In the small town of Sparta, North Carolina, Jennifer Swank, the founder of Sparta Candle Company, defied all odds to create a thriving global business. Born and raised in Sparta, Jennifer was told that success meant leaving her hometown. And that's exactly what she did after graduating high school. However, the city life didn't suit her, and she longed for the familiarity and connection of a small town. Determined to make a living in Sparta, Jennifer took on various jobs but struggled to make ends meet.
Driven by the need to support herself, Jennifer became an entrepreneur. She started her own marketing company and ventured into real estate, all while making candles on the side. Little did she know that this small side hustle would turn into something much bigger. Sparta Candle Company blossomed into a thriving empire, on track to earn over 1.5 million dollars annually and reaching customers worldwide.
What sets Sparta Candle Company apart is not only the quality of their products but also their impact on the town. Jennifer is committed to paying living wages to her employees, making her company one of the top-paying employers in Sparta. Additionally, she established the town's first LGBTQ+ support charity, despite facing pushback. The company's success and contributions have brought new life and opportunities to the small community.
Sparta Candle Company is not just a candle and soap company. It's a symbol of resilience, community impact, and honoring loved ones. Jennifer's dedication to her mother's memory, commitment to her hometown, and the pursuit of excellence have propelled her small-town business to remarkable heights.
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Note - Transcripts are created using AI technology and may not read 100% accurately. We apologize for any misspellings or mistakes.
1 (2s):
Living in the city was not for me at all. I did not like, you know, walking to class and walking by thousands of people every single day and not recognizing a single person. I didn't like going in to the bank to withdraw some money and them not knowing who I was, me having to give them my account information every time, just little things like it was just not for me. I'm, I'm a small town girl.
2 (39s):
Welcome to Made in the High Country, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of Western North Carolina's entrepreneurial landscape and the people within it. I'm Samantha Wright, and in today's episode, prepare to be inspired by the extraordinary journey of one woman who defied all the odds to create a thriving global business right in her rural hometown. You'll hear how her unwavering determination, despite constant criticism from seasoned entrepreneurs, not only led her to success, but also paved the way for providing living wage jobs and establishing a one of a kind company here in the high country.
2 (1m 32s):
Jennifer Swank was born and raised in Sparta, North Carolina, a quiet little town on the edge of the western North Carolina and Virginia border with a population of under 2000 people. And from an early age, the story that she and her peers were told over and over again was this, if you want to be successful, leave Sparta as soon as you can. And that's exactly what Jennifer did. She graduated high school in 2010 and from there, went to college at ECU in Greensboro, North Carolina. But her entire experience was shrouded by the fact that she just missed her hometown.
1 (2m 15s):
Living in the city was not for me at all. I did not like, you know, walking to class and walking by thousands of people every single day and not recognizing a single person. I didn't like going into the bank to withdraw some money and them not knowing who I was, me having to give them my account information every time, just little things like it was just not for me. I'm, I'm a small town girl, I just decided to move back. I actually left a pretty, pretty good job considering I was just outta college. Left that to come up here and be a reporter for the Allegheny News 25 hours a week, making $10 an hour.
1 (2m 59s):
And so I did that for about six months. Found out that that was not gonna pay my bills at all. And so then took a job with the county doing, doing like accounting and bookkeeping. And that paid maybe $11 an hour, but at least it was full-time. And I was able to make that work for about six months too. And then I was like, okay, like, you know, I had, I was in credit card debt from, from school and I had a car payment. Like I just, there were, I had, I had too much going on. So I was kind of forced into being an entrepreneur because there was nothing here that was going to be able to pay me to enough to live.
2 (3m 46s):
Jennifer is the type of woman who will just make it work. She's not afraid to try new things and is able to pivot on a dime when needed. She left the county job and started her own marketing company. She also became a real estate broker and just to help supplement the ups and downs of realtor life, she also began making candles. Little did she know that just five years later, this little side hustle of making candles would turn into a thriving empire, a company on track to make over 1.5 million this year. One of the top paying employers in her town and reaching customers all over the world.
2 (4m 31s):
Today we dive into Sparta Candle Company and chat with its founder, Jennifer Swank about its origins, its growth, its culture, and the impact that it's having in the small town of Sparta, North Carolina. So, Jennifer, if I could sum up your business in just one word, I think that word would be impact because not only do your products have such an instant impact on your customers, I mean they're like owning little pieces of art and they give your customers this feeling of significance is maybe the best word that they're buying from a small business that makes clean quality, handcrafted candles and soaps.
2 (5m 22s):
But you also have this high impact on your town. You are known for paying some of the highest wages in Sparta, even for entry level positions. You are creating great impact with the recent creation of your town's first ever LTB Q plus support charity, not without some pushback, which we will get into later down the road. So, so much impact stemming from this once very, very small company. And I'm struck by the fact that this all really started because of the impact that your mom's journey had on you when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
2 (6m 2s):
Would you be willing to share that story with us and take us just back to the origins, back to the beginning of Sparta candle company?
1 (6m 11s):
Yeah, so about, I guess it was about six years ago now, my mom was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer and she, it was, it was too far gone to, to do any, any real treatment in any meaningful way. So, we jumped into like holistic treatments and just ways to make her life, you know, a little bit better, hopefully make it a little bit longer. And one of, one of the things that her doctors mentioned was that we stopped burning paraffin candles in the house because they have been linked to breast cancer. And when they said that, a light bulb just went off in my head because my mom was primarily a stay-at-home mom most of our lives.
1 (6m 58s):
And she burned the cheapest candles that she could find in every single room of our house, like including bathrooms all day long. It's, that's all, all she did. And so I, I got, I got very worried when, when he mentioned that. So I really wanted to find soy candles for her to burn, cuz I know how much she loves burning candles and they, they weren't anywhere to be found up here in Sparta. And to get them shipped here was gonna cost an arm and a leg. So I just started making them for her myself and really only had the intention of just making them for her. And then, you know, my sisters wanted some and my friends wanted some and you know, the more mom talked about, oh yeah, like you need to burn soy candles because paraffin is linked to breast cancer.
1 (7m 49s):
The more and more people that were like banging on my door trying to get them. So my mom is definitely in like the, the heart of my business a hundred percent. And she, they, they actually, they gave her six weeks to live and she actually made it almost four years. So we are very thankful for the time that we had with her. I w I just started making soap towards the end of her cancer journey. So she was able to use several, several of my soaps, none of them ones that have materialized into what they are today, but she got a lot of the, a lot of the crappy ones to start.
1 (8m 31s):
And she loved them. She had 'em all lined up in her, in her bathroom and she was so proud of them. So I, I feel like especially how the soap part of my business has taken off is just, it feels very driven by my mom. Cuz she was, she was really excited about it.
2 (8m 50s):
Aw, I'm so sorry for your loss, but what a beautiful story to be able to have your heart, your mom, be really in the heart of what you are doing and to continue that legacy on. I'm sure she's just extremely proud of you. So tell us a little more about your candles and your soap. you know, what really makes them so different and what is, what is giving them this, you know, international appeal? I mean you have customers from all around the world buying your specific soaps and candles from Sparta, North Carolina of all places, you know, how did that happen?
1 (9m 28s):
You know, really my mom's story is really what grew the, at least the candle part of the business here locally. Cuz it was a really big push of education because, you know, in the middle of nowhere in the country, you know, all of a sudden you start selling like a 20 some dollars candle. People really wanna know why. They're like, what in the world's going on? I can get a candle at family dollar for $3. So it was a lot of education that had to take place. And, and then the soap side of the business, I decided really early on that I wanted my soaps to be very high quality but also lean pretty hard into the, into being artistic So.
1 (10m 13s):
we, they're, they're very, very decorative and we put a, there is a lot of artistry that goes into these soaps, especially
2 (10m 19s):
I know they're almost too beautiful to use. I still, I have some of your soaps and I still refuse to use them cuz they're soap beautiful.
1 (10m 27s):
But they are really great soaps. That's what a lot of people, you know, they say, they're like, wow, they're, they're so pretty. But if you actually do use them, they're also one of the best soaps that you know you've ever used. So yeah, I think just, you know, the, the artistry and that it's handmade and that we have a lot of footage of, you know, us making our soaps and that it is handmade and it's being made right here in the mountains of North Carolina piece by piece. you know, people, people really do like that. And I think we are definitely, since I started my business, you know, people are moving, I think more into the realm of I will pay significantly more for a product if I can see where it's made, see how it's made, know exactly what's in it and you know, everyone's getting a little bit more thoughtful and I'm, I'm, I'm very thankful for that.
2 (11m 23s):
Well, one of the biggest concerns for any enterprise, they'll, they'll say for the type of work that you're doing is that consumer education, people say it costs too much to, to educate consumers as to why they should spend, you know, $20 on your candle versus three down at the dollar store. So what would you say to that?
1 (11m 47s):
Yeah, consumer education, at least up here in Sparta, that, that was a big push. I mean, that's why we only made $5,000 in our first year, you know, it was, it was hard for people, for people to catch on. I also think too, I think what's even more important than the consumer education is just building a brand that people, you know, actually want to buy your products. And I always, I always used to say like, if we can get, if we can get the high school kids, if we can get teenagers excited about our products and think that our products are cool, then we're good. you know, because if you can, if you can get your product to a point where people seek it out and want to buy it, it really doesn't even, it doesn't even matter what it costs.
1 (12m 38s):
you know, they're, they're gonna, they're gonna wanna buy it because of, because of the brand recognition. And then you can take them from the brand recognition to now we educate, I think you really gotta bring them in with the brand recognition and then, and then focus on consumer. I mean, yeah, on, on the education piece. And it, it hasn't really been that much of an obstacle for me past that first year.
2 (13m 3s):
Yeah. And is that because of your success on TikTok? Was that what you would attribute that outreach
1 (13m 10s):
To? Yeah, TikTok has really made our, our business explode. It has been a very underutilized business tool. I think people have really looked at it as, you know, some silly thing that all the teenagers are on and they don't realize that, you know, a, a huge portion of TikTok users are, you know, between the ages of 18 and 40. And that's a, that's a really, really big driver in, in our, in our sales, regardless of what happens one day, TikTok won't be cool anymore. And I think what's important is just making sure that we stay on top of the latest and greatest technology, the latest and greatest platform, and, you know, always be executing wherever, wherever the consumers are.
2 (13m 59s):
Yeah, I was gonna ask about that next, if you have any concerns around the longevity of that, and especially now the age of AI is kind of making us all question what, what's gonna happen next? And some people are theorizing that, you know, what's gonna happen next is really the, the end of the influencer era, you know, of the, Hey, look at me because I have a microphone and now I have this platform. Partly because there's gonna be just such a distrust of what's real and a lot of the deep fake stuff. And, you know, the content being now gonna be so easy to be produced by robots and ai and you know, there, that's a theory of, of what's gonna happen next. Does that worry you at all?
1 (14m 43s):
I I try not to get too worried about things like that just because it's outta my control, what's gonna happen is gonna happen. I think the, what is more important than worrying about it is just being very, very committed to being comfortable with change and knowing that what is working now is not always going to work. I definitely do feel kind of similarly about the, about the influencer era. We, we typically don't, don't work with influencers unless they are like, we're, we're super fans before and they just want to talk about our stuff regardless of if we send them anything free or not.
1 (15m 29s):
Those are really the only types of people we will work with. I think a lot of feedback that we've gotten is that they, they love dad, you know, just talking about our soap on TikTok because it's so real and it is so genuine. Well,
2 (15m 44s):
We haven't talked about your dad yet. you know, you'll have to explain to people how your dad fits into this picture.
1 (15m 50s):
Let's see, it was last year, so 2022, we had just moved to our main street location in downtown Sparta So. we did like a ton of renovations and then we had a crazy summer and holiday season after that. So there just wasn't really a lot of free time, but it was always on my list. And so after the holiday season ended in 2021, I was like, okay, it's slow and this is when I'm gonna like really jump into it. And I probably made, I would say 50 to a hundred videos. I mean, I was posting every single day until we finally found the one that worked, you know, at the end of March.
1 (16m 35s):
So it was a ton of content you found,
2 (16m 38s):
Like the type of video
1 (16m 39s):
Or the type of content? The type, yeah, the type of content got traction, yes. But I was posting every single day and just like throwing stuff at the wall to see what would, what would work, you know, and nobody was seeing anything, and it was a little bit discouraging, but we finally, I had dad cutting up some of our, of our soap base and I don't even think I had him really talking about anything. He was just cutting up soap base and people loved it. So that really had, you know, made a light bulb go off and that's where we, you know, we were like, okay, we'll take this bar of little River soap and cut that up and see if people are into it, maybe like tell a little fun story along with it.
1 (17m 24s):
And people just absolutely ate it up and we got millions and millions and millions of views. And that, you know, the first year I, I don't know if we got quite to half a million followers, but I think we got pretty close and now we're to about 650,000 followers. And people still love it. We're like, maybe at some point people aren't gonna gonna care about dad cutting up soap anymore, but that hasn't, that hasn't happened yet.
2 (17m 56s):
Yeah, that's so interesting. you know, I mean, we talk a lot about the tactic of kind of spaghetti testing. Let's just like throw a bunch of things against the wall and see what works is typically not the approach you wanna take with a lot of business things, but with social media and you know, it media marketing, content marketing that kind. Sometimes you do have to do a little bit of that because where in this day and age where same old, same old never works anymore, things are always adapting and always changing. So it is important to experiment and just try things. But the most important thing I'm hearing from your story is that experimentation doesn't do didly.
2 (18m 38s):
If you're not paying attention to the outcomes, you're not paying attention to, oh, okay, that that video got more likes or more comments or Oh wow, people really seem to engage to this video. Well what makes this video different than the last 50 that I made? Right? Oh, well, dad's in it. Well that's interesting. Let's experiment with that and see if that makes a difference. And it, you know, and it totally did. So I think that that's a really important lesson that I hope people can take away is that you, you have to be paying attention while you're simultaneously experimenting. For
1 (19m 12s):
Sure. And I think, I think too, the, the biggest takeaway for just starting on a platform like TikTok or Instagram or anything really is you are not going to be successful quickly. I mean, maybe you might be, but I've just, I've had, I've had so many, you know, fellow, fellow business owners, especially here locally, you know, they'll, they'll text me and be like, Hey, I'm gonna get going on TikTok, like, just wanted to know if you have any pointers or whatever and, you know, so I, I'll, I'll try my best to help 'em and then I'll, I'll follow 'em. And then they post like two or three videos that do nothing and then they never post again.
1 (19m 57s):
And it's like, you can't give up that easy, it's not going to happen that easy. I feel like a lot of people watched my growth and they thought that it was really, really easy. But that's just because they, they, along with everyone else weren't seeing all of the, the, all of the first hundred videos, and so they just thought that it just took off out of nothing. And that is not at all what happened. I have, I have little worksheets for myself where it has every day of the week, and then I have on each day of the week, I've got TikTok, v i p group, Instagram, Facebook stories and like, lives.
1 (20m 41s):
And like, I fill it in every day of like exactly what I'm going to post, where exactly what content I'm going to create, who's gonna go live, everything that's gonna happen. I check everything off each day. It really keeps me, keep, keeps me accountable for sure. But my favorite thing to do is at the, at the beginning of each week, I go back and look at the week before and I go back and I look at every single piece of content that was posted and anything that did surprisingly well, better than I would expect, better than average, you know, I will highlight it, circle it, and kind of like write some notes to the side about why I think that content did better than than I expected.
2 (21m 24s):
Yeah, you can't get passive, you can't get comfy and just yes, do the same old, same old and, and expect the same results For sure.
1 (21m 32s):
And you've always just gotta be trying new things and that really works for me. Before I started that system, it was all very overwhelming for me because, you know, I'm, I am the sole person that does everything on our social media accounts. People probably think it's like a team of, of people. And we, I do have a small creative team, you know, they help me film and they help me, you know, f flesh out some scripts, but, but ev all of the posting and all of the content, you know, compiling and video editing, it's all one person. And so it was, it was very, very overwhelming until I found a system that, that keeps me accountable and also helps me track what, what my followers actually care about.
2 (22m 19s):
Yeah, it is, it's a lot. It's like a job. It's a, you can't just treat it like a little, little side hobby. You gotta study it. You have to become a student of that platform. And that's one piece of advice I give all new entrepreneurs, they say, oh, well, you know, I've got my Twitter up, I've got my YouTube up, I've got my Facebook, I've got my, my Instagram page, and you know, I'm putting content in all these things. And I tell people, you know, if you're spreading yourself that wide, you're probably not gonna be effective in any of those areas because every platform has its own little quirks, its own algorithms, its own types of content that those people want to see or hear. And it's not gonna be a one size fits all for all the platforms.
2 (23m 2s):
So if you're trying to make content that's gonna please everyone on every platform, you're just gonna end up not pleasing anybody.
1 (23m 9s):
I definitely agree with that.
2 (23m 12s):
Well, let's talk about something I I find really fascinating about your company is that story you were talking about that you were told growing up, right? That if you wanna be successful, if you wanna make a good living, don't live here, right? Move, move out of this small town. You didn't do that and, and you not only kind of made a home for yourself in your small town as a successful young entrepreneur, but you also are really paying that forward with paying your employees a living wage, what you call a living wage. So I wanna talk about that, you know, why was that so important for you? And, and talk about what that means compared to, you know, just a minimum wage, which in North Carolina is pretty pitiful.
1 (23m 56s):
Yeah, for sure. So, well, when I first moved back here, you know, I I was, I told you I was forced into entrepreneurship because there was nothing here that was going to pay me enough to, to live. And so in starting my own business, you know, I was committed to, you know, the day that I started it, and especially the day that I started getting overwhelmed and my husband was like, maybe you should hire some help. I was committed to not hiring anybody until I could pay them at the time, $15 an hour. And, you know, and I, I stuck to that and I worked my butt off for a year and a half before, almost two years before I was able to hire my first employee.
1 (24m 43s):
But it is really important to me because, you know, I, I wasn't able to live off of, you know, $10 an hour. So I don't expect other people to be able to live off of that. And I don't expect them to be able to, you know, I mean, if they're, if they're stressed and they're can't pay their bills and can't take care of their families, I don't expect them to come in and have any sort of pride about my business and, you know, treat my baby with, with any respect because like, who, who would, if they're so stressed that they can't even see straight? So my company is, has always been very employee forward. We care about our employees first before anybody else.
1 (25m 25s):
And you know, that has made it to where our, you know, our, our product quality is through the roof because people take a lot of pride in the things that they make. They take a lot of pride in the business as a whole. And you know, it's just, it's because we, we take care of them. I think if you take care of your people, the money will, will work itself out. And, and a living wage is a lot more than a, than a than a a minimum wage or a a a set a set number. There's a lot of places now that, or not a lot, but there's a few places here in Sparta that are paying, you know, 15 to $18 an hour and they still can't get people to work there.
1 (26m 10s):
And, you know, I think it's because a living wage to me is a package. It's a, it's a package that includes a, a livable, a livable wage, but it also has a really good work-life balance. It encourages employees to take time for themselves and take time for their families. And, you know, it encourages if you are, you know, you just wake up one day and you are not in a great place mentally, and you just don't think that it's gonna be a good idea for you to go to work today. You just be able to share that with your employer and then be like, absolutely, take the day off.
1 (26m 52s):
No problem. Mm.
2 (26m 54s):
That's really beautiful. I don't think I've ever heard someone talk, I mean, I, I hear employees talk about being employee, employee led or employee forward and, and living wage, but I, I don't know if I've ever heard anyone put it so eloquently.
1 (27m 8s):
It's really difficult to live in our community right now because we have such a housing crisis. I think the last time I looked we might have had three houses on the market under $300,000, which, you know, and now we're talking about $300,000 being like the under like an afford affordable, yeah. Under 300,000 is, is an affordable living situation. And that is not an affordable living situation if you're being paid eight or $9 an hour.
2 (27m 37s):
There's sort of a saying in the, in the entrepreneurial ecosystem that we, we kind of have to keep reminding ourselves that we we're, we're sort of preaching the gospel, a bit of entrepreneurship and, and sometimes that can come with some resistance from people. Like how much does it really make a difference? you know, it, it, some people can see entrepreneurship and equate that with like evil, greedy capitalism, right? But, you know, we in these circles have seen time and time again how much good can come from, you know, stable incomes from a abundance from, you know, the ability to, for, you know, the private sector to move really quickly and make fast decisions and, and do good with the, the wealth that they've created.
2 (28m 26s):
So I'm curious about the kind of impacts that you're seeing, you know, in a small town like Sparta, you know, what does that mean to you and what kind of, what kind of positive outcomes maybe were you not expecting from the success you've had in your small town?
1 (28m 43s):
So one of the coolest things I think we have done is we created a L G B T Q scholarship last year. We have had a pride collection every year since we started. And that's, that's something that's always been very near and dear to my heart, is standing up for the L g BT Q community. And so I want, I've always wanted to donate, you know, the proceeds of that collection to a, an organization that, that helps that community specifically here locally. you know, we could donate to like the Trevor Project or you know, even some places in Watauga.
1 (29m 22s):
But I really wanted to try to keep that money local because we have absolutely no resources for the L G B T Q community here in Sparta. We try, we also tried to give the money to various organizations in our community and, you know, just asking that they, you know, in some way acknowledge that the donation was, you know, on behalf of the LGBTQ community and nobody, nobody would touch it. you know, we, we tried the, we tried the arts council, we tried a couple of different churches. There
2 (29m 58s):
Were, was that out of fear of like backlash?
1 (30m 0s):
Yes, yes. you know, especially the arts council, they, they, they wanted, they wanted to do it, but everybody is just so afraid of any type of backlash here. And that's something that I've never really, I don't really care, you know, I'm gonna stand up for what I believe in and I don't care if it makes somebody mad and I don't care if it makes somebody not buy my candles because of it, you know, it's, it's important to me. And you, at some point, you really do have to put people over profit. So when, you know, we really put our heads together last year and we're like, we gotta do something with this money. you know, especially since TikTok had happened and we were selling a lot more from the pride collection. Like we just really, I really wanted to get that off of our books and into someone's hands that it would actually benefit So.
1 (30m 48s):
we decided to try to start our mountains of Pride scholarship, which in order to do that, it had to go through the Allegheny Education Foundation. The, the scholarship is great and I'm so thankful that we're gonna be able to touch the lives of, you know, teenagers for years to come and, you know, I'm so excited about that. But that, so far, that was the biggest victory was, was getting that board to allow us to be a part of their, the education foundation.
2 (31m 21s):
What a, what a beautiful thing you're building there in Sparta. Before you go, we always like to ask our, our guest a question, and that is to, to get to really the heart of why we choose to live here in the high country. So do you have a, a favorite high country moment or memory of late that you'd like to share?
1 (31m 41s):
Oh, wow. There's so many. I found this spot on it, it's like off of the parkway. May have had to do a little trespassing to get there, but it was this, this just rock, this huge rock on the side of the Mountain where, you know, just walk, you can walk down and dangle your feet off and super dangerous. Wouldn't recommend it to anybody, but just being out there in the middle of just nothing, there's not another soul anywhere nearby. You can't, you can't see anybody. You can't feel anybody's energy that, that's why I love it here.
1 (32m 22s):
I'm very much, I, I would consider myself a loner in a lot of ways. And just that feeling of being completely one with myself and with nature is, is why I love it here. Absolutely.
2 (32m 45s):
Thanks so much for listening to today's show. This episode was produced and edited by me. Samantha Wright, community Director at Startup High Country. Learn more about our workshops, resources, and events, startup hc.com. if you have just 30 seconds for you right now, please do us a solid and rate and review this podcast, then share it with your friends. It really helps so much to get the word out about our show. Startup High Country is supported by N C I idea, a private foundation that supports entrepreneurship in North Carolina through grants and innovative programs. Thank you to the Waga Economic Development Center for their support and for helping to build the entrepreneurial landscape of Western North Carolina.
2 (33m 32s):
I'm Samantha Wright, and you've been listening to Made in the High Country.