We were lucky to catch up with Kristie Hilliard recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kristie, appreciate you joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

I came up with the name KristieKandies by way of my first name is Kristie and I was into making Candy for treats. I put a little twist on the spelling and made it Kandies and connected the two! Perfect name representing me and what I do!

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?

I am 43 years old and I am a mom, wife, and Boss! I have been doing treats now about 6 years now consistently. It started out as a hobby and then transpired overnight. I made a few chocolate lollipops on a stick and posted on social media and it took off so fast. I had people asking do u do this or do you do that so I tried what they were asking for and it was successful! I provide candy apples, candy grapes, candied pineapples, candied strawberries, candied pickles. I also provide all this in chocolate as well except the pickle. I provide rice krispy treats, dip Oreos, and pretzel rods! Some items are customized to fit the occasion. Wedding, baby showers, birthday parties etc. I am set aside from others because I have a lot of different items and flavors that I use. I flavor a lot of my candied items with cotton candy, watermelon, tropical punch, green apple etc! The main thing I want people to know is follow ur passion! Make sure your heart is in what you do! Make sure what you send out you are willing to buy yourself and eat it! The thing that makes me the proudest is my customers, I have so so many repeat customers that love my treats and come back over and over and over again! I have customers that drive hours to purchase my products! You can follow me on instagram, tic tok, and Facebook under KristieKandies! 2529085942 or [email protected]!

How did you build your audience on social media?

My audience on Facebook is huge. I have 5,000 friends and then had to start another page! I have over 92.5K on TikTok! The biggest thing you have to do is post, post, post! Engage with your audience, answer questions, make yourself available! Take videos and post of your customers reactions when they taste your treats!

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I worked at a pharmaceutical company for 14 years! I left there and became a substitute teacher! I worked in the school system for 5 years while juggling KristieKandies as well part-time! It was hard! 2022 I purchased a concession trailer to go mobile! I traveled to different events and did pop ups in surrounding towns! I am now in the process of opening a storefront in the next few weeks. This has become my FULL-TIME JOB!!!!!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: KristieKandies
• Facebook: KristieKandies
• Yelp: KristieKandies
• Other: Tik- Tok – KristieKandies

Image Credits
Ivan Richardson