Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kimberly Bannick. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kimberly, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

I think the biggest difference between myself and other confectioners/chocolatiers is the fact that I stay away from the ‘flashy’ styles. No molds, no airbrushing. While, beautiful, I feel like there is something about perfectly tempered chocolate on it’s own that it doesn’t need all of that. It also means that absolutely every since piece of what I do is made by hand. Truffles are hand rolled and hand dipped, and instead of bright colors, they are usually topped with one of my other creations–candied nuts or candied peels. This is why the ‘flavor over flash’ became my brand. I don’t want to dress up what I do as something else, and I don’t tend to follow trends. I just want people to bite in and know what they’re tasting.

Kimberly, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Starting out, I did not grow up thinking that this is what I would be doing with my life. I didn’t graduate from high school dead set on building a candy business, in fact, when I told my parents that this is what I wanted to do, they were pretty stunned. Once I lived by myself I mostly depended on my freezer and the microwave. I went through years of ‘finding myself’, trying to figure out what I was meant to do with my life. For the most part I was just coasting with restaurant jobs, because it was where I had started and it was easy to stay in it. But when I stumbled into candy something clicked in my brain. I had tried out a bunch of things, which I quickly dropped, but there was something about this that I just knew that I didn’t want anything else for my life. I have been working at this, completely self taught, since around 2012-2013, but I had my daughter, and then divorced my emotionally abusive ex husband–when it was finalized mid 2017 I had to completely start over. I woke up, hand the realization that I hadn’t been taking any of it seriously enough due to what I had been going through, and at this point I had to either grind or give up. Obviously, I have been grinding every since. I don’t consider myself a chocolatier, simply because I don’t focus specifically on chocolate. I love the wide spectrum of confections–everything from truffles to meringues and wrapped caramels–there was no way that I could stick to just one specific type.
I love being part of the small business community. I have crossed paths with so many others who have decided to work for themselves and it is so inspiring. I wouldn’t trade this for anything.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I was in a very emotionally abusive relationship for over five years. There are still days when I can’t believe I fell for half the things that I dealt with–but when you’re in it, it’s very hard to pull yourself out. I lost myself, my identity, my vibrance. I was cut off from my friends and my family. It wasn’t until I was pregnant with my daughter that I started to wake up, and I didn’t fully escape it till she was around six months old. I am in such a different place now than I was when I first walked away from that. It took a lot of therapy and time to heal, but I will say that it was worth every moment. I literally had to start over. My daughter and I were living in my parents house, I was working barely above part time and it could have been a great time to give up on my business, but instead it made me dig in even harder. I worked my ass off, and everything that has happened since then is because of my own resilience and determination. It is also why I am very passionate about emotional abuse awareness–because I know far too many people get stuck in those situations and never pull themselves out.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I will say that I am very grateful to have started out small. At first it was just a small chunk out of my savings–but I was so excited to have a business account for the first time. But the more I did, the more I had to buy. I remember going into the Container store for boxes, not realizing that I was way over paying for them at the time. Once I started to expand though, my family helped me out a lot. My parents ended up buying my first big order of bulk boxes, it seemed like such a huge investment at the time. I don’t think I would have made it anywhere without their help.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.toutedouceurcandy.com
• Instagram: toute.douceur.candy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TouteDouceurCandy

Image Credits
Grace Gatto