Your Sweet, Successful 2023 with Candace Nelson

Welcome to Let It Be Easy with Susie Moore.

Susie Moore:

I loved having my friend Candace Nelson on the podcast. Candace is a very special person. She's loving, she's real, she's relatable. She cares about others, and you may know her as the founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes, who doesn't love Sprinkles Cupcakes. She's also a serial entrepreneur, a New York Times for selling author, and she's a real expert in helping people turn the passion that they have inside of them into profitable businesses. Candace has a really interesting story and background as an ex investment banker who went all in to create her dream of owning a cupcake bakery, a high end cupcake bakery. And in this interview, we discuss how she got started, how she kept going, even when adversity hit, the secrets that she really possesses from taking something just from an ideation stage all the way to an exit as a business owner. And if you've seen her on TV on Sugar rush or Cupcake Wars, you'll know that Candace is someone who just really cares about others.

And I can tell in this conversation when we speak about her most recent books, sweet Success, that that's what she really wants for you. So if you've got big plans in 2023, if you've got big dreams, this is certainly for you. Fun fact too. Candace Nelson is a student within Five Minutes to Famous my PR course. I love how the world has so much cool crossover, but without having you wait a single second more, I give you buckle up my friends pen and pad at the ready for this one. My lovely friend, Candace Nelson, Candace Nelson, what having you on the Let It Be Easy Podcast. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. I am delighted. And Candace, congratulations on this very well read and tab book here. Sweet Success. Oh my Candace, I've said it once, I've said it twice.

I dunno how many times, but it does bear repeating. But this is a six figure book. This book is priceless. You take people through the very initial stages of ideation to what it is that they want to create all the way through to an exit and what to even do after your exit. Oh my. How do you feel now that this is in people's hands? They're accessing all of your wisdom, your heart earned wisdom. Well, thank you for the kind words, Susie. And by the way, I didn't realize what a nerd you are. Look at all of the stickies, don't tell anybody coded,

Candace Nelson:

Organized, but no, I am so thrilled. It's been amazing to see just how much people are getting from it, as you said, the inspiration piece. So this book is for people who maybe have a business idea on the back burner, but also people who are running small businesses and they're looking for guidance in terms of how to craft that brand to maximum effect and how to step into their personal brand and sort of how to set those goals and work towards those goals. If you don't know where you're going, you don't know how you're going to get there. So there's a lot to take from this book, and I really wanted to write something that would be a guidebook that you could stick, read and stick on your shelf, but also refer to time and time again as you're at different parts in your business journey.

Susie Moore:

Yes, Candice. It's so easy to look at someone as fabulous as you who sold 200 million cupcakes. I'm not sure I'll ever meet in my life. Anyone else who sold 200 million cupcakes must be a world record. And you have your gorgeous life, family, celebrity friends. I mean, I could imagine that people would look at you Candace and go, wow, it must have been so easy, which is why I would love to read the first paragraph of chapter one, which is part one called DreamIt, how to Be a Founder. I was like, oh yeah, this is going to be Juicy Feet Up. T Ready. This is what you say, Candice. In a startup company, there's no hierarchy, very little in terms of structure and job descriptions, and frankly, lots to do and not enough people to do it. As a new founder, you'll be short on time and even more so on money, you'll have to be scrappy and wear many hats that would normally be worn by an entire management team at a more established company at Sprinkles. Among other roles, I created the product and brand story, hired and trained employees, evaluated new locations, crafted PR campaigns, and represented the brand on TV around the world. Oh yeah, I was also in charge of taking out the trash at night. Can you tell us about this, Candace? Because we want to bridge the gap between getting started and you and I think that sometimes it's easy to think that you had a really easy beginning and that wasn't true. That wasn't true from the Get-go.

Candace Nelson:

Our society is obsessed with success. They're obsessed with the fairytale ending, and we don't do a good enough job of shining a light on those early, seemingly insignificant and often very humble steps that it took to get us to that place. I mean, I remember the early days I had this dream of a cupcakes only bakery. It was the height of the low carb diet craze.

By the way, Cupcakes only bakery and upscale cupcake bakery hadn't been done before. I was trying to find a location and landlords were hanging up on me. I was showing up at every party, every trunk show, just pushing these cupcakes into people's faces. There were so many humbling and so many humiliating moments, but I didn't let those stop me, that we talk so much about the perseverance, the tenacity that is necessary in any entrepreneurial journey. It's so true. If you're going to get knocked down, it's how many times you're going to get knocked down. But are you going to get back up and keep moving towards your goal

Susie Moore:

And your background, Candace as a former investment banker, then marketing in the tech world with your husband? It would be quite unlikely. I mean, I know you say in the book how you had naysayers, your family also are concerned because putting all of your eggs in a cupcake business, I mean, I'd probably be with them. I'd go, yeah, I dunno about that. Candace. I dunno if that's a good idea. Girlfriend, could you just tell us a bit about your origin story firsthand? Because it's so interesting. You're born in Indonesia, learned to bake. There was such a warm, beautiful thing for you, didn't know what you wanted to do, followed the traditional good path, things went a little bit, you tell us. Yeah.

Candace Nelson:

So I never thought I would be an entrepreneur. I'm a very unlikely entrepreneur because I grew up in a family of very risk averse people. My dad was a corporate lawyer. We were raised in a family that really valued traditional education. So I was brought up to believe that if you got a great education, then you could get a great job and then you would just stay loyal to that company and sort of stare step your way up the corporate ladder to success. And I'm sure you can relate to that, Susie. That was just sort of the model by which we were led to believe you come by success and there was less entrepreneurship around particularly. There weren't that many female role models for that. I'd say probably the only one I can think of in my childhood was Mrs. Fields, and I was obsessed with Mrs. Fields,

But to your point, I was raised in this family and also raised as an expat most of my life. We moved around every couple of years. I was born in Indonesia, grew up in Southeast Asia, so baking became a way for me to connect with my homeland. This was pre-internet world. This was back in a time when long distance phone calls were expensive, so you couldn't even just pick up the phone without counting the minutes. And I missed home and there wasn't really a great way for me to access that except to get in my kitchen and bake the treats that I missed from home. So classic American desserts like rice, Krispy trees, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, and of course cupcakes. It was a way for me to spend time in the kitchen with my mom, bonding with her, but also address the homesickness. I felt it was a belonging for me.

So baking has always been more than just a fun passion. It's always represented something deeper for me, belonging, connection, and home. But having been raised in this more traditional environment, I went to a great liberal arts college. I was recruited out of that college to go work at an investment bank. Then I went to work for a tech company in that sort of first.com boom. And then the bottom dropped out of the internet world. It was the.com bust, and I was without a job and I kind of thought to myself, well, wait a second. I was the girl who had done everything. And all of a sudden I was looking around and realizing I was on the couch with no prospects. So hold on. I've been maybe taught a myth. I've been believing that things play out if you follow a certain playbook, and that wasn't necessarily true.

So that was sort of my first inkling that maybe I wasn't following the right path. The next sort of curve ball that life threw at me was nine 11, and with nine 11, such a traumatic experience. And I think a lot of people had a moment of reflection that they wouldn't normally have had because when you realize that things are fleeting and nothing is guaranteed, which I'd already kind of learned with the.com bust, you make different choices with your life. And I realized that I did not like what I'd been doing. I didn't love crunching numbers. I wanted to do something I was passionate about, something that brought a little bit more joy to myself, but also to the world. And so I reclaimed my love of baking. And so instead of going to business school, I decided to go to pastry school.

Susie Moore:

And then you've written the ultimate business book as a result.

Candace Nelson:

Yes,

Susie Moore:

The ironies. I remember Candace when this book, when we spoke a couple of years ago, you were in the early phases, it was going to be called the Cupcake MBA, and I was like, oh, that's so great. I mean, sweet success is also fantastic. Doesn't matter. The content is wonderful regardless of the name. But I remember thinking as I read this, this really is an MBA, what you include in here. It's so thorough. It's so generous. And what I like is that it's so practical. So on page eight, you speak about passion and the importance of passion, and you say that passion essentially has these three factors that are essential. You said that passion often comes with some industry expertise. So it's not maybe someone who's never ever worked in fashion ever but likes clothes, might want to go full into a fashion business, for example. And they said passion opens doors because naturally you walk around with this charisma almost, and you say, here, passion is contagious. And then you say passion keeps you in business. So with passion, needing to have some expertise, the fact that it opens doors and it'll keep you in business. Could you speak to the importance of passion when it comes to having a business?

Candace Nelson:

Absolutely. I think passion and purpose go hand in hand, but passion is one of those things. And lemme just take baking for example. I loved baking so much. Initially it was just a hobby, but because I loved it so much, I was very mired in it. I was reading all about baking. I was going to the baking and crafting stores. I understood and knew the market, so I had a good idea as to what was missing in the market. There's a lot of entrepreneurs out there who can just sort of analyze a market and say, okay, there's a white space in this industry and I'm going to create a company to address it. I don't create companies that way. I really, it comes from a place of passion, something that I personally love. And I feel like that's a more authentic and generous way to create in the world.

And to your point about, and what I wrote about passion being contagious, I mean, really, it's funny because I was doing something that nobody believed in, but I believed in it so wholeheartedly. I was so passionate about it that it kind of just brought people along for the ride. All of a sudden, people, they were like, that sounds like a terrible idea. But then I convinced them. I was so enthusiastic. I was so passionate about it that I changed people's minds. And that passion is so important even when you're starting a business. But when you are hiring or when you're leading a team or when you're trying to close a deal, you have to have that passion because that's going to help open doors for you and close deals for you.

Susie Moore:

And speaking of magnetic, you were the first kind of store that had celebrities in line waiting for your goodies. I was like, go, Candace, can you tell us, because we need to talk about this for a second, a little bit about Tomcat, a little bit about Britney Spears, a little bit about Serena Williams. Oh yeah. And then also let's talk about the flip side of that too, and long-term loyalty. But that must have been fun, Candace. I mean, oh,

Candace Nelson:

It was so fun. And I just want to say I was working, my husband and I started Sprinkles together. He was my co-founder. We were working in San Francisco and then decided to just say goodbye to technology, move down to Los Angeles after I graduated pastry school and I started baking out of my house, I started selling those cupcakes. At first it was hard, and then I got a little traction. It was starting to get some word of mouth, and then we opened the bakery. But I think it's important to share with people. I didn't have contacts in the entertainment industry. I only knew a handful of people in LA period. So it's not like when we talk about this celebrity following, it's not like I came from the entertainment industry. My best friend was Katie Holmes', agent, any of that, I didn't even understand how the entertainment world worked. So this is the beauty of a great product, getting people talking about what you're doing organically it, I mean something. Sure, you look at people who are connected and they just have a little bit of an extra, what would you say,

Susie Moore:

Like a leg up,

Candace Nelson:

A leg up or an advantage. But this really was a situation where I didn't at all. So I say that not to say Look at what I did. It's to be encouraging to other people that it is accessible to you. You can create a product that gets even the top stars talking about it. So yes, when I moved down to LA, I was told two things. One was nobody in LA Eats carbs. I think I just proved that. And the other was, no celebrities ever wait in line. They would rather be caught dead than waiting in line and every day in the beginning. I mean, that was the only way to get your cupcakes. So I saw celebrities waiting in line all the time, and it was really, really fun for me. I mean, I remember once Kira Sedgwick actually left a script. She was waiting for a cupcakes, we were chatting, and then she accidentally left a script that she'd been reading for or something, and I was desperately trying to get it back to her. Kevin Bacon would come in, Terry Hatcher, Terry Hatcher, which by the way, yes, that was a big show at the time just for housewives. And I don't mean to out them, they were, but it's all in good fun, but they're all

Susie Moore:

Claiming it. Everyone was talking about you Sprinkles cupcakes, sprinkles Cup. I mean, and by the way, you must follow Canice on Instagram because not only were you seeing these incredible stories that are so funny, but also you see some great advice that you give in the book. I mean, following you is so fun. And by the way, fun facts. We had to reschedule this because Candace was booked on the Today Show. Then I see you on Kelly Clarkson. I'm like, Candace. Yes. I love it. I

Candace Nelson:

Mean, following in your media footsteps, Susie, you are the original inspiration.

Susie Moore:

Okay. One thing that I love that you say in the book to upfront, which I think is powerful, because I think we feel sometimes embarrassment around this, and it's the power of saying, I dunno, do you remember this with the conference the way you were? Could you

Candace Nelson:

Share is a very

Susie Moore:

Human story.

Candace Nelson:

PTs, I was invited to this very prestigious conference in probably the first few years that Sprinkles was open. Maria Shriver was the first lady of California, so that'll tell you how long ago it was. And she is, I'm such a Maria Shriver fan, I can't even talk about her without fangirling, but she's such a proponent of women in general and she does so much good. But she would put on this conference every year, it was like a female conference and it was just all these change makers, entrepreneurs, women who were doing things in the world. And it was a really prestigious invite. I was invited to be on a panel. It went great. The room was packed. I was taking a deep sigh of relief, and they opened the panel up to q and a, so people were coming up and asking their questions. I was on this panel with some very prestigious people, including Danica Patrick, and she's like a race car driver, right?

Susie Moore:

Yeah. She's a badass.

Candace Nelson:

She's a badass. And so this woman starts asking this question, and she's kind of droning on to be honest with you. And she's throwing around all this jargon, and I think sometimes people ask questions to try to sound smart. Anyway, she was one of those, but I was like, well, this is clearly not a question for me. I don't even know what she's talking about. So I kind of start zoning out and all of a sudden she says, Candace and just the sound of my name sort of woke me up and I was like, oh my God, I actually don't know what she said. I didn't understand half of it. And instead of saying, I am so sorry, could you clarify? Or I may not have understood you correctly, or frankly, I don't know what that word means, can you, I tried to mumble through this answer, and I remember just getting so red and my cheeks were burning and I wasn't fooling anyone.

And I felt like it was such a moment of failure and it was sort of a sad button on what was otherwise a very successful day. And looking back on that time, I think I just didn't have the maturity to say, I don't know. I think because I was on that panel, I felt like I was being put in a situation where people expected me to know all the answers. And so I was sort of playing into this idea of what people expected of me instead of being authentic to who I am, which is I'm just an entrepreneur. And by the way, I've learned since then, entrepreneurs don't know anything. We're just waking up every day and trying to figure it out. We're just problem solving on the fly. That's what entrepreneurship mostly is. And so yeah, I think the power of saying, I don't know, just you know what? It's so relatable. It makes you human and it's understandable, and I've learned that since then.

Susie Moore:

So what's your relationship with, I don't know, today? Are you like, I don't know, is my friend, are you like I'll say, I don't know. I know I don't what you mean. I was having a conversation with someone really smart that say recently, and he used a word and I was like, I don't know what that means. And he was like, no one says that. And I'm like, but I don't know. I could nod and smile, but you could be saying something awful and I'd be nodding,

Candace Nelson:

Right.

Susie Moore:

What's your relationship with? I don't know. Now

Candace Nelson:

Well know. They say there's no stupid questions.

Susie Moore:

Yeah,

Candace Nelson:

I think there are some stupid questions. And I've asked them all right. I literally, I've taken it to the other extreme. I am. So just, I always want to be learning and growing. And the only way you can do that is by showing up and asking the questions and revealing the fact that you don't know. And having that humility, it's the only way we can continue to grow. And I watch, my husband is innately a very curious person and he knows so much about so many things that you wouldn't even know. And it's because he spent his whole life asking questions. I think there's so much value in that and people want to show up as the person who knows, not the person who's asking. But there's so much lost opportunity and growth in showing up in that way.

Susie Moore:

I agree. I think humility is such a superpower being like, I dunno that. Tell me about that. Explain more about that. You get an education from other people on the fly all the time. Winning. Oh

Candace Nelson:

My God, totally. Why wouldn't you? Wouldn't you? I mean, by the way, my 12-year-old is teaching me things all the time.

Susie Moore:

I bet.

Candace Nelson:

Yes. Hopefully in the technology realm.

Susie Moore:

And by the way, fun fact, everyone listening, we use another tech platform to try and record this interview and it didn't work. So we started again. It just happens to everybody everywhere all the time. Great to share it. Now, Candace, what other part of your Oh yeah.

Candace Nelson:

My 12-year-old is at school, otherwise I would've called him in

Susie Moore:

Our tech consultant, one senior book Candace that I love. I really, really love this. There are two parts to it is you say it's important to add your secret ingredient, which is your perspective. Could you share more about that? So when it comes to business, your perspective is your secret ingredient.

Candace Nelson:

Yes. I think there's a great quote. What truth do you know about the world that no one else agrees with you on? And that's your unique insight and the fact that no one else sees it, but you do, comes from the fact that you have a unique set of experience, perspective, skills. And my unique insight was that the world needed an upscale cupcake bakery. Nobody else agreed with me. And that was my competitive advantage. So I snuck in there and I opened this cupcake bakery. And by the way, then this phenomenon ensued, right? Cupcake bakeries were opening across the country. So clearly I was onto something, but the fact that no one else agreed with me on it, that was my competitive advantage. And that came from my unique mix of growing up overseas, being obsessed with American desserts, like cupcakes coming from the business world, but then pivoting into pastry school, understanding the business side of things, but also being so immersed in what makes a great baked good, coming down to LA and seeing LA as an outsider and not buying into the mis that people were telling me, which were that nobody in LA eats carbs, no celebrities will wait in line, that sort of thing.

So just all of these unique perspectives that we may either take for granted or frankly we might not like because they make us different. Those are our superpower. That's what makes us unique. That's what makes us see the world in a different way. And it may lead to a really great business idea what I had with Sprinkles, or it may also just lead to how you show up uniquely in your personal brand. I speak to a lot of entrepreneurs who are fearful about showing up in their personal brand on social media or wherever it may be, podcast tv, because they think, who am I to be an authority? Who am I to tell the world what I think? Well, you are uniquely you, right? And nobody else has that set of experience, perspective and all of that. So I think we all have to sort of embrace our uniqueness. It can lead to really incredible things from personal branding to business ideas and more.

Susie Moore:

You also say, and I love this because I think people beat themselves up about this, Candace, that originality is an essential that reinvented is okay. And you give a lot of great examples in the book. Can you speak to us about the Martinis and whipped cream book? The reinvention? Aha. Truly because I think that some of us are waiting for that Steve Jobs idea, right? We're waiting for the the incredible insights from some divine being, whereas a slight improvement on something current is pretty great.

Candace Nelson:

Yes, exactly. And I did come from that Silicon Valley background whereby there were engineers and tants who were actually creating new products and pushing them into the world and really moving the world into the future. And so I had this idea of entrepreneurship as being that, and I share this story in the book. I was in a vintage store with a friend who loves vintage stores. I don't so much, but I was there with her and of course found myself sifting through cookbooks in the cookbook section. And actually, if you are ever in a vintage store, that's a really, really fun place to vomit around. See those old women's day cookbooks and junior league cookbooks. And I happened to notice one that said martinis and whipped cream. And of course that piqued my interest. Two things I really like. And I was leaf through it and I thought, oh my gosh.

It was talking about this is the diet you can follow if you want to lose weight. And it was completely a low carb diet. And the Atkins diet was raging at the time, and Dr. Atkins was getting all of the credit for coming up with this low carb diet and how you can lose weight on it. And I realized here was a cookbook that had been written decades before espousing the same principles. And it really was an aha moment for me because I thought, oh, reinvention can be something new or the way that it's presented and marketed can make all the difference. And so in thinking of sprinkles, I thought, it's not that I need to reinvent. It's not that I need to invent the cupcake. Reinvention enough is alone like a makeover. Taking something that people already love and surprising and delighting them in new ways is enough. It's enough to get them talking. It's enough to make them see this old thing with new eyes and appreciate it again.

Susie Moore:

And you actually shared too the origins of the first cupcake, what it used to be called. I mean, it's so fascinating, the evolution of things and then what you brought to this whole industry. I mean, do you think can is looking back on your life, so in those early days in Indonesia, feeling homesick, making those baked goods with your family, working in the tech sector, even working as an investment banker, when you traveled a lot and had those amazing five star restaurant experiences, which also added something to this whole story, there has to be a divine, something divine in all. Even in the vintage store, you look at the cookbooks, success leaves clues, doesn't it?

Candace Nelson:

It really does. It really does. And I do feel like I look back on what I created and I think, I don't know how I had the energy. It was truly exhausting and physically grueling. The food industry is physically grueling in a way that a lot of other startups, and it was just, even though the hours were intense, the work was intense, it felt almost like I was just rolling downhill because I was so aligned with I think what I was supposed to be doing. When that passion meets purpose and then meets a business opportunity, wow, magical things will happen. But you're right. It's so interesting to look back at my childhood and think those were really significant moments that I didn't think anything of when I was baking out of the joy of cooking cookbook with my mom.

Susie Moore:

And I wonder anyone listening going, wow, I used to love doing this as a kid or that as a kid what may be here for us? It's not always nothing experience or just maybe just a pleasant memory. Who knows what could be back there, right? We could even mine our past for information. Absolutely.

Candace Nelson:

No, absolutely. I think it's so interesting. I'm spacing on her name, the founder of Glossier, Emily.

Susie Moore:

Oh yes. I can't remember.

Candace Nelson:

You're going to edit this, right? We'll look it up really fast. This is kind of interesting. Glossier, Emily, Emily Weiss. Okay. So I actually was just listening to a podcast about Emily Weiss, who of course is the founder of Glossier, and started actually into The Gloss, which was this blog. And she was before that at Vogue, she said when she was in fifth grade that she wanted to be editor in chief of a magazine. So there really is so much to what we love and what we're drawn to in childhood. There is this person inside that is quite consistent throughout your life. And of course you have different interests and you grow and evolve into different things. But there is something too, looking back into childhood. I remember when I was searching and I was doing career aptitude tests, I think that what color is your parachute actually ask you what you like to do as a child? So there is something to it for sure.

Susie Moore:

I've always believed that your desires are safe guidance on the deepest level, but the world tells you otherwise and you receive that. I'm sure there's of uncertainty, people concerned. And maybe within you two, Candice, were you ever battling that almost low level static? I don't know if this is a good idea, or were you just so convinced and it all in on your dream as you were living it, was there that voice in the background, is this all going to go belly up that wasn't there for you?

Candace Nelson:

I was constantly paranoid, absolutely. I was on the one hand, so passionate about my idea and I could see a vision, a world where there was a sprinkles in every town across America. And that's what drove me. That was the fire in my gut. But by the same token, all the signs were pointing to you might never get off the ground. It took us a really long time to find a retail location. They kept falling through. No one wanted to lease us. I remember one day in the car, I just broke down and Charles was driving and I was like, listen, I mean, there's just a certain point where are we just banging our heads against the wall? Are we just being fools here? And is the universe trying to tell us something? And I give him so much credit, he has been my emotional support throughout this entire journey.

But that one moment, he was like, Nope, we're not giving up. Not yet. And it's so important to have that person, the yin to your yang, where in those low moments they can lift you up and vice versa. And of course, that person to celebrate those wins with whether it's a team member or co-founder or what have you. But no, there were absolutely low moments and even times where I would wake up and see a new cupcake bakery that looked exactly like ours or a cupcake bakery that had opened a block away. And every day I just was like, oh my God, are we going to make it even? Is this sustainable? A new bit of press would come in or a celebrity would be waiting in line. And I think, well, this is now, but what about later? How are we going to be enduring all of these fears and doubts constantly? But that's the tenacity part

Susie Moore:

And that, I mean, I think that you can't put a value on it. I've always noticed, I'd love to hear if you agree with this. I've always thought if there are two people just say with say, one has wild talent, one has average talent, but the average talent person is they're committed. They will they not stop until they get a no one, they get a no. They'll ask somebody else. They are so committed to something versus maybe a brilliant person who isn't willing to be uncomfortable. I would bet my time, my money, my everything on the person who will just stay in the game. Do you feel that way too?

Candace Nelson:

A hundred percent. And I think we see it. My husband and I see it with our boys. We try to parent to that because in our culture, there's a lot of emphasis on these athletes in school. And the naturally talented athletes from a very young age get so much adulation and they're so special and they're so celebrated. And what you realize is the people who actually make it professionally are sometimes not the ones who had that innate talent to begin with, but they're the ones that worked the hardest and were the most consistent and were the most committed. I mean, I think Tom Brady is an example of that. Michael Jordan is an example of that. And of course they have great talent as well, but they weren't the most talented person. And so as a parent, I am always trying to help balance that conversation because we really, there's so much emphasis on that raw talent in our culture.

But my kids, I say, you've got to be a hard worker and you've got to show up every day. And it's the little steps made over time consistently that will move the mountains. It's not just like the big swing, the big brave swing, and everybody celebrates you and then you're done. Take your bow and leave the stage. No, no. You got to show up consistently every day. And I also try to help my teams at work understand that. Because in the restaurant world, there's a lot of menial tasks that you have to do every day. They're really important. But sometimes you get people who kind of scratch their heads and think, really, why is this important? Or this just seems so insignificant, but it's not. It's the little steps that add up.

Susie Moore:

Oh my God. Isn't it fascinating, Candace, that the best news about that is that anyone can do it? Yes.

Candace Nelson:

Everyone's a player. Everyone is in the game. Yeah,

Susie Moore:

I think anyone can be willing. Anyone can be willing to be consistent to handle the negative emotions, allow them to be and to still move forward. The only way to fail is to stop. That's the only way you guarantee your failure. It's like if you're like chow, I'm out. And this is where I think humility so much comes in and from you, Candace, your personality, even seeing you on tv, of course reading a book, knowing you, your humility is always palpable. You're like, I don't know. I'm always learning. But there's also something like a lovely hunger in that too. It's not like I'm good. So we were just in Italy as I was sharing with you, and there's a lovely old hotel there, and the man who owns it, he was walking around still cleaning the ashtrays. I could just tell that he loved his hotel and it wasn't like, oh, I'm above this now. There was just a passion that just permeated all the facets of what that job really entails. And when you say even in the restaurant business, people are like, oh, do I have? Yeah, yeah, you do.

Candace Nelson:

And you're right. You can't be above it. You have to be a servant leader in that way. You can't be telling people to do something that you're not willing to do. Now, having said that, if you have plans to scale your business, there is a certain period of time that I did need to graduate from taking out the trash. Not that if I don't go into a store and see something, I'm going to help out. But I have to move beyond that being my role every day to be able to scale to the larger vision.

Susie Moore:

And you talk us through all of these steps in the book, which is so awesome. One of my favorite parts of the book was reading about your Oprah story, because that was a ride. Could you tell us about a Canada, because I was laughing to myself as I was reading everything. You had to do

Candace Nelson:

Such a whirlwind. So Sprinkles opened and everybody said it wouldn't work. And literally day one we were drinking from a fire hose. There were lines out the door. It was a crazy first year. So we had just gotten through our first holiday season, which was completely bananas because there's a big culture of gift giving in the entertainment world, and we were the gift to give. So it was January, and Charles and I were completely exhausted and were actually really excited because it seemed that there were a lot of people on New Year's cleanses. We weren't as busy. So it was a slow day. We were kind of cleaning up early, hoping to send everybody home early. And the phone rang caller Id said Harbor Studios, which I didn't think much of because they had an office here in Santa Monica and they ordered cupcakes all the time.

So I picked up the phone and it was a producer who said, hi, Oprah loves your cupcakes. And I was like, oh God. After I collapsed and gathered myself again, composed myself, I said, okay, wow, amazing. Great, what can we do for you? And she said, well, she'd love some perfect great in Chicago tomorrow morning, 350 of them for her studio audience. And of course, it's not a moment when you say, look how now, how am I going to do that? So I said, yes, of course. Hung up the phone, yelled to the back, fire up the ovens. We're going to Oprah. So we baked up these 350 cupcakes, frosted them, and my husband booked a red eye. We stacked them in shopping bags so tall that we could barely, we had hands that were clawed trying to keep those handles together. Went to the airport with nothing but the clothes on our back.

And those cupcakes and of course were so annoying at TSA because we had to send every single box through the X-ray machine. But anyone who was annoyed, we'd just tell 'em we were going to open. It was like a halt pass. Everyone was like, great, what else? What do you need? And then of course, stacked all those boxes in the overhead compartment. Arrived at Oprah the next day, bright and early, and we're backstage when all those cupcakes got served to the studio audience, and she delivered this love letter to our tiny little bakery. We were still just one little bakery in Beverly Hills. Talked about how Barbara Streisand had introduced her to them. All the celebrities in LA love these cupcakes, they're so delicious. And then cut to all these studio audience members eating the cupcakes. And Charles and I were just like, it was an out of body experience, is the only way to describe it. It was unbelievable. Then as we were leaving, the producer said very sort of, I mean, understated. She's like, you might see an uptick in business when this airs. And we were like, okay. We thought we were so prepared. We put in a new phone line and it just was something else. I mean, we had calls coming in from around the world wanting franchises, wanting us ship cupcakes, lines that wrapped around the city block for months, and it was unbelievable. Was the Oprah effect in effect for sure.

Susie Moore:

If you could say something to yourself then with all the madness, all the very happy madness, but so much going on, what would you tell Candace at that particular stage of just this vertical growth?

Candace Nelson:

I probably wouldn't have appreciated hearing this at the time, but I really wish I'd written more down because

Susie Moore:

What,

Candace Nelson:

Just journaling in some way because every day was you're dealing with the public, and it was such just a wild and crazy ride. And there were so many highs and so many lows. And I mean, obviously I remember most of it, but there's so many nuances, so many details that I wish I had written down because hey, it would make for a great movie. I know,

Susie Moore:

Wouldn't it?

Candace Nelson:

But I do. That's the only thing. It's so funny because in those days I was so in the weeds, of course, I didn't have time to write anything down. I remember driving home being so exhausted, and I would play this little mental game with myself where I would fast forward to five years into the future and think, oh, it's going to be so much better than certainly we'll have all of these things figured out. I won't be this exhausted. I couldn't possibly still be in the weeds like this, and it would give me a mental break for a second. That's how tired and rundown I was. I literally just needed a mental break to see a future for myself where I wasn't so tired.

Susie Moore:

Isn't that amazing? So you use the power of your mind to almost have this mini vacation momentarily through visualizing where you're in a more relaxed place.

Candace Nelson:

Yes. The only way I could relax is to sort of mentally take myself out of my current situation.

Susie Moore:

But look, you found what worked for you. I mean, I've never heard of that. I like it. It's your own technique,

Candace Nelson:

A little time machine.

Susie Moore:

I know that people listening to this who are in the madness stages of their business where they're doing everything, maybe only one or two team members who are contractors, managing all the tech, managing the many moving parts to whatever business that they offer. I notice and look, no one wants to hear this when they're frazzled, but I always think, gosh, I wish I enjoyed that ride a bit more. Or when I was in it, when I was in the red hot madness to take a breath look around. Did you do that? Do you feel, or were you like, oh, no

Candace Nelson:

Moments? There were a couple of moments when we did that. I mean that I can remember. The first was when it was our first bit of media, Charles and I, it was still dark out. We'd get to the bakery in the middle of the night basically, and the New York Times had written a little feature in the design section of our bakery, and it was a picture, and it was this beautiful little piece. And I remember us taking a moment before the craziness of our day started. We were in the car and we just looked at it and we kind of just soaked it all in. But sometimes you have to physically steal away from the madness, the chaos around you to be able to do that. But it's so true, I think, and listen, I was so, and I am very goal-oriented, but I was raised in this tradition in finance where you've found a company, you scale it and you sell it.

That's kind of the model. That's the dream. And that's what I did. But then when I did that, I realized, wait a second, I really miss the striving part because so much of your entrepreneurship journey is in the wrestling with a problem, figuring it out, finding a solution. That's what keeps us engaged and interested and growing and learning. So I think if at all, you can take that time, whether it's the beginning of the day, end of the day, or just breathe and soak in a moment while you're in it. It is important to enjoy the ride.

Susie Moore:

Yes. I mean, we can never go back. We can never feel the same things again in the same way. So a friend of mine, she's launching her first book right now, and she's doing a lot of all the moving parts, obviously, and I was like, are you enjoying it? She's like, well, who's got time for that? She's like, well, that's not a question that I'm asked, because no one thinks about that. I'm like, are you enjoying it? We don't get our moments back. I'm like, how did Candace feel looking back? Wish I kicked back onto my own cupcake and was just like, yeah, look at me.

Candace Nelson:

It's so important to celebrate those wins. I don't think as women in particular, we do a good enough job of being like, oh yeah, I nailed that, or maybe I didn't, but I learned X, Y, and Z from it, and I'm so proud of myself for doing it in the first place and stretching myself. I think those are the building blocks to confidence and to ultimately to success.

Susie Moore:

So speaking of media, so your lovely New York Times feature, my favorite chapter in the book is the take Off the Apron chapter, and you say, make friends with the lens. And actually, there's one thing, one little story in the book too. I can't remember exactly where it is now, but you said that there was a man who came to the store and he was evaluating cupcakes in the area, and he said to you, I'm not doing a competitive analysis, but essentially kind of Yes. Yeah. And then you said, oh, well, I hope you enjoy hours. Yes. I don't remember what he said to you, but it was along the lines of what, why not dial up? Why be like, oh,

Candace Nelson:

Well, so modest.

Susie Moore:

Yes. Tell us about that first, please. Yeah,

Candace Nelson:

I think that was, and thank you. That's one of my favorite chapters too, about stepping into your personal brand. And I say, take off the apron. It literally was that for me. I was in the back. I was baking and food service, hospitality is really serving and giving, and it's not about you, right? It's about the guest. It's about the customer and the customer experience. And so I was coming to this from that, through that lens and from that place. So once the cupcake industry got so competitive and people were coming in and doing these sort of cupcake tours where they would come and taste cupcakes at all the different bakeries or they'd take them home and have a challenge at home, and they wanted to know what I thought of all the other bakeries. Of course, it was trying to be very political and positive. And so he came in, he said, I'm taking your cupcakes. I'm going to compare 'em against X, Y, Z, and I come from a place of humility, and I just said, I really hope you enjoy them. And I didn't want to say like, well, you're going to love ours. That just didn't feel like me. But by the same token, I realized that he was disappointed that I was so humble about my cupcakes. He really wanted me to show up more in a more confident way, in a way where I am sort of shouting from the rooftops, these cupcakes are the best because of X, Y, and Z. And I believed that for sure. So why wouldn't I share that with the world? He wanted that from me. And that was a really big aha moment where I thought to myself, okay, maybe I'm doing my business and my product a disservice by being so humble, by being so modest and not sharing what I truly believe about these cupcakes, which is that they are the best and they're the best because of all the reasons.

Susie Moore:

And it's interesting, Candace, because I think, again, I think it is everyone, but maybe women in particular, that there is always this modesty. And I'm like, oh, no, I even, I know one lady who's a parenting expert. She doesn't even want to put her face on anything. She just wants it to be children. And I'm like, but it's actually very generous to show yourself and tell your story and story and be visible in that way. And it's kind of not really so optional increasing. I

Candace Nelson:

Would agree with that.

Susie Moore:

Yeah. So why is the takeoff, the apron chapter so essential do you think, to this whole process of success?

Candace Nelson:

Well, my personal brand began in tv, which not everyone has access to, but guess what we all have access to is this in all of the platforms of social media. And if you are not utilizing those and showing up and stepping into your personal brand on a daily basis, you're really missing out on an opportunity to differentiate yourself, build that trust, build that loyalty, and also to control the narrative. Because if you are not controlling your own personal brand online, maybe someone else is going to, and I wasn't controlling the narrative there, and I should have been putting out into the world, these are the best. This is the value we bring to the table. This is what the delight you're going to find in our cupcakes, and this is why instead I was leaving it up to them, the customer or what have you, to control the narrative. Maybe the competition would be controlling the narrative. So I realized the opportunity to step into my personal brand was only additive to my brand. It wasn't taking away from, it was really just lifting it up.

Susie Moore:

And did you get more comfortable over time or did you always feel comfortable from the get go?

Candace Nelson:

Oh no, I got more comfortable over time. For sure. It's a muscle that you exercise and then it gets strengthened. And I also hear from a lot of women who don't feel comfortable. Maybe they'll post a picture and write a caption, or maybe they'll do some thought leadership in terms of writing, but they don't feel comfortable turning the camera on themselves and videoing them. They don't want to be a talking head. Maybe they don't feel like they look right or whatever. Let me introduce you to the world of filters.

And also by the way, you are your best friend. If you don't like your take, do another one. Do it until you get it right. Sometimes I'll do 20 takes before I post something on Instagram. I'm stumbling over my words. I'm using my filler words, which I fully use and embrace. You'll hear them all through this podcast, but we can edit it, we can filter it, we can show up exactly how we want to. You don't have to get full glam these days. The world is your oyster online, but if you don't feel comfortable jumping right in, show up in a way that you do feel comfortable, and then just sort of step by step, stretch yourself over time.

Susie Moore:

Now, Candice, this word balance comes up a lot because we have family work, the need to rest, all the many moving parts. My take on balance is probably a little bit unpopular, but balance is hard a lot. It's like you need balance, balance, balance. You had a lot of imbalance of course in those early days, but that was essential and probably it would've been more unpleasant for you to take a break than to continue doing what you were doing. The way that I think about it is I don't need a break. If what I'm doing is energizing, and there are seasons and cycles, right? There are quieter seasons and cycles, but I don't need a bubble bath every day. I don't need to have a schedule where it's Wednesday off or I'm flexible and fluid with my work and life. How do you think about it? What if someone thinks, oh my God, got to do all the social media, got to do all these things can't stop, and someone starts panicking about that?

Candace Nelson:

Yes, this conversation about balance is a little bit triggering for me,

Susie Moore:

Okay?

Candace Nelson:

Because I feel like this is another expectation that we're heaping onto ourselves that is making us feel even more guilty and more like we're doing things wrong. It's not wrong. If you feel imbalanced and you are launching something new into the world, or you are in the busiest season of your business, the holiday season, and you're in retail, you are going to feel imbalanced because doing anything meaningful is going to take a herculean amount of effort. Now, the great thing about entrepreneurship or any sort of project or birthing anything into the world is that you do hopefully have this period a light at the end of the tunnel. And that was what I was mentally imagining that day, where you do get to a point where things are running more consistently or you build up your team or for whatever reason, you don't feel like you're burning it at both ends anymore. And at that point, you have the flexibility with entrepreneurship to be able to work your own schedule after, during a restaurant opening. Am I putting my kids to bed every day? No, but I do know at the end of the restaurant opening, I'm going to pour into them in a way that is probably more than someone who has the nine to seven job. I won't even say nine to five anymore. It doesn't exist.

And I love that. And I'm also modeling that work ethic for them whereby they know if something, if you want to create something, it takes a lot of effort and it takes more hours in the day than what would typically be considered balanced. So I don't want to be part of that conversation that I think is unrealistic. If you really want to create things in the world, make something out of nothing, you can't do that from nine to five or seven.

Susie Moore:

And the idea of balance just adds more pressure and puts us even more out of balance. Like the irony,

Candace Nelson:

I think we need to give ourselves some grace. I think we need to allow ourselves the grace to feel busy and inundated for a while, but with the goal of getting to a place where it's sustainable or we have a breather and we can have that flexibility to do exactly what we want. But also to your point, Suzy, starting with a job that you really love, that you're passionate about, that just fuels you. That's the first step, because then those hours don't feel like what they are, right?

Susie Moore:

Like you and Charles Heath and I work together, and a friend of mine, she's like, well, you need to have a cutoff in the day where you stop talking about work. And I was like, why? We get ideas all the time. It's more exciting than talking about going home to Australia, and we love that. Or visiting my mom in the uk. We can talk about lots of things, but why wouldn't we share ideas at night? I don't need the boundaries or whatever.

Candace Nelson:

Yeah, that artificial cutoff, I mean, people do talk about that a lot, and I of course, no surprise, I agree with you. I mean, if Charles Knight had some artificial cutoff, we wouldn't have come up with the idea for the cupcake ATM that came about because it was late at night. I was pregnant, I was hungry. There were no cupcakes in the house. It was like midnight. And if I'd said, let's not talk about work, then we wouldn't have started batting around the idea of what it would look like to be able to get a cupcake 24 hours a day.

Susie Moore:

Now, one more thing I want to touch on because I could truly keep you, as you know, Candace, is you say on page 112, this is about creating buzz versus loyalty. I think this is a really great differentiator and statement. You said that a lot of trendsetters, of course, clinging to brands, and then there's a new trend, and then they all jump ship. But also reading your book, understanding, I'm like you, I'm not a red velvet person. And then you're like, but what? You're tasting all these flavor the way you go into it, okay, you really need this book. You guys okay, sweet success. True. But you said, because of course there are taste makers, people who come and go, you said in the end, we were able to do the impossible. We converted many of these, love them and leave them trendsetters because we proved our early experience of our value early and never wave it in quality or product or customer experience. Even the people who didn't care about cupcakes, only knowing about what's new and hot, referred us to people who did care about having a solution for delicious celebratory treats. We were a hot new find, but we also weren't going anywhere because we provided the best solution out there.

Can you speak to that? Because I feel like loyalty creating really good value things, it's not as common as we might wish.

Candace Nelson:

Right, right. Father-in-law calls it the stake and the sizzle. And so the sizzle is that sort of the media, the buzz, the people are talking. And that can only last for so long. I mean, you hope it lasts for a long time, obviously, and that you get people's loyalty, but that real sort of virality of any new business can only last for so long. And the steak is like the product and the value that you're delivering. And is that actually legit or not? Or is it just all sizzle? And he always likes to say that Sprinkles had the sizzle and the steak. And that's what I am trying to convey in this part of the book, which is just that, yeah, it was super sexy when we were on Oprah and they were courting Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes on the red carpet with Sprinkles cupcakes.

But we also knew we were in the business of delivering an amazing product, surprising and delighting customers on a daily basis. And we needed everyone to buy in. And so we weren't going to put all our eggs. Sure, we're going to ride the celebrity gravy train as long as we could, but we needed to make sure not lose sight of what we were really doing, which we didn't. And there are a lot of options for people out there. So you have to stay committed and focused on delivering the best quality product, the best experience that will never go out of style. And I think we all have experiences that are forgettable or sometimes just bad. And when we are treated well, when we buy something that exceeds our expectations, or at least even meets our expectations, that's delightful. We want to have that experience all day long. And so when I spoke earlier about sort of these insignificant, seemingly meaningless things, it's like, no, it's all about the consistency. That's the way to deliver an experience that keeps people coming back.

Susie Moore:

Now, Candace, this book is dedicated to Charlie and Harry are your sons, and you have this quote, do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. What is your wish for them?

Candace Nelson:

I think it is just that I want them to find what they love doing, what fuels them. And I want them to come to it without really any undue influence from anyone else. I want them to be true to themselves. And I try really hard as a parent not to put my own expectations on them. And I try to just support them to find what it is that they love doing and encourage their love of learning, because as we know, the learning is lifelong. We don't leave school and stop learning. So yeah, I mean, I would be delighted if they were entrepreneurs, but I would be delighted as long as they're doing something that they are passionate about.

Susie Moore:

So Candace, oh my gosh, this book squeezes this out. So much value in it's pages. Where do people go to get your book? Anything else where people going to follow you? Tell us all the things.

Candace Nelson:

Oh. Well, thank you. I am at Candace Nelson on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. I'm also on LinkedIn, and you can go to your local independent bookstore to buy Sweet Success, but also Amazon of course,

Susie Moore:

And pizza. I mean, people rarely speak about what comes next after such a delicious experience. But is there anything new you can share with us that you're working on?

Candace Nelson:

Of Course. So pizza is my new pizza concept. It's Neo Neapolitan Pizza Award-winning. We have four going on five restaurants in Southern California. We just opened one in Dallas, Texas. So if you are in that area, please come seek us out. We are also doing nationwide shipping, frozen pizzas via GoldBelly. So a really great, I don't know when this is coming out, but a really great gift if it's before the holidays. Great holiday gift. Our chef Daniel Lee Ti Hills from Naples, Italy, and he is the one who invented the Cacho I Pepe Pizza, which you now see on menus across the country. But his is still the best. And you can order it on GoldBelly. You also can order our delicious gluten-free crust. This is gluten-free pizza. That actually is really good, which is hard to find. So for the gluten-free in your life, keep that in mind as well.

Susie Moore:

So final question, Candace, for the Let It Be Easy podcast. What's one thing you do in your life consistently that allows it to be easier?

Candace Nelson:

I should have been prepared for this question given the title of the podcast. One thing I do, you know, you know what? This may be kind of a lame answer, but I'm going to go with it. I don't work out as hard anymore. That's really

Susie Moore:

Good one.

Candace Nelson:

Is it? Okay, good. Yes. I really leaned into walking, hiking, Pilates, things that make me feel good while I'm doing them, not just for the benefit I get later in terms of whatever muscle building I'm getting or whatever physique I'm building. I like to feel good in the process too. As you said, we don't get those hours back, so why not enjoy your workout and not have it be punishment.

Susie Moore:

Candace, I love you. I wish, oh my God, a beautiful 2023. So, so many blessings for people who get their hands on this and take the action steps. So Candace, thank you. Hope you'll come back in the future and we'll continue this.

Candace Nelson:

I would love to. I would love to. I adore you, Susie. Thank you for all the great work you do supporting and uplifting women. You are just a light in this world, and I just adore you

Susie Moore:

So much. Love to you, Candace. Until next time.

Candace Nelson:

Okay, bye.