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
