💸 Price vs Value Prop - Value is relative(ly easy to manipulate).I was watching a YouTube video featuring a TedTalk where a salesman asks a member of the audience for their pen. He then asks how much the person bought the pen for. "Five dollars," the guy tells him. The salesman then asks if anyone in the audience wants to buy his newly acquired pen for $5 bucks.✍️ The salesman then says he's going to take the pen and drive it to a ritzy part of town to an expensive jeweler where he's going to...

🥲 Excuse my Excuses - Don't cry unless you've tried (everything).This week's podcast is a deep dive into a post I made in the group earlier this week - the post regarding "woe is me" threads saying the cookie industry is done, pack it up kids, you don't gotta go home, but you can stay... in this kitchen.You see - that defeatist mentality ain't go no business being in a business-centric group. It will limit your sales and, over time, cause you to quit. Quite literally the opposite of marketing...

🤦‍♀ Comfy Mistakes - Getting comfortable with uncomfy mistakes. We had a (very) abbreviated podcast today - thanks to the door guys. 🚪 But in the few minutes we did get to chit-chat, we wanted to touch on "uncomfortable mistakes." 😿 Being bad at something sucks. It's no fun making mistakes. In fact, it feels like bad business acumen to make mistakes, right? I mean - imagine a business built on mistakes. Who would want to hire them!? But successful businesses were built on the backs of...

⭐ Deborah Deborah DeborahWhen you've not been seen, heard, or understood. Grab your popcorn - 🍿 we covered a buttery topic on today's podcast when a Canadian restaurant went viral for all the wrong review reasons. 🧈 Blaming Deborah in a now globally reaching door sign, Heirloom Restaurant closed its doors this April citing issues with... well, unhappy clients. 👨‍🍳 How did they handle it? 😠 Making unhappy clients even unhappier clients. 😡 Whether it was a staged publicity stunt or a business...

⛔ Class is Canceled - What to do when you need to cancel cookie class. When you venture into the wild world of cookie classes, the last thing you want to do is consider canceling said cookie class. BUT - it's just a fact of life that even the most seasoned instructors will have to face a cookie class cancelation. Heck - we've been doing this for years now and it still happens. No one's above it. So best that we all learn from it. And that's today's podcast, how to mitigate having to cancel,...

😡 Upsetspectations - How setting expectations up front can keep us outta hot water. Upsetspectations - the tongue-twister we came up with to describe what setting expectations as a baker and then not meeting them as a baker creates in your clients.  🛫 Listen - you're the one piloting the plane here, you get to set the expectations because likely your clients don't really have a clue what goes into baking. But when you're the pilot 💺 and don't tell the cabin to buckle up, you set yourself up...

🏡 Cottage Curb Appeal - How zhuzhing up your front lawn can increase sales. 🌼 Happy first day of spring! And with sunny skies (for some of us - ⛄ my apologies to y'all gettin' snow), it's time to consider that curb appeal - ya know, 👀 the stuff people are glancing at as they walk up to your house to snag their sweet treats. Ya see - marketing encompasses more than just cute captions and pretty social media posts. 🎀 It's also packaging and customer experience - and if you have at-home...

👎 Facebook Ouch-Tage - And what we can learn from Papa Zuck. I remember exactly where I was when it all happened... I was... sitting at my computer like I always am. I reached for my phone - only to realize, in horror, my access to the mighty blue thumbs-up app was no more. How was I supposed to post that absolutely hilarious baking meme (see bottom of email)?! Or... or... heart-care react to someone asking whether the "copyright violation" email was a scam or not?!!  😭 Where were YOU when...

✍️ Copy This - Copy Formulas for Beginners. 🗒 If you see a big blank space asking "What would you like to say" and your brain follows suit and also turns into a big blank space - copy formulas are you're new bestie.  🤔 First - what's copy?  📑 Copy is any text you use to sell or persuade someone to take an action (like buying cookies). So copy could be the caption on Instagram, the social media text you write on Facebook, the newsletter you send monthly, or the bio writeup you have on your...

🎨 Hobby vs. Have To - And what Bob Ross has to say about it Okay okay - Corrie and I couldn't agree on the ✨definition✨ of "hobby baker" since most of us are technically a hobby baker - but in reality - I don't consider filing business taxes, updating your LLC yearly registration, and tappin' a lawyer to check for a trademark anything remotely close to "hobbyist."  So for this Onesday Wednesday newsletter, we'll consider the "hobbyists" folks who don't have to make money but want to create...

🪪 License to Delight - And what we can learn from $400 perfume.  Twin2 is back in her "Corporate Girly Era" with Neiman Marcus and "Patrick 2" - and here's what we learned from their customer experience manager that will help you delight your own customers all the way to the bank. Waiting up in the (fancy) corporate office of Neiman Marcus - a department store so expensive that my hands instantly got sweaty - we had a chance to speak with their CEM - Customer Experience Manager. When I...

☝️ I Adject...ive! - Using different words to sweeten the deal. Your business will live and die by the words you use - either words used to make more sales or words used unintentionally to make a sworn enemy whose new purpose in life is to drag you through all the local community groups.  *shudders* But in today's podcast, we're talking about words to sweeten the deal, deter an unwanted action towards a desired one, or let the client down niiice and easy (not community group draggin' round...

🪧 Branding Woes - The process to proceed with the perfect branding. If your commitment-averse (like yours truly), you'll find branding one of those long-term relationships you may eventually regret. So how do you build a brand when you're not sure of what you're building in the first place? Fair question. The answer? It's a tricky blend of approaches. Oh yeah - and it's very frustrating. But you know what's more frustrating? Having to re-brand after you've already established a committed...

👀 Peeky Blinders - When to Look and When to Look Away The typo was intentional (this time) - 👀 it's a play on words when it comes to peeking over the proverbial fence of social media to see what our competition is up to.  🧠 But staring leads to comparing and that can be a real mind-trip wondering why the highlight reel of your nearest cookie competitor looks like they're one post away from being featured on Food Network while you're struggling for seasonal sales.  So - are we to blindly...

🎁  G-i-v-e-a-w-a-y-s - What to Watch out for Choosin' a Winner. Giveaways - do you do them? If so, what do you need to watch out for? What should you give away? How do they enter? How do you make the post? How do you choose a winner? 🧠 Giveaways are tempting - I mean, who doesn't want free stuff? Marrying a giveaway to audience growth seems like a no-brainer - 👀 buuut there are a few things you need to watch out for before you pick that winner. 🎁 Giveaways - Things to Know 🆓 Watch out for...

☎️ Not All Leads Are Created Equal Let's define some words before we jump into this week's podcast topic: ✅ Lead: someone contacting you to secure a potential product or service✅ Qualified Lead: a lead that has been vetted and is willing to pay your price or work with your availability✅ Converted Lead: a lead that has turned into a sale, a sign-up, or a confirmation (ideally this is when money exchanges hands) ️🎯 So - the goal of marketing is to generate leads - ie. get the phone to ring and...

📍 Community Groups 101 - Creating Your Greatest Lead Source Community groups - you love them, you hate them, you love to hate them, you hate to love them - but they are a lead source powerhouse, and we're not ones to sit on the sidelines when it comes to making that dough (baking and monetary types).  So what happens when you get banned from a community group? Or when your community group doesn't allow sales? Or if your community group is a dead group plagued by mobile detailing duct...

📑 A list of EOY Tasks to set you up for sales in 2024 Hopefully you've survived the holidays and with NYE being a more muted cookie holiday, you get a chance to breathe, meet your kids you've not seen in 6 months because you've been sequestered in the kitchen, and take a little time to binge some good ol' Netflix.  During this lull of a week in between 2023 and 2024, here are some easy wins you can knock out to set yourself up for some sales in 2024 (hey - businesses don't get a break,...

💚 Burnout Boundary - How to ward off the Spirit of Grinch-Mas. 'Tis the season to h-h-hate your bakery business. I can't even judge, I'm a slave to the "cookie SuperBowl" where we sell the MOST volume all year x10 (see the diagram from Google search queries for "Sugar Cookies" below). 🔥 It's our time to shine - shine - shine, baby, and then go out in a glorious flame of burnout bust! But that's bad for business.  So - here's Corrie's list of burnout boundaries to save ya from your sleighin'...

🏫 The Cookie Class Kits Explained and how you can get all 13 kits for $4.84 each Okay yeah - Heather here. I made a calendar boo-boo and thought I'd be in town on Monday, but turned out, I'll be outta town, so I had to record the "Tuesday Podcast" for the "Onesday Wednesday Newsletter" on Sunday - so, 👋 hello from the past.  Since I had to podcast a la solo, I figured I'd walk you through why the Cookie Class Kits are a great deal right now. And I'll break down what ya get, for how much, and...

🙊 Vendy Blendy Marketing-endyand what you can learn from our blendy blunders. We may not be allowed to talk about "the event that shall not be named," but that doesn't mean we can't learn from it! A lot of marketing goes into the yearly Vendy Blendy, and it seems like each year we learn a little more from both the Vendys and the Pendys (turned Spendys).  So let's take a look under the hood on how the Vendy Blendy can help your bakery market better in 2024. 🔊 1. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat 3️⃣ We...

🎁 Best Baker Gifts 2023 (feel free to forward this email)  🎅🏻 Corrie had a genius idea (they come around to her once a decade) to ask bakers what they think other bakers would want should they find their names scrawled on Santa's nice list this year. 📜 Ho-Ho-Hold your credit cards, because some of these are really creative! We've come up with an "actually affordable," mid-grade, and budget-buster list for you... to forward to your... ahem... in-home Santa.  🧑‍🎄 So if you find your friends...

🤑What if I Gave You A Million Dollars... Would you do it? 🤔 "Do what? But also - yes," you might ask - and that's exactly the point of this week's podcast. If you knew you were going to get a million dollars for taking a benign action, most of us wouldn't think twice before we did it. Full confession - 👕 I was cleaning out my closet, 👖 donating what I hadn't clearly worn in over a year to the VVA nonprofit to resell in their thrift stores. 👚 As I'm perusing this jam-full closet, my brain is...

😵‍💫 Surviving Q4 - the fight for the newsfeed It's the time of yeeeear... when the reach is low and the engagement is even lower. What gives?! I'll tell ya what - the deep pockets of big corporations capitalizing on the "year-end consumer" who is primed to pay.  It's a fight to the feed death in Q4, and we've got some tips and tricks to help you gain some ground. 🥊 Reset Expectations. We're in a battle of the business and the newsfeed is the fighting ring. Bigger companies with bigger...

⤴️ The Last Rule Bender - bending the rules for the bottom line You know we preach policies. 👏 Protect your boundaries. 👏 Charge your worth. 👏 Guard your peace. But you may be surprised to know we also say "bend the rules." You see - the policies are the "big bad monsters" we use as our fall guy.  🤷‍♀ "I'm sorry - my policies state no refunds for no-shows."🤷‍♀ "Oh man, I wish I could! But my policies say that payment is due at time of order."🤷‍♀ "Darn it - I would, but the policy states that...