Entrepreneurship in Mauritius w/ Lexia Hin: Wedding Designer + Cafe Owner

Tune in or read the blog version below!

This week on The Wanderlover Podcast, we have Lexia Hin, our first international guests from Mauritius and bonus points if you know where Mauritius is!

She’s a serial entrepreneur close friend and past client who started a wildly successful cake and wedding planning business, and just open her own Bali inspired cafe.

Welcome Lexia!

Lexia: Hello.

Danielle: How are you doing?

Lexia: I’m great. I’m super great.

Danielle: I’m so excited today for this podcast.

Lexia: So I’m a bit nervous, but I think it’s fine.

Danielle: Yeah, you’ll be so great. And I’m really excited to have you on here. And Lexia currently is located in Mauritius, so first guest from Africa. And we’re just so curious about where you grew up, what life is like there. Can you please tell us a little bit about how entrepreneurship is in your country?

Life in Mauritius

Lexia: All right. So first of all, Mauritius, a lot of people don’t know where Mauritius is, nearby the Indian Ocean. We have a lot of beautiful seaside, but it’s a little Island where you can have like good food, a lot of beach. Shopping center, good food, good restaurants. There’s a lot of things. And entrepreneurship here it’s quite crazy. So a lot of people are, want to have a lot of creative idea to do their own stuff and not to have a nine to five job. So I feel like, yeah. Everyone wants to be entrepreneur.

And just to let you know, we have, it’s a mix multi-cultural Island. So like some French, we have some, a lot of different types of white people. We have African, we have Indian and Chinese. My background is a Chinese, but we only have like 3% of Chinese in Mauritius. So, which is really, really less.

Danielle: Wow. Yeah. What, what city are you in?

Lexia: So it’s like 10 minutes from the capital, which is the Port Louis. Yeah. So I’m near the beach, but we have a different sector life, the central, we have North to South, but I’m in the North.

Danielle: Amazing. And what languages do you speak on a day-to-day basis?

Lexia: Our language is more French. So we use French and we also speak English, but our national language is the Creole. So Creole is a mix of African words with French and English all mixed together. So it’s like the Creole that, you know, in a lot of African country tours, I know they speak Creole and the Caribbean. Yes. Like French and Creole mixed together and English, African words.

Danielle: That is so cool. I really hope to visit one day.

Lexia: Well, sure. Beautiful beaches. You will love it.

Danielle: Okay. So I would love to get to know more about you. You have an amazing story. I’m sure the audience would love to just hear how unique entrepreneurship is in, where you grew up and how you overcame the obstacles in your life. So would you like to tell us a bit about your entrepreneurship journey?

Lexia’s Story

Lexia: So first of all, my entrepreneurship journey was not so smooth and easy. I started just age of 16 years old and I grew up with negativity. That’s why entrepreneurship actually saved my future and my career. So when I start school, age 16, I got bullied for nearly six years when I was in high school, because I was always different.

I loved to cook. I love to do like watch a lot of cooking, cooking experience or TV shows or baking than going to clubs. I was always different. My style was different. I was like a very good girl, not many friends. And I feel like how I stopped school and doing my own business was because I was posting on Facebook, my food and my cakes. And I got a lot of social virtual friends. And here’s why I say I don’t want to continue school and waste my time to have a degree or a paper when I want to work for myself.

I was really stable at the time. And I said to myself, I just want to do some cakes and have like a lot of people love my cakes likes. And I said, okay, let me do that. But it was really difficult at the time, because especially behind like an Asian background, their parents don’t really understand, Oh, you’re stopping school at age 16. Like, I think you’re crazy. And I go, you can’t do that except you’re barely like a rich man. When I said, no, I really want to have myself have big house, have my own company. But I was just 16 and people don’t was not really say, Oh, I think you’re crazy. You will just mess up your future.

But I was so stubborn at that time. Then I said, no, I want go to school again. I really wanted to cakes. I did it. So I was, my parents didn’t force me to go back to school, but they did say, okay, you want to be in other life. So you go to take like internship at pastry shops. So I went through an internship of six months with a French chef, but in a French chef, they had the reputation, which is so harsh and rude, especially friends. So I work for three times a week for six months and I was getting paid just so it’s 1000, 2000 rupees, which is us dollar just 60 us dollars a month.

I just started like, so at that time, my parent was a bit angry. Is there you, life is so difficult and life is so difficult to add money. If you want to have your own car or buy a lot of things. So I say, it’s okay, let me start my $60 a month. That was my first job. I said, okay, but I did ascend like it’s so like an unfair to be paid like this, you know, I was doing like an aside, some cake orders, but I just started to do a cake and just put 200, 300 profit on a cake, which is 200 rupees in dollars.

Just like less than $10, $5 for a cake like profit, which is so ridiculous. Right. I put like $5 to make a kid that I baked for four hours, but I started really like it, it was not stupid. It was like at the start, I didn’t know really what I was doing, but now I have 12 years of entrepreneurship and I talked to myself. I started from nothing from scratch. I did a lot of things and my routine was 6:00 AM to midnight, everyday working Monday to Sunday, it is my normal days and my normal routine.

And I was like, I was not tired. I was excited to make a lot of money to be able to invest in my cake, supplies, cake items, my decoration. But I was saying like, I want to be different. So after free years for the three years, I just invest in my equipment or my profit. And then four years of my lives, I traveled the world alone. Most of the time I was learning travel to Asia. So I traveled to Singapore, Malaysia and Bangkok, and a lot of cakes, celebrities, which they travel.

They travel to the Asia app to be able to get a crash course classes. And for me it was more affordable for me. But at that time, a lot of people before like, Oh, I have a lot of money. I can travel. It was not the case. So what I was doing is like working like hell for four months, seeming that they only need the accommodation and the class for one day. And it cost cost. The price of the class will want, it was like $1,000 for one day and you need to add the accommodation, the food and everything. So it was quite costly, but I did it for four years.

I was so dedicated. I, I learned a lot of things from them and I visited a lot of places as well is how I became more independent in my entrepreneurship. But I learned with a lot of basic as well. So from that, I fall in love in sugar flowers. So my special ideas is to make sugar out of flowers. So I did sugar flowers then moved to wedding cakes. And then, you know, slowly you just put the flow. So wedding can become wedding stylist means like I even learned from someone, so she studied us and I learned the flow arrangement means I was doing the arch.

We have so many beautiful beach. So you have a lot of tourists who came to Mauritius and who wants a beautiful decoration. So I was doing a lot of modern designs for them, with art of bridal bouquets and the wedding cake and so on. So cakes became wedding cakes. And then I was, I was the first one in planning versus who can provide all that service during the wedding cakes, during the flower arrangement and organize a full wedding and for three years of my life.

So the three last years, it was like the boom. We are doing a lot tourist, like a lot of stuff. Australian European tourists come to Mauritius for the wedding. And until last year Covid crushed everything. And that’s when we met, we came into each other’s lives because I met you in the right time. So you boost me a lot.

And I say, what can I do after that terrible COVID situation? Because a lot of, you know, this wedding businesses just crash actually temporary for at least two years, I guess. So you inspire me a lot. So I did a lot of coaching to be able to sustain my business because I have 16 staff full-time and freelancers. So it was really hard, but I did a lot of masterclass do teaching as well until now.

So I did a beautiful catheter restaurant inspired from Bali, but that is my last project that I did already two months. But it’s a new challenges.

Danielle: That is amazing. You have such an incredible story and the resilience is what I admire the most about you. Like after every struggle, you find a way to overcome it, no matter what you go through, you always try harder. And that is something, all entrepreneurs, all successful entrepreneurs need to have and not give up when they face failure.

Lexia: Yeah. Yeah. I keep moving. It’s like you have a lot of up and down like good thing. That thing happened. There’s a lot of stress, but I tried to manage everything and try to balance everything and sitting there, I can’t give up, you know, I started in 16. I kind of just like, Oh, already just mess with my things. You know, especially I just opened a wedding gallery before Corona is, I bet. So beautiful gallery with a lot of flowers, a lot of cakes thinking like tourists would comes to merge. And then finally I said, okay, but I say, it’s fine.

Bali Cravings by Lexia

Just temporary. So let’s see a new challenge, but that restaurant represented a lot of things. Because for example, we decorate the cafe ourself, a lot of DIY, a lot of volunteers and friends. And a lot of people ask me, Oh, who is the designer? But we don’t have any designers. So what I have in my head, I implement that in my cafe. And especially, you know, my coffee is inspired from my travels, you know, especially when I went to Bali, so the name of the cafe is called Bali Cravings by Lexia.

And everyone knows like Lexia loves flowers, loves pink, loves luxury. So my pathway, if you see my cafe, there’s a lot of pain of gold of marble, there’s a lot of tropical leaves everywhere, a lot of dreams as well.

So it’s a beautiful concept. I find unique in rushes and because I love beauty, I open a, a beauty salad in the cafe called Self-Care Cocoon by Lexia.

Danielle: Amazing. I love that name, Self-Care Cocoon.

Lexia: Because I want to pamper a lot of people, especially as entrepreneurs, we don’t have to, we don’t have time to pump that out ourselves. So I want to change that and has it, so one other I’m just have 15 minute break. I just go to my self-care. I could in beauty, a salad and just go to do a massage. You know, like today I finished my work. I said, I said to my trap is just do like a 10 minute massage on my neck.

It was so like simple, but like I wanted like, you know, when your client come here, they come for a lunch and then they have their mani pedi, or they come for a mani pedi and then come to lunch. So, so a cool concept that I have it inspired from Bali , and this is what I really want to share to people. Especially, you know, when I went to Bali, I went to a lot of cafe, like kind of community, which is vegan cafe, which is really popular in Bali.

So inspired my concept of them. But I did it fully because nourishing people don’t really believe in the vegan. So mine is flexitarian cafe means you have a vegan food, gluten-free lactose intolerant, but you have also good food, which is not a vegan, which is super helpful because. You will see all of our food has super seeds. We have so many good superfoods or even the desserts.

And it’s healthy at the same time. And I really want advocate a healthy, anything nourishes. This is what I want.

Danielle: Yeah, I’ve definitely been on your Instagram. And we are going to link all of your socials for the wedding planning and for your cafe so everyone can take a look at just how you so effortlessly captured the essence of Bali. And I love that international aspect of your cafe too. It just embodies every single aspect of you. And I just want the audience to know, because I feel like you have so many years of experience, but you are still so young. Do you mind sharing how old or around how old you are right now?

You Can Succeed At Any Age

Lexia: So I just celebrated my 26 years old, 27 years old, this, this December. I started age of 16 by myself. And I feel that I’m really major for my age. Like I can be 26, but a lot of people say, I look 23 years.

Danielle: Yeah. You definitely look a lot younger. I think those are the Asian genes.

Lexia: Yeah. So yeah, so we take really good care of our skin and eating good, healthy food also make difference. So yeah, a lot of people follow it. I’m 22, 23, but no I’m 26.

Danielle: It’s still so young, especially with all the experience you have. And I’m just curious, do you ever feel like age is a factor? So if a wedding planning a wedding planner or one of your clients comes to you and she’s like, oh, you are in charge of this whole operation. Do you ever get pushback or anything related to your age?

Lexia: Of course. So I think when I started, like 16 to 20 was the most difficult because I got people came to my gallery, I was at my parents’ place and I have a mini studio there, so people can like, Oh, are you Lexia? Are you doing the cake? I say yes. And they feel like you you’re still a kid. So you will do a wedding for my daughter.

I know they all like, oh no, we need to have a professional, like a 30, 40, but no, you know, so, but I feel now the motion, people, everyone, the multicultural people, they really understand because I already bit, my name, everyone knows I started so young and at a time there’s a lot of article on me.

Even yesterday. I had someone who came and did an article on me for the newspaper. I started so young and I feel like now people are so impressed how young I reached at that point doing or that businesses. And it is so difficult to understand like, Oh, you’re so young and you’ll be able to do all of this things. And I even had some diversity. I know him. And I say, Oh yeah, that has no, my friend. And I even did your wedding cake and even your birthdays for your son and daughter. And he was so shocked, he forgot about me.

And I thought, this is the same Lexia ordering the cake. I said, yes. And he asked oh, how you do all this? And I say, but it’s, it’s just like, you know, because I’m so motivated in that job that I feel like, you know, I can do, I’m a superwoman. I can do everything. But I feel like now people are okay before I have a lot of judgment. You look so young to be able to do that.

I’m no more having the issue. I think when I was 16 to 20, I have a lot of these issues about the age, but now I think reaching 26 is still like, you know, it’s like a young woman because whenever you’re a teenager, yes, people will talk about you. Like, you don’t know how to work, blah, blah, blah. But now I feel, especially I give classes, I feel like now people are reading, respect my age, respect my way, our thinking and my opinion.

Danielle: Yeah. And to all the teenagers listening to this show, Lexia is the perfect example. Like it is never too early to start. You will overcome all the challenges and you are capable of so much success.

Lexia: Exactly. And you know, in my cafe, there’s one quote, which is you are capable to do amazing things. So that is the that I have behind my pin wall, wherever and take pictures.

And I have another quote wall and we put like dare to dream because when I was 16, I was daring to dream a lot of dreams and vision. So I believe in the law of attraction. So I did a lot of a law of attraction. I visioned a lot of things and all my vision came to reality.

So I put like, dare to dream to inspire all the young people who are not getting the support of the family or the friends or the parents, especially that you can dare to dream because you can do everything that you want. You just need to work really hard.

And the last quote to the back of my pink wall with the tropical leaves is create your reality because we are the only one to create our own reality because we are the only one who can create your destiny. So I feel like it’s, we just need to work so hard. And the university gives us a lot of good thing and set us beautiful, like a lot of good luck, blah, blah, blah.

And then you just attract a lot of good things happening to you. Be patient. And wait. I feel like hard work pays off one day. It’s like now I worked so hard when I was 16 and now my workspace off people’s coming, you know, I don’t need to pay like no newspaper to do. Like publicity. People will come to me. I don’t need to like, you know, do a lot of marketing for a cafe. The cafe is always full. So I’m so grateful for that.

Everything Is Possible

Danielle: Right. And I love it. So a mix of what to feed your mind in your case, manifestation, vision boarding and the law of attraction. Like thinking about what you want, because you only have so many thoughts in a day. So if you feed your mind, if you were to have like COVID affected you or your age affected you, you would not have taken the actions necessary to build this amazing life that you have today.

Lexia: It is, everything is possible. I just need to say everything is possible. Like that cafe. I built it in three months from scratch. I didn’t sleep, but it is okay because I really wanted to open before December. So we opened in December last year and I started on the 8th of August.

It’s three months. Day-to-day night, day, and night work, but also happy. It’s really worth it. Like seeing all these people come and, you know, taking pictures like embodies. And when I went to Bali, like everyone come to take the picture in so many cafes. And like people laughing, taking pictures, like tagging us. So we are growing super fast.

Danielle: That’s amazing too. And just watching the process on your stories behind the scenes, you were painting the leaves on the wall, like so much of you and your effort is physically your own cafe.

We did everything like even tables. We try to reuse what we have. For example, the table, they have the old green light. We want to remove that. I put like a normal, very trending marbles top, but then we stick onto wood and our friends came to glue.

I think social media is so powerful. Like I’m looking volunteers on Instagram to help me to build my beautiful cafe. And I got like a lot of people who came to help me like stranger and now friends. So especially I got four new friends. They came to everyday daily, the weeks, even the work, they came weekends to help me to paint. And now so crazy people come to take pictures.

But when you see overall is all bland because it is a travel experience. Because even the food you have is a mix. You know, you like, you have Korean, Japanese, Asian fusion, you have Italian, you have Mexican. And I need to say as well, you inspire me a lot. I think if I never take the coaching with you, I will never open that cafe.

And I thought I can be, but I don’t say no, maybe one day, but I feel like each version of COVID is very difficult to go out of Mauritius. And the currency is so expensive. You need to have at least $2,000 to $3,000. So it is very difficult right now. So I say, I want to do something like people can travel with me. This is why I want to have a travel food place, rather because we can’t travel right now.

Danielle: I love. And you always find a way to create something when there seems to be everything going against you. So in terms of this cafe, it’s like a Lotus flower. That’s what it reminds me of.

Lexia: It is my, it is my Buddhism representation. You see my logo.

How To Fuel Your Creativity

Danielle: And one last question, because after this whole conversation, you are just such a creative, it comes so naturally to you. You always look at the bright side and how you can create something from nothing. And I want to ask you, how do you stay creative or fuel your creativity?

Lexia: So I think that it’s still very young. I was a very creative person. And I think this is a gift that I have, because if I’m very hard time like now to cover covet, even stress, I feel like, okay, now I have 16 people and in my head, I’m not alone. If I give up, I need to fire everyone.

And you know, it is so difficult for them. So I said to myself, I need to stay creative, doing a lot of new things and not a cafe to be able to assess in everyone’s family, but also for me, because if I give up, I stopped everyone. And I will say, Oh, I did all this for nothing. So I want to keep being creative. I’m not forcing myself. I just feel like when I’m inspired, like do I got inspired from Pinterest? I’m going to spell from all my travels, especially all my travel, because when I travel even alone or with my husband, especially to Bali, I saw so many things that I say, Oh, I want to do that.

For example, I love the way, I don’t know if you know Cafe Organic, you have champions in Bali. So I totally love there. Quinoa sushi. But I love the concept that it’s like a healthy sushi. You have like, you know, a sushi there, or you have as well. Botega in Canggu, which is a very little restaurant. Now. I think they open a bigger one, but they did like fresh pasta. So I really want to implement that fresh pasta in my menu. So that is a way to be being creative. So inspire from of as the not coffee, I don’t want to, I really want to be inspired from them.

Especially I went to five elements. I don’t know if you know, five elements in Ubud, which is so beautiful. I learn with the chef there for two days when I went in back. And I went for two days doing in class. I will never expect that that class will use me now because I learned to do the vegan pizza.

And I learned how I could make the dumpling vegan. And when you eat that, even a non-vegan people, we really totally be very in love in that food because it’s so tasty. So I learned that, and I now it’s my signature dish. So I think like, and I really wanted to be special in my food, in my appearance. Like, you know, I’m always like with makeup, like fancy bows or, you know, it’s something I’m really different to the others. Most of the time people say, Oh, are you Korean or Japanese? Because you’re so different from the Asian version. And I said, no, I’m just because I love travel.

I buy all my clothes obviously is online. I’m really in, in love with all the travel experience where, where I fulfill my creativity.

Danielle: I love it. What is also so inspiring about you is you made creativity work for you and in entrepreneurship, there really, you cannot copy someone else to be successful. That just does not work. And in so many cultures, I feel like it’s, there’s a stigma to creativity. Like at least when I grew up in an Asian household, it was like, you can’t make a living from being creative, but in entrepreneurship, creativity is the one thing that will set you apart and create, you know, a brand new idea and manifest it into this physical world, from ideas or from your mind, you know, like you are the first person to bring it to life.

Lexia: Yeah. Thank you. But I’m really grateful that I met you in the right timing. Even I was stressed about that covet problem, but I feel like everything happens for a reason. I bought you ever. This is how I met you. And then we have a power call. And then I did the coaching with you. And now that coaching, like, especially to websites.

So my website, I got a lot of compliments, Oh, who’s doing your website, who’s doing your designer. So it’s us. It’s like all in house. It’s impress everyone even for so islands too much with you and from you. And I’m so grateful for that, Danielle. So you can imagine, I always call The Wanderlover. She’s so great.

Final Thoughts

Danielle: And is there anything else you want us to know to leave this podcast episode?

Lexia: Yeah. I just want to say to all people who’s listening, especially people who is really stressed because of COVID. You just need to follow your heart.

Because if I didn’t feel in my heart, when I see my parents, I want to stop school and do my cakes. I will never reach where I am now because I got so many people say to me, like I will never succeed in my life. And what I did is when other people say I will never succeed. I put in my head, I will succeed. So I did the opposite thing that they say to me. And when I reached now, I’m really grateful. And also sometimes I’m impressed with myself. Oh, I can I just say, like, just follow your heart, do whatever you want. And don’t just listen to people who say, you need to go see finance or accounting.

And if you want you to something, just follow it, but work really hard because if you’d done work hard, nothing will come hard. Work always be that’s it. That’s my last words. Well, hard work pays off. That’s my secret.

Danielle: It is so powerful and just so true. Thank you so much for all your wisdom and that is it for today’s show guys. I hope you follow Lexia, follow along her journey. Take a look on her Instagram of her cafe. It is absolutely beautiful. And thank you so much for being here, Lexia.

Lexia: Welcome. It was a great pleasure as well.

Stay tuned for next week’s episode and have an amazing week guys!

If you’ve enjoyed this episode, it would mean so much if you could leave a review on Apple Podcasts. This helps us spread The Wanderlover mission to those who need a dose of inspiration today, thank you!

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