After many years in the role, it was clear that I was NOT that fantastic Planner. Are you working on any exciting new projects now? In our case, there is nobody I would have preferred to do this with. We recommend that you do not rely solely on the information presented here and that you always review labels, warnings, and directions before using or consuming a product. Mast General Store assumes no liability for inaccuracies or misstatements about products contained in our stores or on our website. Can you share a story? She heard our story, and she told us that she believes in us and our candy. The world was entering a terrifying moment and the people working in hospitals became our heroes. So as we are getting ready to start day two, we get a call from our customs broker (see at the time we were still producing Tamalitoz ourselves down in Mexico City). The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children ages 5 and younger should not be given hard candies or gum due to the potential for choking. Starting your own business is all-consuming; to have gone at it alone would have certainly ended our relationship, the company, or both. Its important to mention that when we developed Tamalitoz, it was important to me that we only use natural colors and flavors. Occasionally though, it would happen, but in time, it served as a gentle reminder of how delicate the process is. In a role with overwhelming responsibility, you are accountable for the strategy of your clients brand. Then we started thinking about what could have possibly gone wrong that they found a color that was not listed. It would be an honor to bring some joy to them. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Thinking we could operate our business from Mexico was our first big mistake. Find joy in finding out you are not one or the other, but both. With the tangy flavors of Mexico and traditional sweetness from Britain, Tamalitoz was born.
The most exciting story is the story of Sugarox Candy Studio. We also spend a couple of hours a week in the warehouse packing orders. Tamalitoz, the brand we launched in the USA, consists of ribbon candy pillows made almost exactly as centuries ago in Europe, but we gave it a fabulous Mexican makeover. How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world? See our Terms of Use for details. Select one of our locations. Your review requires staff approval before posting. You have to be on top of your game, pitching your product to whoever passes by because thats where all the big retailers go to scout new products. Initially, I thought that our color manufacturer sold us the wrong color and was getting ready to call our lawyer. Declan: My background is in sales and management. There are so many, but honestly, if I had to choose one, it would be the Golden Rule. Vision- Both know where the goals are and where you are heading. For us, candy making is an art, and although we now work with a co-packer, we made sure that our production is still hand-crafted. We often consider Sugarox as having two beginnings, one was when we opened in Mexico, and the other was when we opened in the United States.
She was interested in knowing about our process and was shocked that we were manufacturing the candy ourselves. But in the beginning, we were still learning the ropes and we made many mistakes. The thing with candy is it is very temperamental; the slightest mistake will cause your batch of candy to crystalize, halting the process to a grinding stop. None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. It is the least we could do. The next morning at the show, trying to keep a smile on when all I wanted to do was crawl into a hole and cry, a lady came up to the booth and asked me about Tamalitoz.
How can our readers follow your work online? Each batch of Tamalitoz is hand-formed; the machine we use today to cut the Tamalitoz into their characteristic shape resembling a tiny tamale is the same machine we had in our first candy store in Mexico. Being able to tell people how we started as a small candy shop in Mexico City, how that evolved into the development of a brand that we could export to the USA, then have that very same business in Mexico crumble due to Covid, while still venturing into the United States has been so successful of a story we often tell ourselves. Lesson learned. to save this product to your wish list. Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life? Most orders filled same day if placed by 3:00PM. It all started in a tiny candy store in Mexico City making small-batch candy. DISCLAIMER: You are advised to consult actual product packaging and materials as they may contain more and different information than what is shown on our website. I never would have thought I would end up owning a candy business in the United States, but love the way my life has taken a sweet and unexpected turn. It is what makes us who we are. We love that Tamalitoz looks and feels like something made 200 years ago in England. A few days back Nirmala Sitharaman Finance Minister of India announced the EPF taxes will be, What I learned stating a Micro VC Fund in PropTech, Female Founders: Fauzia Khanani of Studio For On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as, Why your company should have an accounting bible, Dont Do These 3 Things In Your First 90 Days as A Nonprofit Leader, Is Chicago a good place to invest for first time investors. In his mind, he was solving a problem, and he never expected that the FDA or anyone would find out. What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders to help their employees to thrive? We are working on something exciting! Proud to be serving some Chicano Candy Realness! They have minimum production runs and had we agreed to do a minimum run, that would have drained our bank account. When it would happen, I would take the opportunity to show customers how the slightest error can make us destroy a 20 lb batch of candy. So we have our booth, getting ready to start the second day of the show. We want to make sure you know: In-depth Interviews with Authorities in Business, Pop Culture, Wellness, Social Impact, and Tech. So we got the call from the broker, and she said, Guys remember a couple of weeks ago the FDA came in and took some samples of your latest shipment, well the results of the samples came in, and they are putting your latest shipment on hold because they found a coloring that is not listed on the ingredients panel. This was a huge problem, as 100% of this product had already been spoken for, and we were going to have to let our customers know that there is an issue with their candy.
Combining the natural flavor of black cherries from the Pacific Northwest, with their authentically Mexican Chili, lime and sea salt center. What are the 5 Things You Need To Thrive As A Couple? Please share a story or example for each. So to make this happen we needed a sales team. We had to find a way to get to the USA. This happened right at the start of covid when we were all terrified and things shut down. So picture this, Dec and I are getting ready for day two of the Sweets and Snacks show. I owned a fleet disposal company back in England. But I can only imagine that being the case when the both of you are employed in the same office. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? I asked her to find out where we could send some cases to the nurses to thank them for being there on the front line. Jack: My background is in advertising. You will be notified when your order is ready for pickup. It turned out she is a co-packer and told us that when we were ready, she could help us with production and let us focus on building the business. Cherry Its a Fire is their tribute to all things Mexican American, fierce, fabulous and full of flavor. :-). People always say its hard to work with your significant other. She told us how she had shared some of the candy with the nurses in oncology, and they all loved it. For sure we will write a book about all this one day. So just by being out there, we bring good to the world in one way or another. Some of the most intelligent people I ever met were Planners. I will be greedy and say I want both of them over for breakfast. No offense to brokers, I am sure there are some wonderful ones out there, but the whole broker thing was not working for us. To spend time with creative people whose work you admire is always a joy. Patience- Keeping an open heart and mind with each other. Its a very fun show, but high stakes and high stress. When everyone strives for automatization and technology, where efficiency and the bottom line are kings, we take a different approach. We are still perfecting the flavor and consistency, but bringing Tamalitoz to a group of people concerned with their sugar consumption is very exciting. During those years, I worked my way through the agency, spent time in the account management side, transitioned to creative, and finally ended up as a Planner. The candy was being produced by Sugarox Mexico, and Sugarox USA was selling it. Candice Georgiadis is an active mother of three as well as a designer, founder, social media expert, and philanthropist.
See label photo for ingredients and nutrition facts. Follow us on Instagram @tamalitozusa and facebook.com/tamalitoz. Long story short, we get back to Mexico to find out what happened with our coloring debacle. This was very inspirational. You never know what your idea can trigger. As mentioned, Sugarox in Mexico began as a candy store, it was unlike any other candy store in Mexico. It wasnt the first time we got an email from a fan, but this time it was different. Its called Party of One and is musical heaven. But one day, we got an email from a customer writing to thank us for making Tamalitoz. Embrace your sweet and spicy! Can you please give us your favorite Life Lesson Quote? It is also hard to separate our personal lives from the business, so most of our couple stories involve the business one way or another. Can you share a story about that? I felt like I was an ok one, but do we ever want to be just adequate? For additional or more comprehensive information about a product, please contact the manufacturer. But to do it with people who you think would be fun to hang out with is a dream. Leaders cant lead without a team, and the best way to gain the trust of your team is to show them that you are right there with them. In time you make fewer mistakes and ruin less candy. They could also have candy personalized with their names or logos. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Thank you so much for doing this with us! Determination- Be determined to reach your goals together. Please login or We use interviews to draw out stories that are both empowering and actionable. It turned out our production manager had run out of yellow color, and when our supplier told him they had none in stock until the next week, he went to one of our candy stores and asked them for yellow color. The FDA had found an artificial color yellow in our candy. What do you think makes your company stand out?
She went on to say that she is battling cancer, and the chemotherapy makes it very hard for her to keep anything down, but she found Tamalitoz, and its the one thing that settles her stomach. I tell people all the time that we dont sell candy; we sell joy, excitement, and flavor. After finding out what happened, we called the lady who introduced herself at the show, and we set everything in motion to transition production over to her.
As a small business, we could not afford to hire a sales team, so we started working with brokers. As a part of our series about lessons from Thriving Power Couples, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jack Bessudo and Declan Simmons from Sugarox Candy Studio.
But running a business and being in Mexico is impossible. Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you two got married? You are people of great influence. True leadership does not happen in corner offices. The husband & husband team wanted to come up with a unique blend of flavors that represented both of them. create an account We wont go into that much detail as its still a work in progress, but we are developing a line extension of Tamalitoz using organic tapioca fiber. To say that we started that day on the wrong foot was an understatement. So for the last month or so at our house, we have either Brandi Carlile or Sam Smith playing, and there is this one Brandi Carlile song where both her and Sam sing. We sent enough candy to give to all the staff at the hospital Tamalitoz. We knew we had to speak with a lawyer and find a way to get both Dec and myself to the States to help get things really moving. They have to know that you are there to help them because you acknowledge that you need them much more than they need you. Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that? Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? Tamalitoz is sweet and spicy; wouldnt it be great to champion our own personal sweet and spicy. We kept in touch and sent her a ton of Tamalitoz to help get her through her treatment. This made our customers realize how much attention to detail is involved in candy making and helped justify our premium price tag. It was quite an experience to visit one of our shops. Can you tell us a story about what brought you two to your respective career paths? I was horrified and embarrassed when this happened, I wanted to give our customers a show, but when you ruin a batch of candy, it feels like you wasted their time. Before taking the plunge and starting our candy business, I spent 15 years at advertising agencies. It was like she was sent from the candy gods to come and save the day. I am not sure I feel confident enough to give other CEOs advice; I still feel like I am at the taking advice stage lol. I would be in awe at how they could piece together data and deliver presentations that felt more like poetry than analytics. All reviews become the property of Mast General Store. In advertising, we would often approach a negative situation and see if we could turn that negative into a positive.
So, so pretty and heartfelt. Thank you so much for joining us. It is important to mention that at the time we could not afford to work with a co-packer. Of course, we sold candy, but it was made in-house where people could come in and watch our candy artisans make a batch of candy from beginning to end. He or she might just see this if we tag them :-). Jack are Dec are the creators of Tamalitoz by Sugarox, an artisanal ribbon candy pillow filled with chili lime and sea salt, giving old-school candy a Mexican makeover. Looking for store hours or directions? We are developing an organic low-sugar version of Tamalitoz but with a twist. It has brought us so much joy but also heartache, frustration, and failure. I think there is beauty in duality, we condition ourselves to be one thing or another, but we struggle with being two things at once. We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. We embrace the imperfection of each candy, they are never uniform in shape or color, and we love that about Tamalitoz. That is the big candy expo that takes place in Chicago. She offered to produce the first run and sell it to us as we needed it. What she did at that moment would be a game-changer for us, she truly was sent to us by the candy gods and had it not been for her, we would not be here today. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I am not a religious person, but I do feel that by being kind and patient with other people, it makes your day flow better.
When we started Sugarox in the USA, it was more like a distribution and sales operation. Later on in the evening, I get an email from a very angry customer saying that her child had almost choked on the silica pouch that was in the bag and she herself was considering taking legal action against us. Being an Account Planner is a big deal. Trust- Know that your partner will make the right decision and support them. But I feel you always get the most from your team when they feel empowered, when they feel safe. Match made in Candy Heaven! So in the words of my spirit animal, Carrie Bradshaw, and just like that I decided to leave advertising and start a candy business. How do you think that will help people? People laugh at Dec and me because as part of our routine, we will personally deliver candy to a couple of the HEB grocery stores that we supply to. Cherry Its a Fire Tamalitoz is their authentic Mexican American candy moment. We could end toxic versions of naughty and nice and embrace our naughty and nice.