National champ Valerian Spicer swaps boxing gloves for business growth
Valerian Spicer swapped office life for the boxing ring at 30, becoming a national champion and later a coach. Now 45, her new mission is to transform young lives through Empower Box, the startup she just won £24k to launch.
When Valerian Spicer was still in school, any of her classmates would have told you she was destined to become an athlete. But as she approached 30, Spicer was stuck in an office, feeling unfulfilled and caged in.
Spicer had put her love of sports aside to go to university and pursue an administrative career. She’d been eager to impress her mother, an immigrant from Dominica, and wary that her sporting skill would play into racial stereotypes. Success was education and a desk.
At age 30, while working as a business administrator for an executive search firm, she began going to a boxing gym after work to get back in shape. She quickly rediscovered the love of sport, right where she’d left it.
‘As soon as I started boxing, regardless of what I’d achieved, it felt like everything, every other area of my life improved,’ Spicer said, ‘I’d found a sense of purpose and achievement which I really needed.’
Not only did boxing make Spicer feel better, she also discovered she was really, really good. Age thirty is considered late in the career of any elite athlete, but it was when Spicer started. At age 33, she became an English National Champion – the cut-off age for competition was 34, but later increased to 40.
Spicer went on to compete in 64 fights, including two Commonwealth Games, a Pan American Games and 2 World Championships. Four months before her final Commonwealth Games, Spicer gave birth for the first time, quickly dropping 28 kilos to get back into fighting shape. She retired from competitive boxing after eight successful years.
With the same determined strength she’d shown in competition, Spicer set her sights on reverse engineering the structure of her success, pivoting into coaching. How had she done so well, and how could she best share what she’d learned with others?
Spicer has lived in the East End for the past twenty years, first in Whitechapel and more recently on Bow with her partner and two children. Today her clients across the East End swear by The Spicer Method, a holistic mental and physical programme which uses boxing for a healthier life.
At age 45, she’s just embarked on another journey after winning the Investec Beyond Business awards which granted her startup Empower Box £24k in seed funding.
Empower Box is a joint effort between Spicer and an ex-client who has worked in senior leadership in education. The new business aims to improve mental health for young people and adults through boxing programmes. It will focus on ADHD and empowering women and girls.
As a woman with ADHD, Spicer is trying to pass on what has helped her to others. She has found that the benefits of boxing are holistic. ‘You could argue that boxing places as much emphasis on the mental as it does the physical,’ she said.
Spicer always found the lead-up to a fight the most difficult, an odd twilight zone where her mind and body would attempt sabotage. ‘So it’s about recognising that it’s part of the process. This is what happens. Your mind does not always tell you the truth,’ she explained.
Last year, Spicer was diagnosed with ADHD, although she’d suspected she had it for a long time. ‘I was happy to receive the diagnosis, I felt it answered a lot of questions,’ she said. ‘Looking back at my boxing career, I can see how having ADHD helped me achieve.’
‘One of the symptoms of ADHD can be hyperfocus; I became tunnel visioned about achieving in the sport, continually working towards goals to stay on track.’
Empower Box will also focus on making boxing accessible for women and girls. ‘Boxing is no longer a male dominated sport,’ Spicer said. She is currently a Level 2 England Boxing Coach at Limehouse Boxing Academy, and runs two girls youth boxing programmes at the Spotlight and Haileybury Youth Centres, which have pathways for joining the sport professionally.
Spicer and her business partner knew that Empower Box had the potential to help people in the East End, but were lacking the funding to get the business off the ground. Local health and community hub Bromley by Bow Centre encouraged them to apply to the Beyond Business awards programme, funded by Investec. The programme awards up to £24k start-up funding to businesses with a positive community benefit.
Although daunting at first, Spicer said the support from the team at the Bromley by Bow Centre made the application process achievable. Once accepted on the programme, applicants need to put together and submit a business plan, as well as pitch a ‘shark-tank’ style proposal to the funders.
‘We were supported and guided the whole way through,’ she explained, ‘So by the time the final got there, even though it was very scary, we felt we were prepared.’
Along with funding, winners of the Investec Beyond Business awards receive strategic and business planning guidance and practical ongoing support. They also join the Alumni Network, providing valuable networking with other community interest businesses.
Empower Box has hit the ground running and aims to eventually integrate its boxing courses into school curriculums across the country. ‘We had an idea for our business at the start of the programme, but through six months of mentoring and adapting our business plan, the idea is now a sustainable social enterprise,’ Spicer said.
Do you have a business idea with a positive community impact? Bromley by Bow’s Investec scheme is designed to support startups from the local area. It’s been extended for another year and applications are open until 30 March 2025.
The next successful, sustainable business to come out of the Investec Beyond Business awards could be yours.
To find out more, visit Bbbc.org.uk/services/enterprise-support/
