March 11, 2025
When I first sat down with Candy Fuegan at Greenpoint Mercantile for our conversation, I knew I was speaking with someone special – but I don’t think I fully grasped just how remarkable her entrepreneurial journey has been.
Over the course of our discussion, I discovered that Candy represents the very essence of what makes small-town business owners extraordinary: vision, tenacity, and an unwavering commitment to community.
In this podcast episode, I get to sit down with Candy to talk about her journey.
Video
Watch the full conversation on YouTube by clicking here.
Or watch it below:
Key Takeaways
Here is a list of key takeaways from our discussion:
From Salon to Community Builder
Candy Fuegan launched Salon Incognito 20 years ago after a decade of experience at another salon.
When she spotted a vacant space at 216 E. 2nd St., she moved with remarkable speed, transforming a former Christian bookstore into a salon in just 30 days.
With an initial investment of only $10,000—primarily spent on walls, mirrors, and IKEA stations—Candy created what would become the foundation of her business empire in Muscatine.
Team-Based Business Models
While many modern salons have shifted to chair rental arrangements, Candy maintains a commission-based structure where stylists typically earn 50% commission.
This model isn’t about maximizing her profits—in fact, Candy only pays herself for haircuts she personally performs.
Instead, this approach creates what she calls “a team, a family” where revenue supports collective benefits rather than individual pursuits.
“Commission salon is a team,” Candy explains. “It’s a family. It’s a group that is able to have benefits and have a nice lifestyle.”
Creating Workplace Benefits
In an industry not typically known for comprehensive benefits, Candy’s commitment to employee wellbeing stands out. Salon Incognito offers health insurance, IRA contributions, paid vacation, paid education, and a wellness plan.
Candy takes particular pride in this achievement, noting: “In 20 years, I am, I believe, the only single-owned salon…that offers health insurance, IRA, paid vacation, paid education, and now we have a wellness plan.” This investment in staff wellbeing has helped create the stability needed for long-term success.
Elevating Hairdressing
“The hill that I will die on is to raise the level of what it looks like to be a successful hairdresser,” Candy declares. She’s passionate about transforming perceptions of hairdressing from “just a cute little hobby” to a respected profession. This includes maintaining high standards in appearance, communication, and client relationships.
Candy reminds us that hairdressers are “the only industry that can touch people” outside of medical professionals, highlighting the intimate trust involved in their work.
How COVID-19 Transformed Client Relationships
When COVID-19 forced Salon Incognito to close for nine weeks, it marked the first significant disruption to Candy’s business since its founding.
Beyond the financial stress, the closure revealed something profound about the salon-client relationship. Candy observed that clients realized “that person in that salon really does help with my mental well-being.”
The pandemic created a deeper mutual appreciation: “We both got to understand each other… it isn’t just popping in and getting this thing done.”
Building a Business Ecosystem
Candy’s entrepreneurial spirit extends far beyond her original salon.
Today, she manages four distinct businesses: Salon Incognito, Live Leo Apparel (named after her children), a Pilates studio, and Greenpoint Mercantile (a bookstore/community space).
Each venture has its distinct character while maintaining connections to her core values. Instead of focusing on quick growth, Candy has carefully developed complementary businesses that enhance downtown Muscatine’s vitality.
Sustainability as a Business Cornerstone
Environmental consciousness runs through all of Candy’s business decisions.
Her salon recycles 97% of its waste through a company called Green Circle—ensuring that hair color doesn’t contaminate waterways and foils from highlights are repurposed. At Live Leo Apparel, she focuses on sustainable, gender-neutral clothing often made from “dead stock” fabrics that would otherwise end up in landfills.
This commitment reflects Candy’s holistic approach to business that considers community and environmental impact alongside profitability.
Transforming Retail Space
Perhaps nowhere is Candy’s community-building vision clearer than at Greenpoint Mercantile, her bookstore that evolved from an initial concept of a small business incubator.
Far from being just a retail space, she’s designed it as a gathering place where people are encouraged to linger. “I want loitering,” Candy says with enthusiasm, noting that the space hosts book clubs, Bible studies, and even baby showers.
This approach transforms commerce into connection—what Andrew aptly calls “creative community building.”
The Book Vendor Program
Candy’s creative approach to business is exemplified by the vendor profile program at her bookstore.
Community members can donate books and receive store credit when their books sell—creating a circular economy that benefits everyone. “For every $10 that gets sold that belongs to you, you get a dollar,” Candy explains.
This system keeps inventory fresh while building customer loyalty and involvement.
It’s a perfect example of how Candy crafts business models that strengthen community bonds.
A Call to “Choose Muscatine First”
When asked what she wants from the community, Candy’s answer is passionate: “I love this town so much. I ask that you put Muscatine first.” She counters the common complaint that “there’s nothing to do” by highlighting the rich cultural offerings available—from symphony performances to ballet and the vibrant downtown business district that now houses over 40 viable businesses.
Candy’s own experience living downtown without a car demonstrates how the area can provide everything needed for daily life.
Her message is clear: support local businesses to build the community you want to see.
Full Transcript
Andrew Anderson: One of the things that I said on this one is that I’m not gonna let production things be a barrier at all, like the lowest minimum product to get this out there.
Candy Fuegan: So what are you doing? What are we doing?
Andrew Anderson: Okay, perfect. So what I’m doing is I’ve wanted to do this for a long time. I feel like people have interesting stories.
Candy Fuegan: Okay.
Andrew Anderson: Thank you for coming on my show today, Candy. The idea is that we have a lot of people that do interesting things, and I think it’s really interesting to hear their stories. I’m personally interested in hearing their stories, and I think other people will find them interesting.
Candy Fuegan: Okay.
Andrew Anderson: And we’d love it, you know, if people are inspired to do their idea, basically. So a lot of the people that I talk with, they end up being business founders or creative community builder type people. So small business, medium business. And you definitely fit in that category. So, Candy Fuegan, Vegan.
Candy Fuegan: Just do two E’s.
Andrew Anderson: Vegan. Okay.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah, drop the U.
Andrew Anderson: Can we do the news thing where you spell your first and last name so we have it correctly? Can you say your first and last name and then spell it?
Candy Fuegan: Oh, yeah. Is it on right now?
Andrew Anderson: It’s recording this.
Candy Fuegan: Oh, okay. So Candy Fuegan. C-A-N-D-Y F-U-E-G-A-N. Perfect. Yeah. Okay, so we’re on.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah. So we’ll maybe, like, cut out bits at the beginning. Or not. Yeah, we’ll just roll film. How’s that sound? It’s a little funny having microphones and…
Candy Fuegan: Things, but that’s okay.
Andrew Anderson: Hopefully we can have more or less the conversation.
Candy Fuegan: Sure. We’re just sitting down, having a chat.
Andrew Anderson: Thank you for some coffee at Greenpoint Mercantile.
Candy Fuegan: Yes.
Andrew Anderson: All right. I think there’s a lot of questions I want to ask, but this is just freewheeling conversation.
Candy Fuegan: Okay.
Andrew Anderson: We’re just going wherever we want to go. Yeah. There’s nothing. Yeah. The agenda is knowing who the heck you are and why the heck you do these things. Tell me a little bit, though. You’re running several businesses and entities. What are you doing, right?
Candy Fuegan: Yes. So I have owned Salon Incognito for 20 years. That’s been, like, the coolest, funnest gig ever.
Andrew Anderson: Did you start that?
Candy Fuegan: I started Salon Incognito. So I worked at another salon for 10 years. Through working there, I became an educator for a hair care brand.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: So when I was ready to leave the salon that I was working at, I was working full-time for this hair care brand. And I was on the road for, like, seven days, and then off. I was home for 12 days.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: Too much gone. Too much home.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: So it just so happens it was wintertime. I was buying gift certificates at the salon that I used to work at for my family and friends.
Andrew Anderson: Keep going here. I’m gonna make a low production edit.
Candy Fuegan: Sure. Yeah.
Andrew Anderson: There we go.
Candy Fuegan: So is that better? See, we needed to get you in there more.
Andrew Anderson: I think it’s perfect. I just needed to get this closer to us. Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: How’s that?
Andrew Anderson: Oh, I think we’re in good shape.
Candy Fuegan: Is that good?
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: Okay. So anyway, this is how unplanned my life is. So I’m buying gift certificates for a salon for my friends and family at a salon that I don’t work at. I drive by 216 E. 2nd St., and it’s vacant. I was a stay-at-home mother for a lot of days when I’m on the road staying at Microtels.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah. Not fun.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah. No. So there was a sign for rent. I knew it was a salon because I had worked there too.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: And I knew all the issues with the building. I knew all the things. So after being on the road, I missed doing hair. I wasn’t doing hair. I was just teaching others and sleeping in Microtels. So, like, I would have to call the desk and say, “Is there an iron in here?” Yep. “You have to bring it back to the desk when you’re done.”
Andrew Anderson: Oh, that’s great.
Candy Fuegan: That means that everybody…
Andrew Anderson: Gross.
Candy Fuegan: Was… Yeah. So I was like, I can’t do this anymore.
Andrew Anderson: And that was, like, across the country, across the Midwest?
Candy Fuegan: So I would drive one direction, go another direction, hit these salons, educate.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: Come home. And then, you know, it was so great being with the family. But then I was exhausted. Exhausted. I was planning for my next stint on the road that did not last long. So I drive by Second Street. It says “for rent.” I’ve already purchased my presents for my family for a salon. And I said to my husband at the time, I said, “I want to open a salon.” So that was…
Andrew Anderson: How did that conversation go?
Candy Fuegan: He was like, “Okay.” Very supportive. He was always very supportive. So I was like, “This is that. This is how it’s gonna go.” But you know how I am. It’s like, you don’t know who I am. I’m like, “It’ll be easy. Like, I know how to do this. That’s fine.” And he’s a CPA. He’s an accountant.
Andrew Anderson: Okay. So, like, you didn’t benefit from that?
Candy Fuegan: Experience at all until just very recently is when I stopped getting benefits from that. But that’s okay. So in 30 days, we opened a…
Andrew Anderson: Salon because it already had the equipment in? Like, it was…
Candy Fuegan: No, it was a Christian bookstore when I got it.
Andrew Anderson: I forgot that’s where that was.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew Anderson: But it had been a salon before.
Candy Fuegan: It had been a salon years ago. So I knew it was possible. I knew that there was plumbing.
Andrew Anderson: Yep. Okay.
Candy Fuegan: So we put some walls up. We… Yeah, we put some mirrors up. Got some stations from IKEA. Because 20 years ago, IKEA was so cool. I maybe put $10,000 into it.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: Period. Yeah.
Andrew Anderson: It should be, like, 1.4 million in today’s dollars.
Candy Fuegan: Today’s… Yes. Yeah. So I made a super good friend. That was back in the day when you didn’t have a brand, you weren’t a brand. You had a telephone.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: You had the credit card thing. Swipe, swipe. And your best friend was the salesperson that sold you newspaper ads.
Andrew Anderson: It was newspaper, newspaper ads, radio. No website.
Candy Fuegan: No website. I had a paper book. We had colored pencils for the kind of guests that they were. If they were new…
Andrew Anderson: New request, walk-in in your appointment book.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah. That’s how you coded who the customer was. So then I found a software called Unique. And it was one man that sat in his home. I could call him at any time. He set me up. But, I mean, zero functionality, which was cool.
Andrew Anderson: But was it a booking software? Is that what it was?
Candy Fuegan: A booking software? But I didn’t know how to do anything. You know, we were just getting into computers.
Andrew Anderson: Right. It was…
Candy Fuegan: I mean, literally. Yeah. So my very first customer came in and she had the little cutout, and she was like, “I saw this ad in the newspaper. Are you Candy?” “Yeah, I am.” So that’s just… I mean, that’s how it started. I hadn’t worked in a salon for some time, and I had a great relationship with that salon owner. I said, “This is what I’m going to do, but I’m not contacting anybody and I’m not looking for staff.” So I opened January 3rd. Tons of people are really shopping January 3rd. And I just sat there waiting for the phone to ring because… So that was, like, a Monday or something. So I got into Work and Money on the Muscatine Journal. Do you remember on Saturday there was that little area, Work and Money. What’s happening in Muscatine? So, like, who would have been promoted at GPC or a new business or, you know, and they did a profile of the tiniest…
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: Yes. This tiniest little profile. So it was… And waited.
Andrew Anderson: What were you thinking at that? I mean, was it… Was it, like, “I can’t… I’m so excited. I can’t wait to see what happens”? Or is it, like, “What have I done?”
Candy Fuegan: Or too dumb. Too dumb. Had no idea. No idea. My very nearest, dearest, best right-hand person came and joined me. But it’s so funny. She had worked with me at the previous salon, and Crystal McFate, and we’ve been together 20 years and she’s still with your hair.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: And I was like, “The phone didn’t ring today, but it’s going to.” I didn’t have a client list because in 30 days we did new floor, we did a new awning, we painted, and then here we sat. I was like, “Okay, it’s time to open.” So, yeah, it was crazy. People came. I didn’t reach out to anybody, but people came because they saw their little ad in the newspaper.
Andrew Anderson: So you… It was you and Crystal was your first day, and did she come on…
Candy Fuegan: As an employee or came in as an employee? So we are a commission salon. We have stayed that way. I am so proud to say this is neither here nor there, but in 20 years, I am, I believe, the only single-owned salon. Like… Like, I am the only owner, part owner in it.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: That offers health insurance, IRA, paid vacation, paid education, and now we have a wellness plan.
Andrew Anderson: Interesting.
Candy Fuegan: So we were this teeny, tiny little thing, and slowly people came to us and, you know, they wanted to work with us. And we’ve been through a plethora of employees. But what I have discovered now, being a grownup, is that I feel that hopefully I was a jumping-off point for them to be able to be, like, “Oh, look at what she was able to do. I want to go do it myself and give that a whirl.”
Andrew Anderson: So, like, inspiring some of those people that have the vision for it to…
Candy Fuegan: Do their own thing.
Andrew Anderson: When did you add those kinds of benefits? Was it early on or over time?
Candy Fuegan: Well, first, the big thing that we did is we were the first salon in Muscatine to be open on a Monday. I’ve never understood why salons were closed on Mondays. I have no idea.
Andrew Anderson: Like the downtown businesses?
Andrew Anderson: Yeah. So, like, JCPenney’s, those salons were open, but they were, like, corporate. So no, small salons in our downtown were open on Mondays. They do Tuesday through Saturdays.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: So that was my first big, like, pioneering thing. Let’s be open on Mondays and our phones just rang like crazy because people would sit, you know, Saturday night, Sunday, and be, like, “I’m gonna get my haircut.” And they were able to. So that was cool. And then slowly I would say, you know, it was probably 10 years later that I was, like, “We have to do the next big thing.” And I was so proud to be able to offer benefits. So, you know, as a commission salon owner, so many people think that I just take half of what everybody brings into the salon, and then I just sit in this, like, castle.
Andrew Anderson: Like, it all goes as cash into your pocket, and you just pay for anything you want with piles of cash.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah, I just, like, buy everything with… And…
Andrew Anderson: Yeah, like, business owners are just cranking it out.
Candy Fuegan: Yes. I mean, yeah, that’s why we do this. So all transparency. I pay myself only on the haircuts that I provide to my guests. So I am an employee as well. The money that comes in, that 50% commission, whatever percent… It’s generally 50, but, yeah, it goes right back into the business, which provides them the benefits, and it provides us having a receptionist, a salon manager. So for me, commission salon is a team. It’s a family. It’s a group that is able to have benefits and have a nice lifestyle.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: And just come to work, do your job, and be able to leave, I guess.
Andrew Anderson: That’s not something… I think a lot of us… I mean, maybe a lot of your people wouldn’t know how that works, but that’s the structure that most salons…
Candy Fuegan: Probably not. It’s probably an antiquated way of being. That used to be the only thing. And then slowly, chair rental came in to be that you would leave, and you want to pay for your, you know, your chair, basically. And then you can make your own decisions on what you’re going to work and you’re going to pay for your own product, and you’re going to own your own business inside of a structure.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: And that just isn’t my business plan. It works for some, and it works great for those people that do that, but that isn’t my…
Andrew Anderson: You prefer…
Candy Fuegan: This isn’t my jam. I like the sense of community. I’ve had a lot of success in teaching people a better way to live. And I think that if you just rent a chair, then I’m just your landlord. And the sharing and the growing and the things…
Andrew Anderson: What does that look like for… I mean, how you’ve… You’ve helped them grow as people. Is that what you’re…
Candy Fuegan: Well, that’s my goal. So I think that, you know, it’s so funny that we’re talking about hairdressing.
Andrew Anderson: You tell them, like, “Do your laundry”?
Candy Fuegan: “Do your laundry.”
Andrew Anderson: “Pay your parking ticket.”
Candy Fuegan: Yeah, yeah, “Do that.” I’m, like, the mom. No. In this business plan, I feel that I can guide them and show support. I’m an educator still for a different hair care company. So education is so important, that sense of community. Hairdressers are notoriously not the nicest people amongst themselves. There’s a lot of competition because, you know, “I own Andrew, because Andrew called me once and came in and sat in my chair.”
Andrew Anderson: “You’re my client.”
Candy Fuegan: “You’re my client.” And I just don’t… I don’t tolerate that in the salon. So whenever I hire anyone, I say, “This is my sandbox. This is a creative, safe space for you to be able to create. If you mess up my sandbox, you have to go, because this is my sandbox.” Right?
Andrew Anderson: You’re setting the expectation that we are going to collaborate here.
Candy Fuegan: We’re going to collaborate, and it’s safe. And I want you to be your person. I’m not trying to make machines that you cut hair the way that Candy cuts hair. But there are systems and there are principles and things like that that happen. But also, before any of that stuff happens, notoriously, people would assume that hairdressers aren’t very smart, and there’s no money to be made in hairdressing. So the hill that I will die on is to raise the level of what it looks like to be a successful hairdresser. So the people that work with me, I will pull them kicking and screaming and dragging them to help them see that. Or that’s generally when they leave and say, “Your vision of business is not my vision of how I want to work.” And that’s okay.
Andrew Anderson: It’s okay. Like, they could feel good…
Candy Fuegan: There’s a client for every hairstylist. And by no means am I demeaning someone that leaves a commission salon. I’m saying, for me, I want it to look different to everybody that has an assumption about what hairdressing is.
Andrew Anderson: Would you call it a level of professionalism?
Candy Fuegan: Absolutely, yes. How you dress, how you speak, how you engage, and how you portray yourself. And it’s very important. There’s a lot that goes into hairdressing that’s more than, you know, “I just… I need my bangs trimmed.” You know, we are the only industry that can touch people.
Andrew Anderson: Sure.
Candy Fuegan: That’s outside of a doctor, a dentist, a plastic surgeon. And those people are held at such a high level.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: And it’s, like, “Oh, well, this is just, like, a cute little hobby to some people.” You know, “I’ll go to hairdressing school to have something to fall back on while I pursue something that’s going to make me a living” rather than seeing…
Andrew Anderson: It as a profession. I mean, there is a professional license for…
Candy Fuegan: Absolutely. We’re licensed. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Andrew Anderson: Is there… So it’s been a while since I’ve done a lot of hair.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah.
Andrew Anderson: I don’t go to a salon regularly, but I do remember very much when… When I would go… There is something about the… You know, there is a touch. And, like, humans respond really well to that. I mean… I mean, well, like, we joke sometimes that we are in real estate, but we’re really in… Is it marriage counseling?
Candy Fuegan: I mean, for sure, you touch a heart.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah.
Andrew Anderson: So it’s, like, therapy.
Candy Fuegan: It is.
Andrew Anderson: Sorry, go ahead.
Candy Fuegan: No, that… You’re exactly right. So then it turns into, like, “Oh, you’re, like, a therapist and a bartender.” You know what I mean? So you just say these really weird things to bartenders. You say all of the things to the therapist. And, like, I know so many things that generally I don’t want to.
Andrew Anderson: Because you become… You’re a trusted advisor.
Candy Fuegan: I’m very trusted. And here’s the other thing, that hill that I will die on when people are, like, “Oh, my God, you must know everything. You work in a salon.” First and foremost, I want to know, “Did you like your color? Do you want to make a change? How did that grow out for you? How are you feeling?” Then, if there’s time, you can tell me about kids, soccer, you can tell me things. Because the less you tell me that’s, like, that heart stuff, then we don’t get into that whole messy, gossipy whatever. So, you know, I don’t know. Do you know how your dentist votes? Do you… Do you know if your dentist has kids that play soccer?
Andrew Anderson: Well, I know what the dentist does, but I can’t speak… They don’t know me.
Candy Fuegan: Right, exactly. I go to my family doctor. Like, I don’t know what she’s about. And it’s because you would never walk in and be, like, “Oh, my God, you wouldn’t believe what my dog did today.” That’s just not what we’re there for. So there is a suit of armor that I put on, an imaginary little suit that I want to support you. But imagine every 30 minutes, someone comes in: “My dog died. My husband left me. My mom has cancer. I have cancer. My kid broke its leg.” You know what I mean? So we hear this super emotional stuff all day long, and it can be very wearing. It can be very taxing. So, like, for that professionalism to be sustainable in this and not lose your mind…
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: There has to be this little separation. Now, on the other hand, you get very close to these people because they do tell you all of these things. But what has been interesting is COVID has changed this profession for sure.
Andrew Anderson: In what ways?
Candy Fuegan: They were… We were closed for nine weeks during that terrible time.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: That people did kind of sit back and be, like, “That person in that salon really does help with my mental well-being.”
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: When you feel like you don’t look good, you don’t feel good. So everyone was able to take, like, a deep breath and be, like, “Oh, my gosh, this person is really important to me.” So it’s, like, we both got to understand each other. Like, “I need you. I miss you.” There was a connection and they were, like, “Oh, yeah. It isn’t just, like, popping in and, you know, getting this thing done.” So it’s been very interesting to see how relationships and the professionalism of…
Andrew Anderson: Did hair care get termed an essential service or was that one that…
Candy Fuegan: No, we were… You had to be closed nine weeks.
Andrew Anderson: Incredible. Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah. And, you know, at the time, I was a single mom. I owned the salon building. I had renters, I had employees that were commission. So… And we, you know, through GPC lockout, we were not affected. The economy has never affected us. We have been bulletproof. So this was the first time ever that we were affected. And I just did not know because I started this industry when I was 17 years old, and I’ve loved every single day of it. I was, like, “I don’t know what it’s going to look like, and I don’t know what I’m going to do when we do go back.” But there was a lot of respect that came out of it both ways to my guests and back to us.
Andrew Anderson: So people… You’re saying that… Yeah, both ways. People recognize the role…
Candy Fuegan: You try to do their stuff at home, they’re, like, “Yeah, right.”
Andrew Anderson: I can pull it off, but most people can’t.
Candy Fuegan: That didn’t go well.
Andrew Anderson: What… So the business… I have a couple more questions about the salon. Was it… Was it touch-and-go? Like, financially? Was it hard to… Or did it start providing an income for you reliably right off the bat? Okay.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah, I’ve always paid myself. I’ve always been able to pay myself. There are business owners that you hear that it’s, like, “Oh, yeah, I get to payroll with the other staff and I don’t take a draw.” I was able to pay myself always. There was one teeny, teeny, tiny bit of time. And, you know, it’s tough for the ego to say I had a walkout.
Andrew Anderson: Staff?
Candy Fuegan: Yep. Staff. Yep, yep. And that’s really tough to say in this kind of forum that you tuck away and say, “Well, I don’t know. I don’t know. I just came to work and they were gone.” But that was a big hit. And, you know, I had to let that go from my heart and say, “No one would open a business to spite the person that owned the business that they worked for.” It was their time. It was their time to go. It was my time to rethink my business plan. And, you know, that bank account got real low, but we pulled through. And because you can’t focus on the negative and “this happened to me” and, you know, whatever, it’s just, like, “All right, let’s pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and let’s just, let’s go.”
Andrew Anderson: Let’s… What do you do personally when you are… I mean, stuff happens.
Candy Fuegan: Oh, my gosh.
Andrew Anderson: When it starts piling up, what do you do to keep yourself in a mindset that you need to…
Candy Fuegan: Yeah, I cry a lot.
Andrew Anderson: Does it work?
Candy Fuegan: No. I’m going to cry when we’re done. No. I am a major crier. But the other thing, I have a lot of… I’m a very systematic person and I have a lot of systems that I keep in place. So I am so sober. I’m very proud of that. So before I would have handled things in a bad way because I would have been drinking.
Andrew Anderson: So is that no alcohol then?
Candy Fuegan: Zero alcohol, zero drugs. I feel every single thing that happens, which is wonderful. And that’s been quite some time. And then, you know, I really, I do a lot of yoga. Ms. Lindsay Broders is, like, my person. And I really believe in, like, self-care. Like, if I’m not good to me, I’m good to no one. And I, I fall, I fall. But then I lean on… I have a great staff right now that just, they pick me up when things are bad.
Andrew Anderson: Did you have to learn?
Candy Fuegan: Yeah. I would love to go back and see the owner that I was when I was having walkouts, when people didn’t understand that I only want good for them. And, you know, I’m a five-foot little Chihuahua at times.
Andrew Anderson: Calm and peaceful, not stirring anything up, yeah.
Candy Fuegan: So, you know, recently I’ve just been feeling, like, I’m so misunderstood. People don’t know why I do what I do or how I do what I do. And that can really get heavy in my brain. But I know that it’s pure and it’s for the greater good and to just, like, I want to feed people’s families and there’s no… I have a nice life and I want to share it with people so they have to receive it.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah, I need to just do a little more adjustment. You know, some people do these constantly. They move these around and they pretend they have multiple cameras. So I want to talk… Ask you about your other businesses and things you… But a little bit about… If I were to describe what you do, it seems to me, I mean, you run small businesses. I would describe you as a community builder. Like a creative community builder. How does that…
Candy Fuegan: Very nice. That’s a very nice description and quite unintentional. Okay, I will say so. I have had the pleasure of working with women for 32 years. I hear the same thing from every guest that comes in. “We have nowhere to shop. We have nothing to do. There’s nothing in Muscatine. The only place I can buy socks and underwear is at Walmart to get a gift. I can’t do.” So I have had market research behind me for 32 years. So…
Andrew Anderson: Interesting.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah. So, you know, when people are, like, “Gosh, I wish we had a clothing store.” And we have a lovely clothing store. Hall Tree is amazing. Kathy Crosley, you’re the best. We have Persnickety Boutique, and then we have Meg’s, and we have Red and Lee. That is not to sustain, you know, nearly 30,000 people in this Muscatine in… In this town. So I was, like, “I will open a clothing store if it’s directly across from the salon. I need to be able to, like, get back and forth. Right. I need to be able to see it. It can’t be across town. I don’t want a box store. I need to… We need the Second Street to continue to be what it is.”
Andrew Anderson: Right.
Candy Fuegan: So this place came up. Ms. Jody Hansen, shame on…
Andrew Anderson: Brought it to her. Brought it to you. Did she tell you what was happening?
Candy Fuegan: She was, like, “Hey, I have a couple of places to look at.” We looked at a couple and I was, like, “This is so gorgeous.” And the Muscatine, you know, the Muscatine Forgivable Loan was okay, Grant. Forgivable grant. I’m gonna mess that up. And they’ve given me so many of them.
Andrew Anderson: And so you got that in order to get the place built out?
Candy Fuegan: Or space to do the build-out. And then, yes, Kevin and Raelle and Phillips…
Andrew Anderson: And so this, this is Live Leo?
Candy Fuegan: Live Leo Apparel.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: So I was, like, “Let’s open this clothing store.” I was in New York, which is where my daughter lives. I met two beautiful women who are so awesome. They were twin sisters. They still are twins. They have a label. Yeah, they are still twins. They have a clothing label called Twin. “This is what you need.” And I said, “I am going to open a clothing store.” I had no intention yet. I was just, like, “Yeah, manifesting,” we’ll call it instead of BSing. So I was manifesting this and I said, “I love your stuff. I love you too.” I met their mom, they’re Canadian, they live in New York. They design. One of the sisters is, like, the lawyer, the whole money side. The other girl is the design side. They’re a great team. They own this beautiful shop and they had never sold wholesale before.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: So they’re, like, in their early 30s and they’re, like, “Well, we have to ask our dad.” They were, like, “We don’t know how to do that.” And I was, like, “I don’t know how to own a clothing store.” So they are gender-neutral, sustainable fabrics. They use dead stock, which is fabrics that would come from another designer that would get thrown away into a landfill. And they take that fabric. So they do a run of whatever, a shirt, pants, whatever, a jacket, keep that fabric from going into a landfill. And then when that fabric’s done, it no longer exists.
Andrew Anderson: So it’s limited series, essentially.
Candy Fuegan: Yep, it’s limited series. They’re gender-neutral. They’re size-inclusive and sustainable. I mean, hello, those are things that personally work totally affect me because the clothing or the salon is all about sustainability. 97% of all of our salon waste gets repurposed through a company called Green Circle. So we have no color gets thrown down drains to go into the river. None of the foils from the highlights. I know you haven’t had highlights for a minute.
Andrew Anderson: It’s been a little while. But there’s a lot of products kind of, like, dry cleaning has a name for itself of, like, these chemicals that you shouldn’t just…
Candy Fuegan: Yes. So gosh, I haven’t dry cleaned in years because it’s so naughty. But anyway, so this whole sustainability and then finding these women family-owned, I know the source. They’re finding fabrics, they’re building the designs, they’re doing the whole thing themselves. I’m, like, “We are going to partner.” And here I am, like, begging them and they’re begging me to let them learn this wholesale thing. So awesome. Two and a half years ago, you could either get Twin in New York in their storefront or in Muscatine, Iowa.
Andrew Anderson: There was no… Did they have an online store?
Candy Fuegan: They have a website, but their sales were really… Sales were store-based.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah.
Andrew Anderson: Did they learn wholesaling and distribution through that?
Candy Fuegan: Yes, through their father.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: So their dad said it’s okay. So I flew them here. We had an event. And they are obsessed with this town. They love Muscatine. They love the popcorn store. Oh my gosh. They… They can’t stop talking about Muscatine. So they finally just made it to Coterie, which is, like, if people go to market to buy their wares to sell into their stores, they finally are in a wholesale…
Andrew Anderson: Is that, like, trade?
Candy Fuegan: Yeah, you go to a trade market show.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah, yeah. So they’re finally now in… They’re doing trade shows and they invited me in so that they could introduce me to, like, “You can get things through New York or through Muscatine, Iowa.” So weird. So all of this has just been, like, fun and crazy and unexpected and…
Andrew Anderson: Do you have any other financial interest in that or is that just the… It’s their thing. And you’re one of the… Just…
Candy Fuegan: You’re one of the… Yeah, no, no, I just… I buy their product.
Andrew Anderson: Where do they make those? So they design them and they source the fabric. But where are they made?
Candy Fuegan: It is made in China.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: Yes.
Andrew Anderson: So they send things there.
Candy Fuegan: They have all of their pieces so they’ll… We’ll Zoom. And it’s in their kitchen in their beautiful West End home.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah. Can you imagine if you take that property and plop it down in Muscatine?
Candy Fuegan: It’s just when they see Live Leo, if you have not been in all through Live Leo and I’m just, like, “Just guess what? I pay for rent.”
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: They have, I mean, just, like, the tiniest space and they pay $10,000 a month for rent for maybe, like, a clothing store.
Andrew Anderson: 800 square feet or 500?
Candy Fuegan: Yeah. I mean, it is so tiny. It’s not even the size of our front entry. I mean, it’s just tiny. Well, you could probably touch both walls just…
Andrew Anderson: Oh, maybe even, like, just a few…
Candy Fuegan: Hundred square feet long. It’s there. They have a shower. Like, if you had a stand-up shower. That’s their fitting room. It’s lovely. It’s great. But I mean, just the cost of it. They’re, like, “Forget it. We’re moving all of this. We’re gonna just… We’re gonna move to Muscatine.” They love us so much, and we do use other vendors. So I try to be very aware that it’s not found on Amazon, that it’s, you know, women-owned. Not necessarily just women-owned, but that there is a standard. But, yeah, they are our top, most important vendor.
Andrew Anderson: That we picking all the things in there, or do you have someone else that…
Candy Fuegan: No, I pick all the things.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: So I never get to work in the store. Like, I don’t get to stand behind the cash register. I get to work there Thursday. I’m super excited. I can’t wait. I will call the girls and be, like, “Does anyone want to give up hours?” And they’re, like, “What’s going on?” I was, like, “I just want to work in my store.” Like, “Okay, weirdo.” So I get to work there Thursday. I’m super excited. So I’m gonna…
Andrew Anderson: I’m gonna hire a mystery shopper while you’re there. And a great customer, please.
Candy Fuegan: I love a toughie.
Andrew Anderson: Really?
Candy Fuegan: Oh, my favorite thing that people say when they come in, “Well, I bet you don’t have anything for someone my size.” And I was, like, “We have double 0 to 4X. We have men’s clothes. We have women’s clothes. We have loungewear. We have business wear. If you need a dress for Christmas or a wedding, we have that. We have men’s button-downs. We have… This is actually a men’s cashmere…”
Andrew Anderson: That’s very nice.
Candy Fuegan: “It has the little double-double…”
Andrew Anderson: Oh, it has an elbow patch.
Candy Fuegan: “Yeah. So I do gender-neutral…”
Andrew Anderson: All right. I guess I… You’re right. There… There aren’t places…
Candy Fuegan: “We have… Yeah, we… You can get exercise clothing for men and women. Yeah. 3X leggings, 3X sports bras for women. I mean, we have… We literally have… If you have a body, we have something that we can put on you.”
Andrew Anderson: Was Muscatine… This is a question I’ve asked a number of people. Is it… Is Muscatine an advantage or is it a hindrance for you in the businesses that you do?
Candy Fuegan: This clothing store is a hindrance. So what is so sad but so important for us to understand is we have been trained since Von Maur left Muscatine Mall, which was… We’re so fortunate that we are in the center of Iowa City and Davenport. There is no… It’s not a hardship to get to either one of those places and do all of your shopping. So it is the other thing for me, and I could be totally wrong. So any viewers that see this, there is not an excitement to buy a shirt that is $98 downtown Muscatine. So if you went to a clothing store and I was sitting, you were, like, “Oh, my gosh. I was in the Ped Mall and I bought this, and oh, my gosh, can you believe this was $200?” You’re, like, “Posh. Okay, right.” So having a $98… I know the source of where the fabric comes from. A $98 cashmere, whatever. I can tell you what the region where the sheep came from. There isn’t bragging rights to that. There just isn’t. Now, if you get a… We have a sweatsuit. The bottoms are $28, and the top is 30, 32. Gender-neutral. Super easy. It’s beautiful. It’s great. It’s awesome. I could have just opened a store that sold just that.
Andrew Anderson: There’s demand for… Or people… There’s a lot people value that.
Candy Fuegan: And it seems, like, it’s super easy. It’s an easy price point. Anybody can wear it.
Andrew Anderson: But the premium… More premium side is harder.
Candy Fuegan: It’s, like, tough to brag that you got this, like, super posh thing just… It was…
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: Downtown Muscatine. So the… The perception… We need to change that. There is value in shopping down here. You know, getting super cool Jag jeans at the Hall Tree. Jag is a brand that people know. And maybe they’re $78, maybe they’re $88. I don’t know. I think that’s a nice price point. But you’re selling jeans for $120. People are, like, “It’s just not for me.” But they would spend the money on fuel…
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: Take in a movie, eat somewhere delicious, and pick up those pants. And it would be, like, no thought behind it. You know what I mean?
Andrew Anderson: So that’s part of why I would call you a community builder, because you… You… It wasn’t so much that you just did market research and said, “Okay, I need to hit this budget price point. Here’s what’ll sell.” It seems to me like you basically built the store you wanted to have. Kind of…
Candy Fuegan: Kind of. Yeah.
Andrew Anderson: I mean, and you’re doing it to push things forward or elevate something. I mean, you’re doing community building, not just saying, “Yeah, what do people want?” It’s that…
Candy Fuegan: Well, so in having… We have tank tops that sell for $14.50.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: Do you know what I mean? And then we have something that you could purchase… We have a winter coat for $298. Like, I really feel like I hit every single price point.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: I think that every single human being in this town could leave with something from there.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: Yes. I curate everything. I curate everything in that salon. I curate everything here. I… Yes.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: I’m a little heavy on the true crime books, so I’m gonna have to work on that. Fantasy is coming.
Andrew Anderson: I feel, like… So as a… As getting into this place, what’s creative, people? We have ideas blasting around in our mind all the time. So what… How do ideas come to you? And how do you… Which ones do you do?
Candy Fuegan: Okay. It is so funny. If you go to any one of those stores, you would never think that Candy Fuegan designed any one of them. The salon, pure white.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: Clean nothing. Live Leo Apparel has, like, this tie-dye. It has a Southwest…
Andrew Anderson: What does the name mean?
Candy Fuegan: Liv is my daughter Olivia. And then Leo is Jackson Leo. That’s his real name. So… Yeah. Yes. So you and that… Yeah. So if you googled Live Leo something, it’s baby moccasins. So there was something… Yeah, I had to add something. So, yeah. Live Leo Apparel is my children.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: And the cactus… The whole thought of being Southwest is my dear, sweet auntie who passed. That was our place. So anyway, so it has, like, the fitting room looks like an adobe. Kind of, like, cool. Whatever. So it has that. Okay, what is that called?
Andrew Anderson: It’s, like, a mesa view.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: Adobe.
Andrew Anderson: Adobe.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah, that kind of thing. So then the Pilates studio…
Andrew Anderson: Yep.
Candy Fuegan: Was supposed to look like the sand in the desert with a sunset.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah, whatever.
Candy Fuegan: I don’t know.
Andrew Anderson: And these are your ideas?
Candy Fuegan: Yeah, these are… Yeah. It just comes to me. It… Yeah, yeah. It swirls around my brain. And then… So when people come in here and they’re, like, “Well, who did this?” And I was, like, “Well, I did, but this is, like, Maximus.” You know how everything is minimalistic? That was my bag. I want this. We’re only just beginning to fill this.
Andrew Anderson: Really? You’re gonna do… It’s gonna be rich.
Candy Fuegan: It’s gonna be rich. So whatever the opposite of minimalism is, is what I want this to be.
Andrew Anderson: Oh, that’s good. So this is the current iteration. But maximalism of maximalism.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah.
Andrew Anderson: Cabinets.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah. Just the weird… So all of the furniture here is free from estate sales in Muscatine. So every piece has a story. I love stories. When you can attach a story to something…
Andrew Anderson: And here, just tell me a little… I interrupted you. But what is this place?
Candy Fuegan: What is this place? No, I’m kidding. So this is Greenpoint Mercantile. So that name gets a lot of flak. ‘Cause people are, like, “How am I supposed to know that it’s a bookstore?” But it is so much more than that. Okay, so it’s a community space. It’s a space that you could grab a cup of coffee. I don’t have a barista. You just self-serve, get yourself a cup of coffee. Just… It’s coffee. Yeah, we have a little refrigeration system. You can grab a soda, you can grab a little, like, noodle cup, add water, take it to go. You don’t want to wait for lunch. You don’t have time. So it’s a quick place to grab a bite. These pretzels are selling like crazy.
Andrew Anderson: I don’t have one yet.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah, Pop Daddy. They trend on TikTok, which I had no idea until I bought them. Everyone’s, like, “Oh my gosh, this is trending on TikTok.” Sometimes I hit on something and I was, like, “I have no idea why.” But anyway, so yes, we have books. We have partnered with Flipped Out Furniture. They’re on Second Street. I love their vibe. So anything that you see that has a tag on it, you can buy Flipped Out Furniture stuff right here.
Andrew Anderson: You were saying… And so the… There’s estate sale things or then they have put things in here.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah. So, like… Yeah, my… You can tell my old pieces that have great stuff.
Andrew Anderson: You’ve got a good collection here. The crushed velvet stuff.
Candy Fuegan: And you know, it was picture… People were, like, “Do you need this couch? Do you need this chair?” And I was, like, “It’s weird. Yeah, let’s take it.” And then I put it together and I was, like, “It tells the coolest story.”
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: I don’t know what the story is yet, but it’s cool. I just think this is the coolest place.
Andrew Anderson: What was your… So you bought this building and it was the hair salon. I didn’t realize that under the stations the floor was all complete there. I thought there was going to be…
Candy Fuegan: Some openings and things. Yeah, everything’s great. The only thing that we replaced was this flooring. There was carpet, we painted, we changed out the light fixtures. So the… When you say what do you call me?
Andrew Anderson: I would call you something along the lines of a creative community builder.
Candy Fuegan: Okay.
Andrew Anderson: So here’s that seem to fit a little bit.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah. So here’s what happened. This building came for sale. I wanted to live here.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: For free. And I wanted someone to be down here to pay my mortgage and everyone’s, like, “You know, sometimes people just go ahead and pay their mortgage.” And I was, like, “Yeah, but if I can have somebody else do it, why… Why would I do that?” So my whole thought, my goal was that this would be a small business incubator. I wanted people to flock to me and say, “I want a 10 by 10 space and I want to have a place outside of my house. I’m not ready to have a storefront, but I want to build this thing and I want you to, like, help me.” No one wanted to do that.
Andrew Anderson: Note takers?
Candy Fuegan: Yeah, I think that again, I’m misunderstood sometimes. So I didn’t want my fingers in people’s businesses. I wanted mothers that were trying to be that awesome mom that have stock in a spare room and there’s just, like, chaos and separating the business from the mom to then, like, “Who are you?” And you want to have this safe space to create that is easier than, like, jumping in and taking a storefront. So you know, you work on your business plan.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah, but it just, there wasn’t… I mean, you did put that out there to people and you really didn’t have early enough. There wasn’t a lot of…
Candy Fuegan: Yeah, early enough. It wasn’t going to be a thing. I mean, I had this whole build-out. Thought people wondered why I wanted to have my fingers in their business. So it was just a very misunderstood…
Andrew Anderson: And I think, yeah. And that’s a hard thing to pull off. I think a really big population base can maybe do things like that.
Candy Fuegan: But it’s hard. So then it was, I kind of, like, peeked at the farmer’s market and was, like, “How do we have an indoor year-long farmer’s market?” And that came with a different set of challenges that felt too hard for me. Like, “I don’t want to man this. I don’t want to own a farmer’s market.” I wanted people to have interests to do the thing and it just didn’t work out. And then knowing that I was living upstairs, we had some people to look at that wanted to look at the space and they would have whatever. Then it was, like, “How comfortable am I having these different things underneath my safe space?”
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: So I was, like, “Screw it, let’s open a bookstore.”
Andrew Anderson: That was not the original store or idea.
Candy Fuegan: And then never.
Andrew Anderson: Okay, interesting.
Candy Fuegan: So never. So I love to read. And there is a… The community of readers are weird in the most positive way.
Andrew Anderson: They’ve responded well, you mean? So well.
Candy Fuegan: People walk in and to see the shock and awe when they, like, walk into the space is so cool. When we first opened, I would get teary. ‘Cause I was, like, “Ah.” That wasn’t my intent either. Like, “Come in and buy a Daniel Silva book. I don’t care. Like, whatever.”
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: But the re… The reactions have been insane. So kind. Here’s the other thing that I think is funny about readers. They walk in here and they’re, like, “This is cool. I have a ton of books. Can I give them to you?” And I was, like, “I mean, yeah, we’ll take donations.” So then we have a vendor profile program.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: So I was, like, “I’ll make you a vendor profile. When your book sells, you will get proceeds to shop back into the store.”
Andrew Anderson: Oh, okay. So it’s kind of a commission or not a consignment. Not a consignment. Okay.
Candy Fuegan: They’re just a vendor.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: For every $10 that gets sold, that belongs to you, you get a dollar. And then you can accrue dollars, and then you can shop back in the store. And people are, like, “Yeah, that’s cool. I don’t want that.”
Andrew Anderson: It wasn’t motivating for them.
Candy Fuegan: But I do it. And then I send them an email at the end of the month, and I’m, like, “You have, you know, $10, $17 to come back in and shop. That will get you three used books. That will get you a new hard copy of a book. And you were just gonna throw it away or you were gonna donate it to different places.”
Andrew Anderson: So they are using it, then. That’s right.
Candy Fuegan: So they are using it. But it’s just so wild. Like, you’ve gone to the mall, you’ve seen a shirt. You’ve never walked in there and be, like, “Oh, my God, I really like these shirts. I have some shirts. Can I give you my shirts?” It’s wild that people walk in here and they just want to give back to this space. The coolest thing.
Andrew Anderson: What else would you like to, like… I don’t know if I have something in my house that should I… What should I bring you?
Candy Fuegan: So… Yes, the thing that I don’t…
Andrew Anderson: Okay, you want my collection of… I don’t actually have this, but National Geographic from the whole… The whole collection.
Candy Fuegan: The whole thing.
Andrew Anderson: All the New Yorker magazines that no one ever reads.
Candy Fuegan: Oh, my gosh. So I have had people say, “You don’t sell magazines.” Magazines are tough now because… Have you bought a magazine in the last… They’re, like, $12.95 now.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: They’re crazy. Remember you used to get them for $4.99?
Andrew Anderson: I mean, you mean, like, to buy a subscription?
Candy Fuegan: Yeah, if you… If you went to Walmart right now and bought Home Beautiful, whatever. They’re, like, $12.95. They’re so crazy expensive. Where they would have been five bucks before. So people do ask if I’m gonna buy magazines. I’m not buying new magazines. Yeah, that just… It doesn’t go fast enough. Here’s what I want people to do. Bring your books, donate them. We will get to them as quickly as we can. What people are not using the spaces. I want them to use it to sit down, chill out, bring your friends. I want loitering. And people seem to just, like, walk around and they’re, like, “Oh, cool, thanks.” So they pick up two books and they run out the door. And I’m, like, “It feels so good. Here, sit down. Look at this couch.”
Andrew Anderson: It’s covered in plastic. That was covered in plastic.
Candy Fuegan: This is…
Andrew Anderson: Look, there’s not a spot on…
Candy Fuegan: This is from, like, 1960.
Andrew Anderson: Oh yeah, it’s… That’s the real deal.
Candy Fuegan: It has not one crumb in it. I feel bad that I sit on it. I should be holding my coffee out like this.
Andrew Anderson: So it was in somebody’s house with plastic on it for… Yeah. So you want the people to come… You’re open to the sitting down.
Candy Fuegan: Yes. So we have a table back here by our little kitchen store area or mercantile. And then we have a little wall that is separated and there is a great 1920s table back there.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: That you can sit. We have both book clubs, Bible studies. We’re gonna have a baby shower here on Sunday, March something. So people are renting the space, which is cool.
Andrew Anderson: Excellent.
Candy Fuegan: But while we’re open, I want you to feel, like, you can just, like, sit, take your time, peruse.
Andrew Anderson: My girlfriend came and sat at the table for a couple hours and she quickly found this as a favorite spot.
Candy Fuegan: So good. There’s also a back space that has a shelf and we have barstool seating so you can look out the window. But it’s, like, our Wi-Fi room. So there’s plug-ins at each seat so you can keep your laptop charged and just that. We’ve had some high school kids come in and they bring their backpack and I think it’s, like, boys and girls that are, like, chatting and looking, like, they’re doing their homework. But I love it.
Andrew Anderson: It’s…
Candy Fuegan: I want it to feel like a community space that you feel safe to sit here and, like, whatever your… I had a young kid, he wrote a song while he was here. He kind of, like, was strumming lightly to a guitar. Very lightly. So it wasn’t obtrusive.
Andrew Anderson: You had a dog come in with jingle bells. So I… That is very much what I would call that creative community building. You mean you’re creating a space where people can connect or just be. And that’s…
Candy Fuegan: Yeah. It’s just so fun.
Andrew Anderson: Do you feel, like, you need… Were you gonna say something else?
Candy Fuegan: No.
Andrew Anderson: Do you feel… I mean, as a creative person you need a sort of… You need outlets and kind of, like, a playground space. Is that… Does this fit?
Candy Fuegan: That totally fits this. So for me, very selfishly, I love… When I wake up at 4:30 on Sunday morning, I come and sit down, I make a cup of coffee. That is my favorite chair.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: So I sit… There’s just, like, the perfect spotlight so I can just have that on. And I sit and I read and I’m quiet and I Instagram and this…
Andrew Anderson: Is a pretty envious spot to have for… For that kind of…
Candy Fuegan: It is so great.
Andrew Anderson: So I’ve got some other… Yeah. Questions about… So if you… These are kind of community questions. If you could wave a magic wand or push the magic button and just, like, have something appear in the community here. So think about, like, manifesting Muscatine, what isn’t here that you would just love to see?
Candy Fuegan: You know, that’s so funny. We… Okay, so I don’t know. That’s a great question. It may come to me while we talk or I’ll have to get back to you. So we do Small Business Saturday. And when I celebrate Small Business Saturday, I take baskets to viable businesses that are already in our downtown. And when I started doing this several years ago, there was maybe 10 or 17 or 23. We gave 40 baskets downtown.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: To real-life, open-every-day…
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: Businesses that are doing it right.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: And I hope that does not come across as condescending.
Andrew Anderson: You know what I mean by, like, they’re sustainable.
Candy Fuegan: Like, these are probably good, sustainable businesses. And I can’t remember how many restaurants that we have down here, but it is so much more than people realize. So the salon is open six days a week. We’re open from 9 a.m. till 8 p.m. Yeah. So we have a real good finger on the pulse of what is going on. We’ve got a lot of really great things happening. You know what I mean? We have great restaurants.
Andrew Anderson: Could someone come to you and ask, like, if they’re interested in starting something and maybe locating downtown? I’m sure you would probably tell them, like, what your experience has been, like, you said, you’re open that much and you’re open those hours. So you have your finger on what?
Candy Fuegan: Yes.
Andrew Anderson: Works here.
Candy Fuegan: Yes. Yeah. If I were to manifest something, it would be a collaboration of a group of people that are like-minded, that continue to build this because we have the things that we need. We need more cohesion on working together in our downtown. I think we have a beautiful, great downtown. Yeah, sure. We could have… For me, I’m a vegan. Just was in Kansas City this weekend. The amount of food I could eat that wasn’t, like, problematic, you know, and have the waitress be, like, “What?” So you know, for me, you know, I’m about sustainability, I’m about clean eating, I’m about those kinds of things. Boonies takes such great care of me. Salvatore’s takes great care of me. You know, Skinnies even has food that I can eat there. It’s so great. Oh my gosh.
Andrew Anderson: So vegan doesn’t extend into smoke smell, I guess.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah. Oh my gosh, I’m smoking this now. But they do buffalo cauliflower tacos for me. So I mean, it’s super… It’s great.
Andrew Anderson: Well, if you think of things that you would love to, I mean, I think a lot of us have ideas that we’re, like, “Man, somebody should really do this. It’s not me, but somebody. I’d love to see this.”
Candy Fuegan: And let me tell you, I am tapped out. I am tapping out. I have done it.
Andrew Anderson: I love it because it’s right now. How many entities are you?
Candy Fuegan: Okay, so I work at the clothing store.
Andrew Anderson: Yep.
Candy Fuegan: In curating the clothing. I teach 16 hours of Pilates every week. So we didn’t even get to talk to them?
Andrew Anderson: No, we didn’t even get there.
Candy Fuegan: That just moved to… I don’t know what the address is.
Andrew Anderson: It’s right next door to Live Leo, right?
Candy Fuegan: So 215 E. Second St. What do I do? I cut hair and I curate books.
Andrew Anderson: Four full-time jobs.
Candy Fuegan: Four full-time jobs.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah. That’s good.
Candy Fuegan: But I have such a great community. I couldn’t do this without Mandy Smiley. She takes great care of me. But the staff, you know, is she a salon staff member? So she’s Mandis. So my full name is Candice. She’s really nice. Her name is Mandy. So when she needs to maybe be more like me, then she’s Mandis. And so she comes here. She’s my IT person. She’s my… “Let me see if I can help you source this. Let me see if I can…” Whatever, she’s everything.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: The staff that works at any one of these places, they all work at all the places. The staff is sort of interchangeable between all interchangeable. They love the concept. They love what we’re doing, and they love being a part of it. And I ask Mandy, I’m, like, “Why do you put up with me?” Because I’m not always awesome. And she is just so proud to be part of a team that is doing what it is that we’re doing.
Andrew Anderson: Who do you run ideas by? When you have a crazy or, like, these things come up, who do you go to and say, “Here’s what I’m thinking”?
Candy Fuegan: I need a chaperone.
Andrew Anderson: Your staff has told me that.
Candy Fuegan: I know, like, I need a chaperone. I started dating and I was, like, “Okay, really? Here’s the thing. You’re not my boyfriend. You’re a chaperone.” But he’s just as bad idea-wise.
Andrew Anderson: Just…
Candy Fuegan: He doesn’t… He doesn’t stop me. He lets me run with it. And so having such positive support is wonderful. But…
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: Candice Lynn Fuegan hereby swears that she is done. And I’m so proud of the team that is so gracious and kind to me, that supports all of my chaos.
Andrew Anderson: Awesome. I have one more question for you, which I kind of asked earlier, but, like, is there an ask that you want to put out to people? You know, is there something you’re trying to do or trying to figure out or something you’re looking for?
Candy Fuegan: I ask, and this is where I could get really emotional. I love this town so much. I love it. I ask that you put Muscatine first. Choose Muscatine. Choose… I mean, when I work in that salon, people are, like, “I only come downtown to get my hair done.” Ah. And then they say, “There’s nothing to do.” Watch for… We have beautiful cultural things that are happening. We have this awesome book signing that’s going to happen March 7th at the Merrill. That is just a plug that you didn’t ask me to do. But we have a great symphony. We have an orchestra. We have… We have ballet that comes to… We have so much here. The Merrill is amazing. And the things that they’re doing. We have beautiful things to do in this town. When I moved downtown, I didn’t have a refrigerator. I didn’t have anything. And I walked up and down the street every day and I was able to feed myself, buy the things that I needed. Never got into my car. And I sustained that from August till October, I think.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah. Downtown, living here and West Hill, like, surrounding… It’s pretty underrated right now.
Candy Fuegan: It is so underrated. It is so, so cool.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: Well, yeah, I think we need to… We just need to choose Muscatine first.
Andrew Anderson: Awesome. Yeah. Thanks for telling me about what you’ve been up to and thank you for…
Candy Fuegan: Letting me ramble on and on. You’re, like, “That was supposed to be 15 minutes.”
Andrew Anderson: I think there’s… Yeah, we can roll film as long as…
Candy Fuegan: Yeah, I appreciate it.
Andrew Anderson: Absolutely. Yeah. This is… It’s, like, food for creative people just hearing ideas and things. Who is there? Is there someone that story that you want to hear or, like, who do you want to hear from?
Candy Fuegan: Oh, my gosh. Who don’t I want to hear from? I think that Alicia Gow has done the coolest thing in downtown with her store. Feather Your Nest…
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: Is just incredible. Oh, gosh, you really put me on the spot with that one.
Andrew Anderson: Is there someone that… Yeah. That you, like… Maybe someone that you don’t really know their story or don’t know…
Candy Fuegan: Don’t really know their story.
Andrew Anderson: Who… If you… If you heard they were talking about their story, you’d be, like, “Oh, gotta hear that one.”
Candy Fuegan: I think that… Oh, gosh, I don’t know. I think Jennifer Williams probably has a really cool story. She still holds… So she has Red and Lee.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: And she still holds space in New York.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: And she curates her clothing store. And, like, she has… I think she has a cool thing and, like, the story of her family and… Yeah, she has all of these really great things.
Andrew Anderson: Well, I completely put you on the spot by that, so… Yeah, we might… Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: Do you know what? I want to know about the people that owned or that just opened the Puerto Rican restaurant? I want to know their story.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: Do you know anything about them?
Andrew Anderson: I only know that I like the food when I go there.
Candy Fuegan: Okay.
Andrew Anderson: I don’t know any more about them.
Candy Fuegan: Good. Okay. So here was my experience, and here’s the thing, that Muscatine is very tough. You pretty much get one shot. If they walk into a place and they don’t like the feel, they generally don’t give you a second chance.
Andrew Anderson: That’s especially when it comes to restaurants.
Candy Fuegan: Or things like that.
Andrew Anderson: Yes.
Candy Fuegan: So here is something so cool that happened to them, in my experience. And I don’t know how to say the name of the restaurant, and I don’t know who they are.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: Jabaro?
Andrew Anderson: Yeah, Jabaros.
Candy Fuegan: I think Jabaros. Okay. We’re going to say that. And if we’re wrong, then someone correct us. But what they did, they were hit with huge success. Massively. When they first opened.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: They realized either their menu was too extensive…
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: Or the food that they were making was too burdensome.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: They put a sign on their door and they said, “Thank you so much for the support that you gave us. But we need to rethink this so that we can give you quality in a timely manner.” And they closed down and they reworked their business plan.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: And I’ve never had the opportunity to speak to them.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: To be, like, “That was cool.” Because I know what it feels like when you’re, like, “I just need to open because I need dollars in here and we’ll fix it as we go.”
Andrew Anderson: But they decided to…
Candy Fuegan: Very strong.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: And you know, that’s another thing. When people are, like, “We’re so excited. This came to be.” And then you go, and it’s closed. That can really turn people off.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah.
Candy Fuegan: And they did it. And that’s cool.
Andrew Anderson: Awesome. Maybe we’ll talk with them, see what…
Candy Fuegan: Yeah.
Andrew Anderson: Sweet. I have no idea how to wrap these things up. I’d like to get some more coffee, though.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah. Well, I appreciate you. The things that I’m doing, I can’t see it. Like, it doesn’t feel like a thing. And I would have never known my 20-year-old self, 30-year-old self, 40-year-old self would be doing… Sitting here doing this.
Andrew Anderson: Isn’t that wild? It only really makes sense in hindsight.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah.
Andrew Anderson: So there’s a book that I should see if we should get… Get you some copies of. It’s called…
Candy Fuegan: It’s…
Andrew Anderson: He wrote two books. One is For the Love of Cities and the other one’s called Love Where You Live. And I think so it was a pretty meaningful book for me because it made sense. It helped me make sense of what I was doing.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah. I was, you know, interested in here. I’m from here and I haven’t always lived here.
Candy Fuegan: Right.
Andrew Anderson: Yeah. Went to New York City, Iowa City, and Istanbul, Turkey, and lived all these places. So when I’ve seen things and when you… I always say this, but, like, we like the city. I like Muscatine, both for what it does offer and then also what it could be, like, the potential for things. So that book, I think you would find it interesting because it kind of gives language to the things that people like us do where we’re… We like business and entrepreneurship. But that doesn’t explain the whole picture. It’s more… There’s something else that motivates us.
Candy Fuegan: Maybe I should interview you next.
Andrew Anderson: Let’s do that.
Candy Fuegan: Okay.
Andrew Anderson: All right. Thanks for letting… Thanks for… Yeah. Thanks for… Well, thanks for talking today and thanks for letting us do this here and talking with Jim a while ago here. That worked really great. Can we keep doing this in here?
Candy Fuegan: Yeah.
Andrew Anderson: Okay.
Candy Fuegan: Yeah, we’ll do Mondays.
Andrew Anderson: I don’t know that I had you… Is it okay if I share this, what we talked about today in the world, and put it on… Yeah, put it on YouTube?