We recently connected with Shannon Chappell and have shared our conversation below.

Shannon, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I started my business when I was at a low point in my life, or what I thought was a low point. I just quit my job, my comfort zone of 13 years. My husband and I was going through martial issues, which divorce was discussed. The omicron Covid virus hit, so Hollywood shut down, again. It was like my cup was filling up closing out 2021 and then God knocked it over January 2022. Not spilled, but knocked it over. I was lonely, scared, fighting depression. It came a point where I said ok, you’re a fighter. If this man leaves you after all of these years, if the industry stays on shutdown, how are you going to survive? I knew going back to my old job was not an option, so I had to make my own way. God told me to sit down and be still, I have something for you. That’s what I did. I was still, I prayed and meditated everyday. I told God I surrender, whatever you have for me, I’m ready to receive it. I don’t want to be depressed, sad, lonely. After sometime, HE gave me the push to Entrepreneurship, which is what I always wanted to do. As we were coming up with ideas, I knew I wanted to sell products that were healing and help people in someway. Also something that I could build on and keep customers coming back. As I sat in my home, going through my transition, I would have all the candles lit, diffuser going, incense burning which would bring me peace and was therapeutic in my healing process. That’s where the idea of candles came because I love scents and mixing different fragrances together. I had to take it a step further because you can get candles anywhere. What’s going to set mines apart? Then the healing stones came to me, through the most high. I said that’s it. Now I have to go more in depth on studying the stones to bring the right intention for each candle. Doing that work saved me from depression and now I’m an entrepreneur, my marriage is better than it’s ever been. I finally feel for the first time ever that I’m living in my purpose.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I moved to LA right after college to pursue acting. I’ve been acting my entire life, I have a degree in it… this was always the plan. I pretty much became an adult in LA. Being here for so many years and putting all this work into acting, I’m just not where I want to be… yet. Because I have faith it’s still coming. Also I got tired of other people dictating my life, whether it comes down to booking a role or managing a store. I got tired of working for other people, being unfulfilled. I wanted something for myself, something that I had complete control of, that would help others in someway. Which is essentially what entrepreneur life is all about. Once I decided on crystal candles being my product, building the business from the ground up was tedious, but not hard for me. I come from retail, managing a store, so I had the tools already to start my business. It’s not easy, but it’s not hard. Just don’t give up. And you gotta start. I feel that your steps are ordered and as long as you keep going you will see there is always another step to climb. If you quit, you’ll never get to the top to see your full potential.
Our purpose at Scentual Soothers is to help you set your intentions and affirmations to achieve what you want in life. I feel that scents, healing crystals are therapeutic and can help you on your journey. I’ve had customers reach out to me saying they don’t know what I put in these candles but it works. That makes me so happy because I did put a lot into them. Everything is thought out and has a purpose, down to the name, gemstones and scent of the candle. It all goes together. My purpose right now is to help heal others by telling my truth and to also encourage people to be free and don’t be afraid to take that leap of faith. It so nice on this side… FREEDOM!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In the beginning stages, building the website, connecting the analytics, all the technical stuff was a lot for me. I’m a creative. This is technically the business side of it so your site can be running properly. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was on YouTube, google, anything to help me. I did this all by myself bc I couldn’t afford to hire someone and I wanted to know all the ins and outs of my business. Also, sometimes help may not be available, so it’s always good to know for yourself. I would be up til 4am some nights, sometimes later getting all that stuff figured out. A lot of the chat ppl to assist you are overseas so it’s daytime there. It was moments where I was like, this stupid I am not a computer engineer. In actuality it’s just being in the unknown, but if you don’t give up, you’ll see it was just a matter of figuring it out. Now I know how to do that. I’m the type of person, if I ask you for help, that means I have exhausted all possibilities and I just can’t find the answer. I will always try first, because the beauty is in the journey. That’s where those life lessons are. I stayed resilient and figured it out, which was in the beginning stages. That kept me pushing and motivated to not ever quick.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had to pivot from working in retail to starting my own business and being free. I worked at a store for 13 years bc it was flexible for auditions. Well once Covid happened, everything was self-tapes or zoom so I didn’t need the job for that anymore. I was so unfulfilled, so unhappy. I was taking on so many people’s different energy everyday and bringing that mess home. It was time for me to go. I hated the person I was becoming, I was mean and angry all the time. It’s bc I wasn’t living in my purpose. I had a milestone birthday coming up in a year in a half. I told myself to set up for my new decade of life, I need to bust my butt in the last year of this decade so I can be free and living by that next birthday. And that’s exactly what I did. I quit, went through a new form of self-discovery, found my purpose, started my business and now I’m happy and free. All within a year in a half.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.scentualsoothers.com
• Instagram: @scentualsoothers
• Facebook: www.Facebook.com//scentualsoothers