Hello, welcome back to a slice of success cake business talk How are you?
I hope you've had a good weekend.
If you were in if you are in the UK, then we had Mother's down Sundays so if you celebrate Mother's Day, I hope you had an amazing day. And uh yeah, I hope you've been like busy with cakes or baking, resting, whether you've been juggling family life or all of the above, to be honest.
I just hope you've had a lovely weekend and a good start to a new week had a really good weekend.
I was spoke Rotten.
I am a mother, so I had two children one, it's fully grown, done university, living on our own and then the other one is a teenager.
His birthday is actually next week so um no, it was nice and I was spoilt rotten.
We had a lovely day out and just chilled, really, we didn't do anything too strenuous. Um it was just a nice, you know, we were out for lunch and just had a nice sort of relaxing walk and and had a really, really lovely weekend, so no cakes for me this week, which has been lovely so I hope you had an amazing weekend as much as I did.
So this week on the podcast, I wanna talk about something that's been on my mind a lot recently and it's how we define success in business and especially in cake businesses we think I sorry I think a lot of us are chasing someone else's version of success and always wondering why it never feels like we've like made it because I know that that is something that I have been guilty of and to be honest in some ways still am a little bit guilty of. Um you know, we we we see success as something we're always striving for, and I don't think we have a realized we've reached it or that we're super close.
You know, it was always something in the future.
So that's that's really what today's episode is all about.
It's not gonna be very structured like my usual episodes.
It's more of a chatty one, but it's something that I'm I've really been feeling lately and I'm hoping that if you've been feeling it to you, this is gonna help.
It's really easy to get swept up in other people's businesses.
You know, how many followers they've got on Instagram, whether they've got their calendars booked out for the next three years, whether they are doing all of these wedding shoots and and styled photos and looking like they have success . And we get swapp up with it, and we think, that's what I want.
Why haven't I got that?
Why are they doing better than me?
And, you know, there's obviously that mindset of comparing to other people, but I think what it also is is that we think that we want what they've got and it can always feel like you're not doing enough, what you're doing isn't enough.
It's not you're not the same as them and that's what you want and and why are why isn't it working for you?
But it's it's not the case, you know, we see someone with, I don't know, 10,000 followers on Instagram and we think that they've made it or we see someone posting wedding cakes day after day and we're falling behind because we don't have as many orders as they are, but it doesn't mean that they're successful in the way that you want to be.
It's their way of being successful, but it's not necessarily your way of being successful.
So when I was transitioning from celebration cakes to wedding cakes, I obviously started to follow wedding cake makers.
I followed them all over the world, and obviously, I followed ones that were local to me because at the time I was all new to this.
I viewed them as my competition.
I needed to be better than them so I was always always looking at what they were doing and thinking, my goodness, they're so successful. That's what I want.
I want their success and I would strive daily to try and achieve that and I didn't realize that I was missing out on my own success because I always felt like I haven't quite reached what they're doing, so that means I'm not successful.
But it was the it was the quiet success, the the little ones that I was experiencing that you don't see get shared on social media, you don't see other cake makers talking about these things , but they are success and if you don't acknowledge them as you're going along, you'll always be striving for more.
You'll always think you haven't reached your goals.
If you don't actually stop in and take note of everything that's happening.
so , you know, the the first time that a customer comes back for a second order, that success, because that customer valued what you did, what you did for them, what you created for them, the service she provided, and they came back that is success.
When you deliver a cake that you are genuinely proud of, that is success, because we are so critical of ourselves, we constantly look at the cakes that we make and always knit picking, but when you are genuinely proud of a cake that you've just created, you that's success.
You have reached a point where you can be happy with your own work.
That is success.
Setting boundaries or saying no to a last minute order, that is success.
You are taking charge of your own business and setting the boundaries and set in the rules of your own business.
That is success . Balancing your life and still doing the cakes if you've got children, then you are juggling so so much no, even if you don't have children, you are juggling a lot Life is a lot and then trying to run a business on top of that it's a lot and if you manage to do it even half well, that is success , but these things are not shared.
You don't see these things from the other cake makers that you are comparing yourself against.
You're looking at their success and thinking, I don't have that, but you're missing your little quiet successes.
But each one of those is a milestone, each one of those is a point to say, wow, I'm actually doing this.
I am actually succeeding . You know, the the the quiet winds, the count just as much as the big milestones, and just because you don't see those being shared on social media doesn't mean that they're not winds. Doesn't mean that they're not success . You know, success might be delivering a beautiful cake this month and still having time for your family, having the weekends fray.
That's a huge win because if you if you are not having if you know if you're constantly baking and baking and baking, then having the weekend free for your family, then that's a huge win.
But it doesn't always feel like that when we're measuring ourselves against someone else's idea of progress.
So, we need to we need to work out what our view of success is.
You know, more bookings doesn't always mean success.
More bookings does not equal more success.
More bookings could mean burnout.
It could mean time away from your friends time away from your family time away from your own time.
It doesn't always mean more success.
So when you're looking at other cake makers and saying, my goodness, they've got so many orders coming in, it must be amazing.
That's what I'm aiming for.
Do you see the other side of it?
Do you ever see that maybe that person isn't happy?
Maybe that person doesn't want all these orders because they're missing so much of life trying to reach an unattainable success goal that really isn't their goal.
And you're doing the same, you're wishing your life was like theirs, but actually, if you just stop for a minute and think, what does success look like for you?
Is that really what you want is is what you are looking at online really really what you want if you had five cakes a week celebration cakes and wedding cakes would be insane, but if you had five celebration cakes every single week of the year, would that be successful?
Yes you'd probably be bringing in a lot of money but what about everything else that you'd be losing is the money worth losing your time losing you know your sense of freedom booked out doesn't automatically mean successful.
Sometimes it means overwhelmed, overworked, and sometimes underpaid as well because if you are getting loath and loath and los of cakes every week, you usually means that you are cheaper and so you are being underpaid for your work because if you were charging your worthy if you were charging a little bit more , you could probably work less but still earn the same amount of money.
You know you need to have space, you need to have rest, you need to have flatsibility to be a successful business.
If you are burnt out, your business is gonna crumble, you are gonna crumble, you will just not want to do this anymore and then what?
What's your backup plan?
Do you have a backup plan?
No because you want this to work.
You want to go all in on your cake business.
I know I did.
I still do . I'm I don't have a backup plan.
My cake business and obviously the Cape business Academy, those are my babies, but if I am working every minute of every day , I'm going to get worn out.
I need rest.
I need space and if you are constantly striving for somebody else's version that you think is success, you are never gonna reach it because you'll always always always want more.
In what point do you sit there and say I've made it?
Do you do you have a point you know that you can be able to say I've made it.
Can you sit there and tell me that at this point I know I'll make I will have made it.
I will be successful as soon as I do this, I will be successful because you'll always be going that that goalpost will move you know it could be so soon as I get one wedding cake a week during the summer months, I know I'll have made it.
And then when you get there, you were like, yeah, no, no, I I need more . I've I've not made it.
They're doing far more than me, so, um, I've not made it.
I need two red cakes a week and then it just keeps going and you've never realized your goals change over time.
You know, maybe success used to look like I want a full time income, but it's okay to change that and say, well, now I'd rather have free time and balance in my life . It's okay to shift your goals.
Maybe you used to want to do all the wedding cakes, but now you just want to work with a handful of those dream customers . Maybe you were happy to take on every order under the sun, but now now you don't.
All it's okay.
You know it's it's okay to want to change your goals.
It's okay to then realize actually that person's dream life is not mine but it's also, you know, it's it's also okay to say I do want to work every hour of the day if that's really what drives you and you are happy to do that brilliant but if you're not and you think you should be to be successful you think you should be working every hour of the day and you think you should be doing 10 cakes a week.
You think you should be earning a certain amount of money it's okay to not do that.
It's absolutely fine.
You are allowed to want different things from what you wanted a year ago from what you wanted five years ago . It doesn't mean that you failed.
It means that you've grown.
It means that you have realized what you thought were success points and milestones are actually just overwork and you'd much prefer your own version of success, not somebody else's version of success, you know, and you really do need to celebrate the little things because those little things when you celebrate them, you realize how important they are to you and you start a shift the focus on your own business rather than focusing on somebody else's.
And that's where I really want to take you.
I want you to take you into your own business.
We are always so guilty.
You know, social media is is out there.
It's it's in front of our eyes, almost every minute of every day.
If you've picked your phone up, it's like likely that you are scrolling on some sort of social media, whether that be Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, you knowinterest.
Any of these are just ways that you are looking at other peop's businesses.
You are looking at them and whether you realize it or not, you are taking in the information.
You're not just looking at their beautiful cakes and admiring them. You are absorbing some form of comparison, whether that would be their cakes are amazing and then that little niggling thing my cakes aren't quite as good as that.
It could be oh my goodness, how many cakes have they had that this week?
Oh, I'm not doing so well because I've only done half of their amount.
There's always something niggling, but when we focus and we celebrate the little things in our own business, they are all adding up to a thriving business.
You know, whether that is a kind message from a customer , it could be that you are getting brave enough to show up on your stories on social media.
It could be that you've received an inquiry from someone who found you through a different means than normally finds you.
Maybe they found you on social media, but actually you never really get orders from social media.
That's another, you know, that's that's a little thing, but it's a big thing. And it's probably these little things that you aren't really celebrating . The success that you're looking at it could be that that person has been in business for 10 more years than you have so you can't compare you now to there now because they've been doing it 10 years longer than you.
So their success is super attainable for you if that's what you really want, but not yet.
You have to focus on your little winds.
They might seem like really tiny things, but they are proof that things are working.
You're building something, even if it's one brick at a time, you are building something you are working towards your own version of success.
We've just finished the book for March inside the she breaks in it's book club was called the compound Effect and it essentially teaches you that every tiny small action compounds over time, giving you results, and it also you know, it depends on the kind of things that you are doing every single day so if you are constantly looking at other people and saying they're successful and I'm not and you do that enough, it compounds to you feeling really bad and giving up your business because you don't think you're good enough. Whereas if you notice those little things, the messages from the customers, people sharing images of your case, people coming back to you a second time, you being super proud of a design that you've made that you've never made before.
All of these little things, if you do them over and over again, if you acknowledge these little things over and over again, they compound into the feeling of success.
You realize you are good, you are succeeding where you want to succeed, and yes, it's it's slowgoing, but it always is no business is made overnight . It is always slow, but if you are noticing all these little ones and you're celebrating each little one as it comes along, they compound to you feeling like I am good at this.
I am succeeding.
I will succeed.
I'm going to keep going, but if you focus on everything that you're not good at if you focus on everything that someone else is better up, they compound over time and it compounds in your mind that you're not good enough.
You haven't quite reached their status, so what's the point in carrying on?
So try to think how which way do you want to go?
What are the thoughts that you want to build up over time?
Is it the negative ones or is it the positive ones?
If you really want your businesses to succeed, you have to focus on the positive things no matter how small they are I want to ask you a question, so what does success really look like for you?
Not what you think it should look like . What does it really look like?
What do you want from your business and from your life now I say from your life as well because you do have a life outside of your business and you have to work the two together.
You can't just focus on having a s a successful business because your life will suffer.
You're outside business, life will suffer if all of your energy goes into your business.
You do have to consider both aspects.
If you are worn out, then you're gonna be no good as a partner or a mother or a friend or just yourself . You will suffer.
So you do have to focus on both.
So what is success really look like for you?
So forget what you think you want.
Forget what you see are the cake makers doing and think that that's what you want.
Is it really what you want?
You should write it down.
You should write what is success mean to you?
What do you want from your business and from your life?
Do you want to be making cakes every single weekend of every single week of the year because that's what successful cakeaker does.
They've got cakes constantly.
Is that really what you want?
Because that would mean sacrificing your weekends, it would mean sacrificing time with loved ones and it would mean time away from you doing stuff for yourself.
Is that really what you want?
Are you willing to sacrifice that for all the cakes?
Does success look like a a cake every other week so that you have the income from cakes and the free time?
Does success look like having one cake a month, but making sure that one cake is your absolute ideal dream customer who is going to pay the most you can possibly get for a cake just once a month, making enough money from that and then living the rest of the month on your own tabs.
There are so many versions of success and you get to decide what success means.
Nobody else.
Success to you could be having a job like a day job, an office job or a shop job or a cleaning job or whatever job that you want to do and doing cakes on the side. Doing one birthday cake a week, doing one wedding cake a month, just having it as like a paid hobby as such.
Maybe that's what success is to you Success to you is not the same as success to anybody else.
You know, whether your success is you want $110,000 pound every single month or you just want 500 pounds a month to top up the wages from a day job.
Maybe you want piece and quiet most of the time and you don't want to be rushed off your feet and you just you just want to do this as a hobby, a page hobby, obviously. Um that's okay.
Maybe you won't creative freedom, so maybe you don't want to create cakes that people come to you with a design, maybe you want somebody to come to you, say create me a cake and you have created freedom.
That's a, you know, that's another goal.
People don't have to come to you with a design.
Maybe you could run a business that says, I design the cakes for my customers and they believe and trust in what I do . Maybe it's something entirely different, but you get to decide what success means.
Nobody else.
You need to focus on your own business and stop looking at other people and saying that's my success.
What they're doing is my success, because I can promise you it isn't.
When you get to what they're doing, you will find actually you didn't really want that.
And I know this from experience.
I had this same problem.
I was looking at other people when I was looking at other cake bakers who were constantly busy and they were doing all these amazing cakes and they were making all these amazing sugar flowers.
I thought I wanted that.
So I took the courses for the sugar flowers.
I bombarded my diary with orders and then I realized I didn't enjoy it.
Then I realized, well, hand a second, this is not my success, this is not what I enjoy.
I'm I'm miserable doing this.
I don't want to be making two wedding cakes every single week because I'm not getting some time for myself.
I'm losing my weekends.
You know, I'd have to go and deliver a wedding cake on a Saturday morning and if the venue was two hours away, I've lost most of my day delivering a wedding cake. And the weekends of my time with my family because, you know, they've got school and my husband's at work.
So doing that for a couple of years, I was like, this is this is not success.
This is not what I pictured my life to be.
I left my day job to do my cakes full time because it would give me more freedom, but actually it didn't.
You know, I I learn all the sugar flowers because I saw other people doing the sugar flowers and I was like, oh my goodness, that looks amazing.
That's what I wanna do.
I'm gonna be as good as them.
So I did . I learnt the sugar flowers.
I got amazing at them.
I make them realistic.
And then I realized, wow, that takes up even more time.
And yeah, I love doing it.
But it doesn't give me the freedom that I crave.
It doesn't give me the success I thought it was going to give me.
It gave me success, it gives me success , but not in a way that I appreciate not in a way that works for me.
It absolutely works for them, obviously.
We see that, but it doesn't work for me, and it's okay to say I've done that, I didn't like it.
I'm now changing.
So now I take less cakes . I don't want to be working every single week.
I want time off.
I don't want to work for at least two weeks in August.
That's my choice.
That's success for me for me to be able to say I want two weeks off in the middle of wedding season.
That is success for me, because I'm prioritizing my family and my life, my freedom, my time. That is success for me.
And you get to decide what success is for you.
You don't have to feel guilty for wanting less orders, but more money.
You don't have to feel guilty for raising your prices because it means you can work less.
You are absolutely entitled to do that.
So if you've been feeling like you are behind everybody else, like your version of success doesn't look like somebody else's.
It's okay.
You are doing better than you think.
So I'd really love for you to like reflect on this and something that I probably haven't spoken about much is journaling.
Do you journal?
If you do journal, jour on what your version of success is.
And if you don't channel , essentially, it just means writing down your thoughts.
So, get a noteepad, get a pen, write down what your own version of success looks like, what does it really look like ? Don't write down what you still think, you know, after listening to this episode, dig deep, dig deep inside.
What does success really look like?
What is your own version of success ? Once you know what your own version of success is, you can take the steps to achieve it rather than taking steps to achieve somebody else's version of success.
Okay.
So I'm gonna end it there.
If this episode has resonated with you, I would really love to hear from you. Um, you know, tag me on social media, the cake business, Academy to say that you are listening and to say that you enjoyed this episode.
I'd really love to hear your thoughts, drop me a DM, send me an email, um, I would love to hear from you.
I'd love to hear your opinions on this.
Is your version of success at the end of this episode different from what you thought it was at the beginning of this episode?
Um yeah, I would I would love to hear from you so so do do comment and um send me a DM, you know, I always reply to all of my DMs, I love chatting with everybody . So yeah, I do that.
So until next time, keep showing up, keep baking with heart and keep defining success in your own way.
You've got this.
If you've enjoyed this episode of slice ofccess, keep business talk, I would love for you to hit that subscribe button and catch me on every episode.
