Dancing Through Innovation with Natalie Garry

[00:00:00] Speaker A: So Dancing is a digital wellness company predominantly for the care sector in the U.S. senior living and it's about enriching lives through music and movement. If we went for an investment, how much would we ask for? I'm not going to lie when I say we modeled from 200,000 to £10 million. The advice we had was don't pitch for under 2 million. So we were kind of out there pitching for that and more. [00:00:26] Speaker B: This is a big shift to what we have here in Scotland. [00:00:28] Speaker A: It's so different. [00:00:35] Speaker B: Hi everyone. Welcome to Ideas to Impact. My name's Sally, I'm one of the program managers at Codebase. I'm joined today by Natalie Gary from Dancing. Natalie, how you doing? [00:00:43] Speaker A: I'm good, thanks Sally, good stuff. [00:00:46] Speaker B: It has been how long now since you were in Silicon Valley? [00:00:49] Speaker A: Oh, I knew you were going to ask that. I think it's been a few months now back. [00:00:54] Speaker B: A few months, yeah. So May and we're in now, almost coming up to August. [00:00:59] Speaker A: It's been a bit of a whirlwind since then. Yeah, yeah. [00:01:01] Speaker B: What have you been up to since? [00:01:03] Speaker A: So, yeah, since we've come back, it's just been a massive kind of change for us and a real new focus and energy in a different direction. So since we've come back, I mean, obviously we've got some amazing clients here in the UK and we're working very hard to keep them all together and have a good time. But it's opened our eyes to what's going on in the us so we have a whole sort of new arm of the company underway. [00:01:29] Speaker B: Awesome. So tell us a little bit about your company. Set the scene for us, what do you do? [00:01:33] Speaker A: So Dansaeng is a digital wellness company predominantly for the care sector in the U.S. senior living and it's about enriching lives through music and movement. So we've got this brilliant digital product that we bring into all the care homes so they can get really good evidence based sessions to do and the aim is to make the job of the wellbeing leads much easier. That they've got this enriching program that they can just call on at any time. But also we're looking at big impact for the residents and older people into how we can facilitate them to have a better life. It's all about health span about living longer but by using music and movement, so less medication, you know, we want them feeling good. [00:02:21] Speaker B: Fantastic. Yeah. Your background is in professional dance? Yeah, yeah. [00:02:27] Speaker A: So yeah, quite an interesting path I think. And one of the things that I Like to say is that all roads have led to this point. So I started life as a ballet dancer, was with English National Ballet and I performed with Scottish ballet. And then through injury and various other things, mainly them saying you're not the right size and you won't fit the costumes, which is quite hard to hear when you're in your early 20s. I turned away from that and it was very painful. I think when you've done something to that level and really you give everything. So I'd spent my whole life up to that point focused on this. However, I. Then the blinkers came off, I went and did some fitness training and I was just like, wow, this is so fantastic. You know, there's a whole world of health and well being as a result of all my training. I could present really well. I kind of could understand that people maybe weren't comfortable or maybe not feeling so good and I wanted to make a difference. I never meant to stop dancing, it just happened and I couldn't actually look at it it for quite a while. I couldn't go and see anything. It was so painful. And now I've spent the rest of my 30 years from that point telling the world, no matter what age, shape, size, disability, you can use movement and music to make your life better. And that's why I say I feel all roads have led to this point. [00:03:53] Speaker B: Absolutely. It's a really powerful message. [00:03:55] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:03:56] Speaker B: And so now you're a tech founder. [00:03:58] Speaker A: Yes. [00:03:58] Speaker B: So do we get from, well, being. [00:04:00] Speaker A: Into tech into tech. I know. So big switch around as well. Really good to ask that. So what I did, I had four children. Okay. I think I'm greedy in everything that I do. Like I'm here on this planet and I literally want to experience everything. So I've had these four wonderful children. I've been Mother Earth. Yeah. I've pureed the carrots, I've grown the carrots, I've picked the, had the chickens, you know, the turkeys. You name it, we've done it. My youngest went to school and I'd always been keeping my hand in and running bits of fitness and Pilates. But I wanted to create a business that I could scale. And I'm not ashamed to say that it's quite hard. And as a woman, it's quite hard to say I want to make a really successful business that's financially viable for me and my family and my wider team. That was always the goal. And I look back and I laugh at my naivety of my exuberance of what I was going to do, but I could see what I was going to do. So the vision was to run these classes, dancing classes, which would be half singing and teaching people to sing without music, so they didn't need to read music. We would sing a line, sing it back. We'd have a great presenter and everybody could really get involved. And then to teach low impact fitness, that would make a difference to people's health. I saw people at choirs, I went to a choir. Now I'm just an enthusiastic singer. Right. I'm not good. I'm the one. I'm like the little kid on stage belting it out and getting it wrong. But I knew how much good it was doing me and I was like, I can make this better. Because these people also weren't working out. I noticed their posture was bad and I just thought, very simply, I can get a good program. The other thing that I thought was people don't stick at something. You know, people sign up to gym memberships and statistically they don't keep going. So I was like, how can I hook them in? So there was a sense of community as well. So I set up these classes. We had teams running. It was rolling out the year before COVID in the January, we have had a small little board meeting. We'd grown 68% and I said, why don't we maybe see if we could take this online somehow? And everyone was like, oh, let's give it another 12 months, let's see where we are and then let's look at it. Well, Covid hit within four hours because I saw it coming slightly within four hours. We taught online. I know. And we, we basically offered it for free because we couldn't catch up quickly enough. We offered it for free. During the pandemic, 4,000 people joined us across the globe. Yeah, really impactful. Some people were on their own and we were their kind of voice. We did radio shows, we did fitness sessions. And a really magical thing would happen on a Saturday night that we had this wonderful team of musicians. Yeah, massive. Thank you. If any of them are listening, they basically would come on from their home and it was almost like war. They would play music and, you know, we would all sit and watch and be part of this live music. It was very special. And that was the first pandemic furiously behind the scenes. And I think partly I was coping with my businesses may be gone. Has the world gone forever? Are we ever getting out? What is going to happen? We changed that whole business round to a digital online wellbeing business. So by the time that first lockdown had happened, we were able to open it up as a membership and we had lots of members. It was really successful. Now we're up against a lot of big boys now in the industry and the fitness world and that's quite tricky. The second lockdown, we moved into the care sector. And my vision, when I set out the company in my naive days at the beginning when I was going for global domination, the vision was the main body of the company and an arm for later life living. It was always a vision, just not the way I thought it was going to be. We then adapted it. We then, you know, we've done so many things to really work and get it right for this very special demographic that is getting bigger and bigger. You know, worldwide the aging population is huge and it's been an amazing journey sort of creating this phenomenal. We got an award last week, I think I'm allowed to say that as best. Thank you. Best Digital Wellness Resources, which is really fantastic. And it just shows that all the work and all the people involved are really making an impact in people's lives. [00:08:34] Speaker B: That's incredible. Yeah, It's a testament to how much innovation came out of necessity during the pandemic. I'm interested in how you identified this gap in the care sector for older adults. What made that jump out as a market for you in that moment? [00:08:51] Speaker A: I know it's interesting, the people who came to the in person classes were kind of 40 plus and some of them on the older sort of level of that as well. So I was very much aware that this clientele needed to stay really well to live longer. It's all about, you know, that health span, not just the longevity and particularly women, they live longer than men, but in poorer health. So it's really important that we help, you know, with the health and well being of that and I believe so hugely in music, in movement and good nutrition to really help you live this great life. And there's no difference for people that are in the care sector. It's very expensive to bring in specialized teachers to come in and work with people in the care homes. And I realized we could really reach a lot of people with really great quality resources. We've learned more and more since we've been in the industry that there is a gap with the training that's needed for the staff that are using the resources. And that's been a really key part of what we do. So yes, it's all about the residents, but it's actually about the Care staff too. We care about their health and wellbeing as well. And in fact, we've done some amazing studies with the Scottish government that have shown that their health and wellbeing, which we monitored it and it was terrible. The stats, we used a big national scale, the Edinburgh Warwick Scale, which anyone can use and you can see where you are on that scale, and they were 26% under the national average for health and wellbeing. Really poor. But as a result of them using our resources with their residents, within six months we got them to 1% under that. That's huge impact. And for an industry where there's a lot of attrition, you know, it's really important that we can make people feel better, because if people feel better, and that was my whole vision, if the adult feels better, the wider family network, everybody benefits from that person being better. Yeah, it's huge. [00:11:07] Speaker B: Absolutely, yeah. I find your story and your business really fascinating because it's two industries that I wouldn't traditionally see together. They're kind of more public sector associated, like older, older people, wellbeing and then tech. How has it been kind of trying to marry those two identities and industries together? [00:11:30] Speaker A: For sure, it's been difficult and I think even I see a huge change, even just the last four years. So since the pandemic, and I think the care sector has been slower to sort of embrace the technology and there's all sorts of care planning and wonderful things going on. There's some brilliant organizations out there, but actually on the ground, even then, when we first came into the industry, we were literally teaching people how to switch on computers, you know, and I don't get an email, I don't use this, I don't use that. I don't know how to hook up my laptop to make it work on a big screen. I don't know how to Bluetooth the radio station to my speaker. That's hugely changed in the last four years and we are very much on that journey and it's great to see that they're kind of embracing that and going forward. [00:12:27] Speaker B: Why do you think that change has happened? Is it pandemic related? [00:12:31] Speaker A: I think it's pandemic related and I think it's just the way the world is going and I think we've all. And the trip in Silicon Valley, oh, my goodness. We've experienced that to the next level and had a real insight about where it's going. And I think all of us have been slow to wake up. I mean, I remember a couple of years Ago, really starting to understand AI and going on my jaw hitting the floor and then just the connections in my brain realizing where it was going and how the world is changing. You know, this is bigger than the industrial revolution of our generation. And, you know, if we want to be a part of that going forward, we do need to embrace it and harness it. I think I know you like one of my slogans, tech powered, human led. And I think that's really key because we want to keep that human element with what we do and to be supportive and to make sure within our company that if people want to speak to a human, they can speak to a human. Yes, there might be some help from a bot really quickly, but we are very much there. We very much want to be a voice. And even the tech and the resources that we create, we have a select number of presenters that we work with because we want them to be familiar. So particularly the older generation and all the staff, we want them to be like, oh, there's Natalie, there's Alan. We've got this amazing guy, Alan, phenomenal musician and he like, has his own fan club, you know, literally. And they're like, where's Alan? But I think it's really important that there is that continuity and we're going to strengthen that as the company grows. You know, how can these people do more and be a bigger voice? So it feels, feels like a community. We run this radio station and, you know, we're using the presenters more and more to be the voice into the care home and we like to connect people. So, yes, the tech's amazing and it's wonderful and for a small business, you know, it really enhances what we do and enables us to do a lot more. But yeah, we've got to got to tie it all in with the human element as well. Yeah. [00:14:44] Speaker B: So you mentioned a little bit earlier about some of the partnership work that you've been involved in with different organizations. Tell us a little bit more about that. [00:14:52] Speaker A: Yeah, so this is interesting and it kind of stems from me knowing what we do, understanding what we do really works and has an impact to wanting to get some evidence that we can say that this is our data. So very early on we reached out to all the universities that through interface, to see if there was any university that would want to get involved with us to do some impact and some research, secretly hoping that Stirling University would come back. They are leading globally on dementia and aging. They're also our local university. So we filled out all this form, sent it off and yeah, Be lying if I didn't say I cried when within a few days later, Sterling University were in touch. And I remember it was a real highlight. They were like, look, we want to work with you guys. And that was really fantastic. And it's been a partnership made in heaven. They're called the Sparkle Team. Yeah. Professor Anna Whittaker, who has been leading with us all the way through, she is still working with us four years later. So she's like, what next? What should we do? So I think you can see that it's been a real match made in heaven. And we've just worked together to make to evidence what we do. So we've worked with some amazing care groups here in Scotland. Balhousie Care Group and Holmes Care Group have been two that have been involved in these big projects and we've monitored the health and wellness of the residents and had huge impact. Things like within 12 weeks. Yeah, if they use our resources. Depression goes down 49%, loneliness goes down 29%. Falls, the fear of falling goes down 34%. Huge, huge impact. There's a great little hormone called DHEA which goes up 62%. Now, you can't see DHEA, but we have these brilliant older people who, they love to be part of the research and to make a difference. And again, it's me going, yes. They still feel included. They were chewing on little cotton wool swabs and spitting them into test tubes. And we monitored this DHEA that's gone up 62%. It's like the longevity hormone. It stops you getting so sick, if you're going to get infection, you're going to fight the infection off. Now, you can't see that, but the fact that we know that's what happens. These people are going to live longer, better lives. So for us to own that data is just amazing. We've noticed that PRN medications have been reduced. Now, that's the psychotics that people use. Now, I'm not a medical expert, there's definitely a time where all these medications are needed. However, there's also a time that I feel you can maybe use. What else could we use? Rather than reaching for that, maybe you need it and absolutely fine. But can we use music to reduce that? And we're working in partnership now with Abbotsford Care and Alison Vail, who are really keen to sort of monitor that and to see what reduction happens. So we're on a big, long piece of research there. Also, through a care home down in England, we work with a brilliant guy called Steve Gardner. Who was one of our first big clients at Four Seasons, who kind of gave us our first big break, which really propelled us out there with such a big client, he moved to Country Court, a brilliant organization. We're working with them, they've done a partnership with Phoenix Senior Living in the States, linked us in with them and they're like, yeah, let's do some research. And so that is so huge. And Starling University are like, yeah, let's do some more research. So we're really going to look at frailty with them and we're going to spend a year really monitoring the frailty of these adults and working with their physiotherapy teams. So it's kind of just building momentum. [00:18:50] Speaker B: Sounds like. How impactful has that been in terms of you growing your business and the kinds of decisions you've made, having that evidence backed research to pull through? [00:19:01] Speaker A: It's been, yeah, it's been fundamental for us. And I think the slightly frustrating thing is I'm someone who always thinks, can't we just do that? Can't it just happen tomorrow? But luckily there's other people with me that go, be sensible, Natalie. It's going to take time. So we've done all this research, but then coming over to Silicon Valley and having that with us, that research has given us a lot more gravitas and weight of what we do. We did another project, the Gold project, which is generating older active lives digitally, that was based from Plymouth University and Sterling and there was 22 professors involved in that. As a result of that project, they then, Scottish government then read that report. Scottish government then reached out to us and we were like, yeah, yeah, right, right. And we were like, yeah, really right. And they were like, can we run, you know, another project? Can we, can we see how this works? So last year we worked with Scottish government and every health board in Scotland and we. So there was 66 care homes that we trained, we monitored, we worked with the staff and they all had our resources and we've just, it's been amazing. And the sort of feedback from there was that every care home in Scotland should have dancing. There's funding issues. So, you know, I'll leave that there. I'm still really hopeful that there will be more support going forward and I'm just delighted that the government have recognized that it's so impactful to people's lives that it, it's almost like medicine, you know, and to me it should be medicine. And I think it's better than some medications, you know, and if we can use that. So it really has helped to grow the company for sure. [00:20:45] Speaker B: Amazing. What advice would you give to other founders who are looking to bring in university collaboration and partnerships? How do they get through the red tape? How do they make an impact when they're reaching out to them? [00:20:58] Speaker A: Yeah, so, I mean, we used Interface and that was through Business Gateway. So I definitely feel here in Scotland we've been very supported and kind of guided through the paths and, you know, I know some businesses are like, oh, yeah, don't do it. You know, they're going to take too much time because there is red tape. I have to say, as a result of working with Business Gateway, this is why we're here today. You know, they've got me involved here. I've had some amazing experiences and there's been, you know, superb mentors that have guided us all along the way. And I certainly would say use them. There's brilliant people out there. Don't be closed off to that. The universities, it does take a lot of work. I'm not a details person. Luckily, my other director is phenomenal on the details. So Clare Hunt is just. She just. She just runs it so slickly and I think the university have probably loved that she worked from a university background before, so I think it's great. So it does take time. I think you very much have to be aware it is going to be a big commitment of your time and energy for us. It's been hugely worth it. [00:22:07] Speaker B: Nice. Fantastic. Tell us a bit about Silicon Valley, then. [00:22:11] Speaker A: Okay. Silicon Valley. So we were at a little bit of a turning point with the business, I think, or I felt it was turning. That Scottish government contract had kind of fallen away. They had said it should be in every care home in Scotland. I was hopeful that even they would run another kind of project. They haven't. And that felt hard. And I was a bit like we would given them so much, you know, we literally gave everything to make that project work. And I was a little bit like, what now? You know, are we. How do we grow? Do we take investments? What are we going to do? So Onyunye is our sort of guidance person. Jason Wagner is our mentor at Code Base. So again, these brilliant people on Onyunye said to us, oh, you should apply. This is a really cool thing. And then we kind of forgot. And then one day I signed up to. They do an unfiltered event. Yeah, morning coffee. And it's kind of come and meet everyone and we work from home. We don't get out Enough. And Clara, my co director, was like, really? Do we really have to. I'm like, yes, we're going. And off we go to Stirling at crack of dawn to do this coffee thing. And Onyinye was there. Yeah. And they were basically talking about, oh, my goodness, you gotta apply by two days time, but there's another Silicon Valley trip. And we were like, oh, we've got to do it. So off we went and we went home and we're like, oh, filling out an application form and you know, as a young business, we do fill out quite a few application forms. I'd be lying if I didn't do. I really want this one. We had a moment and off it went. And yeah, we heard quite quickly back that we were sort of through and being considered. And then. Then, yeah, super excited. And then like, oh, no, I have got four children. My youngest is doing his standard grades at that time. You want us to go in five weeks time? I've got. I do 20 hours radio shows a week and content and I'm going to have to do that all in advance. And ah, so there was a whole kind of like, are we going to do it? Oh, my goodness. It's the best thing we've done, honestly. It has been, you know, a fork in the road and we just went for it. A small business. It's like when you're going on holiday, you have to work twice as hard before you get to go away and twice, three, four times as hard. We just did it. Sorted the kids out, sorted the exam, everything and got to go. And yeah, what an experience. [00:24:49] Speaker B: Incredible. You're out there for three weeks. [00:24:52] Speaker A: Yeah, that was the other thing. Three weeks. Yeah. It's not like it was one week or two weeks and yeah, it wasn't enough. [00:24:59] Speaker B: What did you do in the three weeks? How did you fill them? [00:25:01] Speaker A: Yeah, so we first arrived out, which was really lovely. We had a lovely big day, which I think I did suggest as a Greek sort of group chat. So we got to meet everyone and the cohort, it's. The cohort was so important and it's continued. You know, this is months later. Sally's now off the chat, but we are all. You'll be glad you're off the chat. Cause we are all still chatting away. That has been fundamental to again, feeling supported. Especially with tech companies, you're in isolation, but to share your journey with other people experiencing the same highs. I said to one of them today on a message, the highs are so high when you're running your own business and the lows are, oh, my goodness, so low. Claire, my co founder, she's dead steady. Yeah. I am literally like the waves. I have a tsunami and a crash and up and down and like, I'm the emotional one. So to see the other founders, that I think are quite similar, that was great. So we arrived, we had a day off, didn't we, Sally? And we ended up going to a beautiful beach. We did a walk and we just happened to end up at this beautiful hotel round a fire pit on day one, wondering, how did we get here? Yeah, yeah. How did we get. My feet are still burnt from that because the sun was quite hot, but it was amazing. And then that first week, you took us to the Saster conference, which was huge AI, huge tech. Really fascinating to see that. And just to learn the wi fi code was don't hire humans, which was slightly disturbing but interesting as well. And, you know, being in business, you have to look at what's going on and you have to see what's leading. It felt hard because it very much did feel like less humans. Less humans, more tech. You know, one of the slides that we saw, they basically said in the next three to five years, they showed a picture of what the conference would look like and 10% of the room were AI agent robots. And that kind of terrifies me and intrigues me all in the same thing. So I think I was, yeah, terrified, intrigued, interested and all of that experience. So I soaked it up, we spoke to everybody, learned as much as we could from that experience. Had great food. Yeah, not sure I need to eat another burrito, though. So that was really good. Equally, we spoke to some investors and we were doing some of this pitching as well. And I wasn't sure whether we wanted investment to go out there. And I had a real journey with, if we went for an investment, how much would we ask for? I'm not gonna lie when I say we modeled from 200,000 to 10 million pounds. And hey, good fun modeling. 10 million pounds, that's a good game. It's a bit like, if you win the lottery, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do with your business? So it was a really interesting thing. The advice we had was don't pitch for under 2 million. So we were kind of out there pitching for that and more. [00:28:19] Speaker B: This is a big shift to what we have here in Scotland. [00:28:21] Speaker A: It's so different and it just. It felt really possible and I could have pursued that more when I was out there, but we had a little bit of a sea change. After the first sort of 10 days. Yeah. And I'll tell you what happened. So, yeah, so we were thinking, right, let's pitch, let's look for this to, hmm. Let us see if our product will work here and if people will buy it. So I had been reaching out before, so I had done some great prep beforehand in that five weeks. Okay. So this was part of us getting ready to go out and that prep was to reach out. And I unashamedly got on to LinkedIn and I'm now doing even more on LinkedIn and I'm unashamedly now using. I don't know if I want this out. I'm now using my Scottish accent to try and get people to speak to me and it's literally working. So I'm literally getting meetings because they're going. I don't think I can refute. Ignore that accent. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I need to speak to you. So we got onto LinkedIn, some brilliant people came back to us and said, yes, come and see us. And we said, look, we'll offer you some engagement days. So for free. We offered these guys some time and we're now working with them and they're a really big US organization and we're going to be sort of expanding with them, you know, across the facilities that they have. So that was so amazing. And we were out there and, you know, we got our first client when we were there and big celebrations, you know, and the whole cohort were really cheering. The other LinkedIn thing that we did, oh, no, through LinkedIn and also Techscaler Business Gateway, they recommended. We got in touch with Global Scots, Global Scott even, and Cameron Graham, who gave quite a lot of time to the whole cohort, actually gave us a huge amount of time because we're kind of in the same space. So Cameron was fantastic. And to see the support out there from other Scots was really special. And as a result of Cameron, we're now working with, he gave us a few clients to reach out with and again we went and did some engagement visits to day centres, quite different. And they've signed up as clients. [00:30:40] Speaker B: Incredible. [00:30:41] Speaker A: Which is really fantastic. So we then learned, oh, my goodness, our product works out here. They love it, they value it, they value the research almost even more than in the uk and they will pay a lot more. So our whole kind of business focus has changed to we want to maintain these brilliant clients because we've got some amazing partners here in the UK and if more people come on board, that's great. And we're still there We've got these key people, but equally we've got some really exciting opportunities now in the US as a result of this trip. And I don't think if we hadn't done that, I don't think we would have got to that point. [00:31:25] Speaker B: It's really interesting about that, how the three weeks you were out there was kind of a mindset shift journey for you in terms of focus, in terms of scope. What did that feel like to change what you were focusing on so significantly while you were out there? [00:31:41] Speaker A: Yeah, so I think one of the things we did a lot of, we did a bit of writing just Clare and I ourselves before we came out of what we wanted to achieve. And I think one of the things we needed to do was to step back from the business so we could look in. And this gave us an opportunity to step back. Sally, we got loads of support from you, which was really beautiful. She was there as a gentle mentor. I was just saying off camera, she was like this little head teacher. She's quite strict. Well, she had to be. You had like 13 of us. [00:32:14] Speaker B: Keep in check. [00:32:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, to keep in check. But you were there and it was just really supportive and like, I felt like a school kid. I said to Claire once, I want to tell Sally we got a client. And even when I came back, I was quite sad I wasn't messaging you. [00:32:27] Speaker B: To say what's so lovely about that sense of cohort that comes out of a trip like that? Everybody, like code based, staff cohort member alike, is so keen to share this successes and challenges with one another. And that's a really beautiful thing that comes out of three weeks in like really close proximity to one another and. [00:32:44] Speaker A: Everybody is still championing each other and I don't know why. Sometimes if people are too close in your space, people can feel protective. I don't know whether everyone's just at that stage where there was so much giving, so much love and support. And you know, I had conversations with people and I was quite open. Like I'm not quite sure where we need to go at this point, you know, and it's hard and it's tough and we're working long hours and you know, do we. Should we sell? Should we? You know, and I think everybody probably asks these kind of conversations, how much more do we want to do? What it's done for me is given a new focus, a clear focus, and it's given me my va va voom back. And do you know what? I love what I do. And that's really Fantastic to kind of realize that and you know, and if I didn't have it, it's such a huge part of my life. You know, it's more than just a business, you know, it's a total drive. [00:33:49] Speaker B: You mentioned that there was a big kind of focus shift for you in terms of your vision for what you want to achieve with your business since you're out in Silicon Valley. What's that been? What's that vision now? [00:34:00] Speaker A: Yeah, so I've still explored a few different options. I am slight nightmare like that that I have to look at everything thing and I think the business has been at that stage where I've had to do that. What is great now two months have we been back? Is that what we said is that we now are really clearly focused. So it's taken that time and because we've been speaking to people here in the UK and shall we do more partnerships and what can be involved and some companies, certain things fit that's right for them and they kind of want to make us fit into there and we. And I've really looked at that but I'm now very, very clear that the US is our expansion and we've got very clear numbers that we're going to hit for the next two years into the US and what we want to do and to have that clarity is like, it's almost like a weight off my shoulders. It's like a sigh of relief. Like I now know what we're doing, I now know where we're headed and it's exciting and I love the energy in the states and you know, the states, it's a difficult time for you to fall in love with the states. And I've been someone who's been like. And I'm like, I loved California. I'm raging. You know, it was so good, the positivity, the organizations. We spent a lot of time with Kisco Senior Living who were phenomenal. And we went in and we were involved in their team meetings in the morning and we got to say what we were doing and in these stand up meetings and then the whole team go through their missions and values and like it's like a Madonna concert. And I was like, yes, let's do it. Let's make Senior Living cool. Let's make it fantastic. And I'm like that, yeah, I'm the person that jumps out of bed like yay, hey, it's a Monday morning, let's do it. So I'm like, yeah, I kind of belong, I belong out there doing that and it feels great. And they value the health and well being, you know, I feel like we work with a brilliant group here in Scotland, Renaissance Care and Dr. Robert Kilgower. Basically they were early adopters of Dansang here and they were fantastic. They did have the vision and they said we're going to roll it out, everybody, everyone is going to have it and all the staff. We have a staff well being platform too. And Dr. Robert Kilgower @ the beginning was a bit like, oh, I'm not sure. And then the contract was in jeopardy, wasn't sure. And we saw recently and he basically has said dancing is not a nice to have, it is a must have. [00:36:41] Speaker B: And you feel like the market in the States got that. [00:36:43] Speaker A: The States got that straight away. And that's what I'm saying. The clients we've got here do know that and which is fantastic. But they got it straight away. They saw the quality of what we were doing and it is good quality, you know, and that's the whole thing we want to put out good quality. [00:37:01] Speaker B: Because you've secured five new contracts from Silicon Valley. [00:37:04] Speaker A: Yeah, five to start with. And some of those are going to get bigger and bigger. They've sort of brought us into sort of smaller parts of the company with big expansion and we have got some really big conversations. We have met through some of the networking events that we had at Techscaler. We met a wonderful woman who's going to be involved in our marketing out there and she's going to be coming on on board. We have also made contact now with somebody on the east side of the US who's going to possibly be our kind of sales director. She's going to be the first one and then she. We're looking at a whole kind of system there for selling. She's amazing and we're really lucky to have her. So our, our team is growing incredible. [00:37:48] Speaker B: In within the States. [00:37:49] Speaker A: Within the States as well. Yeah, yeah. We need, need people out there. We are here in the UK and yes, we're going to get out a number of times a year, but we are here in the uk. [00:37:59] Speaker B: That's so exciting. [00:38:00] Speaker A: Yeah, it's cool. [00:38:03] Speaker B: So you've been involved in the code base community and the Techscaler program for how long has it been now that you've been involved? [00:38:09] Speaker A: 18 months, I think. Yeah, that's probably right. [00:38:12] Speaker B: And how have you found that experience as a whole and all of the different parts of it that you've engaged with? [00:38:16] Speaker A: Yeah, so anytime I've engaged in it, I'VE got something out of it, so probably need to engage more, which would would be good. And obviously through Codebase, you know, we had that whole tech scaler opportunity, which I can't recommend it highly enough. I'm laughing on my LinkedIn because I don't know why I seem to see their sponsored posts, because I think there's a new people can apply to go again and they're going out in October and I'm slightly jealous. I would love to go again. And so for anyone who, you know, is looking at that, it is a pivotal opportunity and it feels like a little bit of once in a lifetime. I kind of don't want to say that because I want to do, you know, things like that again. But for us as a business, to take that time out, to have that support, to open your eyes to the wider world, it has been fundamental to our business. The change that it is making, it's going to ensure our survival, it's going to ensure our growth, it's going to ensure our. That tens of thousands of people's lives are impacted through what we do. They're hopefully going to live longer, live better, not fall, not die in such horrific ways. So there's a real human element for us there. And, you know, this is to take this out of Scotland and to take these businesses to the globe. What an opportunity. [00:39:44] Speaker B: Really scale that area. It's been awesome to see and it's a really nice example of kind of that journey as it progresses. You started off at the unfiltered coffee mornings with your community in Stirling, and then you've had encouragement from your mentors, Jason and Cameron, of course, the US to support you, to understand how to get the most out of an experience like Silicon Valley. And then you end up on the program for those three weeks in terms of the preparation that you did to get out there and what kind of advice you would give to other people who might be looking to go on that kind of program in future. What would you tell past you? [00:40:23] Speaker A: Past me? I would say you did all right, kid. Yeah, I would literally say we went for it. And so I do think you need to be prepared to really, really go for it if you want to get the best out of it and be prepared to have your mind changed and to be flexible. We could have very much stayed down one path there when we were out in Silicon Valley, but we realized there was a whole other opportunity for us and I think to move and don't be afraid to change and to make decisions, do the prep to get out there, you know, create the links. Yes, you will make loads more out there. And the opportunities, I mean, you gave us some amazing people mentor these people that came in and talked to us and to hear how they did were like. My eyes were like on stocks, just how they spoke about their businesses and the passion and the drive. But even those experiences propel you to go, yeah, I'm in the right space, I'm doing the right thing and you take nuggets from everybody. So, yeah, be prepared, be open and do it. [00:41:34] Speaker B: Because the way that this particular international program with Silicon Valley is set up is that it affords the people on it quite a lot of freedom to use that time in the way that they see fit. And I feel like that was something that you really took advantage of and really shaped the way you wanted to use that time. [00:41:49] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, and we did, we were, you know, I wanted to use it. Yeah, I wanted a bit of a holiday, but, you know, we worked hard at that as well, you know, so we knew what we wanted to do. You gave us these amazing office facilities at Mindspace, which I loved. Going in to work and to be there and to do all that. Yeah. And we just programmed our schedule. My mom was quite funny and she said, well, you've been on holiday. I was like, oh my goodness, Mum. Like, we worked. Yeah, we worked so hard. I got onto law. Lots of like, I never thought I'd go to San Francisco. So I got onto lots of social media on Instagram and I sort of looked at all things San Francisco and I was like, these are the things we're going to tick off. So at the weekends, on the evening, you know, even the day before, we traveled. I had three things on my list on that day that we were checking out the hotel and we went and did them. So, yeah, I just, I do feel we got a full experience of it. [00:42:49] Speaker B: Nice to make some time to kind of unwind in amongst the chaos of filling every area of the day. [00:42:54] Speaker A: One of the things I thought I'd do more, I thought I'd kind of be out at night and doing things, but the reality was I was exhausted. [00:43:00] Speaker B: I used to sleep by nine every night. [00:43:03] Speaker A: So we're in this amazing city. The hotel for the second two weeks was really fantastic. We had these floor to ceiling windows and views right over the bay, over Alcatraz and we could see the boats and the city. And I kept saying, oh, we need to go to this rooftop bar. Why don't we do this? And I was like, like, let's just make a cup of tea and sit at the window little think about the day. Yeah, yeah. And part of that because we were out and doing so much and we were running the business back home, so. And with the eight hour time difference, we worked late at night and I think there was a couple of mornings as well. We had some early morning calls too, so we did work around the clock. But yeah, I wear a whoop. Right. I'm a bit obsessed. I'm health and well being, so I am a bit obsessed about getting everything right. And if that meant I needed to sleep, I needed to sleep because ultimately I wanted to be the best CEO and founder to get the most out of this experience. So, yeah, I probably ate better than I eat at home. I don't drink. I haven't got time to be hungover or to feel rubbish the next day. So I'm not drinking. And yeah, I want my sleep and yeah, I want to get my steps in. So exercise was seeing the city, fueling. [00:44:17] Speaker B: Yourself for that for sure can be quite an intense experience. [00:44:21] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I can't imagine, and I don't think people were having a big piss up or anything, but I can't imagine what that would be like, you know. And you know, I wanted to be fresh, to take everything out of it. [00:44:34] Speaker B: So it's kind of a done question, but I feel like it bears repeating and I feel like as a woman in tech, like you can hear a lot about, oh, what's it like to be, be a woman in tech. But I think that it's definitely a question worth asking because so many women tackle the challenges that that brings in so many different ways. You have four children, you have an incredibly busy business and a full life. How do you make it work? [00:45:09] Speaker A: Yeah, so good question. So one, I'd like to say my children are a little bit older, so My youngest is 15. And the others are kind of AD. They're still, they're fledgling adults. So maybe that, that takes even more because they're still having some support and appreciate. Going away for three weeks, you know, was a big thing and it was a juggle. And I think any, anybody working and who has a family needs the support of the wider family, the wider community around them. So that's hugely important and I think beneficial to the children that there's other people and other input. You know, I'm not a perfect mother, I, you know, I get things wrong, but there's other people that can give input and there's a whole saying, you know, it takes a whole village to bring up a child. I'm all for that. You know, bring it on. Help my kids, help my kids anywhere. And let me help your children. Let me do that. So that's really huge. And I think the other thing not to underestimate is how wonderful and enriching it is for young people to see parents create a business, to be driven, to adapt a business to change. I feel that they've really grown with me, that, you know, they've been curious. My little one, when I first started, you know, he was. He was maybe about nine and I remember some stuff being in the paper and he was like, mom, I've seen you in the paper. And that's really amazing. And he understood. And they all have known the changes and they've been involved. You know, my older children have been involved. They've done bits of marketing, they've helped create radio shows, they do graphics, they do canvas. So there's been a real kind of family affair, which. Do you know what? That was great work experience. They've gone off and done other things. And you know, my eldest now, she's been here with me today, she's hot desking it downstairs here at Code Base, which is really brilliant. But on the way in, she's got a business idea and she actually. We talked about it all the way in and she's like, mum, I've not felt this excited for ages. And I'm like, job done. [00:47:16] Speaker B: Incredible. Love that they've observed that journey. Almost been on it with you. [00:47:20] Speaker A: Yeah, totally. What you give your children by seeing this and is working as a team with. You know, if you have another half with you, that's fantastic. Or just that wider family connection community. Bring them in. [00:47:36] Speaker B: Absolutely. So where can our listeners find dancing? [00:47:40] Speaker A: Yeah, so you can find us online at. Dancing Online and you'll be able to have a look there. We do have a whole sort of individual membership as well, so, you know, lots of activities, adults. It's all about helping with longevity. So we've got great resources for them to use. You can sign up and be a monthly user, which is great. If you're in a care home or in the care sector, get involved. We want to have a conversation with you because we want to work with the whole team and make sure we implement it correctly and how to deliver these brilliant resources. And we have this radio station which is, you know, it's behind the paywall, but if you're a member, you get to listen to this 24, four hours a day. And we're a bit sneaky because the music is my guilty pleasure. Yeah. It kind of manipulates how we want you to feel throughout the day. [00:48:26] Speaker B: Interesting. [00:48:27] Speaker A: Yeah. So we change the music beats per minute. So between six and nine, we start to lift you up a little bit so you can get on with your day. And then it is full on. Sweet Caroline. Right. So I kind of apologize. But then we take it down at lunchtime to help you feel kind of connected and safe and let you chew and let you eat, and then we lift it up again and then we've got meditations at night, nighttime and great music throughout the night. So that's really a wonderful way to connect and just to make you feel good. So all our members, all our care homes have access to that as part of the service. [00:49:02] Speaker B: Brilliant. [00:49:02] Speaker A: Yeah. And if anyone's interested in getting involved on the business side, you know, whether they want to help us grow it or they've got something to offer that they really feel they could help us elevate to the next stage, obviously I'm the one that's always open to every single conversation. If you just want to connect, find me on LinkedIn. Natalie. Gary. I love to be connected. I love to see other people's journeys. I am that annoying supporter. I do like. I like everything. You know, if I don't like it, I've either not seen it or really don't like it. But, you know, I want to lift people up as well. And I think in this space and in this world, let's do it together and let's collaborate and be supporters. [00:49:42] Speaker B: Amazing. And you definitely did that for our cohort when we were out there. So a big thank you. Yeah, of course. [00:49:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:49:49] Speaker B: Thank you so much for being on the show today. It's been great to chat to you. [00:49:52] Speaker A: Brilliant.