In her new book The Secret Ingredient, Gigi Butler of the uber successful Gigi’s Cupcakes shares her personal success story, her hard-won business acumen, and the life-changing inspiration that she’s gained from a challenging life. Each chapter includes a delicious dessert recipe for cupcakes and more!
In The Secret Ingredient, Gigi shares how her failure led her to explore her passion for baking and how she became a successful businesswoman. With a good dose of humor, 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.
As a young child, Gigi Butler 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. She cleaned houses by day and took every singing opportunity she could find by night. But when she found herself still doing the same thing at age thirty, she realized that God had better 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. 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.
Author quotes
Step out on faith and go for it. Don’t be afraid to take the leap. If you don’t take chances you don’t win - period!
I am truly living the American Dream. I am so blessed to be able to do what makes me happy and make a product that so many people really enjoy.
At the beginning, I did a little bit of everything. I'd be whipping up a batch of frosting, then have to run to a meeting, and then do paperwork. Now we have a great team to do all of those jobs, and my role is to be the face of the brand.
I still want to be everywhere, all at once, making sure everything is perfect, because this business is my baby — it has my name on it.
No matter how big we get, I'll always make time to put on my apron and whip up a batch of frosting, because that's what I love to do.
About the author
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.
Why LoA loves it….
There is nothing quite like getting inspiration from a fellow woman entrepreneur who has started a business from scratch and bootstrapped her way to major success. It gives hope to all those who are on a similar journey. Gina Butler’s story is seriously inspirational, and is a great example of ‘she who dares, wins’. She hit on a great idea, had the vision to think big, and today is building one of the most successful brands and business models in her space. Her book is a great read for all those women entrepreneurs who share similar aspirations in the world of business and brand building, and who want to see that anything is possible. --- Melanie Hawken, founder and ceo of Lionesses of Africa