Louise M Empowerment series with Louise Matson and Pippa Candido

We are thrilled to have Pippa Candido, the owner of The Little Bar Cart speak with us about her empowerment journey. 

The host of the Louise M Empowerment series is Founder of Louise M shoes, Louise Matson. As a former flight attendant she developed a luxury shoe brand for airline cabin crew and corporate women Louise M. Made in Italy they are known as the best cabin crew shoes ever!

 

 

Many successful businesses have started from humble beginnings. It is frequently through one's empowerment that a business  flourishes and thrives to its full potential. Powerful influences, adulthood experiences, and self-develpment are often the key elements that make a substantial difference whether its small success or massive success.

In this episode Pippa Candido, a born entrepreneur from Western Australia, Founder and Director of the award-winning business The Little Bar Cart, shares the beginning of her empowerment journey as a child and how she started her business through her passion for hospitality. She is now empowering others, find out how. 

Below is a transcript of the interview for your reading enjoyment. 

Louise Matson:
I'm absolutely delighted to have with me Pippa Candido on the Louise M Empowerment series. Pippa is a born and bred Western Australian, wife, mother of two, and the founder and director of the Award-Winning business, The Little Bar Cart. She's a born entrepreneur and ideas girl and always knew she was destined for business ownership. While studying Pippa took the opportunity to apply for an exchange program through the university, allowing her to complete her bachelor's degree in the United States. Since returning Pippa has written and published her own fun Aussie themed book, started and sold a successful wedding supply busines, and she and her husband have co owned a hospitality venue here in Perth, Western Australia. It became clear that hospitality and customer service were Pippa's true passion and so The Little Bar Cart was created in 2016. The Little Bar Cart is a mobile beverage service, which is now licensed in 15 regions globally. In 2020 Pippa won the award for innovation in the Western Australia, Small Business Awards. With her persistence and passion and Pippa at the helm there's no limit to where The Little Bar Cart could go next. Welcome Pippa Candido.

Pippa Candido:
Thank you so much for having me Louise.

Louise Matson:
Now I think you left quite a bit out of your bio actually. You have done so much more and of course I know that and throughout our conversation, perhaps we can delve into a little bit more of that as well. And look, I could talk to you about business and all sorts of things resilience, many, many things, but today it's about empowerment and where that empowerment for you came from. So let's start with your definition of empowerment.

Pippa Candido:
Okay. I think empowerment is such a multifaceted term and thing for me, but I would have to say there's three things that I believe to be empowerment. And one of them is inner confidence and self-confidence, and that is to honor you and to be you and to love yourself and to be your true, authentic self, whether you're just on your own or with your dog or with your partner and family, or with complete strangers. I think it's so important to honor who you are as a person, and to really love that person. Then I would probably also say it's about self-belief. So going out into the world and finding your passion and your following, you're chasing your dreams and believing that whatever you want in your life you can achieve by setting goals and believing in yourself. And the third one for me is self-worth and really that's about showing up for yourself every day, making, creating, forming habits and sticking to them, good habits for yourself. And it's about positive affirmations. And there's one, one person Jim Rohn. I don't know if you've probably heard of motivational speaker and he always says you are the average of the five people you spend most of your time with. And I think that's really important because you want to surround yourself with people like you, who are true and authentic, and who are your tribe and will support you and encourage you and stand by you through your journey. And I think those three things are probably what empowerment means to me.

Louise Matson:
I did have someone else actually who I have interviewed as well. And it's interesting she said, confidence is something you can put on, you know, it's on the outside, but it's that true belief and so it was really interesting that you said that too.

Pippa Candido:
And I think it's really important to remember that we're all human. Everyone has their ups and down, you know, outs and downs in life, but staying true to who you are and knowing that everyone makes mistakes and being able to forgive yourself for mistakes, and everyone has a past, but we all have this amazing future. And it's keeping your thoughts positive and going in with your head held up and saying you've got this.

Louise Matson:
Yeah, well done and Jim Rohn I love listening to him. He's quite funny, Very entertaining. So, if that's your definition and I truly believe that that's you, how did you become that? So I'd love to take you back to your childhood and talk a little bit about that. And, you know, where were you within your family unit and did you have siblings? Did your parents make you feel empowered? Was it your parents that made you feel that way? So, let's start that journey.

Pippa Candido:
Okay. Well I have two parents who are still married and I have two sisters and I'm the middle child, so definitely middle child syndrome there. So there was definitely some healthy competition between my sister and I and sports and things like that. My oldest sister, I should say, because we were quite, we're only 20, 20 months apart. So I think that that is actually a really good thing to have you know, to take that empowerment through, to your adulthood. But I think I always felt quite empowered. I had really encouraging parents and I started out very young with business savvy. I suppose you could say my parents were both they owned a business, they bought a cheese factory actually. And my dad and my mum bought it when it was in Osborne Park making just two cheeses and took it down to Margaret River where Fonty Farm and ended up becoming the Margaret River Cheese Company.

Pippa Candido:
It became an international business eventually. So I watched that journey and how hard they worked. My dad also was a huge influence in where I wanted to, where I saw myself being as an adult. So I would go out and get the neighborhood kids over and charge them. I'd put a play on for them and an activity afternoon. And then with one of my friends down the road, we'd find all the toys we didn't want any more and we'd lay them out the front and I'd go to the local deli in the morning and buy 10, 20 cent lolly bags and I'd sell them for a dollar out the front. It was pretty funny, but we made money.

Pippa Candido:
So I started it at a young age and then once I got to high school, I went to an all girls school in high school. I think that was very empowering in itself because we had a really great cohort and very encouraging. And even to this day, we all still keep in touch and encourage each other on our journey, especially those who we are in contact with through business. So that really set up a really good foundation for getting out into the real world after leaving school and starting our own journey with university and business and a career.

Louise Matson:
So your parents were a big influence?

 

Pippa Candido:
Huge influence. My dad and I actually used to, he used to have the box set of Jim Rohn motivational cassettes, they were back then. And we just, when we go on long drives down to Margaret River or driving around the city, we just sit there and listen to them. And that was a huge influence in my life. My dad and I listening to those tapes together.

Louise Matson:
Just listening to those! We were interested in listening to music, but you were actually interested in listening to those.

Pippa Candido:
Yes, yes. I know we did. I remember just, I was a deep thinker when I was a child and am still, I am still actually. But I remember I'd always have this vision of myself, being a business woman and holding my briefcase and it's not quite like that, but I always, that's what I, that was my perception when I was going to…

Louise Matson:
Have a silver tray. Actually, your story reminds me of Sara Blakely. So if you do that well.

Pippa Candido:
Funny, you should say that because I was another influence of mine, not that it was Sarah Blakely, but it came from Oprah Winfrey. I used to be, thanks to my grandmother who absolutely was obsessed about Oprah and watching her show, I'd tape it every day as well cause I just loved watching her shows. They were so inspirational and Oprah herself is an inspiration from where she's come in her, on her journey in life. But I remember one particular show was Oprah brought on all these entrepreneurs and they were telling their story. This was back in 2006, I think it was, it might even have been before that, but one of them was Sara Blakely and she was telling her story about how it started and how she wanted to get rid of the belly. And so she cut her panty hose off and put them on and then she thought that's a really good idea. And I remembered that one particular story in Sara Blakely. She was the one that I thought I'm going to do that one day. I'm going to have a story and I'm going to be on Oprah. So when she canceled her show, I was really upset.

Louise Matson:
She might come back and do a special one, But even that was an influence to you listening to other people's stories. So heading into adulthood you went on exchange to America, now do you think that gave you some confidence?

Pippa Candido:
Yes, yes, absolutely. I get bored very easily. So when I was in my last year, I just thought I didn't have a gap year. I went straight into university and when this program came up, I just jumped on it and got over there and spent six months living on my own. And I remember being on the plane on the way over thinking, oh my gosh, I'm going to have to do my own laundry. So leaving home for the first time, but it was such an eye opening, incredible experience to me. I got to do so much travelling and it was really empowering, but I think that's where I got one of my first business ideas to write this book because everyone kept saying to me, tell me something Australian. And I thought, well, I can make money off this. When I got home, I actually teamed up with a girlfriend who I met at university and we started every Wednesday we would meet and we would start writing this book together. And it's, it's a very fun tongue in cheek book. It's all the slang, Aussie food and recipes and some cartoons and things like that. But it is something that we're really proud of.

Louise Matson:
Fantastic. So now I met you when you as a flight attendant, where was that in your journey?

Pippa Candido:
So that was when I was 26. After I was a food technologist and that was part of my degree, I had a degree. You have a degree in food technology and then sort of minors in business and hospitality, but it just wasn't my passion, I suppose you could say. So I met someone and I'd always wanted to be a flight attendant cause they always looked so glamorous and she put my resume in and I ended up getting a phone call at Skywest and that's where I met you. And that was, I just remember going to work and coming home every day, just thinking, I just love this job. I love what I do. And it was the first time I'd actually really loved a job. I think actually I was in retail as well. And to be honest, I was selling sunglasses at Sunglass Hut and that was also one of a really fun job because it was with people. And that's what I love. I love working with people. I love talking to people and just, you know, having that, spending that time with real people.

Louise Matson:
So have you done any further studies? Like self-development, I mean, are you still listening to Jim Rohn tapes? Are you going to any conferences? You know, how does your sense of empowerment now as an adult.

Pippa Candido:
As an adult?  I'm a very, I think spiritually for me I joined, I've always been very spiritual and I love quotes and all that sort of thing. Cause I think they're so powerful and it, one of my favorite quotes is by Mahatma Gandhi. And I've actually got it on my wall up here. It's a read It is ‘keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words, keep your words positive because your words become your behavior, keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits, your habits positive because your habits become your values, keep your values positive because your values become your destiny’. And I think it's so true. It's about the energy that you put out into the world is what you will receive back. But with, with where I find my empowerment is spiritually, I joined a studio which is called Soul Vida and it's Pilates and yoga, but it's a signature form of unique qualities.

Pippa Candido:
Weight-Based Pilates, but it's very mindful. It's all about the breath. And it's all about a mind body balance and I'm addicted. I go every day because we meditate at the end of every session and it's really reconnected me back to my self, my true self. And I think that's where once, if my body mind body balance is at equilibrium, I feel empowered in so many more ways. The other thing I would say is physically and I think this goes for everyone, you need to take care of yourself. You need to prioritise your health and you need to get enough sleep and get enough exercise and drink enough water and eat well. And you know, I think that by prioritising your health is empowering.

Louise Matson:
Well, it sounds like you have so many tools that you feel that confidence and that inner belief a lot of the time, yes. One go down days. If you have any, Is it meditation? Is it a breath? Is a calling someone is what is it?

Pippa Candido:
I think, I think it is rest and, and knowing that it's okay to have down days, it's okay to feel like that. I do. I do make a few phone calls. I do cry and I do like to exercise as well. I do like to keep those habits and honor those habits because I think that's really important, but you know, just letting, I mean, knowing that it's okay to feel like that and then picking yourself up again and moving forward.

Louise Matson:
Now let's talk about little block, how to be, because what an extraordinary business it is. I have loved watching you on Instagram and following the journey and the places that little college explain to people, actually I not famous, but it's just someone who hasn't seen it. Yes.

Pippa Candido:
Well, it is a mobile bar in the shape of a vintage car with a bonnet and headlights and big wooden wagon wheels. And it's got a drinks tub on the top stainless steel bar area. And then the roof has brass hanging rails and then it has storage inside. It's very cute. It's very cute. People have fallen in love with it

Louise Matson:
And it's gorgeous too. It's high-end.

Pippa Candido:
Yes, I have seen a few people try to copy it, but it's very bad and they're not really allowed to. Yeah, it's actually just signed up a new licensee in Dallas and she even admitted, she said I took it to so many people and tried to have it copied, but no one could do it. And I said, well, that's fantastic.

Louise Matson:
Reading that, you know not just in Australia, Melbourne, Brisbane, Byron Bay.

Pippa Candido:
Yes. And yes, we've just announced Vancouver, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, and we're about to announce five more regions which we've signed, the contracts have been signed for those. They're all in America. So it's, it's amazing. It is absolutely amazing, especially because we only started selling licenses in North America since COVID happened. So I think that's pretty incredible because we were supposed to go to an expo in Vegas last year, but COVID locked everything down, but we already had one of the carts on the ship headed that way. So we'd been talking to a lady in Vancouver and she just said, yep send it up to me. So Yeah. So, we're launching five more, so watch this space

Louise Matson:
And I tell people that, you know, you have it anywhere. You can put it in a lift and go up to a hotel room.

Pippa Candido:
Yes, yes we can. It fits through a standard doorway. So we can go use that at any venue or shopping center in a lift. We can actually carry it upstairs. It's so versatile and we can take the roof off if we need to. There hasn't been one place where we haven't been able to fit yet or go. So it's a really great concept and people keep telling me that and, but it actually is

Louise Matson:
One little Pippa going out, I mean little amazing Pippa going out and doing this, how did you have that confidence to go, this can be a doable thing?

Pippa Candido:
When we started, we started with one cart and in the first week of launch, we started getting phone calls and emails from all over the world, asking if we were franchising because I made this launch video and it went viral on Facebook. I think it was just Facebook actually at that stage. And it was 5 years ago, but I don't think, oh no, I did put it on Instagram, that's right. And it went viral. People all over the world were commenting on this and sharing this. We had six and a half thousand shares in the first week or something like that. And we had the confidence. So we had people contacting us and we thought, and as well as that, we were so busy with bookings. We had to make the decision to book, to order another cart straightaway in the first week of launch.

Pippa Candido:
So we did that. So, we had two carts straightaway and then we went to a solicitor and kind of chat to her and she drew up all the contracts. Then I had a goal of selling my first license in under a year and everyone said, oh you're crazy you won't do it in under five, but we had a couple of gorgeous, amazing couple from Melbourne and they came to Perth and they visited us and absolutely loved the idea and ended up going ahead with the car one day in, under a year. So I have reached my goal.

Louise Matson:
Think you're born with that inner thing. Or do you think it developed throughout your childhood?

Pippa Candido:
I think I was born an entrepreneur I think I was born with it. It's deeper than something that's learned. I think for me anyway.

Louise Matson:
Well, amazing. And of course, you've certainly got some confidence and reassurance from all those people really interested and I mean, that's another way of feeling power, isn't it? When someone can go, right.

Pippa Candido:
Absolutely. And especially every event we go to, and I know all the other licensees tell me this all the time. People just want to talk about the cart, cause it's so cute. They love it. They want to know where it came from. And they want to know how I came up with when I'm doing the event, how I came up with the idea and you know, how I started and all that sort of thing. They just want to know the story because it is such a unique thing.

Louise Matson:
Do you think your Little Bar Cart and your business has a way of empowering others?

Pippa Candido:
I would like to think so. I think I would have, I would love to think that my story, even though it's only a small story, empowers people to go out and just take a risk, which is what I did, because I remember when ringing Trev saying, my husband, saying, I'm going to do this. No, I'm just going to do it. And he's like, oh my God. Anyway, he believed in me and we were off, we went and built this cart. But I'd like to think that I inspire people in that way, but also because of what we do where we're not just a mobile Bar Cart, as the brand we offer exceptional service where nothing is too much trouble. We love, we’re all people people and we love talking to people. We love people walking away and having an experience from The Little Bar Cart and really appreciating good customer service.

Pippa Candido:
And we also empower people who would love to be business owners and have never done it before, but we're giving people our licensees and opportunity to go into a business. If they're passionate about hospitality and customer service and just really have to take ownership of something and be their own boss. And I think that's really empowering, especially for people who a lot of that licensees, I've never operated a business before, and, but we're teaching, we teach them, we teach them what to do. We, we advise them, we, we offer so much information once they've signed the contracts and receive their cart that, you know, and give them the tools that they can go forward and be as successful as we are here in Perth.

Louise Matson:
Fantastic, and I believe that you probably empower those that have The Little Bar Cart, like at an event as well, because they're feeling pretty good there and know it's going to be great. I just know it's going to be a great event.

Pippa Candido:
I know as soon as I say The Little Bar Cart is here they will come and get their photos out.

Louise Matson:
They feel really good about themselves.

Pippa Candido:
Yeah.

Louise Matson:
If someone wanted to, well, of course I think everyone that needs The Little Bar Cart, how do they contact you? What's the best way?

Pippa Candido:
Well, you know, Australia where you can see if there is a Little Bar Cart available in your region by going to www.thelittlebarcart.com.au and in the U S it's www.thelittlebarcart.com. And if you are interested in becoming your own boss and having your own Little Bar Cart, you can go to both those websites, that and see if your region is available. If it's not listed, it's available.

Louise Matson:
How exciting.

Pippa Candido:
Well, I can't wait to announce the next five

Louise Matson:
How many do you have now?

Pippa Candido:
It'll be with those five. It'll be 15.

Louise Matson:
Oh, fantastic. So exciting. I look forward to continue watching your journey.

Pippa Candido:
Thank you so much.

Louise Matson:
Of course, you are just such a beautiful person. So thank you so much for spending some time with me today.

Pippa Candido:
It's been a pleasure. Thank you. I love love being here. Thank you so much

Louise Matson:
Grateful. And it's been really lovely to catch up with you.

Pippa Candido:
Okay. Bye.

To contact Pippa Candido
visit www.thelittlebarcart.com.au in Australia or www.thelittlebarcart.com in USA

Shop online at www.louisemshoes.com for very stylish and comfortable corporate and cabin crew shoes for your work day and long days on your feet. 

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