253. Baking it Down - SWOT Your Way to Success

Summary

---

Podcast Summary: Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing

Episode 253 – "SWOT Your Way to Success" (March 24, 2026)

Hosts: Heather & Corrie Miracle

---

Episode Overview

In this upbeat and resource-rich episode, Heather and Corrie break down the SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) and show how this classic business tool can help cottage bakers uncover what's working, address what's not, and strategically plan for growth—especially when it comes to understanding marketing trends and troubleshooting slow sales. They walk through hands-on bakery examples, share their own business introspection, and keep things light with plenty of personal anecdotes, practical tips, and some classic twin banter.

---

Key Discussion Points

1. Group and Community Updates

• The Sugar Cookie Marketing Facebook group is thriving, with regular turnover as new bakers join and the less active are removed to maintain engagement.
• Latest group activities spotlight the advantages of digital marketing collabs and using AI in marketing materials.

"If you feel like you have crickets on social media, I promise you it's because there’s not a conversation happening. You’re talking at them, not with them." — Heather (04:08)

---

2. Hot Topic: Holiday Sales Timing

• Easter Sales Dip: Many bakers report lower than expected Easter pre-sales. Possible reasons explored:
  • Easter falls much earlier than last year (April 5 vs. April 20), giving less time to build anticipation.
  • Weather still feels like winter, delaying “spring” mindsets and purchases.
  • Major bakery holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas) benefit from being at the end of their months, a pattern not true for this year’s Easter.

"It sucks twice as hard when you don't understand why. I'm doing all the things and nothing's working." — Heather (09:53)

---

3. Introduction to SWOT Analysis (10:40–12:00)

• What is SWOT?
  • Strengths: Internal assets, e.g., unique recipes, low overhead from a cottage setup.
  • Weaknesses: Internal limitations, e.g., small oven capacity, time management challenges.
  • Opportunities: External positives, e.g., new farmer’s markets, collaboration events, emerging technology.
  • Threats: External risks, e.g., rising ingredient costs, regulatory changes, economic downturns.
• The goal: Get out of "the trenches" and analyze the business from a bird’s-eye view.

"A SWOT analysis creates those four quadrants... to kind of see what's working, what you know isn't working... and what's happening in the larger sphere that could threaten the business model." — Heather (10:58)

---

4. Real-World Bakery SWOT Examples (12:25–22:45)

• Strengths:
  • Corrie: Organization, automation (spreadsheets and forms reduce errors and save time).
• Weaknesses:
  • Corrie: Struggles with social media consistency, time management.
  • Virginia cottage laws limit ability to collect payment online, creating payment risks at pickup.
• Opportunities:
  • New local markets, leveraging Facebook planner tools, participating in SCM collabs, utilizing direct-to-print technology.
• Threats:
  • Ingredient and gasoline price hikes, economic shifts, legal changes impacting sales, health regulations.

“Strength and weaknesses are things that you can control inside your kitchen, and opportunities and threats are things that are happening in the world around you outside of the kitchen.” — Heather (23:07)

Notable Quote:

"Never let your weaknesses blind you to your strengths and never let your strengths blind you to your weaknesses." — Heather (06:24)

---

5. Applying SWOT to Easter Pre-Sales: Practical Walk-Through (29:08–39:42)

Objective: Understand why Easter pre-sales were down and how to adjust for next year.

• Strength: On-time marketing launch.
• Weakness: Designs felt uninspired due to rush; not enough time for creativity.
• Opportunity: Hold Easter cookie classes earlier to cross-promote pre-sales; more religious-themed options (since the cross cookie sold out unexpectedly).
• Threats: The shifting date of Easter, economic pressures, overlapping with St. Patrick’s Day sales, unpredictable social media algorithms.

Actionable Outcomes:

• Build in more design prep time by starting earlier.
• Use data (what sold out, what didn’t) to inform next year.
• Plan classes and marketing to align with new holiday dates.

"If the first one fails and you refuse to do the SWOT analysis, you’re not going to do the next one. If you do the SWOT analysis, the next one will be better set up." — Heather (50:23)

---

6. Making SWOT a Habit & Creating Actionable SMART Goals (46:50–53:59)

SWOT as a Living Document:

• Keep running lists and analysis for each marketing campaign, pre-sale, or event in an organized Google Doc.
• Include pictures, numbers, promotional schedules, and customer insights.

SMART Goal Examples:

• Start Easter prep two weeks earlier (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound).
• Screenshot and catalog design inspo year-round.
• Add more religious options due to this year’s religious bestseller.
• Schedule classes ahead for more marketing cross-pollination.

"Just hearing you say that tells me that the next time you do this is going to be so much better. It’s based off of analyzing this SWOT analysis and saying where the weakness is, firming up the weaknesses is increasing the strengths." — Heather (53:04)

---

7. Competition and Mindset

• Competition isn't a “threat” to be obsessed over—it's a sign of healthy demand and an opportunity for self-improvement.
• Comparing only to your own past results, rather than other bakers, makes SWOT actionable and empowering.

"It's like yelling at traffic when you’re in it." — Heather (23:03)

---

8. Top Trends & Listener Q&A (75:12–96:04)

Marketing Q&A Key Points:

• Eventbrite Ads: Generally less cost-effective than targeted Facebook/Meta ads.
• SEO vs. AI (“AEO”): SEO still matters, especially as AI chat tools pull from well-indexed, content-rich websites and reviews. Blogs should answer questions directly.
• Social Media: Building real relationships and conversations with clients is the best “algorithm hack”.

---

9. Notable Quotes & Fun Moments

Memorable Quotes:

• “My sales are low this year, but I've been on vacation. Great. Like, yeah, great.” — Hosts (56:02)
• “If you feel like you have crickets on social media, I promise you it's because there's not a conversation happening.” — Heather (04:08)
• "SWOT Analysis makes you better. So then your competition also must do a SWOT analysis to then be better." — Heather (53:59)
• “If the market's flooded, I'm the water. I'm going to be there. If there's money, I'm going to head towards her.” — Quoted from Amy (70:48)

Fun & Relatable Twin Banter

• The twins debate whether “squanch” or “pletch” are real words. (14:48–15:22)
• Their enthusiastic distaste for cake pops: “We've been harassed and villainized by cake pops, all of us.” — Corrie (07:15)
• Corrie’s pumpkin spice obsession in springtime, and Heather’s tales of protein-packed Chick-fil-A nuggets and Dave’s Killer Bread as part of their gym journey. (91:19, 93:56)

---

Key Timestamps & Segments

• [03:46] — The reality of AI images and customer requests
• [06:24] — Quote of the Week: "Never let your weaknesses blind you to your strengths..."
• [10:40] — What is SWOT? Introduction and definitions
• [29:08] — Live example: Applying SWOT to Easter pre-sales
• [46:50] — Making SWOT actionable and integrating with SMART goals
• [53:59] — How competition helps everyone get better
• [75:12] — Listener Q&A: Eventbrite ads and marketing with AI/SEO
• [91:32] — Twin banter: Protein goals, gym life, and eating strategies

---

Takeaways & Listener Challenges

• Run a SWOT on Everything: After any major sale, event, or campaign, do a quick SWOT and set three SMART goals for next time.
• Don’t Use Competition as a Crutch: Focus on improving your own numbers and experience.
• Document Results & Insights: Keep an evolving file with analysis, sales results, photos, and notes for future decision-making.

"You'd be your biggest competitor last year. And when both of y'all win, that's a win in my book." — Corrie (55:52)

---

Next Steps & Community Events

• Register for upcoming collabs and bootcamps: Piper Park Collab (April), Main Street May, Pre-Sales & 3D Printing Bootcamps, and more.
• Consider joining the Cookie College for ongoing support and resources.

---

Contact/Sponsors

• Cookie Design Lab, Bakey Bake, What's Popping Con, Bosch Nature Mill — use code TWINS for discounts.
• Questions? Text 571-556-5644.

---

If you're elbows deep in royal icing or just looking for a business boost, this episode serves up big helpings of actionable marketing strategy, personal growth, and camaraderie—reminding every baker that next year’s results start with today’s honest, optimistic analysis.

Transcript

[A]

Corey? Yes, it is the podcast. We got that deep voice again.

[B]

Okay, it is a podcast.

[A]

So this is the 253rd episode, I think.

[B]

253, but welcome to the Baking It Down With Sugar Cookie Marketing podcast. We're actually a spin off from a group that's on Facebook. 50,000 exactly 5, 000 users strong. We are adding people all the time, but we are also removing inactive members. The group has been around for six years. People have come and gone. The industry as a whole, the baking industry is very. What is the word I'm looking for

[A]

when you turn over?

[B]

Big turnover.

[A]

There's a fancy word, the channel bag and tag.

[B]

So as people come and go and people, you know, leave the industry, they don't necessarily leave all the groups and we're just helping them on their way. But if you're in there and you're active, you are good to go. And this is just a little piece of the group that you can use during the week to listen to. Because I like to listen to podcasts and sometimes you're just elbows deep, fingers are sticky with butter and you want something to listen to and you can't necessarily access the group because you're busy with your Easter orders. And that's where this little podcast comes on.

[A]

And if you're not busy with Easters because you didn't get any, this would be the podcast to listen to. But before we jump in there, you guys can get a lot of the resources that we talk about. What's coming, what's going on the website, sugarcookiemarketing.com and then what's coming is Piper Park Lab. We just wrapped up the AI. Oh my.

[B]

That was so entertaining for me. People did so well and I wondered how they were going to do it. I didn't see one printed one. I don't believe.

[A]

I don't think you even one. And you were going to.

[B]

No, I did. I ran out of time. So I saw so many. I know I couldn't. I was. But it was so entertaining. And what it is, is our collabs are more marketing focused, meaning that while you do get engagement and there's a bump in your social media and you get a lot of comments, you can actually use this stuff as marketing material from here on forth. This one being AI is now being shoved down everybody's throats. Whether you use it as a baker or not, your clients just might. So a lot of times clients are now sending AI generated images. I just got one last week for an order this week.

[A]

What Chickens.

[B]

They're little baby chick eggs, but they all have just one feather

[A]

to see what it looks like.

[B]

I could tell she's just saying, like, here it is. But it's so funny because they're just sending it. They don't know. And a lot of. A lot of users are uploading AI images to Pinterest. So clients aren't even using AI, they're just stumbling upon this inspiration photo and sending it. So it was a great way that you can show your clients what you can and can't do when it comes to an AI generated image. As far as shadowing goes, sometimes the details are almost 3D coming off the

[A]

cookie, which is what we kind of made with the bunny. He was. He was advanced levitation, but that was his point. Is that his bow?

[B]

I had to do a transfer because it was definitely flowing off of his ear.

[A]

Yeah. So we had a bunch of bakers take this image. AI generated image of an Easter Bunny cookie. It was AI generated to look like a cookie and recreate it within their own skillset. It was wildly entertaining, everyone. Really good job. And I didn't think there was a ton of pushback. Here's what my thought was. Looking through everyone and engaging. Because also when you. When you take part in a collab, you get a lot of engagement. Is that if you as a baker had the option to get an AI generated image of a. An egg with a single feather out of it or nothing. A description of that. Which one would you rather?

[B]

I'm a visual learner and I need

[A]

to see it still bridges the gap. I know some people are punching the air, but I would rather have the tool than not have the tool. Also, I made an Amazon yesterday and AI was talking to me like there was no. Like, I know everyone's like, I don't use it. I disable everywhere. I don't think you can return on Amazon now without chit chatting with it. Oh, that's so.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So it's just.

[B]

It's everywhere. It's in my Gmail, it's in my email. It seems to be on. Canva now has an AI feature. So it's all around us. So saying I'll never use it. Your clients are using. And that's what the point behind this club, the point behind the pipe, a park collab is tying you to your location and becoming a resource to your audience so you're not just selling at them constantly. If you feel like you have crickets on social media, I promise you it's because there's Not a conversation happening. You're talking at them, not with them. So becoming a resource, posting endless cookies gets.

[A]

I think you feel long in the tooth posting it. And I think your audience feels long in the tooth reading it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So this is a way to help your social media. Granted, one is not going to be the thing that turns the ship around, but it's a one in the right direction. So you can take the ideas from this pipe apart, maybe do a restaurant review, maybe do the Main street collab in the next one that we do. And that's a way to create a conversation on social media.

[A]

Also a great excuse if you're like, well, that's a large departure from my loved baking for Jason's first birthday approach to social media. These collabs are a great excuse to say like, hey, this wasn't my idea. The twins made me do it. Right. So in the copy, we always make sure you're cookie marking the fall guy. Kind of explain to your audience what the collab is. And then what you're going to see is that your audience is going to be like, oh, I know that park. I love that park. Have you gone to this park? Parks, parks, parks. Because we all love to see what we already know. And for the people who don't know about it, Me, I just moved to a new area. I love seeing what people recommend. I am looking for recommendations.

[B]

Yeah, especially when someone's been there, done that. Like you are at the park, letting me know about the park or the restaurant.

[A]

Were you doing Lisynia Park? Lisa Vania State Park?

[B]

I was thinking Lisalvania Just had an update with. Now you have to make reservations, but

[A]

only on the weekends. But yeah, on the weekends.

[B]

One to add to the update because it's not. Ever had that for a long time.

[A]

That would be good. But we could walk, work, lake together.

[B]

I do like Berkeley and Berkeley is free to non Fairfax county members on the weekdays. Oh, I did not know that. Yeah, I did. I did. I walked in and I went there and they're like, on the holidays and weekends, it's paid on weekdays, free for all.

[A]

I still have my own driver's license.

[B]

I can get in whenever I want. Oh, yeah, you're right.

[A]

The next thing coming is a pre sales bootcamp next week. And I'll talk about that in a minute. My quote of the podcast, my quote of the week. You guys take this with you all week. It says, never let your weaknesses blind you to your strengths and never let your strengths blind you to your weaknesses.

[B]

That's a good one, which I think,

[A]

like, I'm the best at this. But you didn't realize that thing coming up behind you actually dethroned your best stat because it was your weakness that you did not see coming. I think sometimes we could be and we'll talk about that in today's podcast. We can be really proud of our strengths, but that doesn't negate that the weakness still lives there, lurking in the back forever, ready to jump us.

[B]

Yeah, that's a cake pop behind me. My weakness.

[A]

I think you had asked what's something you never bake again? It was an overwhelming.

[B]

It was a collection of non. Yeah, Cake pop.

[A]

You just like the comment we got.

[B]

We've been, we've been harassed and villainized by cake pops, all of us.

[A]

Please raise your hand if you have been villainized by cake pop. Okay, today's topic is based out of a comment I saw made on the Sugar Cookie Market page when I asked about Easter sales. And we're two weeks out from Easter, which is falling almost 15 days earlier than it was last year. I did look it up. Last year it was the 20th of April. This year it is the 5th. And from a marketing standpoint, I dislike when the holidays fall earlier than the month then later. So think of the Baker's three biggest Super Bowls. It is Halloween, it is Thanksgiving, and it is Christmas. Christmas by a long shot. Christmas just outshines everything. Those holidays are so amazing because they fall in the last week or the last day of the month, October 1st, I think it'll be November 26th this year. And then December 24th, 25th, 25th. Fourth is the. I'm sorry, that is all Christmas in my head. The fourth. It is. It really is.

[B]

The pickups are on the 24th. You're correct.

[A]

Right. So those are amazing. Because our audience, from a marketing, marketing perspective, we lock in. The month of October is Halloween, the month of November is Thanksgiving, and the month of December's Christmas. When we have holidays like Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day falls halfway through the month. And what people say is January. My audience is trying to recover from Christmas calories and spending. They're not thinking in January, January of February sales, at least it falls on the 14th, though. So we kind of lock in as bakers on February 1st to promote a February 14th day, right?

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

And so does Wegmans. So do the grocery stores. So did the Target. And whatever. The promotional schedules of a lot of major companies that are signaling to our audience, don't forget your cookies when Easter shifts around like this, which is a violent shift to me, that. To go from the 20th to the 5th, I know. To fall at the end of the month to the beginning. I think it does put a different spin on sales because right now I'm not thinking about Easter in March. I know it's an April holiday, but now I'm like, oh, I have four days leading. Oh, yeah.

[B]

Well, it's so funny. I posted an ex egg cited for Easter egg, and someone says, it's only March. But I said, you haven't looked. It's only five days into April is Easter. And he's like, oh, my goodness. I didn't even know that.

[A]

You can't even blame him. Because last year it was the 20th. Last year we were well into April. It was warm outside. Now it's pretty still. I'm so sorry. I'm cold right now. It's pretty cold outside. It was. And it was 88 degrees on Sunday. On Sunday it's 37 right now, if

[B]

you'd like to know.

[A]

So even if the spring has not sprung because of that snow Crete issue earlier, it's even colder. The trees are behind in their bloom

[B]

schedule or whatever, so it is hard

[A]

to say Easter flowers what it is. What are you. Easter stuff. So when somebody said in that question I asked, they said, my sales are low, and I don't understand why. It sucks when the sales are low. It sucks twice as hard when you don't understand why. I'm doing all the things and nothing's working. So the blessed thing I can give you is I'm doing all the things and nothing's working. There's a way to figure out what that thing is that actually isn't working. So you are doing the things, but something of those things isn't landing or it's not working the way, or it's taking more effort than something that would actually move the number. And that is where a SWOT analysis comes into play. If you have taken any business courses ever in high school or college, you have heard this acronym. And I think it's one of those pervasive methods because it works so well. Yeah. And let's talk about what swan stands for. Corey, can you remember?

[B]

No, I cannot. Sorry. Oh, strength.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Weakness.

[A]

K. Oh, hold on.

[B]

Outstanding.

[A]

Okay. No. O is you can't think what we're doing here. Okay? If I am a business owner and I have strengths, weaknesses, I have things I can do that I haven't done before, they are opportunities. And then I have bad things that are Coming to give me that start with a T transactions also that could be awesome. But it's a threat and a transaction could be a threat. So we have strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. And what a SWOT analysis does is creates those four quadrants and you fill them out to kind of see what's working, what you know isn't working, your weakness, what could be working, your opportunity and what's happening in the larger sphere thing that could threaten the business model. Right? Yeah. And this bird's eye view of your business kind of takes you out from the trenches of I'm posting Easter cookies and nothing selling to. I'm not able to sell cookies.

[B]

Why?

[A]

Right. Or my sales are dripping like so let's go take the swot. So the SWOT and also a broad business application and apply it to bakers. So a baker's strength could be I have low overhead costs. That's the magic of cottage bakery is no lease agreements. Right? Yeah. And then you say, let's say I have this great recipe. It's my secret family recipe. That is my strength. Nobody else has this recipe. Those are really awesome strengths. Right. So you'd be like, that's my thing. So Corey, I'm going to put you through the ring here. What's a strength currently in your business?

[B]

My strength is being organized right now, which is the first time ever I

[A]

have seen you really getting into technology in terms of an assist, spreadsheets, forms and really having some auto automation in there. Yes. So Corey says my strength in my business is I'm implementing automation. That is great. Right. Because what you can say is when I implement automation, I lower my time cost of things. I'm more efficient. Fewer things are being forgotten which means less fewer refunds. Right. Yeah. Love that. Now in weaknesses, an example for bakers would be I have a very small oven that is a reality of baking that the, you know, commercial, commercial space can output a lot more product just for the fact that they have. And you can kind of see it when a Baker has a KitchenAid mixer versus a Bosch just a production volume increases when a baker has that extra freezer in the basement versus not when they can stack the dough. So like limited oven space. But another weakness could be I am the lowest price baker and I risk burnout. Yes. So you could say that be my weakness. If that's something that you find is is an issue. You could be the lowest priced baker and having the time of your life. But if you're doing this for the, the joy of the game, you're having a blast. Yeah. I just love working for me. But that could be a weakness. So you're going to say, what are the weaknesses? So Corey, in your business, what are your weaknesses?

[B]

I think one thing I'll say about

[A]

Corey, and I'm going to actually put this under threats, but I want to put a weakness is that Virginia cottage laws don't allow the transfer of money online. Yeah. I think that creates a massive weakness in non payment at time of pickup. You know, we always say don't do payment at time of pickup, but you're facing that. Somebody's like, oh, I forgot.

[B]

I know. But my biggest thing that I've learned over the years is setting expectations. So listen, you're not going to get these cookies until I get the payment and then I check within with them a week early because I want you to be in it to win it as much as I'm in it to win it. Because if I'm baking for you, I need you to be there to pick these up. So I've gotten pretty good at nailing that down where, you know, chasing payment isn't as hard as it once was. So while it was a weakness, I have squintled it over to my strengths because now I know how to handle it.

[A]

Squunch old is a made up word. I believe it is squanch. I know what you mean. You took something small and squished it over to a new place. It's squished it, but I think it's one of those ones like scooch I think might be a real world scooched it over. But pletch isn't a real word.

[B]

It's a squanch is between a plush and a scute. It's a squanch.

[A]

Here's the thing. Scooch is a word. Normally it is. Pletch is not. That was a word mom made up.

[B]

That's so funny because it's so embedded. Like stop plenching with that. It makes sense in a sentence.

[A]

It's pletch a word.

[B]

If I said stop pletching with that, everyone knows. Stop playing with that.

[A]

How do you spell pledge? That'll tell you. P O, U, T C H. Is pledge a word? No. Oh. Plus Urban dictionary pulled up and it has some. It's a child's poop, but I've never heard that in my life. That's Urban Dictionary and you know somebody just typed it. But a pledge, like my mom would say, like if we were eating, I don't know why applesauce comes to mind maybe because I don't like it. If you were eating applesauce but you weren't eating it, you were just moving it around in your bowl. She would say, stop pledging with that. It means you don't want it, you're just moving it around. Yes. Yeah. Back to the podcast. Stop. So Corey said her strengths. I feel like my strengths is my automation and my efficiency technology incorporated in business. And her weakness is my weakness is

[B]

getting overwhelmed with the orders that I forget about other things like social media and then I feel reactive to social media instead of proactive towards it.

[A]

So let's just say your weakness is time management and social media marketing.

[B]

Yeah. Yes.

[A]

Now we can move on to opportunities. So an opportunity in like a regular business is, you know, like we can invent this new product. But an opportunity for a baker could be like a local farmer's market is opening up or they're starting to sell this machine that does this thing. Right. So you have these opportunities which you could say is a local farmer market's opening up and I have an Eddie. So I could do a direct to print at the farmer's market. Right. Or a market's opening up and I'm the first baker to them. I found them first. Right.

[B]

I guess if you take my weakness in my opportunity there is, there's Facebook planner so I could pre plan my weekly post to take it out of my weakness and make it more of a strong suit. So my opportunity would be utilizing things that are there to make my business run more efficient.

[A]

So that's the correct use of a SWOT analysis to see what's in the weaknesses and how to get them to the strengths. The opportunities aren't involved in anything you're currently doing. So you look outwards of yourself and say possibly an opportunity would start, would be joining these cookie collabs that the sugar cookie marketing group is putting on because it could increase engagement, something I'm not doing, but I see it's there. Right. So an opportunity is I'm going to buy an Eddie and be the first baker who does corporate orders or I'm going to buy an Eddie and I'm going to see, I see an opportunity with a wedding market. I have a really strong wedding market. We have a lot of venues or something in our area and I think that would be a great opportunity to meet for me.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So you can see that kind of the strengths, weakness and opportunities are unrelated but we are going to marry them in a later step. But the, the SWOT Analysis is like just get on paper what you know, what you're, what you're great at, what you're, what you know, you have a weak spot with what you could do. And now threads are things like rising prices. Right. So we're strength, weakness, opportunities. Threats are things out of control. So the rising price of flour, remember when eggs increased in price?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That was a big threat to the bottom line.

[B]

If you're a baker who delivers, the rising gas prices is going to affect how much that cost.

[A]

Right. Economic fluctuations. Are people in my, in my economy spending less. Is there, you know, less cost for expenditures, like something like custom cookies?

[B]

Would another threat be a new baker opened up shop down the road?

[A]

You know, in my reading of this, it's not necessarily looking over at somebody else and what they're doing. I think that's kind of the blind spot because you're being led by the blind. Right. So we don't know what that baker's numbers look like. Like we don't really know. We can say that the threat is, is competition. But I wouldn't name like Corey is my threat. Let me see exactly what she's doing. Because now the SWOT analysis is based off of somebody else and we don't

[B]

know their information to even be able to change.

[A]

If you're only taking two orders a month, my SWOT analysis of you isn't great. You might be really, really good. But if you're only taking two orders, you're not necessarily competition with market share. You might be in competition and skill. But yeah, you could say a threat is. I see a lot of my customers are asking for lettering. That would be back to the weakness. A lot of my customers are asking for lettering and I don't know how to letter.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

A new, a new county health code comes out. That would be a threat to your business model. Yes. So let's say that, you know, I see it happen a lot. The far. The farm stands like the, you know, drive up, get your keys and leave them. All of a sudden now they can't be unmanned anymore.

[B]

Yeah. Whether they have income caps that have transitioned because of, you know, the Department of Agriculture has stepped in. Those are things that I see often.

[A]

I think Maryland passed a law and it really affected bagged icing and DIY kits or something.

[B]

Yeah. It couldn't be pre bagged.

[A]

Yeah. So the pre bagged thing would be an issue because that could affect even teaching cookie classes or things like that. Right. Yeah. So yeah, we have the strength, weaknesses, opportunities. But you're kind of looking more intrinsically. Corey said when she said her strength, she didn't say I'm better than than anybody else. And when she said her weakness is, she didn't say anybody else is better than me, right? So she said my weakness is I take on too many orders and my social media falls to the wayside for strengths. You said you're using automation to increase efficiency. So we kind of, look, we know those things that we can control. Again, I hate blaming external forces. We are in the threat thing because it's an economic outlook, right? But I hate blaming like the market saturated because then don't do the SWOT analysis. We have to wait for that person to pass away before the market or we have to wait for them to get burnt out. Whatever. We're waiting years when we don't have years to wait.

[B]

And you'll never rid your market of a new baker who graduates elementary, now high school and decides to do this on. You'll never have a saturated free market. You won't ever be the only baker.

[A]

If you are the only baker, I fear for your business because something about the industry where you're located is not sustaining competition. Competition is always healthy, right? So when there's more competition, that was, that means there was more people willing to spend money to support the competition. When you're the only one, you may live in a very low cost of living area or a rural area that the population is decreasing, which becomes a threat.

[B]

And I want to say, literally leaving, yeah, there's bakers and I want to say maybe in Spain or something where royal icing isn't common at all and they are the only baker. And it's because people don't understand like the taste, know what royal icing is. So that's why they're the only one. Because their market share doesn't even know it exists.

[A]

But we would be like, but wow, you're the only one. You, you can name your price. Incorrect. Because they are the only one. There's a reason they're only one. Like Corey said, people in Spain might not like the taste. I know there's that meringue powder depending on where you can even source ingredients and stuff like that. So you may be the only one. But for a great example, I have that old, old antique car, right? It's American made, which is why it's always falling apart. But a few people in Europe will import them and they'll be the, the to see an American, a 30 year old American antique in Europe, they're like a superstar Right. But that's. While that's awesome, the price to get parts for them and source parts overseas, it's. It's triple or quadruple the cost for me, because. So you can say, wow, you're the only one. But at what cost? Yes, so. So that's why I don't necessarily like to have the SWOT analysis look at competition. I would use that more as an inspiration to be like, oh, they really like what they're doing there. Let me incorporate that. But I would look intrinsically at what I'm doing, because, remember, the question is, I'm doing everything and nothing's working.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

We can't say Corey's doing everything but nothing's working for me. That'd be pointless. Right. So we'll do this SWOT analysis. We're not going to write any place about competition. Competition is supporting the market. We are also competition.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

We are part of the competition. It's like yelling at traffic when you're in it.

[B]

Yeah. Why is there so many people on the road?

[A]

I'm allowed to be here. So strength and weaknesses are things that you can control inside your kitchen, and opportunities and threats are things that are happening in the world around you outside of the kitchen. That's a great way to kind of do it. So opportunities are, you know, a new farmer's market, a possible brick and mortar. Or I could do this farm stand thing or maybe, you know. Well, I see a lot of. You know, I think it's a season of vendor events. Yes. I don't want to be in vendor events, but it'd be really cool if I had a trailer, a cookie trailer, things like that. I know.

[B]

So I got an email from a pta, said they would like to partner and order cookies ever so often. Thank you. Printed cookies. Which I thought was that she knew what that is means she's not new to this world of baking. So that's an opportunity.

[A]

Right. Great. And then your threats would be things around that, like, if, okay, I do want to get a trailer, cookie trailer. But now I have to buy a truck with a towing capacity, and the interest rates, if I'm financing the truck, are high, and then gas prices are higher. Right. So it's things that are outside of our control that are affecting our business. That's threats and opportunities. So point three. Now we need to conduct it so we kind of understand, you know, what the acronym stands for, how to categorize things, what to look for. And now we need to conduct the analysis.

[B]

Analysis paralysis.

[A]

So ask yourself, every SWOT analysis should come with an objective. Otherwise it's kind of like just a mental mind game. I guess so. Okay, back to the comment someone made. I cannot move my Easter cookies. My sales for Easter are lower this year than they were last year. Lunch woke up so I would. Or things like this. My objective of the SWOT analysis. Can I quit my 9 to 5 job? Okay, now you see how the objective kind of controls what we're looking at in terms of these four categories. Yeah. Can I quit my nine to five? What are my financial strengths? What are my financial weaknesses? Do I carry a lot of debt? Do I have. Do I lack a savings and emergency fund? You can kind of see how the objective of this specific SWOT analysis. I gotta kick the cat out in two seconds. I just put them in the garage.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

All right, well, I'll talk to you

[B]

about my twin trist a little early since you guys are listening. I've been in a pumpkin spice kind of mood. I miss fall and I'm grateful for summer because without summer, I, I can't miss fall. But my husband says, why wait till fall to bake all the fall things? So I've been in a pumpkin spice baking mood and it tastes delicious. Okay, back to swot.

[A]

We'll get back to her bread. She's been talking about it endlessly. Okay, another question, you could say another objective. I'm running this SWOT analysis so that I can see if I could expand into a brick and mortar. If that's a goal that you have, you'd want to conduct a SWOT analysis to see what are the strengths I have that support this. What are the weaknesses I have that actually detract from this? What are the opportunities? Well, Main Street, I just saw this business close up shop and one of the threats, Oh, I think there's a

[B]

lot of, there's a lot of red

[A]

tape and taxes moving into Main street, right? Yes. And another example, these are just examples so you guys can get some inspo and take it back to the Kitchion is, are my sales, you know, my objective? Understanding why my sales are dropping month over month, right? Yes. And you can look at out to side conditions as competition as a whole. But I just wouldn't put the name on competition. Be like, you know, it's Corey specifically. It's ruining my life. How do we, how many, how many,

[B]

how many times am I appearing on someone's spot analysis?

[A]

I want you to confess, just think about entering. You know, sometimes I think when we get, when we start looking at it, through our own lens, we get a little confused. Imagine that you own a clothing store and you want to move into our favorite mall, Tysons. There's a million clothing stores. So my strength is I'm doing athleisure of high quality material materials. But my weaknesses is there's a lot of other athletes. Yeah, Right. So let's go to the weaknesses internally. Right. My, my high end athleisure wear also requires a high production cost because the materials are more expensive. Also I'm doing, you know, Cory and I were talking about the new thing in athleisure is these fits where everything matches in color. Yes. And the colors are like punchy. Right. They're not like I couldn't wear what one set with another. It would be.

[B]

So it would be clashing.

[A]

Yeah. And I get why they do that. That would be a strength is when you create these drops, the. You create like a fomo. Like we're only running this for a certain amount of time. And that's when they do the collaborations. I think they did one with a.

[B]

But if you don't sell out now, you have bright pink tops with dark blue pants.

[A]

Absolutely. So that would be the, you know, the weaknesses. So that's what this third, this final component of a SWOT analysis is. It says look at the strengths and opportunities as together. Right. So an example was I have a great recipe strength and the locals farmers markets just opened so I could be that baker with that, you know, great recipe. That's a strength, my recipe and an opportunity at the new farmers market so I can marry those together. So I'm connecting my strengths and opportunities and then I'm going to connect my weaknesses and my threats. So minimize, if you minimize your weakness, you can avoid threats. So an example of that would be I'm slow at packaging. Okay. I'm slow at that. Or it's high cost and I have in a high volume competitor moved in. Right. So I'm slow, they're fast. So I'm going to do a pre labeled box system to speed up turnaround. Right. So my weakness, I'm slow at packaging. Or I'm slow. My photography, my. My threat is this. Okay. Another baker takes better photos. Right. Corey takes better photos. So. Or something like that, whatever. Or I have a lower priced competitor there. So you can say, okay, my weakness is my packaging looks ugly and my threat is this baker's lower priced. If I increase the quality of my packaging, I don't have to explain why I'm higher price. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Marrying these two kind of comes up with the strategy for you.

[B]

Can we go through the SWOT analysis taking that, how many people said their Easter pre sales were low? Okay, so swatty, that one.

[A]

Can you be our. Can you be an example even if you have to make up some examples?

[B]

Sure.

[A]

Okay. So your weakness. I'm sorry, our SWAT objective is my Easter sales are low. Yes. This year. So what would you say, as a baker is your strength when it can I say to Easter?

[B]

Okay. My strengths were I was able to market on time. I wasn't late, I wasn't early. I was on time for it. Granted, St. Patrick's Day was now very close to Easter. So the people who typically order for pre sales just ordered for St. Patrick's Day didn't necessarily also order for Easter because they were so stuck and close.

[A]

So let's put the strengths is you had great time management. You have great time management. Let's put the threat as close by holidays.

[B]

Okay, sure.

[A]

Like a market share. Right. So now of your Easter sales, what do you feel like your weaknesses? And that's the areas where your business could improve or it lacks resources. What was the weakness around Easter?

[B]

I feel like my options were a little weak. I wasn't excited about them myself, so how could I expect someone else to be excited about them?

[A]

Why did you choose options that weren't exciting to you?

[B]

I did feel pressure to get it launched on time, which now rushed my thought process of planning.

[A]

Then I'm going to say your strength or time management. We were. Then we're gonna, we're gonna dock him on his pay because he wasn't exactly. Your time wasn't fully managed if you felt rushed. Yeah.

[B]

So I, I did get it out on time at the expense of the designs weren't my favorite.

[A]

Okay. So maybe next time we need to build in more time for the designs that could be your favorite so that you're excited, so that your audience is excited. Right. So we can see that we can fix that weakness by building time into your strength. Okay. Okay. Now what opportunities? These are not within your kitchen. These are external. External to your kitchen. What opportunities did you notice this year? Again, we're, we're working towards next year. This is a SW analysis for next year. Sure. What were the opportunities you saw around these Easter pre sales?

[B]

Okay. An opportunity. Hindsight 20 20.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Having my Easter class a tinge bit earlier would have allowed me to upsell my pre sale to the class. Unfortunately, the class is the day before Easter, so I didn't get that Opportunity.

[A]

Okay, so an opportunity next year is teaching more classes earlier. Hopefully. The, I'm going to say the threat, the thing that we couldn't handle is the shifting of the day that Easter falls on. That's just how Easter works. It's an unfortunate side effect of when they pick that like, like first Thursday after learning lunar whatever the little spacey ones are. So, so her strength was I was on time. But the weakness is I wish I was earlier.

[B]

I wish I was earlier with better designs. So now I do see what I can work on.

[A]

Okay, your opportunity next year is have better designs and have more cookie classes leading up to Easter so that there can be some cross pollination there. Yes, yes.

[B]

I, I want to say for the people who are saying like they didn't get a lot of Easter orders this year, a big thing to remember is the algorithms are always changing. Just because you posted last year two weeks before Easter doesn't mean it's going to perform the same way this year. I will say the one thing I'm going to give myself kudos for is this year I've been trying to build relationships with my social media. Not necessarily just so I can trick the algos, but that I can create a better relationship with my clients. So I'm top of mind when someone asks who's selling Easter, blah, blah, blah.

[A]

I do think knowing who runs businesses does make me have more of an affinity. My parents went to a restaurant in Charlestown, South Carolina and Charleston, South Carolina. A lot of Charles and there are a lot of towns and tons. Yeah, there is. And there's a lot of Carolinas, so it's hard to remember. They went to a restaurant and they said it was their anniversary. So the owner comes out and just makes a big hoop to do, thanking him for being there. I think he comped him on champagne or something. Right. To celebrate. And they're telling Ashley, my older sister, the story who also likes to go to this area and had been to this restaurant. She said it's so funny we went for non anniversary things. He does the same thing. He actually does it for everybody who comes in. If it's your first time, he comes in and makes a big hoop to do and you feel like a little prize pony and you love it. Right? Right.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So Corey's saying I'm trying to be that I want people to know who I am. Because you feel more connected to a business when you know who runs it.

[B]

Yeah, sure. And I've been able to do that. I know people who are listening are like, well, Cora must have nailed her Easter presales. Here's my thing. The reason why I did well on Easter pre sales is because I never offer Easter pre sales. If you ask what my pre sales were to this one last year, it's 100%. I'm coming from zero. So it's not necessarily your wins. I want to say making a sale is great and for you to hold yourself to variables of last year that are not the same is going to put you in a bad mood.

[A]

To compare last year, let's say, let's say you've run Acer pre sales year over year. Well, this year there's a war that's just started which put economic pressure and the markets, you know, reacting towards that pressure that would affect people's expenditures toward, I don't call it superfluous, but you know, that extra, extra fund my, my, my budget to spend on me or for extravagant gifts.

[B]

And you'd also have to go back to a year to compare to where Easter also fell really at the beginning of the month last year it felt at the latest it could possibly be. We had all of April to really get it going. The spring had sprung. We were no longer dealing with snow. People's mindsets were different because we were thinking springy kind of things.

[A]

Things. Right. He's wild. When do you think Easter is next year?

[B]

I have not a clue.

[A]

It is in March. Are you kidding me?

[B]

Well, then I'll be skipping St Patrick's

[A]

Day and then in 2028 it goes back to the middle to end of April. April 16th. Yeah.

[B]

I think Easter does well so often for people that, you know, Valentine's Day, I want to say it's, it's next to Christmas. I know Heather had said, you know, we have, you know, October, November, December. But Valentine's Day is up there right under Christmas as far as making sales because people are buying externally. And you have to think, and this is what we cover in this boot camp that we'll be doing this coming up in the next two weeks is people who buy pre sales are external. They're givers. So if they've just externalized something, whether for be St. Patrick's Day, you got to say their budget, you know, it can only go so far.

[A]

Right. So we have Corey saying economic forces. My first year doing Easter, so I'm looking at Easter pre sales next year. My weaknesses are my designs, but my strengths was my timing. However, my opportunity is more cookie classes earlier to cross pollinate that the threat there. I would say in this year is the economy. It was just poorly timed. And I would say the other threat is this moving date, that Easter. So now she can look at that spot analysis and say next year. So she didn't do pre sales last year on Easter. She did. She did pre sales this year. Next year we have a better strategy for Easter pre sales. She's going to come up with the designs earlier. So if she looks at her schedule, I would add two weeks more to that planning. Whenever you start planning, I would add two weeks to it to understand what the best sellers are, what's trending. It might be cherries again. Cherries is everywhere this year. Cherries and strawberries, small berries, 2026. So she's like, I'm going to have more exciting options. And maybe you might mix up the types of options. I think you had a lot of single cookies.

[B]

I, you know, because this is my first year of pre sales, I'm really trying to get to know what my audience likes and does not like. So I'm testing it each and every time. So cookie cards, those little minis attached to a cookie card, did fairly well for St Patrick's Day. You'll never guess they did well for Easter as well.

[A]

I think you were actually surprised by your bestseller of these Easter pre sales, the one that sold out was the one you predicted wouldn't.

[B]

Yeah, there was a cross. So you think religious, a religious sector that makes your audience even smaller. But that's the first thing that sold out. And then someone went behind the order form and said, do you mind making some extras? I know you're sold out, but, but.

[A]

So the SWOT analysis where Corey's like, well, I'm going to this year, you know, not lean into the religious aspect. Next year, having done the SWOT analysis, she said, that's. I'm going to add three more options that are have a religious connotation to them. So. And then the threats, like, who knows where we'll be next year. I think we'll always have threats. I don't think at any point you could do a SWOT analysis and not find a threat and not be lying to yourself. There's always something that's going to put pressure on your business and we got to keep our eyes out there, there standing for it. Yeah.

[B]

Whether it be the weather. I know someone just got two feet of snow last week. That plays a big factor in it. The algorithms always are going to play a factor because they're always changing. You yourself are always changing, you know, as you ebb and Flow through business if you take breaks. It's something I asked today in the sugar cookie marketing group who's taking a break in their business. So many are taking breaks right now. They're in the break. So you have a lot of things that will always be happening to your business. I wish we could live in a world where nothing is happening to our business and it's just thriving. It's just not the case.

[A]

No. So a SWOT analysis will help you. I. And then so Corey can say okay, what was her strength in an opportunity? A strength was her skill. I'm sorry her timing. She said but the opportunity is now doing it earlier and offering more sugar cookie classes which would increase her bottom line but also increase her pre sales because she can cross promote those. Yeah, yeah. That's how marrying the SWOT analysis started with finding the objective. So we're going to run a SWOT analysis. What's my objective? What I'm trying to understand about my business or my market or my numbers. Right. Then we're going to go through this listing what your strengths are in regards in relation to that objective. So Corey said my. I was early to market. I had already run one pre sale. But you had only run one pre sale as well. So you're still trying to introduce your market to pre sales. Corey doesn't run them often and now she loves them.

[B]

This is my. I don't know if I love them Valentine's Day. I did one St. Patrick's Day. This one Teacher's appreciation next. And then I'll have a good, good basis to go off of if I like them or not.

[A]

That's very interesting. I took a poll in the sugar cookie marketing group yesterday. Say which of these upcoming holidays is your best seller will be your best seller. Right. So it's not holidays that have passed, it's holidays that are coming. And I thought the, the answers are pretty interesting. I'm going to scroll down to find it. Corey is made a video. Oh this lady had posted about her ducks. Apparently when you go to you're supposed to hide ducks. I thought that was very funny. We're in my poll sometimes.

[B]

Well what had Heather had asked. She had like indirect. So you had nurses, you had teacher appreciation. Mother's day was on there. I want to say she put Father's day on there and she just had people vote.

[A]

Who do you think I gotta pull that. Thanks.

[B]

I wanna say teachers appreciation.

[A]

No, the out of 130 votes in the last 24 hours is posted 23 hours ago. Graduation was 38% of what people predict their sales will be followed by Easter 34% followed by teacher appreciation 24%. And then astoundingly, nurse appreciation people predicted only accounts for 1% of their sales and Mother's Day 3%.

[B]

Yeah, I will agree with that. See, I told you Mother's Day is a poo poo one because moms having to buy for themselves just doesn't happen.

[A]

I know. So. So based on this, if you know, if I was going to do a pre sale graduation, it wouldn't have even

[B]

crossed my mind to do a graduation pre sale to be quite honest, because I just always feel those are custom orders. But you could do like generic graduation ones and see how it does. I'd be curious about that.

[A]

That. So Corey, it's hard to run a SWOT analysis on something you haven't done before, but you can run a SWOT analysis on pre sales in general, or she can do a graduation pre sale and see how it performs and then run a SWOT analysis to see if it's something she's could consider doing next year.

[B]

What I want to say as encouraging words as you SWOT analysis yourselves, do this after listening to the podcast. If you did not do well on Easter pre sales and well is very subjective to say Easter just doesn't sell well and I won't be doing Easter again. You are denying yourself opportunities there because in 2028 Easter will now be at the end of April. And if you are holding yourself to maybe your sales were a little bit lower than expected this year, you are costing your business the opportunity at it. And that's where the ebb and flow comes in. And that's why you'll have Easter in 2028. All the bakers who do do the pre sales will say, oh, it's been amazing.

[A]

It's been out of that.

[B]

I had to turn off my order. That's the ebb and flow.

[A]

It's in that comment section of the post. How are your Easter orders going? Because we're kind of locking them in now. Right. And I gotta get into the kitchen and bake them. It's the disparity between I sold nothing and I sold my left kidney is fascinating to me. I know there's a ton of market factors and it's easy to say, well, it just, you know, well, that whole like it's you, it's not me. The SWOT analysis says it's me first. What am I doing? What am I not doing? What can I do? What should I be worried about doing right. Yeah. So when we do the SWOT analysis, when you find yourself frustrated with something like Corey and I, we said, well, people don't. The podcast numbers are incrementally going down. What can we look at? Well, let's change up how the podcast is structured. Let's change up who we have on the podcast.

[B]

Well, what.

[A]

What last year did were the highest most listened to podcast. What's. When we had guests, people were tired of our voices. They're like yappers. So, okay, let's do that. Then we also say, okay, let's record it. Let's do the video component and upload that to YouTube as a different avenue. If we just said, well, it's not our fault people aren't listening. Let's not change anything. How do you think that would affect the future downloads?

[B]

It would. You'd be dumb. You'd say, the twins. You're idiots.

[A]

But what if I say, they told me it's not my podcast, it's the market.

[B]

Oh, I'm. Then it's all hands off, like, oh, can't do anything. It wasn't my fault. But you'd be like, well, twins, you know that people like to listen to other people. And your Squeaky Voices for 253 episodes has been quite a lot and taxing on the ears. So we'd be like, yeah, you're probably right. We should have more people on the podcast. But if we said, you know what? The. The lessons are going lower and lower. Let's. Let's cut this off. They don't want it anymore. That's also robbing us of an opportunity to be better. And that's where you get the ebbs and the flows and the getting better, bigger, fatter, faster, stronger. Papa John's. Or you have people who are like, I'm just not doing this anymore. I don't like this aspect of my business and I'm cutting the arm off of that. So I won't even know what I'm missing because I have no arm now. Right.

[A]

So I really like the SWOT analysis to look internally at external factors versus looking externally and just shutting down internally.

[B]

Did you say egg sternly, like an Easter?

[A]

I didn't, but I wish I did.

[B]

You can name the Posca. Looking externally at your SWOT analysis.

[A]

I will be doing that very long title. Thank you so much. You're so welcome. So.

[B]

You're welcome. It's a marketing brand.

[A]

Give them some ideas. What's other things you could run a SWOT analysis on? I'm going to say a great SWOT analysis objective is order flow. We talked about the texting question was funnels and how long they are. We said every click is a risk of a loss. How can you shorten the funnel? So my strength is this great website, but my weakness is how many clicks it takes to get there. The opportunity is I can cut out the form and I can use these other methods of getting people to order, but my threat is, you know, am I allowed to even do that? Can I take payment online? Am I. You know what happens when the email goes to spam and things like that. Can spam? Yeah, sure, sure.

[B]

I mean, there's so many things you could do it. You could do it on your. If you're a big farmer's market person, you know, you. That's a whole swan analysis on how you, you know, what your opportunities are, what your strengths are. I got a really good tent.

[A]

It's. It's logoed.

[B]

It's got my name on it. My opportunity is, you know, I don't. I haven't built up the. The displays to. To make it more inviting. I. I just feel like I'm sitting there twiddling my thumbs, and I think it's off putting to people because they don't want to be talked to. So, you know, there's so many things

[A]

you could do with that one. Threats. I'm going to say weather, location, and marketing in the space. You can even say, Brett is constricted parking. We had a big farmer's market that they took their parking lot away and it diminished. How many people could access it?

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

No, there's.

[B]

So, I mean, if you honestly sit back and think about it, you could swat just about everything in your life. Your dough prep days, you know, your customer relations part, especially if you live in a very saturated area. That's one of the things that can keep you above and beyond your competitors, since we're really offering the same things, is how can I make the best customer experience so that they want to come back? And, you know, if they ever leave me, they're like, I miss her.

[A]

Yeah. The final point in wrapping up this wild analysis is it's not a one and done. You don't do it and then make a million dollars. If you did, we'd all be doing it and making a million dollars. So the SWOT analysis should be seen as a living document. So from the SWOT analysis, the challenge. The challenge is to take three action items and smart goals them. Remember what the smart acronym was was? No. Aquarium. Smack.

[B]

Manageable.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Attractive.

[A]

Specific, measurable, attainable and relevant and time bound. So. So yeah, we can do the SWOT analysis. So let's go back to your Easter one. So we know that you said you weren't excited about your offerings and that was because of the time constraints. And your opportunities were to teach more cookie classes with better designs now and to cross pollinate that. And your threat was. What would we say your threat was?

[B]

My threat? Did we go over my threat for that? It's timing as far as I think

[A]

we said the date. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. And the Sorry kids are getting off of school. The day that I had for pickup is the day before Easter. Because I was thinking Easter baskets. A lot of these people wanted to gift them to teachers. But that wasn't my pickup date. Do you see where I was in a conundrum?

[A]

That is a good one. So I'll put that back into your weaknesses. Was your pickup date time? Okay, so next year if we do the pre sale again for Easter, we're going to create three smart goals from this SWOT analysis. Easter SWOT analysis. So give me what three goals are. I'm going to say add two weeks to your planning and prep time so that specific measurable, attainable, it's relevant and it's time bound. So that's going to be the first one, two weeks.

[B]

So what I'll do is I won't do St. Patrick's Day because you said Easter is in March.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

So I will skip St. Patrick's Day, focus on Easter. So I'm one early to market, but two, not competing against myself, trying to sell out my St. Patrick's Day pre sale while also trying to sell out

[A]

my Easter pre sale. A delectable thing to take away from this. Yeah, I'm googling it. March 17th is St. Patrick's Day next year. And then what is it? March 28th. Those put them right next to each other and you were surprised with how they performed. But I think you know deep down in your heart that easter will outperform St. Patrick's Day.

[B]

Say I do believe.

[A]

Okay, so come up with two more smart goals here. You remember there specific, measurable, attainable. I think a specific goal around the designs.

[B]

I. I want to say what I actually do if people didn't know. I follow a bunch of your guys pages and I try to engage when

[A]

it shows up there.

[B]

If I see a design I like, I'll screenshot it and I add it to Easter inspo in my Google Drive. So I have one for Valentine's Day, I have one for St. Patrick's Day and now I'll have one for Easter. So when I feel like, what do I offer? I can just go back into that folder from 365 days ago and say, oh, these are the things that caught my eye in the feed. So these are things that I should be offering because it's something I'd one, either be excited about. Two, I thought looked really good was a fun option. Maybe I didn't think of.

[A]

I like that. So what she's also going to do because we did the SWOT analysis is she's going to add two more religious type cookies. I'm not sure if I'm like religious just connotation cookies. I don't know. Something she's going to do from the SWOT analysis is she saw that her strength was the cross cookie. The weakness was probably not having as many of those options because who knew that they were going to sell out? Somebody even asked. So it's a great signal that that was what the audience wanted.

[B]

Yeah, good to know.

[A]

Because I didn't even.

[B]

That would not have crossed my mind. First and foremost, what I want to

[A]

tell people is Corey wouldn't have even known to have had this crossroad. Has she not taken the first step to do the preset? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[B]

And just had it there as not. I did not think I was going to sell any of them. And here I am coming up with

[A]

the next year strategy. So that's the thing, is that the first one fails and you refuse to do the SWOT analysis, you're not going to do the next one, right? Sure. If the first one fails or underperforms or pops off and you do the SWOT analysis, the next one will be better set up. So if I could come up with a third. A third one. A third smart goal attributed to our SWOT analysis as I'm looking it up here. Oh, I would say my third one is to build out my cookie class schedule to add an extra class two weeks out, two weeks prior. So that puts that class mid March. Typically in the past I would have said March, let's do a St. Patrick's Day class. But we're not going to do St. Patrick's so my cookie classes are going to now mirror this pre sale and we're going to do a class leading up, up to Easter and possibly because Easter always falls on a Sunday, the class the day before Easter.

[B]

And I could if I wanted to, thinking about it next year, me and Heather actually have A class this year it's the day before Easter. I could host my own pop up at the class next year. You know I'm already baking that stuff. The colors are already made. Make a little extra pad my pre sale numbers. Maybe if they didn't meet my expectations, do it pop up style carrying the same designs over and seeing if I can't unload some product there a great

[A]

way to not have to increase the time and research costs but still get some Runway out of the icing colors. And then if we're even, even more savvy, Corey would make some of those pre sale cookies. Actual designs we were using in the class. Yes. Sure, sure, sure, sure. So now from now we have three things. Now what I love to do when we Cory and I did a SWOT analysis. We do it after the end of each Vendee blend, right. I keep it in a living document. I keep it living. Nothing is more alive than a Google Doc because it is accessible, it is cloud based and it keeps and score even asked me yesterday, can you pull up that SWOT analysis and tell me what we said back in right, yeah. So from this SWOT analysis I would keep one. I would keep these in my Google Drive and be like SWAT analysis Easter pre sales 2026. That way in 2027, in January when I'm planning on my year, I can start my scheduling of what my pre sale is going to look like. Does that make sense?

[B]

Yeah, just having it organized there. And while I love the notes app, I do love it. Just having something that says you know, pre sales and then in there you have Easter Valentine's Day, you know, graduation and then you have under that your test beds and your swan analysis for each and every one your inspo photos, what you offered, the prices, what you sold, what you didn't sell.

[A]

Just hearing you say that tells me that the next time you do this is going to be so much better. It's based off of analyzing this SWOT analysis and saying where the weakness is, firming up the weaknesses is increasing the strengths, finding the better opportunities and and being cognizant of the threats and incorporating that into the plan. So if you did that for let's say I did my first farmer's market. Here's my farmer's market SWOT analysis or I did my first wedding venue event. I did my second cookie class, I did my fifth pre sale. If you constantly. I'm so sorry. There's no way that the numbers don't move in your favor.

[B]

I know and I want to say when it comes to pre sales, consistency in offering them and consistency in showing up is how you that audience. It's not just I turned on my presales for the first time and I sold out. Wish that would happen. But if you have any sort of competition in your area, it's not always going to be how it works.

[A]

You guys can see back to this. Competition makes you do a SWOT analysis. SWAT analysis makes you better. So then your competition also must do a SWOT analysis to then be better. And that's why competition is so valuable to the consumer. We benefit a lot by having competition. We benefit by people competing on prices to get us in the doors. Thank you, Walmart. We benefit by people competing on experience. Thank you, Wegmans. And we've been a fit by people. A lot of these West Virginia grocery stores have gas stations that is not in Northern Virginia. I don't know why, but that is extremely convenient. So now I went to a Martin and I thought about getting a rewards card because I'm using their gas station. It's so convenient. It's just right at the end of the parking lot of these grocery stores.

[B]

I know that would be so interesting.

[A]

Right. So now you can see from the consumer's perspective how this is great, competition is wonderful and how from a business perspective, competition is frustrating, but it is also great. It makes you better. Yeah.

[B]

And I wish we could say we have no competition, but there will always be competition. So you can either get mad at it or you can make it make you better. And my competitors make me wake up on Monday morning and they get me to work on time. So I appreciate them because they are

[A]

doing the heavy lifting over here. And I think that's what community over competition is, is like, hey, you're going to be better. I'm going to do my best to be better than you. And let's make sure that the consumer has the best experience possible.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. The consumer wins.

[A]

The consumer wins when there's competition. So take this SWOT analysis and apply it to Easter. I know we had a lot of weird stuff with Easter because it shifted the day. We in our in Northern Virginia have this very cold weather that didn't allow the blooms to bloom. We're coming up because Easter is next weekend, right? Not this weekend, but the following.

[B]

It is. Yeah.

[A]

Right. So we have the Easter next weekend. Okay. How are we going to incorporate change things next year? You'd be such a strategic. You wouldn't have to go to my sugar cookie marketing page said and be like, nothing moved. And I'm so frustrated.

[B]

I know you. You'd be. Your biggest competitor would be you last year. And that when both of y' alls win, that is a win in my book.

[A]

I liked somebody. She commented, my sales for Easter are lower this year, but I've been on vacation. Great.

[B]

Like, yeah, great.

[A]

Because now instead of just saying my sales are low this year, I've been on vacation like you've been on vacation. She said, I know I need to go back and send a newsletter to get my sales out. Great. Now conduct a SWOT analysis. Let's say next year. You really liked vacations. I want to incorporate the vacation, but I also want to make sure my sales are landed. She's going to schedule out the newsletters while she's gone.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

That takes us into that. Just to recap, what is a swat? It's strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. Opportunities and threats are external to the kitchen. Strengths and weaknesses you can kind of see is inside the house. And that includes inquiries, social media marketing, and things like that. I like to think about marketing, but always start with the objective. Find out what. What am I trying to analyze here? What is my. What is this? And Corey said, let's do Easter pre sales. So that'll kind of tell us what. What strengths we're looking at, what weaknesses we're looking at. Then they said, the TOES method is marrying the two. So the strength and opportunities will guide the strategy and the threats and weaknesses will guide the. Let me repair these areas.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Yeah. That was interesting for me. I learned a lot for my swat.

[A]

I would challenge you. My. My efficient technology twin sister is to create a SWAT template in Google Docs. You're right. Run it every time you say, okay. That was interesting how that went. What would I like to know? What would future me wish past me wrote down? And I want in my SWOT document. Here's my offerings. Here's pictures. You can add pictures. Yeah. Google Docs. And here's my numbers. Here's how many units I sold. Sold. Here's how much I priced them at. And here was my promotional schedule. That way future would be like, oh, because. Because today you say I need to add two more religious type designs.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

364 days from now.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Remember that.

[B]

No, I will not. I will not. I've been going through my email. As you know, I'm inboxing zero this year. So I'm trying to maintain my inbox zero. There's one email I haven't deleted because what it looked like I sent to myself was a password where it goes to nobody knows. But it sits in there because I thought I'd remember, and I really actually do not. So having something that to remind me so I don't make the same mistakes. And maybe I instead of I'm sitting there like, should I offer religious cookies? I can be like, yeah, Corey, offer them. That's what your number one settler was. Cut this guy that didn't sell well. And then see what happens this year.

[A]

And you can tell yourself, well, I'll just pull up the job form. Who knows where we'll be in 364 years? 264 days, not years. I know I'll be in 264 years. But being able to pull up like a master document, which I really like, creating master documents, that kind of is like me talking to future me as if I'm like, houston, we got a problem. Here's what we did. Here's what we're going to do. Then future me is like, what? What was it that I needed to remember? So keeping that all in one central location from pictures, from links to Corkitt even put here is the people who ordered from me. I just want to know because it's not something.

[B]

Well, that's what if I'm doing a newsletter? That's who I want to send a newsletter to next year.

[A]

I know, I love it. I just have to let the cat in from the outside because it's so cold. It's just a small door. Keep going on with your breath.

[B]

Let the cat. And back to my. I found this loaf recipe. So not necessarily pumpkin bread. Pumpkin loaf, does that mean it's bread? Bread to me is a little bit meatier, like thicker, more to chew into. But this loaf of is so soft. Melt in your mouth.

[A]

Oh, there's my baby.

[B]

There's my b. Look at that little man. Look at that little man in the

[A]

basement and knock him down.

[B]

So this loaf recipe, I actually shared it on my page if you want to go find it. It's absolutely delicious. Not my recipe. Found it online. It just was when I googled loaf recipe, it was the number one that popped up with the highest reviews and I love making a high review recipe. Today I'll be making pumpkin cookies and there's maple syrup in there, so I wonder how that will perform in me.

[A]

Taste buds. Stay tuned to the end of the podcast for the rest of this.

[B]

No, I'm done with that section. I've talked about it twice. I like pumpkin.

[A]

Moving to the cookie College boot camp. We have the bootcamp next week. It'll be a three day bootcamp starting on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On Wednesday you have the opening Facebook live with me and Corey. And then you'll get my module which is creating forms for pre sales. This is the pre sale. That's why Corey's big in pre sales. This year I'll be creating a step by step screen share where we set up our form. The next day, Cora will be going through what she has described to me as an exceptionally long PowerPoint. This is everything she knows.

[B]

It's all my brain space. So you'll know what I know. I couldn't possibly give you one more tip or tidbit.

[A]

And then the final day on Friday, we'll do a closeout remarketing strategy for this, for this pre sale. How we we'd fall. I'm sorry, not remarketing. How we we'd follow up with people and probably a little remarketing because this is marketing. And then we'll end with a live Q and A which is about an hour you'll get into a private Facebook group and it's all 13 bucks. But at the end of the boot camp, you can sign up for the cookie college. You'll never guess for 13 off. So you immediately get your money back in all future boot camps, which next month is 3D printing led by me.

[B]

And Heather says you'll get all future boot camps as long as you're a member of the college. I just want to make sure you

[A]

are explaining that partner. But technically you'd get them all for free because that $13 discount is for each month that keeps going. That discount if you signed up, if you purchase $13 pre sale course we see you next week, you get that discount code, you upgrade to the college. Every month your membership renews at $13 off.

[B]

Here's my thing, as someone who has learned that the way you say things matters because on St Patrick's Day I made one of everything for free. Oh yes, it does matter.

[A]

Thank you for joining. So Samantha actually had signed up for a bootcamp and then she was like, oh, this is the wrong one. And I really think it was how I laid out the website. So I refunded and got her into the right one. But she emailed me, she said I loved last month's bootcamp so much and I'm so excited for the pre sales bootcamp. I just signed up for it and then she had this part. I'm going to read it because I thought it was Interesting. She said I wanted to reach out because when you switched me to the photography bootcamp after I had accidentally signed up for the cookie classes bootcamp, I know it's supposed to expire, but it's not leaving my account. I just want to let you know there's a glitch, which I told her, thank you so much. When we first launched these, we did the seven day expiration, but enough people came back and they're like, I just didn't have time to watch it in the seven days. Is there anything you can do? So we said, okay, let's not make them expire. So when you sign up for a bootcamp, you have access to that material for as long as the platform supports it. So there is no seven days expiration on anything but the discount upgrade code for the cookie college. And that way if you miss that one, just sign up for the next bootcamp and you can snag it there. So yeah, if you sign up for the pre sales bootcamp and you can't make it, that's that. Seven days prior. The seven days after we watch it. No sweat, my friend. You just miss out on the private group. But you can rewatch that content for as long as you need to.

[B]

Yeah. Nice.

[A]

Excited about your camera debut again?

[B]

No, I'm not good on camera. Sometimes I talk so much I forget where I am at in the sentence, unfortunately. And then when I tune back in, I'm like, did I already save this or did I not?

[A]

You PowerPoints are very extensive. You guys want to tell all a watch walk through. Walk through. She displays the. The PowerPoint on a TV. You guys get a copy of the PowerPoint to follow along and then she walks through with imagery. It's not just a wall of text. It's mostly like pictures and kind of explaining why she did what she did, what she'd do differently and what she'd do in the future. Kind of like a SWOT analysis. A swan analysis.

[B]

What I know is I'm a visual learner. My friends and I also, when I approach a recipe, I want you to be like. Instead of being like, this should make 8 to 10 cookies. I want you to say, say this will make 10 cookies that are 63 grams each. That's what I want to know. I want to know the details because I want to follow it to a pin void. And that's how I teach.

[A]

Okay, great. So we will have that up. That will be on April 1st. April Fool's Day. Don't believe anything you see on the Internet. Except for that the pre sale course has dropped. And you can.

[B]

It was so funny with AI coming out. We had this weird day of weather and nothing happened. But someone posted a tornado photo of an area that was not even in Northern Virginia and it went viral. They said it happened in Leesburg. It did not. People were like a whole funnel cloud. There was a small cow.

[A]

We don't even have cows.

[B]

Someone says my friend shared me that this just happened.

[A]

Literally.

[B]

The person shared it would have been a part of the tornado. It was that close to their vehicle.

[A]

Yeah. Why are you saying this story to them?

[B]

I'm saying April Fool's Day. Definitely don't believe anything with AI not with AI.

[A]

Nano Banana. Just don't believe that it's not true. They're not pregnant. That tornado didn't catch down and none of it is real. So the pre sales boot camp is in eight days. The 3D printing cookie cutters boot camp is in 38 days. You can actually register for that now. And then you'll get access when we drop it. And then Corey decided. Cory and I argued and we decided is June's boot camp will be cracking community groups of which Cory and I have been testing her. A community group she started for three or four years now. Three years.

[B]

Yeah. I think we're on three.

[A]

We.

[B]

We're going towards four in June.

[A]

She has me starting a community group here and the hills of West Virginia to kind of see we have more opportunity for porch pickups. Pop ups. Yeah. Here. Yeah. You wanted to test pop ups. So that is what is coming down the pipeline now in terms of. Nobody texted it in to the. To the. To the Goss column. Did you see any Goss call from other groups?

[B]

Did you see a Goss call from another group? I'm trying to think what I saw that caught my attention this week that I went down the rabbit hole from. Did you catch anything? I know we talked about the last

[A]

one where I saw somebody dirty delete. They were trying. They thought a baker had been stealing photos, but the baker had. Oh, shoot. So we got a dirty deletion there.

[B]

That's the.

[A]

You know. Don't I always find like an interesting. Since we just did the AI collab. Here's my. My gosh hot take. Is that the line in the sand of where people are allowed to use AI and what they don't think anybody else is allowed to do is very interesting. Right. So you have the. You have like a cutter shop like Liz Viz uses AI exclusively now to generate the images of cookies And I'll be honest, they look. They look real. And she has, you know, she does the design subscribe, so she can feed that file into these generators and it looks really. So I was thinking like, people are like, well, I wish you had a real baker to do it. Why? Because you feel like it's more authentic? Because the AI generated image that it spits out is something that you guys could create.

[B]

They want the them to invest back into the baking community.

[A]

Okay, so now here's that one. But now when the AI image was complex, it was like, well, bakers can't recreate that. So you see that it's a moving target of where the AI should be. And I see baker's like, I'll never use it. But I. Then I see you have an AI generated flyer.

[B]

It's the same thing as a lot of people hated Eddie until they got one. It's cheating until I have it. No, it's not cheating.

[A]

It's cheating because it removes the artistry. But. But setting it up and, you know, paying for it does require a lot of hard work. Okay, so with the AI one, just the arguments. And I see that in a lot of groups that allow, unfortunately, anonymous posting and nicknames is just a bunch of anon and nicknames arguing with each other. But they just. There's no bottom to the moving target of do. I'll do it, but I can do it because I needed this reason. But you can't do it because it's cheating. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Only whatever I can do justify. It's the same thing that when someone's going through traffic and someone cut you off, you're yelling, oh, get off the road, you don't drive. But when you accidentally cut someone else off, you're like, well, I didn't really see you. And you're able to justify it on your end, but to them, they need to go to hell and get their license revoked, but you're able to justify it on your end. And that's where people. So people are so blinded by it. Anyone can justify their need for something. Their need to cut you off. I had to speed. I was late to get my kid. My kids forgot a lunchbox and I had to run the red. You know, things like that that everyone has a good, juicy reason. But it's so funny, we don't let anyone else have a good, juicy reason.

[A]

I saw a really interesting context of this. You know, a baker said, like, don't use AI, but I need some. Could someone use Photoshop to change the date on My cookie. And someone's like, well, I used AI and they're like, I tried it too, but okay, but that's a. That's a conflicting stance. Well, I'm good enough. Okay, but that's not the cookie that was. That was made. So it's just interesting. And I challenge people. Before you guys get into the mudslinging comments and groups that allow it to it. Trust me, I'm reading everything you guys read. Before you get into the mud slinging, ask yourself, if I changed my mind on this, how embarrassing would it be to walk this back? The statement I'm about to make.

[B]

And some people exist and they're like, well, I just changed my mind. Now I. I have more information and

[A]

it is what it is. And they're free.

[B]

They're. They honestly could care less to walk it back. It's the type of people out there, it's so funny what makes the world go round. And me and Heather are. If we say it, we gotta mean it. So we never try to, to say anything we don't mean so we don't have to walk back.

[A]

Yeah. Because that walk back to me is a walk of shame. Like, that's the worst one. But yeah, I just see a lot of that right now. The flavor of the month is, is arguing about the line of where these AI generators, which are super unique tools. I was thinking about, I saw this person and they were doing a kitchen remodel on Reddit, some thread, right. And they were just changing out the flooring. And I was like, wow, that's such a good indicator of what the end result will be because it looks ex. It looks like it's already in their kitchen.

[B]

Yeah. And you know, it's so funny that bakers will be like, well, I just used AI to make this flyer and that's not cheating, but it's cheating when you include a cookie.

[A]

Now take that logic and apply it to a group of graphic designers. Now graphic designers. Well, I just use it to do this one. Now apply that to a group of bunch of photographers, right? Yeah. So you can see kind of it's just a wish to wash it. And for some reason I'm obsessed with reading the disparity in the comment section of those types of things.

[B]

It's a good thing it's so new. It almost takes me back to the Eddie coming to the platform stage where people are like, it's cheating. I'll never use that. And then those people now have one and they're using all the time.

[A]

It's too you don't have to use it. But I don't know if you can necessarily be self righteous looking down your nose at people who do do something differently.

[B]

Do do. Someone said, I thought it was so funny. If it's cheating where. When's the test? Like we're not in high school anymore and there is no test. You run your own thing and if it works for you, it works for you. And if it doesn work for someone else, it doesn't work for somebody else.

[A]

I think Amy said a quote like that. She's like, if the market's flooded, I'm the water. I'm going to be there. If there's money, I'm going to head towards her.

[B]

That's what me and Heather, we have this local community group and they love to complain about traffic as if they are not contributing to the traffic. But Heather had posted this one meme and I have to reshare in the group soon just to ruffle some feathers. It was like me complaining about traffic while sitting in traffic.

[A]

Yeah, it's the, it's just the funniest thing. Like don't get in my way. But I'm allowed to. You can't do it because it bothers me, but I can do it because I, you know, there's reasons that I need to. You. You don't have those reasons.

[B]

You can't.

[A]

So if you guys want to, I'll post it again in the group. It's a long Jotform link, so it's not necessarily something I can say. I would, but then you guys would roll your eyes. But upcoming, upcoming events. We have the pipe a park collab. You can register for that and I'll help you with copy. This one will be nice. But you. Makes you go outside. Makes you take a cookie. You're going to pipe a flower and take it to a park. I'm going to challenge you. And I'm having Cory to do this as well. Find something in the park that people could identify a lot of. That's going to be the opening sign. The sign at the front.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Lake. Like if there's a body of water that was really identifiable. I'm not sure if parks have like formations if Corey. Okay, we could go to the natural ridge.

[B]

Yeah. That's out there. We want it to be closer to you.

[A]

Why not? Okay. Lisylvania has the train tracks.

[B]

It has, it has swampy marshland that you can actually walk around. And you can, but we're trying to

[A]

do an identifiable thing. Thing. Yeah.

[B]

I'm Saying these marsh. The walk, the walking through the marsh. It's all these bridges.

[A]

Oh, yeah. I've never done that. I would go with you if you did that. That would be a good. The bridge walk. That wooden long trail. That's a good idea. I would do it there. Piper Park. Taken care of. But that's in three weeks. You can go to the events tab in the Sugar Cooking Marketing Group. Register for that and then I'll remind you and help you with copy. May. We're doing the main Street May. And we're going to do this one. Always performs really well. That's why we keep bringing it back. It was literally Liz. Liz's idea a couple years ago and she let us take it.

[B]

Lydia.

[A]

Lydia. I'm so sorry. Lydia Eldridge. Dale's in my name. I'll blend together and I call my mom Liz. That's in eight weeks. What we're going to do is you're going to find a local business. You're going to turn them into a cookie. Great way to do that is with the logo. What did you do last year?

[B]

I did a graffiti cat pizza. You did?

[A]

You know what you should do? Yoder. What? Yoder's Dutch.

[B]

Because I'm a big fan of Yoda.

[A]

You're a huge fan. Everyone's a huge fan. I've never been it, but it makes me want to go. Maybe if Stonebridge opens home, I guess you could do it there. Oh, you could do the restaurant that opened in Tackett's.

[B]

That Fig Bourbon Fig. Yeah, because we wanted to go there too.

[A]

I would love to go. And I think that they have a lot of notoriety around them right now because they're new and fancy. And then the odds of people saying, oh, I know that business. Yeah, no, that's a good order.

[B]

I have to do that. And we can grab dinner after.

[A]

Oh, I'd love to try it. I've never been so. That will be in eight weeks. So we have the Piper park in April, Main Street, May and Cory and I'll talk about June. I might go back to meet the baker. A little something easier. I know the dry J months.

[B]

Well, if we're doing relationship building, maybe we can do something internal that you can feature someone. Feature your family feature pet, Something like that. I like that idea.

[A]

I do like that. Upcoming events. What's Popping Con is in three weeks. That'll be in Kent, Ohio. Cory and I will be speaking on how to pop off the news feed. It's nice. It's a cake pop conference. There's A lot of pop pop puns.

[B]

A lot of popping puns.

[A]

Cookie con is in 13 weeks in Orlando June 24th and the Vendy BL thank goodness it's 35 weeks away. Black Friday so upcoming major holidays. This will be the last time we ever talk about April Fool's. It seems to be the most underperforming at one time I felt like it was high performing but it's it's great

[B]

for a page post. It's not great for sales.

[A]

Good to know. Sabre fools is in eight days. Easter is in two weeks. That's 12 days teacher appreciation which I think a lot of people are getting up for a selling for. That'll be in six weeks weeks Nurse Appreciation. I guess I should probably take that one off. Not that we don't appreciate nurses. Love you but it seems like a really low performing cookie sales holiday. I think it had its jump up with COVID giving gifts to frontline workers. Mother's Day is in seven weeks but that seems to be Corey's predicting a low performer. I'll be asking some questions in the group to get a better to see indicator and then graduation which is one of the biggest sellers and that's in 11 weeks. That'll be unique to your area though. So for us that's June the 20th.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

Nice. Stl me about it. You this is sponsored by Cookie Design Lab. You can use code twins for 15% off or text into the podcast at 571-556-5644 and you have a chance to win a month of Cookie Design Lab free to actually be one of the apps we're using in the 3D printing boot camp. Corey I had to use it.

[B]

I had to use Cookie Design that this week for a little little graphic bunny that I found online. The client wanted mini cookies. I actually don't have a ton of mini cookie cutters so she had a specific thing she wanted. Unfortunately, bunny ears make the sizing of cookie cutters weird because ears are so

[A]

long making the width short depending on how the cutter shop measures them.

[B]

Absolutely. So the cutter that she had shown me actually only came in a normal 3 to 0.5 to 4 inch to make room for this bunny ears. Otherwise it would be comically tiny tiny. So I was able to find a graphic of a bunny's ears backwards a

[A]

little bit and it's got a little

[B]

backward ear and was able to make that in Cookie Design Lab. It did it in two minutes flat.

[A]

Yeah, because all you have to really do is upload the png background remover tools now built in and it just kind of outlines. I had to drop the digital Downloads Kit for 20 oh for this month for March. So you guys can. If you're a digital downloads member or cookie college member, you guys have access to that now. It's a U rule and the ruler was made by cookie design lab. Oh, it's nice. I created the png. Just drop it in there. Granted it looks like a rectangle because that's what rulers of tape dash do. But the digital downloads kit includes seven printable downloads. So a pattern, a social media post which is not a printable download but cookie tag front and back, a STL transfer sheet and the PNG and print. So if Corey wanted to recreate these, she could use use the eddy print file to print you rule on a ruler shaped cookie STL that's included. We have two texts this week. Number one, number one, you're the winner. The area code is 631. Email me at heather sugarcookingmarketing.com and I'll connect you with CLE Design Lab for your first free month. She they say, I guess not here. He says, what is your experience with Eventbrite ads? Do you recommend them? I don't understand what I'm seeing and not seeing much in general. General. Is it really that simplistic? I'm not sure if it's being effective. Okay, I know what you're asking. I'm going to tell you. Eventbrite Ads used to just be an ads manager for Facebook ads. I think Eventbrite has since rolled out its own ads. That's confusing to me because it still does the Facebook ads thing. In that case, I'm always going to say your best manager for ads is Facebook's Meta ads manager platform. Right. So ads are great and they're also terrible because they will take your money if you say, hey, run, show this ad. Meta's gonna say, yep, okay, got it. Now give me my money. It was up to you to tell it how or how where to show that ad. So I see a lot of bakers getting in trouble with their targeting is so broad. I'm seeing a baker cookie class ad and they're about 500 miles from me. So they have just wasted their money because they paid for me to see that. But there's absolutely no way I could convert as far as the Eventbrite ad ads. I'll have to research it. I only run ads through Facebook Ads Manager.

[B]

Yeah, but I can see Eventbrite is its own search platform altogether. So people who are using Eventbrite to go to places are subscribed to the newsletters. They're on there trying to find things. I know that when I want to do something I look up something specific. So I see like wreath making class that I did in December. I just google I just googled end up on Eventbrite for this wreath making class and signed up up. I didn't necessarily spend a ton of time on there, but I can see where if someone really utilizes it and like that's how they plan their weekends with Eventbrite that it could be beneficial.

[A]

Okay, here is, here is a post in Reddit comparing Facebook ads to Eventbrite ads. They said that on this. The original poster said they're running an Eventbrite ad for a client and one click cost them out of 538 impressions. They had one click and it cost them $30 dollars. That would be terrible. That means for one click you spend $30. And on LinkedIn they had gotten 33 clicks for only a $92 per click. Somebody else said, I know this thread is old, it's a year old, but I just want to say I did an eventbrite ad 100ad 10 clicks Facebook ad 100ad 28 clicks so again, supporting my theory that if I were to run an ad, if I were to do ad spend, I would run that on Facebook through Facebook even if it is pointing people back to Eventbrite. My sense. Yeah, that's my, that's my phrase of the day. Makes sense. Does that make sense? Makes sense. Tracking. So for, for me, for me as for me in my house, we will use Facebook. Nice. But Eventbrite ads do make it look tempting and I think you're saying it's simplistic and that means that there's not a lot of targeting options. Yes, Facebook can seem overwhelming because there's a lot of targeting options. Another text. Hi twins. Here's another question from Albany, New York. I saw a recent article saying that people aren't using Google to search anymore, but rather using Chat GT GTP GPT. Therefore, our marketing efforts to attract clients on our websites using SEO and having a Google business page aren't worth the effort. I have to say my business in 2026 is dramatically slower than 2025, which I first attributed to January being a slow month. But this article makes me wonder if there's some truth to the chat GPT taking over and if it means I need a new strategy. Get shown on chat. What are your thoughts? Debbie this is, this is actually a fully loaded question. Yeah, both right and wrong. Here's what I'm gonna say. A lot of bakers haven't ever exhausted the SEO of their websites. They have not an entire multi billion dollar industry. And just writing a blog post is not doing enough to say that your website is search engine optimized SEO. But now there's AEO AI engine optimized. And it's a new theory in this, in this whole thing where people are using chat. Well, just remember chat's still using Google search, right?

[B]

Chat gtpt isn't making up something out of nothing. It's not this all knowing being. What it's actually doing is pinging, seeing places on the Internet. That's why if it's like would you like me to pull up where I got this from? You can ask it to tag where, what website it got the information from. So you can give it like have some credentials against it. So it's still pulling from there, but creating your website where it talks to the chat. And that's what we were talking to. My older sister works at this big finance company that's online and now they're making, instead of their blog post being like this is this. It's answering questions because people are using chat to answer questions. So can you make your blog post answer questions? If we're doing the pipe apart collab, what places should I go? If I'm looking to walk around a park in the Woodbridge area and then my blog post now answers that and if you're in this area I'm doing and you tie it back to your business in that form or fashion.

[A]

I don't believe that chat is replacing search engines as much as it's changing how we optimize for a new version of a search engine engine. So if Deb Debbie says, if I say hey, yeah, delete your website, she would be moving backwards. Now she has less optimizing the website for SEO is great for search. Here's the thing. A lot of people are using chat. I still use Google Search, which does incorporate Gemini, which is their AI generator. But I'm still going to Maps and I'm finding that now if I ask Gemini to find me a list of local Italian restaurants, it's going to pull that from its Google Business Profile listings. Unlike Google Business Profile where you're kind of just, you're signaling to the search engine to show you, I think chat are these AI generators can look at a more cohesive listing. When I say hey, hey, chat, I'm just going to call chat. Find me the best Italian restaurant in the area. It's able to look at not only the listing but the reviews and within the reviews what is being spoken about. So I was googling some local restaurants, I was trying to find some stuff around here and it's now it's called the know before you go and you can see it's AI generated and it said hey, looks like the owner is really nice and the crab rangoons are almost to die for it. Like it was writing in very human terms to me, but it was reading from the reviews. Yeah, yeah. Now you can see how reviews are taking on a new aspect of of optimization. Right before we were doing reviews to signal for ranking. Now we're using reviews to signal for these know before you go little AI outtakes.

[B]

I like to use AI to ask it to see where I rank. If I were to ask it what is a good baker? A sugar cookie baker in Woodbridge. It's actually pulling a lot of the information from my website and from the reviews on my Google business profile. So the words that I put on my website like clean designs, tasty vanilla bean recipe, it's using that in, it's in its form when it gives you submits an answer to you. So a website still very good, having everything built out great because it's pulling all that information from those places. So it actually pulled information from my form, from my website, from my Google reviews and from my Facebook.

[A]

If anything SEO has gotten more complicated. Okay. So I asked Gemini why Corey is saying what's a great Italian restaurant near Charlestown? Charlestown offers several great Italian dining options ranging from casual pizzerias to sit down cafes. Now it pulls up the lam as a Luna cafe. It's family owned. It's widely regarded as a top choice for traditional Italian. It's famous for the fresh made. All this information is coming from that that cohesive SEO based marketing now integrated into AI ei Oh, it's gotten more complicated. But the consumer wins. But the consumer is also as a consumer if I was like okay, I need to take I would needed to hire some service provider. So I was looking at, I think it might have been a mechanic or something. So I needed to hire a mechanic. So I was looking at their reviews and then I was like okay, well I'm not sure if those are real. So let me go to this website to look at their like let me go to community group. So now all that can be done pretty quickly with AI doing the the going through and Telling me what's good with span. Yeah, yeah. It's interesting. It is interesting.

[B]

We could spend so much time on there because it is interesting. It's not going away. So how can you integrate your business in it? That makes your business both benefit from it and the end user benefit from it, because that's where you marry those two and everybody wins.

[A]

I think on a website being very distinct, very clear about the information, somebody would likely, likely ask an AI gener, let's say for a cottage baker like our, what is their schedule when other cookie classes? Well, a page on your website would need to detail all your cookie classes for the year so that, that this person or this generator could bring it to this person. Right. And that's where this informational type website's still very valuable. And the blog post answering questions, right? Yes.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's just gotten a lot more complicated in a great way.

[B]

In a great, great, great way.

[A]

Our sponsors, like we said, is Cookie Design Lab at 15 off. If you use code Twins or text in at 571-556-5644 and you could win. I'm on the quick Design Lab. Bakey Bake is code twins for 10 off her entire website. What's popping, Con? Use code twins for 25 off your ticket. I think they still have tickets available, so if you want to see us in three weeks. They have quite the lineup. It's quite the event. This is their second year doing it and it seems like they've swot analysis and only gotten better, faster, stronger. Yeah, Papa job Cons Primaria. Eddie isn't. Isn't Jennifer doing a podcast at the

[B]

end of April, Jennifer, who is the representative for Primera, is actually doing a podcast with us. And the great part is she's talking about both Eddie and Freddie. And we're going to have a. We'll make a post in the group where you can put your questions in there and then we can ask Jennifer in person on the podcast. That'll be a great one.

[A]

You know what they put in the. They made a post about this day. You can print on soap. So kind of think of like if you had like, let's say a baby shower and you gave soap, you can print directly on the soap.

[B]

Oh, that's so funny.

[A]

Funny if you're a pretty bath remodeler. Oh, that be so funny. Yeah, you can kind of think of soaps in terms of like, I know we're always like, you can't eat it, so don't sell it. But now, like think of if you Market Eddie towards Gorsing a kitchen modeler or somebody with a baby shower. You could offer that as like an add on. How interesting. Interesting. It was wild to see it do it. Had so many comments if you guys want to go check it out. Eddie Printer users group on Facebook and then Bosch Nature Mill. You can use code sugar cookies for $20 off your order. Your what? So that's great. Do you have a twinrust for us? Cory and I had to go to the gym. I haven't, I haven't been to the gym in a long time. And Corey's been going to the gym relentless on. On Saturday mornings. You'd never find me at one. And she sent me a Snapchat on Saturday morning at 1. And then we met at the mall on Sunday and she made me walk 14,000 steps. And we only got to 9,000. We.

[B]

We got to 10. When it was all said and done, I had to go home and walk a little walkie walk.

[A]

The walk to the car got us at 10. So I was gonna go to the gym. Cory and I were talking about if you guys even care. There's this theory strategy, I guess of it's called progressive overload. And it forces you to do your max. And it's a range between doing, I think, 10 to 12, right. So you would say, and this is a weightlifting strategy. If you're scared of the weight room, don't be. Everyone else is already in their own heads. They're not looking at you. But you would go and say, okay, listen, I'm going to put a dumbbell over my head. Yes. I'm going to grab a weight. Right? So if you grab a weight and let's say you grab five pounds and you're like, I could do this all day. That's the weight's too low. So go up to the weight where you say, I could probably only do 10 to 12 of these. That is your current max, Right.

[B]

That is where you're currently maxing out at, Right.

[A]

So you would do three sets between. Between 10 and 12. And if you want to look into the science of why that's the magic ratio there, there's a reason for it. It's the most you can do to tear down the muscle fibers while still being able to repair it. Right. So you could do the heaviest thing you've ever done one once. That's not it. Or you can do the lightest thing a thousand times. And that also isn't. So they've studied that. Three sets of 10 to 12 reps is the sweet spot.

[B]

If you lifted the five pound dumbbell, you will see progress very, very slowly over a long period of time because you are still putting your muscles through work. The progressive overload is my mindset is if I'm going to be at the gym, I need it to work for me because I don't want to be here. So the progressive overload is my goal. Goal is to get 8 and I know I can get 8. I will be super happy if I get 10 good looking reps. If I fail on number 12, I have found my weight I need to be at.

[A]

So what it is, you will get

[B]

stronger faster because you are putting your muscles under so much tension, they're tearing down so much faster. But that also was coupled with something that me and Heather are working on. You have to have a high protein

[A]

intake so you can go to the gym and lift a ton of heavy weights and you'll probably, probably be pretty, you probably be pretty strong but you probably won't show muscular growth as effectively as if you do this progressive overload approach. And a high protein. If you honestly sat down and did the math of the amount of protein you need to consume a day, you're going to be floored by how little protein you're actually getting. It is hard to get enough protein in the valuable type of protein. You could say, well just drink a protein shake all day but now you're missing the other nutrients. But protein shakes are a great way to get there. My goodness, they do.

[B]

The just a easy way to do it, Nate said, is a gram per pound of you. So if you weigh 150, you need to try to aim for 150 grams of protein daily.

[A]

Okay, so here's my twin dress that's marrying with my twin like tik tok. I saw this guy and he's like, you can go to Chick Fil a and ask for 30 grilled nuggets and they'll just give it to you in a big bucket.

[B]

Bucket.

[A]

I mean it's delay. It was like this big like the time of mine. A little jar bucket thing. I did it yesterday. I haven't said it. Lydia. I saw this on TikTok. Please don't judge me. And she like grabs her walkie talkie. She's like, we got a 30 count grill. A 30 count grill. Like I was like, oh, it's that intense. She's like, no, make sure it's ready for you when you get up there. But that and I googled it is a hundred grams of protein that's a

[B]

lot of protein, have to consume it.

[A]

I did a fitness competition when I was in when I was 24 and

[B]

I did, I, I witnessed it. I was there.

[A]

Yeah, Corey went to the competition. It was a wild experience. But I did have a personal trainer for this competition. He was remote, right. When he'd call, we'd call every week and I told him like, hey, you know, I'm trying to eat the protein, I just can't. So like, I hope that's okay. I'm not meeting the protein goal. And he's like, oh yeah. Actually we have a great strategy around this. If you can't meet your protein goal, he's like, sit down and open your mouth and eat the next bite. That's the goal you need to eat. You have to meet this protein goal if you're going to put any kind of muscular. So I see, like, I'll be honest, I've gone to the gym for a lot of years and I don't see a ton of progress. And it's because I don't eat enough protein. It is so hard.

[B]

I, I don't like necessarily give me a good steak, you know, but you can't have steak every day, especially with the price of steak being so high. So my husband will always eat protein at least in two meals. So he eats four eggs in the morning and then either chicken or steak or pork at night. So the man's getting a lot of protein, but I think he weighs in at 256. So he's still not even getting enough that he's supposed to get.

[A]

I just say eating not dessert is boring.

[B]

Not dessert stuff is boring. Not ravioli.

[A]

Boring is boring. It almost makes eating like a job. But you get a skinny and I'll eat the whole bag.

[B]

Oh yeah, I found a, a protein shake. Granted, it's not, it's missing some of the other. It's the only way I can get it down my gullet. To be quite honest, if I'm trying to do this protocol protein, 50 grams in there, plus it had two eggs, which is roughly 6 grams each. So right now I'm sitting at 62.

[A]

Last week I went to Walmart. I, I don't, I don't like to cook or bake or anything, so anything that's pretty easy breezy. But there's this protein bread. It has a guy's name on it.

[B]

Protein bread.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, it means if you're gonna

[B]

eat bread, let it have some protein.

[A]

But you know, it's like a guy's name. I wonder if it.

[B]

I know is it that and it says honk if you pass them on the road.

[A]

Yeah. It goes name bread company. Let me just see.

[B]

It's. It's always.

[A]

Oh, Dave's killer bread.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So I go to the. Which. Okay. Bread is usually kind of. This is just. It's basically seeds. They happen to have some bread connecting them. Yeah. Okay. Healthy, whatever. And I think it has some protein in it because of the seeds. And then I get the sliced deli meat.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Yeah. I add in two pieces of Chase which also contains some protein. But at least it like it does goes down better. And then I did and this is the cheaty thing. Coleslaw, delectable fun at the Walmart. Like pre prep.

[B]

You got Walmart coleslaw. You. I probably only like Walmart, AFC or Popeyes word for word.

[A]

It's the exact same taste. Really?

[B]

Yeah. But it came.

[A]

Coleslaw is a really bucket of it. Yeah.

[B]

What makes coleslaw taste good?

[A]

What's in there? Yeah, Mayo. I think it's a lot of like delectable stuff. So. But anyways I put that on the sandwich so at least it can like have.

[B]

Oh, it needed some moisture. It's got to have a little moist in just.

[A]

If someone said okay, eat 10 boiled eggs, I would be gagging by egg four. Scrambled eggs are delicious. Scrambled eggs are great. You know you can get the pre peeled and pre boiled eggs from Walmart in a bag of six. It's like pretty cost effective taste as

[B]

great as a home boiled egg.

[A]

A home birth egg is going to taste better. But this one, if you're lazy and you just got to numbers.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So anyways, I went to the gym yesterday and I was thinking about protein today. So that was my twin select as a progressive overload. Mary married with the right approaching. Yeah.

[B]

So that's what I told Nate. Nate. What now Nate's like, are you. Are you locked in? Because I said I Nate, I'm trying to lock in at the gym here. So now if I don't try hard enough on a set, he's like, it doesn't seem like you're locked in. I'm like, no, I'm locked in.

[A]

It's hard to drive to a place to intentionally injure yourself.

[B]

I know.

[A]

And then to be injured the next few days in the pain of repair. Beer. And then to eat nasty food on top of that. And I don't know, I shouldn't even complain about the food. It's probably great. It's Just not ravioli. And

[B]

my protein intake before tracking it all time, low, negligible, because anything that's

[A]

delectable doesn't have protein in it. It has carbs and calories, and I love them.

[B]

But you could have what with something that's an Italian and has chicken on there? It is fried chicken, but it's like sitting on a bed of fetish, let me tell you.

[A]

You can go to Olive Gard, ask anything to be grilled. Oh, chicken Alfredo. I don't think that's breaded. I think it's grilled. It's just. But you're gonna still get your.

[B]

If you get a little protein on your noodles. I want to say cheese ravioli has zero protein minus whatever the cheese has.

[A]

In my mind, I don't want to. I don't really like restrictive diets of not eating, but I want to say you can restrict yourself by eating enough protein. You're not going to really necessarily want to eat anything else. But I'm like, hey, if I go to the gym and I eat the protein, I'm not going to count my calories. Calories. I'm gonna eat. I'm gonna have that dessert. You just believe it.

[B]

I.

[A]

You.

[B]

You live once, and you gotta live with a little sugar.

[A]

If you guys wanted another approach, that fitness guy paid money for, he was like, on Fridays at 5, there are no rules. Eat whatever you want, as much as you want.

[B]

And he said, because you can only

[A]

really eat so much before you're full. But having that respite, that free space gives you something to shoot for. So if I do good all week, I can. And then just being able to think, like to. To build up the dopamine to be like on Friday, to be like, oh, what can I. What can I eat?

[B]

People don't do well where it's all or nothing. They do well where it's all and something. So having a goal at the end of the week means you're going to be able to talk yourself out of that, you know, Starburst midweek because you're working towards Friday because you earned it.

[A]

And it feels. I mean, obviously you feel better. Although you may not want to eat the nice food, the healthy food, but then on Friday, you get that little free space so good. And it tastes better because you earned it because your dopamine. Me and Heather move into our 40s

[B]

fitness, and moving has become top of mind because our grandmother is turning 87, but she walks five miles plus a day.

[A]

Three miles.

[B]

I thought it was five.

[A]

No, I did five. I did five. You did it for two days. Big old boo. I remember that my car was gone for the that four months. Put some steps on this counter.

[B]

But it shows. Our grandmother is so mobile because she is put in the work at a young age, into her older age.

[A]

Well, that said, walking is the best form of exercise, you know. Okay. It'd be great if we could all do weightlifting and run 20 miles. I can't run at all. But running. You have bad knees. Weightlifting. My dad can hardly has to have hand surgery, his second one because he's weight weightlifted his whole life and now it's cost him. But they were like, walking is a low impact, consistent time and way to just increase your health. So she, my Ruthanne grandmother, never lifted a single weight. Never seen a diet in her life. However, she has walked almost every day, three miles for 30 or 40 years at this point. And she said, that's the reason I'm not in a wheelchair. That's the reason I could. You know, the woman can't stop her. She's running around.

[B]

Yeah, she's out and about going. Her lab's coming back pretty good. I mean, you got some things that.

[A]

She has high blood pressure and that's anxiety. So I told her what you want us to do. She has a terrible diet, actually. I've noticed she has a horrendous.

[B]

A horrendous diet.

[A]

Yeah. She doesn't even watch. She only goes to fast food and M&M's. But like, you would just say, you know, people look at her like, there, no way. You're 86. Because. And she's like, it's because I just walked.

[B]

I know, I know. And that's granted. Sometimes I will say walks are hard because you're like, oh, it's cold outside,

[A]

you know, but walks are. I mean, with the spring coming.

[B]

Oh, sure.

[A]

Yeah, sure, sure, sure. I put on this little podcast.

[B]

Tracking my walks has helped me keep and want to better myself from last year.

[A]

Very nice. Okay, that's a podcast, guys. If you go on a walk, please keep take us with you. We'll do a SWAT analysis together, and if not, I'll see you at the. The gym.

[B]

All right, guys, thank you for tuning in.

[A]

We will see you next week, if

[B]

not within the group, a little sooner.

[A]

I. We will be bugging you. You will see us. You will see us. You will see us. Okay, goodbye.