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The Secret Ingredient: Recipes for Success in Business and Life - Softcover

Butler, Gigi

 
9781501173530: The Secret Ingredient: Recipes for Success in Business and Life
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1501173537 ISBN 13: 9781501173530
Verlag: Howard Books, 2021

Inhaltsangabe

The founder of Gigi’s Cupcakes shares her personal success story, her hard-won business acumen, and the life-changing inspiration that has helped her follow her dreams in this warm-hearted and encouraging memoir that “will inspire savvy entrepreneurs to invest in their own dreams” (Daymond John, star of ABC’s Shark Tank). Featuring delicious dessert recipes for cupcakes and more in each chapter.

As a young child, Gigi knew that if she wanted to succeed, she had to work hard and offer a service that people wanted to buy. At age seven, she sold eggs out of her little red wagon to neighbors. At age fifteen, she bought cleaning supplies and started a cleaning service out of her rural California home.

When she moved to Nashville at nineteen, she had her heart set on becoming a country music star. Cleaning houses by day to support herself for over a decade, she realized that God had other plans for her. If she wouldn’t be a successful singer, she decided she would grow a business that she could be proud of.

An extraordinary baker throughout her life, she decided to open a cupcake shop with all the money she could pull together. With the help and support of her family, she was able to open her first store in a prime Nashville location. The news of her cupcakes spread quickly, and the franchise became a huge success. Now, in The Secret Ingredient, Gigi reveals how her failure led her to explore her passion for baking and how she became a successful businesswoman. With spunk, humor, and insight, she weaves her hard-won wisdom and business acumen into the fun, fascinating, and instructive stories of her life. Each inspirational chapter concludes with a treasured family recipe for cupcakes and other scrumptious desserts.

For anyone with big dreams, Gigi’s message is simple: believe in yourself, walk with integrity, work hard, and trust in God. Your life may not turn out exactly how you expected or hoped, but it will be so much better than you could have ever imagined. “If you ever need to feel inspired by a dreamer, this is a must read” (Tony Brown, music producer).

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Gina “Gigi” Butler opened her first Gigi’s Cupcakes location just off of Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee in 2008. Today, with ninety-four locations and counting, Gigi’s is the largest cupcake franchise in the world. As the chief brand officer, Gigi spends her time bringing her treasured family recipes to life in the array of dazzling and delicious cupcakes and cakes baked fresh daily. A talented hostess and mentor, Gigi spends much of her time traveling to new and existing Gigi’s locations to spread the joy and happiness of Gigi’s Cupcakes. The Secret Ingredient is her first book. 

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The Secret Ingredient BAPTISM BY FIRE . . . AND FLOUR The First Gigi’s Cupcakes
In the predawn hours of Thursday, February 21, 2008, the day I opened my very first Gigi’s Cupcakes store in downtown Nashville, I lay in bed alone, snuggled up in the fetal position in my grandmother’s quilt, praying for the blessed relief of sleep.

I’d just been through the most stressful twenty-four hours of my life, and I knew in my bones the new day about to dawn would be even worse. My stomach was doing somersaults, I was light-headed, and I could feel a panic attack coming on. But sleep had stubbornly refused to come, and here I was, unable to relax, every muscle in my body tight as a drumhead, the gritty metallic taste of adrenaline in my mouth.

I stared at my bedside clock.

1:47. It seemed as if it had been stuck at 1:47 all night.

I closed my eyes and thought about how much I like poetry and parables and self-help phrases. It makes me feel good to slap a Post-it up on the fridge that says “You Can Do It.” I’d read Poor Richard’s Almanac and I knew Benjamin Franklin wrote, “A watched pot never boils.” Here in the privacy of my own bedchamber I was coming to terms with that aggravating reality.

I tossed and turned, rearranged the pillows and blankets, and rolled over so I couldn’t see the clock. Maybe I could mentally transport myself someplace else for a little while. Conjuring an image of orange and gold poppies blooming in the High Desert near my childhood home, I imagined leaning into a warm breeze, the heat of the Antelope Valley floor rising up through the soles of my feet. I lay still for as long as I could, breathing evenly, trying to release the tension from my arms and legs.

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally turned back over to check the clock.

1:49.

I should have slept like a log. Wednesday had worn me out. As my small team readied the first Gigi’s Cupcakes for its opening, I began the day working my “regular job” cleaning houses for Gigi’s Cleaning Company, which I’d founded in California as an ambitious fifteen-year-old.

I cleaned an apartment and a huge mansion in Belle Meade—the “Beverly Hills” of Music City. Toilets, showers, marble floors, ovens, and laundry rooms blurred together as I motored along on autopilot. At four o’clock I raced downtown to meet my plumber, who’d just finished outfitting the new store. Together we checked all the sinks, drains, water lines, and restrooms. I owed him $350, but as I wrote him a check I told him, “Don’t cash that ’til Monday. I just made a deposit—you gotta wait for it to post.” He looked at me a little funny. He knew I was teetering on the edge financially. My homegrown plan to step up from the housecleaning business into the retail cupcake business had raised quite a few eyebrows. Gigi’s Cupcakes would literally make or break me.

After the plumber left, I looked around the store. At first glance, it didn’t look like we’d be ready to open the next morning—it really didn’t. I tried not to freak out, and I reminded myself that the biggest pieces of the puzzle were already in place. The paint was dry, light fixtures were shining on refrigerated cases and appliances, custom countertops were ready for action, there was a brand-new floor, and baking tools and ingredients were poised in my glistening new kitchen. I watched my gung ho father, Terry, putting tables and chairs together while my mother, Ann, dutifully orbited the cheery space dust-busting little spots here and there. All was clean white, soft pink, bright olive, gleaming glass, and chrome. I was thrilled and overwhelmed that my dream was about to become a reality—but I honestly couldn’t believe I had gotten this far.

My old friend Ted, a “get ’er done” general contractor who had worked hand in glove with me to bring Gigi’s to life, dropped by to wish me luck. He could see I was nervous, but he murmured some reassuring words and patted me on the back. He handed me an envelope and quietly said, “Remember, I’ll tear this up if you marry me.”

The matrimonial reference rang an alarm bell. I opened the envelope and saw Ted’s final contractor’s bill, which in all the craziness I’d kind of forgotten about. The bill was for $15,000, but it might as well have been $15 million, considering that after the plumber’s check cleared I’d have only $33 in my checking account.

I’d already bought, begged, borrowed, and stolen just enough to open the 995-square-foot shop, and I wasn’t quite sure yet how I was going to pay my employees, keep the lights on, and buy groceries. “Stepping out on faith” was a phrase long popular in my entrepreneurially minded family, and I had staked my entire future on this new project. I had a plan A, but I’d blissfully—maybe even willfully—ignored the need for a plan B.

Suddenly everything piled up, and all the pressures that had been building just flattened me. My vision seemed to narrow; I couldn’t catch my breath. I started to feel woozy, tears began rolling down my cheeks, and finally I slumped to the floor at Ted’s feet.

He bent down to check me. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t have fifteen thousand dollars!”

Ted, my dad, and my mom just stood there, frozen. Nobody knew what to say.

I’d met Ted six or seven years before, when I was singing in a band, cleaning houses, and learning how to make my way in Nashville. He was a successful contractor with a beautiful home out in Leiper’s Fork, a rural village on the historic Natchez Trace Parkway that was home to celebrities like Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, and the Judds. He was a popular, good-looking guy, and a favorite with various local ladies.

Ted and I became purely platonic friends, despite his best efforts to take it further. I came to his parties and he invited me everywhere because we enjoyed each other’s company. He regularly assured me that one day he would win me over, but I always told him it would never happen. I’d learned I didn’t want a sugar daddy. I wanted to earn my own way—even if it meant cleaning toilets for the rest of my life. But his pursuit became kind of a running gag. My friends and I always laughed it off, and Ted always seemed to be fully in on the joke.

Sometimes we’d visit projects he was working on, and I was always impressed by the quality of his work and his attention to detail. So in late 2007 I went to him and told him I was going to open a cupcake shop.

“Well, congratulations,” he said. “I’ll build it for you if you marry me.”

I laughed. “I’m not going to marry you. But I’ll hire you to build it.”

“Okay, I’ll build it. But at the end of this project I want to marry you.”

It never occurred to me that he might be serious.

So we built out the store together. The building, which had been part of a take-out restaurant, was gutted and reimagined as a friendly, welcoming sweet shop. I went down to city hall and stood in line to get permits and approvals and variances and waivers, and was very proud of myself for successfully navigating the city and county bureaucracies. Ted took the lead laying it out, my dad helped me design the space, and then he and my mom came in from Texas to help me out. She brought a welcome supply of enthusiasm along.

“You’re supposed to help your kids,” she’d say. So I’d load her up with research and...

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Verlag
Howard Books
Erscheinungsdatum
2021
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1501173537
ISBN 13 
9781501173530
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
312
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV
info@simonandschuster.nl

Herculesplein 96
Utrecht
3584 AA
Niederlande