Today we’d like to introduce you to Tina Codinha.
Hi Tina, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
Hello there, my name is Tina Codinha. I am the Founder and CEO of Codinha Chocolate, Host of the “I Heart Chocolate Podcast”, and mentor to chocolatiers worldwide who are looking to grow in chocolate, business, and mindset. This is a business that I proudly run with my husband, Bruno Codinha, who funny enough, I met because of chocolate. I mean, of course, right?
Codinha Chocolate is a dream that came to fruition during the pandemic. We launched the online chocolate shop back in September 2020, and with its success, started an online mentorship program in July 2021. How did it all start? Well, my goodness…the origin story goes back 14+ years ago now. Back when I was studying medicine at UCSD and quickly realized that I didn’t want to pursue medicine anymore. Something about the whole “future is looming closer, what are you going to do?” sort of questions really caused me to pause and rethink how I wanted to go about my life. I figured that if the majority of our lives are spent working, then I might as well be doing something that I love. So in true dramatic fashion, I spent about 3 months with myself and really soul-searched. It all came down to one simple question: “What makes me happy?”. The answer was chocolate and that was it.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Oh gosh no! The struggles….so many struggles on so many levels and in so many different ways.
I think, first of all: the mental. The ongoing decision is that THIS is what I want to do with my life whether it seems like it’s going to work out or not. There were definitely moments where I almost thought that chocolate wasn’t supposed to work out for me. And funny enough, every time I tried my hand at something else such as going up the pastry corporate ladder or doing something completely different, I just longed to be back doing chocolate. So being tested for how badly I really want THIS is probably an ongoing theme, especially now as an entrepreneur.
Being a chocolatier has had its fair share of struggles throughout my entire career. I wouldn’t say the physical toll was challenging, for me personally. It’s always been more the “How can I get better?” and “What is the next step?”, or “Holy heck, how am I supposed to do this?” Those are the kinds of questions that I had to fight within myself as I was learning the craft, growing my career, and truly growing into my own to see exactly what I wanted to create for myself.
And then there’s the challenge of business. Ya know, realistically, many of us creatives get drawn to chocolate for the fun of it. We learn the craft, but we don’t necessarily learn how to do the business side. And that was something that always seemed sort of a conundrum to me and scared me in many ways. It wasn’t until my daughter was born actually (back in 2018) that I truly started taking this dream super seriously and started planning for Codinha Chocolate. I don’t know how to explain it, other than, I just knew. I just knew it was finally time. I was mentally prepared. I had done the inner work and was willing to do everything else. I invested in business coaching and learned as much as possible about what I felt like I didn’t know. As I said, I just knew. The timing was right. And from that point on, no turning back, and facing challenges today are just seen and treated as part of the journey.
There’s not really fear in if THIS is it or not. It’s simply a commitment to give my best, listen to my gut, take care of my mental and physical health, and balance that with still being a wife and a mom. So in short, “balancing” it all is an ongoing lesson.
We’ve been impressed with Codinha Chocolate, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Codinha Chocolate is unique in that we are not just a chocolate shop. We are also teachers in the chocolate space. My husband, Bruno, and I share 30+ years of experience between us and after the success of our online shop, decided to share our knowledge and teach other chocolatiers on all matters beyond just chocolate i.e. what it truly takes to run a business, how to organize production, how to price items or offer different items, and how to be smart about it all as well.
We developed an online mentorship program where we take on a small group of chocolatiers at a time for a period of 3 or 6 months to truly dive deep into each specific chocolatier and business. I feel that this sort of close relationship was lacking in the chocolate space. People can take all the quick masterclasses they want, but afterward, then what? By investing in long-term relationships, we’ve been truly able to help and impact chocolatiers in their businesses, and also just be a support system for them. As we all know, entrepreneurship has a reputation right now for being trendy, but it truly takes so much work and you need to be mentally strong and capable of recognizing the long game of business and how to endure when it ebbs and flows. This is something that we definitely guide our mentees through. I’m proud to say we’ve helped chocolatiers in the US, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, India, Turkey, Canada, and more. It’s been a really beautiful thing to take our dream and expand it so that others can make their chocolate dreams come true as well.
We all have different ways of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
I love this question. Success to me means happiness. And by happiness, I mean, being able to do what I love, support my family, and spend my time as I see fit. To feel in my power and to simply be authentic (as woo-woo as that sounds). I’ve never cared much for vanity metrics of success i.e. big houses and fancy cars. That’s all so superficial. I truly think that having peace of mind in self, and knowing that every single day that I’m alive, I’m also able to progress. I don’t think success is finite.
I’ve been known to say that Bruno and I are just getting started in what we do (even though we’ve been doing it for so long!). I think that we’ve just really done the inner and outer work and continue to dial into what we feel most called to do. And from there, more good things come.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.codinhachocolatementorship.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/codinhachocolate
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/codinhachocolate
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLJn3OCWSXP_-6ZAvSd6olw
- Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i-heart-chocolate-podcast/id1567809251
