638 Cindy Barshop:

Yes, I wish we had the tape of how that meeting went for Cindy Barshop as she presented her company V-Spot Sexual Health Spa to a room full of male investors. It’s challenging enough for women founders to secure venture capital for any business, no matter it’s billion-dollar potential, let alone a company that helps women combat everything from vaginal dryness, menstruation, and menopause to urinary leakage and how to have better orgasms.

MELINDA

Welcome to Wings of Inspired Business. I’m Melinda Wittstock, 5-time serial entrepreneur and founder-CEO of the social podcast app Podopolo, and whether you’ve been on this journey with us for a long time, or if you’re new to Wings, we focus on helping you soar to new heights as we share the inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, epiphanies, and practical advice from successful female founders … so you have everything you need at your fingertips to build the business and life of your dreams.

Today we meet an inspiring entrepreneur who is all about sexual health and empowering women to speak more openly on a topic that often stays in the hush-hush shadows. Not today.

Cindy Barshop is the CEO & Founder of VSPOT Sexual Health Spa, a place where people can correct issues that interfere with the quality of their sexual satisfaction and educating about sexual health & wellness.

Cindy will be here in just a moment and first…

Have you downloaded Podopolo yet? If you’re listening to this podcast right now then I know you love podcasts as much as me – and that’s why it’s time to explore the app that makes listening social and curates the ideal podcasts for you from our library of more than 4 million. Find out what everyone is talking about – join us on Podopolo today – free to download in either app store.

Cindy Barshop has a history of talking about the things no one else will. Her fearless attitude is what made her a standout on the Bravo’s hit show, Real Housewives of New York, and it’s what made her first entrepreneurial endeavor, Completely Bare, so successful.

Back then Cindy revolutionized the way women thought and talked about personal grooming. Now with VSPOT, she’s doing the same for women’s sexual satisfaction and health.

Today we talk about the often unspoken – and how Cindy’s company is leveraging groundbreaking technology and more to address women’s sexual health issues – as well as her entrepreneurial journey and what it was like being a reality TV star.

So let’s put on our wings with the inspiring Cindy Barshop.

Melinda Wittstock:

Cindy, welcome to Wings.

Cindy Barshop:

Well, thank you for having me.

Melinda Wittstock:

I’m excited to talk to you. I’m curious, first, what led you to found VSPOT?

Cindy Barshop:

Women’s sexual health, intimate health, the ability to enjoy pleasure is so overlooked. Besides the whole overall women’s health, women’s sexual health, is just not addressed at all. Women’s suffer in silence with different issues that don’t allow them intimacy, and embarrassing issues like the normal cycles of a woman’s life. You have menstruation, you have pain, you have pre-baby, you have to get ready, postpartum, perimenopause, menopause. So we really have all the different treatments to address the different life cycles that women go through, and the changes their body goes through with that.

Melinda Wittstock:

So tell me about the business and how the business works?

Cindy Barshop:

Yeah, so and I missed my whole inspiration. My whole inspiration is that I had twins, and I had the incontinence, which is one in four women have urinary leakage. So that was my inspiration, my own problem, so that’s kind of how it started is me searching for a solution for something that I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to have surgery or anything like that, and it’s really a sad thing that women go through it, and it’s really not addressed the proper way.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly, it’s a huge market, it’s like half the population of the world. Again, this problem, I think so many great entrepreneurs, particularly women entrepreneurs, see a problem. They look around, nobody’s doing it, it’s like, “Okay, I guess it has to be me.”

Cindy Barshop:

Exactly, that’s what it is. There are such simple solutions to inability to orgasm, the vaginal dryness. The vaginal dryness, it’s not putting on an oil, there’s other treatment options and products that actually correct and prevent these things from happening.

Melinda Wittstock:

So tell me about the business and what you offer? So is it a whole range of products? Because there’s this whole spa element to it, so take us all through that?

Cindy Barshop:

So there’s two different parts to the VSPOT, there’s the medical side, where we have gynecologists and physician assistants who are specialized in women’s sexual health, and then the spa side. On the medical side, we have all different types of lasers, radio frequencies, we actually have every single technology to correct the normal changes. So whether it be vaginal looseness, we could do the tightening for the urinary leakage, inability to orgasm, difficulty orgasming, painful sex.

So women don’t realize that all these issues that we face, there are solutions, and there’s non-invasive, no downtime, no surgery for these issues that we have. So for instance, somebody will come in, we’ll go through a whole medical history. Let’s just use an average person, if you’re 40 years old, you had a baby, you speak with the doctor, you tell them what you’re feeling. Most of the times, the ability to climax has gone down, or there’s dryness, or you feel looseness. So we take [inaudible 00:03:54] parts and we put together a treatment plan that effectively corrects these things, and you don’t have to go get surgery. You don’t have to Kegel the rest of your life, you could sit on a chair that does [crosstalk 00:04:07].

Melinda Wittstock:

I remember all those Kegels in preparation for giving birth, doing those kind of religiously.

Cindy Barshop:

Right, so when you go to the doctor beforehand, your gynecologist, he’d say, “Kegel so it’s easy.” What are you doing? You’re strengthening the pelvic floor muscles. Afterwards, they say, “You’re peeing in your pants? Kegel,” okay [crosstalk 00:04:26]-

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, that seems to be the only solution or at least the only one that I was aware of.

Cindy Barshop:

Or surgery, but there’s not now. So for instance, you could come into my place and sit on a chair that’s FDA approved for urinary leakage, you need six sessions. You sit on the chair, and fully dressed, and it effectively does… What is it? 11,000 Kegels in 28 minutes for you, which is equal [crosstalk 00:04:50] hours of Kegeling.

Melinda Wittstock:

I love that, that’s very efficient.

Cindy Barshop:

Considering it would take one full month to equal those six 28-minute sessions. [crosstalk 00:05:02]. Women go in, they have painful sex, the reason why they’re having painful sex is your vaginal canal, as we age, it’s like our skin, it gets thinner and drier. All have to use is a laser, and I know it sounds crazy, no pain, five minutes, three sessions, and increases lubrication. So there’s just such… It’s just never been touched or nobody’s looked at it. So with all these different types of technologies, I looked at this also… So we have a location here in New York, which is two floors, we also have one in Philadelphia. But I looked at this and I said, “This is absolutely unheard of, there’s such simple solutions.” So here’s what I did, I just am launching right now a product line that not only corrects but helps prevent these things. So for instance, black and white, 80% of women have difficulty orgasming. If you ever asked a woman, “Do you ever fake it?” There’s no way, I’d bet my life on it, they didn’t say yes.

Cindy Barshop:

So here’s the thing, so men had Viagra 15 years ago, or 20 years ago, it brings blood flow to the clitoris. What a woman have? There was something three years ago, it took 10 years later, to come out with Addyi, But Addyi doesn’t bring blood flow to the clitoris, it’s a form of an antidepressant.

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh my goodness.

Cindy Barshop:

That’s what we have, that’s what we have, but we have [crosstalk 00:06:26]-

Melinda Wittstock:

An antidepressant.

Cindy Barshop:

So we just came out with a product… No, seriously, I have people literally buying these up. Actually, you put it on, and it actually increases blood flow to the clitoris 78%. Used every day for two weeks, you actually naturally increase your vascularity, so you’re able to orgasm. It’s just so simple, I’m no scientist here, I just gave everybody the formula, go make them, because it works. So the other thing is that it’s all fluff products out there, like put oil on, put this on. The products and the things that we do is we just want to be a credible site for education and information on options for women’s intimate health and pleasure. That’s really it.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, it’s important. So obviously, you have this massive market, so you have these two locations. Are you going to expand the number of locations or are you going to grow more as a product company?

Cindy Barshop:

So when COVID hit, I took a look back and I said, “Oh my God,” because I had people calling that they wanted to come in and there was a backlog. So I said there has to be some solutions for everybody, and that’s when I turned my focus on the products. So it’s going to be about another year and a half that’ll be on… A year, and then I’m going to open up more locations. But here’s another example, we have a product… What happens when you get older and you go to the doctor, they say, “Use estrogen cream,” correct?

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, so it was all the hormonal stuff like bioidenticals and all of that, so that’s my jam. I got all that going on.

Cindy Barshop:

You do? Well, that’s bioidentical… That’s the hormones. But a lot of times before they go to the hormones, because there’s painful sex by the introitus, they say, “Here’s some estrogen cream that they make for you.” Well, I have a product, a suppository, that outperforms estrogen cream, that corrects the tissue. I mean, every doctor recommends estrogen cream or the hormone replacement, which is a little different, because it’s not… The hormones, they’re ingestible.

Melinda Wittstock:

So how many products do you have now that are available, and how are they sold, how do people get these?

Cindy Barshop:

So we’re really in pre-launch right now, they can buy it on the internet. We are changing some of the bottling, and things like that. We have the Oh, which is for your orgasm, we have Good Sex, which is the suppository that increases lubrication and the dryness. Then we also have these pads that actually lighten the bikini line where people get hyperpigmentation, so those are the three that they can actually get right now. We’re not really advertising or anything like that, because there’s little bottlings that we’re changing. But the products themselves and the efficacy, all clinically proven, double blind placebo studies, and we’re the only product out there. We’re the only sexual health company that is really kind of doing the clinicals to make sure that these products are preventative, corrective, and result oriented.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s fantastic, so how have you gotten it funded? I’m dying to ask you what it’s like sitting in a room raising capital with a bunch of dudes talking about this?

Cindy Barshop:

Yeah, so originally I just funded it myself, but right now we are looking for funding. Right now, if somebody is actually looking, there are these VCs that are focused on females founders, so that has come up a lot. So I don’t know exactly how many, but there’s some that have been created just for female founders. So that’s great, and that helps a bit kind of pitching women’s intimacy. So I would go after those first, but there’s a very small amount, it’s a very small amount. So here tomorrow, I am presenting my almost [inaudible 00:10:29] the last level of presenting for our women’s sexual health products.

The last result is I have a Zoom with six men, that are way above the concept of understanding women’s sexual health. They’re CEOs of these public traded companies, and all these different things. The first time I’m meeting them they’re making their final decision is on Monday, and I’m like, “Wow, how am I going to do this in a 20 minute meeting, explain to them what it’s like to fake an orgasm, inability to have [crosstalk 00:11:04], or pee in your pants? Why it’s [inaudible 00:11:08], and how it affects you emotionally, and physically in your everyday life. So it’s going to be a challenge, I mean, we should just tape it, I should just tape it just for this.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, well, it’s just the size of the market, and the inherent scalability, if you productize this seems quite obvious. Yet, it’s kind of like, “How do you talk about this?” Is this… Have you done any of these meetings before with VCs or is this your first one?

Cindy Barshop:

I’ve done them before with VCs, but it’s usually through [inaudible 00:11:52] introductions where I was able… The guy was telling the other guy about it, and I usually… My go-to is like, “Are you married? Can I speak to your wife?” That’s kind of [crosstalk 00:12:04] my go-to. Let me talk to your wife after this, and I’ll tell you how I can help them, and then it works.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, that seems like a good strategy. So to get where you need to be, how much money do you think you need to raise?

Cindy Barshop:

I don’t want to say exactly just because I have all these meetings right now, probably around 1.5 to three. That’s another thing, it doesn’t make a difference, if your [inaudible 00:12:39] to look to raise money, look at what their frame is. So you go to a VC, you go onto their website, you take a look at it, they have specs of what types of companies they invest in. So for instance, let’s say they say consumer goods, or just only technology, or this and that, and you fit into the category that’s good. But then they also have how much they usually spend on the first deal, so it could be 500, it could be a million, it could be 3 million. But if you’re not in their range and they ask you… I don’t know if you’re familiar with this?

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, I am, because I’m raising and I’ve raised before.

Cindy Barshop:

I think that’s something that most entrepreneurs don’t know, look up at what their sweet spot is and then use that, you could always say no.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly, I’m just trying to think of how many actually specifically say women’s sexual health, and so the issue with-

Cindy Barshop:

There is [inaudible 00:13:33] say women’s sexual health, you look at consumer goods, [crosstalk 00:13:36]-

Melinda Wittstock:

We’re good. It’s exactly. But I suppose though, with the female-led funds, I mean, so Female Founders Fund just replenished, they just got a new fund. But it’s still less money, the female run VCs have smaller funds, and so the [crosstalk 00:13:56] are smaller.

Cindy Barshop:

Everything is smaller, everything’s… I mean, being over 50, when I was younger, I never realized the inequalities that really exist with women, and I was very naive to it. But as you get older, and I worked for IBM, I worked for all the corporations, there’s the inequalities in their health and everyday life. I think that’s why this is all going to change in the next 10 years, because women are being recognized as the entrepreneurs, and slowly… We’re at the very beginning.

Melinda Wittstock:

It feels like that, but it feels like something is shifting in a way. God knows I’ve interviewed more than 600 women on this podcast, all kinds of different companies. I’m finding that the profile of the female entrepreneur is different than the kind of stereotype of what VCs tend to look at when they’re looking at their pattern recognition. They’re looking for dudes in their early twenties who are technologists, inventing something in their garage, surviving on ramen, that kind of thing. Whereas women tend to come into entrepreneurship a little bit later in life, in their forties and fifties, with deep domain expertise, business expertise, knowledge of the industry that they’re disrupting

Cindy Barshop:

[inaudible 00:15:30] from Google, or…

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, and they’re older, and they know their stuff, it’s very, very different. So we don’t necessarily fit the VC model, because what they want to do is put all their business kind of controls around someone who knows nothing about business. Whereas we come into it knowing a lot about business, knowing a lot about our industry, and it doesn’t quite connect. So it’s almost like the whole VC model is broken for women, and needs to be completely rethought. I’ve arrived at that conclusion as well, because it’s also an age… I don’t know, but I wonder if there’s an element of age discrimination as well, because they think they want to invest in a 20 something. Because they’re seeing it through their own lens of they had energy in their twenties and thirties. Whereas women in their fifties are kind of unstoppable, we get super energized, it’s different.

Cindy Barshop:

I understand, because now we’re so focused on the technology part of it, with the Shopifys and the Instagrams, and the whole thing, and understand the backend architecture of getting data, but I understand how they looked at it though. I, as a woman, older, I hire younger people, I do. I don’t do it based on there, I… Based on the knowledge, but they have certain knowledge, but that’s my point. Women who have done it, are business minded, they know what… I’m not going to sit there and understand the Google analytics hypotheses to kind of get more hits. I’m not going to understand that, but we’re smart enough to know what’s to surround ourselves and where we lack in the knowledge, and that’s really a leader of a company.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly.

Cindy Barshop:

[crosstalk 00:17:20] that, the people around you are brilliant, and the people around me are brilliant.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, likewise, I mean, I think of how I’ve built my team with Podopolo. So am I writing code? No, but I understand it.

Cindy Barshop:

But you know what you need from the code, you know what you [inaudible 00:17:39] at the end of the… This is the end result I need.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly, it’s the vision and the results. So in my case, recently we had this team retreat, and I’m looking around and my team, they’re in their twenties and thirties, and I’m in my fifties. So I’m [crosstalk 00:17:55] right.

Cindy Barshop:

Exactly, [crosstalk 00:17:59] calling them my children. It’s like, “Wait a minute, maybe this is not politically correct.” I’m like, “All right, kids, come on, you can do it.” But they’re talented.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s funny.

Cindy Barshop:

They’re talented, they’re smart, and they just absorb everything and get the end result. Not all kids, I mean, that’s my team and I’m sure that’s your team.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, absolutely, so as a CEO, you’re really setting the vision for the company, and the team culture, and defining the results. You’re as good as your team, so it really does become about that. I think that’s also a thing that VCs really look for as well is how your team’s working, and the traction, and the results you’re driving. What are some of the biggest challenges you had when you first launched? Tell me about that? So you have the idea, and what some of the first things you had to go do, and what were some of the challenges?

Cindy Barshop:

So I went into this not realizing how difficult it was going to be. My background is I had a chain of a spas called Completely Bare, where they basically changed the level of grooming. They were laser hair removal spas, and at that point we kind of changed the whole taboo of it’s okay to be completely bare, it’s okay to take care of yourself down there. It’s empowering to feel good, and clean, and groomed. So I thought I was going to come into this and talk about my incontinence, and just like before, when I talked about waxing, I was going to speak to every magazine, get on every news thing, there’s this new, unbelievable technology. Because I knew everybody, I’ve been on everything already, and I was like, “They’re just going to go wild for it.” Well, everybody was like, “We can’t talk about urinary leakage and sex on TV, we can’t do an article on this.” I was dumbfounded.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right, because you’d think, okay, so get your spot on Good Morning America, or [inaudible 00:20:11], or whatever, and the producers are like, “I don’t know if this is [crosstalk 00:20:16].”

Cindy Barshop:

No, I mean, [crosstalk 00:20:16] something, something, I mean, anything. [inaudible 00:20:22], I mean, I knew everybody. I was in the field for 20 years, I knew every single editor. I was the authority hair-removal, women’s health, the whole thing. They just came to me, I gave them the answer, they didn’t have to double-check it, because that’s what I did. So I thought I was going to get this warm welcoming, and they couldn’t do it. It was The Times couldn’t do it, it went up to the top, slowly the big magazines, whether it be Harper’s, or something started doing it. But it’s nothing, it’s starting now. Now, I have to tell you, it’s starting to get momentum, that people are a little bit more open to talk about the urinary leakage, and the orgasms. But not in the news, [crosstalk 00:21:08] can’t turn and turn on Good Morning America [crosstalk 00:21:10]-

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, podcasts are a great place, so you’re on here. This is, this podcast reaches many, many people.

Cindy Barshop:

[crosstalk 00:21:17] I think podcasts are creating places for people to get some real information, not just rely on the news anymore, and really understand what’s going on in different sectors. So yes, this is very [crosstalk 00:21:27].

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, it is, and I think, I mean, the other challenge though too. I know other people kind of in this space who’ve had a terrible time trying to do things on YouTube, or Facebook, and Facebook advertising, that kind of thing, and just getting censored.

Cindy Barshop:

I am so censored, I’ve had to close three accounts, and after… My ads are very, very rarely shown, they’re only shown to a certain type of person. My ads are not about sex, it’s about women’s empowerment. It’s not like I show a vagina, or a vulva, but anything… Because we were tagged as a sexual site, anything that we post, whether it be a cleavage, not the word sex in it, we get taken down. So we had to rebuild our whole network again, and change all the words, and take off orgasm, but you can say penis more, I mean-

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, but this is the weird thing is that there’s just… Yeah, as soon as it’s women talking about it, it’s somehow porn or… It’s odd-

Cindy Barshop:

Exactly.

Melinda Wittstock:

… how all the algorithms work, because I think that would be the biggest challenge for you is just all the marketing, my goodness. I mean, I just sort of assumed that that would be hard, how do you really get the word out?

Cindy Barshop:

To change the stigma? But I have to tell you, society, even myself, I’m going to say shame on me, how I actually did it too. Let me tell you the truth here, so I don’t think it’s only men, I think it’s women really banding together to. When I first opened about six years ago, there was a technology, we were doing this, and just because we got pretty famous from the doctor point of it, the view, because these are new things. Some of the big companies came to me and they said, “We have this new technology, it’s lightning for the bikini.” I was like, “Huh?” I was like, “Who wants to lighten their bikini?” This was my first reaction, shame on me. They were like, “Plenty of people.” Anyway, we started offering it, and are people coming up, and I was like, “Why did they want to lighten it? Why do they want to lighten it?” I went right to the thing, they want to look younger, a porn star, this and that. Well, that’s not true, shame on me.

Women come in, they have hyperpigmentation, dark spots on their bikini area, that’s really unsightly, and it affects their everyday life. It affects them when they go to the beach, it affects them when they have intimacy, and who the hell am I to say you shouldn’t take a dark spot off your vaginal area but it’s okay to take it off your face? That’s okay. Why not something that bothers me? So I, even six years ago, played into this. Then I was like, “Oh my God,” then I saw some of the women, and I was like, “Who am I? Shame on me.” So as I’m throwing the swords at everybody, I have to kind of stand up and say, “As a woman, I did it, even in the business in the very beginning.” Even vaginoplasty, I didn’t understand it. People [inaudible 00:24:38], I didn’t understand why people would ever do that. Well, I understand, some people do it because they want better sexual satisfaction for themselves, not the man.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, it’s also your confidence. So if you feel more confident, if feel you look good or how you want to look, that so much of sexual confidence comes from within us. It’s almost like a mindset issue as well, but if you got to do things to feel better about yourself, why not? I mean…

Cindy Barshop:

Right, and so you think about yourself how… Or with me, years and years ago, I was like, “It’s the most ridiculous thing.” Open up your mind ladies, talk about it, don’t judge. So really, it should start with us, and I didn’t even think of it like that before. But I really should, because here’s me who is doing the same things as I’m trying to break the taboo.

Melinda Wittstock:

I’ve been to so many women masterminds, and I run a retreat for high-performing female entrepreneurs as well. At the retreat coming up, I mean, we’re actually going to be talking about this, but there are some women who are really resistant to it. I remember being at a different retreat, and one of the women does a lot of kind of sexual health, and all that. You just saw the women, as she talked about it, all kind of literally tightening up. I mean, feeling really kind of embarrassed, or squeamish, or whatever. It was hard to talk about, and this was only two years ago.

Cindy Barshop:

You know what the other thing is? Really there’s different parts to women’s sexual health, it’s not all in our heads. I’m really tired of hearing that, it’s not in our head, it’s physical.

Melinda Wittstock:

It is physical.

Cindy Barshop:

Sometimes it may be.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, it may be, because there’s all kinds of things that we have to unlearn just to be more… I don’t know.

Cindy Barshop:

But we’re put in these things that everything… Like we’re too sensitive, we’re too this, we’re too that, and you’re too emotional as women, but it’s-

Melinda Wittstock:

But it’s interesting that it is actually really a physical thing. So with men, and Viagra, and all that kind of stuff, I mean, it’s just out there, it’s not a big deal. So why should it be different for women? I mean, I think what you’re doing is great, really. So Cindy, where do you think you’ll be with this several years from now? What’s your big, grand vision ultimately in where you’re taking the company?

Cindy Barshop:

Yeah, well, I love my grand vision. First of all, there’s going to be a forum that we’re creating right now where anybody could get the most up-to-date answers with technology and choices of solutions for any type of their sexual health questions. So right now, if you go to Web MD, you go to the Mayo Clinic, they’re antiquated, the answers on there for women’s sexual health. Everybody’s just pushing whatever they’re selling, these patch solutions. So there’s going to be a place where they can get the honest, if it’s not… If I don’t have a solution, then somebody else is going to have the solution, and we’re going to get it for them.

That’s one of the most important things, and to have a real… It’s the VSPOT Intimate Care Collection that actually makes changes in tissue. People are looking at products right now, fluff products and saying, “Okay, I have vaginal atrophy, which is a physical thing, and I’m going to put oil on my body, that’s going to fix it.” It’s not, you need something that’s going to create new tissue, just like we have for our faces. Do you understand what I’m saying? It’s like, there’s just-

Melinda Wittstock:

Absolutely, no, it makes sense to me.

Cindy Barshop:

… [crosstalk 00:28:29] oil for your face.

Melinda Wittstock:

So there’s a big education component around all of this-

Cindy Barshop:

And nobody’s there yet.

Melinda Wittstock:

… [crosstalk 00:28:36] out, and whatnot. Then you’ve got the product, then you’ve got the locations, and whatnot. So how do you see it scaling?

Cindy Barshop:

The products are our first thing now, I plan on kind of selling the products direct to consumer on websites. We’re also going through the gynecological community, I also presented a lot of the gynecological conferences where they have hundreds of doctors around the world. I think that doctors themselves are starting to get into it, really going after the medical part, because they’re calling us. They’re calling us from Mexico, and things like that, because there is this group of people that are forward-thinking and are looking at these things. So really that’s the distribution is just being the authentic place for everybody to understand their sexual health, no matter what age.

Melinda Wittstock:

Okay, so Cindy, it’s not every day that I interview entrepreneurs who’ve actually had a spot on Real Housewives of New York. You were on that 10 years ago, I have to ask what was that like?

Cindy Barshop:

Well, so let me explain, I’m a business person.

Melinda Wittstock:

How did you end up on it? How did that [crosstalk 00:30:29]-

Cindy Barshop:

I’m going to let you know, so I’m all about the business, and focusing on distribution, and getting things done. So we had a chain of spas, and I had a product line, and this is the craziest thing, my friend, I don’t know if you know her, Kimora Lee Simmons?

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, of course.

Cindy Barshop:

She started, I think it was Bootylicious, I don’t… I mean, it’s 12 years ago, the first reality thing Bootylicious. She was a friend, she used to come to me and she’s like, “Will you go on it?” I’m like, “Yeah, sure, I’ll do it, you’re my friend.” At the same time, I was doing Regis and Kelly, and at that point in time, so I think about 15 years ago or 10 years ago, Regis and Kelly was huge. I was like, “I made it.” I was on the Good Morning Americas, like yourself, and everything like that. But I was on Regis and Kelly, and the next day or the day, everybody was like, “We saw you on Bootylicious.”

I’m like, “What? I was on Regis and Kelly.” I just looked at my publicist, I said, “What’s the most popular reality TV show that’s going on right now?” Because this is ridiculous, how many people saw this, and how it was starting to impact my business. When your business gets so big, just being on one TV show doesn’t help, so that’s it. My publicist said, “The Real Housewives,” I was like, “All right, I’ll do it.” They were like, “What?” I was like, “I want to do it,” and that was that, that’s really what happened, it was simple.

Melinda Wittstock:

Fantastic. I mean, so how did that affect and help your business? I would imagine it would.

Cindy Barshop:

Yeah, so I launched a product line, my waxing product line, on the show, and I mean, being part of pop culture helps sell anything and there we were. We were in target, yes.

Melinda Wittstock:

Absolutely.

Cindy Barshop:

A big part of it was from being on the TV, [crosstalk 00:32:18].

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s a great strategy for sort of women listening to this podcast, just get yourself on a reality show.

Cindy Barshop:

Then again, it’s not just any reality show. I mean-

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s not any… I mean, it has to be the right one for the right target market, right?

Cindy Barshop:

Right, but also let me explain, there’s so many. Everybody’s like, “I got a reality TV show.” Go on a reality show that’s made it already, because it’s not easy to create it, a successful reality… Or a successful one. There’s a very big difference joining the number one rated show and a regular reality show. At that time, it was the number one reality show.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, absolutely.

Cindy Barshop:

[crosstalk 00:32:57].

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, it’s a massive franchise now, for sure. So, oh my goodness, I could talk to you for a lot longer. I want to make sure people know how to find you, get your products, all of that, what’s the best way?

Cindy Barshop:

At, I’m sorry, www [inaudible 00:33:13], VSPOT, V-S-P-O-T, MD.com.

Melinda Wittstock:

Okay, and where can we all follow you? I imagine you’re on Instagram and all the places?

Cindy Barshop:

Yes, [inaudible 00:33:24] and @vspotmedispa.

Melinda Wittstock:

Fantastic, well, thank you so much for putting on your wings this morning

Cindy Barshop:

[crosstalk 00:33:32] your seminars, and come by to some things [crosstalk 00:33:36].

Melinda Wittstock:

I’d love for you to come to the Wings retreat, if Costa Rica barefoot luxury amazing resort beckons, you were more than welcome.

Cindy Barshop:

Can you please send me the info? How long is it for?

Melinda Wittstock:

I will, four days.

Cindy Barshop:

Okay, that’s a good number.

Melinda Wittstock:

Four days of bliss, and all the women who attend have mid six figure to seven figure to eight figure businesses. Everybody is going to be interested in this, so I would love for you to be there.

Cindy Barshop:

[crosstalk 00:34:08], I don’t know if I just invited myself?

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, you’re in consider yourself invited, I will send you all the info.

Cindy Barshop:

Thank you so much, I would love to, okay.

Melinda Wittstock:

Wonderful, Cindy, thank you so much.

Cindy Barshop:

[crosstalk 00:34:21], have a great day.