We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chandler James. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chandler below.

Chandler, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

My business is called Cora Cacao. The way that “Big Chocolate” operates is a Western company will buy beans from somewhere in Central America, South America, or Africa for super cheap, and turn it into a watered down candy bar in a factory.
We do things a little differently. We serve ceremonial grade cacao – pure cacao bean paste grown on family owned farms and handcrafted in the country of origin. It is processed by hand so it retains more of the beneficial mood-boosting health promoting compounds (such as theobromine). Because the final product is made in the country of origin, more of the value stays in cacao farming communities. Providing American consumers with a premium product demands we pay farming communities a premium. This is a model far beyond fair trade called “direct trade” (we did not come up with the term/model).
Our mission is to bring this heart opening goodness to as many people as possible. The vision is to have people drinking this stuff as a replacement to coffee – with the hope being to bring people out of their heads and into their hearts.
It all started when I was doing residential monastic training at Zen Mountain Monastery in the Catskill mountains in upstate NY. I discovered a cacao cafe in a nearby town and immediately fell in love with pure cacao. I started daily drinking this stuff, and finally understood what was meant by “heart opening”. I suddenly began to “purge” old stuck emotions very strongly for about an entire week. I was constantly crying and fuming with anger about old things from my childhood. At the end of the week, I felt much lighter and discovered other people on the internet had had similar experiences while using cacao regularly.
I thought – wow… imagine if everyone could experience this same sort of healing and heart opening effect instead of drinking coffee all the time (which increases mental energy, keeping us in the rational thinking mind). The perfect saying to explain why I went all in on this is “Be the change you want to see in the world”. It’s that simple. If we see something, it becomes our responsibility to take action. This lesson can be found in the Bhagavad Gita as “dharma”, and in the story of Jesus – taking up our cross and walking uphill.
Once I made the decision to go all in, everything aligned perfectly for it to work out with grace and ease.

Chandler, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Chandler James. I’m a 26 year old entrepreneur, author, and zen practitioner based in Southern California (where I was born and raised). I hold a BA in Psychology and Entrepreneurship from UCLA. Following my graduation, I did two years of consulting for CRL, an architectural supplies company. After completing my contract (and many unusual adventures in the mind), I went seeking spiritual teachings. I landed in the Catskills mountains at Zen Mountain Monastery for a year, living the Zen path under the guidance of many wonderful teachers. Shortly afterwards, I studied Grandmaster Choa Kok Sui’s Modern Pranic Healing under the guidance of Master Stephen Co and the Therapeutic Touch system taught by the Theosophical society. I don’t do this professionally, I just work on friends in my spare time.

I started Cora Cacao to deliver the purest cacao on Earth while creating more abundance for farmers per pound of cacao than any other company. In March 2025, I launched the story of my spiritual pilgrimage called QUARTER LIFE CRISIS: Leaving Corporate America for a Zen Monastery. It is many things: my journey, my inner conflicts, a follow-your-heart coming of age story, a Zen Buddhist Training manual, and guidelines on spirituality for modern times. In the name of manifesting good for others, a core Buddhist teaching, I also founded Boundless Capital Group, a vc firm where I hope to fund many socially responsible projects.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

Cora Cacao was my first business, and it started from my home kitchen. I’ll give some numbers so you get the full behind the scenes. Before Cora could happen, I spent two years working in corporate america saving at least 20% of my earnings each month. Not counting all of my living expenses, it cost me around $4000 to get started. My advice would be to plan on having 6 months of emergency funds. It might take that long to build your business enough to survive on it alone.

I didn’t have Cora Cacao in my mind when I began saving, but I knew that I would know when the time was right (whatever that means!). Many entrepreneurs I know got their start this way, they worked hard at their job and saved up enough to start their own thing. I took a mini-retirement before starting Cora Cacao so I was well rested for the journey.

You either have time or money, not usually both. If you are trying to start, there is nothing wrong with working a job and saving up funds for a few years. Of course, you can try working the main job and side hustle at the same time, but personally this didn’t work for me. I discovered that I’m an all-or-nothing type of person. It takes a large amount of time to build a business, and you don’t see results for those first 100 hours of building which can be discouraging. In my first month, I made $343. It took me 6 months to build full time sustainable income, but the first month was all the proof I needed – lighting a fire in me to keep going no matter what.

Businesses are not built overnight. They are built brick by brick. If you are a solopreneur, you will have to learn to wear every hat – from legal & compliance, to sourcing, to graphic design, to packaging, to marketing, to selling, and doing the taxes! If you just don’t give up, you will eventually figure it all out. How could you be expected to know something you’ve never done before? If you feel frustrated and incompetent, it means you’re doing something right! Once you know the lay of the land, it becomes like riding a bike and you’ll have all of the knowledge/skills to build the next thing.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

You have your business’ name picked out, your logo made, your product has arrived, you’ve designed packaging and packaged it… now you’re ready to sell! But how do you get your product in front of potential buyers?

I decided I would start by selling at farmers markets. The first thing I learned though is that there is a huge difference between a “farmers market” and a “flea market”.

Cacao is a luxury item. Flea markets are second hand goods. People go to them for bargains – not to spend!

I got a lot of strange looks, seeing as all of the branding is pink, and only a few people to buy a single bar – the lowest cost item.

I learned some important lessons, all related:

1. If you try selling to “not your target customer”, you’ll think there must be something wrong with you/your product/your business when people are not buying. And this can feel very discouraging – especially since you spent thousands of dollars and put in many hours to get this thing off the ground.
2. You don’t need to convince everyone to buy from you – you just need 100 true fans who absolutely love what you do and tell everyone they know about you. A lot of people reach me through word of mouth!
3. Not everyone will see the value in what you are doing. If they don’t, THEY’RE NOT YOUR CUSTOMER! IGNORE THEM AND GO FIND YOUR PEOPLE! Don’t take a “no” personally – see it as “one no closer to my yes!” and you’ll have way more fun.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.chandlerjames.blog
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nondualchan
• Other: Cora Cacao: www.coracacao.com
  Quarter life crisis link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F2GK2N21