My Start-Up Story: Brenda Ward on founding the Natural Fertility Hub
Soon to showcase at the Future Fertility Show at the RDS, IMAGE Business Club Member Brenda Ward launched her second business to help women on their fertility journey.
After 15 years working in medical sales in the pharmaceutical industry, Brenda Ward found herself craving change. Increasingly disillusioned with Western medicine, she became more and more interested in the holistic approach and after qualifying as an acupuncturist and some time working in a hospital in China, she returned to Ireland to set up her own clinic in Maynooth.
It’s through that first business that the idea for her second was born. Shocked by how often women’s health woes—fertility concerns, in particular—were brushed off, Brenda wanted to use her expertise to help. She went back to study under Dr Trevor Wing, a UK Gynaecologist, and shortly after, she set up The Fertility Hub, an online platform with a dedicated team of healthcare specialists working to help individuals optimise their natural reproductive potential.
From the importance of trusting your intuition to how she achieves balance in her life, here she tells her Start-Up Story.
Passion project turned business
The Natural Fertility Hub is very much a passion project for me. Obviously, a lot of entrepreneurs are passionate, but this is part of a female health movement. Unfortunately in my fertility acupuncture clinic I’ve heard of the gaslighting experienced by women all too often, and of the many ways they just hadn’t been listened to. Women are experts on their own bodies, but people just don’t listen to them. They have been thrown around, they have been told to get blood at the wrong time during their cycle, they’ve been told it’s their eggs, it’s their age… that just takes the power away from women. I was in shock at what I was hearing from clients. It’s a very acceptable expectation that you go to your GP and they will know what to do with fertility but they’re over all different aspects of health and female health is really a speciality of its own. We need education as well, we can’t expect the GP to be able to help you in your fertility journey. So The National Fertility Hub is about empowering female health and helping women to literally road map their journey.
It’s very confusing and noisy in the fertility world. I want to help quieten things down, and really give people that time to get an individualised assessment. We want to get clients to where they need to be at the quickest time possible because if there’s one thing that people don’t have on their fertility journey, it’s time. The aim and mission of the Natural Fertility Hub is to optimise fertility naturally. We offer fertility acupuncture, we have nutritionists and counsellors if needed – and that will expand. I run the hub alongside diagnostic experts. There are tests that can be done with no referral through the hub, and then, obviously, we have access to medics where required too. You need more than one expert and I absolutely can’t do everything. I will do my job to the best I can but it’s great to have a team.
A lot of the time, GPs are tied into protocols – if you’re under 35, you’re told to wait for 12 months, if you’re over 35, you’re told to wait for six months before panicking. You’re told to go home and stop stressing; things that can be quite condescending to women who know that something’s wrong. As I said before, time is precious. So yes, I agree you should absolutely wait those few months but there are things you can be doing in the meantime to optimise your health. You don’t run a marathon without training! These are things we should be doing anyway.
You can’t be too hard on yourself because mistakes will be made and they're probably the steepest learning path.
Teamwork makes the dream work
This is all self-funded. I have a business consultant helping me out. I’m also still running my acupuncture clinic so you know, I’m in one business and working on another. My Local Enterprise Office has helped with the website side of things, and we’re talking to them about further grants too. I did the Start Your Own Business course. ACORNS has also been brilliant for me. They basically help businesses being set up in rural Ireland, businesses outside of Dublin, Galway, and Cork. They’re female-led. You get a mentor, and we meet once monthly for six months. That really spurred me on. Women helping women – the advice and support of a team behind you is just so lovely to have. It also holds you accountable which is important for me and my personality.
I think self-doubt is inevitable on the journey but whenever that kicks in, it’s like the universe sends something really positive or somebody turns around and goes, ‘Oh my god, this is what I’ve been looking for’, or, ‘Oh my god, I went through rounds of IVF and if I had known something like this was available, it would’ve meant the world to me.’ That encourages me to just keep ploughing on. It’s the patients, the women, who spur me on. They’ve picked me up a few times and kept me going.
This is the second business I’ve started. Sometimes you’re in so deep that you just have to keep swimming and you get used to that uncertainty. You acknowledge it, and then you work with it. I trust my intuition and give myself time to think, ‘Is this the right path to take?’. Getting the hub together was probably one of the hardest things I’ve done but I suppose, because this is the second time around, I know and I’m ready for the amount of times you have to tweak things. If you’re looking for perfection, you’ll never get going and you certainly won’t keep going. Sometimes I go, will this work? Will it not? But you can’t be too hard on yourself because mistakes will be made and they’re probably the steepest learning path. Starting off, it is such a tough road, but it really just makes you stronger. It also makes you a promoter of other small businesses. You try and support them whenever you can because you know what they’ve gone through behind the scenes.
Saving graces
I wouldn’t say I had ambition in my bones from day one. I suppose having three little daughters has really struck a chord with me as to how I want them treated in the medical world. Women have this amazing intuition, and our bodies are absolutely phenomenal, so much so that medicine has left them behind and left them out of research for so long because we’re considered too complex. But I definitely think there’s a movement happening out there, and I want to be part of it because I want my daughters to have a better medical system available to them when they grow up.
Right now, I know I have what I need. I’m doing further study and everything’s going to progress. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for fertility problems, but specialists are coming up through the pipeline, be they in Ireland or the UK. I want to know that I have the absolute best team for my clients, and that requires speciality. We’re an online platform, because what I was seeing was I was too localised in my clinic. I have phlebotomists and sonographers dotted around the country. There are nutritionists and counsellors online. We offer fertility acupuncture and some gut health specialities. Patients won’t need all of these services – that first assessment is just to really see what they need and what could help them improve.
My acupuncture clinic is in Maynooth. I brought someone in one day a week which gives me a little bit more time to work on the hub. If I wasn’t so passionate about it, I’d question if I was working on it too much but it’s really important. That said, there’s no point in me trying to help people if I’m not taking my own advice. Exercise is huge for me, time with the kids. My books are probably female health books, my podcasts are female health podcasts, but that really spurs me on. Finding a good work/life balance will always be a challenge. It always has to be worked at. You don’t just get sick, you know. Your body probably started struggling 20 years before you actually got sick. You’re going to have good and bad months but it is a learning process.
The importance of passion
I love the flexibility. I love the freedom and I guess there’s no one micromanaging. It’s exciting. Every day is a new day, it’s never boring. New opportunities always come your way but again, it’s 100% your choice; you can pick and choose. There are challenges too, of course. You’re never fully off, for one. There’s a lot of responsibility involved. We can be hard on ourselves. There will always be one or two clients who play on your mind. Could I have done more for them? You could let the negatives play over in your mind but it’s important to celebrate your successes. I’d love someone to take away the accounting and the marketing. Your strengths are in certain places, your weaknesses are in others. But being an entrepreneur, you’re expected to have it all, you know. That’s when doubt starts creeping in so I would advise anyone thinking of starting their own business to outsource what you can. You’ve got to trust people but also use your intuition.
You have to be extremely passionate about what you do because passion is what will get you over the bad days. Definitely socialise with other entrepreneurs too. That doesn’t mean you have to ditch your friends, but when you’re starting out on your own, you absolutely need to surround yourself with other entrepreneurs because that’s what will pick you up. They’re going through the same issues… a problem shared is a problem halved! Also, look for what’s available to help you. Get yourself a mentor and join the likes of the IMAGE Business Club or ACORNS is fabulous if you’re based outside the Pale. You always come away with a nugget of information, and it could be the making of your business.
The Future Fertility Show runs at the RDS March 1 and 2. Brenda Ward will be on the main stage on an endometriosis panel. She will also be running her own workshop about empowering people on their fertility journey. You can find out more details here.
