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⛰️ Burke Lake vs Everest - Accomplishing small goals in 2026.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 240 - Burke Lake versus Everest, we're winding down 2025 and taking a look at 2026 through the lens of goals.
🥾 Yeah, yeah - you look back on this past year and realize you can't even remember what your new year's resolutions were, let alone whether you met them or not - and for good reason. Sometimes our "bright and flashy" goals are more claimed to summit Mt. Everest rather than to walk the local park a few times a month.
👣 While telling people you're trekkin' down the local hiking path (which is Burke Lake for me) won't garner many likes on social media, it's the "walking path" goals that actually get you to Mt. Everest, 🧗 not the other way around.
Find your "Burke Lake" and then build small steps to that. Everest will come in time - and that time may be a few years from now. But a 1% improvement across 10 areas of your business each month in 2026 = 120% improvement. 🏔️ And that is how you climb mountains.
🏔️Social Media
Instead of the mountain of "I'm going to add 1,000 followers this year," consider a small path approach to social growth in 2026.
👍 These small steps will put you in front of your target audience who actually can place an order. I can get 1,000 followers from a viral reel or a cookie group follow train - but what then? Maybe a few likes if I'm lucky.
But three locals each week? 😍 That's 156 local people by the end of 2026 who can actually give me their money and eat my cookies. Bonus = featuring a local business = potential for corporate orders too.
🏔️ Email Marketing
📧📧📧📧📧📧📧 "I'm going to send out a newsletter every month."
Solid goal, and I love it. But if that was the same goal you had in 2025 and didn't meet, maybe it's a bit too aggressive. Let's "Burke Lake" it a bit. 💌 Just getting started can be half the battle - so break down "getting started" into three small steps.
One email a quarter doesn't sound like much, but if you sent 0 emails later year, that's 4 more chances to make sales to your audience than you had last year. Plus, it's consistent, which means good marketing. If you want to send more than 4, great! But set the goal bar at an attainable distance so you're guaranteed a win.
🏔️ Websites
So many bakers start their year off claiming, "I'm going to get a new website." And for all the right reasons. 💻 Websites = more sales. But often they get overwhelmed with the myriad of endless options recommended by other bakers - Shopify, WordPress, Hotplate, MyCustomBakes, Square, Jotform, Bakesy... you get the point - it's seemingly endless.
Burke Lake-ify it. 🌐 Start by setting up a simple form. Yes, it's not a website. But yes, it'll start you in the right direction and buy you some time and space to work up to that.
And if you feel like switching it next year, you can. Sky's the limit. But at least this year, you can say you got the website monkey off your shoulders.
🏔️ Photography
"I'm going to improve photography," is actually a sizeable goal.
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🎁 Baker Holiday Gift Guide - 2025 list of gifts for bakers.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 239 - 2025 Best Bakers Gift List, it's the most wonderful tiiiime of the yeeear. It's the Top Baker Gift Ideas podcast you're supposed to intentionally accidentally leave playing for the gift buyer in your life.
This is twin2's favorite yearly podcast tradition, and she states, "If I got just about anything on this list, I'd be stoked," and now you can window shop her wishlist with today's 2025 Best Bakers Gift Guide.
Want hyperlinks? Here's the Google Doc with links (I don't think any of them are affiliate, but if we have a discount code, I included that where I could).
🎁 Stocking Stuffers - Sub $50
Being generous here, but anything sub-$50 we threw in as a decent stocking stuffer. Listen - the cookie hustle is willing to take as much of your money as you're willing to give it, so we had to draw a line somewhere.
Some of my favorites from this list:
🎁 Under the Tree - $50 - $500
Probably our best mid-range options, these "under the tree" gifts range between $50 and $500 (wide range, we know, but the podcast needed to draw a line somewhere). We tried to come up with a list for the business baker, so one that doesn't feature a bunch of stuff you likely already have, and if you have it, it was something you'd be again (think: food coloring).
Some of my favorites from this list:
🎁 Subscriptions
Kinda needs to be in a list of its own, but for the hobby-turned-hustler, subscriptions are always a welcome gift to save us from our recurring nightmares. And we've got a creative list of them, too. If the baker in your life already has it all, taking on a few of their software payments would be very welcome (even if you can't easily wrap it).
Some of my favorites from this list:
🎁 Santa's Chosen Bakers - $500+
Maybe you're the baker who never thought ill of a late-showing client. Maybe you're the baker who was always prepared for class and never forgot the icing or the HDMI cable. And maybe you're the baker whose icing refuses to bleed. In that case, you may have made Santa's Chosen Baker list this year, where budget isn't an issue.
Some of my favorites from this list:
Check out this week's podcast to hear how we came up with this list, which was twin2's favorites, and what she wouldn't buy a second time. And to all you good bakers out there who Santa may have missed - maybe a decent time to play your own secret Santa and treat yaself!
👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or watch it on YouTube) by searching for Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 239 - 2025 Best Baker Gift List.
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https://www.thecookiecollege.com/vb-the-cookie-college-2025?coupon=HARDSELL60
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🎓 Vendy Blendy - Insider info.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 238 - Vendy Blendy Inside Info, we're in the final stretch of the Vendy Blendy - and we're spillin' all the secrets in this final-prep podcast for Friday's BIG Baker Sale.
Are we hype? Yes. Are we delirious? Also yes. Are we tired of saying the word Vendy Blendy? Getting close. But it's the f-i-n-a-l c-o-u-n-t-d-o-wn-.
🟠 The Most Important Stuff
If you read nothing more than this - here's the most important stuff to get the quickest bang for your buck on Friday:
That's it - two links. And even ig you only clicked the second link (the spreadsheet with the discount codes), you can shop 68 Vendys at 25% off (or more) for 24 hours and never have to even touch Facebook on Friday.
Got that saved? Good. 👇 Read on if you want day-of insider info.
🟠 Day-Of Insiders
🤫 First - Heather isn't making the event posts (like the BIG DOOR PRIZE posts). A page is - it's called Vendy Blendy. And yes, it still is Heather - but it's also now Corrie, that way we can both help you instead of Heather getting 1,452,693 notifications and Corrie living her best life scrolling mindlessly on TikTok.
🤫 Second - the BIG DOOR PRIZE entry posts start going up at 7:00 AM est. This is different than what we said earlier - because building out the schedule, we have a lot more door prizes this year than last year (10 Bambu Minis, 5 Bosch Mixers). Then they go up every 45 minutes - but some of the threads will lock, but not all of them (despite each post saying that it will lock).
🤫 Third - each post made by the page (the event posts) will tell you the next 5 things on the event's schedule, but the Vendys can post whenever (we don't collect this info from them). The group is set by chronological order, meaning check back a few times throughout the day, and just scroll down to catch up.
🤫 Fourth - the valuation of all the day-of door prizes is over $18,000, and the pre-event hype prizes total just under $3,000 - so you have the chance to snag a portion of the $21,000 pie (free from purchase requirements).
🤫 Fifth - The door prizes of each Vendy and the valuation have now been added to the Vendy spreadsheet - you can check that out here: http://thevendys.com. Some Vendys are giving away multiple door prizes, but they'll tell you how to win them all in the same post. They can post these whenever, but the winners must be posted at 9:00 PM est.
🤫 Sixth - The Bosch mixers must be claimed by Dec 1 by 6 PM est - no exceptions. That's different than the 7 days you'll have to claim the Vendys door prizes and the Bambus. Why? We can only budget all these BIG door prizes if we shop their sales, and NutriMill's sale ends on Dec 1 (use code SUGARCOOKIES to save $20 at checkout - shameless affiliate plug). Bosch doesn't ship to your address? You claim the Black Friday sale cash equivalent instead - so yes, enter Canadians!
🤫 Seventh - The Live Google Sheet gets deleted at midnight. Want to shop these Vendys at a later date? Go to File > Make a Copy. There will be no posting, commenting, or emails about the Vendy Blendy after Black Friday. Have an issue with a Vendy? Their support email is in that spreadsheet too (another reason you should save it), but the twins ain't your life raft if something sinks instead of swims.
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🎓 Cookie College - Vendy Blendy Deals Breakdown.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 237 - The Cookie College Stealios, Corrie and I go through our Vendy Blendy 2025 Cookie College offerings, and... ️🥁️🥁️🥁 drumroll please... they're once-a-year good.
🎓 The Cookie College - $64/mo or $576/yr
The best product we offer is The Cookie College (typically $76/mo, but on sale on Black Friday for $64/mo or $576/yr, which takes it down to $48/mo). It's the best because it gets everything we offer, including its own proprietary content (the marketing courses and private FB group).
If you bought these separately, it'd be $187 in membership costs per month, plus the $300 for each year of the Cookie Class Kits. Those are our prices for 50.9 weeks of the year. But for ONE day, you can get all of that for our lowest monthly price - $64/mo.
But wanna save even more?? When you sign up for a yearly membership for $576 on Black Friday (usually $760), you automatically get THREE months free. That takes the monthly equivalent to $48/mo. That's the cheapest you'll ever get the Cookie College.
🎓 The Cookie Class Kits - $44/mo
The Cookie Class Kit is discounted too - you can get the 2025 Class Kits (there are currently 12 of them that'll archive on January 7th) for just $44/mo (usually $63/mo). Per class, that's just $5.25 a class!
The class kits are the curriculum you'd need to teach an in-person cookie class. For reference, we taught a private in-home class (listen to last week's podcast Episode 235 and 236 for more on that), and cleared 10 tickets at $85/ea plus a DIY kit for $35/ea. That's gross $885 just from teaching a cookie class.
Those classes included in this membership are:
✅ Each class includes the photography of the class, the video step-by-step tutorials, the social media posts and stories, the Eventbrite cover and listing info, the email copy, the social media copy, the step-by-step PowerPoint, the bake math spreadsheet for planning, the Eddie outline prints, and the supply lists to recreate the class setup yourself. We also throw in printables like a custom piping practice sheet and coloring sheet.
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☝️ Private Class Pt 2 - A BORING podcast.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 236 - The Most BORING Podcast Ever Recorded, I paid my nephew (Corrie's son, Archer) $10 to do the podcast intro (and just when you thought no one could talk faster than Heather), and we recapped the private in-home cookie class we taught last week.
Also, (hilariously and probably not totally wrong), someone texted into the podcast that it was boring - ergo the name of this week's episode.
👩🏫 The Private Cookie Class - Pt 2
Of course, not everything went according to plan, and I think that's the value of the podcast - listening to what not to do and what to take into consideration. Here's what I'd consider more closely if we did this again:
🟠 The Vendy Blendy - Pt 2
The Vendy Blendy is just 16 (basically no 15) days away, and we've got a really stellar lineup (list below). You can find out everything you need to know here:
If you missed my Facebook Lives - catch the replays here:
Tomorrow, Thursday, 🎓 I'll cover the Vendy Blendy Deals for The Cookie College - it'll be a great sale, and one we've never run before *and probably won't again until next Black Friday.
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☝️ 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 1
Mary 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.
📧 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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📸 Food-tography - Staging, props, gear, software.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 234 - Food-Tography, we're concluding our "📅 Content Theme" for the month of October, which focused on... well, focusing that camera lens. 💡 Check out #OctoberPhotographyMonth in the Sugar Cookie Marketing (Group) to see more content on staging and gear.
📸 Food photography is a must when it comes to slingin' sugar cookies. Our customers "buy with their eyes," meaning that the photos have a big part in selling our bakes. If your photo quality and staging are poor = your business bank account will soon follow.
While we may be able to get around not having a website, posting up lackluster photos will rob you of sales. So investing in quality gear to produce quality product photos is a business-savvy expenditure. 🤑 But we do talk about the cost-conscious approach in this week's Baking it Down podcast episode on cookie photography.
📸 The Power of Photography
Good photos sell food! Consistent, high-quality photography can act as a watermark for your brand (especially when you dial in your own photography style), making your products instantly recognizable. Easily recognizable = branding. You're seein' how this all works together, right?
When your photos do the talking, you won't have to pitch as hard. Consider your own buying process. When you want a car, you search up "Mercedes" and see glamorous photos of beautiful red cars with big boys and sparkly wheels. What you don't see is the car covered in a layer of dirt and bird poop.
Showing the car and our cookies in their best light will increase sales.
📸 Lighting
The best option happens to be the cheapest option = ☀️ the sun. Indirect natural sunlight is a phrase you've heard us spout for YEARS on this podcast. Having a mobile setup (backdrops help with this), where you can follow the ever-moving sunlight around your house, will help with "chasing daylight."
🕯️ Otherwise, you may need to consider a lighting system, a diffuser, and/or a light box (harder to use - I always find myself frustrated with them).
📸 Cameras
Cell phone cameras have come a long way and can really hold their own next to dedicated cameras. That said, for me, the dedicated camera still adds that extra pizzazz that manufactured blur and digital zoom just can't recreate (yet).
If you have an older cell phone, with how quickly technology and built-in cell phone camera abilities have increased, it may be worth the upgrade to the latest model. Otherwise, consider a dedicated camera - specifically with a macro zoom lens - to really capture that cookie.
📸 Stands
While 92% of bakers opted for hand-held photography (meaning no stands), when it comes to videography, you may have to consider a stand setup. Moft is a neat stand that uses the cell phone's mag-safe magnet for quick setup. ShopCanvas lamps have a built-in light and a goose-neck clamp, and dedicated tripods can help with heavier cameras. Have an Arkon mount? You can make that work too, although the ball joints don't lend themselves to easy adjustment.
📸 Software
If you're not taking your photos through software (cell or desktop), you're leaving money on the table. Post-processing software like Lightroom or Snapseed can make the difference between dull pics and products that pop off the page. I'd wager just about every creator you jealously look at and think, "They take such good photos," is using a post-processing software to level up their photography game.
👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or watch it on YouTube) by searching for Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 234 - Food-Tography.
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🎙️ Podcast Guest - Christina with Boujee Baker Boutique.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 233 - Podcast Guest Christina with Boujee Baker Boutique, we hosted our first-ever remote podcast guest! You all wanted fresh blood (er... dough?), and the people get what they want!
Meet Christina Cenera with Boujee Baker Boutique and Stormy Acre Cookies based in Warranton, Virginia. Yep, she juggles both a brick-and-mortar supply shop and a bakery business, all while raising 5 dogs (with alpaca manifestation incoming).
Her unique perspective of being both a supplier and a baker makes Episode 233 an interesting listen this week. And yes - she's a Vendy in this year's Vendy Blendy!
🤔 "What's one thing you would have done differently?"
Christina has opened two businesses in the last 5 years, now running both concurrently. What would she have done differently, we asked? She says she would have saved more money before opening the brick-and-mortar storefront while also spending less on remodeling costs. Looking back, Christina said while the customizations were nice, they weren't a necessity in hindsight, and having that extra cash on hand (she estimated $50k in startup costs) would have been a nice padding.
🤔 "How have you been able to wholesale so many brands?"
Christina's simple take: don't take no for an answer. As a former saleswoman, she's learned that "no" isn't a rejection of her but rather a challenge to find a better way to pitch. "I heard no way more than I've heard yes," she states. She takes a "boots on the ground" mentality, going to CookieCons, signing up for the Vendy Blendy, landing in Heather's inbox 3 times to ensure she's a shoe-in for the podcast - and it's that level of hustle that is really paying off for her. She's a "No Girl" and proud of it.
🤔 "How do you do it all?"
She's found a way to make her businesses fit around her life and not the other way around. The supply shop is open 4 days a week, the bakery is active 2 days a week, and Sundays are reserved for cookie classes. She's consolidated her websites for both companies and did the same for her social profiles. Basically, she's making a hybrid approach to compromise on what's best practice versus what's best for her lifestyle.
🤔 "What tip would you give first-time Vendy Blendy goers?"
"Definitely stay up for the final hour." Yesss - what happens after hours, stays in your wallet. Chaos is the theme of the Vendy Blendy, and it doesn't stop until the shoppin' lady sings at midnight. If you're new to the Vendy Blendy, tune in this Thursday at 6:00 PM for our "Intro to the Vendy Blendy" Facebook Live.
👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or watch it on YouTube) by searching for Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 233 - Podcast Guest Christina with Boujee Baker Boutique.
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⚖️ Jury Duty - Hung up on client issues.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 232 - Jury Duty, Corrie gives the people what they wanted! A tell-all on her jury duty trial (that she missed last week's podcast for).
Since it's definitely worth the listen to get the full energy, I'll keep this week's newsletter short (and yes, still on Wednesday, even if I'm barely making it before the buzzer goes off).
🏛️ Communication Matters
Corrie's takeaway from the courtroom? Communication matters. The defense attorney was likable and it really helped the defendant. Good customer communication can diffuse a bad situation and even turn it into a good one (or heck, maybe a $25 fine). Jokes aside, being able to handle customers in a way that makes them feel seen and listened to - even if you didn't deserve the allegations - is just good business. Figuring out how to put their shoes on for a minute while typing out a response can be the difference between a good review (and a returning client) or a bad one.
Takeaway: Just because you won the case doesn't mean you've won at business.
🏛️ Document, Document, Document
My takeaway from Corrie's courtroom floor seat? Documentation matters before it matters. Meaning get ahead of mishaps and misunderstandings by overcommunicating. Yes, there's such a thing as too much info, but I'd rather have too much than way too little.
The jury in the courtroom let the perp walk because there wasn't enough documentation from law enforcement. And when disputes are circumstantial (ie, the alleged "ant" in the macaron), documentation will save your baking behind.
👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or watch it on YouTube) by searching for Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 232 - Jury Duty.
From the publisher's feed
👋 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…
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