Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Thea and Meredith. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Thea and Meredith, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
We started a candle business about six years ago under a different name. However, we were not selling any candles. We sold twenty three candles in 4 years. We knew that something had to change. Our challenge was that we were attached to the name -Wooly Pod Candles- and did not want to give it up. We didn’t look into why the candles were not selling. We both had full time jobs at the time and looked at the candle making as a hobby and really didn’t care about sales and the business. When the pandemic hit the country we found ourselves in lockdown like everyone else and decided that this was a great time to rethink what we wanted to do in our lives, and make a change because were were tired of our jobs, which were not bringing us happiness. Meredith was in law enforcement for over twenty five years and Thea owned a cleaning business. Basicly we were working with no joy.
One day our sons called us and advised us that “we should consider taking off our hobby hats, put on our business hats, recreat the candle business, get serious about it and change the name, lable and scents of the candles. Because frankly, they’re terrible and that’s why they’re not selling.” We listened to them, went to “candle school” on YouTube, leaned about owning a candle business and worked on our new line of candles. It took two years to create our new line of candles. We found our niche in our love of books. We decided that we would create candles based on the books that we’ve read and create a complete sensory experience for the customer. We match the books character and feel with a scent that we designed to interpret that book. We tested our candles with our neighbors and sons by giving them away and hearing their feedback. We were very excited to hear that our idea and scents were matching up with the books that we paired them with. People understood what we were trying to do, loved the candles and concept and wanted more. We started selling our candles in our back yard in the summer of 2020. That is how we started this line of candles that we love so much. It give us so much joy to see peoples faces when they smell the candles and it matches their favorite book. It’s magical .
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
We’re most proud of bringing joy to people through our candles and encouranging them to read the books that are paired with the scnents that we’ve designed. Our brand is about books being interpreted through luxury scents. We believe that we are unique in this area. Our candles are handmade luxury candles based on book titles. We’ve created unusal scents that can not be duplicated.
How’d you meet your business partner?
Meredith and I met twenty two years ago at a SGI Buddhist meeting. Meredith has been practicing Nichren Buddhism for thirty five years and Thea has been practicing for twenty two years. It’s because of our Buddhist practice of chanting Nam Myo Ho Renge Kyo that has help us overcome the many obstacles that come with owning your own business. Anxiety and doubt about whether you’ll sell enough to pay the bills and keep going, can be a great hinderance to success. Through chanting we’ve learned to control our thought process which controls our enviorment. The more positive and engaging we are with people, the more success we will have. Having an “attitude of gratitude” is key to being happy with your business and customers.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Never to be judgemental about anyone. We encountered a couple of people who we did not know were just released from prison until they told us. They came up to our pop up store wanting to smell a candle. They explained to us the joy of smelling a candle for the first time in years because they were not allowed candles in prison. It was an incredible experience that we will never forget. Everyone deserves a luxury candle.
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Thea Wendelgest