Because luxury is about emotion. Do I feel something when I look at what you're doing? Does what you're doing, does it draw me in so that emotional resonance is important? So it's about having that luxury mindset. I'm Becca Poutney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker and blogger, and you're listening to the Wedding Pros who Are Ready to Grow podcast. I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies and real life examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion and and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you love, then you're in the right place. Let's get going with today's episode. Today I'm chatting with Elizabeth Solaru, a luxury business consultant, world renowned cake artist, and recently an author with her debut book, the Luxpreneur.
Since founding Elizabeth's cake Emporium in 2008, she's traveled the world working at some of the most prestigious venues for some incredible clients, including royalty. Our paths have crossed many times and I always love what she has to say. Elizabeth, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. Me, Becca, I am really looking forward to having an amazing, riveting conversation with you. It's an absolute pleasure. I always enjoy talking to you.
I've got a whole list of things that I want to cover, but before we get into that, I always like to start by getting to know the person behind the business for my listeners so they can understand what's brought you to this point. So take me right back in your memory. How did you get into cakes in the first place? Oh, that's a really loaded question. I got into cakes because when I was about 10 or 11 or thereabouts, friend brought a cookbook to school. It was a baking book, very simple book.
And she gave it to me for some reason, I don't know why, she just gave me as a gift. And I remember looking through and I thought, oh, this is a recipe for Victoria Sponge. And I couldn't believe such a simple ingredients could make something so delicious because again, with my background, African background, we don't really bake. So. And I often joke that the oven was used for storage and I just thought, let me try.
And I got some, some of my mom's old pots and I made the ingredients according to the instructions and the cake came out perfect. It must have been beginner's luck. It just came out perfect. I thought, oh my God. So it really is true. And that started my love of baking. But after about a year or so, because my mom was always complaining about, oh my God, you're using up all my gas, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then I kind of like, it fell to the, to the wayside.
And I only baked occasionally for special occasions. And then I went to university. I became a microbiologist after university. And then I remember after working for the NHS for about 13 years, I just said, you know what, there's got to be more to life than being a lab rat. Let me try something else. And I thought, oh, I know, I'll set up my own business. But I had no idea what the business was going to be. So I went off and did an MBA as you do. I don't know why I did that.
I did an MBA and then through networking, I became a headhunter in the city. So I did that for about another eight years, ten years or so. And I really, really enjoyed it because I got to meet these very high profile, high powered CEOs and finance directors and chairmen and I was placing them, having never even sold, you know, from a lemonade stand. These were people handling multimillion pound budgets and, but to relieve stress, while I was a headhunter, I started baking again.
And I was, and I took it really seriously. I'll save up my money and I'll go to cake camp in America. And I hunted down some amazing cake artists and I begged them because in those days teaching wasn't really a thing. So I kind of like begged them to teach. And then they'll say, okay, guess what? We're having a class in Savannah, Georgia and I'll do a 13 hour flight just to go and learn. So. And then I got made redundant from my, well, actually not redundant.
I took, they laid me off, to be honest, from my headhunting job. And then I thought, oh, if I never do it now, you know, if I don't do it now, I'll never do it. Milestone birthday and all that. Let me set up my own cake company. And I remember when I, when I thought of the name, I was, my sister and I were in front of the, of a, of a printing shop and I had to make some cards. I liked the idea of two E's, so I initially called it Elizabeth's Emporium.
And then a friend of mine said, but nobody knows what the Emporium sells. So I thought, oh, I'll put a C in the middle, Elizabeth's Cake Emporium. And that was how I started my cake business. And that's what led me into making cakes again. Incredible. What an absolute journey from right at the start of loving baking. I always admire cake makers because you make it sound so easy. Oh, we just put these ingredients together and we make this amazing cake. I am dreadful if I ever make a cake.
It does never turns out well. It's always flat, it never rises. So you are a magician to make such an incredible thing out of those simple ingredients. And I think so often that happens to us that we have these ideas of starting a business and then life kind of gets in the way and we end up going into these jobs and pushing back the dream. Pushing back the dream. Presumably, from the moment you decided to start Elizabeth's Cake Emporium, you didn't have any regrets.
You didn't wish you'd gone back to that corporate world. What happened? Oh. Oh, my goodness. That is so far from the truth at all. I wouldn't say I did have regrets. The only regret was money, because obviously I had to eat. I love eating, so. And I had to pay my. My heating bills because I remember one particular winter, it was so cold, and I was thinking, oh, I wish I could afford to, you know, just put the heating on for. But obviously money wasn't coming in.
So that made me think, okay, you need clients, you need to get clients. How do you get clients? And what I did, I remember one day, my cab driver, he was just saying, oh, you know, my cab office, we leaflet. And my. My ears just perked up. I'm like, what do you mean, you leaflet? He said, they put leaflets in people's letter boxes. And I said, do you do posh areas? And I had specific areas in mind that were very near me because obviously delivery.
And he said, yeah, you know, we do blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, okay, that's it. So I made some really gorgeous leaflets, more like cards. And I gave them to him and I said, how much would you charge me for leaflets? And he said, maybe 10, 10, 20 quid. I know he wasn't more than 20 quid. So a couple of times a month he would leaflet. So that was strategy number one. It was simple, but I just thought, this is different, because the other option was put in a card in my local corner shop.
But then I kind of had an idea that the kind of people that I wanted to attract with my cakes will not, you know, take a car from the corner shop. And then the second thing that I did, I took the Yellow Pages, so those massive phone book called The Yellow Pages. And I started calling every planner and every event company that I could think of. And I probably made about 120 calls or thereabouts. And then one afternoon, it was a Wednesday, never forgot, never forget.
And I made this call and a very young voice at the other end said, do you make cupcakes? And I said, of course we make cupcakes. And then I did something that I've learned as a headhunter and I said, oh, I'm going to be in your area in the next three days. Do you want me to bring some samples? And she said, yes. So three days, got some money together, bought some beautiful boxes, the best I could find, did the cupcakes and took them down on the bus.
And when I arrived, I remember I was so scared. It was a very nice house, you know, in very nice house in London. So I dropped the cakes off and I legged it. I literally just said, oh, delivery from Elizabeth. And while I was on the bus on the way back, I got a call saying, lady Elizabeth Anson would like to meet you. And I'm like, who is that? You know, in my head I was like, who's that?
But anyway, I went back, I met Lady Elizabeth, and she happened to be the cousin to the late Queen Elizabeth. So their first cousins, the only one to call Queen Elizabeth by her name, blah, blah, blah. But I didn't know that at the time, obviously. I just knew she was fairly important. And then on the spot, she ordered about 200 cupcakes or thereabouts, and she gave me a check from a private bank. And I was thinking, oh my God, this is not happening right now.
Obviously I made the rookie mistake. My I charge way too low, way too low. I didn't even factor in delivery. But I was just so happy to get that first order. And it wasn't now, if that had happened, that would have been amazing in itself, but it was. What happened after that was even more amazing. So after I delivered the order, she then writes me this incredible letter saying she used three cake makers for the event. My cakes tasted the best, they were the best looking, blah, blah, blah.
And I can use her words on all my marketing material from then on that she gives me permission. I mean, you can't even imagine what that did. Talk about allyship, talk about someone just helping without any obligation. I was over the moon and I've never ever forgotten it. And I'm eternally grateful that she saw something in my case that I probably never, probably didn't see at the time. And yeah, that was that was it. What an amazing story. How did she find you? Do you know?
Did she find, was it one of the leaflets that had gone through her door? Was it through a planner? No, I called, remember I took the Yellow Pages and I called. It was a random call that I made to her office. And I think I called up the time when, from what they tell me later, they'd already tried about 10 different cake makers. But Lady Elizabeth was so particular about what she wanted and she believed that it was out there.
And every time I saw her, she would tell me, I always remember your cakes because I've gone through 10 different cake makers and none of them, and I assume that someone in her position has. She would have eaten, obviously at the best restaurants, tried the best cakes in the world, and yet she saw something in what I did. So I just happen, maybe right place, right time, who knows? Absolutely incredible.
What I love, though, about you, Elizabeth, is you always make all this stuff sound easy, but you do all of the things that I tell people to do all the time, but they don't have the confidence to do. Just ask the question, reach out, drop the leaflet, have an idea, think outside of the box. Like just your example of getting the cab driver to deliver the leaflets. Most people would think, oh, I should probably deliver them myself, I don't want to spend the money. But such a good idea, I love it.
This is why I love having conversations with you, because you're always full of inspiration. Now the other thing I think is really interesting is I speak to a lot of wedding clients who maybe have been in the industry five years and they say something like, now I want to go for the high end market, now I want to go into luxury. But from your story, you kind of targeted luxury from day one, is that correct? I would say I fell into luxury. But I think my natural inclination was to target.
But I didn't realize that was what I was doing. I. But my natural inclination was if these cakes are as special as people keep telling me they are, then I need, I need people who can pay. But even then I was still targeting the middle market. I wasn't targeting the 1% of the 1%, to be honest. I was just saying, oh my God, if people can pay just more than what they, what they'll probably pay at X, Y, Z, then I'm happy with that. And again, I love what you said because it's about mindset.
And that is because that's how I start my book. Because if you haven't got the luxury mindset, and people think it has to be. You live in a life of luxury or understanding designer brands? No, not really. No. It's all about having the mindset that what you are producing is special and people, it will be an honor for you to serve people in a certain market.
And it's also about understanding yourself because when you meet really high end people, they want to know who you are, they want to know who are you, what makes you tick and are you just another person in line wanting our money? What are you going to give me in exchange for my money? And it's also about knowing the different types of luxury clients. Something I've always, always been speaking about.
So it's about having that luxury mindset, that one you are good enough to, your products are good enough and your product doesn't have to be the best. By the way, people think, oh my God, it's going to be perfect. Because to be fair, your perfect is somebody else's starting point.
So. But the one thing I always say is your product, it, you know, it shouldn't be mediocre because there's a lot of, there's a lot of mediocrity out there and there's a lot of undifferentiated brands because, because at the end of the day all of you then look the same. So someone's done this particular wedding cake style and then there's a gazillion of you rushing to do that trend. You are not differentiated enough for you to be special. In fact, I know people who keep to the same style.
Even if people say, oh my God, that's old fashioned, but is their distinctive style and at least clients know what they're getting from them. So this is a subject that I think we're completely in agreement with in that people need to be able to have that mindset, it's all about mindset. And go out there and position themselves. But then like you said, it's easier said than done. 100%. I totally agree with everything you've said.
So let's dive into that a little bit more because I know that's what your book is about and we'll talk more about the book shortly. But what do you think makes a brand luxury? Because just sticking the word luxury on something does not make it a luxury brand. So if you've got any tips for the kind of things that you see in that luxury space that is going to elevate someone's brand, I've got plenty. And in fact, this is the second part of my book.
So in My opinion, there are five things that make a brand luxury. So imagine four legs of a table, and then in the center you have a pillar or a pole. So I call it the five pillars. And from the top of my head, if I can remember correctly, the central pillar is storytelling. Then you've got business model, perception, craftsmanship. Now let me talk a bit about storytelling. The problem is, as you said, many people stick the label luxury X and you look at the website and nothing excites you.
There is nothing luxury about it. And in fact, it's got to a point where I can look at a website and tell you what template they've used to build the website. So if I remember the luxury clients you're trying to sell to, if they've been surrounded by luxury. So it's like how banks train their tellers. In the old days, the banks trained their tellers by passing them real money to the point where as soon as there's fake money, they can spot it a mile away. And that is luxury in a nutshell.
So if you're saying I'm luxury, but you know, the first point of contact is probably maybe a visit to your website and you're. And people are bouncing out, then there's something not, not drawing them in. Because luxury is about emotion. Do I feel something when I look at what you're doing? Does what you're doing, does it draw me in? So that emotional resonance is important, and to get that emotional resonance, you need those five qualities.
So in my world, for example, Kate world, a lot of people concentrate on craftsmanship, I.e. sharp edges, pristine, blah, blah, blah. And that's important. That is absolutely crucial. However, you can have the best product, but if you don't know how to sell it or how to display it, then you've got nothing. Nobody will buy from you. So I often say to people, a great example is how. Look at how jewelry brands look at how they sell their jewelry.
It's something, you know, jewelry is something small, can fit in your hand, but they use imagery, they use storytelling, and they even bring in elements of craftsmanship to let you know that what you're getting is ultra special. And I break a lot down, even things like the storytelling, how to tell your story. Because when you're telling your story, you need to break it down into the plot, the characters, the surroundings. And you need to then build your story.
And it doesn't even matter whether you're selling that your cheapest product or your most expensive, expensive product. The whole. The whole. I don't want to use, say, journey, but the whole journey on your website must be seamless. So people know that even if I'm buying one cupcake, I'm guessing the same luxury experience as I am getting a six figure wedding cake. So that to me is what luxury is.
And of course, to add another layer of complication, you need to consider the different types of luxury clients and the type you're trying to attract. Yes. So much good stuff in there. I could listen to you talk about this stuff for ages. I think it's so important to realize how much luxury is about the experience and how the customer feels as much as it is about the product in front of them. I'll give you an example.
So I would not say that I am a particularly luxurious person or even fit into that market, but I'm probably one of your types that we'll come on to in a minute of kind of like aspiring to be luxury. Anyway, my children love football, particularly my daughter, and so I'm finding myself having to go to these football games, which is not my area of comfort at all. However, I've recently discovered something at the football game called club level.
And what's ridiculous about club level is it's just the experience they give you that makes going to the football game so much better. So you get a slightly comfier seat, sometimes they give you a free glass of wine. The way they talk to my children is unbelievable. They're so polite, they talk to everyone. They ask you how your day is. You go through the entrance, through the glass door at the front rather than round the back, and it's only a little bit more expensive.
But for me, the experience is well worth paying for. And I feel like that is just a little illustration of when you feel like you're part of luxury. Oh, absolutely. And I love that you're using the word experience because to some luxury, some type of luxury client, being treated as if they're special is so normal to them that a bad experience becomes 10 times exaggerated. It's almost an affront. It's almost like, oh my God, you know, how can, how dare this happen?
And talking about football, there are even boxes, directors, boxes where they don't watch the match on the terraces, they watch it through a room, through a glass screen, some even open up. So again, even something as ordinary and sporty as football has, as you said, levels to them.
And the difference between just buying your ticket, going round the back, queuing with everybody else and being ushered in through the door, because remember when we're talking about Luxury clients, they've got the money to buy anything that they want. So what can you do to make the experience ultra, ultra, ultra special? And I'm an advocate for you don't need oodles and oodles of money as a business. You just need to be cleverer and smarter about how you deliver that experience to them.
Fabulous. So give us some examples then. What sort of things have you done in your business? Because you would describe yourself as luxury. I would describe you as luxury. What have you done to your clients that sets you apart, that puts you at that level and gives your customer the. The experience they're looking for? Okay, so I talk about it in the book. So I haven't got a shop front.
People think I have this amazing shop in Knightsbridge where people just stroll in and they drop oodles of money in front of me. I wish I haven't got a shop. But what I've done is take the experience to my clients. So I'll give an example. Just a week before the Olympics in Paris, I was asked by a client that they're in Paris, they can't come to London. Can I do a tasting in Paris for them? And obviously, you know, I just thought to myself, this is the kind of tasting where.
And I've seen people do it, and I've got nothing against it, but I personally don't do slices of cake post, you know, postage. I don't do that. And I will. It's not my thing. And my kind of clients, even if they ask, I say no. I say no, I will do it differently. So we then drove all the way to Paris with these gorgeous cakes. I mean, the cake is incredible. I even. I had a theme. I did the cakes according to that particular theme.
And when we got to Paris, this particular hotel, I organized with the hotel to have a room on standby filled with fresh flowers. White glove service, of course. I even brought personalized bottle of champagne. And it was a tasting. It was because they came back, they'd been shopping all day, they were a bit tired. They'd also had a tasting at Alain de Cass for dinner. And then I kind of thought, you know what? This needs to be special.
So candles everywhere, flowers everywhere, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And of course, it's amazing when the client's picking up the tab, of course, because I didn't just suddenly arrive at this overnight, but I could have literally sent slices of cake or I could have just delivered the cake and. But I made sure, because I was very particular with the hotel, I Want this, I want that, I want this laid out. You know, how many napkins, how many forks?
And they had to be cake forks and they had to be cake plates of a particular type and blah. You know, again, it's about detail, detail, detail. Because even if the client didn't notice all the detail, they certainly, when they walked into the room they know is an experience that they'll never have elsewhere. So that is how you create. And also, don't be afraid.
And I know people say don't be afraid to get the client to pay if you've got the balls or when you're starting out, sometimes you might have to pay, hoping there's a payoff. So it doesn't always have to be. No, but sometimes it's a gamble. I've gambled wrongly sometimes where people have come eating my cake and taking my design elsewhere, but that's not happened since because you live and learn, but there are things that you can do to elevate the experience.
So they feel like, oh my God, if we're getting a seven star experience now, the cake's going to be amazing. And it all goes to the bit I call perception. So if you want people to perceive you as luxury, you've got to give them a luxury experience. Fantastic. And again, so much that comes back to mindset, because many people would have got that initial email and thought, well, they won't pay me to go to Paris, I'll just put it in the post.
But actually having that bigger mindset of going, well, no, if they want an experience, I'll give them an experience and I will charge them accordingly and I will create the most magnificent experience. Because when you're at that part of the market, as you said earlier, they've got the money, it's what they choose to spend it on. Absolutely, absolutely.
And again, it also goes to the type of luxury client because there are some types that no matter what, they're not going to spend the money with you, but they'll spend three times elsewhere. So it really depends on, and this is why I keep saying this, going back to the luxury mindset and what I've done, because again, I, as an ex scientist, I like proving my theories. What I've done is I created archetypes for different luxury brand founders.
So I came up, for example, as an artisan visionary, which I was kind of, that's interesting. Now the artisan, that's great because that means I pay attention to detail. I'm always thinking of what else can I create? And a visionary, because I'm thinking of the future. You know, what can I blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But the downside, and I put everything in the book, so you know your type. You also know your downside. The downside is that I pay no attention to cost.
Again, there's me going off to Paris, not thinking of cost, but thankfully I got the client to pay. So you need to think, I won't think of the cost. I'll keep creating until I get what I want, as opposed to saying in my head, elizabeth, stop. This is what they paid for. This is what you give them. Because you can't go into Chanel and say, I want a handbag and they give you a suitcase or whatever. So you need to learn when to stop.
And then as visionary, I needed to be grounded in the present because the here and now, you know who's going to pay this bill and that bill and that bill. So for every archetype, there are downsides and there are the upsides. I also did the same for luxury clients, because not all luxury clients are the same. And trust me, there are some you don't want to deal with because naturally you are not a fit.
So if you know your archetype and you know your perfect client archetype, that means that you can go after that particular market. And I show you how. I show you where these clients are, how to find them, and how to interact with them. Fantastic. One of the things that you spoke about before was this exact topic. So you came and spoke at one of my summits. The training is still actually inside my wedding pro member zone.
And I always remember it because you did talk about these different types of luxury. And I've never heard anyone talk about it in that way. They just brand everything, high end luxury, elevated clients. But I remember you specifically talking about it in a lot of detail and I know some of it's in your book, but I'd love you to just give us a couple of examples, like you did then, of these different types of luxury, just so people understand what you mean. Okay, Perfect example.
King Charles, God save the King and Ozzy Osbourne. Okay. And people tend to. There's a famous meme going around saying, king Charles, Ozzy Osbourne, both are white male, both are the same age, and I believe people even say born within a month of each other. Both have been divorced twice and both live in a castle. Would you sell to them the same. No, you wouldn't. King Charles is what I call comfort first. So people would. They're all about security.
So to Them, it's not the money, it's finding the right person and proving that you are high Trustworth. They don't want somebody running off to the press, they don't want you taking selfies in their house. They don't want you blabbing on social media about, oh my God, I've got something coming. They don't want any of that. So you got to be discreet. With somebody like King Charles, you probably will not deal with him directly.
You will deal with a lot of gatekeepers and the gatekeepers, they need special handling. So that's King Charles, Ozzy Osbourne. Psychographic wise, he is what I would probably call an innovator, trendsetter. This is somebody who did something to a bat on stage, I believe, according to the folklore, true or not true. But he would be looking for something different with you. He would also want to maybe co create with you.
So if I was created a cake for him, he would probably say, can it have a bat and can it have this and can have a guitar and can it be black and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He would probably co create. But the problem is, while he will be great as a source of innovation for me because he will make me go out of my comfort zone and create something different, the problem is I need to set the boundaries. So I need to tell him where to stop.
Because an innovator, trendsetter, they're always wanting bigger, better, newer, fresher, whatever's out there in the market, that's. That nobody has, that is what they want. And the problem with them is that they get bored easily. So if you're no longer the IT person in the luxury market, they're going off to another brand. But they're fantastic as a source of innovation, creativity. They'll get you thinking different, they'll even get you excited. The energy around them is even amazing.
But the next thing you know, they've dropped you. You are no longer. You are no longer the in thing. And then what I do is I talk about how you can market to each archetype. So there are about eight. I even look at the generational gap as well, because you've got your millennials and Gen Zs and people try to put them all in one box, but that is not so. So. Yeah, so those are a couple of examples that I could think of. Yeah, fantastic.
It's so interesting because you just don't think about these things, but actually they're so, so important. I think one of the questions I get asked a lot and I'm sure. You can definitely put some thought into this Is Becca, where do these luxury people hang out? Because the traditional forms of going on a wedding directory or going on an Instagram page or going on your website, they say, but I don't think my clients are there.
So from your experience in the wedding industry, like if they want to reach these people, where are they hanging out? Okay, that's a fantastic question. And it was something I had to ask myself because you know, in our industry you may not be flavor of the month for very long. Your wedding planners might decide, you know, they don't want to work with you, they want to work with somebody else. And there's only so much work that wedding planners get anyway.
They can't give work to 100 photographers. They just have to work with one or two that they're comfortable with. So I then said to myself, okay, I need to find these people myself. So again, similar to the leaflet in situation, I just kind of felt I'm sure I can find them online. And then I fell back to my head hunting days. And some of the things I talk about even using Google. So let me give an example. We all Google, you know, so you get a name, you Google the name, right?
And for many people that's where it ends. But I use things like Google images. So if somebody's been photographed with somebody, it could be via the Getty Press and they would say X being photographed with Y. Then you go aha there, you know. So that is the kind of thing I do. Also Google again, I use Google Books if somebody's been mentioned in a book or in a journal or in a magazine. And then I use Google again using journalists.
So journalists that write about luxury or that write about rich people, etc. Etc. If you that amazing gatekeepers. So if you follow them, it would lead you to those sorts of clients. And this is just online. And then I've got my offline strategies as well. Again I document some of them in the book. Even joining. And a lot of people what we tend to do is we join. So obviously with cakes I did a lot of cake associations and all the people that are. There are other cake makers, right.
But I would actually join like random. And I did that when I was networking my way into my headhunting job. I would join the most random organizations because in my head there's a link so you can join. So for example some chambers of commerce, for example, even as cause you're a business person, join the chamber of commerce, join if there's a Network. So there could be like luxury networks around you, around where you live.
There are always local ones, trust me, if there isn't, go to the next county. So find luxury networks. Join them. Some private members clubs, there are so many in London now. Join them. If there are particular speakers that you think, okay, this speaker will attract high net worth individuals, go to that event. Try to network outside of the wedding industry. Because at the end of the day, I'm not saying networking within the wedding industry is a good thing, it's a great thing.
It's really, really worked for me. But I also network outside of that industry and it's about even things like I've done things like for example, my accountant, I, it just occurred to me that, hang on, he knows a bunch of other people that I don't know. So he, for example, he would do blog posts about his clients and then send newsletters out to other clients. It's good for me, it's good for him. So those are some. And these things are not going to cost you an arm and a leg.
Maybe in person events might, but not online. Things and strategies and stuff like that doesn't cost you a thing. It's just about thinking differently to get your client. So true. And having the confidence to put yourself in those rooms. Because I think a lot of people, and I don't know if you struggled this with this yourself in the past, think, well, I can't join that private members club or I can't be at that event, I'm not worthy, I'm not good enough. What if they catch me out?
It's that old imposter syndrome. Do you have any advice around that? Yeah, I mean, I think it's not, yes, there's that imposter syndrome and there's confidence, confidence thing. But I think there's a bigger piece around rejection. Right. Because nobody wants to be rejected. I can't even tell you how many times say I want to try to talk to someone at an event and they literally walk away. It's happened a couple of times.
And I then realized, hang on, ridicule and rejection are the currencies of success. So I just have to keep going. You don't need to network with 10 people. You just need one person in the room that is a real connection. That would. Because many people you can network and you think you've had an amazing time, great conversation, and you email them the following day and they act as if who are you, you know, don't know you, blah blah, blah. So you need to be prepared for that.
And you need to say to yourself, you need to get through the no's very quickly so you can get to your yes. And it's nothing personal because sometimes you don't know what people are going through in their personal life. Maybe they are at the event. I mean, I've met people, certainly very high net worth people. The net worth is on paper. It's not in their bank account because they might be worth 100 million, but they've got debts of 200 million.
So you as a person, you're actually better off than them. So until they get it back, you know, you don't know what they're thinking about. They might be looking at you thinking, you don't even know how lucky you are. I remember one of them saying to me, you don't know how lucky you are. Your debts are nothing compared to my debts. I don't know how I'm going to make payroll tomorrow and I've got 300 employees. So these are issues.
And so when you put all that in perspective, the rejection, the ridicule or whatever it is, it's not personal, it's nothing to do with you. And as for imposter syndrome, hello, join the club. Nobody thinks, oh my God. Well, actually some people do and they tend to be mentioned, oh my God, I'm worthy, I'm deserving.
You need to have the audacity of a very mediocre man and go in and know that you are worthy of being in that room, know that you are worthy of talking to anybody and but if they don't want to talk to you, that's their prerogative and you just move on. It's not the end of the world, I promise you. And I think once you grow a bit of a thick skin, you just get through things, you know, okay, that didn't work out, fine, let's move on.
And the funny thing is, I tell people that for every project that you see, that is that I do that is successful, there are 10 that I'm not going to tell you on social media. I'm not going to come on social media and go, oh, by the way, this person let me down, or I was crying last night or I was very upset, the job I was promised, I didn't get it. You know, I'm not going to come on social media to say that.
I'm going to tell you, look at me, I'm in Paris, I'm in New York, I'm in Australia, I'm in the Middle East. You're Going to see the lovely parts. My highlight reel. You're not going to see the pain. Yeah. And every single person has pain, whether they've got money or whether they don't. Like we're all equal. We're all human. Absolutely. Now, one of the things I wanted to talk about briefly is the downsides of luxury.
Because I think sometimes people are like, I want to be in luxury, I want to be in high end. But actually, I don't think it's for everyone. So tell us some of the downsides, some of the reasons why maybe people don't actually want to be in this part of the market. Oh, I think it reminds me of this program. Fame, you know, fame costs. And here is where you begin to pay in sweat. You, you know, you will, you will have to jump through hoops.
There are people, whatever you do, might not be good enough or they might complain about random things. I've had a couple of random complaints. I've had a couple of near disasters. I've had people that try to stiff me and not pay me my money. And I learned my lesson. I was always, take a good book with me and I'll go and sit on, sit at the top table until I get paid.
Because if you're shameless enough not to pay me, I will be shameless enough to ask, you know, to get my money before I leave that venue. So there are downsides depending on who the client is. For the most part, I've been so, so blessed. Most of my clients have been absolutely incredible and amazing. There are Also things around NDAs and confidentiality agreements where you cannot, you can never ever show or talk about some of the events that you've done. And I agree with that.
That's for security reasons. However, if you're the kind of person that you want to show what you've done or you're, you haven't got a massive portfolio, this might not be for you.
And then dealing with the different complexities in terms of the gatekeepers, in terms of extended family members, in terms of even being tested, you know, there are clients that you know from certain cultures, they will test you to see if you're going to fall for, say, somebody else coming in and saying, I will pay you double for that date. So you might be. So there's a lot that goes on and there's a lot that you see, see in terms of family dynamics that you need to keep your mouth shut.
You do not say a word. You didn't even act as you, as if you've seen Anything. And you need to, again I keep saying this, you need to preserve confidentiality and prove yourself to be a high trust worth person. Very important. Trust is so, so important in all areas. But yeah, I can see particularly in that area of the market when they're parting with money or sharing things or you're letting them into your life where they have security risks. So many different factors that come into it.
Now, before we finish our conversation, we need to talk a little bit more about your book. I know you've mentioned it a couple of times already in the conversation, but as a fellow recently published author myself, I know how hard it is to write a book. It's hard work. It's not for the faint hearted at all. It feels so exciting when you're holding it in your hand. But at times it feels like it's never going to happen. So just briefly, tell me about your book journey.
Why did you decide to write the book? What happened? How long did it take you Give us the juicy information. I've been, as you know, I've been a speaker for quite a number of years and I'm always talking about things that people are going like wow, you know, didn't realize that, didn't know that this is new to me. And I just thought, you know what, what if I put everything in a book?
The kind of book I wish I had read 20 years ago when I started my business and that's how the idea came about and I just thought let me do the book. In terms of the journey, it wasn't an easy journey as you can imagine. And I pitched to a couple of publishers actually and for what they were offering for the rights to the book, I just thought, no, not worth it. I will independently publish it. And also when you read the stats of only 17% of business books are written by women.
That is especially the on the bestseller list. That is really, really awful. So I just thought to myself, okay, I'm just going to do my book my way. And it was, it was a journey and a half. I lost money. I initially had a couple of people who didn't understand where I was going with it. But eventually I found the two amazing editors that made this happen. And then the company that I use for the design of because I, I wanted something simple that does what it says on the tin.
I don't want fancy graphics or anything like that. I again, the company that I use for my first book, Opalencia, I used them for this because I knew as a business book I wanted it to look serious. And to look, you know, professional etc and yeah, that this is what we came up with. And as I said earlier on, I also want a simplicity in terms of the inside. I want to take people on a journey.
So it starts with them and then it starts with what you need to put in place to have a luxury brand and then it ends with a client. So three parts and it's only five chapters, but it's, it's, you know, it's a fairly substantial book.
And I just thought to myself, these are things that I know would benefit people because in the luxury sector, a lot of the books are written by professors of luxury or people who have worked with very big luxury brands and they're writing from the perspective of having a multimillion pound backing when they. And I'm like, what if you've only got £40 and a secondhand mixer? Is there a book for something? So that's why.
And I'm reading happy because I'm now working with a couple of business schools who felt that, oh my God, this is an exciting area, that luxury entrepreneurship for small businesses that many people are not talking about and that books in that area are extremely rare. So yeah, I'm just really happy that I did it. Well, you should be because as I said, is not an easy thing to do. It's hard work, it costs money, it takes time, but it's out there now and I know people will benefit from it.
If people want to buy a copy of your book, Elizabeth, where's the best place for them to do it? Is it your website? Is it on Amazon? Tell us more Amazon. If people can go to Amazon, sold in the uk, sold in the US and other English speaking countries, I'll be very grateful. And when you read it, if you, if you've learned something amazing from it, please leave me a five star review. You so Amazon, Amazon, Amazon.
And I'm so grateful that Amazon is there for people like me because, you know, if you had to go through a big publisher, it's a completely different story. But I'm just grateful. Yeah. So Amazon is the best place. Amazing. And I will make sure I put a link to it in the show notes. So do go and check that out and do leave a review. I feel like I'm saying the same thing about my book all the time at the moment.
If you've read a couple of chapters and you like it, please leave an Amazon review because it really does help us entrepreneurs. Oh, Elizabeth, as I said, I could talk to you for hours, but we do need to bring our conversation to a close. And I always end the podcast with the same question. And it's this. What's the one thing you wish you'd known sooner in your business? The power of personal branding in a business.
Because I used to hide behind my capes, never came out except when I was invited to speak. It didn't put myself out there. It was all images of cake, cake, cake. Whereas people wanted to know a bit about the person behind the cakes. So the personal branding. So building your personal brand alongside your business brand, especially nowadays, absolutely key. So that's one thing I wish.
And if I can add one more thing, I'd have got a mentor and a coach sooner, much sooner, I'd have got a coach with. I mean, hands down, got a coach and a mentor much earlier. Love it. So, so good, Elizabeth, if people want to connect with you, find out more about you, where's the best places for them to go? I'm on LinkedIn, so LinkedIn is my new playground. Every day I talk about luxury subject and how you can apply it to your personal business.
And I'm so Elizabeth Solaru on LinkedIn and on Instagram at Elizabeth's Cake Emporium. And that's it. Yeah, Amazing. Thank you so much. I'm sure we're going to connect again soon. We talked before we started recording about maybe getting together and doing something. So watch this space for that and thank you so much for your time. As always, good luck with the rest of your book sales. Thank you so much, Becca. This has been an amazing, amazing chat and I can't believe time's flown so quickly.
So thank you very much. What a fabulous conversation. I always enjoy chatting with Elizabeth. She's so lovely. She's so down to earth, yet she. She's working with such incredible clients and there's so many things that we can learn from her. Do go and buy a copy of her book, the Luxpreneur on Amazon, and I think I might just go grab myself a copy too. I'll see you next time.