How He Turned $3k Into $10M With This Surprising Blueprint

in this video Jam Lang shares his five-step blueprint that enabled him to follow his dream and build candy kittens a multi-million doll confectionary brand many of you watching this video have ambitious dreams but feel lost on where to start you keep putting it off until you miss the opportunity getting trapped in a meaningless job for the rest of your life but imagine pursuing your purpose waking up to do what you love earning on your terms and giving back to those who supported you by the end of this video you'll gain the clarity and confidence to

bring your dream to life just as Jamie did so Jamie what are we going to cover today okay uh so we're going to cover Five Points um we're going to talk about the idea we're going to talk about uh marketing we're then going to go into manufacturing we're then going to talk about money which is very important then we're going to talk about distribution all right let's get into it so Jamie where are we going to start I think it's have an idea should we start there well I I started with your idea right which

is you always got every single person say what's your dream right that's the most important thing what it because everyone should have a dream for me it start with an idea but an idea that passionate about um I Heard a uh great quote which is basically a business is paid in two currencies cash and experience so the experience first and the cash come later don't do something just because you want to make money if you just want to make money it's never going to succeed do something because you're passionate about it so find your passion

find idea that you really love because building that business is going to be tricky and then follow that follow your pass how did you know that sweets was your passion how how do you translate passion into an executable idea cuz some people listening be like okay sweet so not my passion how did how did that become your passion true so for me what happened was as a kid I was scared of the dark and my brother Alexander one of the smartest people I know used to tell me a stories of Jamie and sweet well to

make me fall asleep at night and being ADHD and all over the place my parents didn't allow me to have any sweets so I had this desperation of having sweets so I used to go to bed dreaming of this world made of sweets my parents sent me to boarding school 8 years old crazy Mad decision to do that went to boarding school and at night obviously lying in bed I was scared I didn't really like it so I used to to distract myself used to go to this world made of sweets Jamie sweet world so

I always had this fascination of sweets and because I was denied the sweets plus the combination of this dream this idea of this world made sweets when I was 21 years old at University I said right I'm going to go and do it I'm going to go and make a sweet company you made it I'm in your office full of like sweets there's there there's people and Suits everywhere yeah yeah yeah it's true but also I think the biggest thing is um and we spoke about this before which is again Woody Allen said it best

is 50% of success is just turning up you just got to start doing something doesn't matter what it is if you're about just start doing it it may be I don't know um making movies it may be selling sweets it may be selling plants whatever it is go just start doing it soon as you start doing you get a feel for it and that's exactly what we did with candy kittens I love it I think what I sometimes translate what you're saying because people want to hear passion and I don't know what my passions are

it can also be your pain you know that childhood trauma same for me I'm I'm I'm helping people for free today I'm I'm giving people money for free I'm I'm giving them free knowledge for free and I hope 15-year-old me didn't have that you know like I'm tapping into that pain it can be very powerful very big motivator right that Joy yeah totally and I think you know I think that is the hardest thing to discover especially when you say so what is your passion what is your people think that they got to have one

they got to find it but actually it's true when you look in the the places which aren't so obvious that's normally when you find stuff and it does sometimes come from Pain you know I completely agree with you so so okay let's talk let's talk through step one idea so people got purpose they got passion let's say they've managed to do that um I I actually think another hack by the way is the hang out with people that have got passion and purpose because you see it in the work so if someone comes to work

for you I'm sure they'll it's like a transfer of energy right I I feel it just coming here by the way I want to open up a sweet brand you know I'm just just by being here you know that that transfer of passion I think could be another way for people to find purpose go work with people that have it yeah I agree with you I mean look it's it's it's um it's contagious when you hang out with people that are working or feeling or doing a certain way I think it's completely contagious and that's

why it's so important to really you know your friends really replicate what you become so you want to surround yourself with great people who are inspirational who you do admire who have great ideas who are passionate because then you're right it sort of seeps off to them onto you so I think that's a really good thing have you had a mentor or anybody along those sorts of L yeah I did very lucky I had um so when I was 21 22 at the time setting up candy kittens and we had no idea what we were

doing and I think the big misconception is that you know what you're doing we had no clue what we were doing try and Google how to make sweets nothing comes up well now this will come up but yeah yeah now this will come up but no idea whatsoever so we had to discover watch do and um so actually look I was in a in a different position right where I knew that I had to find a way to Market this idea so I was given a telin show which was called main Chelsea don't know if

you saw it anyone saw it but it was called main Chelsea reality show I was living in Hong Kong when that show was on it didn't hear in Hong Kong but I came back and heard about it yeah yeah I think a lot of people heard about it the reason why I did one of the show one of the reasons was is because I wanted to Market this this idea of candy kittens on the show oh wow you went on the show to to soft sell your own yeah thing yeah I wasn't going to do

it then I thought well maybe if I go on and I can talk about the sweet company that I want to create maybe this is a good idea it's a different way to market the idea so um I marked the idea but when we launched the business and I was talking about candy kittens on the show and people going well this is a sweet company we didn't have any sweets it takes a year and a half to make sweets plus you have to go and find a manufacture and all these different things so I created

a brand but it was just a ghost so um we sold t-shirts oh right just saying I'm a candy K that's what we did so um yeah for me it was just about getting started just putting the brown out there the whole time that's actually a brilliant framework by the way so again so we got the idea we've said idea right I'm also really about spelling um but then now we're talking about inly we actually talking about marketing now for a second because I think you touched on something that is very exciting people if you

have an Envision for a business idea it doesn't have to be what you launch with so so what you're talking about there I think like t-shirts you can make one and sell one it's actually you can do print on demand it's pretty easy and then that can build the brand and but you have the vision that one day it will be a sweet brand but that can start the initial Buzz about the product right marketing wise what else did you do in those early years I mean AP from going on a TV show which I

didn't know you did that I actually think that's that's real deep planning right to actually you know give yourself that uh I guess that time in something completely different a TV show to build up your brand to allow you eventually to promote spe comp yeah well I I also always think that like um and and I thought about this from V sort of a very young age that I knew that you know there's a really great quote which is why fit and when we're born stand out so I kind of knew that idea when I

was going into sort of this sweet idea I knew that I just couldn't follow the same route as what Harry bow Maynards round trees all the other sweet companies are doing I knew I had to be different so I thought promoting it on a TV show would make it different exciting and make it personal I think what's so important is when a brand has a story behind it makes it authentic and real and people really connect with it so that's what I did I met an amazing guy which you'll know is Roy southernland Roy Southerland

he's been on this podcast has he he's fantastic unbelievable I think the podcast was actually six hours long and we had to somehow get it into an hour we could just sit and listen to his stories all day long he's brilliant Rory told me um a great thing he said look if you're parking a car or flying a plane um it's a great thing to follow logic because it gets you back in the same place as everybody else a safe place if you're setting up a business or sending up a brand Never follow logic because

it gets you back in the same place as everybody else a place where you don't want to be you always want to go against the grain and so at the very beginning with candy kittens from a marketing perspective we always did things differently I went on a TV show no one was doing that was marketing on a TV show we made packets of sweets that were sexy fun different and exciting no one was doing that all the packet of sweets were had farm animals on and aimed towards kids but all everyone eats sweets I was

2122 I was eating sweets at the time we made them glutenfree no other sweet company was making them gluten-free and then we like this idea of vegan this whole word around vegan was coming up and I thought well this would be a great idea so we tried to remove all the gelatin from the sweets and make the best sweet possible a site that didn't damage your teeth that was the idea behind it so we tried to remove all the nasties so we thought what can we do that no one else is doing in the market

what can we do that's differently to make our suweet stand out and that's what we were always doing so we sold t-shirts we did popup shops I went on a TV show we're doing all these things differently and at what point did did you get the suets sorted out was that so I guess now when we're talking about marketing but now we're talking about let's take manufacturing for a how how how did how did you get that that side of it orted out a lot of people look for like to make stuff and they don't

know where to go how to do it how did you get it done yeah again it's one of those things which you just got to start doing it manufacturing is one of the hardest things to get right um so I think for us we went to a sweet convention we went to one in Cologne in Germany we turned up there again we're 22 years old we had no idea we bought a ticket to this thing called an ism which is as you imagine it's like the hamle of sweet shops it's incredible it's amazing it's just

full of all these sweets um and we went there we went walking around and we tried all these different G sweets all around the place and we thought these delicious we spoke to every single sort of manufacturer there and they said okay great um yeah we can possibly talk about making your sweets but your a minimum order is 100,000 tons of sweets or half a million tons of sweets that is so many suets you can't imagine and they have a sale by date so you have to sell them within 18 months otherwise they're off that

was the real problem with it so we went from one sort of place to the next to the next to the next and everyone was kind of saying No it's it's kind of the equivalent of going to sort of to toota or Ford or Tesla and saying can you make me a car and they're going um okay sure but what are you going to do for us so um we finally came across a Spanish company um who were a family run company and one of the people working on the store was a fan of the

show and they said yeah we can maybe talk about this and help you make a sweets what is your idea I said we have this idea of cook candy kittens we want to make them gluten-free we want to make them sexy we want to make them young we want to make the Flav is completely different and they took a punt on us they said okay great well let's talk about it amazing um and slowly by slowly built a relationship with the manufacturing the Suites at the beginning were so bad they were shocking in every single

way we we like the flavors weren't good the um they were they the drying process of the sweets was bad we had to find out every single thing about making a a good site you know a good sweet is defined by the age of the starch oh really like like no like how we meant to know that so there was so many things we had to go through but when I think about manufacturing it's about going to the right places speak speaking to the right people and the one thing is never taking no for an

answer just constantly knocking on that door keep asking hey we're still here we're still here we're still here we met a a company there um called catchers k a tjes they're the best in the world at making sweets um third uh third generation founder guy called basan Fine amazing guy um we met him we said can you make our sweets for us because we knew they were the best said no can't do it we don't make sweets for anyone seven years later he came back to said I'll make you sweets for now and now we

partner with them they make our sweets that's amazing yeah I I think the persistence thing is so key you want luck in life be persistent 100% like just do not give up and I think you're also highlighting something around pitching a story a bigger picture later you know like what work with us now you know start small and together we can grow and I think a lot of people like that so I think that's a really important lesson I think being persistent is one of the most important things it it doesn't matter what you're doing

if you it's if you want to run a 5K under 20 minutes you have to be persistent you have to keep training keep training keep doing it keeping you're going to fail at the beginning but keep going you fancy the guy or the girl and you really want to date them you got to keep hey I want to take on a date I really like you you got to keep doing it be persistent in these places by turning into a dating Channel everyone everyone I've been interviewing lately seems to give like dating energies it's true

you got you got to say hello to a lot of people right same sort of and you've got to be rejected do you know one of the biggest reject the biggest one of the biggest moments of my life is that I when I growing up I was like why didn't I do that I was sitting on the rocks in cornall with a girl that I really fancied and I must have been out 15 years old at the time 14 years old at the time and I really fancy that your wife will be listening to this

I know she will but it's okay I I fancy my I fancy my wife much more but it was when I was 14 15 and I really fancy this girl and we're sitting on the rocks and there was this moment when we were sitting there and I didn't kiss her because I was scared of rejection I was scared what she was going to say I was scared that oh God if I kiss and leave what's going to happen so I didn't kiss her um but I really fancied it anyway two years later um I saw

her again and she said do you remember that moment the Rocks wish should kiss me oh no and I was like what if only you if you put yourself in those situations where you feel vulnerable where you feel like rejection is going to happen those are the times when you actually win yeah I could couldn't agree more oh my god I've got some great news guys thanks to you and your support of this Channel and what we do this book just became the number one book on the Sunday Times bestseller list number one because you

bought it and you supported our mission to fund people's dreams and help people do what they love you can now go review it on Amazon if you enjoyed the book go review it the Link's down below it will make a hell of a difference thank you so much for supporting what we're doing let's get back to the video people listening might be thinking okay money you know let's say so the people have said yes to the suits yeah you you know you've got the vision tell us tell us how the money side of all this

worked look money is unfortunately the most it's it's the most boring but most important money is oxygen it helps you breathe that's the the main thing and um look it's like a riddle everyone has money in their pockets it's just about finding a way of getting getting the money from their pockets into your pocket and how can you do that sell them the idea sell them the dream sell them your vision um and for us with money um we we actually started with about £3,000 I at the time was doing the television show I was

been paid a little bit of money from that any money that I was making from the television show I was being I was putting straight into the business straight away it would go from being paid straight into the business and I and my business partner a guy called Ed who's here we risked everything um and I I think that is the main thing when it comes to starting a business is that if you really want to make it success you kind of have to go all in you can't be half-hearted you have to go all

in but in terms of raising money ask Friends Ask parents ask cousins ask boyfriends ask anyone explain your idea explain your dream Sit Them Down pitch them your idea show them make it a really serious thing there are Angel Investors out there there are investors out there there are funds there are different um government schemes there are so many opportunities out there where money is available there is so much money in the world you have just got to get people to believe in your dream and do that by knocking on doors when you started your

garden company at the very beginning you just went and knocked on doors totally just keep knocking on doors keep asking and eventually you'll get it yeah I I live in belliz Park frankly you knock on anyone's door there they've got some money to invest in your business actually start knocking on everybody's door in Hampstead and bsid park go to West London totally go to West London and knock on people's do surprised you know it will be a different no W be expecting it well they have a flood of people now going around North London okay

so so but money itself just quickly for people to understand like did you have to sell equity in the business did you start off with angels and then you got a a VC or did you any quick quick cycle there yeah quick cycle that we had was um so I invested the initial cash about £3,000 um that basically bought us um some T-shirts that we could sell we sold T-shirts from selling those t-shirts we made about £25,000 we used that £25,000 to then start to go and invest into like trying to make a suite um

that £25,000 was eaten up pretty quickly in terms of like developing a suite and everything like that so we quickly realized that we needed to go and find some cash so I went for dinner one night with a great friend of mine he's called Rob um and his uncle came for dinner with us and his uncle was a success successful business owner you know he still is great guy guy called Chris and I sat with him um I was 22 and we sat in a restaurant and we drank espresso martinis don't know if you've heard

of espresso martinis heard of him okay they're pretty alcoholic and there a lot of coffee in them so I was pretty rubbed up and I pitched this guy called Chris my business idea this idea of a world made of sweets you know I I was a kid I was scared of the dark and you know then I went to Bing school and I hated and I used to go to this world and then I wanted these sweets and i' left University and I joined this TV show and I think it's you know did my whole

pitch to him and he said I like it I think it's great and I said what you like the business he went no I don't like the business I like you I like you and I think the the biggest misconception a lot of the time is that when you go to someone who potentially may be an investor yeah you can have an idea that is great if you're not changing the world if you're not turning I don't know soil into oxygen or whatever it is they're investing as you as the individual right and so you're

the person they're investing in he invested in me and at the end of the um dinner he said I think I've just bought 15 ,000 worth of sweets nice and I went that's amazing yeah next day um I phoned him up and said Chris did you really mean that and he said yeah what's your account details he sent the money in that's crazy we didn't even have to sign any contract or anything with him at the time he just totally trusted me and then he was one of our main investors from the very beginning and

being a great partner that's that's absolutely brilliant but but but a lot of people would say okay it's lucky you knew someone who had money and you knew you knew someone that knew someone that had money to be honest totally yeah yeah everyone knows someone that knows someone that's got money and he was probably the 10th person that I had asked totally right it was just I kept asking kept asking kept asking and I think that's the main thing is you that's why you have to be so passionate about it because if you don't have

the passion then it diesh money uh is such an important sticking block for people yeah but but I think what you're the other thing you I want people to remember this it is about you the story but you know what when it comes to marketing the sweet as well it's also you yeah but it's the story that people resonate with if you look on social media right now it's personal brands that are winning over Company brands and so the Kardashians launch a product everyone buys it I think that's the future actually I think it's become

much more personal for people they want to know the source of the material they want to know the person that's behind the story to make sure their data is not being leaked or that the product really is genuinely what these marketing people say that it is right so people are looking to people now right so if someone's listening to this they if they understand that it's you pitching even you IDE I've had an idea that actually is and someone invest in it because they like me and they're like you know that's pretty Shi you're going

to make it work eventually so well I I agree with you look at it like um okay you know how to cook bnes right yeah kind of okay kind of but we you kind of do right I know how to cook bolog okay good to know if you said to me um okay the way that I cook bolog is I go to the supermarket I get the meat and then I get the pastor and I put it in put the meat and I just turn it around and then I bow the pastor and there you

go and I serve it to you okay that's cool if I said do you know what I do I go to an organic farm and I go and get the the meat it's all organic and I go and I I roll the pastor myself and I make the pasta and then I go and pick some basil leaves from a branch outside and then I cook the Bonet but I cook it for about 4 hours and I leave it on the stove and I really cook it and then with the pasta once I've rolled the pasta

I put it in and then I set this amazing table for you if I sell B want you want that b a over me so we all have the same ideas we all have similar ideas of selling sweets or or doing podcasts or selling telephones whatever it is it's the way you package it the way you sell it and if you're more passionate about it then I think people are more inclined to invest in you the individual so we've sorted out money um but I I just want to now talk a little bit about like

how to get the product on the shelves I mean you've done a brilliant job in the distribution of your product like I see it everywhere and I was actually in waitrose the other day and I was looking at the sweets because I knew I was coming to see you and these kids walk by us and went that's Jamie's sweets right so it's almost like you're you know they're your sweets you sort of and they picked them up oh yeah Jamie Lang sweets but how did you get the distribution how how did you do that part

look it's it's one of the hardest things in the world the the the issue with retailers right is that so we had the marketing we had the idea we had the money we had all the things and I was obviously on a television show at the time marketing the product right I was marketing this idea of candy kittens retailers don't care if you are the king of England they just want to know that the product was sell and it has longevity that's what they care about um so for us the hardest thing that we had

to do was to get retailers on board with us every retailer rejected us tesos sabes um as to every single person was rejecting us and I go back to the same thing we just never took no as an answer we just kept knocking on the doors we just kept turning up we just kept sending samples to waitr to S two different places and finally what happened was is wait said yes to us they gave us a 100 stores across the country and said fine we'll give you a chance we'll take your suets but it took

about two years to do it and the only thing that I can say to anyone who's trying to get into retailers is just never take no for answer you've just got to keep knocking down that door just keep keep doing it and that's what we did and so um wrapping up if you were to go back to the younger you and give one bit of advice beginning of all this this stuff anything other than the persistence thing which is of course very important wow um one piece of advice it's boring but I would say patience

um I think when we're young and we're hungry and we're excited we want things to happen now what I definitely did I wanted it to happen straight away it takes much longer than you expect um and so be patient with it and make sure that you are just going to be patient and persistent and wake up every single day and just knowing that you're going to go for that one thing and for for me yeah I think patience was the biggest thing I had to learn you heard it here folks so normally at the end

of these videos we say thank you for listening we're now off to have some chicken but today we're going to say something different we off to have some candy kittens see you later check out our new membership subscription for exclusive content and much more Link in the description