Having started online in 2019, Fanny Yockell's project-boutique found a storefront in 2020, where Flambette is proudly part of a range of carefully selected products. We wanted to know a little more about this thriving young woman and decided to ask her a few questions!
Marie: What was your dream job growing up?
Fanny: When I was little until my early teens, I wanted to be a singer. I took part in several competitions and took singing lessons. It then turned into a desire to work as a nurse, dental hygienist and finally I did a course in aesthetics after highschool. Entrepreneurship then showed up in my life a few years later.
Marie: Before starting your lovely store, you were sharing your favorite things on social media where you gained quite a following. Why did you decide to be an influencer?
Fanny: During my aesthetic class, I started making videos on YouTube more regularly. I continued more seriously during my first job as a cosmetician. I worked part-time to give myself time to create my videos. It was in 2015 that I received an email from an agency offering me to work with a brand to talk about hair coloring. It was the start of this great adventure! I left my job two years later to be self-employed full time.
Marie: How did you decide to start your own business? Was it in the back on your mind for a long time?
Fanny: I had never really thought of having a store one day in my life! The idea really came to me when I started to realize the impact of my purchases. I wanted to consume less but better, to know where my products came from and who made them. I then discovered several small Quebec businesses that I was talking about on my social media accounts. I had the idea of bringing together all these beautiful products that I used daily to my own shop so my community could access them all in one place. We had the store solely online for a year before opening our physical store in a magnificent ancestral home.
Marie: It’s a project that you share with your partner, Jean-Philippe. How do you divide tasks and how do you not talk about work all the time?
Fanny: Yes! I do have the pleasure of working with my partner every day. J.P. started working with me even before he had the store. He was helping me with content creation for collaborations. At the moment, he mainly takes care of customer service at the store. It's really what he likes best and during that time, I also can do what I like best, which is product research, sourcing new products and creating content for the store. I think we manage to not constantly talk about work because we were a couple and best friends long before we were business partners. We also both have passions and hobbies outside of work which allows us to discuss different subjects. Our little dog also helps us to live in the moment.
Marie: What is the best compliment you’ve ever received?
Fanny: The best compliment I have received is from a customer who came to the store after a difficult day. He said to me that he just needed to be here for a few minutes to calm down and breathe. Knowing that my store could be his safe place moved me so much because that's exactly what I wanted to create with the physical store. A place where you feel good and inspired by beauty.
Marie: What is your favorite product in the store?
Fanny: It’s too difficult to choose only one!! I love them all! Since it just launched, I would say our candle and room spray summer collaboration. It smells so good!
Marie: Do you have any future plans for the store that you would like to share with us?
Fanny: I always have projects for the shop! I try to live in the moment and enjoy what we have managed to build so far, but it's not the ideas that are lacking when you're passionate. I would say that at the moment, the lack of space in the physical store is starting to be more limiting for all these beautiful projects. So we let life perhaps guide us to a future nest to continue to pursue our mission of offering good and beautiful things.
Thank you, Fanny! And thank you for our wonderful collab xx
