 is still one of them. We are on to the first conversation of the day. We went to speak on Bata's career, particularly successful career choice and nurturing. So how exactly do you get to making the right choice? And then how do you nurture that? And for that we are joined by one Lillian Cullola who is a professional baker, CEO of Imora Luxury Cakes. She's also a makeup artist as I had told you before and she also owns an online thrift shop. Karim Pusana-Linette, glad to have you with us. So you want to tell us a little bit about yourself, how you started, your story, anything that you want to share? Okay, my name is Linette Cullola. I am grateful that I am here today this morning and I am so happy to be here and I'm glad to meet you too. So I am a professional baker and I'm a businesswoman who I've been doing business for the past years and also about my cake business. I started last year and it has been a year in this cake business and most of the time I do my cake business, it is online. All my cake business thrift and make up, I have been a makeup artist for almost five years now. Wow, amazing. So for you it's been a journey. Do you, has it been like discovering yourself like first you started with makeup and then now the online thrift business and then baking? Is it something that you discover or you can do or is it something you knew you could do but you've taken time to get to all of them? Okay, let me say this since I have been having, okay, first let me say I have a disability and I have a earring problem which I use a earring aid and I've been using this earring aid. Okay, for the past years I was not using a earring aid. So since last year I got this earring aid for the old 20 years I've just been like that without an earring aid. So all those past times I couldn't do many things like getting a job, I couldn't even communicate with clients properly. So it was so difficult for me to be employed. Okay, so I decided to think about let me do a business, let me self-employ myself, like I employ myself by doing something. So this is something that I discovered from before. So I had a passion of being creative of doing a lot of things. I needed to balance this and this and that. So in this business it is something that I have discovered in the past time because I knew very well I could not get employed in any type of job. Okay, so I decided to do business because this business is easier for me because I myself, I know what I am doing, I know who I am talking to and I know what I am trying to build in my career. Wow, amazing, that's very encouraging that you don't need to be self-employed if that's not an option then you can always employ yourself and you can make it as you have. So how was it for you getting out there, you started with the makeup first? Yeah, I started with the makeup first because I went to school and I went to school for a celebrity makeup party school and I did makeup by rose. I went there, I started doing my makeup that is when I had the passion of doing things with my hands because I believed myself my hands is possible to do many things. So I started with makeup, then when I started with makeup I went to drift business, which the drift business has been there for like two years plus, three years there. So then I thought of I cannot just stand with only two business. I did the cake business and my cake business I started last year, July until today. So I mark maybe it's going my next month it's going to be a year anniversary. Well, and we have a cake here as you can see, we went to feast to it in just a few probably off-camera but thank you for the cake again. Wow, amazing. For the online thrift business, how was it for you that you have a hearing challenge back then and you weren't using the hearing aid? How was it for you communicating and getting into that line of business? Okay, for the thrift business, let me say it was a bit difficult when I started because all I did it was all to depend on online. Because online, you know, the technology nowadays is about online marketing. So anything I do before I couldn't even receive phone calls from my client. So any time my client calls me, I find it difficult to explain to him or her where I locate. Okay, I am located this blah blah blah or maybe I am at this place my shop is at my store. No, I didn't have a physical shop yet but I was renting a shelf whereby I put my things there so that people can come and pick them because it was an online business. So it was so difficult for me to communicate with clients where are you, what time are you delivering. So the main important thing, since I got this it became very easy for me to receive calls because my hearing aid is connected to Bluetooth. So when a client calls me, I can hear it. But before it was so hard because all I could do was just texting, chatting, so you couldn't really speak to them on phone completely. Mostly I can speak to some of them but not all of them. So most of the time I tell my clients, you can find my client and I am there, how much is this, where are you located, how am I going to get this. And I find I have not heard what the client has said properly. So I end up saying yes and I have not heard it. So I decided I tell the client kindly text me so that we can communicate properly. So now with the hearing aids, it got better for you. And even in the cake business because I know they receive orders, everything came better. Manoeuvring through the three of them, now we do all the three. How is it creating a balance? Let me say it is difficult. Business is not easy for everyone. So I put the balance, you know, I am a mom. Wow, that's like a whole different job on its own. Wow. So you have your mom, your makeup artist, you sell three clothes and you're a baker. Yeah. So all those things I try to balance, I just put one business app and the other business app. So it is about balance. You know all my business are on social media platforms. Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp and TikTok, you see. So like Instagram, I manage like makeup page, baking cake page and thrift page. Wow. All by yourself. And also Instagram the same time. So I post, depending with the day in my week, I have to make sure that I have been consistent in every page. Even if I just post only one thing. So I must make sure that I am improving in my posting in how I do my work step by step. It is not easy. I cannot say it is not perfect. But you have to, you know, I have to balance everything. But I am grateful because God has blessed me in this. This is the work of my hand that I am very grateful. Wow, I mean, you've taken it so literal, you know, the work of my hand. Whatever you find to do, do it. You know, I think I believe there's a scripture like that. Whatever you find, okay, probably not a scripture I've had it so many times. Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it. And that's exactly what you've done. So what would you advise people in choosing the right, for you, this is your career path, right? Because this is what you're doing. What would you advise people, someone who's looking to getting into formal employment, another person looking into getting into entrepreneurship, how do you make the right career choice? Okay, so, okay, for me, what I can say for those people who are trying to do, trying to do business or trying to start a business, I can tell them that you know, you have, I'm sure you'll have the fear of starting this kind of, any kind of business. You have to talk to God and tell God, give me an idea of doing this. Give me an idea. At all, I didn't even know if I could be baking cakes now. So I came up with an idea like I have an oven. I have my hands. Okay, it's just eggs, sugar, you put them together. So I was like, why, if I have an oven, why should I just sit down in the house and say that there is nothing to do? I decided to use my oven to bake the cakes. One step at a time, one cake I post. I was just baking a cake for at home, just for eating, not for selling. So I create content with the cakes that I am doing them at home. And I cut, I eat and do everything I decorate. So I was just trying, you know, so that is how I started getting clients from here to there posting, showing them what I am doing. So people were surprised. I just went to study to do cake for only just one day. I didn't go to a school. Just one day. I didn't even go to school of baking. So I have been teaching myself for a while how to do this, improving new recipes, learning new things, decoration, being creative, doing my research. I've been sleeping late night, doing all research about these cakes. Wow. Yeah. All self-taught. I mean, that's why you need to be paid so much because it takes a lot. It takes all you and it's the effort, the passion that you have. And all this came from an idea. That's what you're saying. You know, you can't sit down and say that there's no work in Kenya and you can't do your job. That's, you know, it's easy saying that because many people are unemployed. So it's easy getting into that talk, you can't do your job, you can't have money to buy, but you can also try and think how you thought. I have this oven. So what can I do with this oven? Look at what you have inside the house and use it to go. What do you think are common mistakes that people make in their career or even starting their career? Okay. The common mistakes are fear. You know, some people have fear of starting a business. Like you say, I cannot do this. No. And you have to believe yourself that you can do it. Okay. So sometimes, you know, in business, you need a budget. Okay. It is all about plans. Actually, in my cake business, I didn't even start with a lot of money. I just used the small money that I had just to buy the tools, blah, blah, blah, just to try them out. After buying the tool, start to restock everything together. Actually, up to today, I don't have everything you're using what you have available. Yeah. So it is just step by step. So many people think that most mistakes they do is that they think that if you want to start a business, you need to have a lot of money, like everything. No, you don't need everything to start a business. You just need what you have to start a business. Wow. Yeah. Amazing. Just what you have available. Start with it. The rest will follow as you go. So how do you nurture? Yeah. How do you nurture it? This is your business. This is your baby. For example, the cake business almost a year now. How have you nurtured it all through? Okay. Okay. For all this time, I have been I mean, how do I clarify this? Maybe you can clarify from what you mean because I've not understood it. How do you make sure that it doesn't die? You can start a business some months into it. Probably you don't have clients so it dies or you do not push yourself enough. So you give up on it. So how do you make sure that it grows basically? Okay. Or what I can say consistent. Be consistent. You know, never give up. Like if you do it today, you should not stop. Keep going. Like if I post today, you can find some people in business they just joke a lot. They say, I'm gonna post today and tomorrow. No. Maybe next week. No. Maybe you forget about your social media platform. So you have to be consistent even if you don't have any clients. Just find a way. You could just bake a cupcakes. Okay. Bake cupcakes. Do content. Okay. Show them how it looks inside. What flavor is this? How did you bake? What ingredient are doing these cupcakes? You see. So it can give you every day at least you have a way of posting a way of showing people that you did something and you know very well you don't have clients. Okay. So you don't have just to sit because you're waiting for a client to come. Okay. Me, I'm going to do that today. So maybe I wait for a client to come and post a picture. Yeah. No. You have to do something. Check it. Check them how you mix. Show them how you put your ingredients. Just do anything so that you every time and make sure you have to post every day. Wow. Speaking about posting every day. There's something about once had that you need to no matter what you're doing, whatever profession, whether you're employed or self-employed. There's one thing that you need to do. You need to market yourself monolously. That's one thing that you owe yourself. What do you say to this especially in this era? How has that helped you? In marketing. Because you've been speaking passionately about posting consistently. Yeah. So me I can say in marketing for let's say like Instagram where you advertise yourself maybe you pay for advertisement. So you can find some influencers are charging people how to post for you the cakes or the pictures. So you have to find a way not every day but you have to find a way like Instagram ads. You have to make sure you pay maybe a month for the advertisement. It depends on how you want to use your money. So you can even pay for a week for two days for five days. Does it work? Yeah. It works. It works depending on how you be creative in posting. You cannot just post just a name you have to look for a very good cake, a very good picture you put and make sure that is the picture for advertisement. So you make sure it looks so nice. When somebody can come and say hey this girl she's making a very beautiful cake. Let me check the page and see what she's doing. Many things about the cake. So me I just make sure that I be creative with what I am doing. Like this cake today. I have made it and I have taken a picture. Actually it is my first time to make a bento cake. This is a bento cake. First time when the one is launching it. Amazing. A bento cake. What is a bento cake? A bento cake is a cake that is a tiny cake whereby it is put together with cupcakes and a half piece of cake together. So that is what we call a bento cake. It is just like a treat. Wow. I don't know if the camera can capture this so that you see the bento cake that we are talking about. Let me see. Wow it looks so nice. I mean I am already salivating to it. Let me open it on behalf of our viewers because we are going to eat the cake on your behalf. Beauty of being a host. I am sure that we are eating. Wow wow wow. Well packaged. Beautifully packaged. I will just show you try and show you just in a while. In a little while. Wow. Here goes the cake. I don't know if you can see it. Yes It looks so lovely and yummy. I can't wait to eat it. So this is a bento cake. How long does it take you to make it? Okay for me for that it is okay. When I start baking it takes an hour to bake the whole cake first before I decorate it. So it takes maybe after the cake to cool down you have to get back again to decoration. So it can take like two hours to bake in the oven it takes like an hour. And for decorating it takes like an hour and thirty minutes. So basically around two hours thirty minutes. Two hours thirty minutes. But remember before you start decorating you have to remove the cake out of the oven to cool. So there is a lot of things that get into it and there is a lot of time that it takes. Because when you get the prize of a cake this is a trending cake nowadays. It's a famous trending cake. Bento cake is something famous today from 2022 to 2023. Many people have told me experience about bento cake. So I saw this idea and decided to do something crazy because I've been seeing the international people have been trying to make beautiful cakes so I decided to catch up and check that idea. This is what I'm going to do Wow. So there's also the need to be very curious about what's happening. Move with the trends in your path especially in business because there's a lot of competition. How do you handle competition? For me I say about competition I say like I don't compete when it comes to business. I just do what I know what I'm doing but most important I do my research first. Okay let's say if someone is doing the same thing as me it is okay I don't mind but I have to come up with a creative idea because sometimes competition in business is not something that I should be doing because everybody is capable of winning. So you find your own inspiration and then you move with it. Because then everyone has their unique touch to something unique about your cake. So most of the time as you find that this is a bento cake I come with my idea of making tall cakes you know? Tall cakes. Have you ever seen there is a difference between flat cakes and tall cakes? The tall cakes that they cook, the cakes that they come up like they are in 4 inches. Yeah tall. So that is cake that I bake a lot and people discovered that how do I manage to put 2kg cake into 3 tier? Yeah. So everybody have been asking me how is it possible or are you lying to us? So it is my idea. So I just come up and say I can do it I think you should think what you are going to do with this. Wow. So your creativity as you said it and people are interested in that as well. Yeah. Wow okay for your business now do you have any people that you have employed at the moment? Okay no I do everything by myself I have not employed anyone at this moment because right now this economic situation you know you can't be employing everyone in your business since in my cake business I manage but if it is someone who is helping me to deliver I employ anybody who can deliver for me the cake because I am always held up between delivering 5 cakes the same day. Wow. So I have somebody to help me deliver the cake but employment about employing somebody I have never even talked about this so I think doing everything by myself I can do it. You can't but as the business grows do you think that that will be possible? Yes of course. So for people who are starting would you also advise that when the business is still small still in the baby stage that they should just do it on their own before they employ someone because when money goes out you really don't make profit or is it by choice? Yeah. So for the people who are in small business like they haven't achieved yet in the business like me I can say I'm not a big business person but I'm trying I'm not perfect. Clearly you're good. So I can tell those people who are in small business I don't think that money will come first so you have to be patient. Be patient with your small business it can take even 5 years for the business to grow you never know so you can find some people who are a business can grow in a year and a business can grow into a year so it depends with how the level of how you push your business so if your business is still young you need to keep going don't give up just keep going and do whatever you can do. Okay. Amazing. Before we wrap up on this I want you to take us through or give a picture of the different kind of businesses because you're in three of them. Maybe someone just wants to be a makeup artist someone just wants to get into the thrift business selling clothes or someone just wants to get into baking give us a feel of the different businesses the spaces let's start with makeup. How is it? For makeup it is good and for makeup it is a long time ago after finishing my makeup training and for makeup it is good and you know right now I can say me not really perfect like 100% because you can find the economic situation you see right now you can find the beauty products have been taxed okay. Every beauty products have gone up so you can find you can be charging a client depending on how you want to charge your client you know. Mostly in my makeup business I am a freelancer makeup artist I don't have a studio I go to a client's house I do the makeup if it is wedding I go to the location of the wedding I do the makeup. In terms of pay does it have good money or is it something that you grow into and once you get somewhere is it like a business you know you have a good brand then you start making money for makeup I can say it has money let me say beauty industry is a multi-millionaire industry you know so everybody does makeup but according to me I can say I am just trying like I am just doing it because makeup is my passion makeup is something that I discovered since when I was so young so I wanted to do this because I love everything about makeup but for now let me say according to the economy right now not everybody can afford to pay makeup like a normal makeup just to go somewhere you can find some people are doing makeup every day so many people decide to just learn how to do their own makeup and do their own makeup like a normal day. Okay all right now on to the thrift business how is it like how do you get the bills, the timber and then you know sell it at a good prices okay for from timber business my thrift business I've been doing for three years and what I do I wake up very early in the morning I go to the combah I pick actually I don't open the whole bill I pick one by one by one I choose so you know I have a taste in choosing something nice so I love something nice when this is nice I take it and I go and sell it so about opening the bills I have not been thinking about that because you can find some bills they can come with what you don't want what I do I go to combah very early in the morning at 5am by 5.30 I am there I start walking around and choose one by one by one I pick I sell dresses and I sell bikinis so I pick everything one by one into combah and it gives you good money it has good profits actually in timber business you need to have a taste in what you are looking for because you can find some things in combah they are so expensive you can find some of the bills over the overpriced but you can find that thing is overpriced but you have to make sure this thing this dress is overpriced but it is very good and it is beautiful it's a very good quality and when you post it someone will buy because people will say that for you to go to combah you need to know the people you need to have your own sports because if you just go there like an ordinary person it will go expensive and everything so what I do I know people there first of all in the beginning when I started it was so difficult knowing people like I get this guy has been opening the bills all the time I pick one by one so you can find somebody who doesn't know can't even talk to you because he or she knows you are a new person here but once you get used to the more you go the more you connect to the people check their numbers talk to them tell them tomorrow morning I am going to come to the market and pick this and this so make sure I am there so you talk to them make the friends with them there is no way you can go to the combah I am going to pick this you have to know people get in sync with them and that's how you build your business slowly and slowly and now the kick business for kick business it is so good I am grateful I love it because sometimes kick business can help you you can relax your mind it is like playing with art, applying butter, cream so you just have to be creative your mind is not thinking too far it is focused on what you are doing you forget your problems you forget everything about the stress and the kick business is so good I am grateful because it has been giving me profit and I have been trying just a year and I have baked enough cakes how many cakes approximately have you baked within this time since it started almost a year now I cannot say how many cakes because I don't even remember how many they are I mean that's a good thing the fact that you can't remember means you have baked a lot and a lot before we close there is this campaign that you are championing for another media interview that you are in for the other media it was the trend I can't really remember but the digital space disability in the digital space getting to work within the spaces and everything according to the enable it is called enable it is a company that supports people with disabilities to help them to improve in their digital platforms like you can find people with disabilities how do they use their digital platform like marketing doing their business that is all about enable so how do they use their phones their laptops their computers communication how can someone who wants to know about it find it if someone wants to know about the campaign ability where can they find this material you can just go to Google and research about the enable I don't have much details about that because I am part of the team I am not I don't know everything about that but I am part of the team they have supported me they have helped me in this journey of knowing a lot of people you can find them on social media they are calling I think they have a social media platform on Instagram and Facebook and also Google website what is that one thing that you would say is your secret or one thing that someone should take away from this interview from how you started your journey in business to where you are now and to where you see yourself in future what is that key thing that you would give us advice to someone watching that's your camera one advice that you would give to someone who is watching regarding taking a leap in business building your business and being successful in business the advice I can give to people outside is that keep doing what you are doing keep moving and doing whatever you want to do and also business can be hard business is not something that you can start today and be successful tomorrow you have to be patient and be consistent with what you do and fall in love with what you do if you have the passion of what you are doing do anything you want don't let your mind stop you for what you want to do don't let your mind stop you from doing what you want to do wow and it's for everyone business thank you very much Lynette, so where can people find you on your social handles you can find me on my Instagram page in Moral Luxury Cakes for Cakes and for Drift it is Summerware Kenya 254 Facebook and Instagram and for make up it's just Lynette Kulola but for Facebook you can say I can tell you it is Glam by Kipulupulu Glam by Kipulupulu you have heard it from Lynette she shared such amazing insights it's very encouraging because we are about to take to eat some good cake right here and the show courtesy of Lynette I hope you have been inspired by it remember the hashtag is one the morning at 1254 channel we are going to take a short break and then Brad and Sakura will be coming up with a very interesting conversation that you definitely don't want to miss see you on the other side