I am still the one doing every single 4 a.m. morning. I am still the primary production baker in my own bakery. And somewhere in the last six months I realized I am not meant to be that person forever.

This week is a real, unscripted six-month review, March through August, using the same four questions I ask every single month: what's working, what's not, what I learned, and how I'm moving forward. I get into the messy middle of building a team, why I closed the bakery for three weeks in July and how a workshop paid for it, the real numbers behind walking away from my longtime farmers market, and the identity question I've been sitting with lately about whether I'm a baker or a business owner who bakes.

🎯 The Seen and Sold Sprint is back in October. Get on the waitlist before spots open: https://carolinebower.myflodesk.com/sprintwaitlist

🎙️ Send me a voicemail on SpeakPipe: https://www.speakpipe.com/breadwinnerpodcast

🍞 The Bread Winner Inner Circle opens twice a year. Get on the waitlist: https://www.carolinebower.com/innercircle

📋 Download the FREE checklist, Your First Steps to a Successful In-Home Bakery: https://www.carolinebower.com/checklist

🧮 Grab the Profit & Pricing Calculator: https://www.carolinebower.com/calculator

✉️ Join my email list: https://carolinebower.myflodesk.com/newsletter

🛒 Shop my sourdough microbakery favorites: https://www.carolinebower.com/links

📱 Follow me on Instagram: @carolinebower_sourdough

If you asked me whether ingredient costs have gone up across the board the last few years, I would have said yes without a second thought, and I would have had zero actual evidence for it. So I went and pulled the real numbers, and butter genuinely surprised me.

This week is a different kind of episode. Instead of a how-to, I am walking you through three things I found when I actually researched what is happening in the bread world right now: whether sourdough demand is really holding up, how your customer's eating habits have shifted without much fanfare, and what ingredient prices have actually done over the past year versus what we all assume they have done. Plus, a baker's question about blending whole grain flour into a familiar dough, and my new favorite inexpensive kitchen tool.

🔪 The immersion blender I'm loving right now: https://rivr.link/0bw-Qb_ISG

🎙️ Send me a voicemail on SpeakPipe: https://www.speakpipe.com/breadwinnerpodcast

🍞 The Bread Winner Inner Circle opens twice a year. Get on the waitlist: https://www.carolinebower.com/innercircle

📋 Download the FREE checklist, Your First Steps to a Successful In-Home Bakery: https://www.carolinebower.com/checklist

🧮 Grab the Profit & Pricing Calculator: https://www.carolinebower.com/calculator

✉️ Join my email list: https://carolinebower.myflodesk.com/newsletter

🛒 Shop my sourdough microbakery favorites: https://www.carolinebower.com/links

📱 Follow me on Instagram: @carolinebower_sourdough

There is a two-gallon jar in my bakery right now full of vanilla beans and cheap vodka, with a piece of masking tape on the lid that just says December. It is not going to be ready to sell until the holidays, and that is exactly the point.

This week I am walking you through the nine real things I am doing in my own bakery this August to set up a smoother November and December. That includes auditing my menu and my prices in the same sitting, scheduling a recipe testing day before the holidays get loud, starting a slow-build gift product that needed to begin this week instead of in December, and getting my workshop tickets live before people start Christmas shopping. The last two are not holiday prep at all. They are how I am setting up January, including a first announcement I have been sitting on for weeks.

📖 Read the full show notes: https://www.carolinebower.com/9-ways-to-get-your-microbakery-ready-for-the-holiday-season-episode-138

🎙️ Send me a voicemail on SpeakPipe: https://www.speakpipe.com/breadwinnerpodcast

🍞 The Bread Winner Inner Circle opens twice a year. Get on the waitlist: https://www.carolinebower.com/innercircle

📋 Download the FREE checklist, Your First Steps to a Successful In-Home Bakery: https://www.carolinebower.com/checklist

🧮 Grab the Profit & Pricing Calculator: https://www.carolinebower.com/calculator

✉️ Join my email list: https://carolinebower.myflodesk.com/newsletter

🛒 Shop my sourdough microbakery favorites: https://www.carolinebower.com/links

📱 Follow me on Instagram: @carolinebower_sourdough

Did you know that up until the fall of 2021, selling a loaf of bread you baked in your own kitchen was completely illegal in New Jersey? Not just restricted — illegal. They were the last of all 50 states to change that, and it only happened because a group of home bakers decided to go and ask. That story is the backdrop for this entire episode, and I think it is going to encourage you more than you are expecting.

This is a topic I have touched on before but never gone this deep on — and after spending a couple of weeks doing real research, I have a lot to share. There is genuinely good news happening in the cottage food law landscape right now, there is some misleading information out there that could get bakers in trouble, and there are real, practical steps you can take if your state's laws are holding your business back. Whether you are just getting started, approaching your income cap, or feeling frustrated by restrictions in your state, this episode is going to give you clarity, encouragement, and a clear path forward.

• 🎙️ Send me a voicemail on SpeakPipe: https://www.speakpipe.com/breadwinnerpodcast
• 🍞 Join the Bread Winner Inner Circle: www.carolinebower.com/innercircle
• 📋 Download the FREE checklist — Your First Steps to a Successful In-Home Bakery: https://www.carolinebower.com/checklist
• 🛒 Shop my sourdough microbakery favorites: www.carolinebower.com/links
• 📱 Follow me on Instagram: @carolinebower_sourdough

Two years of the Bread Winner Podcast, and the episode you keep coming back to is the one where I looked back at my very first year in business. So I am bringing it back for our two-year birthday month.

I am wrapping up year three now, baking out of a brick and mortar with a bread oven and a commercial fridge, and I have been out of the house for over six months. All of it was built on what year one taught me. This replay of Episode 82 walks through the processes, the systems and the mindset that made years two and three possible, including the parts I got wrong and the growing pains I would warn you about. If you are in your first year right now, this is the episode I would hand you.

One more thing. I have added a new segment to the show, so you can record me a voicemail with your question using the SpeakPipe link below and I will play it and answer it on air. I would love to hear your voice on the podcast!

📖 Read the full show notes: https://www.carolinebower.com/what-i-wish-i-knew-before-i-started-selling-sourdough-bread-episode-136

🎙️ Send me a voicemail on SpeakPipe: https://www.speakpipe.com/breadwinnerpodcast

🍞 The Bread Winner Inner Circle opens twice a year. Get on the waitlist: https://www.carolinebower.com/innercircle

📋 Download the FREE checklist, Your First Steps to a Successful In-Home Bakery: https://www.carolinebower.com/checklist

🧮 Grab the Profit & Pricing Calculator: https://www.carolinebower.com/calculator

✉️ Join my email list: https://carolinebower.myflodesk.com/newsletter

🛒 Shop my sourdough microbakery favorites: https://www.carolinebower.com/links

📱 Follow me on Instagram: @carolinebower_sourdough

If you have ever answered the question "so what do you do?" with "I just have a little sourdough business" — this episode is for you. This is one of my most personal and most passionate episodes, and I am so glad to be bringing it back for our two-year birthday month because I believe it deserves to be heard by every single baker who has ever minimized what she is building. This is not a tactical episode. It is a heart-level conversation. And it might be exactly what you needed to hear today.

In this episode I am making the case — clearly and with a lot of passion — for why it is time to drop the word "little" from your business vocabulary for good. What you are building is significant. The impact you are having on your family, your community, and the next generation is real and it is worthy of being spoken about with pride and confidence. I am giving you seven concrete, actionable steps to help you start owning the value of your business in the way you talk about it, think about it, and show up for it every single day. By the end of this episode, you will have a clear path forward — and hopefully a whole lot more confidence in what you are building.

• 🎙️ Send me a voicemail on SpeakPipe: https://www.speakpipe.com/breadwinnerpodcast
• 🍞 Join the Bread Winner Inner Circle: www.carolinebower.com/innercircle
• 🌐 Join the Bread Winner Network: www.carolinebower.com/bwnetwork
• 📋 Download the FREE checklist — Your First Steps to a Successful In-Home Bakery: https://www.carolinebower.com/checklist
• 🛒 Shop my sourdough microbakery favorites: www.carolinebower.com/links
• 📱 Follow me on Instagram: @carolinebower_sourdough

I have been talking about Project Broadcast on this podcast for years — and in this episode, I finally got to sit down with the CEO himself, Jake Dempsey, for a conversation I have been looking forward to for months. If you have ever wondered why texting works so well for microbakery businesses, how to set it up, or how to use it in a smarter way, this episode is going to be a game changer for you.

Jake has been building Project Broadcast for nearly a decade, his platform has sent over a billion text messages on behalf of small business owners, and he genuinely cares about helping entrepreneurs grow. We walked through my exact texting workflow, he gave me feedback on what I am doing well and where I am leaving opportunity on the table, and we answered some of your questions from the Bread Winner Summit too. There is so much practical gold in this one.

Links:

• Join Project Broadcast Here: https://app.projectbroadcast.com/sign-up?referral=breadwinner
• 🎙️ Send me a voicemail on SpeakPipe: https://www.speakpipe.com/breadwinnerpodcast
• 🍞 Join the Bread Winner Inner Circle: www.carolinebower.com/innercircle
• 🌐 Join the Bread Winner Network: www.carolinebower.com/bwnetwork
• 📋 Download the FREE checklist — Your First Steps to a Successful In-Home Bakery: https://www.carolinebower.com/checklist
• 🛒 Shop my sourdough microbakery favorites: www.carolinebower.com/links
• 📱 Follow me on Instagram: @carolinebower_sourdough

It's the two-year birthday month of the Bread Winner Podcast — and I am celebrating from the road! My family and I are on an epic three-week road trip this July, and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to bring back some of the most loved episodes in the show's history.

We kicked off the month with Episode 132, where I turned the mic on my kids and let them share what it's really like to grow up watching me build this sourdough microbakery business. If you haven't listened yet, I really encourage you to — especially if you're a mom who wonders about the impact this business has on your family.

Today I'm bringing back Episode 85, one of the top downloaded episodes of all time and a listener favorite for a very long time. This is the episode where I walk you through the four most important things to do before you start selling your bread. Whether you're just dreaming about turning your sourdough passion into a real business, or you've already jumped in and feel a little in over your head, this one is foundational. A few things in my own context have shifted since I now have a commercial bakery, but the four steps themselves? Absolutely still the same.

In this episode you'll hear:

• The four foundational steps to take before you ever sell your first loaf
• Why getting these pieces in place early saves you so much stress down the road
• How to build a business that doesn't just look good on Instagram but actually works for your real life
• Encouragement for the baker who feels pressure to just "get started" before she's ready

One more exciting thing: Starting in August, I'm adding a brand new segment to the show called SpeakPipe! You can click the link in the show notes to send me a voicemail with your question, and I'll play it live on the podcast and answer it. I am so excited to connect with you on an even deeper level — so go ahead and send your questions now so my inbox is full and ready when I get back from the road!

Links:

• 🎙️ Send me a voicemail on SpeakPipe: https://www.speakpipe.com/breadwinnerpodcast
• 🍞 Join the Bread Winner Inner Circle: www.carolinebower.com/innercircle
• 🌐 Join the Bread Winner Network: www.carolinebower.com/bwnetwork
• 📋 Download the FREE checklist — Your First Steps to a Successful In-Home Bakery: https://www.carolinebower.com/checklist
• 🛒 Shop my sourdough microbakery favorites: www.carolinebower.com/links
• 📱 Follow me on Instagram: @carolinebower_sourdough

This episode is one of my favorites I've ever recorded — and I think you're going to love it too. I handed the mic to my two kids, Jamey and Lila, and we had the most honest, sweet, and surprisingly insightful conversation about what it's actually like to grow up with a mom who owns a sourdough microbakery. From the early market mornings to the ribbon cutting at the brick and mortar, they share their real experience — the good, the hard, and everything in between — and I think their perspective will encourage you more than you're expecting.

We talk about what it looks like to bring your kids into the bakery space, how to create a little corner that feels special for them, why letting them have a job (even a tiny one) matters more than you'd think, and what it means to build something that your children actually feel proud of. If you've ever wondered whether all of this hard work — the early mornings, the long bake days, the juggling act — is worth it for your family, I hope this conversation gives you your answer. Spoiler: straight from the mouths of my own kids, it is.

Resources:

• Join the Seen and Sold Sprint: https://carolinebower.thrivecart.com/sprint/
• Grab the Profit & Pricing Calculator: Simplify the math, clarify your margins, and confidently price your products. https://carolinebower.com/calculator
• Follow me on Instagram for more microbakery tips: @carolinebower_sourdough
• Find links to all of my sourdough microbakery favorites including packaging, pans, and more! www.carolinebower.com/links
• Download the FREE Guide and Checklist, Your First Steps to a Successful In-Home Bakery at https://www.carolinebower.com/checklist to begin building YOUR thriving microbakery!

The Bread Winner Summit was incredible — and then I crashed. In this episode, I'm getting really honest about what happens after we give everything to something big: the pre-orders that don't pause, the follow-up emails that get delayed, and that nagging feeling of having overpromised and underdelivered. I'm walking you through why this happens (hint: it's not a planning failure, it's a best-case-scenario problem), and why building in a buffer — for prep days, for big launches, for life in general — might be the single most useful shift you can make this year.

This is also a permission-slip episode. Because here's the thing: two things can be true at once. You can be proud of what you built and also be completely wiped out by it. You can need rest and also need to come back before the silence turns into hiding. I'm sharing exactly what got me moving again after two weeks of catching my breath, including the one-small-thing approach that's helped me rebuild momentum without forcing it. If you've ever pushed hard for something big and then felt like you disappeared afterward, this one's for you.

Resources:

• Join the Seen and Sold Sprint: https://carolinebower.thrivecart.com/sprint/
• Grab the Profit & Pricing Calculator: Simplify the math, clarify your margins, and confidently price your products. https://carolinebower.com/calculator
• Follow me on Instagram for more microbakery tips: @carolinebower_sourdough
• Find links to all of my sourdough microbakery favorites including packaging, pans, and more! www.carolinebower.com/links
• Download the FREE Guide and Checklist, Your First Steps to a Successful In-Home Bakery at https://www.carolinebower.com/checklist to begin building YOUR thriving microbakery!