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Confidence Classic: Dream It, Bet On It, Build It with Candace Nelson, Founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes
00:46:06
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Every day was grueling. I mean physically grueling. It was like I was rolling downhill and all of these magical things kept happening. And I've learned since then. I mean, there was a moment in time where I was like, oh yeah, I got this, I got this entrepreneurship thing. I'm good. I do this pretty well. And I made a couple decisions that were not as intentional or maybe as aligned and fell flat on my face. And I was like, right, right. Good reminder. Move with intention. Make sure everything is aligned, purpose driven, grounded in a bigger why. That's what really moves the needle.
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Come on this journey with me each week when you join me, we are going to chase down our goals, overcome adversity, and set you up for a better tomorrow.
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Fasten your seatbelt. I'm ready for my closeup.
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Tell me, have you been enjoying these new bonus Confidence classics episodes we've been dropping on you every week? We've literally hundreds of episodes for you to listen to. So the these bonuses are a great way to help you find the ones.
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You may have already missed.
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I hope you love this one as much as I do. Hi and welcome back. I'm so excited for you to meet our guest this week. Candace Nelson is a serial entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, Wall Street Journal contributor, angel investor, TV personality, executive producer, and mom. Candace worked in investment banking. Sounds boring. And then at an Internet start startup before shifting gears to follow her passion and attend pastry school. In 05, she opened the doors to Sprinkles. I think you've heard of it, the world's first cupcake bakery. Despite the early naysayers, her tiny bakery in Beverly Hills disrupted the legacy bakery industry and ignited a worldwide cupcake phenomenon. In 2012, Sprinkles introduced its Cupcake ATM, a cutting edge contactless cup cupcake delivery system. Today, Sprinkles has sold more than 200 million cupcakes and has more than 20 stores, 30 cupcake ATMs and a thousand employees. In 2017, Candace Co founded Pizzana, a fast growing chain of award winning Neonapolitan pizzerias. Leading the third wave of pizza in the U.S. pizzana cemented Los Angeles as a pizza destination and revolutionized pizza takeout with its innovative heat and slice at home method. Pizzana also ships frozen pizzas nationwide. In 2021, Candace Co created an executive produced Best in Dough Hulu show starring Pizzana executive chef Danielle Udidi. Through CN2 Ventures, a family office and venture studio, Kantis has backed a diverse portfolio of startups in a specialty food Retail, health, wellness and early childhood spaces with a focus on female and underrepresented founders. Candice is also a beloved global baking personality on the small screen. She starred in Netflix Sugar Rush and Food Network's Cupcake Wars. She is also the author of the New York Times bestselling cookbook, the Sprinkles Baking Book. She lives in LA with her husband and two sons. Candice, thank you so much for being here today.
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I am delighted to be here. Thank you for having me.
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Oh my gosh, Candace, let's get into it. For those that don't know your story or oftentimes and you know this, people just see the success on the outside and I hate, hate, hate, hate that because then they can't relate to where they are. I love that you were fired because I was fired and I love the massive success that you have obtained. Can you take us back to what was going on back when you were investment banking? What happened to you?
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So I was raised in a very risk averse family, so there was no inkling that I would ever become an entrepreneur. My dad was a corporate lawyer. We moved around internationally all of our life and the priority was education. So I went to a very academic boarding school. I went to, to a great liberal arts college. And then from that I was recruited into an investment bank in Silicon Valley, well, actually in San Francisco, but we were working with tech companies in Silicon Valley and just figured I would keep marching my way up the pathway to success. But of course that was the dot com boom days. And then a few years later was the dot com bust and I was out of a job without any prospects. And so I spent a lot of time on the couch watching Martha Stewart, watching Oprah Winfrey. I was totally lost. I was having a, not a midlife, I guess it would be called a quarter life crisis at this point because I'd done everything right and it hadn't turned out. And a couple things happened. So I was actually planning my wedding. At the time I'd just been engaged, so I figured, ugh, what the hell, I'll end up going to business school eventually. But for now, for the next few months, I'll just plan my wedding. And so I was, you know, nose deep in Martha Stewart weddings magazines and happened to notice that there was a new entrant onto the like wedding cake scene. It was these cupcake towers and I'm sure everybody just, you know, nods their head now. But at the time it was pretty, it was a new idea. Nobody ever opted for anything but the traditional wedding Cake. And so there were these fun cupcake towers that had kind of appeared on the scene that sort of worked its way into my subconscious. And then my husband and I ended up going on our honeymoon, getting married, going on our honeymoon. We had this blissful two weeks in the south of France. I ate every croissant in the country. And then on the way back home to the States, we were in the airport. We noticed this commotion going on around the TV screens, but everything was in French, so I couldn't understand it. And I found some kind person to share with me that something really terrible had happened in New York. And, of course, that was 9 11. And it took me two weeks to get home between the planes, getting grounded and not wanting to step on a plane to begin with. And by the time I got home, I realized that I didn't want to go to business school. I wanted to do something that brought me joy, and I wanted to do something that just injected at least a little bit of meaning back into the world. Because if it could all end tomorrow, what would my legacy be? Just sitting at a computer and crunching numbers. So it was really the first time that I'd ever reflected on what it was I actually wanted to do. So instead of going to business school, I decided to embrace my early childhood love of baking and go to pastry school. Big love.
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B
I would imagine so many people would come to you at that point and say, you're losing your mind. You're so smart. You built so much here. Don't walk away from this. Just reinvent yourself in this arena. How were you able to tune out that noise and tune into that inner child?
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That's a great question, because you're right, everyone, I think they thought, yes, I'd lost my mind, but it would be temporary at least, right? I was gonna just go to pastry school, get it out of my system, and then head back on to business school and go on my merry way. But what I learned was I really loved baking. I loved getting up every morning and creating something tangible and making something artful that I could give to someone and watch them enjoy. Like, it just was so, so simple. But it was grounding, and it made so much sense to me, and it was what I'd really been searching for in that time. So even though I didn't know exactly what it was going to look like yet, I knew I was going to launch a business around my baked goods. I was good at it. I had a real sense of my own aesthetic. And at first I tackled cakes, but realized that Special occasion cakes people don't buy that often wasn't great business. So again, that sort of idea of the cupcake tower kept coming back into my mind. Meanwhile, at the time, as I walked through the supermarket bakeries, there were all these sad cupcakes stacked up, you know, in plastic clamshells. They were shelf stable. They were just made for kids birthday parties. And I thought, huh, what if I elevated the cupcake? What if I reinvented it? And so I became obsessed with this idea. I thought it was genius. Meanwhile, everyone around me was like, yeah, that's not a good idea. That'll never work. For one, there's a reason that there aren't any cupcakes, only bakeries. Bakeries don't make very much money, so they have to sell all the things all day long. This is just how it's been done for generations. You're not gonna change it. Second reason, it was the height of the low carb craze. Everybody was eating burgers without the bun and, you know, bacon for breakfast. And I thought, I don't know, I think there's still people out there sneaking some carbs. And I bet if I can make a cupcake that's worth it, that' splurge worthy and also make it aspirational and giftable, I would increase the market beyond, you know, kids birthday parties to something that, you know, could live alongside flowers or candles. And so I saw it, and I think it was because I was in this unique situation where I really had my hands deep into baking. So I saw the need in the market, whereas other people didn't necessarily, and they were trying to protect me. But it was really, I'll give my husband a lot of credit. He left his job too, in finance. He had his mba and he said, I will do this with you. And it really took him saying I believe in you for me to get the confidence. Because I didn't have that model of entrepreneurship in my life. Everyone was telling me it wouldn't work. I had this idea, but I didn't know that I could even be an entrepreneur at the time. So to have that emotional support and have that person by my side who believed in me was truly everything in the beginning. I think now we have so much more as women in terms of professional support and places to turn. But at the time, it was literally me and the TV screen with Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, and then my husband by my side. That was it.
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B
It's incredible. Like you said, when one person believes in you, it can change Everything to validate this idea that you're having. And also, what you just said reminds me, it's so important who you pick as your spouse. And so often this is not talked about as someone who's divorced, but it truly, truly is. To have that ride or die right next to you is brilliant.
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A
It was amazing. And honestly, the fact that people always say, well, when do you turn it off? When do you turn it off? Some of our best ideas were, you know, late at night, like the cupcake atm, we came home late from a party, and I wouldn't have had that brainstorm if someone wasn't living in the house with me, right? Because it was late at night, I had a pregnancy craving. I couldn't get a cupcake, and the store was closed. There were none in the house. And I just thought, well, what if you could get a cupcake anytime, day or night? And he and I are just so accustomed to, like, batting around these what we call crazy ideas that we went with it, like we ran with it instead of just dismissing it and letting it go.
- [10:40]
B
Guys, listen. Right now, those crazy ideas are not crazy. They are actually businesses. And then new businesses within a business that are new revenue streams. So love all of it. All right, so where do you guys go? You both agree this is where you're going to move to, but you don't really. You have no idea. You have no prior experience and you're. You're inventing something new. You're inventing a market that doesn't exist.
- [11:02]
A
Exactly. So we were a category creator, essentially. Yes, bakeries existed, but none like ours. And, you know, at the time, you could go buy one of those shelf stable cupcakes at Ralph's for 75 cents. But we were making cupcakes, elegant and luxurious and charging $3. And the whole experience had to reflect that. So I was, and I say this in my book, it's so important as women in particular to dream those big, wild, crazy, unwieldy dreams and dreams that light you up, right? That sort of light that fuel inside and get that passion going. But entrepreneurship is not just throwing all caution to the wind, right?
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C
It's a.
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It's taking a calculated risk. So as much as I want you to dream big, I want you to start small. You know, start with those baby steps, test your idea, test your thesis for traction before you go all in. And so what that meant for me was I just started baking. You know, while I was perfecting my recipes and creating the brand, I just started baking out of my LA kitchen. And, you know, first I was just delivering them to friends for free, and then they kind of took on a life of their own. Friends of friends would call and get cupcakes for me in my kitchen. And then all of a sudden, people were calling me. I could not track how they'd found my number. And that was when I thought, huh, there's people out there eating carbs, first of all. And I might be onto something because there's nothing in the market that exists for this yet. And started looking for a location.
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B
And then there was one phone call that really got your attention.
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A
Oh, yes. I went from literally, you know, being the cupcake pusher on all of my friends at every party to the producer of the Tyra Banks show calling me and wanting me to make cupcakes for Tyra's 30th birthday. I mean, is because I had come from San Francisco. I had no entertainment or Hollywood connections, Right? And I think that's. It's easy to kind of look at stories like mine. I mean, Oprah Winfrey talked about her cupcakes. Every star in Hollywood celebrated with sprinkles. I'd only watch these people on tv, right? So it was a testament to the product. A product that didn't exist, a product that was memorable, that people wanted more of. And also just the fact that what we were doing was innately innovative. So it got people's attention. It flew in the face of what they were expecting.
- [13:17]
B
Okay, so now once you got that phone call, yet again, other than your husband, this is like another moment of validity. Like, okay, next level. Okay, now we need to start producing more. You're going to go find a location. You don't know anything about finding commercial property. What does that look like?
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A
Well, it was really humbling because it was a really tight real estate market at the time. And no landlords want to rent to anyone who has no experience in retail. And they also particularly don't want to run to anyone who has a crazy innovative, never been done before business idea. So I could barely get anyone to call me back once I got someone in the. On the phone. I remember one landlord actually hung up on me. That was rude. And then, you know, there were a few locations that we went sort of down the road on, but then they fell out for various reasons. The location we ended up in, in Beverly Hills, and that landlord had initially said no to us. So a real testament to perseverance, right? When you think that, like, all is lost and you've heard your hundredth no, and you think Should I throw in the towel? Give it another shot? I turned that no into a yes and before we knew it we had a 90210 zip code and people were lining up at our door.
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B
Meet a different guest each week. 90 entertained confidence creators when you want.
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C
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B
Clearly, I asked you to try to find your passion. I just want to add on here. I pitched my agent 14 times on my new book. I got 14 nos until I pitched the 15th time and immediately we signed with Harper Collins. Leadership. Don't give up. The majority of people in the world will give up after 1, 2 or 3 nos and that's it. It's done. Never. If you're serious about something, you're driven and passionate and don't give up. Don't be like the average person. Just keep going. Okay, give me the Oprah story about people lining up around buildings. I'm so loved that this happened for you.
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A
So it was really amazing. And I don't want to just skip over those first few weeks and months because they were grueling. I mean, everyone dreams of being met with unstoppable demand for their product. But this really became a bit of a problem because I was working out of still little mixers that you would find in your domestic, you know, domestic kitchen. My recipes were yielding two or three dozen, and people were showing up on day one and buying two or three dozen. I thought they were going to come and buy one or two as a snack. And that's not how they were consuming our cupcakes at all. And so for the first few weeks and months, we were just drinking from a fire hose, trying to get our, you know, act together. Half the time our cupcake case was bare. People were yelling at us. We hadn't hired anyone. It was Charles and myself working double and triple shifts. We slept on the bakery floor twice. I mean, it was sad, sad, sad. But ultimately we ended up hiring some people, starting to, you know, get our systems in place, get some procedures down. And we got through our first holiday season, which was gnarly because we were the gifted gift for, like, every studio in town. And it was January and we were like, thank God most of LA is on a cleanse. It was a weekday. We were kind of, you know, closing up the bakery early and cleaning everything up and just hoping to get home and catch a little shut eye. And all of a sudden the phone rings and it says Harpo Studios. But Oprah had a production studio here in la, so I didn't think much of it. I just thought they were calling to get cupcakes sent to the office for the next day. So I pick up and the producer's like, oprah loves your cupcakes. And I had to pick myself up off the floor, of course, because Oprah, we know, got me through one of the hardest periods of my life. I worship her. She's amazing. And this also happened to be the height of her show. I mean, she was almighty. And I said, wow, that's amazing. And she goes, yeah. And she goes, and she'd like to have him on your show. Second heart attack happens. And then she said, yeah, tomorrow at 5am in Chicago for the studio audience, that meant 350 cupcakes, frosted, packaged, taken to Chicago, which she was recommending that I give them to a courier. And all I could think of was, this is our shining moment. This is our opportunity to basically take this business from here to here. I am not handing over my cupcakes to a courier. You know, all they had to do was put them under the plane and they'd get squashed into pancakes. And that I would have blown away. It's over. So I didn't know how I was going to do it, but I said, don't you worry, we're going to get them there. Booked a red eye, fired up the ovens that I just turned off, baked up 350 of them. Charles and I were stacking all these cupcakes into shopping bags. Like, literally did not have anything except probably, you know, a wallet on me and just cupcakes. And we were those, like ridiculously annoying people going through security, taking every box out and putting them through. But all we had to say is we were going to Oprah. And everyone was like, you go, you go like, go ahead of me. It's just. It was like this magical golden pass that we had. So we got there, didn't sleep a wink. We were backstage plating these cupcakes, and all of a sudden, Oprah shows up. The cupcakes come out, beautifully choreographed. Everyone in the studio audience gets one. And she basically says this love letter to sprinkles cupcakes and talks about how Barbra Streisand sent them to her. All the Hollywood stars love them. And Charles and I are back there, like, having an out of body experience. And the producer, when we left was very understated. She's like, you might just wanna be ready for a little uptick in demand. And we're like, oh, yeah, we got a new phone line. We're ready, we're ready. No, we were not ready. We were not ready. There were for months lines wrapped around the block. It was. We were getting calls from around the world. I mean, keep in mind, we had all of a sudden, like, exploded as a brand internationally. We had one tiny bakery location. So, you know, we couldn't necessarily capitalize on all of it, but it did light a fire under us to, like, get it together and start scaling that business as fast as we could.
- [22:17]
B
Wow. What do you attribute, or do you attribute that to anything? And I'm just thinking, do, you know, do you attribute that to God? Do you attribute that to that you had finally stepped into your purpose and passion? Like, do you attribute it to the universe? What are your thoughts on when something just organically happens like that for you?
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A
Yeah, I think I was fully in alignment. I was driven by this passion. I was also driven by this purpose about. This purpose that spoke to bringing people together, unifying people around food, because I'm not a people pleaser, but I like it when everyone gets along. And typically, we're all fighting about stuff, right. And it's kind of a fractured and divisive world out there most of the time. And what I love about food is the connectivity of it, the unifying nature of it. And so I was doing what I loved. I was trying to serve, you know, the world by injecting some joy and lightness and fun into it. And so even though every day was grueling, I mean, physically grueling, it was like I was rolling downhill, and all of these magical things kept happening. And I've learned since then, I mean, there was a moment in time where I was like, oh, yeah, I got this. I got this entrepreneurship thing.
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C
I'm good.
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A
I do this. I do this pretty well. And I made a couple decisions that were not as intentional or maybe as aligned and fell flat on my face. And I was like, right, right. Good reminder, you know, move with intention. Make sure everything is aligned, purpose driven, grounded in. In a bigger. Why? That's what really moves the needle.
- [23:56]
B
Oh, so good. Thank you for sharing that. Okay. I don't want to glaze over the next things that have happened in your career because they're so amazing. From you launching a pizza chain to you the size that you grew sprinkles to, to TV and what you've launched. I mean, it's incredible the amount of unknown you just keep stepping into and finding massive success. But I really want to get to your new book, because I feel like this is what's going to help everyone listening the most right now. Guys listening right now, if you're someone who you always wondered, oh, I have this passion project, and there's something I want to do, but I don't even know what that would look like or, you know, someone or your parent that's like, my kid has no idea what they want to do. This book is for you. This book, Candace, is what I wish I had the day I got fired when I sat on the couch and cried. And much like you put the TV on and didn't know what to do. But this book gives the most clear blueprint of very tangible steps you can take and pitfalls, success, and what you can potentially look forward to or be aware could be ahead of you. So I really want to dive into what. Why you wrote the book first.
- [25:08]
A
Oh, thank you for that. Lovely. Those kind words. I really appreciate it. I wrote the book because after we scaled sprinkles to 11 locations, eight years later, Charles and I made the decision to step away operationally from Sprinkles. We sold a majority stake in the business. And at that time, with that sort of successful exit, so to speak, I had women approaching me who wanted advice, they wanted mentorship, they needed funding for their startups. And I realized I've learned a lesson or two. I'd learned a thing or two. And I was so excited to be able to finally give back and pour into that next generation of founders and change makers. But as we know, there's only so many hours in the day. And so I started mentoring some, investing some, But I really wanted to help women at scale. And what's the best way to do that? I mean, you can do a course, of course. But for me, I wanted to sit down and write a book and really reflect on this wild journey that I had just had. The lessons I learned, the failures, so I could share those with people. We do a terrible job in this society of just sort of sweeping failure under the rug and then shining a spotlight on the success at the end of the day. And we also do a terrible job of glamorizing the wrong type of entrepreneurs. You know, there's a spectrum to entrepreneurship, and all we ever hear about are these dudes that are like, building rockets into space and have just, you know, lost hundreds of millions of dollars, and they're raising hundreds of millions of dollars more. It's like, I built a really big business out of that anyone could do. I literally baked a cupcake and built a great business out of it. So I. I believe in entrepreneurship for everyone. And, you know, whether or not you want to Start a business. This is also a love letter to women just to dream big and bet on themselves.
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B
So did you write the book for women?
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A
That was my intention. It's for you.
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B
I didn't read it that way. Yeah, I was just going to say I definitely read it for anyone.
- [27:02]
A
It is though. It is for anyone but my in my heart and because of the work that I do with mentoring women and investing in female and underrepresented founders businesses, that was sort of a guiding force for me. But no, it's clearly for everyone. But I do think that women sometimes need a little extra support because we don't have the models for entrepreneurship, leadership and success that our male counterparts do. We tend to suffer from imposter syndrome more than our male counterparts do. Can be more risk averse. And so I really had women in mind as I was writing it. But thank you. It doesn't hopefully scream as that it doesn't.
- [27:47]
B
What you did, which I thought was really cute and smart was you use the baking elements in jargon that anyone can relate to because we all know how to make something that you use those words and verbiage to really apply to business acumen that I thought it was. It was very well done. So let me just drop real quickly. So often people say to me, Heather, great, you know, great interview but there wasn't anything tactical that I could take away. So I want to jump into this quick. Ready? Part 1 Dream it how to be a founder. Seven steps and then she breaks down. Seven steps. Part 2 Package it. Embrace your inner marketer. Five steps she breaks down the five steps. Part 3 Build it and multitasking. Five steps she breaks down the 5 steps. Part 4 Protect it. Lead, defend and plan your future. Four steps I really like. Not only obviously the story element keeps someone involved and you bring a number of different and really interesting stories in a couple of which I'd like to speak to. But you give very specific questions to ask yourself, very specific exercises that people can do. It is very tactical in nature which I find is missing from a lot of books and I think people are going to like that element.
- [28:57]
A
Thank you so much. You are really speaking to my soul right now. Because everyone expected me to write a memoir and I said I'm going to share vulnerable moments and I'm going to share fun stories throughout. But this is not about me. This is about inspiring and supporting that next generation of entrepreneurs. I really want this to be a roadmap for people. So sweet success. Like I can meet you anywhere. You are right. It's from the moment you, if you don't even have the idea, all the way to building a brand, scaling the business, protecting it with intellectual property, and maybe selling it someday. So it really runs the whole spectrum. And I wanted to keep it accessible with those sort of the play on those kitchen, cooking, baking terms. But I am tackling things like, as I said, intellectual property, finding product, market fit, finding funding and where you can, whether you're crowdfunding or working with venture capital funds or angel investors. These are hard and fast business principles, but accessible to all.
- [30:00]
B
Let's start with the finding the idea. Because I do hear from a lot of people, I don't really know what my purpose is. I don't, you know, it's easy for you or easy for this person or Candace. It was easy for you. You like baking. So you get into some of the questions that you want people to ask themselves. Can you share with them what some of that direction is?
- [30:16]
A
Well, I think you really have to when you're trying to find your passion. I mean, I looked back to my childhood, right? I mean, and that's what a lot I think I read when I was searching. I read what color is your parachute? Or something like that. I think I read it like three times. I was desperate to find my thing. I didn't know what my thing was. And I have a note on finding the one thing to speak about later. But I look back to my childhood and I look back to what I love to do in my spare time when I was in my flow, when I was just so, like, engaged in what I was doing that I didn't realize time was passing. Now I don't think every passion is going to translate into the idea. There are other things that I'll take you through in the book to kind of make sure that you're on the right track and to, you know, lean into frustration to find that idea or look to, you know, look internationally for inspiration or just to reinvent something that already exists, but do it better. And that's essentially what Sprinkles was, right? I did not completely reinvent the wheel. I did not invent the cupcake, But I realized it needed an update. And I realized that if I explored it through new eyes, new innovate in new, innovative ways, I could create a whole new industry.
- [31:27]
B
Meet a different guest each week.
- [31:34]
C
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- [33:21]
B
I asked you to try to find your passion. What's interesting is you raised the price from the average cupcake, right? So most people would say oh my gosh, you've got to like cut, you've got to cut prices. You've got to be more affordable for people. You went the other way to, to make it more of an experience.
- [33:38]
A
I really had to take a stand and that was hard for me. I was worried about charging those prices. It was not something people were used to. But first I had to get really comfortable with it myself. Like you cannot sell anything to anyone else that you do not wholeheartedly believe. And I just thought about the value that I was creating. Working with the best chocolate, working with the best vanilla, baking fresh all day long, you know, hand frosted. This was an artisanal product. And then to get a little bit of extra confidence, I looked at what Howard Schultz had done. Right here was something coffee that people were used to either brewing in their home or getting at the gas station. And they were lining up to spend $5 on a latte. Like, there's not very much effort that goes into that. And so he had kind of raised the bar, and he gave me a little bit of confidence. I wanted to do for cupcakes what Howard had done for coffee.
- [34:32]
B
And it's such a great analogy. And you do get into how to elevate your confidence and overcome imposter syndrome in the book. Can you give us some insight into those steps?
- [34:41]
A
Absolutely. Well, I think imposter syndrome, first of all, we can reframe it a little bit, because if you are feeling imposter syndrome, sometimes it's just because you are a little bit out of place. You are stretching yourself to a place that you've never been before, and that's a good thing. Right. So let's just not always think that imposter syndrome is a bad thing, but one way to sort of move beyond it, besides just faking it and making it, which. Which obviously works if you can't feel it, but is to sort of reflect on what you've done, the challenges and the obstacles you've already overcome. Because I know I do a terrible job of that. I'm much better at focusing on what I did wrong, you know, flogging myself for things I said that I shouldn't have then ever sitting down and being like, you did a good job, Candace. I mean, that never happens. That was actually one of the things I did in writing this book, and that was a really beautiful thing. And I think, listen, we've all been through our unique challenges. We're all human. And if you can't think of the things that you've overcome, ask a friend or maybe start writing them down, because those are the building blocks to confidence.
- [35:48]
B
Oh, that's so true. I always keep a list of recent things that I've done that I'm so proud of. And even if you don't share it with anybody else, you keep it for you. And you read those things right before you go take that next stage or that next big opportunity that intimidates you. And it's just going to remind you, I've seen this movie before. I'm not going to die. I'm going to survive this one, too. And I might even thrive. So let's go. Giddy up. Okay. One thing you mentioned that I really like is you don't necessarily need to entirely reinvent something. And when I was reading that in your book or I was thinking about Spanx and Sarah Blakely and Skims and Kim Kardashian Right. I mean, and essentially very similar product. Right. And again, I don't know all the details in regards to what they're using to create their products, but it's the same goal and feel they want people to have that they look better in clothes. Right. So there's no reinvention. What there is is rebranding, remarketing. Right. There's some very specific tactics that were deployed, but she didn't reinvent a segment. And I know you give some different examples around food. I know there was Annie's and one other brand. If you could share with us some of the insight into the examples that you use, because it really opens your eyes to. You don't need to reinvent the wheel.
- [37:01]
A
It's so true. And I will one note about the skims versus Spanxing, and I'm not familiar with them side by side. I'm definitely a longtime Spanx user and lover. But one thing Kim brought to the table, which is another way to start a business, is her incredible community. Right. One way that people are starting businesses these days is by becoming influencers, developing this fanatical base of like, they're not customers, they're only consuming you, but this community. And then you kind of figure out what you want to put out into the world because you have this community and audience of people that will buy anything from you. So Kim kind of did it. It obviously that way, and that's. That's a real asset these days. But then my friend Gail Becker, for example, with caulipower, she was the first to bring cauliflower pizza crust to supermarkets. And it was again, leaning into a frustration. She had two boys who were celiac. They couldn't eat regular pizza. And she noticed this viral trend online, cauliflower pizza. And so she tried it, and it took her an hour and a half or two hours to like, grate the cauliflower and squeeze it all out and do the whole thing. And she was like, this was delicious, but my God, I can't do that again. And so she actually found her idea. And granted, you know, cauliflower pizza was around, it just wasn't in supermarkets. And plenty of pizza crust were around, but not her style. And so she leaned into a viral Internet trend and created cauliflower. And that's been incredibly successful brand and of course has spawned so many other competitors.
- [38:37]
B
It's so amazing to me, if you identify a problem that you see, if you can find a way to focus in on it and fix it, that problem exists with many other people as well, so then you just need to find a way to bring it to market.
- [38:49]
A
That's so true. It's so true. But also, it sounds simple, but it's not. You have to be open to the opportunity. You have to be eyes open looking for it instead of just grumbling at frustration, leaning into it and thinking, what if? How could I solve this? Am I the one to solve this?
- [39:04]
B
You talk a lot about what makes you unique or different. Could be your power. Can you share a little bit of insight into that?
- [39:12]
A
Absolutely. So it's your unique insight. You know, I spent my whole life feeling different because I had been raised overseas and for whatever other reasons, you know, I felt like an outsider. And what I realized was I had this interest and passion for baking that none of my friends shared. It made me different, but it gave me my unique insight because I had this business experience, I had this passion for baking. I was had this very unique aha moment that was only something for my eyes, or not necessarily just for my eyes, but I was the one person who took action on it. So in the early days of Sprinkles, I remember so many people coming in and saying, this was my idea. And at first I was like, oh, that's kind of rude.
- [40:00]
B
That was crazy.
- [40:02]
A
But what I realized was they were really just highlighting the difference between the dreamers and the doers. Because it's not enough to just have the idea, you have to take the action. The action is the all important step. But yes, having that unique insight and leaning into what makes you different and your unique experience, that gives you the vision to see opportunity when other people don't.
- [40:27]
B
I believe, and I don't know where I heard this, but I, I know it to be true, that if you're having an idea, some idea comes to you from, you know, wherever and you're holding that idea for a moment, that idea is going to somebody else at the same time somewhere in the world, I don't know where it may be. Now you have that opportunity, just like they will, to act upon it and do something with it. Do nothing, do it your own unique way, do a better way, whatever. That's, you know, all up to you, or do nothing. But if you don't do anything, like this person potentially did that was in line at Sprinkles and that probably did have an idea. Hey, that would be so cool. But you know, I'm too busy doing investment banking or whatever to I'm not going to go spend time doing this. I'll never forget when I Wrote my first book, Confidence Creator. The idea came to me, the title and the goal of the book. And I remember thinking in that moment, if I don't do this right now, somebody else is going to do it. And I'm going to be so pissed at myself when I read their book. Like, I was putting myself in that lady's shoes, standing in your line. And that drove me to say, go do it. And what's funny is another woman. Well, I mean, there's two other women that wrote books. They weren't the same thing, but it was similar goal to empower people, to build confidence within different titles, whatever, that came out within three months of each other. And again, you don't know which one will be the right one, but you're. You're never going to know if you don't take that small step to move it forward, to figure out what. What does it take to keep going? And. And who knows? Like you say in the book, if. If it's going to work, you have to test the market and you take everybody through the steps, they're going to have to actually deploy to figure those things out. But doing nothing will ensure you are standing in somebody else's dream in the future, pissed that you didn't move forward with it.
- [42:01]
A
So true. So true.
- [42:04]
B
And so painful.
- [42:06]
A
Yeah. Listen, did I have a dream to have a nationwide cupcake business? At the end of the day? Yes, I did. But I had to break it down into manageable steps. If I had literally just thought, okay, I'm gonna set out today to do that, I would have been completely overwhelmed, completely intimidated. And so I started small. And it was what I call following the breadcrumbs. But it was one step after another. And then all of a sudden, one step gets you a little further because you're building some momentum. And all of a sudden, like, that push where I was like, you know, pushing my cupcakes into the world became this pull, and I knew I was onto something.
- [42:42]
B
So you did have this massive vision when you started this out. I did not know that.
- [42:46]
A
Well, yes, because I didn't think it was necessarily reasonable because everybody said that we were going to fall flat on our face. So at a certain point, that starts to sort of find it, you know, color your outlook. But it's like any, you know, rock star or, you know, artist who becomes huge. It's like, of course they dreamed of that, right? They weren't sure if it was going to happen necessarily. It wasn't a natural occurrence, but. But they were. They had it in their dreams. And I definitely had it in my dreams. I didn't know how I was going to get there. And maybe I was completely kidding myself, but I also came from this world of investment banking and technology, where that is the mentality you build a business. Now, not typically a cupcake business, but you start a business, you scale it, and you sell it. Like that is the model. So I was sort of raised in that. And I thought to myself, I know this can work in la. I'm pretty sure it can work in la. I'm not sure it can work in every city across America, but I'm going to test it and find out. We're going to scale this.
- [43:49]
B
I mean, this goes right back to the lessons in your book that you describe and break down for everybody. Give us the insights into your branding.
- [43:56]
A
Oh, yeah. So brand played such an important part in, you know, the Sprinkl story. And I actually take you through how to craft your brand from scratch in this book.
- [44:06]
B
And.
- [44:06]
A
And of course, it starts with your reason for being, your why. And I, you know, mentioned that a little bit earlier, but really, Sprinkles was about elevating simple everyday moments, injecting people's day with a little bit of joy and delight. And that started with the ingredients and how the, you know, cupcakes were baked, but then it extended to the experience. It extended to our fun, playful, you know, decorations on top of the cupcakes. It extended to even the marketing initiatives that we did. Like, there was a time when we used Facebook back in the early algorithm days to put out these whisper words. And if you came into the store and whispered a certain word, if you followed us on Facebook, you'd get a free cupcake. So you'd see these people in line, like, leaning over the cashier, and it was like this secret private club whispering into the cashier's ear. And then everybody's like, what is that? What's going on? And so just these moments of, like, fun and nostalgia and delight sprinkled through all parts of our business. And that comes from the branding exercise you do at the very beginning of starting your business, which is like, who are you? What are you trying to do? What's your larger reason? And then delivering on that brand purpose in everything that you do.
- [45:21]
B
The way that you break it down so tactically in each chapter is incredibly helpful for. For anyone. No matter, as you said earlier, if you already own a business, no matter if you're in a career and you're not satisfied and you're just wondering or pontificating about it, or if you're about ready to take the leap or you find yourself out of a job. This is the roadmap that will show you how to take those small steps. The breadcrumbs. Follow those breadcrumbs. To find something so much greater. Where can everybody find Sweet Success and how can they find you?
- [45:52]
A
Thank you. So Sweet Success is available on Amazon, but I also hope people will look for it in their independent bookstores. And that includes Barnes and New Noble and I am on TikTok and Instagram and LinkedIn @candacenelson. That's C A N D A C E, not I, C E. You can find our pizzas are available in Southern California and we're also moving into Texas. We're opening in Dallas in a few weeks and then they're also available nationwide via Gold Belly Frozen Pizzas.
- [46:21]
B
Oh, my gosh, of course you are. And I'm sure that is going to be the next initiative to scale and we will see it get so much bigger and maybe even a TV show to follow.
- [46:29]
A
Hey, you never know. You never know.
- [46:32]
B
These are the people you want to surround yourself with. Guys, get the book Sweet Success. Get ready to go to the next level. Candace, thank you so much for creating it. Thank you for giving it back. And please don't stop creating. We all need what you're making.
- [46:45]
A
Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. You are such a light. I love following you on LinkedIn and you are an inspiration to me. So thank you.
- [46:52]
B
Heather, thank you for being a woman that supports other women. Guys, until next week, keep creating your confidence. I decided to change that dynamic. I couldn't be more excited for what you're gonna hear. Start learning and growing. Inevitably something will happen. No one succeeds alone.
- [47:13]
A
You don't stop and look around once in a while. You could miss it.
- [47:17]
B
Come on this journey with me.