EP 103: The Most Powerful Ancient Remedy You’ve Never Heard Of With Raja Jesrina Arshad
A Journey of Wellness and Entrepreneurship: A Conversation with Raja Jesrina Arshad
Hello everyone! I'm excited to share with you a recent conversation I had with an inspiring woman, Raja Jesrina Arshad, on my podcast.
A Connection Forged in Business
I recently returned from a trip to Hawaii with my daughter. While I have a strong connection to Hawaii, I realized it's not the right place for me at the moment due to my career and my daughter's thriving life in our current location. This realization made me reflect on the sense of community I have in my neighborhood and the friendships I've made online through my work as a branding and content marketing agency owner.
One such friendship is with Raja Jesrina Arshad, whom I met while working together on launching her product in the United States. Jesrina, a descendant of Malaysian royalty, is a health and wellness advocate and entrepreneur. I admire her commitment to her principles and her desire to make a positive impact in the world. Her company, PurelyB, combines Malaysian wellness traditions with modern science to create unique superfood blends for global consumers.
The Entrepreneurial Journey of Raja Jesrina Arshad
Jesrina’s journey as an entrepreneur is nothing short of inspiring. She faced numerous challenges as a woman in the tech industry, but her personal health journey and her discovery of ancient wellness traditions in Malaysia inspired her to start her own company. Purely B focuses on digital wellness education and has millions of users worldwide, backed by a venture capital firm.
Jesrina’s royal lineage is a fascinating aspect of her story. In Malaysia, there are many royal families, with each state having its own. Jesrina’s parents come from royal families in Selangor and Perak states, making her a descendant of these lineages.
The Ancient Remedies of Malaysia
Jesrina shared the ancient story behind the remedies she promotes. In Malaysia and Southeast Asia, there is a sacred lineage of traditional healers and herbalists who treated the royal families. These healers used rare botanicals from the Malaysian rainforest to create powerful remedies for beauty, radiance, immunity, and overall well-being.
Jesrina emphasizes the importance of preserving and spreading the knowledge of these ancient health and beauty secrets. She mentions that the remedies are not mainstream and that there is a risk of losing this wisdom if it is not preserved and made accessible.
A Personal Journey of Transformation
Jesrina's personal journey of discovering these ancient remedies and how they transformed her life is truly inspiring. After changing her diet and consuming a completely different set of foods, she noticed a significant improvement in her health within just one week. Her symptoms, such as rashes and migraines, disappeared, and her digestion became regular.
Surprised by the lack of resources or platforms in Asia that guided her toward this discovery, Jesrina decided to create her own platform to help others. What started as a passion side project quickly gained traction, with 10,000 users joining within three weeks. This unexpected success led her to quit her job and focus on her platform full-time.
Empowering Communities and Preserving Traditions
Jesrina and I discussed the journey of creating a powerful ancient remedy and the impact it has had on marginalized communities. Jesrina shares how she was honored to receive the remedy from a woman who had to seek God's approval before passing it down.
Jesrina’s work is not just about the health benefits of the remedy but also about preserving herbal culture and traditions while creating job opportunities for marginalized communities. They have expanded their efforts to work with farmers in Malaysia and India, not only in harvesting the herbs but also in commercializing and creating new products.
Expanding Internationally: The US Market
Jesrina’s company faced challenges and opportunities when expanding their business internationally, particularly in the US market. Despite initially focusing on the Malaysian market, they noticed that a significant portion of their audience, around 2%, was from the US.
To explore this potential further, Jesrina’s startup was selected as one of ten Malaysian startups to participate in an accelerator program called US MAC, which aimed to help these startups expand into the US market. This opportunity opened doors for them and provided valuable connections and mentorship.
The Power of Trusting Your Instincts
Jesrina advises listeners to cut out the noise and go deep within themselves to understand what they truly want for their business and life. She encourages listeners to trust their instincts and act on what feels right to them.
🎧 Get ready to be inspired by this incredible conversation between Judy Tsuei and Raja Jesrina Arshad. It's all about ancient health remedies, entrepreneurship, and making a positive impact in the world! Don't miss out! 💫🎙️
I'm grateful for the opportunity to bring more diverse voices to the podcast. The main goal of the podcast is to provide a platform for different people to share their stories and experiences, highlighting how they have reached their current positions and come from various backgrounds.
Thank you for your support and I look forward to the next episode. Stay in touch by signing up for my weekly newsletter!
Episode Highlights:
The journey of moving back to Hawaii (00:00:02)
Judy talks about her daughter's first visit back to Hawaii since they moved off the island and the tie she tries to maintain with her dream place to live.
The sense of community in the modern era (00:01:06)
Judy discusses the importance of having a sense of community in the digital age and the value of online friendships.
Introducing Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:02:22)
Judy introduces Raja Jesrina Arshad as a princess of Malaysia and a health and wellness advocate and entrepreneur.
The princess lineage (00:11:20)
Judy discovers that Jesrina is a princess and the explanation of Malaysia's royal families.
Ancient healing remedies (00:11:54)
Explanation of the sacred lineage of traditional healers and herbalists in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, and the use of rare botanicals from the Malaysian rainforest in remedies.
Preserving ancient health and beauty secrets (00:15:00)
The importance of preserving and spreading knowledge about the ancient Malaysian remedies, as well as making them accessible and enjoyable to consume.
The first week of dietary change (00:19:55)
Jesrina shares her experience of changing her diet for one week and how it positively impacted her health, including clearing rashes, and migraines, and improving digestion.
Creating a platform for holistic wellness (00:20:53)
Jesrina discusses her motivation for creating a platform that focuses on lifestyle changes and natural remedies after her own transformative experience, and how it quickly gained traction.
Meeting with a renowned scientist (00:22:31)
Jesrina meets a scientist who specializes in Malaysian tropical herbs and their healing properties, and how his research and knowledge inspired her to create her own products based on ancient remedies.
The Journey to Creating the Ancient Remedy (00:28:37)
Jesrina discusses the emotional process of receiving the ancient remedy from her mentor and the importance of spreading the knowledge and science behind it.
Empowering Marginalized Communities (00:30:14)
Jesrina talks about her efforts to help marginalized communities, specifically the B40 community in Malaysia, by providing employment opportunities and improving education for their children.
Preserving Herbal Culture and Impacting Lives (00:32:27)
Jesrina explains her mission to preserve herbal culture and traditions while also creating jobs and positively impacting the lives of communities in Malaysia and beyond. They discuss working with farmers, creating new products, and empowering single mothers through training and employment.
The validation from the US market (00:37:01)
Despite the initial limitation of focusing on the Malaysian market, Jesrina noticed that a significant portion of their audience was from the US and were willing to pay extra for shipping and customs duties.
Selection for an accelerator program (00:38:02)
Jes’s company was chosen as one of the ten startups in Malaysia to participate in an accelerator program with a company based in Silicon Valley. This program helped them understand the US market and connected them with mentors.
Expansion into the US with the help of mentors (00:39:04)
Jes is introduced to a branding and marketing guru named Liz Heller, who believed in their product and offered to help them create opportunities in the US. They worked together, even after the program ended, to figure out the right branding and positioning for the American audience.
Pegaga and tiger mushroom (00:45:53)
Judy and Jes discuss the new sachet form of pegaga, the taste of tiger mushroom, and the benefits of consuming these products.
Benefits of consuming collagen orally (00:47:02)
Raja explains the benefits of consuming collagen orally for skin radiance and clearing up acne and eczema.
Cutting out the noise and following your gut (00:47:52)
Raja shares her experience of learning to trust her own decisions and not being swayed by others' opinions in both her business and personal life.
The goal of the podcast (00:54:54)
Judy explains that the goal of the podcast is to share diverse voices and stories to inspire and support listeners.
Encouragement for launching something of your own (00:54:54)
Jesrina encourages those who feel undervalued in their current profession to pursue their own ventures and offers support.
Supporting women of color in bringing their dreams to life (00:55:34)
Judy mentions that women of color have been attracted to her coaching services and expresses her passion for helping them bring their dreams to life.
Links Mentioned:
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Special Offer for F*ck Saving Face listeners
Use WELLNESS20 for 20% off any PurelyB products
Transcript:
Judy Tsuei (00:00:02) - Welcome to the F*ck Saving Face podcast, where we're empowering mental and emotional health for Asian Americans and voices of color by breaking through taboo topics. Life may not always be pretty, but it is indeed beautiful. Make your story beautiful today. By the time you listen to this podcast episode, my daughter and I will have gotten back from a visit to Hawaii. It's her school break, and this will be the first time that she goes back to the island since we moved off of Kauai when she was a year and a half years old. So she's almost nine, and this is a really big deal, because I try as much as possible to continue to have a tie to Hawaii. Kauai has and always will be, my dream of all places to live, and I know that it's not the right place for me right now in my life, given what I'm creating with wild hearted words, with my branding and content marketing agency, with a coaching that I'm doing with the women entrepreneurs and people looking to make a change in their careers, and for my daughter to thrive.
Judy Tsuei (00:01:06) - We live walking distance to school now. She has a remarkable community. She's playing soccer, she's in Girl Scouts, she's doing Mandarin lessons. So it's a very, very fulfilling life. And I'm so grateful. If you follow my Instagram at Wild Hearted Words, you would have seen that. I recently took her to my hairstylist who is absolutely wonderful. He also serves. He put a skate deck on his haircutting chair so that she could be elevated a bit more because in general, he doesn't usually see kids to cut their hair. But I saw him out surfing, so he said, yeah, I'll do it for you. And what else is wonderful is he lives down the street from me, just a few houses down. So to be able to have the sense of community here in this modern era when things are becoming increasingly easy to not have to leave your house to get everything delivered to you, to have your social interactions online. It's funny because my partner, when I tell him that I have really good friends who are fellow women entrepreneurs who I've never met, but I've met them through mastermind groups or through different coaching programs, or through the different initiatives that I participate in.
Judy Tsuei (00:02:22) - And we've become really good friends from having completely online conversations, never actually meeting in person. But I genuinely feel that they are very, very good friends and he is in a career that's the complete opposite of mine, where he meets with people all day, every day in constant meetings. So I am deeply appreciative of this life and of the opportunities that are continually unfolding. And one of the things that I love about having my branding and marketing agency is that I get to work with phenomenal clients who come from all different backgrounds. While some people focus on specific niche industries, my clients are actually kind of all over the map, and the consistent theme throughout is health and wellness and mental health. So I have everything from a global culinary apparel brand to a SaaS product, different softwares to high tech to people launching diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to what you're going to hear today, which is a real life princess. So I actually didn't discover that Raja Jesrina Arshad is a princess until we had actually already started working together.
Judy Tsuei (00:03:46) - She engaged my company to help launch her product in the United States. And I'll tell you a little bit more about her, but you can hear her share her own story as a princess of Malaysia who had her own heroine's journey and then wanted to do good in the world. And the more that I uncovered about her while we were working together to get her story, to get all of the content for her website, to make sure that she was positioned in the right way to enter the US market. The more that I realized that she truly lives by her principles and wants to help change the world, to do good in the world, to support her native culture, to support people's wellness, to support people who are at different socioeconomic classes, to be able to achieve that independence and all of that. The more any time that I find a founder who is truly aligned to their principles, who will say no when they mean no, and yes when it is hard, then it's so inspiring. So I hope you'll find that same thread in her story and to walk away with whatever lessons resonate with you.
Judy Tsuei (00:05:00) - What I used to always say in yoga is if it aligns with you, great, you can take it in. If it doesn't align with you, you can just let it on go. So I will share that Raja Jesrina Arshad and I didn't know that Raja is a moniker essentially of the royal family in Malaysia is health and wellness advocate and. Entrepreneur. So she's, as I mentioned, very passionate about inspiring change and improving people's health and lifestyles in Asia and now in the United States and driving women empowerment and entrepreneurship. She's the founder and CEO of PurelyB. That's p u r e l y. The letter B is in Boi, a leading health and wellness lifestyle brand in Southeast Asia, elevating Malaysian superfoods onto the global stage. A purely B just arena is dedicated towards the transformation of people's wellbeing and the empowerment of sustainable, health conscious living. It's a mission that's deeply rooted in her own journey, which you'll hear about in today's episode. She has a BSc in Multimedia Technology and Design from the University of Kent and a master's in marketing from Kingston University Business School, and her background prepared her to become an entrepreneur in the digital marketing and e-commerce space.
Judy Tsuei (00:06:16) - She had executive roles at group M and Astro, which are leading consumer media and entertainment groups in this in Southeast Asia. And then she launched purely B in 2015. So the other thing that's interesting about her company is that it's backed by Silicon Valley based venture capital firm 500 startups, and it combines Malaysia's ancestral wellness traditions with modern science, creating unique superfood blends for modern lifestyles globally. There's a lot that she'll share about the Malaysian rainforest, botanical remedies, and how the ingredients are sourced naturally and sustainably from marginalized farmers across Asia to ensure unmatched purity and potency and social impact. Today, purely B has more than 7 million users across the globe, including in Malaysia, Singapore, the US, Australia and France. And she's honored to preserve her culture, which I've asked her to talk more about, about how these formulations even came into being. She's also one different rising Entrepreneur awards, Amazing Women awards, and, you know, has been nominated and recognized as a top ten Innovative Health company. So without further ado, here is today's episode.
Judy Tsuei (00:07:39) - Okay, so I have a very exciting guest today. And my guest is someone who I've worked with professionally. We started out because she discovered me and then reached out to me on multiple channels. And then we had this opportunity to work together from a branding and marketing perspective. And then from there, I've learned so much about her as a person and as a founder, and it's really exciting because she lives internationally.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:08:04) - And so right now it's like, you know, ten 11:00 or 10:00, seven seven here. So I want to just.
Judy Tsuei (00:08:13) - Turn it.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:08:14) - Over to Jess, Jesrina, and just have you share a bit about your story and anything that you want to bring forward, because then we'll dive into even more juicy things. Sure. Well, first of all, Judy, thank you so much for having me. Like, I'm really I mean, working together, obviously we have we have such a great dynamic and bond. And I feel like this is such a natural progression for us to do this podcast together.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:08:37) - Where do I start a little bit about my story and my journey, basically with purely B, which I launched back in 2015, first time entrepreneur and was an all women founding team. There were seven of us women and we were a tech company. Back then. We were only focus on like digital wellness education. So we were really under the category of tech in the boys club and it was very interesting. Seven women founders in Asia, in the tech industry, in wellness, which wasn't a very popular vertical in the wellness industry. It has been actually actually a lot of pros. I would say coming out of that, we we stood out. What we were offering was unique. What we were doing was different, you know, and we were different. And I felt it worked more to our vantage. And it was very personal about why I started the company. I'd never planned to be an entrepreneur so soon. I think it was something I always believed I wanted to do one day, just because I put my all into my work and everyone that I worked for.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:09:44) - I used to be head of digital marketing for this company called Astro. I would have sleepless nights. I would work around the clock for somebody else as an employee of someone else, and I knew that I would channel that energy towards my own business one day. I just didn't realize it would be so soon, and why it was in 2015, when it happened, was because of an epiphany moment that I felt when I was able to overcome long term health issues and the symptoms that I felt for years, like over five years, close to ten years, like went away just through a very short period of time, one week through some changes. And that was cleaning up my diet and my lifestyle and going back to the ancient wellness traditions, the heritage of Malaysia, learning what my ancestors took as natural medicine and really incorporating that into my diet. And that's really what spurred this whole entrepreneurial journey and realizing I needed to bring this knowledge, wisdom and and solutions to more people so they can all benefit.
Judy Tsuei (00:10:47) - So tell me more about what it is that you discovered as you were diving into your ancient lineage to address your health concerns, and also if you wouldn't mind sharing.
Judy Tsuei (00:10:56) - So this didn't come up until Jess and I were working together for like, you know.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:11:01) - Hours on end for like probably over a.
Judy Tsuei (00:11:04) - Month or so. And all of a sudden, out of curiosity, we got off of work, you know, call with some of her advisors. And then I just sat there and I just kind of asked her some more questions, and she goes, oh, by the way, I should probably tell you this bit of information.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:11:19) - And she's like.
Judy Tsuei (00:11:20) - I'm a princess. And I was like, sorry, come again?
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:11:23) - So can you tell me about how that lineage and.
Judy Tsuei (00:11:28) - Your original, your ancient heritage and then leading up to now?
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:11:33) - Yeah, sure. So just to clarify. Yes, Emily, there are many royal families in Malaysia because we have several states in Malaysia and there's a royal family in each state. And I'm from Selangor and Greece and Berlin states, these two states, because of my mom. She's on one side and my father is on this side.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:11:54) - And both of them come from royal families. And so I'm like a descendant through my parents. And they they take each state takes turn to rule Malaysia. So the king of Malaysia changes every time after a few years, but they rule the state. So just to clarify that and how unlike the UK, you know, there isn't one main royal family. And so I'm not the princess.
Judy Tsuei (00:12:22) - And.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:12:23) - Princess. I'm not the princess. But yeah. So I think in terms of the the ancient story behind these remedies. So in Malaysia and in Southeast Asia, this is also the same in Indonesia, there are sacred lineage of traditional healers and herbalists that treated the royal families back in the day. If you go like right back to the origins of the first royal families, they started from there and it became a generational thing, that lineage of healers and herbalists for generations of royal families, they would treat the different generations and they would have it was it was for beauty, it was for radiance. It was for overall immunity.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:13:00) - It was for energy. It was for everything. But it was only privy to them. They were very gifted, these healers and herbalists. So what the key ingredients in here were, they were all rare botanicals from the Malaysian rainforest. And they were very powerful herbs. And so you had to be careful about how you combine them. You couldn't just decide to mix any herbs together. There was a science to it, and only the gifted healers and herbalists at the time were able to know what that best combination was to get the optimal benefits. So they would create these remedies. In Indonesia, it's called jamu. So people go to Bali and so on. They will they will hear that that term and Malaysia is called Rahman, and they will make them into drinks that you would drink. And then everyone knows is that it's a very long process of doing it. You grind it, you boil it. There's so many steps and it's just doesn't taste good, but it's very, very good for you.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:13:56) - It's like very bitter and like you would hold your nose as you drink these things, but it's really, really good for you. And it was first sort of exclusive to these healers and herbalists, their knowledge. And they would treat the royal families. So the women of the royal household were the custodians of this knowledge, and then they shared it with the wider community. And that's how then eventually it just became an ancient Malaysian remedy. So it wasn't only for the royal families, you know, it just started that way. And so that was very interesting to me because I would also I found this out actually through research, through talking to medical scientists and like the the healers and herbalists of today, they would tell me this, these stories. And then I would talk to my aunt. She was the eldest daughter of my my father's side of the family, my aunt, my grandma was the daughter of the king at the time. And so as the princess of the daughter of the king, she actually consume a lot of these remedies.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:15:00) - And she had these healer and herbalists make these special drinks. And my aunt, as the eldest daughter, would remember watching it. And but she wasn't privy to knowing what some of it was because it depends, you know, whether you're the blessed to be able to know these things. And that's why we call it this ancient health and beauty secrets from Malaysia with these really powerful herbs from a Malaysian rainforest that are not mainstream. So a lot of the knowledge and the wisdom is in danger of getting lost if nobody's preserving that and spreading education of that, or making it accessible and making it easy to consume and yummy to consume. Because that's very important. Because otherwise we know we won't be consuming on a daily basis, and we're not going to get the full benefits of it. Yeah.
Judy Tsuei (00:15:44) - And it's like traditional Chinese medicine. I remember growing up when I was little and like it would be boiled in a clay pot. Yes. Like you took forest and like, dumped it in there and everything that like when you poured it out, was like black mud and the smell of it and the taste of it was so bitter, so very similar to what you're exactly.
Judy Tsuei (00:16:02) - Yes, yes. And so from that then you experience, because you were a workaholic, as you would describe, and you were just really, you know, in your career very focused, as you mentioned, like sleepless nights and all that stuff. And so you were experiencing the impact on your physical health, which is something that I think so many of us in any sort of modern society, if you're driven to build something, grow something. Yeah, creative, independent person, that's what's going to happen. And so you realize that something needed to change. And so you had created this company to share wisdom around health and wellness. And then what happened?
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:16:45) - Yeah. So the basically I created them share health, the wisdom and all this knowledge that I had gained after I was able to overcome the long term health issues that I was able to do when I started consuming these herbs and also cleaning out my diet in my lifestyle. So what I felt when I was like a workaholic and not taking care of my diet and whatnot.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:17:09) - Although to be fair, it wasn't like I was eating McDonald's every day and I thought I was being healthy and and that was the problem. It was lack of awareness and education of what choices to make to truly be healthy. Because back then, in 2015, there wasn't a lot of education around what is processed foods that dairy is highly processed, gluten entirely process, and that will eventually cause long term health issues in the body and for some more than others. I think my body is more sensitive, hence why I get affected more than others. So I used to get eczema and rashes like breakouts in my face and my body. I would have very bad digestion issues. I had really, really bad constipation like it was not normal. People would be shocked when they found out like how often I would go. So it was kind of crazy. But to me it was normal. And for years I went through that and so I would get migraines every two days. As a result, when your body is so toxic that that's what happens.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:18:07) - And so and as a workaholic, you think it's because you're not getting enough sleep and because you're working so hard. So hence, why are you getting the headache? Hence why you're getting the breakouts and all of that. I didn't think for a second that was anything to do with my diet, or what I was putting into my body, until I did a test with a natural health practitioner in Singapore who helped my one year old nephew overcome his eczema. That doctor said he would need to live with till he's five years old. Within one years old, he was clear of his eczema because he went to go see this doctor who identified what was triggering his eczema. And so when I went to this doctor, he found out that I was allergic to gluten, dairy, egg, wheat and shellfish and that I had developed these intolerances over time because I was definitely was fine when I was younger. It came maybe in my early 20s, and that was because of a buildup of eating processed foods. And so my body's a lot more sensitive and I had to cut.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:19:04) - And I'm I my body actually is more plant based vegetarian, and I can't break down meat as much in the bacteria and meat affects me more. So I had to learn how to cut out meat, how to learn to cut out dairy, egg, wheat and all that and clean up my diet. But that also isn't enough because you're eliminating things from your body. Fine. But what about nutrients that your body needs? And that's when the Malaysian herbs and remedies came into play. So it was really a combination of the two that helped me heal and help my body heal and reset. I think that was what I really needed. And it took me a while because I live in Malaysia and all the resources I found on how to do all of the cleaning up, the diet part came from the west, but then the remedies came from the east, so it was a combination of the two. So it's quite a beautiful thing. But what I've learned from the West, I had to adapt it to my lifestyle here.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:19:55) - So I had to really spend like about a month on figuring out what recipes I could do, what ingredients I could use, a good substitutes because I cannot find that in Malaysia. So when I finally I gathered on the knowledge, and then I learned more about the remedies as well. Within one week of changing everything and consuming a completely different diet, that one week was what changed my life. So that was so eye opening. I didn't I didn't even know what I was going to expect. I just figured, I'm going to try this out. And that first week, at the end of the week, I all of my symptoms had cleared and so I would get rashes every week without fail. The breakouts, no breakouts that week, my migraines clear. That was the biggest thing for me, because to actually have a week where you don't have a headache and you're not feeling you need to lie down. It's a huge thing for me. And my digestion was regular it so that one was I was like, what? And I had gone for Colon's coffee.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:20:53) - I had just gone. I had gone for like medical doctors. I'd done everything. Nothing worked in terms of modern medicine or laxatives or whatever it may be. And this did within just a week. And so I think that really shook me in a sense. But how is it that that wasn't a single brand or platform resource in Asia that guided me towards making this sort of discovery, this sort of change? It was just a lifestyle. It was just a diet. That's all I needed to do. Wasn't about medication or treatments or anything. And if nobody is doing it, I need to create this platform. If I can even help just one other person like myself, then it's worth it. So we started almost. A passion side project that kind of took a life of its own when we launched it, like three weeks later, like we got 10,000 users through word of mouth, and it just like I had to quit my job after a month and do it full time. So it became bigger than what I expected.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:21:47) - But when I started, it really was just fueled by my own wellness journey and what I felt, oh my God, I have to share this. I have to share this knowledge because it really, like completely changed my life. So yeah.
Judy Tsuei (00:22:01) - And so the ancient remedies that you discovered and what I love is that, you know, in our work together, learning about how you came up with the formulation, you really did your due diligence to make sure that you were not honoring the ancient traditions. You were drawing forward the best scientific benefit with the scientific experts, and that you were honoring the land and empowering other women. And you really like, went to, you know, very the villages.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:22:31) - The.
Judy Tsuei (00:22:31) - Villages and like and that you. So can you tell me more about that, like coming up with the products that you now have and yeah, when you learn more about it.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:22:41) - Yeah. So when I first actually learned about it, funnily enough, it wasn't through the healer, the herbalist or ancestor.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:22:51) - It was through a scientist. So how that started was I met with Professor Gerard Boudica. He's Australian, he's not even Malaysian. And but he's very renowned. He's the chairman of the Global Wellness Institute for Mental Health. He wrote books about how Malaysian tropical herbs or tropical herbs in the world, the healing properties of them, and he had all the research papers he works with the best or the best other scientists and professors across Asia. And they turn to him. He is the guru that everyone turns to. And so I was lucky because he was an Oxford and Columbia professor, medical science professor, and one of my friends is a doctor who was his student and connected me with him and told me, you need to meet this person. I think you will have so much you can learn from him his knowledge. She's just bursting with knowledge that he that would be very useful for your community, for your platform. I met with him and he just went on about the research that he had done and how Malaysia is the birthplace of the most powerful herbs in the world, and not enough people know about it.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:24:02) - And he was telling me that he had gone to meet the grandmothers in the villages we call them in Malaysia, like Nanette Yangs. Right. There's a special name for it to interview them and ask them, what did you take as your natural medicine child? What did your parents take? And it all, all the herbs that they were talking about one that one key herb stood out, which is paga, and that ended up becoming our first product that we were doing. And he was saying, the star, star herb that for him he's so passionate about is and he said it's called the miracle elixir of life in China. It's called the fountain of youth. He said that this is one of the rare all in one herbs. It's for the brain. It's known to slow down Alzheimer's, increase focus concentration, reduce anxiety. It's also so it's a brain tonic, but it's also a skin tonic. It's also called centella Asiatic. Go to kola so it helps the skin repair collagen production, wound healing.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:24:54) - And then he said it's also good for the gut. And it helps with so obviously with healing the gut, improving digestion. And that links to why also it's really good for the skin and overall immunity and energy. So it became like, wow, it's a brain tonic brings brain, skin immunity, digestion, all of it. And I was really fascinated. So after speaking to him, I was really motivated to even want to try it. I said, I need to find this herb. And we started searching for the herb and we found some plants, potted plants and so on and said, is this it? Is this correct? And he said, no, that is a look alike. That is hydrocortisone verticality. And you've got to be careful because that's toxic if you consume too much of it. So that's when I realized I couldn't just educate about this. I needed to really create a product around it. If we if we really wanted people to know about this particular herb. But I had to try it for myself as well.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:25:52) - And so I went on a hunt because I didn't just want to take the herb on its own. I felt in Malaysia, in our culture, there are generations of healers and herbalists who have those jamu, those rum, those remedies I told you about that's more powerful than just having the herb individually. And they know how to bring out the efficacy even stronger. So I went on a hunt to look for it, and it wasn't too long of a hunt. It was just a week later. So I do think everything is very fated destiny. It was just within a week of meeting Dr. Bittaker. I told my sister about what I was trying to do and how I wanted to find this remedy. And then she said to me, oh, why don't you talk to. We call her Shada. Hamid. Hamid. She's coming over. She's a traditional healer and herbal is very renowned. A lot of she treats a lot of friends, family and whatnot. And she's coming over to treat me to do, like, a massage, make those herbal drinks and whatnot just for maintaining good health.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:26:48) - She knows these things when you just ask her. So I said sure. So then when she arrived, I said, Kaira, do you know what Paga is? And she said, of course, it's so good for skin, it's so good for this business. And I said, do you know where I can find the ready made remedy that's been proven to work and whatnot? And then she just looked at me like dumbfounded. She was like, I make it. That's what I've been giving to your sister. That's what I've been giving to your your all my clients and so on who have all these conditions and whatnot. And then I just said to her, can I try it like I really want to try it. And when she gave it to me, I mean, taste wise aside, because it was it was bitter. It was it was papaya leaf, turmeric leaf, black cumin seeds and paga and but immediately my digestion was immediately within an hour and every day, every day. And then I was like, this is crazy.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:27:45) - And then I had a friend of mine who had eczema and on her hand that was very bad. So I had eczema that would break up, but I wasn't as bad as her. Hers was like much worse, and hers cleared up. And all these other symptoms that it's seeing, like really come across for me and her because I felt her conditions are a lot worse than mine. And I wanted to see how it was for both of us. And immediately I knew that I really need to figure out how I can work with her. And I told Kyra, I said to her, would you want to do this together? And she said, yes. It took a while, I have to say, because as a traditional healer and herbalist, you pass it down to your family. It may not even be your daughter. If she's not the gifted one, it will go down to your granddaughter like she got it from her grandmother. And so you don't just pass that knowledge down to anybody. She had to pray on it.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:28:37) - She had to get God's approval. And it was it was a very emotional thing. But I was very honored that she was able to pass it down to me, because she has a lot of other people who are interested in her remedy, who she treats, who want to take it to China. And she said no to everyone. And she said for some reason it just felt right with me and she wanted to do it with me. So I'm very blessed in that way to be able to take this ancient remedy and that knowledge, because I'm able to work with people like her and Professor Berger, who is also working with us, because he immediately when he knew what we were going to do, and that I had this remedy, he said, count me in. I want to spread this knowledge, and I want to make sure that people know the science behind it. It's not just a powerful, ancient tradition. That's a lot of science proving its benefits.
Judy Tsuei (00:29:21) - So then you went into production and you actually, this was even similar to her not sharing like the lineage until like way later.
Judy Tsuei (00:29:30) - She also just didn't share with me about, you know, just how much of a positive impact she was making in the communities and like, how much that was close to your heart as well is making sure you were empowering women along the way. If you want to try a purely B product that just Serena has talked about during today's episode, use the code wellness 20. That's wellness 22 zero for 20% off. For anybody who's a listener of this show. And so I highly encourage you to check it out, to order it, to try it out for yourself and see what you think.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:30:14) - First of all, caida. So in Malaysia, the marginalized communities, we call them the B40 because like the bottom 40% income group. And so they're the ones who really struggle. And she is from the B40 community. And she not only that, she helps other families like she that's also why she's always stuck in the before the community. Any money she gets, she shares it out to help other communities and other families.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:30:41) - So a big part of us doing it together. She wanted to do it together because she said, I know you want to help people, and no, you're not in this because you just want to commercialize and make money for you. It's much more than that. And that is very what she wants to do. So immediately when we did the pilot, we had a plot of land in. We did it in our to what, Thailand? Because that was her home village. She's from Malaysia and from Thailand. And there we employed eight women that we hand-selected. Well, she hand-selected because she really knew the village in order to what is a very impoverished village in Thailand, because it's a muslim community. They don't get any support from the government. So they're very neglected. And so these women, they desperately need the money. But at the for their children, a lot of them are single mothers. But at the same time, they had the knowledge on how to harvest these herbs, and they could be trained the right way to how to grow it the right way.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:31:34) - So the way the herbs had to be grown was so specific, you couldn't just allow anybody to grow it, because if you wanted to get the true optimum medicinal benefits of each of these herbs, there were there were all these specificities. And that was what kata trained to these women, to this, to her community in the village. And I would it was so funny because there were a lot of bombings that happened in Thailand. So it's very dangerous to actually travel there. But I would go I went there at least twice and people thought I was crazy. There were like people like, you know, the army that were guns and so on. As you try to enter, you will have no reception because terrorists, the bombers would use the Malaysian reception. So I would have no connection. I'm there. So it was kind of crazy the whole journey. I would ride on a stranger's motorbike to get from one point to another behind, because that's the only mode of transportation. It's funny when I think about like the risks that we took to to really see this.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:32:27) - True, but I needed to really see it through. And so that was a pilot we harvested in that plot of land in order to work Thailand with these women, the papaya leaf, the turmeric leaf and the paga. And we were able to really help these women and they were able to like, you know, education for the kids and so on. During that short period of time, it wasn't a long period of time for narrative. What Thailand now we work in marginalized farmers in India because the logistics was a nightmare, because, as I told you, I to ride on a stranger's motorbike to go there and all that, like go. And it was crazy. So in my to scale, it was not possible to do it that way. But that's how we started first, because for me, like it has to impact lives more than just health benefits. Yes, health benefits is such a key thing of what I wanted. Why that inspired me to do this. But these herbs are what the rural community know.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:33:18) - The margins, communities. This is something they know. If you're going to create jobs in anything that feels true to them, it's this, right? And it's just and it's honoring their culture. It's honoring their heritage, too. And there has to be a way that I can preserve our herbal culture and our traditions, whilst also impacting the lives of the communities from this, from Malaysia. And so from there. Then we started looking at how we are able to then work with farmers in Malaysia and also in more than one way. So it's not just about the harvesting side of things, it's also in the commercialization and also the new products that we create. So for example, we have something called cookies Pegah Cookies, which is unheard of. I need to send you Judy.
Judy Tsuei (00:34:02) - Oh yeah. They're so good.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:34:05) - They're like so addictive. They have the Paga by purely superfood blend in them as a key ingredient and moringa and just a handful of other ingredients that are very good for you. And we actually worked with single mothers, bakers.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:34:19) - They didn't know how to bake, but they bake unhealthy cookies. And we train them how to make these natural, plant based, gluten free cookies so that we're able to then open up a channel where we will buy it from them at a profit every month, and they gained a new skill set. They're not just limited to baking a certain type of like cookies and cakes and whatnot. And through that, every month that's been that was in 2020 when we did the cookies. It was a bit later on, but every month we work with four women bakers and their families, and they now have an industrial kitchen and whatnot. Before we started working with them and this organization called IBU Preneur, they one of them particularly she had she was a lead baker. She had five kids, couldn't go to school, couldn't afford to send them school, couldn't afford health care. She was selling fruits by the roadside. That's what she was doing before. And when the pandemic hit, she. She had no income.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:35:13) - And so when we stepped in with Uber preneur to train her making these cookies instead of giving her the income every month from it, now all five kids can go to school. She has health care, she can buy novels, you can do other hobbies. And she's like, she's amazing. And now she has a team of bakers under her. And it's just amazing because it feels like you give her purpose too. And that's what we strive to do with all of our products. And there are a lot of the B40 women, especially, who come to us and say, do you have can I be a reseller? Can I, but I can't afford your stock. So we come up with this program where you don't need to pay up front any stock. You can just be like a drop shipper. If anyone in your community, you can just earn a certain percentage every month from sales. So we have that as well and provide them sales and marketing training because they lack that. They don't have the digital sales and marketing training.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:36:01) - So we do that. So that's how we try and really, you know, help the community whilst we're also having the mission of promoting the benefits to to the global community.
Judy Tsuei (00:36:12) - That's amazing. And so you started in Malaysia, you created these products that taste really good. So you know the powder, the greens powder, it's really delicious. Like I really enjoyed taking it. And so.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:36:25) - You had to formulate it to.
Judy Tsuei (00:36:27) - Get it there. Yeah. And then from there you demonstrated that there was traction, you were growing. And then you wanted to launch in in the US. Can you talk about that?
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:36:36) - Yeah. So I mean, we were very focused on Malaysia for, for a long time also because we kept selling out in Malaysia. And so we didn't really have the capital to like work with distributors or, or look beyond Malaysia at the time. I guess it was a good problem to have, but it was still a problem because we didn't have a ton of capital to say, okay, we're going to produce hundreds of thousands of this stock.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:37:01) - So there were those limitations at first. But what we recognize, even though we had that limitation and we will only focus on Malaysia, people were buying from overseas. We had like a good 2% of our audience were from the US, and they were paying double to get it shipped from Malaysia to the US and customs duties, all of that over and above it. But they were doing it and they were doing it regularly and they're buying it in bulk. So we were noticing these kind of trends. It wasn't just the US you had like people in in Europe, in the UK, Australia. But you know, we had to pick a focus and why the US became the first international market we wanted to look at. Aside from the US being the largest superfoods industry in the world, but that alone wouldn't be enough because it's so big, you could get lost in how you're even going to navigate your way around it. You know, we're a tiny little startup, but what opened up the channel for us was, okay, we have validation.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:38:02) - People in the US want to buy it, but we need more than that. And then we were one of the ten startups that were selected to be part of this accelerator program. With this accelerator program company based in Silicon Valley called us Mac, and they worked with the Malaysian government to help ten startups in Malaysia that have potential in the US to be able to expand into the US. And the Malaysian government would subsidize the costs. And we were one of the ten startups in Malaysia selected so that already to us like open doors. So that changed a lot of things. And through that intense it was all it was. It was all virtual because it was locked. It was locked down. Period. That was in 2021, I believe, and tail end of 2021. And part of the program meant that they connect you with mentors and also help you understand the market more and so on. The mentor that I was connected with Gail again, and she was amazing. And she knew in her network who would be perfect for us.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:39:04) - And that was Liz Heller, who you met Judy, and she said that Liz, she's branding marketing guru. She used to own a wellness business. She has the biggest network connection and she likes you. And if she likes this company, she will. She will really help create opportunities for you in the US. But she's very busy and we've got to see if she even has time or if she even wants to be part of this. But met Liz and we connected. The chemistry was so great. She loved what our product. We shipped it over to her. So even after the the whole mentorship and all the program ended where they were all getting paid to be mentors by this program, up to that ended, Liz and Gail still wanted to mentor. They still wanted to work with me and Liz, at the end of it said, I really believe you have potential in the US. What you have to offer is so unique. There is a market for it. You just have to figure out the story, the branding to position it right and work with the right people.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:40:01) - And it will really, really, really connect with so many people here. And she was very passionate about that. And so we kept talking. And then a year later we met in person. Then when, you know, things opened up. And I think that was in 2022. And then you connected me with a partners who you also met, Balranald, who worked with you before or your client. And that's how we connected. And they helped us for like eight months with no pay. They weren't getting paid, but they every, every like almost every week we were on calls for them to just like help us figure out how we can expand and what they can do to help us. And then once we got we raised funds and of last year, we were able to then properly work with them to expand to the US. And that was like in November, December and we got FDA approval. Everything. That was quite a nightmare. The whole process is understanding how to navigate all that and March, and our products were impounded into our warehouse in Torrance in LA in in March, April, and our US website went up in June.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:41:03) - So that was like exciting. And of course, Judy, the messaging.
Judy Tsuei (00:41:07) - The branding.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:41:09) - Was your key in that as we were working on that, like that was that to me was very pivotal because how do we convey the message in the best way possible, but also in a succinct way? We have so much we want to say, how do we pick and choose the right way to say it, or what a highlight, and in a way that resonates the most with the American audience.
Judy Tsuei (00:41:30) - And how to dispel myths as well? Yes, that's a big part of it, was people have preconceived notions of products from Asia and all of that. So I mean, think to your journey, it's so amazing and inspiring because you continue to put your core values and your principles first and foremost. And then, you know, as you said, it was fated because there are so many elements where you kept showing up and then the universe met you where you were. And so like, yeah, there wasn't the, you know, and I think that also the preconceived notion may be like, oh, well, you had all these connections, etcetera, etcetera.
Judy Tsuei (00:42:07) - But no, you worked so hard. No.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:42:11) - Yes.
Judy Tsuei (00:42:11) - You did everything in the best way possible. And even hearing, you know, the stories that you're sharing right now, just it's wonderful because I don't think that we hear enough about if you continue to honor the things that you believe in the most, then it's not like it's an easy journey, but it'll be a fulfilling journey. And then the people that you impact will be that much more. And then the just like the ripple effect is going to be so much more than just financial reward. Yeah.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:42:44) - And that's when because it is it is a challenging journey. But you don't feel it as much like you do, but not enough to bring you down where you'll give up. Yeah, right. It just you're still very motivated. You're still and people I know, people say, well, my your hustle and my my your grind. But a big part of it is because of the positive feeling emotions that I get from it is overwhelmingly so that it really overpowers whatever challenges that I'm going through.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:43:15) - And I think that is that is very key as to why, you know, whatever it takes, whatever it takes. Yeah, just make it happen. And I think that's also why, you know, I end up meeting people like you, like Liz, like Doctor Booker and Kida. I feel like we're all we all have synergy in terms. I feel like everyone, these people that I'm working with have such good hearts. You know, their hearts are in the right place. The purpose is in the right place. I know I'm so blessed. I haven't had anyone who had bad intentions or bad falling out or, you know, that those kind of things, like so today we also work together. You know, it's and I think that's really because just alignment in that way.
Judy Tsuei (00:43:58) - Yeah. And you know, like I helped to introduce some people to you who are in the CPG and oh my God, yes. And then you ended up meeting them and spending all of this time at live events.
Judy Tsuei (00:44:09) - Yeah. And I think that's one of the other parts of is like, they are so kind hearted and they really want to help other entrepreneurs to really thrive. Yeah. And you know, like Jess comes internationally. She was just telling me before we go on to this, like, she's going to be coming back to the United States and all these like, travels and going to all these events. And so I think that that's such a key thing is like, you're still going to have to work, you're still going to have to work hard, but then you're so driven by your motivation and your why. And you've seen the case studies. If you want to go to the purely website and see all of the testimonials of people's lives who have been, you know, transformed by this, and if you don't have your health and what do you have? And so you need your help first and foremost.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:44:52) - Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah. And thank you for introducing me to like, Ryan and Audrey and all of them.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:44:58) - And and we're still, you know, Audrey is asking me, are you coming back next? And she has shared so many golden nuggets of knowledge to help me navigate also expansion to the US. And again. Nobody's expecting anything. Yes. No. Like there's no sort of. Oh, I'll do this and they'll give that back to me, you know. All of us are just sort of for the greater good, for the greater good.
Judy Tsuei (00:45:20) - So anybody who's needing a little bit of reassurance that they're still good in the world, there's still plenty of good in the world.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:45:26) - There is firmly. Yes.
Judy Tsuei (00:45:29) - So if people want to order your product because now, you know, like every time I hear a story, I'm like, yes, I do need to stock up on this.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:45:37) - Where can they get it? Yeah, yeah. So you can get it on our website purely. And we have the tiger milk mushroom and the Paga two signature products. The cookies is coming soon. By end of this year, you'll be able to order the cookies too.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:45:53) - So the paga we have like in sachets form now as well, Judy, because you had it in the in the scoop and the in the back. So now we have sachets as well, which is a lot more convenient for a lot of people. And then the tiger mushroom, it's don't get put off by its name. It doesn't taste like milk. It doesn't taste like mushroom. It tastes like sour candy. So if you cut it open and you put it straight in your mouth, it can dissolve and your tongue tastes like sour candy, and you mix it into water. It's like elderberry juice because it's mix of elderberry and red grapes. And we also have like monthly subscription model and it's free shipping if you spend a certain amount. And we have like different sizes for you to try. And the that ancient remedy that helped me with my eczema and my digestion now tastes good. It doesn't taste like what I tasted, because we formulated it with the healing herbalist to make it more palatable for today's community and for daily consumption.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:46:45) - So got green apples and dates as well.
Judy Tsuei (00:46:48) - And you know, I remember one of the things too is like that sense of vitality and vibrancy and like being able to feel like you're glowing from the inside out, from like a beauty body as well, like a skin remedy. So like there's so many benefits.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:47:02) - There are, there are. And it's funny because a lot of people like, oh, bugger Corsica since I've seen that in Japanese, in beauty brands and whatnot, like, yes, because it's so good for the skin. Most of these K-beauty and Japanese beauty brands have it as ingredient in their product, but what the science has proven is to get the true optimal benefits for your skin. The collagen production. The skin repair is to consume it orally, to drink it, rather than topically. But not many products are doing that, and so we're one of the few doing it in that way. And that's why, you know, quite fast. Within three weeks, a lot of our customers start feeling skin radiance or the acne or eczema starts clearing up.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:47:42) - It's really powerful when you when you take it orally.
Judy Tsuei (00:47:45) - So I always ask every guest if you had to say fuck saving face about anything, what would you say? Fuck saving face about?
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:47:52) - Let's see. What would I say? Fuck saving face about? I would say that two things. Well, one thing is. Really try to learn how to cut out the noise and go deep within and understand what is it that you want, you want to do for your business, what decisions you want to make for a certain situation that you may be in for your business. Because I've had so many times when especially having other co-founders who are not as active as I was, but I valued their opinion and I always wanted to balance out, and it sometimes went against in my gut, in my heart, what I felt was right, what I felt. This is what I think I really need to do. And as a result, results were mediocre. And when I was able to be more solo, I mean, they're still there, but they're not active anymore.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:48:45) - The more that you support and I could make the decisions myself and not worry about. And I did what felt right to me. That's when the business skyrocketed and it felt good. The decisions I made felt good to me and I was always so worried about, oh, then, then I'm going to hurt this person's feelings. Or this person wanted to do that. And I think and not just in work, but I think in life. So I'm divorced. And that was.
Judy Tsuei (00:49:11) - Another thing that I learned.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:49:13) - Later on was.
Judy Tsuei (00:49:14) - Like, oh yeah, that's right. How much life you've lived.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:49:18) - So divorced at the age of 38 and now now 40.
Judy Tsuei (00:49:23) - And yes, I also need to preface because this is going to be an audio version. And so the first time that Jess revealed to me how old she was, I was like, what? And I'm also Asian and I know I get a lot of feedback and you look amazing.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:49:38) - You know, thank you.
Judy Tsuei (00:49:39) - Like you don't look your age.
Judy Tsuei (00:49:40) - So then when just told me that because I was like, this lady cannot possibly be more than 30 maybe.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:49:46) - Oh yeah.
Judy Tsuei (00:49:46) - I was like, wait, what? So that's why it still boggles my mind sometimes about like, how much life you've lived and all the things you've done. So it's entertaining. Yeah.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:50:00) - But yeah. So going through my divorce, a big part of what took me so long to go through it was worrying about other people, family, him, what people would think a lot. I kept putting them first rather than what I wanted. But after I really went to stay true to what I wanted and we had the best. Really, he still helps my business. People think we're still together because they see us in each other's Instagram stories. But no, we're just best friends and we have a better relationship now. In both of our lives. Our careers have flourished. After we divorce. It was the best decision we could have made for both of us. But it took a while for me to hone in to what felt right, and I wish I made that decision sooner.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:50:44) - So in work, in life and all of it really cut out the noise, go deep within and figure out what you want and act on it.
Judy Tsuei (00:50:52) - It's lovely. So you said there were two things. So that's one. Was there another thing? Oh, yes. The other thing.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:50:58) - Was well, I mean it's kind of it's sort of similar to that. The other thing was why it's similar to that is because of other people's opinions throughout building purely B that a lot of people saying that you can't do it that way or why it's not going to work if you do that, you can do it. It's not going to work. And there were so many circumstances where people said that to me. For example, when we did buy purely B, we couldn't afford to produce it up front and then sell it. The only way I could validate if there really would be demand for this was to do a pre-order, but I would need to do three months pre-order. And it was. A lot of mentors and advisers were like, you're crazy.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:51:43) - Nobody's going to pay up front and wait three months for a product that they've never heard of, which is, you know, an ingredient that they hadn't heard of. And it's your first time launching a product under your brand like this. It's a waste of your time. This isn't the right way to do it. And I said to them, well, I feel this is the best way for me to really validate it. There's going to be demand and I don't have the capital to do it any other way. And I believe in the product. I believe in what it stands for and what it can do for people. And I believe in our brand, the community we've built. So I'm going to do it anyway. And we sold out in two weeks.
Judy Tsuei (00:52:18) - Wow.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:52:19) - We launched. Yeah, it was and it really defied, you know, all the critics and whatnot. And we did it again. We tried doing sales again and it sold out in another two weeks. And even though it's a preorder and in the end, it ended up becoming a five month pre-order because the narrative firm flooded and we needed time to ensure that the herbs were clean and everything was good.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:52:42) - We contacted all the customers and told them, we're so sorry. If you want a refund, we totally understand. Just give us your details. But otherwise you have to wait two more months. Nobody refunded. We had 500 customers in the pilot. Not a single person refunded a few complaints saying that I've been waiting so long for this, but then it's fine. Final wait. And then after that we were able to see a good 30% within one week repeat buy. And that's when we scaled the infrastructure and all that was okay, this is fully validated, let's do it. But if I listen to a lot of people on how I should have done it, it would not have been the success that it was in the pilot. So there's just one example. There were many examples, so I'm glad that I just didn't listen. And I was quite stubborn in that way. But but again, that goes back to the first thing. Like what feels right to you, what's true to you. I'm not saying that I'm always right.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:53:33) - And for me, it's important to always listen to mentors and advisors and take their learnings into account. But you have to balance it out with what, why? Why did you feel so strongly about doing it a certain way? There's a reason behind that. And and incorporate that advice and then balance it all out.
Judy Tsuei (00:53:51) - Yeah I love it. I'm so grateful for our conversation and being able to reconnect. It's been a minute. So yeah, and I'm excited for what's to come and the growth to come. And you know, I fully believe that the blend between Eastern and Western medicine, the ancient lineage of like, you know, generation combined with everything that science has to offer today. And I love also being able to learn that so much of science is now validating everything the ancient wisdom knew and yes, you know, substantiating it. And so it's like.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:54:27) - Proving it.
Judy Tsuei (00:54:28) - But it was proving it all along. Yes. Exactly. Yes. So thank you for all that you're doing in the world.
Judy Tsuei (00:54:35) - And we will definitely share the ways in which people can order. And also, if you want to follow along Jess's Instagram account, you can see her whirlwind adventures as a founder around the world.
Raja Jesrina Arshad (00:54:50) - Yes? Yeah, just ask if you want to connect my Instagram.
Judy Tsuei (00:54:54) - Thank you so much for tuning in today. I'm excited to bring you more of these diverse voices. The whole entire goal of this podcast is so that you can hear different people's stories, how they got to where they are now, how they're coming from different backgrounds, but that they also have shared narratives so that you can feel less alone in whatever it is that you're going through, so that you can feel more inspired to kick off the next chapter of your life. If you're looking to make a change, and if you are one of those people who feel like you're undervalued in your current profession or occupation, you always had this quiet desire to launch something of your own, and you're ready to do that now. Then I highly encourage you to reach out to me.
Judy Tsuei (00:55:34) - Those are the women who, and especially women of color, who've been attracted to my coaching services lately because I'm super passionate as Justine. Serena's passionate about health. I'm very, very passionate not only about mental health, but about making sure that you can bring your own beauty. Beautiful light and purpose and mission into the world, knowing that it may continue to evolve and unfold, but just finding that confidence and that freedom to say yes to you because there will only ever be you in this entire space time continuum. And so it's such a blessing and a gift to be able to help you and other women around the world bring their dreams to life. See you in the next episode. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If you'd like to support me and this show, please go to iTunes and leave your review. It means so much to me and it'll help others find this podcast. I'll catch you in the next episode, and if you'd like to stay in touch between now and then, please visit Wild Hearted Words and sign up for my weekly newsletter.
Judy Tsuei (00:56:47) - I've had people share with me that it's the best thing to arrive in their inbox all week. Aloha!
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