Latest / Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney / Unleashing Your Wedding Business Potential - with Lauren Smy

Transcript

Unleashing Your Wedding Business Potential - with Lauren Smy · Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney

0:00
Lauren: The thing with pricing that I find a lot of people miss out is they're
0:03
not charging enough to cover the cost of running a business, so they don't
0:07
take into account all the time and money they spend on running their business.
0:12
Not just being in the kitchen making the cakes or in the studio, you
0:16
know, getting the flowers, whatever all the different things they do.
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But all that behind the scenes stuff.
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Becca: I'm Becca Pountney, wedding business marketing expert,
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speaker and blogger, and you're listening to the Wedding Pros
0:29
Who Are Ready to Grow podcast.
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I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies and real life
0:35
examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
0:39
If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion
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and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business, doing what you
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love, then you're in the right place.
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Let's get going with today's episode.
0:51
Today I'm chatting with Lauren Smy.
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Lauren is the founder of the Honey Bee Wedding Cake Company, where
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she's created luxury wedding cakes, which are elegant and beautiful.
1:00
Her work has been featured in many publications, including a regular
1:03
column in Cake and Sugar Craft Magazine.
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In more recent years, I've got to know Lauren as she started helping other
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cake makers to grow their businesses through her training and membership.
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And I've been in there regularly as a guest trainer.
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It's a pleasure to have Lauren on the podcast today.
1:17
And I'm really looking forward to delving into her story and to hear
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what's coming up next for her.
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Lauren, welcome to the podcast.
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Lauren: Hi Becca.
1:24
Thank you for having me.
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It's great to be here.
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Becca: It's such a pleasure.
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I always enjoy chatting with you, working with you, and I can't believe it's taken
1:31
me so long to get you on the podcast.
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So thank you for being here today.
1:35
Now, I always like with these episodes.
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to take people right back to the start because I think it's important for people
1:42
listening to understand the different journeys that different people have
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gone on to get to where they are today.
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So Lauren, take us back to the start.
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How did you end up making wedding cakes for a living?
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Lauren: Okay, so I started making cakes for friends and things in back in 2014
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when I was on maternity leave with twin.
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Because obviously that's the time when you start to, to create a business, isn't it?
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When you've got twin babies at home, but you know, I saw an opportunity.
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I was teaching at the time I was a teacher at A levels and I was on
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maternity leave, as I said, and I just kind of thought I wasn't sure if I
2:19
wanted to go back to teaching after the maternity leave or if I did, I
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didn't want it to be full time anymore.
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It just kind of wasn't something that I was, I was loving as much as I was.
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So I started kind of experimenting and making cakes, and then by 2015 when
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I was back at work two days a week, I set up what was called Honey Bee Bakes
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at the time, you know, cupcakes and brownies and all sorts of different
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things, and selling them kind of as a side hustle, but as a proper business,
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not, you know, like a hobby baker.
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I set it all up properly and, you know, and started getting
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lots of orders for that.
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Obviously, I kind of then, I had the twins at home on my days off, as it
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were, so I was working around that.
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But it took off, you know, quite quickly really, and by, you know, two years
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later, I managed to leave my teaching job and work full time, in inverted
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commas, again, the boys are still at home, so kind of around them, but yeah,
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so I started, I kind of was full time.
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cake maker in 2017.
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And then the boys, when the, once the boys started school, I was able to kind
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of, you know, go a bit quicker with it.
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And by the end, you know, 2018, I was just making wedding cakes.
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I'd been asked to do a few and I, you know, I just got my confidence up,
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did a few for friends and family, and then just, you know, went with it and
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started going to wedding fairs and doing things like that and realized actually
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that's what I really, really loved.
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And if I was going to make a proper full time income.
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Weddings kind of was where it was for, for the, you know,
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financial reasons, honestly.
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But also it was what I enjoyed doing.
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I love making sugar flowers and, and that kind of thing.
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And I just, I was a bit sick of the, the Spider-Man and poor
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patrol and that kind of thing.
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So, yeah.
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So then that's when I rebranded and became the honeybee wedding cake company
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and, and went into making wedding cakes.
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Becca: It's quite a big leap, isn't it?
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For anyone listening who knows anything about baking, I am terrible at baking.
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Let's just put that out there.
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But to go from making a brownie or a cupcake to providing a full, beautiful
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cake with sugar flowers on for someone's wedding is quite the leap.
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And I see a lot of people in cakes who just don't feel like they've
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got the confidence to do that.
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They feel like it's too much pressure.
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So how did you know that you could make that leap, that you
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had the, the ability to do it?
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Lauren: I wouldn't say I knew.
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I, I think I just, I did take a leap.
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You know, there, there was a leap of faith.
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Some, some would call it crazy, but it was, I, I did, I worked for a
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long time doing the birthday cakes.
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I didn't particularly enjoy it before I started taking on proper
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wedding cakes, because, you know, let's face it, a wedding cake is
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hopefully a once in a lifetime thing.
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It needs to be you know, higher standard, doesn't it?
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So I did make sure, I kind of worked, I went, I did courses and I
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you know, perfected my sharp edges and all the things that the cake
5:03
makers listening will know about.
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Yeah, I went on flour, sugar flour.
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I'd never made a sugar flour, you know, in any, any form prior
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to when I started doing this.
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But yeah, I went on courses and I learned.
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I did some online courses, did some face to face courses.
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And I just learned, to a certain degree, I guess there are some
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things that are a natural skill that's easier for some people to
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pick up than other things, you know.
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But yeah, for me it just kind of fit and I, and I realized, I just
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realized how much I loved it.
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And I loved that, that buzz of being there on the day.
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And yeah, there's like major.
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nerves and crisis of confidence of like, Oh, can I really do this?
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And, and not everything goes a hundred percent to plan.
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You know, I had a few, you know, issues in the early days, but you learn from them
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and you, and you, and you move on with it.
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And that's just what I did.
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Becca: And I think a lot of people I see, particularly cake makers and florists.
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If I'm being generalist, I such perfectionist and so I can see
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a cake that someone's made and they'll say, oh, I'm not sure this
6:00
is good enough to be at a wedding.
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And I just think that's the most incredible thing I've ever seen.
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And you should see a cake that I've made.
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. Lauren: Yeah.
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Yeah.
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And I mean, and that's what I have to tell a lot of, you know, I, I work
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with cake makers now and, and a lot.
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them have that exact, that same thought.
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And I must admit, I do myself.
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It's easy to tell other people, but yeah, you, you see all the floors, you see
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all the tiny little things that other people just look as you say, look at
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it and say, wow, that's just amazing.
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But you can see that tiny little kind of dent in the back of it or, or where you
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didn't quite line up the ribbon perfectly.
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So yeah, yeah, that does happen.
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Becca: Definitely.
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Now, people might be listening and thinking, well, you make that sound
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so easy, Lauren, that you were just doing celebration cakes and then
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you were doing wedding cakes, but actually I'm sure there was some hard
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work involved in that transition.
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So if there are people listening who are thinking, right, I do actually
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want to dip my toe into doing this wedding industry thing, how did you
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go about finding your first clients that weren't friends and family?
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Where did you find them from?
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Lauren: Well, going way back, I think when I started out, Instagram was a
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thing, but wasn't as big as it is now.
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More recently, more of my work has come from Instagram on my website.
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But when I started, a lot of it was from Facebook, which, yeah, there
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was a real transition actually in where my, where my orders came from.
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When I started out, I kind of joined local mums groups.
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I think one of my first ones was someone who I'd done a christening
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cake for, and she was then getting married, you know, the year later.
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So there is that can kind of come from there, but she then posted on
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our like local, you know, you get the local mums Facebook groups of
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where you live, and she just put a really lovely review on there because
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I thought she knew I was new to it.
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She knew that I wasn't, you know, hadn't done it very long, but she kind of
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took took the, you know, leap in me.
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And yeah, and put a really nice review on there.
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So I got a few orders from there, which was great.
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And also just like a little bit of word of mouth.
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The girl who, you know, the girl who did my nails, she had a lot of similar, you
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know, when I look back now for what I know and what I teach as well, it's like
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that similar ideal client thing where, you know, kind of women of a, of a certain
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age, they're like looking to get married.
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And I'm always made cakes for her.
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And so she kind of recommended me to some of her clients.
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And so there's a lot of word of mouth actually in the, in
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the early days, definitely.
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Becca: Yeah.
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And I think word of mouth in the wedding industry, it's just huge.
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I think we underestimate it.
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I talk about it a lot in what I teach saying, you know, word of
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mouth marketing is the lowest cost form of advertising you can do.
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And yet it has the highest conversion rate.
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Lauren: Yeah.
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Yeah.
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And, and, and, I mean, I know you talk a lot, you you're the expertise with, with
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networking, but definitely, you know, very early on, I went to a wedding fair.
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And naturally I'm, I'm quite introverted and quite shy, I'm not really very good
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at that kind of putting myself out there, it does make me nervous, but for whatever
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reason I've kind of managed to just, just get on with it and do it and think
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of, you know, the benefits of doing it.
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And I went to this one wedding fair and I just made sure I took extra
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samples and took it round to all the other suppliers there and made friends,
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because it's really easy to make friends when you've got cake in your hand.
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I always say that to people, you know, we're very lucky.
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It's not a bribe to be my friend, but, you know, it does help them remember you.
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And yeah, and then there was a lady there who ran a bridal shop, and she
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kind of took me under her wing a little bit and introduced me to other people.
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And then, you know, we would recommend each other, and yeah,
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it kind of Snowboard from there.
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So definitely that word of mouth and networking with other suppliers is the
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way to go when you're starting out.
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Becca: The cake makers are always the most popular people at a wedding show as well
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for both the suppliers and the guests.
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I always used to when I had my videography business, I used to hate it if I got
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given a stand next to a cake maker because the cakes would have all these
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people there that were there for the free cakes and then trying to get them over
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to you to talk about wedding videos when you've got no free cake to give them.
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It's really kind of difficult.
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So Lauren, in more recent years, you've transitioned a little bit
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into helping other cake makers.
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As I mentioned in the intro, that's kind of the area where
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I've got to know you best.
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I love coming into your community of all those cake makers who are just so
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happy to be there and you just lift them up and give them the confidence to.
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do this transition and to believe in themselves.
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What was it that made you kind of make that step into just going
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from making the cakes to helping other people with their businesses?
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Lauren: It's a couple of things.
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So I loved doing what I was doing with the wedding cakes, and I
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continued that for a long time.
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And that there was no kind of, Oh, I don't want to do this.
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I want to do something else.
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But there was always this some, this part of me that felt like I wanted to do.
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Something as well as just making cakes, you know, you know, it's like it is
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quite lonely kind of especially when you're really, you know, making cakes,
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you, you don't even get a lot of that interaction on the day you turn up and
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you deliver the cake and you go home.
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It's nice kind of talking to couples, but a lot of the time
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you're, you're on your own.
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So there was that little bit of solitude that I.
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you know, wasn't, wasn't, you know, the best.
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But I, I had a lot of people asking, I know it sounds kind of cheesy, and
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this is what a lot of people say when they're going through, but I did have
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a lot of people asking me questions about how I did things and asking
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for my help on things, and I'm, you know, more than happy to do that.
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And then you kind of start to realize actually there's,
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there's a need out there.
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So I did a business and not, not that I know that it made a huge difference, but
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I did do a business management degree.
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And there's a lot of things that I kind of learned in that.
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And obviously I set up my own business in the same way that other people do.
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I was a teacher.
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When I was a teacher.
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I taught business studies.
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So the kind of background of what I, what I had in my, you know, previous
11:35
experience, linked together with actually setting up and quite quickly growing,
11:39
you know, a really successful wedding cake business, felt like it, it worked
11:44
that perhaps I should be doing something of helping people to make cakes.
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I didn't really want to do decorating skills because a lot of people
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out there and there's a lot of people that do it really really
11:53
well online and face to face.
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I did do a few, you know, classes in my, in my kitchen but I didn't really have the
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space and I didn't have the setup for the, you know, the video recording of it all.
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My kind of passion behind it was the business and I'd see so many people,
12:07
so many immensely talented cake makers.
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That were selling themselves so short and they, they just weren't charging enough
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generally is the, is the main thing, but not having the confidence, like you
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said, the confidence is a huge thing.
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And I just kind of thought this, you know, I've always been that
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believer in, you know, community.
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And I just think.
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There were lots of people out there that needed just a little
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bit of, of help to do it.
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So yeah, so I started kind of learning about how to set up, you
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know, an online business towards the end of 2019 with the plans.
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2020 was actually completely fully booked with Wedding Cakes for me.
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It was my like biggest, yeah, everyone listening knows the
12:47
2020, we know what happened there.
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It was going to be my biggest year.
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I was, I was like preferred supplier at some of the really big venues.
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It was all going really well.
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So I thought, well, once I got through that wedding season, then I'll kind
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of start with this new business.
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But obviously we all know what happened in March 2020, all the
13:03
weddings kind of got cancelled.
13:04
And in some, you know, if you're going to take a positive from it, it gave me that
13:08
opportunity to, to make the, the switch.
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So it was something that I'd been thinking a long time about how easily
13:15
it would have been to get it off the ground while working full time
13:18
doing the wedding cake business.
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You know, I don't know.
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So.
13:21
It, that there were some benefits to me for that, for the pandemic
13:24
happening and it just meant that I could just get going with it.
13:27
And it meant there were a lot of people that kind of saw
13:29
this now as an opportunity.
13:30
They were on furlough or whatever else was happening and they could see that as
13:34
a chance to, to get their, their wedding cake or their cake business, you know,
13:38
transitioning over into wedding cakes.
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Cause that's what I kind of really specialize in is the wedding
13:42
side of things rather than.
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just cake businesses.
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Becca: And as I said, you've created a lovely space.
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I always love coming in.
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It's, I always think of your group as a really warm, fuzzy, lovely environment.
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The people in it are just, I just think the cake makers are always lovely, not
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just because they have cake, but they are, they are a wonderful group of people.
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Now you work with a lot of cake makers and there'll be cake makers listening
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as well as other supplier types.
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What are some of the common mistakes that you see?
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people making in your community when it comes to their wedding cake business?
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Lauren: So as I mentioned already, I think pricing tends to be the biggest
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one and Pricing is so much more complex than just, you know, you're not charging
14:22
enough, charge more because underlying it generally becomes confidence and
14:27
it's about that kind of worry that if you don't, you know, if you're not
14:32
cheap enough, then people won't buy from you and if you put your prices
14:35
up too much, you're not going to get the work and that kind of thing.
14:38
But, but also just at the basic level, a lot of people don't
14:41
actually just work out their costs.
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And they kind of almost pluck a number out, not out of thin air necessarily,
14:48
but they don't necessarily, they haven't thought about it fully in
14:51
terms of their costs and their time.
14:53
And people might, perhaps they have, perhaps they've thought about their
14:55
costs and they're like, Right, okay, I'm covering how much it costs me to
14:57
make the cake, plus I'm giving myself an extra tenner or something like that.
15:01
And it's, it's not taken into account in their time.
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And also, you know, the majority of people, even if they've got as far
15:07
as that and accounted for their time, and even if they've accounted for
15:10
profit on top, the thing with pricing that I find a lot of people miss out
15:14
is they're not charging enough to cover the cost of running a business.
15:18
So they don't take into account all the time and money they
15:21
spend on running their business.
15:23
Not just being in the kitchen making the cakes or in the studio, you know,
15:27
making, getting the flowers, whatever, all the different things they do,
15:31
but all that behind the scenes stuff.
15:33
I think it was a surprise for me, actually, when I
15:35
started running my business.
15:36
I thought, I'll make cakes.
15:38
And I thought, actually I realized I spend probably more time at my laptop, you know,
15:43
running my business, getting a website set up, you know, doing the accounts,
15:47
all the boring stuff, sorry accountants.
15:49
But yeah, doing all of that stuff and all the marketing as I did actually sort
15:53
of standing in the kitchen baking the cakes and people don't account for that.
15:56
That's the biggest thing I think that people don't account for
15:58
when they, when they're pricing their products and services.
16:01
Becca: And I think as well, people have their head in the sand.
16:04
I'm sure you see this all the time where deep down they know that
16:07
they're not charging enough and they know that they're not making any
16:09
money, but they kind of bury that.
16:11
And actually, when we call the numbers out of them and get the cold
16:15
hard facts on paper and show them, this is how much you're spending.
16:18
on your business.
16:19
This is how much you're charging for a cake and this is how much
16:21
you're earning an hour and it's like one pound an hour or something.
16:25
They're really shocked and so I would encourage and I'm sure Lauren would as
16:29
well, if you're listening to this and you are in that position where you've got your
16:32
head in the sand, like be brave, go to a coffee shop, like get your laptop out and
16:37
work out your numbers because sometimes the shock realization of how little you're
16:41
earning will make you realize actually.
16:44
This isn't about I need to be amazing to put my prices up.
16:46
Actually, I just need to put my prices up because right now I'm the worst boss in
16:50
the world and I'm paying myself nothing.
16:51
Lauren: Yeah, yeah, yeah, less than minimum wage.
16:53
You might as well go and work, you know, in a supermarket or something.
16:57
Becca: The other thing I see cake makers having an issue with
16:59
sometimes, and I'd love a bit of input from you on this, is Photography.
17:04
Okay, now I actually have a talk I've been doing recently on
17:07
stage where I show two pictures.
17:10
They're both amazing wedding cakes but one is just a phone photo they've
17:13
taken at a wedding and one is like this beautiful professional photo and
17:17
they're both like on their Instagrams and I say to people, you know,
17:20
which one do you think costs more?
17:21
Which one do you think you're more likely to book?
17:23
Because both the cakes are amazing but the way they're
17:25
presented online is so different.
17:28
And I often see that cake makers either have really bad images or they just
17:33
don't really know how to get good images.
17:36
And I think it makes a massive difference to how much they can charge and how much
17:39
their inquiries are going to come in.
17:41
What's your advice to cake makers when it comes to getting
17:44
photography of their products?
17:45
Lauren: I think you're absolutely spot on.
17:47
It makes a huge difference, doesn't it?
17:48
Of what you're showing your, your potential clients, what you can do.
17:52
I think it can be hard sometimes because, yeah, that's not your, if that's not
17:56
your skill set, you're not necessarily good at doing, doing photography.
17:59
I would say it's something that is worth learning to a, to as, you
18:03
know, much of a degree as you can.
18:05
Phones nowadays are great.
18:07
You can get some really good settings, learn how the settings
18:09
don't necessarily need to have a professional, you know, camera.
18:12
But also think about If you know the venue, I think sometimes the
18:16
lighting and that kind of thing, if you're in a marquee, that's always
18:18
the worst for me, taking pictures of cakes in a marquee, always just the,
18:22
the colours just go completely wrong and the lighting's really wrong.
18:26
You know, if you can, if you can take a picture of the cake at home, if
18:28
you've got a set up at home, try and do that in a really nice way, really.
18:32
But also, make friends with the photographers and be nice to them.
18:34
I know it's hard, I know that you'll probably have some photographers
18:36
listening and I know it can be frustrating when you're asked for pictures from,
18:41
you know, other suppliers, but it makes such a, such a difference.
18:44
And if you can get the pictures of, you know, the cake cutting pictures, all
18:47
of those are, are, are so, so valuable.
18:50
So I'd say, you know, be, be friendly, send cake maybe, ask the professionals.
18:56
But yeah, yeah, just be really mindful of getting, you know, the
19:00
best quality pictures that you can.
19:02
Becca: And it works in the photographer's favor, really, because as long as we're
19:06
crediting them and giving them a shout out and recommending them and all of
19:09
those things, actually it's a missed opportunity for a photographer not to
19:12
take those photos and not to send them to the cake maker, because actually
19:16
that's additional advertising for them.
19:18
And I'm sure the photographers listening to this probably do do that, but I
19:21
know that there, there is a struggle.
19:23
Not everyone has that mindset.
19:24
So find the ones that have got the same, you know, positive mindset as you, when
19:29
it comes to this collaboration stuff.
19:32
Now, Lauren, I've been watching your journey and working alongside
19:35
you over the last couple of years.
19:36
And I know that you've been going through some stuff personally,
19:39
and you're actually making some transitions in your own business.
19:43
So I'd love to hear a little bit more about what's coming next for you and
19:48
kind of how you've got to that point.
19:50
Lauren: Sure.
19:50
Yeah.
19:50
So I've been working for the same four or so years.
19:56
Exclusively with Cakemakers, doing business coaching for Cakemakers and
20:00
that's been, I've got a course that I run a membership, and then I've been
20:04
working one to one with, with people just, you know, specifically on their thing.
20:08
And then last, well, over, I'm trying to think of what the, the
20:13
best order for it is, lots of things kind of happened at the same time.
20:16
About 18 months ago, my son was diagnosed with ADHD, and Through his diagnosis,
20:23
kind of long story short, I realised that I had ADHD and I'd been managing with it
20:29
and I'd been kind of doing, running, I think, you know, to be honest, I think
20:32
running a wedding business with ADHD is, is, can be a good thing, like, I think
20:38
it's a good career for people with ADHD.
20:41
So there was lots of, lots of positives, you know, in terms of like my, you know,
20:44
creativity, generally people with ADHD tend to be more creative and there's
20:48
all the kind of, you know, the other strengths that you'd be resourceful and
20:52
more determined and all of that kind of thing, so running your own business.
20:55
But there are things that I, you know, was realising that, that can make
20:59
it more of a struggle in terms of, you know, like executive functioning
21:03
skills, they call it, but planning, the goal setting, the kind of,
21:07
strategizing and, and all of that.
21:09
You come up with lots and lots of ideas and you have loads of things
21:11
that you want to do, but actually kind of implementing them can be harder.
21:15
And yeah, and then I worked with an ADHD coach myself and
21:20
I did a coaching qualification so that I'm kind of accredited.
21:25
And I'm now, I've realized also that some of the one to one people that
21:29
I, the cake makers that are working, I was working with had ADHD and they
21:33
realized, some of them already knew, some of them, as we were kind of in our
21:37
discussions, realized that they had it.
21:39
And it just kind of felt like a natural thing that actually a lot of the people
21:43
that I was working with had ADHD.
21:45
And I'm now starting to, to branch out and work with other business owners
21:50
with ADHD, not just cake makers.
21:52
So I've still got the membership and everything is still
21:54
running with the cake makers.
21:56
But I'm also kind of, yeah, opening up to working with other entrepreneurs
21:59
that have ADHD and helping them with those kind of challenges.
22:03
Becca: So you worked it out from going through your son's diagnosis,
22:07
so did you decide to have a formal diagnosis yourself, did you just self
22:10
diagnose, where did that, what happened?
22:13
Lauren: I did go for a formal diagnosis myself, that, for me, I'm not, I've got no
22:17
judgement on anyone the way that they do it, for me it was important to have that
22:21
formal diagnosis, I think a lot of it was.
22:24
Because I wanted to be sure.
22:26
I wanted to kind of, I, I didn't want to kind of constantly question,
22:31
have I got ADHD or am I just kind of making excuses for myself?
22:34
Which is something that, that, that, you know, a lot of people with ADHD do.
22:38
You kind of almost gaslight yourself into like, you know,
22:40
have I, have I just made it up?
22:42
If you feel, you know, really confident in, in definitely all of
22:47
these things kind of make sense to you and you don't need a diagnosis, then
22:49
that's, that's 100 percent up to you.
22:51
But for me, it felt like it, it, Yeah, it gave me that confidence in, in knowing
22:57
that that's what, you know, made my brain the way it was and that that's,
23:02
you know, that was me and helped me kind of, probably helped me ask for
23:07
the support that I needed and, and, and get, get some, some additional support.
23:11
Becca: And you said you then went on to work with an ADHD coach yourself.
23:16
Were there certain strategies?
23:18
What was it about that experience that's helped you in your own business?
23:22
Lauren: So there's lots of things.
23:24
There's, it's, it's hard because in terms of strategies, yeah, certainly
23:29
she's, she helped me with that.
23:30
And I, and I figured out, I mean, a lot of coaching is.
23:33
Actually kind of helping you figure out your own things
23:35
rather than someone telling you.
23:36
So I know there's, you know, coaching versus mentoring
23:40
is quite a different thing.
23:41
But it was that, yeah, working at what works well for me in terms of, you know,
23:47
sometimes it's just practical things like breaking tasks down into smaller chunks.
23:51
It's, you know, tools that you can use you know, the calendars, the type of, yeah,
23:56
like there's a program called Notion.
23:58
Anyone's heard of that, but it's a really good place to kind of put all of your.
24:02
It's a bit of a brain dump for everything that's going on in your head and
24:04
plan and organise out things because that's one of the big challenges is
24:08
organisational, you know, managing to, to keep everything in place.
24:13
And also working memory is a challenge.
24:15
So things like that to put in place.
24:17
But one of the other things, or like the main thing I think that's been
24:20
really valuable for me and that I'm finding is work, you know, really good
24:23
for people that I'm working with is just that kind of self compassion.
24:28
The, in the awareness around.
24:30
Knowing what it is that makes things perhaps sometimes a
24:34
little bit more difficult.
24:35
Sometimes makes things easier and, and, you know, it works better
24:39
for you because of your brain.
24:40
But that, that awareness of what's going on for you and
24:44
understanding and acceptance really.
24:47
And so there's kind of, it's like almost a two pronged approach of what
24:52
are the things I find difficult and what things practically can I put
24:54
in place to try and improve that.
24:57
But also knowing, yes, this is a bit harder for me.
25:01
Not using that as an excuse.
25:03
I very much, I don't kind of believe that we, you know, Oh,
25:06
I've got ADHD so I can't do it.
25:08
It's okay.
25:09
I do find this difficult and I find that really frustrating
25:11
that I find it difficult.
25:13
But it is the way it is, you know, and that's, that's quite a big kind of
25:16
thing to, it's hard to, to do that, but to accept that actually, yeah, this is
25:21
hard, so I need to do it differently, and I perhaps do need to, you know,
25:27
find, you know, it might take me longer to find the way that works for me.
25:30
It might be that this does take longer for me than it, than it might do if I
25:34
didn't have this condition, so I need to leave myself more space for it.
25:38
So yeah, a lot of that, I think that's the biggest thing for me, is that kind
25:41
of, Yeah, being kinder to myself and I think that's, that's, I mean, I, I think
25:46
that's important to anybody regardless of any kind of, you know, neurodiversity
25:51
or anything like we should all be kinder to ourselves and all give ourselves
25:54
a bit more of a break, you know.
25:56
Becca: Yeah, I totally agree with everything you say and I
25:58
think whether or not we identify as neurodivergent, actually no
26:02
one size fits all for any of us.
26:04
We all need to be kinder to ourselves.
26:05
We all need to find our own strategies and ways of doing business.
26:10
Now, you talked about taking a qualification, you talked about your
26:13
next steps and how you're now hoping to coach and help other people in
26:16
the way that your coach helped you.
26:19
What are your big dreams and desires?
26:21
Where do you want to see yourself going over the next few years?
26:25
Lauren: Okay, yeah.
26:26
So that's a big question.
26:28
I think.
26:28
For me, at the moment, I'm kind of quite happy seeing where it's going.
26:32
I'm enjoying, I've just started working with people one to one with ADHD and
26:37
helping them in their business and their lives in general, but particularly with
26:41
entrepreneurs with the struggles that they face running a business with ADHD.
26:45
So the one to one work I'm really, really enjoying.
26:48
My plans for the future are to do perhaps a some group.
26:52
program or probably a membership, something like that, because I think
26:56
community is really, really important.
26:58
That one to one bespoke support I think is really, really important as well,
27:02
but also that kind of being around other people who get it, who understand, you
27:06
know, and the good and the, and the sort of more challenging aspects of it.
27:12
So that's my kind of plan for the future.
27:14
Becca: I think it's really interesting.
27:15
I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with it next.
27:18
And I think you're a great example of how our businesses
27:21
and our lives is an evolution.
27:22
And we, we can do one thing and then it changes and then it
27:25
moves and then it transitions.
27:26
And I think that's the same for all of us.
27:27
We can be fluid in our lives and our businesses.
27:30
And I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with you next, Lauren.
27:34
Now I always end the podcast with the same question, which I'm going
27:37
to put to you now, which is what's one thing you wish you'd known
27:39
sooner in your own wedding business?
27:42
Lauren: It's a great question and it's very hard to nail it down to just one,
27:46
but I think probably for me it would be knowing that You don't have to do it all
27:50
yourself and whether that's, you know, in terms of outsourcing things that are
27:55
not your forte or more perhaps working, you know, working with a coach or joining
28:01
a membership, you know, like yours or mine, where there are other people and,
28:04
and someone that's kind of trodden that path or someone that you can just ask for
28:08
a bit of advice from and support from.
28:11
You don't have to kind of figure it all out by yourself.
28:14
And I did a lot of that.
28:15
And it's lonely, you know, and it's, and it's hard.
28:18
And sometimes just kind of having, having some people to,
28:21
to kind of lean on is good.
28:22
So that would be my advice.
28:24
Becca: Absolutely.
28:25
Totally agree with you.
28:26
Lauren, if people want to find out more about your cake community or
28:30
about your ADHD coaching, where are the best places for them to find you?
28:33
Lauren: So I've got two separate websites for the cake makers.
28:37
If you head to laurengracecakecoach.
28:39
com.
28:40
And then for anyone else who's thinking about working with someone
28:43
for their ADHD, it's laurensmy.
28:45
co.
28:46
uk and all the information of how you can work with me is on, on those websites.
28:50
Becca: Fabulous.
28:51
I'll make sure that I put all of the links in the show notes.
28:54
Lauren, it's been such a pleasure.
28:55
Thank you for being so open and honest and chatting with us
28:58
today and I'll see you very soon.
29:00
Lauren: Thanks so much for having me.
29:01
It's been a pleasure.
29:02
Becca: I hope you enjoyed that episode with Lauren as much as I did.
29:05
I love hearing people's stories, I love hearing people's journeys, and I think
29:09
it's an important reminder to all of us that we don't have to stay still.
29:12
What we're doing now doesn't have to be the same as what we're doing next year,
29:15
but it's important that we follow our passions, we think about what we care
29:19
about, and we move our business forward.
29:21
I'll see you again next time.