Not Just Candle Talk: Burn the Rules. Build Your Legacy
This isn’t your average business podcast.
Not Just Candle Talk is the unapologetic, unfiltered audio home for ambitious entrepreneurs, creatives, and side-hustlers ready to do business on their own terms — no fluff, no fake motivation.
Founded on real experience and raw truth, this podcast dives into the real-life challenges behind the candle business and beyond. Whether you’re just starting out or scaling your empire, every episode is packed with lessons, strategies, and mindset shifts to help you build a business and a life you don’t need to escape from.
Hey, I’m Toni, and I know what it’s like to start from scratch.
When I launched my candle business, I had big dreams but limited resources — no investors, no fancy marketing team, just grit, Google, and a lot of trial and error. I built my brand from the ground up, burned out more times than I can count, and learned to pivot, scale, and get smart about what really makes money in this game.
Not Just Candle Talk was born out of my journey — the highs, the hustle, the hard lessons — and the deep desire to have conversations no one else is having in entrepreneurship. The stuff beyond the surface. The why behind the work.
This Podcast Is For You If…
- You’re tired of overnight success stories with no receipts.
- You want to make real money while staying true to yourself.
- You believe business can be both profitable and purposeful.
- You’re building your brand while managing your real life.
Not Just Candle Talk: Burn the Rules. Build Your Legacy
Finding Peace: The True Measure of Entrepreneurial Success
Have you ever felt like you're doing everything right in your business, yet somehow it's still not enough? That feeling of running uphill, alone, in silence—even as you check all the entrepreneurial boxes everyone says lead to success?
This raw, unfiltered conversation pulls back the curtain on what entrepreneurship really feels like behind the highlight reels. We've all been sold a fairy tale that hard work, consistency, and passion automatically unlock the dream life. But the truth? Success often comes wrapped in silence, sacrifice, and suffering that nobody posts about.
The anxiety attacks at 2 AM. The customers who ghost you. The friends who stop calling. The self-doubt that eats you alive even when your strategy is perfect. These aren't signs you're failing—they're proof you're in the trenches of real entrepreneurship. I share the story of "Kim," a candle business owner who hit $100K in her second year but almost quit because success looked good but felt "heavy as hell." That's the part we don't discuss: the birthdays missed for restocks, the relationships strained while chasing breakthroughs, the isolation of being surrounded by shipping boxes while others live their lives.
But here's the revelation that changes everything: money was never the real dream. Meaning is. You're not just building a business—you're creating a legacy, making your mark on the world. When we redefine success by how it feels rather than how it looks, everything shifts. If your business costs your health, relationships, or identity, it's not a business—it's a burden. The ultimate flex isn't going viral or getting verified; it's finding peace within your purpose.
Ready to redefine success on your terms? Text me through my website notjustcandletalk.me to share your thoughts or apply to take over an upcoming podcast episode with your entrepreneurial story. Because success should feel like freedom—and if it doesn't, it's time to burn the lie and build again.
Collect all free downloadable checklist and access to other items including the featured Stanley on the go tumblers. https://linktr.ee/notjustcandletalk
You ever feel like you're doing everything right and somehow it's still not enough. You started the business, you left the job, you made the post, you built the brand, you ran all the ads, you launched the site and yet it still feels like you're running uphill, alone, in silence. Today's episode is not for the Instagram entrepreneurs. It's for the real ones, the ones building in the dark, crying in silence, pushing through hell with a dream on their back. Because we need to talk about it. They lie to us about success, about freedom and what this life really takes. This is not just candle talk, and today we're setting the record on fire. Let's be real. We grew up believing a fairy tale that if you just worked hard, stayed consistent, followed your passion and posted every day, success would come the dream life, the passive income and the laptop on the beach. But here's what they didn't tell us that success, real success comes wrapped in silence, sacrifice and suffering. They didn't tell us about the anxiety attacks at 2 am. They didn't tell us about the customers who ghost us, the friends who stop calling, the self-doubt that eats you alive even when you're doing everything right. What they showed us was the highlight reel, the end result, the glossy photo, the sold out drop, but behind the curtain, most entrepreneurs are out here bleeding in silence. So if you feel like you're losing your mind right now trying to make it, you're not broken. You're just in the part they never post about.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you a quick story. There's a woman I know let's call her Kim. She launched her candle line about four years ago. She did everything right, got her Shopify store up, built a beautiful Instagram, even hit 100,000 in her second year. You want to know what she told me. She almost quit. She was burnt out, exhausted, crying in her car before pop-ups, feeling like a fraud because success looked good but it felt heavy as hell.
Speaker 1:That's the part we don't talk about the cost of winning. It's the birthdays we miss. Chasing a restock. It's the part we don't talk about the cost of winning. It's the birthdays we miss, chasing a restock. It's the relationship that dies because your partner's tired of waiting for the breakthrough. It's watching your peers take trips and relax while you're in your living room, surrounded by shipping boxes, wondering if it's all worth it. And the worst part, you can't even complain because everyone thinks you're living the dream. But listen to me, the dream has a dark side. And that doesn't make you weak, it just makes you real. So what do we do with all of this? It just makes you real. So what do we do with all of this?
Speaker 1:If success is harder than we thought, if freedom isn't always fun, why even keep going? Well, I'll tell you why. Because money isn't the real dream. Meaning is and I'll repeat that, because money isn't the real dream, meaning is you're not building the candle business or a T-shirt line or even a podcast. You're building a legacy, a voice, a mark on the world that says I was here and I matter. And that means redefining success, not by what it looks like, but what it feels like.
Speaker 1:Real success feels peaceful alignment, purposeful, the joy of waking up, knowing that you're living on your own terms. And here's the hard truth If your business costs you your health, your relationship or your identity, it's not a business, it's a burden. So let me just say this it's not a business, it's a burden. So let me just say this You're allowed to slow down, you're allowed to take your impact. The people whose lives are changed because you dare to show up, that's eternal. So don't let the pressure to look successful rob you of the real win, the kind of success that feels good in your soul. Okay, you don't have to go viral, you don't even need a blue check. What you need is peace. That's the flex, that's the win. That's also the future, because when everything else fades, your story, your purpose, your fire can't be taken. Okay, because I talked about purpose on my last episode, and I think this one aligns with purpose. Purpose, being at peace, having alignment in your life and doing something with meaning All of that is intertwined with your why.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go back to that. I just want to piggyback off of the last episode because I think it's important for entrepreneurs to hear this, this tone, hear this, this type of dialogue, because everything is not about success, success, money, money. It's really about coming from your soul, digging deep within you and understanding that, um, your focus is not always the next sale. It has to be more to it than that. And so I'm going to keep doing podcasts like this because, like I said, I think it's very important because when you dig deep down into your soul, you have a shift. You have a shift in your energy things. You have a shift. You have a shift in your energy, and that shows when you are doing something that you truly are called to do. So if this episode hits your soul, don't keep it to yourself. Tell someone about it, tell somebody to take a listen to this episode, because we're going to keep pushing through just like this, because times are hard and things like this need to be said the real realities of it. So, again, if you like this episode and want to share it with somebody, let them know about Not Just Candle Talk podcast. It's wwwnotjustcandletalkme.
Speaker 1:Also, before I leave, I wanted to mention that I want to start doing real soon. I want to start doing a takeover episode. Takeover and have hosts come on and take over the podcast for an episode and share their story, share their journey, talk about their brand and just enlighten us with their story. So if anyone is interested, on the website, I have a text me message. You can send me a text, write your bio in the text message and your handles and let me know what your brand is and your social handles and we could discuss you taking over the podcast for an episode. So I just wanted to touch on that before I leave.
Speaker 1:And again, thank you for listening and we're going to keep on uh, going to keep on um doing these type of podcasts, okay, and if you're ready to redefine success on your terms, uh, feel free to leave a. Uh. Also leave a message for me on the text as well, because success should not, because success should feel like freedom. And if it doesn't, we burn the lie, okay, and build again. Thank you again for listening. Until next time, keep building bold. Thank you, bye.