#129 Improving female sexual pleasure with Billie Quinlan

When you find yourself calling your workplace to report a fake bike accident, so you don’t have to walk through the door to face the person who sexually assaulted you at work, in fear of breaking down in tears, you know something needs to change. As you will hear in today’s powerful conversation with Billie Quinlan, Co-founder and CEO of Ferly who passionately believes in the power of unlocking female pleasure for gender equality, things get real, real fast. Ferly is a business focused on improving our sexual wellbeing who was voted one of the top 100 companies to work for in 2019 by The Escape 100 Index (a campaign to find the best companies to escape to in 2019). “We see sexual selfcare as the practice of prioritising our pleasure. This means exploring our minds and bodies, taking the time to understand our wants and needs, and learning how to communicate these, so we feel confident and healthy.” This is a very special episode for me as I had the pleasure of coaching and leading Billie through a 12-week programme (along with the amazing Sophie Miller) back in 2016 and although we stayed in touch over the years, I had never heard the story that she shared with me until today. So as you can imagine, I was deeply moved by Billie’s courage to open up and share with us what happened to her in her workplace and how that experience fuelled her to drive to make a difference. What is truly incredible and inspiring about Billie’s story is that despite having zero previous experiences as a founder and having virtually no experience whatsoever in tech, she made it into the first cohort of the Zinc tech business accelerator and against what everyone else said, managed with her friend Anna Hushlak to launch Ferly, a tech startup who’s mission is to radically transform society’s relationship with sex. Oh, and they just so happened to manage to raise £1.5million in pre-seed investment…Not bad, eh? “We’re doing this by creating a space where every woman can spend time really getting to grips with what makes her tick. So she can understand and prioritise her own pleasure through the ultimate journey of self-discovery.” This is an episode that will truly blow your mind and show you just how far you can go if you find something you feel truly passionate about and don’t let the negative voices around you stop you on your tracks. As always, I’d love to hear what inspired you about this week’s episode so make sure to tag me over on social media @marleruste! Enjoy this powerful conversation 🙏 Mark -- SHOWNOTES: Podcast Bootcamp (Use discount code “podcasttribe” to get 10% off): www.theunconventionalists.com/podcasting-bootcamp Full episode show notes: www.theunconventionalists.com/episode/129