Hollywood and bombs together makes you think of bad movies, doesn't it? Well, today's podcast isn't about movies. Kelly Lyons started as a scientist, went to Hollywood as a set decorator, and returned to the East Coast to become a science teacher. Still looking for the bombs? Listen to learn how Kelly creatively and continually designs her life and then lives it to the fullest. Here's a hint, "rainbows and unicorns." Learn more about The Luckiest People in the World at www.theluckiestpeopleintheworld.com
Find Kelly on Facebook at Fairyland Confections.
TRANSCRIPTION
This is Changing the rules, a podcast about designing the life you want to live, hosted by KC Dempster and Ray Loewe, the luckiest guy in the world.
KC Dempster 0:13
Good morning, everybody.
Ray Loewe 0:17
Good morning. You're waiting for me? Yes, I
KC Dempster 0:21
Well, you were so busy leading the chorus. I wanted to welcome everybody to Changing the Rules. This is KC Dempster. And we are experiencing what many schoolchildren would have been over the moon about, but I don't know how many actually are getting a snow day today because of the ability to homeschool. But it's it's a challenge. And we're all in our toasty warm homes and welcome, Ray.
Ray Loewe 0:51
Well, you know, I was watching television the other night, and this, this actually relates to our guest today. Okay. But there was a song that they were airing where they had all these kids singing, there's no school tomorrow. Yeah, great song. Okay,
KC Dempster 1:07
I know, it gets stuck in my head every time I hear it.
Ray Loewe 1:11
mood changes and stuff like that. And, and now we don't get that anymore. It's it's part of this virus stuff. Because you never stop going to school, whether they like it or not. And the advantages are there. And the disadvantages are there. But hey, kids, that's what you got to put up with in life as we grow old right?
KC Dempster 1:33
Well, you know, they all love their technology. You know, there's a good side and a bad side, I guess you could say.
Ray Loewe 1:39
Yeah, so we have a great guest today. And, you know, we're kind of going back to our theme last year here, where we're talking about, you know, getting smacked in this change. I think one of our previous podcast people, Kevin Davis was referring to the bubble of chaos that, that we've all been thrown in and, and all of a sudden, the things that were there are not there anymore. So I want to bring on to the show a young lady, her name is Kelly Lyons. Okay. And and you can get an idea of her character when you see that her email address, says something lioness.com Okay, you know, so there's something feral about this, this person here. But Kelly has a really interesting career and, and it has nothing to do. Well, maybe it has something to do it really nothing to do with what you're doing now. Is that right, Kelly?
Kelly Lyons 2:42
Very little to do. You know, I've definitely rode the wave of whatever was coming at me. I kind of tried to follow inspiration. This time. I didn't guide it at all.
Ray Loewe 2:54
Well, that that's the story we want to tell. But let's give a little background first, because you grew up in this area in the Delaware Valley. Right?
Kelly Lyons 3:02
I did.
Ray Loewe 3:03
And then you found your way to Hollywood. And we we were told we can't get you to tell Hollywood Stories. So we're like, okay, but what did you do in Hollywood? Because it kind of fits your own career.
Kelly Lyons 3:17
It does. I, I was a science consultant and a set decorator for 20th Century Fox Television. So I worked on a TV show called Angel which was a spin off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So very iconic. I worked for Joss Whedon. And now he's a household name. But I you know, I was with him and worked with him. I worked for Mutant Enemy and 20th Century Fox and I had a wonderful time doing that, and met a lot of great people and did a lot of fun, fun stuff.
Ray Loewe 3:47
Okay, and then you came back here, and you got into the education business. So what were you doing?
Kelly Lyons 3:55
Well, when I first came back from Hollywood, I actually taught science in North Philadelphia while I was getting my master's degree, and I got my masters in the business of education, which is kind of funny. And so then I stopped teaching science at a position opened up at the Garden State Discovery Museum. And I went to be the director of the museum in 2004. So...okay.
Ray Loewe 4:25
And there your primary function. You describe this Discovery Museum, because it's an interesting concept. And it kind of sets the stage for where you are, which makes your transformation even more amazing.
Kelly Lyons 4:39
Well, it was kind of funny, the museum. The museum was very unique. The Garden State Discovery Museum is a children's museum, which now is kind of a household name, but the Garden State Discovery Museum is actually 26 years old and at the time, that it came to be, it was a very unique idea. It was there was only about 25 Children's museums in the whole country and the Garden State Discovery Museum started, actually as a small business and not a nonprofit. And so it broke the doors off of every museum model that anyone was ever aware of. They worked with the Small Business Development Center at Rutgers and it was owned by two women. And so it was it was a lot of groundbreaking, and concept. And then since then, you know, there's 300 - 400 Children's Museum now, children's museums now in the world. We'll see after this bubble of chaos, how many are left. But you know, I had some great opportunities with that company, I actually went to Turkey and consulted on the very first Children's Museum and opened the first Children's Museum in Turkey and assemble, opened it as a business with two women who wanted to start a children's museum. In Turkey. I consulted on a project in India as well for a children's museum in a mall in India. So I've had a lot of fun and a lot of very unique business experience, as well as just you know, out of the box thinking, very different kind of corporate world. So that's amazing.
Ray Loewe 6:12
All of a sudden, now, okay. You're the rules changed,
Kelly Lyons 6:18
the rules changed,
Ray Loewe 6:19
the rules changed. And one day, you're director of this museum The next day, the museum didn't exist anymore.
Kelly Lyons 6:27
That's right. That's exactly right. Yeah, one day I had 165 employees and basically the next day I had zero.
Ray Loewe 6:36
Okay, so so most people here would sit at home and cry a lot. Okay, and hide a lot. And you didn't do that. So you created from nothing out of this bubble of chaos, a new life for yourself in effect. Right? And give us give us a little background about what it is you're doing, how you describe yourself where you're going? And then you know one of the other things that I'll give them the hint is that part of this is you learned how to make bombs
Kelly Lyons 7:09
I did
Ray Loewe 7:11
okay, hold on, we're not being destructive, but we'll get into the positives. Okay, all right, so Kelly, the bomb maker tell us about what you're doing.
Kelly Lyons 7:20
So you know, we're talking about we're now what home 11 months 12 months now almost i was i was done work on March 17. Which, you know, I'm Irish, so that sounded fine to me at the time. It was St. Patrick's Day that the museum was it was done. But I really thought we were gonna be closed for two weeks not you know, not gone. So you know, there was a lot of introspection, there was a lot of looking into different industries that were coming up at the time, the thing that I've learned at the museum being out of the box and I've gotten to mentor some women entrepreneurs and and talk business plans and really and develop a few different companies through the museum and so I really love that part. I love the development of creation new things happening you know, kind of you know what's going to happen next and and so instead of crying and hiding Ray, I decided to really enjoy the time at home with myself my son and because I hadn't been home and I've never been home ever like this so this was a new thing for me. So I just kind of started looking into a way to use my creative energy and I started tooling with a few things and I landed very squarely in October in chocolate bombs not on purpose I was actually just wanted to play around with them saw them on Pinterest I has wanted to make some and I made some for my friends and I gave them out as Halloween gifts to like my nieces and next thing I know people were they were so excited by them they were videotaping their kids having chocolate bombs and putting them on Facebook and tagging me and next thing I know people are Can you make these for me? Can I buy these from you? Do you make these for a living? How many can I get? Can you make them this way? Can you make them that way? So it became it came it became an entity of its very own which went from sure I can make these for you and oh no problem I can deliver to between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I made over 4000 chocolate bombs which was way too many for anyone to make in a month but it was very it was amazing. The this what what what happened at that? Yeah.
KC Dempster 9:37
I was just gonna say I think for the for our listeners their imagination about what a chocolate bomb is must be running wild from like chocolate coming down the walls. So Kelly, describe for us what your chocolate bombs actually are.
Kelly Lyons 9:53
Actually, if you're right, I'm sorry, I should have prefaced by that. It's a hollow chocolate ball. It's about two and a half inches sphere, you know, a little bit like probably the size of a baseball, and it's hollow. And on the inside of the chocolate bomb is cocoa powder and marshmallows. And so you put the bomb in the bottom of a mug, and then you pour hot milk over top of it. And it melts and bursts open with all the marshmallows and all the marshmallows rise to the top and then you stir it up and it's it's hot chocolate.
KC Dempster 10:30
It's Chocolate
Ray Loewe 10:33
is what it is. And that's different. Okay, let me let me regress a little bit because you blew the image of the bomber. Okay, you know, you had to fess up and, you know, chocolate bombs, you know, what can I tell you? But there are a couple of things here. Kelly is one of our luckiest people in the world. There's no question about it. And, and if you look at some of the things that she's done, you can see. So first of all, she's living her life on her own terms. Now, maybe she didn't always do that. But the circumstances changed. And she was able to just totally redesign her own life. Okay. And part of that is you deals well with rules, so somebody changed the rules on her, so she didn't just succumb to the new rules tree. You know, she's social distancing, I'm sure, you know, she's doing this at home or in her kitchen. And so that there's, she's, she's playing by those rules that are important, but you change the ones that matter to her, she's not going to get constrained to be forced to live somebody else's life. And one of the things that, that she found is the luckiest people in the world always find a positive solution of everything. You know, and you had to look for it a little bit, right. But you know, it was there.
elly Lyons 11:55
I really embraced the quarantine Actually, I really enjoyed it. I have to say, there was no way I was gonna, you know, I really didn't, I didn't want it to destroy my life. And I was really excited to see what was going to happen next. And being somebody who's a creative person. The thing about major change. My favorite thing about major change is seeing everything that comes next. What happens now what's going to happen now and as much as there's a bubble of chaos right now for everybody. I'm loving to see what's developing out of this. You know, it's happened all over the world all through history. What's going to happen next, what happened after World War One what happened after World War two? What happened after the Spanish Spanish flu? What happened in industry? What rose to the occasion? I'm very interested in that.
Ray Loewe 12:41
And what better than chocolate bombs?
Kelly Lyons 12:45
The end of the day, chocolate
KC Dempster 12:49
In addition, in addition to the chocolate bombs, Kelly has some Valentine's Day specials, these breakable hearts, which if you go to her website page or on Facebook, and it's called Fairyland confections. And if you go there, you can see all of the products. One of the chocolate bombs is made to look like a panda. Panda Bear, not Panda, polar bear. And I just think it's the cutest thing. But these these breakable hearts are fascinating because you say people can purchase them already filled or they can sell them themselves. So how does how does that work?
Kelly Lyons 13:26
So they're actually just the top of the heart and it goes down onto a cake board and they're about eight inches wide. Now. I thought they were supposed to be sealed too. But then everybody kept saying oh, no, you can just sell them just the top and then people can. So the pert the first person who asked me to make a breakable heart is a newlywed. It's their first Valentine's together. He's putting jewelry and love letters in it. He just wanted the top and I said all right, no problem. So they're doing very well. I don't know if it's an aggressive thing or again, Ray is an activity that people are really embracing but it's just you when you take a lobster hammer hammer and you whack open this this chocolate heart to see what's inside.
Ray Loewe 14:08
Well, I think there's more to it than that. I mean, it kind of started with this idea about building bombs, okay, and and expanding it, but I think you do some other things with it. So you create events for other people.
Kelly Lyons 14:22
I love to do that. That was probably my favorite thing to do.
Ray Loewe 14:26
Okay, so talk about some of the events that you're helping people create with chocolate bars.
Kelly Lyons 14:32
Okay, well, you know I did. They had a drive by baby shower for somebody. So the mother reached out to me and asked me to do the favors for her drive by baby shower, which were strawberry and cream. It was a baby girl. So she, we did that. But this Friday Whistlers inn in cinnaminson is having a polar Party, which I think is like such a great idea. They're going to use their outdoor dining space and they're just going to let the heaters run and they're going to have a polar party. And so I reached out and said, Hey, I make hot chocolate bombs in the shape of polar bears. Do you guys want those? And they said, Yes, we definitely want those. So they're gonna add Kahlua, or vodka or whatever you want to those, those bombs. And so they're super excited about that. And this weekend, I have an open house at grazing goat farm, so they'll have all kinds of stuff there. And I'm also working on gender reveal cocoa bombs with
Ray Loewe 15:29
what's in it in blue or pink?
Kelly Lyons 15:31
Yep, they're pink and blue. So it's either a girl or boy, they have to tell me what I'm making but they won't know until it pops open. What's in the belly? And that one's a bear too, but he's a brown bear.
Ray Loewe 15:45
Couple of things. Number one, you went from running a children's museum to how does one begin a career in crafting chocolate?
Kelly Lyons 15:55
I you know, this is one of those things where you I I didn't plan it. I had no idea it was gonna happen. I've always worked around and with food. My mother's a chef, my parents owned restaurants. I love to work with food. I love to have people at my house. I love to entertain. I love to make dinners. I love to make things and drop them off to people. I've been doing that my whole life and that's really how the chocolate bomb started. I saw them on Pinterest. I made them and drop them off at peoples houses. I just didn't know that it was gonna take gotta get the legs that it got I had no I was I had no idea.
Ray Loewe 16:29
Okay, so is there an end to this? Or do we just have chocolate bars forevermore?
Kelly Lyons 16:34
I you know, I now I have kind of come up with this new concept for the company and I named it you know, I called it Fairyland Confections. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna be very transparent about that there. I am not a chocolatier. So the reason it was even called Fairyland Confections is because my decorations are a little crazy. And the reason the decorations are so crazy is because sometimes my chocolate has holes in it and has divots in it and because I'm not a chocolatier, so I had to cover it with a lot of icing and throw a bunch of stuff on top. So I thought, you know what, I'm gonna I'm gonna make this a thing we're gonna call it Fairyland confections like the fairies took over the piping bag and the decorations and and then with that, you know, I have I'm hoping that at some point, I may open it a Fairyland cafe because that that's definitely because I do unicorn bombs and, and, you know, I like sparkles. I mean, I always tell everybody when there's sadness in the world, and they try to talk to me about it. I say, you know what, I really only deal in rainbows and unicorns. That's really my thing. I've always been that way. I like to keep it I like to keep the vibration high. And you know, I like I like stuff like that. So I'm hoping that we may be able to make Fairyland Confections and actual cafe and I'm working on tea bombs. Oh,
you'll love those KC, they are a clear sugar ball with the tea bags inside and flower like edible flowers. They're beautiful. Oh, cool. That will be spring. So.
Ray Loewe 18:09
Okay, so we have the ability to do hot chocolate do can we do like alcoholic beverages and stuff like that. Now, you indicated, we're gonna do that this weekend. So what do you do just put the Bailey's, you just put whatever the confection is on the inside?
Kelly Lyons 18:28
I could do it on the inside. I'm having a logistical issue with this. But how Whistlers is going to do it is they're going to have the mug they're going to pour the kalua or the Bailey's or whatever, they're gonna pour the shot into the bottom of the mug. Set the polar bear on top and then pour the hot milk over top of them. Because my problem is, is when you put the alcohol in the bomb, which I can, it dissolves the marshmallows. Marshmallows, I have to figure out a way to make half of it filled with alcohol and half of the marshmallows kind of in the top and then seal it together so that it doesn't mess up the marshmallows.
Ray Loewe 19:06
Who would have thunk that Marshmallows would do that.
Kelly Lyons 19:10
So yes, I mean, I've made rumchata for my friends, but I didn't put the Mark I did we put the marshmallows in it, but then by the time we put the bomb in that there was no marshmallow.
Ray Loewe 19:19
Okay, let's talk about some of the creativity that people can do here. So, so there is no reason you're sitting at home today. And you have these people getting tired of zoom calls, right? Yeah. So what if we just sent out a whole bunch of cocoa bombs to people, and we had a cocoa Salute on zoom, right?
Kelly Lyons 19:44
It's a good idea. You can either add or add some alcohol to it. Whatever you want to do.
Ray Loewe 19:50
So so people can take this concept of yours the sugar, sugar concept sugar is always a good thing. And and and do creative things. And and the idea the parties creating the parties and creating themed parties. And I love the baby reveal one.
Kelly Lyons 20:08
Oh, yeah, that's gonna be.
Ray Loewe 20:11
And then what happens if the baby comes out to be the opposite of what everybody predicted?
Kelly Lyons 20:16
I'm not making the call. They're telling me what the doctor said.
KC Dempster 20:24
Yeah, I'm sure it has happened in the past.
Ray Loewe 20:31
Or the end of our timeframe work here. But let's recap on a couple things. So. So Kelly is one of our luckiest people in the world. Okay, and we know that because she is creating her own life, and she's moving forward in and ignoring the bubble of chaos. Right. Okay. The creativity that that you hear is interesting, I guess, in totally unique and different. But it's the concept of creating the events out of it that I think is really where the edge is. And so we have the ability to order these things, and ship them to our friends. And we can do that and the website we put on our podcast notes. But what is the website again?
KC Dempster 21:16
It's in Facebook, and it's Fairyland Confections. Really easy to find.
Ray Loewe 21:24
Okay, yeah. And do you have any other words of wisdom for those who are caught in the bubble of chaos, or those of us who are just chocoholics, or those of us who want to make bombs?
Kelly Lyons 21:40
I would say yeah, me here. Here's my words of wisdom. take a little time to quiet your mind. And don't overthink things and next thing you know the answers coming.
KC Dempster 21:52
That's very wise, very sage. Thank
Kelly Lyons 21:56
Follow your joy, follow your joy. Next thing you know, everything works out just fine.
Ray Loewe 21:59
It follow your joy. And with that, there's nothing else to say is there?
Kelly Lyons 22:03
that's it, follow your joy.
Ray Loewe 22:04
So join us. Next week. We'll have another intriguing gush. Look up Kelly on her Facebook thing, and eat, well drink chocolate in this
Kelly Lyons 22:18
way. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate that. Thanks, Kelly. Have a great day.
Kris Parsons 22:24
Thank you for listening to Changing the Rules a podcast designed to help you live your life the way you want and give you what you need to make it happen. Join us next week for our next exciting topic on changing the rules with KC Dempster and Ray Loewe, the luckiest guy in the world.