Podcast
Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪
Hosted by Heather and Corrie Miracle · EN
👋 Hey - Heather and Corrie here with the Baking it Down Podcast with Sugar Cookie Marketing (a group on Facebook full of sugar cookiers turned business owners).
🍪 We're here to help you rise with your reach, flood with new followers, bake up new ideas, and make that all-important dough (while makin' that dough - see the pun there?)
🤑. What’s it about? We’re a Facebook Group turned Podcast, Membership, Book Club, and Baking 101 that’s dedicated to assisting bakers in effectively marketing online to generate more sales and better manage their businesses.
🧠 With free Facebook Live classes, hundreds of resources, and thousands of like-minded bakers, there’s a lot to learn in "SCM" (aka Sugar Cookie Marketing). ️🎧 As an extension of our Facebook group, this podcast is here to let you learn by listening. 📈 We'll cover group topics, marketing trends, and more (leaving this wide open in case Corrie wants to start singing).
💸 We take the sweet art of selling online to the cottage bakery world with marketing methods that move products (and pastries).👂 So open up those glorious ear canals because we have a podcast! Just when you’ve thought you’ve “heard” it all with those marketing "miracle" twins (that's our last name - not a proclamation), we’ve got something just for you each week!
🥣 As a baker, you don't always have the luxury of two hands needed to scroll in Sugar Cookie Marketing Group or crack open a book in Sugar Cookie Bookies, but what you can do is listen (unless you're my kid asking “what’s for dinner” for the millionth time).
👐 Hands full of flour? No problem! 👍 18 dozen iced cookies due tomorrow? Let’s do this. The Baking it Down Podcast by Sugar Cookie Marketing is a weekly podcast geared toward helping you grow your bakery business - dropping (almost) every Tuesday.
📅 We choose a topic each week that's either something new and emerging in the world of social media or something that we saw in "The Group" that was a hot topic and we bake it down... I mean, "break" it down for you. 🗯️ What you can expect in the podcast is about an hour of chit-chat with the meat and potatoes right at the beginning of the episode.
🥔 That’s when we dive into the marketing topic of the week! 📞 Oh yeah, folks can call / text / email in with their questions too - a fun way to hear from other bakers out there.
Our promises to you:
1️⃣ We always make it clean = no cursing. We understand that you are busy and could be around little ones while also trying to get your weekly dose of business growth so we make sure that each episode would make our grandma proud and keep it clean so you can listen while also living your life.
2️⃣ We always make it fun. There’s a lot of negativity in the world so we try and make the podcast an upbeat and fun learning experience for you. I mean, we try to make the Instagram updates and c...
95episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
243. Baking it Down - January Task List
Jan 601:41:36Summary readySend a text📋 January Task list - A list of things to-do.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 243 - January Task List, we're tryin' out a new(ish?) format + coming up with a list of ideas you can use to get your sugar cookie bakery headin' in the right direction this year.Could you do all of these tasks? 🦸♂ Only after you finish saving Louis Lane from the high-rise fire. ⚡ But since we're not Superman (or woman), tackling just a few of these each month could just be that one thing that puts you over your competition.And in the world of stiff icing and stiffer competition, 🤏 every little inch counts. 💡 We're just going to list out our list from the podcast so you can reference it, and I'll add my $.02 throughout. ⚡ Rollover tracking spreadsheets to 2026⚡ Update CRM with December contacts ⚡ Create an outline of your content buckets for 2026⚡ Schedule out January content calendar ⚡ Add December contacts to newsletter lists⚡ Segment newsletter lists💡 Segmenting a list means separating the list by contact category. So let's say you taught an in-person cookie class and had 10 people sign up, and then in December, you sold 15 custom orders. That's 25 emails, but segmenting them as "📝 List - Cookie Class Attendees" and "📝 List - Custom Clients" would allow you to send really targeted emails to them in 2026.⚡ Stage quarterly newsletters now (as drafts)⚡ Get inbox to zero💡 New to "inbox zero" - it's paring down your inbox until there are zero emails. Then, each day, you get it back to zero. How? 📬 Deleting, archiving, replying, labeling, and unsubscribing. Let me tell ya - it's a battle, but booooy is it refreshing not to be overwhelmed by your inbox! ⚡ Set up inbox labels to manage inbox⚡ Audit recurring expenses ⚡ Setup financial tracking software (YNAB) ⚡ Update website to reflect 2026 offerings ⚡ Audit website for dead or broken links⚡ Update auto-responders in email and social⚡ Update social media bios⚡ Replace pinned posts on social profiles for 2026 timestamp💡 If your pinned posts are already "up to snuff," it's still worth the repost for the 2026 timestamp. Your pinned posts are the first written date your audience sees when clicking to your social profiles. 📆 Having those say, "YES, I'M STILL HERE IN 2026," signals you're in this to win this, this year.⚡ Lay out an in-person cookie class schedule⚡ Audit supplies - packaging, business cards, bows, etc.⚡ Purge expired inventory ⚡ Organize and purge product photos - label for easy search⚡ Organize receipts and mileage logs for taxes ⚡ Create email templates for quick replies to inquiries 💡 Email templates are my Gmail JAM. You can easily create them by writing out the email as a template, the same way you would write a normal email (I write in ALL CAPS and [brackets] to know which info I'll need to update every time I trigger the template). ✍️ On the formatting bar of a new email, click the three stacked dots - then hover over Templates, and finally click Save draft as template. Now you can trigger that draft every time ya need it.⚡ Create a list of active, local groups to market to in 2026 ⚡ Audit pricing to ensure costs are covered + profit ⚡ Update Google Business Profile with 2026 hours + holidays
Summary242. Baking it Down - Losing the Loser - Reframing 2026
Dec 3001:19:30Summary readySend a text💡 Losing the Loser - Reframing in 2026.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 242 - Losing the Loser, it's the LAST day of 2025, and it will be the first day we start talkin' to ourselves with respect and support. Because we're gonna lose our internal loser - that baker bully that beats us up every time we get into our own heads. This year, we're professional framers - re-framers - and we're takin' a new, fresh look at our 2026 goals. By adjusting our internal monologue to be both supportive and curious, we remove the excuses holding us back and the bad joojoo that's gotten some frequent flyer miles sittin' in the back of our heads telling us we're not gonna make it as a baker. "What's with the lightbulb emoji?" you ask. 'Twas ol Tommy Edison who penned, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." 💡💡💡💡💡💡💡💡💡💡💡 Didn't reach your goals in 2025? You didn't fail. You found a handful of ways that didn't work. And this year, you'll outfit a new handful of ways that do work. 💡 New Year's ResolutionsDon't beat yourself up over missing the mark on your New Year's Resolutions. They're there as benchmarks, not pass / fail grades. Figure out why last year's goals were a bit too much, then adjust! Use them as indicators of goals that need resizing, not as a big giant F.The brain needs small wins, so maybe break down a BIG goal into quarterly or monthly slices of the big goal - 🧠 that way your brain gets to reward itself while still puttin' in work towards that big goal. How bad would it be to say, "I got to 80% of my BIG goal by accomplishing 8 supporting goals."❌ Bully Baker: I didn't accomplish any of my resolutions.✅️ Believer Baker: I recalibrated how big my resolutions can be before they become overwhelming. 💡 Missed Classes / CoursesRaise your hand if you're a course hoarder like Corrie. 🙋♀️ All hands up? Great. Stop feeling like a loser. You don't need to take every class. Find 1 class that fills a knowledge gap and start listening to the first 10 minutes of it. That's it. 💯 You just passed the "I started a class" test, and you got an A+.Free yourself from the guilt of not taking courses, and instead - dip a toe in. I promise this new approach will make you feel like such a winner.❌ Bully Baker: I suck at macarons, I don't enjoy them.✅️ Believer Baker: I'm really close to figuring out macarons. I just need one final course to close the gap. 💡 Uggo PhotosPhotography = looks easy, feels hard, gets overwhelming. We see the posts all the time, 📸 "My photos are so ugly." 😔 Great - you identified the problem! Now let's baby step the solution. First, focus on lighting - let's keep props off to the side for a minute. Got that nailed down? Let's try staging next.Build up. Don't fall back. "Being perfect at photography" is a goal too big to bite down on. 🐘 How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.❌ Bully Baker: My photos suck.✅️ Believer Baker: I'm glad I'm consistently taking photos now, but I understand there's a gap between what I want and what I'm getting. I'm going to approach each aspect individually - lighting, staging, post processing - and work from there.How you speak to yourself is how you'll show up to others. Hate your work? You'll think no one likes your bakes. Hate the hustle? You'll blame other bakers. Hate your clients? You'll treat every single one of them as a nail, you hammer.Be good to yourself in 2026. You'll thank yourself for it.
Summary241. Baking it Down - Stay on Track Track Track
Dec 2301:09:59Summary readySend a text🧮 Stay on Track Track Track - Metrics to guide your marketing.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 241 - Stay on Track Track Track, the twins have spreadsheets on the brain just in time for the new year.While yes, you can start a spreadsheet any time on any day in any month of the year, it does help to have it ready to go on January 1 - that way, you can look at your bakery's entire fiscal year, start to finish. The key to spreadsheets and data tracking is this: first, determine the goal, then let the goal guide what you track.If you want to become a social media influencer, you'll focus on content and views. If you want to increase sales, you're going to focus on customer acquisition. If you want to focus on corporate orders, you're going to track business networking event contacts. That's why there's no "one size fits all" for reporting and record keeping. What your goals are in 2026 =/= the goals of your closest competitor. So stop lookin' over the fence at what they're doing and focus on the reports.🧮 Increasing Returning CustomersLet's say your focus for the first 3 months of the year (Q1) is to cultivate returning leads. You're going to shift from finding new clients (yes, you can still look for new clients, but it's not our driving metric).To cultivate returning clients, you may be tracking these types of metrics:🔢 How many past clients did you add to your CRM? 🔢 How many emails have I sent to past clients? What was the open rate? 🔢 How many past clients placed new orders in 2026 YTD? 🧮 Increasing Corporate LeadsIf you want to set a goal of increasing corporate leads, you're not going to naturally do a hard push towards cookie classes, right? That's not the right fit for the goal = corporate girly era. To increase corporate leads, you must increase corporate exposure, and that's likely through business-centric networking events and apps like LinkedIn. You're likely going to create a segmented email list for corporate contacts.To cultivate corporate orders, you may be tracking these types of metrics:🔢 How many networking events have you attended?🔢 From those events, how many contacts did you add on LinkedIn?🔢 From those LinkedIn contacts, how many did you drop off a "pop-by" to?🧮 Increase Order TotalsIf you're looking to increase the total ticket sale (the amount you make per order), you're going to focus on tracking your price increase, your production costs, and your upsells.To increase order totals, you may be tracking these types of metrics:🔢 How many clients added an upsell to their order?🔢 By what percentage did I increase my custom orders?🔢 What was my order ticket average in 2025? What is my order ticket average in 2026?Yes, you can run concurrent goals, you can run campaigns for various durations, and you can absolutely abandon a goal if you determine it hasn't been fitting your overall strategy. Knowing when to cut a goal off can be just as valuable as knowing when to double down. When determining which metrics to track, ask yourself:🧮 What is my primary goal?🧮 And if that's my primary goal, what metrics support being able to track and determine if that goal is being met, missed, or in progress?👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or watch it on YouTube) by searching for Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 241 - Stay on Track Track Track.
Summary240. Baking it Down - Burke Lake vs Everest
Dec 1601:35:05Summary readySend us a text
Summary239. Baking it Down - 2025 Best Baker Gift List
Dec 901:40:42Summary readySend us a text
SummaryBaking it Down - The Cookie College HARDSELL60
Nov 2800:47:44Summary readySend us a texthttps://www.thecookiecollege.com/vb-the-cookie-college-2025?coupon=HARDSELL60
Summary238. Baking it Down - Vendy Blendy Insider Info
Nov 2501:24:14Summary readySend us a text
Summary237. Baking it Down - Once a Year Cookie College Stealios
Nov 1801:50:59Summary readySend us a text
Summary236. Baking it Down - The Most BORING Podcast Ever Recorded
Nov 1101:32:46Summary readySend us a text
Summary235. Baking it Down - Private Class + Vendy Blendy pt. 1
Nov 401:15:21Summary readySend us a text☝️ Private Class + VB - Part one of a two-part series.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 235 - Private Class + The Vendy Blendy Pt 1, we're doing a two-part two-part series (not a typo) so I can check the box that we effectively spammed you with the Vendy Blendy this week while also providing some marketing value. We're teaching an in-home private class. Now, typically, you've heard me state (vehemently) that we don't teach private in-home classes anymore after a wild adventure with a class of 5 - 7 year olds once years ago, but Corrie said, "For the podcast!" so for the podcast, we must. 👩🏫 The Private Cookie Class - Pt 1Mary is the client here, and she found Corrie through her custom cookie Instagram when Corrie had cross-promoted an in-person cookie class we were hosting back in October. Mary DMed asking if we would be open to an in-home private class with her and her friends, so Corrie said if she was willing to play "private class guinea pig," we're in. Mary happily took the bait, and we set these parameters up months before the event.✅ She had to sell all 10 tickets.✅ All 10 tickets needed to be sold 2 weeks prior to the event.✅ Mary had to handle the marketing.✅ We allowed her to sell individual tickets (versus a lump sum payment) through Eventbrite (yes, we incurred the fees). ✅ We were not offering a discount. 📧 I followed up with Mary via email each week once we sent her the class link (since I was managing the Eventbrite, she didn't have access to attendee lists) with the list of names + a confirmation of her class details. To keep it easy, 🖼 we sent her the photo collage of our Cookie Class Kits membership class offerings (hey, yeah - we like them so much, we teach them ourselves), and she went with "the pie slice Thanksgiving one" - risky click here, because we actually have two pie slice Thanksgiving classes, but I can't get Mary to confirm. That said - I have requested a picture of the event space, and that will be the challenge to overcome this Thursday when we finally teach the class. Next week's podcast will feature a pt. 2 recap on how it all went - stay tuned!🛍️ The Vendy Blendy - Pt 1 Now back to Vendy Blendy spam - each year, our returning list of Vendys gets shorter and shorter due to turnover in the industry, so to replace the shops that dropped out or disappeared on their marketing, we worked on finding fresh blood that y'all begged for - and let's just say, it's comin' together nicely! ️🛒 If you're new here - the Vendy Blendy is a private Facebook group that opens for only 24 hours on Black Friday (Nov 28th). We gather a bunch of cookie-related shops and get them to offer you all 25% off or more. It's utter mayhem - the deals aren't the only fun part because each shop can make 3 sales pitches to ya 🎁 while also hosting their own door prize giveaways throughout the day.🤯 Not overwhelming enough? Hold on tight - 🎁🎁🎁 the event also hosts the "BIG Door Prizes" given away all day on Black Friday, too. It's organized mayhem, and folks love it. And we think you'll love it too. Go "Pendy" so you can "Spendy" this "Novemy" at the "Vendy Blendy"! Find all the info you need at https://www.sugarcookiemarketing.com/vendyblendy.👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or watch it on YouTube) by searching for Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 235 - Private Class + The Vendy Blendy Pt. 1.
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