February 6, 2025 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, she was the youngest person ever to be featured on the cover of Entrepreneur magazine. Alina Morse, CEO of Zolli Candy, is here to tell the story.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Our next story
is brought to us by the youngest person ever to
be featured on the cover of Entrepreneur magazine. Let's take
a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
My name's Elena Morris. I'm sixteen years old, and I
am the CEO and founder of Zali Candy. Sally Candy
is all natural, sugar free candy that cleans your teeth.
But my entrepreneurial journey didn't start at seven years old
with Zali Candy. I had been coming up with inventions
and crazy outlandish ideas for products since I was about
(00:50):
three years old. Around that age two three years old,
my dad read me the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
It was such an interesting experience because as much of
the book that I didn't understand, the thing that stuck
with me was you can help people through business. So
I began writing all of my inventions and compiling them
(01:13):
into what I called my idea binder and drawn what
I had called a business plan, but it was really
more of just a picture with some labels, and as I,
you know, grew up, I grew up with this binder.
I would say some of the most prominent inventions from
that that time were definitely robot daddies. The name is
(01:35):
pretty self explanatory. It's a robot that can go to
work as your dad. And at this time, you know,
my dad, he was a CPA, so he was going
out of tons of business trips, and I really missed
having my dad around, and I wanted him to stay
home and you know, we could hang out and just
among among those there was lots of odds and ends
(01:57):
of fun games or a new sport. As much as
they weren't cohesive ideas, they did keep me occupied coming
up with fun new business plans and pitching them to
my parents. So really from that book, I learned that
I could help my mom, I could help my dad,
I could help my younger sister even by coming up
(02:17):
with an invention to make their lives a little bit
easier on the day to day basis. But as I
grew up, you know, four, five, six, and then all
the way up until seven years old, I had added
to this binder. It wasn't until one just odd day
(02:38):
I went to the bank with my dad and the
bank teller offered me a lollipop, and it was just
the typical action. But my dad always told me he
gave me the same speech he gave me every time
we went to the bank. Candy's bad for your teeth,
You'll get cavities. He goes, it's up to you, Alena.
But you know, if I were you, i'd i'd make
(03:00):
a smart choice. You know. After pondering it for a moment,
I decided, you know, hey, I'll let them win. I
won't take the lollipop. But as we were walking back
to the car, I asked him, you know, hey, if
I can't have candy, and if I can't have something
that's bad for me, why can't I create something that's
good for me that you can't say no to? And
(03:24):
this idea really stuck with me. I began writing a
more extensive business plan than I ever had before in
my idea binder. And I decided, you know, with a
little bit of a push in the right direction, to
go do some research and just on Google on YouTube.
And so I started watching just videos on YouTube of
(03:45):
how they created candy on a mass scale, and it
made me question, you know, where other products came from,
and it really got me interested in kind of the
consumer packaged good industry as a whole, and just how
things were made and all behind the scene steps that
went into creating not just candy, but everything that we
see in the grocery store. It doesn't just magically happen,
(04:07):
you know, it has to come from somewhere. And I
started researching more about the ingredient lists and what actually
makes candy bad for you, what causes cavities tooth decay
is actually the single greatest epidemic facing kids in America today,
and that's according to the US Surgeon General. And so
that really prompted me to explore the idea of creating
(04:31):
something that's not only good for me in a sense
where there's no sugar, but something that's actually good for
your teeth, something that could help combat this epidemic. And
then the pieces just kind of clicked reading that book
at three years old, or having it read to me
for that matter, and coming up with this idea and
(04:51):
connecting the pieces of a great idea and helping people
and having a cause a mission. And so when those
pieces clicked into place, I knew that this was my time.
This was the time to create and you know, put
in the time, put in the energy, put in the work,
and get people excited about this idea. Get people passionate
(05:12):
about Zali candy or what was to be Zali candy.
So it was definitely a turning point for me getting
my parents involved, saying hey, will you support me? Will
you support this mission, and doing kind of the first
(05:33):
of many big business pitches to my parents to have
them help support me through this journey. And then we
started looking at different manufacturing facilities or what we call plants.
We began taking tours of these manufacturing facilities around the
country to see, you know, who could really make a
sugar free candy that cleans your teeth. And one of
(05:57):
my first manufacturing facility tours, we got to the end
and my dad said, hey, Lena, so, so what do
you think? This is pretty cool? And I was thinking, yeah, Dad,
this is great, but where's the plant? He's like, what
do you mean, Alena? Look around at this is the plant? No, Dad,
you don't understand the plant, the potted plant. I mean,
(06:17):
I'm looking all around. All I see is people, machinery, candy.
I don't see any plants. I think in that moment
he reminded himself as mature, as smart as my daughter
could be, She's still a kid. I took about two
years of taste tests and trials, and during that time,
(06:40):
our only taste testers really were my friends and I
and I always like to say, you know, my friend
didn't sugarcoat it. If something sucked, they were gonna tell
me that it sucked. And eventually we came up with,
you know, six great tasting flavors of lollipops. And what
we found throughout nih fund has studies is that or
berth retol on its own, which is an all natural
(07:02):
plant based sweetener from the US, it actually raises the
pH in your mouth and it neutralizes the acid, so
it takes away the bacteria that causes cavities and tooth decay,
and that bacteria is fed by acid, and acid is
really in every food that we eat. Even bottled water
has acid in it. And that's why we call it
(07:24):
the aft Wheat treat because you can still enjoy your
chocolate cake and your orange juice, but if you have
Azali pop after, it helps remineralize your tooth enamel. Once
we started finalizing the process of Zali candy, we started
having the conversations around our house about what we're gonna
(07:45):
do now. I have been a dancer since the age
of three. I'm also a tennis player, so I've always
had a busy schedule even without Zali Candy. So really
we began having those conversations about how we would run
the business on a day to day basis we are
a family owned company, and we really made the decision,
(08:07):
and my parents took that leap with me, you know,
especially my dad quitting his job to work full time
at Zali as the business manager. A day to day
really looked like me going to school and then going
back to our office and working with my dad and
the team to help grow and develop Zali.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
And you've been listening to Zali Candy's CEO, Aleena Morse,
and I happen to be holding an orange Zali lollipop
in my hand as we speak. And what a story
it is. Her dad read her the book Rich Dad,
Poor Dad when she was two or three. Way to
go Dad, by the way, what a great book to
read any kid, because it's not about wealth the way
(08:51):
you're thinking about it. When you read the book. Wealth
is freedom and wealth could be well, spiritual wealth, all
kinds of wealth, but it also is money and what
business does, and that you can help people through business
and that's the thing about capitalism, folks, free enterprise and
businesses serve. Your local restaurant serves, a car dealer serves,
so on and so forth. When we come back more
(09:14):
with this remarkable young voice, it sounds really like a
complete grown up. I'm talking about Elena Morris, CEO of
Zali Candy. Here on our American Stories, and we continue
(09:39):
with our American stories and the story of Zally Candy
CEO Elena Morris, And right now I happen to be
holding my hand as Zali Taffy. When we last left off,
she had been searching for a candy, a sugar free
one that was good for teeth. Let's pick up when
we last left off.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
So all throughout my school I've always had very supportive
teachers who have understood that I'm not leaving school to
go on vacation. I'm leaving school to learn. I feel like,
in my opinion, at least, that real world experience is
even worth more than algebra. The first retailer we actually
got into was Whole Food's Markets, So we luckily got
(10:22):
a meeting and we were able to dive down to
southern California. And I'm so nervous. I had been practicing
all week for the big pitch, and when I walked
in the door, I remember the look on the buyer's
face was just kind of puzzled of why is a
kid here? And the buyer was very patient with me.
(10:44):
I know that they could tell I was nervous but
also excited, and they gave me some great advice and
they said, Okay, well, we'll let you know in a
couple months if you get in. And one day we
just got an email that we had gotten in and
that was our first po So it was our first
big sale, and it was really exciting realizing and getting
(11:05):
to celebrate all of our hard work coming to a head.
And you know, it was the first of many of
many yeses that we've gotten from buyers, but you know,
there's also been a lot of no's. But you got
to take the good with the bad with business. And
so it wasn't until late twenty nineteen that we actually
got into every Whole Foods around the country, which was very,
(11:26):
very exciting and it was a very full circle moment.
And we recently actually went back and visited one of
the first Whole Foods that we had ever gotten into
when we just happened to be in California and we'd
gone in and there was a whole wall and cap
(11:47):
filled with Zalie candy. Just seeing things like that make
it all the more real to us, rather than just
seeing numbers on a piece of paper or you know
how many units per store per week, or volume or margins.
You know, seeing people with Zali candy in their shopping carts,
(12:08):
it was very exciting. We really had been fortunate to
receive a lot of earned media and a lot of
great opportunities being a small family owned company from Michigan.
But like any business, we faced tremendous setbacks. Luckily enough, though,
one of our major setbacks happened very early on. So
(12:31):
after we got into Whole Foods, our second big account
was Amazon dot Com. And you know, if you know
anything about Amazon, you gotta ship worldwide, nationwide, and you
have to do it in a very timely manner. And
so once we launched on Amazon dot Com, people were
super excited about Zali and began purchasing it very quickly. Unfortunately,
(12:54):
when it was delivered to their homes, specifically in more hot,
deserty dry climates, all the bags of lollipops were melted,
and we learned later on that this had to do
with the way that the candy was being made, the
temperature in which the candy was being made. But at
(13:15):
first we were devastated to see our Amazon ratings drop
in a matter of days, and we went from five
stars to like two stars because everyone was receiving melted candy.
And so it ended up being that the pops would
become a hydroscopic, which means that they would suck up
(13:36):
the moisture from the air. And we realized at that
moment that this is why people had never succeeded in
making sugar free candy that's good for your teeth, because
sugar free candy tends to be hydroscopic, and nobody could
figure out, or you know, maybe they had given up
too soon to figure out that you had to create
(14:00):
ate the candy in a very specific condition in order
to maintain its integrity. Once we figured that out, we
could begin to start either creating it in a higher
temperature or a lower temperature, and eventually we actually did
figure it out, and then we began the process of
apologizing and sending out fresh batches of zali to everyone.
(14:24):
Who had ordered, and over time we did begin to
regain some of our ratings. But for a long time,
even though we had fixed the candy, our ratings were
really low. And I don't know about you, but whenever
I'm purchasing something specifically on Amazon, I checked the ratings first.
You know, it's important to see what other users are
(14:46):
thinking about the product before I order, and so it
was a very important learning experience. Eventually we came out
with a really fantastic product that was stronger than ever.
And even though phones and electronics can't get shipped in
vessels to China Korea in the heat of summer, Zali
(15:09):
candy can. It's basically bulletproof. You cannot melt this candy.
So you know, we're better off for it for sure,
But yeah, it was it was definitely a tricky roadblock.
So in our five years of selling, we have grown tremendously.
We have a three hundred percent growth rate year over year,
(15:32):
and we really have found a niche community of people.
Whether you're diabetic, whether you have food allergies, whether you
know you're on a keto diet, those are the people
that we've been able to impact with our product and
We also, you know, started a nonprofit alongside Zali Candy
where we give free Zali candy to schools across America
(15:55):
to teach kids about the importance of oral healthcare and entrepreneurship.
And it's called the Millions Miles Initiative, So teachers principles
can sign up on our website Zalicandy dot com to
get free Zali candy for their entire school, which is,
you know, just another way that I've tried to carry
through with our initial mission of keeping kids smiling and
helping reduce childhood tooth the k To date, we're in
(16:18):
about twenty four hundred retailers in the US. We're in CBS,
write Aid, whole foods markets, Amazon dot com. We recently
got into Costco in Southern California, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado.
We're also available on Walmart dot com, Target dot com,
(16:39):
and Kroger's. And you know, we've continued to grow our
presence internationally as well, in China, Korea, France, the Philippines, Morocco.
So when about twelve other countries, including the US, we
have been able to share Zali Candy across the world,
and we still are looking for new ways to expand
(17:02):
and new ways to grow, but one of those ways
has been through expanding our product line. So we don't
just have Zalie pops anymore. We have Zaffy Taffy, which
is the clean teeth taffy. We have Zali caramels, we
have Zalie drops, we have Zali peanut butter cups, which
we're a newer invention that we're so so excited about
(17:24):
and I snack on them all day long. They're delicious.
But all of our products still have the same great
teeth cleaning and allergen friendly other than the peanut butter cups.
Those have peanut butter obviously, but we are still a
very transparent and clean company in terms of ingredients and
(17:45):
the teeth cleaning aspect, as well as being allergen friendly
and diabetic friendly and keto so all of those amazing products.
You can check them out on our website zalicandy dot
com or shop them at zali can domshopify dot com.
And if you're interested in learning more about my story,
you can check me out at Alina Starmors on Instagram
(18:08):
or at Zalicandy on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter and
so we want to continue to grow Zalie and increase
distribution nationally and internationally as well as, you know, continue
to be a beacon for other young girls and kids
(18:30):
who are interested in business and share with them that,
you know, entrepreneurship is a real career and a real
opportunity and you don't have to have a lot of money,
and you don't have to have a lot of business
experience certainly not a degree to start your very own
company and become an entrepreneur. So we want to continue
to share that message, especially through a nonprofit. But as
(18:52):
for me, you know, college is coming up soon and
those decisions are really key. But I think you know,
wherever I choose to go, I'd like to study business
and you know, hopefully get to dance or play tennis
or you know, still enjoy the things that I've loved
growing up and look for other opportunities to help people,
(19:14):
look for other niche communities that you know could benefit
from a functional product, and whether it's Zalie or whether
it's something else that I create down the line, Helping
people is really the most important thing to me.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
And a great job is always by Greg Hengler and
a special thanks to Zalie Candy CEO Alena Morris, and
we love telling stories about entrepreneurship and small business owners.
And my goodness, what she said is so powerful. Real
world experience is better than algebra. And she's thinking about
college right now. But she's right. Entrepreneurship is a real career.
(19:48):
You don't need money, you certainly don't need a degree.
And she is living proof her first orders Whole Foods
and Amazon, and then she experiences the setback. Every entrepreneur
does it, the screw up. Do they bounce back? Do
they fight back and learn from it? And she did,
which makes her an entrepreneur. The story of Teen Candy
(20:10):
Queen CEO Elena Morris here on our American Stories
And we continue with our American stories. Our next story
is brought to us by the youngest person ever to
be featured on the cover of Entrepreneur magazine. Let's take
a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
My name's Elena Morris. I'm sixteen years old, and I
am the CEO and founder of Zali Candy. Sally Candy
is all natural, sugar free candy that cleans your teeth.
But my entrepreneurial journey didn't start at seven years old
with Zali Candy. I had been coming up with inventions
and crazy outlandish ideas for products since I was about
(00:50):
three years old. Around that age two three years old,
my dad read me the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
It was such an interesting experience because as much of
the book that I didn't understand, the thing that stuck
with me was you can help people through business. So
I began writing all of my inventions and compiling them
(01:13):
into what I called my idea binder and drawn what
I had called a business plan, but it was really
more of just a picture with some labels, and as I,
you know, grew up, I grew up with this binder.
I would say some of the most prominent inventions from
that that time were definitely robot daddies. The name is
(01:35):
pretty self explanatory. It's a robot that can go to
work as your dad. And at this time, you know,
my dad, he was a CPA, so he was going
out of tons of business trips, and I really missed
having my dad around, and I wanted him to stay
home and you know, we could hang out and just
among among those there was lots of odds and ends
(01:57):
of fun games or a new sport. As much as
they weren't cohesive ideas, they did keep me occupied coming
up with fun new business plans and pitching them to
my parents. So really from that book, I learned that
I could help my mom, I could help my dad,
I could help my younger sister even by coming up
(02:17):
with an invention to make their lives a little bit
easier on the day to day basis. But as I
grew up, you know, four, five, six, and then all
the way up until seven years old, I had added
to this binder. It wasn't until one just odd day
(02:38):
I went to the bank with my dad and the
bank teller offered me a lollipop, and it was just
the typical action. But my dad always told me he
gave me the same speech he gave me every time
we went to the bank. Candy's bad for your teeth,
You'll get cavities. He goes, it's up to you, Alena.
But you know, if I were you, i'd i'd make
(03:00):
a smart choice. You know. After pondering it for a moment,
I decided, you know, hey, I'll let them win. I
won't take the lollipop. But as we were walking back
to the car, I asked him, you know, hey, if
I can't have candy, and if I can't have something
that's bad for me, why can't I create something that's
good for me that you can't say no to? And
(03:24):
this idea really stuck with me. I began writing a
more extensive business plan than I ever had before in
my idea binder. And I decided, you know, with a
little bit of a push in the right direction, to
go do some research and just on Google on YouTube.
And so I started watching just videos on YouTube of
(03:45):
how they created candy on a mass scale, and it
made me question, you know, where other products came from,
and it really got me interested in kind of the
consumer packaged good industry as a whole, and just how
things were made and all behind the scene steps that
went into creating not just candy, but everything that we
see in the grocery store. It doesn't just magically happen,
(04:07):
you know, it has to come from somewhere. And I
started researching more about the ingredient lists and what actually
makes candy bad for you, what causes cavities tooth decay
is actually the single greatest epidemic facing kids in America today,
and that's according to the US Surgeon General. And so
that really prompted me to explore the idea of creating
(04:31):
something that's not only good for me in a sense
where there's no sugar, but something that's actually good for
your teeth, something that could help combat this epidemic. And
then the pieces just kind of clicked reading that book
at three years old, or having it read to me
for that matter, and coming up with this idea and
(04:51):
connecting the pieces of a great idea and helping people
and having a cause a mission. And so when those
pieces clicked into place, I knew that this was my time.
This was the time to create and you know, put
in the time, put in the energy, put in the work,
and get people excited about this idea. Get people passionate
(05:12):
about Zali candy or what was to be Zali candy.
So it was definitely a turning point for me getting
my parents involved, saying hey, will you support me? Will
you support this mission, and doing kind of the first
(05:33):
of many big business pitches to my parents to have
them help support me through this journey. And then we
started looking at different manufacturing facilities or what we call plants.
We began taking tours of these manufacturing facilities around the
country to see, you know, who could really make a
sugar free candy that cleans your teeth. And one of
(05:57):
my first manufacturing facility tours, we got to the end
and my dad said, hey, Lena, so, so what do
you think? This is pretty cool? And I was thinking, yeah, Dad,
this is great, but where's the plant? He's like, what
do you mean, Alena? Look around at this is the plant? No, Dad,
you don't understand the plant, the potted plant. I mean,
(06:17):
I'm looking all around. All I see is people, machinery, candy.
I don't see any plants. I think in that moment
he reminded himself as mature, as smart as my daughter
could be, She's still a kid. I took about two
years of taste tests and trials, and during that time,
(06:40):
our only taste testers really were my friends and I
and I always like to say, you know, my friend
didn't sugarcoat it. If something sucked, they were gonna tell
me that it sucked. And eventually we came up with,
you know, six great tasting flavors of lollipops. And what
we found throughout nih fund has studies is that or
berth retol on its own, which is an all natural
(07:02):
plant based sweetener from the US, it actually raises the
pH in your mouth and it neutralizes the acid, so
it takes away the bacteria that causes cavities and tooth decay,
and that bacteria is fed by acid, and acid is
really in every food that we eat. Even bottled water
has acid in it. And that's why we call it
(07:24):
the aft Wheat treat because you can still enjoy your
chocolate cake and your orange juice, but if you have
Azali pop after, it helps remineralize your tooth enamel. Once
we started finalizing the process of Zali candy, we started
having the conversations around our house about what we're gonna
(07:45):
do now. I have been a dancer since the age
of three. I'm also a tennis player, so I've always
had a busy schedule even without Zali Candy. So really
we began having those conversations about how we would run
the business on a day to day basis we are
a family owned company, and we really made the decision,
(08:07):
and my parents took that leap with me, you know,
especially my dad quitting his job to work full time
at Zali as the business manager. A day to day
really looked like me going to school and then going
back to our office and working with my dad and
the team to help grow and develop Zali.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
And you've been listening to Zali Candy's CEO, Aleena Morse,
and I happen to be holding an orange Zali lollipop
in my hand as we speak. And what a story
it is. Her dad read her the book Rich Dad,
Poor Dad when she was two or three. Way to
go Dad, by the way, what a great book to
read any kid, because it's not about wealth the way
(08:51):
you're thinking about it. When you read the book. Wealth
is freedom and wealth could be well, spiritual wealth, all
kinds of wealth, but it also is money and what
business does, and that you can help people through business
and that's the thing about capitalism, folks, free enterprise and
businesses serve. Your local restaurant serves, a car dealer serves,
so on and so forth. When we come back more
(09:14):
with this remarkable young voice, it sounds really like a
complete grown up. I'm talking about Elena Morris, CEO of
Zali Candy. Here on our American Stories, and we continue
(09:39):
with our American stories and the story of Zally Candy
CEO Elena Morris, And right now I happen to be
holding my hand as Zali Taffy. When we last left off,
she had been searching for a candy, a sugar free
one that was good for teeth. Let's pick up when
we last left off.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
So all throughout my school I've always had very supportive
teachers who have understood that I'm not leaving school to
go on vacation. I'm leaving school to learn. I feel like,
in my opinion, at least, that real world experience is
even worth more than algebra. The first retailer we actually
got into was Whole Food's Markets, So we luckily got
(10:22):
a meeting and we were able to dive down to
southern California. And I'm so nervous. I had been practicing
all week for the big pitch, and when I walked
in the door, I remember the look on the buyer's
face was just kind of puzzled of why is a
kid here? And the buyer was very patient with me.
(10:44):
I know that they could tell I was nervous but
also excited, and they gave me some great advice and
they said, Okay, well, we'll let you know in a
couple months if you get in. And one day we
just got an email that we had gotten in and
that was our first po So it was our first
big sale, and it was really exciting realizing and getting
(11:05):
to celebrate all of our hard work coming to a head.
And you know, it was the first of many of
many yeses that we've gotten from buyers, but you know,
there's also been a lot of no's. But you got
to take the good with the bad with business. And
so it wasn't until late twenty nineteen that we actually
got into every Whole Foods around the country, which was very,
(11:26):
very exciting and it was a very full circle moment.
And we recently actually went back and visited one of
the first Whole Foods that we had ever gotten into
when we just happened to be in California and we'd
gone in and there was a whole wall and cap
(11:47):
filled with Zalie candy. Just seeing things like that make
it all the more real to us, rather than just
seeing numbers on a piece of paper or you know
how many units per store per week, or volume or margins.
You know, seeing people with Zali candy in their shopping carts,
(12:08):
it was very exciting. We really had been fortunate to
receive a lot of earned media and a lot of
great opportunities being a small family owned company from Michigan.
But like any business, we faced tremendous setbacks. Luckily enough, though,
one of our major setbacks happened very early on. So
(12:31):
after we got into Whole Foods, our second big account
was Amazon dot Com. And you know, if you know
anything about Amazon, you gotta ship worldwide, nationwide, and you
have to do it in a very timely manner. And
so once we launched on Amazon dot Com, people were
super excited about Zali and began purchasing it very quickly. Unfortunately,
(12:54):
when it was delivered to their homes, specifically in more hot,
deserty dry climates, all the bags of lollipops were melted,
and we learned later on that this had to do
with the way that the candy was being made, the
temperature in which the candy was being made. But at
(13:15):
first we were devastated to see our Amazon ratings drop
in a matter of days, and we went from five
stars to like two stars because everyone was receiving melted candy.
And so it ended up being that the pops would
become a hydroscopic, which means that they would suck up
(13:36):
the moisture from the air. And we realized at that
moment that this is why people had never succeeded in
making sugar free candy that's good for your teeth, because
sugar free candy tends to be hydroscopic, and nobody could
figure out, or you know, maybe they had given up
too soon to figure out that you had to create
(14:00):
ate the candy in a very specific condition in order
to maintain its integrity. Once we figured that out, we
could begin to start either creating it in a higher
temperature or a lower temperature, and eventually we actually did
figure it out, and then we began the process of
apologizing and sending out fresh batches of zali to everyone.
(14:24):
Who had ordered, and over time we did begin to
regain some of our ratings. But for a long time,
even though we had fixed the candy, our ratings were
really low. And I don't know about you, but whenever
I'm purchasing something specifically on Amazon, I checked the ratings first.
You know, it's important to see what other users are
(14:46):
thinking about the product before I order, and so it
was a very important learning experience. Eventually we came out
with a really fantastic product that was stronger than ever.
And even though phones and electronics can't get shipped in
vessels to China Korea in the heat of summer, Zali
(15:09):
candy can. It's basically bulletproof. You cannot melt this candy.
So you know, we're better off for it for sure,
But yeah, it was it was definitely a tricky roadblock.
So in our five years of selling, we have grown tremendously.
We have a three hundred percent growth rate year over year,
(15:32):
and we really have found a niche community of people.
Whether you're diabetic, whether you have food allergies, whether you
know you're on a keto diet, those are the people
that we've been able to impact with our product and
We also, you know, started a nonprofit alongside Zali Candy
where we give free Zali candy to schools across America
(15:55):
to teach kids about the importance of oral healthcare and entrepreneurship.
And it's called the Millions Miles Initiative, So teachers principles
can sign up on our website Zalicandy dot com to
get free Zali candy for their entire school, which is,
you know, just another way that I've tried to carry
through with our initial mission of keeping kids smiling and
helping reduce childhood tooth the k To date, we're in
(16:18):
about twenty four hundred retailers in the US. We're in CBS,
write Aid, whole foods markets, Amazon dot com. We recently
got into Costco in Southern California, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado.
We're also available on Walmart dot com, Target dot com,
(16:39):
and Kroger's. And you know, we've continued to grow our
presence internationally as well, in China, Korea, France, the Philippines, Morocco.
So when about twelve other countries, including the US, we
have been able to share Zali Candy across the world,
and we still are looking for new ways to expand
(17:02):
and new ways to grow, but one of those ways
has been through expanding our product line. So we don't
just have Zalie pops anymore. We have Zaffy Taffy, which
is the clean teeth taffy. We have Zali caramels, we
have Zalie drops, we have Zali peanut butter cups, which
we're a newer invention that we're so so excited about
(17:24):
and I snack on them all day long. They're delicious.
But all of our products still have the same great
teeth cleaning and allergen friendly other than the peanut butter cups.
Those have peanut butter obviously, but we are still a
very transparent and clean company in terms of ingredients and
(17:45):
the teeth cleaning aspect, as well as being allergen friendly
and diabetic friendly and keto so all of those amazing products.
You can check them out on our website zalicandy dot
com or shop them at zali can domshopify dot com.
And if you're interested in learning more about my story,
you can check me out at Alina Starmors on Instagram
(18:08):
or at Zalicandy on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter and
so we want to continue to grow Zalie and increase
distribution nationally and internationally as well as, you know, continue
to be a beacon for other young girls and kids
(18:30):
who are interested in business and share with them that,
you know, entrepreneurship is a real career and a real
opportunity and you don't have to have a lot of money,
and you don't have to have a lot of business
experience certainly not a degree to start your very own
company and become an entrepreneur. So we want to continue
to share that message, especially through a nonprofit. But as
(18:52):
for me, you know, college is coming up soon and
those decisions are really key. But I think you know,
wherever I choose to go, I'd like to study business
and you know, hopefully get to dance or play tennis
or you know, still enjoy the things that I've loved
growing up and look for other opportunities to help people,
(19:14):
look for other niche communities that you know could benefit
from a functional product, and whether it's Zalie or whether
it's something else that I create down the line, Helping
people is really the most important thing to me.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
And a great job is always by Greg Hengler and
a special thanks to Zalie Candy CEO Alena Morris, and
we love telling stories about entrepreneurship and small business owners.
And my goodness, what she said is so powerful. Real
world experience is better than algebra. And she's thinking about
college right now. But she's right. Entrepreneurship is a real career.
(19:48):
You don't need money, you certainly don't need a degree.
And she is living proof her first orders Whole Foods
and Amazon, and then she experiences the setback. Every entrepreneur
does it, the screw up. Do they bounce back? Do
they fight back and learn from it? And she did,
which makes her an entrepreneur. The story of Teen Candy
(20:10):
Queen CEO Elena Morris here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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