#269: The Power of Scent with Julie Tassy, Founder of Ella B Candles

Get ready for episode number 269 with the founder of Ella B. Candles. And if you are a brick and mortar storefront owner, let's talk about the power of scent inside of your storefront experience. Let's talk about your business strategy and.

The juicy details of what actually works.

From mainstream fashion to fashion on Main street and the entire ecosystem behind it. How do we scale your company and do it with the balance and the happiness that we all seek? Let's hear from those inside insiders, experts, and strategists that actually make it happen. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the.

Boutique Hub, and I can't wait to chat.

You can probably remember what it was like to be a junior high kid or a high school kid going to the mall and shopping with your friends and experiencing all of the scents that came from the stores as you passed. And that same experience that you had back then and the memories that it brings to you now are similarly happening in boutiques today all across America. The power of scent is a real thing that can lead customers into our store, can bring them back for more, can bring back memories of feeling loved and supported and the great experience that they had when shopping with you. So today we're going to talk with my friend Julie, the founder of Ella B. Candles, about the power of scent inside of your retail store and also how to take a gift as simple as a candle that you might sell in your store and turn it into a memorable, memorable experience for your customers to keep them coming back for more. You guys, Julie is so kind and compassionate and so creative. I can't wait for you to hear all about her story as she founded Ella B and the experience that she's creating for boutique owners and customizations that she's creating right now. Get ready to meet my friend Julie, the founder and Queen Beef at Ella Bcandles.

You guys, if you could smell this podcast today, I'm not. I'm not sure what exactly it would smell like. It would smell like midnight, in my opinion, because that's my favorite scent. Whatever your favorite scent is, it would smell like that. It is smelling so good. It's going to be awesome. You guys. I cannot wait for you to meet my friend and guest, Julie Tassey, the founder and queen bee of Ella B. Candles. Julie, thank you so much for being on the show today.

Thank you for having me. I'm so excited.

We. I've just got to, like, paint the picture for everybody listening to the show today in full transparency. So we're recording and we were talking before we start to record that you had sent me a package. And I was thinking, gosh, this package hasn't come yet. Chances are my husband thinks I ordered yet another thing online and he's like, putting it in a corner somewhere and I hadn't found it. And so Julie tracks the tracking on her end and says, no, it's. It's arrived. You should go look around your house. So I literally got to unbox Julie's package before we started to record this podcast so I can tell you all about what's inside of it today. Isn't that cool, Julie? How crazy is that that this worked out?

I love it.

So this is good. It's going to make so much more sense to everyone when we get into talking about the power of scent inside of your boutique. Because, you guys, this is so such a huge topic from, you know, in terms of trying to set yourself apart. But before we get into the strategy behind it and what exactly was in my package today? Well, we got to back it up to the beginning. So, Julie, you're the founder and queen bee at Ella Bcandles. I love a good entrepreneur story. Talk to me about how you got started in the business.

I will. I started out in wedding invitations a million years ago and morphed into personalized gifts. And I did monogrammed everything, Ashley. I mean, if you could stick a three letter monogram on it. I was selling it and I did this from a little home boutique. I would do pop up shops, I would do corporate gifts. And there was, you know, personalization everywhere. And several people would say to me, oh, but I need a gift right now. And I didn't have anything right now. Everything had to be engraved or embroidered or printed. So I started selling candles and I found a great manufacturer and sold these candles. And I realized that candles are a really great business model. It's a consumable product. So you're selling the same thing to the same people over and over again. While that candle's burning in someone's home, it's marketing itself. And everyone in that house is able to make a decision whether they like that candle or not. It's giftable. When you think about, oh, what should I give someone? A candle is always a good idea. So I realized this candle is really a great business model. But I was still doing personalized gifts. So, long story short, I started my own candle line. A girlfriend was pouring the candles in her kitchen, I was packaging them in my kitchen. And we needed some clever hook. We needed some clever Way to really make this a special candlelight because there are a lot of candle lines out there. It was the summer of 2011 and I had two elementary school age daughters. And I said, girls, I'm going to teach you how to develop a product line. And they looked at me like I was crazy. And I said, come on, let's figure out a product line. We're going to figure out sourcing and packaging and naming. And they looked at me and they said, can't we just have a lemonade stand? And I said, no, we're going to come up with a candle line. So I involved them in it. We said, we've got to have a name for this candle line. And they are soy. 100% soy candles supporting US farmers.

Woohoo.

And so the soy is a bean. But I didn't really love the word bean in a candle. I thought it felt a little bit too much like green beans, pinto beans. I didn't, I didn't want the word bean. But we're googling. We're trying to figure out what to name this candle company. And I have two daughters, Harper and Ella. And Ella said, well, my nickname is Ella Bean. Granddaddy calls me Ella Bean. And I said, I love that. Let's shorten the bean and just call it Ella B. So it is Ella B with a period. So now we've got the name of the candle line. And I thought, we have these great fragrances. What in the world are we going to name them? How are we going to create a hook? And I said, let's call this one Myers park, because Myers park is a lovely area and neighborhood of Charlotte. And I said, let's call this fragrance Ballantyne, which is another neighborhood of Charlotte. And in that moment, the neighborhood candle line was born. And I started selling them, got them in the wholesale world and started selling them to boutiques in Charlotte. And all of a sudden I had questions of where's the Dilworth candle? Where's the Plaza Midwood candle? Where's the Cotswold candle? All these different neighborhoods of Charlotte wanted a candle that represented their area. So we said, hold on. And we developed fragrances for the different neighborhoods of Charlotte and started selling them to boutiques here in Charlotte. It was not what I intended. I hadn't planned on launching a personalized candle line, but that's exactly what happened.

Wow. How did you. So take me to the next step. As I look at the line today, personalization really became what the hook was. Not just another mass product candle line that anyone could have, which could be next, you know, similar to the boutique down the street. But you took it a step further than that. Talk to me about the next evolution of the line.

There was a great shop in Charlotte that I started carrying. That started carrying the candles. And the manager of that store said, you know what you ought to do? You ought to take this concept to other cities. If it works in Charlotte, why wouldn't it work in other cities? And I said, I can't do that. I don't have the margin in my life. And she said, if you don't do it, somebody else will. And I thought, well, that somebody better be me. So my husband at the time was at IBM. He was traveling a lot, traveling internationally, and we were really wanting to find a way for him to be home. So I shared this idea with him, and he said, this is my exit strategy from corporate America. And so we started to plan. And I had grown up in Nashville, Tennessee, and so I thought, well, I know the neighborhoods of Nashville. Let's take these same fragrances. We at that point had 27 fragrances in our candle line. I put candles in a cooler in my trunk, and I drove to Nashville and I met with boutique owners, and I said, I have a line of Nashville neighborhood candles, and they loved them. And then I went to Birmingham because I had gone to college in Birmingham, and I kind of knew the neighborhoods there. And so I got into some Birmingham boutiques, and it. It started to really flow. And I realized the success was the partnership with the local boutique. So I don't know the neighborhoods of Charlotte. I mean, I don't know the neighborhoods of Nashville as well as a boutique owner does in Nashville. So we began this partnership with retailers all over the country, and now we're in close to a thousand stores across the country carrying the neighborhood line. A couple of things that have really set us apart is that we territory protect and that we don't sell the neighborhood line on our website. So if somebody wants to buy a candle from a Dallas, Texas collection, they have to shop in a Dallas, Texas store. And that has really built our relationships with our stores. It's been really cool. So fast forward, this line is growing, but we have some boutiques who want to have a signature fragrance and a signature candle. They want a private label candle. They don't want the neighborhoods. They want something that's branded for their store. And so what we're going to talk about today is the exciting new line, which is our signature collection, and that is taking it not just from your city. Or your neighborhood. But now we're honing in on your store, on your brand, on your business identity, and pairing that with a signature fragrance.

So let's start here with that conversation. I think about fast forward to my junior high years of life, and I would go to the mall with my friends, and I would walk by Abercrombie, and Lord help Abercrombie because that cologne smelled so strong. And love it or hate it, Right? You knew what it was. You knew where it was coming from, and you knew the experience you were going to have when you walked in. And there's a number of other stores that have adopted this model. Right. Talk to me about the power of scent in not just a brick and mortar location, but in packaging or at wholesale marketplace or wherever you are marketing your business.

Yeah. You've experienced where you hug somebody that you haven't seen in a long time. And what do you say? I've missed the way you smell. Maybe it's just me, but.

That could go either way.

No, it's always good. Remember, I have girls, so they always smell good. The power of fragrance. If you're a brick and mortar, it gives you the ability to practice deeper hospitality with your customers. If you're throwing a party or someone's coming over for coffee, you want your house to smell good. Whether it smells like homemade cookies or it smells like a candle you're burning, or it smells like some delicious dinner you've made, the power of fragrance increases the hospitality quotient. If there is one, it welcomes you. And then on the flip side, if you're an online store, what if you thought about every order that you shipped out as a care package from home? I'm about to launch a child to college, and I get emotional every time I think about it. But you better believe I'm sending that girl a care package, and when she opens it up, it's going to smell like home. I don't even have. I won't even really have to try because it's just going to smell like home. And our home does smell like candles. To harness that fragrance and allow the fragrance of your brand to. To be part of a package you're sending from an online store.

Can you take that another step further? Even in terms of just not just your brick and mortar store, but let's say, your warehouse. You're shipping orders or you're at a vendor event. Okay. How else can you continue that power of scent wherever your brand is going to be?

Well, there are a lot of businesses, companies, brands that have made scent a real part of the customer experience. And that's really what we're after, creating a customer experience. So think about the time, money, energy that we put into our customers experience. We need things to work properly, but we also want them to love the way they feel when they're buying from us, when they're meeting with us, if they're at a trade show, if we're anywhere where we're having an open house, let's bring that fragrance in and then let's also send it out with them. A lot of our stores will have a grand opening or a fall or holiday open house and they will take their signature fragrance and put it in a tiny little tin and make it a giveaway and, and make it a party favor because they're allowing you to take that experience that you have in their store or experience you have with their brand and take it with you. And that's something that lasts. And when you go back home, you, you have this cute little candle and you light it. It takes you back to that conversation you had. It takes you back to the experience that you had.

I love that. Okay, talk to me about this. I think about if I'm a boutique owner and I'm hearing you speak, I'm thinking, man, you know, candles are more powerful than I ever thought possible. And I love that you said a candle is a consumable product. Right. So we're able to repeat, make repeat sales to these customers time and time again because they're going to consume these candles. Now if I'm going to choose a candle, I'm going to be looking for probably a couple of key differences in candles. I'm hoping you can tell me about how to choose a quality candle line. But then I'd love to know because you've kind of taken this a step further and allowed a process for a boutique to choose their signature line. How that kind of differentiates your candles from others. Can you talk to me about those two pieces?

Absolutely. Some of the differentiators with our candle company, and again, there are a lot of great candle lines out there. We chose from the very beginning to do 100% soy wax. Soy is a diva. She's hard to work with, she's temperamental, but she's the best. In our experience, soy allows for a longer, cleaner, cooler burn. It is a renewable resource. It is supporting us farmers and we really believe that soy is the best wax for us. Our fragrances are fabulous. They are not, in my opinion, the headache inducing fragrances. They really are a Great combination of will combine a floral or a fruit or a wood or all these different fragrances so that it's not just a singular note that you're smelling. I sometimes make the analogy of a great candle fragrance and a salad. So when you make a salad, you need a fruit, a nut and a cheese and a good dressing. So with a candle fragrance, you want something that's going to, you know, kind of be that first top note, as they say, the middle note and the bottom note of the fragrance to round that fragrance experience out so that there's almost a level of mystery to it where you don't say that smells like and you fill in the blank. It creates an aroma that creates an experience. More than just one. Wow, that is knocking me over with this singular fragrance note. We use a cotton wick and our candles are hand poured in the US and we use US materials. So it's something that I'm very proud of. And it's not been the easiest route to take, but I believe in the long run it's the right route for us to take.

When I had experience, my first experience with your company was on your website. And you guys do something so cool for consumers and for your store owners. And that is the quiz that you have to choose your signature scent. Can you talk to me about that quiz? And you know, I, I think someone from your team had first asked like, well, what scents do you like? I have a really hard time nailing that down. Like, I like eucalyptus, I like lavender. But this quiz really nailed it and I it fascinating. Can you talk to me about that process?

Absolutely. In the signature collection, which is our opportunity for our retailers to find their fragrance, we have organized, I like to organize, we have organized our fragrances into six families. So we have the Botanical collection, the Gourmand collection, the Midnight, the Blush, the Citrine, the Ember. So if you kind of think about these different moods, we want to help retail boutiques as well as their customers find the fragrance family that best connects with them. So there's a little quiz that you can take. It's. I don't even know how many questions you had, how many little answers you had to have. Maybe six or seven. But it really narrows it down and I think it, it hits the nail on the head to allow you to find your signature fragrance family. And then within that family, there are five different fragrances. So chances are you're going to find the one that you absolutely adore in that family. So it's just a fun interactive tool to Allow you to find that favorite fragrance, because I don't know about you. If I had to smell 30 fragrances, that would overwhelm me. So help me narrow it down, get it down to five, and then I can find my favorite. Or I may say, you know what? I love all five of them. I want to carry all five and allow my customers to find their favorite of the five.

It's shockingly accurate how these come about, because I think about if I'm gonna go perfume shopping, right. I know that I tend to like men's cologne more than I like perfume. Like, I, number one, don't want to smell like grandma perfume that my grandma had. And number two, I don't like anything too sweet or bubbly, you know?

Right.

So I. I navigate toward the men's colognes, and ironically, I get your candles in the mail, and mine was midnight, which is deep, moody, mysterious. Kind of that same scent family, right?

Yes. Does that describe your personality, too?

Anyone listening to this podcast thinks I'm deep, moody and mysterious.

So you. Way to throw. Way to throw a curveball to us. I love it.

Yeah, you get. You don't know the real Ashley.

The dark side.

Right. I'm hiding it all from you, but I get this box, and you've demonstrated to me in this box that not only is there a scent family, but this really cool private label opportunity that you have if a boutique wants to sell it as their own signature scent. Talk to me about that.

There are, again, a lot of private label candle companies out there, but our niche is starting small, so we have a very low opening order minimum where a boutique can say, I'm going to try this, but I don't have deep pockets to invest in this, and I want to be able perhaps to pivot. So with a very small order, a store can say, I'm going to take this fragrance, and I want to choose the color of the glass, the color of the box. We love to wrap everything with a bow. There are a lot of really cool customizations we can do with your candles, and then you can adapt. You can pivot. When I first started my very first candle line, it looked very different from what my candles look like now. I've evolved, and we want boutique owners to be able to evolve as well. We are also scalable to the level where we can do thousands of pieces and allow our customers to take advantage of economies of scale with that. So we love the little guys, and we can also handle the big guys.

I love that. Well, you guys will have to. When you're listening to this podcast today. Definitely check out the link in the Show Notes because, Julie, I know you have an awesome giveaway happening for everyone who's listening today and I will also personally on my Instagram on ajlt and I'll be sharing some behind the scenes and photos of the Midnight Collection and of the private label candle that you guys did for me as well. Do you want to tell them more about the opportunity to collaborate in the Show Notes today?

Also, for Boutique Hub members, we want to extend Buy one Get one Discovery Set offer for you guys. So when you take the quiz, at the end of the quiz, there will be an opportunity for you to Register to win $200 towards your opening order of a Signature Collection candle. You also have room sprays. And then on top of that, if you do decide to move forward with this process of carrying Signature candles in your store or on your online boutique, we want to help you out with that. So take the quiz, order the Discovery set that came up on your quiz, but then throw another one in there just for fun. And that one's on us.

Awesome. Thank you for doing that. I always appreciate it when you're able to give back to listeners.

That's awesome.

All right, Julie, let's switch gears a little bit. I always have a lightning round for guests because I'm always fascinated at what makes CEOs tick. And I don't know if you've been following, but I talk a lot, especially in 2020, about the difference between an entrepreneur and a CEO. And I'm curious if you have opinions on that. Number one, if you felt like there was a time in your business where you had to really make a shift from being the hustler and entrepreneur into a leader and a CEO.

I think I'm there right now. I'll be honest. This has been a year of struggle. It's been a place where I'm really evaluating my role. I started this nine years ago. My husband left corporate America six years ago to join me. We've tried to figure out our roles all this time, and it's hard. It's hard for me to not be eavesdropping on every conversation. It's hard for me to let things go, to let other people own it. But what I'm finding, and I'll give the example of Madeline, our director of marketing, she's the one who came up with the quiz. I didn't come up with that quiz. In moments like that, I feel so much more like a CEO than an entrepreneur because I'm Watching my team flourish, and it's really exciting, and it's made me want more of that and less of doing everything myself. And so I'm on my way. I can't say I've arrived.

A constant evolution, right?

Yes. Yes.

Talk to me about where do you go for inspiration? Who is a favorite mentor that you love to follow or a channel, say a YouTube channel that you like to subscribe to?

I have really enjoyed the Andy Stanley leadership podcasts. A dear friend of mine was an accidental entrepreneur and helped to run her husband's business. And she said, this has helped me so much. Then I started listening to it. It's been so powerful, and so I've really enjoyed that. And I'll be honest, my time in God's Word is probably the most valuable for my heart. I can get a lot of business wisdom from my membership in Entrepreneurs organization, which has been powerful, and it links me with other entrepreneurs, other business owners. We can share ideas, we can share our struggles. I love that. And there's a lot of learning that goes on through eo, and that's been amazing. But those are all great tools, but I know a lot of it is my heart, and that's where my time in God's Word is. The most important time that I spend.

Has there been. As you look back on your journey so far, talk to me about one of the biggest struggles that you faced that you've been able to overcome. And you hope others have this advice ahead of time before they face the same struggle as well.

One of the struggles that I have had is not having a safe place to really process the frustrations, the staff issues, the inventory issues, the QuickBooks stuff, wanting that camaraderie with my staff and my team and the mixed messages that that can send. And I think having business mentors, having my EO group, having a trusted counselor, that can be a lightning rod for me that I can go to and say, I'm really struggling with this. This is frustrating to me. I don't know what the outcome is going to be, but here's where I am. Saves the rest of my team from having to experience. Julie's out of control. And I think I'm a very emotional person and being too emotional at work is just not healthy. But if I try to bury it, it comes out sideways. So I think having a safe place to process, a safe place to feel and to have my, you know, my little board of directors on the side, that's been powerful for me.

Oh, my goodness. I think everyone listening has definitely probably had that same experience. You have to find what your safe space is going to be because unfortunately it's not always family or friends or those close to you that really understand the challenges that you're going through day to day. But you need someone in a like situation that you can visit with about that.

Yeah.

All right. I love asking this question. What is your bigger fear? Snakes. Payroll or Internet trolls?

Snakes. I outsource. Payroll.

Outsource. Outsource.

Outsource. Yeah. It's our, our business isn't super Internet heavy. It's very relational. So our phones, our phones ring a lot. But yeah, definitely snakes.

My husband will be right there with you. That is definitely number one here. How about what is one trend? And I usually say fashion trend, but I'll even open it up to business trend in 2020. The year over already. What is a trend that you wouldn't mind if it goes away before 2021?

Status. I don't know if, if you have any recollection of the status candle that Meghan Markle scented at her wedding. And there are these very expensive candles and people buy them and don't burn them because they're so bougie and so high end. Now, there's nothing wrong with a high end candle. I'm not slamming it, but I, I would much rather have something that I get to enjoy rather than something that makes me look bigger than I am perfect.

Something that's more practical but beautiful at the same time.

Right. Well, an everyday luxury. Let's burn that candle every day. Let's. Let's find the joy in the simple and in the, in creating those moments of, of relaxation, of inspiration rather than feeling like, oh, if I buy this now, I've achieved some status.

Yes. Oh, that's true on many, many levels. Yeah.

I think that's an every year trend.

Yes. I don't know that.

That's just 2020.

We're all ready for that to go away by now. Yeah. Oh, man. Okay. I think about your business, right. And you've scaled it beautifully. If you could look back, if there is someone listening today that says, you know what, maybe it's not candles, but I really want to build a product line for X and I just need some advice. What would the number one piece of advice be for someone who wants to get into creating their own product line just like you have?

This could be extremely controversial, but I'm going to go for it. Why not, right? When I started my little gift business that turned into a candle company, I really sought my husband's input, even though he was not part of the business yet. And his, his requirement I guess was no debt. And I said, wow, okay. And because I honored that, I found such peace and such flexibility to pivot. So my first candle line, my first candle look is not where I ended up, but I didn't have a warehouse full of stuff that didn't work anymore. So fast forward nine years later, we still make the same decisions based on where are we financially now. And it's probably stunted some of our growth, but it's also reduced a significant amount of stress. So we have continued to maintain a debt free business and I encourage our customers to start small and know that they can grow. You don't have to come out of the gates perfect. You may never get perfect. And as much as I love perfect, that's not reality. And would you rather have to pivot or would you rather have to have a fire sale? That's something I would really encourage someone with. Get, get some proof of concept. Try it, try it. The first candles that I sold, I don't even know if I made a dollar on them. I was just getting that proof of concept going, do people want this? And then listening and being super teachable, but at the same time knowing that someone who's not invested can have a throwaway comment that could undo you. They don't all have skin in the game. So take all of those pieces of information, of advice, of others opinions and decide what you want this brand to be about. But I think to plug your ears and say I'm going for it and I'm going to go into this huge amount of debt when I don't even know is really. I'm very glad I didn't do that. I'm very glad I listened to my husband.

Oh my gosh. You know, I 100% agree with you on this and had a very similar experience even with the Boutique Hub. We both came from the Dave Ramsey school of thought initially, which I'm not anti credit card. So we use debt or we use credit, I'll say to leverage time and money where it's needed. But we did not leverage going into debt to start this business either. And we went through a time of pivot in this business where it almost all fell apart and failed. And thank God we did because that's like the most beautiful evolution happened because we could pivot. And I think where honestly if I could just like change the education system in this. Well, I mean a couple of ways, but this would be one. But it would be when you go to business school or when you go to college. These darn professors get so hung up on, have this immaculate business plan, lay all of this out, then buy into your products and have everything perfect before you launch it. And that is 100% wrong, in my opinion, in the way the world works today because we have the Internet, we can prove our concept so fast. And it's called mvp. What is my minimum viable product that I can get up and test, see if it works, and then continue to chase that business model and that plan or pivot where needed to. But when you go into loads of debt to start, you don't have that opportunity. You're truly stuck with the initial idea. That may not be your best idea to get started with. So kudos. Completely agree with the controversial statement.

Yes, I love a little controversy here and there.

It keeps it exciting. Perfect.

Oh, man.

Well, Julie, this has been so much fun to spend time with you today. And again, I just. I encourage you guys to look back as we're thinking strategically about when you're walking through a mall, maybe not today, because that experience is a little bit tainted, but let's say you're junior high or younger years, and. And you're smelling those scents in stores. I think about how powerful that is. And. And even when I was talking to you earlier and I was going through the scents that were my box, I was like, oh, man. I'm just. I'm, like, rifling through my memory, pulling up what this reminds me of. Like what from my childhood is this scent reminding me of right now, and what a powerful experience that is for your store and for your customers, whether it's through a candle or room spray or however you choose to use it. I think it's a great opportunity. So kudos on building a beautiful, beautiful business and a beautiful product line.

Thank you so much.

All right, Julie, last question. It's always the big why question, right? I know you've got two beautiful daughters, and we're thinking about this business long down the road, right? Maybe you've sold it. Maybe you've transitioned it to your daughters, and now you've got grandkids, and you're sitting on the front porch, and they're asking you all about the life that you lived and the businesses that you built and the lives that you touched. And I always want to know, what is the thing that you want them to remember most about it all? What was it all for? And what do you hope they remember after it's all gone?

I want to look back and say that I made something beautiful. And it's not just a candle. I want. I want to know that I brought beauty into people's lives, whether they're my customers or my vendors or our UPS guy, Damon, or the. The end user who burns a candle in their home that they bought at one of our boutique partners. I want to create beauty in knowing relationships and grace, in developing people and allowing them to flourish professionally and personally when they're on our team. And really, I want my home to be a place where my kids and their kids and their friends want to be. I want to have to look back and say that.