Hi everyone and welcome to Second Life. I'm your host Hillary Kerr and for those of you

just tuning in, Second Life is a podcast spotlighting women who have made major career

changes. We're talking about their work journeys, what they've learned from the process of

setting aside their doubts or fears, and what happens when they embark on their Second

Life.

Today I'm speaking with Candace Nelson, a banker turned baker, extraordinary, who left

a prestigious career in the high tech finance world to start a cupcake revolution as the

co-founder of the Sprinkles Empire. She's also a lovely human and the perfect person for

Second Life, so no further ado, I would like to welcome Candace Nelson. Hi! Thank you so

much for doing this. This is such a pleasure. Thank you for having me. It's truly a treat

on my end on a number of levels, especially because I am a carb enthusiast and I feel

like there are maybe now more than there used to be, but there aren't that many flag-carrying

ladies in Los Angeles who proudly proclaim their love of all things carbs. So, if it's a

carb, I'm in. In fact, I got a business devoted to it. And clearly it's thriving and expanding

and doing so well, so we're not the only ones. So I can't wait to get into what made you

decide to open the first-ever cupcake bakery in the height of the low carb craze back in

the early 2000s. But let's start by talking about what you did before you decided to reinvent

the cupcake. First things first, what did you study in college? Well, I went to a small liberal

arts college in New England and I always had been one of those well-rounded students. And

I was envious of my pre-law, my pre-med friends who had always known since they were very

little exactly what they wanted to do. I had no idea what I wanted to do. The one thing I did know

is that I was going to have to support myself. I decided as a result to become an economics major

...