{"id":25700,"date":"2026-07-10T13:28:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebusinessculture.co.uk\/hey\/?post_type=good-news&p=25700"},"modified":"2026-07-10T13:33:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:33:14","slug":"its-more-than-just-cake","status":"publish","type":"good-news","link":"https:\/\/thebusinessculture.co.uk\/hey\/good-news\/its-more-than-just-cake\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s More Than Just Cake\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Because people buy from people.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working for yourself can be hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You live and breathe your business every single day and, more often than not, you\u2019re doing it on your own. It\u2019s easy to become wrapped up in your own little bubble, so a few years ago I decided I needed to push myself outside of my comfort zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was already a member of Women in Business Hull and Hull Businesswomen\u2019s Breakfast Club which I adore, but just over two years ago I walked into my first The Business Culture HEY event not really knowing anyone or quite what to expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It felt like a completely different ball game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The room was bigger, there were far more people and, if I\u2019m honest, it felt a little intimidating. Believe it or not, I\u2019m actually quite shy until I get to know people, and talking about myself has never come naturally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many people at networking events, I wondered whether I\u2019d spend the morning awkwardly clutching a coffee, introducing myself to strangers and hoping the conversation didn\u2019t dry up too quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully, I couldn\u2019t have been more wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I found was a room full of people who were genuinely interested in getting to know one another. There were no hard sells, no pressure and no feeling that everyone was there simply to see what they could get out of the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, it was about conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last couple of years, those conversations have turned into relationships. Some have become customers, some have become collaborators and some have become genuine friends. That\u2019s something I never expected when I first walked through the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the owner of Elliegantly Made, people often assume I\u2019m simply \u2018the cake lady\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I always smile when people say that because, whilst cakes are what I create, they\u2019re only part of what I do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth is, I\u2019m in the people business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, I make wedding cakes, celebration cakes and work with some fantastic corporate clients, but my job has never really been about eggs, flour or buttercream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s about people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s about listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether I\u2019m sitting down with a couple planning one of the biggest days of their lives, helping a family celebrate a special birthday, or working with a business to create something that reflects their brand, it always starts in exactly the same place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to understand what matters to them, what they\u2019re trying to achieve and how I can help bring that to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cake is simply the end result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, building trust has always been far more important than making a sale. If people feel listened to, understood and looked after, everything else naturally follows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s one of the reasons I\u2019ve always enjoyed being part of The Business Culture HEY. The focus isn\u2019t on selling. It\u2019s on building relationships. The business comes naturally afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One recent event, \u201cHow Business Is Really Won\u201d with Tony Bowler and Bob Spence, really brought that home for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There wasn\u2019t a magic sales formula or a revolutionary new technique. Instead, it was a reminder that, despite all the technology, automation and AI available to us, business is still built on trust, credibility and genuine human connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll say it again\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People buy from people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a phrase we hear all the time, but hearing it brought to life through stories and real experiences made it land in a completely different way. It reinforced something I\u2019d already believed for years and gave me confidence that the way I\u2019ve built my business really is the right way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I came away inspired, not because I\u2019d learnt how to sell more cakes, but because it reinforced something I\u2019ve believed ever since I started my business over fifteen years ago. The best opportunities rarely come from trying to make a sale. They come from taking the time to build a relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ironically, that\u2019s exactly what happened after the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I shared a few thoughts on LinkedIn about what I\u2019d taken away from the morning. It wasn\u2019t planned, and it certainly wasn\u2019t written with the hope of getting noticed. It was simply an honest reflection on what I\u2019d learnt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To my surprise, Michelle got in touch afterwards to say I\u2019d captured exactly what The Business Culture HEY is all about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That message made me smile because it confirmed what I\u2019d felt from my very first event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Culture isn\u2019t really about networking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s about people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s about creating an environment where conversations happen naturally, relationships develop over time and opportunities grow from trust rather than transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back, it\u2019s funny how things come full circle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I walked into my first Business Culture HEY event hoping simply to meet a few local businesses and challenge myself to step outside my comfort zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years later, I\u2019m writing this blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a better example of what genuine relationships can lead to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not because of the business I\u2019ve gained, although that\u2019s certainly been a bonus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But because of the people I\u2019ve met, the conversations I\u2019ve had and the reminders, like that recent event, that no matter what industry we\u2019re in, business will always be about people first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything else follows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because people buy from people. Working for yourself can be hard. You live and breathe your business every single day and, more often than not, you\u2019re doing it on your own.","protected":false},"author":12313360,"featured_media":25701,"template":"","good_news_category":[],"class_list":["post-25700","good-news","type-good-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessculture.co.uk\/hey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/good-news\/25700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessculture.co.uk\/hey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/good-news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessculture.co.uk\/hey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/good-news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessculture.co.uk\/hey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12313360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessculture.co.uk\/hey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/good-news\/25700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25702,"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessculture.co.uk\/hey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/good-news\/25700\/revisions\/25702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessculture.co.uk\/hey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessculture.co.uk\/hey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"good_news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebusinessculture.co.uk\/hey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/good_news_category?post=25700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}