Noticing Neighbors Continue Good Co.

Down south in Louisburg, Kansas, there is a team of candlemakers who use their craft to spread light into dark places. Continue Good Co. hand pours their original soy candles, with thousands shipping out each week. The team is passionate about ending human trafficking, and partners with The Exodus Road by donating 10% of all proceeds to their work to strategically change lives. Mollie Beck shares the stories behind this intentional candle company.

Hayley: So for people that might not know, can you share about Continue Good Co.?

Mollie: Continue Good is a business that is all about spreading love, and we hand-pour our soy candles that have ways to spread kindness on the backs of them. We are all about being a vessel to have hope, and providing a reminder to spread kindness and love to others. We donate 10% to fight human trafficking through The Exodus Road, which is based in Colorado.

Hayley:

You said a reminder for spreading kindness is written on the back of each candle. What are some of the examples?

Mollie:

Some of our holiday and Christmas candles have themed ways to spread kindness, which we do based on the season and to be relevant. So the Merry Candle, which is one of our top selling, and it’s like a Christmas tree in a candle. That one says, “Continue good by donating a toy to a child in need.” So to encourage that, we have started to include a “Continue Goodie” in each order.

Hayley:

What’s that? Mollie: Continue Goodies are free items that we include in the order that make spreading kindness easier. So since we're encouraging people to donate to a child in need, then for December the delivery has a checklist of items to include for a donation box. We encourage people to reuse the candle box, and take a look at the checklist, and we also include a little toy to get people started.

Hayley:

The checklist is a great idea. Mollie: We just say, like a candy bar would be fun. The checklist has different ideas of what to include in the box to give to the child in need. So that's one example for the saying on the back, and our Holiday Spirit candle says, “Continue good by remembering it's better to give than receive.”

Hayley:

Good reminder.

Mollie:

On some of them, the reminder isn’t about actions. That’s because we know that before the action, it starts in thought and in the heart. It’s that intention to spread kindness and love others. There are a lot that are about connecting. So, continue good by treating a friend to coffee or giving a kind note to somebody.

That's another of our Christmas candles that we're excited about. The Christmas Day one says, “Continue good by taking a pause from your to do list and enjoying those around you.”

Hayley:

I know the one that I got said, “Continue good by telling someone you love that you believe in them.”

Mollie:

Yes.

Hayley:

It stopped me for a second! Mollie: Right! Hayley: I made it home, and was about to light the candle, when I remembered you said to read the back. It put a nice pause in the day.

When you're pouring these, and putting it out in the world, do you ever wonder what that moment looks like for the person that lights it?

Mollie:

Yeah. Definitely. Our biggest prayer is that the candles would fit in people's homes and be a source of light and inspiration. Hopefully, it can affect positive change—especially in times where there is a lot of isolation. A lot of why we center around spreading kindness and encouraging people to connect is because there are so many mental health issues going on. So many of the reminders suggest sharing what you love about others, because you just never know when someone is going to need that at the right time.

Our prayer is that these candles would be a vessel to have people show more love. Thanks for sharing, because it's encouraging that it made you pause and think. Hayley: Do you hear back from people often? Mollie: Sometimes we hear the stories. Then other times, we just have to trust that it's creating fruit and that things are happening we don’t see. Hayley:

I’ve got to say, the fragrances are amazing. How do you pick your scents? Is there anything fun that you want to share about that part of it?

Mollie:

Sure! Well, we're out in the country. It’s Louisburg, so not too far south, but we have our home here.

We have this detached garage 200ft or so from our home that we were able to get transformed into a candle barn, so it's a fun and unique situation. We're able to test the candle scents in our candle barn. Hayley: What does the creative process look like? Mollie: Interestingly enough, we tend to come up with the concept for a candle before the scent! Which is a little different. I'm trying to think of an example—like the Belief candle. We thought of the idea of believing in others and then thought through what scent should accompany that.

Calvin is really good, he’s our head candlemaker right now. I had a baby, who's eight and a half months old, so I'm not in the candle barn as much. I'm the one who designs the labels and ships, but I credit a lot of the scent’s quality to him. Then we also have a candle maker, and awesome team members that really help with scent inspiration as well.

Hayley:

You mentioned what it looks like behind the scenes, and you can take this question wherever you want: throughout this whole process and all the parts to it, how have you seen goodness?

Mollie:

We've seen it a lot! So many answers come to mind. When we’re in person at events, we'll see it there. I can think of an example where we did an event in June, and a customer that I hadn't met in person came to that event. She brought us a hand knitted hat for Vinnie, our son, which was so touching.

Making friends and seeing them spread kindness is just really neat. A lot of times we hear stories through email because we are mainly an online, ecommerce website. We communicate a lot with our community via email and texting. We'll hear different stories. People will occasionally share ways that they continued good, and it’s heartwarming. In the fall, we encouraged people to reuse their candle box to fill and give someone on their heart a fall goodie box.

So we had provided a sticker and some artificial leaves, along with a checklist of different ideas to include. A customer shared that she then gave it to her gardener, and then the gardener ended up weeding her back patio for free. Seeing those ripple effects of people paying it forward is really neat.

Hayley: Wow. Mollie: We love hearing the ways that people have been touched by the candles—and that it's making a difference.

Hayley:

When you give someone the candle, or you wrap it up to send it off, I bet there’s intention behind it. What do you hope for?

Mollie:

Yeah, that's good. Well when I first started, I used to package every single box. I'm a Christian, and my faith comes into play in my everyday work. So I used to pray that it would make a difference. Back when I was packaging, I would just pray that this would be something that would improve lives for the better and help people who are hurting. That's still our intention and hope—that these candles would serve as a vessel of light, and propel good change for people who are hurting.