Hello, welcome back to slic of success cake business talk.
How has your since I last spoke to you so last week not a lot's happened in my world to be honest.
Um It's just been the sort of same old thing, so I don't really haven'tightings studying. Um so I you had a little bit more excitement, maybe you've been busy with cakes and baking and kids are on half time here, so that side today, so my son is keeping quiet while I'm requiring this broad, which is good.
It is that day tomorrow as well. So I suppose, yeah, I've been planning that for the last week or so. So I suppose that I've been, you know, not completely not completely boring, I guess. Um and I just wanted to say actually, thank you so much.
I've heard quite a few messages in relation to last week's episode about success and your version of success.
And I think that really did hit home with quite a few of you.
So thank you to those of you who reached out to me to tell me how much you appreciateated that episode and how much it resonated with you and how much you needed to hear it.
So yeah, just thank you.
I love getting your messages.
I always respond to every single person. So please, you know, message me, tell me what you think of the podcast, give me your thoughts, you know, anything, I'm always there to help.
So following on from last week, this week, I've been thinking a lot about confidence.
Um, this has come up through various means, um, a few messages that have come through, a few things I've noticed online.
So I've been thinking about confidence and and how it shows up in our business and how many how so many cake makers are waiting to feel confident before they do the thing when in reality the confidence is just something that grows because you do the thing, not it won't appear before you do it.
So that is what this week's episode is all about.
So, you know, with the confidence thing when it came to my cake journey.
And when I first started out, I was making cupcakes for, you know, friends and family at the beginning, and then turned it into a business, um and I didn't have any confidence because I've never done it before.
You know, I didn't just suddenly wake up and go, you know what?
I know I can do this, I can make cakes, I can make cupcakes.
I didn't have that.
I did it and I practiced and I did it for a family and that was about it and that built the confidence to then say, okay, well maybe I should see if people are interested in purchasing this sort of thing and then the confidence grew and grew and then when I moved from cupcakes to celebration cakes again I just started with family.
That was the very first cake I did was a house moving cake for my niece and that was the very first cake that I'd made, and that gave me the confidence to make another cake and then another cake and obviously, the more you do something, the more confident you get at it.
I didn't feel confident before I started, but I knew that if I just took that little step that I would I would build that confidence.
We look at people online and they seem so confident and we think, oh, I could never do that.
But what you're seeing is the result of action taken over time.
Confidence is built like a muscle.
It grows the more when you use it.
You don't need full confidence to begin.
You just need to like a tiny, tiny little spark of courage to take that first step.
Otherwise, you'll never go in to take the action and you're never gonna build a confidence.
It's never gonna come to you if you don't take that very, very first tiny little step . You know, if you are holding back from sharing photos of your cakes because you don't think that they're good enough or people are going to laugh at them, um well, you're not gonna actually know the answer until you start doing it.
And I was think about it, what's the worst thing that could happen?
So, if you're not sharing your cakes because you're scared that they're not good enough and people are gonna comment and criticize them , what's the very, very worst thing that could happen if they did that?
Well, the worst worst thing that could happen is you feel bad and you probably don't post them again.
But you're not posting them anyway, so, you know, it's not really a bad thing, is it?
So if you took that courage just to post a photo of your cake, even though you think it's not good enough, 90% or maybe more, you're gonna 90% at the time you're gonna realize that actually, you are good enough and nobody's gonna come along and will criticize your cake and nobody's gonna say, you're not good enough, because it just doesn't happen, that's not something that people do.
Um I don't know if they do, well, that's just a real reflection on them and their personality.
Um, but they' very, very worst thing that could happen if that happens is you don't post again.
And as I said, you if you're already not posting, then it makes no difference, does it?
So you might as well take that tiny spark of courage and post.
You know, if your hesitating to show your face on camera, it's the same thing.
You're not gonna wake up one morning and say, yeah, I'm confident I can do this now.
You'm not gonna get that confidence unless you try it. Try and cite yourself up is is very rare that works, very rarely.
But even if you don't jump on the camera and start talking straight away, putting your face on there as a photo, you know, that's the first step and if you do that a couple of times you've built a tiny little bit of confidence and then it might give you the courage then to take that tiny little extra step and maybe talk on a video or something.
You know, it's all about these these little steps . If you are undercharging, because you are not confident that your cakes are worth what your charging or what you want to charge or what you should be charging , then, fest of all, you don't know if it's you are losing money, um and it's more like a hobby that's costing your money rather than, you know, a business that's making your money.
So if you're undercharging because you're not confident in your ability, in the finish of your cakes, then you are losing out.
But how how can you do that?
How can you, you know, change and build that confidence if an example would be to just raise your price by a couple of pounds, you know, in the UK pounds.
So, just a couple of pounds, um or a couple of dollars, just tiny, tiny, tiny little bit.
That gives you that tiny spark of courage.
Maybe you are wanting to add, move into wedding cakes, but you are so scared because they seem daunting and they're a lot more work and you've gotta deal with the somebody's, you know, usually a very, very important day in somebody's life, so, you know, it's a big lot there's a lot of pressure to that.
So, you're just stay stuck in, birthday cakes and cupcakes, you know, that's fine.
You don't need to do that, but all you all all your life, you're gonna be thinking, what why if I just did that?
Why didn't I do that?
And you'll always be looking back and thinking, what could have happened if you built up the courage feeling like a fraud because you're not fully booked yet. Or you don't have 10,000 followers on social media.
All of these things are holding you back . These aren't business problems.
These are confidence problems dressed up in business clothes.
That's a simple as that really, so let's have a look so start with one tiny brave little thing post the picture of the cake raise the price behind a couple of pounds do a 10 second video of you saying something to camera and put it into your Instagram stories practice making a two tier wedding cake or at least a two cake because in in reality, there is a much difference.
The structural element is the same . The bake cake basis is the same, the decoration can essentially almost be the same.
The difference is obviously the packaging, the way that you have to deal with customers and couples and things like that.
So just if you take that tiny, tiny brave little step and suggest maybe online, I'm now taking wedding cake orders, see what happens?
Because as soon as somebody comes through with the wedding cake, you're not gonna turn it down.
So, take that step, at least tell people you're going to restart doing them, and then it's you know, when you start to advertise your cakes, you told people about them, and you would have customers come to you and ask for a design you have never done before . It's likely that you didn't turn that order down.
It's likely that you thought, I can do this, I will take the order because I want the order because I need the order and I'll figure it out along the way.
It's very similar to doing moving into wedding cakes . Tell people you're doing them, and then when the order comes in, there's no chance you're going to turn it down.
You will do it, and that's that first step into becoming a wedding pain maker.
If you you know, if you are undercharging, as I said, just raise your prices, just back a couple of pounds, 10 pounds, five pounds, it's minimal, but that's a little bit of confidence.
Keith promised himself, the more you show up when you say you will, the more trust you build with yourself, so, for example, this podcast I don't know what episode we' on, I think we're on number 12 or 13, possibly.
I kept a promise to myself to do this every week.
I have missed one week that was unplanned but other than that I've kept going and I've kept that promise to myself and the more I've done it, the easier it has become.
And I can I can tell you I was not confident when I first started this podcast.
I was not confident that people would listen to me, that people wouldn't want to hear what I've got to say, would want to learn from me.
I was not confident, but I took that leap and did the first episode and then I did the second episode and then I started to get the feedback that actually said, you're good at this, we like listening to you, keep going.
And that's what I've done.
I catch the promise to myself that I was going to try and show up.
So you need to keep the promise to yourself. Promise yourself you're going to do something that you are not confident in doing . Tell yourself you're going to do something you're gonna start at least baby, baby, baby steps. And keep that promise to yourself, show up for yourself and build the trust with your . Another sort of practical tip would be to stop looking sideways.
This essentially just means stick to your own lane, focus on your own things, stop looking at other c cake makers. Because that is going to knock your confidence, not grow it.
When you are looking at other cake makers and seeing what they're doing and what they're charging and how amazing their cakes are and how they're showing up online and all of this, it's only going to put in your mind that you are not as good as them, which then translate to I'm not good enough at all . You have to stay in your own lame confidence will only grow when you are focused on your own lane.
I could very easily go and listen to other cake makers plods and go wow, OK, their content, what they're talking about is amazing.
That really puts my episodes to shame, but I don't do that because I I love what I do and I'm enjoying it.
So I'm going to stay in my lane.
I'm gonna focus on what I'm doing and focus on the content I'm putting out for you the listeners and grow myself so when it comes to you doing that, you focus on your own things, focus on what you do focus on everything you love about being a hatemaker and forget what other people are doing.
The more you focus on yourself and how much you love that you're doing and how much you are growing as a cake maker, that confidence builds inside you.
It's grows, and that is what you were trying to do.
Confidence doesn't, you know, there's no point you get to that confidence is finished, you are the most confident.
It doesn't happen.
You keep going. You just need to go.
So, you will never get to the point where you've got enough confidence It always gonna be something cropping up that's going achieve. Um sort of it's it's couldn't even think of the right word, but it's going she maybe stop you in your tracks.
So, the only way to gave over it is to keep going, let go of perfection.
Confidence isn't the absence of fear.
It doesn't mean I'm not afraid, being confident doesn't mean I'm not afraid.
Being confident and showing up on this podcast does not mean that I'm not afraid.
It means that I'm deciding to do it scared regardless, and then I am showing my brain.
See, we can do this.
And every time I do it, my brain gets a little bit less scared.
When I did my very first and sort of live chat on my wedding cake page, oh my goodness, I was petrified.
I didn't wanna do it.
My brain was saying, you were gonna be chased by a wild animal if you show your face on social media.
But I had to do it because I knew that I wanted my business to grow.
I was so passionate about growing my cake business that I was willing to put that fear aside to put the perfection of how I was going to show up online aside so that I could because I knew I knew that showing up and showing my face was going to make a difference in my my business.
I knew that.
But I was so scared.
So I didn't do it for years.
So I took that stop.
I think the very first life that I did it wasn't even alive, it was showing my face on stories.
I think the very first one I did was when I delivered a wedding cake to a venue . I didn't even speak.
I just did like a selfie with the venue behind me and put that in my story.
That was that was hard enough.
The confidence I have about like my periods and things like that still holds me back today, so you just know that you are not and you are not the only one here.
You are not the only one who suffers with fear of how you look, how you sound, what you do, how good you are, all of this.
I am still the same.
I am building my confidence.
Yes, I'm a lot more confident than I was, but I've only got to this point by doing the scary stuff.
You have to do the scary stuff to get to where you want.
So if you sit there and think, right, what do you really want?
You know, if we go back to last week last week's episode and say, what's my goal?
What's my version of success ? Then we say, right, if if that's really what I want, if that's what I am so passionate about, am I willing to take a scary step to achieve it?
Because if you keep letting fear hold you back , you will never get to your goal, you will never get to your version of success.
I hope you are I hope this is like hitting you hard to be honest because most people go through life and everyone I think everyone has a dream, don't they?
Everybody wants to achieve something or they heads that they have goal at the end of things.
But as business women who have taken the lead to start our own business , we our dreams meet a little bit more.
I I I'm not saying that other people's dreams aren't meaning a lot.
I'm just saying, you know, we we've taken that first step to make this business if we really wanted to succeed, we have to keep taking those little steps.
We we have to we have to show up.
We have to do the thing if we want success, we have to do the thing and no, you're not gonna have the confidence straight away.
You're gonna take that step before you have the confident.
But once you've done it, you will feel that confidence just start to grow.
And you'll have that tiny little spark and then you'll do it again, and that spark glows a little bit brighter and you'll have a little bit more comfortidence.
You are just in the process of building confidence and every time you take action, you are growing it.
The cake makers that you admire, that you look at , they were exactly where you are now and they just kept going.
I was exactly where you are now back when I was making celebration cakes, I was exactly where you are now. But I just kept going.
Now I have the confidence and I know, you know, I'm very confident about my cake business.
I know that I am good or and I know that couples love my wedding cakes, but there is always something that somebody comes along and says, oh, I'd really love a cake like this and I think wow, that's out my league.
I like pinch myself and say "Hang on a second.
No, you can do this.
They've come to you for a reason.
You just have to keep going.
You are not behind, you're not any less than anyone else, you're not invisible, you are just in the process of building confidence.
Okay, so that is it.
I'm gonna stop there.
I would love would love to hear from you about what holds you back.
What is what is it that you love confidence is?
Like a confidence in.
Is it anything that I've mentioned so far?
If I mentioned very briefly, there somebody actually messaged me today and said, I'm not confident about um launching my website, because I think it looks silly, I feel silly.
I don't know what to you know, I don't think it looks good enough.
And it's a confidence issue.
That's all it is.
The content, the website itself, is nothing wrong with that . It's just how that person feels the words that.
So, you know, if maybe that's something you're stronger with, tell me. Send me a message. Check. Um send me a message.
I will check my DMs because I know that this is something really, really really big, really powerful and maybe you just need a little bit of help.
So if you send me a message, if you're struggling with anything, I'll always answer, I'll always help if I can.
I can't always hope, but if I can, I will.
So if this episode has resonated with you, I would love to hear from you, um and tell me what tiny brave thing that you're gonna do next. And, yeah, I would love to hear from you.
Okay, so I'm gonna go.
I will see you on next week's podcast.
I would love it if you could hit the subscribe button and be notified every time a new episode drops.
That really helps me.
It helps my readings if you would love to go. Um and give me like a review and a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
That would be amazing.
Again, that just sort of helps me reach more casemakers share the podcast, share the word tell everybody you know so yeah, that's it.
I will see you next week.
