Gives keynote address for
university’s Global Entrepreneurship Week
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Gina “Gigi” Butler
came to MTSU this week to give students the “unfiltered truth about success,”
while sharing the ups and downs she experienced on her way to founding the
largest cupcake franchise in the country.
The
founder and chief innovation officer for Gigi’s Cupcakes gave the keynote
address for this year’s Global Entrepreneurship Week activities at MTSU, which
included an Entrepreneurship Fair for area high school students Wednesday and
wraps up with guest lectures on Thursday.
Butler
told the crowd of about 150 students gathered Tuesday (Nov. 14) inside the
Student Union Ballroom that at some point in life each of them would need to
reinvent themselves. She recalled a “now what?” stage in her life when she read
every self-help book she could find to broaden her thinking and perspective.
“It’s
painful and it’s hard,” said the Nashville entrepreneur. “But I expanded my
mind and it changed me.”
She
went from starting a gourmet cupcake business almost a decade ago with $33 in
her bank account to franchising a national brand that now has over 100 locations
in 23 states and growing — and 45 million cupcakes sold.
“If
I can do this, then you can do what’s in your
heart,” she said, noting that she got her entrepreneurial spirit from her
father and her love of baking from her mother. “Success happens when you can
successfully transition into something else.”
MTSU’s
Jennings A. Jones College of Business again hosted the weeklong series of events
and guest speakers to promote entrepreneurship, and it follows last month’s
Start It Up Conference featuring “Shark Tank” star Daymond John, who Butler
mentioned in her opening remarks Tuesday.
John
devotes several pages in his new book, “The Power of Broke,” to Butler’s
success story and Butler has asked John to write the foreword to her book that
is scheduled to come out next year. During his visit to Murfreesboro last
month, John shared his story of going from driving cabs in New York to building
the multimillion-dollar FUBU clothing brand.
“He
wasn’t an overnight success and neither was I,” said Butler, who sold her
franchise last year so that she could concentrate on being a “full-time mom” to
her 6-year-old daughter.
Butler’s
journey to success included cleaning toilets for a living and giving up on
dreams of being a country music singer. And it also meant being repeatedly
turned down for loans and leases to open her cupcake business. “But they didn’t
see my vision,” she said.
Butler
shared the story of when her initial career vision, that of being a singer,
vanished. She was running her successful cleaning company at the time and one
day happened to be cleaning the home where a young, aspiring teenager named
Taylor Swift lived. Once Butler heard that voice, she knew it was time for her
to move on.
Along
the way, she even appeared on the CBS reality program “Undercover Boss” in
2015. Other than the birth of her business and her now 6-year-old daughter,
Butler said participating on the television program was the hardest thing she’s
ever done. One of the major lessons she learned from the experience was the
importance of brand consistency and implementing brand standards.
“Branding
to me is everything,” she said, while pointing to the distinctive bags and
boxes Gigi’s uses to package its products.
Before
taking audience questions, Butler gave students her recipe for success: take
the leap (don’t be afraid to fail); respect the power of hard work; be grateful
and thankful; and always give.
Butler’s
story was “very inspiring” to Jones College senior finance major Junie Mendez
of Knoxville, Tennessee, who has dreams of opening up her own coffee shop one
day.
“I
thought that it was great how she said stick to your education to make things
easier on yourself, because that’s very important,” said Mendez, referring to
Butler’s answer to an audience question about what advice she would give
students.
Butler
dropped out of college to pursue her business, but didn’t recommend MTSU students
take that route today because a strong education can help young entrepreneurs
avoid some of the pitfalls she experienced in building Gigi’s.
“There’s
so much risk involved, and like she said, there’s a lot of no’s, but you have
to push through that,” said Mendez, who feels her finance background will be an
important asset in trying to operate a new business.
Speaker
Greg Lewis, CEO of the Nashville-based Tennessee Center for Family Business,
will wrap events up with a public address from 1 to 2 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16,
in the Student Union Ballroom. Lewis, an expert in organizational
management, team building and generational leadership transition, will discuss
the ins and outs of running family-owned businesses.
The
week’s events are being held in conjunction with the annual Global
Entrepreneurship Week, an international celebration of innovators and job
creators held each November.
Gigi
Butler's appearance was being sponsored by the Tennessee Small Business
Development Center based at MTSU, while the Department of Management
committee members coordinating the week's events include chair Josh Aaron,
Stacy Aaron, Kristen Shanine, Ralph Williams, Adam Smith, Pat Geho, and Jinxing
Yue.
Off-campus
visitors attending the speaking events should obtain a special one-day permit
from MTSU’s Office of Parking and Transportation at http://www.mtsu.edu/parking/visit.php.
A searchable campus parking map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap.
For
more information, contact Stacy Aaron at 615-494-7708 or email stacy.aaron@mtsu.edu.
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