Women In Wellness: Jodi Neuhauser of Ovaterra On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Don’t take things personally — What someone says or does, is about them and their “stuff” — not about you. The freedom that comes in letting go of the things you take personally, opens up significantly more doors than worrying about what others think of you.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jodi Neuhauser.
Jodi is a fertility trailblazer. She is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ovaterra, a reproductive and sexual health company aiming to provide doctors, patients and their partners with research, premium products and the personalized technology to make the most of their reproductive lives. She believes that actionable knowledge is power. For too long, healthcare has been siloed, making it too difficult to access, connect and interpret all of the information we need to know about ourselves and our bodies. Her goal is to empower others to make the right decisions through better education and access to information — allowing them to be in control.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
From my earliest memories and throughout my career, I’ve always been driven by knowledge and discovery — for myself, and for those around me. As a lifelong learner, I’m fascinated by the way information is shaped and shared in our society because it says so much about our culture and about who is in control.
An achiever to my core, I used this natural curiosity to my advantage as it related to my studies and my career in which I quickly ascended the corporate ladder to work with some of the largest media companies and consumer brands in the world. I traveled the globe, always seeking new opportunities to learn while taking on demanding leadership roles. From this, I gained valuable insights about what it takes to create something people will deeply connect with.
As I mentioned, I am an over achiever who spent most of my childhood caring for everyone around me. A was raised to be a hard worker growing up on a farm in Virginia. I grew up looking after my friends, teammates and even my parents. And then, later, I sought validation from my colleagues, my employers and my partners. I achieved a lot of success, but was constantly in motion, traveling around the world looking for new opportunities and adventures.
But I wasn’t really happy, and — I came to realize — I wasn’t healthy either. There was this one moment, over breakfast at a diner in midtown Manhattan, when it hit me clearly: I had to stop prioritizing everyone else and start to take care of myself.
Soon after, as I was training for an Ironman, I saved up some money to meet with a functional medicine doctor who specialized in holistic medicine. It was in meeting with him that I began to learn new things about my body, and I discovered that I was not in touch with how I was really doing, physically, emotionally and spiritually.
After meeting with the doctor, I realized that the healthcare system isn’t designed with us in mind. It’s not here to educate us, to give us the full picture and information we need to make the right choices based on our own bodies, our risk profile, and our histories. Fortunately, I was able to see this doctor for several years in which we worked on taking control of my health which was a crucial turning point in my life.
This kind of information shouldn’t be hidden away and only available to those who can find and afford it. Everyone deserves access to this knowledge about themselves, so they can gain that same clarity and control over their own lives. This is why I do the work that I do: to make it easier for more people to have this kind of experience and to regain that control.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
Discuss how as someone eager to learn that skill has allowed you to excel in your career
Many people ask how I met my husband, who is South African. The truth is, I went to South Africa to freeze my eggs because I couldn’t afford to do it in New York. It’s one third of the cost to do it there and the country has some of the best medical care in the world. I almost didn’t go because I was in the midst of a tough work situation but at the urging of my best friend, I got on the plane. I was there alone, going through a difficult process that reinforces your alone-ness so I decided to log onto Bumble to see if I could meet some people to have a drink with while I was there. The first date I went on was with Justin who is now my husband. Incidentally, it was also the night of my trigger shot to start my egg retrieval process.
I ended up going to the wrong hotel, forgot my trigger shot and told him 3 sips into my beer that I needed to go (even though I thought he was awesome and super cute). I then did the most vulnerable thing I had ever done in my life, I laid everything out on the table with nothing to lose. In a bit of a frantic state, I told him why I was in South Africa, why I was freezing my eggs and how I planned to start a business around it. He calmly looked at me and said “My car is outside — let’s just go grab your shot and keep our evening going.” The rest is history. Almost three years later, we have an amazing little family.
For me, this jump-started my transition into the fertility industry where I’m now passionately working to improve the system, access to knowledge and the overall experience for more couples. But, the bigger lesson was in the value of vulnerability. It’s that unstable feeling we get when we step out of our comfort zone or do something that forces us to let down our guard and loosen control. Every time I have done this, I’ve been blown away by what comes next. Brene Brown says “vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change” and for me, this experience certainly was that.
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
In my early career, I allowed others to control my value for a long time. At one point, I had a side hustle working for a start up with a team of experienced professionals. I never asked to get paid, I assumed that we were all “in it together — building a company from the ground up.” Turns out, everyone else had negotiated to get paid for their time in some way or another and I had given away all of my value for free in an attempt to prove my worth.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
I am trying to change a broken system but more importantly I am creating transparency around a subject that impacts all of us and needs to be discussed openly. I believe that knowledge is power. And when each of us, especially women, has information about our health and our bodies, we can make better decisions to take action and plan for the future. We need to remove the taboos around reproductive health to improve the broken system. Right now, 60% of women would fail a test about their own fertility and only 12% of us can accurately predict our fertility window. One of the top regrets I hear from women is “I wish I would have known more sooner.” My company, Ovaterra, is about to change that by providing a one-stop discovery platform that will make the conception journey less overwhelming by prioritizing the products, services and content you need to be empowered to take control of the process. We want to democratize access to pre-pregnancy care which right now is only geographically and financially accessible to the upper-echelons of society.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
Have a goal that will push you outside your comfort zone — The value for me of training for and completing Ironman triathlons and marathons is the discipline needed for the training but more importantly, the lessons in pushing through the discomfort when it gets hard. In marathon training, there are a few weeks ahead of the race where you need to run 18+ miles. By that time, getting to 15–16 miles really isn’t that hard because you’ve trained for it. But getting from 16–18 is the worst. It’s only 20 minutes more, but the growth and awareness of your strength comes in those extra 20 minutes. I’ve had a lot of professional breakthroughs like this, during those times, I visualize myself back in Central Park on those training runs which encourages me to push through the discomfort to get to the gain that comes on the other side.
Know Your Body — You are the only one trained in you. Your doctors and specialists are trained in their own silos of information, but you are the only one who can interpret and advocate for what it means for you. When I was training for the Ironman, I had lots of different coaches and specialists on my team helping me along the way, but I was the only one who could look across the system that is my body, and know how everything was working together and therefore advocate for what I needed from each of them. There are more and more at-home and telehealth resources now — making it easier to take control of your health journey.
Know what fills your cup — It’s that old adage, “you can’t pour from an empty cup.” Figure out what fills your cup the most and do that before 9:00 am each morning so you start the day with a full tank. For me, that’s moving my body. The energy I get from my morning workouts powers me through being a Mom, a partner and a startup founder and CEO.
Understand the impact of your environment on your health — Not just the air you breathe, but the products that are in your home and everyday life. Our government doesn’t protect consumers in the same way as other countries so the responsibility is in our hands to learn how what we put in, on and around our body impacts everything about our health down to a cellular level. When I was preparing to freeze my eggs, I did a lot of research on endocrine disrupting chemicals, which have a huge impact on fertility due to the way in which they affect hormone levels. I threw out almost everything I was using on a daily basis and replaced those products with safer alternatives for reproduction.
Get more support than you need — Build a team around you that will help support you physically, emotionally, financially, mentally, spiritually and professionally. We have athletic coaches for sports teams, why not have them in every other aspect of your life? A few years ago, I had a life-changing injury. I was on a business trip and herniated a disc in my back 10,000 miles away from home. Being the hard-charging career woman I am, I ignored it and over the course of a 4-week business trip went from using a heating pad at night to literally presenting to a team laying on the floor because I couldn’t stand. I got back to New York and underwent emergency back surgery in January. But, I was scheduled to run the NYC Marathon that November and was determined to do so. I surrounded myself with a team of experts — doctors, physical therapists, mental therapists, pilates teachers, running coaches, family and friends. Ten months after emergency back surgery, I finished the NYC Marathon in 4:32.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Creating and developing more resources for education
Exactly what I’m building now with Ovaterra. So much of fertility is about larger lifestyle and wellness factors which most people don’t realize. By making a few lifestyle tweaks, and taking a few different actions, you can better support your chance for pregnancy while making life-long lasting changes to your health. I want to empower more people, everywhere to understand their bodies to take control of their data so they can improve their whole health. The more we can democratize access to pre-pregnancy education and products, we can build a better support network for the more than 4 million parents-to-be each year.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
Don’t take things personally — What someone says or does, is about them and their “stuff” — not about you. The freedom that comes in letting go of the things you take personally, opens up significantly more doors than worrying about what others think of you.
Meet Your Own Needs First- I spent my early career meeting the needs of my employer and bosses before my own. Eventually, I burned out. I remember the rock-bottom moment, on a subway car in New York, full of tears — after realizing deep down that I hadn’t met my own needs in years. This was a turning point for me, and the beginning of the rise of who I am today.
You Belong. I know what it feels like not to belong. Growing up as a bit of an outsider in a farm family, a kid who wanted to chase big dreams outside of the family traditions, I often felt like I didn’t belong in my career. Like I was standing outside of a party looking in. But, in truth — we do belong — to everyone else, we’ve been inside the party the whole time.
Build a team — It’s ok to ask for help. When I first started as a Co-Founder/CEO I thought I needed to do it all, learn it all and solve it all to show value. But the true value is in building a team that compliments each others strengths in order to move forward faster together.
It’s ok to be still and rest — As a New Yorker, I packed my days from 5am to 11pm. I felt guilty for resting, and didn’t want to slow down and sit with my thoughts. But actually, that stillness is where some of my most creative ideas have come from and now I make a conscious effort with strong boundaries to schedule in rest and stillness into my life.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
Mental health — Our mind is our most powerful tool, and when our mental health is suffering, it literally impacts every other aspect of our life. Mental health is a personal passion of mine for many reasons — 1. We need to remove the taboo around mental health support. Having a therapist is the equivalent of having a mental coach. We have no problem having coaches in other aspects of our lives, mental health is no different. 2. Mental health impacts our ability to connect with other humans, a basic human need. Without this ability to connect, we live an unfulfilled life of loneliness and I’m a big believer that the more we connect with and truly see each other as humans, the stronger we are as species. 3. I’m especially passionate about mental health in the fertility realm. We know that of those undergoing fertility treatment, 90% experience depression and anxiety and 60% exhibit at least one psychotic symptom. This impacts their personal relationships, professional productivity and self-esteem. There are a number of amazing startups in the space working to ease the mental health burden of fertility.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
Instagram — @Jodi_Neuhauser
LinkedIn — Jodi Neuhauser
Facebook — Ovaterra
Thank you for these fantastic insights!
Women In Wellness: Jodi Neuhauser of Ovaterra On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.