Indy Entrepreneur Creates Emotional Well-Being App
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe COVID-19 pandemic and recent racial unrest have prompted an Indianapolis entrepreneur to create a first-of-its kind emotional well-being app tailored for Black Indigenous women of color. Katara McCarty says Exhale promotes self care, relaxation, stress reduction and inner strength.
In an interview on Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick, McCarty said the idea for the app came during the middle of quarantine.
“I’m a coach and I’m a public speaker, so a lot of my business is traveling and being outside of my phone and so I lost over half my business,” said McCarty. “And so as I was managing my own stress and my own anxiety around being quarantined and the impact of that, I started really amping up my self care practices.”
She says in addition to quarantine, the news surrounding the shootings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd compounded the stress.
“It was almost like before the Black community, my community, could take its next breath, we were getting hit with another viral video,” said McCarty. “Also, realizing that COVID was hitting the Black community disproportionately and that was weighing heavy on me. It was weighing heavy on my community.”
McCarty says the meditation apps she was using felt like they had a bit of a disconnect for her, which led her to create Exhale. She says the app features meditations, coaching talks, guide breath exercises and guided visualizations.
“The app is catered to us as Black and Brown women. The language in there – I speak directly to our stressors, directly to the mirco-aggressions that we face, the systemic racism that we face all the time, every day. I speak to our specific trauma, our hurt, our pain, our grief, our collective healing.”
McCarty says the early response to the app has been very positive. She says users have spoken to the timeliness of the app in helping them.