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In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 187 - At Fault Cult, we admit it - you guys say we "run to the refund," 🥛 so if you want to sip the Kool-Aid, grab a glass because this pod is about joining the At-Fault Cult.

In all seriousness though, we wanted to explain the long-term benefits of the short-term losses "absorbing fault" can have on your bottom line. And here's the kicker - 😵 we'll be talking about absorbing the fault that belongs to the client.

⚔ You see, "🗣️ he said / 🗣️ she said" arguments are all about assigning blame. How much culpability does either party have? 👈👉 What was each person's role in this business blunder?

But once blame is assigned, we now have a "baker vs. client" scenario - a fight to the de🩸ath. So really, who loses? 😖 It's always the baker - because even if you're right, you're still wrong because you lose the client long-term.

🤔 "But I also lose if I refund, right?"

Yeah - You do - 🤏 you lose a little. 🔮 But what you don't (or can't) see is the long-term "a lot more" loss of the lack of that client returning - 😓 or worse, that client going out of their way to un-recommend you.

Instead of our typical list format, 🥺 I'm going to retell Corrie's podcast confession - a mistake she kinda made and the client kinda made, but she took 100% of the blame for it.

A few weeks ago, Corrie let Laurie (lol, 🙊 they rhyme) bypass her form when Laurie reached out through email. "Eh, simple order, what's the harm," she figured.

🗣️ Narrator: "But there was much harm."

Laurie had specified three simple designs across three dozen cookies: 💊 a pill (because he was a doctor), 🏈 a football (because he liked football), and ⚾ a baseball (because he liked baseball).

Easy right? 📧 However, Corrie's form requires inspo photos - but reeeemember, the client bypassed the form. 🖼️ There were no inspo photos to be referenced.

Lo, and behold, Corrie sends Laurie the pre-pickup picture to which Laurie replies with... dun dun duuun... 😲 "Where are the sports team's logos??" Corrie scrambled to add a few logos, but there was absolutely no way to get the order up to the client's expectations in enough time.

But the client was to blame, right? Because...

• 💢 Laurie was the one who circumvented the form when she saw her date was booked. All orders must go through the form!
• 💢 Laurie was the one who gave general descriptions of what she wanted leaving out the specific details about the logo. How was Corrie to know?!
• 💢 Laurie never sent inspo photos to help dictate her order requirements.

💸 Laurie Laurie Laurie... was refunded 100% of the order and apologized to. Why? Because so what if Laurie was to blame even partially for the cookie miscommunication? What does Corrie win when Laurie loses?

Corrie wins the opportunity to get a bad review and loses all potential future orders from Laurie. By being the "at-fault party," Corrie let Laurie save face. And guess what Laurie did? ⛔ She wouldn't accept the free order. She begged Corrie to at least let her pay half.

🤔 Her reasoning? 🙏 "I want to be able to order from you again in the future, I loved this experience."

When you take the blame, even the blame that wasn't yours to bear, you make your clients feel like your business is a safe space to make mistakes.

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In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 186 - The 5 D's of Disarming, we're back to business talking about the 5 D's of disarming upset clients. As we cruise through the "Sugar Cookie Super Bowl" that is October - December, we're more inclined to make mistakes - or to miss the client's cryptic order details amid the flurry of incoming requests and changes.

Hey - we're human. They're human. It happens.

But disarming clients can make the different between disaster (in your review profiles) or domination (in your bottom line). So defining the steps to make sure you get your desired outcome is what we designed today's podcast on (can you see I'm forcing the whole "starts with the letter D" thing?).

The key to each of these approaches is to make the client feel that you've heard them and plan to make it right. Now how you go about making it right is subjective - but making it right? That's a business requirement.

🖐 1. Dispel their Worry.

When people get the guts to reach out and tell you they have a problem, see that as being gracious. Because their other options were to either never order from you again (bad), or to leave you a bad review (worse). So when a client says, 🫣 "Heeeey, I'm not 100% happy," they're choosing to be kind by giving you the chance to make it right. 😥 I'm a HUGE fan of, "I'm sorry that the experience didn't meet your expectations." You can say sorry while also not agreeing with the client - but the client's feelings are 100% valid even if they're not right.

🖐 2. Deter Anger (before it starts).

Having a solid refund policy set up before you even touch the client's money can deter anger. 💯 Corrie has a 100% satisfaction guarantee or you'll get a full refund. It signals to her clients that even in the worst-case scenario, they'll still be made whole. You can also accomplish this by getting good reviews - it tells future buyers that you're a green flag when it comes to solving issues.

🖐 3. Do NOT be Defensive!

😠 This is where I see most bakers make the left turn when they should have gone right. Defensiveness will only limit your options. Do NOT reply when you're angry!! I'm going to repeat it because so many folks make this mistake: ⛔ DO NOT REPLY TO AN UPSET CLIENT WHEN YOU ARE ANGRY. Wait 24 hours then ask ChatGTP if your response to the client sounds amicable or defensive. Hey, the robots can even help you rewrite it.

🖐 4. Discharge Them Correctly.

It's understandable to be upset when the client "gets one over on ya" by getting a refund. Wrong business move. 🥲 Remember - the client that reached out was doing you a favor by letting you make it right. 🥹 So respect them when you roll them off your books. Just because someone got a refund does not mean they're an automatic ⚫blacklisted⚫ client. Do your best to thank them for bringing up the issue to you and allowing your bakery to be better for it.

🖐 5. Do it like Chick-fil-A.

Does Chick-fil-A ever make mistakes? You bet. But you know why you don't hear about them as often? 🐮 Their HEARD policy to client issues. 👂 Hear, 👂 Empathize, 👂 Apologize, 👂 Resolve, and 👂 Delight is the approach that one of the largest, most successful fast-food restaurants takes when it comes to unhappy clients. And it works. A few months ago, Chick was backlogged and took about 10 minutes to fulfill my order. I didn't mind at all, but when they finally handed me my chicky-strips, they threw in a $5 gift card as an apology... for an issue I didn't even raise.

Talk about Delighted.

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In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 185 - The Vendy Blendy Episode, it's the moooost wonderful tiiiiime of the yyeeeaarrr. It's the annual Vendy Blendy Episode!

This is the one podcast where we cover all 77 Vendys, where they ship, what they sell and how much they'll sell it (not) for. As the hype builds for Black Friday, pre-shopping the Vendys on the podcast is always a fan favorite (or maybe it's a Heather and Corrie favorite and y'all just have to listen along).

There's too much data this year for me to copy and paste into this email, so I'll include the important links you'll need to pre-shop the VB:

• 🟠 The Group (pend here): https://www.facebook.com/groups/vendyblendy
• 🟠 The List of Vendys + Websites + Discounts: http://thevendys.com
• 🟠 Corrie's Vendy Product Reviews: https://www.instagram.com/sugarcookiemarketing_

Here are some facts that should get ya hyped for Novemby 29th:

🟠 We have more Vendys than we have ever had (77 this year compared to 72 last year).

• 🟠 We have higher discount minimums than we've ever had (25% off this year compared to 20$ off last year).
• 🟠 We have more door prizes this year than we did last year (10 Big Door Prizes + 71 Vendys are also offering Door Prizes).
• 🟠 We have MORE days 'til Black Friday than we've had last year (last year it was Nov 23, this year it's Nov 29th).

Bigger, better, faster, stronger - this is shaping up to be a BLAST of a Vendy Blendy, and I am HERE for it!

If you missed Heather's Facebook Lives on the Vendy, you can rewatch the replays here:

• 🟠 Live 1 - Intro to the Vendy Blendy! 🛒
• 🟠 Live 2 - Let’s Pre-Shop The Vendys! 🛒
• 🟠 Live 3 - Secrets to Shopping the Vendy Blendy 🛒
• 🟠 Live 4 - The Cookie College and the Vendy Blendy 🛒

In today's podcast, Corrie covered some of her shop favs. We also cover shipping + door prizes + and discount codes.

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In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 184 - Boo-urn Out, Corrie wanted to do our annual 😩 "Ways to avoid getting burnt out during the baker's busy season" strategy sesh.

Hey - business ownership ain't for the weak. Additionally, baking businesses reach their ordering maximums during the Q4 months (📅 October, November, and December). 🤑 It's easy to fall prey to that green we've been laying the foundation for all year, 🔥 but it's always the fast pass to closing a business when we burn the Christmas candles at both ends. 🔥

Summary: you can make the MOST money in the world, but if you close your business Jan 2025, was it even worth it? 🏈 Sustainability is the 🔑 k-e-y to success in the baking "Super Bowl."

1. Turn off your order form when you're booked.

📃 Disabling your order form is a really definite way to say, "Don't come knockin' on my door, I'm too busy settin' up my Christmas tree. 🎄" It's perfect for those of us who hate to see the look of disappointment on a client's face and struggle with saying no. 🚫 I wrote a poem for ya - "If they can't hit submit, you won't witness the fit."

2. Set your order max now. DO NOT DEVIATE

You know what your limits are. 💯 If you know 10 dozen will be the most you can handle without hating life, set your weekly max now - and when you hit that max, shut down that order form. You'll be tempted to get greedy when the order submissions are hittin' the Inbox and the DMs. 🔐 Don't fall for the green goblin - if the limit you set was 10, 10 it shall be.

3. Schedule 2 posts per week.

Corrie's rule-of-posting-thumb is 2 posts per week. ✌️ We have, what, 8 weeks left in the year? That's 16 posts - something you can likely knock out in an hour tops. And the posts don't have to be earth-shatteringly good. 💆 A simple post can keep your page audience engaged while also removing that dreaded feeling of, "Oh darn, I forgot to post to socials. I'm falling behind" when we need more bandwidth to bake.

4. Schedule days off now. NO COMPROMISING

📆 Go right now, open your calendar app, and set the days you DO NOT want to work to "busy." And then absolutely do ❌NOT❌ schedule anything on those days. That includes prep work, supply and ingredients shopping, baking, pick-ups, etc. THOSE ARE YOUR OFF DAYS - I'm yelling so you hear me loud and clear. 👂 When we get rushed and take on too many orders, we're tempted to give those days up. 💸 What's all the money in the world if we didn't get to stop and smell the roses... or in this case, the pine needles?

5. Shorten your FB Business Page Hours.

Facebook business pages work off of set hours (it affects how your page shows availability and how your auto-responders work). ⏰ In busier months, shortening your "available hours" can signal to your clients that you're not sitting by your Messenger inbox twiddling your thumbs and waiting for their next reply. Setting your page hours to 3 hours a day makes sense when you're trying to limit order inquiries.

6. Elongate the funnel.

In the world of sales, 🤏 we want to shorten the funnel. In the world of "too many sales so we're feeling burnt out," ✋ elongating that funnel ✋ can subtly curtail orders. Just as a short funnel has the fewest amount of clicks to order (think: Amazon's one-click-to-buy option), ⛹‍♂ a long funnel that has clients jumping through hoops to place orders can be a nice bumper to slow down incoming inquiries. Don't add the order links to post, don't had the form link to your auto-response message, have your auto-responder say it'll take you 3 days to get back to someone, etc.

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In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 183 - No, I wanted to cover the worst best word in the business English language: No.

In business (and in life), we gotta learn to fall madly in love with two little letters: N and O.

But we're trained our whole lives to reject rejection though. No one wants to be told "no" - ew gross, I almost even hate typing it. The thought of someone not wanting us would send shivers up most of our spines.

No is bad. No means you're wrong. No means you're not likable. No means someone chose someone over you. No means you lost money. No means you lost a sale. No means you lost an opportunity. No means sad. No means lonely.

No is bad.

But in a world of fighting for likes, attention, follows, friend requests, and "omg yaaas's," the smart business owner searches out the "no."

Here's my Tinder profile for the word No.

No means you've gotten your direct answer. You wasted no time flirting with the maybe, you got a defined path forward. And it wasn't that one you thought it was before the no.

No means you k(no)w where your weakness lies. It's like a map where X marks the spot to improve. And once you improve? You're more of a force to be reckoned with.

No means less wasted time. When you can get a client to their no as fast as possible, in a world where time = money, you've saved money through the time you can spend cultivating a new sale.

No is actually kind. Hear me out - when someone says, "No, I don't think you fit my budget," that's an act of kindness. If someone tells you no, they are treating you with respect.

Hearing no is hard. But saying no is also hard. Being adult enough to dish out a no - That's respectful (in a season where Caspers haunt our Business page inboxes all too often).

In business, I have to tell a lot of people no.

• "No, we're not looking for podcast guests right now."
• "No, you're not a great fit for the Vendy Blendy."
• "No, I had to delete your comment because it violated a group rule."
• "No, that's not in your contract scope."
• "No, you're not allowed to post that."
• "No, you're not allowed to sell that."

I witness far too often folks that take no waaaay too personally. They see no as an attack - to their character, to their business, to their ego.

Rejecting rejection is not the business approach that'll make you money. It will get your feelings hurt though.

The phrase is, "It's just business. Nothin' personal."

That's what no is. It's just business. It's not saying you're any less of a person. You cannot have a business without the word NO. It's not possible.

No is inevitable.

So the faster you fall in love with the "no" the better the business you will have. No is everywhere. No Is guaranteed. No is delicious. Hearing a no is just as amazing for your business as getting a yes. No is not bad. No is good business.

My challenge for you is to reframe how hearing NO impacts you mentally and emotionally. Stop taking NO personally.

Years ago I read about a workshop where the hosts challenged the attendees to get rejected 30 times in 30 days. It made the news when one person taking part in the rejection challenge asked a Krispy Kreme shop to make doughnuts in the shapes of the Olympic rings and the Krispy Kreme employee actually did it (lol).

But the challenge to seek out the word "no" stuck with me. How fantastic would life be if "no" didn't take us to our knees emotionally?!

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Content categories explained.

In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 182 - Content Buckets Debunked, the twins talk all things content buckets - an approach to content planning that guides our posting schedule.

What are content buckets? They're categories or themes that your content falls into. Think of them as the main pillars or sections of your blog or social media presence. Each bucket encompasses a specific area of content interest, helping you organize and categorize your content effectively.

Imagine a conversation like this:

• 😀 Me: Hey Corrie, how are you?
• 🙂 Corrie: Enjoying this cool, crisp fall weather!
• 😊 Me: Awesome - what are your plans this weekend?
• 🙂 Corrie: Enjoying this cool, crisp fall weather!
• 🙃 Me: Enjoying the weather I see. How's Archer?
• 🙂 Corrie: Enjoying this cool, crisp fall weather!
• 😕 Me: Ooookay. This conversation is weird.
• 🙂 Corrie: I agree, but I'm enjoying this cool, crisp fall weather!

Like okaaay - we get it! You like this crisp, cool fall weather. Say something else! This is what your social media sounds like when all you post is sales and sets. It's boring and drives engagement away and thus reach goes down.

So let's come up with content buckets for a baker. Pulling from these buckets can help you create a more well-rounded content structure that not only target different audience demographics but drives up engagement as well.

Your content buckets don't have to be pulled from one at a time. There may be a bucket where you grab content from 3x a month, and another where you only snag content from 1x a quarter. It's up to you to build out the buckets you both enjoy consistently posting from and that your audience also resonates with.

Content buckets require testing repeatedly over time to see what works - ain't that marketing for ya?

🪣 Memes

Always an easy bucket, memes are low-hanging content fruit, but the key is to either keep them baking-related or hyper-local related. You can check out a ton of baking-themed memes on the Sugar Cookie Marketing Page. Hyper-local memes can be memes about never-ending traffic on a popular road or a mention of the northern lights (like Corrie did here).

• 🫗 Baking Related (check out the SCM page for free baking memes)
• 🫗 Locality Related (linked above)

🪣 Behind the Scenes

Behind-the-scenes content always performs really well while still keeping your page focused on baking. For example, Corrie's cutter storage photo garnered a lot of engagement, but still pushes the page's agenda: I sell sugar cookies. Letting folks into the back end of your baking business can add a bit of personality to your bakery - just keep in mind the cleanliness of your home (aka no cats on counters in these pics, my guys).

• 🫗 Cutter Storage (linked above)
• 🫗 Large Bags of Dough / Flour (people like seeing this for some reason)
• 🫗 Large Orders - like 1000 cookies prepped for Christmas corporate orders
• 🫗 Pic of Class Attendees - any info you gathered about an attendee can be a great BTS feature

🪣 Get To Know Me

Pics of people simply perform well - no other way to describe it. Corrie used a photo of her kiddo's first day of school to thank folks who ordered from her because with their money she was able to enroll Archer in a safer learning environment.

• 🫗 Pics of you and fam at a pumpkin patch
• 🫗 Kiddos first day of school
• 🫗 Thankful for Spouse

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In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 181 - Correlation and Causation, we wanted to talk about the dangers of misassigned reasons why you think your marketing isn't working.

Let's define things before we jump in:

• Correlation: a mutual relationship or connection between two or more things.
• Causation: the relationship between cause and effect.
• Coincidence: a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection.

So here's the hot take: you must understand the correct cause of something before you make a correlation to its results.

😿 For example, let's say it's raining and my cat, Frank, throws up. I could make the correlation that whenever it 🌧️ rains, Frank throws up, right? I mean - I watched it happen - pitter-patter of rain. Violent cough of gastrointestinal distressed cat.

Wrong - 🚫 because yes, while those two events happened at the same time, they were unrelated (not correlated). They just happened to well... happen at the same time. Other than coincidences, they have absolutely zero relationship.

🐈 Now let's look more closely at Franks' eating habits. Frank tends to upchuck (haven't used that word since I was in middle school, but here we are) when I feed him wet cat food. 🍛 Every time I've ever attempted to feed my little furry friend a sauce-covered pate, he has regurgitated on my carpet a few hours later.

This has been proven 100% of the times I've attempted to feed him wet food. 💯 I can now safely correlate the serving of wet foods to causing Frank to throw up.

Let's bring it back to marketing. Making the incorrect correlations in your marketing strategies can spell long-term disaster. 😨 "My posts do better when there's a 70% chance of snow" is a feeling, but the data proves that despite Jack Frost's potential appearance, ❄ your Facebook post reach is more than likely related to the closing of local school systems forcing parents to stay home rather than frozen water falling from the sky. ☃️

🚫 Incorrection Correlation: "I posted an unstaged photo and my reach on Facebook increased. Thus, staged photography is not ideal."

✅ Potential Questions to Find Correct Correlations:

• ✅ Did you post when the algo was favoring your content? Algorithms giveth and taketh - post in a slow time? Welcome to better reach. Post on election day? Enjoy your new pet crickets.

🚫 Incorrection Correlation: "I sold nothing at a market I attended recently, but when I flash sold the unsold product from the market on my page, I sold a ton. Thus markets are not for me."

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In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 180 - Reach 4 Q4, we cover reach in a hard-to-reach moment in time: Quarter 4 of the calendar year.

And not just any calendar year - it's a Q4 including an election, economic policy shifts, major weather disasters, global wars, port strikes, and black Friday.

🖐️ Talk about a reach ruckus! All of these major events competition for one really tiny phone screen? You're going to be in the trenches trying to get eyes on your cookie classes, platters, and customs. But rest assured - this is how marketing works. It's how it always has worked and will continue to work.

This is what separates the "marketing men" from the "marketing boys," and of course, we have some tips to guide your socials for the next three months.

A big part of this is adjusting expectations. Yes - your reach will look different. Yes, we'll still play ball with Meta. Yes, that will be frustrating. But yes, it's still our busy season and we may not even really notice as we're elbow-deep in dough. But having a strategy to guide us in confusing times is always a solid move.

🖐️ 1. Shift the type of content you're posting.

We're no longer posting "loved making this set - Happy second bday, Timmy" and expecting likes or reach. That won't cut it in this cut-throat algorithm of Q4. We're going to dig into hooks, emojis, copy formulas, better photography, MORE eye-catching images, selfies, behind-the-scenes... basically, we're going to be more interesting for the algo.

🖐️ 2. B-e D-i-r-e-c-t.

This feed is BANANAS - b-a-n-a-n-a-s! So don't make your already distracted audience jump through hoops to buy from you. Yes, in a perfect work, we as perfect sales-bakers are perfectly able to get someone into our sales funnel and land the coveted conversion. But baby, this is Q4! Rest is for the weary and time is fleeting! We only have their attention for 3 seconds, use that to your advantage. Posting the price in the caption - or maybe even in the photo - for DIY kits and classes and stop the back and forth-ers from sucking up time (and losing interest).

🖐️ 3. Be annoying.

Corrie's got a PhD in being annoying, so consider her a knowledge expert. But on that note - channel your inner Corrie and post consistently and frequently. Corrie suggests doubling your posting schedule. Remember - reach is DOWN, you're not being annoying, you're barely even reaching 2% as is. They're not seeing any of your posts. You're not being annoying, you're barely being noticed.

🖐️ 4. Contest / Gi-veaw-ays / Memes

This is low-hanging "content" fruit, but it does create increased reach. Use the increased reach to grow another medium (like email) that doesn't compete with crowded news feeds as much. Content buckets help diversify this type of content: meme, informative, sales, prompt, back to a meme, etc. I tend to hit up the meme bucket on "big event" days - more on that next. Note - please give the podcast on g-ive-a-ways a listen, there's some stuff to be cognizant of.

🖐️ 5. Follow big events and plan content accordingly.

For example, November 5th is ELECTION DAY. Your cookie content will perform extremely poorly this day. Don't launch your presale on that date. Frankly, don't launch your pre-sale from Nov 1 - Nov 8th. Let the political stuff die off a bit, then launch your Elfie on a Shelfie pre-orders. We have a lot of "big days" coming, be aware of what's going on and how it'll affect your content schedule.