Meet Tara Ortiz | Chandler & Part Owner Stappato LLC

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tara Ortiz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tara, what’s one piece of conventional advice that you disagree with?
I have been told for a good part of my life to “Bloom Where You Are Planted” and I loved it. I LIVED it. I would strive to shine in any place I found myself and thought that if I worked hard enough, I could force my way to success. In its intended messaging, it is quite lovely: to be exemplary regardless of the circumstances life throws at you. But taken too generally, it can breed complacency, stuckness, and threatens chasing down a path that’s not meant for you.

I still think there is beauty in this advice in the right context, and it still lives in my heart for that reason, but something I’ve learned is that there are some circumstances in which you can’t bloom. A lotus must be in a muddy pond and a cactus blossom only blooms in a desert; neither can bloom or even survive in the others’ home. What speaks to me now more than to “bloom where you are planted” is to find the environment in which you bloom, then stun the world with your beauty.

This perspective allows for a better understanding of following our natural skills and talent, recognizing it in ourselves and others, and respecting those that bloom in different environments and ways.

Success comes when we remove ourselves from environments that don’t foster our natural skills and find the ones in which we shine. It comes when we enhance what is already in us and when we actively surround ourselves with people whose skills, personalities, and passions compliment our own. Life will sometimes try to plant us in the wrong garden, but the sooner we know what environment in which we bloom, the quicker we can reach the success we were uniquely meant to achieve.

So, while we still do the best with what we’ve got wherever we find ourselves, we have shifted our perspective from forcing ourselves to change for our environment, to now forging our way into the right garden to bloom.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
After a year of pandemic craziness, social unrest, unemployment, and well… basically the world burning down (hey, it was 2020), we were anxious to do something good. We and many of our friends and family had really built up our collection of wine bottles, because… who hadn’t?

So we put them to good use. We got crafty. Used our hands to create a beautiful candle made of the best materials to bring a little warmth into folks’ homes, recycle those bottles, and to plant a tree with every candle sold. And so, Stappato Candle Co. was born!

Since recycling is so core to our mission, we decided that for any jar, old candle, or recycled bottle that a patron had us fill, we would thank them with a 25% discount. We hope that as a community, we can extend the life cycle of what would have been trash for years.

In our first year, we’ve found that the most important and helpful aspect to business has been our patrons. We’ve gotten incredible and honest feedback that ensured our candles are the highest quality and perfect for every home.

So here we are, one year in, 539 trees planted (and counting), now focused on building our community up, highlighting other local and small businesses, and ready to take on all of the amazing things 2022 has in store!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We are BIG foodies, so most of our trip would center around food.

Day one would start our day off with a hot Roots coffee from South Main St. in Fort Worth and enjoying a beautiful morning walk along the Trinity Trails. We would head into Arlington to Fork In the Road for the most delicious mac and cheese lunch before touching into 31 and 13 Eco Friendly Accessories for some shopping and enjoying the Art Gallery in Create Arlington next door. We would close the night out by meeting up our friends at Game Theory for drinks and board games in Fort Worth.

After sleeping in, we would grab the dogs and head over to the Clearfork Farmers Market hopefully to grab our favorite beignets from the Beignet Bus then let the pups play while we have drinks and a bite at Mutts Cantina on the trails. We would drop the dogs off at home and go to Leaves Book Tea for a relaxing afternoon refreshment. We would then get dolled up and head down to Sundance Square to listen to amazing jazz music at Scat Jazz Lounge.

The rest of the trip would include checking out the stunning Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, enjoying the amazing Perot Museum in Dallas, going bowling at Bowlounge, vintage gaming it up at Free Play, getting our zero waste refills from For the Love of Zero, shopping at Southlake, walking around the beautiful Grapevine Main St. and having lunch at Harvest Hall, grabbing some coffee from Lazy Daisy Coffee, Avoca Coffee, and Billie Joe Coffee Co., sharing a gorgeous wine flight and charcuterie board from the Holly Wine Bar, enjoying local brews at Maple Branch Craft Brewery, having drinks and grub from The Beaded Lady, enjoying delicious shrimp from CoCo Shrimp, ramen from Wabi House, a vegan lunch at Spiral Diner, and we couldn’t miss Hard Eight Barbecue (of course). Lastly, we would almost always guarantee a quick trip to Decorators Warehouse to remind us that the Christmas spirit doesn’t have to go away when December ends (and it’s never too early to start planning for next year)!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We would like to take a chance to recognize the amazing work that is being done by One Tree Planted, who is taking the leap from good intentions to meaningful action, allowing us and so many others to have real environmental impact. We’d also like to thank and honor our incredible patrons, friends, and family who’s support has allowed us to save hundreds of bottles from ending up in landfills and contributed to the planting of over 500 trees since opening our business.

Website: Stappatocandleco.com

Instagram: @stappatocandleco

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taraortiz

Facebook: Facebook.com/stappatocandleco

Image Credits
Tony Gonzales | Ynot Tony Media Tara Ortiz