A’ja Wilson and her mother Eva launched the Burnt Wax Candle Company back in April. The 2020 MVP shares how it all came to be
A’ja Wilson won a national championship in college, won an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo, and has been the WNBA MVP. She even has her own statue outside Colonial Life Arena in South Carolina. Few have done as much as the three-time All-Star has by age 25, and she sees no reason to slow down.
As she works to bring a championship to the Las Vegas Aces, Wilson is finding her focus off the court. She and her mom launched the Burnt Wax Candle Company in April, turning a mutual interest into a business. The candles go for $40 and are named after Wilson’s numerous accomplishments: National Champion, Rookie of the Year, All-Star, MVP, Olympic Gold 2020… the list goes on.
It was a business born out of passion and the pandemic. Wilson explained how it got started and what she’s learned along the way in the latest episode of Boardroom’s “Brick By Brick.”
As Wilson told Boardroom:
“When it came to doing business off the court, I knew I wanted to something that I loved. I think a lot of people see me as a basketball player, but I also want to get into what I wanna do off the court.
“It was a couple of days before Christmas and [my mom] saw my cabinet that I had full of candles. I mean, I had to have at least probably over 150 candles and she was just like, ‘you buying all these candles, you can just start your own company.’ And we looked at each other and we said, ‘you’re right. We could actually do this.’ So we really started just doing research and digging into what we wanted this candle company to look like and what we wanted to be. And from there, I started sketching up logos and different things like that and putting them in the hands of people that are really good at that, bringing it to life.
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“I think that’s what I’ve just been learning, day by day, when it comes to this candle businesses, how can I stick out from other people? And for me, I think it just goes with the names of the candles. They’re all of my accolades that I’ve had thus far. And it really kind of helps give a connection with my fans.
“I want this company to bring generational wealth. Like I want this to be something that my kids’ kids can live on, and say, ‘hey, I’m a part of this’ and grow and build … I think that is something that I imagine my legacy being when it comes to being a candle business owner. I want us to be up there with all the other candle companies to where it’s like, okay, yeah, you gotta [get] burnt wax. I know what that is. Like it’s common.”
