Inspiring Conversations with Shannon Fitzgerald of Asha Candle

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannon Fitzgerald.

Hi Shannon, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
Creating has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. As a little girl, I would make little crafts from repurposed household items and give (or more often sell) them to my family. I guess I should have known back then that I was destined to become a small business owner. As I grew up, I took classes in just about every medium available: drawing, painting, pottery, photography, music, theater, writing, sewing, knitting…While I enjoyed each new endeavor and was even decent at a few of them, none of them really stuck. Then in 2012, after learning about the toxic ingredients in the candles I’d been burning my whole life, I decided to try and make myself a clean candle. I looked up the steps online, bought some wax and oils and gave it a go. While the candle itself wasn’t all that impressive, I felt a tremendous sense of satisfaction having created it. It was that aha moment I’d been searching for – a knowing that I’d finally found my medium. The funny thing is that candle making is the one class I didn’t take. It was an early lesson in how the right path tends to appear once we stop trying so hard to find it.

So I continued teaching high school full-time and made candles in my spare time. I read blogs, watched videos and learned everything I could about candle making. Eventually I got the hang of it and started giving them away to family and friends. I even daydreamed about starting a business after I retired from teaching down the road.

Then in 2018, my 41-year-old husband Jason was diagnosed with terminal cancer and our whole world changed in an instant. I dropped everything and immersed myself in all things melanoma, determined to be the best cancer wife possible while still holding down a full-time teaching job and helping parent my two young stepsons. Life was overwhelming and creativity was the last thing on my mind. Jason took a different approach and used his diagnosis as fuel. As a musician, he had always dreamed of making a solo record. Knowing his time on this earth was limited, he immediately got to work writing songs and recording them with his friends in the studio. He chose to maximize every second he had left on this earth doing what he loved with the people he loved most.

Jason died in 2020 but not before finishing his record. I’m grateful to have co-written and sang with him on the last track. It’s the most important piece of art I’ll ever create. In those two short years, J showed me and so many others how to live fully and fearlessly. He left behind a legacy of hope and a reminder of what matters most in this life. He continues to inspire me every day.

The next two years were very hard. I was just going through the motions trying to stay afloat. Until one day, I felt an unexpected spark of inspiration and decided to dust off my candle-making supplies and play around. Just like that I was back in the flow. For the first time in months, my grief quieted and I was filled with a sense of peace. A few months later during my morning walk along the Huron River, I felt a nudge from the universe that it was time to follow my own dreams. My plan to wait until retirement no longer made sense after everything I’d been through. So, in August of 2022, I took the leap and started Asha Candle Co. I didn’t have a road map or any real expectations, I was just answering the call from the universe, trusting that it would all work out. In many ways I’m still operating from that place.

I chose the name Asha for two reasons. First, my niece named me Asha when she was a baby and I’ve been Asha to her and her sister ever since. Second, the word Asha means hope. I sincerely hope my candles and my story will inspire others to take their dreams off the shelf and start living them now.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Given the adversity I’ve already faced in life, starting my business has been a relatively smooth road. I’ve had overwhelming support from friends and family, online sales have been trickling in, I’ve attended a few events and I’m lucky to be carried in a few local stores. Granted the learning curve has felt steep at times since I have no background in business or technology, but that’s where YouTube comes in. I’ve spent hours online learning about pricing, sales tax, shipping, design, packaging, accounting, etc. I love to learn though so that’s mostly been empowering. I certainly recognize my privilege in having a full-time job that pays the bills for now, so I haven’t had to stress too much about the numbers just yet. I’ve been able to focus on slow growth and increasing visibility one candle at a time. I’m sure once I start to set bigger goals for myself I will encounter more obstacles and receive more no’s than yeses.  I hope to meet those challenges with grace and use the resistance as an opportunity for growth.

I will say it has been particularly daunting trying to delve into the world of social media. As a teacher, I’ve always avoided social media for privacy purposes, as well as a general distaste for comparison culture. I see what it does to our young people and don’t want to contribute to the problem. But since owning a business in 2023 means having a social media presence, I settled on Instagram. I surprised myself by how much I enjoy taking photos and creating reels. It’s another creative outlet that I hadn’t anticipated. What I don’t like are the arbitrary rules about how much content one should post and when exactly to post it. I tried to work with the algorithm for about a week and found it sucked all the joy and creativity out of the process. So now I just create content when I’m inspired and post when I feel like it. Not the best business strategy perhaps, but it’s my way of keeping myself in alignment with my intention.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Asha Candle Co. is a one-woman business out of my home in Ypsilanti. I specialize in making highly scented, clean soy candles that you can feel good about burning in your home. I know this because I burn – and make – them in my own home. I hand-pour each candle in very small batches in my kitchen. This allows me to inspect the quality of each candle, ensuring my customer gets the very best product each and every time. If a candle doesn’t meet my standards in terms of scent or appearance, I won’t sell it. I won’t waste it either; I’ll burn it myself or give it to a friend. It’s good to be friends with a candle maker, especially with the increasing number of power outages we have in Michigan.

Unlike mass-produced candles that are made with inexpensive, low-quality ingredients, including paraffin, dyes, and fragrance oils filled with toxins, Asha candles are made with the highest quality ingredients delivering a slow, clean burn. I use 100% soy wax farmed in the USA, premium fragrance oils free from phthalates and prop 65 warnings, no dyes, cotton wicks, and recyclable jars. You can see the difference in the way Asha candles burn and certainly the way they smell. While my candles are highly scented and will give off a strong throw, they are not like the overpowering ones you’ll find in big box stores. I offer local pickup or shipping and thoughtfully package each order with recyclable bags, boxes and compostable packing peanuts.

I currently offer 10 signature scents with rotating seasonal scents in three different sizes. Smell is as personal as taste, so I make every effort to provide a wide array of scent profiles. I like to think I have something for everyone. I also offer custom labels for gifts or events such as bridal showers and weddings. I am excited to announce that I will soon be offering clean room sprays as well. While I have many more ideas for candle scents and products, I am committed to slow growth so that I never have to sacrifice quality.

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned during this journey is to keep my focus on my intention, the why of it all. Why do I make candles? Why did I want to start my business? Those questions help ground me when I start having doubts. They remind me of the joy I feel when I create and the desire I have to inspire others. Those questions have served me well throughout my 22 years as a public school teacher too. Whenever I get too caught up in the politics of education or exhausted by the challenges, asking myself those questions brings me back to the reasons I became a teacher. And my reasons are never about money in either situation. That’s not to say I don’t want Asha Candle Co. to be successful because I very much do. It’s just that I try not to make the outcome my driving force. The truth is that no matter how hard I work, there will always be outside circumstances beyond my control. That’s just life, a lesson I’ve learned that many times over. But I do have full control over my attention so I make every effort to keep it on what really matters. I’ve found that when I’m operating from a place of intention and creation rather than outcome, things just seem to fall into place, and opportunities appear out of nowhere. And it certainly makes for a more pleasant journey.

I am grateful to be on this new path and for all the love and loss that has led me here. I am grateful for the support I’ve received along the way and the lessons I’ve learned. I am grateful to each and every person who has purchased an Asha candle in support of my dream. And I am humbled and energized by the positive response.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ashacandleco.com
• Instagram: @ashacandleco
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/AshaCandleCo