Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪

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Send us Fan Mail📅 Posting Every Day - To cut through & connect.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 259 - Posting Every Day, Corrie has been testing out a 30-day strategy to cut through the noise of crowded AI-spun feeds to see if she can get the algo to swing in her direction and show more of her business page posts to her target demographic.In a world where anyone can get ChatGPT or Gemini or Claude to whip up copy that conforms to copy frameworks, uses perfect punctuation, and the right dash of emojis with a clear CTA - how can you stand out? Corrie's placing all her chips (and posts) on red so her posts can get... well, read.✍️ Content That Creates EngagementIn her strategy, she's posting every day, testing from a series of content buckets or pillars that hit a few different targets in order to reach her audience. One of those buckets includes talking directly to her page followers - asking for opinions, taking polls, and asking for advice. Basically, she's trying to create a back-and-forth conversation. This equals engagement. This is different than what most other business pages do - which is pretty much a constant string of "buy from me" sales posts. Don't worry - we'll add in the sale pitches in a minute. You'd be looking for 12 pieces of engaging content in a 30-day runtime following an 80/20 ratio.✍️ Posting Content that ConnectsPeople love people, and letting people in allows your audience to connect with your business on a deeper level. But if you're shy, there's still a way to connect with your audience! Use the Main Street May Cookie Collab as a great way to connect your business (cookies) with your local Main Street and watch your audience run to comment that they love the place you featured. If you were running this test for 30 days, 12 days should feature content that connects with your audience.✍️ Posting Content that ConvertsAnd finally, we're a business, so we gotta sell. The 80/20 principle (Pareto Principle) is a great guide. If we're posting 30 days straight, 6 days need to feature pitches for your products - cookie classes, customs, a pop-up, a vendor market. You can still mix and match strategies here - we don't want to have a great engagement strategy, then smack them with a "BUY MY STUFF" suddenly. You could say, "Hey - I'm thinking about teaching this or that cookie class kit next week, which set would you like to see me teach?"Strategies are different approaches to marketing and business - and they can run in long and short durations. If you feel stagnant in your posting strategy, this 30-day daily posting strategy can really give your page a solid dose of AI-detox defibrillation. 👂 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 259 - Posting Every Day.

Send us Fan Mail🗣️ Speaking For Your Clients - And not speaking as your clients.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 258 - Speaking For Your Clients, Not As, we focus on bakers' tendency to hyper-focus on their own experience and apply it to their clients.Except... we're not our clients.🥣 We're not our clients so much so that we don't buy sugar cookies. We're so cheap, we figured out how to make them instead! 🧠 So it doesn't make a ton of sense to apply your method of thinking to your client's method of speaking. ⛔🗣️ Stop speaking for your clients. Start speaking as your clients. Speaking for your clients can derail your business in a few different ways, but today we've focused on five. 🗣️ Wallet-Watching🧠  Wallet-watching is thinking your customer won’t pay your prices because you wouldn’t pay them. Of course, you wouldn't pay them; you quite literally learned how to bake sugar cookies, so you didn't have to pay someone else.We speculate that "client speaking" thoughts come from a fear of rejection and a baker's attempt to get ahead of it. "If I lower my price, they won't say I'm too expensive and not worth the money."  In reality, the client came to you - they're interested in finding a way you can work with them and their budget. You and the client aren't the bad guys - the budget is! Now you two get to find a way to make it all work.🗣️ Boredom-Betting🧠  Boredom-betting is adding too many things to your menu because you THINK your customers will get bored with your best sellers. We often call this analysis paralysis, or basically adding so many options that our lizard brains think, "Oh man, what if I pick the wrong one? I won't buy anything at all." 🗣️  Social SabotageWe see this one pop up every cookie collab. "I'm not on Instagram because I don't make sales there." You're thinking for your customers when you skip out on a social media platform because you don't find yourself buying on it. You're thinking as your customers when you realize not everyone uses social media the same way you do.If you get a minute, listen to this week's podcast, Episode 258 - we have two more examples of thinking for versus thinking as your clients.👂 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 258 - Speaking For Your Clients, Not As.

Send us Fan Mail🟣 What Popped Off - at What’s Popping Con.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 257 - What Popped Off at What's Popping Con, Corrie and I just got back from this week's second-ever 🔴🟠🟡🟢🔵🟣 What's Popping Con - a cake pop convention by Daisy Makes (also a beloved Baking it Down podcast sponsor).Last year, 👥 we'd talked about marketing in community groups, so this year, "the twins" wanted to level up that concept to build a social media strategy brick by brick from the ground up.🙏 Counter to the "spray and pray" method of posting whatever and hoping for the best, 🎯 a content strategy starts with a S-M-A-R-T goal, then uses that goal to figure out which of Meta's Insights Dashboard metrics you'll measure your results with.Our "cake-study" Cake Pop Kelly decides her SMART goal is to:👉 Generate $500 more dollars (specific) 👉 In May 2026 (time-bound) 👉 Than she did in May 2025 (attainable) 👉 Using a Vendor Expo as well as custom orders 👉 (she'd need to sell 100 cake pops at $5/ea or acquire 7.5 custom orders at $66/dzn)From there, she needs to build her content strategy based on her chosen metrics using content buckets intersected with media types. 🔗 If you click on the webpage (https://www.sugarcookiemarketing.com/poppingagain), you can follow along with her plan step by step - even auditing Kelly's social media posts against her metrics.👂 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 257 - What Popped Off at What's Popping Con.

Send us Fan Mail🤷 Nextcuses - How to get around your own excuses.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 256 - Nextcuses, we wanted to talk about somethin' that crops up every month there's a Cookie Collab (Pipe a Park Collab is this Friday btw - oh, you won't be able to participate? Hold onto that thought.).We get it - 🥺 life is lifing, the kids are screaming, the clients are screaming louder than the kids, the spouse is upset, the in-laws are coming over, and you're about .002 seconds from crying in a Target aisle. 😭Your excuses = valid. None of those things is a lie. But all of those things are costing you business. 💪 But you can re-pattern your excuses to be more honest, and thus, more useful in understanding how you and your business work together.✨ The "Five-Minute Rule" Most excuses are born from the fear of how long or difficult a task will be. 🖐️ Tell yourself you will do the task for only five minutes. So it's not, "I'll take the twins 8-hour bootcamp on in-person cookie classes," but instead it's, "I'll start watching the Bootcamp for just 5 minutes."✅ Why it works: The hardest part of any task is the transition from "doing nothing" to "doing something." Once the seal is broken, the excuse of being "too tired" or "too busy" usually fades because you’ve already started. 🏋🏽🔥💪🏼🎧 I do this with the gym (my most hated place on earth). "I'm allowed to just drive to the gym, walk in, and leave" becomes, "Okay, find - I'll do a few exercises." We're literally tricking our brains into being productive-ish. And productive-ish is better than production-less.✨ Practice "If-Then" Planning Excuses thrive with obstacles. The minute that gym parking lot is too packed? 🏎️💨 Ya girl hitting the gas right back home. And while it feels good in that minute (trust me - there is no higher high), I still didn't get my exercise in, and it'll cost me my cortisol, good sleep, and a healthy body.The solution - if-then approach to obstacles. "If the gym is packed, I'll go for a long walk." 📸 And "If I run out of time to record a Reel for Instagram, I'll post a photo instead."✅  Formula: "If [Obstacle] happens, then I will [Action]."✅  Example: "If I feel too tired to work on that set after dinner, then I will set a timer for 10 minutes and just do the easiest task on my list." ✨ Rephrase Your LanguageThis is my favorite one (probably because I'm most guilty of it). Excuses are masked as "can't." "I can't do the collab, "I can't record that Reel," "I can't make a website because..."This takes the power from you and puts it on the reason (whatever comes after the "because). It makes things appear out of your control. Switch to "don't" or "choose not to" to take that power.❌ Instead of: "I can't do the Pipe a Park collab because I recovering."✅ Try: "I am choosing not to participate in the Pipe a Park collab. I'm tired from a recent surgery, and I don't feel like it right now."Why this works: Taking ownership of the choice you make helps you realize you are in control. If you don't like the way the "choice" feels, you are more likely to change the behavior. 🤔 You may think, "Well, I am recovering, but going for a walk might be a nice experience, and I have a frozen cookie I could thaw." In this podcast, we cover 2 more approaches to turn your excuses into next-cuses. Tune in to learn about "frictionless starts" and "pay-off audits." 👂 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 256 - N

Send us Fan Mail💲 Pre-Sales Recap - What we learned in the bootcamp.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 255 - Bootcamp Recap, we recapped the Bootcamp on Pre-Sales. No, this isn't a sales pitch, but the cool part about the bootcamps is the private Bootcamp Facebook group dedicated to that month's focus topic.Since the Bootcamp group, well, boots everyone when the Bootcamp finishes, the people who join are 100% there to get their learnin' on. So the answers to the group polls and prompts can be pretty telling when it comes to the pre-sale (pre-order?) industry as a whole.🪖 Pre-Sale or Pre-Order?We asked "recruits" what they call a pre-sale to their clients. Outside of the baking industry, I'm not sure 'pre-sale' is a well-known term. Pre-order, however, has been widely adopted when it comes to product drops like merch. (Remember when I woke up at 6 AM to go to a Target in another state to snag the Diet Coke Owala drop??). Overwhelmingly, bakers agree - pre-order was used by 79% of bakers polled in the Bootcamp.🪖 Pick-Up DaysNot all pick-up days are created equally, and there's the nuance of getting as close as you can to the holiday the pre-sale is centered around, while also making it an ideal day for your audience (and bakers... who wants to really be glued to your doorbell on a beautiful Saturday?).We had two close calls, but Friday won at 44% of bakers choosing it as the optimal date for pre-sale pick-ups, followed by Saturdays at 38%. Interestingly, Thursdays came in third place, and Monday and Tuesday tied for last.🪖 Repeat Pre-SellerI found this one interesting - who wanted to register for the Bootcamp? Seasoned pros? Newbs trying to figure out how to plan it all? Turned out it was mostly bakers who had already hosted a presale - 80% of Bootcampers had replied with "yes" when asked if they had hosted a pre-sale before.And I think I know why. Often, pre-sales can't be a "one hit wonder," so bakers try it, it flops, they swear off pre-sales ever again, but that thought in the back of their mind that they're leaving good money on the table lingers. Pre-sales are unique and require repetition to train our audience to understand how they work. Such would be that the first few pre-sales would be flops - your audience is still in the learning phase.🪖  Schooled on Pre-SalesThe next big pre-sale theme is school-related. May and June are chock-full of teacher appreciation, graduation, the last day of school, etc. So, which did bakers say gets the most bang for their pre-sale buck? Teacher Appreciation was voted by 72% of bakers as the best seller when it comes to school-related pre-sales. In this podcast, we also read "enlistees" one tip they'd give about pre-sales, along with having Corrie recap what went right and wrong in her own Easter Pre-Sale Pickup this past Friday. 👂 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 255 - Pre-Sales Recap.

Send us Fan Mail✅✅✅ Good - Better - Best - A tiered pricing strategy.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 254 - Good Better Best, we explore the Good, Better, Best (GBB) strategy for pricing tiers - the magic being "good" is where it's at.Forgive the lateness of today's Onesday Wednesday... however *checks the clock* - it would seem we've still made the deadline (sorry, had to get today's Bootcamp on Pre-Sales launched).Not all strategies are created equal, and not all strategies will fit your sales approach. I like to compare strategies to a blanket that lies on top of your sales. Find the blanket that's most comfortable for your business approach.Today's blanket = tiered pricing. Specifically, a 3-tier pricing structure designed to drive buyers to the middle tier - the better tier.Benefits of the Good Better Best strategy? It reduces decision fatigue by limiting options to three clear choices, helping customers feel like they are getting a great deal without the baker overextending their time or resources - what baker wants to get burnt out?!And for the baker? Your orders are the ones you want to take, while still making space for the lower budgets and still being open to the budget busters (hey, we can wipe our tiers with hundred-dollar bills, right?).This pricing approach enhances what your clients 🧠 perceive as a good value, especially when you're specific with the better and best tier options. People can see what they are getting (or what they aren't) and justify the higher tier because they can see the difference, but not opt for the highest tier, feeling like they saved some money. 🎯 The goal = move them into the middle tier.This approach to pricing maximizes your audience, too - 🏆🏆🏆 another win-win-win of the GBB. You can now reach people at different price points that you wouldn't normally reach when they have submitted a quote before knowing the price. The cheaper budgets fall in the "good" tier, the ideal clients snag the "better" pricing, and the clients who are gonna be extra actually pay extra.The key is to price your Good Tier in an unappealing way - the price is appealing, but the options within the tier make the client think, "Eh, I'm not sure that's what I want exactly." Corrie says, "Think 2 designs, 3 colors, less than a dozen cookies." We basically want the good tier to be the fall guy.Your Better Tier is your Magic Mike. Within this tier, we've got 6 colors, 4 designs, 5 names on cookies, 2 dozen cookies (made-up numbers, but you get the point). This tier will look like most of the orders you're already taking currently.Your BEST Tier will be over the top - golds, metallics, lettering, endless customization... You get the point. And price like you get three numbers before the decimal point. Make the Best Tier feel slightly outta touch with reality - we don't want people opting for this tier first.This strategy marries price anchoring, popcorn pricing, customer segmentation, and "the compromise effect" to create a really powerful three-in-one sales pitch. Consider whether tiered pricing is a good fit for your bakery this week.👂 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 254 - Good Better Best.

Send us Fan Mail💪 SWOT 2 Success - Analyzing your way to success.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 253 - SWOT Your Way to Success, I asked on the Sugar Cookie Marketing Facebook Page how Easter sales were so far (🐰 Easter falls almost two weeks earlier this year than it did in 2025). And the answers were all over the place - from being completely sold out to selling out of nothing. So what gives? 📍 Is location that big of a factor between selling out and selling a big fat egg (🐣 Easter puns)? Likely no - while it is a factor, conducting a SWOT analysis will give us a better answer as to what's working for you specifically and what needs to be buried in the backyard grass (🌱🥚 forced Easter puns).The goal of SWOT analysis is to establish what's working, what's working against you, where there's room for growth, and what to watch out for. SWOT is an acronym that stands for:💪 Strengths - What the business does better than anyone else. 💪 Weaknesses - Areas where the business could improve or lacks resources. 💪 Opportunities - External chances to grow or find a new market. 💪 Threats - External factors that could cause trouble. In this week's podcast, ✝️ we run Corrie's Easter Pre-sales through a SWOT Analysis to determine that the cookie she thought would sell the least because of its religious affiliation actually sold the most. A SWOT Analysis determined that next year, ✅ she should offer more religious cookies, ✅ more exciting designs, ✅ allow for more of a marketing runtime by 2 weeks, and ✅ cross-promote with a cookie class that's not so close to Easter (so she can sell more leading up to Easter).Let's adapt a SWOT Analysis to cottage bakers. When you think of your strengths and weaknesses, those are things that fall within the home - so ❌ your aging equipment (weakness) or ✅️ your automation software (strength), while your opportunities and threats are things that fall outside of the home - so a ✅️ new farmer's market opening (opportunity) or ❌ increased gas prices affecting delivery costs (threat).SWOT for Cottage Bakers:👉 Strengths - Low overhead costs or a "secret" family recipe.👉 Weaknesses - Limited oven space or being the lowest priced baker (burnout risk).👉 Opportunities - A local farmers' market opening up or a trend in gluten-free treats.👉 Threats - Rising flour prices or strict new county health labeling laws.Now that we know what a SWOT analysis is and how to look at the four quadrants (S-W-O-T), we need to find an objective. For the example above, we were conducting a SWOT analysis on how Corrie can increase her pre-sales for Easter 2027. By keeping this analysis in a living Google sheet, she can reference her analysis, take notes, and write future suggestions to herself (🧠 because goodness only knows we won't remember what happened yesterday, let alone what happened 364 days ago).💡 How can I increase my Easter Pre-sales next year?💡 Could I quit my 9-5?💡 Should I expand into a brick-and-mortar?💡 Are my sales dropping month over month?Having an objective tells us where to look and guides the analysis. Listen to this week's podcast to hear more about the TOWS matrix of developing three SMART goals from your SWOT analysis (holy acronyms, twins!) 👂 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 253 - SWOT Your

Send us Fan Mail🧠 Piping Positioning - What your clients think about you.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 252 - Piping Positioning, we wanted to talk about a buzzy marketing concept called "product positioning." Think of positioning as the mental real estate your bakery is renting in the heads of your customers.Here's the catch - 🫵 you don't control what they think about you, but rather all the pieces of marketing create an experience they recall when they hear your name. Let me explain.Having recently moved, I've been targeted in a half dozen ads about anything and everything home goods, but one brand keeps rising to the top - of both feeds and word-of-mouth.Quince is an up-and-coming household brand that positions itself as "luxury and quality for less," 💸💸💸💸 going as far as to directly compare their prices against popular brands like West Elm, Pottery Barn, and Williams-Sonoma (⚖️ there's a lawsuit about this, actually).How do they do the same thing at the same quality, but for less? Their approach of "radical transparency" explains it just about everywhere on their website. They source the same materials from the same factories as the higher-priced brands, and then cut out the middleman by selling directly from their website to consumers.Other examples of brands that have done a great job at positioning - try guessing these before you peek (some may be location dependent):🧠 Safe Cars = Volvo🧠 Customer Service Chicken = Chick-Fil-A🧠 Everyday products at a lower cost = Walmart🧠 Quick Oil Changes = Jiffy Lube🧠 Judge-free Gym = Planet Fitness🧠 Gas with Great Convenience Store = Sheetz🧠 Quick Burgers = McDonald's 🧠 Quality Groceries = Wegmans / Whole Foods 🧠 Streaming Service = Netflix 🧠 Best Dating App = Hinge 🧠 Social Media = FacebookWhat made us all think of mostly the same brands? That's positioning. If I said "really high-quality burger," you likely wouldn't think of McDonald's, right?“Positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect.” - Jack Trout Positioning can take multiple forms and varies depending on who you're targeting (Volvo positions both as safe and as luxurious, depending on who their target market is for the vehicle). Price-based is the route Quince🏷️ Price-based positioning is the route Quince is taking, and while we often tell bakers not to compete on price, you can position on price depending on your targets. For example, we're not the most expensive cookie class instructors, so we could compete there if we wanted, without touching our margins at all. Quality and premium positioning you see with brands like ⌚ Rolex or Apple - brands you know won't be cheap, but that's almost why you want them in the first place.Application / Use-case positioning is a brand that comes to mind when you need to solve a specific problem. Which app would you use for online meetings? Zoom, right? What do you reach for when your nose is running? Kleenex? And then there's the funny backstory to Vecro (a brand so positioned that it's replaced its product name - hook and loop - with its brand). Take the concept of positioning into your week and see which brands have rented your mental landscape. The positioning formula is this:For [Target Audience], [Brand Name] is the [Category] that [Point of Differentiation] because [Reason to Believe].

Send us Fan Mail🍩 Posting Do’s & Do-nots - Coming up with a social strategy.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 251 - Posting Dos and Donuts, the twin2 (sorry for the audio issues on this episode, still figuring out remote podcasts 😭) wanted to talk about posting strategy. If it were as easy as "post every day and you'll be a billionaire," well, you wouldn't be hearing from me right now; I'd be too busy posting once a day (as I'm sure you would, too).But alas - posting and getting reach involves strategy - a formulated plan to reach our audience and cut through the noise of every other business attempting to snag their attention and hog their feeds. 📝 Do: Post frequentlyIn today's podcast, Corrie said, "Post every day," as in that's the goal, but it can't be just posting whatever, whenever. It's gotta be quality content as frequently as you can manage it. Does that mean if you don't post daily, you get a big giant F in marketing? No - that means you get a giant H because you're H-uman.It's estimated that every day, 300 million pieces of content are posted to Facebook - and we need to cut through all of that with our cookie posts. So how do you compete in a flooded feed? You get creative, but you also stay consistent. 🍩 Do-not: Post just to postContent is queen, sure - but quality content will reign supreme. If you posted a cookie set every day, you'd be posting consistently, yes - but your reach will decrease over time. Why? 🥱 It's boring. Just a picture of a decorating cookie and a boring caption? It can only do so much. The algos won't reward you with reach because your content doesn't compel people to stay on the platform.💡 Remember - content that intrigues, captivates, creates curiosity keeps people on their platforms. If you keep people on their platforms long enough for them to serve an ad, they'll reward you with more reach.Corrie has been pinging her "personal" content bucket. Her Q1 strategy was to see if creating more relationship-centered content would increase her reach. And in February, she saw a 39% increase in reach - and a double bonus, 71% of those were non-followers. 📝 Do: Check insightsYour insights (metrics) provided by my social media platforms will help you guide your strategy. Some things your audience will love, some will be only viewed by crickets. 📊 Corrie made an Excel spreadsheet tracking each piece of content she posted in February, the reach, and the engagement. From there, she's able to dial in that strategy for March. She can cut what didn't land, and she can double down on what got more of a response.And that's how you build a strategy that's ever-shifting.🍩 Do-not: Talk at your audienceSocial media is a conversation. 🤝 That's why end users are able to like, comment, stitch, and share - because social platforms know that the more people can converse, the longer they stay on the platform, and yep - the more ads they can be served. Remember that relationship, right?🗣️ By asking a question or making a joke or posting interesting content, you're joining the conversation. When you say, "Buy from me, buy from me, buy from me," there's no conversation happening there. "Do you want to buy from me?" Still not it. What about posting a set of cat-themed cookies and asking people to comment with a photo of their cats in the comments?Guess what - 🐱 they'll comment a pic of their lil orange Garfield and tell you all about how adorable it is when he scratches the seats up. That's a conversation! 

Send us Fan Mail📸 1,000 Word Pictures - Why photography really *really* matters.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 250 - 1,000 Word Pictures, in preparation for this week's Cookie Photography Bootcamp, photography is on the brain of the twins, and that's because a huge part of food sales comes from great photos. Consider yourself - do you tend to order things off the menu that have pictures? A study shows that restaurants saw a 30% increase in sales when pictures were included on their menu. "Restaurants with high-quality photos can see up to 30% higher sales on average — showing just how powerful great menu photography can be. In fact, nearly half of Gen Z diners (46%) say food photos influence their decision to try a new restaurant, according to the DoorDash Delivery Trends Report. "🖼️ Photography's marketing valueBetter photos, better ingredients, better pizza, Papa John's. Only kidding (Heather can't resist), but better photos do increase the perceived value of a product. Doesn't matter how good the product is, if the photo screams "this was baked in a dark dungeon," you're not going to move product. And great photos are a great way to flex your skillset. If you live in an area of stiff cookie competition, photography can put you a cut(ter) above the rest. By being able to really dial in on your details with great photos, you can push product faster than the next kitchen. Corrie adds that investing in your photography skills now can allow you to use current photos for years to come. "I got really good at photography years ago. Now those cookies from 4 years ago? I can use them to sell quickly even today. Good photography pays it forward." 🖼️ Lighten up!In the Bootcamp for Cookie Photography (you can sign up at www.thecookiecollege.com for $13), we focus a lot on lighting. Photography = photon = light. Photography is the capture of light, so good lighting sets the stage for a great photo. Finding good lighting is a must if you want to fall in love with your photography.Light boxes, three-point lighting systems, and overhead lighting are fine in a picture pinch, but bakers should really focus on indirect, natural (sun) light for pictures that pop off the newsfeed.🖼️ Back up that backgroundYour kitchen's granite countertops are designed to distract (from your husband's inability to clear the crumbs from the toaster). As such, using them as your backdrop is distracting. Investing in a backdrop can clear the clutter and make for some clean product shots. Don't overspend - a matte white finish (or marble if you're feelin' fancy) is all you need to start leveling up your photography game.🖼️ To the big stage!Referring to the "pyramid" worksheet, build from the bottom up. Pyramid style staging keeps it simple: a backer, a tea towel, a baking tray, a plate, and your cookies. Sprinkle some props in the periphery (and don't be afraid to crop the prop), and you've set the stage for cookies that create a want in your clients.Not sure if you nailed the staging? Take your photo to the nearest unbiased friend (or twin) and ask, "What did your eyes see first when I showed you this photo?" If the answer ain't "them cookies, giiiirl -wooohooo," rethink the set and take it back to basics.👂 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 250 - 1,000 Word Pictures.

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Send us Fan Mail🥾 Bootcamp Recap - Teaching in-person cookie classes.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 248 - Bootcamp Recap, we wrapped up our first pilot for the Cookie College 2026 Bootcamp configuration - and it went pretty well! Thanks to all who put up with some bumps and bruises for round one.🥾 What's a Cookie College Bootcamp?In 2026, we're taking a different approach to adding new content to our top membership - The Cookie College. Instead of adding new classes all willy nilly, we're adding a monthly collection of modules that focus on a specific topic. Bootcamps last between 2 - 3 days, and each day has about 2 hours worth of content. Recruits also get access to a private Bootcamp Facebook group where we discuss topics, break down worksheets, and host Live Q&As.The cool part about Bootcamps? You don't need to be a Cookie College monthly member to join. Bootcamps are $13, and they're a great way to "taste test" the content in The Cookie College. And bonus - if you sign up after attending a Bootcamp, you get $13/off the Cookie College membership (forever). Nothing else changes about our memberships and the content - we're just adding the new feature of Bootcamp Intensives! 🥾 Bootcamp Day 1 - Event Setup + MarketingDay 1 of the Bootcamp covered setting up a cookie class event using Eventbrite (and their nifty 2025 / 2026 event dashboard redesign). Attendees got access to a free Cookie Class Kit (🍍🍎🍓🍇 Fruits & Frosting), and we used the included Event Listing copy to build out Eventbrite as well as set class limits, add DIY kit add-ons, and set sales dates. We also had Eventbrite push the event listing to Facebook for better cross-marketing.📅 Then we created a marketing campaign using the techniques we talk about in Sugar Cookie Marketing - working with content buckets (silos) and content types ot create a really robust strategy that would hit just about everyone in your target demographic. 🎟️🎟️🎟️ Repeat that strategy 3 times over a 6-week promotional schedule, and you're gonna move some tickets.🥾 Bootcamp Day 2 - Class Setup + InstructionDay 2, we actually set up a fake class so we could talk about what we use, why we use it, and what we'd do differently. It's helpful seeing the types of class tech along with hearing why we set up classes the way we do.Then we pretended to teach the intro to a class, breaking the third wall so that would-be instructors could understand the flow of it (Bootcamp attendees also got our class script that matched the Fruits and Frosting class).🥾 Bootcamp Day 3 - Follow-up Marketing + LiveBy Day 3, "recruits" got access to the module on follow-up marketing. Follow-up marketing helps us take past class attendees and turn them into future sales by getting them into our remarketing funnel through email list segmentation, Facebook groups, and follow-up emails (copy also included in our Class Kits). Corrie and I ended with an hour-long Live Q&A in the private Bootcamp group, where we answered questions from members about teaching classes, class promotion, and woulda-coulda-shouldas. It was a lot of fun!Next Bootcamp - 📸 Cookie Photography. It'll be a good one! More info comin' this week.👂 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 248 - Bootcamp Recap.

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Send us Fan Mail❤️ The Reviews Collab - Friday, February 6th @ 11 est.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 246 - The Reviews Collab, we're talkin' reviews as we see 2026 really start to rev up - and perfect timing too - the first ever Reviews Collab is this Friday at 11:00 AM (est... edt??). 💕 About Friday’s Reviews Collab!The Friday collab is pretty simple, but it's a marketing power play. You'll take a selfie holding a red heart cookie - that's it. The magic happens when we combine the collab participants, giving you engagement with a direct ask to your audience to leave you a review on a specific website.💗 Date: Friday, Feb 6, 2026💗 Time: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM est💗 Hashtag: # SCMCollabLove (remove the space)💗 More Info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1168981642056798/💕 Setting Yourself Up for ReviewsTo get reviews, we must make it easy for people to leave reviews. This means having your review profiles set up correctly (Google Business Profile, Facebook Page, Yelp, NextDoor), and we must link to those profiles - like on your website and your Instagram bio link (using apps like LinkTree and Shorby). To have a review profile show up in search engines, you need to have it fully optimized with pictures, website links, paragraphs describing your business, addresses, etc. 🫀 Remember - the more clicks it takes to perform an action (like asking someone to leave you a review), the less likely they are to complete the action. If the shortest distance from A to B is a straight line, the shortest distance to getting a review is a direct link.💕 Responding to ReviewsBold statement - we think 100% of your reviews should have a response from you. Yep - even those "just star ratings" and those bad reviews. Why? When people read bad reviews, they're also seeing if you're the type of business owner who will make an effort to acknowledge and make an effort to turn a bad experience around. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ In fact, an imperfect review profile can actually be seen as more trustworthy when you nail the response. People aren't perfect, and neither are businesses - so embracing the bad review is actually a decent strategy. 💕 How to Ask for ReviewsAsking for reviews can feel awkward. It's like, "Hey - you just gave me a lot of money! How about giving me even more!" Which is why the reviews collab is a neat idea to blame "the Sugar Cookie Marketing Group" for making you ask - because it's a part of the rules to participate. But we need to make peace with asking for reviews, because it's not if, it's when you end up with a bad one. Padding those review profiles with our fan-favorite clients can really help offset that one-off reviewer.💕  Bracing for Bad ReviewsBad reviews hurt. But you know what hurts more than a bad review? A bad review when you only have 2 good reviews. That means 33% of people who ordered from you HATED your cookies. By bracing for bad reviews by getting 9 great reviews, we move that 33% down to just 10%. 20 reviews? Now it's only 5%. Bad reviews are par for the course of business ownership (heck, just check this podcast's reviews) - knowing how to handle bad reviews makes you a good business owner.👂 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 246 - The Reviews Collab.

Send us Fan Mail🎁 Gimme Gimme Strategic Giving - The strategy behind strategic giving.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 245 - Gimme Gimme Strategic Giving, it's the season of requests to donate, sponsor, and give to local causes, PTAs, and networking events. It's all about strategic giving in January - and we're here to tell you - it ain't all bottom line blues when it comes to this form of marketing (you see that right there? We didn't categorize it as "selling"). 🎁 First up - What is strategic giving?Strategic giving is the opportunity presented to your bakery to partner with companies that move your business forward, while not necessarily generating income at the immediate start.🎁  The benefits of strategic giving.With every strategy, there are pros and cons - but for strategic giving done right, I think there are more positives than negatives.🎀 Giving is good, makes you feel good🎀 Support your customersWhen it comes to strategic opportunities, consider your local audience first - they're likely connected to communities, causes, and PTAs - a win-win when you can support them and get exposure. 🎀 Reach people you wouldn’t normally reach🎀 Cheaper than paying for an ad🎀 Create relationships with new people🎀 Showcase you working in your community (rally behind a like goal) 🎀 Get more ordersStrategic giving is marketing. In the same way you'd run a Facebook ad and spend money to acquire new customers, donating to a raffle can have the same effect - but the catch is it's a slow burn. 🔥 Patience is key with this form of marketing.🎀 Break into an industry 🎀 Downside of strategic giving 🎁 Downside of strategic giving.Like we said - what goes up must come down. With anything that has benefits, it could also cost you, and with strategic giving, that's build into the name. Because it's a gift, there's no guarantee of a return on your investment. But in another way - the return is the *feel good* feelings you get from supporting a cause or community.🎀 You might not get any new customers 🎀 It impacts profitability I like encouraging people to make a budget line item for strategic giving, that way it doesn't feel like a bottom line buster, 💸 but rather a marketing invoice you're paying through product (or monetarily if that fits your strategy).🎀 Can leave you open to bad reviews🎀 Loss of potential future opportunities🎁  Creating a Strategic Giving Goal.A wo-man with a plan! Create a giving goal, then create a marketing campaign around it. Do you want to use strategic giving to increase your social media impressions? Partner with a cause that's active on socials. Want to support a cause you vibe with? Find a charity that directly impacts that and partner there. 🎀 Do you want awareness? Social media?🎀 Support a cause?🎀 Last-minute oppsUsing community groups to find quick strategic giving opportunities is a really neat (but also a lot of work) method of giving. Finding someone who dropped a cake and posted about it = offer them free cookies. Community groups are an amazing way to reach hyper-local customers.🎀 Do you want to reach a new audience? 🎀 How many opportunities are you willing to take?🎀 Maybe it’s just not the right fit for you right now.🎁 How to turn down opportunities You need to have a boundary around giving because it can get out of hand and burn the baker out real quick. 

Send us Fan Mail🤖 Good Cop, Bad Cop, AI Slop - The good and the b-ai-d.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 244 - Good Cop, Bad Cop, AI Slop, we're takin' on the touchy subject of 👾 AI, aka artificial intelligence.👮 Bakers are quick to police other bakers in the comment sections on posts that ask how bakers are incorporating AI. 🤬 "It's cheating!" 😠 "It's lazy!" 😤  "It's the easy way out!" 😡  "It's lying to your audience!"🤬 "I'll NEVER use AI! It's hurting the environment!"However, AI is creeping into more and more businesses as tools to help with copy, updating and post-processing photography, summarizing emails and increasing workflow, and creating websites and marketing materials - and for good reason.    AI is a cost-effective way to minimize production costs and labor while also being, at this time,💸 free to use. The topic of today’s podcast: ✅🚫 where is your personal line when it comes to AI integration into your bakery? And if your line mismatches that of another baker's, does that make you morally superior, or is it a case of mistaken identity of the use of different tools - 🖨️ ie, a baker who uses Eddie and one who only hand pipes. 📏 Taking the example to the extreme - the baker who does “from scratch” and buys a box mix, the baker who makes the batter themselves, and the baker who raises the cow and churns her own butter. In all three cases, a baker was baking in the kitchen. Who is business savvy, and who is ethical - and who is allowed to play judge and jury?  👮 AI impacts trust.And we agree - ⭐️❌❌❌❌ using AI to dupe your clients into thinking your skillset is better than you can produce is a recipe for disaster, upset customers, and bad reviews. ✋ However, you gotta consider the invisible hand of the market - it always sorts things out. If someone takes advantage of their client base, give it time - the bad reviews will direct clients elsewhere.But what about AI just sprucing up the background image? We see a lot of bakers "okay" with this level of AI use, and it does help sell more product since better photos = better sales. And then consider the even more blurry lines - when AI can recreate the style and skill of decorating you are at - is that a lie? Or is it using a tool to help you sell cookies you haven't baked yet that you can 100% reproduce?👮 AI devalues the craft. Using AI can be a shortcut that's not fair for bakers who have suffered through learning the basics of even more than just royal icing. Just 5 years ago, research for starting a business required a dozen Google searches. Ten years before that, you were at the library doing your research. And that's not fair.But is it really not fair? 📚 Consider that Google replaced the library and the need to go to the SBA office to get a business license. 3-D printers replaced a large majority of metal cutters. 💻 Websites replaced a large need to work a vendor market. Suffering is par for the course when it comes to running a business, but as technology evolves, 🏆 there's no reward for doing it the hard way.👮 AI is killing the environment.💦 I'm just going to link to someone smarter than me on this - Why is Everyone So Wrong About AI Water Use?? by Hank Green - but if you make the "environmental claim" - 💧 and trust me, AI data centers are in Northern Virginia and they are u-g-l-y amd loud, but it's important to be informed on both sides of the argument. 🫧 "The video concludes that while AI data centers will use a lot of water, their projected increase in water use is small compared to existing industrial and city uses." That's YouTube's AI summary, ironically.  

Send us Fan Mail📋 January Task list - A list of things to-do.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 243 - January Task List, we're tryin' out a new(ish?) format + coming up with a list of ideas you can use to get your sugar cookie bakery headin' in the right direction this year.Could you do all of these tasks? 🦸‍♂ Only after you finish saving Louis Lane from the high-rise fire. ⚡ But since we're not Superman (or woman), tackling just a few of these each month could just be that one thing that puts you over your competition.And in the world of stiff icing and stiffer competition, 🤏 every little inch counts. 💡 We're just going to list out our list from the podcast so you can reference it, and I'll add my $.02 throughout. ⚡ Rollover tracking spreadsheets to 2026⚡ Update CRM with December contacts ⚡ Create an outline of your content buckets for 2026⚡ Schedule out January content calendar ⚡ Add December contacts to newsletter lists⚡ Segment newsletter lists💡 Segmenting a list means separating the list by contact category. So let's say you taught an in-person cookie class and had 10 people sign up, and then in December, you sold 15 custom orders. That's 25 emails, but segmenting them as "📝 List - Cookie Class Attendees" and "📝 List - Custom Clients" would allow you to send really targeted emails to them in 2026.⚡ Stage quarterly newsletters now (as drafts)⚡ Get inbox to zero💡 New to "inbox zero" - it's paring down your inbox until there are zero emails. Then, each day, you get it back to zero. How? 📬 Deleting, archiving, replying, labeling, and unsubscribing. Let me tell ya - it's a battle, but booooy is it refreshing not to be overwhelmed by your inbox! ⚡ Set up inbox labels to manage inbox⚡ Audit recurring expenses ⚡ Setup financial tracking software (YNAB) ⚡ Update website to reflect 2026 offerings ⚡ Audit website for dead or broken links⚡ Update auto-responders in email and social⚡ Update social media bios⚡ Replace pinned posts on social profiles for 2026 timestamp💡  If your pinned posts are already "up to snuff," it's still worth the repost for the 2026 timestamp. Your pinned posts are the first written date your audience sees when clicking to your social profiles. 📆 Having those say, "YES, I'M STILL HERE IN 2026," signals you're in this to win this, this year.⚡ Lay out an in-person cookie class schedule⚡ Audit supplies - packaging, business cards, bows, etc.⚡ Purge expired inventory ⚡ Organize and purge product photos - label for easy search⚡ Organize receipts and mileage logs for taxes ⚡ Create email templates for quick replies to inquiries 💡  Email templates are my Gmail JAM. You can easily create them by writing out the email as a template, the same way you would write a normal email (I write in ALL CAPS and [brackets] to know which info I'll need to update every time I trigger the template). ✍️ On the formatting bar of a new email, click the three stacked dots - then hover over Templates, and finally click Save draft as template. Now you can trigger that draft every time ya need it.⚡ Create a list of active, local groups to market to in 2026 ⚡ Audit pricing to ensure costs are covered + profit ⚡ Update Google Business Profile with 2026 hours + holidays 

Send us Fan Mail💡 Losing the Loser - Reframing in 2026.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 242 - Losing the Loser, it's the LAST day of 2025, and it will be the first day we start talkin' to ourselves with respect and support. Because we're gonna lose our internal loser - that baker bully that beats us up every time we get into our own heads. This year, we're professional framers - re-framers - and we're takin' a new, fresh look at our 2026 goals. By adjusting our internal monologue to be both supportive and curious, we remove the excuses holding us back and the bad joojoo that's gotten some frequent flyer miles sittin' in the back of our heads telling us we're not gonna make it as a baker. "What's with the lightbulb emoji?" you ask. 'Twas ol Tommy Edison who penned, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." 💡💡💡💡💡💡💡💡💡💡💡 Didn't reach your goals in 2025? You didn't fail. You found a handful of ways that didn't work. And this year, you'll outfit a new handful of ways that do work. 💡 New Year's ResolutionsDon't beat yourself up over missing the mark on your New Year's Resolutions. They're there as benchmarks, not pass / fail grades. Figure out why last year's goals were a bit too much, then adjust! Use them as indicators of goals that need resizing, not as a big giant F.The brain needs small wins, so maybe break down a BIG goal into quarterly or monthly slices of the big goal - 🧠 that way your brain gets to reward itself while still puttin' in work towards that big goal. How bad would it be to say, "I got to 80% of my BIG goal by accomplishing 8 supporting goals."❌ Bully Baker: I didn't accomplish any of my resolutions.✅️ Believer Baker: I recalibrated how big my resolutions can be before they become overwhelming. 💡 Missed Classes / CoursesRaise your hand if you're a course hoarder like Corrie. 🙋‍♀️ All hands up? Great. Stop feeling like a loser. You don't need to take every class. Find 1 class that fills a knowledge gap and start listening to the first 10 minutes of it. That's it. 💯 You just passed the "I started a class" test, and you got an A+.Free yourself from the guilt of not taking courses, and instead - dip a toe in. I promise this new approach will make you feel like such a winner.❌ Bully Baker: I suck at macarons, I don't enjoy them.✅️ Believer Baker: I'm really close to figuring out macarons. I just need one final course to close the gap. 💡 Uggo PhotosPhotography = looks easy, feels hard, gets overwhelming. We see the posts all the time, 📸 "My photos are so ugly." 😔 Great - you identified the problem! Now let's baby step the solution. First, focus on lighting - let's keep props off to the side for a minute. Got that nailed down? Let's try staging next.Build up. Don't fall back. "Being perfect at photography" is a goal too big to bite down on. 🐘 How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.❌ Bully Baker: My photos suck.✅️ Believer Baker: I'm glad I'm consistently taking photos now, but I understand there's a gap between what I want and what I'm getting. I'm going to approach each aspect individually - lighting, staging, post processing - and work from there.How you speak to yourself is how you'll show up to others. Hate your work? You'll think no one likes your bakes. Hate the hustle? You'll blame other bakers. Hate your clients? You'll treat every single one of them as a nail, you hammer.Be good to yourself in 2026. You'll thank yourself for it.

Send us Fan Mail🧮 Stay on Track Track Track - Metrics to guide your marketing.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 241 - Stay on Track Track Track, the twins have spreadsheets on the brain just in time for the new year.While yes, you can start a spreadsheet any time on any day in any month of the year, it does help to have it ready to go on January 1 - that way, you can look at your bakery's entire fiscal year, start to finish. The key to spreadsheets and data tracking is this: first, determine the goal, then let the goal guide what you track.If you want to become a social media influencer, you'll focus on content and views. If you want to increase sales, you're going to focus on customer acquisition. If you want to focus on corporate orders, you're going to track business networking event contacts. That's why there's no "one size fits all" for reporting and record keeping. What your goals are in 2026 =/= the goals of your closest competitor. So stop lookin' over the fence at what they're doing and focus on the reports.🧮 Increasing Returning CustomersLet's say your focus for the first 3 months of the year (Q1) is to cultivate returning leads. You're going to shift from finding new clients (yes, you can still look for new clients, but it's not our driving metric).To cultivate returning clients, you may be tracking these types of metrics:🔢 How many past clients did you add to your CRM? 🔢 How many emails have I sent to past clients? What was the open rate? 🔢 How many past clients placed new orders in 2026 YTD? 🧮 Increasing Corporate LeadsIf you want to set a goal of increasing corporate leads, you're not going to naturally do a hard push towards cookie classes, right? That's not the right fit for the goal = corporate girly era. To increase corporate leads, you must increase corporate exposure, and that's likely through business-centric networking events and apps like LinkedIn. You're likely going to create a segmented email list for corporate contacts.To cultivate corporate orders, you may be tracking these types of metrics:🔢 How many networking events have you attended?🔢 From those events, how many contacts did you add on LinkedIn?🔢 From those LinkedIn contacts, how many did you drop off a "pop-by" to?🧮 Increase Order TotalsIf you're looking to increase the total ticket sale (the amount you make per order), you're going to focus on tracking your price increase, your production costs, and your upsells.To increase order totals, you may be tracking these types of metrics:🔢 How many clients added an upsell to their order?🔢 By what percentage did I increase my custom orders?🔢 What was my order ticket average in 2025? What is my order ticket average in 2026?Yes, you can run concurrent goals, you can run campaigns for various durations, and you can absolutely abandon a goal if you determine it hasn't been fitting your overall strategy. Knowing when to cut a goal off can be just as valuable as knowing when to double down. When determining which metrics to track, ask yourself:🧮 What is my primary goal?🧮 And if that's my primary goal, what metrics support being able to track and determine if that goal is being met, missed, or in progress?👂 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 241 - Stay on Track Track Track.

Send us Fan Mail⛰️ Burke Lake vs Everest - Accomplishing small goals in 2026.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 240 - Burke Lake versus Everest, we're winding down 2025 and taking a look at 2026 through the lens of goals.🥾 Yeah, yeah - you look back on this past year and realize you can't even remember what your new year's resolutions were, let alone whether you met them or not - and for good reason. Sometimes our "bright and flashy" goals are more claimed to summit Mt. Everest rather than to walk the local park a few times a month. 👣 While telling people you're trekkin' down the local hiking path (which is Burke Lake for me) won't garner many likes on social media, it's the "walking path" goals that actually get you to Mt. Everest, 🧗 not the other way around.Find your "Burke Lake" and then build small steps to that. Everest will come in time - and that time may be a few years from now. But a 1% improvement across 10 areas of your business each month in 2026 = 120% improvement. 🏔️ And that is how you climb mountains.🏔️Social MediaInstead of the mountain of "I'm going to add 1,000 followers this year," consider a small path approach to social growth in 2026.🏔️ I will feature 1 local business each week on my page.🏔️ I will cross-post that feature to 1 local group.🏔️ Grow my page by 3 local followers each week👍 These small steps will put you in front of your target audience who actually can place an order. I can get 1,000 followers from a viral reel or a cookie group follow train - but what then? Maybe a few likes if I'm lucky.But three locals each week? 😍 That's 156 local people by the end of 2026 who can actually give me their money and eat my cookies. Bonus = featuring a local business = potential for corporate orders too.🏔️ Email Marketing📧📧📧📧📧📧📧 "I'm going to send out a newsletter every month." Solid goal, and I love it. But if that was the same goal you had in 2025 and didn't meet, maybe it's a bit too aggressive. Let's "Burke Lake" it a bit. 💌 Just getting started can be half the battle - so break down "getting started" into three small steps. 🏔️ I will organize my client emails into a spreadsheet.🏔️ I will sign up for MailChimp and import my list.🏔️ I want to send out 1 email each quarter.One email a quarter doesn't sound like much, but if you sent 0 emails later year, that's 4 more chances to make sales to your audience than you had last year. Plus, it's consistent, which means good marketing. If you want to send more than 4, great! But set the goal bar at an attainable distance so you're guaranteed a win.🏔️ WebsitesSo many bakers start their year off claiming, "I'm going to get a new website." And for all the right reasons. 💻 Websites = more sales. But often they get overwhelmed with the myriad of endless options recommended by other bakers - Shopify, WordPress, Hotplate, MyCustomBakes, Square, Jotform, Bakesy... you get the point - it's seemingly endless. Burke Lake-ify it. 🌐 Start by setting up a simple form. Yes, it's not a website. But yes, it'll start you in the right direction and buy you some time and space to work up to that.🏔️ I'm going to start taking orders through JotForm.🏔️ I will test out MyCustomBakes and Square.🏔️ I will choose one of those platforms. And if you feel like switching it next year, you can. Sky's the limit. But at least this year, you can say you got the website monkey off your shoulders. 🏔️ Photography"I'm going to improve photography," is actually a

Send us Fan Mail🎁 Baker Holiday Gift Guide - 2025 list of gifts for bakers.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 239 - 2025 Best Bakers Gift List, it's the most wonderful tiiiime of the yeeear. It's the Top Baker Gift Ideas podcast you're supposed to intentionally accidentally leave playing for the gift buyer in your life.This is twin2's favorite yearly podcast tradition, and she states, "If I got just about anything on this list, I'd be stoked," and now you can window shop her wishlist with today's 2025 Best Bakers Gift Guide.Want hyperlinks? Here's the Google Doc with links (I don't think any of them are affiliate, but if we have a discount code, I included that where I could). 🎁 Stocking Stuffers - Sub $50Being generous here, but anything sub-$50 we threw in as a decent stocking stuffer. Listen - the cookie hustle is willing to take as much of your money as you're willing to give it, so we had to draw a line somewhere. Some of my favorites from this list:🎄 The Flour Funnel - $24.99🎄 Uber Eats Gift Card🎄 Moft Phone Stand - $39.99🎄 Duke Cannon Bloody Knuckles hand cream - $11🎁 Under the Tree - $50 - $500Probably our best mid-range options, these "under the tree" gifts range between $50 and $500 (wide range, we know, but the podcast needed to draw a line somewhere). We tried to come up with a list for the business baker, so one that doesn't feature a bunch of stuff you likely already have, and if you have it, it was something you'd be again (think: food coloring). Some of my favorites from this list:🎄 Hulken Bag (Large) - $125🎄 Amazon Hand Massager ($79+)🎄 NutriMill Artiste Mixer - $249 (use code SUGARCOOKIES)🎄 Stand-Up Freezer ($298)🎁 SubscriptionsKinda needs to be in a list of its own, but for the hobby-turned-hustler, subscriptions are always a welcome gift to save us from our recurring nightmares. And we've got a creative list of them, too. If the baker in your life already has it all, taking on a few of their software payments would be very welcome (even if you can't easily wrap it).Some of my favorites from this list:🎄 Sprinkle Factory STL Library - $250/yr🎄 Spotify Gift Card🎄 Cookie Design Lab - $100 (use code TWINS)🎄 The Cookie College (use code BAKINGITDOWN for 10% off any subscription for the next 7 days - consider it an early Christmas gift)🎁 Santa's Chosen Bakers - $500+Maybe you're the baker who never thought ill of a late-showing client. Maybe you're the baker who was always prepared for class and never forgot the icing or the HDMI cable. And maybe you're the baker whose icing refuses to bleed. In that case, you may have made Santa's Chosen Baker list this year, where budget isn't an issue. Some of my favorites from this list:🎄 Bosch Universal Plus - Stainless Steel - $549 (use code SUGARCOOKIES)🎄 Eugene's Electric Dough Sheeter - $1,005🎄Eddie D2F Printer - $2,995 (they have cheaper refurbed options)🎄 Dreambox - $2,800Check out this week's podcast to hear how we came up with this list, which was twin2's favorites, and what she wouldn't buy a second time. And to all you good bakers out there who Santa may have missed - maybe a decent time to play your own secret Santa and treat yaself! 👂 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 239 - 2025 Best Baker Gift List.

Send us Fan Mail🎓 Vendy Blendy - Insider info.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 238 - Vendy Blendy Inside Info, we're in the final stretch of the Vendy Blendy - and we're spillin' all the secrets in this final-prep podcast for Friday's BIG Baker Sale. Are we hype? Yes. Are we delirious? Also yes. Are we tired of saying the word Vendy Blendy? Getting close. But it's the f-i-n-a-l c-o-u-n-t-d-o-wn-.🟠 The Most Important StuffIf you read nothing more than this - here's the most important stuff to get the quickest bang for your buck on Friday:🟠 Join this Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vendyblendy/🟠 Save this Google spreadsheet: http://thevendys.com/ That's it - two links. And even ig you only clicked the second link (the spreadsheet with the discount codes), you can shop 68 Vendys at 25% off (or more) for 24 hours and never have to even touch Facebook on Friday. Got that saved? Good. 👇 Read on if you want day-of insider info.🟠 Day-Of Insiders 🤫 First - Heather isn't making the event posts (like the BIG DOOR PRIZE posts). A page is - it's called Vendy Blendy. And yes, it still is Heather - but it's also now Corrie, that way we can both help you instead of Heather getting 1,452,693 notifications and Corrie living her best life scrolling mindlessly on TikTok. 🤫 Second - the BIG DOOR PRIZE entry posts start going up at 7:00 AM est. This is different than what we said earlier - because building out the schedule, we have a lot more door prizes this year than last year (10 Bambu Minis, 5 Bosch Mixers). Then they go up every 45 minutes - but some of the threads will lock, but not all of them (despite each post saying that it will lock).🤫 Third - each post made by the page (the event posts) will tell you the next 5 things on the event's schedule, but the Vendys can post whenever (we don't collect this info from them). The group is set by chronological order, meaning check back a few times throughout the day, and just scroll down to catch up.🤫 Fourth - the valuation of all the day-of door prizes is over $18,000, and the pre-event hype prizes total just under $3,000 - so you have the chance to snag a portion of the $21,000 pie (free from purchase requirements). 🤫 Fifth - The door prizes of each Vendy and the valuation have now been added to the Vendy spreadsheet - you can check that out here: http://thevendys.com. Some Vendys are giving away multiple door prizes, but they'll tell you how to win them all in the same post. They can post these whenever, but the winners must be posted at 9:00 PM est.🤫 Sixth - The Bosch mixers must be claimed by Dec 1 by 6 PM est - no exceptions. That's different than the 7 days you'll have to claim the Vendys door prizes and the Bambus. Why? We can only budget all these BIG door prizes if we shop their sales, and NutriMill's sale ends on Dec 1 (use code SUGARCOOKIES to save $20 at checkout - shameless affiliate plug). Bosch doesn't ship to your address? You claim the Black Friday sale cash equivalent instead - so yes, enter Canadians! 🤫 Seventh - The Live Google Sheet gets deleted at midnight. Want to shop these Vendys at a later date? Go to File > Make a Copy. There will be no posting, commenting, or emails about the Vendy Blendy after Black Friday. Have an issue with a Vendy? Their support email is in that spreadsheet too (another reason you should save it), but the twins ain't your life raft if something sinks instead of swims.

Send us Fan Mail🎓 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/yrThe 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).👉 86 Marketing Courses👉 The Private Facebook Group👉 The Freebie Photos👉 The 2023 Cookie Class Kits ($300)👉 The 2024 Cookie Class Kits ($300) 👉 The 2025 Cookie Class Kits Membership ($63/mo)👉 The Bakers Business Basics Membership ($36/mo)👉 The Digital Downloads Membership ($10/mo)👉 The Two Dollar Transfer Club Membership ($2/mo) 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:👉 CCK - January Cookie Class - Happy New Year Cookie Class👉 CCK - February Cookie Class - Galentine's Day Cookie Class👉 CCK - March Cookie Class - K9 Cookies Cookie Class👉 CCK - April Cookie Class - Happy Moms Day Cookie Class👉 CCK - May Cookie Class - Cookies de Mayo Cookie Class👉 CCK - June Cookie Class - Frosting Father Cookie Class👉 CCK - July Cookie Class - Patriotic Piping Cookie Class👉 CCK - August Cookie Class - School and Scribes Cookie Class👉 CCK - September Cookie Class - Happy Birthday! Cookie Class👉 CCK - October Cookie Class - BOO!-kie Class Cookie Class👉 CCK - November Cookie Class - Frosting Feast Class Cookie Class👉 CCK - December Cookie Class - Santa's Set Cookie Class ✅ 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. 

Send us Fan Mail☝️ 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 2Of 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:🎟️ Lead acquisition - Turns out, this lead came from a referral that turned into a failed custom order (Corrie was out for that cancer surgery), that, through cross promotion of cookie classes, was reacquired through consistent marketing.🎟️  Room Configuration Issues - Dining rooms mean heavy furniture and carpeting, so there was no ability for attendees to swivel and face, and single direction. This created a bit of frustration since folk had to wait for me to walk the laptop around. There was no room for a TV, and the document camera was a no-go.🎟️ Technical Difficulties - Would it be a cookie class without tech problems?! The IPEVO document camera that was working mere minutes before class suddenly couldn't be read by the laptop on location, so we dropped the concept completely. Thank goodness Corrie had those display cookie stands - they loved referencing those.🎟️ Parking and Logistics -  Private classes mean private driveways - and this one was super tight. I wish we'd considered this before, although I'm not sure there was too much we could do about it.🎟️ Class Flow and Student Engagement - The class was longer than anticipated due to interruptions like serving food and increased chatter among friends versus in a public class where we have a bunch of strangers in a room together (wine, anyone?). We didn't have as much power since we were just the hired teachers in someone else's home - maybe I wish we had something to amplify our voices?🎟️ Financial Aspects - Was it worth it? Yep - we cleared $85/ticket and one $35 take-home kit (I wish we had called these "practice kits" and not DIY kits). Plus, teaching in a private home means no venue fees, and we didn't have to fill the room - Mary did that all on her own (saving us marketing labor costs).🎟️ Piping Practice - Still a huge fan of spending 15 minutes on a piping practice sheet. We do this in all of our classes, and it really sets the students up for success. Remember, a student who liked their results = a potential for a future returning ticket sale.🎟️ Communication Importance - Remember - organization is key for private classes. Staying on top of the host to ensure everyone's on the same page keeps us all on track.🟠 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:🟠 https://www.sugarcookiemarketing.com/vendyblendyIf you missed my Facebook Lives - catch the replays here:🧡 Live 1 - Vendy Blendy 101🧡 Live 2 - Pre-Shop the Vendys🧡 Live 3 - Secrets to the Vendy BlendyTomorrow, 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. 

Send us Fan Mail☝️ Private Class + VB - Part one of a two-part series.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 235 - Private Class + The Vendy Blendy Pt 1, we're doing a two-part two-part series (not a typo) so I can check the box that we effectively spammed you with the Vendy Blendy this week while also providing some marketing value. We're teaching an in-home private class. Now, typically, you've heard me state (vehemently) that we don't teach private in-home classes anymore after a wild adventure with a class of 5 - 7 year olds once years ago, but Corrie said, "For the podcast!" so for the podcast, we must. 👩‍🏫 The Private Cookie Class - Pt 1Mary is the client here, and she found Corrie through her custom cookie Instagram when Corrie had cross-promoted an in-person cookie class we were hosting back in October. Mary DMed asking if we would be open to an in-home private class with her and her friends, so Corrie said if she was willing to play "private class guinea pig," we're in. Mary happily took the bait, and we set these parameters up months before the event.✅ She had to sell all 10 tickets.✅ All 10 tickets needed to be sold 2 weeks prior to the event.✅ Mary had to handle the marketing.✅ We allowed her to sell individual tickets (versus a lump sum payment) through Eventbrite (yes, we incurred the fees). ✅ We were not offering a discount. 📧 I followed up with Mary via email each week once we sent her the class link (since I was managing the Eventbrite, she didn't have access to attendee lists) with the list of names + a confirmation of her class details. To keep it easy, 🖼 we sent her the photo collage of our Cookie Class Kits membership class offerings (hey, yeah - we like them so much, we teach them ourselves), and she went with "the pie slice Thanksgiving one" - risky click here, because we actually have two pie slice Thanksgiving classes, but I can't get Mary to confirm. That said - I have requested a picture of the event space, and that will be the challenge to overcome this Thursday when we finally teach the class. Next week's podcast will feature a pt. 2 recap on how it all went - stay tuned!🛍️ The Vendy Blendy - Pt 1 Now back to Vendy Blendy spam - each year, our returning list of Vendys gets shorter and shorter due to turnover in the industry, so to replace the shops that dropped out or disappeared on their marketing, we worked on finding fresh blood that y'all begged for - and let's just say, it's comin' together nicely! ️🛒 If you're new here - the Vendy Blendy is a private Facebook group that opens for only 24 hours on Black Friday (Nov 28th). We gather a bunch of cookie-related shops and get them to offer you all 25% off or more. It's utter mayhem - the deals aren't the only fun part because each shop can make 3 sales pitches to ya 🎁 while also hosting their own door prize giveaways throughout the day.🤯 Not overwhelming enough? Hold on tight - 🎁🎁🎁 the event also hosts the "BIG Door Prizes" given away all day on Black Friday, too. It's organized mayhem, and folks love it. And we think you'll love it too. Go "Pendy" so you can "Spendy" this "Novemy" at the "Vendy Blendy"! Find all the info you need at https://www.sugarcookiemarketing.com/vendyblendy.👂 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 235 - Private Class + The Vendy Blendy Pt. 1.

Send us Fan Mail📸 Food-tography - Staging, props, gear, software.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 234 - Food-Tography, we're concluding our "📅 Content Theme" for the month of October, which focused on... well, focusing that camera lens. 💡 Check out #OctoberPhotographyMonth in the Sugar Cookie Marketing (Group) to see more content on staging and gear.📸 Food photography is a must when it comes to slingin' sugar cookies. Our customers "buy with their eyes," meaning that the photos have a big part in selling our bakes. If your photo quality and staging are poor = your business bank account will soon follow.While we may be able to get around not having a website, posting up lackluster photos will rob you of sales. So investing in quality gear to produce quality product photos is a business-savvy expenditure. 🤑 But we do talk about the cost-conscious approach in this week's Baking it Down podcast episode on cookie photography.📸 The Power of PhotographyGood photos sell food! Consistent, high-quality photography can act as a watermark for your brand (especially when you dial in your own photography style), making your products instantly recognizable. Easily recognizable = branding. You're seein' how this all works together, right?  When your photos do the talking, you won't have to pitch as hard. Consider your own buying process. When you want a car, you search up "Mercedes" and see glamorous photos of beautiful red cars with big boys and sparkly wheels. What you don't see is the car covered in a layer of dirt and bird poop. Showing the car and our cookies in their best light will increase sales.📸 LightingThe best option happens to be the cheapest option = ☀️ the sun. Indirect natural sunlight is a phrase you've heard us spout for YEARS on this podcast. Having a mobile setup (backdrops help with this), where you can follow the ever-moving sunlight around your house, will help with "chasing daylight." 🕯️ Otherwise, you may need to consider a lighting system, a diffuser, and/or a light box (harder to use - I always find myself frustrated with them).📸 CamerasCell phone cameras have come a long way and can really hold their own next to dedicated cameras. That said, for me, the dedicated camera still adds that extra pizzazz that manufactured blur and digital zoom just can't recreate (yet). If you have an older cell phone, with how quickly technology and built-in cell phone camera abilities have increased, it may be worth the upgrade to the latest model. Otherwise, consider a dedicated camera - specifically with a macro zoom lens - to really capture that cookie.📸 StandsWhile 92% of bakers opted for hand-held photography (meaning no stands), when it comes to videography, you may have to consider a stand setup. Moft is a neat stand that uses the cell phone's mag-safe magnet for quick setup. ShopCanvas lamps have a built-in light and a goose-neck clamp, and dedicated tripods can help with heavier cameras. Have an Arkon mount? You can make that work too, although the ball joints don't lend themselves to easy adjustment. 📸 SoftwareIf you're not taking your photos through software (cell or desktop), you're leaving money on the table. Post-processing software like Lightroom or Snapseed can make the difference between dull pics and products that pop off the page. I'd wager just about every creator you jealously look at and think, "They take such good photos," is using a post-processing software to level up their photography game. 👂 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 P

Send us Fan Mail🎙️ Podcast Guest - Christina with Boujee Baker Boutique.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 233 - Podcast Guest Christina with Boujee Baker Boutique, we hosted our first-ever remote podcast guest! You all wanted fresh blood (er... dough?), and the people get what they want! Meet Christina Cenera with Boujee Baker Boutique and Stormy Acre Cookies based in Warranton, Virginia. Yep, she juggles both a brick-and-mortar supply shop and a bakery business, all while raising 5 dogs (with alpaca manifestation incoming). ️🛒 Shop Link: https://boujeebakerboutique.com/Her unique perspective of being both a supplier and a baker makes Episode 233 an interesting listen this week. And yes - she's a Vendy in this year's Vendy Blendy! 🤔 "What's one thing you would have done differently?"Christina has opened two businesses in the last 5 years, now running both concurrently. What would she have done differently, we asked? She says she would have saved more money before opening the brick-and-mortar storefront while also spending less on remodeling costs. Looking back, Christina said while the customizations were nice, they weren't a necessity in hindsight, and having that extra cash on hand (she estimated $50k in startup costs) would have been a nice padding.🤔 "How have you been able to wholesale so many brands?" Christina's simple take: don't take no for an answer. As a former saleswoman, she's learned that "no" isn't a rejection of her but rather a challenge to find a better way to pitch. "I heard no way more than I've heard yes," she states. She takes a "boots on the ground" mentality, going to CookieCons, signing up for the Vendy Blendy, landing in Heather's inbox 3 times to ensure she's a shoe-in for the podcast - and it's that level of hustle that is really paying off for her. She's a "No Girl" and proud of it.🤔 "How do you do it all?"She's found a way to make her businesses fit around her life and not the other way around. The supply shop is open 4 days a week, the bakery is active 2 days a week, and Sundays are reserved for cookie classes. She's consolidated her websites for both companies and did the same for her social profiles. Basically, she's making a hybrid approach to compromise on what's best practice versus what's best for her lifestyle. 🤔 "What tip would you give first-time Vendy Blendy goers?""Definitely stay up for the final hour." Yesss - what happens after hours, stays in your wallet. Chaos is the theme of the Vendy Blendy, and it doesn't stop until the shoppin' lady sings at midnight. If you're new to the Vendy Blendy, tune in this Thursday at 6:00 PM for our "Intro to the Vendy Blendy" Facebook Live.👂 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 233 - Podcast Guest Christina with Boujee Baker Boutique.

Send us Fan Mail⚖️ Jury Duty - Hung up on client issues.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 232 - Jury Duty, Corrie gives the people what they wanted! A tell-all on her jury duty trial (that she missed last week's podcast for). Since it's definitely worth the listen to get the full energy, I'll keep this week's newsletter short (and yes, still on Wednesday, even if I'm barely making it before the buzzer goes off).🏛️ Communication MattersCorrie's takeaway from the courtroom? Communication matters. The defense attorney was likable and it really helped the defendant. Good customer communication can diffuse a bad situation and even turn it into a good one (or heck, maybe a $25 fine). Jokes aside, being able to handle customers in a way that makes them feel seen and listened to - even if you didn't deserve the allegations - is just good business. Figuring out how to put their shoes on for a minute while typing out a response can be the difference between a good review (and a returning client) or a bad one. Takeaway: Just because you won the case doesn't mean you've won at business.🏛️ Document, Document, DocumentMy takeaway from Corrie's courtroom floor seat? Documentation matters before it matters. Meaning get ahead of mishaps and misunderstandings by overcommunicating. Yes, there's such a thing as too much info, but I'd rather have too much than way too little. The jury in the courtroom let the perp walk because there wasn't enough documentation from law enforcement. And when disputes are circumstantial (ie, the alleged "ant" in the macaron), documentation will save your baking behind.👂 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 232 - Jury Duty.

Send us Fan Mail🛒 2025 Vendy Blendy - The who, what, where, when, why.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 231 - The 2025 Vendy Blendy, we have VENDY BLENDY on the brain!Each year, 🦃 at the end of November, deals roll around in stores and across your screens, prepping everyone for the Christmas season. From malls to boutiques- the steals are endless! So, what about a day of deals just for bakers? 🫡 The Vendy Blendy answers the call. A deal-lovers' day specifically for the bakers of the world. Let’s cover the who, what, when, where, and why so you can know exactly what to expect for the 5th annual Vendy Blendy come November 28th.🛒 Date: November 28th, 2025🛒 Time: 12:01 AM - 11:59 PM (24 hours)🛒 How to Join: Just request to pendy!🛍️ What is The Vendy Blendy?The Vendy Blendy’s main location is in a Facebook group called, you’ll never guess, “The Vendy Blendy (Sugar Cookie Marketing)”... we aren’t great at creative naming, I’ll tell ya that, BUT it’s a fun spot where chaos goes down for 24 hours on the day after Thanksgiving, on November 28th.Each year, vendors (Vendys) from the baking industry and around the world come together and offer discounts, door prizes, and incentives to get bakers to buy from their shops - things like cookie cutters, baking mats, baker shirts, cookie scribes, STLs, software, takes a deep breath, cake pop molds, recipes, meringue powder, sprinkles, class kits, online courses, transfer sheets, packaging, cookie tags, cookie backers- the list truly does go on and on and on aaaand it’ll all be 25% off or more! 👉 You can access the current list (which is always growing) of vendys at http://www.TheVendys.comJust like most awesome things in life, it’s here for a good time, not a long time, so you’ll be able to shop the deals and steals for just 24 hours, and 💥POOF💥, it’ll be gone. 🤫 We shut down the group and boot everybody out, and we don’t talk about it again until next year. It truly is the best day and only day of the year!🛍️ Who is The Vendy Blendy for?If you’re just window shoppin’ or if you’re there to stock up on all your 2026 packaging options - this sale is for you. 🚪🎁 The shops all host door prizes, plus the Sugar Cookie Marketing Group, who puts it on, will be giving out free-to-enter BIG Door Prizes all day just for being there- you ain’t gotta purchase one single thing for a chance to win.🌎 While most of the Vendy's shops are based in the US, we have many that aren’t, and you can score deals from across the world! So don’t think that because you don’t have a US zip code, you can’t win, because you totally can! 🛍️ When is The Vendy BlendyThe Vendy Blendy is a 24-hour online event that goes down from midnight on November 27th to midnight on November 28th. It’s exactly 24 hours long. The event is hosted in Eastern Standard Time, so you may need to do some time conversions.The Vendy Blendy group is a private group on Facebook, so you’ll pend until the day of the event. Admins and Mods are already in there setting up the group and makin’ sure the pinned posts, discounts, and directions are all set up. At midnight on November 27th, we will start letting anyone pending into the group.🛍️ Where is The Vendy Blendy?This event does take place on Facebook, but the shops will let you check out from their individual websites. The Vendy Blendy Facebook group will be a hub that day where you can snag the discount codes, cheer on your favorite shops, and win door prizes all day long. You’ll access the shops, discount codes, and websites from a pinned Google Sheet within the group on the day of the event. 

Send us Fan Mail🥲 Nothing Old, Nothing New - Why your clients aren't coming back.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 230 - Nothing Old, Nothing New, Corrie wanted to cover returning customers - clients that have ordered from you in the past and then reorder. They're massively valuable to your bottom line because returning leads cost less to acquire. That means you have to spend less time and marketing dollars getting someone to order from you a second time than getting someone to order from you the first time.And this makes sense, right? ✅ A returning client already knows you exist.✅ A returning client already knows your ordering process.✅ A returning client has built trust with you when they placed their first order.✅ A returning client is 15 - 20% more likely to reconvert when reengaged. To drive the point home: 🤯 It can cost 5 - 25 times more to acquire a new customer than to re-engage an existing or returning lead. So for every dollar you spend to reacquire an old lead, you'd be spending $25 to replace them with a new lead. Higher marketing costs = lower profits.If you're a good baker-turned-marketer, you should be asking this question: 🤔 "How can I increase my returning customer base?" 🧠 Smart question - and there may be a few culprits at fault as to why you don't have people re-knocking on your proverbial front door.🙅‍♂️ 1. If you take big breaks or take the summer off, you're going to lose clients.If you're taking big, inconsistent breaks (like the summer off or January off), you're going to frustrate your current base of clients. They can't return if your doors are never open. If a customer who ordered from you in June returns to place an order in January only to find you've closed up shop until March, they'll need to source another baker - a more reliable one. Hey - put down that pitchfork, if you need to take a break, do so. But remember the cost of taking breaks like this - it will impact your returning customers.🙅‍♀️ 2. If you're constantly changing your offerings, you're losing clients.If you listened to this week's podcast, I lean into the "hybrid model" - a give and take. No one solution fits everyone, but finding a mix of solutions can still be an effective approach. That applied to a busy menu. Yes, trimming your menu down to the fan favorites (that you also like baking) can prevent analysis paralysis (or choice paralysis), but changing up your menu too often can drive away past customers who lost their favorites during a menu purge.Create a list of your best sellers and stick to it. Sprinkle in some "seasonal drops" and "limited editions," but be consistent in your long-term offerings.🙅‍♂️  3. If you're not easily searchable, you're losing returning clients.🔍 If I can't easily find you on search, socials, and email, you're not easily findable. Imagine a client who only ordered from you a year ago. How likely are they to be able to remember where to find you? Oftentimes, clients go to search engines with a slew of keywords they hope can connect them with past vendors. 🕵️‍♂️ If your website doesn't show up or your maps listing is nonexistent, you're losing any clients looking for you.🙅‍♀️ 4. If you're not relevant on socials, you're losing returning clients.I get it - ya get busy and posting to social media falls to the back burner. "But I'm busy, so my marketing is good, right?" Yes - however, marketing results are delayed - meaning what you do today you won't see until a month or two from now. 

Send us Fan Mail🎥 Do the Reels Collab - And here’s the reasons why you should.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 229 - Do the Reels Collab, we're hypin' up the marketing behind the Blind Baker Reels Collab on September 26.✅ Register here: https://form.jotform.com/SugarCookieMarketing/blind-baker-collab🎥 This cookie collab is different from the others we've run this year for 1 simple reason: it's video-based.Instead of posting an image of a logo-turned-cookie for the Main Street Collab or posting a selfie like we did for the Meet the Baker Collab, this Blind Baker Collab has bakers recording themselves.✍️ Here's the breakdown - participants in this cookie collab with blindfold themselves and hit RECORD as they pipe a jack-o'-lantern onto a white iced circular sugar cookie (I’ll provide an inspo pic).Then, on September 26th at 11:00 AM EST, bakers will post that video to their Instagram using the hashtag #SCMCollabCircle (note the 2 L’s in collab) and spend the next hour engaging with other Reels. 📼 Instagram converts all videos to Reels, so all ya gotta do is upload the video, add the caption, and post.📉 But this Blind Baker Collab will be the lowest attended cookie collab we host this year. Why? Because folks hate recording themselves on video. But in a video-first social media sphere, this is the piece of content that will push the needle for your post reach.🤳 It's a Reels world, and we're just livin' in it.Vertical videos are the marketing flavor of the month, and based on TikTok's extreme popularity over the last Covid-confined 5 years, it's not looking like it's going to let go of the limelight anytime soon.Video (all video, not just vertical video) should be a part of your marketing content creation schedule each week because...📹 Watchability - Our audience prefers to digest content via video versus text on a web page.📹 Conversions - Adding a marketing video to a landing page can increase conversions by over 80%.📹 User Generated Content - 84% of consumers have been convinced to buy a product or service after watching a brand's video.📹 Search Engine Optimization - Videos can rank separately from web pages and also can help web pages rank higher in search engines.📱 1. Meta is pushing videos more to compete with TikTok TikTok is growing, and Facebook knows it. Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) has slowed the reach of image-based content to favor video-based Reels instead (Reels = Meta's branding of TikToks).📱 2. Reels are recommended more than stagnant posts on Instagram.What used to be an image-based platform, Reels paved the way for vertical video content to compete with the ever-popular TikTok. As a result, image content has been pushed aside to favor the reach of videos on Instagram.📱 3. Reels are a better way to connect YOU to your audience.Statistics aside, your audience wants to connect with you - which is why this Reels collab focuses on you, the baker, rather than your skill set (we don't expect anyone to pipe a perfect pumpkin whilst blind folded).The goal of this collab is to put a face to a name a📱 4. Our own experience with the taste test series.Anecdotal evidence also supports the "Reel reach" theory. Corrie recently completed a 25-day series on Instagram using Reels to run a "freshness test" on her heat-sealed cookies. Each day, she recorded a minute-long video snackin' on a cookie. As dumb as that sounds, the content proved to

Send us Fan Mail🕸️ Stuck in the Websites - What to look for in a website builder.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 228 - Stuck in the Web...Sites, we (remotely - forgive the sound quality this week, kids - it was a learning experience) talk about the sunsetting of the baker-centric website host and builder, Castiron. 📩 Castiron sent this email to current users on Monday night with very little warning that there were problems in "paradise":Consider the implications of losing your website:🖱️ Loss of URL (meaning all your business cards need to be reprinted)🖱️ Loss of outstanding order details🖱️ Loss of unpaid invoices🖱️ Loss of all product listings / copy / images🖱️ Loss of all rankings in search engines (lead gen)🖱️ Loss of business metrics (web traffic / sales yoy / customer data) 🖱️ Loss of time building a new website from scratchSee - it can have a massive impact on a small business. So making sure you're not stuck in this predicament is just good business.💻 1. Is the website host well-established?"Shiny new object" syndrome isn't the best when it comes to websites. Providers that have decades under their belt hosting websites is a good sign that they're here for a long time, not just a good time. When a new company enters the website space, they're trying to gain enough market share to generate the cash flow to stay operational. While they often offer more competitive pricing, there's a reason for that = to build up their user base. While they may offer more perks for less, you also run the risk that they may not remain sustainable for long.💻 2. Is the host cost-competitive?There's cheap, fast, and good = choose two. But in all seriousness, consider the pricing implications of your hosting platform of choice. If the monthly fee seems low, they may be taking % of sales. Some web hosts provide the basics, but you get nickel-and-dimed with plugins (Shopify and WordPress, for example). Here's the takeaway - cheaper doesn't always mean bad, and expensive doesn't always mean good. What you need to vet is how that specific platform meets your bakery's unique needs. If you're new to market, a platform that takes % of sales may actually be more cost advantageous than a flat fee host. It's dependent on your needs + the math problem. Find what works for you.💻 3. Are they reaching promised milestones?When a company shows its roadmap, it's a decent metric to see how the company is progressing. If most milestones are missed, it may be an indicator that not all is sunshine and roses. Stay on top of promises and deadlines to better understand how the host is maintaining its tech and thus your website.💻 4. Does it match your level of "tech savvy"?It could be the best website builder in the world, but if you don't know how to use it, it's worthless. Finding a platform that works with how you work is the winning strategy here, and sometimes that's not always a full website but rather an intake form (like Bakesy, Jotform, or Google Forms). If you're willing to sit with a problem until it's solved, more complex builders will give you more functionality. It's all about finding what works well for you and your current needs.

Send us Fan Mail🛑 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

Send us Fan Mail👭 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 TheCakeWhispererUSAIf 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).📌 Disney Trip Planning - https://www.reachforthemagicdestinations.com/heatherbrookshire📌  Cookie and Cake Competitions 101 - https://youtu.be/3fIZT96WdekWhen 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 TreatsKim 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. 📌 Allergy-Friendly Baking Basics with Kim DeMille Sims - https://youtu.be/2Ll5hN9Mi-c📌 Beans & Brews - https://www.beansandbrews.com/coffee-shops/spring-rhodes-shopping-center/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.

Send us Fan Mail💎 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 SourcedOkay, 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'sIf 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.

Send us Fan Mail💼 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). 📌 2. Details on this Main Street collabThis 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.➡️ Time: Thursday, 11:00 AM EST➡️ Date: August 28th, 2025➡️ Use Hashtag #SCMCollabLocal➡️ Register Here: https://form.jotform.com/SugarCookieMarketing/main-street-cookie-collab📌 3. How to choose a business to featureDon'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:✅ Find a hyper-local company.✅ Consider featuring a restaurant or coffee shop.✅ Try to pick a business that already has a bit of a following.✅ Choose a company that's active on social media - specifically on Instagram (bonus if you see they reshare a lot of content).✅ Find more ways you can squeeze content from this collab-featured business.📌 4. What you're going to postAt 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 c

Send us Fan Mail💀 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 outIf 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.🤕 Business happening to you: You baked everything. You had high hopes for sales, now you're sulking because it was a total wash. 💪 You happening to your business: You jump on an impromptu Facebook Live to see if anyone wants to snag a "lightning flash deal" on your bakes. You gain a new audience of last-minute orders, and your product doesn't go to waste - you even recoup some of your costs, maybe even some profit.2. There was low attendance at your vendor eventIt 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.🤕 Business happening to you: You pack up early and leave. You then complain about the entire event and coordinator in a local community group - heck, they deserve it for wasting your time.💪 You happening to your business: You realize attendance is low, but you brought your DSLR camera. You start connecting with other vendors and take a few photos of them in action. You grab their business card and make a connection, thus potentially securing a referral source. 3. There was another baker at your holiday marketNothing'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.🤕 Business happening to you: You complain to management and forever burn that bridge.

Send us Fan Mail👀 Reach Ain’t Errythang - Focus on metrics that make money.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 222 - Return of the Twith, the twin is BACK in business, and she means business with this week's topic: reach isn't everything.We played a clip from marketer David Glu, who lists how your audience's interactions might signal what your content isn't doing for them.📈 Low Likes = Your content isn't relatable📉 Low Comments = Your content isn't thought-provoking 📈 Low Saves = Your content doesn't add enough value📉 Low Shares = Your content is not engaging 📈 Low Views = Your content is missing a good hook I like this approach to diagnosing a reach problem because it doesn't allow you to say, "Well, nothing's working, I'm going to quit making content." Instead, it forces you to look at the reach problem as a symptom (🤔 "What do I need to tweak here?" versus a profile problem (😓 "Facebook is limiting my page reach.").🔨 One of those is in your power to fix, and one of those is not.But also consider how many people you're reaching. 30 per post? 100 per post? 1,000 per post? Seeing other bakers reach hundreds of thousands of people every time they twiddle their fingers across a keyboard can be disheartening. But imagine you were asked to speak to a room of 30 people. Would you be nervous? Of course. How about a room full of 100 people? Talk about a lil' perspiration station under them armpits, right? How about an auditorium of 1,000 people? That'd be a MASSIVE audience. Yet when we see the reach of "30 people" in our Facebook metrics, out the window goes the thought that those people ARE potential buyers.If 30 people placed an order with you tomorrow, would you be booked out for a month or two? Then remember which metrics are guiding your content focus. Your hyper-local followers are your target audience as a local baker, so no - you were never supposed to expect to reach 100,000 people with that post, because if 95% of those people aren't able to place a local order with you, it wasn't the metric to score your content by. Yes, focus on metrics. No, don't let the wrong metric trip you up. Reach isn't as important as conversions (aka people opening their wallets). Yes, they're related, but they're more like second cousins, not twins. When one does well, it's not always indicative of the other doing well. 🎟️ My class kit social media posts get max 3 - 4 likes. My cookie classes? Already booking out in December at $85/ticket with a waitlist. My conversion metric outperformed my engagement metric, and I'm fine with that because, to my business model, conversions are more important than likes.Join the Main Street Cookie Collab on Thursday (ahem), August 28, 2025, at 11:00 AM EST. It's a great way to produce hyper-local content. But then take that content in a few directions. That's what a good marketer would do. 📸 Make the single-image Instagram Main Street Collab post.📸 Make a carousel post featuring the cookie, the menu, the restaurant's facade, the lunch you ordered there, etc.📸 Make a Reel outta your trip to turn the business into a cookie.📸 Post your photo roll-up to a local FB group and write a restaurant review. 📸  Have your FB page audience vote on which business they want you to cookie-fy next.

Send us Fan Mail💵 Money Talks With the (older) Miracles.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 221 - Money Talk with the Miracles, Corrie's still outta commission, so we've got another Miracle sister as a stunt double - meet Ashley with YNAB.com. Ash is the older (and wiser) sister and also an employee of an app that helps folks manage their money. Now, this is not a sales pitch; that said, I do use the app (and pay full price - what happened to sibling hookups?!), and we're giving away 3 months of it in the Sugar Cookie Marketing group. But we are talkin' about the "YNAB Way" - an approach they take to help business owners and individuals look at the way their money works differently than we're typically told to. The goal of this unique approach is to remove the "ick" of budgeting and replace it with a spending strategy. Basically, they put you and your money on the same side of the war against debt and dollar dread.Here's the "YNAB Way" approach as it applies to bakers:💵 1. What does this money need to do before I’m paid again?💵 2. What larger or less frequent spending do I need to prepare for?💵 3. What can I set aside for next month’s spending?💵 4. What goals, large or small, do I want to prioritize?💵 5. What changes do I need to make, if any?The key is giving every dollar a job. That means each month, every dollar you intake gets assigned a role, aka a job. In your "money that came in" line, there will ideally be 0 dollars because all those dollars were moved from the "ready to be given a job" and then were allocated to some line item in your budget. That's where the 5 steps come in. The first "job" your dollars need to tackle is the things that, if not paid, you won't have a business next month. Think website hosting fees, licensure fees, and booth fees. Got those dollars assigned? Cool - we're still in business.Step 2 - The next are those not frequent but very necessary expenses (YNAB calls them sinking funds). These are things like yearly renewals, oven repairs or replacements, insurance policies, heck, maybe your Cookie College yearly renewal you got at a MAJOR discount during the Mid-Summer Membership Sale next week (you smart spender, you) - all things you gotta have, but aren't monthly bills. Step 3 gets your money working ahead. Instead of just funding your bills for this month, imagine a world where next month is already accounted for, too. *Sighs in relief* As wise older sister Ash said, "We're trying to level out the financial roller coasters." Step 4 is my personal favorite. Once the bills are all budgeted for, we can start prioritizing our dream spending. Ash says you can learn a lot about a baker through their budget, especially when it comes to goals and wants. Think buying that Eddie, or going to CookieCon 2026, or spending with (budgeted) reckless abandon at The Vendy Blendy. And we end with Step 5 - the overview and the adjustment. We see what we had to spend, we see what we will spend, and we now see what we want to spend - where can we optimize? Where can we dream bigger? Where can we spend less?  Like Ash says, "It's a constant conversation with yourself about how you want your money to work for you." 👂 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 221 - Money Talk with the Miracles.

Send us Fan Mail👋 Ope, It's Amy! The mod team meets the mod team.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 220 - Ope, It's Amy!, we continue on our "regular scheduled programming" departure to introduce our first ever podcast guest - 🎂 Amy Russell of CookiesTakeTheCake (https://www.instagram.com/cookiestakethecake)! 💥 Now here's the funny part: Amy has been a part of the Sugar Cookie Marketing moderation team for like almost 5 years, and yet we've never met her before. Attempted to? Yes, many times. But she's 16 hours away in Missouri, and we're dying of heat exhaustion in the Nation's Swamp... I mean, Capitol. But claim that no more, 🚦🚗💨 for Amy went an additional 8 hours outta her way to be the first ever podcast guest as Corrie preps for her hysterectomy surgery (today actually - she'll be under when you're reading this email. 🙏 Healing thoughts, twin #2!).Why give this podcast a listen? Amy's got a unique story - 🥣 like many bakers do, how she found herself on a whisk and a prayer is an interesting story involving starting with gluten-sensitive cakes and migrating into the wild world of sugar cookies due to their ease of freezing - something that comes in handy when you've got 👦👦👦👦👦 5 boys under 17 years of age (🏥 ER visits seem to be their favorite vacation destination). Amy has structured her business in a way that allows her to juggle everything that life throws at their family of 7 - from church missions trips to after-school sports activities. 🔧 Her bakery is a tool to not only add income to the family's bottom line but also the flexibility needed to play Manager Mom - 🔧🛠️🪛🔩 all of which are more tools she uses to increase her brand awareness and network to new potential clients in a pretty neat way (I won't spoil it for ya, you can hear it on this week's episode).👂 Since I don't have kids and Corrie only has one, it's an interesting listen to see what it all looks like under the hood of a large family. The big takeaway from Amy? She says to find your niche. In her words, "If the market's saturated, ✍️ then call me the ink." And her defining statement is that there's enough work to go around if you're willing to niche for it. And I'm here for this. There's enough cookies to go around when you're the gluten-free, mini-baker serving an area outside a massive city where your unique setup allows you an even more unique marketing opportunity.Tune in next week for Podcast Guest #2 - the older Miracle sister!👂 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 220 - Ope, It's Amy!

Send us Fan Mail🤒 C is for Cancer - A health update.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 219 - C is for Cancer, we pause our typical marketing podcast to talk about health - specifically as it relates to Corrie's cancer diagnosis and her upcoming surgery that'll have her outta commission for a few weeks (yes, you're still stuck with me, Heather).Today's podcast was a departure from our typical marketing content. It's a way to raise awareness that cancer doesn't judge, it doesn't choose favorites, and the best way to beat it is to catch it ahead of time. Ergo, the goal of today's podcast is to raise awareness for cancer screenings. As a self-employed baker, the thought of putting your health in front of all your orders, deadlines, payroll, website updates, social media posts, newsletters, pop-ups... You get the point. Your health can feel like it's the last thing you have time to focus on when it comes to your endless to-do list. But you have to put "health" at the top - your life literally depends on it.👂 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 219 - C is for Cancer.

Send us Fan Mail🤑 Mid-Summer Membership Sale - The first-ever mid-year Cookie College sale.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 218 - Mid-Summer Membership Sale, we cover this month's Mid-Summer Membership sale starting July 27 - August 2, 2025. This 7-day sale is the only one we've ever run before the Vendy Blendy (I cried just typing that - 🥲 how is this year goin' by so fast). 🤑 1. The Details This is our first-ever Mid-Summer Membership Sale - typically, we run a Black Friday sale, but that puts bakers having to take classes right smack dab in the middle of busy season. So I (ahem, Heather... thank me later) convinced Corrie to run a similar sale, but mid-summer so bakers can work on marketing in the slower season (before our "Cookie Super Bowl" holiday season starts).So if you've been on the fence on signing up for these memberships, now is the time to snag 'em while they're cheap. They won't go on sale again until our one-day Black Friday sale. This time, you have 7 whole days to think it over.Mid-Summer Membership Sale Details:💵 Date: July 27 - Aug 2💵 Duration: 7 Days💵 Discounts: 10% - 50% (even 89%)💵 Location: Online at The Cookie College website  🤑 2. The DiscountsSo we're runnin' a sale on e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g - that means every membership and even the now-archived Class Kits from yesteryear. There's somethin' for everyone in this sale, so fence-sitters, rejoice! Your procrastination has finally paid off for once!The Discounts:💵 The Cookie College - (was $76) $68/mo or $680/yr💵 The Cookie Class Kits - (was $63) $31.50/mo or $351/yr💵 The Bakers Biz Basics - (was $36) $18/mo💵 The Digital Downloads - (was $10) $5/mo or $100/yr💵 The Two Dollar Transfer Club - (was $2) $1/mo💵 The 2023 - 2024 Class Kits - $10/eachAnd if you're already a current member of any of the above, you can STILL switch to the cheaper plan! Yeah - I gotta take care of my peeps. As always, all sales are offered to current members as well. You'll just log in > settings > scroll all the way down to billing > scroll even further to "change plan" > select the cheaper option.BAM - your bill date doesn't change, and any overpayment is applied as a pro-rated discount for that first payment. Your next invoice will reflect that cheaper plan.🤑 3. The Roast 'n Toasts To hype up the Mid-Summer Sale, we're hosting THREE Live marketing audits. They're only 30 minutes long, and each will feature 5 bakers who signed up for 5 minutes in the hot seat. We'll burn through their profile finding recs to increase sales, reduce funnel length, or clarify communications. In exchange for sweatin' it out with us, each baker has a 1-in-5 chance to win a month FREE in The Cookie College!💵 July 10 - Roast 'n Toast - Mid-Summer Marketing Audit #1 🔥🥂💵 July 17 - Roast 'n Toast - Mid-Summer Marketing Audit #2 🔥🥂💵 July 24 - Roast 'n Toast - Mid-Summer Marketing Audit #3 🔥🥂In each of the Roasts, I'll cover a bit about the sale, too. Wanna get roasted then possibly toasted? Sign up here: https://form.jotform.com/SugarCookieMarketing/roast-then-toast

Send us Fan Mail📹 Video Marketing - For local, small cottage bakeries.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 217 - Video Marketing for Local Small Bakeries, Corrie wanted to talk about the wild world of Reels. Well, Reels, TikToks, YouTube Shorts - you know, vertical video. A topic made all the more important by Meta's announcement last week that all videos uploaded to the Facebook platform would now be categorized as Reels, thus shutting the door on horizontal videos (* Lives are still Lives, though).It's what's in right now, and as small businesses who want to increase reach, we gotta bite the proverbial bullet and say cheese (trust me, I hate it too).🎞️ 1. Start with the setupThe setup will make or break your quality, but pro-tip: it won't be perfect when you're just getting started. Don't let that stop you! The old adage was right when it stated, "Practice makes perfect." So yes, you may be tripping out of the gate, but the long-term benefits of Nike's "Just Do It" will make the juice worth the squeeze. Products Recs from this Podcast:🔗 Tripod - Canvas Lamp🔗 Dummy Phone - iPhone 13🔗 Editing App - InShot🔗 Backdrop - The Backers Co in White Matte Finish🔗 Teleprompter - Search Amazon for one that fits your setupYou'll want to find a natural indirect light source - this means the sun, but in a bright room where the sun isn't creating harsh shadows. If you can't get out of the sun because of the positioning of your house, using a silk curtain can diffuse the light enough to make it work.📐 Most bakers struggle with the positioning of the tripod in relation to the cookie. Don't be afraid to position the camera at an angle - if you pay attention, you'll find most decorating videos are not directly overhead, although Corrie tells ya how to make it work with the Canvas Lamp (heads up - she does not use the lamp's light ring, just the phone mount).🎞️ 2. Types of videos to recordOnce you get your setup dialed in, you may be tempted to become a one-dimensional "cookie decorating video ASMR" content machine, but ya gotta mix it up. 🔑 This is the key point to the podcast - small, local businesses need to feature local content. Consider who is watching your videos. ASMR-type decorating videos appeal to a wide audience - 🌎 like, "the whole world" wide. Not the goal if we want to increase our local customer base, but good for impressions (the number of eyes that watch your videos). When we feature hyper-local businesses, farmers markets, and event coverage, we appeal really just to our local demographic. That's the goal.🪣 Here are some content buckets you could pull from to make a diverse content strategy that covers both broad and narrow targeting:🎬 Read customer testimonials and give order details🎬 Local event coverage - farmer's markets, new restaurant opening, town events🎬 Tell a story or series - "I'm on my journey to open a brick and mortar - I'm taking you with me!"🎬 Behind the scenes - "I have an order for 30 dz. Let's do it together."🎬 Presale QVC-style video - "Here's what you'll find at my pop-up next week."🎬 Baking Tips - "Here's how to make Royal Icing at home!"🎬 ASMR-type decorating vids🎞️ 3. Things to include for extra reachFinally, try to include these when recording - it'll help your audience better relate and discover your content. And the more people who see your content, the more likely the algos are to show your content to more people = the endless cog in the marketing wheel.

Send us Fan Mail🖼️ Take a Stab - At a cookie collab.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 216 - Taking a Stab at a Cookie Collab, and Sugar Cookie Marketing Cookie Collabs are BACK IN BUSINESS. You can check out the details in the event listing for the SCM Cookie Collab: Meet the Baker 2025! here.But allow us to spend this week's podcast and newsletter walking you through the Collab 101 basics so you can get the most from the easy-to-join Instagram cookie collab. Long story... podcast?... short, collabs are an easy breezy marketing collaboration with a handful of other bakers to increase engagement as well as e-network with your coll-e-agues (get it, because we're all online?). 🌊 Let's dive in. 👙 But if you're already "in there like swimwear," go ahead and register here:🔪 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. Each "collaber" will post on a designated social media platform (Instagram in this case) using a specific hashtag (#SCMCollabBaker). Then all the participants will engage with other participants' posts by liking and commenting (but not following). It lasts for 1 hour, and it's a great way to meet new bakers, put faces to names, and increase engagement by hijacking the algo to show your post to more of your followers. A win-win-win. Some collabs are invite-only, but this is an open invite collab. All we ask is that you register to get reminders (not required, but appreciated). 🔪 2. Why did we stop doing collabs?With Zuck trying to keep up with the Joneses (ahem, TikTok), the platform depreciated hashtags - the main way we connect bakers through collabs. Previously, collabers could search for the most recent posts using a common hashtag (example, our old collab hashtag - #SCMCookiecCollab) during the collab hour and engage away as one big happy baking family. Now, with the removal of the ability to follow hashtags and the ability to filter by most recent, posts from prior collabs would have shown up, they'd have been outta order, and it would have been a giant mess. So we stopped because we needed to rethink the approach (it didn't require a ton of brain power, which you'll see in a second, but hey - we got busy too).🔪 3. Details on this collabThis collab is our simplest concept of the three collabs we'll attempt this year. The "Meet the Baker" collab just requires a picture of you! Personal branding through face photos builds trust and relatability with customers - and bonus, you don't have to bake for this one. Always remember the quote, “people like faces. When in doubt, selfie it out.” ➡️ Time: Friday, 10:00 AM EST➡️ Date: June 27th, 2025➡️ Use Hashtag #SCMCollabBaker➡️ Register here: https://form.jotform.com/SugarCookieMarketing/scmcollabbaker And it will work - humans love humans, and this collab capitalizes on that. And even better, you get to see the faces of other bakers who are also participating. It's a fun way to kill an hour and do a lil' marketing at the same time.🔪 4. Tips to get the most from a collabWhile it's pretty hard to mess up "post a selfie," there are ways to squeeze the most juice from this berry. ✅ Try to have your post up by 10:00 AM EST for maximum exposure.✅ Use the Hashtag #SCMCollabBaker on Instagram.

Send us Fan Mail🤖 AI-AI-Oh Yes - Ways bakers are incorporating AI.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 215 - AI-AI-Oh Yes, we read a thread asking bakers how they're using AI in their bakery business. The answers should inspire you - from streamlining workflow to helping write compelling copy on social media, AI has entered stage left, and it won't be leaving anytime soon.If you're a late adopter to this new tech, you're not totally alone, but we predict (hot take) that the bakers who do incorporate AI into their workflow will outperform the bakers who resist the "winds of change." For this newsletter, I'll just list out how bakers are incorporating AI as they incorporate their icing. It's how others use AI that can inspire you to learn ways you can add it yourself. In the podcast, we also listed out how the Harvard Business Review found out how the majority of folks are using AI in their lives.Full disclosure - we recorded this podcast last week, and I'm currently sitting beachside (hopefully not in the rain) right now. So, hello from the past. Also, hello from a huge fan of letting technology help you in business.🔧 1. Rewriting copy and captions - Ericka - "When I’m brain dead, I’ll have it rewrite my copy to sound like I’m a lively awake human 😂." 🔧 2. Create outline drawings for cookies - Renea - "To make one-line drawings for cookies."🔧 3. Edit backgrounds on images - Viviana - "Once in a while, I use it to change the background and content. I am involved in networking, and on a few occasions, I have had to give a 10-minute presentation about what I do. I let AI help me put things into words."🔧 4. Color mixing theory - Kelly - "Copy ideas, and when I’m having trouble with mixing a color, although I haven’t found it as helpful with colors as I had hoped. I’m liking a lot of these other ideas mentioned here, especially when you are stuck on that last design and making the one-line drawings!"🔧 5. Design ideas - Amie - "Sometimes I need just one more design idea, and I’ll have it make me some ideas."🔧 6. Website copy - Tina - "Writing first draft of copy for social media, website. Putting in my responses to difficult customer queries and asking it to make it more friendly and sincere. 😁"🔧 7. Recipe scaling - Daphanee - "Recipe scaling and troubleshooting, writing copy, doing mockups for sets when I have a hard time conceptualizing them."👂 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 215 - AI-AI-Oh Yes.

Send us Fan Mail🔄 Pivot Pivot Pivot - What to change when nothing's working.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 214 - Pivot Pivot Pivot, 😖 we talk about what to do when you're doin' it all and all of it doesn't seem to be working. 🛞💨 Nothing is more frustrating than spinning your wheels and making no traction. So what do you do when it's just not working? Here are some things to attempt before you start screaming into the void. See - sometimes we might be doing "all the things," but we're not doing them all right. So touching base with the basics may help you reveal some ways you can pivot and get some fruit from all that labor. 🍎🍊🍋🍌🍉🍑🍓🍒 So - to summarize, yes - you can do everything on the list and still miss the marketing mark. So let's reassess.🔄 1. Try shifting posting timesAn easy one, but it may make a difference. If you use Facebook Planner defaults (10:00 AM), you'll find that your content goes up at the same time every time you post. While I love me consistency, sometimes it may be the very thing throwing off your marketing. Corrie has me helping her run her local community group, where the 'most active times' metric is still available. And guess what - the most active time in her area? 8:00 PM on a weekend - definitely not 10:00 AM on a weekday. 🕒🕓🕔 So, try switching it up - see if posting on a weekend late gets more engagement. You'll also need to recognize other players here - content type, copy, time of year, etc. But playing around with posting times can give a lil' boost when nothing else is hittin' home.🔄 2. Test different copy formulasIf you're posting the same caption over and over and over and over - it may be worthwhile to incorporate another format and see if that small adjustment makes a big difference when it comes to your audience. 🧪 We like formulas because they act as guides for your copy - P-A-S, A-I-D-A, before-after-bridge, 4 C's - all examples of formulas designed to help you make copy work for you, not against you.Remember - truncation reigns supreme. 🪝 It may be worth plantin' a hook in your first few words to get people to click... See more.🔄 3. Switch out photos for ReelsIt's a Reel's world and we're just livin' in it. Most folks hate the idea of recording video, 🎥 especially when it took us so long to master photos. But if there's one consistent thing about social media = it's that it never stays consistent. To take on the addictive TikTok, 📲 Meta has moved to favor the vertical video both on Instagram and kinda on Facebook? Either way, if your photos aren't resonating, clear them pipes and get to talkin' or, uh, voice-over-in'? Vertical video is in whether or not we like it. 🤮 *opens mouth and takes a big spoonful of phone mount shadows* 🔄 4. Mix in some new content buckets🪣 Sometimes our consistent content is also stale content, and our audience will let us know by checkin' out. It may be time to mix in some more exciting content buckets. You know the drill = feature local restaurants or markets, share a recommendation for a local business, talk about a charity your clients are involved in, add in some person posts so people can connect. The age-old strategy of just posting 🖼️ baked set after 🖼️ baked set can bore even the most die-hard supporters (thanks, mom), so add in some interest that they can re-engage with.👂 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 214 - Pivot Pivot Pivot.

Send us Fan Mail🛑 Hit the Breaks - How to take big bakery breaks.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 213 - Hit the Breaks, we cover the fact of life that just sometimes, along your business journey, you need to take a big break. If you've listened to past podcasts, you know we're anti-"big break" when it comes to marketing because it's really hard to stop and start marketing when funnels are long and competition is well, competitive. However, the beauty of being your own boss is that when life requires significant breaks, you're able to take them - with the correctly set expectations that it will impact your marketing and lead generation. With the right setup, that negative effect can be mitigated. And that's what today's podcast is on - the strategy behind big breaks.Note - if you're taking a small break, like something under 2 weeks, disregard this strategy. You likely don't even need to alter your current marketing much, if at all, for a small break. We are talking big breaks, as in 2 months. ⛔ 1. Make an announcement When it comes to big breaks, we need to c-o-m-m-u-n-i-c-a-t-e effectively because nothing is more frustrating than to go place an order with your favorite baker for an event that just happens to fall during that baker's big break. So we need our audience to fully comprehend our break and what it entails.⛔ Add a defined start and stop date for your big break. I'm talking "July 1, 2025 - August 15, 2025" type specificity. This can help your audience plan around your break without being ambiguous. ⛔ Unpin ALL pinned posts and JUST leave this announcement post pinned. We want to make sure all the attention is brought to a singular point - our break announcement. ⛔ Do NOT put the dates you're out of town. Thieves can use this information to figure out that your house is homeowner-free and rob ya. Again, this podcast is for "taking a break from my bakery" breaks, not "at the beach for the week" breaks.⛔ 2. Schedule out posting and newslettersContrary to "taking a break," we don't want to fully ghost our socials and newsletters. We live in an algorithmic world, so fully ghosting can make it really hard to reach our audience when we return. So we make maintenance posts just so Zuck doesn't think we've fully abandoned our baking ship. ⛔ Schedule fewer posts during this absence. While we're not working, we don't want to post at the same frequency as when we were working - it's confusing. Bring your scheduled posts down to once a week - if you're taking off 2 months, that's only 8 posts.⛔ In each of these posts, you're going to reiterate your break start and end dates. This way, your posts are sending a confusing message of "Wait, I thought she was on break? But she just posted about baking a fun set??"⛔ The copy should not drive sales. We don't want to have any CTAs in our maintenance posts, because we don't want people to take an action at all. We're on break. So don't ask people to click to your website, place an order, or contact you.With your newsletter - constantly drive folks who caught ya "on your big break," to sign up for your newsletter so they can get the inbox exclusive on your 'big break return." It's a decent way to grow your email list while still staying in touch about your break schedule. You may want to send an email giving folks a heads up about the break (1 month out), the official break announcement, 1 newsletter during your break with a reminder about the return, then a return-day announcement. ⛔ 3. Update all auto-responsesYour business has a lot of auto-responders designs for big breaks, so let'

Send us Fan Mail⏰ 1-Hr Admin Tasks - Setting up time blocks for tasks.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 212 - Admin Hour, we break down four different "admin hour" frameworks you could spend each week pluggin' away at to be a better baking business."Admin Hours" are groupings of tasks that take up an hour spent on one specific aspect of your business - social media, bake prep, customer management, and inbox management - the four frameworks we cover this week. By spending a dedicated few hours a week on these "admin hour" tasks, you'll save yourself a future headache, streamline your workflow, and become a competitive baker in your space (as well as stress less as you forget fewer orders and run out of fewer cookie tags ya already sold).🕰️ 1. Social HourStaying consistent on social media will be a great foundational strategy. But to be consistent, we must make time to create content. Here's a social media "admin hour" framework you can build from:⏰ 20 Mins - Schedule this week's posts (3x/wk minimum)⏰ 10 Mins - Reply to comments⏰ 10 Mins - Comment on posts in a few local groups⏰ 30 Mins - Make a Reel (film / edit / voiceover / post)You can add multiple "social hours" to your week depending on how aggressive your social media marketing focus is. And these hours can ebb and flow throughout your cookier calendar year as needed (for example, when you're fully booked, drop down to 1 hour, when the upcoming month looks light for orders, add in a few more social hours).🕰️ 2. Inbox HourIf you've not tasted of the sweet nectar that is inbox zero, you're missing out. Walking up to an inbox only full of actionable emails you got in the last few days is a breath of email-fresh air. Once you reach the coveted "Inbox Zero," your inbox-power-hour will look something like this:⏰ 20 Mins - Reply to all emails / Ping follow-up emails⏰ 10 Mins - File emails away to reach Inbox Zero  again⏰ 10 Mins - Transpose orders / tasks to Google Calendar⏰ 10 Mins - CRM - Follow up with orders placed this time last yearGetting an inbox hour on your weekly task list puts you in control of your calendar (rather than the stress of being a slave to a calendar missing your dentist appointments and that one order you forgot to write down).🕰️ 3. Admin tasksLikely the one you don't wanna do but are forced to do, running a business requires admin tasks. Here's how we'd break up that hour spent "behind the scenes" of your bakery biz:⏰ 10 Mins - QuickBooks Bookkeeping Update⏰ 10 Mins - Adding new leads to CRM⏰ 10 Mins - Inbox Zero⏰ 10 Mins - Inventory Check⏰ 10 Mins - Weekly Meeting (Asana)⏰ 10 Mins - Plan Out WeekSo again - your admin tasks may take longer than this - and that's absolutely fine. The goal is to consistently show up for at least an hour for these recurring tasks, turning you into a consistent working powerhouse.🕰️ 4. Baking PrepBaking preparations for the week can streamline your baking workflow because you're not stuck running to the cutter corner for every order. I prefer to do this stuff on Mondays and capitalize on the time saving all week. Whichever days you choose for your admin hours is up to you, but sprinkling in a baking power hour is a must for a ballin' baker.⏰ 10 Mins - Wash Baking Mat and other supplies⏰ 10 Mins - Wipe down Surfaces / Disinfect ⏰ 20 Mins - Collect Cutters for the Week⏰ 10 Mins - Dough Ready / Dough Day Planned⏰ 10 Mins - Colo

Send us Fan Mail↩️ Luxury Refunds - Refunds are a business strategy.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 211 - Luxury Refunds, Corrie wanted to recap yet another reminder on why luxury bakers should consider luxury refunds. 🤔 What's a luxury refund? It's the baked-into-the-price guarantee that if something goes left, the baker will make it right - and typically that will be through a refund.Per the twin, we can't claim 💰 "luxury brand and thus luxury pricing," but claim 😭 "I'm just a small business, give me a break" when things go wrong. Luxury price needs to be threaded throughout your entire sales process. Yes, refunds included. 💰 1. Be Refund-CentricWhen you think about luxury brands, you're likely not picturing a front-desk person telling unhappy clients that that sounds like a them-problem when the client has an issue. Noooo - you picture luxury brands like hotels handling all the gross parts of staying in a hotel = managing luggage, door hops, taxi cab and uber calls, clean rooms and room service - you get the point. Luxury pricing includes making things right for our luxury clients. A refund-centric company will have its happiness guarantee baked into its policies before the client even orders. If there were two bakers equal in every way but only one offered a 100% money-back guarantee, which do you think clients would choose? Be that baker.💰 2. Take refund culpability Most of the time, it's not a 100/0 split on who is at fault when it comes to client issues. ⚖️ Likely, there's shared culpability. But a luxury brand would still take culpability from the client. 🤨 "But twins! I wasn't wrong, they were!" We know - but you're the business owner, and a luxury business owner at that. Don't be afraid to say, "I'm so sorry - I misunderstood when you wrote XYZ! My apologies - I'd love to make you whole regarding this issue." 🔑 The words "I'm sorry" will unlock more doors than they shut - believe ye we.💰 3. Offer refunds oftenHere's the thing - you won't have to refund often if you're willing to refund. Why? You'll find that clients actually aren't trying to get free stuff - they just want their cookies. 🛑 Being gracious to your clients by offering refunds will allow your clients to actually ask you not to. People are more understanding than we give them credit for. We just have to allow them to have the elbow room to exercise that grace - 🥊and they can't when you're threatening them by blaming them for the order issue.💰 4. Refund swiftly Be quick to refund, as in don't make your clients fight you for it. With every message rejecting the client's issue, you're one step closer to the dreaded, "Well, I also found a hair in the cookie." Pluuuus, when you address the first issue rather than forcing customers to rattle off 10 reasons why they think you should offer them recourse, you get the brownie points of being "that baker" that puts customer service first and foremost.💰 5. Refund and be generousWhen it comes to refunding, don't nickel and dime your clients and expect them to appreciate it. 🤕 If you made a booboo, grab the biggest band-aid. 🩹 Rather refund too much than too little and leave the clients hurt (and in your review profiles, finding their written vindication). "But I only messed up a few cookies!" We get it, and we're not necessarily saying a full refund, but a "barely there" refund won't cut it. As an example, maybe a rebake and a partial refund may be the answer to satisfy the client's upsetting experience.