769 Candace Nelson: Turning Passion to Profit

Overcoming Naysayers and Imposter Syndrome to Build Entrepreneurial Confidence

In the idea stage of any great business-to-be, people around you may think you’ve lost your mind.

So how to know if you’re really onto something big – or not? Because the best businesses are often those that seem counter-intuitive because the founder has seen something others cannot.

It can be hard to overcome the imposter syndrome most women entrepreneurs must overcome to take their idea-stage businesses to fast-growing profit and scale.

Candace Nelson has ‘been there and built that’ not once but twice, and her Wall St Journal bestselling book Sweet Success: A Simple Recipe For Turning Your Passion Into Profit shares how to overcome your self-doubt, grow your confidence, and dare to ‘build the plane as you fly it’. She says the secret is about aligning any business venture to your true passion.

Like most people, Candace followed a well-trodden path into investment banking before she realized crunching numbers wasn’t her true passion. Having grown up baking cookies and cupcakes, she confounded her friends and family by going to baking school, and then launching the world’s first cupcake bakery. Back in 2005, no one – except Candace – saw that custom cupcakes would be the phenomenon it is today, and she built her business step by step from her West Hollywood apartment. Sprinkles grew fast: It has sold over 200 million cupcakes with more than 20 stores, 30 Cupcake ATMS and 1000 employees, and Candace sold it to a PE firm in 2012.

Now she’s hard at work building Pizzana, a fast-growing chain of Michelin Bib Gourmand-awarded Neo-Neapolitan takeout pizzerias that pioneered a way to heat at home, and last year Candace co-created and executive produced Best in Dough, a Hulu show starring Pizzana Executive Chef Daniele Uditi.

Candace is also an angel investor, and through CN2 Ventures, a family office and venture studio, Candace has backed a diverse portfolio of startups in the specialty food, retail, health, wellness, and early childhood spaces with a focus on female and underrepresented founders. Candace is also a beloved global baking personality. On the small screen she starred in (and executive produced) Netflix’s Sugar Rush and Food Network’s Cupcake Wars. She is also the author of the New York Times bestselling cookbook, The Sprinkles Baking Book.

More about Candace Nelson at candace-nelson.com

Be sure to join the conversation with Candace and me over on the interactive podcast app Podopolo, where you can share your perspectives and she’ll take your questions. Download Podopolo, follow Wings of Inspired Business, and invite your friends.

More about Candace at Candace Nelson and CN2 Ventures 

Candace Nelson is a serial entrepreneur, a New York Times bestselling author, Wall Street Journal contributor and an expert in turning one’s passion into a profitable business. Author of the WSJ bestselling book, Sweet Success: A Simple Recipe for Turning Your Passion into Profit, Candace revolutionized the baking industry when she left a career in corporate finance to launch Sprinkles, the world’s first cupcake bakery and Cupcake ATM. She followed with Pizzana, a growing chain of Michelin Bib Gourmand-awarded pizzerias leading the third wave of pizza in the U.S. She continues to expand her portfolio of investments with CN2 Ventures.

Get her book Sweet Success: A Simple Recipe for Turning Your Passion Into Profit

 

Get the Transcript HERE