Optometrist & Founder, Ocushield | Workplace Eye Wellness Expert | Featured on Dragons Den, Forbes & USA Today | B Corp Certified | King's Award Recipient

Whilst studying Optometry at university, I launched the development of the initial product offering at Ocushield - medically registered blue light filtering technology that allow screen based users to have fresher feeling eyes and improved sleep latency after screen use. 

I'm currently focussed on our online eye screening solution, which takes 4 mins to complete and is accessible for employees and patients via a web based URL (no app needed). Serving policy holders and employees at Benenden Health, BHSF, AON, AIG Insurance and more... 

Having received a development grant from City University of London, I built Ocushield into an internationally distributed, MHRA/FDA medically registered product that transformed hundreds of thousands of peoples eye health and quality of life.

From boot strapping Ocushield (to six figures in revenue before taking on external funding, total raised £1.5m) to getting featured on Dragons' Den (and winning over Peter Jones & Tej Lalvani in the process), Forbes, The Guardian & USA Today - talking about the impacts of screen time on eye health and sleep, it’s been an entrepreneurial journey full of ups and downs and yes a lot of lessons.

At Ocushield, we've generated total revenues in excess of £10m and have helped over 300,000 eyes in over 147 countries with our products to protect their eyes.

We envision a world where everyone understands the value of their eyes, feels empowered to protect them, and has access to tools, products, and services that support lifelong eye health.

Dhruvin Patel

I launched my 7-fig business before I had ANY stock.
Madness, most people would think...

I was a student.
Testing eyes in clinics at university during the day
Supplier emails and product research at night.

Every time someone showed interest in person, I took their email.
No idea about funnels or a CRM.

Just 1,500 real people who cared, on a spreadsheet
(no GDPR practice in sight lol)

When my first Ocushield screen filter prototype was ready
I didn’t hunt "investors".

I asked the customer list to pre-order on a website a fellow student built for me... Big up Rishi!

That first wave FULLY funded the first production run.
No outside cash.

I then packed boxes from my dorm, then my parents home.
They weren't thrilled.
All these boxes, for what?!

I'm just about to complete my degree but started creating and selling products "online"

It taught me a bigger lesson..

You don't need anyone to tell you to start...
You don't need tons of £££ to validate an idea...

You need a developed idea/prototype, ability to speak to people, and the ability to keep them engaged...

Ever thinking of launching a business yourself?

I do believe, the above can still be replicated in 2026

Even though I did the above in 2015 before I took the plunge in 2018 to go full time in the business.

If you start building your list today.

For whatever product or service...you want to offer the world...

When you’re ready, you won’t be begging.
You’ll be opening the doors to whats possible 

If you want more building lessons like above about starting a business (0 to your first £100k stage...) I'm sharing my experiences building a multi 7-figure business, follow along.

Optometrist & SeeEO | Dragons’ Den & King’s Award Winner

My first hire/operations executive wasn’t paid.
It was my dad.

During the day, I was testing eyes at the big green machine, Specsavers.

By night, I was packing Ocushield orders on the dining room floor.

Every morning, my Dad (who had grown tired after redundancy a year earlier) took customer packages to the post office.

No questions. No payment. Just helping his son.

Even though he had no idea what I was doing, ha.

BUT, I didn’t quit my job.

I moved back home.
I downsized.

I asked for help from my dad...
That allowed me to work a job and work on my business.

I learned pretty quickly...

That you do and don't need to make a massive commitment to start a business.

Don't because, you don't have to quit your job...
You do, because you might have to compromise on your current lifestyle...

You need a structure that buys you time, cash flow and energy.

The last is something most people disregard.
Waiting for money to come in from your biz when you have bills or outgoings doesn't allow you to focus on growth, but focus on keeping your own lights on.

Keep the day job - it funds getting off the ground, figuring it out & lowers the panic

Rewire your environment to suit your needs; I moved back home.

Ask for help - family, friends, one reliable helper beats ten advisors.
Set simple rules - ship daily, build the customer base, and reinvest the profits.

If you look around, you’ll be surprised how much help you already have.
You just have to ask and then use it.

If you want more building lessons like above about starting a business (0 to your first £100k stage...) I'm sharing my experiences building a multi 7-figure business, follow along.

DON'T meet your teammates if you run a remote company.

At least, not just for the sake of it.

Remote teams don't struggle cos people are in different locations.

They struggle when connection becomes accidental instead of intentional.

We've been remote from early on at Ocushield. 

Different cities, time zones, and work rhythms...

So we had to learn new things to optimise things, to help things work for us.

We have to design connection... Here's what that means in practice:

1/ Remote doesn't mean distant

You can build real closeness through structure.

We create rituals, shared spaces, and predictable touchpoint so communication feels natural, not forced.

2/ Face-to-face time is a force multiplier

When we do meet in person, it changes everything.

Conversations get deeper, decisions get faster, trust compounds.

One day in the same room can remove weeks of small misunderstandings.

Remote keeps things efficient.
In-person resets alignment.

You need BOTH.

3/ Culture doesn't happen by accident

In an office, culture happens in the gaps.

In remote teams, you have to build the gaps on purpose.

Shared activities.
Moments that aren't just about tasks.
Space for people to be humans and not just roles.

Cos the real glue in teams is not the process...

It's familiarity.

The mistake I see most founders make?

They choose either remote efficiency or in-person connection.

The best teams design for both.

Remote for focus, In-person for trust.
Shared spaces, even virtual ones, for daily cohesion.

You don't need an office to build a strong team.

But you do need to be intentional about how people feel connected when no one shares a desk.

That part doesn't happen on its own.

HR and people leaders,
LISTEN UP!

I’m REALLY excited about this.

And if screens are a big part of your day, you’ll probably see why.

Most of us don’t think twice about how screen-heavy work actually feels.

We just adapt.

We push through foggy afternoons, including your teams...

We accept that being “on” all day comes with a cost.

And we rarely stop to question whether things could feel better.

Over time, that adds up.

Not just to tired eyes.

But to focus that’s harder to hold.

Productivity that feels heavier than it should.

Sleep that doesn’t quite restore you.

Screens aren’t the problem.

They’re essential to how we work.

What’s missing is education around how to work with them, not against them.

That’s why we’re running a free webinar series with Posturite Ltd, exploring The Screen Time Effect and what it really means for people and organisations today.

I’m especially looking forward to the conversations with Katie Maycock, Ellice Whyte, and Katharine Metters.

All three bring a very real, practical perspective to how modern work impacts performance, wellbeing, and recovery.

📅 February–March 2026
🎥 3 virtual sessions
🧠 Performance, compliance & wellbeing

The sessions:
• The Productivity Problem
• The Compliance Gap
• Screens, Stress & Sleep

This isn’t about banning screens.

It’s about understanding what genuinely helps people feel better and perform better in a screen-first world.

Designed for HR, Health & Safety, and Facilities teams.

If you know someone who looks after screen-heavy teams, feel free to tag them or send this on. This will be relevant.

If screens are a big part of your workday, this should be useful.

👉 Find out more and save your spot here:
https://lnkd.in/eAeXebth

Hope to see you there.

Work hard. Don’t waste money. 
Think long term.


If you grew up in an Asian household, you’ve probably heard some version of that line too.

It wasn’t said as motivation.
It was said as guidance.
Sometimes as concern.

Often as repetition.

Stability mattered.
Education mattered.

You didn’t chase shortcuts.
You built something solid, even if it took longer.

At the time, it felt cautious.

Looking back, it was foundational.

Those values showed up long before I ever became a founder.

Some of them stayed exactly as they were.

Others had to evolve as the business grew.

“Work hard” initially meant long hours and constant effort.

Over time, it became focused work and better judgement.

“Don’t waste money” turned into spending with intention, not ego.

Hiring carefully.
Building only what solved real problems.

“Think long term” stopped being abstract parental advice and became how I measure success.

Not by speed.
Not by noise.

But by whether the business can stand up over years.

That mindset influenced how I approached risk.

Why I built steadily.

Why I avoided shortcuts that looked impressive but didn’t last.

As a founder, I’ve realised something.

A lot of what shapes your leadership doesn’t come from books or mentors.

It comes from home.

Those early lessons don’t disappear.

They mature.

And when they do, they quietly shape the kind of business you build and the kind of leader you become.

I'm not crying, you are.
Messages like this stop me in my tracks

Don't get me wrong... 
Customers matter deeply.
Without them, nothing else exists.

But the moments that stay with me as a founder come from somewhere else.

They come from messages like this.

A team member reflecting on how far they’ve come.

On rediscovering confidence.

On no longer feeling like they’re constantly on edge or second-guessing themselves.

That’s when leadership feels real.

People don’t just join companies to do a job.

They join hoping for stability.

For trust.
For the space to grow without fear.

When someone tells you they feel safe enough to do their best work.

To stretch.
To take responsibility.
To believe in themselves again.

That’s not accidental.

That’s the outcome of an environment where people are treated as humans, not just outputs.

Yes, pleasing customers matters.
It always will.

But helping someone grow, professionally and personally, is something else entirely.

It’s a privilege.

And it’s a responsibility.

Because leadership isn’t just about where the company is going.

It’s about how people feel while they’re helping you get there ♥️

A patent didn’t protect our business.


At first...

Our brand did.

People still ask me this:
“Do you have a patent?”

And for a long time, the honest answer was no.

When I started Ocushield at university, I spoke to a patent attorney early on.
The reality back then?

When it comes to wavelengths of light, especially blue and short-wavelength light, patents were fragile.

Easy to work around.
Expensive to defend.
Slow to matter.

So I had a decision to make:
→ Spend years protecting something that could be bypassed
→ Or build something people trusted, searched for, and came back to

I chose the second.

We focused on:
• Credibility over hype
• Education over noise
• Understanding digital eye strain, not just “blue light”
• Product quality people could actually feel day to day
• A relationship with the customer, not a one-off transaction

That choice mattered.

Ocushield became one of the most searched brands in the UK for screen protection and digital eye strain, not because we owned the idea, but because we owned the conversation around artificial light, screens, and modern visual load.

And now the interesting part.

As our technology has evolved, so has our ability to protect it.

We’re now actively developing patentable technology focused on reducing the impact of short-wavelength artificial light from screens and modern environments, including blue light.

Not as a starting point.
But as a multiplier.

That’s the difference experience makes.

Brand built the foundation.
Trust built the demand.

Now IP strengthens what already works.

The takeaway for me hasn’t changed, it’s matured:

IP can protect technology.
Brand protects relevance.

And understanding the real problem, digital eye strain in a world of artificial light, is what earns long-term trust.

Be honest, would a patent save your business right now… or would customers who trust you?

Working on a screen is BLISS!!!
Said, no one.

By mid-afternoon:
Headaches.
Tension.

That drained, foggy feeling people quietly accept as part of the day.

At first, it feels like background noise.

But, it quietly becomes part of our day to day reality of "work".

That's why myself and Dr Raj Kohli, MD - our clinical innovation lead want to do something about it with the folk over at YuLife

When your eyes are uncomfortable, you don’t consciously register it as a problem.

You just adapt.
You strain a little more to focus.
You work harder to stay sharp.
You push through, without realising the extra load your system is carrying.

Over time, that quiet compensation adds up.

What struck us most is how rarely eye comfort is treated as a starting point in conversations about modern work.

Screens aren’t optional anymore.

And powering through discomfort has become normalised.

But discomfort is still a signal.

In any system, when the input is strained, everything downstream works harder.

Fatigue sets in faster.

Focus drops.

Small issues quietly become persistent ones.

That’s why I believe eye health isn’t a niche topic anymore.

It’s foundational to how work actually feels, day to day.

Ignoring it doesn’t make the problem disappear.

It just pushes the strain somewhere else.

King Charles talks screen time.
Amongst war, climate change etc... this is what he's thinking about.


And the science backs him up.

Recently, King Charles spoke about modern screen habits and their impact on health, especially how much time we now spend staring at devices.

What stood out to me isn’t panic.

It’s awareness.

Because according to research, our eyes are working harder than ever.

According to peer-reviewed studies published in the National Library of Medicine (NIH):

Symptoms of digital eye strain, things like dry eyes, blurred vision, headaches and fatigue, are reported in up to 80–90% of heavy screen users as daily screen time increases.

According to a large meta-analysis published in JAMA Network Open:

Each additional hour of daily screen time is associated with a higher likelihood of myopia (short-sightedness), particularly between 1–4 hours of sustained near work.

According to scientific reviews in Frontiers in Public Health and the NIH:

Blue light from screens can disrupt circadian rhythms and sleep quality, even though normal screen exposure hasn’t been shown to cause retinal damage.

And according to clinical studies on digital eye strain (NIH):

Spending 3–5+ hours a day on near-screen work is strongly linked with eye fatigue, headaches and reduced visual comfort.

None of this means screens are “bad”.

It means our eyes are compensating quietly… until they can’t.

Protect the eyes that power your day.

Because your eyes aren’t just windows to the world.

They’re an extension of your brain, processing information for hours on end, every single day.

Ignoring that isn’t resilience.

It’s delayed maintenance.

As we head into another screen-heavy year, the question isn’t whether screens are going away.

It’s whether we’ll finally start supporting the eyes doing the work.

What’s one small change you’ve made, or want to make, to protect your eyes this year?

The longer I build, the less interested I am in dramatic growth stories.



They’re often overrated.

What I care about now is consistency.

Energy that’s still there on a Monday.

Decision-making that isn’t reactive.

Teams that aren’t quietly exhausted.

Early on, I optimised for pace.

Now I optimise for durability.

That shift didn’t come naturally.

It came from learning a few things the hard way.

1/ Pushing harder isn’t the same as leading better

Urgency can look like momentum, but it often hides weak systems.
When everything feels critical, nothing actually gets fixed.

2/ Calm scales better than intensity

Teams take cues from how leaders behave under pressure.
Calm decision-making creates stability.
Panic spreads faster than progress.

3/ Sustainable output beats heroic effort

Late nights and last-minute saves feel productive in the moment.
Over time, they quietly drain energy, trust, and consistency.

4/ How work feels matters as much as what gets delivered

If people are always tired, clarity drops.
If clarity drops, quality follows.

Leadership isn’t about always doing more.

It’s about knowing when not to.

That judgement only comes from getting it wrong a few times first.

And while this way of building is far less glamorous than rapid growth,
it’s also far more resilient.

The most amazing thing she’d ever seen?


“ChatGPT.”
She said it half-laughing, half-serious.

Like most of us did the first time we used it.

Because it feels like magic.

Instant intelligence. Infinite output. A glimpse of what’s coming next.

Then I asked a different question.

“What’s one thing you still want to see more of in your life?”

“Kids laughing.”

That gap is the story of our time.

We’re captivated by technology that accelerates the future…

yet the moments that matter most are still deeply human and visual.

Then something else came up.

She mentioned she has astigmatism, but didn’t really know what it meant or how it affects her vision.

Again, not unusual.

Most people don’t think about their eyesight unless something forces them to.

Blur becomes familiar.

Eye strain becomes background noise.

Fatigue gets normalised.

Not because it’s harmless.

But because it happens gradually.

We obsess over tools that improve speed, output, and intelligence…

while overlooking the system that lets us experience any of it.

Our eyes.

If vision is how we witness laughter, connection, and meaning,

then protecting it isn’t a “nice to have”.

It’s fundamental.

So here’s the question worth sitting with 👇

Are you upgrading the world around you…
or quietly accepting a lower-resolution version of it?

Your burnout might have nothing to do with your workload.


It might be coming through your eyes.

And almost no one is talking about it.

I was listening to Andrew Huberman explain something that quietly reframed how I think about fatigue, focus, and modern work:

Your eyes aren’t just tools for seeing.

They’re literal extensions of your brain.

Which means how you use them all day shapes:

– your mood
– your focus
– your nervous system

Here’s the uncomfortable part.

We may be running a mass experiment in visual overload.

Hours of intense near-focus.
Screens inches from our face.
Very little distance.
Almost no visual recovery.

Over time, the eye physically adapts to this.

It elongates.
It locks into near-work mode.

And your nervous system never really stands down.

That’s why modern fatigue doesn’t feel like “I worked too hard.”

It feels like:
– constant mental noise
– shallow attention
– irritability without a clear cause
– that wired-but-drained state

We talk endlessly about brain health.

Sleep.
Stress.
Dopamine.
Productivity systems.

But we almost never talk about visual behaviour.

Yet it’s one of the strongest inputs into how your brain feels all day.

This isn’t about demonising screens.

It’s about realising that when your eyes are overloaded, your brain usually is too.

Worth sitting with:

Are you actually exhausted from work…

or from asking your visual system to operate unnaturally all day?

One thing about starting a business that surprised me....


Most of the pressure doesn’t come from failure.

It comes from uncertainty.

Not knowing if you’re early or wrong.

Not knowing whether to push or pause.

Not knowing if today’s quiet is normal or a warning.

Early on, I tried to solve that by moving faster.

More decisions... More activity...

More things to “feel productive”.

What I didn’t realise at the time was that speed doesn’t remove uncertainty.

It just masks it.

Over the years, I’ve noticed something consistent.

The founders who last aren’t the ones who react the quickest.

They’re the ones who sit with ambiguity without panicking.

A few things that experience taught me:

1/ Most uncertainty resolves itself if you give it time
2/ Not every dip needs intervention
3/ Silence is often information, not failure
4/ Rushed decisions usually create more problems than they solve

Clarity tends to arrive quietly.

Usually after you’ve resisted the urge to “do something” for long enough.

That’s been one of the hardest, and most valuable, lessons for me.

I started a hardware business, without meeting my suppliers.
You SHOULDN'T do this in 2026.

When I launched Ocushield, I didn’t meet my manufacturers...
Emails and calls only.
It worked…

A year in, I jumped on a flight.
Factory floors. Tooling rooms. Cup of tea with the owners of the factory
Everything changed.... 

Because:

Product got better, through things we didn't even know were possible.
Like, triple tempering our Ocushield screen protector glass to ensure it withstands x10 more force to stop breakage.

We even landed a negative cash cycle

This meant paying for produced goods after we sold them, not before.
That only happened because we built a REAL relationship.

If you’re starting a business in 2026 and it's a product, don’t skip this step.

The great factories are rammed with inbound inquiries via AliBaba and more.
Faces beat typical outreach.

Before you go to see the factory...

Shortlist three of your top factories. Ask for certifications and references from others.

Bring your brief, target unit cost, and two competitor samples.

Write down your non-negotiables, e.g tooling ownership, defect limits, response times.

On site – what to actually do

Walk the line from raw material to boxed product.

Ask who owns the tooling, (important if you want IP) - get it in writing.

Look at incoming QC and final inspection.

Watch their best operator build your product. Time it.
Swap a material. Remove a part. Combine a process.
& then... design and cost are unlocked

Cost drops when steps disappear, and quality rises when it’s simpler.

Quality that matters to your customers.

Be honest about volume and cash.

Show 3 forecasts: conservative, expected, stretch.

Ask for a smaller MOQ on run one in exchange for a clear ramp.

Tie better pricing to on-time payment and repeat orders (to begin with).

Then, payment terms that really matter

Start with a small deposit and shrink it each production run.

Push for a negative cash cycle once you’ve proved you are regularly doing business with them 6-12 months in.

Keep the relationship warm - send them thank-you gifts, tell them they're doing a great job with each shipment and how they're changing your life and your team.

I didn't have to do this when I launched my first run in 2015, as suppliers in South Korea and China were hungry for business.

They still are, but they can tell where they want to invest their time and where they don't.

So, book the flights - spend some time with them.

It's also a super important part of the founder journey, one that shouldn't be overlooked or outsourced.

If you want more building lessons like above about starting a business (0 to your first £100k stage...) I'm sharing my experiences building a multi 7-figure business, follow along.

Everyone told me to quit my job to start a business...


I did the opposite.

Not because I lacked belief.
But because I understood risk.

I had responsibilities.
A profession I’d invested years into.
And a very real awareness of downside.

So I built alongside my job.

Early mornings.
Late nights.
Weekends that quietly disappeared.

That decision shaped how the business was built.

Here’s what it taught me.

1/ Income buys you thinking time
Around 70 percent of startups fail, with cash flow one of the biggest reasons.
Keeping an income early removed panic decisions and forced better ones.

2/ Scarcity creates discipline
When time and money are limited, only real problems survive.
Nice ideas disappear.
Useful ones earn their place.

3/ Validation beats velocity
Building slowly meant every product had to prove demand before it grew.
Speed looks impressive.
Traction keeps businesses alive.

4/ Ego is expensive
No spare budget means no vanity hires, no rushed launches, no noise.
Just fundamentals and focus.

5/ Quiet compounding is real
Progress looked slow from the outside.
But consistency over months and years did the heavy lifting.

Looking back, not quitting wasn’t hesitation.

It was strategy.

You don’t need chaos to be committed.

You don’t need a leap to be serious.

And you don’t need permission to build sustainably.

If you’re building something alongside work, this is your reminder:

You’re not behind.
You’re being intentional.

If this resonates, feel free to repost it for someone quietly building too.

Looking back, which risk did you choose not to take early on?

I didn’t learn how to build products from business books.


I learned it training as an optician.

You stop asking, “Does this sell?”
And start asking, “Does this actually help?”

That way of thinking never really leaves you.

In clinic, you see how people adapt.

They tolerate discomfort, they normalise strain.

They adjust behaviour without ever calling it a PROBLEM.

That lens has shaped how I think about products far more than any course or framework.

Over time, I realised a few things:

• People rarely ask for what they actually need
• The biggest problems are often the quietest ones
• If something genuinely helps, people keep using it without being reminded
• Good products reduce friction, they don’t demand attention

It made me far less interested in flashy features.

And much more focused on how something fits into real life.

The best feedback I’ve ever had on a product isn’t excitement.

It’s actually the repeat use of our products... 

That mindset came straight from my early training, and it still guides how I evaluate ideas today.

How you see products in business

Why does Simon Cowell wear these ugly orange glasses?!


In his new Netflix project, you’ll notice Simon Cowell wearing tinted glasses indoors, including under studio lights.

That’s not a branding choice.

It’s a response to light sensitivity (photophobia), something he’s spoken about publicly.

And it matters more than people realise.

According to the NHS, photophobia isn’t rare. Bright or artificial light can trigger headaches, eye pain, fatigue, and reduced concentration, especially under intense indoor lighting.

(Source: NHS – Photophobia overview)

Now zoom out.

According to Ofcom, UK adults spend over 6 hours a day on screens, and that number rises significantly for professionals and founders.

(Source: Ofcom Online Nation Report)

Add harsh LED lighting.
Add long filming or workdays.
Add constant visual demand.
The eyes don’t “break”.
They compensate.

And compensation looks like:

• Eye strain
• Headaches
• Brain fatigue
• Reduced focus
• Lower productivity

Research published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience shows that visual input directly affects cognitive load and focus, because the eyes are literally extensions of the brain.

(Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)

So when someone at Cowell’s level actively manages light exposure, that’s not vanity.
That’s performance management.

We talk endlessly about:

• Sleep optimisation
• Nutrition
• Training
• Wearables

But we still ignore the system feeding the brain all day long.

Your eyes.

This is exactly why our new direction is simple:

Protect the eyes that power your day.

Not because it’s trendy.

Because productivity, clarity, and energy quietly depend on it.

Question worth sitting with 👇

Have you ever adjusted how you see… or only how long you work?

There’s a big difference between building something impressive and building something people stick with.

Early on, I chased polish.

Refinement... Perfection...

I thought if something looked good enough, it would naturally succeed.

Experience taught me otherwise.

What matters far more than how something looks is how it behaves in the real world.

Over time, I stopped paying attention to surface-level signals and started watching different ones.

1/ Return behaviour matters more than first reactions

If people come back without being prompted, you’re solving something real.
Excitement can get attention. Habit earns loyalty.

2/ Unobserved use is the real test

If something is still used when no one’s watching, it’s useful.
If it needs reminders, it’s probably friction, not value.

3/ Friction removed beats features added

The best products don’t demand attention.
They quietly make life easier.

4/ Absence reveals value

If people wouldn’t notice when it disappears, it wasn’t essential.
Real value creates a gap when it’s gone.

That shift changed how I judge progress.

Excitement fades quickly.

Utility compounds.

Some of the most successful things I’ve been involved in never felt impressive at launch.

They just worked, consistently, over time.

That’s when I stopped confusing momentum with value.

 building something people stick with

HR leaders, read this before your next wellbeing initiative.

Your nervous system doesn't know the difference between a tiger and your inbox.

It just knows: 
alert... alert... alert...

One thing I've realized working with screen-heavy teams is this:

Most people aren't constantly stressed cos they're weak at coping.

They're stressed cos their body never gets a proper signal that it's safe to stand down.

Modern work makes that really hard.

We move from screen... to meeting... to messages...

to MORE screens...

Even when we "relax", we often do it through another device.

So the brain never really exits stress mode. 

It just shifts from the active stress to low-grade background stress.

Over time, that shows up as:

1/ Feeling wired but tired
2/ Brain fog and reduced focus
3/ A shorter fuse under pressure
4/ A body that feels tense even when you're "resting"

That's why I'm really looking forward to Session 1 of our webinar series "The Screen Time Effect" with Posturite Ltd, Ellice Whyte and Katie Maycock.

We're diving into how stress actually works in the brain and body, and why modern work is keeping so many people stuck in a near-burnout state without realising it.

Here's a glimpse of what we'll explore:

🧠 What stress is really doing to the brain when it becomes constant
💻 Why screen-heavy work can quietly keep the stress response switched on
🪑 The hidden load from how and where we work
🌙 How to build real recovery into normal working life
🔁 Early signs you’re stuck in a stress loop (and how to break it)

February 3, 2026
The Productivity Problem

If you support HR, Health & Safety, Facilities, or manage screen-heavy teams, this will be especially relevant.

Find out more and save your spot here: https://lnkd.in/eAeXebth

Hope to see you there!

Talking might be slowing your vision down.


Not metaphorically. Literally.

A recent study from Fujita Health University, reported by News-Medical, found that speech and conversation can delay how quickly the eyes lock onto visual targets.

In simple terms:

When you’re talking, your visual system reacts more slowly.

That matters more than we think.

Because modern work looks like this:

• Reading screens while talking on calls
• Driving while speaking or thinking out loud
• Switching focus rapidly during meetings
• Multitasking without ever going visually “offline”

According to the research, conversation increases cognitive load, which interferes with visual processing speed, especially during tasks that require quick focus shifts.

(Source: News-Medical, Fujita Health University study)

This isn’t about being anti-conversation.

It’s about understanding something uncomfortable:

Your eyes don’t work in isolation.

They’re wired directly into how your brain processes information, decisions, and risk.

So when we stack:

• Constant talking
• Continuous screen exposure
• Rapid context switching

We quietly tax the system that feeds the brain all day long.

That shows up as:

• Slower reactions
• Mental fatigue
• Reduced focus
• Mistakes we blame on “being busy”

This is why eye health isn’t just clinical anymore.

It’s cognitive.
It’s behavioural.
It’s performance-critical.
We optimise sleep, nutrition, and training.

But we rarely ask:

What state are my eyes in while I’m doing all this?

Worth thinking about 👇

Have you ever noticed how much harder it is to focus visually when you’re constantly talking or multitasking?

Marketing support for ambitious scaling brands | Board Advisor | Epic Kitchen dancer

Creative Marketer of the Year 2025 - Global Women in Marketing 
I work with brands in the heat of it - when growth stalls, relevance slips, and pressure from investors and teams makes everything feel messy, political, and slightly existential. 
Priorities clash. Messaging blurs. Marketing turns beige. 
The spark that built the brand gets buried under process, politics, PowerPoints… and, dare I say, consultants who somehow turn a simple idea into a 97-slide framework that no one really understands.

I help brands step back, get clear on the commercial opportunity, understand what consumers really want/need/desire and find the actual white space.  
Then I help build something distinctive: energy, edge, ideas. And I embed it across the whole experience so it actually sticks.

Big ideas that shift the market. Tiny details that make the difference.

Brands today aren’t built on one big ta-da campaign, but on layers of moments that grab attention, build connection, and quietly convince people, again and again, “Oh… they get me.”

Sometimes i work as a project partner (with an amazing team behind me). Sometimes fractional- if you want long term support. Sometimes advisory- if you want a helicopter view. 
If you’re saying, “We’ve got a problem, but I can’t quite put my finger on it…” or “Why is no one buying us anymore?” or even “we’ve lost our spark”, We should talk. 
Brands I've worked with: ManiLife, Cheeky Panda, Cawston Press, Chupa Chups, The Coconut Collab, Valerie, Oddbox, Goodrays, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Frucor Suntory and more.


And because I am obsessed with people and how they people, I am also the host of podcast ‘why aren’t we talking about this?’ that explores the messy, raw, contradictory parts of being human. Available on Spotify, Apple and everywhere else.

Carly Osman Holme

This is a two-posts-in-one-day, kind of day. Because this is massive.

We are on the front page of the LIBERTY website. Twice.
 
Because LIBERTY- THE purveyor of beauty, health and wellness, has launched Valerie as part of a new curation of wellness products into store.
 
LIBERTY has always been front and centre on the vision board since the very, very beginning. And for them to believe in the mission and the product knowing they only back things that are genuinely efficacious, things that actually work, is a deeply humbling moment (hate the word humble, but I genuinely can't think of a better word to describe the mix of gratitude, pride and happiness).

The feedback we’re getting from consumers. The feedback from buyers. Everything we’re hearing, is showing us that we’re making a difference and being part of the tide of change. Removing shame, removing embarrassment,  and pulling Perimenopuase kicking and screaming into the spotlight. 
 
I’m quietly (and loudly) grateful to be part of it. And best moment of the day Wizz Selvey calling me outside the store squealing- yes, we play is so cool here.

The Big Ideas and Tiny Details of Marketing | NED | Epic Kitchen dancer

I had seven driving instructors, failed my test three times and have had several parking incidents, so it is safe to say that driving is not my strength. 

So it surprised even myself when I impulsively signed up to drive 1,200km in a TukTuk across India. 

Yep, makes total sense….

Next month I pack my bags and alongside 48 other female founders we are hitting the road driving from Chennai to Goa.

Whilst I’m sure I will have (some) fun, we are doing it for a really important reason, to raise £150,000 and help women and girls in Chennai, providing:
1. Safe, water-proof classrooms for 1,000 children every year, helping girls and students with SEND stay in school and learn properly.

2. Practical skills and financial independence for young women who are often first-generation literates with huge potential but limited opportunities.

3. Life-saving postpartum care for new mothers in Chennai, including combatting anaemia, plus nutrition, medical monitoring, and vital health support.

Please, please donate, even if it’s just the equivalent of a glass of wine- every penny counts: https://lnkd.in/e8Sr5Un7 

Huge thanks to Emma Sayle and Frankie James for organising this wild trip- please don’t let me die. And all the women doing it with me, I’m not a great navigator either- sorry, but I will bring the tunes.

I get my energy and inspiration from travel and adventure. Off grid, ideally where I can’t speak the language and moving at a slow pace so I can soak everything up. 

This Christmas, me and my little family went to Sri Lanka. It’s going to take me a while to let the magic of the country fully digest, but it lit something in me- a craving for more colour, more vibrancy and flavour, more depth, more community. More going with the rhythm of life. Not forcing. Not pushing. Just being.

Over the last few years, I’ve become increasingly sensitive to the performativeness of hustle culture- the way we’ve collectively decided that worth looks like speed. Work at breakneck pace. Juggle endlessly. Move on before you’ve even finished the thing. Always scanning, always in motion, never still, never not busy. I am very good at working like this, as someone who gets shit done, I find it easy to get swept up by it.

While we were there, I found myself walking slowly through paddy fields with a farmer, Prandeep.  Prandeep is probably the happiest person I have ever met. As he showed me all the produce he grows and I tried to not freak out about the number of mosquotos around us, he spoke about his philosophy of life: to be content in the moment. Not in the past or in the future, those things don't actually exist. That no one has the power to make you happy or on the flip side, suffer. He talked about integrity, about intention, about the power of community. Nothing flashy. Nothing optimised. Just deeply rooted.

I am highly ambitious. I always have been and I always will be. But I think for a long time my ambitions were slightly off-kilter, shaped by what I thought I should want, rather than what actually sustains me and gives me energy.

My real ambitions are simpler, and somehow dare I say braver: to live more slowly without shrinking myself, to build work that feels spacious rather than extractive, work that changes and shapes the lives of people for the better. Choose depth over pace, presence over performance. To measure success by how grounded I feel in my body, my family, my community, and the difference that I am actually making, not by how busy I look from the outside.

This is the energy that I am wanting to bring into 2026.

One of my favourite things we do at Valerie is our Wild Women newsletter and it’s for entirely selfish reasons.

Every two weeks, I sit down (usually on the sofa, sometimes in bed) and write the opening editor’s letter. It’s essentially a ramble. Or a rant. Whatever has been percolating, niggling, or quietly building up. And because it’s anonymous (well… until now), I haven’t held back.

I’ve written about friendships and relationships. About f**king things up, both spectacularly and quietly. About weird symptoms, spirals, moments of clarity, moments of total confusion. It’s raw, unpolished, a bit ragey and (confession) deeply cathartic. I like to think of it as my therapeutic outlet. 

What started as a bit of an experiment has become one of our most important brand markers. It signals that we’re not here for surface-level, transactional stuff. We care about depth. About women feeling genuinely seen and heard. We want to normalise the uncomfortable conversations and we do that by showing we’re right in the thick of it too.

And it’s working. The newsletter has an average 75% open rate, and every edition women tell us it feels like we’ve crawled inside their brains and written exactly what they couldn’t quite articulate themselves.

Community has been a marketing buzzword for the past two or three years, but for most brands it translates into hollow exchanges and performative engagement. For Valerie, community is our lifeblood. It’s the reason we get up and do the work. It’s the reason I bare my soul- probably with too much TMI, every two weeks.

If that sounds like your kind of thing, you can sign up to read it on the website.

One week in and i know I meant to be guns blazing... but nope.

Let's try again next week.

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The Battle

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