A conversation with Beth Tully

Few Wichita businesses debut with the instant recognition and buzz that Beth Tully's Cocoa Dolce Artisan Chocolates generated when she opened five years ago.

It's quite a coup for the Wichita native who started her career as a speech pathologist and took a detour in sales before realizing her dream.

After opening in Siena Plaza at 37th North and Rock Road with one employee, Tully has expanded by adding a production facility in Comotara and moving to Bradley Fair. She has 31 employees.

Growing up, what did you want to be?

"I either wanted to be a rock star or a ballerina."

That changed when you turned 9, though?

"I saw the 'Miracle Worker' with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke. I decided right then and there I wanted to teach kids to speak.

"Never thought another second about it."

After a long career in speech pathology — with a couple of other stops along the way — a plane ride back to Wichita for your 20th high school reunion led to a new career. What happened?

"I'd just met this guy named Jody, and I knew he was a doctor."

Turns out it was Joseph Galichia, and he then tracked you down in California about a corporate communications job at his medical clinic?

"I'd never considered anything like that, but he insisted."

How'd it go?

"It was very short-lived. I was there less than two years, and then I got fired. (During) one of their management coups, they just came in and swept everybody out. First and only time, but it was a humbling experience."

What did you do next?

"I apologize to people constantly when I tell this part of my story. I decided that anyone could... sell something, so I decided I'd get a job in sales."

So KAKE, Channel 10, hired you after you made the station a sales pitch?

"This should have given me a little bit of insight about what I should do.... They wanted me to sell something to them. What I pitched to them was chocolate. I pitched them Beth's Chocolates, or whatever the hell I called them at the time."

So you were hired, and the station manager immediately asked for chocolate?

"She actually asked if I'd do their chocolates, like corporate gifts to give that holiday season."

Sales wasn't for you, though?

"I discovered that I was a decent salesperson but really didn't like the concept of cold calling."

Then one of your accounts, Coca-Cola, hired you away?

"Out of the blue they offered me a job to come to work in their sales department. I was blown away by it, but I was really intrigued. I knew I needed to disconnect myself from my phone.... I just never felt really happy or comfortable doing that. I'm kind of a shy person, honestly."

Isn't that hard as a business owner?

"It still is. I'd say that's one of my biggest challenges being a business owner. Fortunately, I have staff that can assist with some of that.

"I don't know if somebody scared me when I was on the phone when I was little...."

And then a trip to Mexico with 27 friends and family members for your 50th birthday changed everything?

"It was amazing, and it was humbling, and it was also really profoundly life changing for me. I realized that up until that point in my life, for the first 50 years, I'd never really done anything that I love to do."

What made you realize that?

"I think because of the outpouring of love and admiration. People were saying things about me as a friend or a family member that I... couldn't relate to. I didn't see that in myself.

"I felt really like I had not been authentic and had just spent time kind of punching the clock and sleep walking through my life."

So what did you decide?

"After a lot of crying and a lot of tequila... I do think it played a huge role in this... I had an epiphany, and I realized I had a choice. I could be the person I had continued to be up to this point, not do what I love and make money and provide financial security for my family, or I could take the risk and do something I would really love to do."

Which is...?

"I knew exactly what it was.... I knew it 11 years ago when I was pitching KAKE-TV.... It wasn't until that moment that I realized. I was thunderstruck by the realization.

"I'd been making chocolate from the first holiday in 1988... and I made it every year after that for my friends and family. I realized that was the best time of my year every year."

So you went to culinary school, took business classes and then had a serious talk with your husband, Jay?

"He asked me the best question that anybody's asked me... since I started on this path to Cocoa Dolce: 'What's the worst that can happen if you pursue this?... Won't you always look back on this moment and regret it if we don't just go for it?'

"I felt like I never loved him more as a person or as a mate than at that moment because he liberated us from the fear of failure."

So you got an SBA loan and some start-up money from a family member and suddenly had a business?

"You know, I would have been happy just making chocolate with my one employee and hanging out with the occasional customer, but from the moment we opened the doors, we were deer in the headlights. We were busy. It was crazy every day."

Why do you think that was?

"People love the idea of fine chocolate. I think there's something about chocolate for some people that elevates it to rapture. They kind of lose themselves."

Yet you still don't take a paycheck?

"You know, I think Jay Tully every month is hoping I'm going to bring a little cash home.

"The costs of growth... have all come with additional capital investment.

"I'm proud after five years to say we've never missed a single payment on anything. I view that as a huge sign of success."

And by early next year all of your start-up loans and initial capitalization will be off the books?

"I'm pretty much anticipating my time in the sun in January if not December."

What have been your biggest challenges?

"It's been lucky for us. It's ironic. It's been managing growth."

What's been your most painful lesson?

"Never hire family. That's been the worst."

Any surprises along the way?

"The community's interest and support has been unconditional and really unflagging for five years. I'm still completely and totally shocked by that."

What keeps you up at night?

"Making sales tax payments in third and fourth quarters. We're still a very small business.... There are so many tax issues that really, they worry me."

What's your next big goal?

"I dream about having a marquee location in some... crazy sort of really outlandish retail location... like the Forum at Caesars Palace. I fantasize about that. Just someplace completely unexpected."

What's your advice to other dreamers out there punching the clock?

"What we all have to do is be present and aware of the things that we love to do. There's always value in pursuing what you're passionate about and what makes your heart happy."

What about the day-to-day of doing that?

"You have to be able to bounce to be a small-business owner. You have to be willing to fail.

"You know I think you have to try. What's the worst thing that can happen?"

This story was originally published October 24, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "A conversation with Beth Tully."