Ann Marie McQueen is a digital journalist, podcaster, and former national columnist
Ann Marie McQueen is a digital journalist, podcaster, and former national columnist who has split her career between North America and the Middle East. She has 30 years of experience in reporting, much of it focused on science, health and wellness. Ann Marie McQueen is founder of her own global platform, Hotflash inc, providing evidence, expert and experienced-based information, context and strategy for people going through perimenopause, menopause and midlife.
An early adopter and disruptor, Ann Marie McQueen was on the launch team for The National newspaper, was the first sustainability columnist in the Middle East, the founding editor of Livehealthy, the first health and wellness platform for men and women in the Middle East in English and Arabic, and one of the first newspaper bloggers in Canada.
Let’s delve deeper into Ann Marie McQueen ,s inspiring journey through this exclusive interview.
Ann Marie McQueen , Can you tell us about your journey and what inspired you to start your business?
I’ve interviewed a lot of big thinkers in my journalism career, and it’s been inspiring. Everyone from the shoe designer Christian Louboutin to American filmmaker David O Russell, and lots of entrepreneurs in the Middle East. Eventually  I realised I wanted to do something of my own too. After having a terrible time for several years with physical and mental health, at 47 I realized I was in perimenopause the whole time without knowing it – or any of the doctors I saw mentioning it.
I wanted to help other people and do great content, and Hotflash inc was born. I now have an email newsletter, a weekly podcast, and all the social media, serving a community of about 50,000 women.
What were the biggest challenges you faced when starting your business, and how did you overcome them?
I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and when I asked other people about it, no one knew what I was talking about, so I really didn’t have any help. Every time I would talk to people about sending out an email, they confused it with email marketing. So they would say, ‘what are you trying to sell’? And I would say, ‘I want to sell the content’. Other people were doing this of course, a lot more now, especially journalists, and now there are tools developed to help us – like Substack, which I use as my publishing platform. But I was lost there for a while and went off in a lot of wrong directions.
Another big challenge has been finding the tools to help me, but this just keeps getting easier. At the beginning my podcast took hours, because I had to brief a producer, and then create the notes and video clips for social media. And I didn’t have a studio, so it sounded terrible. All the uploading and distribution was painful. Now it’s getting easier and faster, literally every time I produce one.
Ann Marie McQueen , How do you differentiate your business from competitors in your industry?
No one’s really doing what I’m doing in the menopause space. It’s a full-spectrum media platform on the subject. I interview a range of experts, do a ton of research, and put it all together as only a journalist can; with a bird’s-eye view and no particular idealogy, just curiosity and a search for the true truth.
Ann Marie McQueen , What are some of the key strategies you’ve implemented that have contributed to your business’s success?
A few things have propelled me forward: hiring a VA and more recently getting focused on where and how I can make money. I just launched this without any real idea of the way forward, which I would recommend – but it also means you need to be patient when it comes to making money.
I’ve bootstrapped and I’m committed to that. I don’t want to answer to anyone else. Also I can tend to want to do all the things, all at once, and that can get leaky. I think it’s very important not to build your business on rented land, ie just social media. I am a big fan of being anti-fragile, and building my own email list, and multiple revenue streams. I can be patient on the income part while I get that right.
Ann Marie McQueen , How do you stay motivated and maintain your vision during tough times?
This is a really good question right now, because a few months ago I lost father unexpectedly and had to take a break. I wasn’t sure I was going to come back. It’s really, really hard when you have something that relies only on you to keep going, and that’s why you absolutely have to have a passion and a vision for it. I sometimes wonder how people who go into business just to make money can do it when they’re not feeling great, because I love Hotflash inc so much that most of the time, working on it does not feel like work.
I have so much to say to these women, and so much to learn from them, that it’s not a matter of me not having the motivation to do it, it’s just that sometimes I might be a bit too tired and not realize I need a rest.
Ann Marie McQueen , What role does innovation play in your business, and how do you foster a culture of innovation within your team?
When I was in my 20s I took a series of improv classes with my friends in Toronto. This has literally been one of the most helpful experiences, because it’s based on the principle of “yes, and…” If you’re doing something funny in an improv scene and you hand a person a pretend object, the person has to accept the object or the scene just falls flat. “Yes, and” drives almost everything I do.
Ann Marie McQueen , What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs who are just starting out?
I honestly don’t feel like I’m in a position to be giving advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, because I am still figuring it out. But if you have an idea and it excites you and you think about it a lot, do not try to dismiss it. Sure there is a lot of competition, but there’s never been a lower barrier to entry. Start with the smallest thing you can do to get going, and build on that, and realize every single person who’s doing something of their own thinks that they could be doing it better. I talk to other entrepreneurs all the time and this is one thing I take away.
Ann Marie McQueen , Can you share a specific example of a failure or setback you experienced and how you turned it into a learning opportunity?
Early on in Hotflash inc, I got confused about a notice from Google Domains and I didn’t pay to renew and my website was deleted. I had to pay the developer who did it the first time to do it again. I felt so dumb and disheartened. But one thing my developer helped me figure out was that payments like these should be automated. You can always go and cancel them.
Ann Marie McQueen , What are your future plans for your business, and where do you see it in the next five years?
I’m currently working with a mentor and coach to develop the revenue streams that I’ve already laid out. I’m starting to work with brands, build my subscriber base and explore meaningful affiliate marketing opportunities. In the next five years, I’ll publish a book and created a community powered course.
Ann Marie McQueen , How do you balance your professional responsibilities with your personal life, and what tips do you have for achieving a healthy work-life balance?
I’m really not someone to talk to about this now, as I am in the middle of figuring it out for myself. I have never worked harder on something. I’ve worked on it every spare minute I’ve had. I’ve completely lost all perspective, please don’t do this, but anyone else I talk to who has their own business, who’s passionate, has the exact same problem.
One thing that really helps is making plans on the weekend so that I’m not adrift in my house and just start working again. I’m starting with going back to the movies and finding a non-screen activity, like some sort of art or craft, that I like. Cooking more! Listening to music. Being in nature. Those kinds of things.
Ann Marie McQueen , How do you stay ahead of market trends and adapt to changes in your industry?
I talk to a lot of people for context on what’s happening in different parts of the world. I’m partnering with an AI research company on one project and I’m on the team working on the GCC Menopause Summit coming up at Museum of the Future in Dubai October 18. I also make sure to honour my own creativity; I don’t want to worry so much about staying ahead that I lose that.
Ann Marie McQueen , What impact has digital transformation had on your business, and how have you leveraged technology to your advantage?
There is absolutely no way I would be able to produce a podcast, a newsletter and all this social media, be on panels and speak at events and on other people’s podcasts, if I wasn’t using AI in almost every area of my life. I answered this questionnaire using a program called Oasis, where I speak and it turns it into a transcript I then edit. I use a phenomenal tool called Descript to produce my podcast in audio and video. It has an AI assistant called Underlord that creates video clips for social media and podcast show notes, things were so incredibly time consuming even just months ago.
Substack takes care of the billing for my newsletter and all the tools for social media help, like Later, the Captions app, the MetaTool within Instagram. Buzzsprout, the distribution platform I use for my podcast, has an audio tool that makes you sound like you are in a sound studio. I love Gamma.app to create presentations –  it’s so easy and I’m not good at slides. I’ve used AI to help me learn how to produce spreadsheets, something I never knew how to do or never understood, and I use apps like Elicit and the GPT Consensus to help sift through research papers and make sure I’m casting a wide net. I’m finding new tools all the time.
Ann Marie McQueen , Can you discuss the importance of networking and building relationships in your entrepreneurial journey?
When I set out to do Hotflash inc, I just wanted to make content. I never factored in that I would meet so many amazing women around the world. It’s a crazy network. And there are some really successful women running companies who believe in what I am doing and want to support it, and that is just great too. I am always trying to connect and uplift people as well, it’s just one of those things you realize is so incredibly important. It’s one of the goodies of doing a new, scary thing that I just did not anticipate.
Ann Marie McQueen , What role do social responsibility and community engagement play in your business model?
Women around the world are having a very hard time with this time of life, and I only want them to feel heard and have good information and support so they can make their own decisions. I appreciate every person who reads or watches my content, and I try to engage and learn form them as much as I possibly can. This is a mission.
Ann Marie McQueen , How do you handle criticism and feedback, both from customers and within your organization?
I’m 54 years old so I have gotten to the place professionally where I’m pretty confident in myself and I know that I don’t know what I don’t know, so even though it is triggering when someone disagrees with me, I listen to learn. Even when I feel a bit wobbly, I really do want to hear where I’m wrong and what I’m missing. There are some people who will never be happy, and only want to pick a fight because they are miserable or insecure, or you are challenging their belief systems, or for some other personal reason. So that shouldn’t take too much energy once you realize it.
