Menopause, Muscles & No Bellends

Nia Medi

Medi Public Relations is a female-led, bilingual boutique PR agency in Barry that’s worked with clients including the Coco & Cwtsh record label, Lleuwen Steffan, Fiction Factory, Fflur Dafydd, Tara Bandito and Charlotte Church’s wellness retreat, The Dreaming, and is nominated in two CIPR Cymru Awards categories this year. Here, Director Nia Medi shares thoughts on midlife clarity, the monetisation of menopause and the business of being strong.

Before I set up a PR agency and became my own boss, I worked in TV, radio, journalism and later in politics. Media introduced me to some of the sharpest, kindest, and most creative people I’ve ever known. Journalism, in particular, taught me life-long communication skills, along with developing a strong filter for nonsense.

That filter got a serious workout when I moved into politics. I was reminded of this recently when Kirsty Williams, Wales’ former Lib Dem leader, said that most sane people would run a mile from a career in politics, and she’s absolutely right. The emotional labour of speaking up and standing your ground is relentless.

In a culture of party tribalism and an obsession with loyalty before truth, you learn to navigate it while protecting your sanity. No one should spend a large part of their life in a permanent state of vigilance and anxiety.

So I went it alone and set up Medi Public Relations which gave me the freedom to choose who I work with – mostly creatives, which is what I am at heart.

But just as I started to build this new venture with new clients and exciting projects, the menopause landed with her suitcase of surprises and started testing me in ways I didn’t see coming. The fog and fatigue can be very real, but what’s talked about far less is the surprising sense of clarity that shows up right alongside all of this.

As the oestrogen leaves, our need to seek external validation lessens, bringing with it a clarity that slices through the noise and sweeps aside the stuff that really doesn’t matter. In short, it’s the ultimate bullshit filter, and I bloody love it.

This filter isn’t just priceless when it comes to running a business, making decisions or meeting deadlines. It’s also a brilliant defence against the daily bombardment of menopause marketing.

What was once a natural life stage is now a booming industry, where every scroll or search leads to another ‘miracle’ supplement,  a ‘super blend’ tea, ‘anti-flush’ chocolate bars and even clothing.

Yes, it’s a huge relief that menopause is finally being taken seriously but like my partner, Rebecca said: “It’s as if someone (probably a man) has woken up to the fact that half the population are going to experience this and saw an opportunity to make a tonne of cash from something women have been living through since forever.”

In true algorithmic fashion, it leans on the same fear playbook we know from politics, nudging people who are already navigating challenges in their lives into more scrolling, comparing, and existential doom.

Trust me, the last thing you need when you feel like you’re burning up from the inside and want to sit in a freezer is a reel created by a Gen Z-er telling you that  ‘glow cream’,  a ‘menopause friendly chocolate bar ‘ and (my favourite) a ‘LadyCare Magnetic Device’ is what you need to make you feel ‘young’ again.

And why do they presume I want to feel young? I could never have built this business when I was young – in and out of messy relationships, boomeranging back home, perpetually skint and just starting on my journey of experience. 

I like older me – I’ve just needed to find ways of managing and navigating what comes with it while growing my dream agency and my future (which, at 47, is still very much ahead of me, thank you very much!).

The No Bellend Guarantee

Alongside good old-fashioned HRT, it isn’t powders, plans or promises that are getting me to where I want to be. It’s a local gym in Barry called BRAWD, which means brother in Welsh, and it’s changed my life.

Inclusive and welcoming, on the wall as you enter the space there is a sign I have seriously considered making an official part of my company policy: The No Bellend Guarantee. 

In that gym on a freezing January morning with the Barry wind howling in my ears, I found my North Star both personally and professionally:  Get Strong, Be Kind. No Bellends.

BRAWD’s focus is a whole-person view of health and ageing, not just aesthetics or weight loss (which happens naturally, I’ve shifted 3 stone of pure pandemic weight-gain in the time I’ve been there) and they never make me run, which means I love them more.

I train and lift weights alongside men and women of all ages, sizes, backgrounds, and ability . In one session I might be hitting a tractor tyre full force with a sledgehammer, the next, donning boxing gloves and punching bags, before lifting more weights.

Ten months in, everything about me feels stronger and more focused; My head, my body, my gut and even my heart, and I leave each session feeling razor sharp. I am sleeping better and most days the menopause symptoms barely register.

It is fun, effective and a little playful, but most of all it has a strong sense of community in a world that can feel lonelier than it should.

Lloydy (Mark Lloyd) the owner, leads with honesty about his own challenges and teaches us to build strength from the inside out.

And I also get to speak Cymraeg with some of the other brilliant coaches which is always a winner.

I don’t just want to be strong. I want grounded, unapologetic, midlife strength. The kind that comes from knowing that power isn’t about money, control, algorithms or who can talk the loudest.

It’s the ability to be honest, to own your space, and to let vulnerability add strength rather than take it away.

Working this way has shaped how I run Medi PR and who I choose to work with. My clients are brave and open. They bring talent and ambition, but also the kind of vulnerability that lets us get to the truth quickly.

With Lleuwen Steffan, for example, our best ideas started as honest conversations about fears, hopes and what really matters.

The Tafod Arian campaign began with her admitting she wasn’t sure what PR was for; what she did know was that her bullshit filter was as high as mine. We met at that level of realism and built something true.

That partnership is now shortlisted for Best Arts and Culture Campaign, and I’m as proud of the no-nonsense way we worked as I am of being nominated.

So if you’re a fellow menopausal woman navigating busy days and big decisions, wondering if your best days are behind you, I promise they’re not.

What’s ahead can be clearer, stronger, and far less tolerant of nonsense, and you certainly don’t need overpriced magic potions or weird magnetic knickers to get there. 

Without the menopause and the new journey I found myself on because of it, I don’t think Medi PR would have the clarity and purpose it needed to make its mark so quickly and find its footing so easily.

I’m so very proud of the company being nominated in two categories at the upcoming CIPR Cymru Awards, and even prouder of how it all came about. 

And if the reveal of its director being menopausal has put you off working with us, that’s OK – because Medi PR totally stands by the sign on BRAWD’s door.

The CIPR Cymru Awards will take place at The Marriott hotel on Thursday, November 13. Medi Public Relations is nominated in Best Low Budget Campaign category for work around the Jess fishlock Mural in partnership with Unify studio, Wales Arts International, FAW and Team Cymru, along with Best Arts and Culture campaign for Tafod Arian (Llewuen Steffan).