IAM1361 – Entrepreneur Launches Company to Help Women Who Suffer from Pelvic, Vulvar Pain

Tara suffered from Endometriosis and had many pelvic surgeries beginning at the age of 11. After creating a device to help with my Vulvodynia, a condition that causes painful intercourse, She and her business partner started a company based in Sarasota, FL. dedicated to helping the estimated one in seven women in the US who suffer from pelvic, and vulvar pain. The VuVa Magnetic Vaginal Dilator has been clinically proven to relieve pelvic pain and sexual discomfort and has improved the lives of women seeking sexual normalcy. They have helped over 10,000 women in the past two years.

Doctors Can Say The Darndest Things About Pelvic Pain [VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6v_EWPAwgo
Website: http://www.vuvatech.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PelvicPainPro
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vuvatechllc/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pelvicpainhelp/?hl=en

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Transcription

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00:02 – Intro

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 Harkness 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.

00:27 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Tara Langdale of Vuva Tech. Tara, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

00:38 – Tara Langdale

Yes, I'm very excited about this opportunity today.

00:40 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. But before we get started, what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Tara so you can learn a little bit more about her and hear about all the awesome things that she's been able to accomplish. Tara suffered from endometriosis and had many pelvic surgeries beginning at the age of 11.

After creating advice to help out with vulvodynia, a condition that causes painful intercourse, she and her business partner started a company based in Sarasota, Florida, dedicated to helping the estimated 1 in 7 women in the United States who suffer from pelvic and vulva pain. The vulva magnetic Vaginal dilator has been clinically proven to relieve pelvic pain and sexual discomfort and has improved the lives of women seeking sexual normalcy. They have helped over 10, 000 women in the past 2 years. So Tara, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:30 – Tara Langdale

Yes, I am.

01:31 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, the first question I have is if you can kind of maybe delve a little bit deeper into your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

01:38 – Tara Langdale

So it was one of those businesses that you're not planning on starting. I didn't think that I would be selling vaginal dilators for a living. I'm happy that I am, but I just suffered for so many years and then I found out that I had another condition on top of the endometriosis, which is actually, they can be related, but it's more unrelated and the vulvodynia, which causes unexplained nerve pain during intercourse. After doing a lot of research, I found that it was the same type of condition as fibromyalgia. It's an unexplained nerve pain. So a light bulb went off in my head and I saw fibromyalgia and vulvodynia in the same sentence in a paragraph. And I was like, Well, my mom used neodymium magnet therapy for her fibromyalgia back in 1996 when nothing helped her.

So I'm going to try to do that for me. So I called my husband and I said, listen, we're going to put magnets in dilators and see if this works. And within 2 weeks, the pain was reduced by about 60%. And then I had an idea, let's use the dilator right before intercourse. And that reduced the pain by about 90 to 95% then. And I couldn't believe it. And I said I have to do this. I have to help women. We have no choice but to help women because they don't have anything. The doctors aren't even diagnosing them correctly. So that's how the business was started.

02:53 – Gresham Harkless

Okay. Well, obviously, sorry to hear you. There's any type of pain and discomfort that obviously that you've had, but to be able to be, you know, a true entrepreneur and be able to not just have the issue, but also to be able to solve the issue to help yourself, not just yourself, but also so many people is phenomenal for it. And you deserve much respect for doing that. So I wanted to delve a little bit deeper into your business and get a better idea of exactly how you kind of help out these women.

03:17 – Tara Langdale

So we have dilators here. We have magnetic vaginal dilators. You can buy them singly. You can buy combo sets or you can buy a full set. Some women don't need all the sizes. If you have vulvodynia, your muscles might not be as tight as those with vaginismus, which is another condition dilators are used for. You might not need all the sizes. We've broken it up so that you can get single ones, combo sets, or the full set. We wanted the women to have options so they didn't feel like they needed to just purchase the whole set, you know, and that would save them some money. So we do that also.

What we do is we provide lubricant with the dilators because a lot of lubricants that women buy in the store, just over the counter, have harmful ingredients that actually are going to irritate their pelvic pain condition even more because the skin, there's a skin issue going on down there, a nerve issue, and they have citric acid and things. So we provide a very safe water-based lubricant with about 4 or 5 ingredients in it as well. But what makes Vuvatec different from I think other dilator companies, which there actually aren't that many, is we actually talk to our customers, we let them vent, we point them in the right direction, we help them find pelvic floor physical therapists, which not a lot of women don't know exist.

We help them find vulvar pain specialists, and pelvic pain specialists because not a lot of companies will take the time out of their day to search a half an hour to find a doctor in Australia. That is something that we do because we have to stick together. Being a pelvic pain patient, I didn't know who to go to for 4 years and I still didn't go to a pelvic pain specialist. I went to one, but he didn't even give me a diagnosis.

So there aren't that many out there that actually know what they're talking about. Physicians, unfortunately, about all these pelvic pain conditions, keep lumping them into this category of menopause and endometriosis one or the other. But other things are going on besides those 2 conditions that everyone is quite aware of. So we just kind of go beyond the extra step and we really listen to people and give them advice and it's fun, it's really nice helping people on a different level than just providing them with the product.

05:28 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And I imagine that when people have nowhere to turn or they're so frustrated by everything that's happening, even their doctor who may not necessarily be versed in exactly what might be the issue or be able to provide the right solution to be able to turn somewhere and be able to actually get a solution to the problem, but also know that somebody has also gone through the same issues, probably definitely helps out a ton. And now I wanted to touch on, and you might have already touched on it before, but kind of like your secret sauce or kind of like your differentiator, do you have something in addition or did you already touch on that kind of makes your organization unique?

06:03 – Tara Langdale

I kind of touched on it like we go that extra mile, but I think part of that is the reason why we do that, which I could touch on a little bit, is because I actually have the condition. I have a couple of the conditions that these women have. So I understand I'm not a man trying to sell a woman a device for pelvic pain. That man doesn't know how it feels. I know how it feels. I'm a minute to help people. I created something that's safe and has no side effects. I'm not going to try to steer you like you could call me and if I don't think you need dilators, I'm going to tell you.

If I think that you need to see a physician first, because maybe I don't think you have one of the public pain conditions, I'm not going to tell you to buy my product. I'm not in it for the money, I'm in it to help people. So I feel like if you're really in it to help people, then the monetary rewards will come. It's, you know, karma is a real thing and I believe in it. And you know, we've had a lot of success and I think it's because our patients and they're not our patients, I call them our patients, but our customers, you know, really feel like we really care, which is very important.

07:07 – Gresham Harkless

That's it's huge. And like I always usually say myself is like kind of givers gain. And when you do something good for the universe and you put good out there, I mean, As you see, as you mentioned, you're not necessarily, you're trying to help at the end of the day. However you are able to do it, whether it's by connecting with a doctor who can prescribe the right treatment or by using your product, the goal is to provide help at the end of the day. So I think that definitely does come back, you know, triple fold or 4 fold sometimes. So now I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. This CEO hack could be an app, it could be a book, or it could be maybe an app or a habit that you have that you lean on on a regular everyday basis that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.

07:50 – Tara Langdale

So the one, it was a book and then it was made into a movie, and a lot of people are aware of it. But there's no book that I can talk about that I love more than the book, The Secret because it's whatever you put out into the universe you're going to get back. So if you're constantly in a mind frame, I was in this mind frame when I thought these dilators, I'm going to make this happen. I have no choice but to make this happen. I am going to this appointment because, by the end of these couple of months, I'm going to have a mold made. I'm going to have picked the color of the dilators. I'm going to have the website finished.

You have to set goals and every day you have to work towards those goals. You put it out into the universe. I'm going to have a dilator company. I'm going to help women. I have no choice. I'm going to do it.” If you're constantly focused on every single day, what you're going to do to get to your point B or your point C or your point D, then every action that you make those days is going to help you get to where you want to be. So the secret, really what you put out into the universe, you get back. I believe it works 100%. If you just every day, just write on your wall, put reminders, put notes on your desk like I am going to do this. It really helps.

09:04 – Gresham Harkless

Exactly. Yeah, definitely echo that. And that is a phenomenal book and a movie as well. And being able to kind of speak things in existence and saying I want X, Y, and Z or I'm going to have X, Y, and Z and actually have that come to fruition is very true. And it's awesome to hear that that has definitely manifested itself in your business and in your life, it sounds like.

09:21 – Tara Langdale

It has. It has.

09:23 – Gresham Harkless

It's really been helpful. Awesome. Awesome. Now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this CEO nugget can be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice that you might have for other entrepreneurs and business owners.

09:31 – Tara Langdale

So my golden nugget for business owners is a lot of people wanna do things that have a lot of competition. So they wanna sell t-shirts, they wanna open a restaurant, they wanna do the things that they see other people doing that are very simple. You have to think out of the box. You have to look at things that don't have a lot of competition. You can sell t-shirts, but at the end of the day, you might make a $5 profit off each one. Well, you have to sell a lot of T-shirts to make money to pay your start paying your bills. You have to think outside the box something that people want and that they need or a solution to a problem.

A t-shirt's not a solution to a problem. So you want to pick things that are lightweight, that are easy to ship, that have high markups on them. Just not worth some businesses, a lot of businesses that people try are the obvious ones, but they're just not worth it anymore. They're not with the cost of everything, the cost of goods, everything that's going up. You really have to think outside of the box and research and find something that is not what you just don't want to do what everybody else is doing. There's no point to it. There's just too much competition now with the internet out. And then things, why sell water? I would never want to sell water.

Do you want to know why? It costs so much to ship because it's one of the heaviest things. So, somebody that's selling eyelashes for $15 a pair, it costs 50 cents to ship. That's what I wanna sell. So why sell water when you can sell feathers for the same markup, but less shipping? You really have to weigh the pros and cons of something that you pick and think of everything down to shipping and packaging and really price every piece of that thing out from the time in the morning when you go in and you turn on the lights with that electric's going to cost you that day to your water machine. I mean, people don't think of the everyday little things. And then when they start paying all their overhead, they're like, well, I'm not making any money. So it's because you said, decided to sell t-shirts and make $4 a pop. You know, So that's my tidbit. That's why I could go on all day. That's my tidbit.

11:33 – Gresham Harkless

I love it. It's how to speak to it, like knowing your numbers and knowing exactly what your margins are, especially, and understanding that just because so-and-so is doing this type of business doesn't mean that you wanna continue doing that. You really want to inspect and kind of look and see why and ask yourself why exactly you're doing it and what is kind of like your end result or your goal and how that helps you to get there. Exactly. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, I love that CEO nugget. And now I wanted to ask you, which is my favorite question, which is kind of like the definition of being a CEO. And we're hoping to have different types of CEOs on this show and be able to ask them exactly what it means to them. So what does being a CEO mean to you?

12:11 – Tara Langdale

Being a CEO, what it means to me is the freedom to do what I want, when I want, but you can't take that to your advantage. So you do have to work hard. And I put 3 years into this company where I worked night and day when every breath was put into VUVA, now I get a little bit more time. Now it starts to get a little bit more fun and I have a little bit more free time for myself. But it's just that freedom to do what you want and to help others. And being a CEO and being a successful CEO means to me is helping other people try to get where they are.

So Sometimes when you're so busy, people come to you. I mean, as we're speaking now, I get a text on my phone. I have a website, this, can you look at it? Can you give me your opinion? But it's hard because you're so busy that your time is precious, But you have to stop and realize that I didn't get to this point without asking 10 to 20 other people the same, those same questions that I was just sent in the text. So I like to help others become CEOs as well. So share your knowledge and how you got there and then help other people become CEOs around you.

13:18 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, I love that definition and the idea of kind of paying it forward and learning like where you got the opportunity to get to where you've got, you've, that you've achieved the point that you achieved has come because somebody also paid it forward as well. So I appreciate you for obviously taking some time out of your schedule and kind of speaking with us and helping us to be better CEOs. So I wanted to pass you the mic, so to speak, to see if there was anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know and how best people can get ahold of you.

13:44 – Tara Langdale

I really appreciate the opportunity to do this. Anytime I can get the word out about the pelvic floor conditions that I'm talking about, I like to take it because unfortunately, it's really hard to do marketing for our products because of what it looks like, even though it is a device that helps women with cervical cancer, dyspareunia, vulvodynia, vaginismus, vulvar vestibulitis. We don't get a lot of time to talk about it anywhere because unfortunately, people are interested in it or not for they think it's taboo. So I do appreciate it. One thing that I like to tell women and listeners is there's very important is there are actually pelvic floor physical therapists.

So pelvic floor physical therapists are trained for women's health. You can find one by going to the APTA women's health section on their website. Also, if you go to our website, which is www.vuvatech.com, or you Google VUVA magnetic dilators, you'll find us. We also have a resources page where you can find a pelvic floor physical therapist, pelvic pain specialist, or physician. So a lot of women, I mean, I didn't know that until a year after I created the dilators. I'm like, wow, there's pelvic floor physical therapists and they're the ones who use dilators the most.

So they're not going to put you on these medications with harmful side effects that give you bad thoughts or make you gain weight. It's a muscle and a nerve issue. So they're going to do physical therapy inside your vaginal canal and do manipulation and maybe it's being caused by a tight hip muscle that's pulling your pelvic floor. So there's a lot of things, a doctor's going to sit there, do a pap smear, and then write you a prescription for an antidepressant. And that's just not okay anymore. So I just like to throw that out there that there are actually pelvic floor physical therapists that are very helpful.

15:31 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, thank you so much. I truly appreciate you for all the awesome things you're doing to help people out who are feeling so much pain and discomfort and for every kind of piece of advice and word of wisdom that you gave to us today. So I truly appreciate it and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

15:45 – Tara Langdale

You too. Thank you so much for being a male and caring about this enough to let me come on your podcast and create some pelvic pain awareness. So I appreciate that.

15:55 – Outro

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. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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