Candace Nelson, SWEET SUCCESS: A Simple Recipe to Turn your Passion into Profit
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[0:58]Candace Nelson is the author of sweet success a simple recipe to turn your passion into profit
[1:04]Candace is a serial entrepreneur wall street journal contributor and expert at turning one's passion into a profitable business
[1:10]I need to take some lessons from her her debut book the sprinkles baking book 100 secret recipes from Candace's kitchen was a New York Times bestseller
[1:18]And now this book sweet success a simple recipe for turning your passion into profits is published by HarperCollins leadership
[1:25]Candace received her bachelor of arts and economics from Wesleyan University and a professional pastry certification from the former
[1:32]Tonto Marie's cooking school in San Francisco and as you will hear she is the founder of sprinkles the cupcake chain
[1:38]Welcome Candace. Thank you so much for coming on mom's down. Have time to read books. I am so happy to be here
[1:44]I am being treated to a marvelous view
[1:46]And it's so fun to do these podcasts in person from time to time so nice
[1:50]Thank you for making the effort. Your book was so interesting as a fellow entrepreneur. I can say now
[1:56]I learned so much and I feel so validated because you had a passage in the beginning where you're like if you've done a lot of jobs
[2:02]You might be an entrepreneur and I was like thank you
[2:06]It doesn't mean you're like totally scattered
[2:08]Right. I felt like my whole background was so mismatched
[2:11]Well, thank you. I'm glad that resonated with you and I hope will resonate with others because I mean my whole life
[2:16]I just thought oh, what am I gonna find my thing? Yes, you know
[2:20]I'm a jack of all trades
[2:21]I'm a master of none and I felt less than because of it and I think you know
[2:26]You and I've said work generally they were the same generation were generally the same age and
[2:31]I think when we were growing up it really was about finding your thing. Yes, you know
[2:35]What what are you going to do?
[2:36]What is the career you're going to have for the rest of your life?
[2:40]You have such an antiquated concept now, right?
[2:43]I know one person who has the same job one a doctor. No like actually
[2:48]Okay, yeah, okay, but well, I guess doctor says yes
[2:51]You're right. Yes, but but beyond like in a company type of situations where they like kept doing the same thing forever
[2:57]Nobody else does that nobody else does that. Yeah, and this idea of loyalty, you know
[3:02]I mean and security
[3:04]I mean people have tended to look at entrepreneurship as sort of the risky pursuit
[3:09]But I mean look at all the people who are being laid off from these tech companies, right?
[3:13]These big badass tech companies that have more money than God
[3:17]and the revoking job offers they're laying people off and I just feel like
[3:22]It reminds me of something someone said to me when I first started sprinkles
[3:26]Which was just that you know if you work at a company
[3:29]It just takes one person to fire you. Yes, you're boss
[3:32]Yeah, and I say this in the book, but if you start a business and you've amassed customers
[3:38]All those customers have to fire you, right?
[3:41]So I have to push back when people say entrepreneurship is so risky
[3:46]Right life is risky. Yeah, but ultimately entrepreneurship is about betting on yourself
[3:51]Which I think is
[3:53]really my mission in writing this book is to sort of
[3:57]Say to women in particular out there
[4:00]It's time to bring your confidence online. Yeah, it's time to find the strength to bet on yourself
[4:06]I think more women need to realize that
[4:10]You know more women than men suffer from imposter syndrome, right?
[4:14]We are all walking around thinking that we can't do things
[4:18]were frauds
[4:19]women suffer statistically more than men and
[4:23]I think it's just time to say
[4:25]Biest all of that, right?
[4:27]And I think there are things you can do to sort of help bring your confidence online if you're not very yet
[4:33]and
[4:35]You know, I think at the end of the day
[4:38]If you got you, anything is possible
[4:41]Right if you know that you alone like if you're alone
[4:46]Completely alone by yourself and you know that you're still strong enough to get through the day
[4:50]With everything else crashing down around you. That's my goal for women out there. I love it
[4:55]You're kind of like women who go through so much stuff anyway, right like this doesn't have to even be the hardest thing you do
[5:01]It exactly exactly it might not be the right exactly
[5:04]Yeah, I mean think about childbirth
[5:07]Raising teenagers, which we were just talking about. It's that it's funny
[5:11]I was actually thinking about
[5:13]the idea of scaling a company and how it is very much like raising children
[5:18]I have a lot of friends who are
[5:20]Just kind of coming into empty nesting now
[5:22]They're seeing their kids off to college and it's one of those things that I think women don't talk about enough is like what a painful period of time that is
[5:30]Like I'm I'm getting emotional thinking about it because you know
[5:35]I'm not too far away from it myself
[5:36]But I still can't possibly imagine it and I think the hard thing is it's like the sign of a job
[5:42]Well done is a mom. Yes. Yes. Yes. If your little baby bird flies a coupe and is
[5:49]Independent and responsible enough to to go to college and not need to come home on the weekends for laundry
[5:54]Although maybe they still do then you did a great job raising that child
[5:58]But it doesn't mean there isn't so much pain and loss that goes with it and
[6:03]You know scaling a company is kind of the same way. It's like I came to sprinkles
[6:08]Specifically through a passion for baking
[6:11]But then as we grew and scaled and I built a team
[6:14]I became further and further more distant from that initial passion that brought me there and then ultimately we sold sprinkles
[6:19]And I had a full blown identity crisis
[6:23]There was only a tiny bit of that in the book
[6:24]And I was like I feel like there's a lot more here
[6:26]And there was just a little paragraph or two and I'm like no no no I want to read that book now
[6:31]Okay, that'll be next okay, that'll be next and it's interesting because I
[6:35]Now that I've been through that experience of building a company that I identified so
[6:41]closely with I seek that out in articles
[6:45]I'm reading and and those stories and other entrepreneurs and and they're out there
[6:48]You find them and it doesn't matter how much you want it
[6:51]I mean I came from the world of investment banking like we are taught to
[6:55]You know build scale sell right that is the goal
[6:58]That's the dream. That's the founder's dream
[7:01]And certainly it was mine. It was mine, but it didn't make it any less painful didn't make it any less
[7:08]confusing when all of a sudden
[7:11]You know sprinkles was
[7:14]Coming out with a new flavor and what didn't come from my brain
[7:17]Come from my kitchen and I think a lot of people still think that those recipes are coming from me
[7:24]You know, it's it has there was no sort of big announcement that that I'm not operationally behind sprinkles anymore
[7:30]So sometimes they'll get these dms like can does that hot chill flavor?
[7:35]I don't know you call yourself a traditionalist and like a purest when it comes to flavors
[7:39]I just I don't get it. I'm like well. Yeah, that's not me
[7:43]But but they've done an incredible, you know
[7:47]We sell to private equity. They've done an incredible job of scaling sprinkles and in particular
[7:52]You know doing things operationally that I probably wouldn't have been able to do because I was in that sort of founder mode of this is my baby
[8:00]And I have to protect it at all costs and it's
[8:04]It's hard
[8:05]Well, I feel like it's also a little bit like an athlete right?
[8:08]Like you have the single-minded pursuit of something
[8:11]So it's like what happens when you retire from anything into which you throw your body heart soul mind everything and then it stops and like life keeps going on
[8:20]But like what do you do next?
[8:21]Like what does it mean when you view the whole world in this lens and then all of a sudden
[8:26]It's gone. It's almost like luck. It's like loss like when you look around and you're like wait
[8:30]Everyone is having a normal day in my world just like ended over here. I was possible. It just exploded
[8:36]Yeah, and I think I didn't do a good job of because I was so singularly focused and you have to be when you're building a company, right?
[8:44]But there also has to be another plan
[8:48]There should be sort of what am I going to do after that? Like at least a little bit of an inkling right about
[8:55]who is Candice Nelson post sprinkles and
[8:58]Ultimately, I was just ready for a break like I wanted a little time off
[9:03]I wanted some time to dig in with my family. I had you know young young boys at the time
[9:08]I don't think
[9:10]Our school had ever seen me do drop off or pick up
[9:14]Which is more to find but then I just got right on in there and you know started doing the class parties and the big charity events and
[9:23]You know went in another direction with my type A personality
[9:27]You talked I was interested a lot in how
[9:32]You could have named it Candice's cupcakes, and I know this is just one tiny piece
[9:36]And your book by the way is like such a great primer on the whole start to finish like from the time you get an idea and
[9:42]The passion and how to execute and so it's a business book, but it's also
[9:47]For anybody who has an idea about doing anything right and help you. Yes the regular person out there who's like
[9:53]You know, let's make a new kind of phone case or I don't know
[9:55]Whatever it is could say like okay, I could follow this road map and I don't have to be
[10:00]in a particular school or whatever, like these are the steps and like it's very
[10:03]approachable. It was my cupcake MBA. You're a cupcake MBA. I love it. I have an
[10:08]actual MBA, I'm not sure. My shouldn't say anything. Never mind. Thank you. It was
[10:12]amazing. No, obviously things helped. But anyway, one has an MBA too and it was very
[10:17]helpful. A very helpful. There we go. But I was interested in the way you
[10:21]decided to structure the brand not as Candice's cupcakes but as sprinkles and
[10:24]how when the brand was sold you were even more thankful that you didn't have
[10:28]your actual name attached. So tell me about that. Yes. Well, you know, Candice's
[10:32]cupcakes, I am a sucker for alliteration and love alliteration. So that was
[10:37]tempting to go to, you know, use that as our name. But I wanted the brand to be
[10:42]bigger than my own personal brand and actually to a fault initially, right? I
[10:46]wanted it to be 100% the cupcakes. I stayed in the kitchen. I really didn't
[10:51]have any place in, not much of a place in the story or the positioning of the
[10:56]brand. It was all about the cupcakes, how we were elevating them, how we were
[10:59]reinventing them. So yeah, I was very tempted by the name Candice's cupcakes
[11:04]because I love alliteration. But ultimately I wanted the name to stand for
[11:09]something bigger than my own personal brand. And to a fault actually I just, you
[11:14]know, kind of stayed in the kitchen in those early days even though I
[11:16]realized now and ultimately stepping into my personal brand later became
[11:21]such like an important part of the brand. You know, when people love a product
[11:25]they really crave a deeper connection with it. And they really, you know, our
[11:30]story, Charles is my partner and husband. We stood behind that counter in the
[11:35]bakery, you know, talking to customers all day and just telling them, we left
[11:39]investment banking, we took a risk. Everyone said we were crazy. But here we are.
[11:43]And people loved that. And that gave them something to really hold on to once the
[11:49]cupcake was devoured and gone and to be able to pass along to somebody else. So
[11:54]yeah, Candice's cupcakes, listen, it's a cute name. If there are any other
[11:58]Candice's out there, we want to start a cupcake company. It might be available, but
[12:03]I believe in the power of a name. And there's something about sprinkles that as
[12:07]soon as I landed on it, it just was magic. Like I love the way it sounds. I like
[12:12]the way it feels when I say it in my mouth. That sounds a little crazy, but
[12:16]there's so much in the name. Like even just a company like Clubhouse, right?
[12:22]Everyone was so interested in Clubhouse, because it just sounded fun.
[12:26]Anyway, when we were going through a permitting process in building the
[12:30]business and all the people in the permitting department were obsessed with the
[12:33]name sprinkles. They didn't even know what the company was yet, but they were
[12:35]like, tell us about sprinkles. And it just kind of helps a company spread like
[12:40]wildfire. And so did you name Pizzana Pizzana? So, which is your act too?
[12:46]Essentially. So, Pizzana is act too. It's just delicious. I've even
[12:51]there. I'm sorry, even there. It's delicious and amazing. And I didn't realize
[12:55]you were behind that, but anyway. Oh, thank you. Yes, Pizzana. I'm definitely more
[13:00]sort of behind the scenes. Founder working on brand, but I am partnered with a
[13:06]founder, a passionate chef, Danielle Euditi, who is really the star of the show
[13:11]from the personal brand perspective. Pizzana. So, here's a thing with
[13:15]the name. It's really hard to find a name that's available. Right? And you
[13:20]can't just choose a name and build a business on it. You have to make sure
[13:23]it's available. You can register it. You can trademark it. And I talk about all
[13:27]this in the book. This is sort of the nuts and bolts stuff that I discussed in
[13:30]the book. Sprinkles was, it was unbelievable that that name was not in use for
[13:35]bakery. I look back on that and I think, wow, that was incredibly lucky. With
[13:41]pizza, as you can imagine, there's there's so much pizza out there. There are so
[13:46]many mom and pop and other pizza businesses. It's really hard to land on a
[13:50]name, but something that Danielle Euditi told us, which really was sort of the
[13:55]crux of coming with Pizzana was that in Italy on the license plates of cars, I
[14:00]guess the last two letters say what region you're from. So, N A means of
[14:05]Naples or Napoli. Right? And so we thought, huh, pizza from Naples, pizza
[14:12]N A. And I was thinking we're going to get a North America or something for
[14:17]pizza. Oh, well, there you go. I hadn't even thought about that because it is,
[14:22]he's on a really is this merging of Southern Italy meets, you know, well,
[14:27]Southern California, but Italy meets America. Right? Because Danielle Euditi came
[14:31]to this country. He immigrated here with $200 in his pocket. He smuggled in
[14:35]his grandmother, sourdough starter, right? Through customs, thank God, still the
[14:40]starter that we use to make all of our dough of Pizzana. So there's this
[14:43]incredible tradition there. This is this incredible sort of artisanal quality to
[14:48]what he does. But if you've been to, you know, Italy, a lot of times in the
[14:53]Appleton pizza, true in the Appleton pizza is soupy in the middle, right? You need a
[14:56]fork and a knife. It's fun when you're there because it's, you know,
[15:01]Naples and it's near Paulton pizza. But in the States, like Americans want to
[15:05]pick up the slice, right? They don't really have a lot of patience for fork
[15:09]and knife situations. So I like to say I so pathetic. I don't think about it.
[15:14]We're that like the tension starved and in a rush that we can't even use
[15:19]utensils, right? Think about it. Hot dogs. It's like hamburgers. I mean, I like to
[15:24]say I specialize in the handheld food, right? Because think about cookies. That was
[15:28]a lie. I know. Right? It's just so anyway, I met Danieli at a party. I had one
[15:34]bite of his pizza. I realized it was special. He loved sprinkles. We were just
[15:38]like two bakers, essentially, kind of geeking out over each other's product.
[15:43]And what's different about his dough is he comes from a family of bread bakers.
[15:48]So there's more heft to it. So you have the chew, you have the char and all that,
[15:52]but you can pick up a slice. So it is that perfect blend of like, you know, modern
[15:57]American taste meets like Italian artisanal tradition and history. Yeah. And yeah,
[16:05]where it's it's also very delicious. It is amazing. Specialized handheld delicious
[16:10]foods. Let me add another thing you do in your book that I love so much is all these little
[16:14]excerpts from particularly women founders. And the whole book is not just a
[16:19]celebration of you and your journey and the act of creating, but also all the
[16:24]insights from other people who've done that. So you're celebrating their
[16:27]creations too and sort of like dragging everyone, lifting everybody up, not
[16:31]drag, lifting everybody up. And in this journey and what you've learned from them
[16:36]and everything and people like Greg Renfry mentioned and just all these
[16:39]wonderful founders and the stories behind them too. And how a lot of them are
[16:43]unlikely or a lot of them person feared and got through stuff. And I feel like
[16:46]you've become in a way, like part of this women helping women founding
[16:52]circle. So as part of that network, like how how do you go about like helping
[16:59]future founders or what should female founders in particular do when they're
[17:03]starting out? Like how do they tap into that? How do they get their own
[17:06]networks built? How important is that to have it all? It's so important. And
[17:12]first of all, thank you. That's really lovely for you to highlight that and say
[17:15]that. And I personally love my network of female founder friends. And we
[17:20]definitely have an understanding of one another's shared experience that is
[17:26]hard to find elsewhere. And I certainly think, you know, between the time when I
[17:32]was coming up in the career world and now there's been such a shift in how
[17:36]women treat one another in the workplace and how we cheerlead for one another.
[17:42]Certainly when I was coming up in investment banking, I didn't feel that there
[17:46]were other women looking out for me. And listen, it's because it was really
[17:51]hard for them to get those positions, right? And there was only one seed at the
[17:55]table. And I didn't begrudge them. I worked harder probably because of it, right?
[18:01]Because I realized, okay, no one's going to help me. I'm going to have to make
[18:04]this opportunity for myself. But it is amazing to see this complete shift, this
[18:09]groundswell of support of women championing other women. And so as a result, I
[18:15]didn't really do a good job of building my network. When I first started
[18:18]sprinkles, I just thought entrepreneurs are like these solo founder people and
[18:23]they have to be strong and they have to do it all themselves. And granted, I
[18:27]wasn't doing anything myself. I had my incredible co-founder Charles. I had
[18:30]an incredible team from the beginning. But beyond that, I didn't have a network.
[18:35]And I realized like how powerful a network is just in terms of being able to
[18:42]send an email and be like, what do you think of your digital advertising
[18:48]person? Or can you just go get a drink right now? I'm dying. Like I can't. I
[18:53]don't know what to do. I'm exhausted. I just need to stop thinking about work for
[18:57]one second. I'm part of this incredible professional women's network called
[19:01]We Suite. And it's unbelievable. Like, you know, anyone can send out an email
[19:06]into the ether. And these women just like they raise their hand to help. It's
[19:12]incredible to me. Anything from like, I need a new nanny to I need a COO to, you
[19:17]know, I need a place for my companies retreat. I mean, it's just incredible
[19:22]to know that those networks are out there. But beyond that, if you don't have
[19:27]the money to spend on a professional network of that type, there's LinkedIn, you
[19:32]know, everything is at our fingertips right now. I'm entering a female bakery
[19:37]founder, Ozzarist Bellamy of Blondry in New York, who found me on Instagram.
[19:42]She just started interacting with my content, you know, and then she reached
[19:46]out on DM to ask for a few questions. She didn't come out of the gate and say,
[19:49]will you be my mentor, which can be overwhelming, right? And I do as much
[19:53]mentoring as I can. But part of the idea behind the book was that I only have
[19:58]so much time. So this can help.
[20:00]a larger number of people.
[20:01]But all of these social networks are free
[20:04]and therefore the taking, if you apply them correctly, right?
[20:08]There's a good way to send a request and an email
[20:10]and there's a not so good way to send a request an email.
[20:13]Maybe my next book should be about that.
[20:16]I have a friend actually Christopher Tuff
[20:17]who wrote the book, Save Your Asks,
[20:19]which is an interesting one because it's very true.
[20:23]You have to like, you know, kind of,
[20:26]there's just such a thing as a warm lead
[20:27]and a cold lead and there's a way to do it.
[20:29]But yeah, absolutely work your network
[20:31]on social media, on LinkedIn.
[20:34]I mean, my founder friend Lisa Odenweller,
[20:36]who is the founder behind Chrome Wellness,
[20:38]which is this resec lens that I'm an investor in.
[20:40]She literally went dialing for dollars on LinkedIn.
[20:42]She looked around and found leaders in her industry
[20:46]and reached out to them and got not just information
[20:49]and knowledge and connections to find her co-packer
[20:53]but she got money to invest in her company.
[20:56]It's like unbelievable what is possible these days.
[20:59]Before I started this whole like literary stuff,
[21:02]I was helping my family, my husband's family
[21:04]had a great crumb cake and they wanted to turn it
[21:07]into a business and said,
[21:09]I helped them start Nini's treats.
[21:11]Which, oh my God.
[21:12]I could rather tragically his mom and grandmother
[21:14]died of COVID.
[21:15]I know, so now his sister runs a business
[21:17]but it's on gold belly and everything.
[21:18]But I was helping and I was terrible.
[21:21]But I was helping and I was like talking to my whole
[21:24]like network of like people I went to school
[21:25]or whatever, I was like frozen trucks,
[21:28]like how do I get a product from here to there?
[21:32]Like why are all the co-packers were like not producing
[21:35]like good enough thing?
[21:36]Like they tried out so many co-packers.
[21:38]Anyway, there's all these little things
[21:40]that you have to realize along the way.
[21:41]And when you're saying like you reach out for a co-packer,
[21:44]oh my God, that wouldn't have saved us so much time.
[21:46]But anyway, it's still right, but yeah.
[21:49]But I think that's part of what I'm trying to share
[21:52]in Sweet Success is the fact that like,
[21:54]no, sure, there are experienced founders out there.
[21:56]But most of them aren't.
[21:58]Most of them are literally just figuring it out.
[22:01]And it's rolling with the punches on a day-to-day basis
[22:05]and asking whoever's in your network
[22:08]who might know better than you for their advice
[22:10]and using your gut and a little bit of analysis
[22:13]to figure it out.
[22:14]And that's what I mean by betting on yourself.
[22:16]It's really eye-opening when you look around
[22:18]and you talk to these founders and you realize like,
[22:21]they don't have more experience than I do.
[22:23]But look at what they've built.
[22:24]So what is that?
[22:25]Right, right.
[22:27]I love that you admitted there was something
[22:28]you were ashamed that you didn't have some sort of
[22:30]classical training in the making of the cupcakes.
[22:33]And you're still like, you have some like,
[22:34]this is in the imposter section, I think.
[22:36]But the embarrassment that like you hadn't had
[22:38]that particular pastry chef training or something.
[22:41]Right, so I was doing something for Netflix.
[22:45]And one of the hosts of their show
[22:47]was like this very highly esteemed food critic
[22:50]at one of the magazines.
[22:50]And he literally looked at me and made me feel this big
[22:54]with one question.
[22:55]It was like, who did you stosh with?
[22:57]And I was like, nobody have all of these other strengths.
[23:07]Like I don't have to be that thing.
[23:09]And I think that that's also part of the messaging
[23:12]in the book is like releasing this idea
[23:14]that there are rules and there are expectations
[23:16]and like, you know, making your own mark.
[23:18]And you know, embracing the answers I like to say,
[23:21]like kind of switching that thinking from,
[23:24]oh, I'm less than because I'm a jack of all trades
[23:27]to like, look at how multifaceted I am.
[23:30]Look at all the things I can do.
[23:31]So true, oh my gosh.
[23:33]So what is your big hope with this book?
[23:35]I know it's to help individuals we talked about,
[23:37]but you obviously must have spent a lot of time working on it
[23:40]and you could maybe touch on that
[23:41]and how long did this taken?
[23:43]But why do it?
[23:45]Like why now why did you stop everything to write this book?
[23:47]What was that all about?
[23:49]Well, I do hear from a lot of aspiring founders.
[23:52]I hear from some who want mentorship,
[23:54]I hear from some who want investment
[23:55]and I am doing some angel investing.
[23:57]But I also hear from women who have this, you know,
[24:01]business idea on the back burner,
[24:03]but they just would never pursue it
[24:05]because they're definitely not founder material.
[24:09]It's like why?
[24:10]And even just these women in my life
[24:13]who are now becoming empty nesters
[24:14]and they have time on their hands now
[24:17]and they have so much to give.
[24:19]And a couple of them have started companies
[24:21]and it's incredible to see,
[24:24]but there's a lot more out there
[24:25]that think that they can't.
[24:27]And so I think I believe in entrepreneurship.
[24:31]I believe entrepreneurs are like, they're optimists, right?
[24:36]And in this world, don't we need a little bit more optimism?
[24:40]It's like people looking around seeing a problem
[24:43]and getting off the couch and doing something about it.
[24:45]And I love that.
[24:46]I just believe in entrepreneurship in general,
[24:49]but I also think that I wanna see women create more wealth.
[24:53]Entrepreneurship can be the fastest way to do that.
[24:56]Women do, I think, better things with their wealth
[24:59]than men do in general, right?
[25:01]They donate more, they invest more in other women.
[25:04]And so there's a movement here.
[25:06]I want women to bet on themselves.
[25:08]I want them to start companies
[25:09]or they don't even have to start a company.
[25:11]They can go after their dreams
[25:12]in whatever way that may be, right?
[25:14]But ultimately that comes from grit and resilience
[25:18]and confidence.
[25:20]So there's a mindset piece to it.
[25:22]And then for those who do wanna start a business,
[25:24]I wanted to provide some tactical information,
[25:28]some actionable tools, a roadmap to how you might think
[25:30]about that.
[25:31]Because, you know, we see a lot about the Jeff Bezos's,
[25:36]the Elon Musk's in the media and the press,
[25:38]but I literally built a business
[25:40]doing something that a child could do, right?
[25:43]I mean, anyone can make a cupcake.
[25:44]So entrepreneurship really is for everyone.
[25:48]It's not just for tech savants,
[25:50]it's not just for people who are sending rocket ships
[25:52]to the moon.
[25:53]And so I think that ultimately would be my message.
[25:56]I love that.
[25:56]I think there's so much untapped potential
[25:59]for women of a certain age, right?
[26:00]They used 50s, 60s, 70s.
[26:03]There was an 80-year-old woman who came
[26:04]to this book event yesterday.
[26:05]And it was like, no one's, you know,
[26:07]what about me?
[26:08]I've got all this time.
[26:09]I don't wanna just be told to walk them down the hill
[26:10]to UCLA or whatever, you know, the guy.
[26:12]I don't wanna be told to take my vitamins.
[26:13]Like, I'm just as smart and engaged as I was,
[26:16]but no one's like talking to me.
[26:17]Like, what should I do?
[26:18]I don't know.
[26:19]So often I get like, so excited.
[26:21]Like, they're all these women out there with time now.
[26:25]And potential influence, like if everybody got together
[26:28]and did cool stuff, like the world would really change.
[26:31]100%.
[26:31]So I get very excited about that too.
[26:33]Yeah, and I'm a big believer in second chapters,
[26:35]obviously, because I had to create mine.
[26:38]But you're right.
[26:39]These women that have time are vibrant.
[26:43]They have energy, they have resources.
[26:44]And they're a lot of them very mission driven.
[26:46]Yes. Right?
[26:48]There's more heart, I think,
[26:49]sometimes in businesses that women found.
[26:52]So yeah, let's harness them.
[26:53]Let's go round them up.
[26:54]I would love that.
[26:55]Do some fun things.
[26:56]Yes, it's so exciting.
[26:58]The last thing I just wanted to touch on
[26:59]is you made a conscious choice at some point
[27:01]to decide to put yourself forward as a brand.
[27:03]I mean, discuss this a little bit before,
[27:05]but really, I mean, starting the TV shows
[27:08]and even now, like helping with Danielle E.
[27:10]This show and making yourself out there
[27:13]and a public figure.
[27:14]Do you have any regrets about that?
[27:17]Or did you, like, how do you feel
[27:20]about that aspect of your life?
[27:21]And sort of taking your behind the counter
[27:24]and not only coming out, but like being on TV
[27:28]and like being a really public.
[27:30]How do you feel about it?
[27:31]Now, well, I think it was good practice actually
[27:35]to step out from behind the bakery counter
[27:38]and step into my brand because now in this day and age,
[27:42]like everybody has to be a brand.
[27:44]I mean, it doesn't matter if you're starting a company.
[27:46]Everybody has to have a personal brand, a persona
[27:49]and whether it's doing a podcast
[27:51]or just turning your iPhone on yourself
[27:54]and running an IG live or whatever it is.
[27:56]Like we have this free marketing tool at our disposal.
[28:00]And frankly, if you're starting a company,
[28:02]people expect you to use it.
[28:04]Like the investors, if you're raising money,
[28:06]are asking you what your social media plan is, right?
[28:10]And again, I have a lot of friends
[28:12]who are more my age who are struggling with that.
[28:15]They don't think that they're,
[28:17]they look good enough to get in front of the camera.
[28:19]They need to be ready for that.
[28:21]And so that's why I actually think that TikTok
[28:24]is a refreshing change of pace.
[28:25]I Instagram was this very sort of,
[28:28]that's how I was brought up,
[28:29]that's where sprinkles really was brought up.
[28:32]And it's this glossy, you know, idealized place
[28:37]where people go to see aspirational pictures
[28:41]of what they, you know, it's just perfection personified, right?
[28:45]TikTok is raw and gritty.
[28:48]And so sometimes I feel like,
[28:49]even though we think of TikTok
[28:50]as being a much younger platform,
[28:52]I say to my friends, like, start on TikTok.
[28:55]Like if you're starting a brand,
[28:56]start on TikTok and show up as your messy self
[28:58]because that's what people like.
[29:00]And it's kind of an ego boost actually
[29:03]because, you know, there is something
[29:05]that feels bad about feeling like you need to feel filtered
[29:08]or, you know, the photo needs to be just so like,
[29:10]oh, it's just exhausting, right?
[29:13]TikTok, you don't need to do that.
[29:15]So my point in saying that, you know,
[29:19]I embraced my personal brand early,
[29:21]so I think it was good practice for what is expected now.
[29:24]But I also, I think there's a,
[29:27]there's a whole spectrum of how you can embrace it.
[29:29]The original show Cupcake Wars
[29:31]that I was on for 10 seasons on the Food Network
[29:33]was a docuseries.
[29:35]So the original ask was,
[29:37]we're gonna follow you around in your business
[29:39]and we're gonna come in your home
[29:40]and we're gonna, you know, video your kids.
[29:42]And that was a hard now.
[29:44]That was a hard now.
[29:45]You know, like, there are things that are sacred
[29:48]that you just don't put out there.
[29:49]And that's my family.
[29:51]I mean, I didn't put a picture of my,
[29:54]I mean, and everyone does it differently.
[29:55]This is not judgment.
[29:56]This is what was right for me.
[29:58]But I didn't put a picture of...
[30:00]of my kid on Instagram until they were old enough
[30:03]to be on Instagram.
[30:04]So, but then when the Food Network's at Competition shows
[30:07]are doing really well for us,
[30:09]maybe Candace would consider being a judge.
[30:12]I was like, that is the type of persona I can get behind.
[30:16]That is the type of TV that feels comfortable to me.
[30:19]And then you're right.
[30:20]Yeah, now I'm having fun packaging other people's brands.
[30:23]I just co-created and I'm executive producing
[30:25]this show on Hulu for Danielle A. called Best Endo.
[30:28]So, he's essentially gonna be, you know,
[30:30]what I was for Cupcake Wars, he'll be
[30:32]for this pizza competition show
[30:34]and it starts streaming September 19th, shameless plug.
[30:37]Yeah.
[30:38]But yeah, I think it's really fun for me
[30:42]because it's just having that founder story,
[30:45]having that additional person behind the brand
[30:48]really just deepens the brand itself.
[30:50]You referenced Maxi Cozler in your account.
[30:52]Yeah.
[30:53]So, I had worked with her for a little bit a couple years ago
[30:56]and I remember sitting right out there
[30:58]and she's like, if you wanna do this,
[31:00]like you're gonna have to like step up
[31:02]and like move forward and like be the person, you know?
[31:05]Like not every wants to do it.
[31:07]And I was like, no, I'm not interested in like that.
[31:09]I just wanna like sit behind the microphone
[31:11]and do a podcast and she's like, no, you gotta get ready for it.
[31:14]And so then I was like reading yours
[31:16]and then I was seeing her there.
[31:17]I was like, everything is coming full circle.
[31:19]You feel like it's right.
[31:20]It is all about like personal branding,
[31:22]connection to people, like they wanna see and talk to you.
[31:25]And anyway, you're like the prime example
[31:28]of like a successful implementation of this.
[31:30]And it's scary.
[31:31]It's a little bit scary.
[31:32]And it's if you're a highly sensitive person,
[31:35]I mean, I can't even tell you how hard it was for me
[31:38]when I first started and it was before I personally
[31:41]came out as a brand.
[31:42]But when I opened a public company,
[31:45]a retail company on a public company,
[31:47]but all of a sudden there were reviews online.
[31:50]And I would pour over those reviews
[31:52]and it would cut me like a knife
[31:55]because as we know, the internet is largely for complaining.
[31:57]So there were a lot of reviews,
[32:00]even though there was a line out the door.
[32:02]And I have to say, give a lot of credit
[32:05]to my friends in the entertainment industry
[32:06]who advised me on this.
[32:09]Do not read the reviews.
[32:11]And I'm gonna say the same thing to you for your book.
[32:14]Okay, yeah.
[32:15]It's the same thing.
[32:16]Not that you haven't already had a quick book,
[32:17]but you don't read the same thing for authors.
[32:20]Like don't read your obvious.
[32:21]It does no good.
[32:22]Okay, that is a good reminder.
[32:25]That is a good reminder because it is
[32:26]it's all the same stuff.
[32:27]When you put yourself out there.
[32:29]But and then I quote what a paltrow in the book about this.
[32:32]And I don't remember it verbatim,
[32:34]but it's basically like what type of person do you want to be?
[32:36]Do you want to be the person creating things in the world?
[32:39]Or do you want to be the one on the sidelines,
[32:41]critiquing it, right?
[32:43]At the end of the day, you have to have both.
[32:45]But who would you prefer to be?
[32:47]I know I'd rather be the one putting myself out there.
[32:51]Sometimes falling flat on my face,
[32:54]but sometimes succeeding as a result.
[32:56]But I think that's why all the people were online
[32:57]who wanted to hear your story.
[32:59]Because people just want a little piece of that.
[33:01]They want to be a part of a success story.
[33:03]A lot of people.
[33:04]That's why they want to hear your story.
[33:05]And then they take a bite and they're like,
[33:07]well, I'm part of this journey now too.
[33:09]Like I'm helping so much.
[33:10]And it's true.
[33:11]I mean, these people they were like,
[33:13]it was like they took their marching orders.
[33:15]They had their box of cupcakes.
[33:16]They heard our story and they were like,
[33:17]and they marched out into the world,
[33:19]shared the cupcakes with people
[33:21]and shared our story with people.
[33:22]And that is like in any company.
[33:24]That is what you want.
[33:25]That's the Holy Grail of marketing.
[33:26]Is that organic word of mouth?
[33:29]And the easier you can make that for people, right?
[33:32]And when I say easy, I mean like digestible,
[33:35]like a story that people can hook on to.
[33:37]It's easy to share.
[33:40]The better it will be.
[33:41]Yeah, it's so true.
[33:42]Congratulations.
[33:43]Thank you so much.
[33:44]It's been a success of your life and your book
[33:46]and it's really inspiring and awesome.
[33:48]And hopefully this conversation,
[33:50]your book, all of it inspires
[33:53]all these little things to start happening
[33:55]and like roots to start growing
[33:56]and just very exciting.
[33:57]The ripple effects.
[33:58]Thank you.
[33:59]It is amazing the power of a book.
[34:01]I feel like there's something different
[34:02]about the energy of a book that I wasn't expecting.
[34:06]I thought of a book as being just sort of a brand extension,
[34:10]but it's not.
[34:11]It's really a launching offpad to something else.
[34:13]Yeah.
[34:14]And people treat books in it,
[34:17]they're sort of rarerified, right?
[34:19]There's something very special
[34:20]with the way that people consider books.
[34:24]I love it.
[34:25]I love being part of it.
[34:26]It's very different.
[34:26]I mean, I have a book, I have a,
[34:28]I'll put it in quotes, book out.
[34:30]Prior to this one, but it's a cookbook.
[34:31]It's a very different.
[34:32]Yeah.
[34:33]But still, amazing.
[34:34]Anyway, thanks for coming on.
[34:35]Thank you for having me.
[34:36]Congrats, thanks.
[34:39]Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time
[34:42]to Read Books.
[34:43]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram,
[34:45]at Zibi Owens and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[34:48]Also sign up for my newsletter at Zibi Owens.com
[34:50]and sign up for my virtual book club
[34:52]and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week.
[34:54]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan,
[34:56]that texture sound for the sound editing.
[34:58]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions
[35:00]for providing this fantastic intro and out trim music.