047 - Jean Thompson - Owner and CEO of Seattle Chocolate Company on building a company and staying passionate

She's Bold with Beth Whitman

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Jean Thompson is a full-on chocoholic and has been for as long as she can remember. It's therefore befitting that she is the Owner and CEO of Seattle Chocolate Company, one of the Northwest's premiere chocolate companies.

In this episode, we talk about how she went from investor to CEO/Owner after an earthquake nearly destroyed Seattle Chocolate. 16 years later, she's still just as passionate about the business, bringing creative changes to the company, recreating the brand, innovating and disrupting an industry that she loves dearly.

She also reflects on how she questioned her own abilities at running the company when the recession hit and sales fell flat but she kept moving forward and came out the other side on top (while other chocolate companies went under).

What came out of that time was JCOCO, a slightly higher end chocolate with a philanthropic arm that has, to date, provided 2.7 million meals to those in need in just the past 5 years. JCOCO, by the way, is another brand of chocolate that’s still part of Seattle Chocolate.

We wrapped up with some of Jean’s wonderful insights into travel and, of course, being bold.

Please enjoy this conversation with Jean Thompson.

Connect with Jean: Seattle Chocolate | JCOCO | Instagram (Seattle Chocolate) | Instagram (JCOCO) | Twitter (Seattle Chocolate) | Twitter (JCOCO) Mentioned in this episode: Good to Great by Jack Collins (Amazon) Leadership and Self Deception by the Arbinger Institute (Amazon) Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sink (Amazon)

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Be Bold, Beth