MONTREAL — Often, to succeed, you have to step out of your comfort zone.

That’s exactly what Canadian Felicia Hershenhorn did when she left her job as a lawyer.

Hershenhorn co-founded Imarais Beauty with popular model Sommer Ray. Still unsatisfied, the budding entrepreneur focused on sexual well-being. This idea was the spearhead of Runi, her sexual wellness and personal care brand which is gaining popularity and sales.

Runi, her childhood nickname, was a carefully thought-out brand name to get her family and friends to believe in her.

Hershenhorn’s assertive business practices are a far cry from his youth as a rules follower. Zenger met the young entrepreneur who wants to free sex education from shame.

Zenger: Why choose Runi as a business name?

Hershenhorn: It’s really funny. I like to be shocking and out there. Because the business was sexual wellness, I knew people around me would ask, “What are you doing?” Giving him my childhood nickname would give him a personal touch and let them know I was serious. The company is fun, exciting and sexy, but we have a purpose.

Zenger: Was becoming an entrepreneur a leap of faith or just something you wanted to do?

Hershenhorn: I’ve always been good with books. I excelled in school. If you took me out of school and put me somewhere else, I was a fish out of water. I really like the rules. My parents and my sister joked that I would always work for someone, keeping others in line. Being a lawyer was a natural progression. But when I became a lawyer, I said to myself: I’m too creative for that. I loved rules when I was younger, but then I grew up and found my voice – and wanted to use it.

A friend and I created Imarais. When it took off, I quit my job as a lawyer. When I left Imarais, I was the CMO of Psychedelic Water. And it was incredible, but I had Runi’s idea in the back of my mind since I left Imarais. I told the people at Psychedelic Water that I had this idea and should follow it. One of the guys who got me involved in Psychedelic Water is one of my main Runi investors. I decided to think outside the box and do what no one expected me to do.

Zenger: Leaving a comfortable and successful career like being a lawyer can be scary and intimidating. Was it like that in the beginning?

Hershenhorn: It wobbled at first. I knew I had to be strong-minded, strong-willed, and believe in myself to make it all work. When I worked for other people, I saw the difference between an idea that didn’t succeed or a business that did. I worked for a real estate development company as a lawyer and learned that it wasn’t the amount of money you had, however important it was, and it wasn’t the tenacity . It was more about the project people who believed in it.

All other things can come and go, but if I believe in myself, I have no choice but to do so. It’s about having a positive mindset. I wake up every day knowing that I will make better decisions if I believe in myself.

When I started what I thought was my dream, a beauty business, I returned home. I was 28, I lived in my parents’ basement, I worked at this company and everyone thinks I’m crazy because I left this job as a lawyer. I had a fantastic job, a fantastic support system, and I left it all behind. I was like, “What am I doing?” Then I had this moment: “You have to prove yourself. It’s time.” So I did.

Zenger: Is it important to have an open dialogue about self-care and sexual pleasures?

Hershenhorn: Oh yeah! That’s one of the things I really focus on at Runi: knowing what you want and exactly how to get it. The problem is that we don’t know what we want. We are ashamed to ask. It starts early. Consider sex education. Sex education in America is completely flawed. What they teach and how they teach. For example, if I read states that mandate sex education, you would be stunned. Sex education is not federally mandated in the United States

Some states require it and some don’t. Even in states that require sex education, it need not be medically valid. To me, that’s crazy. I’m not saying that Runi is going to come over and overhaul sex education in America. We would like to work in this direction, but we are only one piece of the puzzle. Where Runi comes in is where the system fails.

I hope we can make enough noise to get people’s attention. Let’s go back to sex education programs in American schools. Not only do they have to be medically accurate, but many of them are based on abstinence and shame. I understand the concerns about teaching young children about sex. It’s a scary subject. Not every parent will be happy with every conversation. It is a difficult subject. The problem is that when we don’t give children a good sex education, the natural desires they begin to feel in adolescence become attached to shame.

You can scare someone into doing nothing for a while. These are natural desires; they don’t leave. When you opt for shame or abstinence, you aren’t discussing healthy relationships and learning about your own body – what you like, what you don’t. That’s what Runi is here to do.

We want to show people that when you know what you want, you can say yes. It’s directly related to your ability to say yes and your ability to say no. When we open a dialogue about pressure, about what you want, you can say: this is a healthy relationship. It is a line of demarcation that I want to draw. You learn about yourself and others. When you know what you want, it translates into other areas of your life. We say, from the bedroom to the boardroom, and beyond.

Zenger: Given the sensitive nature of your products and the sensitive moments we find ourselves in, are you toeing the line or kicking down the door?

Hershenhorn: I always run to the next Runi idea. For me, the message of knowing what you want and how to get it is important. I’m ready to shout it from the rooftops. I know what it’s like to be an 18 year old girl who doesn’t have many friends. I was not the cool girl and never felt empowered. I never had a voice. If you’re always told that’s the way it should be and it’s not what you want, you’re going to feel flawed.

For me, Runi is much more than a product or a brand. It is a platform and a community. Not just to talk about pleasure in a sexual way, but about everything users want, in a constructive and supportive way. Of course, due to the nature of the product and the appearance of the brand, there are limitations. We walk a fine line and stay within limits.

I liked rules because I wanted to stay within limits. Now, whatever that limit is, I want to push it.

For the very first time, a US Navy littoral combat ship, the Freedom USS class City of the Sioux, operates in European waters. The years-long deployment now comes at a time of unprecedented tensions in the region following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This also follows the service’s announcement that it is now considering decommissioning this vessel and all of its other existing examples of this type of LCS following the discovery of a critical design flaw.

The Navy’s Sixth Fleet, which oversees virtually all of the service’s operations in Europe and around Europe and Africa from its headquarters in Italy, announced City of the Siouxin its area of ​​responsibility today. It’s unclear when the ship left its homeport at Naval Station Mayport in Florida, but the Navy has quietly released photos of it sailing the Atlantic Ocean with the Arleigh Burke USS-class destroyer Paul Ignatius yesterday.

“City of the SiouxDeploying the LCS allows us to integrate the unique operational capability of the LCS into our already diverse fleet,” Vice Admiral Gene Black, Chief of Sixth Fleet, said in a statement. “The agility of littoral combat ships allows them to operate in both close-coastal and oceanic environments, enhancing our ability to provide security and stability throughout the European theatre.”

“USS City of the Sioux is a combat-ready warship manned by combat-minded sailors who are prepared and equipped to execute any mission given to us,” added Cmdr. Scott Whitworth, ship’s commanding officer. “This deployment will expand the relevance of these ships, particularly their ability to relieve larger surface combatants in key surface mission areas.”

What City of the Sioux, which also carries two MH-60S Seahawk helicopters from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 22 (HSC 22), will actually be loaded when deployed in Europe remains to be seen. Previously, the ship had only made operational deployments to the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Ocean in support of counter-narcotics operations. He had just returned from one such deployment in December 2021.

“The ship’s size, speed and agility enable her to carry out maritime security operations, theater security cooperation engagements and freedom of navigation patrols – keeping critical maritime trade routes open. , deterring conflict and coercion, and providing a comparable ship to strengthen partnerships with other nations,” a Navy press release said.

That of the navy Freedom and Independence Class LCSs have all long struggled to meet service expectations since the first examples began entering service over a decade ago. The hope was that LCSs of both classes would provide additional and flexible capability in various roles, as well as be cheaper and easier to use than larger surface fighters, especially through the use of mission packages interchangeable modules and the allocation of two complete crews. each ship.

Last year, the Navy admitted it cost almost as much to operate an LCS, on average, as a much larger and more capable one. Arleigh Burke class destructor. As part of rolling out its fiscal year 2023 budget proposal, the service has now all but confirmed that the modular mission package and dual-crew concepts are dead, and says LCS will no longer be expected to perform operations anti-submarine warfare (ASW). at all. Future Constellation class frigates will be used to meet this ASW requirement instead.

Interestingly, the current commander of Sioux City is the leader of the ship’s so-called “blue” crew. The commander of his alternate, or ‘gold’, crew was relieved in February due to “loss of confidence in his ability to carry out his duties” due to what were later described as ” well-founded concerns about sexual harassment”. The navy said the aid would have “no impact on the ship’s mission or schedule.”

The Navy has had some limited success in recent years with the Independence classroom. This has included arming a growing number of these ships with Naval Strike Missile (NSM) anti-ship cruise missiles, giving them a much-needed boost in firepower and expanding their deployments in the region. Peaceful. On the other hand, the Freedom class ships remain limited in their capabilities and have suffered repeated breakdowns – including an incident that caused $23 million in damage to City of the Sioux itself – something that ultimately revealed a key design flaw in their propulsion system which you can read more about here.

It is not immediately clear whether or not City of the Sioux received the fix that was developed to address the class-wide propulsion system issue, which can prevent these ships from reaching their maximum speed of 40 knots. The Navy announced that it had taken delivery of its first Freedom class ship, the future USS Minneapolis-St. Paul, with the patch installed in November. This ship should be officially commissioned in May.

It was this propulsion system issue that caused the biggest upheaval in the LCS program to date, and which derailed a plan to send a Freedom class ship to Europe in 2020. The Navy’s fiscal year 2023 budget request has now laid out a plan to decommission all existing ships Freedom class ships by the end of 2024. This includes City of the Siouxwhich only entered service in 2018, along with four even younger ones.

All this can only do City of the SiouxThe arrival of in European waters is a bittersweet achievement and raises questions about what its real operational value in theater might be, especially at a time of such pronounced crisis in the region. Given the Navy’s now very public view of the usefulness of its current fleet of Freedom class LCS, it’s hard to see how any of them could send a signal, outside of working alongside other much more capable ships, to Russia or America’s allies and partners in Europe .

Anyway, USS City of the Sioux has now become the first LCS of any type to cross the pond. This could prove to be the most significant achievement in the ship’s short life if the Navy is allowed to send her into mothballs next year, as is currently planned.

Contact the author: joe@thedrive.com