Meet Thao Armstrong, the founder of Don’t Tell Charles and a leader in the contemporary buttercream cake movement in Australia. In this episode, we’ll learn how she taught herself to bake and decorate cakes, and how one Instagram DM launched her cake decorating workshop business.


We also talk about how her business has evolved over the last six years, and most of all, we share why it’s so important to value your work and get paid for what you do.


To learn more, visit www.teachable.com/eit1.


GUEST SPOTLIGHT: THAO ARMSTRONG

Thao Armstrong is the founder of Don’t Tell Charles and the creator of the original Concrete Cake.


A self-taught cake designer with a background in Landscape Architecture, Thao taught herself to bake cupcakes and macarons, and in 2013, she opened Don’t Tell Charles Coffee & Desserts, a small specialty coffee & dessert shop in the inner suburbs of Melbourne. In 2016 Thao’s focus shifted to cakes and the cafe became Don’t Tell Charles, a designer cake studio specializing in high-end contemporary buttercream cakes.


Thao’s cakes became highly sought after, with clients even flying her internationally to make their wedding cakes. The workshops soon followed with the first ever being held in Singapore in April 2016.


Since then Thao has taught workshops in Sydney, Indonesia, Auckland and London, and close to 100 physical workshops have been held in the Melbourne studio with students flying in from all over the world including the USA, UK, France, Canada, Panama, Argentina, Nigeria, Malaysia and Brazil.


In October 2017, the DTC Online School was established and currently enrols over 6000 students across 6 published courses with many more on the way.