Innovators innovate, Imitators imitate

It is mostly true that “nothing is original” and that every idea is some reincarnation of a previous idea . Just look at all those variations for different abdominal machines on late night infomercials.

Most of the products out there are hardly anything brand new or never seen before ideas. The successful ones are more ‘new & improved’ versions of someone else’s idea. Apple for instance didn’t invent portable music players, Sony came out with the Walkman before them, they just made it damn cooler. They were innovative in the way they paved the way with their branding, their vision, their following.

Customised Boombox Tour Cupcakes!

When you see innovators, you instantly know who they are because they captivate you. Their idea may not be original but you can see, feel, smell that what they are doing is fresh, unusual and contagious. Innovators, in my opinion, are those that are truly passionate about what they do. They don’t do it for money, they don’t do it for fame, they don’t do it for the wrong reasons. They do it because it’s their calling in life, their purpose that needs to be fulfilled. That's why when you see those feel good viral clips on YouTube where they're expressing their passion in an innovative way, they instantly become YouTube sensations.

A month ago we had the awesome opportunity to create some custom cupcakes for the Boombox tour with these amazing talented YouTube stars performing on tour. Many may not know the names Kev Jumba, Niga Higa, Andrew Garcia, Jayesslee but if you're a YouTube addict like me, you will know these names and may even be a huge fan of theirs. Their talent whether it be singing or making you laugh, they are the ones that are following their passion and are innovating new contagious videos to make us feel inspired.

Janice & Sonia have the most amazing voices!

Kev is just hilarious (in person as well).. I was hooked on his hilarious vids whe he just started out and now he's a serious superstar! It actually felt quite surreal to meet him in person.

The innovators are the ones that have others wanting to be like them, imitating them, stalking them. Innovators don’t care. They believe in what they do and look forward to bringing another fresh idea into play, breathing a breath of fresh air into our lives.

Cupcake Central Workshop Store Happenings...

The date for our grand opening launch has been moving around due to our tight schedule for the build. We are hopefully going to get a concrete date to release tomorrow. Our amazing builders are working day and night to get this Workshop open and here are a few details going into our Melbourne Central store...

Straight from England!

Sneak peek of some especially sourced refurbished vintage lights going into our Workshop store.

Just beautiful vintage pendant lights.

How awesome does our new logo look on a stamped coffee cup? It's love.

Building building building! Evolving evolving evolving!

Cupcake Central Workshop is currently nothing but an empty, clean slate but watch this space!

Plans have been approved and the building process has begun! I must admit we were a little optimistic when we set our minds on opening our second store in Melbourne Central on the 1st June but we live & we learn. The second store which we are dubbing The Workshop is smaller than Hawthorn but the investment is much larger....making me just a tad nervous. I just keep telling myself "if we build it, they will come" haha but no seriously, deep down I know that this store will be something very different to anything that has been offered here in Australia. I'm planning to run real workshops for people to enrol in to learn how to bake and decorate cupcakes...but shhh, it's still in the works.

I've been told that the first couple of weeks of build looks like nothing is really happening and then the last week goes BANG, a new store appears. Really hoping this is true.

Alongside the building of the workshop we are slowly rolling out the rebranding of Cupcake Central which is very exciting. Many people ask the question why we are changing our logo and the answer is due to one main reason - we want to keep evolving our brand and as our business has outgrown what we initially designed (due to our limited budget at the start), we are now creating a brand that our business can grow into and grow with!

Have you been to Melbourne Central's new Dining Hall on Level 2 yet? It's been open for a couple of months now and it's gorgeous. Problem is figuring out what to eat!

Brand is important to us because ultimately a brand is what YOU as the customer feels about our product, services, atmosphere and everything in between. Not what some brand expert says it is. So our business has essentially been molded by our customers, every feedback we get to improve, every suggestion, every idea thrown our way - we do try our best to take what we can on board and keep evolving.

Just as an example of our rebranding, here is a sneak peek of our new packaging that just arrived a few days ago. All made out of recycled cardboard. Our new business cards are also made from recycled stock - even though it may have cost us extra to use that material, it's the little things that count and I believe there are other people that will appreciate that.

These boxes were designed specifically for us and are so freaking amazing... embossed and all. As we phase out our old boxes you might be lucky to get one of these pretty boxes before we open the workshop.

We may get a few puzzling looks over the next month as we roll out our new branding but don't be concerned... we're still the same old Cupcake Central...just better - (yes I know it's quite a contradicting sentence). I know I do say it alot but it never gets old...thanks so much for your support either through eating our cupcakes, spreading the word or reading my blog.

Hitting the jackpot!

Late last night I turned on the TV and stumbled across a doco called Lucky on SBS One. It was an interesting doco about how winning the lottery changes these winners' lives and how they deal with going from rags to riches. And let's be honest, we've all at one stage or another dreamed of what it would be like to win the lottery.

- The S'mores cupcake is part of our new Winter Collection of cupcakes -

Imagine living a life where money did not matter. Imagine having all the money you could ever spend and not having to think of working another day in your life. Would you live it differently?

An interesting comment one of the lotto winners made was that after winning the lotto, he didn't have his 'day job' as an excuse not to follow his passion anymore. In some ways, that clicked with me. That fateful day that I lost my job...was just like winning the lotto! Crazy thought.

- Pear Crumble is another addition. Filled with real made-from-scratch Pear Filling, vanilla frosting and rolled in the best serving of again, made-from-scratch crumble -

Sure losing my job is not the same as winning the lotto, I can't go out and buy my dream Aston, Ferarri and Lambo to fill my garage for the hell of it. Can't exactly buy a jet to go on a 'round the world trip either. But it released me from my excuse I had carried along with me... "I can't do it because I'm committed to something else".

- A lovely write up of us in the Melbourne Weekly last week that made our phone ring non-stop for days (no, it wasn't an ad!) -

So amuse yourself and think about what you would do if you won $20 million dollars? Besides from buying all the material things, what would you want to do every day?

That's why I feel like I've hit the jackpot because I would still want to be here building this business.

Our next store in Melbourne Central is set to open in the last week of June 2011. Like our Facebook page for updates.