Turning Personal Health Challenges into Digital Innovation: Julia Marshall-Wessendorf on WaveSix and Holistic Wellbeing
Season 4 • Episode 6
25 min
Published August 2026
Digital Health • Entrepreneurship • Holistic Wellbeing
Episode summary
Rebecca Franks and Beverly Clarke MBE are joined by Julia Marshall-Wessendorf, founder of WaveSix, to explore how personal adversity can inspire meaningful innovation. Julia shares her journey from landscape architecture and theatre set design to developing a holistic health and wellbeing tracking app after living with multiple sclerosis and navigating years of uncertainty around her diagnosis.
The conversation explores the importance of taking a whole-person approach to health, looking beyond symptoms to understand how sleep, nutrition, movement, relationships, relaxation and self-awareness work together. Julia explains how WaveSix helps users identify patterns in their wellbeing while encouraging people to become active participants in managing their own health. The discussion also examines the role of AI, digital tracking, entrepreneurship and creating technology that empowers rather than replaces human judgement.
Rebecca, Beverly and Julia also discuss resilience, sustainable lifestyle changes, self-funding a technology startup and the importance of remaining curious throughout life. The episode concludes with practical advice for entrepreneurs and anyone looking to improve their wellbeing through small, consistent actions.
Journey insights
- Personal challenges can become powerful drivers of innovation.
- Small, sustainable lifestyle changes often have the greatest long-term impact.
- Technology should empower people to better understand themselves.
- Health is influenced by many connected aspects of our lives.
- Curiosity and resilience are essential qualities for entrepreneurs.
Is this episode for you?
This episode is for you if you are:
- Entrepreneurs building purpose-driven products.
- Anyone interested in digital health and wellbeing.
- People managing long-term health conditions.
- Health technology innovators.
- Anyone looking to take a more holistic approach to wellbeing.
About this episode
Rebecca Franks and Beverly Clarke MBE are joined by Julia Marshall-Wessendorf, founder of WaveSix, to discuss digital health, holistic wellbeing, entrepreneurship and how technology can help people better understand the factors that influence their health. Together they explore resilience, AI, behaviour change and building technology from lived experience.
About the speakers
Julia Marshall-Wessendorf
Julia Marshall-Wessendorf is the founder of WaveSix, a holistic health and wellbeing tracking platform designed to help people understand how different aspects of their lifestyle influence their health. Drawing on her own experiences of living with a long-term neurological condition, she is passionate about empowering people to take an active role in managing their wellbeing.
Rebecca Franks
Rebecca Franks is an award-winning technology educator, entrepreneur and Co-founder of Flip Computing. With more than 20 years of experience in education, she has authored national computing curricula, developed AI education programmes and speaks internationally about technology, inclusion and innovation. Rebecca is passionate about helping people build confidence, develop digital skills and discover rewarding careers in technology.
Beverly Clarke MBE
Beverly Clarke MBE is a technology leader, educator, coach and author with over 20 years of experience in education and digital skills. She is the author of the Ava and Chip children’s book series and is passionate about digital inclusion, artificial intelligence, coaching and empowering people to achieve their potential. Beverly was awarded an MBE for services to computing and digital education.
Together, Rebecca and Beverly share honest conversations about technology, careers, entrepreneurship and the lessons they are learning along the way.
Resources mentioned
- WaveSix
- Holistic health
- Digital health
- Health tracking
- Artificial intelligence
- Lifestyle medicine
- Functional medicine
- Multiple sclerosis
- Lyme disease
- Asana
