Adam Lippin, CEO of HearMe, joins Cheddar News to discuss the peer-to-peer app connecting members to listeners.

Between Bells

Emotional Wellness App 'HearMe' Connects Members to Listeners

Welcome back to Between bells in this new age of digital work and dating One app is on a mission to address the loneliness epidemic inspired by the creators experience in a in his time as a closeted gay man, a peer to peer emotional wellness app, Hear Me aims to connect members to train listeners who have shared experiences. According to a recent study, 57% of participants, mood increased after a single conversation with a hearing. Me listener joining us now to discuss is Adam lipin Ceo and founder of Hear Me Adam, Welcome to the show. We're so excited to have you listeners on the app and I love this. Are available 24 7 for real time chat. So tell me about the therapy and how the app works. So hear me as you describe, connects people in real time with someone who can be there for them to see them to hear them to validate them and to let them get whatever they want to have, whatever's on their mind, get off their chest. There's an expression that I love and it says we're not the survival of the fittest. What were the survival of the nurtured and a problem shared is a problem halved. And what you were saying about loneliness, the current surgeon general Dr Vivek murthy stated that loneliness is worse than smoking 15 cigarettes today and worse than obesity. So we want to address the loneliness crisis at scale and this platform tries its best to pair members with the perfect listener. I want to give our viewers an example for an L G. B. T. Q. Member. They might get paired with an empathetic L. G. B. T. Q plus listener. But have you faced any challenges when you were creating this app? Uh No, it was sort of like the field of dreams. If you build it, they will come. There was such a huge demand for people to get things off their chest. I mean we weren't designed to be a covid company, but it turns out that the the covid really illustrated the need that we all have to share what we're going through, not necessarily in a clinical setting, but to get what's on our mind off our chests. You can get on with our day. And so we match people based on a similar lived experience. L. G. B. T. Q. Whether it's a relationship whether you're a new mom when they're going through pregnancy, whether it's a covid 19 issue. And uh and and we have tons of people that want to be a listener and we have an amazing training program and an amazing community. And so yeah, that's what we're doing adam. This isn't your first app. You also created cuddle list. That's an app that provided touch deprived people with safe cuddle sessions with trained cuddlers. Why does this formula in your opinion of connecting strangers with a professional listener or professional cuddler work? Yeah, so just my background, I had a restaurant chain called Atomic Wings and I sold that. And then I started catalyst. The concept is that human connection, true human connection is what we all crave and all need and is what is going to ultimately solve the mental health challenges and emotional needs that we have. And by being able to bring people together in a safe way to form a connection to me and science is the most valuable thing that we can do to increase our mental wellness. I'm curious here any love connections from catalyst than any professional cuddler the former relationship I'm curious to know. In fact it's really designed for, you know, complete platonic relationship. So for example someone who's disabled that doesn't get traditional touch. So there may be severely overweight or they're on the autism spectrum or trauma survivor. So it sounds like a lot of fun and it is fun but it's really quite impactful. Yeah. Thank you for saying that. What inspired you to take this app from concept to reality. So my own personal experience based on feeling lonely and disconnected and not feeling that I had anyone to share what I was going through and connect with, I knew there was nothing inherently wrong with me. I didn't need therapy. I needed a connection and uh and I'm not that unique. So the concept of, you know, it of connecting people when they need to be connected is really important. According to the U. S. Government, we would need 4.5 million trained therapists to solve the existing mental health crisis. That's not gonna happen. So what we and then even if it did happen access affordability and immediacy. So what we're out to do is to re look at sort of the mental wellness landscape empower more people to be there for more people based on a lived experience and based on just being there for someone. And we know that peer support is evidence based, it is proven to help some people feel diminished levels of depression and anxiety and to make them feel more connected and more human despite people having family or loved ones having authentic conversations can still be very hard to come by adam. I don't have to tell you that. Why is it healthy for people to be vulnerable on this app? So for a Brown says vulnerability is our superpower and people people so people have license to be vulnerable. They stay anonymous. The listener is you see their bio, their photo, you understand who they are, but you're completely anonymous. It's sort of like when you're sitting next to someone on an airplane, you tend to talk more freely and openly because you know, you're not going to see that person again. So it gives permission and it's a very safe easy way to do it. That's frictionless and provides a level of psychological safety and emotional wellness. What's the response you're getting from users. Oh it's it's so gratifying, it's uh you know, people feel better. They feel they always say thank you for helping me when in fact we're not helping them, we're just creating a space for them to share what they're going through and people sort of resolve what they're going through on their own with a safe person who's been through what they've been through to listen to them. So the response from the consumer is amazing. We just launched our enterprise app where we are offering the service to large companies and organizations so their employees can have someone safe that they can share with outside of the realm of the corporate space and get on with their day. And I have about less than a minute. But the pandemic opened up the conversation around mental health normalizing, going to therapy normalizing, talking about it as someone in the wellness space. What have you taken away from the last few years adam that we're all human and that we all need human connection having. Being the founder of Hear Me has allowed me a lot of privilege to be uh to hear a lot of information. People have seemed to open up to me because they feel safe doing that. All of us have a story all of us have things that we're going through and all of us need someone to share what we're going through to deal with the quote, unquote new normal that we're all living with such a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you for your time. adam, lipin Ceo and founder of Hear Me.