Ready for some un*match*ed entrepreneurial insights that will help you light your industry on fire and blow away the competition? Perfect, because this week’s episode is wick-ed good. We spoke with Ida-Sofia Koivuniemi, the founder of Evil Queen—a candle company committed to bringing light and attitude into homes around the world. Basically, they’re making candles fun again. 

Regularly selling out online and featured on Buzzfeed, Cosmo, and PopSugar, you‘re not gonna find ‘fresh linen’ or ‘pumpkin harvest’ in Evil Queen’s collections. Instead? Amazing scents with names like “Champagne Showers,” “Stolen Hoodie,” and “Wash Your Fucking Hands.” These candles are funny, memorable gifts for any occasion or the perfect home good to bring a smile to your face during a shitty week. Trust us, Evil Queen candles are the one candle you’d never regift. 

We talked with Ida-Sofia about a lot of really interesting things about creativity, entrepreneurism, and branding including:

• Using bold branding to create niches in what seem to be saturated marketplaces 
• How to use make the mundane memorable
• How to stay in your lane creatively even if copycat brands start to pop up
• The power of humor to elicit relatability and inclusiveness
• Inviting others to be in on the joke 
• Risk-taking and the benefit of being willing to say things that others won’t
• How surprise and delight lead to memorability and new customer acquisition
• Ways to resist branding mimicking and instead trusting your unique POV
• Burning down industry norms and writing your own rules

It’s a great chat and a great time (and we play a rousing game of Mascot Who? as well). For more from Evil Queen, you can head to shopevilqueen.com or on Instagram @evilqueen.