4# - How To Create A Luxury Wedding Brand: A Journey with Maya Dahlia Cakes

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Yes.

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[00:00:19] Sharn: And I just feel like, especially in the UK, it's a real flagship luxury wedding cake brand. Mm hmm.

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[00:00:29] Sharn: Well it is, well it is. And, yeah, I just wanted to first find out, like, how did it all start?

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And then really there were a couple of events that I did, which sort of sparked things and set things in motion. one of those was a wedding cake for one of my best friends, Adila, and and the other one was a wedding cake for my husband's now business partner or business partner then to, H and his wife, Monica.

And that was like a really big industry wedding at the time. And it was a really big wedding. Lots of people were there, making that cake just kind of. I think it started everything for me, because after that event, people were asking me, do you do this for a living? Could you make my wedding cake? and it just kind of grew naturally from there, which was really nice.

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They do pay for, those specific types of clients do pay for things that are, you know, you know, super luxurious, over the top, beautiful, creative. and obviously the wedding industry, and we're going to get into this, has totally shifted over the last few years, especially also in the last 10 to 15 years.

and of course you've done such amazing events, like international events, like you've probably been at like every top venue in the UK, especially in London. So what do you feel like? It takes to get to this point because obviously you have created a brand where you know, wedding clients do pay a premium to book you.

you're not doing kind of like your average standard cakes. So what kind of things do you think it's taken to get you to this point?

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But, yeah, the first thing that pops into my head is Yeah. It's taken a lot of hard work. It's taken 10 years of like, working at the beginning, two jobs. So my actual career was something completely different doing this on the side for a few years. working till 2 a. m. most nights back then, just really putting in the graft and putting in the hours, which I think is something that most people are used to.

If you're running your own business, you expect there to be some element of hard graft involved. Yeah. but also a lot of, Dedication to what you're doing and I'm really dedicated to kind of improving on myself and not ever sitting back and kind of just thinking Well, I've done it now and I'm, you know, making really nice cakes now and that's cool I'm just gonna carry on doing what I'm doing.

I've always wanted to improve and make myself better learn new skills And a lot of what I learned in the early days was on YouTube, which is really weird Very much self taught in the beginning But as I've got older I've started to invest more in my own learning my own skills business skills as well as the practical skills in more kind of formal courses and things like that.

So yeah, definitely. hard work, self improvement, just focusing on the next goal has been really important to me all the way through.

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But I think nowadays there is also this thing of like, I'm going to go viral. I'm going to like make it so quickly. I'm going to be an overnight success. but in reality, it just doesn't work like that.

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And I've spoken to someone recently about, when we were just talking about her business because a friend of mine is setting up a new business and we had a nice chat about kind of what, what I've been through in my journey. And she said exactly that. And I agree that. Yeah. There's so much, so many sensational stories about business at the moment.

And we have access to them online now. And we see a lot of people going viral overnight and their businesses are successful within a week. and it changes their whole, it changes their entire life. And these things do happen, but it's really useful to remember that there are anomalies and they happen to some people.

And we can't go into business with the mindset that, You're waiting for that day to arrive because I think that's a really risky way to approach a business. for me, a business is about your life and your lifestyle and incorporating your business into your lifestyle and then just enjoying that journey.

Yeah. If something like that happens, great, fantastic. That's absolutely incredible. but don't expect it to. You know, go into it with your whole heart and expecting that you're going to work hard and you're going to get, you're going to reap the benefits of that.

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And I think sometimes people go into business thinking, Oh, I'm just in it for like a quick buck to get viral, to have followers, and I think it just kind of doesn't work that way. And do you feel like your passion is really, because I know I'm assuming like there must have been really difficult times.

It's not been plain sailing, like

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Are you passionate about it? and for me, it's, it's passion, but it's also important. Sometimes I have to remind myself that what you're doing is important to someone. Yeah, you know, it's important to me, but it's also really important to them and it's the biggest day of their life so far. They may never get married again.

Most people hopefully don't. Yeah. Or, or it's a birthday and it's a really big special one, like a 60th or a 70th or a first birthday. And these are memories that are gonna live with people for the rest of their lives. They might look at these pictures and have your cake in them forever.

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[00:06:17] Krish: and yeah, for me it's really nice to just remember that as I'm, as I'm making each cake, is remember how important this is to someone and therefore it becomes really important to me.

Yeah. so yeah, you have. down moments and you have peaks and troughs in a business like any, but if you can remember why you're doing it, remember why you're passionate about it. it gets you through those kind of troughs.

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Cause obviously you're not slowing down anytime soon. Yes.

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and it's just the, The clients. I think every now and again if I feel like maybe I'm getting a bit bored of, not bored of work, but work is work at the end of the day. If you do something every day, you do have periods where you feel a bit uninspired, uninspired is the right word. Yeah. but the clients, you then, it will be maybe a week and then you'll meet a client who just reinvigorates you completely or just gives you a massive challenge and you think, Oh my God, I've never done this before.

this is really exciting and it kind of refreshes you and revives you. so I think maybe that. Perhaps the key to longevity in that I've had a really nice cycle of new and fresh clients and people are always challenging you, which is. Which is just nice. It's a nice way to work. You're never kind of doing the same thing week in week out.

And I feel like you're probably

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[00:07:44] Krish: well. I just get that vibe. I hope so. I think I've become better at that as I've gotten older. And I think it's funny because sometimes people talk about difficult clients and difficult situations. But I think as I've gotten older, I've experienced less and less difficult clients and my customer service has got better because my understanding of people is better.

My communication with people is better. especially when you talk about maybe like having a difficult customer or something, because when the younger me would have kind of gone run away from that situation, I don't want to be spoken to like that. So, but. The older me thinks very much, well, why is that person a difficult customer?

What's the actual problem? Is it financial pressure? Is it stress of the wedding? Is it something that we can work through together? And actually nowadays I find myself just with really blessed to have really lovely clients.

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And I think that. Because I come from like a marketing background and like working in like high pressure marketing agencies and we used to get back to clients like within 24 hours. Like if we didn't get back to that client like the same day, it was almost like a catastrophe in the office. It was so bad.

It was very toxic looking back now. but I've definitely carried that through when I have my like wedding planning business and obviously my coaching and mentoring business. Now, you know, a big thing for me is always like. Especially my clients, obviously they have access to me. you know, my one to one clients like every most days.

but even when I like get DMs from, you know, just followers or people that are just following me or, you know, kind of a like business acquaintances, I do try and get back to people because I just think they've DMs me. Obviously it's not always possible because of the influx of DMs you get. but I definitely think that, Customer service is so important in business.

And I think nowadays, because so much business is done in the DMs, like very casually, it's very different to before. But I feel like because there's that casual sense of doing business in the DMs, people almost become casual in their responses and their kind of mannerisms. And I think that people are less professional.

and I just wanted to find out your take on, because there's definitely data around this, like how quickly you get back to people versus how quickly you secure the sale of that client. But what's your kind of take on like getting back to clients properly, like professionally?

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Era, that's the right word, yeah. Era to, to where we are now. And when we started doing business, I mean, it was all website, emails, formal communication, have things written down on paper. And it was so, so different and I really believe in all honesty, looking back now that I should have adjusted faster and I should have adapted faster because I think adapting to the new environment is really important.

I don't think it's going to change. I don't think it's going to go away. I don't think it's going to go backwards and people are going to become more formal in the way they do business. I think people like how informal things are. People like to be able to have a little conversation with you in the evening, which might not be your working hours.

and I spent a long time resisting that and going, no. I'm not working at 10 o'clock at night, I'm not going to respond, or I'm not going to DM that person, I'm going to send an email. and I think the faster you just adapt to the way that the world works now, the better you'll be in business because people like it.

And it's a way that the world moves now. And I think about myself sometimes as a consumer of a product or someone inquiring with someone and I do it myself. You know, I send a message and I'm so excited to get the response. I'm kind of waiting, like, how long is it going to take? so I try to put myself in a customer's shoes and not keep people waiting too long.

And if it has to be informal, then so be it. If it's going to be on WhatsApp, I do a lot of business on WhatsApp now, then so be it. The only caveat would be. to still have things written down. Yeah. Contracts, yeah, contracts, et cetera. Yeah, for security. But, but the way the world works now is just more casual and I think you've got to adapt your business.

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We've got Voxer, which is basically the same thing. It's just that they don't have your number.how do you feel like in terms of like, I don't believe in the word balance, but blending it because you're like a mother as well. And then if you're getting messages at 10 o'clock,

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That's a really good question. And it's something that I think I'm still working out. I don't quite know what, what way to balance motherhood and business, particularly motherhood as well. and I think for me anyway, I can literally balance it in the sense that my kids go to nursery in the morning so that morning is for work and then my afternoons are about my family and my kids and my personal admin and everything else.

so I can literally balance my day, but mentally it's very difficult to balance. and I think you're right. It's not a very productive word because sometimes I don't think you can actually achieve balance. I think it's just. blending and it is just morphing everything together and then just making your business a part of your daily life.

And where you get five, this is how I work anyway, where you get five minutes to respond to a client and then you get back to your day to day stuff. And then we might have another five minutes to respond again. And if it means responding at 10 o'clock at night, for me, that's it. It works because it, I just fit work in wherever I can.

For some people, they might, they might find that's not very healthy or maybe it depends what industry you're in as well. I think generally, because what I talk about is quite positive stuff. It's a wedding, it's happy, it's fun, or it's a celebration. I don't mind that if it was more stressful, perhaps I would, and I may have a cutoff and say, after six o'clock, I'm not going to message anyone back.

but yeah, I think it's, it's just, blending work and motherhood and life together and just dealing with a certain level of carnage as normality, which I think is I've got used to now and I've kind of, I think once I accepted a certain level of carnage in my mind as being my normal functioning state, I was actually happier.

instead of always trying to fight it and find a more clear cut way of doing business. Cause I don't just don't think for me right now with two young kids that exists. That is just, I feel like that's such a. Break

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Yeah, of course. But I feel like that is so amazing that you've almost, because I think sometimes you resist the carnage. Yeah. You know, at the moment it's, we're in like the beginning of like, well, nearly middle of January and I've got my event in a couple of weeks and there is carnage going on behind the scenes and I was thinking yesterday, Oh my God, I'm gonna have to work Sunday.

Yeah, like today I was up at 6 a. m. like doing emails and I was thinking, I was even saying to my husband today, I think I might need to work tomorrow because I never work weekends. I'm just, I'm very strict with my boundaries, but I was like, actually, you know what, like I have to get it done. This event is really important to me and I just know the next few weeks are going to be.

like carnage driven. It's like my birthday next

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[00:15:14] Sharn: But it's, I think it's acceptance. That's what I was like today. I was like, it's going to be busy, but let's just roll with it. Rather than constantly stepping into fear. You just want to embrace it.

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I think sometimes the easier your life is and the easier your day to day is because you don't put so much pressure on yourself. Before I had kids, I was very different. I was a write lists for everything, tick things off as I go along, be really hard on myself if I only get halfway through my list. since I had kids, I'm kind of like.

I still write a list and I look at the end of the day and I go, Oh, I did one thing on that list. Woo hoo. Success. Like, I think, yeah, you just have to, I've learned to over the years just roll with a more natural way of operating my business and my life and then just kind of like accepting that that's how That's how my life is right now.

It might only be like that because my kids are young and maybe when they get older, it might be, it might be more calm and like, planned and organized again. but right now I've really learned to embrace it and I actually enjoy it. It, it, it, it gives you kind of space for spontaneous pockets of fun and cool things to happen, which I think I kind of wrote out of my life before because I planned everything so much.

so I actually think I'm happier this way.

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[00:16:42] Krish: my

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[00:16:42] Krish: I love this question. So, I've thought about this a lot actually since, I knew I was coming on your, to the talk on the 3rd and since we're doing the podcast and I, I think the most important thing for all of us is actually to determine what we think all or success actually is first before we decide whether we think we can have it all or we tell people you can have it all or you can't have it all.

I think having it all or success is such a subjective thing and it's so different to different people. For you, success will be different to what success is for me. and when I look back at when I started my journey, success for me, and it sounds really humble now, but success for me was one day saying to jazz, in a swimming pool, cause we used to do our best thinking in the swimming pool on holiday, So, you know, in the future, I really want to have a job where I can work from home.

And if we do have a family, I want to be able to spend time with my kids and work around my kids. And I remember saying those words to him. And now, if I, with hindsight, I look back and go, wow, well, that's what I do. So for me, That is success. And I feel like I've got that. but I think if you jump into business without defining what that is, you can sometimes feel like you're looking for a bit of a needle in a haystack in the dark.

and it often can change as well. So as you get older, your idea of success can change or it can grow. And I think for me, mine is now growing because I know I'm doing what I thought I wanted to do. And now I'm going to kind of build on that. But yeah, I think defining what having it all is, is really important because then you'll know when you get there, and I think everybody can get there, you just need to understand what it is for you.

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[00:18:32] Krish: Yeah. Don't underplay that. But success

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but what I realized, like when I was doing my wedding planning business, I was like, yeah, I want to do like. International weddings. I want to do destination weddings and all of these things. But then once I got it, it was a bit like, Hey, this is not what I thought it was going to be like. And I remember like, this is why I let go of weddings because I was doing the coaching and mentoring and I was just finding it so much fulfilling and obviously less pressure.

And then it was like, I'd looked at lots of other kind of luxury Asian wedding planners or the planners internationally at the top of their game and thought, I want to be like that. Like, I want to be constantly away. I want to be constantly on my phone checking emails and like hustling really hard.

ke last year, for example, in: 2023

We had some people that were like super sick and like just being able to just be like. at the hospital. Yeah. And just supporting people and then like supporting my cousins when they like lost their dad. That was like, that's like success if that in a like a weird sort of way. I

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[00:20:20] Sharn: it's like, well, actually this is really great because I can take like three weeks out of my.

work or four weeks out. And I can drop everything and I can reschedule, which was amazing. But I think, yeah, you're so right. I think defining your own version of success and your own values as well is just so, so important. And let's just talk about difficult clients.

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[00:20:45] Sharn: obviously you work with a certain type of client, obviously luxury clients.

Have you had difficult

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[00:20:51] Sharn: in

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But I have a really funny thing that Jazz, my husband, does when he thinks, and this happens to him very rarely as well, because most people, 99 percent of people we work with, are absolutely a pleasure to work with, but he has this lovely thing that he does where if he thinks that someone's being difficult or that they are actually really rude or a bit abusive to him on the phone, which does happen sometimes, you'll hear him having a conversation on the phone and he'll kind of go, I just don't really think you're a kudos client.

I'm really sorry. And you can always hear their reaction is sort of like, Oh, sorry. What do you mean? What do you mean I'm not a kudos client? and he's just, I just don't really think it's going to work. I'm really sorry. And I don't think people are used to, us being picky. I think people expect that they can be picky and sometimes that they can speak to somebody how they want to.

Not everybody, very few people.and sometimes it takes people, catches people off guard when you say, well, actually, I'm a human being too. Yeah. And I want to command a big army. bit of respect in this relationship so I can deliver the best for you. And when he does it, I just find it really like, Oh my God, you've done that.

Well, you said that. And he was like, yeah. And he said, he'll say to me, but we shouldn't be scared to do that. Because if we want to have a really productive relationship with a customer and get the best for them, then we have to have some respect between us. And he's like, if I've been I think that's not going to happen with the customer, then I don't even see the point in going on that journey with them.

And I actually think it's commendable. I'd like to be able to do that in the future. It's just jazz, doesn't it? I'm sorry. Yeah. I don't do it yet. I just haven't, I haven't got the guts to do it yet. I'm kind of like, I don't know how you even go about saying that to

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my coaching clients are so lovely. Okay. Bye. But I think there's been maybe like once or twice over the last like few years and the words I The words I use, I just don't think we're a right fit. Yeah, basically,

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[00:23:00] Sharn: I don't think we're aligned. We're not

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I like that. I'm going to take that. Yeah. Because I think that's a

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This is happening. This is happening. And that's very real. I don't want to kind of bypass that because of course, like the economy, inflation, you know, everything is very, very real. But then at the same time, like when I'm out and about in London, like I remember we were out like Christmas, we were out in London and we're like, we're at this place and we're like, where is the cost of living crisis?

Where is it? Yeah, it's not

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[00:23:45] Sharn: Like, it was really crazy actually because, and obviously you wouldn't expect these types of people. Like, not that you wouldn't expect these types of people, but perhaps, like, it's a different kind of brand. But we were at the Ritz the other day, like me and my mum went for afternoon tea and honestly it was like a Tuesday.

Yeah. So it's the beginning of January. It's a Tuesday and we looked around, it was like fully booked, jam packed and everywhere else we went in London was like jam packed and of course that's the kind of places we went to. I just think like, I just think sometimes like it impacts certain industries. More than others.

how do you think it's impacted the wedding industry?

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they always will be there, but I think there was this kind of tier below of people sort of working middle, middle class families that really worked hard, saved money for the, for that big wedding in their, in their family, for their son or their daughter. and I think it's that middle tier of people, that it's really affected because those people are more stretched now and they're making more kind of frugal decisions about their weddings and their wedding planning.

And they're maybe saying to themselves, well, we might've got married on Park Lane or somewhere really fancy in London and had 500 people. Let's just bring that all back down a little bit. Now let's do 200 people in maybe a country state somewhere. So we're seeing a noticeable difference in terms of the venues people are booking and the kind of events that are happening in London.

But it's funny how you talk about. you know, going to like the Ritz and just thinking, where is the cost of living crisis? Because when you go abroad, for example, we spent a lot of time in Dubai and in the Middle East, you'll see that there is no sign of it stopping. It's just escalating. People are spending more and more money.

The wedding industries out there are thriving. and it feels like It's just back home. It's just here that I'm really seeing it with a specific kind of sex to a sector of people. but yeah, abroad, I think weddings abroad are just completely ramping up now. We're noticing that a lot of clients who would have got married here in central London are now getting married abroad.

so it's affecting the wedding industry here in

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and you think that then has a knock on impact on the suppliers because then obviously they've got less money to spend on everything else. Yeah, for sure. Which is insane. And do you think people still Like, obviously Asian weddings are going to be forever big, like, even if it's 200, that's still quite a lot of people.

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[00:26:34] Sharn: more people are like, actually, I'm not going to have a big wedding, I'm going to put it towards the deposit of our house, or? Oh,

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[00:26:40] Sharn: Yeah. Do you think that's shifted?

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I wouldn't recognize him if I walk past him on the street. I don't really want to invite them to my wedding. And then COVID happened and people had this reason now to say, to go back to their parents and say, see, we can't, we just can't afford it now. Or it's not viable now to invite all these people.

Let's just turn it all down and let's have 150 of our friends and family that we really love. and I think that has sped up that process. COVID has spread that process up. I think it was going that way anyway. And now the small intimate weddings are here to stay and they are much more popular. it's funny cause I think back 10 years ago when I got married.

I would love to have done that, but it was just impossible. I could never have even floated the idea with my parents, who would have laughed at me. or Jaz, to be fair, he would have laughed at me. but now it's really normal and it's really lovely and special, but yeah, it does have a knock on effect on the trade and the industry that we're in.

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I think it's more like, am I like worthy of investing in myself and my business? Yeah. So do you think that's been really key for you? Like investing, like, I guess, like, upskilling yourself and investing in your brand? Because I remember when we first did our, like, first collaboration, like 10 years ago, and you were doing this photo shoot.

I remember I came along as a blogger back then. And I came along and you were like, You'd, I think you'd like hired this house out and you were having a photo shoot done and I just remember like 10 years ago, that was like, that was like unheard of.

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So I could show you on the 3rd of Feb and say, look, this is when we first met. And the only picture I could find was me looking up. Absolutely ridiculous. with your hair in the back. Like you're just the back of your head. It's like, Oh, at least she looks lovely in this picture. Her hair looks beautiful. but I wanted to find like a really embarrassing photo of us when I couldn't.

but yeah, if back then I think that was, that was a bit strange. Like, you know, we spent some sizable amounts of money on a really nice house to do a really nice photo shoot. Which nowadays is very normal. Yeah, I was in Dubai recently and there are literally homes that are set up just as studios for photo shoots and they are all over the place.

People are making businesses from just renting spaces for photo shoot, for photo ops. but yeah, it was strange and it was a bit scary to invest that kind of money in the beginning. Yeah. Now I wouldn't hesitate as much to invest in things like that because I think it's necessary, particularly now that we're so, we're so visual.

I think investing in things like content and content creation, good cameras, good equipment and stuff like that to create your content is also really important. And that's a new element of my business altogether. but yeah, investing in myself. first and foremost is really important. And it always has been because without me, actually my hands and my talent, my business doesn't exist.

So I have to push myself and I have to grow, and learn because you can at no point, I think, can you just sit still and kind of rest on

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[00:30:03] Krish: laurels? No, not at all.

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It's like, no, no, I don't think I need this. But I'd always think, Oh my God, I'm my best investment. Like, there's no better investment than your brain, basically yourself, because ultimately we are running very different businesses now to like maybe 50 years ago as we are our business. Yeah. So we have to absolutely invest in ourselves.

I think, I was going to ask you, Do you ever have imposter syndrome, especially in your early days?

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so before I was baking, I had a career in the city,working in a very kind of male dominated, middle class, Very not ethnically diverse environment. And I really felt like an imposter every single day. I don't think I knew what imposter syndrome was, and I don't think the term was in my mind or had been like, you know, coined back then.

but I remember how it felt and I always felt, I think every day I walked into work and felt a bit uneasy and a bit on edge and like, why am I here? Why those people listening to what I'm saying? What does what I'm saying make sense? Have I done enough research and due diligence before I make that comment?

and I think part of that. feeling was a reason why I'm here doing what I'm, what I do now, because I got to a point where the opportunity came up to have my own business. And I thought it's got to be a bit less stressful than feeling like this every day. And it almost pushed me into it. thankfully it did because I, I'm so grateful for where I am today, but I definitely felt it back then a hundred percent.

And part of the only thing, one of the only things I regret in life is that I didn't push myself to overcome that back then.

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[00:31:58] Krish: Yeah.

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[00:32:08] Krish: I'm on the dangerous end of thirty, but yeah, anyway.

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but now what I've realised is like, Everyone's a human being. everyone potentially has an online persona.and, Followers aren't life or death, you know, and I think a lot of people do put like, Oh my God, they've got so many followers or they've got that much many followers. And I just think once you start just like looking beyond that and looking at the person, is this person a nice person?

I think that's way more important.

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I'd like to think the corporate world has changed a lot since then, but that's why I felt it. And I think maybe now, yeah, now it would be completely different. I might feel it from something in social, personal and social media to, I feel nervous to approach them because of followers, et cetera. But you're right.

It, it, it's understanding that, yeah, everybody's a human being. and everybody, has something different to offer. You know, you might, you might have a strength in an area that I feel quite weak in, but I might have a strength in an area that you might feel weak in. And the more we can sort of come together and learn from each other, the better we make ourselves.

Yeah. yeah. And like you said, followers don't, doesn't mean engagement. Engagement is the key, not the followers.

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And obviously that was amazing. But what I found with my AFEC brand is like, I have a lot of like silent followers and silent lurkers maybe because of the nature of work that I'm doing.but I have a really engaged audience through like things like stories and my Facebook group and all of that stuff.

So I think it's really important to just always keep that in mind that like that is not the be all or end all. And I think like, especially like, you know, I think longevity and sustainable businesses are more important because I think sometimes like you see people and they're only around for like a few years and they go.

And I think the key thing is, I think in business is build that sustainable, you're in it for the long game. Exactly.

[: 00:34:47

Enjoy your business and enjoy what you're doing because it is a part of your life. and success isn't going to come and kind of knock you over the head. It's not bad that someone's going to knock you over the head one day and say, Oh, you're successful. It's in the really small wins and achievements every single day.

And sometimes I think we forget to stop and really appreciate those and take them in and go, Oh my God. Wow. Like with your event. Stop and take it in and go. Oh my God on the day. This is incredible because it's only with hindsight that you might say I'm successful now, but in the moment, yeah, you kind of forget that because you're so hard on yourself all the time Yeah, I'm really hard on myself all the time And sometimes it's nice to just stop take stock of the little wins because they're the things that accumulate

[: 00:35:35

A hundred percent. I think both of us are probably like high achievers and I think when you're like a high achiever or someone who's really ambitious, you never stop. Like I'm always like onto the next thing. Like I'm just literally like, but then I'm like, Oh my God, I need to like literally take a moment and think, Oh my God, like this year and last year I've created two events that I've had like close to 200 people attend last year.

I think we had 200 people booked and it's just like, You know, I really have to like really remind myself and ground myself because otherwise what's the point like if you don't, you're always reaching for the next destination and sometimes that destination never comes.

[: 00:36:15

You're always either reaching for it. Or you're, you're looking back and going, Oh, you know, I was successful or I should have been enjoying it or I should have taken that in. I was in my prime. I'm not anymore. so I think we need to all just slow down and just enjoy what we have right now and enjoy what, as long as you're happy in what you're doing and, It's a part of your life.

And like I was saying before, I've molded my business and my life and my kids and everything together. And day to day, it's just fun. It's fun and it's exciting. And I'm trying to enjoy every single moment that it is because I don't know how long it will last. Yeah,

[: 00:36:49

If anyone's kind of thinking about entering business or the wedding industry, FYI warning,

do you have any tips like Say for example, you were starting again today, or I mean, or in general, do you have any tips for business?

[: 00:37:08

but I would definitely say, sort of what we've been saying already, go into it with your eyes very wide open about the levels of work that, that it requires, because unlike a nine to five, you're not closing the door and you're not turning your brain off and putting on your social hat at five o'clock.

You're literally wearing all of the hats all of the time and your head starts to feel quite heavy from it. But, yeah, go into it with your eyes wide open. but, Go into it kind of embracing experiences and opportunities and networking. My business has grown a lot through. people. and I know you don't necessarily need that to be successful.

it's in some industries or some roles, you don't need that kind of networking and that being out there, being present all the time to grow your business. But for me, I do. Mine is very much word of mouth and very much am I on people's minds when they are coming to the point of booking an event. So being open to networking and opportunities to meet people has been really important for me.

and I'm trying really hard to get back on that now. Because when I had kids, I kind of took my foot off the gas a little bit and sat home and kind of enjoyed cocooning myself away from the world. Just being a mummy. And I've spent the last five years of my life either being pregnant or feeding or something.

So I'm now ready to like put my foot back on the gas and get back out there. but I think it's really important to put yourself out there into network and to just say yes to as many things as you can, because one door will lead to another door, which will lead to another one. and yeah. Yeah, just embrace, embrace the spontaneity of it all as well.

[: 00:38:36

[00:38:45] Krish: that sounded really bad. no, they can find me on websites I feel like I've just done and dusted these days. So I guess the best place to see what we do and the work that we do is on Instagram, at Maya underscore daily underscore cakes.

and yeah, that's probably. where my life is concentrated at the

[: 00:39:01

[00:39:06] Krish: you. It's been wonderful. Thank you. Thank you.