KIRSTEN TIBBALLS - SAVOUR
ON HOW SHE’S SCALED HER ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION-BASED SCHOOL.
Today’s guest is Kirsten Tibballs, founder of Savour; the world’s first online chocolate and patisserie school. You may have seen her as a judge on Masterchef, or know her by her official title The Chocolate Queen.
Kirsten started out 20 years ago by teaching classes to pastry chefs, and since then she’s expanded into a retail store and online school with over 400 tutorials and thousands of subscribers, amassed over 750k followers on Instagram, hosted 3 series of her TV show on SBS, authored multiple books, and worked with brands from Bulla to Bvlgari.
You’ll learn:
How she expanded her offering over the years, from in-person classes, into retail and online
Why she hasn’t updated her online school pricing in 10 years
How she’s able to produce a new online class every single week
Why she credits being fluid and embracing change as being pivotal to her success
How she maintains a strong relationship with her husband, who also happens to be her business advisor
The impact that Masterchef had on her broader business
Why she’s structured her business so that all personal and talent gigs are separate from the online school
We hope you enjoyed this conversation – for more podcast action follow us on Instagram @lady.brains, or sign up to our monthly newsletter at www.ladybrains.com
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“I haven’t had any formal education, even high school because I was unwell as an adolescent. So I just think ‘oh, well, what have I got to lose?’. We just put it all out there, and the response was overwhelming. I knew straightaway I was onto something. ”
“We’ve been going nearly seven years, and we’re really lucky we launched a new website in March 2020, which coincided at the start of COVID. We saw a dramatic increase in subscribers. People had a lot of time, people also couldn’t go out. So, they had to be resourceful with their own cooking abilities. So it was that combination that really worked very well for us. ”
“I’ve got a business that is separate to Savour, which involves all the collaborations. I believe that if I market myself, a percentage of that will certainly lead to retail sales. You’ll get a percentage of those people wanting to do online classes. Masterchef is a tricky one because I think a lot of people watch it because they like to eat, not necessarily recreate or cook themselves. ”
“You need to change to grow. I think that people who are doing the same thing and are successful, are scared to make any alteration to that. But to encourage new customers that may not be familiar with you, you need to offer something that is outside of what you’re currently doing. You need to continuously evolve. I’ve always had that in my head. Maybe it’s based on the fact that I don’t have formal training, I probably don’t look at the figures like I should. I work more on instinct. ”
“You can’t stop learning, regardless of what you do, and you should be open to learn. If you don’t try and apply new things that you learn, it’s very hard to grow in your career or your business. So regardless, I’m a pastry chef, but I learn new things about the computer, or about technology, as well as techniques in the kitchen. That’s what keeps me engaged, energetic and enthusiastic about what I do. ”
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