86. Baking it Down - Compare Aware

🧠 Comparison Awareness 101 👀It's that tiiime of yeeeear... where we feel like we're fallin' behind. And it is EASY to fall into comparison fatigue! 😞 "They sold out, but I have wide-open weekends."  😔  "They filled 3 classes, and I haven't even listed one."😖  "They got the BRP snowman belly bags, and I missed them before they sold out."😓 "They're doing 4 Christmas markets, and I only sold a few customs this week."😭 "They're doing something and I'm not and now I feel bad, sad, depressed, burnt out, resentful, and all around - bum humbuggy." Heyo - you're not alone - but you don't have to feel stranded on the island of negative thoughts. We've come up with a list on this week's podcast to keep you sane and smiling this holiday season by being aware of the dangers of comparison and to help you stay in your unique lane - happy and hopeful. 1️⃣ 1. When someone says they sold out, it doesn't mean you didn't - everyone has a different number. If I wanted to sell 10 of something, and Corrie only sold 2 of something, she'll have a likelihood of selling out 5x's faster than me. But all I hear is the "I'm sold out 'til the end of the year!" What a defeating Debby downer when I'm sitting here with eight more left to sell! ⚠️ Compare Aware Alert ⚠️ - Her "sold out" and my "sold out" are unique to each of our unique situations. I can be happy for Corrie, but understand that her goals and mine are worlds apart - and that's okay. I'll compare myself to myself last year (more on that later).2️⃣ 2. Squirrel brain - focus on 1 thing. The great group ideas will be here when you get back. 🐿In a group like SCM where there are genius ideas whizzing back and forth all day long, it's easy to get distracted and fall into the dark pit of analysis paralysis where the thought of doing this thing comes at the opportunity cost of now not being able to do that thing. ⚠️ Compare Aware Alert ⚠️ -  Doing anything is better than doing nothing. Find one thing - commit to it, and execute on it. Do that one thing the best you can. The ideas will still be here when you're finished with that one thing. And if you don't get around to them all? No sweat - you did something - and that's worth everything. 3️⃣ 3. Set up an unmoveable goal that fits your lifestyle."'I'll sell 10 custom orders this December." Great goal - stick to it. Don't get jealous of someone teaching 5 classes or of something attending 4 holiday markets. ⚠️ Compare Aware Alert ⚠️ - Find your goal that fits your lifestyle. It won't look like anyone else's because your life isn't anyone else's. Find a goal - set it - and forget about changing it. Don't get sucked into the (easy to fall into - ask me how I know) holiday greed at the expense of your happiness. 4️⃣ 4. Likes don't equal sales. It's easy to think that the cookie page that has 1,432,671 likes probably sold 1,432,671 cookies - but that's a false reality. ⚠️ Compare Aware Alert ⚠️ -  The cookie classes page we post to? 2 likes on my last post. The classes? Booked with a waiting list. Two likes from your target audience are worth 2000 likes from an audience who can't give you their money. Stay in your happy lane and keep marketing, niching, and targeting like your happiness depends on it.5️⃣ 5. Budget buffer time - assign "OFF DAYS" as a task - and make a conscious effort to not work. Working = bad on these days. It's easy to fall into the hustle trap of thinking "I'm just sitting here watching Hallmark city boys lose to the local small-town hunks when I could be baking cookies, making sales, and taking that bread." 

Om Podcasten

👋 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 changes as happy as we can, but come on Instagram! Give it a rest! No more changes! 3️⃣ Other than that, we take a positive approach to marketing We are also *not* professional podcasters. I feel like we need to say this because, hey, sometimes we get giggles! We do our best to extend our marketing knowledge to you all free of charge each week at the cost of listening to our higher-than-normal pitched voices and the occasional giggle spree. 4️⃣ You can find the podcast on all the major platforms and you can typically expect a new episode each Tuesday afternoon (unless life happens). We invite everyone to listen. Either start from the beginning or work backward! The episodes don’t build off themselves so you won’t be confused hearing one before the other. You just might miss new Lives we mention but you can always catch the replay in the Sugar Cookie Marketing Group on Facebook!