Meet Ann Marie McQueen, founder of Hotflash inc

July 17, 2024

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Meet Ann Marie McQueen, founder of Hotflash inc

I am a digital journalist, podcaster, and former national columnist who has split my career between North America and the Middle East. I have 30 years of experience in reporting, much of which is focused on science, health care, health, and wellness. I’m also the founder of the global platform Hotflash inc, providing evidence, expert and experienced-based information, context and strategy through Substack, a weekly podcast (just named the #2 podcast in Women’s Health by GoodPods) and all the social media, serving a fast-growing community of 50k people going through perimenopause, menopause and midlife. I was one of the first people in Canada to cover Facebook, the first newspaper-based bloggers, was on the launch team for Abu Dhabi’s first English newspaper, the first sustainability columnist in the Middle East and the founding editor of Livehealthy, the first health and wellness platform for men and women in the Middle East in English and Arabic.

I am in the midst of:

Figuring out who I am, what I want to do and be, and where I want to live after a tumultuous perimenopause, trans-menopausal year, and losing my father, and really finding myself – just trying to walk the line between grief and new beginnings.

The best thing about my current age (54):

The best thing about my current age is that it’s one year older than the age my mother lived to be, 53. I was 27 years old when my mother died, and I never could really look past that age, which I’ve since learned is pretty common for people who’ve lost parents on the youngish side. It was something that was covered by Stephen Colbert and Anderson Cooper in the podcast All There Is, and that resonated with me deeply. I literally just saw a wall, and it affected every part of my life, including financial planning. Turning 54 and making it past that age has felt like a path being laid down before me. The best thing is that I can now see the rest of my life without thinking that it would possibly end prematurely. We never know, of course, but the mental wall is gone.

The best thing I’ve done for myself at this current stage of life:

Investing time in getting over a lifetime of financial fear. This is something I’ve carried with me, I guess, since childhood. I lived in a house where there was a lot of fighting about money, and I absorbed all the external messaging, which is completely fear-based. Taking the time to figure out, break down my beliefs, find new beliefs, and actually learn about the financial system, reading everything from Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor to The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous, has helped me realize that I have excellent instincts. I’ve worked in and out of financial journalism since my job at Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal when I was 29, and a lot of times, the financial advisors are in it to win it for themselves. My instincts are good. I’ve also attracted a new financial advisor who’s very handsome and 30, and that does not hurt, but he doesn’t call himself a financial advisor; he calls himself an independent consultant because he hates the predatory practices. I’ve made some investments on my own – even in blockchain technology, which I’ve been teaching myself about – and I’ve made some investments with him. I just actually feel good about money for the first time after decades of hiding from it, putting it in places quickly so I didn’t have to deal with it, spending too much, guilt, etc.

My current must-haves in life:

1) My mini trampoline. Bouncing is so good for your lymph flow, muscles, bones, and mood.

2) A new form of osteofacial massage called Face Plasty that’s really having an impact on the way I look, and it’s super relaxing. It’s also a way to just let my body know that I’m taking care of myself. I think it’s run by a Russian osteopath called Dr. Ales, who I became obsessed with on Instagram last year. But he is nowhere to be found on the videos themselves, only a group of Russian women with flawless skin. So my suspicions that he’s an AI creation continue, as do my daily workouts.

3) 9D breath work, which has been absolutely transformative in shifting some of the pain and trauma that’s in my body, and indeed breath work in general. This was developed during COVID by a guy named Brian Kelly, and these sessions really bring it with their audio; it’s a full-on experience: binaural beats, music, hypnosis, and more. I really like the screaming at the end, too. He’s got almost 1000 people doing this around the world, and I do in-person sessions in Dubai and have found an online practitioner, too.

3) Minerals and electrolytes every day. One of the experts I interviewed for Hotflash inc, an ND named Jennifer Harrington based in Sydney, said that her perimenopausal patients do really well when she gets them to replace their minerals. When I drink minerals every morning, I’m twice the woman I am if I don’t.

4) Molecular hydrogen. I’ve had gut issues my whole life – IBS, probably related to chronic stress – and that turned into full-blown leaky gut along with a bunch of other stuff (fatty liver, low thyroid and Hashimoto’s, pre-diabetes and insulin resistance) as can happen in perimenopause. I managed to find the right doctor and heal from all that last year, and this year, I’ve been experimenting as research suggests H₂ can positively impact gut microbiota and reduce inflammation. I drank a cup every day during the recent process of losing my father suddenly and the aftermath, and despite the stress and not being able to eat or eat as I wanted to, I somehow managed to keep my gut intact and functioning pretty well and I credit this as one of the tools. They come as a little grey pill, not too pricey at all, that you pop in water and drink immediately on an empty stomach.

5) Coffee. Always and forever. I’ve given up so much, most of the time. You will never get me to give up this.

What I love about The Midst:

It’s just an excellent gathering point for this age, and you cover such a wide range of issues, whether it’s grief, or hormone therapy, or friendship, or changes in your sexuality. I get to meet interesting people you just don’t see in the mainstream media – I love that.

What I want most for the community of women I surround myself with:

For everyone to take the time to figure out what’s hurting them, things they might not even be aware of, and what’s limiting them, and to unravel some of the painful experiences that they’ve been through. I really feel that there’s a tremendous amount of freedom on the other side. I’ve experienced it. We’ve always wanted a quick fix to paper over those tough feelings. What I’ve learned is if you can work with that pain and hard emotion, if you can sit with it, if you can process some of it through and out, it’s a game changer. And what I want from women who surround me near and far is just the same thing that I hope I offer them, which is complete and total understanding and acceptance without judgment. I’m moving the eye rollers, judgers and those-who-give-digs to the C list!

Grown-ass lady heroes:

One of them is Gertrude Bell, a British academic who graduated from Oxford University (the first woman in her program) and left high society in the 1800s for Turkey and then the Middle East. She never married, had some really passionate/tragic romantic experiences; she was an explorer, mounting major expeditions via camels and convoy; she was a spy, an original cultural ambassador, a diplomat. She was a female Lawrence of Arabia, but better. Even though she died young, in her 50s, the spirit of that, of leaving where you’re comfortable and moving to where you’re not, is something I’m fascinated by. And although I’ve never led a camel expedition into uncharted territory, I did feel a calling to leave Canada and move to the Middle East, and that has led to challenges and growth I could not have imagined, so I identify.

Another grown-ass lady hero of mine is Rachel Hughes. She is a really great person to follow on Instagram. She’s a really sane and reasonable voice in the menopause space, and now she’s become just a heroine in the way she’s talking about the grief of losing her husband recently, and we’re friends. I talk to her a lot, and we’ve got this rule: no saying I’m sorry, because we started out saying, ‘I’m sorry I’m talking so much about my dad’, ‘I’m sorry I’m talking so much about my husband’, no. I just love that woman.

Another grown-ass lady hero is Naomi Watts, and I say this because years ago, when I started out in Hotflash inc and researching, I saw that she was covered in Women’s Health, and she mentioned that her skin was changing due to hormonal changes, and the writer either never followed up or never included the answer to the follow-up question she should have asked. So Naomi Watts was one of the very first celebrities who I saw talking about menopause, or at least I got the feeling she clearly wanted to talk about it, or at least didn’t mind, in a time when it was still not cool to do. Lo and behold, I was not surprised when she started talking about it and ended up launching her company, Stripes. And I’m even more impressed now because I’m trying to build a business, and she’s been through a lot with that side of it. I mean, Stripes had partnered with a company that went bankrupt, there was an auction, she partnered with another company, and now she’s partnered with a luxury investment firm to take Stripes to the next level. She’s doubled down on this, just like I have. Like so many of us, she is a woman on a mission so other women don’t have to suffer.

Next up:

I’m going to try to make it through this hot Abu Dhabi summer, finish a work contract that has nothing to do with menopause (I’m working on content for a museum that’s due to open soon for my day job) and continue to scale Hotflash inc to become the go-to space for women: where we don’t take sides, where there isn’t polarization, where we just calmly look at the facts and try to find the true truth, and accept each other just as we are, right where we are.