We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tara White a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Tara, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
When Covid-19 began a few years ago, I was primarily a kindergarten teacher. Working with children everyday and giving them all of you can be so exhausting. But it’s rewarding. We all need relaxation, meditation, and a way to show yourself some type of self care. For me, candles always set the mood to relax me. I loved to go to Bath and Body works especially when they had their candle sales! So, of course school closed for Covid-19 cases and most people were out of work. That meant I couldn’t spend money on those candles as often. I decided that I cold start making my own and relax and meditate to my own creation. I started making candles and posted my work on social media. A few people would always tell me they loved watching me make them. Then they started asking me to make one for them. (Supplies aren’t cheap, so now I have to start charging.) Eventually, one person turned into 5 people asking. Then 5 became 15, and so forth. I thought to myself, I have to make this legit. I made a website, came up with a logo and coordinated everything where…now it’s my brand. I went for licensing got paperwork together to make this a business. Fast forward to now, I’m selling candles online, at events, weddings, and in person at one of the most popular city markets in Charleston, SC. (Charleston City Market). I also host candle making classes. My candles are now in different states and countries. I went from “I’m just making these for me” to “Wow, I have a business.” This candle thing started with my journey to self care/love. Now I have my own tribe behind me!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I am a spiritual individual… And It all started with meditation. Meditating became one of my priorities when I felt the newness it brought me. It requires a lot of work, focus, and determination. However, I feel like once you find your center, you win. It drives you to connect with your inner truth. Meditation is motivation to want to birth a better you. Meditating provides a raw and truthful description of the journey towards letting go of fear, preconceived notions, or anything that prevents you from being an individual. This journey allows you to trust what the universe places in front of you on your life’s path. It challenges what you are told in order to find your own definition of success and happiness. This is why the “Cosmic Energy Company” exists. I wanted to invite you all to my world so that you can get the gist of how to get to yours.
Since self care and self love is important to have in these times, I’ve always envisioned of having space where people can come and dedicate time to themselves. Because sometimes the person you abandon the most is yourself. In the building space, the front part would be a welcoming, cozy lobby/gift shop where you’d check in and browse around to check out our candles and other products. Room 1 would be dedicated for date nights, parties, or for those who would love to join our candle making classes. Room 2, I’d like to have yoga instructors conduct yoga/breathing sessions. Meditation is important. Sometimes our minds are so loud, it could drive us to stress and other unwanted feelings. Come and be at peace. Other than having a safe space, I’d love to build a team of like minded people to help me run this business. It is becoming difficult with just one employee, which is myself. Doing production, packaging and shipping, keeping up with inventory, attending different events, budgeting, responding to inquiries, creating social media content, and monitoring the website is so much for one person. I just need monetary help. That would be great for the building and possibly paying one or two people to help run the business.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Being a small owned, black business that’s ran by a black woman is also challenging sometimes. So it’s a little more than a business too!
Sometimes we get overlooked or underestimated and it’s discouraging at times. I sometimes feel as though I have to work harder to be seen to make other people believe that I’m capable….That “WE’RE” capable. I have to set the tone and represent other black women to the best of my abilities. I do that by allowing my business, work ethics, and personality to shine. Those characteristics represent me and other black women. Loving, kind, helpful, driven, professional, determined, outgoing, hard working, soft, calm, and soothing. YES, we can be welcoming, bubbly, caring, forgiving, and have great customer service with phenomenal communication skills. We have to fight a little harder to “whoo” others. Sometimes it seems as if we’re only being seen by our own people. Only our own people can see the potential we really have. I would love to give love and surround people with so much positivity that it’s unreal! Come into our world and get the real thing. We are just as smart as anyone else. We are just as creative as anyone else. We are just as qualified as anyone else. We are just as successful as anyone else. We are just as knowledgeable as anyone else. We are just as driven as anyone else. But words don’t mean anything, right? We have to show it. But with just MORE effort. So with that, allow me to represent the community of black women and show you how capable we can be. Let me show you how we roll! 🤍
– This is an exciting journey
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Omg I had to unlearn a lot of traits. From procrastination to terrible money management. But the most important one is unlearning “the independent woman role.” I just want to say that it is ok to ask and receive help. We cannot be completely successful doing it alone.
I struggled holding the title “One Woman Show.” Things just move more efficiently when you have a team, friends, family, strangers, and people who just want to see you win!
I’ve been trying to pack orders, do inventory, do production, attend events, get back to emails, file taxes, attend classes, etc. My response when people ask if I need help was always “I got it.” When in honesty…I really didn’t. It just felt so burdening to put my work on someone else’s plate. But I realized that some people really want to help elevate you. So I put my pride aside and finally said YES. I had so much stress lifted off of me knowing that it’ll get done because I had help.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cosmicenergyco.com
- Instagram: @cosmicenergyco
- Facebook: @cosmicenergyco