Sarahbeth Yeli Marshall is the Founder and Chief Chocolate Officer of Yelibelly Chocolates. She started her career as a registered dietician with a Master’s Degree in Nutrition and Food Science, and worked for 15 years in the food service industry before falling into the dark side of chocolate.
Yeli has been studying and performing the art of Middle Eastern belly dancing since 1999, and on one of her travels to Italy, she discovered flavor-infused chocolates. She brought back that inspiration and started making her own chocolates in 2007 and since then, she has worked at perfecting various flavors to entice her family and friends.
Yeli started selling her chocolates around the Metroplex and at a dance studio where she taught belly dancing. After searching for a name that truly told the story about her chocolates, a friend suggested melding her name and her passion for dance, thus Yelibelly Chocolates was born. Yeli still performs from time to time around the Dallas area, and she also teaches nutrition and healthy cooking classes.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- What inspired Sarahbeth Yeli Marshall to start Yelibelly Chocolates
- The most challenging part of the chocolate business and what Yeli loves the most about it
- What most people don’t know about Yeli Marshall
- How Yeli has changed her business structure to adjust to the current health crisis, and how working from home has benefited her and her employees
- Where to find Yelibelly Chocolates and the nutrition classes that Yeli offers
- What Yeli wishes she knew when starting her business
- Yeli shares the biggest mistake made in her business and what she learned from it
- The people Yeli admires and considers to be her mentors, and the most impactful thing she has learned from them
- Yeli’s advice to other women entrepreneurs on being successful and handling their inner critics
- Yeli talks about belly dancing and what her superpower is
In this episode…
Sarahbeth Yeli Marshall fell in love with flavor-infused chocolates while on a trip in Italy so much that she was inspired to start making her own when she got back home. When she no longer found happiness in her career as a dietician, her husband encouraged her to start a chocolate-making business and since then, there’s been no turning back for Yeli.
The journey of entrepreneurship has been enlightening for Yeli and things she learned in the process is something that she hopes to share with other women.
Join Andrea Heuston on this episode of Lead Like a Woman Show where she interviews Sarahbeth Yeli Marshall about chocolate and about chocolates and belly dancing. Yeli talks about how she came to start a business enterprise around chocolate, the challenges she faced growing her business, and the lessons she learned that she hopes other women can learn from. Stay tuned.
Resources Mentioned in this episode
- Artitudes Design
- Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program
- Yelibelly Chocolates
- Sarahbeth Yeli Marshall on LinkedIn
- Yeli Marshall on YouTube
- Yelibelly Chocolates’ email: hello@yelibelly.com
- Yelibelly Chocolates on Instagram
- Yelibelly Chocolates on Facebook
- Yelibelly Nutrition Classes
- The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is brought to you by Artitudes Design by Andrea Heuston. Artitudes Design is an award-winning creative agency that has been creating visual communication for Fortune 500 companies for over 25 years. They have worked with notable companies such as Microsoft, Starbucks, Expedia, and have also served startups and nonprofit organizations.
They specialize in connecting speakers with audiences by creating visual value with presentations and through the creation of motion graphics, video, and content.
To learn more about Artitudes Design, visit their website today. Check out their portfolio to see their previous projects, and contact them today to find out how they can help you bring your business a cut above the rest.