Meet Dr. Leslie Hewitt - CEO
Dr. Leslie Hewitt founded a wellness clinic in the San Francisco Bay Area. After 20 years in Private Practice treating patients, she sold her Practice in 2018. During her time in Practice, she launched The WOW Talks to address the many issues that women face with their healthcare decisions.
WOW (Women of Wellness) launched five successful conferences and eight chapters for women in the TED-talk format; with women speaking on topics ranging from A to Z, including advocacy, aging without meds, balancing a busy life, boomer brainpower, depression, feminine leadership, nutrition, and sex, to mention a few popular topics.
The medical, alternative, and holistic viewpoints were shared equally. Dr. Hewitt rose to the highest achievement in her profession as the 4th female President of the California Chiropractic Association (founded in 1928). She served two terms as Madam President, where she influenced healthcare legislation at the Capital in both Sacramento and Washington D.C.
Leslie is originally from Canada where she earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology with a focus on pre-med. She then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where she earned her Doctorate in Chiropractic. She resides in Florida in her Boynton Beach home and runs Menoplicity from her Hollywood Penthouse while continuing to serve on several boards, including the California Chiropractic Association.
Meet Johanna Zeilstra – Cofounder
Johanna is an established business strategist and an accomplished leader for both start-ups and global corporations. Over the past two decades, she has worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers and JPMorgan Chase, and with over a dozen client corporations, including Delta Airlines, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Philips, Lucent, Disney, Bank of America, and Occidental Petroleum. Her career has led her to work in Canada, China, Indonesia, France, and The Netherlands. She acts as a coach to senior executives on boards and top teams and has a passion for supporting and advancing women leaders. Johanna currently runs Gender Fair, a platform that uses data analytics to determine an organization’s progress towards diversity and inclusion. Prior to this, Johanna co-founded GiveBack, an innovative platform that makes it easy for companies to build authentic and impactful cause marketing, workplace giving, and other social responsibility initiatives. GiveBack was launched on the Oprah Winfrey Show during her final season in 2011.
Johanna is originally from the Netherlands and educated in Canada where she earned an undergraduate degree in Sociology and a Master's degree in Business Administration. She resides in Westchester, NY, where she runs the Women Entrepreneurs Network and serves on several boards, including the CEO Forum.
About Us
Leslie and Johanna met 35 years ago while attending university in Canada. They have stayed close friends ever since through marriages, divorce, children, corporate careers, entrepreneurial ventures – and the many highs and lows of life. Leslie chose the medical route and Johanna the corporate one – both moving to the USA over 25 years ago – one to the West Coast and the other to the East Coast.
It was on a Camino walk in Spain in 2017 that they discussed their respective journeys and the frustrations that women their age endure – unrealistic expectations, few resources, and even less celebration of midlife. Many business names were discussed, and one thing was clear when they shared their ideas with friends, and that is, women didn't want to see the word menopause in our business name. Yes you read that clearly. We discovered that AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) had a group called Friends of Bill. And we learned that the LBGQT community had meetings called Friends of Dorothy. Fun right!
Leslie and Johanna wanted to give menopause a woman's name that started with the letter 'M'. They chose Margaret to be synonymous with menopause. As Aunt Flo came to visit us in our teens, Friends of Margaret is here for us on the other end of our cycle. Thus, the idea of Menoplicity was born, effectively combining Menopause + Simplicity.
One thing for certain is that to date, our menopausal journey is both unique and private. Some of us struggle our way through it alone, others are guided by their moms, and others have a community of girlfriends, sisters, and medical professionals to help them. When Johanna experienced her ‘transition’ there was no lack of information (too much and too confusing) but little expert advice on natural ways to go through menopause.
Like all good ideas, Menoplicity is a solution to a problem. Johanna and Leslie set out to create what was missing in their own lives: a community of women who have each other’s backs and actively seek to improve their lives while also lifting up those around them. One single place for community, resources, expert advice and products.
It seemed so obvious that something like this should exist, but it didn’t so they created it. And, as it turns out, this is a need a lot of women have been missing. Valuable wisdom is abundant among this aspiring community of women. Intuition and discernment is eminent as women-owned businesses and holistic options emerge. Collaborative and assured women unite as they age together. Menopausal women are poised in growing numbers as the biggest growing niche.
Join Menoplicity while on your journey! Get support and offer support to others as they begin their journey through menopause. Become a Friend of Margaret today!
Fun Facts About Us
We Love to Celebrate
Leslie and Johanna met in university. They have enjoyed their birthdays together with groups of friends in their 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's. Canada for 20th, United States for their 30th, Bahamas for their 40th, Mexico for Leslie's 50th, and Spain for Johanna's 50th. What will they do for their 60th? They have some time to think about it. One thing is for sure --- it will be with a group of girlfriends on a journey somewhere far far away.
Furry Family Members
Johanna loves dogs and always has at least 2-3 dogs around her feet during Zoom meetings. Leslie loves cats and has always had at least 2-3 cats since she was a little girl. They both respect animals and in fact, Johanna is vegan. Leslie is almost there and is still trying to manage protein in an animal-conscientious way.
Kids Kids Kids
Johanna climbed the corporate ladder all the way to the top then had her kids in her 40's. She loves her three boys and they are the center of her life. Leslie was the neighborhood babysitter as a young teen and that experience made her think twice about having kids. Later in her corporate career she would be asked "Do you plan on having kids because it doesn't make sense to train you if you do". She chose not to have kids.
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