Expanding Your Personal Brand as a Founder with Candace Nelson

“Oprah loves your cupcakes.”

Imagine hearing THAT on the other end of the line…

Candace Nelson, one of the incredible guests that Amy Porterfield curated as a guest for our co-hosting series, received this exact call from Oprah’s producer at Harpo Studios.

Shortly after that call, Sprinkles became a worldwide brand with only one little (and new) location in Beverly Hills.

But, she’s done many more iconic things—beyond the baked goods—Candace is a business mentor for women and a New York Times Best Selling author. She’s even been a Shark on Shark Tank and a judge on Cupcake Wars and Sugar Rush.

In this episode, you’ll learn the most successful pitches on Shark Tank, tips on building your personal brand, and advice for pivoting.

Click play to learn all of this and…

(00:01:46) An overview of Candace's entrepreneurial journey (from founding Sprinkles Cupcake ATM to being a guest shark on Shark Tank).

(00:03:17) Candace's experience of feeling unmoored after selling the majority stake in Sprinkles and her desire to pivot her personal brand and talk about entrepreneurship.

(00:04:28) Discussion of Candace's experience of being featured on the Oprah show and the impact it had on her brand's success.

(00:06:55) Candace's advice when feeling the need to pivot in business.

(00:10:11) Candace's experience as a guest shark on Shark Tank (including how she got the opportunity and her interactions with the other sharks).

(00:16:07) The importance of being assertive in business (example of this through a Shark Tank experience).

(00:18:20) The two common traits of the most successful pitches on Shark Tank.

(00:20:59) What makes the best entrepreneurs (in the context of investing and partnerships).

(00:29:22) The key to staying relevant and ahead in business.

(00:34:07) The importance of building a supportive community (especially for women entrepreneurs).

(00:36:01) A conversation women need to have more of.

For full show notes, visit

https://jasminestar.com/podcast/episode443

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Transcript

Jasmine Star (00:00:00) - Welcome to the Jasmine Star Show, where we talk about life, business, mindset and today a lot of sweet success. I could not be more excited to reintroduce my guest co-host, Amy Porterfield. Hello. Hey. We're back. here's the thing. Amy has curated some of the most incredible people with inspiring stories. But, you know, friend family of this podcast. We'd like to take action. And I couldn't think of somebody more hellbent on action than the one and only Candace Nelson. Amy, can you can you tell us how your orbits intersected? Why is she here? What are the things we're talking about?

Amy Porterfield (00:00:33) - So what you all don't know is that behind the scenes after each episode we film, Jasmine and I run into the bathroom and change our clothes. And so we run into the bathroom when we were each in different stalls. And she said, so how do you know Candace? And I said, oh, I don't know. She's like, what? So she was surprised, but I we've never met in person.

Amy Porterfield (00:00:51) - However, I'm a huge fan of everything that you've done in your success of your business. But also I love following you online. You what you do great is I feel like we're girlfriends. And then the each other didn't feel like we knew each other, but I think it's because I thought I knew you already. So you do a beautiful job of connecting with people online, especially women entrepreneurs. And I'm a fan of so much of what you share about what it takes to build a business. And you've built some incredible businesses, and we're going to talk about that today. So that's how this came about.

Jasmine Star (00:01:20) - I'm so happy you're here. And so there's I just kind of want to give everybody like an overview. If you are at all familiar with what her brand does and who she is, we can get the big stuff out of the way. If you and I are on an elevator ride four floors down and you're just going to give me the highlights, because here's the thing. You spend five minutes on YouTube or any podcast listening, you're going to find so many amazing, amazing chronological stories of her success.

Jasmine Star (00:01:46) - I would rather spend time talking about the business of business because Candace is an operator. Capital o so what? What is the what is what is the pitch of. This is what I've done. This is what brought me here. Well, I'm probably best.

Candace Nelson (00:01:59) - Known for founding sprinkles Cupcakes, but I now run and I'm scaling a pizza concept called pizza. So I like to say I'm a walking kid's birthday party. I've got all the good stuff, but I'm also, I consider myself an entrepreneurial thought leader. I have a newsletter that goes out every couple of weeks called Sweet Success. I've written a book for aspiring entrepreneurs, and I'm also a guest shark on this season's Shark Tank.

Jasmine Star (00:02:21) - Okay, that is.

Amy Porterfield (00:02:22) - Baller right there. You guys are like, I can't even imagine if I were to say that. So that is what we're going to get into that okay. Great.

Jasmine Star (00:02:30) - We absolutely will be getting into that. But somebody's listening. And you know, the reason why we have the show is to first impart value.

Jasmine Star (00:02:37) - And then we can get into like the practicality and origin stories as it relates to who's listening. And so there is a person who's listening and they're seeing what you're doing. And from the outside it looks and is really incredible. Congratulations on being, you know, the 1% of the 1%. It empowers us to show up in bigger ways and believe that the same type of success is available for people like us women, mothers, independent thought leaders. So when we get to that point, we were just talking right before we pressed record and we were talking about this really beautiful, amazing opportunity that you find yourself now in, you started sprinkles. It's so successful. You sell