IAM1036- Owner Creates Extraordinary Candle Fragrances

Maddie Boening is the passionate Founder and Owner of Sunstone Candles, which was established in Catonsville, MD in August 2016. Maddie specializes in the craft of candle making using 100% soy wax and excels in creating extraordinary fragrances. Maddie has been passionate about helping others all throughout her life and now aims to help others Find Their Own Light through the Sunstone Candles Community. Maddie has successfully grown her handmade candle business which started as a very grassroots operation, into a versatile and flexible aromatherapy business that operates in both B2C and B2B capacities.

• CEO Hack: Whiteboards and having a paper calendar
• CEO Nugget: Be resilient and take care of your health
• CEO Defined: Leader

Website: http://www.sunstonecandles.com/

IG: @Sunstone_Candles
FB: Sunstone Candles

Full Interview:

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Transcription

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00:15- Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders who value your time and are ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of? This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:43 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Maddie Bohning of stone Sunstone candles. Maddie, it's awesome to have you on the show.

00:53 – Maddie Boening

Hi, Grush. Thank you so much for having me here. I'm really excited.

00:57 – Gresham Harkless

I'm excited as well too and super, appreciative of you taking some time out with all the awesome things that you're doing. What I wanted to do is just read a little bit more about Maddie so you could hear about some of those awesome things. Maddie is the passionate founder and owner of Sunstone Candles, which was established in Catonsville, Maryland in August twenty sixteen. Maggie Maddie specializes in the craft of candle making using a hundred percent soy wax and excels in creating extraordinary fragrances.

Maddie has been passionate about helping others all throughout her life and now aims to help others find their own light through the sun-sewn candles community. Maddie has successfully grown her handmade candle business, which started as a very grassroots operation into a versatile and flexible aromatherapy business, which operates in both b two c and b two b capacities. Maddie, great to have you again on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:49 – Maddie Boening

I am. I'm ready.

01:51 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, let's do it then. And I know I touched on it a little bit, what I like to call your CEO story to hear about how you got started. Can you take us through a little bit more about that and we'll let you start with this?

02:01 – Maddie Boening

Sure. Absolutely. So like you mentioned, Sunstone started as a very grassroots operation. What I mean by that is I started making candles in my kitchen in my one-bedroom apartment in Catonsville and, I didn't know it at the time but to do my market research so to speak, I took my candles to a local farmer's market and to my surprise, to be honest, I sold out. And so I was like, okay, well, I'll try that again. And I did and I made as many candles as I could it was a lot of trial and error at that time and I found a lot of success in person at the farmers market so I expanded to craft shows and all kinds of different festivals and one day a door opened to wholesale.

A lady approached me and asked me if I sell my candles wholesale and at the time I didn't know what wholesale meant. But instinctively, I was like, yes, I do. Absolutely. Absolutely, and that got me into my first store it was in Towson, Maryland, and that opened more doors. She had a friend in another, in another state and they placed a wholesale order and then it grew organically, and I went to pretty much every main street around and I had basically a backpack of candles and information sheets and I said, Hi, you know, my name is Maddie. My company's name is Sunstone Candles and I found a lot of success that way. So, yeah, very grassroots operation. I opened a store in Union Station in Washington, DC, in November of twenty nineteen, it's grown very organically and I think one of my favorite parts about it is, interacting face-to-face with customers.

04:16 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah.

04:18 – Maddie Boening

That's a sort of summary. There's a lot of information and stories in between all of that, but that's the overview.

04:25 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. No. I appreciate you sharing that. I  love the story just because I think when we first connected, we talked a little bit about the grassroots organic way that you were able to grow it, and it reminded me a lot of, you know, Kevin Plank, who's kind of in our stomping grounds, so to speak, where it was able to kinda build everything in his grandma's basement. And when somebody asked him, did he had, like, a product, he didn't have any idea what it was.

But his instinctive response was, of course, I didn't know how to do that. And then he started to create Under Armour for there. So I love how you kinda just stepped into it, and a lot of times we don't forget that a lot of times the steps kind of align themselves after the fact that you kinda know and are passionate about what it is that you do.

05:03 – Maddie Boening

Yeah. Yeah. I've learned to just sort of trust at this point. If I have a large goal and take small steps towards it, I  know that I can build or recognize or the steps will come.

05:18 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And we definitely need to know that during times like this, especially too, and knowing that sometimes if we take the steps and then and then, you know, always lean towards action, I as I like to say, then a lot of times those steps are to, become more apparent of what we should or shouldn't do. And so, I know we touched a little bit upon, like, how you work with your clients, the b two b and the b two c piece. Could you take us through a little bit more of that and how you start the clients you work with?

05:43 – Maddie Boening

Sure. So, I still my favorite thing to do is go to markets and in-person vendor events, so I still do a lot of that. And like I mentioned, I had the retail store. I have an online presence where I sell directly to customers. So that's the b2c and then b2b is, wholesaling and subscription boxes and things along those lines.

06:09 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. And, again, I love how, you know, you've been able to kinda distinguish, you know, those two aspects of business. And I think, you know, being able to have kinda, like, a holistic type business where you're able to kinda lean on both during certain times, one might be stronger than the other and vice versa. So you have it sounds like a really strong base.

06:28- Maddie Boening

Yeah. Yeah. It's, I would say last year it was about fifty-fifty split between it, but now that it's spring and vendor events are opening back up again, online is actually picking up recently. So I would say it's more toward seventy-thirty right now. Okay.

06:49 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense. And I love the phrase that you use, you know when you were telling your story as well too, that market research. And I think so many times, as entrepreneurial people, we get we become in love with our ideas. But I think I as you said, so well-being able to kinda sit down and have that direct interaction, be able to do those sales directly there at those markets allows you that opportunity to know, you know, if your product is potentially good or what adjustments you can make. And then it gives you that kind of face-to-face market research, so it does provide that opportunity to scale.

07:20 – Maddie Boening

For sure. For example, yesterday, I was at a popup event and, somebody asked for unscented candles I have just one small decorative one, but they wanted like a large one. So you know what? Next time I go somewhere, I'll have unscented candles. So it's definitely every time I go somewhere, I feel like I learned something.

07:41 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And I always feel like that's how you kinda say, I guess, for lack of a better term ahead of the trends because you're having those interactions. And before you know it, those are things that people are looking for, and you've already been kind of, you know, creating those products or creating that service or whatever it might be because people are having those questions, and you're able to kinda stay in tune and listen to those, potential opportunities?

08:03 – Maddie Boening

For sure.

08:05 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be for yourself personally or your business or a combination of both. But what do you feel kinda sets you apart and makes you unique?

08:17 – Maddie Boening

Well, I think the word resilience comes to mind and I think that that's very important. And I can say from like a business idea standpoint that the experience of my product, and there being a surprise crystal inside. It's a very clean burning product overall. It's what I hope is a very good experience for the people who buy them and so that's what I could say from a product standpoint, secret sauce-wise. But from an entrepreneurial or CEO, leader standpoint, I would say resilience.

09:00 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to, switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

09:14 – Maddie Boening

Well, in my immediate vision, I see several whiteboards on my wall. So that's an easy answer. Yeah, whiteboards help me a lot. It just helps me organize. I have a paper calendar. I'm very old school in that way I guess. But resource-wise, I want to give recognition to local organizations that help entrepreneurs, because that I when I sit back and like reflect on the last several years of growing my business, so much of my knowledge on business came from those local resources for entrepreneurs.

Now I didn't go to college for a business or anything so I don't have any formal education like that, but I'm a big believer that life can teach you a whole lot. But you do have to learn things like accounting how to make a business plan and how to do marketing because that's ever-changing. So I would really encourage people to utilize the local resources that are there for entrepreneurs.

10:33 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client or if you happen to be a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

10:46 – Maddie Boening

I wanna emphasize or maybe rather break down resilience, especially because it's so relevant recently, but just as a business owner, you really have to have a grasp over your mind, because there are so many thoughts to be had, and there are so many things to do, and you'll get tired and you'll, you know, it's really, treacherous if you will, mentally. But the resilience Well, first of all, you have to put yourself first, You have to take care of yourself physically and mentally because if you don't, you will, what's the word? Burnout? You will burn out, it's unavoidable.

It will happen. So you have to take care of your health, you have to feel good for your mind to work well to put it simply, I guess. When I think about what I think makes a person resilient as to have that as a characteristic, I think it's a combination of having people around who are willing to support you and having a mission to work towards. So I think if you can establish those two things, and then just kind of focus on them, and keep your eyes on that when the days are hard and long.

12:15 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Maddie, truly appreciate that. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different, quote, unquote, CEOs on the show. So, Maddie, what does being a CEO mean?

12:33 – Maddie Boening

A CEO specifically, I think. So  I'm a very literal person. My brain is very literal. And so chief executive officer, right, to break that down. The word leader comes to mind for me.

12:46 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Maddie, truly appreciate that definition, and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass in the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know, and, of course, how best they can get ahold of you and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

13:04- Maddie Boening

So you can get a hold of me. My website is Sunstone Candles dot com. I keep an updated schedule of what in-person events, that I'll be at if anyone wants to come to meet me in person like I said that's my favorite part of things, but you can also email me and introduce yourself that way. I what I'm working on next, like I mentioned I had the retail store in DC, bad timing but that's, you know, that's okay. It happens. So now I'm really focusing on those in-person events and figuring out what I can do online and I thought of a good idea last week and it's to do little, like, flights have been popular recently, like, with iced coffee. I've seen a local honey place do it.

So I'm gonna make small little tester and sell them in packs, like earthy, or floral, or fresh and clean sort of thing and they'll be like sneakwear packs, so be on the lookout for those. And I think I just want to say to be sure to maintain a sense of humility because I feel like so many folks have their guard up these days. But humility and then to know that you don't have to do it all alone for one, that there are people around to help, that it's totally fine to have help, to accept help. And then being a leader or a CEO or entrepreneur is really about soft skills and not so much about technical skills. So, yeah, I think that's my closing thought.

14:59 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome. I absolutely appreciate and love that, Maddie. We will definitely have the links and information in the show notes so that everybody can find out, what it is to add and all the awesome things that you're doing. But I love kinda, like, those last, you know, points as well too Because I think we sometimes forget about the human aspect of business, and I love that you mentioned that people part in your definition as well too because I think we forget about that and, you know, going in align with, you know, being resilient, understanding the mental part of running a business.

Sometimes there are ups and downs and, things get shaken and turned upside down, and we forget about that that, human part. We forget about sometimes, the really high highs, but they're really not so high lows that that we kinda go through. And if we have that piece and know that we don't have to do it all ourselves, that it's okay if things don't always work out well, that's the best piece we can have because we can always just try to put our best foot forward. So I appreciate you so much, you know, for doing that and talking about that resilience piece and then the passion and all those things because it's something that we often forget. And I appreciate all, obviously, the awesome work that you're doing as well too.

16:06 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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