Welcome back to SheCommerce, where bold brands collide with fierce women shaping the future of commerce. I'm Christina.
SPEAKER_00And I'm Jackie, and today's conversation is unlike any we've had before. We're talking AI. Okay, that's like the conversations we've had before. We're talking food innovation, future-proof careers, and vibrators. Yes, I do. Why? I mean, I don't know. We'll find out. Because today's guest believes innovation doesn't stop at technology, it should also transform the conversations we're finally willing to have about women's health. Yes.
SPEAKER_01So before we jump into all of that, vibrators and all, we're gonna spill some tea first. So, Jackie, I have a question for you. Do you think that being too nice actually holds women back in their careers? Because this is a common theme that we hear, right? Be more collaborative, be a team player, don't rock the boat. But then somehow it seems like the promotions are still going to the people that actually speak up.
SPEAKER_00Yes. 100% yes. And women live into this impossible double standard. If you're agreeable, you're easy to work with. If you're direct, you're difficult. Men are assertive. Women are bossy. If a man doesn't, he's decisive. I mean, just enough.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, we were recently introduced to a book with probably one of the most attention-grabbing titles we've seen: A little bit of a hole by the leadership expert Danny Goldberg. And before everyone gasp, his point isn't to become a jerk in real life. It's actually the opposite. He argues in the book that kindness without boundaries isn't leadership. It's people pleasing.
SPEAKER_00And you know what? That really, really resonated with me. Because confidence isn't arrogance, it's it's clarity. It's saying I disagree and I can disagree respectfully. I can't take that on because I respect my boundary. That doesn't align with our priorities because I'm looking after my team and doing all of that without apologizing for existing.
SPEAKER_01And I think this leans into women more than men, because women confuse being nice with being kind and being liked. And being kind means treating people with respect. But being nice sometimes does come with sacrificing parts of yourself so that everyone else around you stays comfortable. These are two completely different things, though.
SPEAKER_00Completely. I could not agree more. Sometimes the kindest thing you can do as a leader is to actually have that hard conversation. It's to give that honest feedback, it's to set expectations and to say no. You cannot learn to walk without falling down. That's true. And if you want to protect yourself, if you keep protecting your team, they're never gonna learn to walk. That's true.
SPEAKER_01And one thing Danny talks a lot about in his book is boundaries. And I love this idea. I think people will respect you less if you have no boundaries, and they'll respect you more because they'll know very clearly where you stand on things.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and let's be honest, every successful woman, I know, we know, has had to learn that. Early in your career, you just say yes to everything. Because as a woman, you're brought up to always say yes, okay, I'll do it. Then one day you realize every yes is also saying no to something else. Your family, your health, your priorities.
SPEAKER_01Couldn't be more true. And you know, he also talks a lot about visibility. He talks about how um there's one chapter specifically about how hard work alone doesn't always get rewarded, and that your work can sometimes be the most incredible. But if nobody knows the impact of that work and the impact you are making, you stay invisible. And I think that really hits home for probably many of our listeners, for us included. Literally, literally. Can you see me?
SPEAKER_00Can you see me? Can you see me? You know, for women, we're just often taught if I just work hard enough, someone will notice. Unfortunately, that's just not the way leadership works. Leadership requires communication. When you consider that you are one of so many hundreds of thousands, potentially, or hundreds of thousands of people working in the comp in the company, you need to communicate. It's not self-aggrandizement or promotion, but it's being willing to own your accomplishments.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I like that rephrasing. Another one of my favorite parts from his book was replacing phrases like, I'm sorry, which we know women disproportionately say more than men, maybe. Or I was just thinking with a more sort of like, here's what I recommend, right? It's a very small language tweak, but it can result in huge leadership shifts.
SPEAKER_00So true. I'm sorry, is literally my refrain, my first draft, always my first draft. But you don't need to have permission to have expertise. You're not working at a company because they have taken pity on you. It's because you are valuable to them, right? You earned your seat at the table. Speak like it.
SPEAKER_01So maybe the takeaway isn't be more of an a-hole. Maybe it's be a little less afraid of making everyone else happy.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Because leadership isn't about being liked by everyone, it's about creating clarity, building trust, having courage, and helping other people grow.
SPEAKER_01If this little conversation sparked something for you, we highly recommend you checking out Danny Goldberg's book, A Little Bit of a Whole. And it's actually spelled A, dollar sign, dollar sign. And uh we will be sharing the purchase link and a coupon code with our show notes. So look out for that. Shall we talk about some women in commerce making moves, Jackie? Yes, let's, Christina. All right. Well, this week we have two powerhouse women that are making some pretty big power moves.
SPEAKER_00First up, congratulations to Melissa Bell, who's stepping into the role of chief brand officer at Chewy.
SPEAKER_01I love this appointment because Melissa has built her career at the intersection of brand, customer experience, and digital growth. And let's be honest, pet parents are some of the most loyal consumers on the planet. And Jackie, I I we haven't caught up yet from our weekend, but I do need to tell you something. I have we have expanded our family and we bought a puppy. So we now have four dogs, but we have a puppy. I will be sharing pictures, don't worry. Uh so yes, uh, Melissa, we're I'm gonna need even more chewy products, especially geared towards younger pups.
SPEAKER_00Melissa, we love you. Send Christina food. Send help. Exactly. Building a prep brand today isn't really about selling food and toys anymore, it's about creating that emotional connection, right? It's delivering the personalized experiences and building community. Melissa's gonna have one of the most passionate customer bases in retail.
SPEAKER_01And if anyone understands how to turn loyalty into lifetime value, it's a modern CMO.
SPEAKER_00Congrats, Melissa. Absolutely, congrats, Melissa. Our second power move, and this is really fancy pants. Drake Lingnecht, and I really hope I said that correctly, Drake, has been appointed chief marketing officer at Valenciaga. Talk about walking into one of the most fascinating marketing jobs in luxury.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and luxury marketing has completely evolved. It's no longer just about exclusivity, it's more about culture, community, the digital storytelling, and certainly staying relevant without losing that uh exclusive DNA that made your brand iconic in the first place.
SPEAKER_00And Balenciaga has certainly had its share of headline moments over the last few years. It'll be really interesting to see how Drake shapes the next chapter. Balancing creativity, brand trust, and commercial growth.
SPEAKER_01I'm just saying, a Balenciaga She Commerce bag. I mean, come on. Come on, kind. I mean, I feel like it's a great collab.
SPEAKER_00So we should talk about we should talk to all the luxury houses.
SPEAKER_01So congratulations to both Melissa and Drake. We love celebrating women stepping into influential leadership roles. Now on to the main show. Jackie, are you ready for this?
SPEAKER_00So ready.
SPEAKER_01Because today we're joined by someone who refuses to stay in one lane. And thank goodness for that. Alicia Spaulding is a strategist, innovator, educator, keynote speaker, and one of the rare people you can see that can see around corners before the rest of us even realize that the road is changing. Her career has taken her from the music industry during one of the most disruptive periods in history, watching companies navigate the whole Napster lime wire era, to transforming innovation in food, helping commercialize products that many of us know and love, including the Starbucks cake pop, one of my favorite, and the Domino Brookie, Brookies. But when most people were still wondering whether AI was just another buzzword, Alicia was already telling her teams, congratulations, you all have virtual assistants now. Today she advises organizations on AI strategy, helps leaders rethink the future of work, and also developed what is believed to be the first MBA and undergraduate curriculum connecting artificial intelligence and food marketing at St. Joseph's University.
SPEAKER_00And I feel so stupid listening to all of that. And if all of that wasn't enough, Alicia is also helping lead another movement that's every bit as important. Through her work with a global women's sexual wellness company, she's challenging decades of stigma around female pleasure, menopause, intimacy, and holistic health. She's advocating for conversations that many women have wanted to have for years, but rarely felt permission to start. In other words, today's episode is about two industries being disrupted. One by technology, the other by truth. And no one is better suited to guide us through that, through both of that, than our fabulous guest today. Welcome, Alicia, to She Commerce. Let's go.
SPEAKER_02Awesome. Thank you. I am so excited to have this conversation with both of you today and see where it leads us.
SPEAKER_00So all right, let's let's start with your portfolio career, which uh you had talked about when we first met. And I love that statement. You've intentionally built what you call what you what you stated as a portfolio career. What does that actually look like today?
SPEAKER_02You know, um, I think it starts by being exceptionally confused where you want your career to go and realizing that you can't be put into a box. And so, you know, when you kind of walk away from the world of YouTube's corporate, realizing that, hey, you can create more than one path for yourself, the light bulb came on. Like I no longer had to be confined to doing one thing from nine to five. And not to say that we do one thing from nine to five because a lot of our roles are fairly robust, but they are within a very specific industry, discipline, so forth. And I realized there's so many things I want to do, and that's kind of where I had this epiphany. Who's telling me I can't do more than one thing? What if I want to do consulting and fractional, but then spend some of my time working on building a new product or exploring things that I'm curious about, or just you know, educating and teaching. You just never know. And one thing that, you know, is really awesome about being human is about curiosity and learning. And that's just allowed me to go into different paths that I never would have thought of, some that we've already touched on, but it truly allows me to represent my best self and do the best work possible because I'm truly passionate and enjoying every moment of it. And when I'm not, I have the liberty to walk away and create something else. And so I've kind of identified this term and learned that it's been around for a little bit, the idea of a portfolio career where we don't have to do one thing, where we can do fractional and be an educator and be a keynote or start up a couple of different side businesses and who knows where they go. Um, and that's you know a privilege and a luxury all in itself. But I think, you know, it's a way of the future as well, um, where we do want to expand into different disciplines and learn and continue to be curious.
SPEAKER_00So Alicia, asking for a friend, was leaving corporate terrifying or freeing?
SPEAKER_02It was so scary. I think, you know, all the emotions at once, in the sense of liberating but scary. And quite frankly, going two years into it at this point, I still have those moments. And it really is a roller coaster. The highs are highs and the lows are lows, but you realize ultimately that it's a hell of a lot of fun. And so it's it's both. And I want to say it's a journey, it doesn't just happen overnight because in your process of being an entrepreneur and just identifying as an entrepreneur, it's a it's a journey and it takes time because I think about myself, it was 20 plus years of making a career and then walking away from the stability of healthcare, a paycheck. You know, whether you are present 100% at work or 75, you know, that paycheck kind of always showed up. Whereas when you are control of your destiny and your cash flow, if you're not present, well, PTO doesn't exist. And so there's different learnings, um, trials, pros and cons to everything. But ultimately, I think for myself, I am most happy really being in this mindset of a portfolio career and just being able to leverage all of the work that and experience I've accumulated over the last couple of decades and do something different and interesting with it.
SPEAKER_01So it's really fascinating. And we're hearing this term more and more from others. We heard it from you, and then of course, we like start hearing it more, you know, from others after that. But I love the idea of like choose your adventure, right? Um, and and speaking of the adventures you've been on, I love that your AI story actually starts with the music industry. And obviously, there's a lot of parallels to that with what we're what's happening in AI. Like AI is our generation's internet movement. Looking back, what lessons from the music industry's disruption prepared you for today's AI revolution? What prepared me for it?
SPEAKER_02I don't think anything really can prepare you for true disruption, but there are signals. There's almost like a feeling where this has happened before with experience. And so when AI, I should say large language models really started coming to the surface in late 2022, that's when really it felt like the internet coming on board. Just the conversation, just even the skepticism from everyone. I'm like, this feels like something I've experienced before. And so I think, you know, the biggest takeaway is always be curious and specifically always follow how tech is advancing. Because no one thought the wheel or the print press was really tech, but it is technology. And so being able to be curious around the things where there's a convergence and change and paying attention to it, that's one of the best ways to really some, I should say, try to prepare yourself. So it's curiosity and being exceptionally adaptable and knowing how to be nimble. And I want to say that curiosity allows for that. So there is no theory framework in terms of how do you prepare for disruption, but I think curiosity and learning gets you halfway there. Of course, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So, Alicia, we we've you've mentioned that you practice algorithmic thinking before people even called it machine learning. And and Christina alluded to that earlier. Tell us a little bit about your thoughts about where you think people are going or getting completely, getting it completely wrong about AI.
SPEAKER_02One, I want to say that AI is used as such an umbrella term. And oftentimes today, when we are talking about AI, we're really referring to large language models, what we know as chat GPT or Cloud. But there's this big misdemeanor, I shouldn't say misdemeanor, but misconception that AI just kind of showed up in 2022 when reality is that AI has been around for decades, 1950, actually. It's just advanced in different ways. And so having society understand that we've had AI in terms of GPS or Google Ads or all the algorithms in terms of Instagram and TikTok, it makes us have better conversations around AI. So when we mean large language models, let's talk about large language models. If we actually mean about algorithmic management or machine learning or deep learning, let's talk about that because I think that's what allows us to have a healthy AI fluency and understand how this technology really works and more importantly, what the limitations of this technology are. And yet we're not there. We're just AI when really we mean Chat GBT or CLAD. And at that point, it's really just a glorified chatbot, not to take away from how powerful they can be, but oftentimes that's kind of the surface level conversation we have because we're not digging deeper to understand what its implications really are.
SPEAKER_00That is so true. I mean, it is we hear it all the time. Oh, AI is so new. Actually, chatbots have been around for how many years now? Definitely pre-COVID, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_02I think about our chats from the early 90s. Like we that's how we started was Yahoo chat or NSN or AOL. I mean, yes, that was human-to-human interaction, but this idea of communication and chatting has been around kind of since the emergence of the internet. I would even argue that that kind of started the internet when we had a robust modems and people would sign on for chatting. So yes, it's evolved, but it's not new technology.
SPEAKER_00So if you were avoiding AI today, what would you regret five years from now?
SPEAKER_02You know, I don't know if it's so much about avoiding AI because it's changing so much that I think what is so critical is knowing how to think about what the implications of artificial intelligence in society are. And being curious and you taking courses to really, you know, expand your mind. I think now is really a time to double down on something like design thinking. What does that mean? Because this way, it doesn't matter how AI advances a month from now versus five years from now. You have, you've kind of molded your mind in terms of knowing how to approach the unknown, kind of going back. How do you prepare for the disruption? And I think that kind of goes comes down to yes, it's important to understand certain components of AI, but I think your thinking and your troubleshooting and your problem solving with it is going to be so much more critical. Because I think when it comes to AI, it's not a matter of just building efficiencies and optimizing everything. I think the deeper question is how are we going to be just navigating through life and work differently? And I even tell my students this I'm like, think of what's impossible and how AI can make that possible. And so that's the big piece is right now, educate yourself. Look at different courses, read different material. Experience life differently because I think those are the skills that allow you to start thinking about what are the possibilities of AI and how might it change society.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I love that. Think about what's impossible and how AI can make it possible. That's a good one. Print the shirts. All right. Well, you have helped some major organizations build products that everyone knows and loves. I mentioned a few in the intro. Starbucks Cake Pops and Domino's Brookie. You've done a lot with food commercialization. So maybe you can talk through, you know, what's coming up with the great product ideas? Or is that the easy part? And the hard part is convincing a giant organization to believe in it and to get it through to commercialization.
SPEAKER_02You know, I think today it's actually even different because for the first time in history, I want to say, food is trending. I mean, never in history did we have a chart of what's popular. And I think about everything from feta to cottage cheese to dot cakes. And so it's almost not getting organizations on board with an idea or coming up with a great idea. It's how do you meet the consumer in the moment? Because as we all know with food, it takes time to procure ingredients and do a bench top sample and commercialize it. And by the time we do all of that, that trend may have disappeared. And so, how do we get ahead of signals and anticipating what the algorithm might actually produce? Um, I think that's the big challenge is how do we meet the consumer in the moment? And so it's both a question to how do organizations become more nimble and what does that really mean for innovation and ideation from an internal standpoint? When you know that used to be the role of RD in food companies, but now consumers are telling us what they want and they expect it in markets. So that's the bigger challenge. And I wish I had an answer, but I think with a lot of the things that are developing, we will we'll come to a conclusion because one thing we know is as businesses, we want to meet the consumer in that moment. So we'll figure it out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, it's a great, you know, great point. How do you meet consumers in that moment? But it's also what are the moments, like starting there. I think a lot of companies maybe are focused on too many, and and that also slows things down. And then getting ahead of the signals, another thing that there's just way too much of, and which signals really matter that are gonna link to those moments that matter, as you talked about, to then capitalize on as soon as you start to see them and not waiting for like all the information, but you know, are you comfortable, like you said, being nimble? And you know, if you have those signals that matter most, that you're willing to move on them when you see them and not can just wait and wait and wait, and then all of a sudden you you're past this, you're too late.
SPEAKER_02It almost in this moment where you really intimately have to understand your consumer base, the segments, and not deviate from it because that there might be something new and attractive emerging elsewhere. Double down on who your consumer is, intimately understand them. And I think that's really the only way to start anticipating the needs and wants of that consumer base, opposed to always chasing the next shiny trend or what's trending. That's not to say there won't be a convergence with your audience and what's trending at the right time, but then it's gonna be authentic opposed to just trying to chase the next trend because you'll end up losing financially and potentially also losing your consumer base at that point.
SPEAKER_00So, Alicia, let's let's pivot now to AI meets food, which is the meat of the commerce, uh the commerce conversation. You know, we have million skew personalization, we have machine learning, we have customer behavior. You also told your teams, congratulations, you all have virtual assistants, as we said in your intro. Did people think that you were crazy?
SPEAKER_02I think when it started emerging, it just seemed like a glorified chat bot. I do think where it seemed to be off, and I remember these instances is I would ask team members if they use Chat GPT. And they were just like, I'm like, I want you to use it. Like it's not a trick. I think it's important that you leverage it, especially if you have writer's block. There's nothing wrong with using assistance in a moment where you know you have to be exceptionally productive and you're not in that moment. And I think what I specifically remember this moment because we were creating prototypes, um packaging prototypes. And in the food industry, you can appreciate how long it takes to get a prototype with photography, getting the right claims on board, all of that, and then uh circulating to get feedback and so forth, exceptionally time consuming, only to get feedback in terms of need to change this around, but you've already done the work. And I remember the timeline was so quick. I'm like, just use generated imagery. I know it's not perfect, and this was a couple of years ago when really it was not perfect. I'm like, but it will get the idea and we'll still have the same meaningful conversation. But the result is we haven't spent all of this time and resource to be able to get feedback. We're able to kind of shortcut that process, get the feedback, and use our resources much more wisely, and actually then be able to be ahead of schedule. That was kind of the aha in my moment where I'm like, there's more to this in terms of how we think to use the technology and how it changes. And when you have this conversation with graphic designers, they're already a little like, what do you mean you want me to get something just AI generated? But what about my craft? I'm like, this will make your craft better because you're not gonna be stressed over trying to get the perfect image, worrying that you're gonna have to reshoot. You're going into this knowing you're going to be reshooting or that you're gonna be shooting from scratch. Now you have a lot of that foundation built into really aligning with feedback and expectations.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Great point. All right, now let's talk about Professor Alicia. I love this story. So you weren't, you weren't actually hired to teach AI. You were asked to build the curriculum from scratch. Yeah. So talk us through that progression and you know, what are your students' understanding about AI that maybe executives still aren't?
SPEAKER_02I think, you know, we look at the idea of marketing from a very scholastic perspective. And I think that already is a big shift in how you think about marketing. So I challenge my students, and oftentimes when you bump into me and we start talking about marketing, one of the first questions I ask is, what is the root word of marketing? And it's funny how often I stump people with that question. And I'm not trying to be difficult or clever. I am genuinely trying to start a meaningful conversation. And I'm often met with market, and I'm like, exactly. Marketing is fundamentally rooted in markets and how markets shift and change. And so when we think about food marketing, we're really talking about the food market and the food industry. And that's also what makes food marketing so unique and interesting, is because it does start with product or service, you know, the fundamental theory of the four P's of marketing product, price, place, promotion. Don't have to get into all of them. But that drives a really meaningful conversation for us in terms of what does it mean when AI impacts that? Because now we're looking at it from agriculture all the way to the consumer. And there is a framework that I talk about to be not to be overly illustrative, but it draws the point where it's from soil to stool. And I usually get people perplexed. Well, how is that anything to do with AI? Well, we all know that agriculture all starts with soil, and there's a lot of vitamins and minerals and changes that happen that way. And the reason I say stool is we have an emerging category that is the gut health, microbiomes, and it's unique to every single individual. My microbiomes are going to be very different than yours. And so when you have now this layer of AI, you can be very specific with what that means. Maybe you can't have dairy from England because of the different biomes that are in that kind of dairy, but dairy from New Zealand is okay for you because of the different minerals and what the bovine eat there. And so the full 360 cycle comes in with what if AI is able to monitor everything from the ideation of product, the supply chain. We know it's already in pricing with dynamic pricing, all the way to the communication of promotions, but also thinking of people and your stakeholders and so forth. So that's kind of how we approach AI is really thinking about it almost from a philosophical standpoint. But the reason for that is so that we continue to ask questions and be curious and develop wild ideas of what the future might look like because it allows us to be creative and use our imagination. And one thing we start lacking as adults is imagination. And so that's what I really provide, you know, a foundation for my students and to is to feel safe with being curious and creative. And I even say that think of AI not as a return on investment, but think about it as a return on imagination.
SPEAKER_00I love that. This is a new ROI, Christina.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love that.
SPEAKER_00So with imagination, this feels like the per perfect, perfect place to shift gears. Because while AI is changing the way we work, you are also helping to change another industry that desperately needs disruption. So to quote, I'm gonna do Christina here, one of my favorite girl bands from the 80s. Let's talk about sex, baby. Let's talk about you and me. Okay, I'm sorry. So I don't think that's funny. I I couldn't.
SPEAKER_01I could be right there with you. I was right there with you.
SPEAKER_00I think we're about to have one of the most important conversations that SheCommerce has actually ever had. So you work, Alicia, with a female sexual wellness company that's trying to completely redefine how women think about intimacy. Why is this mission so personal and important for you?
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna kind of start with that when you think about a topic like sexual wellness, sexual health, you immediately kind of shy away from having that conversation. And when you shy away from conversations as it pertains to health, you don't make progress. You don't make steps forward. And so you think about just holistically, female health, female wellness, a lot of how medicine is practiced and done on a woman, it's based on research that's been conducted on males. And so already we are at a disadvantage in terms of being proactive with our health. And we know that being proactive with our health is one of the best ways to think about lifespan. When you're reactive, you're already trying to fix something. And so that's why it starts to be exceptionally meaningful and personal for me is I'm a female. And when I reflect back, it's true as females, we haven't had the awareness and attention we need to really understand what sexual health means to us beyond our first period and having babies, what are the conversations in between? And we just don't have those conversations. And so that's why it's so important to me to have be comfortable even opening up having this conversation. Because at the most fundamental component that we don't talk about is if you think about mental health, emotional health, there is a direct correlation to sexual health. And we don't talk about it because to be exceptionally blunt. And heaven forbid we use those words because, you know, those are we we shouldn't say those words. Those are not words females say, but yet that's the name of our body part, and yet we're so embarrassed to say it. So it's so important for us, for me as females to be comfortable just saying our body parts. And so when I think about going back to the how why it's so important to mental health and emotional health, is we don't talk about when you do climax that your cortisol levels naturally go down and your oxytocin and your endorphins go up. And that's key to having a better mood, it's key to better sleep, and yet we don't talk about that because it's not okay to talk about it.
SPEAKER_01And I think that is, Alicia. Like, why do you think some of those things are taboo? Because on the other side of the equation, men can openly joke about masturbating, they talk about Viagra, but to your point, we can't even say the word.
SPEAKER_00And unless we just talk about the fact that they can talk about Viagra, there is Viagra.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It's, you know, we've always been told it's not ladylike, you know, that there is, you know, a certain etiquette to be a female. And I think, you know, this is what some people would deem old world thinking, but we haven't broken through that stigma where we feel comfortable talking about it. I think it's, you know, power in numbers. You know, the more we have women being comfortable talking about this, the more women will be comfortable talking about this. And I think it needs a couple of voices that are not gonna back away from saying the word vagina or clitoris and being embarrassed by it because we even like say those words and we giggle. And why? Why do we giggle? Because we're not comfortable. It's a form of insecurity. And I think I wish I had an answer for this and really understood why, but I think it's just systemically built into society across the globe where we haven't felt like anyone was listening to us.
SPEAKER_01All right, well, we have an audience, so we're gonna give everyone homework to go say vagina, masturbation, clitoris 10 times and repeat it to someone else for the next month. Go ahead. Exactly.
SPEAKER_03With context, of course.
SPEAKER_01Meeting bingo.
SPEAKER_02Exactly.
SPEAKER_00All right, so Alicia, you've talked about why you've talked about the cortisol going down and the dopamine and the oxytocin going up when women orgasm orgasms is healthcare, right? It's not just wellness. It is, I'm sorry, it's not just pleasure, it's wellness. And it's again, like you say, the dopamine, uh, it reduces stress, it it improves sleep, etc. etc. Do you think that if all of this was packaged into a pill, society would take it more seriously?
SPEAKER_02I think it's sad that we have to package it into something like a pill or prescription for society to think about it being okay. It should be just as common as hygiene. You know, we we need to eat to survive. We need to be mindful of sexual health. We all have those body parts. They shouldn't be ignored. If they were supposed to not be functional after, you know, reproducing, I think our bodies would evolve to do as such, but that's not the case. And we just don't have enough research, from what I understand, to have meaningful conversations. And so I don't want it to be a pill or a prescription. I I want it to be something that doesn't seem like it's an illness because it's not, nothing needs to be fixed. We just need to realize that this is an important piece of being and living and just be much more accepting of having those open conversations. We don't talk about bathing in hygiene all the time. It's just ritual. And so I'd love to be at a point where sexual health, sexual wellness is just acceptable. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And you know, another thing you you touched on like after women have babies, obviously they enter um later years of of their life, you know. We're seeing millions of women that are entering this phase of like perimenopause, menopause, and that does change things for them, for their sexual wellness and needs and the whole process of it. Why isn't anyone preparing women for this as well? Including, you know, the the hormones, you know, the intimacy issues, the confidence factor, etc.
SPEAKER_02I think it comes down to like why didn't our moms talk to us about perimenopause and menopause? I mean, I know I can speak personally. My mom does not even want to broach the subject of anything sexual because she doesn't feel talking, talking about it with her daughter. Even though I'm her daughter, that should be the one relationship where it should be very safe and comfortable to talk about. And so I think it's decades and generations in the making. And we it it seems like it's fairly recent that we've started to talk about when your period starts, but then there is this end cycle to it where we haven't had the chance to feel comfortable talking about perimenopause and menopause. And I want to say that perimenopause is actually a fairly relative new term that we're now starting to see because for the longest time it was menopause and we didn't talk about it. It's just something that women experience in older age, and that was the end of it. And I think a friend of mine said this to me, and it really resonated that if you think about menopause, it's like puberty in reverse. It's six to seven years of your body changing, and there is no one, or I shouldn't say no one, but there really isn't many resources to provide insight on it. And so I don't know why we haven't had these conversations. Um again, I think it's somehow deeply stemmed into society, but we need to. We need to be much more comfortable having these conversations because that's how progress gets made. Because, oh boy, wouldn't it be wonderful where menopause isn't something that we feared, but we went in educated and knew how to navigate it, or at least had some kind of guardrails where we had the confidence to know that we could navigate it.
SPEAKER_00Completely six or seven years. Again, news to me. I thought it was like a two-year deal. That's all you signed up for. Yeah, okay, that's it. I I I'm reversing. That's it. I'm reversing. All right. So this is still a business, right? This is um, we're still talking about this from a commercial perspective. So, how would you say, Alicia, that the sexual wellness industry has changed over the last five years?
SPEAKER_02I think we're walking away from it being just adult specialty, where now we are seeing terms like sexual wellness and sexual health. And that is helping us remove the taboo and the stigma where it isn't just a specialty sector. That's not to say that the same devices aren't crossing over, but the mindset and the consumer needs to be, they need to feel comfortable entering a category that is emerging. And so it being more inviting, like the word wellness and health, that's the big change. I think that's where we're seeing movement and progress taking place, is the words we're using.
SPEAKER_01And I and other progress, I actually learned this from you, is that there's a movement to make sexual wellness devices eligible for FSA and insurance reimbursement, obviously hugely important in driving that that movement as well. But there's there's also been a lot of women's, I guess, sexual hellness. And that has added probably to this. Can you can you talk a little bit about that and why this changes so important?
SPEAKER_02I think it kind of goes back to the point where a lot of medical research has just norm, I should say traditionally, more so has been done on the male. And so that's the big shift, is where we're having more and more conversations and more clinical research around specifically the female body and different life stages of the female body. And so that's what's surfacing a lot of we didn't know what we didn't know, and having the right conversations and making progress. And we see it happening. So, you know, why are we requesting um for devices to have FSA, just different reimbursements from a healthcare standpoint? Is you can now find these devices in the pharmacy. So you walk into a Walgreens or CVS or Target or Walmart's pharmacy area, it is now within the female hygiene category, or it has its own category that is sexual wellness. And so this is part of that transition where normally you would find. Mind your lubricants and your condoms, it's expanding to be more holistic, not necessarily just male-centric or traditional sexual activity, but being viewed more so as a category within health. And I think those are all the different changes that we're seeing making a difference and why now, why this is an emerging category and why this is now becoming, I want to say more mainstream. And that's part of the project that we're that I'm working on. And we're even calling it it's it's a mainstream effort.
SPEAKER_00I love that. Okay. So let's look at we talked about double standards before though, Alicia, how men have medications for erectile dysfunction, women experience pain, hormonal shifts, loss of libido, pelvic floor issues, mood swings, you know, all the chemicals, all the hormones. Why why does society not believe that women need to have the same focus on medication? Why is it so historically lagging behind and continuing to lag behind?
SPEAKER_02I think we're still trying to find our voice as women. I mean, if you look at history, we had to fight for the right to have a vote. We had to fight to have access to credit card and mortgages. We didn't go into society with the same opportunities that society had deemed for males. Obviously different depending on where you are in the world. I'm kind of viewing it from a North American angle. So we're still looking for a revoice. We're still fighting for that equality, even though, you know, you kind of think about is 2026, you know, females, in theory, we should have all the same opportunities and access as males do. But on a global scale, there's been a lot of improvement and we are finding our voices. But I think this is still part of that journey, part of that progress is continuing to find our voice, speaking with conviction on things that truly are important, like health and wellness. And that's just part of the overall progression. Um, from my personal standpoint, how I kind of view it.
SPEAKER_01Well, hopefully the work you're doing in this episode helps even a few more women find their voice. We'd be happy to say that. We could probably talk about this forever because this is so interesting, and there's a million things I want to pick your brain about, all fair. But we're gonna go into our our lightning brown. So uh just tell us, you know, the first couple things that come to your head, you know, short, short answers. What would you say is the most overused AI buzzword? Besides AI itself.
SPEAKER_02I feel like it is AI, just because it's just uh, but you know what? Let's walk away from that. Vibe coding. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Okay, okay. One food you'll never give up.
SPEAKER_00Peroies. Love it. Most underrated leadership trait, empathy. Oh, yes. Biggest misconception about sexual wellness. That it's a misconception.
SPEAKER_02Enough said one thing that every woman should know. I'm gonna keep it very simple. You are enough. I was told that when I was 20, and it resonated, and I think it's something we need to continue to hear. You are enough.
SPEAKER_00You are and favorite go-to hype saw.
SPEAKER_02So I love a moment apart by Odessa. It's just how it ramps up. It's EDM. It's a band that I absolutely love. And I remember listening to this song when I was racing in Forza, a video game, and it that just gets me motivated like no other. Fantastic.
SPEAKER_01Well, I don't know that one, but I'm gonna look it up and it'll be added to our Spotify She Commerce playlist.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. So, Alyssa, one in in in like one sentence, if every woman walking away from this episode takes one thing away, what would that be? Trust your body. Gosh. Simple but powerful. Alisha, thank you so much for reminding us that disruption isn't just about technology. Sometimes it's about changing industries, and sometimes, sometimes it's just about giving women permission to have conversations they've been told not to have for far, far too long. Sometimes by other women.
SPEAKER_01And I think, you know, whether you're embracing AI or reinventing your career as you've done, navigating perimenopause, menopause, or simply learning to prioritize, as you said, your enough and trust your body, your own well-being. Today's message is the same. Innovation starts with curiosity and courage starts with conversation. Thank you so much for having this very important conversation or conversations, I should say. We covered a lot. And if you've listened before with every guest that we have, join us on our She Commerce podcast. It's part of something much bigger than any single conversation. And we're building this community of women and incredible advocates of people who stand beside them. So if you believe in the future of commerce and you want it to be more innovative, more inclusive, and obviously more courageous when we lift each other up, we ask that you uh take our little pledge with us. Would you take the pledge with us to play pay it forward and help build that advocacy for the future leaders?
SPEAKER_02Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Fantastic. Alicia, thank you so much for joining us for another episode of SheCommerce. If this conversation challenge your thinking inspired you or made you smile, of course it made you smile. We're hilarious. Be sure to subscribe, share it with another incredible woman, fabulous ally in your network, and keep building boldly. Until next time, bold brands, fierce women, one sister.