Female Disruptors: Deeannah Seymour of ‘pH-D Feminine Health’ On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
Learn to quiet your inner-critic. Self-doubt and negative thoughts will not get you far and can become self-fulfilling prophecies, especially when you fail. Know that failure is inevitable. I have learned more from failure than I have success. Let failure guide you and not stop you from achieving your goals. Believe in yourself, allow and accept that you will make mistakes, learn from them and move on.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Deeannah Seymour, the Founder of pH-D® Feminine Health, a woman-owned business reinventing holistic feminine hygiene and wellness solutions that help millions of women feel confident and comfortable. Unsatisfied with the lack of holistic feminine hygiene and wellness products on the market, Deeannah Seymour developed pH-D® Feminine Health in 2014 with the introduction of the brand’s best-selling boric acid suppositories. Having spent two decades in the pharmaceutical industry, she wanted a better alternative for women– and it had to be backed by research. She examined hundreds of clinical studies on the use of boric acid vaginal suppositories to help with vaginal odor and vaginal balance and decided to make them available to the millions of women like herself who needed them. You can learn more at www.phdfemininehealth.com.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Unsatisfied with the lack of holistic feminine hygiene and wellness solutions to common vaginal issues, I developed pH-D® Feminine Health in 2014 with the introduction of our best-selling boric acid suppositories, which are what the brand instantly became best- known for (one bottle sells every 30 seconds!). Having spent two decades in the pharmaceutical industry, I wanted a holistic solution for vaginal odor, which could be used safely and effectively — and it needed to be backed by research. I examined hundreds of clinical studies on the use of boric acid vaginal suppositories to help with feminine odor and vaginal balance. I tried it with great success, but this ingredient was not commercially available.
I knew I wanted to make this solution available to millions of women just like myself who had suffered for years with vaginal odor so I partnered with a holistic healthcare company, Vireo Systems, and began producing boric acid suppositories in our own registered facility. pH-D Feminine Health was born! Today, pH-D has successfully helped millions of women while becoming one of the top-selling feminine hygiene brands with the #1 best-seller on Amazon for more than 5 years. At the moment, we’re in the midst of increasing brick and mortar distribution to more than 25,000 locations nationwide by the end of the year and can be found at retailers including Target, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Meijer, Kroger, Publix and more.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Despite the fact that nearly 50% of women will experience vaginal odor at some point in their lives making it the most common vaginal condition, the topic of vaginal health still has a stigma associated with it. This issue affects millions of women but continues to go largely unaddressed in conversation. Too many women feel shameful about this topic, don’t speak about it, and aren’t aware that there is an accessible solution that is available on retail shelves nationwide. As a female founder and as a brand, we’re working hard to de-stigmatize this critically important issue, particularly amid a moment of change and growth for female equality and empowerment.
Bringing vaginal health topics out of the shadows and creating a simple yet incredibly effective product, which was the first of its kind when we launched it in 2014, has helped us disrupt the sector of feminine health and the feminine hygiene category at retail.
We all need a little help along the journey — who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
One of the most important people in my journey, who’s been critical to my growth as an entrepreneur, has been my business partner Mark Faulkner, the CEO of Vireo Systems. Our strong alignment has been a huge component to our success and growth. He has been an entrepreneur for many years and brings great experience in business management, product development, manufacturing and leadership, I have benefited from this exponentially.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Conquer your fears. Being fearful will always hold you back from success, in fact, it can be crippling. In many cases our fears are derived from our unknowns and weaknesses. We can use them as a reminder to seek answers and educate ourselves so that we can progress forward while growing and conquering our fear. My personal motto is faith over fear. If you are living your purpose, you should have faith that you are being guided on the right path and you should not let fear control you.
Learn to quiet your inner-critic. Self-doubt and negative thoughts will not get you far and can become self-fulfilling prophecies, especially when you fail. Know that failure is inevitable. I have learned more from failure than I have success. Let failure guide you and not stop you from achieving your goals. Believe in yourself, allow and accept that you will make mistakes, learn from them and move on.
Self-care is essential. Creating and running a business is exhausting — there’s no two ways about that. Finding time to nurture your body, mind and spirit is essential to being able to bring the best version of yourself to your family, friends and employees.
How are you going to shake things up next?
We want to continue breaking down the barriers so that we can openly discuss feminine and vaginal health! We are focused on helping women drop the shame they feel when they experience natural, common and normal feminine health problems, and on bringing accessible solutions to women everywhere.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
Michael Singer’s The Untethered Soul has had a huge impact on my personal and professional growth. It helped me learn how to control my “inner roommate” that was responsible for the negative thoughts I was experiencing that were also self-limiting. As women and as mothers, we frequently fall victim to this. As a result of reading this book and deep introspection, I have been freed from my own limitations and really realize now that anything is possible!
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Imagine a world where women aren’t uncomfortable or embarrassed about discussing feminine health topics! That’s the movement I aim to lead.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“The most effective way to do it, is to do it,” Amelia Earhart.
Sometimes in life you have to be the creator of the change you seek — pH-D Feminine Health is a business based around this concept.
How can our readers follow you online?
Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pHDFeminineHealth/)
Twitter https://twitter.com/phdwomenshealth
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/phdfemininehealth/
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/ph-d-feminine-health/
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Female Disruptors: Deeannah Seymour of ‘pH-D Feminine Health’ On The Three Things You Need To… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.