Kate Wells is a hormone expert and true biochem nerd who has been educating practitioners about hormones for many years.
Interestingly enough, the impetus for the founding of Kuel Life was hormonal dysfunction – mine, to be specific. Hormones run the show and us at times. We are thrilled to be able to bring you the latest advice and wisdom on the matter.
Beyond nerding-out on the latest research, Kate is an avid hiker, regularly putting in 20-mile hikes in the beautiful wilds of Colorado. She loves to build stuff, swing dance, and work with fabric to make colorful quilts. Kate is the author of A Forecast for Health and is the CEO and co-founder of Parlor Games LLC. Kate holds a BS, MBA, and has completed a Fellowship in Herbal Medicine.
Help Me Welcome Our Hormone Expert, Kate Wells:
KUELLIFE: What type of business do you own/run?
Kate: E-commerce company with a line of hormone cream products for the peri and post-menopausal woman. Our flagship product is an estriol cream for vaginal dryness.
KUELLIFE: What prompted you or drove you to become an entrepreneur? When?
Kate: I have been immersed in the field of integrative and functional medicine since 2002, specifically in hormone testing and the manufacture of hormone creams for wholesale. I would be at conferences, educating doctors, and other vendors and I came to realize that menopause is a complex area of health that so few doctors understand. In particular, I would talk about the genitourinary symptoms women experience when their estrogen levels drop – vaginal dryness, painful sex, incontinence and increased UTI’s.
I knew there was an unmet need for women’s health in this area. My best friend Kirsti Hegg reached out to me when she experienced dryness and I was able to help her. As businesswomen, we discussed creating a product and taking it directly to women.
“I KNEW there was an unmet need for women’s health in this area.”
It took us a while but eventually, we made the space to start Parlor Games, to develop our own estriol cream for vaginal dryness. I have always loved the business process, Kirsti is a serial entrepreneur so we combine our different areas of business expertise and my hormone knowledge to run and grow our business. We began in November 2020 and it’s been steady growth since then, we now have a team of 11 women and several contractors who help us save the world, one vagina at a time!
Hormone Expert Takes Time To Make:
KUELLIFE: What’s your biggest struggle?
Kate: Hmmm, when I look back, I think my most challenging times professionally were when I couldn’t get done what I wanted to at my pace. I would get terribly impatient and that just isn’t good for anyone around me.
However, at this point in my life – 61, I have been able to learn a lot about patience and have learned that everything has its own time line, that there are plenty of things out there already in progress, just waiting for me to catch up to them and intersect. We have just launched a salivary hormone testing service and it has taken a good 12 months longer than I thought it should, but I left my timeline go and here we are, and no one died!
KUELLIFE: What is your biggest fear as an entrepreneur? How do you work through it?
Kate: I am introverted by nature, an internal processor, I like to get my words out right the first time. I love to talk about hormones and when I do, I get on a roll and there is no stopping me, but it can sometimes take me a while to relax and warm up, so I guess, being in the spotlight still feels a little daunting.
“I am introverted by nature, an internal processor, I like to get my words out right the first time.”
To work through this, I gently remind myself that my ego isn’t what is important here. What is important is that I have a unique ability to distill some complex biochemistry into language that women can understand and relate to. When I remind myself that “this is why I am here, this is my mission in life, how fortunate I am to do mission work” then the concerns drop away and I embrace and enjoy every single conversation, every single podcast, every single video we make.
Emotional Healing Journey:
KUELLIFE: How do you measure your success?
Kate: Happy Employees and Happy Customers. I come from the Leaders as Steward school of business. I did my MBA in the mid 90’s and a lot of our management curriculum focused on employee empowerment. As a leader, I am responsible for ensuring our team has the resources to enjoy doing a job well. Our work week is 30 hours, we pay as it if was a 40 hour week, we have flexible schedules, we train and train and train our team members so they feel confident and empowered to take care of our customers.
And it works – when you look at the scores on the independent reviews we collect, we score highly, not just the products but our customer service and our business principles. But more than that’s it is about emotional intelligence. Both Kirsti and I have had our own emotional healing journeys – we’ve have both been able to undo harmful patterns of thinking and replace them with positive approaches to life – and communication.
This type of work allows you to release the viselike grip of the ego’s need to be right, to win, and that creates space for everyone on the team to bring their incredible gifts, ideas, contributions. Our whole team is a huge part of our success.
“We make progress because we decide and move forward and don’t get trapped in analysis paralysis.”
Our Decision Making:
KUELLIFE: Finally, what advice would you give other women about taking an entrepreneurial path?
Kate: Oh gosh – how do you distill 35 years of business learning. We sometimes think we should write a book about how we women are developing this company. We are strong on operational processes and planning so always be sure to document processes, train, project into the future so you have plans for peak times.
We did a lot of discussion ahead of time about our values and we use those to inform our decision making. Kirsti and I have been successful as business partners because early on, we divided up the tasks between us and then got out of each other’s way…we trust the other to handle their work according to our values, and, if there is a bigger decision, we discuss it immediately.
And finally – make decisions, even if you have to adjust later or decide it wasn’t the ideal decision after all. We make progress because we decide and move forward and don’t get trapped in analysis paralysis. Oh, and be kind, always kind.
Did you enjoy this article? Become a Kuel Life Member today to support our Community. Sign-up for our Sunday newsletter and get your content delivered straight to your inbox.
