We recently connected with Janelle Doyle and have shared our conversation below.

Janelle, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

We are a family-owned and operated Kettle Korn Company in Charlotte, North Carolina. My name is Janelle Doyle, a little bit about me I’ve worked in the banking industry for many years after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh. I decided to move to Charlotte, NC from Pittsburgh, PA in 2015 to advance my career in banking. However, to become an entrepreneur was my dream so I figured new city, new life, no better time like the present.

Executive Chef Desmen Milligan aka the “Flavor Creator” is a highly trained culinary chef by trade. His culinary skills were sharpened by the Pennsylvania Culinary Academy as well as numerous restaurants around the country including Pittsburgh, Cleveland, New Orleans and right here in Charlotte.

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We both had aspirations of starting our own business along with our passions for great food. Our first though was, “we should start a food truck”. Then one day an article about kettle corn scrolled across my Facebook timeline and it was like a light bulb went off. With popcorn it’s a blank slate, you can season popcorn to taste like whatever you want. We knew we could create different flavors that are not your typical popcorn flavors you’ll find elsewhere else. We knew we could truly transform peoples thoughts and ideas on what popcorn should be and taste like.

From that moment we changed our focus and in February 2017 It’s Poppin! Gourmet Kettle Korn was born.

At It’s Poppin! Gourmet Kettle Korn we only use the highest quality mushroom corn kernels, only pop in 100% corn oil and use Kosher salt. Our kettle korn is hand popped in small batches to ensure a fresh batch each and every time. We are five years strong, and will soon be opening our 2nd location. We’re so happy we decided to believe in ourselves and encourage everyone to do the same.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

It’s Poppin is the home of the Fried Chicken Kettle Corn. It’s what we are known for and what customers flock to on an everyday basis at our shop in Uptown Charlotte. We knew we were going to need a flavor that would set us apart from anyone else. Our flavors like the Fried Chicken, Mac N Cheese, Cookies & Cream as well as Beer and flavors that you can not find anywhere else. Customers especially children always have a new flavor idea for us to try. We have at least 5 flavors out of or 60 that were recommended to us by customers. Powdered Donut and Mocha are two of these flavors. We provide store pickups, ship nationwide and you can catch us POPPIN onsite at many local events all around the city of Charlotte.

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?

It’s crazy how the world works when you have no idea how things will turn out when your taking a huge risk. I left a 6 year career at a major bank to believe in myself and start my own business. When I left of course I was no longer receiving a paycheck from them anymore. But funny how GOD works, that bank is now one of my biggest clients and we cater events for the employees on a regular basis.

Any advice for managing a team?

I sometimes have the personality as being “to nice” as my husband puts it. But one thing I will say is you have to let your staff know that you are the boss and what you say is important and they need to listen and do. I’m always open to suggestions on improving certain things that may go wrong or ways they feel could be more beneficial. But at the end of the day the decision is mine and some people who are thrown into a leadership position who had never been in that role before sometimes have a hard time adjusting. But at the end of the day you are the boss so let them know when they are doing good work and reward your staff once in awhile for a job well done.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.itspoppinkettlekorn.com
• Instagram: @itspoppinkettlekorn
• Facebook: @itspoppingourmetkettlekorn
• Twitter: @ispoppinkk