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After Zoey Gong moved from China to the U.S. at age 16, she started to get sick. She ultimately had to change the way she ate to improve her health. That experience led her to study Western nutrition, but eventually, she was looking for a more holistic approach to food and health.
“I felt like the universe was trying to lead me to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM),” she says. “I believe that food is the best preventative medicine and TCM especially focuses on that.” Combining her culinary and nutrition training with her extensive expertise in TCM, Zoey’s built a business around her passion—improving others’ health through TCM food therapy.
Read on to learn how Zoey uses Squarespace to represent her brand, run her nutrition consulting business, and share her educational TCM content.
Creating a website to teach and share
Zoey’s mission to share her knowledge is personal: “I have benefitted so much from TCM food therapy. It made me a different person both physically and emotionally, so I really want to help others to experience this kind of change,” she says. And, she adds, “TCM is often not represented or explained very well. It is often misunderstood as inaccessible, ‘not scientific,’ and outdated. Through my work, I want to help more people understand TCM food therapy from the perspective of someone who grew up with it.”
She credits her Squarespace website for helping her connect the different parts of her business and turn her expertise into a full-time career.
“I love how Squarespace has everything that I need for my business all in one place. The website itself is my portfolio, where people can learn about my work,” she says. “The appointment function is very useful. I get many requests from my clients for health or business consultations. I used to handle everything manually. From scheduling to payment, it was quite time-consuming. With Squarespace, I just send my clients a link and everything is settled!”
“I also use the newsletter function to send emails to my audience to announce events, discounts, and share pieces of my life,” Zoey adds.
Monetizing content on Squarespace
Followers don’t have to book one-on-one time with Zoey to learn from her. “I offer a lot of free recipes and TCM knowledge on the site, along with a membership area where my audience can pay to learn more,” she says. “I also sell digital courses and ebooks on the site.”
These options make learning about TCM more accessible, all while making sure Zoey gets compensated for her expert knowledge and time.
“The membership includes full access to a digital library that contains knowledge of hundreds of TCM culinary herbs and food ingredients, where my audience can learn the energetics, flavor, and functions of herbs and foods,” Zoey says. “Members also receive a special discount code to use across the site.”
For Zoey, the inspiration to create a membership boils down to sharing with her community. “I know this information cannot be found anywhere else and it will be really interesting and useful for my audience,” she says. “I want to create a community of people who are interested in TCM food therapy and provide them with good information that can benefit their health.”
Building community in person
On top of creating content and nutrition consulting, Zoey recently launched a new venue in New York. “In response to the surge of violence against the AAPI community, The Red Pavilion was established by creative director Shien Lee and me as a platform to amplify the representation of Asian voices and cultural identity,” she says.
By day, the space is a Chinese teahouse and apothecary. At night, it transforms into an Asian neo-noir nightclub. “Our focus is to support the cultural visibility of the AAPI community in New York and provide unique immersive food and beverage experiences that incorporate live music, performance art, and TCM.” Zoey says. “By sharing the healing magic from our ancestors through TCM and combining it with purpose-driven experiences of art, hospitality, and cultural exchange, we aim to shatter stereotypes and structural inequalities, allowing individuals and communities to heal and flourish. I hope it can be a destination for people in Brooklyn and beyond to gather for fun, learning, community, and arts.”
As for other content creators and experts looking to start sharing their know-how with an audience, Zoey has a few key pieces of advice.
“Creating content should feel like sharing your passion rather than trying to follow a trend. Find your own niche so that your content stands out and your audience stays curious and interested,” she says. “It is really important to create authentic content that others can apply to their own lives. You don't need a lot of followers. You just need a group of people who really support your work.”
Inspired by Zoey’s story? Start building your own brand on Squarespace.
Header photo by Cassie Zhang
Thumbnail photo by Thilesen