 For our special Halloween edition of School of Hustle, there will be no tricks, just treats. Jackie Sorkin, the candy queen and founder of Candytopia, brings the savvy to satisfy our sweet tooth. Success is related to wearing lollipop necklaces and I kind of see that you are also wearing a lollipop necklace and I'm very competitive so. This is School of Hustle, the show where we find advice and inspiration from those who are making their own way. I'm Shannon, the VP of Social here at GoDaddy and I absolutely live and breathe the hustle of business. I think you're going to like today's conversation. We have the fabulous Jackie Sorkin and this beautiful person is the CEO of the Hollywood Candy Girls, co-founder of Candytopia, star of the TLC sugary show Candy Queen. Welcome. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. That was the sweetest intro ever. Thank you. I love doing anything related to hustle and just the story of working hard and making dreams come true so thank you. Well you're making some dreams come true in Pen Plaza right now. Let me tell you it is a candy sweetness happening with Candytopia making it to Manhattan. Yeah, I'm absolutely living like I just say right now I'm in dream come true scenario. This is like everything you work so hard for and you know I'm a big believer in the whole dream big mentality. Now it's like dream bigger because when you make it in New York it's like now I can make it anywhere so it's exciting. Well with Candytopia you've literally brought Willy Wonka's Wonderland to life but I'm sure that wasn't your first idea as an entrepreneur. Yeah no I think that my first memory of entrepreneurship or wanting to be a business woman you know was at 6 years old and I was starting with a simple as the lemonade stand and mine was mine was a lemonade stand on steroids and I didn't just eliminate I had cookies and I had 10 kinds of cookies and 10 flavors of lemonade and it all just kind of started there. I was always a creative child for sure but I was always really inspired by women in business and I just wanted to be a badass chicken business. Well you clearly have achieved massive success and been very successful. What is the best piece of advice and the worst piece of advice that you've gotten along the way? There's something about entrepreneurs that really refusing to give up and and we have this spirit about us right and whether you're a male or female when you are super hyper passionate relentless persistence. I think all those things are just so important because when you dream big you also come up to many many obstacles. I've been called crazy for 10 years. I literally have become numb to being told that the ideas were unnecessary silly nonsense crazy intuitively I always felt like no the world is allowed to be happy and my medium just happens to be candy and sweets. I think one of the worst pieces of advice and something that will probably might continue to happen is when somebody wants you to change and when and sometimes in business people want you to be less of this and more of that. I completely think that we adjust and we grow and we learn 100% but the things that are your magic the things that are your your secret sauce what makes you you you know I've gotten here by being my my quirky big dreaming kind of wide-eyed self and it's works for me. You've had success obviously with Candytopia and you've even been on TV and both of these could be considered a moment where you've made it but to you when you think about it what was that first moment in your journey that you felt this is my made-it moment. Yeah you know I think that I am a highly ambitious person I'm kind of like many entrepreneurs you're never content you're always looking for the next thing that inspires you and as creatives and artists I remember when I launched my company Hollywood Candy Girls in LA got a call to do some events for Oprah and I died it was like mama Oprah the Queen. I literally was like so pregnant and I'm this giant pregnant woman and Oprah calls for an event and it's like in the Hollywood Hills up 500 flights of stairs and I'm dying and I can't breathe and there was no way that I wasn't going to work and I think I was like 6 days away from delivering and didn't know what what the hell I was doing to be honest but I knew that I got a job for Oprah and it was everything to me and she was launching her own network at the time and I walked up these flights of stairs with my team and I was carrying stuff I shouldn't have been carrying I should have been walking I should have been in bed and I walked into this room and created this beautiful display of of a sparkling glittering candy treats desserts all custom with her logo in her face and I hear someone turn around and I hear someone say oh my gosh who did this this is amazing and I just turned around with my giant belly to say thank you and it was her and I was like I literally turned around and I was so you know I was pregnant and tired and she put her hands on my belly and she just said thank you for being here and she's like get some rest and I was like never so that moment for me just because of what Oprah you know she's one of the visionaries the world changers the game changers of our time was so honored and so then she blessed my daughter and I hope she blessed my stomach she blessed my daughter it was this religious moment it was amazing and I worked the whole party that night yeah I'll never forget that when you were dreaming up Candytopia what steps did you take to turn that wild idea into a reality patience persistence and timing truly is everything the U.S. market was finally ready for these types of experiences that you now see they're very common now um Candytopia you know we like to call ourselves a mini theme park as well so it's a we kind of feel like we've created this new lane in space for ourselves go daddy in particular means something really interesting to me because I like to create names what is the website going to be so I'm a like manic domain buyer and I love buying domain so literally when I have an idea like Hollywood candy girls I would is it available and I go to this thing called go daddy Hollywood candy girls dot com dot us dot org dot ca dot everything and I was like give them all and I literally would buy all of them and then I would buy every other domain that sounds like that domain and then I would buy everything in that space the sweet life the candy this the candy girl and I just literally have done that with every business I own so many domains you guys I could probably be a very wealthy person but yeah it is part of my creative process what do you want people to learn from you I don't just kind of making the most out of your life I think that you know I'm one of those people that's like one life YOLO sister do it all it's the idea of of you know take life by the horns and don't unseize the day and take every opportunity it's be brave you know be brave be bold I know that not everybody naturally has that in their personality and I didn't either but this idea of just going for it is so powerful my team gets terrified when they hear what do you want to do next and I'm like well now that you asked you know Candytopia in a very short amount of time has just I feel like the U.S. market has wrapped their arms around us so tightly from LA to San Francisco to New York City it is the tremendous feedback of the people that want this product they are coming out we have we sell out before we even open which is incredible people are sharing hundreds of thousands of posts and shares on social which is really our feedback so I think that what's next for me you know people always say do you ever rest you ever take a break I'm like why would I do that I'm a Latina in the U.S. making jobs and giving people jobs and my immigrant parents would be thrilled and they are thrilled and I think the end game honestly is I think Candytopia will be a theme park and I think that the way that our team has so intelligently kind of created this brand and as we continue to mold the brand and develop it we call ourselves now a mini theme park and I think the world's ready for this new candy brand of you know that promotes just living your best life and your sweetest life to kind of become something bigger we went ahead and let the go daddy tribe know on social that you are coming okay people were very excited and we have a couple of questions from the tribe okay now the first question I particularly like because it's actually not about candy at all it's about your fashion got it I know you have a pair of purple pants that people absolutely love Mina posted on instagram please ask her where did she get those purple pants you know what Mina thank you because I literally had to go buy an outfit for opening night and we were installing Candytopia I was like I don't have an outfit and ran across the street to the Manhattan mall and literally like went into like New York and company and was like I need some great pants and I need to call and I saw my Willy Wonka purple pants and died and you know they're like this satin-y material they were great and they were all clearance for $29 and yeah they were great and I literally everything I've done people like what are those pants I need them in every color now but yeah I love those pants the next question comes from Rachel and Rachel is wondering why candy um you know why why candy is like why would you not ever really um here you know the thing is uh candy is something that universally makes everyone happy and um you know I I really love that my medium is simply candy to speak this bigger message to the world of just you know of course I'm one of these I'm kind of one of these hippies that want to fix the world and peace and love and I really believe that and you know I'm a complete lover of humanity and people and positivity and joy candy is just the way that I get to connect that message to the people I want to continue to get personal okay we're gonna lighten it up though okay we're gonna speed things up we're gonna lighten things up and really get in and get to know you okay we're gonna play a game called hustle time so Jonathan would you please bring in the cards oh my gosh it makes me so nervous you guys okay I want you to feel like the deck is fair so you may shuffle or cut or do whatever you feel you need to do okay okay I'm not even good at this in Vegas so here that's my shuffle and they're probably gonna fly all over the place so we are going to set a timer for 60 seconds okay and I am going to read the question to you and you say the first thing that comes to mind okay Jonathan can we have 60 seconds on the clock okay favorite breakfast food oh god pop tart least favorite candy oh uh uh non-parallel go to karaoke song I will survive boozy brunch or morning workout boozy brunch how would your mother describe you look camping or glamping oh glamping dream dinner guest mama Oprah again would you rather fly or talk to animals uh talk to animals biggest splurge um I am finally able to buy the full-size bottle of perfume not the tiny size or steal the samples what do you want a desert island with you what do I want or who do I want one thing lots of food surfs up or cocktails poolside cocktails what's the first app you open in the morning Instagram best place you've traveled New York City a favorite kid from Charlie the chocolate factory uh charlie m&m's or skittles m&m's describe yourself in three words um persistent persistent never give her up for and fun okay so for the moment of truth one two three four five six seven eight nine 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 what does that mean that's a lot that's up there this is definitely leading absolutely you were on the podium you've placed lady thank you nice job very much honored oh thank you guys it was super fun it was I had a lot of fun too um there's one last thing that we must do before you go and it involves noodle a 10 year old pug and an instagram celebrity oh and a veteran on the go daddy social team jonathan you want to bring noodle in I love this oh my gosh now give me this person animal thing so this in closing I'd love for you to give one last piece of advice to noodle he is um obviously doing very well with his instagram account he has the best smile it's okay it's okay and work should be fun yeah and I am wondering what advice you would give to noodle and those out there about keeping positive in life and in the workplace um I feel like can I just talk to noodle yes can I get in like my mom voice can you do that noodle noodle noodle um yeah I think it's really important noodle to um you know to really not let any dream crushers come your way because there's a lot of dream crushers out there and uh and and never lose your magic and your your specialness and uh you know it's it's it's uh even that stinky breath of yours is really making you you so yeah I think that you know same advice say it's okay uh same advice that I would give uh you know my kids I would give to noodle to uh be yourself and don't be afraid of being yourself because in the end that's your magic well that's a wrap so fun thank you so much for being here thank you guys for having me this was amazing so fun I hope that everyone enjoyed the episode I please I encourage you to subscribe be with us we're going to be bringing a school of hustle weekly and we want you to watch and subscribe oh yeah I want you to watch and subscribe this episode was so fun I mean it was just so many layers of stuff please subscribe