We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Meet a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lianna, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

Yes! I make a full-time living off of my creative work. 8 years ago I was halfway through college with no set plan on what I wanted to do. All I knew was it had to be something creative. I’ve lived on my own since I was 17 so I was working at a restaurant, a shoe store, and a law firm paying my way through. I met a great little network of people at these jobs. One of the girls I worked with was expecting a baby and I helped plan her shower. This sparked my interest in event planning and I began planning events for anyone that would let me to build a portfolio. I was creating these events on a budget, so when it came to the cake I decided to make it myself. Little did I know, this would be the start of Enticing Cakes. ⁣ ⁣
I soon began to receive messages asking if I was the cake lady. Creating cakes then became a fourth part time job. Soon after, Enticing Cakes culminated into my full time aspiration as a profession. After years of pouring every extra ounce of time into building a business, I still felt like I wasn’t in a place where I could do it full time and quit a side job. I felt frustrated that I was going to be a part-time server for the rest of my life. I went through a period of self doubt thinking I should just use my degree and work for someone else. It sure seemed less exhausting. ⁣
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It wasn’t until Covid appeared and I lost that safety net of a second job and Enticing Cakes was all I ⁣had – there was no parachute to save me. This was a huge turning point in my business. The moment I put every ounce of energy into my business instead of spreading that energy into the safety of a back up plan is when my business soared. I have officially been doing this full-time for 2 years and have 9 employees.

If I could tell myself then what I know now to speed up that process, I’d say stop fearing failure and go all in sooner.

Lianna, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am the owner of Enticing Cakes. I am a licensed home based bakery that specializes in custom cakes & cupcakes. I also have a food truck that goes to events and sells a rotating assortment of 50 cupcake flavors.

These cupcakes can also be found in online ordering apps like DoorDash. I have a franchise partnership with The Original Steaks & Hoagies where they get deliveries of my cupcakes to 4 of their locations that can be ordered on these apps. This allows people who live far away from my home base to still have access to my product. I think people like convenience, so the ability to get cupcakes delivered instantly for a last minute party or a sweet tooth craving was big pivoting point in my business. It created brand identity because I’m one of the few dessert options listed in my area, which led to more custom cake orders.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I am an avid fan of anything self-development related. I listen to audiobooks, podcasts, follow social media accounts or anything related. There are too many I’ve liked to name, but the common denominator I’ve learned in all of them is the mindset of getting out of the spoon fed course of life we’re typically taught early on. I think I’ve learned more useful information from these than I did in my Bachelor’s degree.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed when actually implementing a business idea because of how much time, money, research, and tasks needed to do so. Yet, we sign up and complete college by the masses. The only difference is college gives you a spoon fed to-do list.

For example, the time and effort of 40 classes that each have 20 tedious homework assignments is comparable to 40 tasks needed to start a business, each task with its own list of 20 to-do’s of “homework.” Take the same amount of money and invest that into supplies.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

In the last few years I felt a lot of pressure to have a business social media presence. It seemed like any other form of advertising couldn’t compare. What worked for me was 1. Up your content quality. I took the time to take photos of my work on a good camera, set up lighting and a background instead of just using my phone. I created a schedule to consistently post in a cycle of pictures of my work, informative posts that help people, behind the scenes, etc.
2. My next step was to gain followers. I found the best way to gain a follower is yo be a follower. Every day for a year straight, I would look up accounts that were relevant to my business and likely to have followers that would be in my target audience. For example, a local wedding planner because I make wedding cakes. Then I’d go to their followers and follow them by the hundreds. At the end of the week, I unfollowed anyone that didn’t follow back.

It’s tedious, but it worked! I went to 10k followers within a year and most importantly the type of followers I gained led to more clients by strategizing the type of followers I gained.

Contact Info:

• Website: Enticingbakery.com
• Instagram: Enticing.cakes

Image Credits
Eric Mull