Calmer: Meet The Creators

Meet Davies and Naomi Roberts the creators of unique, highly effective, award-winning earplugs for autistics and people with sound sensitivities. In this interview learn why they work, the science behind them, and the Roberts’ journey getting them to market. 

Hear how seriously noise affects us and how Calmer® solves the problem faced by many autistics — the stress of loud, annoying or unpleasant sounds.

They candidly talk about the challenges they faced and how passion for their product kept them going in difficult times. 

We discuss the surprising responses they receive from wearers. We talk about a version made especially for children’s smaller ears. 

Tune in to learn about how noise affects us and how Calmer® can bring relief to you and to your sound sensitive or autistic loved one.

Learn more about Calmer and other revolutionary audio products made by Flare Audio at https://flareaudio.com

Buy Calmer here: https://www.amazon.com/FLARE-AUDIO%C2%AE-Calmer%C2%AE-Translucent-sensitivities/dp/B08KHJKC4V/ref=sr_1_5?crid=FRH8FP3ITF2K&keywords=flare+calmer&qid=1706987614&sprefix=flare+calmer%252Caps%252C165&sr=8-5&_encoding=UTF8&tag=theautistic05-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=92cd6de3eec36a9473d357fb97ed0bd8&camp=1789&creative=9325

*Calmer® is made of a soft, silicone material and does not block sound.

Transcript

Only this partial transcript is available.

03:48.50

Davies Roberts:

But yes I can relate to exactly what you're saying what I realized is that actually noise or sound isn't stressful because you can go and listen to beautiful music and you can go listen to an orchestra. The right frequencies the right way. It's not stressful and it's just these frequencies which they they term but they they call it hrtf or head related transfer function and it's something that Apple have been trying to solve for many many years and and other. Sound or and audio companies and um, really cameraists were the first technology that really really solves this issue and especially in a very simple and kind of um, comfortable way for the user for the wearer. Yeah other thing I want to point out that noise sensitive people are ahead of the game.

04:46.53

Person speaking

They're people who have spotted it because they're sensitive to sounds and they're they're aware of it and but actually this this this issue applies to everyone 

The Autistic Woman:

I can imagine and you've answered one of the things I've often wondered about and that is that as autistics we can run away from the sound of a leafb blower for example and that can just throw our nervous systems on fire. It makes it impossible whereas we can turn on our favorite music at maximum volume as a way to drown out those band sounds of course neighbors don't really like that. 

Davies Roberts:

But to the little palmer. Available to us. That's ah what we often have to do Yeah, absolutely absolutely and it's um, like the current product that you see is just the first technology we have a ah number of other technologies that we're working on that are all right focusing in on. How we can remove hrtf how we can make it as comfortable as possible and how we can do it in a way so that there is a I want to give you some future here in that we're going to solve this and we're going to solve it in a way that protects people and in a way that means you don't have to. A number of other technologies that we're working on that are all what we aren have to do Yeah, absolutely absolutely and it's the the really exciting bit is you know.

06:56.30

Davies Roberts

Um, the current product that you see is just the first technology we have ah a number of other technologies that we're working on that are all right focusing in on how we can remove hrtf how we can make it as comfortable as possible and how we can do it in a way so that.

07:13.10

Person speaking

Ah, ah, want to give you some future here in that we're going to solve this and we're going to solve it in a way that protects people and in a way that means you don't have to be like that anymore and like we myself and Naomi are both we we both believe we're we're autistic. We we we don't for sure because we've not not been tested but certainly connecting with the autistic community. We realize that we've got similar traits and we can't go to restaurants without wearing Calmer. We can't you certainly wouldn't go to noisy environments you know. Going for a meal tonight. We we always say please could you give us a quieters table and we've got Calmer with us and they go straight in as we move in. 

Naomi Roberts

We go into the restaurant and I think we're both um, kind of sensitive to slightly different noises for me I'm particularly sensitive to the sounds of eating noises. Um. Drives me mad the kind of gets me goes I go from 0 to 100 instantly when I hear eating sounds annoy me but with Calmer it's very difficult to explain to someone who's not warm more than before but I can still hear the sound it just doesn't irritate me anymore. So I don't feel isolated from. Um, the environment that I'm in I just feel so much more Calmer and having the just not bothered by it. It's it's sort of I mean it's a bit like wearing you defend. There's but still.

09:53.52

The Autistic Woman:

So is Calmer something that takes some getting used to.

10:02.96

Naomi Roberts

When everyone we do say to try and wear Calmer as much as possible for the first 24 hours in environments where you would normally find noises stressful and most some people have an instant. Oh my god but it's a revelation. they' feel it straight away some people it takes a little bit longer for them to to fully understand what Calmer's doing and it's removing a layer of loading from you and so some people kind of say and so. Great video that we've shared on our social posts from a guy called Jared in America who said he put them in his ear and um, he he went to work. Everything was normal and then when he got home. He wrote 2 chapters for his book and then he was like how can I write 2 chapters my book I've just worked an 11 hour day that's never happened before. And he could put it completely down to Calmer because it just removed this layer of stress that he would have normally been feeling because he worked in the bar and the noises irritated him and he's autistic and he's very sensitive to sound. Um so it is different for everybody but it tends to be within the first 24 hours even the first week if someone's wearing them. We do have a one hundred day money back guarantee. So there's no, you can take as long as you need to try.

11:46.89

The Autistic Woman

Sometimes people are hesitant to try a new product that they are not completely sure. How do you address that? 

Naomi Roberts

But um I can guarantee that they they will they are working. Long you've got them fitted correctly and they're comfortable. They they do definitely work the other interesting bit to point out is is 15% of people find them life-changing which is quite a big chunk of people to be able to say that they're life changing. We did a survey with our customers. And we asked them questions about how subtle they were. But for me that stuck out 15% people I think for us, they're not life changing. They're more of a tool but definitely there a tool I wouldn't be I take them everywhere. We both take it by where we go and they just someone once wrote. They were like a hug for your ears and I really like that because there is something there is something about them that is kind of like your friendly little kind of hug for your ears that you can pop in pop in when you know that you need some some help to to deal with the environment that you're in yes, absolutely. Um, that I wasn't sure it was sort of subtle at first.

13:47.25

The Autistic Woman

If I left them I hope I definitely felt like I needed to find them immediately and put them in I had the that nervousness feeling that seemed to be countless and as soon as I put them in so now I move them all day every day. 

Naomi Roberts

Yeah, and lot people do yeah so and they.

14:07.69

The Autistic Woman

Good thing. Um I wear them all day every day I notice a difference particularly if I take them out of my ears I notice a difference.

14:24.82

Naomi Roberts

I Notice a difference when I'm not wearing them when I take them out of my ears com or we've been talking to a company called Sensory Intelligence who helped people manage. Um all all sorts of different sensitivities and. You really love the fact that Calmer hollow because they're not blocking sound. Um I think that when you block sound too much with a regular Earplug I Don't think that's beneficial to you I think your ears become oversensitive. We. We let sound in so we just we work with sound as opposed to against it. Yes and I. That there's some wares earplugs.

15:11.69

The Autistic Woman

Now I've read that if a person continuously Wears earplugs The kind that blocks sound completely that this can be bad.

15:27.14

Davies Roberts

Hearing by doing that. Yeah, they can definitely affect their hearing is not something that we would advise people to do The only time you should wait really wear Earplugs is if you're in a allowed environment to protect your ears or. I Don't know if you're if you're sleeping you'll sleep. Ps occasional or catshotting down like sleeping and stuff if you can't but to sleep because of noise but to wear it plugs all day long is ah is a really bad thing because you'll be creating hypocusis hypersensitivity probably Misophonia as Well. You would be be. You'd be creating. And problems for yourself. I think we're not designed to be shutting the dark and then exposed a bit like if you were went going to going into a cave and shut away from light after a period of time that would make you Ill that makes sense of course and okay.

16:28.20

The Autistic Woman

Calmer is that it's not an earplug per se so it doesn't black sound completely. 

Davies Roberts

Yeah, That's right, which means you also can. Hear your own voice in. 

The Autistic Woman

1 of the things I like about Calmer one of the many things is that it doesn't completely black out. So For example I don't hear my own voice in my head which some earplugs will do that and it's. Doesn't solve the problem we have as autistics in some ways it makes it worse.

17:18.85

Naomi Roberts

Definitely It's a big bugwere for a lot of people. Um that a whole kind of a I mean everyone's everyone's felt it when they've worn regular earplugs your your own voice sounds odd.

Davies and Naomi Roberts

It sounds like your whole head is like a resonant. Chamber doesn't It's not pleasant and Calmer. Don't do that your voice doesn't sound different in any way. Um, incredibly comfortable to wear I I Often Forget I'm wearing them. 

Um, but yeah that we we didn't want our voice to sound any different when we were wearing them because that's not that's. Adding another kind of um layer layer of stress. Actually yeah, totally if you if you're changing the sound that you you perceive if you're um, for example, if you wear glasses that turn vision upside down after a while your brain would turn the vision back up the other way. That's how that's how our brains work. So. You really don't want to be screwing the sound that's going in your ears. Um, you know at all really and so what we're doing doesn't do that and it it does all. It's simply doing is changing the geometry inside your ears So that sound reflects in a more Calmer way and that there's no decay being added to. So How have comemp in La see now I understand that they sold now particularly in that first year. Yeah, forget and burn How do people like them I but they've been doing really how has kamar been.

18:53.76

The Autistic Woman

How has Calmer been received I Understand you've been very successful with selling them.

19:11.18

Davies and Naomi Roberts

Well we when we um launched Calmer It was during lockdown over which was an odd time to launch a product. Um, but they were they were. It was incredible. Really, they were really where we seen from from day one. Um, we knew exactly what they did and we knew we could explain exactly what they did um it was a challenge I mean it was It was autistic people and noise sensitive people that really sort of um, started saying how it's being life changing for them. Interesting thing was we were anxious about how to describe what they did because we we were just thinking is is anyone going to understand what we're talking about because we're we're kind of saying they don't buffle sound but they do better direct sound. They reduce the stressful parts of sound and we just thought these people are people going to. This is an odd thing to Describe. The Neuro divergent Community understood instantly exactly what they did um, kind of gave us feedback straight away saying how much they'd helped and.

20:23.95

Davies and Naomi

It was it was overwhelming for us started getting um I mean we we must have thousands now of messages and letters and emails from people saying that they've changed their lives. We had people sending us videos crying on the videos saying I can go outside I can leave my house now I wasn't able to do that before. We had a couple an older couple I was a lovely video of the lady with the coat. There's ah, a lady in in them. She she was sitting down and I didn't know what was going on at first but I think it was her son came up to her when he was rustling his kind of ah coat like a nylon coat next to her. And she was saying no keep going keep going. It doesn't annoy me anymore. It doesn't annoy me and then she started to cry and it just yeah, just it was overwhelming for us. It. It meant a will and for for us as you know people who started a passionate company. We. We're not we're not corporates we we haven't gone the Vc route. We didn't start. Flair is not a moneymaking enterprise. It started to try and solve a problem and I think seeing Calmer just explode I think we're well over two million sets sold now of Calmer and the social um ads that we do. We're we're very very. Careful about how we advertise Calmer because we just don't want to push fake influencer marketing that has been with the people petal companies pay for so instead what we do is we go and look for genuine content that we think is really helping people to understand what our product does and then we'll say to that person hey would you like us to.

21:57.59

Person speaking

To pay you to to put that in our adverts and then we run these genuine user-generated content that people have done themselves with no prompting for us from us and that's what's helping me to to create the awareness and spread it and some of these posts that we've done that they're on our Facebook. Page that you can see them on flair audios Facebook feed especially the jared one they have a hundred and thirty Thousand loves and likes um 10000 miss more thanton that's a it' a one point two million shares I think and and 200000 comments something along those those lines it's it's a crazy amount. In fact. So you put some information about Calmer on your Facebook page and got an incredible and surprising response. There are so many comments on that post that when you click it you have to wait. And 15 seconds for the comments to load I've never seen a post with that many comments before

23:17.34

But it's sort it so kind of important to us that we never um, we never pay someone to say nice things about our product not not nor nor nor with our endorsements as well from artists. They all come to us anyone who's got anyone who says something nice. They all do that from their own of their own back. They use and enjoy the product themselves and then um, we we share their comments if they're happy for us to do so 

they believe in. 

24:57.70

The Autistic Woman

So when you started out with this. Did you expect this kind of result. But what did you create this for now divergent individuals. 

Davies

We we pre we knew exactly what the product did. Did you create this product with neuro divergent individuals in mind. So did you know this was going to benefit us which is why it's it's called Calmer we didn't know who was going to adopt it. That's that's. Something that we were unsure of so when we launched it. We put out an awful lot of information about the product probably over the top because we didn't want to miss anything out and it was very quickly that we became aware that it was the newer divergent community that were most. To adopt. It. Also I mean when we when I initially invented this product which is back in 2018 it was it was initially to go under headphones to improve headphones sound. That was why that's what I was focusing on and because we it's not been easy with with us with flair. It's been. Went through about 5 to 7 years of the most dreadful um we were we were right on the Breadline. We were really struggling as a company to to make our way because I was coming up with these very novel very new technologies that the audio world didn't understand and.

26:25.85

It it. It was quite a stroke. What was it like trying to launch a new product one that hadn't yet been proven but the time and I had this product and I was our tech technology and I was putting away as saying I can prove headphone sound and then. 

Ah, was we were in London just before lockdown and I thought I'm going to try these on the side of the road put them in and I was like oh my god and we then went on the London underground which is a really noisy underground railway and it just sounded like a recording studio and at that point I was like this is not. Yes, I've been there and experienced it. So I know exactly what you're talking about under headphone sound improving device. This is this is a calm the calm this is a calming device and and I then went went up immediately went home and spent most of the night researching and found this huge issue to do to do with the to do with noise and to do with people getting people dying because of noise pollution and recognize that wow we've got something very big here and we need to be. Super careful and how we we how we deploy it and we launched it and on day one with £100000 worth of sales. It was absolutely crazy and from that moment we realized that we had to up our game because we were used to you know doing a few hundred thousand pounds a year in turnover.

27:58.15

Person speaking

And suddenly we were doing millions and we had to um, very much work out how we scale flare because it's very difficult when you have a come.

28:16.16

There seems there seems to be a greater and greater recognition of the of how noise is detrimental to our health and well-being. And it's a good thing to and it's about time you know every city is getting more and more crowded and some people don't really notice how much they are making noise that bothers others. So. It's so aus a so a solution like Calmer is well overdue when you ever suddenly have ah a product explode because there's a whole team of people that needs to be. Bill behind that. So customer services had to scale up very quickly. We had to get all our finances in order. We had to get all our production facilities. Upscale very quickly. We had to work out how we get the products around the world. We ship to 186 kind of What did the popularity of Calmer mean to your company and its operation trees and all of that we've never done before and I think from being honest, that was the real challenge that the product with the technology was the easy bit but actually making sure people are happy and they get our goods is hard bit.

29:48.46

Infrastructure bound. Yeah for sure and it wasn't almost like that 

The Autistic Woman

I understand you went through a real difficult period and I'm wondering how is it that you didn't give a up. 

Davies

Um, so it wasn't always.

30:06.86

We are tenacious, but we didn't have any choice because what happened was we we when we started fermi initially. Um, we went and borrow some but we went and borrowed some money and we started it. We got it working and as these ila started to realize what we were starting to unlock. We started to develop patents and patents are really expensive I mean we're back in 2012 when the first patent was filed. You know each patent can cost like £100000 get through to being a granted pattern and so very quickly we had to put our house on the line and we ended up with a half million pound mortgage against our house. Yeah.

31:01.54

We started to get to the point of losing that. We couldn't afford a life for bread. At one point we had to lay people off at one point and the very next day we worked out how to survive and we got everybody back and. Absolutely terrifying levels of stress. But if we had given up we would have been homeless and um, we had no Choice. We had to do or die and we think it was ever really an option though I don't think we ever kind of thought that we could do anything else. 

Ah, it was the was there a point you were at where you were ready to say this is over. 

There was never a decision as to. Well, we could stop all this now and do something completely different. There. It was never it didn't even occur to me that that was an option. No and it I mean it's a Churchill made this this statement. You know if you're going through hell keep going and you know, ah all of the different Research that you do and you slightly research people like Helen Keller who um lives through they’re incredible venture or it's nothing and all those kind of comments and it's all this sort of stuff from previous great people. 

Keep you going as a person and I think the month the fundamental difference between. Ask what we do and and um your typical company is when things aren't working with a typical company. It's very easy to give up because you're how do you differentiate selves from other companies in a similar situation I already care. Don't want to do this all my life I'm giving up but when you've unlocked something when you've put every bit of passion that you have as a human being into something you can't give up because if you give up, you're giving up on you 

we are now profitable and we're now a team of 20 people 24 and we're on a growth strategy and we're recruiting and we're growing all thanks to people who are sharing their stories about our products and so where is the company.

34:00.96

Where's the company now after all that you were through have you grown, but we make for them because you know we're making the products for people. We're not making the products to get wealthy and I think that's the that's the difference and we want to grow to become a global tech leader. In terms of sound because they're all a lot 

What's your goal for the company or problems to solve and there's a lot more coming this year and we're finally able to really go and. Is it fair to say that you're not done ducks in a row in terms of the company in terms of our marketing in terms of our messaging and glad and we do something impressive which is what we're gonna go doing later this year and was i. 

Naomi

The focus on the Calmer kids that we've got which is a a version, especially for children which is made out of a slightly softer silicon and it's a smaller size and it's attached to a landmark is slightly differently as well for for for kids is yeah and that's that's something we're really wanting to push a bit more.

36:16.44

Davies

There won't be an end that this is going to continue.

The Autistic Woman

 and I'm excited to see what's coming in the future. 

Davies

We've we've got we got some exciting news coming shortly. We can't tell you more about it just yet. But it's it's. It's there to help people and do more and better and yeah, just we got a long journey ahead. Finally, It's not as stressful as it was. It's still stressful I do isn't it every day. It's do it's different stress is managers. Always. It's ah yeah, it it means the world to us that. Um, products are helping them. It may it means we we didn't expect this bit. We didn't expect to change people's lives and that's what we but been shock byed Well is there anything else that we haven't talked about for you like.

38:09.15

The Autistic Woman

You've provided a lot of information today and I have to thank you for being here I've learned a lot more about hearing and how Calmer works.

How can they get in touch with you or what about Calmer. Um, how can people learn more about Calmer where are they going to find out more information. 

Naomi

Most amount of information will be on our website which is flairorio.com that's flareaudio.com and we also are active on social media and all the platforms not quite so much on no x no to tik to to the but not quite so much on tik but the others we are and our customer service team are on messenger, on all the platforms and on email you can email them on info outflow audio.com yeah or you can give us a call wrong where we operate 9 to 5 Uk time under the friday.

39:37.72

Davies

If someone ever wants to speak to a person they can do that. We're also on Amazon globally so you can order all our products on amazon.com okay, wonderful. 

Well again, thank you for being here I appreciate it. It's been a wonderful talking to you. 

Naomi and Davies

Well, we really appreciate you inviting us with. It's thrill to be here. Thank you.