Transcription

• Caroline (host)

  Aller, let's go! Hello, bon dia! Welcome to the first episode of Buy it by a Boss, the podcast where I talk with creative people who decided to leave their employee career to follow their own path. I am your host, Caroline, and today we are going to talk about chocolate. We are going to dive into a world where chocolate is not just a treat but a full experience. a ritual and a tool for personal well-being. My guest is Carola, an agronomist who turned into a holistic chocolatier to create something truly unique, Choco Chakra. Her handmade bonbons are more than just sweets. They are designed to align your energy, awaken your senses and invite you into a moment of mindfulness with every bite. I have them in front of my eyes, they're absolutely beautiful to look at and of course they're delicious to eat. In this episode, we're going to discuss her product, her vision, but also the strategies behind turning a chocolate bonbon into a full experience. Hey, Carola, I am so happy to see you again today. Can you explain to people how we met?

• Carola (guest)

  We met at this Lemuria market. It was a creative market where I was showing my Choco Chakra bonbons. And we met there, you were interested in my product, so we started talking and it was really nice and amazing.

• Caroline (host)

  We met, we got on well straight away. We were supposed to record this podcast in my studio, but we are not in my studio. Where are we right now?

• Carola (guest)

  We are where I am at my workshop. I made here all my productions and here is the place I make the magic with the bonbons.

• Caroline (host)

  So talking about magic, you introduce yourself as a holistic chocolatier. Can you tell us more about this?

• Carola (guest)

  The thing I make is some bonbons that harmonize your chakras. The chakras are some energy centers that we all have in our body. And you can harmonize it with different ways. The most common ways are with yoga or with some mantras, some mudras, also with the color. but A way that I found is that you can harmonize too with the food.

• Caroline (host)

  Yeah, and it's a very mindful way of eating. When we met with my friend at the market, you explained to us how to eat the chocolate and there is indeed a process.

• Carola (guest)

  That's the thing because you have all these steps to have this chocolate because of the feelings, because of the ingredients. The other thing is that as you have it in your mouth, you are connected with the flavor that connects you with your body. That's another step. But also, as we are talking with about energy too, you must have an intention with the chocolate. So that's the whole process. You intentionate, you connect with your body, and then you eat it. In that way, you are aligning your intention with your body and with the energy.

• Caroline (host)

  After the market, we met another time to discuss a little bit your project. And you had told me that you initially wanted to have an online business model, but then you realized that in order to sell your products, you also had to meet your clients.

• Carola (guest)

  Yes, because the thing that I realized is that I have to connect with the people. And also, the people must be attracted by the product. And once they are attracted, I have to explain this because It's not just to buy a turgolite. You have to know the whole experience about this so you can valorize the experience or more than valorize, to have the whole satisfaction about this. So I must tell this. It's a lot of information that you have that I have to tell to the people, but it's the only way to connect. I realize about that.

• Caroline (host)

  Yes, we will talk again about the connection to clients. and to other people with this product. But I wanted to come back to your story. You're from Chile and you worked in the food industry before. So how did you move from the agronomy industry to being a pastry chef?

• Carola (guest)

  I started like an agronomist. I came here. I started studying then as a chef, then as a pastry chef, because I realized that the thing that for me is like more satisfying is when I see the people eating something that they like. And that is something that I say. I love this.

• Caroline (host)

  Yes, and especially when you're doing market and tasting or when you meet your client face-to-face, it's even better that you can really see like what they are feeling with your products. I wanted to ask you how long did it take from the idea, from when you had the concept in your head, to the moment that you were actually selling your products?

• Carola (guest)

  It was like six years, something like that. The first thing that I, it was I want to make bonbons. I started making bonbons and as I'm painting them, making the fields, all the thing and the people when they ate, it like... I told you like an olive and I was like oh please taste them so I have to teach like let's intentionate and let us we're working with energy too we have I had to to make that approach so I say okay so

• Caroline (host)

  it's not like to have a bonbon it's more like a whole experience yes and part of the experience as well is the packaging of the product so we have a couple of them around us right now Can you describe how are the boxes for the chocolate? Because I know you put a lot of effort into them.

• Carola (guest)

  Well, that's the thing that for me was really important. When you have something in your hands that has like a little bit of presence, you feel important. The importance is the person that has the product in your hand. And the person must need to realize that. So for me, it was like it must be like a smooth. box. It must be like magnetic box. So it's another thing that when you open it, you can reseal it. You, when you open, you see the colors of the bonbons. It's something that you say like, Oh, I want this. It's something like, if you, something that happens in your head that I don't know if I have here some jewels or chocolate. I used to sell bonbons in some boxes that I said that the people like I kind of like the bonbons. It didn't look as I want to. Chocolate is also more a luxury and also bonbons are more related to luxury than a chocolate.

• Caroline (host)

  So it's interesting because you talk about the luxury feel and how the client will be feeling when he will be opening the box and eating the product. Who would be your ideal clients? Is it something that you have studied when you worked on your business plan?

• Carola (guest)

  Yes, for sure. perfect client they they must know and believe in the and the energy because there's a lot of people that don't believe in energy so that's not going to be my client so to have an approach to meditation and to be open to to have an intention and to to have a little bit of a little bit of a spiritual way of life maybe well this can be for men or women But the one that I described from the very beginning, it was a woman that makes yoga, that has a life of believing energies. Because it's a woman that knows what she wants and she uses all the tools that she has to go for an objective. So this is one tool too.

• Caroline (host)

  So you give me the perfect transition here. Because you seem to be a woman who knows what she wants. And when we discussed last time, you told me that on one hand, you want the stability in your life, but you also constantly challenge yourself and want to start things from the beginning again and again. I want to know more about this.

• Carola (guest)

  Yes, that's the thing that I realized. like, why all the time I'm making... That thing, like cutting all the ropes that are like hanging me or all the nets to start everything again. And it's like, why make this? I don't know. It's like sometimes for me, I love to work, but sometimes get to me like really bored the work. So it's like, OK, now I quit. Now I start again.

• Caroline (host)

  It seems that you like to challenge yourself and even increase the challenge. In the sense that you explained me that when you moved to Barcelona, you had all expenses paid at some point. But you said no to that and you decided to do it your own way.

• Carola (guest)

  Yes, I said, no, I don't want this. I want to go and live like all my friends live in a room, quitting everything, paying all my expenses. And I said, why do I make this? Because the other way I felt like I was like living with my parents. like because everything was paid and everything was so stable maybe. But my whole life I think that for me it's really like I need some stability. But when I have it, it's like, no, this is not enough. I need more. Now, as I am here, like, with my own company, to, like, I don't have the stability, but I'm really happy making what I'm making.

• Caroline (host)

  You know, it's interesting because just when you said, with my own company, you had these little blank moments.

• Carola (guest)

  and you almost hesitated and do you find it difficult to introduce yourself or how do you usually introduce yourself yes this is really weird because the other day i was with a friend of mine and i started like telling to the people what i'm making and i said no i make these chocolates that harmonize the tagras and and she gets really mad with me and she said why introduce you like this you must say you're a pastry chef you have 10 years of experience and more and I don't have enough self-confidence then to say, okay, here am I, I'm the owner of my own company. Not yet. The day when we met, it was the name of, okay, put me like holistic chocolatier. We're holistic at the beginning and then the chocolatier. Also with Toco Chakra, I had a lot also of doubting, like I used to, I used to have another name for the project. It was a word that I invented, the name it was mom, m-o-o-m, because it was the m of mother and Maria, that's the name of my daughter, and it was like a little bit of om and also a little bit of mmm, when something is good, it was a lot of things. Okay, but mom doesn't say nothing about. But then was Choco Chakra, Chocolate Chakra, easy. You need to put on Google Choco Chakra and it's the only one.

• Caroline (host)

  Yeah, the name is super representative. And every time I'm talking about the chocolate lady, everybody just know who you are, you know. But I wanted to talk as well about your family. Like, what was their reaction when you changed from employee to self-employed?

• Carola (guest)

  Yes, I quit the... the agronomy to start making pastries. So it was like for them like, why? What? Why this? I said because I want to make this. And also they said to me as something like I was playing, making cakes. And it was like, maybe but now if I realize I say thanks God I'm playing and not taking the thing so seriously because if you want to be creative You must play because if you are like with a boss or with someone, he is telling you what to make. You are not creative. Your creativity, it's like, it's dead.

• Caroline (host)

  Yeah, I can really totally understand this. And how was it in your previous job? Because you were still a chef. And did you manage to find a balance between, you know, being creative and being productive? Or how did you work this out?

• Carola (guest)

  If you work for another, well, for me happens that if I work to others, I have to be more productive than creative. It's something that I have with myself. I must be really productive. So if one day I make 100 macarons, no, tomorrow I must do like 120. And the other day, and always, because that was the most fun part of the business, because I make all day the same thing. So it's like you are... daily goal, something like that. But then I was like totally dead.

• Caroline (host)

  And how would you summarize the whole like employee experience if you had to?

• Carola (guest)

  When I was employed, I have all the stability, no creativity, a lot of pressure. And in my head, it was all the time like, which were the requests of my boss. and not my own request. I don't know how to explain, but it's something like that, that all the time it was me against myself to be better than I was the day before. It's something like that. Then I realized that all my creativity, it was to resolve daily problems of the place. to others, to another thing that I say, okay, but if this is going to be creativity, it's like, why don't I make all this for me? And then I realized that I say, okay. If I'm going to be through all this stress, all these things, maybe it's the time for me. Because as my job, it's really physical. Then at the end of the day, I was like, my back hurts, my hands hurt, everything. So, okay, I'm leaving my body here. I have just one body. What about if I make something for me? If it doesn't work, doesn't matter, doesn't work. But I need to try it now because I'm not older, I'm not an old person. It's the time to start like making things. It's now or then when? The biggest challenge is to take the decision. It's to say, okay, I'm going to quit my job and start making this. That was something that all the time when I say, okay, I'm going to start, I'm going to start. Then I say, oh no, no, I'm looking for a job. and starting to work in another place. I made that like three times. It was a moment, it was something like I was really stressed, a lot of stress. Like my eye were like, I don't know how to say, with palpitations. And I say, I'm one month with this eye palpitation. I'm really stressed. I need to stop thinking about this place. So, Carola, start with your own. and I said okay I'm going to start with myself but when I started by my own I had the backup of I know really what I need to make I had the all the study of the project business project I have all I had all that done so that was totally prepared for it wasn't like okay I'm going to study now how to make no it was all the things done before so since I had the idea until I make, I was like the product was born, was six years.

• Caroline (host)

  What makes you the most happy since you have started to do your own thing?

• Carola (guest)

  I had a lot of satisfaction when I see the people, when they say, when I realized that they're having like the whole experience and the product as I want to. Okay, I really, I can give my message because I think that we are really disconnected from our bodies. We are really disconnected from what we are eating. We are really disconnected from what we feel when we eat something. Even it's like I get something and I swallow it. It's like, and what happened there? Yeah. Okay, I finished. Because we are always... We're always late to everything. It's not, you're not late. Stop. Take one second. Eat something. Enjoy it. Or maybe if you don't like it, doesn't matter. But feel why you're not liking it. Feel it. And give you that precious moment to feel something. And I think that with the chocolate, you can have this. Because some people said to me, oh, I know I'm going to, if I eat one, I'm going to eat the whole box. And I say, for sure, if you sit, you smell it, you taste it, you have your moment, then you write, you are not going to eat the other ones. Because you're going to be satisfied with that.

• Caroline (host)

  Yes, like your sense might not be the compulsion and the dopamine of eating everything, but more like the satisfaction of having taken a moment for yourself. feeling what's happening in your body and mind so that's definitely something different i want to go back to some aspect of being self-employed that can be challenging you have mentioned to me that you were a little bit sick after after

• Carola (guest)

  the market what happened then yes ah that's for sure i got sick and then it was like i cannot make money because i'm at the bed It's like something, it was really hard and I also, I told you that I was like, I need to find a job now. That's the thing, you're alone making everything, that's why. But that's the thing that I said too. Well, also I'm used to a little bit of this because as I told you on all the works, and then sometimes you are like the octopus with eight hands making everything for other. So I say, okay, I can make it for me. But when you're sick.

• Caroline (host)

  you cannot make nothing yeah i think you summarize it super well that you can only rely on yourself um but how does it work in a city like barcelona where a lot of people um are independent you know they're out they have their own thing going on did you find Did you find it easy to make a network here? Was there any place that you recommend if anyone wants to start a business?

• Carola (guest)

  As I make the project in Barcelona Activa, that there is a place here in Barcelona where all the people are making their own business. So that there is a really great net. And also now, well, the market too, you know, a lot of creativity people, that those are great places also to make net. And also, well, the people, when I show the product, there is a lot of people that say, I can make a collaboration of, I don't know, like now with yoga teachers to taste the product or something or with you, like it was like great this to this kind of collaborations that are things that I don't know how to make. Because I think that with, if you have this kind of nets, you have inspiration. And if you have inspiration, I think that you can move everything. Because there is when you start everything. It's like the seed for the creativity. And when you don't have inspiration, it's like everything comes forward. And I believe that when you vibrate or you synchonate with other people, you attract that kind of people. So now I feel like the other day I said to a friend, it's weird, but I'm really... now I'm really positive of everything. This weekend I was like at the very bottom of my life and now I'm like when I then when I see you today and it was oh today is going to be great.

• Caroline (host)

  Yes for me too and working on this project and meeting people that are self-employed that have their own creative thing going on it's a really good way for me to connect as well with people around here. And my last question... is for you where can people find you and where can they buy your amazing chocolates okay my choco tagra are at choco tagra.com also in instagram choco point tagra and those are the places where you can find me thank you so much if you made it until here i hope you enjoyed this episode for me this was super cool and inspiring to chat with carola This was also my first episode after a while, so I hope I did well. All the information to find Carola are on the note of the podcast and on my Instagram page at caroline.creativewithanus. And if you would like to see how we look during the recording, it's gonna be also on the Instagram page. If you are interested to participate in the podcast or know people that would, please share them this episode on the Instagram page at caroline.creatives and they can just reach out to me. As for me now, I will just eat another chocolate and I will see you at the next episode.