We had the good fortune of connecting with Neil Gogate and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Neil, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?

My wife and I always talked about starting a business on the side of our day jobs, but we could never think of anything we wanted to do. Little did I expect that the inspiration would happen during COVID lockdown. She started making candles during quarantine as for fun and to pass the time. Around the holidays, these candles became gifts for our friends and family and I saw how much they loved the scents she chose. The more I watched her process, the more I was intrigued. It’s not an art form I ever expected to appreciate, but the process was relaxing and discovering new scents and fragrances brought back memories of places I had been and to reminisce about the past.

I wanted to people to have the same experience I was having through these luxurious smells. This was the inspiration I’d been searching for. I’m realistic that this won’t take over my day-to-day job, but it allows me a relaxing release and lets me channel all my years of marketing experience into something personal. Hopefully these scents can help ‘illuminate’ people’s days.


Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’ve been a Digital Marketing Professional for 15+ years now, honing my craft by analyzing customer website and CRM data. I’ve advised start-ups and large Fortune 500 companies in their practices of capturing customer data, utilizing that data for personalized and targeted marketing communications and ensuring that the customer journey is optimized to deliver the right message at the right time on the right channel. My job is to advise and recommend marketing strategies for customers, and at the same time, I use all of that for my personal brand as well, where we can share our seasonal scents with candle connoisseurs and people in search of new, interesting scents. The website and all our marketing collateral showcase our love of candles, which are hand-poured in Redondo Beach in limited quantities with 100% Soy Wax. We use Soy Wax because it’s a renewable resource as compared to Paraffin Wax, which is derived from Petroleum. We’re small and not trying to take over the world, but we just want to make it a little more enjoyable.


Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
LA offers the best opportunity to do lots of things. It would include some beach time, playing volleyball of jumping into the water in Hermosa Beach, visiting the South Coast Botanic Garden, California Science Center or Long Beach Aquarium. There are so many places for food, but hitting up Grand Central Market for a variety of foods or some Mexican food on Alvarado Street. Maybe seeing a show at the Hollywood Bowl or Greek Theater or one of the smaller venues like El Rey or Fonda. Maybe a good hike in Palos Verdes or visiting the Tide Pools. A nice bike ride along the Strand from Redondo Beach up to Venice and getting a Pretzel and a beer at On the Waterfront. There’s always interesting people to see and meet wherever you go, which is one of the things I love most about LA.


Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Emily Lopushansky, for turning us on to candle making and showing how easy it was to make them. Veena’s family (especially Kathy and Elizabeth) for being our biggest supporters and fans and for doing their “job” helping to promote the business. Last, but certainly not least, my wife, Veena for encouraging me to make this into something real, being supportive and my voice of reason in helping guide some of the finer details of the business. Oh and special mention to Andrea (and Luck) Pho for continuing to enable my hobby and buying all the candle scents that I probably wouldn’t have.

Website: https://wickandsoyco.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wickandsoycandle/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wickandsoycandle

Image Credits
Luck Pho, for the 1st photo

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