 for joining another episode of Adventures in Commercialization. We're here to discuss creating businesses and creating income and trying to figure out what are we gonna do after COVID, you know? So we have a very special guest, a very coolest friend of mine who has been creating a very awesome small-time business, like small business. He has been marketing himself very locally in the Washington area, Olympia, and he creates very organic and connoisseur chocolate. So welcome, Bliss. Blissful. Blissful wonders, I guess, is what we're calling it today, aren't we? Well, aloha from the mainland of Washington. Oh, yeah. So tell me, how did you get started in the chocolate business? I was thinking about bringing another chocolate connoisseur onto this show. He runs a very high-traffic shop that goes right in, you know, Pike's Place, which is very, you know, tailored to doing, you know, high-traffic connoisseur chocolate. But how do you make it happen from your own small business connoisseur? I love the tooth is I'm blessed that I, I'm still an apprentice. I've been doing it for like 20 years and I'm still learning. And the truth is I go out and I never thought I was gonna do this. I was a trained chef for many years. And one day my chef said, if I would relax, I could be an amazing confectioner. And then 20 years later, here I am, making hand-rolled chocolate truffles that I never expected was gonna be a reality. And that's really where I started, went from one vision to another vision, you know, through premonitions and yeah, quests. Yeah. And so you, so the times that I've seen you, you've been working in Fremont Fair, you've been working like a very high-trophic areas. Like how did you make it through COVID? Like when you, well, what kind of marketing do you do? I guess it's a great question. And then if you're doing high-trophic marketing, like how did you make it through COVID? Oh, you know, let me think. With COVID, you know, I went back to my roots and the roots were farmers markets where we still had the opportunity to sell. And then we also started promoting the website more, online sales. We got into like Facebook, we got onto Instagram. Every day we were promoting ourselves. And when the markets actually opened up, I was welcomed back. So I got in there and that's how I made it through COVID because it was outside. And then as COVID was progressing away, we were allowed to start opening up pop-ups. Like all the pop-ups I did were outside shows. So as long as you wore a mask and you kept your six-foot distance, we were all going back to work. And that's how I made it through. Yeah, we just had another girl on this show who was a pop-up sales. Like she did literally pop-up sales of sunglasses. How do you pick your pop-up sales? How do you know when it's gonna be like a good venue to go? Do you pay for pop-ups or like, how does this work? Oh yeah, you just gotta follow the line and through people advertising within ourselves. People like, hey, did you hear about this show? Hey, did you hear about the local event? Hey, and we all promoted each other. And how do you know if it's a good show? You don't, but you take a chance. Especially through COVID, you have to bring an income as a small business. You have to have income every week between expenses of bills and, well, I'm blessed. I don't have employees. I have assistants. And I had to make sure they got their money so I was out hustling. And I would try a pop-up and I would pay the fee. If I made at least five to six percent, I mean six times more than the boot fee, it was worth trying it again. Of course, yeah, that's great. Do you have a minimum, like our maximum fee that you're willing to pay to like go to some of these events? I know this might be like a spontaneous question that I definitely didn't send you, but I was just curious. Like, do you have like somewhere where you're like, totally not worth it? Yes and no. I'll be honest, some of the festivals I did this summer was more than I was ready for. Some of the shows that were cheaper, I was shocked, like overwhelmed, blessed. So you never know until you take a chance, but are you ready to move into that level? Like the biggest shows, like you said, Seattle. How much do they charge? Was it, I've done it for 20 years. So I've said a few word of mouth, example, I tried it. I remember when it was cheaper and now they increased their value, can I still do the same thing I did? And the only thing you do is it's a chance. You have to take a chance, some are gonna be better than others, but you never know until you tried it. You know, you try it once, you're still making your name out there. You try it twice, you're out there, but is it worth coming back? And that's how you really play it by ear. Over the years, now I get to pick and choose, but sometimes you go back to your roots and you say, what are you gonna do? I gotta go back to making something. And everybody different fluctuates there. You know, their sale, what do I mean? Their boot fees, they're, you know, you never know. Well, I just want to show our crowd and our audience a little bit of what your website looks like because it is phenomenal. I just wanna let you know, Blissful Wonders is absolutely phenomenal. Look at your beautiful chocolates. They're so amazing. They're absolutely delicious. They are geared towards any person. Look, there's Bliss, there's his little story. These are some of the products that he uses. They're vegan, they're vegetarian, they're organic. You know, like he literally pushes to all types of audiences. You can order them, you can, I mean, you don't have to be in the local area for what he's doing here. And there's products. I'm just telling you, this is some of the best chocolate I've ever tried. I do have to tell you, Bliss, I was really happy to bring you on this show. But how else do you market yourself? So you said that like over COVID, it was really difficult to get out and about. So we sent the website, the website looks absolutely fantastic. I just wanna let you know. It's like the most amazing marketing, but how do you get yourself out there? We do have Facebook group. If we can see that here. But how do you push your marketing? How are you, you're in Olympia, Washington, correct? Yeah. So how do we, other than going out and pushing your abilities, like how do we get your name out of there? How do you, how are you marketing yourself? Okay, like right now I'm honored. I'm doing a podcast. My first one. You know, but the truth is I never leave home without chocolate. And that's how I honestly started. Like I would get in my truck and I printed all the way up to Bellingham, Washington, every co-op, every health food store. And I got in my truck with 500 chocolates and I drove and I showed off who I am. And then I did the same thing, South route. And the thing about what I do is, you know, local support, you're local. And what highlights my chocolate is that I'm blessed that I do it, but I support like seven other businesses. All my berries come from my local community. My cream, Northwest Proud, my wines, local winters. I try to use as much local product as I can. And that's what highlights me. I will never put somebody else down on their chocolate, but I will say what makes mine different than theirs. And that was one of the biggest ways to promote was to get out and just do it. Yeah, you've been talking about, I read in your little bio, you're talking about staying local. If anybody else read any description about this, I literally put his bio in here, blissful. He is very humble and he's talking about not making this a larger small business than it means to be because he wants it to be one local, which we already discussed, but two, we want it to be very humble. And I know that we've discussed expanding and this whole podcast is about commercialization and really building your business, but this person specifically I've chosen who has been on our show, who has chosen to stay small. And so I really wanna listen a little bit about why you choose to be small, not only because of locally, I got that, but why are you promoting to stay beyond expansion? Because I wanna keep doing quality. I don't wanna change my beliefs and that's really what it comes down to. If I stay small enough and large enough, I can keep my people employed where everybody makes a fair salary. The larger I get, the more I offer back to my peeps. And that's really what it came down to. I wanna grow, don't get me wrong, but I wanna keep it as a local. Like I joke, but I wanna be the Willy Wonka of the Northwest family, just not the Hershey of the world. And that's really where it comes down to. I like when I go to places that people recognize me, not just my product, they're like, oh, hey, you're blessed. Hey, how are you? And everybody's my friend. I will greet you, I will tell everybody how, oh, I've known you for 30, 40 years, but I'll treat you like I have. And that's what really keeps the humble business is if it wasn't for my friends and family, I wouldn't be where I am today. So I wanted to do more quality. I absolutely love that. And honestly, I just went and visited my grandfather in Ohio and we went to Amish Country. And the person we buy our meat and cheese from is the same family. From my grandpa literally knew him from when he was a child running around that store. So it literally like that humble blissfulness, it definitely stays tuned with generation to generation. And I'm very thankful for that. I think that there's a lot of businesses out there that need that. And I think that you're definitely doing that. I just wanna let our audience know I went to the Fremont Fair and I've met Bliss Blissful multiple times at different locations, at events. And when I walked up at the Fremont Fair, I knew exactly who he was. I knew exactly the chocolates I was being given and I knew exactly where he was from. So it is a brand name and the brand name definitely has a lot to do with it. Whether it's large, whether it's small, whatever you wanna create here, it's definitely humble blissfulness. Blissful wonders is definitely what's gonna get you to your next level of satisfaction with your customers. I mean, customer satisfaction, word of mouth, that's where you got where you are today, aren't you? You know, that, you know, and a lot of it is, is like the first ingredient in my chocolate is love. If you don't love to do what you do, why are you doing it? If you don't like it, don't move on and then include what you eat, you know? If you love it, you're gonna, will continue. If you don't, go find something else better to fulfill your need. And that's all I ever wanted. I wanna be that one, but you know, I don't wanna be corporate. I don't wanna be large commercial. I don't wanna be the Hershey's. I don't, you know, because then you lose your focus. You lose your quality. You lose a lot. And I'm not that one to compromise, you know? So what was the hardest thing, I know that you focused on your marketing or your social marketing via Facebook and your online website, which is absolutely fantastic. It definitely like pushes your product here. But what was one of the hardest things you faced over COVID? Like, how did you, going from like being at the Fremont fair to not being able to do that? What was, what was, what was one of the hardest things you had to face? Keeping work, actually keeping an income coming in where instead of my, my assistants working every week, the panic was, how am I gonna give you work? How, how, what are we going to do? I knew if I had to work by myself, I could, but it's not fulfilling, you know? And my peeps are out there. And so, yeah, I'm so glad, I'm sorry. When did you realize this was gonna be your photo? What did you do before this? Like question mark. What happened? My God, before this big old Mennonite beard, I was, I was, Your new boss lets you do it, I guess. Oh my God, look at that baby, yes. I was a construction worker. I went to culinary school for four years. My dream was to be a chef, a Michelin chef. And the higher I got up, the more I realized it wasn't where I wanted to be. You know, and a lot of my things are my sayings, I always use this because it's real. My mom, remember when I was growing up, your parents said, stop playing with your food. Well, I still do. And that's the thing about it. What are you gonna do? I'm going to play. I'm gonna try this. I'm gonna try that if it doesn't work. Let's ask others, what do you think? And that was the biggest thing. And what got me into culinary was when I was a construction worker, I got laid off. People used to bring me food. I said, what do you bring me food? They said, because you're the only one who knows how to cook. So I learned because I've always been independent. I went on to four years of culinary school, you know, when I worked my way through school. And I remember my chef saying, if I calm down, because I hated this, I ain't no good a lie. Candy making, pastries wasn't my forte. And my chef said, if you would calm down, you could make an amazing product. 25 years later, who did I run into? Was my chef from South Florida to here in Washington. And I showed him what I do. And he's like, see, who bumped his head? I'm like, ha, ha. You know, because, and this is where it became. And that's why even silly little things like wonders are spelled with a U because we have so much fun doing what we do. And everybody wondered, what do I do? I make chocolate, you know? So everything is just a weird fun time of life. You know, and I've learned from some of the best. Like I say I'm self-taught, but I'm also not shy to ask questions. And I've gone to many chocolatiers and sat in their shops. I've gone taking many classes from personal chefs and said, how did you do that? That's how you did that? Oh, I could do that. And it may look easier when you do it with somebody else, but you know, like I teach classes and what beautiful about it is, as a reflection is, I always give out my recipe. I'll show you how to make my chocolate. And people are like, oh, aren't you afraid of competition? Sure. Do you want to make a thousand chocolates a week? No. You know, or do you want to make some for your family? Nobody's got this drive and ambition to bring it like you bring it, Bliss. So we bring it and the truth is, you know, it's even the reflection of what I said. I hire local, you know, I hire, I buy local. I support local. And that's really what kept me in my roots. And that's how we did it through COVID. The truth is I went out and hustled. I always say, people don't like that word hustle. If it's an honest hustle and you're proud of it and you love it, there's nothing wrong with it. And I would go out every day and solicit and I would hit that website and I would hit that Facebook and I would hit that Instagram or actually my assistants would hit that. I just sit back and make the chocolate and I'm okay with that. And that's really what we did. You know, my one assistant says, I don't know how to build a website. Congratulations, there's your extra, your extra work. Okay, let's bring up this website again. We need to see this again because your website is fantastic. Honestly, I've brought people on this show. Again, like I said, that people who go to sell sunglasses, I got a bunch of them. But this website, and let's see a little bit of the products, literally. And you sell worldwide, nationwide? Nationwide? Yes, I do. Yeah, nationwide. So anybody in Hawaii looking for some little Christmas gifts or like, you know, some Valentine's Day chocolates, this is awesome. Like his stuff is some of the best I've ever tried in my life. It's fantastic. It's connoisseur. It's specific. You do organic. You do vegan. You do anything and everything, right? You tailor to all. I try. Like right now, even when making zero sugar chocolate, it's in the machine right now. Zero sugar. Well, I want, I really do. I want something. Everybody to enjoy something. Okay, so if you're keto, he's on it. Okay. Yeah. Oh my God, I've been working on it for 10 years. Right now. We actually just did it. So which one? I think that's awesome. And you and Taylor, all of them, do you have a shop? Are you just doing it out of your house? How does it work? Yes, yes. I took an empty building at my home and I built a commercial kitchen. Okay, an empty building at your home. Does that mean garage? Basically. And I converted it. No, it's real. Yeah, this is what we're talking about. We're talking about real businesses, real people. The whole point of this whole thing is to really tell people about all the things that they shoulda wanna, coulda done. We gave them extra time, like COVID, let's take it with the glass half full, not half empty and let's put it into this business. A lot of people had all these skills that they chose to like, we're gonna just get back into the work field. Well, they're flooded with work out there. I mean, you don't need to be out there doing that. You can be doing what you need and want to do. And like you said, Bliss, at the very beginning of this episode is, why work for something you don't feel good about doing? Like you just get up every day and like literally just want to be there and do something that you love to do. So if you wanna turn your garage into a chocolate tier company, do it. It's beautiful. I have, when they came to inspect, they were hoping to see like a hippie makeshift, three basins, no. I threw everything I learned, but I worked three jobs to get to this level. Hey, that's okay. No, that's what I mean. I went back to cooking because I needed income. I went back to work trade because I needed a kitchen before I was able to build this one. And at some point, it finally came together where I had all the equipment and the place I live had this building that I converted. And when the health inspector came, he was like, this is not what I expected. I'm like, awesome. In a residential area. But it worked. Did he agree? It really does. I'm running more refrigeration than most restaurants do. Yeah. But you're not alone. I think on the last episode or a couple episodes ago, we talked about a woman who was doing real estate. And she's like, I literally, to get this chart up going, she's like, I put $200,000 of my own money into this just to get somebody to invest in me. And then now we've got $3 million invested, you know? Like she's totally getting it, but it takes time. It takes effort, as Blissful said, that like it took his own working a couple of jobs to make sure that he could get like the startup to do this. It takes time. It takes money. It takes your own effort into it, which is, it's hard. It is. We're not sure coding this on this show. Let me just tell you. No, I've been doing this now for almost 20 years. And I'm still doing it to keep trying to grow because I want to keep my help. I want them to have a nice salary. I want them to have things that makes them want to stay here. You know, we're families. You know, like one of my assistants been with me for over eight years. You know? No, that this was going to become your full-time gig. You decided to, I mean, are you still working your other jobs? Did you just drop those off? Oh, I haven't worked for somebody in 20 years. Good, good for you. Good for you. That's what we're all trying to get to at this point. But it is a struggle because you never know, you know? With that comes, you know, different, comes like independent taxes. Oh my God, what? But I have to do these things and I'm still learning. So that's why I still do, like right now, my season went, it was fun. And now we're back to the roots. I go back to- Can you say your season as in like the summer season of going to events, right? That's your season? Right, like my big, big, big events is in the summer from literally, I started in May until September. And now I go back to like pop-ups and farmers markets, holidays. And that's when we start promoting more like we got new flavors coming out. We're going to highlight. I'll be honest. I hired an 18 year old young lady. She knows how to play on Instagram. Okay, good. So you're expanding your marketing, which sounds great. Yeah. Right, well, the thing is you hire and look into work trade. Like, you know, people like, oh, hey, I don't want your money. I just want chocolate. Awesome. Yeah, right? But that's why I hired because- Because you keep girls. Yeah, but that sweet tooth girl has a forte who could do more of this than I don't know. Yeah. I know the words, Instagram, Facebook. I do get that. But I'm not that one to know what have the time to do it. So that's what I mean. I hire the young, what is it? You call them the millennials. But these kids- We're doing marketing. We're doing expansion of marketing experts. Yes, well, that's you who know how to do this. I'm that cook in the background who just wants to smile and go out and sell my chocolate and say, thank you. I appreciate it. I love you. But he'll be the person you picked the chocolate up from because we're still staying small, right? You know, the thing is we're big enough to sustain but we're not the corporate commercialism by far. We don't want to be that. I know I don't because I want to enjoy my life. Life is too short. Life is today. I just want to enjoy it, you know, even through midlife crisis. I went and bought another Harley Davidson so I could have wind therapy. You know, what are you doing? Getting on my bike for tacos. Well, you're an Olympia, so we'll see how you can do that. But we are, I do have one more question for you before we end this show. Yes, ma'am. English, if you had other advice for other entrepreneurs that are out there, just trying to do it, trying to make it, whether it's pop-up shop or small business or just anybody pushing their product. What would you say to them? Believe in it. If you believe in your product and you believe in yourself, you're going to go far. And that's really what it is. How confident, how do you know? That's really it. You got to believe in yourself. You got to know your product is something that people really want and they want to show you the support because you care. And that's really all it is. I love it. So anybody in Hawaii or wherever you're viewing from, check this website out. Hillsend Nation Wine. It is the most delicious chocolates I've personally ever had. You can send them to your loved ones. Let's figure it out for Valentine's Day. Blissful Wonders. It is awesome. He does great job. It's made with love. And just get yourself a little bit of that bliss and also come and check in with us. We're adventures of commercialization. We're trying to figure out how to make money, how to make it through COVID, how to just like make your wonders like a reality. So thanks for joining us. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.