Working Towards Our Purpose

Welcome to Working Towards Our Purpose, a podcast that

offers a different perspective on what a job can be. For everyone

out there that's heard that voice in the back of their head asking for

something more, it's time to listen to it. I'm your host,

Gino, and join me as I interview people who have decided to

work in their own purpose. Together, we will learn, become

inspired, and hopefully find our own path towards working in our

purpose. Joining me today is

Dimitry Kotman, who is founder and owner of Zenith Point Candle, where he

handcrafts candles, body butters, and room sprays for self care

and relaxation. Dimitry, thank you for being here. How are you doing

today? Hey. Thank you for having me, Gino. I am

doing great a little everywhere, but, I guess

that's the life of a entrepreneur. Certainly.

Certainly. Juggling all the hats. So, yeah, I'm

glad to have you here. And, just wanna kinda start by getting to know you

a little bit more and, like, ask you about your growing up and, like, you

know, where you grew up, what kinda schooling you went to, and that sort of

thing, and whatever you feel comfortable sharing. Alright. No problem.

Well, hello, everyone. Like you said, I'm Dimitri.

I am 31 years old turning 32

in April. So too. Really? Yeah. In

April? Mhmm. April what? 16th. Oh,

nice. Alright. You're just a little bit older. I'm 21st.

Gotcha. Nice. So, yeah, I went

to elementary school in New Haven. Actually, that's where I was

born and raised. Born at Yale, lived on Sylvan

Avenue, so it's like the heart of basically New Haven

at that time. I went to Vincenimarro, which is no

longer there. It's, like, Sheridan Morrow now. Some

are they combine with, like, 2 schools together. Like, that's what they do nowadays.

I grew up, like, excellent grades.

My parents really enforced that in me, like, education is gonna be the best

thing for you growing up in this kind of world, and

you just wanna go to school, get the best grades that you can, and

that's about it. I grew up in a, like, sheltered home. It was home,

school, homeschool, church, homeschool, church. And,

that's another part of my life. It was a lot of Pentecostal

church basically almost every day of the week. Yes, I did

enjoy it. I felt forced at first, but I kinda like

grew into it in a way. And, then I

went to Worthington Hooker for middle school.

It's a small school. I don't even know oh, it's still around. It's

just like on Whitney Ave, and they have, like, this huge grandiose

site, like, building. Nothing what I went through. I was

just, like, it was an old church, and they just, like, rented it

out next door. And there, that's where I kinda, like,

struggled with, you know, like most kids, growing up in middle school, trying to figure

out who you are without people telling you who you are,

really. And then you're like, alright. Am I this? Am I that?

And you're still trying to figure out everything, like, I

said, life. Right after that, I got

a full right of scholarship, academic scholarship to Notre

Dame in West Haven. I'm still living in New Haven at that point, and it

was a, like, a good family and community

came together for me in a way. The schools, the principals,

social workers, everybody wrote me, like, very kind recommendation

letters knowing that I would not be able to afford to

go to Notre Dame at that time. You know, like, it was a tuition, private

school, Catholic, and then cost some cost a little

money to go. Hey. And I was excited to at

least receive the academic scholarship. I did not wanna go to an

all boys school whatsoever. That was not the cool

thing to do. That was not my plan. I wanted to, you know,

follow my friends and do art school and,

hey, that's just how my cards fell. And it was one of

the best things that I could have done in my growing up time

was going to Notre Dame. They introduced me to so many

situations that I would have not been in in a regular public school.

The education was great. Oh, man. It was brutal

brutal and, like, it was a college preparatory school.

So they really wanted to make sure that you're, you know, ready for

college. So it was college work. Like I said, it was

tough, but I made it through. In the end,

it's literally everything that comes up in a lot of conversations. Oh,

where'd you go to high school? Notre Dame? Oh, really? Did you do this? Did

you do that? Do you know so and so? The college that I went to,

Alberta's, most of my teachers ended up being from

Notre Dame and, a lot of the,

advisors. And I was like, wow, like, we are everywhere. So, you

know, keep my best foot forward, keep trying to do well because you never know

who's watching those n d eyes. Yeah. I

went to college. I went to Southern right away because, you know, college preparatory. You

gotta go straight to college. Unfortunately, I was not matured

enough to be in a school by myself, you know,

coming from a sheltered life and having total freedom.

It was, let's just say, I had a great time

and stopped going, needed to get to work. I

actually just recently finished all my classes at

Albertus. Magnus Congratulations. Haven. Thank you. Thank

you for a bachelor's in computer

information systems. It is something that, I don't know, it was

kinda always dear to my heart just like anything software, computer, electronics.

I was the one that would take apart my computer and try

to put it back together. Replacing motherboards

and just digging in there and learning as I went. So I was like, hey,

let me get a little education background in that.

You know, I had went to school for psychology,

sociology, and early

childhood education. So I'm, like, I was in a

mix of everywhere, and I was, like, let me just get in a

place where I know that I will be happy, and

something that's still gonna be able a great flourishing career.

IT, communications, all of that is becoming the

world that we're in. AI, like, that is

something that wasn't around, you know, a couple of years ago, and here we are

full blast into it. Yeah. There's still, like, a lot of policies that has

to be dealt with, but it's the wave of the future. And,

like, I wanna be able to fix anything.

I had, like, a little web design class, which I

really enjoyed. I was able to incorporate that into my business.

But, yeah, no. Hey. That's my greatest achievement so far. I am

done with this degree. Gonna keep

going for something else. Now I'm really into nursing,

so my idea was to go into health care technology

where I can build these instruments and have

recommendations for even their softwares and teach these

softwares and be able to evolve and progress in this health

care technology world as well. Interesting. Yeah.

Thanks for sharing all that. That's my background, dude. Like, it's it's

everywhere, but I'm here. Still young guy. Right? Yeah. No.

Definitely. I think it's super important to, like, try a bunch of different things and

figure out, you know, what it is that you like. So it's it's awesome that

you have tried different things and kinda trying to meld maybe

2 different worlds into, like, a future path. I think that's

that's, you know, nice that you can use different areas of,

of things that you like. So, what do you like

currently, you said you do do some nursing now. Is that, something that you,

like, did while you were going to school? I did

private pay nursing. So I was able to get hired through a

company with no, like, nursing background or

even really experienced on degree training, and they gave me training, and

I was able to do it for this one person. And growing up,

I grew up like with my grandparents and my great grandparents.

So it kind of came natural for me to be able to

wanting to take care of somebody and be able to try to heal them

and my mom's a great little self prescribed doctor. In a

way, she was like, honey, it's this, and most of the time it is that.

And from, like, with her experience telling me, I I kinda

grew on me in a way. So after that, I was like,

alright. Maybe I do wanna go into health care. It was just the nursing part

of it and timing just never really worked out, but I'm in a great

place where I could have a degree now. I don't have to

do these little steps before. Like, there's bridges just for

that. And that's something that I can still, you know,

jump into. My partner right now, he's a I don't wanna

say a retired nurse. He nursing from over 20

years and went into, like, another field of nursing, which is the case management

field, getting people out of the hospital, making sure that they're safe

discharges. And with our, like, our relationship

now, I still wanna go into something like that.

And it's, you know, exciting and scary at the

same time. But I just wanna be able to, in the end,

heal the world. Yeah. That's awesome.

Appreciate that. So so when did the business start?

When did you start your business, and when did the idea come from? And, you

know, tell us about that. Alright. No problem. So Zenith

Point started in literally

2020. Right? And the beginning of the

COVID era, Like most businesses,

people got laid off and wanting to put their

energy into something creative. And me has already created a

background as long with, like, I got into art. So I

was drawing, painting, sewing,

crocheting, even playing around with, like, making candles.

So this all started by my partner,

Scott. Really, he gave me the idea that I'm was just

making candles. He was like, this is a

great candle and I think other people will like it too.

You should just see just put stuff out there and see what people

think about it. This could be a way for you to have an

income and to be able to be your own boss. And I was, you know

what? That's great, because I got laid off. I was working at

a nursing home as a, admissions coordinator,

And most right in the beginning, got laid off and still

needed to make an income. And I was like, now is the perfect time to

do anything that I wanna do, which was

school and now try to make a business.

I started by making candles, bath soaks,

and whipped body butter. This product, I was able

to make little sets and give them to my partner because he worked in

a hospital still at this time, and it was geared towards

nursing. You were beat up and you needed to

be able to relax at home, I wanted to give you that spa

quality, self care essential line, and

try to make it as easy as for, you know, people in health care after

their long shifts. And let's say they

loved it. They loved it just like my partner

did. And they're like, oh my gosh, we want more. We're willing to

pay for these now. Like, I was just giving them away. Like, oh, this is

a fun hobby. Like and it was like, alright. How much do you want for

this? I'm like, selling something that I made

as you know, even though Scott was saying oh, that's my partner

in Scott. He was saying that this should be a business. And I'm like,

it's still a hobby. Like, I wanna have fun with it. It's in

a saturated market. Everyone started wanting to make candles at home,

because it was, you know, easy and beautiful.

You were able to enjoy it after.

And, literally, from there, they're like like I

said, they wanted to buy them. I gave them a price. They started sending me

money. I started making more and more sets and they were buying them

as gifts, buying them for their bosses, daughters,

tons everyone just started zooming in. Yes. We want some of your stuff. Dimitri,

we love you. So obviously, your stuff is gonna be great even though we heard

great news about it. We're still gonna try it out. And here we

are today. I was like, zenith point. Zenith point means the

highest celestial's point in, like, space,

or it means the most successful point of time. And

from that, I was like, this is gonna be my

success. I've always felt like I had, like, a background of

not bad karma. Just nothing was working how I needed to

be. Each little step was taking me 2 steps back, and I

could never get to that next step forward. And with this

business, I was able to mentally put myself

in a new place, physically put myself in a new

place, and financially put myself into something that

I wanted to continue doing. From there,

I was like, hey. Let's do this. I got

my LLC. I got my EIN.

I was like, what's next? What how what else can I do to make this

a legit business? I was always worried about taxes,

but, hey, I was, like, worried about that down the line, Dimitri. You just

wanna get something on the books and try to make this,

you know, flourish, actually become one of those household

names products. You know, I wanna be up there with Yankee Candle and

Gooseneck. Like, these are great places. And with

that, hey, here I am. I added more products to

the line. I added a room spray, bath

soaks. I'm working on a face toner. I

did incense. And, basically, everything that I needed

to make it a self care line. Self care

became, you know, very popular. No one was,

oh, self care? That's a thing thing now? Yes. It's

always been a thing, and that's what I was doing during when I got

laid off before starting the business. Everyone got into the

depression. I had a little slip passion, and the best way to get out of

it for me was self care. Yes. Taking baths,

showers, moisturizing my body, healing my body from the

inside out. I don't wanna see dry patches. I'm trying

to heal myself first. And if it's healing me, it's

obviously gonna heal everyone else. And, you know, like I

said, here I am still at it 3

years 4 4 years now. 4 years later,

and 3 stores so far. I'm in Avant

Garde in Brantford, Stoney Creek Depot in

Brantford, Gracious Gifts in Brantford,

and actually, Anna Visa Salon in Wallingford. So that makes 4. Working

on more locations as we speak. I have a website

now that was not there for, like, the first two

years of the business. It was all word-of-mouth. And

that's how I was still going, word-of-mouth and people reaching out

to me. Hey. We wanna try your product. I have VNA

Community Central. Well, if they're, like, do hospice

care, and they come out to your homes and do the nursing at the home,

or even in the skilled nursing facility. I've done Mother's

Day presents for them. I've done nursing week

gifts for them. And that's the most exciting part is being able to create

something that's gonna make someone else happy just as it makes

me and my partners and everyone else happy.

Yeah. That's awesome. I I love when people have, you know, products or

even all the whole business designed around something that they just did,

like, you know, for themselves or as a hobby, and then everybody comes to you,

and you're like, oh, I can I can charge from this? I thought that was

funny that you you didn't even expect to, like, to get paid for it. So

what was that like to, like, have to then put a price on something that,

like, you didn't even really expect to get? Was that difficult? Very

difficult. It's like, how do you put a price on something that you're

just had fun making? It was like, my gosh. How do I

do this? My partner Scott stepped in. It's like, you gotta

break it down. You gotta do this, do this, do this, and then,

hey, that's gonna be your price point. And he was like, don't forget the time

that you put into this, your sourcing. And

I came up with or it came out to be $12 for my first

candle. It was a 10 ounce soy candle, like, still

making the soy candles. $12 just for the candle. For a

set, it was $25. I wanted to be able to make it

affordable, something that I could be able to afford

without having a grandiose income. Something,

like, super pricey, like, these certain candles, paying $30 a

candle, or even being a $10 candle but not having

that quality to it. It still had, you know, a lot of love and

quality in my product. So I was like, can't make it too expensive, can't

make it too cheap because then people are like, why is it so cheap?

But, hey, no. I got there $12 for the first candle.

Currently, I am at 1695, which is a

big jump. But with that jump, I have

a whole new candle vessel. It's very sleek,

masculine and feminine at the same time and can fit in

everyone's space. And it's a great, just like, decor in a

way. And I was like, I have to have something that still looks

nice on the shelf. Yes. It's great quality, but it

has to blend in or stand out, however you need

it to be. I worked with 420 Custom Supply.

They made my original logo, which is still the

original logo, and all my labels for all the

16¢ that I had at that time. And like I

said, 1695, you're gonna get one of the

best candles that you receive, soy candles at that. Mhmm.

Yeah. I can attest to that. You have this scent, Moroccan Cashmere

that's just, like, amazing. The first time I met you, that was the candle that

I bought. Yes. And then the second time I saw you, I bought the body

butter, and the scent is just, like, so amazing. I need to get some more

from you because it smells so good. Oh, yes. You know? How do you come

up with the scents and, like, you know, is that like a a I

imagine, like, a long process to try to, like, get them right and tweak them

and stuff? So with me, I ended up working with

another company that actually makes the sense. What

I was able to do was just kinda choose what I wanted to be in

my line, and I was thinking, alright, it's just

self care. I need something relaxing. White Sage and Lavender

was my first scent that I've chosen and worked with that one for like

a good month. So everyone really got to know that scent and I was everyone

loves a lavender. Lavender is calming, relaxing, smells

great. The white sage along with it just gave it an extra boost.

And, like, with that, hey, I was able to come up with so many more

different ideas that I wanted to have with my line. It became,

alright, not just the self care, like, this is still I'm making

just candles as well. I have a spring line. I have a

summer line, which is fun fruity scents. I have

the fall line. That's when you came into the

Moroccan Cashmere because I try to keep it seasonal, so the Moroccan Cashmere. And

then now I have a winter line. And it's just slowly going,

adding more and more and more. I'm actually starting also a

men's line, so it's dedicated to men. It's, you

know, stronger scents, more muskier,

vanilla, let's say, you know, all of the things that you're

wanting. Your room or your office that smell like as a man, you wanted to

be like, alright. This is really nice. It smells good in here. Clean

and strong actually. So I

just created a Cuban tobacco scandal which is gonna

be named Havana and I believe you're gonna love that one.

I'm sure I will. All your stuff smells really good, and,

yeah, definitely. If if people haven't checked them out, they should.

So talk to me about the Collab program that you were a part of. I

know that Collab is like a local New Haven organization that helps

businesses grow. So what was that process like for you, and and how

has it helped your business? Well, Collab was a great foundation

for my business and be trying to accelerate my entrepreneurship.

I was on Instagram And so, like, one of their graduating

classes from the spring, and it was the empanada

girl, Madeline. Now, she has a shop. Yeah. Do you know

it? I know her. Yeah. Her name's not Madeline. I'm trying to remember her name.

But It's yeah. Yeah. She has the empanada shop, and she's got, like, other businesses

too. She's she's awesome. Yeah. So I saw her, and that really

that was my inspiration and my encouragement to apply

for the program. I was like, hey, I already done one, which

was the I've Squared at the live Yale New Haven

Library. It was that was my first one. Gave me, like, you know, my

foundation for my LLC, how to run a

business. And with Collab, I was thinking, how can I take this to

the next level with that background experience already? How can I make

this an even better business? And with that, they were able to

help me with my pitch. That pitch, it

was the Bethany. But, yes, it was so exciting making it,

but so nerve racking. It's just like, how can I

convince somebody to buy my product when so far it's been

word-of-mouth and it kinda just sells on its own in

a way, which is great and easy? But when you have to put

it out there and you really gotta sell it, this is my wanting.

This is what I need. This is the capital that I'm looking for. And with

that, that gave me all the knowledge that I needed to be able

to, if I wanted to partner with somebody, let's say, reach

out into the community, they gave me goals on to

basically clear out my stock, my inventory. That was one of my issues. I

was like, I'm keeping making candles, but like I said, I was doing them

seasonally. So I'm left with some back stock and it was like, hey.

Get rid of what you have and let's kinda not start fresh, but start off

with a clean sheet. Let's see exactly how much you're bringing in. Let's see

how much is going out actually. And it was a

great group of entrepreneurs. We are still in

communication today in our little Instagram chat. Shout outs

to you guys. I was not able to technically graduate from

the program or, like, do my pitch because I had a deaf and a family

at that time, but they were still very along with

me and gave me all the, you know, encouragement and

confidence that I needed to still continue my business because it was, you know,

with life happening all kinds of ways. It's like,

alright. My business still has to be a business and it can't be pushed on

the back burner. So they allowed me to even create a schedule

certain days. You go in and you do everything that you can with your

business. Let's try not to, oh, a little something here, a little

something here. Complete a project, complete an idea. They

help me with my social networking, how to

post certain things, when to post, what's gonna capture the

audience, and how to receive great feedback from your

target audience, which is another thing that we had to figure out who's our

target, who are we aiming to sell this to. And like, you know, most

business like, hey, you know, it's for everyone. Anyone can do this. Anyone can

buy it. It works, but not in most cases.

You have to target a place and then it will

slowly make its way to wherever you need it to be.

Like I was saying, Collab was great foundation for this

business. It kept me on my feet and it's still keeping

me on my feet. I'm still doing everything that I was doing during the program.

I was in school during the program at the same time, so I was working

full time, school full time, and doing the program

during the week. So it was busy, but, hey, it wasn't

able to help me manage everything in my life.

Yeah. That sounds like a lot going on at once and a lot to balance

and and manage. But I did wanna touch on, like, the the community piece

of Collab because I think that's like a a huge piece of not only,

like, the education that they teach you, but then also the cohort that you're with

and and the other people that are kinda doing the same thing as you. How

important has community been to you in your business? And I

imagine all areas of your life, you know, we talked about church earlier, and that's

a big community. How has community helped you? Community

has been my foundation in

life. It's like we stated, going from church, I'm

surrounded by a community of like minded people

that wants the best for you and trying to get you to that

place as well. With that, I've my grandpa,

he is a or he was. He was like a supervisor

maintenance of a homeless shelter in New Haven. That's

where I got a lot of my wanting to serve the

community from was just being right by his side and

meeting all these families. Like, we were able to literally have

these kind of meetings with these people and emotionally connect with

them and to let them know, like, this isn't the end. It's kind

of the beginning. Yes. We all fall, but there's always gonna be

somebody, the community, that should be there to be able to

help lift you back up. I done so

much community service growing up, just

naturally. I was in the food banks,

soup kitchens. This was all before it was mandatory for

me in high school because each year, you had to complete a certain amount of

volunteer hours in different kind of places. So I was

like, hey. I'm already used to this. This is fun for me. Like, yes.

Alright. I'm gonna go I'm gonna volunteer here. So that opened me

up to a lot more, you know, situations and people

personalities and how can I find a way to

uplift your day in a way? Like, I'm a kid. I can't give you

the things that you need, like the money or even the

home, but I'm going to try to put a smile on

your face. I'm gonna help you stop the crying and

feeling worried about everything because me as a kid, I

I saw it all. And, you know, and these being inside the homeless

shelter with my grandpa, they gave him a place to stay in there so that,

you know, he can always be on point. And like I said, I basically

grew up with them. So I lived there with them. So I could say I

grew up in a homeless shelter, but I had a little home in there and

a community family surrounding me. With Collab,

I love the ending pitch, the big kind of

party thing that we had together. They invited everyone from the

community to come out to even just ask questions, people that

wanted to support us. They wanted to know more about these local businesses

because that's what it's all about. We gotta keep this word-of-mouth and that's what the

community is all about. We're going to continually talking about

what's great, what's gonna be the next best thing, how can we make

something better. And, you know, if somebody's talking about Zenith

Pointe. Hey, this person right here, he has great self care products.

It's gonna circle the community. And just like how it happened in the

hospital setting with the products in the beginning, word-of-mouth. It was just

that community wanting to to support me. And here I am

now, you know, further in my entrepreneurship,

and I'm still depending on the community to

keep me up because that's, you know, that's it's you guys

that's keeping us going. We wanna continue to bring out more stuff for

you. We want the feedback, good or bad. Like,

there's no such thing as bad feedback. I'll say that it's just great

criticism to help some make something better for, you

know, yourself and for the next person. I hope that

answered the question. Yeah. It did. For sure. No. It did.

And that's something that I, like, picked up too was when you were talking about,

like, being a kid and only being able to, like, you know, try to bring

joy to people because that was all that you could offer. That's definitely something that

I noticed as you vent. Like, the first time I talked to you, you're like,

you were making me laugh, and you're making me, you know, me comfortable and talking

to you. And that's, like, you know, I guess you could say a transferable skill

or something that you take with you. Was it difficult for

you to, like, first start vending your product? Because it's it's kinda 2 different

things. Like, making it's one thing, but then, like, selling it to people could

be, you know, super intimidating, at least it would be for me. Oh,

man. It was. It I was so nervous for my

first show. My first show was, in New

Haven. It was like a Sip and Shop type of thing. And I my

partner was working with somebody who also had a business, business,

who was running these kind of events. So I was like, have him come down.

Well, let's see what he could do. Let's see, you know, try to get him

some sales and get his name out there a little bit more. So

purpose. You know, I was so nervous, like, making the product. I

stayed up all night making everything and literally could

not sleep because of the nerves. I was like, what am I gonna say? How

is this gonna go? I don't sell products. I'm not like a

salesman, but my partner just reinforced it in me.

Dimitri, you're a people's person. You use your your

talent, your personality, and just literally let that shine. Try not

to think about it too much. Make sure you state your name and your

business and why you're doing this. That was the best advice

that he could give me. I literally just went out there, pure smiles.

Hey, like, you met me. It's just all smiles straight from the

beginning. They say this is a little infectious that a person is not,

you know, looking blah blah blah. Like, this is my business. Blah blah

blah. They're gonna be like, alright. Next. Like, you didn't attract

me. I had no feeling, no connection with that. So I'm

wanting to make a connection. And like I said, I was

kind of a people's person already. I was just able

to communicate in the short

conversations. It's not about just the weather. Try to have

an in-depth really conscious conversation about what's going

on. And it's not just about me and my business. I'm gonna ask you what

you like. What are you into and get to know you as well? It's just

literally I try to have a conversation with a person and if they like

the product, they like it. Most of the time, they're buying it just because

of me. I that's what my partner says. Like, you

know, you're the you're the face of your product. You are your

product. I try to keep that separate because I want my

product to seek for itself. I don't I don't wanna be able to, like, you

know, have to, you know, gas it up. Oh, you

definitely really need this. This is it. But, you know, just take it, dial it

back a little bit, encourage self care, and, you

know, let the product speak for itself. But I'm definitely gonna give you a good

time if you're at my event or, you know, checking me

out. Mhmm. I can attest to that. But, yeah, I

mean, that that's totally part of it is, like, getting, you know, somebody to like

you and then then trying your product and being, like, oh, this is really good.

Like, he wasn't just, you know, saying that because that was totally my experience. You

know? Like, so I think that that's a that's a good strategy for

sure to have to have both of those pieces. So I also

wanted to ask you about, like so you do the vending and you've done, like,

you know, different shows and stuff like that, but then you've also gotten into locations.

How's how's that been? And what's the process like to get into, like, a

physical location? So it takes me way back to, you know, my

first event. It's nerve racking. You

literally once again trying to convince somebody, hey, like, you should buy

this. It's really good stuff but you have to do it in such

a business way. Like, you can yes. Personality is great,

but you also have that the paperwork for it. You need your price

list, your wholesale pricing, and that was another thing my

partner to help me with, how to create wholesale pricing.

It's a fun thing to look out

into the community and be able to say, I believe my product

can fit in that store. I believe we share the same vibes,

and I believe we can make a great connection with this. My first

store was avant garde, which is actually down the street from me.

It's a holistic wellness center. I came across,

like, their I wanna say they were holding an event,

and they wanted me to come down and do an event with them.

And literally from that meeting, it was like, we have to have this product in

a store. How can we do this? I was like, oh my gosh.

I do small batches. How am I gonna

upgrade again to put this in stores? Because,

yes, I you know, out there doing the shows, but they're not a

constant turnaround of people coming in, buying, and having to

restock it. It's like I bring what I bring, and if you buy it, you

buy it. If you don't, hey, it comes back with me and I try it

again at the next show. And then I try to, you know, think about

what's selling more. But reaching out to these places is

it's easy. It's easy. You're literally I send out an email

with, my price point, a couple of pictures, and

access to set up a meeting with them. And with that, I was able to

come up with an idea to do signature scents

for these shops. So I was like, alright. I have so many scents.

Which one would you like? Would you like to do a mix? And it was

like, hey. We wanna make it special so that they have to come here to

buy your product. Here we go. Whatever scent you

wanna do, let's try to combine that together. We sit down. I

bring in, like, 5¢ or, you know, something that they're interested in, and

we do the mix right then and there. And it was that's it. That's

perfect. Here you go. That's your signature scent for your store. Now,

let's see how it sells and then, you know, take it from there. Right

now, my, with gracious gifts, my products

got in there. It was word but word-of-mouth. The

community had my back again. Dimitri, you need to reach out to

this lady. She has a shop. And I think your products will be great in

there. Let her know you I sent her over your way. And let's see, you

know, good luck. I reach out to them, put on

my personality. Hey, guys. How's it going?

And, you know, promote my products. And it's like, yes, we love that. Come

on down, set up the meeting and, you know, like I said,

let's see how it's going. The restock is the best part about a bit all.

You're seeing, oh, what's selling? What's not selling? How can I make

something even better? With avant garde, I try to do it seasonally.

So I'm gonna leave a whole bunch of sense there for that

season, see what sells the best. And so I know for the next

season, hey, let's try to do more of these so we could have a little

bit more of people wanting, you know, that stare. I need

to do that there with, I did, like, a

crystal candle, which is like a full solstice of the body if you're

into the chakras from head to toe. And,

with a little bit of extra lavender in there, and they ate it up.

Eat it up. I just have to, you know, find a way to make it

special to these places. Literally, it should sell for

itself. Now, we came up with this together. Like we say, you know, some

sense does better than the others. And that's when we work together and, you

know, hey, let's take this out. Let's do a trade out. I do trades out,

so let's try this then. You already paid for the product. Wholesaling was

great. And now I am on to, like I

stated, trying to get into more shops. I am

working on with, Gather at Bloom in New Haven on

Edgewood Avenue and trying to get some self care products in there.

And like we said it, you know, let's see where it takes me. The goal

is to have my own shop. Definitely for sure.

It's disclosed disclosed, you know, coming from

not even having the idea of a business to wanting to open up my own

shop and do this full time all now. And I'm gonna try to do it

in Brantford or, you know, whoever is gonna be best,

whoever is best for me. I'm gonna make my way there.

Yeah. That's awesome. That's, has what what a good idea to have, like,

signature scents for specific shops. Like, that's genius

to be able to get people into, like, the specific shops. And then, yeah,

having a shop your own would be really cool too. Yeah. And, yeah, you make

it sound so easy, like, from starting to, like, having your own shop. I

I'm curious as to, like, what was the most difficult part, do you think, of

of your business? Because I think a lot of times people, like, have really good

ideas of something, but they think it's, like, too much of a big task

and they never end up getting started. Like, what was the biggest challenge that you

had with your business? The biggest challenge was definitely

the income for your the supplies in the beginning.

You're doing this by word-of-mouth. No one is giving you money

for it just yet. You're kinda just trying to get it out there. So

that upfront money was definitely one of the hardest things that I had to, you

know, come out of my pocket with. I got my

taxes. I was like, alright, invest in yourself.

Invest in this business and see where it takes you. You know, most people

take their taxes and, you know, whatever they do with

it. And I was thinking, let's do this.

And with the foundation of not having a business,

a no business background, that's where I kinda messed

up. Plan out your buying and

sourcing. I had no idea where

where how to obtain any of this stuff,

and I was on Amazon. Everyone was doing Amazon.

It's like, you know, I became a prime member, and whatever was on there,

that's what I got. Down the line, I'm realizing I should've

did my research and shopped around to different

locations to find out which one is gonna be the most cost

efficient for the business and to be able to allow me to have a

return once it starts selling. Good night. I don't

wanna I came out of my pocket about $3 for the

business. That was for everything. I bought probably

about 1400 jars,

my labels, new equipment, like, my candle

melter. I had literally just a one single thing. I was making 3

candles at a time. That's like really small batch type

business. So I'm like, how am I gonna be able to upgrade

this? Got a bigger wax melter, more pourers,

even my body butter because I'm, like, adding more items at this time too. I'm,

like, what else can I do? What else can I do? It's self care. Like,

I got the business going. Let me add this. Add this. I shouldn't

have added so many things so quick because it

costs more to keep trying to replace those items. And, yes, I'm doing it

on Amazon, which is giving me free shipping, but there was

better options out there that was, you know, like I said, more

cost efficient. And I got along with, you know, my work my

way around Alibaba. If you guys are looking for, you

know, big quantity, low amount,

Alibaba was the way to go. Do your research as

first for that as well because I got,

some supplies actually stuck in customs because I had no idea

how to work my way in and around customs. So till this

day, it's still there. I that's lost.

Now I try to, you know, do my research first and, try to stick

with the same businesses. Like I stated, it was that having

a foundation of how to source your items

correctly. Mhmm. Yeah. And I'm sure, you

know, there's many things that you have to learn as a business owner, especially as,

you know, doing everything yourself with no background in business. I was the same way.

It's like there's so many things you have to learn. Sometimes you gotta learn the

hard way to, you know, learn the lesson, but Yep. Yeah. You gotta keep going.

Yeah. And that's the that's the key is, like, not giving up. So, yeah,

as we're we're kinda coming to the end of our time here, I like to

ask everybody, what the word purpose means to them and, like, to

kinda get their own definition of purpose because that's kind of a important word to

me, and I know that everybody has their own definition. So how would you define

purpose for you? I love this question because it's something that

I'm currently not currently, but within this business,

it was to what is my purpose? What am I

doing here? And how can

I bring this type of energy out of me?

My purpose, I've always felt this. Purpose is

literally something that's true to your heart that you cannot

get away from. And anything that you do, you will know

you won't even notice it. Like, this is what you're doing. Like, my

personality comes off naturally, but I feel like

my personality is here for a purpose. I have a purpose in

this community to continue to share love

and strength and joy and be able to lift up

anybody just as they lifted up me. And, oh,

man. No. That's a good one, dude. Like, what is purpose to me?

It's yeah. No. Wanting to achieve

something that's really dear to you close into your heart. Yeah.

I think Yeah. No. I think that was a great definition. Like, yeah, something that,

like, feels true to your heart, and it almost seems like you're not even doing

it. Like like, how we you explained with, like, the selling and being a

salesman. It's like you it's already in your personality, and you don't even, like,

realize that you're making those connections with people. So yeah. No. I love that definition.

That's awesome. So and then, you know, one last question too, like, where can

people find you? Where can people look at your products, buy your products? I know

you mentioned the locations, and I'll put those in the show notes so people can

find them. But where can they find you online? Alright. So

you can find me on Facebook at Zenith

Point CC, Instagram z dot

nith point. Check out the Instagram. It's working on it.

It's getting up there. My website is www.zenithpoint.com.

No period in the between the z and the p and

you can also find me on Etsy. I'm on there. Even if you just

try googling Xenith Point, you should be able to find me there as well.

Perfect. And I'll put a bunch of links for people to find the products.

And, like I said, Moroccan cashmere is my favorite scent. So if you

don't if you don't know where to start. Yeah. No. That one's a great

one all year round. Thank you so much for,

sharing all your wisdom, Dimitry, and your personality with us and your

experiences. I wish you the best in the future, and hopefully, we'll see you

soon at, another show. Hey, Janelle. Thank you for having me.

You are doing your purpose. You're slowly

coming into your purpose. I was like, it's come happening at the same time. You're

great. I love this little podcast thing that you got going on. Well, not little,

but like, I love your podcast thing that you have going on. And, yes, you're

coming into, you know, different peoples and trying to find their purpose, but

I believe you found your purpose. Well, thank you so much. I really

appreciate that. No problem. Means a lot to me. No problem.

Thank you for listening to Working Towards Our Purpose. If you liked today's

episode and are interested in more, you can sign up for my Substack

newsletter with the link in the show notes, where I share thoughts,

tips, and ideas that I'm learning along my journey to help inspire

you. The show was produced by Pleasant Podcast at pleasantpodcast.com.