IAM541- Founder Runs an Extensive Breast Cancer Solutions Store

Efrat Roman is a Breast Cancer survivor, the founder and CEO of EZbra – The First and Only Sterile, Disposable, and Feminine Post-Op Bra. Efrat is an entrepreneur and inventor, an expert on the well-being of women dealing with breast cancer, and the founder of CureDiva.com the first-ever and most extensive online breast cancer solutions store.

Awarded as one of the 20 most influential moms, by Family Circle Magazine, the single mother of two, a published writer & artist.

• CEO Hack: Singing in the bathroom
• CEO Nugget: You're an expert if you found a solution to an unmet need
• CEO Defined: Being the person who looks from the highest and lowest points and still sees the whole picture

Website: https://ezbra.net/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ezbra.usa/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ezbra/

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Efrat Roman of EZbra.

Efrat, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Efrat Roman 0:39

It's awesome to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

Gresham Harkless 0:42

No problem, pleasure is definitely all mine. What I wanted to do is just read a little bit more about Efrat so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing.

Efrat is a Breast Cancer survivor, the founder and CEO of EZbra – The First and Only Sterile, Disposable, and Feminine Post-Op Bra. Efrat is an entrepreneur and inventor, an expert on the well-being of women dealing with breast cancer, and the founder of CureDiva.com. The first-ever and most extensive online breast cancer solutions store. Awarded as one of the 20 most influential moms, by Family Circle Magazine. The single mother of two. A published writer & artist.

Efrat, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Efrat Roman 1:21

Yes, I'm so embarrassed by all the things you've said. But okay, let's do that.

Gresham Harkless 1:27

Exactly. I'm embarrassed at doing so many awesome things. I'm like, I gotta get to work now and then catch up with ever. I wanted to kick everything off here a little bit more from the closer to the beginning. I wanted to hear how you got started with your business.

Efrat Roman 1:40

So actually, as I think it's quite clear from my biography I never thought I was going to become an entrepreneur, a CEO, a businesswoman. I was an artist, waking every morning looking for a muse, and never ever occurred to my mind that I was going to become this serial entrepreneur. But then 11 years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Although I come from a family of BRCA gene carriers, my mother had the dean and breast cancer, and so did my grandmother and all of his sisters.

So I thought that I was the most prepared person I could be for getting this diagnosis to death. I knew what were the tests they had to take and what history they stuck to. I knew a lot of what it would bring into my life. But then I realized that although there are, one out of eight women in the world will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Although there's a whole month in the year that is dedicated to breast cancer awareness, and there is so much awareness and knowledge and everything and yet, when it came to the one out of eight, once I was diagnosed, I realized that there was there was so many unmet needs for one once she was diagnosed and when you see something broken, you gotta get it fixed now.

Gresham Harkless 3:23

Yeah, absolutely. That's the entrepreneurial and you guys, I think a lot of times, you see that something isn't being done. A lot of people will sit on the sidelines and say, hey, somebody should have created this, I think somebody should create something better, where the entrepreneur rolls up his or her sleeves and says, Okay, let's get to work and let's create something.

Efrat Roman 3:40

I guess this is the essence of being an entrepreneur, but it's broken, why not fix it?

Gresham Harkless 3:48

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I definitely appreciate you for doing that. I know there are a lot of people that are going through a very difficult time that aren't prepared at all, and maybe are that one, and Aiden had no idea.

Could you take us through exactly what you're doing, the different platforms you have that help out these women who are going through the breast cancer process?

Efrat Roman 4:07

Sure. So I'll start with EZbra which is the current startup that I'm managing and running. So I don't really get it, but there are 30 million breast procedures that are being performed annually worldwide. So we're talking about the millions of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer, but we're also talking about many others who choose to have cosmetic surgery for larger breasts to lift it or whatever. Now we're living in a world that is obsessed with breasts and everybody's pushing women towards having breast procedures.

Really, unbelievably there are no standard of care for addressing the breast post-op. So I'm just going to give an example as to how weird it is. If you went to an ophthalmologist today, okay, it doesn't matter if you had an infection or you had to go through any kind of surgery or procedure or whatever. If you need your eye to be covered with some kind of dressing, every epistemologist will have the same round dressing that was designed to meet your iso fit shape. When it comes to women's breasts, okay, there are 20,000 shapes of bras. But when it comes to breast surgeries, women are covered with a layer over a layer of improvisations, gauze tape pads, reusable bras that get tane elastic straps, bands, ace bands, laces, nylon wrapping wrap, wrapping nylon.

It's believable the creativity on one hand that the medical teams would invent to solve all those requirements that arise from those surgeries. Yet, when I woke up covered like this, and I looked at myself, I was like, I can't believe that there's no dressing, which is a bra that is disposable. It seems so obvious. So I was searching to buy it. I never thought I invented something because it seemed so clear that it has existed for hundreds of years now. While searching and not finding and keeping on searching and not finding, I was like, Could it be that I'm the first person on earth that thought about this solution? So for a patent search, and when they didn't find it as well, I was like, Okay, I guess it's mine.

Gresham Harkless 7:07

Absolutely, it makes so much sense. It's kind of like I was thinking about Henry Ford, where a lot of times he says if he has this quote, where if I listened to what everybody wanted, they would ask me to build a faster horse. But really what they wanted was the car. So it's like, yes, that's getting more creative with all the different things that we can use to create this postop when in reality, you're looking for a car, you're not looking for the best or horse you will get.

Efrat Roman 7:32

Exactly so easy bra is the sports car surgery arena.

Gresham Harkless 7:40

I love it. Then I want to hear a little bit more about your other side the CureDiva, could you take us through that as well?

Efrat Roman 7:47

Yes, I'm not involved in CureDiva anymore. But when I finished my treatment, and one of the things that people don't get when we're thinking about this breast cancer journey is that it seems like okay, you dive into the school, you swim, and then you get out at the end of treatment, if you're lucky enough to survive it. But what is not clear out there and what seems to be a very challenging part of this journey is that once a woman is being diagnosed, first the different phases, each one of them has its own huge list of needs and requirements that arise. It's clear when we're thinking about cancer, we all think, okay, you're going to lose your hair because you're going to undergo chemotherapy.

I knew I was going to lose my hair so I got a very fancy wig in advance. But then the first night, I had my hair shaved before the surgery and I went to sleep, so I couldn't wear my wig and I went to sleep and I woke up with this horrible migraine. It happened again the next night and the next night and it took me three to four days to realize that my head was freezing at night. So there was no one to tell me, listen, one of the biggest challenges coming with losing your hair to cancer is that you need something very soft to cover your hair, and your head during your night's sleep and then again about so many other things and for instance there were all those products that I never even thought if they existed, I never knew that I needed them.

It comes from special bras and special cosmetics and a lot of solutions that are great for this phase. But I had to waste days after days searching for those solutions. Usually, when I found the solution, it was already too late because I was already shifting to the next treatment phase with its own challenges. It didn't seem realistic to me that there was no website that was divided by the different phases of treatment that would offer me all those products that are out there, and I need them. I can get them in advance and be ready and reduce the stress, but I'm going through something and I don't have what I need.

So CureDiva was actually a shop that was divided into different phases and offered specific products for each phase. It was clear to me that if I'm talking about losing my hair, so yes, there's the challenge of what do I do at night, and there is a challenge of do I wear a wig or just all kinds of scarves and so on. But then I really wanted to talk to someone whose kids were my kid's age to discuss, when friends of the kids are arriving for a playdate should I be wearing my wig, although I'm at home? So it seemed like such an important tool to have during this time that again, if I saw something broken, I had to fix it.

Gresham Harkless 7:47

Yeah, absolutely. That makes so much sense. It sounds like you probably had a holistic idea of what was available. I can definitely see how EZbra came about from that aspect too is definitely seeing something. If you find something you can add it to the store. But if it's not, then you go about creating it yourself.

I wanted to ask you, and you might have already touched on this for what I call your secret sauce. It could be for EZbra or you as a person but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Efrat Roman 12:08

Well, first I want to say that I don't recommend it to others. But I think cancer before becoming an entrepreneur gives you a great perspective. You don't have money, you have to raise money, and your investors are not that happy with you. It's okay, compared to cancer.

Gresham Harkless 12:48

I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app or book or habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Efrat Roman 12:58

Singing in the bathroom.

Gresham Harkless 13:05

What does that do for you?

Efrat Roman 13:06

I think that's one of the best ways to take your stress and create some good energies and good vibes out of it and to use your voice really take this energy and empower yourself instead of letting it eat you from the inside.

Gresham Harkless 13:34

Now I want to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you could happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Efrat Roman 13:42

Firstly, I think that I tell myself that if I found the solution, and if I found the unmet need, then I found the solution to it. So I'm probably the biggest expert in this little thing, not in the space in the world, but in this little thing and to hold on to this knowledge and to this understanding and whenever you feel that you're losing your focus or losing your self-esteem or losing your comfort, just go to the unmet need and go to the solution.

Gresham Harkless 14:34

Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is a definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote and quote CEOs on this show.

So Efrat, what does being a CEO mean to you,

Efrat Roman 14:43

Being the person who looks from the highest point and from the lowest point and still sees the whole picture.

Gresham Harkless 14:54

You're very, very welcome. I appreciate that definition. I appreciate your time even more. I wanted to pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and listeners know and then of course how best they can get a hold of you and find out all the awesome things you're working on.

Efrat Roman 15:10

They can find me everywhere, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and everywhere and my email is efrat@ezbra.net which is not that complicated either. I'm always happy to hear and answer questions and it might take me some time. I'm a busy CEO, but I'm always returning to people reaching out to me, and the only thing that I always want to add especially when we have female listeners, but it is also relevant for males to get their breasts checked.

Gresham Harkless 15:53

Yeah, absolutely. Awareness is key and detection is key early detection is definitely.

Efrat Roman 15:58

I am the proof that early detection saves lives.

Gresham Harkless 16:02

So make sure you do get checked. I thank you. I appreciate you and thank you so much for that reminder, we will also have all the links and information in the show notes below so that everybody can follow up with you and hear all the awesome things you're doing and connect with you everywhere as well too. Thank you so much again Efrat and I hope you have a phenomenal day.

Efrat Roman 16:20

Thank you.

Outro 16:21

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

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Thank you for listening.

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