SPI 813: How Far Should You Niche Down? with Kourt from The Station Bakery

SPI 813: How Far Should You Niche Down? with Kourt from The Station Bakery

Kourt: Even though I am four years into starting my online journey, I still get amazed at the comments that I receive from people saying how much I have helped them and how much I encourage them. Just by me, just sharing my experience, even though there’s hiccups in there, even though there are some things that, you know, I would go back and would adjust and change that’s still helping people, just the vulnerability and the openness that I have to just share it all.

Pat Flynn: The riches are in the niches. You’ve heard me say this multiple times, and yes, I know. Some of you get upset when I say that because it’s actually niches, but that doesn’t rhyme as well. Anyway, the riches are in the niches, and we know this because there are a number of people doing what our special guest today does.

But not necessarily in the niche that she is in. She teaches business and social media. She’s not alone in that, but she is the person who teaches home bakers how to do that. And today we’re speaking with Kourt from The Station Bakery. You can find her on Instagram and on her very popular YouTube channel.

She’s got 167,000 subscribers and just started this during 2020. And we’re going to talk about why she created this, but also her approach with it. And what I love about the way Kourt answered a lot of these questions is she didn’t overcomplicate anything. In fact, a lot of the questions I asked are just so eloquently and beautifully answered that it’s just like, okay, that is the answer.

Let’s keep going. So Kourt’s amazing. And we talk a lot about some trends and things that were happening in the banking industry. Also some drama. A lawsuit potentially and a lot of cease and desist letters that were going out and the outcome of that. It’s just an incredible conversation with somebody who knows exactly what she’s doing.

And she’s still been able to continue to bake and balance things out so that she can both help business owners and also continue to serve her clients in her locale with her home goods. So here she is Kourt from TheStationBakery.com

Announcer: You’re listening to the Smart Passive Income Podcast, a proud member of the Entrepreneur Podcast Network, a show that’s all about working hard now, so you can sit back and reap the benefits later. And now your host, when it comes to pens, he prefers ballpoint over fountain, Pat Flynn.

Pat Flynn: Kourt, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

Kourt: Thank you for having me today, Pat.

Pat Flynn: I’m so excited to chat with you. In fact, my assistant found you discovered you and was like, you have to interview Kourt because her channel is amazing. The Station Bakery, and I looked up when it began and it looked like it began in 2020.

And I’d love to know kind of what was going on around that time for you. Obviously, we all know what was going on around the world. But why did you end up starting this channel? And Tell me what it was like to begin.

Kourt: So I started in February of 2020, right before everything went crazy. I got to a point in my business where there wasn’t much information on running a home bakery when I got in.

So. I saw a gap in the market where there was a space for me to share my experience. I had only been baking for about a year, but I believe that in that year’s time, I have gained experience that someone else can use. I had one year of experience, but there are other people who have less than one year experience.

And so I just decided to take a chance and get out there and share what I know. And also just to add on to another stream of income for me, I knew that there was a way in order to make extra income. By doing less, and although I didn’t know nearly as much as I know now, I knew that YouTube could be one of those starting points.

And so I just jumped in there head first and just rode the wave.

Pat Flynn: So good. And you’re currently at 167, 000 subscribers, so you have your silver play button. Congratulations. Thank you. On that, which is amazing. I’d love to know, you know, a lot of people bake and a lot of people watch these channels because they want to learn how to bake something that they think is delicious.

But you are specifically targeting those who might want to take that skill and then develop a business from that. And you’re right there. I haven’t really come across anybody who necessarily focuses on that. How did you gain the confidence to do that despite only having one year? I think that would often hold a lot of people back like, Oh, I’m not the expert.

I don’t have a food network show, so I’m not qualified to teach this stuff. How did you get over that hump that a lot of people have when they’re starting out?

Kourt: Well, I got over that hump because there were a lot of questions that I was seeing within the baking community, which were some of the same questions that I had.

And even though I only have one year of experience, I have found the answer to a few of those questions. And so I just told myself, like, there’s people here who wants to know this. I wanted to know this. I figured it out. Let me pay it back for it to people and help them out. Even though I only have one year of experience, that’s one year of experience that can help someone else who’s just starting out.

Pat Flynn: Yeah, true. Amen to that for sure. Are you scared to get on camera? Because it’s one thing to say, you know, I’m going to help people, but then YouTube especially, I mean, you got to turn the camera on. The comment section can be a mob sometimes. Was there any fear before you started and how soon until you got over that?

Kourt: So I have a degree in journalism and mass communications. I have always wanted to do things on camera in some form. So I don’t think the fear was fully there for me. And at the same time, I tend to just jump into things. It’s like, well, I’m just going to take the risk, you know, and not be afraid if I make a mistake, I’ll learn from it.

And then we’ll go from there. So I kind of just told myself, like, just do it, just try it and see what happens. And I tried it. And yes, like you said, there’s a lot that comes with that. You never know what kind of feedback you’re going to get from people. But I also have my husband who is a great support to me and just my family that I can kind of lean on, you know, to like, kind of get over those fears.

And, you know, some of those crazy moments that I may come across with starting and I just really just did it right. Nike says just do it. I just jumped in headfirst and I just took the fears. And then if I had any fears, I just talked about it.

Pat Flynn: When you say you talked about it, what do you mean? Like, did you have a group of people that you spoke to, to kind of help you through some of the, some of the unknowns in the beginning?

Kourt: I would share it. On social media.

Pat Flynn: Oh, literally.

Kourt: So I would just put that fear out there. Yes. In my stories, I’ll say, wow, I had this crazy experience happen. This is what I’m feeling like. So not only would I share it with my husband, but I would also share it with my community that I had on other platforms as well.

I just took the approach of just being very real and transparent.

Pat Flynn: That’s good. And that’s definitely the way to go. I’m looking at your channel. Even a couple of years ago when you started, you have really good titles. You have really good thumbnails. Where did you learn your YouTube skills? Because that is, YouTube is a beast, and it takes some skill to learn how to do titles, thumbnails, package your videos.

Did you learn from anybody? Or how did you discover the sort of methods of the madness here?

Kourt: I learned from quite a few people. I am one that I love to research. I love to find answers to things. So I got on YouTube to learn how to do YouTube. There were quite a few channels that I watched. Katherine Manning was one.

Aaron on Demand. Think Media. Oh, there’s this other guy. He was newer on the scene, but I can’t remember their names. But there were quite a few people and I would just toggle back and forth between those videos and put the pieces together and then just experiment on my own to see what kind of fit for my market.

Because like I said before, there wasn’t really anyone who was doing what I was doing. So I couldn’t really look over to another channel to kind of pull inspiration from. So I just took the pieces that I could grab and just put it together through trial and error.

Pat Flynn: Love it. What are some of the topics that your channel focuses on.

I mean, again, it’s not the recipe on how to bake something. I mean, maybe it is. I know you have a, a number of chocolate bombs, tea bombs, like the whole bomb thing. I do want to talk about the bomb thing. Cause there was like a, a lawsuit thing that you talked about as well. But what are you teaching specifically to home bakers so that they can run their business. What are some of the topics specifically?

Kourt: Some of the main topics is how to grow your home bakery business. That is a large hurdle for people when they get into it because it’s like, okay, I have delicious and beautiful cakes. Now, how do I get people to buy them?

So I share a lot of tips on how to market your home bakery business. Also the pricing side of running a home bakery business is another huge, huge topic in the baking industry that a lot of people old and new struggle with. And so I tend to talk about those topics as well as I’m moving more into the phase of talking about ways to diversify your income as a home Baker as well.

So anything surrounding business and marketing, like I love those things. I like baking, but I love talking about the business side.

Pat Flynn: Well, you’re in the right spot. Cause we love talking about that here too. So what are, what are some of the diversifications? Like what else could a home baker do besides package their goods and sell it?

What, what kinds of things are you focusing on?

Kourt: One of the easiest is becoming a content creator when running your business. That’s one of the things that you’re already doing. You have to create content to put your business out there. So a easy intro into that is becoming a content creator and monetizing the platforms that you’re on.

So that’s one of the things that I start that I did early on. And then also monetizing recipes, monetizing tutorials and classes, which I did early on with the whole hot cocoa bomb phase that time really kind of opened up my eyes to what could be possible. I also dabbled in a little bit of selling an actual product, the hot cocoa bomb molds, and I have also diversified into doing classes and digital products, which is all the rave right now.

Pat Flynn: That’s amazing. I love how you. Sort of just experiment and then you kind of share what happens and you know, whether it works or not. It’s always a lesson for those who are following along. That’s kind of how we do what we do here. And it’s, it’s authentic. It’s real. And it’s in the moment, man, you even did physical products and molds.

Tell me on a scale of one to 10, how easy was it to create a physical product and sell it?

Kourt: I would say to create the physical product and sell it on a scale of one to 10, I would put it at about an eight. So it seems like a great idea. And for some people it is, but for me, it kind of went backwards on what I was trying to do because there was a lot of work involved.

One going back and forth with suppliers, making sure that you get a product that is of good quality, then having it sent to you to test it. And then just the selling part and handling shipping and having customers who may have like special requests for your products, or if there’s an issue with receiving their products and staying up late at night to package up all the products to send out, it was a lot.

Pat Flynn: Yeah, I bet. I mean, I’ve done physical products too. And many of our listeners have, and it’s always a, it’s always a lot harder than you think it is. So eight being more on the difficult side, I guess, for sure. I love how you’re teaching your audience things that are already taught elsewhere, right? People teach social media, people teach creating digital products, people teach these things.

Because it’s so hyper focused on specifically your home baker, it almost creates a category of its own, and you become sort of the go to person for those kinds of things. Tell me about, like, what are some of the messages you’re getting from some of the other bakers that, You’ve helped. I’m curious if there’s maybe one or two, one story that stands out of somebody who, you know, you’ve been able to make an impact on them in a way that you didn’t even realize you did.

Kourt: Yes. So even though I am four years into starting my online journey, I still get amazed at the comments that I receive from people saying how much I have helped them and how much I encourage them. And even just the simplest of comments of, wow, you actually responded back. And wow, you actually answered my questions.

Thank you. So just those simple comments and just doing those things that to me seems simple of, I’m going to share what I know with you has made such a huge impact into people’s lives. And I get messages from people telling me that they started their business because of me. And now they follow the things that I taught them.

And now they’re running a thriving home bakery business or a thriving hot cocoa bomb business, even from years ago. Wow. So those messages are so amazing to me just to hear that. Just by me, just sharing my experience, even though there’s hiccups in there, even though there are some things that, you know, I would go back and would adjust and change that’s still helping people, just the vulnerability and the openness that I have to just share it all.

Pat Flynn: That’s amazing.

Kourt: Which actually used to get me in trouble when I was younger, my mom would always tell me that I talk too much, but look at me now, me talking too much has turned into a whole business.

Pat Flynn: Keep talking, keep talking. That’s great. How do you stay ahead on trends? Cause you know, in a space like yours, kind of knowing what’s going on, knowing what the flavor of the week is per se is really important.

What kinds of things do you do to receive input on what is trending? Like you said, the hot cocoa bomb thing was like a trend and, you know, as a leader, especially, you kind of want to get ahead on that and you can be a voice for everybody else, but do you have any particular way that you that you are keeping track of what’s going on and staying sort of within the industry.

Kourt: Yes. So I do a lot of research on social media. I’m looking through Instagram, I’m looking through Facebook groups, and I’m just able to see the patterns of things that are showing up and then the response that people are receiving from certain patterns of things. So just by that, I’m able to track and kind of see where the industry is moving and where they’re going.

And then I can find those gaps in a space where I can insert myself and then I just go from there.

Pat Flynn: How do you balance, because I know on social especially, right, there’s so many people doing such creative things and it’s like, you get inspired by them, right? And then how do you take that inspiration and adopt it to your own stuff in a way that I guess I’m talking about, I don’t know, etiquette or, you know, are you giving credit?

I, like, I remember there was this trend for a while where bakers were creating these cakes that looked like cartoon drawings with, like, heavy black outline and it kind of looked like a cartoon drawing. And then, like, everybody started creating it. And it’s like, who’s the original here? And everybody’s, like, copying everybody else and stuff.

Like, how do you balance that? And how do you filter that? Intake that is inspirational, but then make it your own.

Kourt: So when it comes to the baking community, I find that it can typically be hard to pinpoint an originator of something simply because a lot of the ideas that come about are building off of other ideas that are already being shown in the baking community.

So it’s just a twist on something that’s already been before. And because I’m, I’m in the weeds of things, I’m looking, I’m watching, I’m seeing what’s going on and oftentimes you do find bakers who they go back and forth with who started this trend and people will raise their hand. I started this trend because I did it first.

And then I started this trend because I did it first. And then I come in in my own head. I don’t get into that. And I’m just like, Hmm, no, I know who actually started this first. And I just go back and with the cartoon cakes. I remember in a Facebook group, there was a lady and she was like, I started this trend and I need to get credit for it.

So I did my research. I went to see, okay, well, when did you start posting? When did you start doing this? When did you say that you debuted this? Okay. Because I remember a lady. Who started at this point at this time. And, you know, I was able to go back and like find her posts. And again, I didn’t speak on this because I don’t get into the drama like that.

And so I just let it be, but it’s very hard in the baking community to really pinpoint who started a trend. Who did this first? Because there’s so many moving pieces that you can attribute one style to multiple people.

Pat Flynn: Right. And like you said, putting your own twist on something is going to be important because that’s kind of, it’s like adding your own voice and your own style on something.

You know, there’s a book out there called steal like an artist that I would recommend. It kind of speaks to this idea because it can be very difficult, especially in this world of social media where there is a lot of drama. Is there quite a bit of drama in the baking community online? And what kind of drama are we talking about if there is?

Kourt: Yes, there is drama.

Pat Flynn: There is in the Pokemon space too. I have a Pokemon YouTube channel and there are, there’s literally channels dedicated to drama for cartoons with cardboard on them. It is, it doesn’t matter what group you’re in. So I was pretty sure there was drama there too. But what does that look like if you’re in the baking community?

What does drama look like?

Kourt: It can range to a few things. There’s drama behind bakers who will steal other baker’s images and post it as their own and try to sell the product based off of someone else’s picture.

Pat Flynn: Oh, no way.

Kourt: Wow. Yes, yes, there are situations where bakers will literally have their whole website copied and pasted onto someone else’s website, including the images.

Like we talked about who did what first, this person stole my idea, they’re copying, they’re selling what I’m selling. And there’s just a lot of things that people can find an issue with anything. And like you said, it goes across industries. I was in the teaching industry and I saw the exact same thing, right?

There’s just, just with people, there’s always going to be something that can be a problem.

Pat Flynn: For sure. Do you do any conventions or go to any sort of in person meetups to connect with your community. And if either way, yes or no, how are you really connecting with people who are in your community?

Kourt: So I do not go to any conventions or any outside events outside of my home.

I do everything from here and I connect with everyone through social media, whether that’s Instagram or whether that’s YouTube, that’s really where I built those connections and my messages on Instagram is where I connect the most with my audience.

Pat Flynn: Gotcha. That makes me wonder about your content strategy.

So if it’s YouTube and Instagram, can you go through, like, you have an idea for a video, what’s your process for doing that? And like, I’m just curious, like if you chop up that bigger video and you put it on social, like what’s the plan?

Kourt: I’m currently in a revamp of how I do my social media strategy, but typically what I do is I’ll have the longer form video that I want to put out and then from there I’ll take little snippets and little ideas and then create a short around it and then use that short to then drive traffic back into that long form video. But in some instances I’ll also take that long form video and then drive traffic back to my short form video.

Pat Flynn: Interesting. So it kind of depends on on the video or the topic.

Kourt: Yes.

Pat Flynn: So what are you leaning toward now? Like you said, you’re revamping it. Is there a particular reason why? Or are you kind of in experimentation mode? Tell me a little bit about what’s going on.

Kourt: Yes. So I am getting ready to finally take the leap into really talking about what I love, which is the business side and diversifying your income as a home baker.

And with that, I have decided that I want to be YouTube first, one because of its longevity. And then I will use Instagram as my secondary for that flow of traffic to then feed into my YouTube videos. So with it being YouTube first, I’ll create my ideas centered around the YouTube video topic and then kind of similar to what I was doing before, take that to then create shorter pieces of content to then push into that longer form of video.

Pat Flynn: Nice. That’s really helpful.

In terms of, in fact, your diversification of your income, can you give me, All the different sources, maybe from let’s rank it from most profitable or most revenue to, to the least that you have going on.

Kourt: Yes. Digital products are number one, funneled through Instagram. That is the place where I make the most.

Pat Flynn: Really? Is that on Instagram? Is that revenue literally from Instagram, you know, from meta, from views, or is that from sales for things on, on Instagram?

Kourt: From sales for my digital products.

Pat Flynn: Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha.

Kourt: Yes, Instagram for me is the platform that does the best with sales, because that’s where I like spent the most time putting into that. I’m hoping to try to balance that out with YouTube now with my sales. I do, so with YouTube being a longer form strategy for diversify my income, I do get sales from YouTube, but I get really large pushes of sales through Instagram.

Pat Flynn: Gotcha. Okay.

Kourt: And that’s where I make the majority of my money.

Pat Flynn: Nice. Thanks. So not too much on the ad revenue side of things it seems.

Kourt: I’m happy with what I make on the ad revenue side of things, but it’s just not as much as I can make doing the digital products.

Pat Flynn: So what was your first digital product? And what was it like putting that together?

Kourt: My very first digital product was in 2020.

I’m trying to think. I don’t remember if it was the recipes for hot cocoa bombs or if it was the labels for hot cocoa bombs, but it has to do with hot cocoa bombs. That’s when everything digital took off.

Pat Flynn: What was it about hot cocoa bombs? Why was that like the big thing?

Kourt: You know, to a lot of people, it was new.

The right person picked it up at the right time. And it just took everything by storm. And there were so many people who were interested in making them. They look simple. So people were interested in them. And I think also because we were in 2020 with the pandemic, that a lot of people were looking for a way to bring in extra income because they were laid off of their jobs or just their businesses flourishing anymore because everything had shut down. So everyone was looking for something to do. And along comes hot cocoa bombs, which are cool and amazing. So everyone began wanting to start their own hot cocoa bomb business. There were success stories of people all around the world who were doing this and were changing their lives by selling hot cocoa bombs.

Pat Flynn: Can you describe what a hot cocoa bomb is?

Kourt: Yes. A hot cocoa bomb is a sphere of chocolate that has hot cocoa powder and marshmallows on the inside. You drop it into milk and then it explodes with the marshmallows coming out and any other fun things that you put in there,

Pat Flynn: That’s super cool. So it, and like, I can imagine why in 2020 that would be so popular because everybody’s at home. Everybody’s looking for something fun to do. Kids are going nuts looking for activities. This is a fun one for sure. And you can put different flavors I imagine. And I see that you have like a Kool Aid one. You have like a tea one.

Yes. So your first product, your first digital product was like a how to guide on, on how to make these things.

Kourt: Yes, it was a guide on different recipes. So there’s different flavors that we could make with hot cocoa bombs instead of just chocolate, white chocolate. I believe I did raspberry peppermint. I believe I did a red velvet hot cocoa bomb.

It was banana pudding, hot cocoa bombs. So there was so many different flavors and variations and a lot of people weren’t quite sure how to make different flavors or even just how to make the basic hot cocoa bomb. And again, I’m going to tell it all. So it’s like, Hey, come follow me. And I’m going to tell you everything that you need to know about hot cocoa bombs.

Pat Flynn: Amazing. How much did you sell that digital product for?

Kourt: I believe we sold it maybe I think 40 to 60.

Pat Flynn: Oh, wow. And how did it do? Like, how many, if you could give me a rough idea of how, how many sales you were making on the daily during that time?

Kourt: I’m not sure. I just remember because we had, I think we were on Etsy at that time.

And I just remember it was crazy because we’ll just be somewhere random and then we’ll like, we’ll get like a notification and then another notification and another notification. And we’re just like, Oh my goodness.

Pat Flynn: That is amazing. That’s amazing. Are the hot bombs still doing pretty well? Today, I mean, it’s years later now.

Are they still selling for some people?

Kourt: Yes, there are a good handful of people that are still selling hot cocoa bombs to this day, which is amazing. Kudos to them.

Pat Flynn: That’s cool. So you’re speaking on behalf of your students who are baker’s and they’re creating bombs of their own. Yes. I saw a video said being sued over hot cocoa bombs question mark.

I watched it and I thought it was brilliant because it was it was such a perfectly packaged video to help your students and your viewers learn about what was going on and I like you seem to be a really great Investigator when I watched that video you were looking at the fine print of all these legal things that were happening I mean, that’s you could tell that you care about your people.

Just for context, might you be able to explain kind of what the deal was with that? Because I was just looking at your YouTube channel and I saw all these hot cocoa bombs. And then I, all of a sudden I say, I saw being sued. I was like, Oh no, it made me want to click and watch. So you did a good job there, but what ended up happening?

What was the deal there?

Kourt: So as we talked about earlier with the drama that happens in the baking community and stealing. So there was a company that was sending out cease and desist letters to a lot of home bakers and it put a whole lot of home bakers into a frenzy of, Oh my goodness. Like, are we not able to sell these anymore?

I keep getting these letters. Oh, I’m getting them too. What are we going to do? Because this is where everyone was making their money. And we’re like, what are we going to do? So I started researching and investigating. Well, who is suing people in who is taking claim over hot cocoa bombs. And after doing some research, I found the company that was doing it, but in finding that I found that there’s another company and they were like, no, this is ours.

And this is like, no, there, this is ours. And there’s just this huge battle going back and forth between these two companies, but also them versus the home bakers. And it was a rat race for everyone to try to capitalize and trademark on hot cocoa bombs, hot chocolate bombs. And ultimately what ended up happening was that they ended up canceling each other out.

Pat Flynn: No way. So you guys are still good.

Kourt: Yes.

Pat Flynn: Oh my gosh, that’s kind of karma. Karma right there. Instant karma.

Kourt: Yes.

Pat Flynn: Well, not super instant, but that’s, that’s good news, especially for the home bakers. What is another version of a hot cocoa bomb that’s a hot topic, maybe more recent, that’s kind of taken off for a lot of your bakers?

Kourt: Right now, mini cakes or smaller items like cake tasting boxes, when you have a wedding and you can go and you can sample different flavors of cake, that is becoming more popular. So what I’m seeing is that a lot of. Of consumers, they’re moving away from wanting these large cakes to now wanting more individual sized items or things that they can sample multiple pieces of.

They’re not looking for the elaborate style cakes anymore. So that’s where we’re kind of shifting into right now, which is very interesting to me. And I have a lot of thoughts on why that is, but that’s something that I’m seeing a lot of people having success with myself included.

Pat Flynn: That’s cool. I saw you spoke about that on like a recent short that you had.

So like these things, as they come up, I see you showing up, popping up, relaying that information to everybody else, which is amazing. Everybody definitely check out the station bakery on YouTube and on Instagram. Kourt, you are amazing. I have just a couple more questions. If you don’t mind hanging out with me just for a few more, if that’s cool.

Kourt: Yes.

Pat Flynn: Cool. So you obviously help bakers. They go online. They sell their thing. A part of doing that is branding. I’m curious your thoughts. How do you teach a person who’s just, they make a really good dessert, but they literally have no idea about branding, marketing. Where do you start with them and how do you help them discover what their brand is?

Kourt: Well, I start with them knowing and understanding who they are and lean into that. People want to know you. I don’t want for people to try to put on a persona of someone else. Just come in as who you are. And be that.

Pat Flynn: I mean, that’s the golden rule, especially now with where everything is going. It’s funny because I come from an entrepreneurial background.

A lot of us use examples when it comes to different lessons that we’re teaching. We often use Dog training is an example, sometimes knitting. And there’s one example that a lot of people have used over the years, and it’s a baker. And it’s this idea that back in the small town days, you know, where there was just like one shop and, you know, everybody in town knew each other.

You would go to Bob’s bakery because you knew Bob. And when you came in, Bob said hello and is asking you how the kids are doing. And you’d ask Bob how his wife was and like, how was golf over the weekend, whatever. You guys get to know each other. And then of course, The supermarket that sells cheaper bread opens up that’s even closer to everybody.

And so you might suspect that that supermarket’s going to do a job on Bob’s Bakery and kind of push them out of business. But because Bob has developed this relationship with all the customers that have come in, I mean, people are going to walk the extra mile or drive the extra mile or horse the extra mile to Bob’s Bakery, right?

To get that bread from him because it’s that connection that happens. And I feel like today with social media, it feels like we’re, we’re more disconnected than ever, right? That even though it’s supposed to make us closer together, it actually makes us. less connected. So how do you encourage your bakers who are getting online for the first time they’re getting on social media, they’re like Instagram all now, like I just share pictures of my family.

Usually how do I turn that into a business without being too selly? How would you advise a person to approach Instagram, for example, to sell their goods, but also, like you said, still be themselves and show up as a human.

Kourt: Well, number one, if they’re just starting out in the business, I would advise them to focus on using Instagram as their business card, use it as your portfolio.

And the way that you’re going to start getting those sales is by actually getting out into your community to make those connections. That is the fast tracked way for home bakers to fast track. Their business growth is by getting out into the physical community of people and making connections with them, and then use your social media as a calling card, as a, as a portfolio for what you can do.

And then as you get that going, then you can start building up your Instagram from there and start learning how to use Instagram for marketing, because that is a large hurdle that a lot of people, especially in the baking community, have to get over because they’re just used to, I just want to make things that taste good and look good.

I don’t really want to deal with all of the other stuff. I don’t want to have to pick up my phone to record something. I don’t want to have to show my face and speak to people. So that’s something that I would recommend to come later. Start small with baby steps. And once you start building up that momentum by making those connections in real life with people, then that’s going to then carry over to your online presence. And then you can start learning and building from there because there’s not so much pressure on, I need to do this to get my first sale. I need to do this to get any sales. You already have a few sales coming in from those connections that you’re making, and now you can take it to the next level by using your social media.

Pat Flynn: Beautiful. What are those connections in physical real life that are happening in a community? What does that mean exactly?

Kourt: So I tell people to start with their sphere of influence. Where are the places that you’re already familiar with? Where are the places that you already have a connection with? So for me, we actually moved to a new location and I restarted my home bakery.

So natural places for me to start were my children’s school. And so I got out in the community and I met the people who were over events and everything’s and I connected with them and then they became a client. I also connected with other local bakers. There was a specific cookier that I met up with and she was very active in the community and through her there’s connections that are made then to the community that she’s already built.

Meeting up at women’s business events and connecting with other local businesses and vendors, even if there’s a store right up the street from you, going to that store and getting to know them, building up a relationship with them.

Pat Flynn: That’s so key. I mean, churches, anywhere where there’s a group that you go to to serve, and literally in this case, serve, have them get to know you.

And I love that. I love that you also connected with sort of a similar business so that you guys could partner together, at least share contact, share information, share the journey. Together, which I think is really cool. And the fact that you did this in a new location shows that it doesn’t, doesn’t mean you’ve had to live there for a decade in order to do this.

I think that’s really, really smart. And we often hear on this side online, it’s like in order to grow your online business, you got to get offline. And I think this is a perfect example of that. Although you have the benefit of enticing them with a little sweet, which we just need to do sweet talks and that doesn’t always work, but anyway, of course, this has been an absolute amazing conversation.

The Station Bakery on YouTube. And what is your Instagram in case people want to check out your portfolio there? Is it this at the Station Bakery as well?

Kourt: Yes. The Station Bakery across all platforms, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook.

Pat Flynn: Nice. And are you still baking too? It’s not just all business talk at this point.

Like you’re still loving the baking yourself?

Kourt: Yes. Yes. I found a balance between running my home bakery business and then also continuing further into my online business. So right now I’m dialed back significantly where I’m only taking one to two orders a month. This is so I can still serve people in my community and still do what I love, but I don’t have to take away as much time from my family in order to do it and I can focus more on the online portion, which frees me up to be more present for my family.

Pat Flynn: Yeah. Amazing. Well, congratulations Kourt. Thank you so much for what you do and for coming on today and sharing your wisdom.

Kourt: Thank you so much for having me, Pat.

Pat Flynn: Take care. All right. I hope you enjoyed that interview with Kourt from The Station Bakery.

You can find her again on Instagram and also TheStationBakery.Com. And of course her YouTube channel, super fun. I got to go try to make one of these hot chocolate bombs because I actually remember purchasing some from a world market. And they were so expensive. So I can imagine how quickly a business around that, especially in 2020 and 2021 could help out with additional revenue generation.

And of course, if you want to learn more about baking and turning those goodies into good income, then head over to TheStationBakery.Com. Kourt, you are amazing. Thank you.

And thank you for listening all the way through. I appreciate you. If you want to head on over to the show notes page, smartpassiveincome.com/session813. Also, join us on our newsletter so I can help you get unstuck. Smartpassiveincome.com/unstuck. And I look forward to writing for you there. And I appreciate you. Hit that subscribe button and I’ll see you in the next one.

Thank you so much for listening to the Smart Passive Income podcast at SmartPassiveIncome.com. I’m your host, Pat Flynn. Sound editing by Duncan Brown. Our senior producer is David Grabowski, and our executive producer is Matt Gartland. The Smart Passive Income Podcast is a production of SPI Media, and a proud member of the Entrepreneur Podcast Network. Catch you next week!