Kim Vopni (00:01.198)
Welcome, Wanda. Thank you so much for joining me. I am looking forward to hearing more about really your story and you getting to the point where you created a really, really cool pelvic floor product. Your company is called Femme Flexor. Before we jump into what you have created, I would love to learn a little bit more about you. So if you can tell the audience who you are, what brought you into this world of pelvic health, and then we'll go down a bunch of different pathways from there.
Wanda Cotie (00:31.19)
Very cool. Thank you, Kim, and thanks for the invitation. I've watched you as a pioneer in this industry. I entered the adult industry as a new idea in adult stores. So I was one of the first women in Canada to pioneer stores that didn't.
focus on pornography and focused on health and wellness and finding safe space to learn about sex. So that was part of my journey in trying to help other people with things that were a challenge to me all through my life as well. So finding accessible space and safe space to be able to talk about intimacy and the challenges that go with that.
And then our lives, just throughout our lives, understanding our pelvic floor and how come it's so reactive and so emotional and people have pain that they don't describe. it's, you know, when the tissues are not the issue, of course, we love to send everybody to a pelvic floor therapist if that's feasible. But basically I have a long background in adult products. That was my passion project because I actually made my money in commercial real estate. So my
My ability to go down this road was taking on, I'll call it, a very patriarchal business and utilizing that to set myself up for something else that I wanted to do more so. So I started with Couples Romance Stores and in 2000, it was 2006, I became Wicked Wondous. I was turning 40 and I...
was in a place to celebrate what I was doing as opposed to hide it behind everybody. So talking about sex was always something I felt the need to talk about from my own past and from people that I speak to and recognizing how much pain emotionally, spiritually, and physically that things that you can't control can bring to you. learning how to...
Wanda Cotie (02:50.664)
accept pleasure in our lives and navigate that and deal with all of the negativity that we've been brought up around. Yeah, I just wanted to dispel that. have three daughters. They're grown now. My oldest daughter will be 40 years old this year. So I started having children very young, and I found sex a very sad place for me as a young person. I had a lot of trauma and then I tried to be married and then I tried to be married and
You know, navigating that whole world, having trauma in your body is real. And then I developed fibroids and I a very long story of my own personal journey, starting in my thirties, where I developed really large fibroids. And I was the youngest person in Canada to receive embolization. And it was only through my tenacity and my determination not to have a...
hysterectomy in my 30s. I shut all the doctors off and I was like, no, just wait a second. I'm going to try to figure this out. So I'm certainly no PhD and I'm not a doctor, but I certainly have enough information about my body and how it's worked for me and when it doesn't work for me. And so I started just piecing those things together. And then over the years, 20 some years now, I've spoken to thousands of people about their sex lives. And it's...
There's more sad stories than there are success stories. So when you start to see that as a common element, not just between women, but all people, yeah, we all just want to be loved and feel loved. And somehow sex turns into something that seems to give and take power, depending where you have it in your life. And of course, depending on your upbringing, that could be even more challenging.
You know, going down those roads and having those uncomfortable discussions, that's me. I do have wicked Wanda. Like, own wicked Wanda's. So I'm like, you know what? I'm not going to apologize for that. I'm going to say, I think we all need some pleasure in our lives and sex doesn't always create that space for you. So we want to navigate that.
Kim Vopni (04:55.438)
You
Kim Vopni (05:09.44)
And do you still have your stores, your storefronts?
Wanda Cotie (05:12.552)
I do, I still own my store on downtown on Bank Street in Ottawa and we've been here for 20 some years now. My daughter works with me now, she's turned into a sex educator, she's gone to school at Concordia and she's doing an event called Climax Conference where we're sex education. So yeah, we really are, we've spent our life, I've spent my life trying to help people, just help people.
Kim Vopni (05:20.355)
Wow.
Kim Vopni (05:27.918)
amazing.
Kim Vopni (05:33.026)
awesome.
Kim Vopni (05:40.643)
Yeah, yeah. So I guess maybe elaborate a little bit on that. You talked about, you you you created a safe place. You focused it more on wellness as opposed to sort of the classic pornography that we think of from an adult store. And what are you've you mentioned there's sadness. So what are some of the common threads or themes that you hear in some of the stories and what role do you play? How have you helped people get to the to a place of positivity?
Wanda Cotie (06:10.452)
I kind of develop, or I deliver some honest truths that people share with me.
I think when we're in our 20s or 30s or even, it doesn't matter actually, all through life, if you have a novel relationship and you've just fallen in love and it really doesn't matter what age you are, you might look at that person and on, you know, right away you're like from here to eternity and you're gonna have this great time.
potentially. Or you're going to be so afraid you're never going to go there. So I just think that like debunking the myth that everybody's having this great sex life, I think that's really where I start from. And then opening people's minds up to other possibilities for themselves. Because in my mind or in my body, anytime I've gone against its grain, it tightens up and it doesn't feel good. And I think that goes for anything that creates fear for us. So I think like taking
the fear out of sex and trying to find some playfulness and teach people how to self-pleasure themselves. Like for me, that's it has to start from yourself and it's really important to have a good relationship with yourself and communicate your needs to somebody and that's pretty hard when you don't know your own needs.
Kim Vopni (07:26.414)
Yeah, the, you know, we the conversation will be focused, not focused, but will involve the pelvic floor. And you've, we talked about pelvic floor, PTs, and they play a really critical role in this. And we both are referring on to them. But as you say, there's a piece of it that we need to have our own understanding of our own anatomy and our bodies. And you created a product. There's a couple of renditions. I remember the very first one that you created.
So I won't give that all away, but just if you can tell us the name is Femme Flexer. So why did you create that? Talk about the initial version of it. Where did the idea come from? What does it look like? What was it intended for? And then we'll sort of talk about the evolution of it.
Wanda Cotie (08:04.096)
right?
Wanda Cotie (08:18.142)
Okay, so in my, I mean, I don't put my timeline totally, but I'm gonna say my late 30s, my early 40s. had my first problems with my pelvic floor apart from the huge fibroids and the embolizations and all of that stuff. But the pain started, then I started sciatica pain. So apart from feeling very full and then I had embolization, I was starting to come down, but I still had...
I had sciatica pain for three and a half years. I slept in a chair. I couldn't lie down flat. I couldn't go for an MRI. Like, it couldn't leave. My leg was just shaking. It hurt so much. And I was like, what is going on? So I saw a back specialist. And he sent me for injections in an...
small like a small scanner so I had to go into this and they'd inject cortisone and whatnot into my facet joints so they were sure that I needed surgery in my back so but at the same time no I still had my fibroids at the same time because I was asking why is this not connected so he's like no they don't really work with each other it doesn't really matter one's not and I'm like
I'm thinking this fibroid, this big, this. I had three of them, so I had a grapefruit, a lemon and a peach or something. Anyways, they gave me some fruit basket that was in my stomach. so...
Kim Vopni (09:49.102)
You
Wanda Cotie (09:52.446)
I just, I kind of stopped everything and I wanted to find a solution to not having a hysterectomy in my 30s. So I was, I was still in my 30s at this time. So I found a Shadalane magazine that was talking about uterine embolization and I picked up this magazine and I'm like, wow, this sounds like a good idea.
this sounds like a better idea, and they're writing a study. So I pick up the phone, there's a phone number beside Dr. Razuli from Montreal who'd written this thing, and I pick up the phone and I call, and he picks up the phone, hello? And I'm like, hello?
I like what are we doing here? Like I didn't I just thought I'd leave a message and say hey I'd be interested in more information if you're running the study so long story short he sent me to the Ottawa Hospital the general at the time You probably know who dr. Elaine Jolly is so we had dr. Elaine was my my doctor and dr. Gamache and they changed my life I was the youngest person in Canada to receive ambalization and
Kim Vopni (11:00.654)
Can you talk, sorry to interrupt you, can you talk a little bit about what what embolization is for those that aren't aware?
Wanda Cotie (11:05.492)
Alright, so I'll give you the layman's terms because I'm definitely not a doctor but basically they puncture into the main artery in your leg and they fish a catheter into the uterine cavity and then they inject, I'm going to say it's a type of glycol.
I'm not 100 % sure what it does, but it does connect around the tumors. it encapsulates the fibroid, cutting off the blood supply, and then the blood supply is shut, it's blood that's what feeds them. So shutting that off allowed that fibroid to die.
So they actually started to die and five weeks after the procedure, I woke up at the middle of the night and I felt like I was in labor.
because I was, and I gave birth to my fibroids. So I had to go to the hospital in the morning and have a DNC. So I just was like learning all about this part of my body and trying to piece it all together. I was like, that saved me from having to have a hysterectomy before my time. And I was very, very, for whatever reason, I was like, no, I have a mother that had a hysterectomy young. My mother had a lot of...
depression and mental health issues and my brain told me that that had something to do with it.
Wanda Cotie (12:40.298)
Yeah, I was very just adamant that I didn't want that to happen. And I'm so glad it didn't, because I held that off for another decade plus. And I eventually did have my uterus taken out. But I kept my ovaries even in my late 40s. It was very important to me to try and go into menopause with as much juice as I had available. So yeah, mean, ambilization. I don't hear a lot about it, but it must be happening, because it's a successful...
Kim Vopni (12:59.768)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (13:06.072)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Wanda Cotie (13:09.238)
procedure for a lot of people and it sounded like a good plan so I went after it and I'm really glad I did it. It changed the course of the next decade of my life after that.
Kim Vopni (13:10.914)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (13:22.358)
And what role did that play in the development of your product?
Wanda Cotie (13:26.73)
Well, I own Wicked Wondus, as I mentioned. So I had access to every pelvic floor Kegel trainer that you could ever find. And I tried them all. I was...
Kim Vopni (13:39.928)
Did you do that because you were intuitively aware that you should be paying attention to this group of muscles or were you advised to strengthen your pelvic floor?
Wanda Cotie (13:48.15)
Okay, so I'll actually come back to the root of something quite important. So during those years, my back specialist said, well, know, maybe you could try seeing this woman. She's a physiotherapist. She works with athletes. So I was always athletic.
And he's like, she might help you. So I said, you know what? I'm going to go see her. So off I went. And it was the only time I had to see her. She was like, what's going on here? Hmm. I said, well, they want me to have back surgery and a hysterectomy. I find that all like a lot. And I just would like some help. And she asked me she could examine me. And she put her finger in my vagina. And she's like, I mean, you know enough about this.
layman's terms, you have a knot in your vagina. Like it's like this and it goes out to your hip, goes down your leg. I'm like, okay, how do we relax that? So this was before we had a pelvic wand or anything like that. So I looked for all the products I could get and I did see something that I thought was smart. It was made out of a tube and it was flexible.
and was really awkward to work with but I liked the concept of it and I was like I'm just gonna make that out of silicone because then it's super safe for your body and it's one piece and I'm gonna do that. So I just I did it for myself first so I designed crude things for myself first and I found that that movement because I have a very specialized knowledge of silicone, good silicone, we make femflexer in Canada from the best silicone you could
Probably ever tried to access its medical grade. It's awesome product. So understanding the movement and the shores of consistency So I went into a softer shore so that we could actually create the resistance and then the release Because the release was missing everywhere. I turned there was nothing to relax the pelvic floor. It was all tight tight tight and
Wanda Cotie (16:04.202)
I mean, you're an expert at that. So you know what too much tight feels like. yeah, I just wanted something that was accessible and easy to use. And I started with my first one that was just a little funky, but it was, you know, was an idea to get started. And then just as COVID hit, I just wanted to bring it to market for everyone. I have three daughters. My oldest daughter is turning 40. My middle daughter has pelvic floor issues.
Like, my youngest daughter has issues. Like, everybody's dealing with this.
Frustrated pelvic floor. I'm gonna call it. It's tight. It's uncomfortable and we just need to educate people how it works and Start young in life so that you could actually move those tissues and become an expert in your own body So feeling that biofeedback and the connection that happens when you insert the fem flexor is really unique You could say that if you don't know where your pelvic floor is we just we just took any
Kim Vopni (17:02.083)
Mm-hmm.
Wanda Cotie (17:08.608)
consideration out of that and you can make that connection pretty quickly.
Kim Vopni (17:12.088)
Right. Do you, for those that are listening, you wouldn't be able to see this, but we will have this on YouTube. Do you have an early rendition of the FemFlexor there with you to show?
Wanda Cotie (17:23.166)
I do, if you want to hold on one second. Yeah, I'll take you with me. We'll walk through the story a little bit. here's my thumb flexor world.
Kim Vopni (17:25.549)
Yeah.
Okay. Okay.
Wanda Cotie (17:37.878)
It was pretty fugly, but it was designed with a physiotherapist so that it could first be used as a tool for physiotherapists to try and do what we call the blueberry method. So this is going to look really big because it is. But here's the first one. It was like a tool so we could hold it in our hands.
It's really soft, like, whoops, sorry. We treat it with cornstarch before we put them away. So very soft product. So the idea was for a clinician to be able to touch therapy. So see if they could feel that. So instead of putting your finger inside somebody's vagina and saying, could you squeeze this? This can be used for that.
For some people, they could insert this entire space. So to me, it was a little bit large, a little bit large. So I, yeah, I redid it just as, as.
Kim Vopni (18:42.252)
And that one like that one has a almost like a handle like it's it's long and it's so that there's an external piece that stays out that you hang on to.
Wanda Cotie (18:50.102)
So some people are afraid that the femflexor is going to disappear inside their body and So it is an opportunity. I kind of on purpose didn't put a tail on it. There's I'm really intentional about it because I really want people to get over the fear and So some people are going to feel some fear of putting this product in So I just suggest that they throw some dental floss around it the first time or the first few times so that they
could just recognize, but once it's inside and you don't have this handle hanging out, you can move with it. You can walk with it. You can shop with it. You can exercise with it, or you can do your pelvic floor muscle training with it. So.
Kim Vopni (19:33.91)
And so the newer rendition now is without the handle. Do you still sell both options?
Wanda Cotie (19:39.134)
I have both options. So for clinicians, some people want this tool just so they can hold it and be able to use that. So yes, we do have those in stock. But I don't openly try to sell that to people because it's more of a clinician tool. we do have intent to go down the medical field with resistance training at some point. It's just highly expensive. And yeah.
to bootstrap this, had to go through the market. So I figured we need a new Kegel device, way better than a heavy Kegel ball. So I just kept it really low level, and I'm like, let's redo the Kegel ball first. so then we can move onwards from there. Yeah.
Kim Vopni (20:24.258)
Yeah. Yeah. So the one where do I put it here? So again, those of you, this is now the newer rendition without the handle. It is a little bit smaller. What's the purpose of having the holes just out of curiosity.
Wanda Cotie (20:33.792)
Yep. So that's a little less resistance. So for somebody who's really weak, when they first put that in, that will allow them to actually make some motions. Because what we want you to do is create mobility in this area.
Kim Vopni (20:49.484)
Yeah, so once it's inside and when we're squeezing, so if that was rigid, it would be harder is what you're saying. Yep.
Wanda Cotie (20:52.032)
which that's right, it'll be harder to squeeze. The other thing I do with it is I put my estrogen cream in it personally or lube kit, any kind of lubes, anything that's so using the holes for my cream. I didn't really expect that when I first had it, but I'm like, it's really great for delivering that. So I can do my pelvic muscle training while I have that. And I put my estrogen cream on that and just move with it.
Kim Vopni (20:59.362)
Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep.
Kim Vopni (21:11.864)
Totally.
Kim Vopni (21:17.752)
There was an interesting study recently that looked at Kegels versus like a Kegel group versus a Kegel plus vaginal estrogen. And it was Estriol they used in this particular study and more effective on that side of in terms of vulva vaginal atrophy symptoms. but yeah, I do, I often do if I'm putting something in, I'll, I'll use that. So that's a great idea. And it's inserted. the narrow tip goes in and what you're saying. So it can be used for.
exercise so as we are we can feel the resistance it gives us some biofeedback we're making sure we can relax but you're also saying we could then wear it and it would be up a little bit higher but we we would you could keep it in so i think you know is could this act similar to a space occupying pessary for some people
Wanda Cotie (22:06.198)
Absolutely, so I just can't claim that it's a pessary right now. That's a medical claim. However, we will definitely go down that road because many wearers, many people, I made that wearable for the reason of being able to be portable and movable and you know, I walk with it. Some days I use it to ground myself. I'm just feeling really stressed and this part of our body, our somatic system, it's really, really...
Kim Vopni (22:09.004)
Yeah, yeah.
Kim Vopni (22:14.285)
Yeah.
Wanda Cotie (22:36.084)
an emotional part of our bodies. Sometimes I'm just feeling really weak and really kind of out of my power. And even when I utilize that product for a few hours, sometimes I use it for pleasure. I've worn it out on a date and be like, tell me about your product. And I'm like, well, I have it in right now.
Kim Vopni (22:37.87)
Mm-hmm.
Wanda Cotie (22:57.474)
That usually gets a little shift. Oh really? I can feel my blood supply right now and I'm gonna leave. No, thanks for dinner, bye. No, no, but no, am, yeah. yeah.
Kim Vopni (23:00.172)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (23:12.206)
Very cool. So what are some of your success stories? Tell me some feedback you've had from people that use it and what sort of conditions they might have been facing prior to them using it.
Wanda Cotie (23:21.526)
Cool. See these paintings right behind me? This is in my studio at my store. So one of the people that I work with, she teaches the art of female ejaculation. So she's been talking about the Squirt Project forever. And this is a painting done from female ejaculate.
Kim Vopni (23:24.398)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (23:45.635)
Wow.
Wanda Cotie (23:46.388)
So that might be a lot for some people, there's quite a few of them on the ball. They're quite beautiful. Christine, she is one of our influencers now because she has her own social media world.
Kim Vopni (23:50.978)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Wanda Cotie (24:00.278)
She's she's got two children. She wears it constantly as a passeree. She says I wear it every day. So for her, that's game changing. And she says it has helped her strengthen her pelvic floor while she's wearing it. So that's like a double whammy, which is great. I have people that use it for yoga. I love moving with it. I have people that use it for yoni massage and relaxing and meditation.
It's interesting how different people will use it for different reasons. They understand what it does. I have lot of behalf of over 3000 people who have utilized the product and I have lots of feedback that it's a great product. So we have some other sizes that I'm going to create as we go along. But yeah, for people who have used dilators and they don't enjoy dilators.
Kim Vopni (24:32.12)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (24:43.693)
Yeah.
Wanda Cotie (24:57.568)
If you've ever worn a dilator, not very fun, so very hard. So this gives people a soft approach that way. lots of success stories. My daughter uses it when she's feeling stress. I've had groups of new moms in here that utilize it after childbirth. that's, I mean, it's a typical time that people are like, wait a second. They didn't really think about their vagina until it's...
Kim Vopni (25:03.502)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Wanda Cotie (25:26.304)
kind of not working the way it was before. Yeah, it's different. Now it's different. So let's try and work on that. I mean, myself, I'm almost 60 now and I've had problems all my 30s. I had all my children in my late teens and early to mid 20s. So by the time I was 30,
Kim Vopni (25:28.12)
different.
Wanda Cotie (25:50.23)
I was finished having children and I'm not sure if my body knew that and was screaming for it, but I do believe a lot in the biology of our bodies as well and the things that we go through in our lives and their stages and relationships and all of that sort of stuff. I really wanted to help people who found...
Kim Vopni (26:04.696)
Mm-hmm.
Wanda Cotie (26:09.99)
self-pleasure, an uncomfortable place as well. So for sex, for people who are trying to keep the atrophy away. So you'll see on my website, you'll see a film, a short film that was made by a local actor. And she came into my store, true, true story. She's like, I'm trying to try and have sex again. It's uncomfortable. I'm having some atrophy. I need to stretch back out and kind of learn how to master my body again.
So that's Catherine Greco, she's awesome person. We have a nurse practitioner, Carla Bowling, and she has used it herself and that's been a big game changer and she works with people directly. She's a doula and has worked in the maternity wards over her lifetime. So we have a lot of people that are enjoying...
playing with their body a little bit. instead of being so clinical, just like it's soft, it's gentle. Use it with a vibrator. Use it to go walking. Use it this way because some people have pain. So you might just be able to use it this way. Just a little bit of feedback. So I feel very certain that everybody with a vagina can...
Kim Vopni (27:02.786)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (27:07.138)
Yep.
Wanda Cotie (27:25.43)
can benefit from some blood flow and movement. And then of course combined with proper exercise, because my whole recovery in this was understanding my pelvic floor, understanding how to treat that. I was always an athlete, so I was strong.
Kim Vopni (27:27.82)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Yep.
Wanda Cotie (27:44.416)
but I had problems with my core. It wasn't right. This wasn't balanced. This wasn't working. So very much along your course of learning how to move and how to breathe and how to, you know, it's a life journey, right? So trying to share that with other people, including my daughters. Like I just didn't want them to live with the same nonsense.
Kim Vopni (27:53.08)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (27:58.66)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (28:06.966)
Yeah, I love that. I love that you now have one working with you. What I have appreciated from the get go is similar to what you've been talking about is that it's soft. much so many products for pelvic floor are hard, hard plastic, hard silicone. I remember I don't think I have it here to show, but it's one of the one of the kind of the original. think it was even called the Kegel master. It was this white, hard plastic with a spring.
Wanda Cotie (28:10.016)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (28:36.448)
It was barbaric. was just like, anyway.
Wanda Cotie (28:39.734)
They're all barbaric to me. Like they're ball bearings. It's a ball bearing dipped in some really cheap crappy silica. Like don't do that. Don't put that in your body.
Kim Vopni (28:42.38)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (28:48.45)
Yeah, yeah. So this is so like I love appreciate that the softness to for feedback, the softness to be inserted, but also the softness to move like as we are moving rather than having something when I look at typical most typical pessaries, while they are absolutely play a role in in in support. And I think that they're a great option. I just think that they're hard most of them. And I think that you know, this the element of
movement that you provide in your product. really, really love.
Wanda Cotie (29:20.072)
It's so important because without that movement, like you can't even, if you want to have an orgasm, you need to release, right? It's breath. It's our breath. We need to like be able to work with our breath and heal that feedback. And so to me, based on every product I can get, and I'm going to be bold saying this, everything is either a sex toy that's designed to, like you're going to watch.
Kim Vopni (29:26.296)
Yes, yeah.
Kim Vopni (29:30.979)
Right.
Wanda Cotie (29:47.314)
an app to see how, you know, like just to me, like, look, just, just put that all away and like, be with yourself. You're going to know when you're stronger, you're going to be stronger. It's like, you know, I don't need a meter to tell me that things are functioning better.
Kim Vopni (29:49.795)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (29:55.042)
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kim Vopni (30:02.647)
Right. When you said earlier the term yoni massage, again, for people who aren't familiar with the term yoni, but also what the practice of yoni massage is, can you elaborate on that please?
Wanda Cotie (30:14.11)
Yeah, for sure. So somatic workers, some sex therapists, some people approach trauma and fear in remapping the experience of something being inside of you or something touching you. automatically, if somebody walked up to you and...
punched you in the face. The first time you'd be like, man, what are you doing? But if that happened again and again, then your body just starts getting ready for it. sorry, my menopause brain just went off. But in the approach that I took there was simply to take the fear, replace it with something gentle and soft, malleable, fun. You could use it really any way, there's not...
You're not going to hurt yourself with it. you have exceptional vaginismus, then you're not going to put it all the way into your body. It's just not going to happen. So I tried to approach it from, where's your question? Sorry Kim, I just lost it.
Kim Vopni (31:27.213)
That's okay, you mentioned the term yoni massage. So the term yoni and also the act of yoni massage.
Wanda Cotie (31:30.55)
Okay, great.
Wanda Cotie (31:35.382)
So, yoni is another word for our vagina and massage is what it is. in allowing that part of our body to accept movement and create...
the connection. So if you look at tantric breathing or you look at somatic breathing, all of our system here is connected. And so the pelvic floor, as you know, it's going to go through your jaw. It's going to throw your body and your somatic system all the way down. So when we get into the root chakras and we start talking about opening those chakras, that's where you're talking about Yoni massage. And it's the energy work that we're going to do in that space and releasing negative energy and allowing positive energy into that space. It's a,
It's it's quite interesting and there's lots of there's lots of information online if somebody is interested in trying that We have a few practitioners that do it with the fam flexor and that's a it's a very successful Tool for them to have people who have experienced trauma in their body accept something into their body. It's not somebody else's body part and it's not a phallic shaped dildo right, right
Kim Vopni (32:48.749)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (32:53.131)
Right. Yep. Yep. So before we wrap up the next evolution is you mentioned different sizes to accommodate different different anatomy, that type of thing. What else do you have? Are there other products that you're dreaming up or what's next for you?
Wanda Cotie (33:10.602)
Definitely a new set of dilators, a little firmer silicone. I want to work with people who've had surgeries, that's, whether that's transitional surgery or whether that's surgery. And after surgery, you need to dilate in order to get those tissues stretched back out.
I dream of having these made so that those people could wear them. You have to sit with a dilator in your body and it sticks out and it's hard and it's uncomfortable. So I do have a world where I want to create that set of dilators, excuse me. I want to set that, I want to create a new set of dilators for that group of people. And then of course I want to play with the pessary designs because I...
Kim Vopni (33:56.557)
Mm-hmm.
Wanda Cotie (34:03.668)
I really think that the patent, so I own a patent on resistance training in Canada and the US. And so we can really dive down designs. yeah, I'm looking forward to working with a group of people on that as we go. So I'm just not a medical person, I understand, but I am working with somebody who has a lot of experience in the medical field. Cindy McCullough, she worked with gene technology, genotech.
Kim Vopni (34:17.549)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Wanda Cotie (34:31.894)
and she was with them for I think 15 or 16 years bringing their product to commercialization and she's got a lot of experience in that space. So I'll let her navigate that and I'll just keep making products. So we have secured a new manufacturer who makes the Diva comps in Canada so we're really excited to scale up with that and yeah we're going to Nashville next month.
Kim Vopni (34:41.154)
Yeah.
Wanda Cotie (34:59.442)
at the Stimulate the Show conference. So we are coming out as an emerging brand. So we're really hoping to create an opportunity for people to approach their pelvic floor, aka their Kegels. I hate that word, but anyway, it's what everybody knows. And yeah, I really look forward to challenging the sex toy industry that's full of...
Kim Vopni (35:05.719)
Amazing.
Kim Vopni (35:25.708)
Mm-hmm.
Wanda Cotie (35:27.572)
regurgitated nonsense. And so I really wanted to bring something thoughtful and something that works to the table. So yeah, we're working on some other designs and of course Made in Canada products to me are really important. So, dilators, we can make stuff out of, I mean, we can make hard plastic, but I really like to see something better given to people.
Kim Vopni (35:34.549)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (35:43.371)
Yep.
Kim Vopni (35:50.861)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Wanda Cotie (35:54.548)
You know, they might as well just get a vegetable. You know, like in all fairness, I'm just like, you know what, here, this is healthier for you than this hard plastic thing. Where's the carrot? I don't know. But you know, like I'm being facetious a little bit, but you know, the stuff that they sell, I won't put it in my body. I don't sell it the store. I'm very picky about what we sell in the shop because everybody knows that you can go to Amazon and buy something really cheap, but they don't know what's in it.
Kim Vopni (36:05.537)
Yeah, no.
Kim Vopni (36:12.107)
Yeah. Yeah.
Kim Vopni (36:17.921)
Yep, yep.
Wanda Cotie (36:24.15)
So if you go to the dollar store and you buy a little pair of earrings for two bucks and we find out there's cadmium in them, it's like, so you know, you can't make something look the same and it is the same. A wee vibe is a wee vibe. That company's gonna watch their product and make sure comes out right. So we only work with people with reputations and people that really care about their bodies. I love Dame, I love the women in this industry. So I work with a lot of women in this business and I...
Kim Vopni (36:31.435)
Yeah. Yeah.
Kim Vopni (36:49.761)
Yeah.
Wanda Cotie (36:54.09)
Yeah, our Soutil lubricant, that's one of our partners in crime. And I absolutely love her, Melta, she's from BC, so I'm sure you know her. Yeah, just giving proper products to people with thought and care in mind. Yeah.
Kim Vopni (36:54.764)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (37:09.889)
Yeah. Well, I love that. I love that messaging. I do love what you've created. I have used it myself. It's very comfortable. It's a completely different experience to other things that, like the harder things that you would put in. So thank you for your work and all you're doing and all that you will do. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and knowledge over the years within your store, but also here in this call. Where can people, you've mentioned your store.
Wanda Cotie (37:18.678)
Right.
Kim Vopni (37:37.217)
Where else can people find you and learn more about the FemFlexer?
Wanda Cotie (37:40.672)
Definitely on our website, www.femflexor.com. E, flexor.com. And we're just getting ready to go to markets, so a lot of our education is gonna start jumping on there. I really didn't want to try and sell too much, because I couldn't produce more than I could at that time. So yeah, so we're excited to, yeah, we're gonna go for it. I'm like.
Kim Vopni (37:45.559)
And that's F-E-M-M-E-F-Flexor, yep.
Kim Vopni (38:05.985)
You're getting ready to scale. That's awesome.
Wanda Cotie (38:09.78)
I put everything I have on the line for this. It's just, yeah, yeah, we're gonna do it. Do it.
Kim Vopni (38:15.565)
You're gonna do it. Well, I'm excited to watch your explosion.
Wanda Cotie (38:21.142)
And I'm really excited to share your course because it's all part of it, right? You can't do one without the other. So it's really dependent on understanding and putting it all together. your work is amazing. You've been a pioneer in this industry. I think we share that together and challenge the social norms and so on and so forth. So keep up the great work, Kim, because you are a...
Kim Vopni (38:28.215)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (38:43.553)
Yeah.
Wanda Cotie (38:50.656)
you're a force to be reckoned with too. Thank you for your time.
Kim Vopni (38:52.363)
Yeah, likewise. Thank you so much, Wanda.
