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Empowering Wellness: Key Insights from Our Fireside Chat with Katie Mant and Aicha McKenzie

Writer's picture: Mumble ForumMumble Forum

Updated: 4 days ago

We kicked off our Mumble Fireside Chat & Empower Wellness series with a truly inspiring conversation between Katie Mant, co-founder of Bon Charge (and Forbes 40 under 40 winner), and Aicha McKenzie, wellness advocate, former Team GB gymnast and Founder of AMCK Management.

From an initial $1,000 investment, Katie has built a thriving 9-figure global wellness brand, introducing cutting-edge, premium, science-backed technology to hundreds of thousands of customers. Transforming the wellness landscape, Bon Charge products support, and are endorsed by athletes, doctors, wellness experts (and other famous faces), along with people who have chosen to drive positive, tangible changes to their wellbeing and lives. We came away feeling uplifted, inspired, educated, and empowered. Here are 5 valuable lessons from Katie that we are keeping at the forefront of our minds, in business, and in life.

 

  1. Be curious and educate yourself.

Katie’s wellness journey began in 2017, when she and co-founder Andy (and, now husband) wanted to feel great and get in shape for their upcoming wedding. Initially focusing on nutrition and exercise, Katie and Andy soon turned their attention to sleep. Realising that they were not optimising their sleep (nor wellbeing), their curiosity was sparked, along with an education in health and wellness that would inform product development and brand direction, to this day. “It starts with the studies. Our brand is built on data. Not trends", Katie explained.


Discovering that products on the market didn’t aid sleep in the way they should (specifically blue light blocking glasses), the couple were determined to find out why. By reading academic scientific reports, peer reviews, listening to podcasts, and asking the right questions, Katie and Andy discovered that there is a specific wavelength of blue light that needs to be blocked, to optimise sleep. They set to work, to create a bespoke tint to block that wavelength. Their first product? Science-backed, blue light blocking glasses that actually worked, and took the wellness world by storm. The couple’s curiosity and determination to educate themselves from the beginning, led to their discovery of a gap in the market, and has since cemented their reputation as a leader in innovation and science-backed wellness products.



2. Educate the customer.

As Katie explained, when you educate yourself, you can bring the right products to the market. Then, you need to educate the customer. An educated customer who truly understands the difference between your products and others on the market, and why yours stand out (in this case, backed by science), will buy-in to your brand and become a loyal customer.


As Bon Charge (initially known as BLUblox) introduced further products (including bulbs, lamps, face masks, red light therapy devices, and sauna blankets), Katie ensured that customers understood the difference between light frequencies, wavelengths and modalities – and how each product is designed on that basis, to target and support specific concerns. “A big part of our job is education. And a big part of our job is educating our audience. The market is saturated. Take the face masks, as an example. So many out there don’t have the correct frequency. You need the right radiance to penetrate the skin.” Bon Charge educates its customers frequently via events, blogs and newsletters, and their product descriptions and specifications are incredibly informative. As Katie demonstrated, education can differentiate your brand/business from the rest.

 

3. Harness the power of community.

"Our community has made our business and brand”, Katie explained. A big part of building the Bon Charge community has been via education. Katie also stressed the importance of understanding your community, and what they want.  “People don’t want to be sold to. They don’t just want to know the features and benefits. They want to feel part of a community.” From events, to social media, to creating blogs around what the community wants, Bon Charge customers have a whole world of wellness information (and a sense of belonging), at their fingertips. Prioritising your community is essential in building and sustaining a brand, but you have to keep doing the work. Katie explained how, via email and website design A/B testing, Bon Charge can gather information about community preferences. Experiment and "play", but as Katie insists, you “need the data, so you’re not guessing.”


Creative, targeted community marketing has been integral to Bon Charge’s success: from the bio-hackers and influencers testing the first blue light blocking glasses (who insisted Katie and Andy launch these asap!), to the social media partnerships with cleverly-selected influencers, sharing their honest experiences with Bon Charge products. “We took on a partnerships assistant and in his first year with us, we made $1.5M from influencer marketing.” Not to mention the impressive collaborations with key players such as Dr Ranjan Chatterjee, the Kardashians, and Steven Bartlett, the 2025 Bon Charge Ambassador.




4. Get your audience off the 3rd party platforms (and subscribing to your email!)

Katie acknowledged the huge impact and benefit of social media, but explained: “you can’t rely solely on Instagram and Tik Tok.” The best way to speak directly to your customer and the best way to generate revenue? Email is where it’s at. Just shy of 1M subscribers, Bon Charge “hits that list hard” when a product or sale is launched, bringing in cash and helping the business to rocket. In Katie’s words: “You need to get your product out to the market. You can’t wait for perfection. Someone else will come along, otherwise. You perfect, as you go. And the same with emails, and posts. Get them out.” The power and success of Bon Charge’s marketing strategy has led many to believe that Bon Charge is a marketing business. Alongside the A/B testing mentioned before (and getting emails out quickly), Katie suggested ways to grow a mailing list: partnering with brands or influencers for collabs/giveaways, offering incentives for subscribing, and ensuring that emails add value and reflect the brand journey, so that customers trust the brand. And, make sure you understand spam filters, because what good is it if your email doesn’t land in their inbox? Lastly, ensure that your email preview and caption encourage the customer to take action and click through to your website, so you can study the data!

 

5. Trust your gut

In spite of humble beginnings, Bon Charge now sets the standards for cutting-edge wellness technology. Through education, resilience, hard work and “trusting your gut”, Katie and Andy have achieved the success most of us dream of. From the earliest days with a basic website, “paying as you go”, and learning how to do and then “sack myself” from every role, it was the belief and trust in product and brand that catapulted Bon Charge, and ensured the hard work and sacrifices were worth it. From expanding product ranges, to selecting partnerships, to re-branding, Katie demonstrated how important for the founder to “trust your own gut. It’s your baby. You know what’s best for you.” Listening to Katie, we could all feel and believe her passion (and continued curiosity) for her brand and the wellness industry as a whole. Wherever we are in our personal or business journey, this is a humbling and powerful reminder that we have the wisdom inside of us – we just need to listen to that voice, and trust it.


To hear the personal feedback that Katie has received was inspiring too, perhaps showing that trusting your gut, an instinctive human ability, leads to a business that is hugely successful on a human level too. “In the early days, it was how people were able to sleep for the first time. Since launching our Red Light collection, it has been about how grandparents could play with their grandkids, because their muscles were strengthened. With the holistic range, has come confidence. People who had been shying away due to scars. To have a profound impact on people’s lives…”

 

Katie has kindly shared a Bon Charge discount code, exclusive to Mumble members. Enter the code MUMBLE at discount for 20% off everything, site wide!


With big thanks to Katie and Aicha. We would also like to thank our partner location Tramp, and Pomello for the delicious drinks enjoyed by Mumble members.



Article written by Kate Wileman

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