We recently connected with Pam & David Griffin and have shared our conversation below.

Pam & David, appreciate you joining us today. Covid has brought about so many changes – has your business model changed?

When Covid happened we like every other small and big business closed our doors. We were able to figure out a way to help our business grow with Virtual Chocolate Tasting classes. This concept, not only grew our bottom line, but also our website sales and referrals. Companies were happy to have a place to gather and keep employee morale up getting on a zoom call and tasting chocolate, learning about chocolate and talk with David and I learning about how we started our small business, This was a great and fun concept, which we still do but not as many. During Covid 2020 and 2021, we did hundreds of classes. We would ship the kits out to the participants and set up the 1 hr. zoom call. Participants continue to order chocolate today and have remained loyal customers.

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?

We founded Chocolate Therapy, a hand crafted artisanal chocolate shop in 2011. We specialize in chocolates made with therapeutic ingredients and innovative flavors focused on providing an extraordinary and unique chocolate experience for our customers.

Originally from Chicago, we have always been entrepreneurs at heart. Before moving to the east coast and opening Chocolate Therapy, we owned a café/coffee shop in our hometown of Chicago, and have two incredible children, whom both have creative careers. Pam worked in Retail/Operations for 17 years, with her last held position as Regional Director in the Northeast. David was in the manufacturing/operations industry for over 25 years with his last role as President of an Automotive Manufacturing Company in the Midwest.
Eleven years ago, combining backgrounds of operations, retail and manufacturing, a lot of research and conversations, we left corporate America and created the concept Chocolate Therapy. We knew we wanted to own our own business again and instead of talking ourselves out of it, realizing the trials and tribulations from our first business, we took the plunge and never looked back. This can be scary, but you have to believe in your idea, have faith and above all “Thick skin”
We have created some amazing truffle combinations such as an Olive Oil & Dark Chocolate, milk chocolate with lemon, lime and blood orange, a sweet potato and dark chocolate and many others.
We have an amazing team that shares our passion and commitment which keeps us all going with a loyal customer base.
Chocolate Therapy, has a retail/manufacturing space where we make all of our products. We have a web store, in addition to offering virtual chocolate tasting classes, corporate gifts and wholesale.
We were featured on Good Morning America in 2021 for National Chocolate Day with Robin Roberts.

Any advice for managing a team?

Our advice has always been the same through our corporate lives and entrepreneurship. Get to know your team, listen to them, ask them how they are doing and really care. Understand and know their goals and hopefully you can help them to achieve some of theirs. Get to know them outside of the workplace and build a trusting relationship. Get them involved in as many aspects of the business as you can. You take care of them and they will take care of you. Set a clear path that everyone can understand and follow.  Many of our staff have worked with us between 6 and 11 years.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

We manufacture our own products. When we first started our business we manufactured all of our products by hand. This was not a cost effective process. Overtime we were able to purchase equipment that allowed us to mass produce and reduce our labor costs. Through several chocolate making classes and industry mentors we acquired the knowledge for high production processing of truffles. Proper operation of the equipment is always a “work in progress”, we are still learning new ways to improve the process.  Our of our ganache is made by hand with “TLC”

Contact Info:

• Website: thechocolatetherapystore.com
• Instagram: @therapy chocolate
• Facebook: Chocolate Therapy
• Linkedin: Pam Griffin or David Griffin
• Twitter: @ctsweetremedies

Image Credits
Pamela Griffin, Chocolate Therapy Lisa Lazarczyk, Lazpr.com