Hey everyone!
2023 is almost over and I have a NEW exclusive interview for all of you. From an amazing queen at that! Without further ado, let's learn more about the owner of Moodlight Candle Co.
Her name is Reign and she's originally from a super small town in the heart of Texas, called Hearne but also spent a great deal of my childhood in Bryan/College Station, Texas. If you’ve ever heard of Texas A&M then you know! She works in corporate retail by day and she's the Owner and CEO of Moodlight Candle Company.
I really love her name! It really fits a queen like her. It’s technically a shorter version of her birth name and is now what everyone calls her!
Seeing as she spent time in different parts of Texas, I asked what she liked or enjoyed better and this is what she had to say:
"I would answer this differently based on the different stages of my life. When I was younger, the smaller towns were a lot slower than I preferred which is why I moved to Houston.
Now that I’m getting older, I’m finding that Houston is getting too big for me. Those smaller towns are looking much more appealing! Will I ever leave the hustle and bustle of a large city? Probably not as my husband is from here and has no interest in slowing things down anytime soon."
I absolutely love how she answered that! There are definitely different seasons for everything but I understand compromising with your husband or spouse. I love that for them!
If her and her husband were to decide to slow things down a bit, she honestly wouldn’t mind going back to Bryan/College Station! A good amount of her family is there, and she thinks she could live with the amount of growth the area has seen in recent years. It’s only an hour or so drive back to Houston so they would still have access to city life when necessary. She could definitely see herself retiring there!
I love that! It sounds like she has big family ties, and family is really important. At least it is to me! And her!
While she's a huge introvert, she enjoys spending time with loved ones. Her support system is pretty large! Aunts, uncles and cousins have all played a huge part in helping her get to where she is today, and she's so grateful!
If she had to specifically call out a few, she would say my husband, her mom, a special cousin and her bestie. These four show up for her in ways that she couldn’t imagine. From working events with her, to helping her with tasks behind the scenes and always lending an ear when she needs it. She's so grateful to them!
Omg I love it! I’m really BIG on family so I really love this!
Many of us have a day job while pursuing our own dreams of entrepreneurship, so of course I had to ask how she balances it all.
"Balancing my day job and business is challenging to say the least. To do lists and time blocking keep me focused and moving forward for both. I also make a point to leave my day job where it is at the end of the day. I also use every single moment of free time to complete a task on my to-do list for my business."
Very challenging. I’m not currently working a day job but I definitely know how it is.
Here's a piece of advice from the queen herself on balancing your day job and business:
"Take time to think about what you need AND want to accomplish for both, make a list and be reasonable about the amount of time you have to get these things done."
Now THAT is some good advice! I can use that myself. Especially when I start back working.
Did she let anyone discourage her? NO!
She didn’t leave the door open for anyone to have a say in what she was doing. She spent months preparing and when it was time to launch, everyone found out about it at the same time! She didn’t discuss it with anyone besides her husband, and he’s always down for starting something new! If that's not a supportive husband!
If you've ever heard the saying, "never count your chickens before they hatch", then you understand this. People love to wish negativity upon others that are trying to do positive things and we sometimes give them the power to discourage us and therefore, allow them to take OUR power away. I hate that for us.
Her experience should encourage you to refrain from speaking on something until it's done. Don't allow anyone to turn your dream into a nightmare.
Let's hear how her baby (her business) was born:
"So, I was that girl in the line at the store buying hundreds of dollars' worth of candles on “Candle Day”. There’s literally always a candle burning in my home!
Working in retail, I’ve had the opportunity to learn about buying, sourcing and pricing different products and quickly realized the markup and how the “low” prices on “Candle Day” were starting to creep up. My breaking point was the day I woke up at 3am on a work day to purchase candles online only to realize the price had gone up yet again! I decided that day that I was going to learn how to make my own candles and it quickly became something I realized I was good at! People were and are still loving my creations, and I definitely count that as a success."
As a fellow business owner, I know that having a business is no easy task, so I had to ask (ooh that rhymes), what were some failures when getting started.
Her failures include time management in the beginning and she still gets discouraged when sales are not meeting her goal(s). She had to realize that this is still a work in progress and that her time is coming!
That it is! With passion, talent, and charisma like that, she is definitely heading in an amazing direction and she's bringing her business with her!
Speaking on what inspired her to start, here are three things she knows NOW that she wish she knew BEFORE starting:
- That there’s a lot more to candle making than simply pouring and packaging.
- That my retail background would be as helpful as it has been.
- That I CAN actually do this, and that others will support it!
People definitely needs to understand #1 and realize that there is a whole business side to what you want to do. If you have experience in retail, you're already ahead of the game.
#3 is powerful for the simple fact: If YOU don't believe in yourself, it doesn't matter who does.
Seeing as social media only shows so much (or maybe I wasn’t following her then) but I thought she had her own brick-and-mortar store, and she informed me that wasn't the case.
"Well it’s actually not solely my own brick and mortar. I have a small booth inside The Painted Tree, which is a boutique marketplace for small businesses. I am constantly trying to find ways to get my business out there and saw this as another avenue to achieve this goal. The process has been relatively seamless as their business model is designed to take some of the financial pressures of managing a single brick and mortar off of small business owners."
Whether a booth or entire store, it's commendable and inspiring for those hoping to get their products into a store one day. A business owner should always be looking for ways to grow and get their business in front of new audiences.
Thank you to The painted Tree for helping small business owners achieve their goal. I wish there were more like them.
If you are new to hearing of her, then you might be unaware that she just restocked her holiday collection for the LAST time this holiday season! Let's see what that's about.
The Moodlight Candle Co. Holiday Collection includes a total of six specially curated scents reminiscent of the many different Holiday memories we collect as we journey through life. They stepped outside of their comfort zone this year with design elements, such as the gingerbread men embeds to really drive home a strong visual of how these scents truly smell.
Their best-selling product is the Holi-daze candle…which smells like gingerbread! Everyone is loving the little gingerbread men!
I'm right there with them!
Of course I'm thinking about all of us here when I ask how she feels about collaborating with other creators and if she has in the past.
She hasn’t done any collaborations outside of the GOAT Collection that she did with her husband. He’s an event promoter and created a clothing line with that name which of course means Greatest of All Time. It was a great experience and she looks forward to pursuing more collaborations in 2024!
I surely hope to be someone she collabs with! Besides this, of course.
We had to cut our interview a bit short, BUT she will be a guest on my podcast coming 2024! I'm SO excited for it! I have more questions I didn't get the chance to ask. If you have questions you want to ask her, ask them in the comments. They could be answered during the podcast interview or even before!
*Rude and/or negative comments will not be tolerated. They will be deleted & blocked.
If you would like to stay connected with this Reigning queen, here's how you can:
Website: Moodlight Candle Co.
Facebook: Moodlight Candle Co.
Instagram: @moodlightcandleco
Tiktok: @moodlightcandleco
Youtube Channel coming in 2024! Reign Martin Subscribe NOW!
Facebook: Author Opal Page
Instagram: @authoropalpage
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