the feelings of rage might come and go all day long and they color every bit of your life. And that is why our line has the balance in it of managing both those physical perimenopausal symptoms that show up for us, as well as the mood and stress piece.
And I’ll just tell you very quickly. The line has four naturopathic formulated, clinically backed capsules that are really focused on perimenopause. We have one that’s overall balanced for hormones, that can kind of lift everybody up to a better baseline. We have a hot flash formula, we have a stress formula, and we have a period support. So, when your periods start going really wild, it can help mitigate and smooth those out. It’s not going to get rid of it, we all know that part of this life phase is changing periods. But it can make it less intense and make the PMS less intense and all that good stuff. And then we have three tinctures, Un-worry, Un-anger, [Katie laughs] hello, I’ll send you a gallon. People are always like, “I need a gallon.”
Katie [9:17]:
I think I need a barrel; I need a barrel.
Julie [9:19]:
We need to do like boxed wine, spigot levels of it right now to get us through this life stage.
Katie [9:25]:
I love it, I love it.
Julie [9:28]:
And sorry, we also have a tincture called Burnout Remedy. And then we have two functional drinks that are traditional Chinese medicine based. And for those who are not familiar with traditional Chinese medicine, it’s basically the thousands of year-old study that is based in Chinese wisdom and healing. They use a lot of herbs, everyone associates it with acupuncture, but there’s a lot of herbal medicine in that as well. So, we have two tasty drinks, one is called Stave the Crave and it is an anti stress-eating chai for those of you like me who struggle with the stress eating, which a lot of women do, also something that we are wired to do more than men. And then the other one we just launched called Tranq Dranq, and that is pretty much what it sounds, it’s an herbal chill that kind of takes the jangly energy out and restores a little more peace. Some people love it before sleep, I like it instead of an afternoon coffee but that’s the line right now.
Katie [10:26]:
So, you’ve been using the word tincture. For our listeners who don’t know or are not familiar with that word, what is a tincture?
Julie [10:32]:
A tincture is basically a very highly concentrated herbal extract. It comes in a dropper, it looks like a medicine dropper bottle, brown bottle. Mostly herbs and oils. It’s a liquid and you just pop it right under your tongue and you get that plant-y, herby, adaptogenic, mushroomy goodness that hits you right away. The great thing about tinctures for those who haven’t used them – and most people haven’t, we found only about 4% of the people who come to Wile have ever used a tincture – they’re great because it’s like, Boom! It’s like a supercharge. It goes right into your bloodstream quickly. With a gummy, with a pill, with a capsule, with a drink has to go in your stomach, has to get digested, has to go through your liver, it takes longer. With these tinctures, these droppers of plant yumminess liquid, they just boom go right into your system and can act really quickly.
Katie [11:23]:
Yeah, I’ve used a tincture at night to help with sleep sometimes. It’s a CBD tincture and it is very effective and fast-acting so I can attest to that.
Julie, we’re going to be heading into a quick commercial break but when I come back, I want to talk about what plants are in your tinctures and in your drinks. We’ll be back after this quick break.
[Ad break]
Katie [12:42]:
Okay Julie, we’re back from the break, we talked about plant-powered tinctures, your drinks. what can we expect to find in your products? Are the same plants in everything or do they differ based on the product?
Julie [12:54]:
They differ. So, the forming capsules in the tinctures are actually from naturopathy, naturopathic tradition. And that is herbalism and whole-body wellness. A new concept and part of our mission here is to really introduce and make these things accessible to people. Not everybody has the time, the location, the resources, the schedule to allow them to go to an acupuncturist every week or find a naturopath, or even know who would be a good naturopath or a bad naturopath. How do you even sort that out? These practices have been around for many, many thousands of years and they have all been looking and menopause and perimenopause very intently for those thousands of years, which unfortunately western medicine hasn’t taken menopause or perimenopause as seriously.
So, the woman who designed the capsules and the tinctures has been a naturopath practicing and a teacher for more than 30 years. So, these formulations were based on her working with real women, day in day out, speaking to them, talking to them, formulating for them. So, that has been the basis of our line, which is really differentiating by the way, most of the time if you want a product, you go to a lab, you tell them what you want, you take something off the shelf, they tweak a little here, tweak a little there, you put a label on it, and get it out to market. I’ve worked in a lot of categories, and that’s true in beauty, that’s true in cleaning, that’s true in a lot of things. We really created these from the ground up. Sorry, that was a long answer to a short question.
Katie [14:18]:
No! it was a good answer.
Julie [14:20]:
The answer is they all have different things in them. So, there are a few products that have Ashwagandha in them, which is an herb that has become really popular over the last few years for that mood balancing and also for a balancing of the system, bringing your physiology down. So, that appears in a few of them and there’s some other things that are in the adaptogenic world like Reishi that people may have heard about that appear here and there. There are some herbs that are also maybe familiar to people from their co-op or their drugstore shelves like Kava, which is a huge calming, really proven with a lot of clinical studies to have a calming element. There are some, you’ll see in other perimenopausal supplements as well like Vitex, Hawthorn berry, some of these well-known herbs that honestly are kind of here and there at different parts of your pharmacy or co-op shelf. But the combination of how our naturopathic doctor, Jillian Stansbury, put them together is really meant to kind of balance the whole system. Because again, there’s hormonal shifts, there’s stress shifts, there’s nervous system stuff going on, and the herbs are really designed to kind of bring the whole system into a grounded space.
Katie [15:38]:
Okay, interesting. So, tell me about the Tranq Dranq. I did a show recently about women and alcohol. I talked to a sober coach and a recovery advocate who has been sober for 18 years after really a lot of trouble with addiction and I was shocked to learn all the data on women and alcohol. I am somebody who drinks alcohol, I love wine. But over the pandemic, more women are drinking, and more women are drinking more. So, I’m wondering, the Tranq Dranq, is this something that can be used as an alternative to alcohol?
Julie [16:16]:
Yes, all of the above. All of the above. I’ll tell you, I haven’t drank in over 3 years.
Katie [16:20]:
Okay.
Julie [16:22]:
And I’m not saying I’ll never drink again, but I decided to take a little break and see what happened, for me. And so far, I’m like, you know what, honestly, I feel really good. So, for now, I’m not saying it’s forever, but for now I’m not drinking. And I do think if you’re trying to cut back on drinking, it becomes a habit, right? Everything is a habit. Whether it’s good or bad. Whether it’s eating that cookie at 2:00 in the afternoon, pouring that glass of wine, even like signaling to yourself that you’re frustrated when you walk in the door. It’s all a habit loop that goes in your brain.
So, you can use the Tranq Dranq, you can use our Stave the Crave chai drink, and you can actually use our tinctures in a club soda with lime, or a mocktail. They taste really nice in a cup of tea. So, to me, when I decided to cut back on drinking, having something else that was like, fun and tasty and a little different to cap off the day really helped.
Katie [17:23]:
Yeah, it makes so much sense.
Julie [17:25]:
Yeah, it’s the ritual.
Katie [17:27]:
Does the Tranq Dranq, do they have CBD in them? What is the element that makes it calming?
Julie [17:32]:
Well, it doesn’t have CBD, none of our products do actually, at least not right now. One of the main products or ingredients is Ashwagandha, which we talked about a little bit. It’s really popular right now in wellness because it has a ton of benefits. And the rest of the ingredients are actually a little less familiar, I think even for people who know quite a bit about wellness. There is an herb called Roselle flower, there is a fruit called Schisandra, sounds pretty relaxing right? [Katie laughs] And then Chinese salvia root and a rhizome of that, these are really those, when I talked about traditional Chinese medicine, those are herbs that are used frequently in traditional Chinese medicine and maybe aren’t as common, that you would see on your everyday shelf. And the Tranq Dranq actually tastes... it's really good in hot water, almost like a hot tea. It has almost like a hibiscus-y, a tart flavor. You could add sugar if you wanted, by all means. But it has a really interesting fruity flavor. It has açai and goji berry, or goji fruit.
Katie [18:38]:
Sounds delicious.
Julie [18:39]:
Yeah it is! It’s really unique and it’s really good. You know, I have to be honest. The first time I had it I was like, "I don’t know if I’m a hibiscus person, I’m not sure about this.” And then I really got into it. And I think the ritual of the cocktail is about having something different at the end of the day to sort of say, “Okay, yabba dabba doo” is what I always say [laughs] like the Fred Flinstone moment where you’re “All right, I’m done.” I think having something where you have this preparation and you have your own cup and you put in the hot water, and it tastes different than anything you would drink normally, still hits that sort of treat part of your brain, that reward place that’s like, “Okay signal chilling out, Netflix, stay sober...”
Katie [19:18]:
Yes. I love that. Exactly, the signaling that it’s time to relax. The conversation around alcohol really made me think about my own drinking and I’ve been scaling it back over the last few weeks because I was asking myself the questions you know, am I having this glass of red wine because it tastes amazing with the steak? Or am I having it because I’m stressed out? And you know, one of the things I noted for myself was that I just needed to reorganize my day to not be stressed at the times when I was reaching for alcohol, and it did make a difference. So, I could see how substituting a drink like this really drives behavior change. And that’s really what you’re all about, is trying to drive this behavioral change.
Do you feel that this is the product for the right moment? Are people embracing the idea of new ingredients, plant-based ingredients, to manage things like menopause? Obviously, you got a very big endorsement with Serena Williams and sort of a who’s who of female investors, supporting you with a pretty big seed round. And Whole Foods is obviously the blue-chip in the organic grocery space. Are you seeing the consumer acceptance of this product?
Julie [20:42]:
Yeah, I think I mean, in short, we’re so lucky and happy to have these names around us. Obviously, the endorsement is huge. Whole Foods has had a heritage of being just enough ahead of the curve to bring new things that are proven to the market. So, they’re really going all-in on us and it is such a thrill and a pleasure I’ve been in different wellness and beauty brands my entire career, and it’s rare to have the endorsement of them rolling out in this many stores, so we’re very grateful and excited.
But I do think, I mean look around. Look at what we’ve all gone through in the past several years. More than ever, I think people are looking for answers. The things, the whisky ain’t working, the shopping ain’t working. We’ve tried a lot of it, and it still isn’t working so I think people are really looking and seeking healing. I think the pandemic made a lot of people look at their everyday habits. It also gave them some time to maybe experiment with things that they didn’t have the bandwidth or interest for. So, I really think it’s a combination of wellness and green having mainstreamed for a few years, people looking for answers, people feeling like, “You know what, I want to enjoy my life, I want to feel good! And I’m open to trying new ways of doing it.” And you know, the beauty of a tincture is, if you don’t like it, first of all I’d say please try it for a while. Because anything new, there’s always a little like, “Oh, I don’t know about this, this is weird.” But try it, see, create those positive habit loops and you might surprise yourself.
I think the beauty of this life phase Katie, and I’m sure you feel the same, we still have a huge capacity to surprise ourselves. And the women I know are fabulous, they’re cool, they’re smart, they’re amazing, they’re gifted; they have so much more to bring to this world and to their own lives. If you have kids that are moving on, or you’re doing some career shifts, or whatever it is, we say, “It’s your power, take it.” I think we need to stop making it so negative and be like no, we are 40, 45, 50, 55, whatever age it might be, we’re awesome, we’re amazing, we’re open and let’s go for it.
Katie [22:57]:
Yeah, exactly. We’re perennially in bloom. You talked at the beginning about how there’s a vocabulary problem around aging in our culture, which I completely agree with. I too do not shy away from the word “midlife”, but sometimes I joke, I’m 52, am I really going to be 104? And I’m not sure I’m at midlife. So, there aren’t words that capture being mature and older with vibrancy and so it’s important to have these conversations.
I want to shift gears for one minute and ask you about some language that I saw on your website, and it really grabbed me because I’m always paying attention to when people describe aging well. You say on your website, "Something happens when women turn 40. We start to disappear. From marketing briefs, cultural conversations, retail radar, our doctor’s care. Yet women like us are anything but invisible. WE’RE GROWN. Not old. Not young. Nowhere near done.” You and I know that. This is the DNA of my show, is that we are just getting started. Women know this to our core, but how come society doesn’t?
Julie [24:10]:
Well, it’s interesting. You’ve probably already observed this. The UK is way ahead of us in terms of these kinds of brands, they’re way ahead of us. As someone who has been in beauty and wellness my whole career and with various brands, I always thought it was weird. It’s kind of like, there’s a really old movie called Logan’s Run and I’ve never actually seen it, but I know the theory is that people disappear at 30 or 32 or something like that. [laughs] And I just think this country of ours worships youth, it worships a very narrow idea of beauty. Agism, in my mind, is very rooted in misogyny, and it’s up to our generation, I truly feel it’s up to Gen X and the older millennials for us to flip this conversation, the way that so many millennial brands have flipped the conversations on periods and body inclusivity. Our generation has dealt with a lot of stuff. We had a lot of conditioning when we were younger, and I think now that we are older and wiser and have some money in our pocket, and have some life on us we can say, “You know what? No. I reject that narrative and I don’t care what anybody thinks and I’m going to do me.”
Katie [25:22]:
Yeah absolutely. And I think a bit part of the equation is actually aging out loud, that is one of the taglines of this show. I work with a lot of clients in my day job that doesn’t want to age out loud, and that don’t want to leave the dates of their college graduation on their resumes or their LinkedIn. If we are continuously hiding our age, we’re never going to normalize getting older.
It’s funny, I was pitched by a well-known journalist, somebody that I grew up watching, she’s not that much older than I am, but I remember seeing her on the news. She wanted to be on the show, I’m not going to use her name because I don’t want to embarrass her. But when I asked her PR person how old she was, that was the dealbreaker. She wouldn’t tell me. And I was like, well this show, literally, the first line I say is for women who are unafraid to age out loud. This isn’t going to work; she needs to age out loud with me. But it made me sad. I thought this woman has won multiple Emmys, is a mega-talent and doesn’t want to share her age. I think that needs to change. We can't be coy about getting older because then the needle is never going to shift.
Julie [26:35]:
It’s true. But you know, I think the anxiety is real.
Katie [26:39]:
Oh yes. Yes.
Julie [26:40]:
And I think we need to acknowledge like, women’s peak earning years are younger than men’s. Why? Because there is a perception that we lose value. I came up through advertising, the ad business. And women just kind of stopped working in the business around 40 or earlier, they just kind of go away. Because if they don’t go away, they’re kind of pushed out, they’re put out to pasture, they’re mommy tracked, or they’re given the worst assignments. It’s an ageist business for men too, but they have a good 10 to 15 more years on their clock than we do.
Katie [27:16]:
Julie, you are not the first former ad executive to come on this show and say this. I’ve heard this from multiple people, that almost by 30 you’re aging out of the ad industry.
Julie [27:25]:
Oh yeah.
Katie [27:27]:
It feels really brutal. I work with clients across industries, and I hear this fear around aging and owning your expertise from people who work in beauty, fashion, and technology, which is considered sometimes to be a young person’s game and there is this fear.
But I think the needle is shifting. We live in a period of time in America, where for the first time in our history, we’re going to have more people over the age of 65 than under the age of 18, which is kind of astonishing. There’s been this enormous demographic shift. So, I feel like we must continue pushing this conversation because we are going to be aging, we’re having these multigenerational workforces, and we need to signal to the people coming behind us that it’s okay and that you know, that you remain relevant and marketable.
It’s so wonderful to do this show, to invite different... I’ve had Kindra come on this show, Elektra Health has sponsored it, Sonsoles Gonzalez of Better Not Younger. These are brands that are being created simply to serve the needs of menopausal women, which is the most affluent, educated, consumer base we have in America. I love connecting with people who have founded businesses to serve this market.
Can you tell us quickly, I know we’re nearing the end of our show, but I’d love to hear a little bit about the founders, how you got together? I know you have an actress involved as well. Can you share a little bit about your origin story with our listeners?
Julie [29:00]:
Yeah, absolutely. I think as so many things do... This is something I resisted when I was younger you know, they’re always like, “It’s who you know.” You’re like, really? Yeah, yes. [laughs] Life is relationships and the people that you have connected to kind of drive your trajectory through your whole career.
So, Corey is the man of our team. He was a client of mine and someone I worked with when he was in another startup. We got together and were thinking about things we could do as he was exiting that business and I was like, “I really want to do something with this menopausal area. I think it’s huge, it’s one of the few things that has not been overmarketed to, that has actually been under-discussed, under-marketed to, that is a black box of knowledge for women.” And again, they fall off the briefs at 35 and all the women I know buy a lot of great stuff. Let’s do it.
At the same time, he was having another conversation with a high school friend of his, Gwen Floyd, who had also been CEO and exited a company that she had already built, and she had the same idea. So, we were like a meeting of the minds between the three of us of like, “Let’s do something together, let’s do it in this space, it’s underserved, we’re going for it.” And then Judy Greer – actress Judy Greer is a good friend of Corey’s as well; Corey is kind of the center of this – a longtime friend of his and she was interested in this space as well, so she’s been involved since nearly the beginning and truly is involved. She’s great because she’s kind of America’s best friend and she’s a way in for us to connect with some really cool people who are starting to take on agism in Hollywood which I mean, hello, I can't imagine a career [Katie laughs] that would be more agist.
Katie [30:40]:
Maybe more agist than the ad industry, exactly. Hollywood.
Julie [30:43]:
Oh, definitely. Modeling and acting are probably the absolute worst. So, she’s been great and she’s every bit as wonderful and cool as she seems to be, just like Stacy London is. And we just decided to go for it, and we’ve been figuring it out as we go. I think we’re just united. We want to connect with, serve, and talk to fabulous women like the ones we know and love that are being underserved that are just bursting out to have these kinds of conversations like you have all the time on your show, Katie. And we need more outlets for it! We need to talk about the hard stuff and do it without judgment and with a lot of forgiveness and grace for each other, because we’re all in a different space in our journey, physiologically, psychologically, in all ways. And I feel like this life stage for me is really about being open and forgiving. We have to forgive ourselves and be open to each other and to the possibilities and realize that there’s so much more ahead, we’ve got to just believe in ourselves and go for it. We want to make women feel great.
Katie [31:46]:
Yeah, absolutely. I love that. And I love this idea of first of all, how fun for you to have multiple cofounders because launching anything new and bringing something into the world is really hard. And sometimes I think, I wish I had a co-host, it would be fun to be hanging out with people. But of course, I get to hang out with my guests, and of course, I’ve got Dave in the booth over there who spends these shows with me. But it’s wonderful to have cofounders to launch with and it’s wonderful that you’re a part of this conversation that is beginning to shift.
I feel like I learned so much from doing this podcast that I wish I had known several years ago. I wish I had known to be taking care of things like, dry vagina does not need to be that way. In my show with a female urologist, you don’t have to put up with things like leaking urine, being afraid to exercise, sneeze, or laugh because guess what? There are fixes out there. And the medical community, there are people who are trained to be menopause specialists, but the medical community as a whole does not know enough about how to support this bracket. And honestly, business gets a bad rap, but if they are looking at gaps in education and gaps in communication around this... Fine, you’re meeting a business need, but you’re meeting a real need. There’s a reason why there’s a white space in this market. I love talking to people who are addressing it.
Julie [33:25]:
Yeah, I have to say, in one study, fewer than 20% of OB/GYN residents, so they’d already been through med school, felt like they had adequate menopause training. And many of them got basically none at all. And this is not an attack on western medicine by any means. We say, ask the questions, and advocate for yourself. Unfortunately, you really have to fight for your own health and just keep asking the questions and doing the research. There is no one silver bullet, I wish that we had a magic pill that was going to make everything perfect for everybody. We don’t.
But keep trying things and keep asking questions and advocating because I think women, we’re conditioned the whole lives that we need to be perfect, that we can always be better, we should be constantly improving, and we’re supposed to have it all together. Of course, women weren’t talking about all of these things because they were meant to feel shame around it when it is completely natural, it’s completely normal, and there is nothing wrong with you. We always say, “It’s not you, it’s your hormones.” It’s all part of life, just like the craziness of your first period. It’s crazy to me that there’s so much around your first period and there’s so little around your last. Why is that a shameful thing? We have to just talk to each other.
I learn something new every single day in this world and I know there’s a lot more to learn that we don’t know. We’re really hoping to hear from people to say, hey what do you want to know? What do you need to talk about? We’re just getting started and unfortunately, or fortunately, so little has been done in this space, there’s a huge amount of possibility for all the companies and all the people out there. So, we’re excited for what’s next and I think it’s great that you’ve had this show going for so long and that you’re having these conversations. We all need to be doing it.
Katie [35:16]:
I love it. I could talk to a different woman every single day. This show comes out Mondays, but I could talk to somebody seven days of a week. It’s been phenomenal. Women have been up to amazing things during this chapter, and I am here for it!
Julie [35:29]:
I love it.
Katie [35:29]:
Julie, this has been fun. We’re going to move into our quick speed round before we wrap because we are near the end of the show, and I want to get a few more areas covered. This is just a one- or two-word answer. The Wile Women product I reach for again and again is: _____.
Julie [35:46]:
Un-anger.
Katie [35:47]:
This Wile Women product flies off the shelf: _____.
Julie [35:52]:
Stave the Crave.
Katie [35:54]:
Wile Women products are plant-powered. What is your go-to plant for healthy snacking?
Julie [36:00]:
Apples.
Katie [36:01]:
What plants are always in your grocery cart?
Julie [36:07]:
Strawberries, apples, spinach. Those are definitely my staples.
Katie [36:13]:
Okay. Surprise, this plant is never in my pantry.
Julie [36:18]:
Broccoli.
Katie [36:19]:
Lifestyle hack I use to keep my hormones in check: _____.
Julie [36:25]:
Journaling now, believe it or not. Even though it’s not a physical one, journaling is changing my life right now.
Katie [36:32]:
I like it, I like it. Okay, one of your website taglines says, "You are worth your Wile.” What is the one thing that always makes you feel like you are worth your Wile?
Julie [36:43]:
Walking in nature and realizing that we are all really part of a big, amazing, beautiful system that can do astonishing things that we forget about when we’re just staring at our screens every day.
Katie [36:55]:
I agree, so beautiful. Finally, your one-word answer to complete this sentence: As I age, I feel _____.
Julie [37:02]:
Open.
Katie [37:03]:
Open. Nice! You are my... I think one of my ninetieth guests and you’re the first person to use that word. it’s a beautiful note to end on. Thank you, Julie. Before we say goodbye, how can our listeners find you and learn more about Wile Women?
Julie [37:17]:
Well, you can find us at wilewomen.com and that is W-I-L-E like feminine wiles, feminine powers. I’d love to offer all your listeners 20% off any Wile product, if you go to wilewomen.com and put in code Age20, you’ll get 20% off and I’ll keep that going until the end of the summer.
Katie [37:40]:
We would love that. Thank you so much Julie, that’s wonderful.
Julie [37:43]:
Thank you.
Katie [37:45]:
This wraps A Certain Age, a show for women who are aging without apology.
Join me next Monday when I talk with journalist Danielle Friedman, about her book, Let’s Get Physical and we dive into the untold history of women’s exercise culture, from jogging to jazzercise, to Jane Fonda.
Special thanks to Michael Mancini who composed and produced our theme music. See you next time and until then: age boldly, beauties.