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Steel Roses Podcast
Steel Roses is a podcast created for women by women. Social pressures for women are constant. Professionals, stay at home moms, working moms, we are here to tell you that you are not alone! This podcasts primary focus is providing real honest content shedding light on the daily struggles of women while also elevating women's voices.
All women are experiencing similar pressures and hurdles, and yet, no one is talking out in the open. If these topics continue to only exist as whispered conversations then we further permeate a culture of judgement and shame.
Join Jenny weekly as she discusses topics that effect women in a relatable, honest way.
Steel Roses Podcast
From Gaslighting to Advocacy: Rebecca Lyons Turns Frustration Into Hope
Rebecca Lyons' path to creating Her-Say began with a story too many women know intimately. For eight years, she experienced debilitating symptoms—extreme fatigue, heavy bleeding, and IBS-like issues—only to have medical professionals dismiss her concerns when initial tests came back normal. This invalidation led her to doubt her own body's signals until a life-changing encounter with a nurse practitioner who finally took her seriously, resulting in a diagnosis of stage four endometriosis.
"I finally had an answer," Rebecca shares with palpable relief. "You don't feel crazy anymore. It's not in your head." This validation became the spark for Her-Say, an AI-powered platform helping women prepare for medical appointments and advocate effectively for themselves.
The conversation delves into the compounding pressures women face—Rebecca recounts leading global sales teams while experiencing burnout, pushing through multiple miscarriages and family losses without adequate support. When her daughter was finally conceived after these hardships, she recognized the need for profound change in her life and career.
Both Rebecca and host Jenny candidly discuss their struggles with postpartum anxiety and the resistance many women feel toward seeking help. "For no reason, I was opposed to being on medication," Rebecca admits. "I would never have judged any of my friends for it." This double standard women often apply to themselves versus others highlights a critical aspect of self-advocacy.
What makes this episode particularly powerful are the practical strategies shared for healthcare appointments. Rebecca emphasizes the importance of detailed symptom tracking, clearly communicating impact on daily life, and explicitly stating desired outcomes. "You are allowed to push. You are allowed to ask for a second opinion. You are allowed to disagree with your treatment plan," she asserts, challenging the tendency many women have to shrink in medical settings.
The wisdom shared here extends beyond healthcare into life balance. As Rebecca now builds Her-Say while raising her daughter, she's implementing lessons learned from burnout. "My time with her at the stages she goes through as she grows—that time is so short," she reflects, echoing Jenny's husband's wisdom: "You're the ship. If the ship goes down, we're all going down with you."
Ready to transform your healthcare experience? Listen now and discover how to advocate effectively for your health and wellbeing.
https://www.rebeccalynnlyons.com/
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Hello everybody, this is Still Rose's podcast. This podcast is created for women, by women, to elevate women's voices. I am very excited to introduce you to our guest this evening. We have Rebecca Lyons with us. She is the visionary founder and CEO of Hersey, an AI-powered women's health advocate designed to help women walk into medical appointments prepared, self-assured and fully in charge. After leading global sales operations teams, rebecca experienced severe burnout and, despite years of being dismissed and gas-wiped by the healthcare system, she was finally diagnosed with stage four endometriosis. Out of that experience, she built what didn't exist a platform that empowers women to stop minimizing their symptoms and start owning their voice, transforming how women advocate for their health and navigate their care. Rebecca, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much for having me, Jenny.
Speaker 1:Women's healthcare is a real hot topic for me. I could talk about it for hours on end. So before I start ranting and rambling, I would love for you to share more of your story with the listeners and let them know more of the details around how you got through what you got through and then really how you launched Hercex. I think this is an amazing platform.
Speaker 2:Absolutely I. Oh gosh, there's so much to share when it comes to sort of the journey and I'll try to keep it concise. But when I initially experienced some endometriosis symptoms, my doctor did help me look into some of what was going on. You know I was experiencing pretty extreme fatigue. I had IBS-like symptoms, was sort of having heavy bleeding and other things, and so when we took a look, you know that looked like a referral for a sleep study, some blood panels right, they check your iron, they check your thyroid, all of those fun things. And when all of my labs came back clear, the answer was sort of a shoulder shrug I guess everything's all right, so there's nothing going on with you. And not only was that really invalidating of my experience, I believed it. I thought, oh my gosh, like I mustn't be experiencing this then.
Speaker 2:So that was about a little over eight years ago. I ended up working with a naturopathic doctor for some time who really helped me a lot with supplementation, modifying my diet, kind of working with anti-inflammatory. She sort of without diagnosing we didn't know that it was endo but figured it might be an inflammatory thing. So turns out endo is a very so yeah, we treated sort of just as a general inflammatory thing, and and it helped Right, um. So from here, sorry, my electronic lines close at a certain time of the day.
Speaker 1:I like it, though I'm going to ask you about it after we're done recording, by the way.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah. So yes, from there, when we sort of fast forward a few years, I started having these symptoms again after sort of like it was a flare up after a recent health episode and when that happened I was like oh my gosh, this exact same big flare up happened to me like eight years ago and at that time we did all these tests and nothing happened. Now my family doctor had retired and I am working with a nurse practitioner-led clinic. Now my nurse practitioner is wonderful and when I came to her with these symptoms I had sort of alluded to like maybe this could be like endometriosis I know a few people have it Like what are your thoughts? And instead of like brushing it off and saying oh no, like you're young, you're healthy, it was actually like let's dig into that. There's a lot of evidence showing now that you know one in 10 women has this. It's a possibility. So she ordered some tests.
Speaker 2:So an ultrasound ideally would diagnose not having endometriosis, because it typically doesn't present on there right, it's not like some other disorders, but because I was so advanced in stage, I have deep infiltrating endometriosis and a chocolate cyst. Bindi Irwin is someone who's been very vocal about her experience very similar condition. It did show up on that ultrasound and I because I finally had an answer. And it's like these, these symptoms. You know I've had symptoms for eight years. It's not like working with the naturopath was just a magic wand, solution right, and it was incredibly validating and I feel so fortunate to have had the care now that I've had. There's unfortunately no cure at this time for endometriosis. You can manage your symptoms in various ways, but simply having the answer of what's going on is like wow, finally.
Speaker 1:Like you don't feel crazy anymore, basically Like oh, I really was feeling this. It's not in my head.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly. So from this experience, this very validating experience with my nurse practitioner, I thought, wow, it's taken 30 something years to finally feel believed in a medical setting. This is crazy. How can we help more women have this experience right, Because I can't be the only one. And it turns out when we went to the market, we went to go ask our network, ask other women to chat with us about their experiences. Unfortunately, so many of them have had these experiences where they're feeling very gaslit, where they're feeling like they're not heard, not believed, like they're diminished. Their experience isn't taken in the same way that they expect going into that appointment. So, yeah, I was a little bit astounded by this really strong response and all of the feedback that we got from these women is what helped us build Her.
Speaker 1:Say.
Speaker 2:So it really is much like your podcast is by women for women, this product very much is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know it's unfortunate because that the gaslighting happened so much. Now I know that there's a lot of shared decision making, medical tools that are being produced and pushed out and there is a lot more awareness. So I have hope that eventually, when my daughters get to a point where they have their own OBs and everything, that it will be a different scenario and that they won't have the same kind of situation. But I mean, I've even had, you know, and and I feel like a lot of folks think, or a lot of women think, well, if I have a female doctor it will be different. But it's actually not.
Speaker 1:I had, I had a situation, um, to to. I want to say like two years ago or so. Um, cortisol levels were extremely high for me about two years ago and I'm not sure if that had something to do with the inflammation, but I feel like it's. You know, it's all tied together and so I was having really, really awful pain and I told the doctor I was like you know, I have endometriosis, I've already been diagnosed, and it was very frustrating. She was like oh no, well, you still have to go get the ultrasounds done. We still have to do all these ultrasounds to check all these boxes off. And I said I was like, well, actually, you know, I'd really like to have the surgery where they just clean it out, like that worked well last time. She was like, no, let's not do that, let's do a full hysterectomy. And I was like, well, not that I'm having I'm not having any more kids or anything like that but that's such a major surgery in my insurance couldn't cover it properly. You know all the reasons why women wouldn't go for surgery. It was like insurance wasn't covering it all the way. The finances on my side for my job, like they couldn't cover me being out of the office, all of these reasons like stacked up. But what really stands out from the whole scenario was the way that my OB handled the situation with me and was almost like I was having all this pain. So we're having the whole like hysterectomy conversation.
Speaker 1:But I was also feeling immensely fatigued. I just, I just was not feeling well and the doctor made like this snide remark about having to do blood work for me because I wouldn't stop complaining and I was like I don't feel well, like I'm in a hormonal rage all the time. I'm fatigued, you know, and I was like trying to just grasp that something tangible, to say like something's, something's wrong, like this is it Like? Now I know what to do? And in the discussion she pulls my blood work out after she makes this snide remark and she goes oh, you're anemic and I was like you know, are you going to sit there and point a finger at me and punish me and make me feel bad for pushing to have blood work done when you did in fact find something and now I can deal with it? So that happens so much and I'm well enough informed to know like to push back on certain areas, but a lot of people aren't.
Speaker 1:And it's very frustrating to hear like women in my family saying like oh yeah, I went to the doctor and he just said this. So I went home and I just took the medicine and I'm like but you didn't ask, you know X, y and Z, and they're like well, no, the doctor said it, so it's, you know it's. That whole scenario is very frustrating. It can be very frustrating, I think, across the board. So I think it's really truly amazing that you're doing this service, really bored from what you experience.
Speaker 1:So I think it's stage four endometriosis, and obviously I have endometriosis too, so I do understand that element of it. So, outside of your diagnosis and developing Herce prior to that, I know that you I think you were in corporate, you were in sales and you had noted that you had experienced pretty severe burnout. I talked about it in your bio. Do you think, because of the position that you were in, you were less likely to raise a hand and say like I feel bad, I don't feel well and I need to get help? You know, like I feel like it's almost all intertwined and I wanted to get your thoughts on that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I think there's a lot that we take on as women from a burdensome standpoint. I really pushed through when I was suffering, not just, you know, physically, but mentally. I was struggling really a lot with burnout, and I was always the person to say yes to taking on that extra project, taking on that extra team, when my team ended up kind of becoming the team that, when no one else could figure out how to do something or no one else wanted to do something, we ended up, you know, kind of taking that on, so we figured it out. I'm a very solutions oriented person, took on sort of a lot of wonderful digital transformation project that was nowhere within the scope of my role, but really enjoyed that process and sort of the more I took on though, I felt fulfilled in the skills that I was learning, in how I was growing in my career. Of course, the more you take on, the more your plate gets full and eventually you can't actually handle more on your plate and it's going to overflow.
Speaker 2:There was a time where I had gone through multiple miscarriages my dog passed away, my grandmother passed away four months in a row. My husband literally called me. I was about to get on stage at this huge company meeting, in this merger acquisition scenario that had happened. It was the first time all of the teams were together. He calls me at five minutes due on stage and says we need to make a decision about the dog. We need to either put her down or have a surgery. Like it was a terrible situation and I told him I can't make this decision right now. I'm going on stage in five minutes, I'm up the phone, did my thing, didn't tell anybody and then called him after to make this decision. Like it's just crazy, the things that we need to do to push forward Right, the things that we need to do to push forward right.
Speaker 2:It was really incredibly like stressful, dealing with all of these things, on top of being that top performer at work, on top of keeping the home together right, on top of being the friend and the family member.
Speaker 2:It was I don't even know how I did it and how I coped and when I got pregnant with my daughter. So I had that four month of crap and then, finally, that fifth month, she was conceived and I was like, oh my God, this is what I need, this is going to work, this is going to be great and I had a wonderful pregnancy. Towards sort of that end, I knew I needed to start to think about what change might look like in my life. I really wanted to have time to spend with her and I didn't want to be this burnt out shell of a person because I didn't think I would be able to show up as her mom the right way, right. So, yeah, that's part of what I would say inspired the entrepreneurial journey as well Just trying to build something that will make the world a better place, not just for myself, for my daughter, for my friends, for my family.
Speaker 1:You know, I really I like what you said there self-reflection around you had a pause moment. You went through all these months of, like, really bad things and things just really traumatic, and going through all that emotion and emotions and then you finally conceive and, especially in your scenario, if you had difficulty conceiving and keeping the pregnancy, that must have been such a major moment for you to be like hold on, I'm getting this blessing. I need to step back and I need to really take care of this beautiful blessing because it is like a miracle when things like that happen. It really is, and it's almost a miracle when it came into play. You have all these losses and then you have this win here. That's like I'm going to be this light in your life now, which is such a beautiful, such a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:I reflect a lot on when I was pregnant with my kids and when they were little. I remember, in the moment, feeling jealous of other women who were having pregnancies and having their babies and where they were solely focused on their baby and being in the moment and enjoying all the little milestones, because I know I did it to myself, so there is really no one to blame but me, but I felt very much like I rushed through the entire thing, like I was always trying to get to the next thing. What's the next thing, what's the next thing that I have to do? Once I get that done, then I'll be able to relax. And that time never came. And now, like I look back, my husband will get like, not mad at me, but he's like, please, jenny, don't do this. Tonight We'll all start looking at videos and I'm like, oh, do you remember? And they were this small, and I don't remember I was in such a rush.
Speaker 1:And my kids my son was born in 2016. I had twins in 2017. So, from 2017 on, it was. It was very much a whirlwind and I remember watching, you know, my family members that were having babies and they were so, like you know, excited about the baby and excited about the moment, and I was just trying to survive. It felt like the entire time. So I'm I want to acknowledge what you did there, because, prior to her coming, you're like I'm going to be ready for that, I'm going to be emotionally prepared and I'm going to pull this burnout out, because that was. The other element as well that I'll share is that, when they were infants. I felt like I had to double time it. Like that's like the normal corporate woman response you have a child and you feel like you have to apologize for having a child.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, you must have seen that all the like you have to apologize for having a child.
Speaker 2:Absolutely no-transcript. Yeah, absolutely. There is a definite feeling of gratitude the entire time. I'm very fortunate to have had a very, very easy pregnancy. I loved being pregnant, it was great. I did have a little bit of that.
Speaker 2:You know, everyone goes through that period of matrescence and trying to figure out who this new person is, not just the baby, but yourself. Right, and it wasn't smooth sailing by any means it never is, especially with a newborn. And I really struggled with my identity as a person. Having been that overachiever, I was so attached to my identity, being where I was in my career and how I was moving up in my career, and now all of a sudden it felt like that no longer mattered, like this mattered so much more.
Speaker 2:But I didn't know how to be much like yourself, like kind of chasing the next thing wasn't my challenge, it was more figuring out how to be a mom and feel confident as a mom. It was the confidence piece that was lacking for many, many months, I would say until about eight months along. That was when I started to feel like okay, I think I've kind of got the hang of this and now, at a year and a half, like we're smooth sailing, I feel like right, yes, exactly, but the entire time, though, things did get really, really hard.
Speaker 2:I was always just so grateful to be there in the first place because of that experience that I'd had, and so it was never there was never an issue with with managing through.
Speaker 1:Did you?
Speaker 1:I'm curious about this because I was just reading something about this for, for women who have trouble conceiving, that quite often after after the birth, quite often after after the birth, um, they do have postpartum. And then it's almost even worse because people look at them and are like you tried so hard to get pregnant. What are you talking about? Like, like they all like, and I have to. Part of the reason why my head goes here is because I had that exact reaction. Many, many years ago, before I had kids, before I met my husband, a friend had had a baby and she explains to me like she was going through postpartum. I had no idea about what this really entailed and I remember in my head thinking to myself like oh, you're just looking for attention. And now I feel like sick, even saying admitting that, because I'm like Holy Holy garbage, holy holy garbage, like I. I, when I was a person who did this, like I was a person who permeated the problem, so I was curious if you experienced anything like that after you had your daughter absolutely.
Speaker 2:I struggled with severe postpartum anxiety and, I think, part of that identity crisis, coupled with lack of sleep. We had a lot of feeding issues too. My daughter hardly slept, I think, because we figured out later on she's probably hungry all the time. So there was a lot going on. Like I said, it was not smooth sailing and holding on to that thread of like just that gratitude is really what got me through. So I am very lucky to have a wonderful support system, right like I. I have not done this by myself. I have a supportive husband, my mom, my in-laws, my dad people are all around and they're very, very helpful. So, um, I don't know what I would have done if I didn't have their support and I did around that eight month mark. You know, things might have gotten easier because that was when I started to go on an empty or an SSRI, like for anxiety, right, so it took.
Speaker 2:That was a massive hurdle for me. I was really for no reason opposed to being on medication. If any of my friends would have asked me or you know needed, I never would have judged them for it. I would have said you need to do what you need to do. There's no issue with that, but for myself I had such, it was such a roadblock. I don't I can't tell you why, but I finally sort of realized I needed to do something different and the therapy wasn't working. And all of the meditation and all of the diet change and all it like it was I've tried as much as I possibly could.
Speaker 2:So when I decided to make that change and I decided to try the medication, all of a sudden, you know, a couple of weeks along, when you're going on that, wow, I don't have all of these nagging thoughts in the back of my mind all the time. Wow, I can take a minute to breathe. Wow, I can enjoy my day with my baby. It's not so stressful. And so that was also, I think, a bit of a life changer in I had been so hard on myself and I didn't give myself the support that I needed to get through not just this hard time. I probably should have, like, looked at this many years ago, dealing with all of the grief and all that, right, like. So I feel now a lot more gracious. I give myself more grace, right, I feel like, wow, whatever you need to make yourself feel well and feel whole, do it right, right, like why do we, why don't we do this to ourselves?
Speaker 1:You know, said like you weren't. You were like I don't know why I didn't want to go on medicine, even though you would have been supportive of someone else.
Speaker 1:I don't know why I didn't want to do it. You know, I've I've had that scenario like many, many times over and I've had to have to tap into it and go for medication in times when it was like really, really bad. And the most recent time was last year. I was just bottoming out, I would, my anxiety was through the roof, like just to the point where it was unbearable and I just couldn't. I just couldn't be myself, I could not function as a mom and every I was. I felt so badly for my kids because my anxiety was so awful that I would be screaming at them and it was really hurting me because, like I don't want them to grow up and be like, oh yeah, mom was nuts, she was always screaming at us and, and so that's always what pushed me to it.
Speaker 1:But there, I think there's like there's a lot of stigma in that and people are like I. You know, I don't want to feel like a failure, I don't want to feel like I need help, I think I can do this myself. But I took the same path as you. Like I tried vitamins. You know, meditation is a big deal for me, like that hands down, like I love it, but like in that moment when things were so bad, I was like I'm going to have to do it. It is what it is and thankfully I didn't have to be on it for very long because I was able to change the situation that was causing the stress, but you know in that moment it helped it basically saved me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you go through this period of time. You know you have the gaslighting with the endometriosis. Then you also, I'm sure, when you're pregnant there's also. There's also conversations that happen when you're pregnant and there's scenarios that happen even when you're in the hospital giving birth. That I know me personally.
Speaker 1:There was some situations when I was in the hospital. I had two C-sections, and the first one it was fine and I was okay. But the second one there was very distinct moments of I feel like I'm being mishandled, I feel like no one's listening to me and I feel like what I'm saying? One nurse scoffed at me. She did one of those and I was like I'm trying to get two people out of my body. Just cut me some slack. So self-advocacy is a huge topic for me and, I know, for you, for someone who is beating down a door and they're feeling like I'm not getting answers, like what does that look like for you? You know we have her say and we'll be able to obviously tap into that once it's fully developed. But you know what does self-advocacy mean to you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I think self-advocacy is really about making sure that you're feeling confident and like you're in control in every moment, right? So when it comes to our health, there's a little bit of this narrative that we tell ourselves where we put the onus on the doctor to be in charge of our care, and as much as they are, that's their job and we also have a part to play in that scenario, and it is really important for us to be not only in tune with our body and how we're feeling. We need to be able to communicate that effectively. Yes, the expectation should be that on the receiving end, we are respected, right. But it needs to sort of start with the patient, right. So, patient first. I'm really sorry to hear that you went through that experience, and giving birth is never an easy situation. It's always high stress for everybody who's involved and I think we don't give women the credit that they deserve in, like you said, when you're bringing life into the world, that's a pretty big deal, it's very strenuous, it is a potentially life or death situation, and we need to make sure that we're very respectful of what the mother needs in the moment, right. Sometimes that is more on the emotional support side than anything right.
Speaker 2:I would say that there's many scenarios where you know, like her say, can help only so much in a moment where you're needing to make a critical decision, right, but throughout the appointment schedule, that would certainly be where we could support. So if we come to our appointments really prepared and what I mean by prepared is you're not going to sit down and tell your doctor I've been kind of tired lately. You're going to keep a detailed log of how you've been feeling over time and when you sit down with them, you're going to tell them the Coles notes of that. You only have a handful of minutes in your appointment. They probably don't have time to go through your entire, you know. But what you can say is I've been tracking my symptoms and I've noticed that over the past few months I've been moderately to extremely fatigued more often than not, like 90% of the time. How does this impact my life? I can't get out of bed in the morning or I'm going to bed at 7 pm when everybody else is going at 9 or 10 or 11, right, I like. What is the impact on your life? How severe? What's the impact on your life From there if you are hoping for an outcome from that appointment. Communicating that to your doctor is very helpful.
Speaker 2:I would like to work out a diagnosis. I would like a treatment plan to help with my symptoms, right? Because, again, as much as the doctor, you know they have their protocol they need to go through. They're going to try to, based on your symptoms, sum up what they're thinking, maybe prescribe you additional diagnostics or treatment, depending on where you're at in. You know they're seeing hundreds of people a day. You've been experiencing this for some time. You can tell them I'm hoping to get a treatment for my symptoms. I want to dig into this further. What else can we do to sort of figure out what's going on? Right? Making sure that there's alignment is really important, and I think sometimes we set ourselves up for a little bit of disappointment because we're not going in there asking for what we want. We're kind of expecting them to be a mind reader, and that's not fair, right? I haven't met any doctor or heard of a doctor who's gotten into practicing medicine not to help people, right?
Speaker 2:They're there to help you.
Speaker 1:You know, coming prepared is something that I think you know, and I'm faulty of this too were exactly what you just said. I don't go into the detail. So the first and there's been, so there was a few different appointments that led up to eventually my OB cracking and just being like I'm just going to let you get your blood work done and then we'll just go from there. But I also, you know, had conversations with my primary care physician at the same time. Like I was kind of hit in both because I'm like I don't know what's going on. But, to your point, I didn't go into those initial appointments with a very specific list. I said I've been very fatigued lately and I did say I was like it feels like my body's, like I'm dragging a dead body around. That's what it felt like to me. And I was like I you know I'm having really bad brain fog. I can't function Taking naps at like two o'clock in the afternoon. Like that's not me, Like that, none of this is me. I'm not the person to do that. I'm not the person to like lay down I almost took a nap today, but it's an entirely different scenario Like yeah, I'm, but I'm truly not the person that's always like oh, like I'm almost always doing something. So that to me was like a big red flag. But the first time I said it to the doctor they're like oh well, you know, you're getting older. And I was like, all right, like no, but I think this is something they're like well, let's wait and see at your next appointment. And the wait and see part is always really frustrating to me. So I'm like I get it, cause I do understand protocols, like my line of work, like I get all that. But it's just incredibly frustrating from, like, the patient perspective.
Speaker 1:Our health care system in general is very complex in terms in in us being able to get care. The complexities and the hoop jumping I think is such a barrier because, like myself, for example, I had this whole big thing where I was trying really hard to get answers on the fatigue and on the pain, eventually was able to figure out the fatigue mostly, and I can. I've been cycle thinking, so I'm keeping an eye on my cycle to say I'm like, oh, this makes sense of fatigue this week, that week, whatever. So a lot of it is me figuring it out and lately talking to doctors about it because I felt like I wasn't really getting really direct feedback and guidance. So I've gotten some sense of like I understand my body and my hormones and like what I'm going through but on a larger scale, like a more major issue.
Speaker 1:If you're younger, you know, or if you're having like actual major problems and you go to the doctor and they're just like, well, let's wait and see what happens, you're going to end up, you're not going to go and you're going to miss appointments and then your health is at risk because of this. So I'm glad that you are using what you went through to really address something that's a pretty large barrier for women all over the place. That's, it's a pretty big deal.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I really hope the listeners are sort of hearing your story of being persistent, because that is a part of it. I'm not going to say that her say is the be all and end all and it's going to get you all your answers, because it does depend on the practitioner. And you are allowed to push. You are allowed to ask for a second opinion. You're allowed to ask for additional diagnostics. You're allowed to disagree. You're allowed to disagree with your treatment plan.
Speaker 2:Like all of these things, we tend to sort of shrink in those moments and just take what they say at face value, even when we don't agree with it. And when it comes to your health, you are the only person who knows yourself and how you feel. You're the only person who understands your actual baseline. And just because something doesn't come up on the labs that were run doesn't mean they might not come up on a different panel, or it doesn't mean that it's related to something to do that with a blood work right, like endometriosis doesn't show up on blood work, right. So I think there's, there's. You want to understand that there's validity in your feeling and you're allowed to push. You're allowed to ask. Have as many appointments as you need until you get answers, and don't take no for an answer if you know that there's something going on. There are too many women who have had worse outcomes because they're not listening either to their bodies or they're not pushing back when they unfortunately need to, and there's no reason in 2025 that we should be in this position.
Speaker 1:Yeah, honestly, 100%. You know, when I had my endometriosis diagnosis well one, I didn't realize what I was being diagnosed with. There's that. But it was by mistake, because they thought my uterus, my abdominal pain, was something else and they went in to get that something else and it turned out it was endometriosis the entire time. So it's unless you push, you're really, really not going to get an answer. And I've said that, you know, on many, many episodes like you really have to be your own advocate. And in the position of a woman who has children, you also are your kids advocates too. So it's time to really pony up, like, as hard as you would fight for your child, you have to fight for yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And honestly, even saying it out loud, like I also want to admit, I quite often didn't fight for myself, until like recently, because me being a priority wasn't a big deal. So it's taken me many, many years to get to a point where I'm like I am a priority, I'm important here. My husband will say to me and he, because he pushes me more to take care of myself than like anybody else, and he's like you don't understand, because he makes this scenario he says you're the ship. If the ship goes down, we're all going down with you. You have to take care of yourself. You have to step back and help yourself out.
Speaker 1:At my age I'm in my early 40s he's like you know, I need to start building muscle mass, I need to think about bone density, like there's all these other things that like come into play into your 40s and into your 50s that you have to be mindful of, because you don't get younger. Your body starts to. Everything that you did in your 20s starts to come out in your 40s and then you have to deal with it. I had a table dropped on my foot in my early 50s and I just kept going because my kids were little and I had to get them to daycare, and I had to get to work, and I had all these things, and I apparently have nerve damage in my foot and I can't feel part of my foot, but I never got it taken care of.
Speaker 1:So now, in my forties though, I'm having problems now with my foot because I did this thing and I never acknowledged it. So I want to just share that for a minute, because I was very much a person that was like oh, it'll be fine, I'll heal, it'll be okay, and I didn't pay attention. And now there's things that are happening that I'm like oh my God, I know why this is happening. I should have gotten help sooner. I should have done something. So I do want to take a beat to tell the listeners, like please be mindful of your health.
Speaker 1:And the sooner that you start taking care of your body and paying attention to what's going on, the more it will be better for you later on. That's an old person thing to say, but it's so true.
Speaker 2:It's very true. Yeah, absolutely, and I think there's so much that, as women, we tend to push off. We're the caregivers. We have so much on our plate, no matter who you are right, there's a lot, and you do really need to put yourself first because, yeah, you are the ship. So I like that analogy.
Speaker 1:He says that to me all the time he's like you need to do it.
Speaker 1:I'm like, all right, take it easy. So one more thing I have for you that I'd like you to talk about a little bit. Being the position that you are in, you're developing this. It's an app, right Per se. It's going to be an app. All right, me enough, Okay. So you're developing this app for women to download that we can use to help us advocate for ourselves. That's, that's like a big deal to me in itself. You had this high powered position that caused this tremendous burnout. How, how have you changed how you're showing up as an entrepreneur in your workplace and leading almost by example, because you're going to be leading through your daughter and showing her like? How have you shifted as a person based on all these experiences that you have?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I am still very much a high caliber person. I must say I do still tend to take maybe too much on, but I am enjoying every minute of everything I'm doing and I think I do need to constantly remind myself to take that step back and spend the time with my daughter while she's young, so that I enjoy the moment that I get out with my husband and we have a social life right, like I do sometimes need to. But a lot of that comes from just scheduling it in the calendar and sticking by the schedule. If I'm taking meetings within a certain amount of time, don't budge on that. Don't add a few because, yeah, I did that by accident. One week ended up with a week full of meetings all over again and they didn't all need to get done that week. I just overextended myself again. So I'm not perfect in taking my own advice, but I am trying.
Speaker 2:I really think my daughter has grounded me a lot in like that time is so short. My time with her right at the stages that she goes through as she grows, that time is so short. My time here as an entrepreneur and a mom with a young baby like this is all. It's very temporary and that's. It's great when you're looking at the things that maybe you don't really want to deal with. That's temporary too, right? When I was dealing with the newborn stage, I knew that that was temporary and that's how I got through it, right. But you really want to hold on to those moments that are temporary and fleeting. And, yeah, I think putting the perspective of, like, enjoying your time while you're here because you don't even know how long you've got here right, that's really what helps me, helps me keep balance.
Speaker 1:I like that because you're you're rewiring yourself basically. Yeah, I like that because you're rewiring yourself basically.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:To show up differently and you're recognizing like in this moment, I have to be present in this moment and you will falter. I have missteps all the time. I was just explaining to one of the other guests this weekend that I basically revamped everything that I do with the podcast to make it fit better into my life so that it wasn't, you know, like I was explaining to you how I used to overextend myself quite a bit and I'm like I don't want to do that. I want to maintain the podcast and make it fit into my life, not vice versa, like I'm not trying to fit into the podcast. So it takes a lot of practice and you will falter, but like that's part of the process of like standing back up and saying you know what.
Speaker 1:No, like I'm going to do this the way it's supposed to be done and how I want to be doing it. I have moments all the time where I'm like I have to take a step back. I took a hiatus from the podcast earlier this year for like six weeks. Like there's sometimes things you have to do to reset. So I want to acknowledge that for you, even if you're not acknowledging it for yourself how important it is that you're doing that right now and how much of an impact that's going to have on your daughter's life that you're actually showing up and being present. That's such a big deal. I have to say I'm super excited about this app, like I really truly am. This is such a big deal and it's such a huge resource for women. So thank you for putting the time and effort there to develop that.
Speaker 1:Listeners, I'm going to link right now on screen Rebecca's website If you want to go and check it out. There's lots of resources on here testimonials You're able to reach out directly. You can work with Rebecca. If you're looking for a speaker. She's available for that. Rebecca, anything you want to say about it, I'm like talking on your behalf on your website.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah. So my personal website there. So I am sort of doing many speaking engagements and all that. But outside of that, I'd love to sort of just mention her say we're launching our public beta shortly, so it's coming within the next couple of weeks. We did a private beta for the past few and we're very excited to be published on the App Store and the Google Play Store soon. So please go on our website. You can find that through my personal website or wwwherseyca, you can sign up for our waitlist so you're the first to know when it's ready, I'm going to listeners.
Speaker 1:I'll link directly to the Hersey website in the description of the episode so you can check that out, and then, once it's released, I'm going to ask Rebecca to ping me so that I can also push it to you guys on my socials as well, just in case. Rebecca, thank you so much for joining me today. I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much, and listeners.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for hanging out with us today. We will catch you on the next one. Take care.
