Ashley Daly, Founder @ BeCandylicious, Soul Candy & Owner OMG Candy Stores

Today, we're thrilled to shine a spotlight on Ashley Daly, the innovative founder of BeCandylicious, Soul Candy, and the owner of OMG Candy Stores. With a rich background in brand marketing, Ashley's transition from Senior Vice President of Global Marketing at Experian to entrepreneurship has been nothing short of inspiring. Interestingly, Ashley was nominated by Female Power Player Jennifer Myers Ward (CEO at ebove & beyond) for this interview spotlight to spread the love! Ashley, it's fantastic to get to know you better! Could you share with us how you know Jennifer and if you've had the opportunity to work together?

Thank you so much for the opportunity to share a little about myself and my journey and especially to Jen for the nomination. Jen and I have known each other for 20 years. As shocking as that number sounds, we’ve grown up together in the retail and technology sectors. She and I met at an industry event called eTail and instantly connected on our customer obsession, love of making meaningful connections and having fun while delivering exceptional results for our clients. The space has moved so far but when we met, we were both promoting the promise of e-commerce and online marketing at a time when retailers were cautiously adopting online as a viable channel. Jen is an exceptional business leader, mentor, friend and champion for females in business.

Ashley, your journey from being a Senior Vice President of Global Marketing at Experian to becoming the owner of OMG Candy Store is fascinating. What inspired you to make this significant transition into entrepreneurship and the candy business?

This was a really tough decision for me and one I didn’t take lightly. I worked so hard to achieve what I did and to get to where I was that giving it up for the sake of my family was a massive risk. Ultimately, the decision to start my own business was the only move that made sense for me. I had spent over 2 decades marketing other’s dreams and it was time to market my own while also being more present for my family. 

To put this into perspective, I never took a proper family vacation or gave my family the respect to be fully present. During holidays, I arrived days late or left early, would head to the hotel throughout the day to deal with urgent matters while they wondered where I was. While I thought I was balancing it all well, I knew in my heart that my children and my husband needed me more and I needed me more. I became my work and my value was placed on my accomplishments rather than me as a person. 

Plus, after years of working inside corporate parameters I wanted to be untethered and test my passions and talents the way I wanted to—with unrestricted creativity and drive. How could I not be excited to try, especially with the support of my family?

Having spearheaded marketing efforts at Experian, a global brand, how do you leverage your extensive marketing experience in your current role as the owner of OMG Candy Stores, especially in reaching and engaging with your female audience?

So much of it translates into my businesses— from true grit and hard work to understanding data, KPIs, finances/budgets, media, channel strategies, technology, internal structures and deadlines to name a few. Equally important is customer focus: it’s essential to our brands and has allowed us to define our gifting programs, return policies and overall experience policies to ensure a fantastic experience every time.

Before we opened OMG Candy Stores, I launched BeCandylicious and Soul Candy to pay it forward with clothing brands that make your soul smile. In 2 years, we were in over 400 boutiques and retailers across the country including Canada, Puerto Rico and England, with Dylan’s Candy Stores being our first major retailer to carry the lines. Understanding our brand personality, our market and the way that consumers connect with brands was a vital part of our early success. Understanding brand extensions and fulfilling our promise of making life sweeter carved out the path for the candy stores and now our freeze dried candy and our ridiculously fabulous candle line “Who’s that girl,” which celebrates all of our personalities.

Given that I am a girl’s girl and adore women and our place in this world, our branding and messaging is aimed towards them. Females are the powerhouses and make the bulk of the buying decisions so they are our focus.

Your experience at Experian involved overseeing various aspects of brand management, events, product marketing, and more. How do you apply these skills to create unique experiences for your customers at OMG Candy Store and distinguish your brand in a competitive market?

Being able to focus on all the touch points is critical. Most people who attended any of my team’s Experian events will attest that they were extra thoughtful, customer focused, super fun and worth their time. Life is busy, crazy and unpredictable so we want to make sure that we always provide an amazing experience while exceeding expectations. Consumers have a lot of choices so we need to make it a no-brainer to choose us. We use simple messaging as nothing irritates me more than marking jargon that makes something simple complex or similarly, something complex more complicated and confusing. We need to be their constant and their guarantee that it will be done right every single time. And if a mistake happens, we’ll make it right immediately. Having a sales conference and don’t like the snacks the hotel is offering? We’ll step in and deliver candy trays that cater to every palate. Trying to close a major deal? We jump in and want to win with you. We make it easy to be thoughtful. While a lot goes into this behind the scenes, it’s why so many individuals and companies use us. 

As a female entrepreneur and marketer, what strategies do you employ to empower other women in your field, whether it's through mentorship, collaboration, or representation in your brand's messaging?

I have always considered myself a champion for women and maintained an open door policy while in corporate. I was also an executive sponsor and mentor for Experian’s mentorship programs. Ask me anything and I will share. Being an advocate for one another in this world is essential to all. We all have so much to learn from each other and with each new generation comes an entirely new set of skills, mindsets and challenges so I embrace every opportunity to engage, learn and inspire/be inspired. I consistently look for ways to collaborate with other female founders or business leaders in addition to those that are just starting out. Collaborations expand audiences and reach so this will remain a priority for us.

Your recent engagement with SCAD students on fashion management and merchandising sounds intriguing. How does your background in marketing intersect with the fashion and retail aspects of your candy business, and what insights did you share with the students?

That was a lot of fun and I applaud the professor for reaching out to me to talk about fashion and merchandising with my clothing lines and candy stores. A lot of what you learn in college or think you know of fashion is different than reality. It’s not just design, photo shoots and runway so we discussed market competition and conditions, consumer behaviors, time to market, production, channel strategies, store locations, pop ups, pricing, marketing, branding, merchandising, cost margins, social media. We covered a lot.

With over 20 years of brand marketing experience, including managing global marketing initiatives, what advice would you give to aspiring female performance marketers looking to make an impact in their respective industries?

Define your personal brand and represent it. What are the brand crumbs you want to sprinkle around?

Be better and deliver value. Exhaust every pathway to get to “yes.” I am not of the mindset that just because you showed up you deserve an applause. What are you doing and bringing to the table every day? Ask yourself this and be honest. 

Learn as much as possible. Be the expert when you can but also don’t be afraid to admit when you don’t understand something and ask questions.

Be open. Learn to appreciate criticism while filtering feedback and suggestions. It’s not always about you. you’re a reflection of your team/company so be a champion for them and adjacent departments.

But also be an advocate for you. Be your best champion and show up prepared.

Be Curious. Take members from other teams out to lunch. Build bridges and friendships with competitors. My teams have always heard me say “Control the controllable”as these are the parts you can focus on and nail whether that’s your attitude or response to something or the things that are more tangible. My newest one is to “leave glitter not residue.” In a world with conflicting personalities, disagreements and demanding schedules/deadlines and expectations, challenge yourself to leave a positive mark. Try to turn negatives into positives and appreciate that while you cannot control people’s participation or response to things, you can control your own and that’s power! Be the “you can sit with us girl.”

Always write a thank you note and send it when someone does something helpful or gives you their time. This makes you memorable and leaves a brand crumb that lingers.

Your dedication to making people smile and creating delightful experiences at OMG Candy Store is evident. How do you infuse fun and creativity into your marketing strategies to connect with your audience on a deeper level?

We still have a lot of work to do on this as we are celebrating the 2 year anniversary of our Charleston location and 5 months in Savannah. Candy isn’t serious so we try to have fun with it while highlighting the experience and the feelings that candy evokes. We need to share more of the times where candy makes people smile in more challenging situations like the loss of someone, tough meetings, losing a deal etc. Sometimes the worst situations are opening doors to something even better and we want to be there to let them know that something sweeter is coming.

From corporate gifting to personal indulgence, OMG Candy Store offers a wide range of products. How do you tailor your marketing approach to effectively target different segments of your audience, especially women, who may have diverse preferences and interests?

That’s the challenge: the paradox of choice. With over 2000 options in our stores and even more through our distributors, we try to focus on seasonality, occasion, price, shipping or local pick up/delivery; who it’s for ex: hotels, corporations, moms and dads, friends etc., event type. Given that we have so many options, the next phase is to add more technology and AI to our website in the coming months. In the meantime, the mantra is keep it simple. When we overthink things or try to get too specific I think you miss out on potential audiences. 

As a mom, wife, entrepreneur, and marketing aficionado, how do you maintain a balance between your personal and professional life, and what advice would you give to other women striving to pursue their passions while juggling multiple roles? 

I don’t believe in the perceived notion of balance in the traditional sense since we are all so different and in varying stages of our careers and life. I think for most of us everything is always out of balance and that’s okay, at least for me. Success requires hard work, time, patience and grind. Prioritizing my companies, my family, friends and me is a day by day thing. Some weeks it’s less about me and rather about what needs to get done. This said, recharging and allowing creativity and productive work to happen requires taking “Just for Me” days at least 4x a month. Understanding yourself is super important. If I am fatigued and things aren’t coming as naturally, that’s usually when I assign myself the task of focusing on me and take a day off. Above all else, as long as most of the parts are enjoyable and fulfilling then keep going as you’re doing great. 

Since balance isn’t a one size fits all but rather highly unique to each individual, give yourself the freedom to learn what works for you and helps you maintain high-performing productivity. And most importantly, get comfortable with saying “no” and being okay with it. Lets go girls!!!