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How to Cash in on Your Hobby (and Start a Business With Your Bestie) with Sweet Bakes & Miss Trixie · She's On The Money

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Speaker 1: My name is Tatasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations
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Speaker 1: woman and I'm here to acknowledge country t glennyan Ganya Niana,
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Speaker 1: kaka ya Ya bin ahaka Nian our gay in Mbina
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Speaker 1: yakarum jar dominyamiga Umagahawakawaman damon imlan Bumba bang Gadabomba in
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Speaker 1: and now in wakah ghana on yakraum jar Watnadaa. Hello,
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Speaker 1: beautiful friends, we gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people.
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Speaker 1: We thank acknowledge and respect the Aberiginal people's land that
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Speaker 1: we're gathering on today. Take pleasure in all the land
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Speaker 1: and respect all that you see. She's on the Money
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Speaker 1: podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections, bringing you the tools,
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Speaker 1: knowledge and resources for you to thrive.
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Speaker 2: She's on the Money.
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Speaker 3: She's on the Money. Hello and welcome to She's on
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Speaker 3: the Money.
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Speaker 4: Have you and your bestie ever had a genius business
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Speaker 4: idea over a glass of wine and thought we could
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Speaker 4: actually do this. I'm Victoria Devine, and today I'm chatting
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Speaker 4: with two women who didn't just dream it up, they
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Speaker 4: actually went for it. You've probably seen their cakes all
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Speaker 4: over your Instagram feed. Colorful and just as fun as
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Speaker 4: they are, but behind the butter cream is a seriously
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Speaker 4: impressive business story. Alice Bennett is the brains behind Miss
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Speaker 4: Tricksie Drinks tea, famous for her pancakes and vintage style piping.
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Speaker 4: She started out as a soul trader baking from home
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Speaker 4: and has grown her hustle into a thriving business. Joining
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Speaker 4: her is Alisha Henderson, the creative force behind Sweet Bakes.
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Speaker 4: She turned her whimsical hand painted cakes into a full
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Speaker 4: blown company, has published two cookbooks, and even can heated
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Speaker 4: on the TV show Dessert Masters. Together, they went ahead
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Speaker 4: and launched cobake Space, a dreamy pastor kitchen and creative
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Speaker 4: hub built on community over competition. My friends, welcome to
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Speaker 4: the show.
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Speaker 2: Thank you.
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Speaker 3: I am very excited about this.
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Speaker 5: Having ordered and received both of your products before, I
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Speaker 5: was like, what the hell our producer and.
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Speaker 4: I don't know have you heard of And I was like, yes,
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Speaker 4: my show, I'm obsessed. But like, let's dive into everything
2:36
Speaker 4: about you guys. Let's go back to the very beginning.
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Speaker 4: Tell us about how you first got into baking. When
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Speaker 4: did it stop being like just for fun and become
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Speaker 4: a business.
2:46
Speaker 2: Well.
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Speaker 6: I started Miss Tixie Drinks Tea as a blog when
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Speaker 6: I was in UNI, Like if I'm really rewinding, I know.
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Speaker 7: I know.
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Speaker 3: I was reading it. Yes, we love Yes, had a
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Speaker 3: glow up yes, yeah, since then.
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Speaker 6: So it was a little you know, blogspot page and
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Speaker 6: I was just publishing my love for desserts whilst I
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Speaker 6: was studying marketing and PR at UNI posted on Instagram too, Yeah,
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Speaker 6: I did well. I was a little slight Instagram, but
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Speaker 6: I finally got there with you know, those gorgeous like
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Speaker 6: CPR filters.
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Speaker 3: It was perfect. It was my aesthetic at the time.
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Speaker 2: It was great.
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Speaker 6: I ran the business as a side hustle whilst I
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Speaker 6: worked in marketing and PR. And then when COVID hit,
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Speaker 6: I lost my job in COVID, which was fine, We're
3:28
Speaker 6: all like all fine for it, and it was you know,
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Speaker 6: I mean, I've mourned it, I've grieved it. You know,
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Speaker 6: we're past it. It's fine. Therapy with therapies and I
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Speaker 6: when we were in lockdown, I decided that giving Mystericksy
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Speaker 6: Drinks Tea a real crack would be like why not,
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Speaker 6: Like I had nothing to lose, So I did that
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Speaker 6: and I came up with these pun message cakes that
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Speaker 6: seemed to really hit and match the mood at the time,
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Speaker 6: and they really took off and I just haven't looked back.
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Speaker 6: So like my hand was forced to go from side
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Speaker 6: hustle to full time thing, but like I genuinely wouldn't change.
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Speaker 3: A thing, ador, what about you?
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Speaker 5: This job that I currently have in the world of
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Speaker 5: cake is the only professional career I have had, which
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Speaker 5: I think is actually quite unusual for a lot of people.
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Speaker 5: I think, particularly in food, it is someone's passion or
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Speaker 5: hobby that becomes a full time gig. But I've been
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Speaker 5: doing this since I was nineteen, So this is my
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Speaker 5: twelfth year in business. I was at UNI studying a.
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Speaker 3: You're only twenty one, how I was a media child.
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Speaker 5: At math No, but this is, yeah, certainly not where
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Speaker 5: I thought I was going to be. I was studying
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Speaker 5: a journalism degree at university, love writing, love the media
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Speaker 5: aspect of things, and like Alice, was posting on the
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Speaker 5: platform called Instagram and just had people pay attention to
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Speaker 5: what I was doing as a little side project. So
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Speaker 5: as most broke union students do, they go, oh, isn't
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Speaker 5: this a fun way to make some pocket money? And
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Speaker 5: that is how sweet fakes and my professional career was
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Speaker 5: born and I haven't looked back.
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Speaker 4: I love this and there's just something so exciting to
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Speaker 4: me as someone who adores small business, when small business
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Speaker 4: is genuinely born of passion, Like it's just like thing
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Speaker 4: that you were doing because you loved it, not like
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Speaker 4: I'm going to sit down and work out what kind
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Speaker 4: of business I could make some cash from. Because you
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Speaker 4: can just feel that energy in the brand, absolutely in
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Speaker 4: the content that comes out, and like I can make
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Speaker 4: greens cakes, I can make some Betty crust.
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Speaker 3: I mean, I'm proud of you for at least getting
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Speaker 3: the mixing bowl out. That's very good kitchen ate. Yes,
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Speaker 3: well I do is it ornamental or are we ornamental?
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Speaker 3: It would suit your aesthetic. It's the pastor blue heritage
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Speaker 3: for ye to me.
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Speaker 5: And I was like, why maybe after today is a
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Speaker 5: little chat, you'll be more inspired to actually crack.
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Speaker 3: I'm just going to keep buying your cakes, so don't
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Speaker 3: tell anybody.
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Speaker 4: Let's talk a lot about I guess this side hustle
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Speaker 4: thing right, Like a lot of our community are side hustlers,
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Speaker 4: which wh I'm obsessed with. How did you juggle going
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Speaker 4: from having other jobs before going all in, because like
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Speaker 4: this stuff involves I would say, a significant investment in time,
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Speaker 4: in money, in creative Like you've got to pull it
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Speaker 4: all together and you're doing it all yourself. How did
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Speaker 4: you know when the right time was to take the
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Speaker 4: leap and kind of back your own business full time
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Speaker 4: instead of kind of like UNI and this or work
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Speaker 4: and this.
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Speaker 3: I think for me it was about judging what there
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Speaker 3: could be.
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Speaker 5: I could feel the buzz building, so it wasn't like
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Speaker 5: I just threw myself in without having that customer base
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Speaker 5: or the attention on me. It's like when I felt
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Speaker 5: that that attention was there from the Instagram and the
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Speaker 5: emails and the orders, I decided to go full time
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Speaker 5: with it when I really felt like, okay, like I'm
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Speaker 5: not throwing myself in with absolutely no one who cares.
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Speaker 3: I was during the appitets here I've tested, Yes exactly.
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Speaker 5: I did run my very basic nineteen year old numbers
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Speaker 5: and be like, all right, if I can take on
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Speaker 5: six weddings a week, like that is absolutely a sustainable
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Speaker 5: income for me at this point in time. And I
7:00
Speaker 5: think my mindset to being young was why not. Actually,
7:04
Speaker 5: to be honest, I think I'm still like that. I
7:06
Speaker 5: feel I come from a family who I know are
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Speaker 5: going to support me through whatever I do, and I'm
7:11
Speaker 5: always going to have a couch to crash on. Yeah,
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Speaker 5: I pictured my worst case scenario and my worst case Pretically,
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Speaker 5: I'm like, if this doesn't work out, I actually have
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Speaker 5: a safety net behind me, So why wouldn't I just
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Speaker 5: have a crack?
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Speaker 2: I love that. Yeah, and mine wasn't too dissimilar.
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Speaker 6: Like even when I lost my job in COVID and
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Speaker 6: I was doing the cakes during lockdown, you know, people
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Speaker 6: were really responding to what I was putting out and
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Speaker 6: I am relatively risk averse, So in the back of
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Speaker 6: my mind, I was like, I can go back to
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Speaker 6: production and events and PR there is like a safety
7:42
Speaker 6: network there. But I had spent you know, in those
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Speaker 6: side hustle years that was like pivotal brand building moments,
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Speaker 6: so I was actually, you know, I was building a
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Speaker 6: follower base, a community like that was all happening in
7:55
Speaker 6: those side hustle days. So like the risk felt less
7:59
Speaker 6: because I had the follow up base obviously in lockdown,
8:02
Speaker 6: like I didn't have a full time job to fall
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Speaker 6: back on, so it was like, well, I'm giving it
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Speaker 6: a crack and it's working.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 6: And so then when it came to like we came
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Speaker 6: out of lockdown and I was like presented with do
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Speaker 6: I go back to production or do I do Miss Tricksie,
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Speaker 6: It felt like a safe option.
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Speaker 2: It didn't feel too risky to me.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, And Alicia, you said something just before you like
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Speaker 4: I did my nineteen year old numbers. I actually think
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Speaker 4: that there is something so beautiful about the naivity.
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Speaker 3: There because you're.
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Speaker 4: Because if you did the numbers today about starting a business,
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Speaker 4: I just know that you'd have so much more knowledge.
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Speaker 4: And don't get me wrong, like we all want that knowledge.
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Speaker 4: That's why I have a literal podcast to share it.
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Speaker 3: Yes, but you kind of just go. Can't be that hard, No.
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Speaker 5: And I Chasing enthusiasm is also an option, Like life
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Speaker 5: is so boring and so serious. Sometimes it is just
8:49
Speaker 5: fun to chase your passion or your enthusiasm. And if
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Speaker 5: it doesn't work out, like all good, what happened. But
8:54
Speaker 5: much rather have the experience and try something rather than
8:57
Speaker 5: rather than not. I don't want to get to the
8:59
Speaker 5: end of my life and look, I can be like God,
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Speaker 5: I wish I did that thing. I'm happy to like
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Speaker 5: try it all and see what sticks.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I love it. And did you do delusional numbers
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Speaker 3: at the start, And.
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Speaker 2: Oh my god, absolutely be rich.
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Speaker 6: I was nineteen and doing those numbers because you know,
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Speaker 6: I was like, you know, I was comparing it to
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Speaker 6: like a very safe salary in production, which you know
9:20
Speaker 6: was was great. I think I really like the idea
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Speaker 6: of being able to work for myself, be able to
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Speaker 6: like working cake every single day, Like it's actually a
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Speaker 6: privileged to be able to do what we do in
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Speaker 6: this I'm like, I get to make cakes. Like last
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Speaker 6: week I was making a Barbie cake covered in lollies
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Speaker 6: and I literally had moments. I was like, I cannot
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Speaker 6: believe this is my life, Like that's insane. People would
9:40
Speaker 6: kill to be able to do that.
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Speaker 2: Every single day. I get to play with butter cream
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Speaker 2: and cake, Like what a joy?
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Speaker 3: I eat a lot of it. Yeah, all the time, absolutely,
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Speaker 3: every all the time. Every day.
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Speaker 5: I think I always say, if we stop eating our
9:53
Speaker 5: own cake, well something's gone wrong.
9:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, other and each other's no, I will tell each
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Speaker 3: other best friends. I feel like.
10:04
Speaker 6: It works very well for like bribery, Like I'm just kidding,
10:06
Speaker 6: We've got something that we can bribe people with.
10:08
Speaker 4: And I would like to point out that I've also
10:10
Speaker 4: married the right man, right, so he only likes the
10:12
Speaker 4: cake and not the butter cream. So whenever we get cake,
10:15
Speaker 4: I get all the butter creams. And that is don't lie,
10:18
Speaker 4: that's the best beer.
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Speaker 3: So cute exactly.
10:23
Speaker 4: I need to know the energy between you two is
10:25
Speaker 4: I don't know, it's electric, Like it's really fun.
10:27
Speaker 3: I want to be more involved in this.
10:29
Speaker 4: How did you two meet and then go, oh, this
10:31
Speaker 4: friendship is more than a friendship, it's a business, like
10:34
Speaker 4: give us the meat cute story lay.
10:37
Speaker 6: So it's a classic case of us like following each
10:40
Speaker 6: other on Instagram and admiring each other from.
10:42
Speaker 3: Afar fangirling fan going my far very.
10:46
Speaker 2: Very like intently messaging. That's sick, amazing love that.
10:49
Speaker 3: You know all of that, that's the energy that we
10:51
Speaker 3: want as women, proper cheerlead.
10:54
Speaker 2: We have not even met.
10:56
Speaker 6: Yeah, we had not even met yet, so that was
10:58
Speaker 6: like like that was energy from the get go. And
11:00
Speaker 6: then we both got invited to go along to this
11:04
Speaker 6: like pastry very formal, very formal pastry workshop thing with
11:09
Speaker 6: this world leader in pastry. We walked in separately, but
11:12
Speaker 6: we were both very clearly not in chef whites.
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Speaker 3: You know, we only too Yeah, the only.
11:19
Speaker 6: Outfits, so cute outfits make up on looking great. We
11:23
Speaker 6: were like, hey, hey, you want to hang out and
11:27
Speaker 6: that was the first moment that we met, and we
11:29
Speaker 6: just had such a great day.
11:30
Speaker 2: And needless to say, we also did the best chef.
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Speaker 2: It was very.
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Speaker 5: Precious, so legally blonde, like, never underestimate a couple of
11:38
Speaker 5: girls in pink because they might just be literal mirror like.
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Speaker 6: It's hardly and the world paid chef was so impressed
11:45
Speaker 6: by us, and we were just like love this for us.
11:47
Speaker 6: And then yeah, I shortly moved to London just after that,
11:50
Speaker 6: so we stayed in touch.
11:52
Speaker 2: I know, really rude.
11:53
Speaker 6: So the friendship kind of took like a distant It
11:56
Speaker 6: was a bit of a distant relationship for a couple
11:57
Speaker 6: of years.
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Speaker 3: Totally still high queens online though, that's for sure.
12:01
Speaker 5: We circled back when we decided we both wanted to
12:04
Speaker 5: work together share kitchens. We were both already working in
12:07
Speaker 5: separate shared kitchens in suburbs that were actually quite far
12:10
Speaker 5: out from where we lived, so we sort of struck
12:12
Speaker 5: up the conversation as professional friends. I mean, we've come
12:15
Speaker 5: together not as like friends who grew up together. We've
12:18
Speaker 5: always been work friends. So yeah, we caught up for
12:20
Speaker 5: coffee one day and said, look, if you ever want
12:22
Speaker 5: to change locations to somewhere that's like a little bit
12:24
Speaker 5: more central for.
12:25
Speaker 3: Us, I'd love to share a kitchen with you.
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Speaker 5: And that was like the original jumping off point for
12:30
Speaker 5: us to start having conversations about our partnership.
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Speaker 4: Didn't even know shared kitchens were a thing. Yes, they are,
12:36
Speaker 4: Like I work in finance, guys.
12:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's so cute.
12:40
Speaker 6: They're not typically like as involved with one another as
12:43
Speaker 6: like ours are a bit more like ghost kitchen.
12:45
Speaker 2: You know, you might just do it by the hour.
12:47
Speaker 6: And that was the other dilemma that we had because
12:49
Speaker 6: we were investigating that, but it was like incredibly expensive,
12:53
Speaker 6: and that's why we were like, if we actually just
12:55
Speaker 6: did this together and took on a commercial building together,
12:59
Speaker 6: then ye, which you.
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Speaker 3: Do need to share.
13:02
Speaker 5: For a lot of small to medium sized businesses in
13:04
Speaker 5: the food space, the outgoings are insane, Like food margins
13:09
Speaker 5: are really really tight.
13:10
Speaker 3: It's a hard game to be in. So sharing a
13:12
Speaker 3: kitchen was always a no brainer for us.
13:15
Speaker 4: You guys said before, Oh, like, we haven't known each
13:17
Speaker 4: other forever, and like, you could absolutely for me. And
13:20
Speaker 4: I love the idea that you guys are You're like,
13:22
Speaker 4: I don't know, you're hyping each other up, and like,
13:25
Speaker 4: I just think that there's not enough of that that
13:27
Speaker 4: goes on in literally any industry that involves women. I
13:30
Speaker 4: feel like sometimes we look at people and because we
13:33
Speaker 4: are maybe not confident enough, we see them as competition
13:36
Speaker 4: instead of like friends who also are going through the
13:40
Speaker 4: same struggles. You guys have managed to go completely across that. Yeah,
13:44
Speaker 4: and then I look at your new business, the one
13:46
Speaker 4: that you have together, Cobake Space, and it just feels
13:49
Speaker 4: like it's so collaboration over competition, and that's the energy
13:55
Speaker 4: we love to have, right, Like, sorry, I don't care
13:57
Speaker 4: if you're new to this, come along, I'll show you everything.
14:00
Speaker 4: And I think that a lot of people assume, oh
14:03
Speaker 4: my gosh, I wouldn't want to give all of my
14:04
Speaker 4: tips and tricks away because if I do that, they'll
14:07
Speaker 4: copy me. It can't be you, nor can they actually
14:10
Speaker 4: put the time and energy and effort and work in
14:13
Speaker 4: that you have over the years. Why did that become
14:17
Speaker 4: such a big part of your vision. Like from my perspective,
14:19
Speaker 4: I'm like that makes sense, of course, But for a
14:22
Speaker 4: lot of others they might go, why would.
14:24
Speaker 7: You do that?
14:25
Speaker 5: I think this whole scarcity mindset sort of underpins people
14:29
Speaker 5: who do feel that way, and I think both Alice
14:31
Speaker 5: and I absolutely do not have that in us. I
14:33
Speaker 5: think it is honestly natural to us. I hope that
14:36
Speaker 5: will become a case study for why you don't need
14:38
Speaker 5: to be that way one day. But it's like going
14:41
Speaker 5: into Mecca, right, and it's like if you went to
14:43
Speaker 5: Mecca and you only purchased one beauty product there, right,
14:47
Speaker 5: you only shop from one brand as a beauty enthusiast, Like,
14:49
Speaker 5: that's never going to happen. Or you love food and
14:51
Speaker 5: eating out, You're never going to go to one restaurant
14:53
Speaker 5: for the rest of your life. So why would we
14:55
Speaker 5: have this mentality that I make cakes, so therefore I
14:58
Speaker 5: have to compete with you. I can't share that with you.
15:00
Speaker 5: My customers want to come and eat cake from me,
15:02
Speaker 5: but they love cakes, so they're going to come to
15:03
Speaker 5: Alis for a different occasion. So that's always been very
15:06
Speaker 5: important to us to acknowledge that our consumers actually have
15:09
Speaker 5: a brain for themselves and we can share the opportunities
15:12
Speaker 5: around and.
15:13
Speaker 6: We can do that for people who come into Kobake
15:15
Speaker 6: as well. Like, we exactly love being able to, you know,
15:19
Speaker 6: talk to other business owners and share our knowledge and
15:22
Speaker 6: have like an open two way conversation.
15:24
Speaker 2: And also like the world's pretty cook So it's a.
15:27
Speaker 3: It's a much nicer world the year.
15:29
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's like a much nicer world to live in
15:32
Speaker 6: the world where we are like cheerleaders for one another
15:35
Speaker 6: rather than seeing each other as competition or or other
15:39
Speaker 6: businesses that come into Kobake as well.
15:40
Speaker 2: Like, it is a far nicer want to plan and
15:42
Speaker 2: it's so fun.
15:44
Speaker 5: I can't explain to you how I have such a
15:46
Speaker 5: feedback loop for other people's whims.
15:49
Speaker 3: I truly do.
15:50
Speaker 5: There is something so exciting about watching someone so close
15:53
Speaker 5: to you or in the same building as you celebrate
15:55
Speaker 5: something achieve something like that feels just as good as
15:58
Speaker 5: when I do it myself. It's such a wonderful part
16:01
Speaker 5: of our coback journey.
16:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, I love it all right, I am going to
16:04
Speaker 4: stop us here. We've got to take a really quick break.
16:06
Speaker 4: And on the flip side, I'm going to want all
16:08
Speaker 4: the tea on literally what it's like to own a
16:11
Speaker 4: business with a friend. So guys, don't go anywhere, all.
16:18
Speaker 3: Right, welcome back before the break.
16:21
Speaker 4: We heard how it started, how you met that maybe
16:24
Speaker 4: nineteen year old delusional numbers are actually a really great
16:27
Speaker 4: place to start.
16:28
Speaker 3: But now I want to get to the part that everybody.
16:31
Speaker 4: Kind of wonders about what happens when you mix your
16:33
Speaker 4: mates with your money, because it sounds so much fun
16:37
Speaker 4: but also like really scary, and as somebody who has
16:42
Speaker 4: had failed business partnerships, I'm in or I'm like, oh
16:46
Speaker 4: my god, I wish that it had worked out for me,
16:48
Speaker 4: but what has been the best and then also the
16:50
Speaker 4: hardest part of running a business together?
16:54
Speaker 6: So I think for us, the reason why it works
16:58
Speaker 6: is because we both respect another. I think respect is
17:01
Speaker 6: like literally the core ingredient for a business relationship to
17:05
Speaker 6: stem from a friendship, because if you don't respect one another,
17:09
Speaker 6: or if you feel threatened by the other person, or
17:12
Speaker 6: like deep deep in new you feel jealous or whatever,
17:15
Speaker 6: those of course those feelings are going to come to
17:16
Speaker 6: the surfers. So I think for us, like the idea
17:20
Speaker 6: that like, I have so much respect for what Alisha
17:22
Speaker 6: has done with sweet Bakes, and I know she feels
17:25
Speaker 6: the same way towards my business. So having that and
17:28
Speaker 6: knowing that that was like the foundation of our friendship,
17:31
Speaker 6: it made sense for us to go into business together
17:34
Speaker 6: because we knew that feelings of jealousy, competition, feeling threatened
17:39
Speaker 6: by one another they weren't there, like they're just they didn't.
17:42
Speaker 6: They simply just didn't exist for us. So I think
17:45
Speaker 6: that's how we could actually take it to a business relationship.
17:50
Speaker 5: I think some of the challenges that are inevitable are
17:53
Speaker 5: I'm someone who is like a bit of a move
17:55
Speaker 5: fuss and break things, bake things.
17:57
Speaker 3: You know, either way that that phrase work.
17:59
Speaker 5: So I think the hardest challenge for me is now
18:01
Speaker 5: in a partnership is like, Okay, we have to have
18:03
Speaker 5: to slow down because we need to have a discussion
18:05
Speaker 5: about it before we can just like.
18:06
Speaker 3: Move move, move, move move.
18:07
Speaker 5: But in the same degree, that's held me more accountable
18:11
Speaker 5: to make really solid decisions that I actually back and
18:15
Speaker 5: having someone to bounce that off. So it has maybe
18:17
Speaker 5: like slowed down my natural pace in a way, but
18:20
Speaker 5: we have better communication and make better decisions because we
18:24
Speaker 5: actually have to go back and forth with each other
18:26
Speaker 5: but I mean this is our third We're approaching three
18:29
Speaker 5: years of Kobek, which sounds cool, crazy that it's gone.
18:32
Speaker 3: So having a.
18:33
Speaker 2: Party with cake absolutely sun the lace as well.
18:36
Speaker 3: Oh yeah we need to do that mental notecap.
18:38
Speaker 1: Yeah we.
18:41
Speaker 3: Can have a third birthday.
18:45
Speaker 6: I think the other reason why we work is like
18:47
Speaker 6: our skill set and our backgrounds are slightly different. So
18:51
Speaker 6: obviously I used to work marketing, p our production, that's
18:54
Speaker 6: my background. I was in agency land, which if anyone
18:58
Speaker 6: works in a marketing or PA, he knows how tough
19:01
Speaker 6: it is. I come from a very like regimented background,
19:05
Speaker 6: so like I would come to a meeting with like, oh,
19:07
Speaker 6: here's a spreadsheet and like this is how I want
19:09
Speaker 6: calendar invites to look like, and da da da da da,
19:12
Speaker 6: and Alisha is not quite like.
19:14
Speaker 4: That, not in the slides, Like you were tiptoeing around
19:18
Speaker 4: that and you were like, oh no, raw dogget that's fine.
19:22
Speaker 3: No, that's not my journey. I think I'm more of like,
19:24
Speaker 3: well no, because I just stroll it out there and
19:27
Speaker 3: it might actually just be fabulous anyway, you know.
19:30
Speaker 6: I Also I get a lot of joy out of
19:33
Speaker 6: being like incredibly organized, whereas you're just like, oh well whatever.
19:37
Speaker 4: No feedbackward is that also one of the hardest things
19:40
Speaker 4: because like, I work in a team and that feels
19:43
Speaker 4: like ying and yang. But like you need someone who's
19:45
Speaker 4: got their stuff together, but you also need the person
19:47
Speaker 4: who's like, just try it.
19:48
Speaker 3: My work though, well, but I guess it might work.
19:50
Speaker 6: I think again, that's why that respect piece is so important,
19:53
Speaker 6: because it's like, I respect the way in which Alisha works,
19:56
Speaker 6: and she respects the way I work. So there's not
19:58
Speaker 6: I'm not going to be like, well, you're create like hello,
20:01
Speaker 6: I'm just like no, that's how Relasia's brains work, and
20:03
Speaker 6: it gives you another perspective.
20:04
Speaker 2: So I think it's also really important. I love that.
20:06
Speaker 4: And what would your advice be for my community who
20:10
Speaker 4: are like, oh, I've been thinking about starting a business
20:12
Speaker 4: with a friend, what do you reckon? You would tell them, Well,
20:16
Speaker 4: I think because we didn't come from a place of
20:20
Speaker 4: traditional friendship, it's always been a professional relationship. I would
20:25
Speaker 4: say that they obviously has to be conversations about your
20:27
Speaker 4: values as a professional that needs to be in played.
20:31
Speaker 4: I don't think it's just about the synergy of your like,
20:33
Speaker 4: oh my god, but I love this person. I hang
20:34
Speaker 4: out with them and we have the best time together
20:36
Speaker 4: and we never fight. It's really about your values around money,
20:40
Speaker 4: around business that have to be absolutely aligned before you
20:44
Speaker 4: jump off into anything.
20:45
Speaker 3: And it really isn't for anyone. I feel like we do.
20:47
Speaker 3: We hear so many horror stories of people.
20:49
Speaker 5: Saying like I can't do this with a partner, Yeah,
20:52
Speaker 5: because I think entre accountant said he's never setting up
20:55
Speaker 5: another shared.
20:58
Speaker 7: No.
20:58
Speaker 3: We want to be that example that that it is possible. Yeah, totally,
21:03
Speaker 3: And what do you reckon el us?
21:05
Speaker 1: No?
21:05
Speaker 2: I agree.
21:05
Speaker 6: I think when we were looking to do it and
21:10
Speaker 6: look looking into venturing into this business partnership, and I
21:14
Speaker 6: know I'm harping on about the respect, but like we
21:16
Speaker 6: we really truly respected each other's ideas. Nothing was ever
21:20
Speaker 6: shot down like I think you've you've got to, Like
21:23
Speaker 6: we gave each other the airtime to be able to
21:25
Speaker 6: talk about certain things, and we could identify very early on,
21:30
Speaker 6: like what our roles in the business would be as well,
21:32
Speaker 6: So like we do have like we we tackle different
21:34
Speaker 6: things because our brains do them better. So it's like
21:37
Speaker 6: you know, in Kobak, I would do like the invoicing
21:40
Speaker 6: and the booking agreements and the emails and stuff, and
21:41
Speaker 6: Alisha's like, I can do all the website stuff because
21:44
Speaker 6: like your skill is in like you can do that,
21:46
Speaker 6: whereas I'm the idea. Yeah, you're more creative than I am.
21:50
Speaker 3: So yeah, perfect. I've broken our website before him also
21:52
Speaker 3: down from our website nightmare, good good. You two are
21:55
Speaker 3: very alike. You don't go into a partnership. We will
22:00
Speaker 3: admire each other from a distance.
22:04
Speaker 4: Look, I want to go down a little bit more
22:05
Speaker 4: of a like formal business route, right, so like my
22:09
Speaker 4: brain automatically goes to like structures and how you decided
22:13
Speaker 4: to set up your business and Alice you started down
22:17
Speaker 4: the sole trader route and Alicia you went ahead and
22:20
Speaker 4: you were like, I'm going to set up a company.
22:22
Speaker 4: And both of those two things are completely different but
22:25
Speaker 4: also make sense one for both of you. But then
22:29
Speaker 4: also you could have swapped probably at the start and
22:31
Speaker 4: had similar structures. And then with the Kobake space, you
22:35
Speaker 4: guys have gone down a partnership model. Can you talk
22:38
Speaker 4: us through why you made these choices and kind of
22:41
Speaker 4: what the differences are, because it's not just like, oh,
22:44
Speaker 4: we went into business together, Like there's structure.
22:47
Speaker 3: There's actually TUXX we have to talk about.
22:50
Speaker 4: I actually need to talk about responsibilities and it would
22:54
Speaker 4: be a.
22:55
Speaker 3: Miss of me to not ask about this stuff on shee'ese.
22:57
Speaker 5: On the money, of course, well, I was a soul
23:00
Speaker 5: trader for a number of years, solopreneur for almost ten years.
23:04
Speaker 5: To be honest, it wasn't until we actually moved into
23:06
Speaker 5: the premise of kbake space that I switched to a company.
23:09
Speaker 5: And those reasons for me and Sweet Bakes was because
23:12
Speaker 5: I had some big plans about the way that Sweetbakes
23:14
Speaker 5: was structured. I want people to choose cake instead of
23:19
Speaker 5: sending a bunch of flowers. I want people to send
23:21
Speaker 5: a cake.
23:21
Speaker 3: I do just so NIU excellent.
23:22
Speaker 2: That's why we love excellent choice.
23:24
Speaker 5: That was always my sort of ethos moving into Kobac
23:26
Speaker 5: and the way that I wanted to take Sweet Bakes.
23:28
Speaker 5: To do that, I needed to make some really big
23:30
Speaker 5: corporate partnerships and some wholesale arrangements. So obviously that comes
23:34
Speaker 5: with all those other liabilities and all those gorgeous sexy
23:37
Speaker 5: things and insurances. So with that and my staff that
23:39
Speaker 5: I now have, structuring it as a company is just
23:42
Speaker 5: far more beneficial to us when we're working at such
23:44
Speaker 5: a scale. I'm sure for Alice, her focus is on
23:47
Speaker 5: speaking on your behalf because I know you so well.
23:50
Speaker 5: Is very much about that beautiful personalized, customized service which
23:53
Speaker 5: is a little bit more one on one which doesn't
23:56
Speaker 5: require that. And then the structure of Kobake being a partnership.
24:00
Speaker 5: I think that really sets the tone of what we
24:02
Speaker 5: do that it is a fifty to fifty partnership and
24:05
Speaker 5: the expectation from us, both financially and effort wise, is
24:09
Speaker 5: fifty to fifty, and that's what that partnership really really acknowledges.
24:12
Speaker 5: I mean, it's like we can be very casual about
24:15
Speaker 5: it in the way that we do our day to
24:16
Speaker 5: day stuff. You know, it's not regimented the way that
24:19
Speaker 5: we go about Kobake. But at the bottom line of it,
24:22
Speaker 5: I think it really solidifies like we are in this
24:25
Speaker 5: absolutely equally together.
24:26
Speaker 7: Yeah.
24:27
Speaker 4: I always get a little bit of a red fight
24:28
Speaker 4: because I'm pervy, right. I don't think anybody has ever
24:31
Speaker 4: accused me of being like modest or like, oh no,
24:34
Speaker 4: it's not my business, so I.
24:36
Speaker 3: Never want to be modest. Interested are like oh, like
24:40
Speaker 3: I don't like gossip.
24:41
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, no, I love that, Like I don't
24:44
Speaker 4: want to be involved, but like I want to hear
24:46
Speaker 4: what your neighbors, friend's cousin did.
24:48
Speaker 3: I just want to hear it.
24:50
Speaker 4: So like, if I see a new business that's been
24:52
Speaker 4: like on my Instagram feed, I might might do a
24:55
Speaker 4: little as sick look up. And to me, one of
24:58
Speaker 4: the biggest red flags is when I see a new
25:00
Speaker 4: business arise and it's like forty nine fifty one and
25:03
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, there's a power play there, Like that's
25:05
Speaker 4: not to me, that's not gonna work. And don't get
25:07
Speaker 4: me wrong, my business benches haven't worked for a plethora
25:10
Speaker 4: of different reasons, but it's never ever been not fifty
25:13
Speaker 4: fifty because I go, no, we come to this together,
25:16
Speaker 4: Like if we're not coming on equal playing fields, why
25:19
Speaker 4: are we even doing this? Yes, so there's a conversation
25:22
Speaker 4: around that, did you ever consider any other type of split?
25:25
Speaker 1: No?
25:25
Speaker 5: But also I think understanding the way that we do
25:29
Speaker 5: Kobake Kobak is supplementary to our foundation business.
25:33
Speaker 3: Alice has a thriving business. I have a thriving business.
25:36
Speaker 5: So I think the expectation for Kobak to be this
25:38
Speaker 5: big crazy thing isn't there either, So coming to the
25:41
Speaker 5: table equally actually just makes far more sense and the
25:44
Speaker 5: pressure is off in a way, which I think is probably.
25:47
Speaker 3: Why it's working so well for us.
25:49
Speaker 5: Because our foundational business as Mimss, Tricksy and Sweetbags, those
25:52
Speaker 5: are the ones that give us a salary. Kobake works
25:55
Speaker 5: for a different reason. For us, it's supplementary and it's fun.
25:58
Speaker 5: For us, it's fun, it's to start honestly, so I
26:03
Speaker 5: can come play. It's allowed us to generate income for
26:07
Speaker 5: those separate businesses via Cobake. There are collaborations that we
26:11
Speaker 5: do that come into the Kobake building. So for example,
26:14
Speaker 5: say Merry People Gumboats came into a gorgeous pop up
26:16
Speaker 5: with us and sold their viral gun boots that you
26:18
Speaker 5: can typically only buy online. They wanted to do an
26:20
Speaker 5: in person experience. They came to kobake space and we
26:24
Speaker 5: provided them gum boot cookies and cupcakes. So Kobake obviously
26:28
Speaker 5: generated an income by the higher of the space, but
26:30
Speaker 5: then Sweet Bakes and Miss Trixie also ended up getting
26:33
Speaker 5: a lick of the ice.
26:34
Speaker 3: Cream because we provided treats for the events.
26:37
Speaker 5: So Kobake has yeah, allowed us to collaborate and generate
26:41
Speaker 5: more income in that sense too.
26:42
Speaker 4: And I have financial advisors and mortgage brokers come in
26:45
Speaker 4: and decorate finance cupcakes.
26:49
Speaker 5: It's honestly more fun when we bring in people that
26:51
Speaker 5: are so so far removed from food.
26:54
Speaker 3: We get a lot of.
26:54
Speaker 5: Sporting organizations come football ist do cake decorating classes.
26:59
Speaker 3: They're good, yeay're good.
27:02
Speaker 5: They lock in, they get really focused and it becomes competitive.
27:05
Speaker 4: Do you know what I was about to say. It's
27:07
Speaker 4: about the competition. If there's people they're like, well I'm going.
27:11
Speaker 2: To do it better.
27:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, And we do encourage it. We do the
27:16
Speaker 3: healthy competition.
27:16
Speaker 4: See, that's the fun side of the business. And then
27:18
Speaker 4: if we like slip it, I would say that the
27:20
Speaker 4: admin side sucks. Like don't get me wrong, I adore
27:23
Speaker 4: being in business, but you've got the like rough end
27:26
Speaker 4: of the stick, Alice, with being in the spreadsheets and
27:29
Speaker 4: doing all the invoices, like that stuff just kind of sucks.
27:32
Speaker 4: How do you keep on top of invoices and expenses
27:35
Speaker 4: and all of that not so fun stuff like and
27:40
Speaker 4: I also want to know, like how did you choose
27:42
Speaker 4: what to do in terms of systems to then free
27:46
Speaker 4: up your time so that you can actually focus on
27:47
Speaker 4: the fun footballer decorating guys.
27:50
Speaker 6: I think both of us, like for Miss CHICKSI Swebigs
27:53
Speaker 6: and Kobak, we're pretty regimented in terms of like carving
27:57
Speaker 6: out time to actually do the admin. And I think
28:00
Speaker 6: it's also about flipping the fact that like, yes, it
28:02
Speaker 6: can be seen as quite boring and it's not the
28:04
Speaker 6: creative fun cake decorating, but it's an essential part of
28:08
Speaker 6: the business and it's so important to be in the
28:10
Speaker 6: weeds of that. It's important to see like the money
28:12
Speaker 6: coming in, the money going out, doing the invoicing, Like
28:15
Speaker 6: having that visibility over your business will also like completely
28:19
Speaker 6: dispel your anxiety over it. So I think it's just
28:23
Speaker 6: incredibly important. With Kobak, Yeah, we have like allocated time.
28:27
Speaker 6: In fact, this is our Quebec whip time, so like
28:29
Speaker 6: we would typically like carve out time and we can.
28:31
Speaker 3: Talk about anything. Yeah, well it's perfect. It's like I
28:33
Speaker 3: feel like all.
28:33
Speaker 2: We were just like you need to invoice key client today, like.
28:40
Speaker 3: Over a long long coffee.
28:41
Speaker 1: Yeah.
28:42
Speaker 3: Perfect.
28:42
Speaker 6: Yeah, So we're very regimented in terms of that. But
28:45
Speaker 6: I just think it is like you know, admin is
28:48
Speaker 6: going to be part of the parcel in any business
28:49
Speaker 6: that you start or any job truly, Like even when
28:52
Speaker 6: I worked in production, it's like you do a big
28:54
Speaker 6: activation and then you'd be invoicing suppliers or what have you.
28:57
Speaker 2: So it's a part of its genuinely just part of life.
29:00
Speaker 6: But I think if you can flip it to see
29:01
Speaker 6: that it's going to give you transparency in your business,
29:04
Speaker 6: that's a benefit.
29:05
Speaker 5: Yet, and there's different aspects of it that we both enjoy.
29:07
Speaker 5: In the admin category, like you are you love obviously
29:11
Speaker 5: the lists and the spreadsheets.
29:12
Speaker 3: I love the stats. I love a P and L.
29:14
Speaker 5: I'm like, I want to know about what's going in,
29:16
Speaker 5: what's going out, and where we're at and projecting.
29:18
Speaker 3: I love how you're generating that. Like what type of
29:20
Speaker 3: software are you through moyob?
29:22
Speaker 2: Yeah?
29:22
Speaker 3: Okay, cool, very cool?
29:23
Speaker 4: And at what point did you decide do you know
29:26
Speaker 4: what we're going to start playing moyob because like that
29:29
Speaker 4: for a lot of small business owners Because you mentioned
29:31
Speaker 4: spreadsheets before, I used to run my entire business on spreadsheets,
29:35
Speaker 4: right like I would.
29:36
Speaker 3: Made my chet start racing. Oh my god, I'm sorry,
29:39
Speaker 3: do you want to see them because they're still sexy.
29:41
Speaker 4: I still think they're flex but like I used to
29:43
Speaker 4: do all my own p and ls on spreadsheets, all
29:45
Speaker 4: of my own balance sheets, spreadsheets, payroll spreadsheets. But that
29:48
Speaker 4: obviously leaves a lot of room for error. But I
29:52
Speaker 4: was trying to be so frugal when I started my
29:54
Speaker 4: business because I was like, well, I don't have any
29:55
Speaker 4: extra cash. I'm not even paying myself, let alone like
29:59
Speaker 4: yes and ad in software. At what point did you decide,
30:02
Speaker 4: all right, well let's invest in this because a lot
30:04
Speaker 4: of people go, oh, it's really expensive. I could do
30:06
Speaker 4: it myself, and I don't know about you, but I
30:08
Speaker 4: got shot in the foot and realized how much time
30:11
Speaker 4: I could save and was like, well.
30:12
Speaker 5: This is I'm lucky that I had very good role
30:17
Speaker 5: models growing up.
30:18
Speaker 3: My father is self employed and my mom did his
30:20
Speaker 3: book keeping, so I know, I feel genius a little
30:23
Speaker 3: bit lucky that.
30:25
Speaker 5: I saw how that could be modeled and the efficiencies
30:29
Speaker 5: of that kind of procedure. And also, like Alice said,
30:32
Speaker 5: I found it really empowering to be in my books
30:34
Speaker 5: and I don't want to do this word truths. So
30:36
Speaker 5: like someone can auto generate and every day I can
30:40
Speaker 5: be logging on automatically and seeing how the business is
30:44
Speaker 5: tracking like that is huge.
30:47
Speaker 6: Huge, Yeah, the automated systems, like I use moob as
30:50
Speaker 6: well for my mysters and it, Yeah, definitely has made
30:54
Speaker 6: a massive difference in terms of just like the automation
30:57
Speaker 6: and the fact that it's given me back time sometimes
31:00
Speaker 6: like to do like a bit of a double check.
31:03
Speaker 3: Like on I still do as well, and then I'm
31:05
Speaker 3: always humbled. I'm oh, yeah they were right.
31:08
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
31:10
Speaker 3: I just didn't want it to be right. You know
31:13
Speaker 3: how much tax will be.
31:14
Speaker 5: I'm like that, Yeah, I'm not interested that wasn't tried
31:19
Speaker 5: various platforms, I think. I mean, the reason that I
31:22
Speaker 5: use myo B now is purely because that's my accountants preference,
31:25
Speaker 5: but I have tried various platforms over the years.
31:27
Speaker 4: For me, it's also a lot about like the plugins
31:30
Speaker 4: and the things you can add and like, I don't
31:32
Speaker 4: know about you guys, but like I have like done all.
31:35
Speaker 3: Of my like outputs. It saved them as favorites.
31:39
Speaker 4: So all I do is go in and hit balances
31:42
Speaker 4: and like, yeah, it just generates the balance sheet that
31:45
Speaker 4: I'm looking for because I know that I have my
31:48
Speaker 4: I don't know, if you guys do this and I'm
31:49
Speaker 4: about to ask for.
31:51
Speaker 5: A good night, did you get about this, ton't.
31:55
Speaker 3: I have my own little meeting with myself once a
31:57
Speaker 3: month because it turns out is just mean business for yourself.
32:02
Speaker 4: But I go through all of my numbers and like
32:04
Speaker 4: compare it to the month before, and like, I know
32:06
Speaker 4: what I want to compare, but I also don't want
32:08
Speaker 4: to have to go through and like tick every box
32:10
Speaker 4: every single time, So I just like saved them as
32:12
Speaker 4: like my monthly favorite balance cheap or my tearly balanced
32:16
Speaker 4: it and like that stuff. It saves time, but it
32:19
Speaker 4: means that I don't know about you guys, the mental
32:21
Speaker 4: load of being like, oh my god, I have to
32:22
Speaker 4: sit down. It's actually really easy.
32:24
Speaker 2: Yeah.
32:25
Speaker 4: So yeah, when I got to that point, I was like, oh,
32:27
Speaker 4: maybe this extra casholder is actually worth it.
32:30
Speaker 2: Absolutely, It always is those of course, Like of course,
32:33
Speaker 2: I think it's.
32:36
Speaker 3: Like signing up to a like a gym challenge or whatever.
32:39
Speaker 5: It's like you pay for that couldn't be me, no,
32:41
Speaker 5: but you pay for that fee and it's like there's
32:42
Speaker 5: expectations and they're going to give you the outcomes of
32:44
Speaker 5: how you are you running faster?
32:46
Speaker 3: Are you lifting more.
32:47
Speaker 5: It's like that's the same in the accounting softwares and
32:49
Speaker 5: making those spreadsheets and saving those favorites. It's like you're
32:52
Speaker 5: you're holding yourself accountable to constantly check in if you're paying.
32:55
Speaker 6: You recently switched your email platform and i'd been banging
32:59
Speaker 6: on at least.
33:00
Speaker 5: I was like, switch, you need to tell me you're
33:03
Speaker 5: with Clavy. I'm like, you need like there are all
33:06
Speaker 5: these amazing like that's so funny because I need to
33:09
Speaker 5: switch to claviyer.
33:10
Speaker 6: Switch integrat intro. It's so expensive, old mate. She's like,
33:15
Speaker 6: oh my god, the open rate is like double.
33:17
Speaker 3: I was like, yes, so it is worth it. It
33:19
Speaker 3: is worth it.
33:20
Speaker 5: I was using the one that integrated. We'll run a
33:22
Speaker 5: Shopify website as well. I was just using it through
33:24
Speaker 5: there out of shit convenience, and it was very costly.
33:27
Speaker 2: Yeah.
33:27
Speaker 4: I won't say who we're with right now because they're
33:28
Speaker 4: not awful, but like there's a lot to be desired
33:32
Speaker 4: or being left to be desired, and I was like
33:35
Speaker 4: looking at all the price points and I'm like, so.
33:39
Speaker 2: Very good.
33:40
Speaker 6: Since I've been using Clavy for probably two years, and
33:43
Speaker 6: this year has been like the one year that I've
33:45
Speaker 6: really focused on my ad ms. I've been really trying
33:48
Speaker 6: to be regimented and sending them out like every three weeks,
33:50
Speaker 6: and like, obviously there's not like that much extra to
33:52
Speaker 6: say about cakes, but there's always something going on that
33:55
Speaker 6: you can talk.
33:55
Speaker 3: About when there is a will, there is a way.
33:58
Speaker 6: Precisely, And it's like one of those classic things, like
34:00
Speaker 6: you send it out and then you see the thing,
34:02
Speaker 6: you're like, oh, yeah, obviously you're reminding people in another way.
34:06
Speaker 6: And obviously those subscribers, like the people that have subscribed.
34:09
Speaker 2: They're that tapped in ones.
34:11
Speaker 6: Your Instagram followers of course, like you've got some very
34:13
Speaker 6: tapped in people, but the conversion is harder there than
34:18
Speaker 6: it is with your subscribers.
34:20
Speaker 2: So yeah, but it's just one of those classic Yeah.
34:22
Speaker 5: I have issues with sending emails either because I feel
34:24
Speaker 5: bad when people if people have seen something on Instagram,
34:27
Speaker 5: I'm like, oh, this product or service we're doing is
34:29
Speaker 5: sold out the people who are subscribed to my emails,
34:31
Speaker 5: and they say, oh my god, I didn't even know.
34:34
Speaker 5: I'm betraying them if they don't get an email, because
34:36
Speaker 5: they do they want to know.
34:39
Speaker 4: I feel like over the last few years, I've learned
34:41
Speaker 4: a lot about like these EDM flows and what that
34:44
Speaker 4: looks like and complete side note that I wasn't even
34:46
Speaker 4: going to talk about on the show, but I've done
34:47
Speaker 4: a few podcasts on edms and making sure that, like,
34:50
Speaker 4: as a business owner, you actually own that, because you
34:53
Speaker 4: don't own Instagram followers like Instagram can delete that, but
34:57
Speaker 4: hypothetically if that happened, you could email every one at
35:00
Speaker 4: Miss Trixy Bakes and be like, hey, I'm still here,
35:02
Speaker 4: this is my new account, and like make sure that
35:04
Speaker 4: you're in contact with them. But then they also feel
35:07
Speaker 4: like they have a more intimate relationship with you, like
35:09
Speaker 4: if I'm opening your emails, actually care. And you know
35:13
Speaker 4: what I love when a brand is like we're releasing
35:15
Speaker 4: a sale, bit here's the link. Early I'm like, hey,
35:17
Speaker 4: thank you so much, or like you're doing a workshop
35:21
Speaker 4: or something.
35:22
Speaker 3: I want to be the first in the No. I
35:24
Speaker 3: might not always buy, but I always want to feel
35:27
Speaker 3: like I'm at that next level with that business or
35:29
Speaker 3: with that brand.
35:31
Speaker 4: And yeah, there's ways that people use and abuse that,
35:33
Speaker 4: but like it's like my DM that goes out every
35:35
Speaker 4: single Friday, Like I write it and we send out
35:38
Speaker 4: a newsletter and it's like my unhinged requests, like I
35:42
Speaker 4: do recommendations. I've done everything from cake to frozen prawns,
35:47
Speaker 4: like like this is what's on my hit list this week.
35:49
Speaker 5: Guys like you can tell the brands that and the
35:52
Speaker 5: people who do that, who are actually invested and see
35:55
Speaker 5: that email and you know that you're not setting it
35:58
Speaker 5: because you feel like you're being a nuisance.
35:59
Speaker 3: You're like, I am so enthusiastic. Let me just so
36:01
Speaker 3: if you don't want to.
36:02
Speaker 4: Hear unsubscribed because some people reply to my emails and
36:05
Speaker 4: I'm like, hey, bab.
36:08
Speaker 3: Hello, is you on the same vein?
36:11
Speaker 4: Both of you have incredible social media presences, like they
36:15
Speaker 4: are so fun, and you seem to be both really
36:19
Speaker 4: good at generating PR for your businesses and for kobakes.
36:24
Speaker 4: Do you have any tips and tricks like what can
36:26
Speaker 4: I learn and what can my community learn? Especially from
36:28
Speaker 4: you Alice, who used to work in the space about
36:31
Speaker 4: like building a social presence and gaining PR for that
36:34
Speaker 4: space because PR savage, like that's hard.
36:37
Speaker 2: How is hard?
36:39
Speaker 6: And it can be really disheartening as well because often
36:42
Speaker 6: you know, PR is the game where you're wanting journalists
36:44
Speaker 6: to write about you organically and that's a hard game.
36:48
Speaker 6: But I think persistence is the biggest thing. If you're
36:51
Speaker 6: going down the line of traditional media. You need to pitch,
36:54
Speaker 6: You need to bug journalists like there's no tomorrow because
36:58
Speaker 6: they are always on the hunt for story. There will
37:01
Speaker 6: be snow like snow news days.
37:06
Speaker 3: Newsday Watch in Australia though that's more of an American thing.
37:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you just like you just never know.
37:12
Speaker 6: And I think I've always I think for me like
37:15
Speaker 6: I've always approached miss Trixie as like social media is
37:18
Speaker 6: incredibly important. But again to your point, if that went tomorrow,
37:22
Speaker 6: then it's like what else do I have? So for me,
37:24
Speaker 6: I I was you know, when I was starting at
37:26
Speaker 6: full time, I was like, I want to be spoken
37:28
Speaker 6: about in the key Melbourne media. It gives you some
37:31
Speaker 6: notoriety and I wanted that to work alongside my social
37:37
Speaker 6: media presence.
37:37
Speaker 2: I'm a bit of a traditionalist in that sense.
37:40
Speaker 6: And of course, like there are always moments that you
37:42
Speaker 6: can have quote unquote viral moments on TikTok, TikTok or
37:44
Speaker 6: what you know.
37:46
Speaker 3: She's really she's up with your cool kids.
37:50
Speaker 2: Down with the cook kids.
37:51
Speaker 3: TikTok so your dad calls it the clock app just perfect.
37:56
Speaker 2: So you know, you can have all these moments.
37:59
Speaker 6: But I think if it's like a well rounded strategy
38:02
Speaker 6: where you've got traditional PR, you've got social media, you've
38:05
Speaker 6: got brand, all of those components can can give you
38:09
Speaker 6: a really really strong social media presence.
38:11
Speaker 2: But it exists outside of that as well.
38:13
Speaker 6: That's what will lead to the conversion of sale because
38:16
Speaker 6: you're going to look like a trusted business. But for
38:18
Speaker 6: anyone who is actually looking to engage with like traditional
38:22
Speaker 6: PR and contacting the media, it is a long game.
38:25
Speaker 6: It's a hard one. It's a game of rejection. You
38:27
Speaker 6: will get told so many times, oh no not today,
38:30
Speaker 6: or like we'll just put it on as we get
38:32
Speaker 6: a response, Yeah, you give it a crack and you
38:39
Speaker 6: strike up Those relationship with journalistic can be incredibly incredibly beneficial.
38:43
Speaker 6: And when we started Kobak, we yeah, I feel like,
38:46
Speaker 6: you know, Lesha had a really good idea around what
38:48
Speaker 6: we would do on socials and I was like, I
38:50
Speaker 6: know what we're doing for media, Like we had a
38:52
Speaker 6: very I mean it was a very remember it was
38:54
Speaker 6: very stressful because one another media outlet got a whold
38:57
Speaker 6: of the.
38:58
Speaker 2: Story we sold in an exclude. If it was a
39:00
Speaker 2: whole thing, that would.
39:01
Speaker 5: Have given me such which is so funny, like we
39:04
Speaker 5: were just opening a venue, but they were treating it
39:06
Speaker 5: like we were giving like royal gossip, like you who
39:09
Speaker 5: are you speaking to?
39:09
Speaker 3: And we want to be the first to break the trailer.
39:11
Speaker 3: I was like, guys, this is just a bakery. Just
39:15
Speaker 3: a bakery.
39:16
Speaker 6: Community literally wanted We've been harassedment jealous and we had
39:22
Speaker 6: to call the other mediam but like someone's gotten the scoop.
39:26
Speaker 2: We need you to run this now like it.
39:27
Speaker 3: Literally it was hilarious.
39:29
Speaker 4: I think for you saying about manifesting this energy for
39:33
Speaker 4: every business you're.
39:34
Speaker 2: In a hot demand and the journalists want you.
39:37
Speaker 5: I feel the way that you're speaking about traditional pr
39:39
Speaker 5: and playing this long game and having patience is also
39:41
Speaker 5: really applicable to social media, which is something we constantly
39:45
Speaker 5: talk about. We are never trying to be the biggest, loudest,
39:48
Speaker 5: most viral person at every turn, because I just don't
39:50
Speaker 5: think that that has longevity. So when I'm making decisions
39:53
Speaker 5: for social media, it's about being authentic and making decisions
39:57
Speaker 5: that represent me, and I'll be happy to look back
40:00
Speaker 5: at them in three four years time instead of just
40:02
Speaker 5: chasing trends and doing what the other person's doing. It's
40:05
Speaker 5: like I would definitely discourage people from trying to be
40:09
Speaker 5: the coolest, hottest, new bombshell that enters the villa.
40:12
Speaker 3: Right, It's about staying power, yeah, because we know how
40:14
Speaker 3: that goes for their Instagram follow.
40:16
Speaker 6: It exactly and you know igree again, like you need
40:18
Speaker 6: to be doing what is as you mentioned, authentic to
40:21
Speaker 6: you and your followers will pick up on the fact
40:24
Speaker 6: that is authentic and they'll also remember you. Because I
40:28
Speaker 6: feel like if I see, you know, some flash in
40:31
Speaker 6: the pay moments, I can't then tell you what the
40:33
Speaker 6: business name was. I can just remember the content, but
40:36
Speaker 6: I actually can't talk to who created it.
40:38
Speaker 4: It's so annoying sometimes too, because you like tell someone
40:40
Speaker 4: about it and then you're like, oh, find that video
40:42
Speaker 4: of for you.
40:42
Speaker 3: You cannot find the video for fe you.
40:44
Speaker 4: Of course not.
40:45
Speaker 3: No, it's just doing what other people is doing.
40:48
Speaker 5: Yeah, Okay, you might get the views and the clicks
40:51
Speaker 5: and the followers, but you're not making a lasting, authentic
40:55
Speaker 5: impression on people.
40:56
Speaker 6: And for us, like we need to make a sale
40:58
Speaker 6: at the end of exactly, It's like if it's not
41:00
Speaker 6: actually leading.
41:01
Speaker 2: To a sale of a cake.
41:02
Speaker 5: No, a TikTok dance doesn't typically do that. It'll get
41:05
Speaker 5: you used, but it's not going to necessarily try.
41:07
Speaker 3: It's very disappointing. All I want to do is actually
41:11
Speaker 3: dance on TikTok if it's like the last thing I
41:15
Speaker 3: want to do.
41:16
Speaker 4: So this strategy works really well for me, and I
41:18
Speaker 4: will lean very hard into no, don't dance on TikTok's.
41:22
Speaker 4: I was having a conversation with a girlfriend the other
41:24
Speaker 4: day and she works in marketing and you know, we
41:27
Speaker 4: sometimes do giveaways three she's on the money, and for me,
41:31
Speaker 4: something like that is always about just giving back to
41:33
Speaker 4: our pre existing community. It's not like please tag your
41:36
Speaker 4: friend and they have to be following and they have
41:37
Speaker 4: to do this and they have to do that because
41:39
Speaker 4: you create a bubble of people that were only there
41:41
Speaker 4: to get the free hair straightener or the free skin
41:44
Speaker 4: care products, but you're there to sell cake and they
41:45
Speaker 4: might not even be aligned to that. So I think
41:48
Speaker 4: you have to be really strategic as well about the
41:50
Speaker 4: content that you're putting out, because do you want people
41:52
Speaker 4: following you because like you're low key, really funny and
41:55
Speaker 4: making TikTok dances which could never be me, or do
41:58
Speaker 4: you want them following because they're like, oh my god,
41:59
Speaker 4: I've got to save her for later, I need to
42:01
Speaker 4: order a Leo seasoned cake, or I need to do
42:03
Speaker 4: this or that.
42:04
Speaker 5: You feel like those people, so even if they're not
42:06
Speaker 5: your buyer right now, they might be your buyer eventually.
42:09
Speaker 5: I've had people who have been with me for twelve years,
42:12
Speaker 5: twelve years, and it's that is those are the relationships
42:15
Speaker 5: that I'm trying to nurture. It's like keeping people who
42:17
Speaker 5: are actually invested in me, in my cakes, in my business,
42:19
Speaker 5: in my story. Those are the people that I want
42:22
Speaker 5: to keep on side rather than always seeking out new
42:25
Speaker 5: new faces.
42:26
Speaker 6: And that's also been really applicable to Kobake as well,
42:29
Speaker 6: because we have had a lot of long conversations with people,
42:34
Speaker 6: but the timing wasn't necessarily right for them to come
42:36
Speaker 6: from Kobake.
42:37
Speaker 2: So like we've reached out to, you know, so.
42:40
Speaker 6: Many brands and so many per agencies, but again we
42:44
Speaker 6: needed to create, like Kobak had to become memorable that
42:48
Speaker 6: they would circle back and find a reason to use
42:50
Speaker 6: it in whatever which way. And that's been really really important, right,
42:54
Speaker 6: like what we've put out on social so people are
42:56
Speaker 6: seeing that the space.
42:57
Speaker 3: Can be like, you know, used in a plethora of way.
43:00
Speaker 1: Yes.
43:01
Speaker 6: Yeah, we haven't gone down that line of you know,
43:03
Speaker 6: making it just look like this like flashy of the
43:05
Speaker 6: moment venue. It's like, no, this is a space that's
43:08
Speaker 6: going to exist and it's there for you when the
43:10
Speaker 6: time is right.
43:11
Speaker 2: Yeah.
43:11
Speaker 4: I actually love that so much and I'm really sad
43:14
Speaker 4: that we're running out of time. I have another question
43:17
Speaker 4: before we go on this show. I always talk about
43:19
Speaker 4: money wins and confessions, so I want to know what
43:22
Speaker 4: has been your biggest money win or your biggest like
43:25
Speaker 4: I wish we had known this sooner lesson when it
43:28
Speaker 4: comes to running a business.
43:30
Speaker 5: I think it's not even necessarily the financial gain that
43:34
Speaker 5: came out of this, but my biggest money win for me,
43:36
Speaker 5: I recently went to France and taught a pace to
43:39
Speaker 5: retreat and the ticket.
43:41
Speaker 3: I know it's the fanciest thing, but the ticket is
43:45
Speaker 3: so cool. Oh well, we're going to be doing it
43:49
Speaker 3: every year, which is very exciting. Can I come or
43:51
Speaker 3: do I have to please come?
43:56
Speaker 5: I was really really apprehensive about putting that online because
43:59
Speaker 5: the actual price for people to come is the biggest
44:02
Speaker 5: ticket item I've ever ever sold.
44:04
Speaker 3: Of course, it's a week.
44:05
Speaker 5: Long pace to retreat in a chateau. For me, the
44:07
Speaker 5: biggest money in there was the fact that it sold
44:10
Speaker 5: out and people actually came, and I was like, oh
44:12
Speaker 5: my god, I'm so used to selling these cakes that
44:14
Speaker 5: a few hundred dollars. To have people invest their time
44:18
Speaker 5: thousands of dollars to come on this experience with me
44:19
Speaker 5: was it was a huge, huge money with that is
44:22
Speaker 5: me and just the most amazing experience.
44:24
Speaker 3: Congrats. How I know you're going to do it every
44:27
Speaker 3: year every year.
44:29
Speaker 5: It's actually my dream is to renovate a castle in France,
44:33
Speaker 5: so it's just like that's my stepping stone.
44:35
Speaker 2: Okay.
44:36
Speaker 3: I love the kobake, the ghetto chate.
44:41
Speaker 4: And also another thing that you're doing as well, tell
44:45
Speaker 4: me about books.
44:46
Speaker 3: Is there hypothetically a book there is? Yeah, which is
44:50
Speaker 3: very exciting.
44:51
Speaker 5: So I had the opportunity to publish a book with
44:53
Speaker 5: Penguin this year called Everybody Family.
44:56
Speaker 3: Thank You so much. What a lovely an honorable club
44:59
Speaker 3: to be in. So what's coming out in November?
45:01
Speaker 5: And it's obviously I mean I think actually the premise
45:04
Speaker 5: of the book comes back to some of our ethos
45:05
Speaker 5: about kobake space. I didn't just want to write a
45:07
Speaker 5: recipe book with absolutely fabulous cake recipes, but I've intertwined
45:12
Speaker 5: the stories about people's connection to cake within the book
45:15
Speaker 5: because I think.
45:16
Speaker 3: That is just so what we are about.
45:18
Speaker 5: It's about the story of cake the way that it
45:20
Speaker 5: creates community and connection.
45:22
Speaker 3: And yeah, very excited about that. Excited.
45:25
Speaker 4: Make sure that all the info about is in the
45:28
Speaker 4: show notes for everyone listening, because I just know that
45:31
Speaker 4: that's going to be so fun.
45:32
Speaker 3: That's how you're going to use your kitchen aid. This
45:34
Speaker 3: is happening. She's going to make and everybody loves cakeress
45:37
Speaker 3: cap and we're going to christen the kitchen aid. Absolutely.
45:40
Speaker 4: One time I tried to make sour do in it
45:42
Speaker 4: does that count's absolutely? That's excell pancake flat.
45:53
Speaker 3: Meant to do that. It will bread never let them
45:57
Speaker 3: know exactly.
45:58
Speaker 4: And Alice, what about you, what's your big money win
46:01
Speaker 4: or I wish I'd known this sooner moment.
46:03
Speaker 2: It's like a money win, adjacent and adjacent, an adjacent
46:06
Speaker 2: money win. Thank you?
46:07
Speaker 3: Still a money win?
46:08
Speaker 2: Yeah.
46:09
Speaker 6: I am an ambassador for Nissen and I proactively pitched
46:14
Speaker 6: to them when I was only like six months into
46:17
Speaker 6: Miss Trixie, because I was telling the world that I
46:19
Speaker 6: was delivering cakes around Melbourne, but I didn't actually.
46:21
Speaker 2: Have a car. I was like, oh, yeah, I'm delivering cakes.
46:24
Speaker 3: Sorry, don't car. Don't let that stop you. No.
46:26
Speaker 6: Literally, so I was like, I don't have the money
46:29
Speaker 6: for a car, Like I actually can't afford to buy
46:31
Speaker 6: a car.
46:31
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm just gonna ask some car company.
46:34
Speaker 2: Shoot your shot, shoot your shot.
46:35
Speaker 6: I can only I can say no. And so I
46:37
Speaker 6: proactively pitched out to car companies. And now I've been
46:40
Speaker 6: in this ambassador now for like four and a half years.
46:42
Speaker 3: Stop it.
46:43
Speaker 2: And it was just like I couldn't believe it.
46:46
Speaker 6: And I had a lot of people, including one family member,
46:49
Speaker 6: who was like, there's no way that a car company
46:52
Speaker 6: is going to give you a car, okay, And I
46:55
Speaker 6: had that's like that's literally like like the minute someone
46:58
Speaker 6: says to me that you can't do something, I'm like, let.
47:01
Speaker 3: Me back to the start of this conversation. How hard
47:05
Speaker 3: could it be?
47:06
Speaker 6: Literally, So I was like, I'm going to give it
47:07
Speaker 6: a go and look appreciate that I obviously have a
47:10
Speaker 6: background in paw where like pitching comes quite naturally to me.
47:13
Speaker 3: But I was just like, you can we have the
47:16
Speaker 3: Tool story twenty twenty five.
47:17
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's storytelling. So that was like a massive win
47:19
Speaker 6: for me. And it's been incredibly helpful to have the
47:22
Speaker 6: support of someone like miss and getting me through and
47:25
Speaker 6: getting me around town because I don't think I could
47:27
Speaker 6: do the.
47:27
Speaker 4: Job otherwise, absolutely not. And also to have a brand
47:31
Speaker 4: that like back to you.
47:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, like that's cool.
47:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was very exciting. So that's been an absolute
47:36
Speaker 2: money win.
47:37
Speaker 3: Sorry, that isn't money win. Adjacent money win.
47:41
Speaker 6: It was a great saving So that was a massive thing.
47:46
Speaker 6: I think of something that we might have like, wish
47:48
Speaker 6: we had known sooner.
47:49
Speaker 5: I know something that I did incorrectly from the outset
47:52
Speaker 5: as the naive nineteen year old. I had didn't segregate
47:55
Speaker 5: any of my business and personal finance.
47:57
Speaker 3: When I firsted that Conn for mentioning this, I harp
48:01
Speaker 3: on and okay, great, let's like just reinforce that one.
48:05
Speaker 2: It's hard, like the supermarket run should be a business.
48:09
Speaker 3: Yeah no, yeah, chips.
48:15
Speaker 6: I remember for me, I remember my accountant saying to maybe,
48:18
Speaker 6: She's like, and what would you be using salmon for
48:20
Speaker 6: in your business.
48:21
Speaker 2: I'd be like, ah, sweet salmon, I didn't.
48:27
Speaker 5: Come here to be attacks. You're not getting treats next
48:32
Speaker 5: time they come. Actually, no, I've got a great one.
48:35
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay.
48:36
Speaker 5: The way that we we learned by being burnt through Kobake,
48:41
Speaker 5: so we as you can say, energy is like happy
48:44
Speaker 5: and bubbly and positive and we think the best of everybody. Right,
48:46
Speaker 5: we built this space to like really uplift our community
48:49
Speaker 5: and the brands and businesses that come through.
48:51
Speaker 3: At least you open to be taken advance does.
48:54
Speaker 5: Despite what we know, we we did let that get
48:58
Speaker 5: the better of us, and unfortunately we had another female
49:01
Speaker 5: founder actually like totally skipped out on their bill with
49:04
Speaker 5: us because we were too trusting in the sense that
49:07
Speaker 5: we didn't have all of those things signed on the
49:10
Speaker 5: dotted line and the money in the account before an event,
49:13
Speaker 5: and we.
49:13
Speaker 3: Got absolutely burnt by it.
49:14
Speaker 5: So just to reinforce even though we can be light
49:17
Speaker 5: and fluffy and think the best of people, those things,
49:20
Speaker 5: those contracts and exist for a reason.
49:24
Speaker 4: And that is a really awful learning because obviously you've
49:26
Speaker 4: been financially hit by that. But I don't know the
49:30
Speaker 4: rotten fruit always falls from the tree by itself.
49:33
Speaker 3: Yes, that stuff. It's an unfortunate yes, you do you boom, yeah,
49:39
Speaker 3: but it's not sustainable. No, no, but our systems are.
49:42
Speaker 5: We just regimented our systems about the way that we
49:45
Speaker 5: accept our bookings again.
49:46
Speaker 3: So you know, we learnt.
49:47
Speaker 6: Oh, I think they will respect us for it, like
49:50
Speaker 6: even like the particularly the smaller businesses that come to
49:52
Speaker 6: use Kobak, they are like, oh no, they mean business.
49:56
Speaker 1: You know.
49:56
Speaker 2: If we don't hand this space back in.
49:57
Speaker 5: A way that we found, like our booking agreement is lengthy,
50:01
Speaker 5: it is Oh my goodness, I actually hate that and
50:04
Speaker 5: I hate.
50:05
Speaker 3: That it was another female founder. God, what are you doing?
50:08
Speaker 3: What are you David?
50:13
Speaker 4: Guys, thank you so much for hanging out with me
50:16
Speaker 4: and talking sweet treats. It was such a fun chat.
50:19
Speaker 4: And I just know my community is going to absolutely
50:22
Speaker 4: love this episode and want to follow both of you
50:25
Speaker 4: and audiobooks and audio kids come into your co working space.
50:29
Speaker 3: I'm so excited about it.
50:31
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having us on the show, And.
50:33
Speaker 4: Anyone who's not already stalking your amazing sweet creations, I
50:37
Speaker 4: obviously will put all of their info into the show.
50:40
Speaker 4: Notes to make it as easy for you as possible
50:42
Speaker 4: to find them. And if you loved this episode, please
50:45
Speaker 4: let us know in the comments or share it with
50:47
Speaker 4: someone else who's got big, sweet business dreams. Don't forget
50:50
Speaker 4: to follow and subscribe so that you never miss an episode.
50:53
Speaker 4: We've got more inspiring chats coming your way, and I'll
50:56
Speaker 4: see you guys on Friday.
50:58
Speaker 5: Bye.
51:04
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