Episode 210: Presenting your business in a way that aligns with you and focusing on what is happening now with Gina Tubb of Miss Ladybird cakes
Focus on what is right in front of you. In today's episode, Fiona talks to Gina Tubb of Miss Ladybird Cakes about the importance of living in the moment and working on things you can control within your business. Gina also shares how photographing her beautiful cakes has helped her business and so much more. Tune in!
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
On the business name - Miss Ladybird Cakes
On COVID
Miss Ladybird Cakes' journey
On finding inspiration
Tools & Resources that have helped Gina
How to connect with Gina
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
MissLadybirdCakes – Instagram
Surrounding yourself with people who are in the same industry as you are is important. I know that can be hard. There have been times when I've reached out to people and got nothing back. It's been hard but I persisted and then I found my people and that's been great.
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Welcome to episode 210 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast. You are reading an interview with an incredible small business owner who is such a bowl of energy, high vibes, and positivity. She's like that in person as well and reflects a lot of that in what she does. Before we get stuck into that, I want to mention two things. One, group coaching is open. If you want to apply for the next round of group coaching that's working with me and nine other small business owners from all over the globe in all sorts of industries, you can find all the information over at MyDailyBusinessCoach.com/GroupCoaching.
There is an application process and we will be closing that. Group coaching is set to start in July 2022. If you have been wanting to work with me, that is probably the best way to get into working with me, one-on-one coaching at the moment. We are fully booked until September or October at this stage. If you're keen to work with me, definitely check out group coaching.
The second thing is I want to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which I do this podcast, and that is the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respects to their elders, past, present, and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. Let's get on with our small business interview.
It is my absolute pleasure to be chatting with Gina Tubb, also known as the founder behind Miss Ladybird Cakes. Just a side note, if you're looking for a cake or some inspiration for an event or wedding or anything else, you have to get over and follow MissLadybirdCakes on Instagram. It is so beautiful. The first time that I interacted with Gina, we were on Instagram and she sent me a message about a podcast that I was on or one of my podcasts. I can't remember now. She was so lovely, so vivacious, so full of energy. It has been an absolute pleasure to chat with her every time ever since.
Gina is one of those people that knew what she wanted to do and went full bore into it from a young age. As she often says and she's got it on our website as well, “Baking is all I do. It's all I've ever done.” She is somebody who grew up in this beautiful country area in New Zealand and was able to craft trinkets and different sorts of things into all sorts of objects. She's somebody who's naturally very creative.
She took that creativity into the kitchen and started creating things at a young age. She started working at a bakery when she was 15. She has traveled all over the world cooking, baking, everything from beautiful patisseries through to scones in Edinburgh Castle and has done the hard yards. Anyone that's worked in hospitality knows how hard it can be.
Gina worked for years for some of the top chefs, top restaurants, and top places around the world, and then decided that she would come back to Melbourne and start her own business. That is Miss Ladybird Cakes, which has gone on to be one of those coveted types of cake designers, the people that you want at your wedding, the type of cake that you're like, “Oh my god.” If I could have my dream realized, it would be a Miss Ladybird Cake.
I wanted to have her on to talk about how she built this up but also how do you build your team? When you're doing something so physical all the time, how do you come up with being creative? How do you look after your own creativity? It takes a quick glance at Miss Ladybird Cakes’ website, which you can find at MissLadybirdCakes.com, or their Instagram, MissLadybirdCakes, to see the type of beautiful creativity that Gina and her team come up with.
That stuff takes time. We can look at something and be like, “It's so beautiful.” We forget how many hours have gone into creating that. Not just creating it, but planning it and coming up with it. Part of the reason that people fell in love with Gina and Miss Ladybird Cakes originally is that it was very different from everything else that was out there. Instead of having a cookie-cutter approach to wedding cakes, Gina would get to know the couple and be like, “What are you interested in?” This led to all sorts of different types of cakes.
Cakes are one of the biggest things that people take photos of at weddings. It's a huge thing to have your cake designed by a proper designer and to have it represent you. When I got married to my wonderful husband in 2008, that was before Instagram. Social media had just started with Facebook, but there was nothing like there is now. We simply found a cake maker. I don't even know how he found it, if it was yellow pages. I'm not even joking. We drove out.
My husband had traveled throughout Japan so he wanted some cherry blossoms on it. That was as far as it went. Even that was a little out of the ordinary. It had 2 or 3 little cherry blossoms on it. Other than that, it was pretty stock standard. Today, I look at things like Miss Ladybird Cakes and I think, “Maybe I'm going to have to have a massive cake for my 20th wedding anniversary or something.” They're epic. They're beautiful. They look beautiful. They taste good. I've been lucky enough to taste the Miss Ladybird Cakes. I know firsthand from working with Gina and getting to know her that she's super passionate about taste and flavors, not just how it looks.
In our interview, we talk about what it's been like to have this passion from a very early age. How do you create systems? How do you create a business? How do you grow? Where do you get your creativity from? How do you form connections? No matter what industry you're in, you're going to find something to take away from this interview. Here is my interview with the wonderful, very humble, very funny, down-to-earth, Gina Tubb of Miss Ladybird Cakes.
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Gina, welcome to the podcast. I am so excited about chatting with you.
Thank you for having me.
You're so welcome. Where are you meeting us from? How are you feeling today? How's your week going so far?
I am sitting at my dining table. It is my meant-to-be day off. I say meant-to-be because there are always things to be done and I always end up doing stuff. This is the last week of March 2022 and we've had the busiest March I've ever heard in my entire career. Last weekend was pretty hectic, so today is all about hanging out with my daughter, cleaning the house, and getting ready for another big week.
It must be insane at the moment because of the type of work that you do and all the lockdowns, and now everything's coming out. I’m desperately wanting to work with you again.
I keep telling everyone it's like wedding season but on crack, because it is on a whole other level. Everyone is unsure of what we're all doing because there are so much to do and so many things going on at the same time. Very crazy.
Let's talk about your business, Miss Ladybird Cakes. I have talked about it in the introduction and I know quite a bit about it having worked with you, but could you talk us through why the name Miss Ladybird Cakes? That's always interesting to know. When did you start it? Why did you start it? All the good things.
I have been running Miss Ladybird Cakes for almost nine years now. I've always wanted to have a cake shop my entire life. I used to go to the library on the weekend, all these library books, and I used to collect all these cake recipes. I would mark them all down. I'd write down all my ingredients and then I would spend all weekend baking.
My entire life, all I wanted to do is to write journals about what my cake shop is going to look like and all these kinds of things. I ended up training to be a chef, worked in restaurants and fine dining, and then I ended up working everywhere in hospitality as you do, all with the aim to one day own my own business. Then I moved to Melbourne in 2009 and I ended up working as a pastry chef for an old friend of mine who I've met overseas. It was my dream job. I was making these amazing desserts and dessert tables. They had these crazy events where we were making apple cookies and hanging them on trees, edible golf balls, and all these kinds of weird little things.
I woke up one day and I was like, “This is my dream job. I'm doing the cake shop,” so I did it. A very large part of my personality is to jump before I think. I signed a lease, started my Instagram account, and started doing it. It was quite silly but I learned a lot. As a female chef, you always end up being put in pastry. I was always making cakes for people on the side. It was very easy to take that extra step where I was doing it commercially and not just at night time for friends sort of thing. I've been running the business for over nine years. I’ve had multiple commercial leases throughout that time. It's been a living, breathing, growing thing over the years.
Where did you come up with the name? Is that your childhood stuff?
No. I love fairies, fantasy, and all that kind of stuff. This is not a great story at all. Quite a few years ago, I was right into all the rockabilly type stuff. I created it as my stage name persona because they all have these beautiful names of Miss So-and-so on the stage. I made my name as Miss Ladybird. I have loads of Ladybird and toadstool paraphernalia all through my house. This is so embarrassing.
It’s beautiful. I love those stuff.
I wanted something that wasn't to do with cake. Everybody always names themselves something to do with cakes, Gina’s Cakes or Cake that. I wanted something completely different.
I don't think it's embarrassing at all. I love the idea of toadstools. My favorite childhood book was The Faraway Tree.
We are reading all of those with my daughter and she is absorbing so much of it. We loved it.
I loved it. I've tried to get my eldest son on to it multiple times and he's not interested. I’m like, “Nooo.”
Good job.
Thank you. I've got another son coming up so I’ll keep trying.
Plan B.
I was lucky enough to work with you during the pandemic. I felt like my heart broke for you so many times because of the lockdowns. I felt like so many businesses like yours that are so reliant on physical events had to keep enduring these lockdowns. I remember one of the worst ones, not necessarily for your business but, in general, for weddings, anything to do with that, was Valentine's Day when our group decided on a Friday night or something to cancel it all and to lock everyone down.
I know that you continue to thrive as a business, but can you talk us through how you pulled through and what it's been like for businesses like yours that have had to go through this pandemic? A lot of people reading are in the service space and eCommerce, and they didn't have to face necessarily the same stuff.
That lockdown at Valentine's was so hard. Just to give you a rundown, it’s Friday afternoon and we had all of our wedding cakes finished and ready to go. The fridges are completely full. We had to call everyone and tell them to come to get their cakes. I had to deliver a fully made three-tier wedding cake to crying mothers of the bride type thing the next day. It was absolutely heartbreaking. Once the product is completely made, then you can't not do it to them. At that point, it was horrible.
Every lockdown, we had to go through this whole thing of like, “How are we going to pay our rent? What are we going to do to make the money?” It was important to me to make sure that I supported my staff as much as possible. That was probably the hardest part. I wasn't just looking after my business, but I was responsible for all of these people who have families and children.
I definitely took a lot of that emotionally during that time. That was probably one of the hardest parts. I felt so responsible for everybody else and how they were going to cope during this pandemic, as opposed to just how my business was going to cope. I made up these things called cake freight and we got a local company that delivered for us. We would make up all these boxes of cakes and send them out to everybody. They were successful. It was great because it gave us something to do.
I wouldn't say it was necessarily overly profitable but it kept us on the line. That was the aim. If we weren't losing any money and we weren't gaining any money, but we were sitting there on the line, that was enough to get us through. It was hard because you had to constantly look like you were doing okay. People are constantly calling us, looking at social media, emailing, and all that kind of stuff. You had to have this whole thing of like, “Yes, I do know what I'm doing. I've got myself sorted. Don't worry.” It was crazy.
I can't even imagine it, especially because you've got so many people that follow you on Instagram and everything else. You'd see these beautiful cakes being made and then you get the news. I was watching those press releases thinking, “Oh my god, Gina.” You would have had this huge thing coming up. It's incredible what you said about looking after your staff as well.
Was there anything that helped you specifically? I know you were so busy and I feel like that's in your nature to help every person around you and put yourself last. Was there a book or a mantra or anything that helped you with your perspective? Especially if somebody's reading this and they are in any part of the world right now that's going through things or in lockdown or they're in event space business trying to get back up. Would there be anything that you could say, “This thing spurred me on,” or anything like that?
I have loads of these little mantras and pep talks that I give myself all the time. I hate it when somebody tells me that I can't do something. I'm like, “I can't wait to prove to you that I can do that.” It ticked that box for me that I could not let this fail and I was going to do everything in my power to make sure that I was going to get through the whole experience because I didn't want to fail. I know that sounds silly. It became almost like a survival game.
Then you came out on top. You're like Lara Croft. I've never played any of those games. Having spent time with you and anyone that follows your Instagram or has worked with you, it's clear that you have such a huge passion for what you do. The creativity and the passion are one thing, but you've also got staff, you've got a business to run, you've got commercial leases, you've got all these different venues, suppliers, and people that you work with. Let alone all the actual people that are getting married who I imagine would be very challenging at times or very stressful. With so much going on, how do you stay organized? How do you stay sane? How do you stay literally on top of it all?
I wouldn't necessarily say on top of it all. I like to work. I like to work hard. I like to work all the time. It's been part of my personality. I realized this is what I like to do. I like to make people happy with those products. Maybe it comes down to that hostess-with-the-mostest serving somebody and then seeing them enjoy it. It makes you feel good. That drive to make people feel good about things is what constantly pushes me to keep going and keep doing.
There's a shift. You're always working in a changing environment. Let's say you were on the grill and you're cooking a steak, and then the next you get is not completely the same size. It's slightly thicker but slightly smaller. You're constantly changing the temperatures in what you're working with. Everything you make is not the same shape, size, timing, all that kind of stuff. If you use that same perspective against what we do, everything is constantly changing all the time. I've gotten used to having to constantly change what I'm doing all the time, the scenario that's in front of me right now. That's built into that shift persona.
I love that you've talked that through with the chef stuff because if you go into a restaurant, you're not necessarily thinking about that. Especially if you ask the waiter for a few extra things or like, “Could you take this off?” You forget that there is somebody out back who's doing all the magic.
You've thrown a whole new angle into whatever they're doing, as opposed to making it how they would have planned of doing that.
I love that you've talked about that. There's a quote that I often think about, which is, “Expectations are resentments waiting to happen.” Not that you didn't have expectations, but if you're so used to being malleable and able to change and shift, that is the perfect recipe for somebody in your type of business that is going through a pandemic.
Even the things as simple as doing my deliveries, I have to constantly be aware that it's not just as simple as delivering a cake. You've got to worry about the traffic, and then you might get to the venue and you might get stuck in the elevator for half an hour because the spotlight underneath that venue has decided that they're going to use the elevator for 45 minutes. You're going to be late for your next wedding. You're constantly having to change everything you do and keep a level head about it, and then get everything there at the right time. I joked that my body thrives on being at a certain stress level now, which is a certain level of anxiety. It’s what keeps me going.
I hope it's good energy. You mentioned change and how you're used to changing things and adapting to new environments and situations. You're from New Zealand. You said that you started the business after you had moved here. You said, “I was already working in the industry and I was a chef.” Did you have a whole lot of connections to be able to then build your business? Do you feel like not being from Melbourne originally was hindering it? How did you find all these connections? There are people that read this podcast that may be in all sorts of places all over the world but not from that place so it's like, “How do I get started?”
I did attend a few businesses in New Zealand, but I was young. New Zealand at that time didn't have the same food scene that it does now. I traveled overseas and I met Ben who ended up being the person that I started shaping for in that dream job that I was talking about. I started working for him as a waitress in between jobs. I was so used to jumping into any role that I could. I met a few people within that job.
At one of the events, he was opening up a café and they were also starting to produce their own chai. I was making cakes on the side. He opened up this café and he said, “Why don't you make cakes for us?” We used to sit there while we were working, talking about our future businesses and he was like, “You should make cakes for us and start our businesses together,” so I did.
As I continued on from being a waitress to working as a pastry chef for that same company, I would finish my shift, go home, have dinner, and do a few things. I would drive back to that same kitchen and I would work throughout the night making all these cakes. I would deliver them at dawn the next morning to this café and they would sell them in their café. I used to do that a couple of times a week, and then that café went crazy. It was so popular so quickly.
I started getting calls from people asking me to make cakes for their cafés, and then they went in and tried my product. They loved it and wanted it, which is quite possibly the best form of advertising. It was purely by word of mouth. I ended up getting more and more. When I decided to take on my commercial lease and open up my cake shop, I had 22 wholesale contracts already.
That is huge.
It was great. Ultimately, we found that the wholesale cakes were not very profitable, especially if we wanted to make them properly, so we pushed the wedding and small cake side of things as opposed to doing wholesale. I don't tend to do a lot of wholesale anymore. It was a great way to have that constant flow of cash coming through the business while we built it up in other areas.
I love that story and also love that you've changed direction. That's totally fine as well.
With hospitality, it has a pretty rotating staff, hiring. There are a lot of people or staff. Not necessarily because they're bad places to work or hospitality is a great temporary job for some people while they're studying or while they're traveling, but some pieces. You meet a lot of people from all sorts of different walks of life.
When I moved to Melbourne, I already had multiple connections with people that I met when I was living in Edinburgh and some friends from New Zealand. Melbourne is a great move in regards to the food scene and throwing myself in a city. I didn't know where I wanted to live. I was at that point where I was like, “What am I going to do?” Melbourne was an easy choice based on the food.
I love that idea. We do have incredible food here. You said before, “I got the lease and I started my social media and pulled it together.” Your social media is another great way that I'm assuming that people have found you, connected with you, and built your connections. Am I correct in saying that?
Yeah. I was lucky because we started our Instagram account when Instagram was a new thing. We were able to ride the waves of all the different things that were introduced on Instagram. We grew as a business itself. A lot of those things that helped us were completely organic, large following using every new tool that they introduced. If we would start our Instagram account now, it would be a completely different kettle of fish. I'm quite proud of the fact that we've been able to maintain the followers and the interactions with people.
It's huge. You're speaking as if you've got 1,000 followers. You've got over 100,000 followers. It's beautiful. I got married in the Dark Ages before social media. We had to find some random person in the middle of nowhere that made cakes behind this big industrial state. It was like, “Here are my photos. Choose one,” and that was it. It was nice, it tasted nice, and everything else. Now, Instagram would have completely changed my whole wedding.
You said before, “We built it organically.” It's a very visual platform, wedding cakes, and cakes in general. You eat with your eyes a lot of the time as well. How did you go about photography? Did you depend on the wedding photographer taking a nice photo of your cake? Did you set up some part of your retail space that could take nice photos? How did you get into that for someone who might be reading who's like, “I don't have the budget but I make beautiful stuff. I just don't know how to get it out there.”
I will always go for DIY before I do anything. There are people out there that do such good jobs, and then sometimes I would pay people to do it. I did all the photography myself. We do get photos from photographers. I have bought some over the years as well. I have done the majority of the photography myself. I taught myself over the years to get the right look that I wanted.
There was a bit of a turning point for me because I'm always feeling like I'm trying to take these photos because that's what people want to see with this beautiful white background, some flowers, and all that kind of stuff. I realized, “I don't like those accounts. A little bit of pink, a little white, the flowery stuff.” I was like, “I like dark colors, I like contrast, and I like shade.”
I've painted this big teal board. The kitchen that we were working on at the time had only one source of natural light. I'm like, “It's going right there at this amazing shadow.” It became our thing, this dark, moody background. Once I gave in to what I wanted in those images as opposed to what I thought everybody else wanted, it was so much easier to take the photos.
I have good friends in the industry, some photographer friends who were setting up my camera and they're like, “Don't touch any other button apart from the taking-the-photo button. That's all you have to do.” That helped. I learned to use my camera properly. The internet is the best resource in the world to show you any how-to. I gradually taught myself over the years. Once I had a formula that I liked working with, it was quite easy after that, aside from having to do it all the time.
The other thing I wanted to ask is you said before that you can find anything on the internet. A lot of people are looking for inspiration on the internet with your photos, your style, and your brand. I also love that you talked about, “I stopped doing what I thought everyone wanted and I did what I wanted to do, and it turned out to be what everyone wanted.” Do you think about people ripping off your designs? Are you like, “It's out there. It's public.”
I honestly don't mind anymore. They've been some over the years that hurt a little bit. When I see somebody from overseas, I couldn't care less. If it's somebody that is within the Melbourne market and they haven't credited us on their Instagram, then that gets under my skin a little bit. I have this as one of my little pep talk things. Whenever I see something like that, I think, “That person's only a threat when they start doing it better than we do.”
A good way to think about it.
Little cocky. There's enough business for everybody. We're not sure of what it is. If I did feel like we were going backward in that regard, then maybe I would look into that thing. There's enough room for all of us here. I'm not threatened by anyone anymore.
It's your own path, writing your own ways.
I don't have time to care about those people.
You have so many different things going on in the business. These people take/steal inspiration sometimes. Where do you get your inspiration from? Because you're a very creative person. I know when I was working with you, you were very passionate about always looking at creativity for yourself as well and not being stagnant or anything like that. You're a huge source of inspiration, but how do you find inspiration for yourself and creativity?
I wish I could say that I was one of those people that were able to go to art galleries and fuel that creativity in that way. I grew up in the country so I love surrounding myself with lots of plants, flowers, and that sort of thing. That's why a lot of our cakes definitely have florals and fruit. That appreciation of fresh produce is important to me. I have an overactive imagination as well, which definitely helped. I love using products or the feel of products or the texture of them, or how they respond when I use a certain tool against us.
In the same way, I did an art class. The painting class is a new thing I'm trying. It was so fun to play with the paint and see how it moved with the brush, what happens when I add a bit of water, and what happens when it goes dry. I have a design process where you start with something and then you keep playing with it until you end up with a finished product at the end. That's where my brain goes, maybe like a potter. Does that make sense?
Yeah, totally.
I definitely love being outside in the garden. I wish I could live in a country again one day. We will get there. Even if I can't get outside, sitting in front of me, I have this beautiful begonia plant and it has these silver veins running all through the leaves. I could probably sit there, look at that, and be inspired by something. It’s simple like that.
Right in front of you. So much inspiration is right in front of us or it's in conversation. It's something seemingly ordinary.
It's a little cliché, but sometimes when you see the texture in the clouds or the edge of a building or the way the light has hit something, sometimes our brain can take that and roll with it, and somehow then turn that into a cream on a cake.
I went for a walk one morning and the sky was so pink. I was trying to capture it in my photo, but it didn't do it justice. I'm constantly looking at the sky and being like, “Wow.” It's all around us literally all the time. You mentioned before that you've got a young child and you're from New Zealand. Your family's still back there. You are busy. You’re used to a certain level of stress or a certain level of everything happening. With the business and with your family back home, how do you stay on top of things? Do you have any apps? Do you use diaries? How do you stay organized?
I probably don't have anything that people haven't heard of before. I use Calendly a lot. The regular old Google, Gmail, all that kind of stuff. Google Drive is great for all the different files and templates and everything that I use. I do have a CRM that we use for loading all the bookings into. I don't love it. I'm looking for another one. We've outgrown it a little bit so we have to look into another one to help us.
I am so emotionally invested in everything we do that I'm constantly working to be on top of it all, as opposed to relying on things to do everything for me. Xero is probably one of my favorite things on the internet. Talking about games and stuff before, I love looking at my P&L and I love being like, “It's three weeks into March. That means we've got one more week to get to this target. What could I do?” It does become a little bit of a silly game.
I think that's awesome and more people should do that because so many people shy away from looking at their numbers. I'm into looking at the numbers. That's amazing if you can look at them and not go, “We're far away from it,” or, “What can we do? Let's do x, y, z.”
I had somebody very close to me say that you can't run your business on looks and feel alone. Me being me decided, “I'm good to prove you wrong.” I 100% think that I run my business on looks and feel. I'm not a numbers person but I've changed. Instead of looking at those numbers as losses, I've turned it into a game of like, “Now I need to get to the next level.”
You'll be at the highest level of the Miss Ladybird Cakes game arcade. It’s outside of gamifying things. You mentioned before that there's been a couple of people you've worked with in the career that have helped you get going. Have you had mentors? You're saying you're getting into reading again, which is awesome. If there have been things that have helped you in your business if you look back and you're like, “That helped,” or, “That was a turning point for me.”
I know you mentioned in some of your podcasts about having those people in your life where you have a work buddy. I have a staff but I've got my work buddy and she also runs a tech company. I asked her a question about how she did something, and then that started the relationship about us helping each other out. We use WhatsApp voice messaging, which is an absolute godsend sending voice messages to each other on a Saturday when you're trying to deliver all these cakes and all that sort of thing.
Having somebody who works at the same level of anxiety and frustration, like, “We need to do this now,” has been great because I know that I can talk to her about anything that I'm doing and she'll understand it. That helps, especially when you do something in quite a particular industry as opposed to others.
I've got another business mentor who also works in hospitality. He's my unannounced business mentor. I've been chatting to him over the years. He has one of those awesome personalities where you tell him what's going on and he asks you a question that makes you realize the answer, like, “You've made me look at that in a completely different manner.” He's been an absolute godsend. I'd like to think that maybe I have some that I don't take from him in that manner that maybe I can give some help back.
I’m sure you do.
When I spoke earlier about the job that I had that was my dream job and I didn't want it anymore, the other owner of that one, I met him in Scotland years ago. He's always been a great mentor for me to come and ask questions about. In 2021, I went to him and I said, “I don't know what to do with COVID. I'm tired. I don't know what to do with this. How am I supposed to keep going?” That turned into a business partnership.
Which is doing so well. It’s amazing.
Surrounding yourself with people who are in the same industry as you are is important. I know that can be hard. There have been times when I've reached out to people and got nothing back. It's been hard but I persisted, and then I found my people and that's been great.
I'm so happy for you. That persistence is good and not always taking the first no.
It's hard to make friends as an adult, let's be honest. You’ve got to put yourself out there. One of those pep talks that I tell myself, now I'm like, “If they don't want to do that, that's their loss.” I’d be like, “You're fine. You've got this. You can do this. You don't need that.” I tell myself that I've got it all sorted even if I don’t. Being persistent sometimes gets you through.
How do you feel about the business now? I'd love to know, what are you most proud of? You are coming up to ten years, almost a decade running your own business. That is incredible. What are you most proud of from the journey so far?
They say a hospitality business that lasts 1 to 3 years is doing well. For me to have reached that number is probably my best achievement. This partnership that I'm in now is definitely the best. I took on this business partnership with Ben. He uses all his knowledge and everything that he does to help us do what we do better. It's opened up so much more space in my mind.
I'm reading books again that I haven't had time to do for so long. The relationships around me are getting better. I have more time to live, which after the last couple of years has been, we're all pretty tired and we've all had a pretty rough time. It's everyone in the entire world right now. To have those new little faces in my brain opening up purely because somebody else has taken some of that load has been a big one for me. They got the vans rewrapped and they've put their logo on it. This is a shared van between the other businesses. Every time I walk out and I see the name across it, I wink at the van like, “Yeah, that's right. That's my name on their van.”
I love that it still gives me joy and excitement even almost ten years in. That's amazing. I'm literally beaming for you. You deserve it, especially after the last couple of years for anyone in that industry. What is next for you? Where can people connect with you? If somebody's reading this and thinking, “I would either love to talk to her about collaboration,” or, “I need a wedding cake,” where's the best place that they can find you?
Don't send me an Instagram DM. It's hard to keep on top of it. Email is definitely the best way to contact us, which you can find on our website and our Instagram page. Coming through the season, we've got so many people contacting us on all levels. I've got this new admin girl. We’re trying to get on top of it. It's so crazy. That's not to deter anyone from getting in contact with me. It's nearly because it'll probably be a delay to respond. Instagram is always a great way to tap me, but email is probably the best.
As far as where we go from here, that is the million-dollar question. Winter is our downtime from events. We pick up on all of our small cakes and bits and pieces. I’m halfway through a website rebuild, which is taking up quite a bit of my time. We're launching a rebrand when we get that launched as well. For me, I've made the next few months to get a few projects on the way and then have a bit of a break after the most hectic wedding season of my life. Hopefully, start the wedding season again in September and be a touch more organized.
I want to give you a hug and then send you off to some retreat or something.
I need that, or just a good meal. I do eat but I should eat more than I do currently. It’s that same shift mentality. You're running around all day and then you're touching food and then that’s the last thing you want to eat. I need to go on a retreat and feed myself mentally and physically.
Is there a retreat company reading? Maybe you can take some nice photos while you're there. It's been my absolute pleasure to chat with you, Gina. I'm so excited about everything that you're doing. You're such a determined person and you’re doing something big.
Stubborn and silly might be a better way of labeling.
Thank you so much for coming on.
Thank you, Fiona.
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I love having these podcasts, honestly, because I did that interview with Gina at the end of March 2022. This is what I love about podcasts in general. You can read something one year and then read it again the next year and be like, “It means totally different things to me now.” I remember listening and taking in everything that Gina was saying back. I thought it was great. There were lots of insights and ideas. There were so many valuable pieces of information from her. I want to say a massive thank you, Gina, for that.
I’m reiterating that I have such a fun job being able to meet all these different people and be able to help them sometimes in their business. Often, I feel like they're helping me as much. I loved this interview with Gina. Everything she does is so full of passion, energy, and enthusiasm. It's contagious when you talk to her. Even if she's complaining about something she does, she does it with passion and energy. It's part of who she is.
I would love to know what you took away from that. I will highlight two things that came out for me. Don't be a stranger. You can always send me a DM at MyDailyBusinessCoach or you can email us Hello@MyDailyBusinessCoach.com. I'm sure that Gina we'd love to hear from you as well. You can find her at MissLadybirdCakes on Instagram and you can find them at MissLadybirdCakes.com over on the World Wide Web.
Heaps of things stood out for me, but there are two that I want to highlight. The first one is when Gina was talking about being a chef and working in that industry and the fast-pacedness of it. The idea of, you have to focus on what is happening right now because the scenario will change and you can't always forward-plan. We talked about how you don't always think about when you ask for a special request at a restaurant that is then going back into the back of the house where they're going to be like, “We thought we were going to do it this way. Now we've got to do it this way.”
I love that Gina talks about the mindset that things are always changing. Focus on what is right in front of you and look at the scenario that's right in front of you. Not getting too caught up with what's happening 3 years or 3 months or 3 days from now, while still having an overview of the bigger picture. She's doing that well. She's been running her business successfully for years.
To also have that calmness to go, “This needs to change. This is what I can do. This is what I can control. This is what's right in front of me,” is such a great way of looking at things. I know that I've talked about before that I have high expectations for things, not always high but just expectations. I have had that mantra of expectations are resentments waiting through my mind for many years because it's something I'm aware of. Whether it's going on holiday, whether it's reading a book, or watching a documentary that someone's recommended.
Not that I've got no expectations anymore but I've had to go, “Take it for what it is and not always try to plan and always try to know what's coming up next.” I love that idea of living more in the moment and being aware, like, “I can control what's happening right now but I can't necessarily control what's going to happen tomorrow or what happened yesterday.” I love it so much. I love that focus.
The second thing that spoke to me during this chat is the way that Gina talked about photographing her product, her beautiful cakes. At the start, she was photographing them in a similar way to other people that were out there, and then she was saying, “I don't like that. I don't need to be like everyone else that's doing their cakes with pinks, whites, and bright photography. I love that she went, “I don't want to do that. I like dark, moody, contrast, and shade. I'm going to photograph them the way that I want to photograph them.”
By doing that, she has carved out a niche for herself and is able to present things in a way that aligns with her. That's something all of us, no matter what you offer, if it's a service or product or both, we can get caught up in thinking, especially when you're new, “That's the way that things are supposed to do or supposed to happen or supposed to be photographed.” I know that I felt that as well when I first started and I posted about it on Instagram, on the Grid.
I remember when I started, I was doing a photo shoot and I thought, “Everyone in my niche, every business coach out there is doing the same photos with the same certain props. Is that what I have to do?” I went through the same thing as Gina, like, “I don't like that myself.” It comes across in a certain way. It sounds judgy. It didn't feel aligned to myself.
When I got my photos, I remember somebody in a similar world saying to me, “Your face needs to be like this. You need to be looking here. You need to have more of these props.” I was like, “I don't need to do anything. I need to present myself the way that I like to be presented. Hopefully, I'll find people who resonate with that.”
That's exactly what Gina was talking about. The way that she created the moodiness, dark but beautiful, emotional images. It's done her proud. People know her for that now. We need to talk about that more. We need to talk about, firstly, the pressure that is out there sometimes to feel like you have to do what everyone else is doing and that's the only path to success. Also, the drive to do your own thing. She's done it and it's worked well.
If you are out there and you're reading this and you're going through that same mindset of like, “I'm not doing what everyone else is doing. Is that going to set me back?” No, it is not. You've got to find your way of doing things and something that feels right to you. No one wants to be a phony and no one wants to be doing things that don't sit right with them. In your gut, if it doesn't feel right, don't do it.
I would love to know what you took away from this. Of course, Gina would like to know it. You can connect with both of us on Instagram. I'm @MyDailyBusinessCoach and Gina is @MissLadybirdCakes. You can also find Gina and all her beautiful creations at MissLadybirdCakes.com. Thank you so much, Gina, for coming on to the podcast. Thanks so much for reading. I'll see you next time. Bye.
