We were lucky to catch up with Marie Destinvil recently and have shared our conversation below.

Marie , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

The Prop Cartel is owned by Marie Destinvil, Tania Destin and Candra Reid.

January 2022 – My entire family had tested positive for COVID were riding the recovery wave. I was having a tough time – It had been a year since I lost both my mother and grandmother to the virus. After day three in isolation, I realized contracting the virus and fighting it was a negative trigger in my grieving journey. I was fighting to keep positive thoughts and was very anxious. I needed to keep occupied – so, I decided I’d bury myself in Pinterest to conduct some event industry research. At the time, I was looking for inspiration for “Touch of Vintage”, my luxury picnic business, but stumbled upon something even better.

In my search – I ran into a modernized candy cart and immediately fell into a rabbit hole of carts. The cotton candy cart left the most lasting impression on me. I thought it was the cutest idea, so I started researching the service more and realized that I was growing fond of the concept and the possibilities! Feeling confident this would be a great venture, I called one of my best friends and shared some pics and ideas. She probed, I elaborated and then we agreed to pull the plug. We immediately started sketching what we wanted our cart to look like. Pulling inspiration from a couple of our favorites from Pinterest, we contacted a woodshop and they brought our vision to life. And Sweet Cloud was born and became the first of many treat experiences we offer under The Prop Cartel. Tania, my younger sister, was helping us from day one. We had a conversation about growing and expanding our product inventory. Tania decided to add modern bouncers and focused on some colors and styles that were not very available in her demographics. We quickly combined all our powers to push and sustain a brand we desire to be respected and successful. We have learned so much in a short time. As we continue to push our product, we are realizing there are a lot more possibilities than we imagined! And we are absolutely okay with that and excited to see what’s in store for us!

– Marie

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 (Marie) have over 10 years of experience in food service management. My professional background consists of operations management, sales and marketing. I have always been considered to be a creative person. I love art and its many forms. I started off in photography, I enjoyed it so much. Focusing on career goals, that venture took a back seat. Years later, I started growing a huge interest in decor and party planning. I was photographing beautiful table settings and people enjoying the party experience, I started to desire creating the moments, not just photographing them. Although The Prop Cartel was birthed from a therapeutic need, I am absolutely passionate about creating. I have enjoyed the people we have met and the memories we help people to create with each event. We are blessed to be able to use our passion to drive our purpose.

I (Candra) have close to 20 years of experience in food service and culinary arts. I graduated from Johnson and Wales University with my Associate’s in Culinary Arts and a Bachelor’s in Food Service Management, I love to cook and absolutely love to bake! The idea of cotton candy was appealing when I learned we could create our own sugar blend. I have so much fun thinking of new and fun flavor profiles and concepts. I also have a love for creating , so as we grow with adding beverage services, I am finding so much joy in creating fun, and flavorful drinks as well.

I (Tania) am a registered nurse by profession. I have a natural desire to help and nurture. With this desire and ability to source unique props, I was the friend throwing everyone milestone celebratory functions. Lol. I started keeping all the decor and items I’d use and before I knew it, I had a storage unit filled with party props. I didn’t think about taking my desires this far, but happy I did. In this, I found natural ability and interest to build things. I look forward to growing and seeing what happens next.

Overall, we are proud of ourselves for taking a chance and pushing ourselves. We pride ourselves in providing a service/product that leaves special memories. Most times – especially with cotton candy – our birthday girls and boys are having cotton candy for the first time! And it really is the sweetest moment!

How’d you meet your business partner?

Candra and I actually work together in our 9-5, We’ve worked together for almost 7 years now. Having this background already made us very confident in taking on a business together, because we already knew each other’s work ethic and that our passion for this would come through our events. We trust one another and work well together! Tania and I are sisters, so we’ve been together from the beginning. This business was birthed as part of my grieving process/journey. Tania and Candra were on their own journeys as well, and saw this as a pleasant distraction and from there the business was born and continues to be grounded in God and faith.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

We try our best to be organic yet still professional. We did solicit in the beginning to family and friends asking for their support to follow and share the page. But the growth really came once we started having events and being active on social media. We participated in a giveaway which helped us with our following growth. But what we learned is – it’s one thing to get them, but it’s another to keep them. You have to keep them engaged, and consistent posting certainly helps in that regard. We also realized that our followers would grow organically as long as we remained true to ourselves, remained in gratitude and most of all consistent. It’s important to understand your target audience and how to appeal to them. Following similar businesses and keeping up with trends can be very helpful to bring in new eyes also.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: The Prop Cartel

Image Credits
@imagerybyjulesphotography @stanlophotography @dreamerphotographybyyisel @cafeyestilophotography