A YORK business which makes colourful walking sticks - and includes Hollywood celebrities as customers - plans to shift away from social media for marketing, claiming it is “demanding and toxic”.

Lyndsay Watterson says her company Neo Walk is to use email marketing more often in future to contact people as well as relaunch its website.

Lyndsay spoke of her business experiences at a business networking event held by the York Press and York St John University at the university last Thursday.

The businesswoman recalled how she suffered an MRSA infection during knee surgery in 2007, which led to her losing a leg and abandoning plans to open a hair salon.

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At the time, walking sticks were clunky and dull and she “felt so ashamed” as such devices left her feeling “old and crinkly”.

“I wanted to design an invisible walking stick,” Lyndsay recalled.

She then created her first walking stick at home with a moulded handle around a wine bottle.

In 2013, Lyndsay launched Neo Walk, initially as a part-time business, turning full-time in 2019.

The business was purely e-commerce, selling online, very visual and using Instagram was “life changing”.

“We found a community wanted these products. The disabled community accepted me as a disabled person and as a business.”

“I grew three inches when people said they loved my walking sticks.”

However, this online community, whilst becoming a way to “let your customers in, creating a unique selling point”, Lyndsay continued, has also become “more demanding and toxic”.

“Therefore, a brilliant new website is being developed. We want to pull away from social media. We will have a cool website, using SEOs, etc, and use emails a lot more to contact people. I can say it to 15,000 by email.”

Lyndsay also told those present how she uses herself as a target market.

This includes creating limited-edition walking sticks, which always sell out.

She also plans to create an online marketplace for people to buy, sell and swap her walking sticks, saying they have gone up in value.

There will be further customised offerings, including walking sticks containing the ashes of loved ones, be they pets, or in one case, a customer wanting to take the ashes of her late father down the aisle in a walking stick.

When questioned by the audience, Lyndsey recalled how she was contacted by Hollywood celebrities Selma Blair and Christina Applegate, who both have MS and have become good friends as well as customers, as previously reported by The Press.

The networking event at York St John University also included a talk from Dominic M’Benga, who spoke on the growth and future of the Hooting Owl distillery.

Steve Lowe, sales director for York Press/ LOCALiQ, said it was the people behind the two businesses that made them succeed.

“It’s putting your heart in the middle of your business,” he added.