By Dahna Jn. Charles
“Welcome to LifeStyles! I’m Candy!” This is the greeting Choice TV viewers can expect every day, like a burst of sunshine.
Candy Nicholas has intrigued St. Lucians with her wealth of knowledge on nature’s goodness and various wellness practices in a bid to help them live healthy and wholesome lives. Naturally, (pun intended lol), Dazzle felt impelled to put her in the spotlight to give our readers a deeper appreciation for this young entrepreneur living life on her own terms.
Born in the historic town of Soufriere to Mary Clement Nicholas and Aagee Simpson, Candy is grateful to the community that nurtured her, and to her grandparents, aunts, uncles and older cousins, all of whom played a major role in moulding this poised and articulate young beauty. She attended the Soufriere Infant and Primary schools, and then moved on to the illustrious St. Joseph’s Convent to complete her secondary school education before moving on to Sir Arthur Lewis Community College.
Dazzlers, we’re talking about royalty here! Candy is our 2003 Ms. Soufriere and 2004 National Carnival Queen. These victories, she says, opened up many doors for her, most notably her career in the media. She has written for St. Lucia’s top newspapers, The STAR and The VOICE, and was also a reporter for Helen Television Systems (HTS).
Moreover, Candy has proven to be a risk-taker, a go- getter and a woman bent on pursuing her dreams, and doing so fearlessly. After her stint with HTS, Candy made the deliberate decision to become an entrepreneur.
“It’s not that I didn’t want to work. This isn’t about shirking responsibility. I don’t care if I work 25 hours a day but I want to do things on my own terms and my own time,” she says. (We feel you girl!) Candy is a certified nutritional counsellor, a qualification she earned from Trinity College, in the United States and is currently pursuing her LLB at the University of London.
With that mindset Candy took on her first venture which was a lingerie boutique called Miss Behavin’ (clever name right?) located in a quiet part of Rodney Bay Village, near Elena’s (talk about creating mystery and excitement). However, she felt she needed to find a way to make her lifestyle her career and in 2009 Organica was birthed. It was a one-stop health food store offering high quality, hard-to-source items for every health nut or those looking to embark on a journey to better health.
Dazzle sat down with Candy to learn more about her lifestyle and her journey to becoming an entrepreneur, and it was quite a pleasure to do so.
Dazzle: What led you to embrace a healthier lifestyle?
Candy: I’ve always been very conscious of what I eat, from a young age. but at the age of 13 I read a book my neighbour was throwing out called ‘Back to Eden’ by Jethro Kloss. I became fascinated with the concept that you can alter your health, and in my case at the time I had started breaking out. My aunt was buying every skincare product under the sun to help but they never worked for me. I was intrigued by the idea of being able to improve my health and skin by eliminating certain foods from my diet and increasing the intake of other foods. I began putting some of these into practice and my skin cleared up!
Isn’t she lucky to have started that young? So many of us are struggling at a late stage in our lives to make these critical changes and this lady has been blessed to have so many years of practice that now it has become almost effortless. Bet you’re wondering if this health nut still uses modern medicine.
Candy: Modern medicine does have its place. It is important for us to bring the two together to ensure good health. I still go to the doctor to get a diagnosis but most times we discuss natural treatments as an alternative to pharmaceuticals.
Back to Eden started it all and since then Candy has not been able to keep away from literature of this nature, as she continues to educate herself and make changes where necessary to ensure optimum health. As mentioned earlier, the marrying of this natural lifestyle with career aspirations is what brought us Organica. Sadly, Organica is no more. Chuckling, Candy attributes Organica’s short stay to her being too enthusiastic at a time when the healthy lifestyle and health food craze were still very foreign to our island. If you miss Organica, it just might be making a comeback so keep your fingers (or celery stalks) crossed.
Dazzle: What challenges have you encountered as a young female entrepreneur?
Candy: I think that this society is intrinsically misogynistic and we don’t even realize it. We don’t seem to treat female entrepreneurs or female bosses in the same way we treat males. And it’s not just an issue of how men treat women but women also do it to each other.
I also experienced larger companies coming into my store to interrogate me about what it was I was doing, attempting to learn the trade secrets, have people come into the store to write down information on products, and so on.
Importing her products into Saint Lucia was also an issue, which was a consequence of the business being ahead of its time. For instance, if customs officers had no idea what the organic product was, it would be placed in a category with a high duty. This, in addition to her purchasing high quality products for sale, significantly affected the cost of doing business. Also, Candy quickly learnt that she’s not a Jack of all trades. For, instance, having wasted a lot of money on marketing, i.e. wrong media, wrong avenues and not getting enough returns on her investment, she has vowed to let the experts handle such aspects of the business and stick to what she is trained in. Hi, Candy! We’re Dazzle Magazine! *wink*
Dazzle: Where did the idea for ‘LifeStyles with Candy Nicholas’ come from?
Candy: I realised that people needed to be educated about how they were eating and what it was doing to their health. We have so many cases of cancer and diabetes here and all of these are related to diet and
lifestyle practices. People just didn’t know and they didn’t know that they didn’t know. It was clear to me that I needed to create a medium for people to be educated about those things. So I started a show which aired during the lunchtime news on DBS called ‘Health Kick.’ It became highly popular practically overnight, which let me know how much people were craving that type of information. I also met people who let me know that they were actually putting the information into practice, which was very gratifying. And I’ve always loved media. It’s where I started my professional life. So in essence LifeStyles was created to fill the void that Health Kick left.
The name ‘LifeStyles’ was carefully chosen to encompass all aspects of daily living, including wholesome and safe recreation i.e. liming. Also, the show’s scope will be expanding soon, and by that we mean out of the studio! As of September 11th the show has now gone to 30 minutes and will eventually go to an hour. We’re now filming on location at various beautiful properties on the island.
Candy: I’ve been informing people and they’ve been listening but they want to see. So now I want to show them. Rather than just telling them the herbs to take, I want to go into the garden to show them what it looks like. I want to show them the chiropractor working on me and I am very happy to be the guinea pig. (LOL)
In addition to making new changes to the show, Candy wants to transform her certification in nutrition and extensive knowledge into a lucrative consultancy. She’s also eager to see how LifeStyles will grow, especially with regional networks indicating their interest in carrying the broadcast. We don’t see why not!
We at Dazzle would like to wish this devoted, young visionary all the best on her journey and applaud her for taking life by the horns and crafting her own niche!
