How O Positiv Is Redefining Women's Health with Brianna Bitton

Speaker 1: I'm your Sheila host Melanie Bar. Today's guest is Brianna Britain, co-founder and chief creative officer of O Positive Health, the company behind Amazon's number one women's health brand. Brianna turned her own experience with PMS into a business that is now changing how women's health is supported. Women's health has become one of the fastest growing categories in business. Why do you think this shift is

Speaker 2: happening now? It's because women are finally feeling empowered enough to talk about their issues. We, especially at O Positive, have taken such notice of the fact that women's health has just been so overlooked for hundreds of years. And one of my favorite facts actually is that until the '9s, women weren't even involved in clinical trials for health. When the medical field started putting things in place to realize that first of all, women's bodies are so incredibly different than men's and that we need to be studied in an independent way. And then after that research started coming out about how different we are, women started feeling empowered enough to talk about their issues and the things that we were dealing with. and finally started to do something about it. We're very excited and proud to be a part of that movement and making strides against um dstigmatizing women's health.

Speaker 1: I love what you're doing and I I know every woman listening does as well because it's interesting to have men doing a study on women when there's no way for them to understand how we're feeling and what we're going through. I mean, I'm a twin mom. I'm a parent. I mean, there's things that women go through that men are not going to be able to understand how we're feeling going through those challenging moments.

Speaker 2: Absolutely. And because we are so uneducated on our own health, so many women don't know what to anticipate when things like birth or postpartum or menopause or pmenopause come around. We're so passionate about not only providing support for our customers through those times, but also educating them so we're all prepared for these times in our lives because nobody has talked about it.

Speaker 1: For those discovering you and O Positive for the first time, share with us who you are, what you do, and what your

Speaker 2: company has grown into. So, O Positive is a women's health company and we specialize in creating products to help women through everything that they might be dealing with from their first period through life all through menopause. We love creating products and supplements for women that are proactive approaches to their health. We want to give women these tools so that when they're going through PMS, when they're experiencing issues like vaginal health or pH balance, they can take something every day with results that they can see and feel. We want our customers to feel and see the result and improve their daily lives. Um, and that's what O Positive does and that's what we are so proud of. We started O Positive with the first ever PMS gummy vitamin. I was struggling

Speaker 1: immensely with my hormone health and I was working at Disney in my young 20s. I was calling out of work almost monthly because of what I was going through with my period. Debilitating cramps, mood swings. I couldn't focus. I couldn't be at work. I couldn't even tell my bosses what was going on. I had to fake a cold or a headache because it's not acceptable to be homesick because of your period. So when I was experiencing those symptoms, I wanted to try to figure out a way to help myself without going on birth control or just taking Advil and dealing with it. My brother and I, my brother is a brilliant entrepreneurial mind. We put our heads together and we're like, there has to be something out there to help women. We did all of this research, found out that there were all of these natural, clinically tried ingredients that were proven to improve PMS and period pain. And so that was our first product, Flow. We came out with it in 2019. And um the response that we got from women was absolutely incredible. We took a chance to talk about PMS on the internet that was unheard of 6 years ago. It was amazing the response we saw on our ads. Women were commenting about how the product made them feel and suggesting it to other women. And when we saw um the response from Flo, we realized that we had to approach other aspects of women's health in the same proactive natural way. So we have an amazing uh medical advisory board and research and development team and started tackling issue by issue. Urinary tract health. I struggle from chronic UTI. So, that was something we really wanted to address, vaginal health and sexual wellness. Watching my mom go through menopause and what a shocking experience that was for her. Um, she helped us formulate our entire Meno line. Slowly but surely, we've grown to have 30 SKUs all focused on improving women's daily lives and and women's health in general.

Speaker 2: Thank you for doing all of this for women because you're right, for so long no one talked about it. And when you brought up your gummy, I smiled because I have a 13-year-old daughter and I was telling her that I was prepping for our recording and she said, "Oh, they made something that can help me in a candy."

Speaker 1: Yes. And that was exactly the thought cuz we are so science-based, but at the same time, we want to make this fun. Women's health doesn't need to be so serious. Let's take a gummy vitamin. Let's give ourselves a little delight every day and a little happiness when we're treating our health. we should have these products available to us. It's interesting it took this long. It's so crazy that it took this long, but we're we're thrilled to be here now.

Speaker 2: That's for sure. And it's great that you're bringing natural remedies to women's health because, you know, so it might not be so

Speaker 1: natural. Yeah. And it's amazing to see how many of these natural ingredients have been clinically tried. They've been used for thousands of years and so many women don't know about them. We wanted to make an approachable product for women so that your average girl could find something that was marketed toward them in a fun, approachable, digestible way that they could understand, oh my gosh, this could help me. It took so much work to figure out ways to help yourself. And that's why education is so important to

Speaker 2: us. And what did you see in the market initially that made you believe that what you're building could become so much bigger?

Speaker 1: Initially, it was a chance. We saw that there was a gap in the marketplace. There was nothing like it at the time. And then talking to my friends and family about how every time we pitched this idea, they were giving us such a resounding yes and need for this product. We were confident from our network that there was a need for it. And then after the launch of Flow, having that incredible response from our customers was another encouragement to keep going and guaranteed us that, oh, there's a market here and these women need these products. Our second product was an immunity supplement. It was during CO, everybody was so concerned about getting their immune system in tip-top shape. We thought this was a genius idea to do an immunity gummy and it didn't really work. We were like, "This this doesn't really resonate with our with our clientele." And it was because we had become such an authority in the women's health space. People came to us for that specific reason. After realizing that our immunity supplement wasn't really connecting, we doubled down and released Menow, which is our menopause support supplement. Now we have an entire line dedicated to menopause and pmenopause. After we released Menow, it took off and we're like, "Okay, we need to stay true to who we are, which is dedicating ourselves to destigmatizing women's health and being there for for our customers."

Speaker 2: And thank you for sharing that because as founders, we have to try things. We have to try new things and see what's going to work and what's not going to work. And I keep thinking how many women there are in the population and how come it has taken this long.

Speaker 1: Yeah. As an entrepreneur, I believe that nothing's a failure because we were able to learn what was successful for us through that. And that was absolutely valuable knowledge for us and inspired the success of the rest of our business. So there's never there's never a failure, only lessons.

Speaker 2: And it's interesting because there are, you know, a lot of the that type of gummy out there, but not a lot of what you're focusing on.

Speaker 1: Exactly. So interesting. And we that's another thing that we're super passionate about is creating innovative products for our customers, too. We we want to find that niche. We want to find what hasn't been addressed, what's been overlooked, and give women the confidence to feel better about their health and to address it. We did a study this year, and we called it state of the vagina, and we surveyed over 3,000 women about all different aspects of women's health. We really wanted to get a pulse on the data of how these women feel about their health. 47% of women have experienced a vaginal health concern, but 31% would not even tell anyone about it or seek help with it. I have this list of facts. There's so much not right about that. So much not right about it. the fact that even in our own network with our own sisters, friends, moms, doctors, that you wouldn't seek help if you were experiencing something. I talked to hundreds of women and so many of them are like, "Oh, I'm dealing with this TMI." I'm like, "It is not TMI. I talk about this all day long. Please, let's talk about it more." It's so shocking to see stats like that and know that to this day women are still a little hushed talking about their vaginal health issues. We're breaking those numbers down little by little. But that's why we are so committed to creating these niche products to make women not feel alone. Our vaginal probiotic is the number one bestselling vaginal probiotic in the nation. It's number one in health in Amazon and the number one health product in Target. And when you think about that, there's potentially more vaginal probiotic being sold at Target than Advil. There is such a need.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. You think about all the women in the population.

Speaker 1: Exactly. And most of my knowledge came from research and friends, too. I have a soon to be teenage daughter. You think about those moments and helping girls through go through that stage of life.

Speaker 2: Yeah. It's really great what you're what you're creating for women.

Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you. It means the world. That's that's all we want. And

Speaker 2: you mentioned your numbers at Amazon. What do business leaders need to understand about building a category leading brand in sometimes a crowded

Speaker 1: market? It's committing yourself to your product and really making sure that you as an entrepreneur stand behind it. When you believe in it and when you're confident in it and committed to getting it out there, you will succeed. In a crowded market, it's tough. You need to differentiate yourself somehow. Finding your space, finding what you're passionate about and what you can be specialized in is what's important. Create a premium product that you stand behind and know that the research is there, the quality is there. Consumers are savvy. They can tell when something is done correctly in a crowded space. That's really important to set set yourself apart.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Especially today now more than ever.

Speaker 1: Absolutely. You can get really detailed into the ingredients and everything else.

Speaker 2: What have you learned about turning taboo topics? We talked about women's health not being talked about openly

Speaker 1: into a trusted brand storytelling. Science and our commitment to science is key. Especially when you're talking about women's health. Your customers need to trust you. Cultivating that relationship between us and our customers is imperative to our success. We have an incredible R&D team, a medical advisory board, and we want to make sure that women can trust us, especially because that's it is so taboo and stigmatized historically that if we're going to take the stance of talking about these things, we better know what we're talking about. By dedicating ourselves to the science, being there for our customers is the most important thing we can do. and keep providing them with products to address the issues that we we might be dealing with. One of the main ways that we come up with new products is by listening to what our customers have to say and seeing what they want and what they're responding to. And that data is so important for us. So, we have a Euro vaginal moisture and mood. We were hearing from so many of our that women are struggling with their sexual drive and vaginal moisture and we're like, "Okay, let's put our R&D team on this and let's give our customers a product to help them with this issue." And it is now one of our bests sellers. And it's an incredible product. It took a long time for us to develop because we wanted it to be right. It's absolutely incredible. It's so cool to see the response from our customers as well being like we've been wanting this and it's so great that you're listening to your community and a lot of founders are working to build trust right now.

Speaker 2: What do you think O Positive has done

Speaker 1: well in creating a community of women who feel seen and understood. It started with the comments in our ads. There would be women suggesting and helping each other in all of those comments. That was a great insight for us to keep cultivating that community. Our creators are a huge pillar in creating that community. So, Tik Tok is huge for us. We really thrive on our affiliates and we have so many people in this community who go on Tik Tok. They recommend our products. They talk about how it's helped them in their lives. And seeing that customer to customer connection is huge. And seeing women be candid about their health inspires other women to take charge of their health and be candid about it. So, it's this beautiful chain reaction of seeing somebody a UGC ad or an affiliate talking about how our vaginal probiotic changed their life and another woman will get inspired to either try it or just research their own health more. It's this beautiful chain reaction of women helping women that has built our community and also given our customers trust in us. That's a huge priority and owned media is where media is going. So having all of those women talking about you only helps to build your brand.

Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. Even if you have a female doctor, you go in and you ask questions and you leave

Speaker 1: and you think, I'm not sure I really got the answer that I was looking for or needed. Absolutely. You really have to be an advocate for your own health. And so many women are are taking that initiative to figure out their feelings and what's going on with them and then coming to their doctor. Every woman's body is so different. So many of these conditions and things that women deal with are hard to diagnose, but that I'm so proud of the female community coming together and advocating for their own health cuz it is making such a change. You know, as a twin mom and going in through pregnancy and all of those things, you don't know. You go through these moments and you think, is this normal? Is this okay? And it's really talking to friends and having resources to go to to help you get through those moments. Absolutely. We have this coven of women that share information. The internet is actually so wonderful to bring that relationship to the forefront. It's the first time ever. And you do see influencers and women posting about their pregnancy and their experiences now more than ever, which has helped companies like us come to the forefront is because we have these amazing women that are being open about their pregnancy journeys and their postpartum journeys and pmenopause and these terms that are almost now key words. We're starting to hear more and more often. I didn't know what PCOS was 10 years ago and and now finally we're talking about it and it's partly because of these women that are using the internet as a tool to to be so forthcoming which as a woman and a business owner I'm so thrilled to see.

Speaker 2: We've talked a lot about business today. How do you make sure that you're finding and living your joy every day?

Speaker 1: I am so fortunate and blessed to have the most amazing friends and family on the planet. I love spending time with them. Being a business owner and an entrepreneur is a lot, but at the end of every week, there's nothing better than having plans with my family and friends, and that's how I get through it. They bring me so much joy, and I I look

Speaker 2: forward to seeing them. Well, on behalf of all women, thank you for all that you're doing to support women's health. Can you please share with us how and where we can find you?

Speaker 1: We are O positive without the E. You can find us on our website, on Amazon, in store at Target CVS and and on our social accounts on Tik Tok and Instagram and Facebook. And please come say hello. And never uh hesitate to send us a DM or message us about any products you're interested in or any issues you might be dealing with. We're always here to help.