A Hip Baker's Perspective on WonderRigor?

This article is part of a series of WonderRigor?stories from a range of practitioners. Read this?short summary of WonderRigor? ?and also?watch the video . You can find other WonderRigor? stories here .

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Cake Life is hip.??It’s the kind of bakery that’s still open at 9:15pm on a Friday night in Fishtown, one of Philadelphia’s up and coming neighborhoods.??While Cake Life sells amazing lemon bars, whimsical cupcakes and chocolate tortes, it can also hold its own among the trendy restaurants, bars and gyms along Frankford Avenue. It’s a place of interest.

The reason is in large part due to its owners, Lily Fischer and Nima Etemadi who incorporate their own versions of wonder and rigor on a daily basis into Cake Life.??They met in college and were always drawn to each other because they were the yin to the other’s yang. Where Lily describes herself as “organized chaos”, Nima is inclined to order and structure.???“Nima and I have always been schemers.??Nima was straight laced- I was not,” Lily says with a smile.?

Origin Story & Intuition

After college, they took separate paths: Lily worked as a nursery school teacher and Nima as an editor at the fine art photography magazine, Aperture.??Independently of each other, they each quit their regular 9-5 jobs to enroll in culinary school to focus on baking and pastry.?

One of the things that comes up repeatedly in their origin story is the role of intuition, and “feeling each other out”, to build their business.??For example, while Lily was in culinary school at the Art Institute of Philadelphia, she became a contestant on the Cupcake Wars?TV show- and won!??Two years later when she was invited back for the “champion” show, she asked Nima to join her.??Intuition played a major role as they anticipated each other’s moves: “It was only our 3rd time ever baking together-??on national TV.??… (and) we realized we really meshed.”??They won 2nd place.??

But, that public baking experience didn’t quite seal the deal to go into business together.??They knew that “business partnerships can be perilous”.??So they took a few more months to collaborate on projects, with Nima commuting down to Philly on weekends from NYC testing the waters and asking themselves “Can we really work together?” before finally deciding to be business partners.??

The ability to pause and pivot can help manage risk.

A more recent example of intuition in their work was when they decided in the 11th hour?not to sign off on a business deal that would mean expansion into a 2nd retail location.??They were both having similar misgivings about moving forward on the deal- except that these were internal conversations, in their heads. They were not speaking out loud to each other the nagging doubts they each harbored about the deal.??Finally, Lily spoke about her misgivings: how could a deal that looked so good on paper, not feel right in her gut???To her relief Nima blurted “I feel the same way!”??They decided not to move forward with the expansion and Nima’s dad later shared that he was proud of their ability to pause and pivot, in spite of the money they had spent.??“Not yet” was the best answer.??Realizing that they weren’t ready to take on additional risk and that there was so much more to develop at the current location crystalized the advantage to follow their intuition, and speak it out loud.??

WONDER + RIGOR in Action

Now, six years in to their business (and two years after opening their storefront), they finally have the right teams in place and think of themselves as “artistic directors” of their bakery business.??Lily and Nima see a pathway that their business has taken through the WonderRigor? matrix.??

They started out in Hacker mode, where, in the very early stages of the business, “we totally faked it ‘til we made it”. They then migrated to the Provoke zone, in the planning stages of their business.??Keep in mind that they bought their current retail location almost three years prior to actually opening up the bakery. It took time to refine the vision.??Upon opening the retail storefront, they Specialized: sharpening details around product, pricing and staffing.?For example, should a particular dessert require 30 grams of flour, or 35 grams? Now, they believe they are transitioning into the Invent mode.??They are figuring out where each of them is best used.??They think that?wonder is Lily’s domain, and?rigor is more of Nima’s domain. In fact, Nima discussed taking 2 weeks to do a deep dive into their accounting books. And that is in large part thanks to having done all of the ground work of wonder?and?rigor to get their business operating as a well-oiled machine.?

It took wonder and rigor to get their business running as a well-oiled machine.

Both Lily and Nima talk about?wonder in terms of whimsy: “A bakery is a whimsical place… and food is an emotional thing for people.??It’s a way we punctuate life’s experiences. Now with the retail space we get to see that in action- which we didn’t see as much with the commercial kitchen,” said Nima.????

Lily shared that a huge moment of wonder for her was in actually opening the retail bakery shop- it was the fulfillment of years of rigor. “We always had the attitude to ‘think big’ tempered by budget.??If you’re not dreaming, then the whimsy won’t get in.??Most of the whimsy doesn’t make sense- but it’s an important place to start.”?

WonderRigor? Lessons from Lily & Nima of Cake Life

1. Partnership?

The right partnership helps to balance wonder & rigor.??Says Lily: “We understand now that we don’t?bothneed to be working on wonder at the same time.??So partnership is golden! If I was going about this solo, I would have to be preoccupied with rigor before getting to wonder.”??

2. The pursuit of wonder and rigor never ends.??

Once you master one aspect of the business, another learning is around the corner.??For example, Nima has committed to take time away from the bakery to do a deep dive study of their financial accounts.

3. Rigor allows for more wonder.?

“It feels like this is the first time we have breathing room as owners; we no longer are constantly putting out fires.”??They acknowledge that this is because of all the time they spent on the details of putting teams, process and procedure in place.?They now get to revisit some of the wackier ideas that take them to wonder mode.??For example, a recent conversation evolved around “What if we put a walk-in fridge in our office? Or in the parking lot?”??They can delve into such questions now because their teams produce at such high volume.?

So- What's your take on WonderRigor?? Please add to the comment section below.

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About the Author

Natalie Nixon is the creativity whisperer to the C-Suite, Founder & CEO of Figure 8 Thinking , a global keynote speaker and an award winning author . Subscribe to her?Ever Wonder…? ?newsletter?for more great content?and follow her @natwnixon.