We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tyra Butler a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Tyra, appreciate you joining us today. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?
My business would not be where it is today without the support of my friends and family. All of my business growth and exposure has been entirely organic thus far, and I owe it all to my first-degree connections who have ordered, referred a friend, and posted on social media. I will say, one thing that has been difficult for me in my start-up years is charging my friends and family full price. My product is not cheap, because it is not cheaply made. But there was a serious internal complex I had to get over when the people I was closest to would order from me — I would want to give them all a “friends + family discount” just for being friends or family, which of course, would leave me broke and exhausted. Thanks to my tribe and their reassurance that they want to pay full price in order to support my business, I’ve been able to slowly outgrow that unnecessary guilt.
Tyra, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Tyra ShaiAnne, I am the Founder and Executive Chef at TTGotCakes LLC, Los Angeles, where we offer custom luxury cakes that actually taste good! Too many times I’ve found myself at a wedding or extravagant birthday party and the cake, although incredibly beautiful, was very underwhelming and sometimes just plain nasty! It’s those experiences that are to blame for the many people today that claim they’re “not a big cake person”. I love when I come across someone who says this and welcome it as a challenge to change their mind. TTGC creates all products entirely from scratch and entirely from the heart, with all fresh ingredients – never frozen! No two creations are the same as each order is completely customizable. We’ve got something for any and every occasion whether its a full size cake for a wedding, cupcakes for a picnic, or cake jars for a pop-up event.
How did we end up here? Hmm. I kind of just fell into the pastry business when I would make lemon bundt cakes for my friends’ birthday parties and each time I would get calls from their moms, who were so lucky to get leftovers, saying that this was the best cake they’ve ever had and that I need to sell them. At the time I was being overworked at a nonprofit and had zero time or energy to even think about selling cakes. But as soon as I left that job, I started learning how to layer and decorate. And here we are.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
The covid pandemic is the time of pivot that first and foremost comes to mind. It was when I made the shift into entrepreneurship in the culinary industry. Previously I was working in the corporate space and although excelling, did not find fulfillment in sitting in a chair all day. I ended up leaving my job literally days before the pandemic hit (not knowing what was coming, of course). Slightly in panic, yet embracing the slowed pace of life, I sat myself down to reconnect and redefine what has brought me the most joy since I was young. The two things to do that for me have always been music and cooking and it was then and there that I decided to step into the food business.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
My journey has consisted of nothing but resiliency. I started baking and learning to decorate cakes in my mom’s kitchen in Pasadena. After a few months, I found myself fully booked to the capacity my mom’s kitchen would allow. It also started to cause slight frustration in the house, naturally, because I pretty much took over the kitchen all day and night inhibiting my parents from utilizing it the way they’d normally like to. I then was so fortunate to be offered my family friend and mentor’s vacant back-house to operate out of. This was an incredible blessing because I had the space nearly to myself. The challenge with this was it was located about an hour away in Woodland Hills yet I had been building most of my clientele in LA. After several months there, I was presented an opportunity to utilize a vacant kitchen-space located in Glassell Park (south glendale), one that needed a tonnnnn of rehab to get it back up and running. I spent 4-5 weeks cleaning and scrubbing every inch of that place and with the help of my friends, spent a couple days repainting the walls in my brand color green. It was so beautiful and my first industrial kitchen! I was ecstatic. Then the winter 2022 hit, where we received record breaking rainfall and I found myself constantly cleaning up numerous leaks in the kitchen due to an old roof. It became so much labor each week just to clean it up before I could start on my orders. I was exhausted and defeated and contemplated giving up entirely. Right before I did, the universe presented me with yet another blessing for the taking. I am now operating out of a beautiful establishment where I am able to give my business and ideas a full and fair shot. I pride myself in my resiliency because this journey is not for the weak. Almost every week I come across a new obstacle that I can’t allow myself to sulk in too heavily or else it will defeat me. The key to this entrepreneurship lifestyle is to remain fluid and resilient.
Contact Info:
- Website: ttgotcakes.com & ttstastebuds.com
- Instagram: @ttgotcakes and @tyrashaianne
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ttgotcakes
- Twitter: @ttgotcakes
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPLgUiditF4WVATCm51Vqsg