Sybil Berry is a powerhouse. A media industry veteran, she changed course in 2022 only when she was injured in a car accident. In rehabilitation, it was clear she would need to use a cane. After seeing how unfashionable most canes could be — and realizing how many people hated their own devices, too —she decided to start her own company: Lemonaide, Co. Her mission is to produce fashion-savvy, multi-functional, collapsing canes for anyone with conditions affecting their mobility or stability.
I first met Sybil at an All Raise event for women entrepreneurs last year, where I noticed how her entrepreneurial spirit infused everything she saw. The event took place in a restaurant around lunchtime, and she pointed out to me how many people were on their laptops, working remotely.
“Look at all those people with their laptops and chargers,” she said. “I bet they have similar needs. What do you think could serve them?
When she told me about her company, I knew I had to interview her — and I was amazed to learn about everything else she has gone through. Stay tuned for a conversation with one of the strongest people out there — about entrepreneurship, the disability community, and staying grounded when difficult things happen.
Also — to those who filled out the survey form last time — thank you so much. Your feedback means so much to me, and helps this project keep going! If you haven’t already taken it yet, I have a very brief 3 question survey to make sure I can keep producing stories that are relevant to you. If you haven’t already taken it, I’d greatly appreciate your input below!
Before we dive into your story, I want to start out with something you said to me when we were planning this interview. You wanted to stress that what happened to you is not a setback in the way one would expect, and you don’t want this to turn into an “ableist” narrative.
Can you start by expanding on that?
It’s almost been more like a “set forward.” I view it as something on my journey of growth and learning. The amount of pain that I was in was tremendous, and it was all the time, every day, and it went on for years. I was already very sympathetic to people who are in pain or have accidents or are ill. I am a three-time cancer survivor, so I do know a lot about physical pain.
But I am now even more hyper-sensitive to that. And that also has made me, I think, a better entrepreneur. Because with this product, I look at everything that we're developing from not just the way it looks, but how the person feels when they're walking with a cane.
Is it a smooth or bumpy walk? Is your wrist being jammed because there's no cushion in the cane? So, I'm thinking about all these things and what those people may be experiencing.
There would be no Lemonaide cane company if I had not gone through all of these experiences and learned how to be an advocate for myself as a patient.
The word “Lemonaide” is very fitting for a number of reasons.
There’s so many things that have happened in my life that I had to compartmentalize each thing that happened in order for me to proceed with anything. I couldn't let the whole avalanche fall on my head. I had to sweep some lemons to one side and then sweep away the lemons in front of me so I could breathe for a minute and figure out what to do just right then.
I guess I should disclose what happened. I was hit by a car coming home from work one night, and I was injured more than I thought. I worked for six months injured, which was something I would not advise anyone to do. I did a surgery that was supposed to make me better, but I did not get better in the way they thought I would.
And then a year later, I found out I had breast cancer. So then I had to deal with that situation in addition to top the injury to my hip.
And a couple years into dealing with that illness, after it gets resolved, I find out I have cancer once again. Blood cancer. So I am a three-time cancer survivor. My first go-round with the disease began when I was about twelve.. During this recent time of dealing with both injury and illnesss, things were sometimes so bad and so ridiculous, I just had to shake my head sometimes and laugh because I would say, this is impossible. How could all this be happening? Whose life is this?
When we have that many tragic things that occur so quickly in succession, it’s hard not to think, why me? Am I being punished? Did you have any of these thoughts?
I didn't think I was being punished. I just thought, this is my journey. There's some people that go on a journey that's very difficult in life.
But I did feel hopeless at certain times, and that had a lot to do with me not getting the help that I felt that I needed sometimes from the medical community. And a lot of time was passing because I had stopped working. I was very concerned. I was more or less at the height of my career, getting ready to change jobs to a much bigger job, when all this happened.
I was concerned about getting back on my feet again, after being home. When year one passed, okay. Then there was year two. Then there was year three like this. And of course, I'm going online and trying to figure out what the job market looks like.
But during that time, I would always think about the cane.
What would you think about specifically?
Well, Anna, I lived in New York for a really long time. And what I liked about New York so much is that we got dressed up every day, for every occasion. Like, you're going to the park — you have a look just for a picnic. Or you’re going to a show in the evening — you get dressed for it even if you’re coming from work. It was always, what are we wearing?
When I was first injured, I was in this big brace that went around my hip and down my leg. It was the ugliest thing ever.
It was after I got out of the brace and I was using the cane, that I started to learn just how many people hated their canes, too. People frequently asked me what happened and why I carried a cane. Many times that would confess they needed one, too, but they wouldn’t carry it due to the stigma associated with canes. These canes were clearly unpopular.
Once I was done with treatment. I was obsessed with the idea of making a prototype. I thought maybe I’ll just make a cane for myself, one that I really like and that fits my needs, which is a combination of fashion and function. I went online to find organizations that make prototypes. That’s the only word I knew: prototype. I knew nothing else. I was from media, and I didn’t know a thing about making physical products, but I knew I wanted something better for myself.
And so I found this place that was a “hard tech incubator,” but I didn't know what that was. It was called mHUB. Around that time mHUB hosted a “Demo Day.” And I said, okay, well, I'm going to their demo day to see what they do. I immediately liked it.
Your personal story is such a big factor in why you started this business. How much of your story do you end up sharing with people?
I'm not always comfortable talking about the illnesses as much as I am explaining the accident and the need for the cane and how the cane came about, but sometimes I feel it's necessary for people to understand me better, to understand what I've been through over the last eight years.
I’m also curious what it’s like when people make assumptions about you and your health, not knowing your backstory.
Now, this may be where there are “setbacks.” You can look at me and not see anything wrong. So it's very hard for people to gain an understanding of me when they encounter me. And when I meet new doctors, I have to tell them, you're going to have to read the records.
I don't know if people are listening to me or not — but I can tell how they treat me, and whether they took that into consideration.
With the cane, though, people give me a little space.
Interesting — with the cane, a physical device, people almost take you more “seriously?”
If I was a little tired and I didn’t have the cane to rest on, no one would understand that. Now, the downside is, people sometimes ask: why are you still using the cane? People have the audacity to ask you these questions. People have said the dumbest, craziest things to me. Like: You don’t look like you need that cane. Why don't you just do yoga instead? Someone close to me said: “you need to be vibrating on a higher vibration.”
When you encounter someone you don’t know you have to be careful because you really don't know what that person's physical condition is. If I can use it as a teaching moment, I do. Sometimes I'm just pissed. Sometimes I'm just angry, and somebody goes too far.
Wow, some of the things people have said are awful.
I’m actually going to start sharing my story more. One topic I want to bring up within the disability community is: when people’s comments go too far, what do we say? This community needs its ammunition, too.
The disability community is really amazing. It’s projected as a demographic, it has somewhere between 500 billion and 1 trillion of disposable income.
I had no idea.
Oh yeah. In the United States, we really have become a country that provides accommodations. I’m very proud of that. I had a leave from my job, for example, that was guaranteed by the federal government. My job could not be given away because I was on leave. That’s a pretty big deal. In Europe, for example, there are rickety roads, and you don’t see as many people in wheelchairs.
But yes, still, I want to talk about hidden disabilities. There's so many people with hidden disabilities. They're walking around right amongst us.
So we just need to be nice to people and not pushing on the veracity of their presentation.
It reminds me of the phrase: you never know what someone is going through. Which is true on a surface level, but you’re reminding me of that saying on a very deep and physical level, too.
Yes. Canes can also be a conversation starter, too, though. I was doing “customer discovery” before I even knew what it was called, by just asking people about their canes.
There is a woman I became friends with, an 81-year old Japanese-American woman from Okinawa. She had this little tiny cane, a very medical-looking device.
And I said, “Oh, would you mind if I asked you about your cane?” And she was like, “Oh, you want to talk to me? Nobody wants to talk to me. This is so nice. You make me feel so much better.” And we have been friends ever since. Now we go on walks in the park, and she is one of my cane models. She's beautiful!
I’ve found with older people with canes, they often don’t have anyone talking to them. So when someone approaches them, they get to share whether or not they like the cane, and give their story.
You’re reminding me of a separate trend from this conversation — which is that loneliness is on the rise in the U.S., as community networks have degraded. But it's amazing that you’ve become friends with people, just by using a cane.
It is really cool, and it's a great way to form communities. When I talk with older people, I can just tell that sometimes they’re not even anticipating being spoken to.
So my hope for this brand is that we do form a community in the longevity market. People who are older and are looking for some sort of camaraderie or a brand that understands who they are or what they need.
What are you looking forward to with Lemonaide?
I'm looking forward to getting it in people's hands. I really want people to hold this prototype. I want to know what they think about it. But the thing that's going to be the greatest is when it's actually produced in a box, or however we're going to send it, and we're able to send it out to people. I have a lot of people that are interested in the Lemonaide cane.
Any final words for our readers?
I’ll end with this. This country has come very far in looking at accommodating people with disabilities. We also have further to go in a lot of things, in almost every area. COVID showed us that at every industry, every branch of the government — everything needed a revamp, you know? Everything needed to be rethought. But that's the beauty of stuff like this. You can get some learning from it, make something better, make some lemonade out of it.
If you’d like to learn more, you can visit the Lemonaide, Co. website here.
Thank you so much for reading! Have a similar experience? What lessons did you take away from Sybil’s story? Comment below!
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.