Giselle Boxer: Founder of East Healing

Episode 642

On this episode of The Kara Goldin Show, we’re joined by Giselle Boxer, the visionary Founder of East Healing. Born from a personal quest to overcome Chronic Fatigue Syndrome through Traditional Chinese Medicine, Giselle has transformed her life's challenges into a thriving business. East Healing, initially launched as Acu Seeds, brings the ancient practice of acupuncture into the modern day with stylish and effective ear seeds, now expanded to include a luxurious line of acupressure tools that cater to a discerning global audience.
Giselle shares the fascinating story behind East Healing's evolution from a simple idea to a renowned wellness brand that captured the spotlight on Dragons' Den, where she achieved the unprecedented feat of securing offers from all Dragons. We explore how her commitment to holistic health is changing the way people engage with self-care and how her products blend elegance with therapeutic benefits.
This conversation delves into the brand’s journey, the strategic rebranding to East Healing, and Giselle’s insights on entrepreneurship in the wellness industry. Don’t miss this inspiring episode that’s as much about healing as it is about pioneering a business with heart and innovation. Now on The Kara Goldin Show!

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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be you. Just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked out, knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and really, some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Goldin show. I’m so excited to have my next guest here today. We’ve been going back and forth for a few months, and with the holidays, finally figured out a time, she is one busy lady. Giselle boxer is the innovative founder of an incredible company called East Healing. You may have seen her terrific product called Acu Seed, and I was initially targeted, I think, on Instagram, and got the product and just like fascinated by it probably because I’m very fascinated by traditional Chinese medicine, for sure, but definitely love the fact that she’s created a product that is really helping so many people. There’s there’s a few different areas that I’ve seen, that many people have talked about the Acu Seed helping for we’ll get more into that. One of them is chronic fatigue syndrome, but definitely her own personal health transformation inspired her to launch this brand. I can’t wait to get into more of that story and sort of where they’re going in the future. You may have also seen her, if you’re watching the video on that incredible show, Dragon’s Den that aired, I guess, a year ago now, Gisele right around there. So definitely wanna explore more about that experience too. But let’s dive into the story and talk all about healing and entrepreneurship. Accuse East Healing everything. So welcome, Giselle, how are you? I’m really good. Thank you. Good. So excited that you’re here. So could you kick things off with a quick rundown of what is East Healing?

Giselle Boxer 2:37
So East Healing is, I guess, like a one stop shop for acupressure products. We’re both known for our ear seeds. So we are previously known as accuse that’s the name of the brand, but it also is the name of the actual product. So acupressure ear seeds, and in October this year, we rebranded to East Healing, and that’s enabled us to launch a wider range of acupressure products. And then we have loads and loads of plans for this year to launch many other products within the traditional Chinese medicine sort of umbrella.

Kara Goldin 3:17
I can’t wait for that, but so talk to me about your interest in traditional Chinese medicine. I mean, how did this come about for you?

Giselle Boxer 3:26
Yeah. So I at the age of 26, years old, I was diagnosed with a condition called chronic fatigue syndrome. And prior to that, I was a very busy young woman living in London, working in advertising, was exercising, going out all the time, socializing, doing everything that 2020, year old would in London, and unfortunately, I sort of went down quite a quick spiral of ill Health, and had to move in with my mom back home. I had to stop working for a period of time because I was just experiencing like, debilitating fatigue, to the point where if I had a shower, I would have to go back to bed for a few hours, or if I made dinner, I would have to have a lie down after at one point, it got so bad that I could barely walk for more than five minutes without having to get back into bed. And I went to see a variety of Western medicine doctors and had a variety of different blood tests and conversations with them, and unfortunately, they couldn’t really give me any answers. They it took me a long, long time to actually get a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome, but then even when I did get the diagnosis, unfortunately, the prognosis was pretty grim. I was told that I. Didn’t ever recover from the condition, that I would have it for the rest of my life, that I would never work again, that I was unlikely to have children. So at the age of 26 to get this, this kind of news is is quite shocking and upsetting. And yeah, I had to, as I said, I had to move back home with my mom, but I was lucky that I did, because she is really into holistic, alternative ways to heal. She’s a Reiki Master. She’s very spiritual. She’s got lots of friends who are nutritionists, naturopaths, homeopaths, and she put me in touch with a wide variety of her contacts, and I started on this, like, healing journey, using all the, I guess, alternative methods to heal. So, yeah, I changed my diet. I was on a very strict supplementation plan. Saw a homeopath. Started getting into like meditation, breath work, all the wellness things I did. I did all of it, but it was traditional Chinese medicine that really, really had a massive impact on my recovery from chronic fatigue syndrome. So that is where I fell in love with it.

Kara Goldin 6:21
So the initial, I guess going to somebody to do the acupuncture acupressure, probably as well. But then where did the concept of the ear seeds or Acu Seeds come from? And how did you decide to develop these yourself. So

Giselle Boxer 6:41
when I went see my acupuncturist, she was doing acupuncture, which is with needles. Then she was giving me traditional Chinese medicine herbs as well to take. But at the end of my acupuncture treatment, she would put these ear seeds onto me, which traditionally are an actual seed. So they’re black seed, and they have like a large plaster on them. So they were stuck all over the ear. They were really obvious. They looked rather bizarre, like I had some strange ear condition that someone was trying to cover up with plasters. And I started looking into alternative ear seeds, and found some incredible 24 Kara gold plated and silver plated versions in Japan. And they look like beautiful pieces of jewelry on the ear, but they do exactly the same thing as the traditional ear seeds, which is basically using acupressure to stimulate nerve endings, which then sends signals to the brain and body to relax the nervous system release endorphins and naturally relieve pain as well. And

Kara Goldin 7:58
so did you look at those as like, why did they have to look this way? Or what I mean, that must have taken a lot of confidence, but also curiosity, to be able to go from recreating and redoing something that somebody who had been trained in this was giving you right? Like, I mean, it was a big deal what you did? Yeah,

Giselle Boxer 8:24
definitely. And I think I so. So the idea came about during lockdown. So it was during COVID, and me and my partner were walking around this park every day doing the same lap, because that’s all we were allowed to do when we left the house, we could just walk around a park. And I was saying to him that I just really wanted to do something within the wellness space, that I didn’t want to go back to my previous job in advertising, and that I just wanted to do something that could create a business that could help people with their health and well being. And I remembered the ear seeds. I started looking up, you know, different manufacturers, and it just went from there, really. And it was, it was during maternity leave that I set up the business, when my first daughter was nine months old.

Kara Goldin 9:15
That’s, that’s incredible. So from the time you had the concept that I’m going to go and do this to launch. How long did that take?

Giselle Boxer 9:24
So it took about, I would say, about six months to find a supplier to come up with the branding. I mean, I did it all myself on Canva, because I’ve got a background in social media advertising, so I have a little bit of knowledge of growing brands on social media, as well as a few design skills. So yeah, created the created the packaging and everything on Canva, and just sort of felt my way through it. To be honest, it was a case of literally Googling, like, how do I find a pack? Aging supplier, and how do I register a company in the UK? And, yeah, it was, I mean, I don’t, I don’t know anyone at the time. I didn’t know anyone that accept their own business. You know, I did study Business Management at a level, and then studied at a university, but at the time, I would have never imagined I was going to set up my home business. I just studied it because I enjoyed it, and I was quite good at it, I guess.

Kara Goldin 10:32
And when you launched then, well, let me, let me back up for those who have not tried the or seen the accuracies. What? How would you describe them to somebody today? And how do you use them?

Giselle Boxer 10:46
So they are tiny beads. So the version that we sell are tiny gold 24 Kara, gold plated or silver plated beads. They’re minuscule, and they are attached to a clear adhesive sticker. And they basically, you peel them off a strip, and you with some tweezers, and you place the seeds on the different points of the ear, which correspond to different parts of the body. So if you were looking at the ear, they would just look like really tiny like gold or silver piercings, earrings all over the ear.

Kara Goldin 11:22
And going back to your own challenges, health challenges, like, let’s say that somebody has chronic fatigue. I think being able to try something like this to see if it is going to work is worth a try, for sure. But what would you say, just for that condition, like, where exactly would you place them? Because you you also give an incredible diagram of this is, if you’re trying to sort of solve for this, this is what you would do.

Giselle Boxer 11:52
Yeah. So I would sort of say initially that we don’t claim to cure, treat or diagnose any medical issue We don’t claim to cure me chronic fatigue syndrome, as it’s known. However, in my personal story, acupuncture, herbs and ear seeds were really, really key for my recovery. I did also do lots of other things, like diet changes and really like change my lifestyle to calm my nervous system. So that’s sort of an aside, but yeah, in terms of the placements, we do have a really good map for fatigue, which is in our ESC kit. So the fatigue map will show you the different points that you need to place the seeds on to boost your energy levels. There’s also a really good ear map for inflammation, which is in our Women’s Health Guide, which comes in our women’s health bundle. And that would be a really, really good one too, because generally, people that have the condition do have quite high levels of inflammation in the body.

Kara Goldin 12:58
So you appeared on Dragon’s Den, what? And I’ve heard you say that that was an incredible turning point. What? What was it like pitching there? How did it come about? And can you talk a little bit about what happened?

Giselle Boxer 13:15
Yes, so I was approached by a researcher from the show. And not many people realize that these there are researchers out there who are looking for businesses to go and pitch. And when I initially got the email, I was like, thought it was some sort of spam, ended up speaking to the researcher and went through quite a rigorous process of showing my financials, putting together a business plan, telling him every single detail about my business, basically. And it was quite a long process, but I eventually got went to pitch in front of the dragons. And on my episode, there were six dragons. There’s usually five, but there was a guest Dragon, which was Gary Neville, who’s a very well known football, English footballer. And, yeah, it was a crazy, crazy experience. I was in the dressing room for eight hours before I went into pitch to the dragons, which I wasn’t expecting that to happen. But once, once the businesses go into the den, they can be in there for up to three hours. So their pitch is only two minutes long, and then they can be questioned on every aspect of their business for up to three hours. So you have to be very prepared. You have to know the know the numbers for sure. And I went into pitch at 8pm and I was in there for about two hours, but I amazingly got six offers from all the dragons. They all. Wanted to invest, and I secured investment from Stephen Bartlett, who was the dragon that I wanted when I went in.

Kara Goldin 15:10
That’s amazing. And what’s the biggest change you’ve seen in the business since that experience? I

Giselle Boxer 15:17
mean, I would say the biggest change is that I’ve been able to outsource so much of the business now. So prior to Dragons Den, I was the only person in the business. I was doing absolutely everything I was doing, the social media, the design, the website changes, the bookkeeping, spreadsheets, operations, everything. And two days after the episode aired, and my business exploded in terms of website visitors, revenue, social media followers, emails into the inbox, I realized, then, oh my gosh, I need help. And Stephen Bartlett was amazing, actually. He said, What do you need help with? I can introduce you to people that can help with a variety of things. So from from there, I outsource customer service. I’ve got support now with social media. I’ve got support with operations. I outsource my social media, ads, my email marketing, so many things, and that’s the main change, really, is that I’m scaling really, really quickly, and I’ve been able to do that by, like, developing a team around me of experts.

Kara Goldin 16:42
That’s awesome. So I think you understand this, this industry, but there’s definitely a lot of education around it, right? People are even if you’re used to or understand acupuncture, I mean, ear seeds are just a totally different concept. So how do you get that point across? I mean, I was targeted, I think on on Instagram. But like, what do you think is the magic sauce of really getting people to actually try this? I think you’ve done so well at doing that. But how would you say, like, knowing what you know now? How have you been able to be successful?

Giselle Boxer 17:29
I think my my background in social media advertising has really helped me, just in terms of, like, making, like, catchy, short, snappy videos that explain quite quickly what they are or how to apply them, and using platforms like Tiktok, for example, that you know, people are watching a video and it hooks them in, they’re like, what, what on earth are these and explaining them in a really easy way, because that’s the that’s The thing with my brand. It’s I want to make Chinese medicine really accessible, and I feel like I’ve done that really with like the educational videos and the content that I’ve put out there. Just in terms of the ear seeds. Quite often I describe them as reflexology for the ear. Most people know what reflexology is, but they don’t realize that the ear can work in this very similar way to how the feet work as well. And also, a lot of people know what acupuncture is, but so sometimes we describe them as acupuncture without the needles, and that hooks people in as well, because a lot of people are afraid of needles and want to try something a little less invasive, really, to support with their health. I

Kara Goldin 18:47
love that so common misconceptions about ear seeds that you’ve encountered from consumers through this process, common

Giselle Boxer 18:56
misconceptions, that’s a good question. I don’t know. Actually, a lot of people think the name is bizarre. Like, ear seeds. Like, just, will I will a plant grow out of my ear? Like, that’s probably quite a common comment that I get on Tiktok from a lot of very funny people. But

Kara Goldin 19:21
that that is that’s hysterical. So, I mean, I had found you on Instagram, but you’re on Tiktok as well. What is there a platform that do you think is better for your for the wellness category and kind of what you’re doing? I mean, have you seen both of those really take off. Any others that have been really, really terrific for you.

Giselle Boxer 19:44
Yeah, so tick tock was, was really key in the early stages, I think back in well, back last year and perhaps the year before, like the organic reach on tick tock was so much higher than what it can be on Instagram. As I said, it’s quite ear seeds are such like an intriguing product. They’re they’re not new but, but they are new to so many people. And I think, like so many of my videos on tick tock went viral over between 1 million and 20 million views on on tick tock on a variety of different videos so that so that platform was huge in terms of, you know, the growth initially, but Instagram has grown exponentially since being on Dragons Den. Pre Dragons Den, I had 25,000 followers. I now have over 200,000 followers on Instagram. So I don’t know whether Instagram just loves Dragons Den content. I don’t know, but something, something, just really started moving on that platform, and I’ve really capitalized on it, just by consistently posting all the time on there,

Kara Goldin 21:02
you have a good number of high profile clients and celebrities who have really embraced what what you’re doing. How important is it? Do you think, you know, call them celebrities, influencers. I mean, how big has that been for your growth,

Giselle Boxer 21:21
in all honesty, not that it hasn’t been that important like I have done ear seeding on quite a lot of celebrities and A listers, but they don’t post about it because they’re paid 1000s, perhaps hundreds of 1000s of pounds to work with different brands, and that’s not something that we want to do, really. We don’t want to pay influencers lots and lots of money to post about our brand. So it’s been an amazing experience meeting all these people and sharing the benefits of ear seeds with them. But it has. They haven’t really played a part in in the growth of my brand. However, I would say that Stephen, like being partnered with Stephen Bartlett has, has, you know, caused a lot of the growth of of East Healing, because he’s amazing entrepreneur, and he loves health and well being, and he’s got like a cult following, really. So yeah, definitely being partnered with him has has been amazing for the brand.

Kara Goldin 22:30
As an entrepreneur, what has been the biggest challenge for you, and not only launching this company, but actually growing this company. You probably never considered yourself an entrepreneur until you actually decided to start this company. That was my situation, too. When I started the company that I started hint, but you are. You’re an entrepreneur now you’re. You definitely show many exhibits that that are definitely entrepreneurial. You’re just gonna go try it, see what happens, and go from there. But what’s been some of the biggest challenge, either challenge, challenges that you faced and had you overcome it.

Giselle Boxer 23:19
I think being entrepreneur can be quite lonely at times. To be honest, I think especially when you don’t have a team, you don’t have people to, like, bounce ideas off of, so like, you are responsible for everything. And when there’s an issue, when there’s a challenge, when something goes wrong, you’ve got to deal with it. And that’s probably been, you know, one of the most challenging things that I’ve that I’ve gone through so issues with packaging. When it comes back, you’ve placed a large order and you’ve, you’ve, you know, you’ve spent a lot of money on new packaging, and it comes back the wrong color, or you sell out, and you’re making your customers wait for like six to eight weeks for new for new packaging, and just stressful moments like that are quite overwhelming, really. I think also trying to juggle being a mom and having a business is is quite something. I was actually six months pregnant when the Dragon’s Den episode went live and I gave birth, like three months after, and I didn’t have any time off after I gave birth my second daughter, because I couldn’t I just had to keep going. That was, like, the highest like period of growth for us after Dragons Den and I, yeah, just had to keep on pushing. So, yeah, that was quite a challenging time as well.

Kara Goldin 24:54
So you changed the company name. Uh to East Healing, and we talked a little bit about that from Acu Seed and I’m excited to see all the different products that will be coming out in the future. For sure, what’s the one thing that you hope people will take away from being falling in love with, with East Healing and and using the products. I mean, it’s, I love the founder story of your you’re a living example of this, where you can actually go and create things to get yourself better, right? And that’s I think that’s just so inspiring for me, and part of the reason that I reached out to you. So thank you for doing that. But what do you hope is the takeaway for people who are using your products?

Giselle Boxer 25:57
So our main mission really is to empower people to take control of their own health and well being so quite often, if we have health issues, we search for the answers elsewhere. With all of our products, we’ve made them really easy to use, accessible. They’re natural products. There’s no side effects, and yeah, we’re really empowering people to take back control of their health and well being, to make themselves feel better by using these different tools, which are really simple to be honest, and quite basic, but super effective. And yeah, I just want people to live a happier karma life, really, and and they can do so with the products that we provide.

Kara Goldin 26:48
Well, I definitely have noticed a difference. So thank you so much for creating the Acu Seed. I can’t wait to try the rest of the products. And Giselle, you are, like I said, such an inspiration in the wellness landscape. We’ll have all the info in the show notes. Uh, appreciate you coming on and sharing a lot more of the back story, and I can’t wait to see you grow. And thank you everybody too for listening. Thank

Giselle Boxer 27:17
you so much. Loved it. Thank you. Thanks again for listening

Kara Goldin 27:20
to the Kara Goldin show. If you would please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit. And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms at Kara Goldin, I would love to hear from you too. So feel free to DM me, and if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book, undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building. Hint, we are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening, and goodbye for now you.

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