Tools For Improving Pelvic Floor Strength with Amanda Olson

Hi, welcome to the Pelby Biz Podcast. Are you a pelvic health PT or ot? Struggling to start your own practice? This podcast helps pelvic health PTs and OTs get out of debt, gain the income they desire, be able to treat patients without insurance restraints, and learn how to create time freedom for yourself and your family. I'm your host, Dr. Kelly Alhui, founder of Ortho Pelvic Physical Therapy, Pelvic health business grower and Pelvi Biz. Over the last two years, I went from a solo entrepreneur to a seven person team in counting. I'm here to help provide a clear path to grow your pelvic health business as fast as possible so that you can gain the time freedom, decrease debt, increase income and live the life that you desire. Before we get started today, make sure you click the link in our bio to grab your ticket for pelvi biz.

Now let's get into today's episode. Welcome guys to Pelvibe Biz. I'm your host, Kelly El Huy. I am here with Amanda Olson from Intimate Rose. Super pumped to have you welcome Amanda.

Thank you so much for having me. It's so good to see you.

Yeah, so good to see you too. Amanda and I actually met three or four CSMs ago. She was standing at this booth looking all cute with her, all of her dilators and stuff out and I was like, who is this girl? What the heck does she have on the table? And so that's actually how we met was csm.

Yes, I think it was New Orleans or I forget.

Actually it was a while ago, but yes, it was a while back ago. Yeah, some time ago. So I'm super pumped to have her on here because Amanda kind of has varied in a different path than a lot of us other pelvic health pts and she's gone into the product world and it's really been really cool to see her grow and develop these products. And so I thought she'd be a great person to come on and just talk to us about. Number one question is how did you even come up with these products?

Yeah, so it started six years ago in fit. Rose has been around for about six years and ultimately from a pelvic health PT perspective, what I wanted was a, I wanted something that was really smooth and comfortable and easy to use for the patient. So I wanted to make something in a material that was extremely soft because there was nothing available like that on the market at the time in any class of pelvic device. And then I also Wanted to make products that were really cheerful and pretty and bright and happy looking that didn't invoke, like, fear or medicalization of. Of that part of their body. So I just envisioned a line that was just like, very welcoming and hopeful. So those are, like, the guiding principles. So we started with the vaginal weights. That was the very first product that we created. We. We found a way to make the silicone really soft and smooth and easy to use. And then from there, I was on to pain devices. So from there we created the dilators and then the pelvic wands. And that pelvic wand process was different because I wanted also to create. Create angles that allowed for reach of obturator, internist, and puborectalis. There was nothing on the market that was able to reach those locations. So wanted to make something that actually could get into that deeper anatomy. So that's kind of how the guiding overhead mission of how we've gone about it.

Yeah, that is so awesome. And I actually remember when your products came out, because before that, you're right, there was nothing. Everything else was very hard plastic, and it was. It was not pliable whatsoever. And I remember actually patients even saying to me, I have pain with intercourse, and you want me to stick this hard plastic thing in vaginally? And they couldn't do it. Like, it just didn't happen. Right. And then I remember getting your products and being like, wow, this is actually stretchy. And even to this day, I pull these things, like the dilators out. I'm like, look how stretchy. I don't think patients really realize, like, that this didn't exist beforehand. So I get excited about, like, stretching them and, like, kind of playing with them because they are nice and soft and super easy to, like, use. And it's just way more comfortable than anything else that I've ever seen. So we love them. We love using them in clinic, and so. And you also, too, Amanda, can you kind of give us a rundown of what products you actually have? Because you have a fair amount of products.

Yes. So we have a couple of different categories of products now because over the six years, we've been hard at work creating a lot of new things. So in the silicone glass, we have vaginal weights, vaginal dilators. We created a handle to go with the vaginal dilators. It's the only one in the market that can accommodate silicone dilators. And then three different types of wand. They're all the same shape and size, but they have different functionality. So the purple is our original one. The turquoise 1 vibrates 10 different frequencies of vibration. And then the yellow one is temperature therapy. It's hot or cold therapy for patients that respond really well to those modalities. Then we worked with a pharmacy team and a medical team to create a line of supplements. And they include our probiotic, which has been a game changer for a lot of people. We also have myonositol for people with pcos. We have a new aloe supplement that we are extremely excited about for people with bladder pain. I see those kinds of things. And it includes D mannose to help prevent uti. We have a boric balance that allows for a more natural treatment of bv. And we currently also have lubricant and balm, external vaginal balm. We are working right now to reformulate our lubricant. So we're going to be launching a couple of different types of lubricant hopefully by the end of this year. And that's currently the breadth of it. And we are getting ready to launch a new post surgical line too. So post surgical abdominal and also a post surgical seatbelt cover. So for people that have had abdominal chest surgery, so for breast cancer treatments, people that have had ports placed in the upper cavity of the trunk, all of those. So it's going to be really soft and really easy to use, washable, which is a new concept. So we are really excited about those. And then we are going to be launching in about two months a brand new line of rectal dilators.

Wow, this is awesome. Was this on your table at CSM this past? I was not there, but I saw a glimpse of something and I was like, what are those? Yeah, I started getting. I was like, this is genius because, I mean, I don't know if you want to discuss it, but just the shape of it is different.

Yes, they are totally different. So all new lineup colors. The really cool thing is that there's eight in this rectal lineup. They can be used for any gender, any, any type of person. But the smallest two are now going to be the smallest dilators on the market in our soft, smooth silicone. So they can easily be used vaginally as well. The other sizes interlock with our vaginal lineup. So they can. All of the rectal dilators could be used vaginally and they can be used as an intermediate to stepwise up between the eight sizes that we currently offer. But for the rectal lineup, the first two are very thin and straight and then after that they start to have an hourglass shape to allow for a gentle stretch of the sphincter without overstretching it and allowing it to come back down and relax. And then they could also be used as explosion training as well. And then the largest sizes can be helpful for people that have goals around penetrative anal intercourse. So there was. The latter stages of those dilators tend to be bigger. Bigger than would be needed just for patients that need bowel training.

Right. It was. Yeah, it was genius. I mean, I just saw a glimpse of it and I was like, oh, my gosh, this is genius. Yeah. When I saw it on the table, I was like, I got to ask her about this. So that's awesome. Yeah, that is awesome.

So excited. It's been a secret for so long. And now the production line is done. Now we're in manufacturing, so we will get those out, we're hoping, in the next two to three months.

That is so cool. So was there. Was there, like, one patient that inspired you to, you know, really start this? Was there? I know you said, you know, hey, there was nothing that was really serving my patients, but was there a deeper thing of like, hey, this patient that I really treated, this one patient really made me think of what could I do to help and serve this patient more. Was that the case for you or.

No? No, it was actually the opposite. It was like volumes of years of me trying to be creative and, like, work around or thinking of other ideas. It was almost like I was being so scrappy and so MacGyver, like, with other things and avoiding tools and trying to think about ways to make them more comfortable, that after several years, it was like, okay, I'm not macivering.

Time.

To just have the thing.

Right, right, right. You're like, okay, I'm going to do this.

Yes.

Wow.

Wow. That.

That's awesome. Yeah. Like I said, a lot of us, as you guys probably know or probably already have, you probably been using the products. If not, you should definitely be using them, because we use them in clinic and all the patients love them. So we actually. It's really interesting. We actually give, you know, the products to our patients as a really good adjunct, especially for telehealth. So, you know, we can coach them online, and if they have the wand, if they have the dilators, then when we're having a session with them, telehealth, we can really guide them and show them, hey, this is what I need you to do. And I think having these products are really huge when it comes to compliancy, when it comes to Having the patient be able to feel like they have control over the situation. And I think, like I said, with our guidance as pelvic health pts and the combo of these products, and it really makes a good combination and a winning team of the patient getting the outcome that they want.

Absolutely. I always say they're part of a robust overall treatment plan.

Yeah. So, okay, let me ask you this. So where do you see. I mean, my next question was, where do you see intimate rose going? But I'm guessing the new launch of these dilators is what's happening, right?

Yeah, that's the next right step. You know, so that's what's happening right now. You know, doing better in terms of lubricants and whatnot are on this year's agenda. Broader scale. I really just want all of pelvic health, not just the devices, not just rehabilitation, all of it to be just front center, just like normative. Like this is if you are having chest pains, you go to a cardiologist. If you are having pelvic pain, you go to a pelvic ptot. I want that to be just common public knowledge. So we are just doing a lot of initiatives, a lot of collaborations with media, Had a big article published in the New York Times about our devices and about marketing policies on certain media channels that allow for very explicit images of nail products and banned our very clean ads, along with about 74 other pelvic health companies that are geared towards primarily women's health. We are a pelvic health brand. We serve all the people, but particularly surrounding women's health. So that lit a burner under our buns to just be really getting the messaging out there as to what. What the solutions are that people don't have to suffer alone. And we are on a mission to move pelvic health forward and to making it just common knowledge.

No, I love that. And I don't, you know, I don't want to bring too much attention to it, but there was. For those that don't know, there was a situation where Amanda was putting products out, and Amanda can speak to it better than I can, but that they were not classifying these things properly and they were kind of hiding the products that, you know, it wasn't as readily available to people that actually needed these products.

Yep, Amazon. And they did it. They went through with it. So vaginal weights. And our dilators are now put into the adult section, and they're very difficult to locate and very difficult to find. And it creates so many barriers to our patients getting what they need, especially those who've had trauma or abuse. And now they are trying to find their medical device while scrolling through other explicit images that are adult products. And it just further feeds into that shame narrative about, these are dirty. These are for, you know, X, Y and Z. And it's not that sex is dirty and we are a very sex positive brand, but when we are classifying a medical device to treat medical conditions in service of whatever goals the patient has, but they have those emotional barriers, that's not serving them in any way, shape or form. That's not helping the user experience on Amazon. And it's certainly for us as clinicians, that is a tremendous barrier to helping our patient get what they need. And so the answer to that is that they have to now shop on our website to ensure a safe user experience.

Wow. I mean, just wow, guys, when Amanda brought this to all of our attention, I have to say it was really impactful. I mean, I even shot you a message because I really. Our pelvic health community really came together. I think, you know, the positive out of this is that our pelvic health community really came together to, you know, provide support and petition this, what Amazon was trying to do. And I really thought that that was the positive. Clearly not a positive about what they were trying to do with the products, but I do think overall it really brought the pelvic health community to try to say, hey, this is who we are, this is what we stand for, and these are conditions that need to be talked about and need to be treated just like any other medical condition, you know?

Yes. 75,000 people from around the world signed that petition and that like, wow, it was such an emotionally charged sit to be in and then to see that support. So it's like when Amazon still moved forward with their decision, we were still so motivated to continue with our messaging because of that, we knew, like, that is a sure outcry for help, you know, and for support from the clinicians and help from the patients that were saying, I can't imagine having to scroll through that to find my product. So we were so motivated by that.

75,000. Amanda, you have to be like, over the. I mean, that's crazy.

Yeah, I still. It doesn't seem real. 75,000 people from around the world that have heard of our little company, you know, that's amazing.

Yeah, I know. Speaking of that, do you think. I mean, do you ever sit back and realize, like, the impact that you, that intimate rose in general has created? You know, because a lot of us pelvic health PTs, OTs, we use these products. Let alone, I mean, just think about how many serve. You know, we serve like 300 patients a month just in my clinic, you know, and think about how much every single patient that comes in, they are at least are having some kind of product. Right. So with that, just think about the impact. Like, have you thought about this? The impact that you're having based on, you know, this whole community?

I feel like I hadn't considered it. I've just been in go mode and trying to just support everyone. And my business partner actually brought it up a couple weeks ago and he said, do you know that you probably treated more pelvic floors just through your products than any other person or thing on the planet?

And.

It doesn't seem real. I don't know, maybe when I'm further down the path, it will sink in, but I am just so thankful to be able to do that, you know?

No, and I think this is an amazing point for any pelvic health pts out there. Because of Amanda's products, she has been been able to now serve one to so many. Right. Whether or not it's directly, indirectly, whatever it is. But Amanda has probably served, I mean, I don't know, thousands and hundreds of thousands of people with these products, guys. And, and this is a really good point. If you are just treating, there's nothing bad about doing this, but if you're just treating one on one, you can only make a little impact per patient because you only set patient for one hour. Right? But with products like Amanda's products, she has been able to make a massive impact. I mean, you just heard her. She said 75,000 people literally signed this thing. That's not even how many people she's impacted. That's just how many people actually took action. Sign the thing. So, I mean, really, it's probably hundreds of thousands of people that you really impacted due to products, which is amazing.

Yeah, it absolutely is. You know, all of us go into rehab. Whether you're PT or ot, all of us go into help. So thinking about ways to reproduce yourself in whatever, whether it's a course or, you know, a social group or support group or all of those or products. It's. It's just a way to further that mission. That feels amazing.

Yeah, that's so awesome. And, and I think impact is also what is a. Can be a driving force. I know for me personally, impact is my driving force between, like, I want to help every pelvic health and pt, like PT and OT business owner.

Right.

To help grow and scale a practice for you. Impact for you is, hey, I want to make these devices not shameful, easy access, really comfortable. Right. Like, that's the impact that you're going to have. And you're doing that already by serving so many people through the products. It's awesome. Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And what you're doing is amazing as well. Because business is so alienating. It can be so lonely. And, you know, we get maybe a couple hours lecture, maybe a full course in our grad programs if we're lucky. And it's hard to know what to do, especially in today's environment, and how to be nimble in business. So I love what you're doing.

No, exactly. It can be very lonely. And with COVID and everything, you're like, oh, my God, my head's gonna fall off. But it's okay. We're all hanging in there. Yes, we're all hanging in there. Oh, man. So any other problems, Amanda, you know, any other problems that have come up, which I'm sure you've had through this process of trying to develop products, like, yes, clearly this Amazon thing, I felt like that was a huge problem. But any other things that you can think about that really was like, man, this is a massive problem. And then this is how I overcame it.

Marketing. So, you know, speaking to that New York Times article, so particularly on social media, Google marketing is different, but Facebook and Instagram, of course, owned by the same holding parent company, Meta. There's just a lot of unspoken rules in marketing. And so, like, we've never, we've never used strong language, we've never used, you know, any. Any red flag type things. But we would get marked for saying, first of all in anatomical words like vagina or pelvic floor even. So we stopped using those. And then we were getting flagged for using the word you. It's all these just things. So it's like when you're thinking about marketing your business and if you're thinking about using social, you just really do have to be so creative. I think they're a little harder on brands that are like mine, that are device oriented versus maybe others, like courses or clinics and those kinds of things. But, you know, and that's where you call in help from your friends and do affiliate type marketing and those kinds of things to help, you know, spread the word. But social media marketing is its own beast. And that was, I mean, years of struggle, years of paying for ads and having them getting taken down or blocked or banned. Or prohibited for rules that are not written anywhere. It's a funny double edged sword. You know, they can, they can market a product for testicles and say like for your balls, like have a big picture that like is very like for not somebody's actual testicles, but pretty explicit, pretty close. We can't have a picture of a couple hugging in full clothes in broad daylight because that is just obscene.

It is obscene. This is so crazy. Actually, another Amanda Fisher from Empower your pelvis. She's a good buddy of mine and it was so funny that she just was trying to do local advertisement for her kids basketball team and her name is empower your pelvis.

Right.

And there was dicks that actually sponsored them. Like the, the actual boys.

Sporting goods.

Yeah, sporting goods. And. But they would not allow because they said pelvis was a dirty word.

Dirty.

Yeah, they said dirty word and it's like, okay, so we can't say elbow, we can't say knee. Like what are you, like, we didn't even say pelvic floor. Pelvis was a dirty word. That's literally what they told her. And that she cannot advertise. Isn't that crazy?

Where do you take your money? It's like, okay, you don't want my money.

I mean it's, it's really crazy. But dick's, that's literally Dick is 100% okay. I mean this just speaks to it, right? It's crazy, right?

It totally is. There's no reasoning. It's like you're trying to tell them the sky is blue and they're saying, no, it's red.

So I mean, how the heck you said just being creative. I mean how to me that would just like send me through the roof. How the heck do you get past that? You just figure out different words to use.

Is that like you use the most watered down, non informative marketing, which doesn't work in marketing, you know, but.

Right, because you wouldn't be.

Yeah, yeah. So we'll say you don't have to live with embarrassing leaks or sensitive pelvic or no sensitive health issues year something like do you know just the most nonsensical, watered down statement that you can think of. That's where we've headed. And it's not ideal.

So how do we change this? I mean if someone, you know, if all of us, because we're going to all hear this podcast, I hope you know, how do we, how do we make change on this?

We partnered with the Intimacy Justice Coalition and so they are working on legislation. So they have some lawyers, and they have a lot of really strong women backing it. And there's 75 of us currently that are working with them and handing over our data as to, like, what's happening. They've engaged some senators, and actually it got retweeted by Hillary Clinton on Friday. Wow. Yeah. So there's people taking notice. There are people that care. And, you know, the New York Times article really blew the window open on it about a month ago. And so things are in motion now, but just trying to support those kinds of entities, if it's happening to you and you're getting blocked, you can hand over your data and they will use it in their, you know, in their education and what they're trying to do to change the rules of those kinds of things.

Wow. Okay. That's awesome. So that's good. So there is some steps that are being taken to combat this. That's good.

Yes. And we all work together. Rising tides lift all ships. That's right.

I love that.

Yeah, I love that.

I mean, that's a perfect, actually, place to end. Rising tides lift all ships.

Yes.

I love that. That's amazing. So, Amanda, can you go ahead and tell us where people can find your products? Also, if people, you know, want to get in, like, informed about this information and like, how they can help even move this mission forward even more, like, please tell us where they can find all this.

Yes. So Our website is intimaterose.com. if you're a clinician and you don't yet have our products there, head to the clinician sample section on the main page and enter your information, and I will get you free product samples of whatever you need to help educate your patients. We are active on Instagram @IntimateRose, and on Twitter @IntimateRose, and then we have a Facebook group as well. The center for Intimacy justice is a separate, totally separate entity. But if you are struggling with marketing and feel like you're reaching roadblocks, they are a phenomenal group of people. I cannot believe, like, how strong this group is. I can't recommend them enough. They are out there serving all of us, you know, through their work. So Jackie Rotman is leading up that coalition, and she is on Instagram as well, and she does a lot of posting about these kinds of issues. And I think from a business perspective, regardless of what your business is seeing, where the rest of us have fallen down and tripped and gotten back up and what we're finding and what we're doing is really helpful.

Yeah. That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your knowledge. We love it and we wish you the best and just continue to keep spreading the word. We love it. So thank you.

Thank you so much.

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