HEY, KITTY CAT—and welcome to Middle Finger Fridays!
I’m featuring a new creator every Friday who’s out there smokin' it—and highlighting what I think they’re doing really, really right. (You know, so you can replicate that magic without banging your head against the wall.) And also what I'd love to see them do in the future.
Today, we’re hollering at someone who’s got the potential to be making millions of dollar bills because of her INCREDIBLE flower bloom cakes—but who, right now, is still stuck in 1:1 service land. Let’s take a peek!
Meet: 10 Bloom Cakes
Who: Miri Nadler
Gig: Cake Designer
Specialty: The queen ? of flower-themed buttercream cakes that look like art
Fav quote: “Buttercream. Wine. True crime.” And also: “Fondant-free cakes only, please!” ←She’s hardcore.
IG Followers: 49.8K
My Favorite Examples of Her Work:
What She’s Doing Really, Really Right ?:
- Specializing the helllllllll out of flower buttercream cakes that are SO DROP-DEAD GORGEOUS. These cakes are artwork. I would feel so badly eating one!
- Making her eennntttttireeeee Instagram feed one big, giant binge of flower cakes. It’s immediately obvious what her superpower is—and I’m absolutely gonna follow this, if only to make my feed look pretty!
- Having the courage to say “no” to things that water down her brand
- “Sorry, we don’t write on cakes.”
- “I do not use more traditional decorative components such as gum paste and fondant, which are edible, but not necessary appetizing.”
- Keeping it simple & going with what works best (tough cookies if you don’t like it)
- “Cakes are frosted in a swiss merengue buttercream with a whipped, light texture, and decorated in a thin layer of sturdier, sweeter American buttercream.”
- “Design is baker’s choice (but always so beautiful).” (For pre-made cakes orders.)
- Placing healthy boundaries around her time & energy.
- “Minimum order for wedding cakes is $500.”
- “Orders must be placed 1 week in advance.”
- Charging premium rates when appropriate
- “Price subject to change based on design difficulty. Such qualifying factors include, but are not limited to, shape, birds, butterflies & difficulty.”
- “Delivery is $50 within the Charlotte area.”
- Repurposing her cake art into prints you can buy in an Etsy shop called “10 Bloom Canvas”
- She’s using spackle to re-create the look of buttercream! ?
- Creating a killer in-person workshop that teaches her signature process!
- Seriously, how fun does this look?!?!
- ANDDDD….drum roll….it appears she also has an online course that she’s created, which is 100,000,000% her best move, considering her success on Instagram. BUT, I have a few pointers on ways she can earn way more revenue from the course below!
What I’d LOVE to See Her Do in the Future ?:
- Go back to being @10BloomCakes on Instagram (this is a much stronger brand than using her name @mirinadlercakes—to which she recently changed)
- Ditch the tee-shirt shop—she’s going to spend more time handling customer service than she’s going to make on profits
- Remove outdated workshops from her website & IG bio, and instead replace with a waitlist sign-up
- Get a modern, aesthetically pleasing website to mirror the incredible quality of her work—and copy that mirrors the quality of her brand, too.
- And really, really focus on optimizing the helllllll out of her online course—which, she has, but those sales pages aren't effective & her sales process isn't systematized in any way. (Sales are probably very sporadic.) Here’s what I would do if I were her!
- Name the entire division “10 Bloom Classroom.” (Obviously!)
- Create 3 different courses:
- One for amateurs looking for a fun weekend project
- One for bakers trying to learn basic butter cream techniques
- One for professional cake makers to learn advanced bloom techniques
- Re-brand the course name from “Palette Knife Perfection” to something that (a) Feels on-brand; (b) Is fun & approachable; (c) Is clear who it’s for; (d) Has a higher “cool” factor. For example, as one of her IG followers who would totally buy the weekend hobbyist course to do with my mother-in-law on a Saturday afternoon, we hardly know what palette knives are and aren’t worried about perfection. Something simple like this might work well!
- The Weekend Bloom Cake: For hobbyists, crafters, learners, newbies, & fun-seekers lookin’ to spend a fun afternoon doing something creative
- The Beginner Bloom Cake: For bakers who’d like to get into allllll things buttercream. Let’s start from scratch!
- The Professional Bloom Cake: For professional cake makers & pastry chefs who want to learn advanced buttercream techniques, including selling & marketing your creations.
- I’d write a fresh, fun & compelling sales page for each one of these. THE COPY SELLS THE COURSE. (Without great copy, you’re a duck in the water.)
- Then, I’d put a smart system in place to sell those courses in my sleep. Way too much info to unpack here, but it would absolutely involve email, awesome sales pages, fantastic copy, and timed offers. This would let Mira focus solely on creating her cake masterpieces, while she’s got this WHOLE OTHER super profitable revenue stream pumpin’ in the background—without having to run it live, or mess around with it herself.
How to Replicate
She’s gooood, right? Like, really, really good. She’s doing great staying focused on her superpower—now it’s just a matter of seeing how she can scale the business and amplify her income. (Relate?)
The hardest part about that, of course, is carving out the time to actually do it. That’s especially hard when you’re actively working with clients and taking orders and filling up your days working IN the business (instead of ON the business).
My best advice?
Schedule one day per week exclusively for working ON the business. Maybe it’s Monday, since Mondays suck and you can make them feel more like your time, instead of everyone else’s. Or, maybe it’s Fridays, because Fridays are usually one of the least demanding days of the week—with a fun cocktail in the afternoon to boot! Or, maybe it’s Wednesdays, so you can get a much-needed break mid-week.
However you do it, this is one of my favorite ways for carving out meaningful time to work on your business: turn it into a gift to yourself, each and every week. And when you start to feel guilty that you aren’t “generating income” on that day, you can kick yourself right in your own face, because you’re actually putting the foundations in to generate approximately 10X more income this year than you would have by spending your time differently. ?
Make yourself your #1 client.
…And watch the fireworks happen.
Okay, darling! Have a FANTASTIC weekend. I’ll talk to you next week!
LOOOOOVE,
Ash, AKA: Someone Who is Now Really Craving Cake ? (Sorry ‘Bout That!!!)