Explore every episode of the podcast Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 237. Baking it Down - Once a Year Cookie College Stealios | 18 Nov 2025 | 01:50:59 | |
🎓 Cookie College - Vendy Blendy Deals Breakdown. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 237 - The Cookie College Stealios, Corrie and I go through our Vendy Blendy 2025 Cookie College offerings, and... ️🥁️🥁️🥁 drumroll please... they're once-a-year good. 🎓 The Cookie College - $64/mo or $576/yr The best product we offer is The Cookie College (typically $76/mo, but on sale on Black Friday for $64/mo or $576/yr, which takes it down to $48/mo). It's the best because it gets everything we offer, including its own proprietary content (the marketing courses and private FB group).
If you bought these separately, it'd be $187 in membership costs per month, plus the $300 for each year of the Cookie Class Kits. Those are our prices for 50.9 weeks of the year. But for ONE day, you can get all of that for our lowest monthly price - $64/mo. But wanna save even more?? When you sign up for a yearly membership for $576 on Black Friday (usually $760), you automatically get THREE months free. That takes the monthly equivalent to $48/mo. That's the cheapest you'll ever get the Cookie College. 🎓 The Cookie Class Kits - $44/mo The Cookie Class Kit is discounted too - you can get the 2025 Class Kits (there are currently 12 of them that'll archive on January 7th) for just $44/mo (usually $63/mo). Per class, that's just $5.25 a class! The class kits are the curriculum you'd need to teach an in-person cookie class. For reference, we taught a private in-home class (listen to last week's podcast Episode 235 and 236 for more on that), and cleared 10 tickets at $85/ea plus a DIY kit for $35/ea. That's gross $885 just from teaching a cookie class. Those classes included in this membership are:
✅ Each class includes the photography of the class, the video step-by-step tutorials, the social media posts and stories, the Eventbrite cover and listing info, the email copy, the social media copy, the step-by-step PowerPoint, the bake math spreadsheet for planning, the Eddie outline prints, and the supply lists to recreate the class setup yourself. We also throw in printables like a custom piping practice sheet and coloring sheet. | |||
| 236. Baking it Down - The Most BORING Podcast Ever Recorded | 11 Nov 2025 | 01:32:46 | |
☝️ Private Class Pt 2 - A BORING podcast. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 236 - The Most BORING Podcast Ever Recorded, I paid my nephew (Corrie's son, Archer) $10 to do the podcast intro (and just when you thought no one could talk faster than Heather), and we recapped the private in-home cookie class we taught last week. Also, (hilariously and probably not totally wrong), someone texted into the podcast that it was boring - ergo the name of this week's episode. 👩🏫 The Private Cookie Class - Pt 2 Of course, not everything went according to plan, and I think that's the value of the podcast - listening to what not to do and what to take into consideration. Here's what I'd consider more closely if we did this again:
🟠 The Vendy Blendy - Pt 2 The Vendy Blendy is just 16 (basically no 15) days away, and we've got a really stellar lineup (list below). You can find out everything you need to know here:
Tomorrow, Thursday, 🎓 I'll cover the Vendy Blendy Deals for The Cookie College - it'll be a great sale, and one we've never run before *and probably won't again until next Black Friday. | |||
| 227. Baking it Down - Do NOT Teach a Cookie Class (this way) | 02 Sep 2025 | 01:12:14 | |
🛑 Do Not Teach a Cookie Class! - (If you plan on making these mistakes) In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 227 - Do NOT Teach a Cookie Class (this way), Corrie and I list out the things we wouldn't do if we were getting into cookie classes (yeah, yeah - the title is a bit of a clickbait, but hey, we're marketers, right?). September in the Sugar Cookie Marketing group is all about Cookie Classes as we try out having a "monthly theme" focused on one topic (you can still post whatever). You can search #SeptemberCookieClassesMonth in the group to see more posts on this topic. 🚫 That said - today we wanna talk to the "on the fence" baker considering teaching cookie classes this "Cookie Class Money Printing Season" aka the holiday rush. ⛔ Here's the eight things we'd never do if we were teaching a cookie class (again - clickbait, but aren't ya curious??). 🛑 1. Do NOT pay for a venue (if you can play ball) Okay - so not all venues will let ya use their spaces for free, but before you resign yourself to paying, 🚫 shoot your shot on finding a venue that lets you use it for free in exchange for marketing their shop to your audience. ⚠️ Class teaching baker Brit says she was offered a 60/40 split with her venue, but countered with a 100/0 split in exchange for all the marketing she'd be doing, bringing folks to the winery to buy wine + a cookie class. Guess what? They bit. And now she makes 100% of her sales. No, not every venue will take the bait, but ask before you cough up commissions. Wineries, breweries, kitchen showrooms, cafes, and shared workspaces may all be interested in a lil' exposure in exchange for monetary compensation. 🛑 2. Do NOT just list a class each month. We used to post a class at the beginning of each month. 🚫 Over time, we realized we were working twice as hard as we should be if we just listed our yearly calendar each January. By listing the year up front, we're able to tell each class we teach about the upcoming classes - and that makes for good marketing. ⚠️ The approach has worked so well in fact, our October Halloween and December Christmas classes are already booked, and it's only September 2. 🛑 3. Do NOT teach intermediate classes. And if you do, I swear I oughttaaaa... not really care, teach what ya like. BUT if you're just getting started, beginner-level classes will make your class attendees feel so much more successful. ✋ And a happy student = a student who might come back again. 🚫 Teaching intermediate classes limits who will sign up, and also it'll likely raise your ticket prices, yet again limiting who will sign up. 🛑 It's not my favorite recipe for filling up class seats. 🛑 4. Do NOT use a ton of icing colors/consistencies. I know when a baker is teaching cookie classes because they all suffer from something I like to call "Cookie Class Icing PTSD" - 🚫 which is to say swinging bags and bags of icing over their heads for an upcoming cookie class. When it comes to classes, everything has to be done at scale. ⚠️ So those 7 icing bags you'd mix for your custom sets? Yeah, that's gonna be SEVENTY bags if you're teaching a class to 10 people. ⛔⛔⛔ Y-i-k-es. 🛑 5. Do NOT start from scratch. Shameless plug (but if we don't toot our own horns, who will?) for the Cookie Class Kits membership that takes the "from scratch" out of cookie class planning. We handle everything for you, so you can focus on securing a venue, baking, and presenting. These class kits handle the design, the color choices, the photography, the step-by-step PowerPoint, the copy, and the math (plus printables like piping practice sheets and Eddie outlines), leaving you time and bandwidth to really knock the class out of the park. | |||
| 137. Baking it Down - Surviving Q4 | 14 Nov 2023 | 01:02:47 | |
😵💫 Surviving Q4 - the fight for the newsfeed It's the time of yeeeear... when the reach is low and the engagement is even lower. What gives?! I'll tell ya what - the deep pockets of big corporations capitalizing on the "year-end consumer" who is primed to pay. It's a fight to the feed death in Q4, and we've got some tips and tricks to help you gain some ground. 🥊 Reset Expectations. We're in a battle of the business and the newsfeed is the fighting ring. Bigger companies with bigger pockets are paying bigger bills to win Facebook bids. Lots of 🅱️ Bs, but the 💯 A+ will be earned by the page that understands this and uses it to create compelling content to fight through the feed clutter. 💁♂ Listen - it's going to be harder to reach your audience. Your engagement will be lower. And that's okay - because knowing this will help us to create a better campaign to adjust to the deeper pocket punches. 🥊 Be Annoying. Corrie is very adept at this (lol). But seriously - no one is being annoyed by your posts because no one is seeing your posts. So 👏 be 👏 annoying! And don't just post the same thing 10 times - yeah, that's not ✨quality✨ annoyance. We need to be ✨creatively✨ annoying.
All of these are features to sneak into the feed and annoy your audience in a way they don't think is annoying - but it's everywhere all the time. 🥊 Be Consistent. Be consistent! It's so easy to get all those holiday orders in, tuck your head between your legs, and head off to the kitchen only to reappear in January wondering if all the sales followed the groundhog back into his burrow. We may get busy - but we can't be too busy to market - unless we're willing to leave the sales to our competition who is willing to be present on their pages. 🥊 Test. Test. Restest. Your audience shifts into 🧠 "year-end consumer brain" in Q4, and adjusting your content will be a necessary step in making sure we're still resonating with that audience. How are we gonna do that? Test and retest! Long-form content (example below), short-form content, different creative (aka pictures), videos, Lives, emojis (Corrie thinks I use too many... 🙂😄😆😅😂🤣😊😌). Test it - see how they respond. Then retest it again - see how they respond ✨ again ✨. Wash, rinse, and repeat until your audience is primed to react, respond, and reach for their wallets. What works in 1️⃣ Q1 isn't likely going to work the same in 2️⃣ Q4. Adjust accordingly. 🥊 Learn to Pivot. 📆 Sometimes you hoped your audience would like Advent Calendars and sometimes your audience just happens to 🚫 not like Advent Calendars. 😭 We can't cry over spilled meringue powder - but we can pivot! 💃 If advents don't sell, swing back by pivoting to DIY kits - test, test, and retest and see if that hits your audience's sweet spot. Test PYOs, test cookie classes, test DIYs, test customs - and keep pivoting until you find the product your target audience flips for. 🥊 Admin Day. Set aside an admin day - this is a day you are NOT allowed to touch a Bosch, Kitchen-Aid, or oven. On this day, you realign yourself each week to stay on top of posting, follow-up, invoicing, and customer relations. ❌ This day SHALL NOT BE A BAKING DAY ❌ - 🤑 no matter how tempting the rush fee charge may be. | |||
| 136. Baking it Down - The Last Rule Bender | 07 Nov 2023 | 01:02:15 | |
⤴️ The Last Rule Bender - bending the rules for the bottom line You know we preach policies. 👏 Protect your boundaries. 👏 Charge your worth. 👏 Guard your peace. But you may be surprised to know we also say "bend the rules." You see - the policies are the "big bad monsters" we use as our fall guy.
🚩 The key to effective rule-bending is knowing when there's a win for the baker and the client. A win-lose rule bend is a loss for someone, so might as well just stick with the policies. Let's look at some examples. 🗒️ Rule Bender Example 1: It's a Pick-Up Date. Let's say you have a set pick-up date on Saturdays, but the client wants to move it to Friday. What do you do? 🦨 Tell them "ain't no way, honey bun - rules are rules and your hiney better be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed come Saturday at 8AM!"? I mean - you could. It's in your policies. BUT - could you snag a sale by bending just a little? ⤴️ For example, a rule bender would say this:
Corrie doesn't offer delivery - ⤴️ that is until she bends the rules a bit. When she got an order from a large department store in our local city center, 🧈 you butter believe she jumped in her car. Why? By bending the delivery rules, she snagged a HUGE sale - and another, and another - from the same store. So when a big account asks for front-door delivery, it may be a good time to do some old-fashioned rule-bending. 🗒️ Rule Bender Example 3: Class Credit. Corrie and I have some pretty strict class cancelation policies - unless we bend them a bit. Here's the thing - 💳 Eventbrite doesn't tell you this, but if someone does a chargeback, they'll 100% refund them (and not ask you). 🏦 So - if I bend my "no refunds" policy and turn it into a future class credit, I may be able to snag an additional sale for the now-empty seat AND get that future class money from the credited sale. One of those "win-win" scenarios.
🚫 Corrie does not offer copyright cookies. But she bends the rules with likenesses. (Where that legal line in the sand is between you, your liability policy, and Disney lawyers and is a bit too deep to swim in in today's podcast but I digress). 💃 But the likeness of a copyrighted character can be just enough rule-bending to snag a sale. Most rules aren't meant to be broken. But many rules are meant to be bent. Knowing which ones and how far to bend them comes with practice - and keep in mind, bending the rules may be makin' the sale, but it also leads to a bit more liability exposure. So weigh your options and make sure you have a fully funded oopsie budget to stave off bad reviews for bent rules. ⛔ "No" is only a complete sentence for a bad salesperson. Find the common double-green-flag ground for you and your clients to both win-win while you laugh all the way to the bank. | |||
| 135. Baking it Down - Audit of a Cake Class | 31 Oct 2023 | 01:26:32 | |
🍰 Audit of a Cake Class and the lessons we're implementing.
🎂 1. Remind - Remind - Remind! "Eventbrite reminds attendees of the basics of their event, but go out of your way to email a personal reminder. Nail down some extraneous details - like to confirm the class has met the minimum attendee requirement. It'll go a long way in establishing a relationship with your students before they get there too. Plus it's nice to cover your butt by emailing your "no show" policies before class start time." 🎂 2. Start on Time. "We were in a second class following a prior class that had run over a bit. Since the first class ran over, it put the teacher in "rush mode" and didn't give her or her assistants much time to breathe. A great tip we'll be taking back to our classes is letting the first class know that they have to be out by X time. Also - I'd like Heather to build in a little extra time in between our first and second classes - 30 minutes just isn't enough time if we have students leaving 10 minutes late and new students arriving 15 minutes early." 🎂 3. Bright Eyed / Bushy Tailed. "We gotta keep our energy up for all classes - even if our stomachs are growling louder than our Spotify playlist. Folks paid for "bright-eyed" twins, folks better get what they paid for. I think we should bring a snack in between classes - and throw in a few diet cokes to keep us awake and engaged." 🎂 4. Imperfection is Perfect. "I feel like I'm trying too hard to impress attendees with my skills that I forget that they're trying to learn, not be wow-ed. I gotta introduce more "Here's a common issue and how to address it" rather than "Look, I've been doing this for years and you haven't - be amazed as you try to keep up." I think it'll make the class more relatable if I come down to their level versus them coming up to mine." 🎂 5. Reference Materials. "During the cake class, I never really knew what the "end goal" design was, so I felt like we were flying blind a bit. I know that in our cookie classes, we have the PowerPoint but at no point do they really get to see the "end result." I'd like to print out and laminate some pictures of the final product and have them in front of each attendee to look at during the decorating process." 🎂 6. Drop Zones. "Mom put her purse so close to the buttercream, she almost had a tasty tote - and I think we don't tell people when they show up where they're allowed to drop their stuff. Moving forward, we should tell them where they can hang their jackets, drop their bags, and let them know more about what to expect. That way they don't feel like they are fumbling with their belongings and can just enjoy the learning process." 🎂 7. Supplies on Supplies on Supplies. "I know we learned from this during a few Christmas classes a couple of years ago, but having fresh supplies for each class really cuts down on wait times. We had to wait for clean bowls from the class before us which really slowed the progression of the class. I think having supplies dedicated to each class would really move things along. It may take a cut out of the bottom line initially, but in the long run, it'll really shorten class times and make for an overall more enjoyable experience I think." 🎂 8. Say Cheese. "Take pictures and when you think you've taken enough, take more. The more photos you take, the more options people ha | |||
| 134. Baking it Down - Squeezing the Most outta the Vendy Blendy Berry | 24 Oct 2023 | 01:20:20 | |
🍓Vendy Blendy Berry (and how to squeeze the most from it)
Get into the holiday spirit by treatin’ YOSELF to some cookie cutters, stencils, tees, and icing tips – oh my! Everything you’ll want to know to squeeze the most from your cookie dough is listed below. But don’t forget to join the Vendy Blendy Facebook Group – that’s where all the money-savin’ magic happens! 🫐 Here's how to squeeze the most juice from the Vendy Blendy berry. 🎁 1. Inventory what you're missing. We need to know where we're at before we know where to go. So let's start by spending the next few weeks taking inventory of what you have - supplies, bags, ingredients, tees, classes. We don't want to waste our hard-earned cash buying things we already bought, so start by making a list of "do have" and "do need." 🤔 Ask "what's running low, what's about to break, and what do I already have?" That'll be a great jump point to plan out the Vendy Blendy spendy. 🎁 2. Create a Blendy Spendy budget. We don't want the Vendy Blendy to be a relationship endy, so come up with a budget and stick to it! As with any solid budget, you'll want to fund your "things I need" line items first. Those are the necessities we were gonna buy anyway - but might as well buy at 20% off. Once that's funded with the fun-ds, budget for the wants - the things you don't need, but it'd be nice to have. Once that's funded, add a max spend limit - a hard line in the "sales sand" where you won't cross. That way the Vendy Blendy won't end in buyer's remorse. We've got 47 confirmed Vendys right now - 3 more that have told me yes, and 2 more that are getting their shops together. That's a LOT of Vendys - so pre-shop them now. I prefer an Excel spreadsheet to track purchase links, but Corrie likes throwing things in her Etsy carts' "save for later" feature. Whatever you do - save time by pre-shopping. I've added the current Vendy's list to the group description.
Remember - Vendys are running 20% off or more - so your cart's total $ amount will drop by quite a bit come November 24th! 🎁 4. Set Expectations with Your Family. 🤳 The Vendy Blendy is all of the 24 hours on the 24th, and while I don't expect you guys to be glued to a computer like me and the Vendys are, you will wanna check in throughout the day. ⏰ The best way to be guaranteed some "alone time" with your phone is by letting the family (in their 🦃 turkey comas 😴) know that you'll be checking your phone throughout the day to enter some fun door prizes and get a few deals and steals. 🎁 5. Treat Yoself! There are a lot of new vendors this year, so that means a lot of GREAT baker gift ideas! 👰🏼 We absolutely do not mind you inviting your spouse to join the Vendy, tagging them in the products you'd like 🎅🏻 Santa to bring you, and then crossing your fingers that one of ya wins a door prize. If anything, 🧠 it's a genius idea, you smart baker, you! 🎁 6. "During Vendy Blendy" Best Practices. ️🛒 Try snagging your favorites right at midnight so you're not left with an empty stocking when/if a Vendy sells out of their fan favorites. Check back throughout the day since door prize posts can be posted whenever! 💪 Support the Vendys! Even if you're not shoppin' from them, leave a comment on their products, thank them for paying into the Blendy, and if you've bought from them in the | |||
| 133. Baking it Down - Corporate Girly Era | 17 Oct 2023 | 01:43:09 | |
💼 Corporate Girly Era Corrie was on a mission this year to enter her ✨corporate girly era✨ - 👨💼 a time in her life (and business) where she gets most of her leads from small to medium-sized businesses (and heck - at this point, international businesses). Why? 🧦 Because corporate clients rock baker's socks - that's why. Here's the magic of corporate orders:
😣 In the world of lots of detailed custom orders with clients breathing down your neck, fighting you on pricing, and showing up late for pickups while asking for discounts - corporate orders can be a breath of fresh air. And a really great way to diversify your income streams. 🌊 That way when the summer vacay season comes, your lead sources don't dry up as they head for the waterfront with the kiddos. SO - you're in, and you want a slice of this corporate cake. 🍰 But how? Here's our 6-step workflow to getting into your ✨corporate girly era✨. 💼 1. Your content has to shift. To attract corporate, you must become corporate - well, at least your content has to feature it. Don't have a corporate order to feature? Make one up! Find a business you can feature and then surprise the business with a logo cookie. When we say corporate, we mean quick - and often to a larger scale than customs. We ain't bakin' for baby turnin' 1 no more, we're baking for large events where the "corp client" likely wants to hand 200 folks a cookie with their logo on it. How can you work at scale? Invest in the tools to do so. Here's what we've got:
This stuff ain't cheap. Eddie alone is $3,000. A Bambu Carbon (which we happen to be giving away TWO at this year's 2023 Vendy Blendy) runs $1500. BUT - with these large-scale corporate orders, we are pulling in large-scale corporate checks which is a great way to cover the investment costs of these machines and then some. 💼 3. Nail down the corporate tech. 💰 Nothing says "small beans and risky at best" than a baker telling a corporate client to pay them PayPal "friends and family" so the baker can skip out on taxes. If we want corporate money, we gotta look corporate ourselves. 📧 Get that custom domain - it's $12 bucks and that custom email while you're at it - it's only $6 and makes a 🌎world🌏 of difference when it comes to looking legit.
💼 4. Start a corporate outreach campaign. Well, if stuff sold itself, I'd be out of a job. Fortunately for me, it doesn't - but that means we need to design a marketing campaign to reach our business buddies. Email lists - yes, BUT - segment them out. Make a list for just corporate clients. It'll make a lot more sense to send them team-building packages. Not so much to the baby who just turned 2 who you baked for. 👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or your desktop) by clickin' here - Episode 133 - Corporate Girly Era. | |||
| 132. Baking it Down - The 1 Percenters | 09 Oct 2023 | 01:14:03 | |
1️⃣ The One Percenters As admins of a group of niche cottage home bakers, we get to see a lot of questions about getting sales - and even more people thinking they can compete on price to gain traction in the marketplace. But competing on price is a literal race to the bottom - the bottom of your bank account. Ya see, if I lower my price by $1, and you lower yours by $2, and then I counter by lowering my price by $4... well, let's just say pretty soon we'll be able to duke it out standing in the unemployment line. You cannot compete on price. So how do we get more sales in a somewhat saturated market if we can't use discounts and deals as incentives? Increase everything else. And I'm not saying get your boxes lined with gold leaflets - but rather increase everything but just one percent. One percent is pretty easy. I mean - what can you do just a single percentage better than you're already doing? Let's start of with an example - emails. Are you using a custom domain? Do you have a quick response time? Do your emails include pertinent information about the client's order confirming their details in each correspondence? Does your email signature look nice? Changing any of these is an example of increasing by 1%. And that is huge. 👐 Other ways you can increase by 1%:
You don't need to be the best baker with the best packaging with the best ingredients with the best turnaround times. But you can be the baker who is 1% better at replying to emails. The bakers who as a curb appeal that looks 1% nicer than the next. And a customer refund policy that's 1% more appealing than another's. It adds up. 🤏 The small things can make big differences in your bottom line. 👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or your desktop) by clickin' here - Episode 132 - The One Percenters. | |||
| 131. Baking it Down - Consistent Crows | 03 Oct 2023 | 01:17:12 | |
🦉 Consistent Crows Ruth Ann (twin grandmother - my middle name is Ruth, Corrie's is Ann... you see what they did there, don't ya?) has a habit of being consistent. Not just any type of consistency - she's radically consistent. I mean - you could set the atomic clock to her ability to wake up at 6AM on the nose.
Oftentimes, in the directing world of "what's everyone doing to market their business" that is the SCM group, 😖 we head off in a thousand directions never letting the marketing we just planted have any time to germinate and produce results. 😕 Our audience is being jerked around from new idea to new product, and our messaging is a muddled mix of marketing campaigns never reaching completion before the next one, the next one, and the next one are launched. As a result, 🙅♀ we're left thinking marketing doesn't work and the twins were lying, and that person in the Wednesday Wins thread was just making up their success, and that other person who taught the pop-up Live must have been selling snake oil because 🚫 marketing doesn't work. 🚫 Marketing - in the way you implemented it - doesn't work. But that doesn't mean it doesn't work. It means you've learned how to tweak and retest is for better results in the next round. 💡 Just call you Edison. 🍞 Breadison? Get it... because baking. Anyways. ⏰ Extend your marketing campaign's run time - then stick with it to the end. Let's get enough data points to be able to better forecast our results. Let's give our audience time to adjust to new products. Let's spend that time finding our target audience for this new product - one's willing to throw their hard-earned cash at you and your cookies, classes, cutters - whatever. Marketing takes time. 🗓️ Good marketing takes more time. Set a goal to give a new marketing campaign - classes or DIY kits or drop cookies - 🪦 at least a month of consistent marketing before you call the time o' death on that option. Heck - I'd prefer 2+ months. Corrie and I marketed our first cookie classes for 3 months before it started seeing movement. Consistent marketing includes consistency in posting schedules, newsletters, follow-up, and photography. It's the whole gamut of consistency that will consistently bring you in more dollars. 👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or your desktop) by clickin' here - Episode 131 - Consistent Crows. | |||
| 130. Baking it Down - Make Mistakes. | 26 Sep 2023 | 01:18:30 | |
🩹 Make Mistakes. I watched (see: was addicted to) a TikTok the other day where an insanely successful older man was interviewed on a podcast. 🤔 The interviewer said, "How did you know it was time to expand your business? Which metric were you tracking that helped you make the jump into expansion?" 🧐 "Metric? We weren't following a metric. I knew we needed to grow because we weren't making any mistakes. When your business is growing, you're making mistakes because you're trying new things, and we weren't making any mistakes which means we weren't growing." ❤🩹 Such is the topic of this week's Baking it Down podcast - learning to love making mistakes. Corrie wanted to get into cake balls recently (heyo, cake ball Gina Wade). Anyways - 🛫 to say the take-off was bumpy was an understatement. ⚪ The first round of cake balls were more like cake blobs (hey, I'm not hating - I still ate them). The next round got interesting - in an effort to get a "birthday cake" color, Corrie added in jimmies (🍦 ya know, your typical colored ice cream sprinkles). All was well and good until we bit into them and realized the jimmies had been proverbially "rustled" and their color had bled into the baked dough giving the interior of each cake ball a disconcerting greenish hue (🤢 and not a fun green either - more of a sad "could this be E.Coli?" green). 🤔 "Well, it's okay - you're family, right?! They don't mind!" Well - yeah, except for half the order Corrie sold to a customer who later sent the awkward 😳 "uh, am I gonna die if I eat these??" email. Corrie fully refunded of course, and it made for a hilarious retelling at the Olive Garden. But she was ABLE TO MAKE A MISTAKE because she was trying something new! Learning requires losing. 🩹 And losing, as long as we learn, means we grow. 📈 🤑 And guess what? Hallmark (yes - let's get our Christmas ornaments - I'm totally in the mood!) just placed an order for 3 dozen (less green) cake pops. The point of the podcast is to learn to love making mistakes - because that means you're trying new stuff, learning new skills, and putting yourself out there. What's the boat quote? 🚤 "A ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships were made for." 👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or your desktop) by searching for - Episode 130 - Make Mistakes. | |||
| 129. Baking it Down - How You get Them is How You Keep Them | 19 Sep 2023 | 01:26:44 | |
🍿 How Ya Get 'em is How Ya Keep 'em Things we want when we market:
🛒 Let me break it down for ya with a marketing case study as big as your local mall: JC Penney and the discount disaster. JCPenney rose to fashion fame in the 70s when couponing was a common practice for 65% of US households. 🎫 Coupons are not like sales - because a sale is the equivalent to "no promo code required" versus a glorious coupon - this hard-to-find code or cut-out paper that grants the holder something ✨no one✨ else gets - a discount. 🧠 Talk about hittin' the centers of the brain that casinos take advantage of. 🛑 But in 2012, the JCP CEO Ron Johnson didn't follow the principle of "how you get them," and decided to move from couponing to a fair pricing model. No longer would customers have to hunt and peck through papers and internet deal sites to find the best discount - 📈 now the entire store would be just priced fairly - low prices throughout - no promo code necessary. 📉 JCP's sales tanked 25% that year. Ron was fired after 17 months, and the coupons were added back to the store's business model. Ron was quoted saying, "coupons were a drug." And their customers were addicts. 👏 How you get them is how you keep them. JCP built a business bankin' on budget busters discounted with coupons. So it had to keep them by sticking with the coupon cutters. 🔥 Same with your business. If you drum up business by doin' fire sales - guess what your audience will be built on expecting? You guessed it - last-minute discounts. Want to be a controversial baker? 🍿 Go post controversial topics on your page. Guess what your audience will be expecting? Popcorn-poppable drama dripping in butter and bad words. Sure - you'll get engagement, reach, comments, and reactions - but what good are they if they don't convert into sales. 🤑 Money. 🤑 Dollars. 🤑 Income. 👏 How you get them is how you keep them. 🏝 You can't pay your bills with gossip (trust me, I'd have a private island if you could). 🚂🚃🚃🚃 Same with follow trains - what good is an international audience of 1,000 bakers when you can only ship locally to people who don't like baking so much they'll pay you to do it for them? Choo-choo, followers boarding, profits gettin' off at the next stop! Build the audience you want to keep - 👏 because how you get them is how you keep them. | |||
| 128. Baking it Down - the Pricing Dance | 12 Sep 2023 | 01:29:06 | |
💃 The Pricing Dance When's the perfect time to introduce price into the "cookie conversation"? Is it message one, 👋 "Hello, my name is $68 dollars a dozen?" Or is it after 50 messages when you've spent days (maybe even a week?) mocking up, designing, ordering cutters, and checking gel colors you've got, only for the client to turn "tire kicker" and say it's a bit out of their budget? 👟 Yikes to both scenarios. That's the topic of today's podcast - the delicate pricing dance. You know, that perfect time when both value proposition meets budget, and the client has zero price objections as you two run off into the sunset to lead a happy, long, icing-filled life together as baker and buyer. The last thing we want is to scare the client away with sticker shock, but we also don't want the client to turn into a "convince me why I should" pen pal as you waste time trying to make a sale that was dead in the water before it even started. Imagine the sales funnel like dating - and the marriage is when the client makes a purchase. 💍 You'd call someone crazy if they were dating for 40 years hoping for a marriage proposal, right? 👰 "Maybe next year they'll propose." Or um - more likely they won't. They didn't for the last 40 years. In those 40 years, you could have been dating viable partners who did have marriage as their ultimate goal. Those were the ideal partners worth spending time on (just not 40 years). 💒 It's the same concept when it comes to "dating" a potential client for too long. You could be woo-ing a client willing to give you their checkbook for the perfect set, but instead, you're trying to convince this commitment-shy Facebook lead that your half dozen, simple designs, waived rush-fee order is worth $25. 😑 🤔 Okay bet, I'll go with "Hello, my name is 'out of your budget likely,' how are you?" Hilarious - but not the solution either. 1️⃣ As my therapist says, the right answer usually lies between "on and off," "black and white," and "1 and 0." 0️⃣ There's feeling out the client, understanding what their "okay I'll buy" trigger is, adding enough value, but also keeping the emergency parachute within arms reach for easy deployment to fly onto the next more likely sale. 🪂 🔑 The key is adding value up-front. You can do this by:
♟ What you want to do is move every pricing chess piece before you budget on price. The key to making sales is NOT lowering your price. Yes - there is an argument for discount strategies - but not long-term (check out the JP Penney story if you doubt me). 👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or your desktop) by clickin' here - Episode 128 - The Pricing Dance. | |||
| 226. Baking it Down - Podcast Guests Heather Brookshire and Kim Sims! | 26 Aug 2025 | 01:27:33 | |
👭 Podcast Guests! - Meet Heather Brookshire and Kim Sims. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 226 - Podcast Guests Heather and Kim, you asked for less Heather and Corrie, and now you get Heather and Kim! Close enough, right?! Heather and Kim are self-titled "ESBs" - emotional support bakers - and really break down the value of having a baking buddy to partner with, vent to, talk shop with, and have in your corner when Uber steals your order. 👋 Meet Heather Campbell Brookshire of TheCakeWhispererUSA If you've ever come to a CookieCon Sugar Cookie Marketing Happy Hour, you've likely met Heather Campbell Brookshire. She's best known for her 3.5xs debut on The Food Network and her Gingerbread Facebook Live (I don't have the link to this still, but she's workin' on getting me a copy).
When she's not slingin' icing across the silver screen, Heather is the embodiment of "A Disney Adult," and 🐭 also doubles as a Disney Trip Planner (free for the hiring for those uninitiated by the Mouses' rewards plan). Heather's been baking more cakes than cookies for 10 years (come this October), and gives us a quick deep dive into how to get featured on the Food Network. The key, she says? Try, try, and try again - and just when you're about to give up, expect an email. 👋 Meet Kim DeMille Sims from Beans and Brews & Wesley's Treats Kim thought cottage baking lacked enough stress (lol), so she dove headfirst into owning her own Beans and Brews franchise in Spring, Texas. Now she's taken her knowledge of allergy-friendly baking into the brick-and-mortar world.
Kim's dream of owning her own coffee-infused bakery started when she was 12, and for the last three years, she's earned an entirely new vocabulary, from "FDD" to handling the SBA. She pipes us through her backstory, employee turnover, what her future plans are, and ☕️ how she got to owning her own dream coffee beans in this week's podcast. 👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or watch it on YouTube) by searching for Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 226 - Podcast Guests Heather Brookshire and Kim Sims. | |||
| 127. Baking it Down - The Nuclear Option | 05 Sep 2023 | 01:22:00 | |
💣 The Nuclear Option 💵
Here's all you need to know about this week's podcast:
💥 Okay - a lil' more context before you send me your life's savings. I really like David from the Raptitude Blog - and one of his more recent emails talked about "atomic accountability" in the form of the nuclear option. 🤯 It's putting your money where your goals are. Here's how he words it - basically, there are things you ✨need✨ to do and you don't ✨want✨ to do. So you, instead, do a bunch of other less important things but feel like you accomplished something. Sure - you did, kinda. But you didn't accomplish the one thing you knew you needed to do. 💰 This we've all experienced. But how David goes about conquering this dilemma is either a financial risk or a productive reward. You see - he puts his money where his goals are by giving his best friend $300 on the caveat that she can keep the money should he not accomplish the goal within the designated timeframe. He set the goal and the time constraints, so it's not like it's unfair - but 👣 he's holding his financial feet to the 🔥 fire by putting his money where his goals are. His reasoning (per his website) is this:
💵 Let's up the financial ante - let's say you wanna teach a cookie class, but you've been putting it off all year. Knowing that the holidays are the proverbial "license to print class money," you think "I should teach classes." Okay - you know you should. You have all the tools to teach a class (ahem - shameless plug for the Cookie Class Kits), and you have the time now to plan it. Paypal hello@sugarcookiemarketing.com $500. Put the following information in your payment description:
🍴 If you don't meet your goal, I'll keep your money and think of you the entire time I order off the Olive Garden menu on your dime. 👨🍳 And I will not refund you for any sob stories. Consider me your banking bestie. 😂 If you do meet your goal, email me a photo of the goal completion proof, and I'll refund you your money (begrudgingly, but also proud of you). You see - we know we have to do the thing. But we also know how best to deceive ourselves in believing that putting it off is a good idea. So let's remove the "me" and replace it with "money" - because money tells no tails. But boy does it hurt to lose it. So Corrie and I will take our own challenge, but I'll add a lil' more fun to it:
I'll let ya'll know what I bought with her money as my Twinterest on the podcast. 🤣 👂 Snag this podcast and listen to Corrie's ideas on "nuclear options" for your goals on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or your des | |||
| 126. Baking it Down - Narcissistic Conversations | 23 Aug 2023 | 01:20:08 | |
🗣️ Narcissistic Conversations - how chatty cathy is costing you cash Okay - this isn't exactly what you think - I mean, we're not talkin' about your Narc ex. That's between you and a therapist. BUT we are talking about narcissistic conversationalists - of which many of us at times have been guilty. 🤑 And it's costing you cash. The term, coined by Charles Deber, a sociologist, is called Conversational Narcissism and it sounds more innocent than you think. 🙊 Since we all are constantly involved in daily conversations - whether it be with the hubs or wife, the boss, clients, or the Starb barista - we have a tendency towards squandering potential connection (and thus potential sales) when we turn from car salesman to Chatty Cathy. Mr. Derber says there are two types of responses when it comes to any conversion:
🗣️ You see - people want to be ✨listened to✨. But both speakers can't be listened to at the same time, right? So when both people in a conversation attempt to speak about themselves instead of listening, we have a communication breakdown. And when you're trying to sell, you don't want a communication breakdown. That's the figurative opposite of selling. Unless you're selling them on why they shouldn't talk to you again anytime soon. In which case, you're sticking the "leave me alone" landing.
↩️ In a shift-response, we shift the conversation back to ourselves - our favorite topic. 😘 And who doesn't love a lil' bit of a dish of muah? My bank account - that's who. The more we shift the conversation back to you-truly, the less we gain the trust (and wants and needs) of the person we're talking to. 😥 "But Heather - I'm trying to validate them by saying I have had a similar experience!" Cool - they don't want to talk about you - they wanted to talk about them. So let them - and then let them pay you. Because the more they talk about they - the more you'll know how to sell to them. Let's see a support-response in action:
↪️ See how Mary redirected her question back to John? That's a support-response. 🙉 It gets John to reveal more about himself while he also feels listened to. Mary is going to talk about herself less - that's for sure, but learning more about Mary isn't Mary's goal here - the goal is getting John to tell us more information about himself. The more you can introduce support-responses into your conversations, the more people will be drawn to talking to you. And if you're selling something - guess who will be more likely to buy from you? Yeah - it's ✨that✨ powerful. 👂 Snag this podcast and hear the one book that made the biggest impact on our businesses on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or your desktop) by clickin' here - Episode 126 - Narcissistic Conversations. | |||
| 125. Baking it Down - Vendy Blendy Reggy | 15 Aug 2023 | 01:06:34 | |
🛒 The Vendy de Blendy Is Open for Vendor Registration And we need your help - to bug the shops you wanna see Vendying the most! Okay - before I tell ya the who-what-where-when-why of the Vendy Blendy, lemme tell ya why we're talking about the un-talk-about-able. 🧠 We thought finally taking our own advice and working ahead this year would let us have a longer run-time promoting the vendors (📆 win) and let us not stay up so late at the last minute (😴 win) and let y'all bug the shops you wanna see for longer (🙀 win - for us, maybe not for the shops). So if you already know what the VB is about and wanna sign your shop up or wanna bug a shop you love, here's the link: ➡️ https://sugarcookiemarketing.com/vendy/ ⬅️ The VB is first-shop-come-first-shop-promoted-for-the-next-3-months, 🐦 so the early bird gets the promotional worm. 🪱 Now let's get into the dirty deets of the Vendy de Blendy! 🛒 The WHO of the Vendy Blendy The Vendy Blendy is for bakers who want to shop from bakery supply shops. The goal is a day of fun window shoppin' online (more on that later). 🤑 It costs nothing for you to shop the Vendy Blendy. Instead, Vendies pay into a Vendy pool and we use their registration money to giveaway TWO Bambu Babies (also known as Carbon X1C 3D printers)! No purchase necessary - just be in the group to win! Back to the vendies - we're lookin' for:
The Vendy Blendy is in its third year - and y'all LOVE it. It's a single-day digital event held on Black Friday each year in a Facebook Group that only exists for 24 hours. The epitome of FOMO, the Vendy Blendy connects buyers and sellers and disconnects said buyers from their holiday profits all in the name of a solid sale! 🛒 The WHERE of the Vendy Blendy It's on Facebook. In a group specifically - the group doesn't exist yet - I'll set it up around the beginning of October - but that doesn't matter either. You won't be able to join the group until November 24th at 12:00AM est. And then you'll be forcefully (lol kidding-ish) removed from the group 24 hours later at 12:00AM est the next day. Within the 24 hours, you'll get a list of ALL the Vendys and their discount codes, shop lists, best products, and - if they opt-in - a chance to snag their door prizes too! 🛒 The WHEN of the Vendy Blendy The Vendy blends every Black Friday. It's for 24 hours only. So - you'll be made aware of when the group opens for pending members (remember - you only get in for a 24-hour period).
For fun, really. I wish we had a deeper purpose, but who doesn't like shoppin' with friends - even if those friends are thousands of miles away joined by Zucky's website?! ➡️ https://sugarcookiemarketing.com/vendy/ ⬅️ 👂 Snag this podcast and hear the breakdown of the Vendy Blendy on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or your desktop) by clickin' here - Episode 125 - Ve | |||
| 124. Baking it Down - TOMA | 09 Aug 2023 | 01:16:28 | |
🧠 T-O-M-A 🧠 🍅 Thought I typoed "tomato" didn't ya? I wouldn't put it past me at this point. But alas - no. It's an acronym this time. "What other weird acronym are the twins talkin' about today?!" 🗣️ Yeah - agreed, but this marketing jargon may make you sales without selling! ⬆️🧠 T-O-M-A: Top of Mind Awareness. Think of "TOMA" marketing as a way to stay in front of a client without directly saying "hey - yo, yeah you - don't forget to buy from me." If a client only needs to place an order with you once a year when it's Mother's Day or when their kid as a birthday, pummeling them will sales post does not for the ideal experience make. 🤔 "But how can I sell to people if they're annoyed by my selling to people?" Great question, Mr. Miagi. Let's brainstorm some of the best ways to sell without selling using the T-O-M-A method.
👂 Snag this podcast and hear the breakdown on the last two T-O-M-A ideas on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or your desktop) by clickin' here - Episode 124 - TOMA. | |||
| 123. Baking it Down - The Gold Ratio | 02 Aug 2023 | 01:05:12 | |
🪙 The Gold Ratio 🪙 I know some of you are screaming at your computer screen right now sayin' "IT'S GOLDEN RATIO!" But hold up, now ya hear! It's a play on words (but trust that 99.9% of other times it's a typo - but this time it isn't... surprisingly). In marketing, it's easy to fall prey to numbers. Numerical evaluations are THROWN at us daily. Just consider all the math problems we see as marketers turned business owners turned back into marketers.
Hey - I thought we promised ourselves we'd never take a math class again, right?! 😳 Well = welcome, class is in session, get your bottom in a seat like your bottom line depends on it, because it does. But not in the way you think it does. I'd be lying if I didn't say math wasn't important in business. It is. I live and die by my spreadsheets (which are essentially my digital children at this point). Math lets us predict, decide, and determine which direction we need to head towards. But addition and subtraction (outside of the business bank account) ain't the move. ️🥁 We want... drum roll... ratios 😱*screams in Algebra 2* Ratios are comparisons. One number, related to another number, knocked up against each other to give us a percentage. The numbers we're comparing? ️ ️Us today ️🥊 vs. 🥊 Us yesterday. You see - comparing how many followers a baker-influencer has to your hyper-local bakery in rural America ain't doin' your mental state any favors. And it's not a good barometer for effective marketing progress either. But you know what is? ️🎯 You today compared to how many accounts you were reaching in your target local audience this time last year. So - here are other "gold" ratios (still destroyin' some of ya with that play on words, huh?) 😂
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| 122. Baking it Down - A$$et A$$umptions | 25 Jul 2023 | 01:08:30 | |
💲 Asset Assumption 💲 "A$$uming makes a butt outta you and me" - words have been changed to protect the innocent, but the stance stands true. Assuming client expectations rather than communicating them steals your business a$$ets and leaves you with an empty bank account and an angry customer. But I get it - communication is hard, we're busy, the clients are vague, there's more dough than hours in a day. But assuming our clients ✨should just know✨ is leaving a lot up to interpretation - and that includes our profit margin. 👍 Rule of thumb - if you don't communicate effectively, you better have a well-funded "Oopsie" budget for refunds. 👎 But why refund when you can just recall an email that spelled the entire client quote out - down to delivery date, set details, invoice total, and pick-up location? We're not sayin' over-communicate - but oftentimes, what we think is too much communication is actually probably the right amount of communication. Examples of places where we can firm up the vocabulary include:
Communication makes the world go 'round and your bottom line go up. Snag more tips and tricks and learn which beige flags Heather and Corrie are waiving in this week's Podcast - Episode 122 - Asset Assumptions. | |||
| 121. Baking it Down - Good Fast Cheap | 17 Jul 2023 | 00:54:05 | |
✌️ Good. Fast. Cheap ✌️ Choose Two. Heather - still carless - has been bumming rides, but "get a pre-purchase inspection" isn't the only lesson learned here. Her derelict car had the option to go to a shop up north or another shop down south - both highly recommended.
😳😳😳 Yiiiiikes. Obviously Corrie's "free rides" have a punch card limit, so the world-renown mechanic lost a sale because the man's good and cheap - but he ain't fast. ✌️ Cheap and Fast (not Good) This is my "Panera" baker - they know that their clients are forgetful and ballin' on a budget - and they ✨thrive✨ here. Hey, it may not win any design awards, but it'll be fast enough to make it to your party in two days and cheap enough so that you can still afford the bubbly. 🥂 These bakers work on economies of scale - they need many orders to operate at their below-market margins, but they can still produce a profit and invest less than other bakers to keep their pockets lined. 🤑
Like my macho mechanic from the intro story, good and cheap bakers are ✨booked✨ bakers. They'll never run out of work, but you'll likely never be able to book them either. I find that most of these bakers are true hobbyist spending time leisurely taking orders as they see fit. 📆 They're able to make a profit because they spend very little time and effort on marketing (an indirect cost factored into your price point).
This baker is likely listening to this week's podcast and reading this Onesday Wednesday newsletter. Bakers who want to make ✨money✨ need to be good and fast, but they'll not be cheap. They invest in tools to increase production - an Eddie, airbrushes, stencils, and 3D printers - and they're definitely going to pass those costs right along to the consumer. These bakers are aggressive in marketing and reinvest that in even more marketing - because each sale equals a paid-for Disney vacation. There are no wrong "pick twos" - but you cannot pick three without being burnt out faster than Panera sells out of those lemon-flavored flip-flops. 🩴 Listen to this week's (rather giggly) Episode 121 - Good. Fast. Cheap. | |||
| 120. Baking it Down - Primed for Prime Day | 11 Jul 2023 | 01:05:40 | |
🛒 Primed for Prime Day 🛒 🛍️ We may not be Bezos Billionaires, but we can learn a thing or two from the e-comm king. Jeffy has us in a headlock with his annual Prime Day Deals - and as we sit here refreshing the feed to lightning deals, 🕯 the twins wax old on both how to melt candle wax and how to implement some of the FOMO magic into our cookie businesses. 💳 Nine Ways to Prime Your Audience to Spend 🤑 1. Prime Day is annual = you know it's coming! 📦 Amazon Prime Day started in 2015 and has continued each year on dates in July since - it's consistent. 📅 And in marketing, consistency helps maintain your primed audience's expectations on how, where, and when to spend their money. In some cases, even if you're not as advanced as your competition, you can beat them simply by being consistent - it's ✨that✨ important.
Amazon already has our money - Prime Day deals are for Prime members. So why water where the grass is already green? Because people who ✨already✨ trusted us with their money are likely to trust us with more of their money. By Prime giving Prime members exclusive deals, we feel like we're extra special - that we got something no one else did (*ahem* 300 million products were sold on Prime Day last year, but we can pretend we're super special).
Speaking of exclusivity - peer pressure is real. And watching all the cookie groups post up their Prime packages makes you feel FOMO. FOMO = fear of missing out on some great (perceived) deals, so it means we're more likely to join Prime ✨during✨ Prime Day than any other day of the year. Prime Day is a great lead gen (generation) tool for Prime's program.
Prime's use of third-party sellers means their entire network of online entrepreneurs can push this big Prime Day collection of deals. Just like Amazon, you can harness your network to cross-promote. 🍷 Teaching a cookie class at a winery? Send the winery a graphic to post. 👕 Use a local t-shirt printing company? Ask them to hand out your business cards.
FOMO = back to the good ol' fear of missing out. Did you know humans are more loss averse than they are gain driven? It means we'd rather not lose what we have over getting more of what we don't. Hearing "Prime Day is ONLY July 11 - 12" keeps our fingies on the refresh button. ☝️🖱 When you're hosting your next pre-sale, instead of thinking "more days to buy = more days to sell," think "fewer days to buy = more reason to buy more." 🤏 Prime Day has us in a chokehold (and my credit cards aren't exempt). While we snag some lightning deals, don't forget to tune into this week's podcast Episode 120 - Primed for Prime to hear the four additional ways to Prime your Audience! | |||
| 119. Baking it Down - A-B-C | 04 Jul 2023 | 00:51:52 | |
| 118. Baking it Down - Tomorrow Me | 27 Jun 2023 | 01:01:48 | |
🗑 Tomorrow Me 🗑 My dad used to make us stay after church and help clean up the nursery rooms, classrooms - whatever needed cleaning. When he'd change out the wastebins, he'd throw in an extra liner. I asked him why. "Because today I know I have enough liners, but next week, I might not." This is the concept behind "Tomorrow Me" - taking very small actions today when you know you have the time that'll save you potential future stress. Tomorrow Me isn't a big concept - in fact, "tomorrow me-ing" is a culmination very small things that don't make a huge difference, but over time lead to lower stress and a better overall experience - for both you and your clients. Examples of "Tomorrow Me-ing" your Life: 🗓️ Having your cutters set out at the beginning of the week. Likely, you know what orders you gotta tackle this week. Take an hour to set them aside. Bonus if it's in the bins where you'll store the baked cookies - that'll make for easy access come fulfillment time. 🗓️ Scheduling 2 more posts than usual. "Tomorrow Me-ing" doesn't have to batch schedule 2 months of post. You can just sprinkle an extra one or two at the end of your weekly posting schedule - lookin' out juuust in case somethin' pops up and Tomorrow You can't make it to a keyboard. 🗓️ Batch making and freezing dough when you're bored. Got some time to slay? Throw some dough into the Kitchen-Aid (or batch in a Bosch) and mix up some future time space for Tomorrow Me. Batch-making dough means future you may be pressed for time, but doesn't have to worry about turnin' on a thing! 🗓️ Creating email templates whenever you write a good generic response. You can create email templates in Google Workspace - I mean you already had to write that generic email - why not save it for a quick click reuse for Tomorrow You? One very small action can mean hundreds of saved minutes over the course of the year. 🗓️ Ordering supplies in twos. Like those piping bags you're about to run out of? Order then add one. Ordering supplies in doubles means future you ain't gotta sweat a thang. Know you really like those boxes on Amazon? Snag them now - who knows if they'll be outta stock when you need 'em most. 🗓️ Scheduling a reminder email. In both paid and free Gmail, you can schedule emails - I love to do this when an order is finalized - send the confirmation and right after, use your scheduling abilities to write up the reminder and have it ready to send - so Tomorrow you can completely absolve themselves of having to remember to remind. You see - "Tomorrow Me" is a chill approach to "Today Me" doin' just a little summin' summin' extra to relieve the pressure tomorrow. It's a simply delicious concept and easy to implement. Listen to the rest of our list (and I'm so sorry - there's WAY too much giggling on this podcast episode) on Episode 118 - Tomorrow Me. | |||
| 225. Baking it Down - Diamond Demand | 19 Aug 2025 | 01:11:18 | |
💎 Diamond Demand - Sifting through the competition. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 225 - Diamond Demand, we're telling EVERYONE they need DIAMONDS right NOW. 💎💎💎💎 Just kidding - this is just an analogy, so before you make this into something it's not - we're not talkin' about the diamond industry or bl🩸ood diamonds - we're just comparing a not-necessary-for-life luxury good with not-necessary-for-life luxury bakes. And there's somethin' we can all learn from the "very very slightly" interesting podcast comparison. Diamonds are a luxury item, but how can my local Tysons Corner Center mall be home to so many jewelry stores? It's because while they're selling a similar product (diamonds), they've each carved out their niche among the competition. Blue Nile focuses on web-based marketing, Helzberg is a chain, Mervis is a D2C brand, and Lenkersdorf focuses on diamond watches. They're all competitors, but because of their respective niches, they aren't really. 💍 1. Dye-Free Baker = Ethically Sourced Okay, no - I'm not supporting the train that using dyes in your food coloring makes you unethical, but the comparison here is that diamond suppliers who spend more money to focus on ethical sourcing measures tend to charge more. Thus, they incorporate that messaging in the marketing to counter the price gap between their competition. Same with the dye-free bakers. They can use the current climate to market the potential health benefits of a dye-free approach, niching them down a lil' bit further and also still allowing them to charge enough to cover their costs + make a profit (dye-free food coloring is quite a bit more expensive at the time of writing). 💍 2. Luxury Branding = Tiffany's If there's one diamond company known for color, it's "Tiffany Blue." People will regularly overpay for that teal color because they're buying the luxury experience and the branding, and they don't mind payin' the big bucks for it. A baker who wants to niche down can focus on the buyer's experience. Website, branding, check-out, communication, packaging = hit this out of the park and you're in a "name your price" arena. 💍 3. Volume Baking = Wholesale Importers Now this is where you'll find twin2 supporting her shiny habit. Diamond importers that sell wholesale cut out the middlemen, the fancy packaging, and the white glove treatment in exchange for selling you more for (allegedly) less. This is the baker that, like Corrie's not-client requested, "slaps icing on a delicious cookie." Some buyers (like the twin) just want a good deal at the sacrifice of everything else. Bakers who focus on cheaper prices and cheaper production will niche themselves away from the higher-end branded baker. 💍 4. Drop Cookiers = Moissanite Now now, down dog - this isn't to say drop cookies are cheap knock-offs. Rather the point is that they're not even competing with diamonds at all. They're a completely different product snagging some market share that the diamond sellers wouldn't be able to sell to anyway! People who want a giant, delicious drop cookie likely won't love the steep price of a vanilla-only sugar cookie. This is a neat way to niche it up. Talk about a power play, the baker who can sell both sugar cookies and drop cookies. We compare the "lab-grown" baker in the podcast, but I need to go get some meds and some sleep, so give the podcast a listen! 👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or watch it on YouTube) by searching for Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 225 - Diamond Demand. | |||
| 117. Baking it Down - Olive Garden No More | 20 Jun 2023 | 01:07:09 | |
🫒 Olive Garden No Mo' ❌
Kidding - I am absolutely going back - every Tuesday before the podcast actually. BUT... we noticed something crazy at the "OG" that we don't often witness at other restaurants - the sheer entitlement. But what causes the OG crowd to feel like they're owed more than bottomless bread baskets and endless salads? Here's our theory: pricing, freebies, and exclusivity. Weird parallel incoming: Hermes bags are the opposite of Olive Garden. The lowest prices Hermes bag is $10,000. Yeah - no, that wasn't a typo surprisingly. And when Hermes calls you to buy a bag you hate? You say "absolutely - let me just take an entire day off of work and a second mortgage." So why does Olive Garden get crazy clients and screaming kids when they don't charge an arm, leg, and left kidney in exchange for leather? Well - let's dive into the endless breadsticks and talk about it. 🤑 Highest End of a Low Budget vs Lowest End of a Higher Budget Darden Restaurant Group owns both Olive Garden and Seasons 52 (think: OG's cooler, older cousin who doesn't visit often because they're living in Europe building an art studio). Seasons 52 is on average $15 higher per plate than Olive Garden. For those with more well-rounded wallets, Seasons 52 is on the cheaper side compared to the likes of Ruth Chris Steakhouse, Mortons, and Fogo de Chao (shoe? chow?). But the Garden Olives appeals to a more budget-conscious buyer (ahem - the twins) and thus likely falls at the top of that person's budget. Meaning - they have high expectations for our bread basket bastion. And why wouldn't they - these folks want the royal treatment for this budget buster and only endless bread, buckets of salad, free butter, and bottomless diet cokes will suffice!
🎁 "If I give my client more for free they'll likely love me forever!" Helloooo recipe for codependency! Listen - giving something for free once may build good vibes. But giving something free three times builds expectations. Giving something for free 5 times? Builds dependence. And then charging the sixth time? Recipe for resentment. 😡 Because the OG gives so much for free, folks would suddenly be APPALLED if we were charged for the breadsticks. Why? We don't think "Wow Olive Garden, you're so nice for giving us so much for nothing" but rather, 😠 "How rude - you're charging for something that you have for FREE before!? I'M MAD!"
You can't sustain free unless you work off of scale ⚖ - something a global chain of 893 Olive Gardens can accomplish - one baker in their home kitchen? Not so much. Giving things for free or competing on price = the quick end to any cottage home business. We only have 24 hours in the day. Might as well spend those hours getting the highest ticket sales rather than budget-busting tire kickers. 👟🛞 Cookies are a luxury - they're the Hermes of the boutique food world. Folks aren't trying to give people food to live on - no, they want to impress their friends with a fancy edible gift that embodies how much they love and cherish that person. 🦖 Why else would you get a purple dinosaur iris flower set?! 🌷 | |||
| 116. Baking it Down - Check the Check Lists | 13 Jun 2023 | 01:19:41 | |
📋 Checking the Checklist 🤔 Heather: "I feel like we're forgetting something." 🙃 Corrie: "Yeah - I'm getting that vibe too." 🤔 Heather: "Whatever it is, it's big." 😬 Corrie: "Oh most definitely." So - full confession: Corrie and I completely forgot the icing (and one tub of PME sprinkle eyeballs) at this weekend's 🐠 Under the Sea 🐠 sugar cookie decorating class. 😨 Imagine my horror as we enter the venue, 30+ minutes from the "icing fridge" only to realize my frosting aphasia. 🚙🚓 With the power of Acura, Corrie managed to snag the icing and valiantly return right before class started (and to fix the "eye" issue, we turned the seahorse into the not-so-seeing-horse to source some PME sprinkles). Needless to say, this weekend was not our A-Game. So what gives? How could we have taught this many cookie classes and forgotten the most important thing (next to my award-winning one-liners)?! We technically had a process in place, but blame laziness (or Heather's unreliable car), we didn't follow protocol, and we paid the price. 👀 So - we figure we'd review our Cookie Class Kits checklist now so we don't have a repeat of Saturday (my Botox bill can't handle that stress level again anytime soon). Every good class starts with a promotional schedule. People can't buy what they don't know is for sale - so we want to start with a promo checklist. I'd likely recommend repeating this entire list three times total depending on how registration and run-times look (we shoot for a 6-week promotional schedule for classes). Class Promo Checklist
Next up - the Class Prep list - this is the list you'll likely want to start around the same time you start promotions - so for us (when we check our checklists), that'd be again around the 6-week-out mark. Think: class supplies. Class Prep Checklist
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| 115. Baking it Down - Sugar my State Collab 101 | 06 Jun 2023 | 01:23:34 | |
🌎 Sugar my State Collab 101 It's the upcoming Sugar My State Cookie Collab and we want YOU to participate (and get the most out of your participation). So here's a brief breakdown of what Cookie Collabs are and how to get the most bang for your bakin' buck from them! Listen to this episode on your favorite podcast player! 🍪 What is a Collab Before we jump into the why, let's cover the what. Cookie Collabs aren't unique to Sugar Cookie Marketing Group - but they've likely only been around as long as Instagram has been due to how they work using hashtags. The concept is pretty simple:
That's the gist of it! Pretty simple right? It's mostly management that's time-consuming - and then, depending on the size of the collab (some can be as small as 5 participants or as large as hundreds of participants), the engagement with posts can take some time. 🍪 How do they Work? They work on forced engagement - by requiring that all participants pay back into the collab by engaging with other participants' posts, the posts then get more engagement which, if we understand how the algorithms work, breeds more engagement and reach - and most of the time that reach is to our target, local audience - the ones who can actually pay us. 🤑 When Meta (ahem - Instagram in this case) sees that people on its platform are engaging with a piece of content, Meta (er - Instagram) then turns around and shows that content to more people = thus is the engagement increased through collab participation. | |||
| 114. Baking it Down - We Would Like to Formally Apologize | 30 May 2023 | 01:04:30 | |
🙏 We're Sorry Okay - I'm not really sorry - but I'm sorry you think you can't be sorry, and I'm here to help you learn how to be sorry as a business owner - sorry if you were hoping for a sorry. We see it posted often in the groups: NEVER APOLOGIZE - it shows WEAKNESS. It also makes you 100% RESPONSIBLE and AT FAULT. And those comments are not wrong. There are types of apologies that do more harm than good for the apologizer - and that's what I think they're talking about. Apologies that break down your own boundaries and signal to folks that you're a doormat waiting to be walked on are the types of apologies we do want to irradicate from our vocabularies. Examples of "poor apology form" in business look like this:
Now - these are general, so put ya pitchforks down - there are times and places where these apologies may be a valid response - but we're talkin' broad strokes for this podcast. But never apologizing? Imagine being in a relationship with a spouse who never apologized. Yeah - that'd be... tough. Every time they felt wronged or offended, they never got the emotional release that an apology gives. 👉 Here's what a therapist told me once: "Every emotion is valid even if you don't agree with it." So - when our clients have an experience we don't necessarily agree with - that emotion they're feeling is valid. We're not apologizing for "messing up," but rather we are apologizing for their unfortunate experience. It's the intention of the apology that makes all the difference. Are you apologizing because it's a trauma response from a childhood wound? Or are you apologizing to empathize with the client and work towards a resolution? We want to get to the latter and work on abandoning the prior. Examples of "poor apology form" in business look like this:
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| 113. Baking it Down - S-E-Oh My | 23 May 2023 | 01:23:35 | |
🕵️ S-E-Oh My We've talked "SEO" on previous podcasts, but it's always great to revisit the cold audience maker by touching on four points we think will help you reach more search engine traffic. (Search engines = placed where you can look up words and find results. Google is currently the biggest search engine in the world.) What is SEO?
Places to Consider SEO
Rebranding SEO Considerations
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| 112. Baking it Down - Dry July | 16 May 2023 | 01:13:23 | |
Okay fam - here's what separates the marketers from the panic-ers. (is that a word??). We're entering a period Corrie Mira and I like to refer to as 🏜 "Dry July" ☀️ - but it encompasses the entire summer months from June - August. It's in these months (as reflected by this Google search report for "sugar cookies" - image below) that your orders will likely slow. 📉 This is expected for our industry. Things you can do during this time:
🤔 So lemme throw it back to your side of the court: What do you plan to use the next three "dry" months doing? | |||
| 111. Baking it Down - Refund Recap | 09 May 2023 | 01:31:34 | |
| 110. Baking it Down - The Cookie Car Lot | 03 May 2023 | 01:07:25 | |
🚗 Pricing the Cookie Car Lot 🚙 Wanna buy a... car? Today's podcast topic (which is a day late due to CookieCon - no, it's not Wednesday, sorry about that) is about the "cookie car lot" - comparing how automotive brands use pricing tiers to sell more cars... and we'll use it to sell more cookies. 🏎 Showing off the Flagship Every major auto manufacturer has a flagship vehicle - that one car so fast, so cool, and so very, very expensive.
Why sell a vehicle way too expensive for most of your target market? 💪 It's a flex for the brand. Essentially, the automotive company is sayin', 👀 "Yo - look at what we can do - and all this skill and talent you can't afford? It's incorporated into the vehicle you can afford." In your cookie sales - you can flex with your best set. But just like the auto-manufacturers, don't make it your 100% marketing focus. Your "flex set" is a signal to your capabilities incorporated into your work-horse sets - your big sellers. And while your flex-set may be a net loss, 🎠 it'll help prop you up to sell those forever-favorites like unicorns and mermaids. 🧜♀ 🚙 Have an Economy Offering Many automakers know that if they can just get you to try the brand, they'll have a car client for life. This is where manufacturers have their economy lines - these aren't the cars in the commercials, but they are cars they keep on the lot.
These are the budget-friendly options for folks who want to enter a brand but can't afford the top-of-the-line or even the mid-range. 💸 But these auto companies don't want you walkin' away without a key in hand, so they keep the budget-friendly vehicles ready to package up for the price-conscious. Same with your cookies. While you have your flex set ($$$), and your workhorse sets ($$), keeping an economically friendly option in your back pocket can get people "into your brand" while also making the sale. 🤑 Just like car companies, drop out the "extras" until you find a price point that is a win-win for both you and your potential client. Fewer colors? Fewer designs? Smaller sizes? All of these are ways to keep people on your "cookie car lot." Market your Work Horse Mid-Range LineUp You know each car company's mid-range big sellers - why? You see them marketed the most often, and thus likely most seen on the road.
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| 109. Baking it Down - Watch Your Receipts | 25 Apr 2023 | 01:14:19 | |
| 108. Baking it Down - Economies of Scale | 18 Apr 2023 | 01:22:46 | |
⚖ Economies of Scale Buzzword incoming: scalability. The ability of your business to increase output to lower costs of production and increase profits. Sounds enviable, right? But how do you go about it as an often one-man (or woman)-band? Here are 5 tips we've thought of that may help you scale to higher margins and less work: 🥶 1. Freezing Cookies / Icings Brrrr - coolin' down your cookies can heat up production. Freezing dough and cookies can allow you to produce when orders are low and when incoming orders pick up, you're teed up for the big thaw. You can thaw cookies with no risk of loss of freshness for up to 4 months - including already iced cookies. 🧊 Cool-down pro-tip: store them in sealed cello bags in an air-tight container. When ready to thaw, allow the entire unopened container to completely thaw before opening - this will let the condensation form on the outside of the container and not the cellophane wrapping. This means that you can increase production for Christmas cookies in September and allow the economics of scale to pad your fleece-lined pockets come the holidays. 2. Get the Gear When it comes to scalability, increasing production by decreasing production times = more money. A great way to do that? Don't fight your gear. Find tools that help you increase output and decrease time investment. This will let you make more money while making more cookies = a win-win, and you may even be able to binge a Netflix show without being hunched over the countertop decorating late at night (ayo - posture correctors!). Examples of tools that increase scale are:
⬆️ If it can increase production or ⬇️ decrease time spent producing, it'll support the economies of cookie scalability. 🤖 3. Let the Robots Take Over I don't know if you're worried about the robot overlord takeover, but for now - letting the internet handle mundane tasks will allow you to increase production while the "always on" internet handles data input, task management, and client outreach. Zapier is one of our favorite "scalability" tools because it lets two apps that can't shake hands, now shake hands. 🤝 Ways we use webhooks to streamline time costs are:
👨💻 4. All Praise the VA! VAs or "virtual assistants" are like contracted employees without the employee costs because they work on a task basis and not an hourly basis (depending on your contract). Finding a VA who can handle data input, client reminders, email marketing or social media is a great way to scale your business because you're behind the computer less but more is getting done. So start your VA-dating now so you're ready to hire come the hurried holidays. 👀 5. Ads aren't all Bad. I love the 24-7-365 salesman that Facebook ads can be - optimized for views, link clicks, or messages, dialing in a solid ad campaign can help you move product without having to make community group posts = you increase production and decrease time (a recipe for a double-dollar win). Using Ads Manager, you can create ad campaign parameters that stretch your ad dollar to the furthest. | |||
| 224. Baking it Down - Main Street Money | 12 Aug 2025 | 01:12:46 | |
💼 Main Street Money - Maximizing the main street cookie collab. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 224 - Main Street Money, the Main Street Cookie Collab is BACK and it's in two weeks on August 28th at 11:00 AM est. This is a fun collab because it incorporates so much "local" than our other collabs do. ⚠️ Keep in mind, this collab is on a Thursday, not our typical Friday - much thanks to my inability to read a calendar. ⚠️ Also, heads up - we've shifted the time an hour later to 11:00 AM est - 12:00 PM est. We did this so our West Coast friends don't have to be up early to participate. 📌 1. What's a cookie collab? A cookie collab is a single-day, single-hour online event where a group of bakers design a cookie (or a picture) based on a specified theme. At that designated time, bakers will post their cookie creations to Instagram using a specific hashtag (#SCMCollabLocal). We use a unique hashtag for each collab - ⚠️ meaning don't use the same hashtag as the last collab. During that hour, all the collabers will engage with other bakers' posts by liking and commenting (but not following). It lasts for 1 hour, and it's a great way to increase engagement by hijacking the algorithm to show your post to more of your followers. A win-win-win. Some collabs are invite-only, but this is an open invite. All we ask is that you register to get reminders and help with your captions (not required, but appreciated).
This is one of my favorite collabs because the potential pay-offs are so much higher than our other collabs. The Main Street Collab is just that - you find a local business and turn their logo into a cookie. Yes, it's similar to the "cookie my logo" collab we did last month, but this one ups the ante because we're featuring a local company - more on that in a minute.
📌 3. How to choose a business to feature Don't feel overwhelmed here - the easier this is, the better. But if you're looking for some tips to maximize potential with this collab, here's what we recommend:
📌 4. What you're going to post At 11:00 AM (est), you're going to post the logo cookie on your Instagram. Ideally, the photo of the cookie is taken in front of the business's front door (bonus if you get their logo in the pic too) - you'll likely get more traction that way. Your local audience will think, "Oh hey! I've been there, I love that place!" Your caption is going to feature either facts about the company, your favorite menu items, or why the location means something to ya - make it interesting for your readers (and for the company you featured - they'll be delighted to read about themselves). You're also going to tag the company's Instagram handle to see if we can get their attention (and possibly a reshare). Once you post, you're gonna engage with other bakers who used the same hashtag while they come to your post and engage too! This is a fantastic way to get your start in corporate orders - some bakers will even repeat this concept on their own for weeks! | |||
| 107. Baking it Down - Battle of the Business Partners | 11 Apr 2023 | 00:51:47 | |
[This description is auto-generated by AI]
How to work with business partners. 2:33
The four horsemen of a dead relationship. 5:07
What’s underneath the ego is ego. 8:19
If you’re in a business partnership and you feel like you are carrying the majority of the load, there’s two things that 13:00
What part of this business do you want to be the point of contact for? 16:13
How to deal with conflict in business. 19:53
If you see that conflict is introduced because of time together, separate the time apart. 27:05
How do you make business decisions if you both like different ideas? 30:36
If you can go in that the person you’re working with is not you, it’s not you. 33:56
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| 106. Baking it Down - A Refreshing Rebrand | 04 Apr 2023 | 01:31:21 | |
👋A Refreshing Rebrand When you likely got started in your cookie biz, "this will be something I'm still doin' in 2 years" wasn't probably top of mind. If you're like us, this was a random idea > turned hobby > turned money pit > turned "I need to make money or my SO will have my head" - fast forward to today, it's a business - but it wasn't an intentional business. So likely - again, if you're like us - "branding" wasn't as much the focus as "juggling 17 hats while baking" was 👒🎩🎓⛑️. Which lands us two years later with a poorly chosen brand identity and business name. So what do? 👀 *rebranding enters stage right* Ideally, no business would have to rebrand - but, like in the case of Corrie, there are times when it makes long-term sense for short-term growing pains. Such was Corrie's plight - and here are 4 tips and 4 rebranding snafus we've seen while marketing (and rebranding ourselves). ❤️ Tip 1 - Check What's Available Rule of thumb - don't fall in love with someone that's unavailable. Rule of thumb in branding - don't fall in love with a name that's unavailable. So - before you start planning your billion-dollar baking biz, check what's free - social media handles, domains, etc. Here are two websites I like to use that help with the research:
🚫 Snafu 1 - Overcomplicating It I love the thought and care some y'all put into your brand name - but I don't always love how that reflects your user's experience when typing your name, searching for you, etc. Overcomplicated branding will mean uphill marketing for you. Examples of overcomplication can look like:
❤️ Tip 2 - Including Brand + Keyword In "SEO" best practices, including a brand name (who you are) + keyword (what you're selling) can help you get ahead in search results (Google). This is because you're not keyword stuffing (Cookies Cookies by Cookie Lady Cary - too many keywords in this one), but you're also not too vague (Art for your Plate by Cary - no keyword at all in this one). Examples of brand + keyword can be:
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| 105. Baking it Down - Farmer's Markets Marketing | 28 Mar 2023 | 01:10:20 | |
| 104. Baking it Down - Squeezing the Most from the Meet the Baker Collab | 21 Mar 2023 | 01:12:24 | |
Meet the Baker Collab is this Friday, March 24th, 2023 at 11:00 AM est - 12:00 PM est. And we want you to participate! Here's how to squeeze the most out of the Meet the Baker Cookie Collab.
If you're not familiar with cookie collabs, no sweat - we're here to help. Nothin' builds trust (and engagement) like your purdy lil' face in front of a lil' camera (horrifying, I know - my selfies are abysmal).
1️⃣ The Type of Photo to Post Okay - let's start with the star of the show - the photo you're going to post. These are guidelines - not requirements - to get the most out of this collab. The better the quality of the photo - the more people are going to react to it (and since this is an engagement collab, reactions = better results).
Copy (the text below an image often used to sell products) or caption is going to allow people and collab participants to better connect with you. Making the copy compelling means makin' it worth reading - so be on the lookout for Corrie's copy template in this group later this week!
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| 103. Baking it Down - Good Enough is Good Enough | 07 Mar 2023 | 01:22:52 | |
👍Good Enough is Good Enough I made peace with myself a long time ago that I would have to learn everything I wanted to be "pretty okay" at, I wasn't naturally gifted at anything. And I also learned that the likelihood of me being an expert at anything was a pipe dream. And that being good enough is often good enough. And just being good enough? It's often good enough. Most of what you want lies at the end of "being good enough" for long enough that people end up giving you their money over and over again, while, each time - you get just a little better than you were the last time. Very little of the life we want lies at the "perfect" finish line. Perfectionism is a beautiful, delusional lie - but it's such a delicious lie, because "being perfect" sounds noble. But in the same vein, "being perfect" also sounds impossible - and that's because it likely is. Waiting to be perfect is the perfect excuse for not executing right now - right when execution probably matters most. Instead, we kick the proverbial "cookie can" down the road to a future date when we hope everything will be perfect - ready for launch. But that date never comes. Why? We ain't perfect. And we shouldn't pretend that we're trying to be or that we even need to be perfect to accomplish our goals. 😳 "So, you twins are sayin' we should put out a subpar product?!" No - I'm sayin' put out a good enough product. Likely that's all your client wants anyways. It's you who thinks you need to star in three seasons of the Food Network Holiday Cookie Challenge before you can bake mermaid cookies for a 6-year-old's birthday party. The six-year-old? They just wanted mermaids. Not a famous tv star turned baker. But boy - does not havin' to launch 'til it's perfect sound so darn good. You get to sit in the pipe dream phase - the planning phase - the ideas phase. And that's fun - because you don't have any problems if you don't do anything. But you also don't have any business if you don't do anything. This week's podcast is more subjective than objective - but once you realize that no one required perfection - heck, they never did - you set yourself free to be the best at bein' good enough. And good enough is good enough to get you most places. | |||
| 102. Baking it Down - Whisk-y Business | 28 Feb 2023 | 00:58:47 | |
😳 Whisk-y Business 🍪
💸 And if you do realize it and accept the risk - that's okay! It's your business and your risk awareness. An assessed risk is one you're willing to take on - and willingly face the potential consequences if the worst happens. 1️⃣ Copyright can be oh so wrong. We've all been there - a client willing to throw cash money our way if only we could do this one Pooh set. It's tempting - and it's even cuter than it is tempting. And why shouldn't you take it on? Everyone else is violatin' the Big D's copyright (Big D = Disney). 🐭 Will you get caught? Maybe not. Could you get caught? Maybe. But as long as you're willing to account for the risk involved with copyright infringement (a favorite topic of speculative arguments in the cookie groups btw). Take for instance this seller who didn't heed the Disney law teams' cease and desist on selling the Mickey and Minnie ear-themed headbands. "But everyone else was doin' it!" 🚔🚓👮 Yeah - I tried tellin' that line to the last officer who pulled me over - he didn't agree. 2️⃣ Allergy-Free ain't Risk-Free 🤧 When it comes to allergy-friendly or allergy-free requests, it can be risky business to promise somethin' you're not. And, if you're like me and don't suffer from severe food allergies, I doubt we truly understand how dangerous a food allergen can be to folks who are severely allergic. Which is why you won't find Corrie and I makin' promise we can't deliver when it comes to allergy requests. And who likes telling a customer no? 📑 No one - but I'd rather tell a customer no than tell a customer where they can send their lawsuit paperwork. 3️⃣ Ensuring You're Insured In the world of "whisk management," insurance is the plan. Insurance is the biggest racket, that is until you need it. FLIP insurance is a fan favorite in the bakery groups, and for around $25 bucks a month, you can rest easy with mitigated liability. It can also cover farmer's markets and events with its add-on dashboard. Why take the whisk when you can ensure the whe-ward (okay - the pun falls apart there) 4️⃣ Put it In Your Policies Policies were written in blood - or well, for us - burned cookies. Most policies come after the fact which is synonymous with "too late." But you don't have to create a policy forged in blood sweat, and many tears because we crowd-sourced one in the Sugar Cookie Marketing Group! Click here to snag it. 5️⃣ Breaks Breaking Up Your Bottom Line Hey, I love a good vacay - heck, I love a good, long vacay. But in the world of business, most customers don't accept "long" being any longer than about 2 weeks. Long breaks put the brakes on your bottom line. I'm not talkin' the weekend off here, or the week off there - I'm talkin' about "burnout breaks" where the baker plays Houdini for months at a time. 🚗🚕🚙 Imagine being a local gas station and taking off like bakers do. ⛽ "Hey - no gas today. Actually no gas this month. But next month maybe. I'll let you know. Check on my Facebook page for details on my fuel-filled comeback. I'm not closing - but I'm not sure when I'll turn the pumps back on." 6️⃣ Emergency No Fun-D Nothing causes more stress like operating with a bare-bones bank account. This often happens when we have more bills left at the end of the month than we have dollar bills. | |||
| 101. Baking it Down - Cookie Classes - 101 | 21 Feb 2023 | 01:39:45 | |
🏫 Cookie Class 101 🍪 School's in sesh - and we ain't gatekeeping anything. Here's how we run a cookie class (note - we're lazy - so understand that whatever we tell ya is preceded by the question 🤔 "how can we accomplish the most with the least amount of effort and still create a fantastic time for our audience?") 1️⃣ Marketing a Cookie Class Apps we use:
So - we use Eventbrite - it has fees. Why do we use it? It does a lot of the heavy lifting for even management for us, and it drives some traffic to our event as well. Could you use your own website? Sure! You'll be able to pocket more money in exchange for the additional management work on your end - a great trade. 🤔 "But how can you post a picture of your sets so early?" We don't - I just use a placeholder image with the caption, "Class set photos coming soon!" To date, no one - like as in zero humans - has ever cared. Get the classes posted now - optimize them later! We like ending every class with a CTA (call-to-action) to sign up for a Christmas class even six months out. Since those classes sell out due to the nature of the seasonality of cookies at Christmas, our attendees like to feel that they snagged a class ahead of time. 2️⃣ Class Prep Corrie comes up with the class set and steps - which is awesome because it means it'll easy enough for beginners (and heeeyo - those steps are included in our new membership - Cookie Class Kits - if you don't wanna do the hard part yaself). The Bake-down:
Goin' in with a "too advanced" set is going to get your audience frustrated. You may be an expert cookier, but these folks are likely just looking for a good time and not to enter the next Food Network Cookie Challenge, so go easy on 'em. We bake one to two days before class. We may bring an extra set just incase things go south and a bag bursts or someone drops a cookie - but I like to keep that a hidden secret, and if all goes well, Corrie will package it into a kit a sell it later. Supplies we bring to class:
If you want the exact supplies we use - I link to those in each Cookie Class Kits course - but legit, this stuff is easy to find on Amazon. 3️⃣ Class Schedule Here's our schedule on the day of class:
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| 100. Baking it Down - Leggo my Ego | 14 Feb 2023 | 01:29:00 | |
🧇 Leggo my Ego | |||
| 99. Baking it Down - Refund Chaos | 07 Feb 2023 | 01:12:17 | |
🥤 Refund Chaos Twin2 (Corrie) is weirdly obsessed with TikTok drama - and not just any TikTok drama - no, specifically Tumbler TikTok drama - you know, the cups? Yeah - that Tumbler. So imagine my surprise when Business Insider posts an article about the very Tumbler drama she's been popcorning about since last week. 😳 It's regarding all the good stuff - refunds, screenshots, screenshots of screenshots, Etsy reviews, mudsliggin' retorts - you know, the internet drama that gets you under a warm blanket for hours as you play judge-jury-executioner via your pocket computer. So I said - let's make a list of ways we can stay outta Business Insider articles and learn through other's experiences. Now - bless all the parties in this convoluted tail of chalice-themed cheap entertainment - I'm not pickin' sides. But grab a glass and let's work through this. Pictured: Big Debrah (from Business Insider > from TikTok) 📑 1. Have it in your policies. Let the policy be the bad guy - it's you and the customer against the big bad small print. Consider everything you'll need to cover your butt (and in this case, your bottle). Refunds, response times, really-close-but-not-perfect color matching? Yeah - that stuff. And that way - when things go left, you can point at the right policy and see if you can work from there. At the beginning of this 🥤 Tumbler tumble, it seemed like the policies weren't clear on refunds when the shop made a boo-boo leaving things up to interpretation - ya know, like who pays return shipping, repairing damaged merchandise, etc. 🥶 2. Give it a minute - cool off! To date - no one has died by not receiving an immediate reply to a cookie complaint. It's easy to get emotional when all we see is blood, sweat, and tears of work being complained about - so give yourself a break. In the 🥤 #tumblergate drama, the responses were goin' up faster than Corrie could place an Amazon order! No time to think out a response that makes you look good and the other party feel good. C-o-o-l o-f-f. 🤬 3. Keep it private and professional. Stay outta the limelight on handling sticky issues. This isn't the time to get the courage to go Live on Instagram. Keep it private and professional - and a great way to do this is to imagine your response being read in a court of law. If it raises a judge's eyebrow - you probably need to take it back to the drawing board. Things escalated here faster than goin' to the second floor at Tysons Mall when there's a clearance sale at Nordy. Blaming, accusing, and cursin' that would make your Gramma call up your Momma and have a few words herself - that's where this went - and unfortunately, lead to doxxing the buyer's address (revealing identifiable information). Yikes! 👈 4. Take accountability. Last I checked, none of us were perfect (except Phoebe-Woebe-Lemon-Squeeze 😺), so don't have shame in accepting your part in a problem. It's okay! Accountability allows the other side to also take some accountability as well. Taking zero accountability leaves the other party fighting 100% accountability. There's a world in which you can be at-fault 40% and that doesn't make you a bad person. It makes you a human. 🤗 5. Work towards a mutual resolution. | |||
| 98. Baking it Down - 8 Social Media Baker Faux Pas | 31 Jan 2023 | 01:08:25 | |
😧 8 Social Media Baker Faux Pas It's easy to get bogged down with orders and forget your social media - but not with twin2 lurkin' behind a phone screen! As she goes to engage weekly with the group hashtag, #sugarcookiemarketing, I asked her to come up with a list of the top 8 offenses she sees bakers makin' on social media that's likely robbin' from their bottom lines. Here goes: 😒 1. Not Putting your Location in the Instagram Bio Check out Corrie's Instagram below (and give her a follow here) - see that? You can have your name and your location in your Instagram name - which is searchable (shout out to Kimberly for this tip) - that means not only will your handle be searchable, but any information provided in the name section of the profile as well. In this example, Corrie mentions location twice: once in the name, and again in the bio - in two differentways - her city and then the general area (Northern Virginia) to snag the attention of both her hyperlocal and broader, local audience. It's easy to set and forget a pinned post - and with Facebook's New Page Experience rolling out (with its fancy featured section), it's all the more important to keep this section updated. Recreate your pinned posts so the date reflects the current year - 2023 - even if it's the same exact content. It'll make your page look up-to-date (which reminds me - I need to do this myself 🙃). 😞 3. Just Posting Photos on TikTok - no video content, no catch, no hook Tiktokkers want one thing - video content filmed vertically - and they won't settle for less. Late 2022, TikTok gave us the (unfortunate) option to upload pictures as a slide show instead of video files. It's... well... boring, and not what the platform is intended for. So while - yes, awesome that you're getting content out there - 👀 it's a better use of time to get content that gets eyes out there. Remember, time = money! Oh yeah - and don't forget that reach-giving hook. Hooks like, "This is the best thing I've ever heard in my entire life," "I just had the WORST experience," and "Here's something cookiers will never tell you..." are all great ways to get views (just be sure to follow up with content that matches the hype). 😔 4. No Email Capture What if Facebook and Instagram disappeared? Where would your business be? If you're thinkin' "up a creek sans paddle," consider creating an email capture. It's easy to do - even if you're not ready to send out emails just yet. Mailchimp allows for free account creation AND a free signup form - so you can start building that list now should Meta ever go the way of the DoDo. 😖 5. Cross-Posting with Hashtags Facebook just can't seem to make #hashtags work, and we shouldn't try either. With apps like Facebook's free Planner (or Hootsuite, OneUp App, and Planoly), you can create content designed for the platform you are posting to. In two clicks, you can create a unique caption for the same content piece for both Instagram (a hashtag reach treasure trove) and Facebook (hashtag Sahara desert) that'll have your audience feelin' center stage and not like a posting afterthought.
Your audience ain't got the time to play hide and go seek with your website links. Making links hard to find (like putting links in Instagram captions where they're not clickable) means less money in your pocket. Telling people from a comment to go click on your website (rather than just linking to your website in that comment) is another game of "go fetch" you won't likely win. | |||
| 223. Baking it Down - Business Victim Mindset | 05 Aug 2025 | 01:23:28 | |
💀 Business Victim Mindset - Be what happens to your business. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 223 - Business Victim Mindset, we are in the slowest baking month of the YEAR. Yep - last week of July / first week of August = the Google trends report where "sugar cookie" is least searched. Conversely, 📊 the end of the slowest month begins the uptick of our busy season - but that's not the point of today's podcast. We're focusing on the "hanging up of the apron" baker who looks for indicators that the industry is dead. Pack it up, boys, ain't no one want cookies no more! The cows came home, and they didn't bring money with 'em. WRONG. While it feels that way, this has always been our yearly industry ebb and flow. "The J Months" (💸 January, June, and July) make you question if you're good at business at all, and the Q4 months make you feel like you're on top of the world. We are here - August 3 - 9. 🕵️ In this graph from Google Trends, we see a year in Google search for the term "sugar cookies." That peak is the week before Christmas. That trough? That's us literally this week. 🎄 So if Christmas is 100%, bakers are looking at 14% of our highest order volume (📉 data doesn't exactly mean that, but it can be extrapolated as a decent representation of our calendar year as bakers). Why are we talking about the low point of baking leads? Because it's during this time that bakers let their business happen to them. They are reactive. They let the ebbs and flows control their moods. 😞 Low leads = low mood. The proverbial "hanging up the apron" quitting posts tick up around this time. 😢 It feels like the end is nigh. But here's today's challenge: happen to your business. Something's not working? Try it a different way. Class didn't book out? BoGo tickets until it does. Summer rain watered your sales numbers at that last farmer's market? Lightning flash sale it is. 1. Your farmer's market event gets rained out If there's anything more unpredictable than when Corrie will be on the podcast, it's the weather on the day of a farmer's market. We can't control the weather, but we can control our perspective on it.
2. There was low attendance at your vendor event It happens - the vendor coordinator drops the ball (ahem - wedding vendor expo a la 2024) and no one shows up. But you prepped, spent money on your displays, baked, and even lugged your Eddie there for a photo-booth setup.
3. There was another baker at your holiday market Nothing's worse than showing up to a Holiday Market full of your competitors, especially when they told you that you'd be the only cookie baker.
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| 97. Baking it Down - The Toe Episode | 24 Jan 2023 | 01:07:27 | |
| 96. Baking it Down - Reely Good Podcast Episode | 17 Jan 2023 | 01:16:03 | |
| 95. Baking it Down - Consistency is Key in 2023 - Sponsored by the Bakers Business Basics | 10 Jan 2023 | 01:16:17 | |