When You're Wired for Creativity but Running a Business: A Conversation with Joy Kaplan of Sweet Joyness Bakery

What happens when someone who spent years inside professional bakeries decides to go out on their own — and realizes that making beautiful things is only half the job? In this episode, Dani sits down with Joy Kaplan of Sweet Joyness Bakery in Beaverton, Oregon, for an honest, laugh-out-loud conversation about creativity, burnout, pricing, and the messy reality of building a business around how your brain actually works.

In This Episode:

• Joy's path from Wilton classes at Michael's to Cold Stone to pastry school to professional bakeries — and why she finally launched her own cottage bakery in 2020
• The difference between working in a bakery and running your own: wearing every hat, from decorating to ordering boxes to chasing invoices
• Why pricing correctly changed everything — Joy discovered she was charging $15–$20 less per dozen than other bakers and made a shift that changed her stress level overnight
• How comparison with large bakeries can quietly distort your pricing and your confidence as a small business owner
• The burnout cycle that so many cottage bakers fall into — and the systems that can interrupt it before you crash
• Why streamlining your order form and setting clear creative boundaries can protect both your time and your artistry
• The case for protecting your hobbies: why Joy doesn't sell her craft projects and Dani doesn't sell her dahlias
• How other creative outlets — embroidery, quilting, other crafts — can actually refuel your cookie creativity instead of replacing it
• Joy's advice for bakers just starting out: visit your local Small Business Development Center and start learning the business basics early

Guest Bio: Joy Kaplan is the owner of Sweet Joyness Bakery in Beaverton, Oregon, a cottage bakery specializing in decorated cakes and cookies with a delightfully quirky style. Joy brings a rare perspective to the cottage baking world — she spent most of her adult life working inside professional bakeries as a cake decorator, learning high-volume production, food safety, and efficiency before launching her own home business in 2020.

Resources Mentioned:

• Sweet Joyness Bakery (Joy's business) — find her on social media
• CookieCon — national conference for cookie decorators
• Sweet Nelson's Bakery — Ashley Nelson's efficiency class on order forms
• PCC Small Business Development Center — free initial seminar and business planning support
• Spark Program — business mentoring connected to the SBDC
• The Business of Baking: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/business-of-baking
• Dani's Kitchen Shop: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/
• Follow along on Instagram: @daniskitchenshop

Connect with Dani:

• Website: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/
• Instagram: @daniskitchenshop

What does it really look like to build a business around motherhood?

In this episode of Mixing Up Success, Dani sits down with Hannah Luttrell, owner and cookier behind Luttrell’s Little Cookie Company in Wilsonville, Oregon. Hannah shares how cookie decorating began as a creative outlet in November 2022 and quickly grew into a home-based business built to support both her family and her desire to stay present in motherhood.

Together, Dani and Hannah talk honestly about the realities of running a custom cookie business from home, wearing all the hats, and learning that flexibility does not always mean ease. They dive into the challenges of balancing school schedules, bedtime work sessions, family life, and customer expectations while still protecting the reason the business was built in the first place.

This conversation also explores the importance of boundaries, the pressure social media creates around creative work, and the misconception that custom cookies come together quickly just because the internet makes them look that way. Hannah shares how learning to say no, limit orders, and create recovery periods has helped her build a more sustainable business.

You’ll also hear a thoughtful conversation around overbuying supplies, why you do not need all the tools and packaging to get started, and how community can become a turning point in both business growth and personal confidence. Hannah opens up about how joining a women’s networking group helped her step out of her shell, find support, and begin showing up more fully as herself.

If you are building a business while raising kids, learning how to protect your time, or trying to create something that fits your life instead of consumes it, this episode will resonate.

Connect with Hannah:
https://www.luttrellslittlecookiecompany.com/

What happens when you treat a cookie fundraiser like a real marketing campaign?

In this episode of Mixing Up Success, Dani sits down with Dani’s Kitchen Shop marketing manager, Alyssa Schroppel, to break down the strategy, numbers, and lessons behind the bakery’s annual Colon Cancer Awareness Cookie Fundraiser.

What started four years ago as a way to support a close friend fighting colon cancer has grown into an annual community campaign that customers now anticipate each March.

This year’s goal was simple:
Sell 100 dozen cookie sets and raise $3,000 for colon cancer research.

In the end, the campaign sold 92 dozen cookies and raised $3,003 for research—all while reaching over 112,000 people on social media and generating over $5,000 in sales without spending a dollar on ads.

But the most interesting part? Dani and Alyssa tracked the entire campaign as a live marketing case study, analyzing what content performed, what converted into sales, and how intentional marketing builds demand before an event.

If you're a baker, small business owner, or someone curious about how real marketing works inside a small business, this episode pulls back the curtain.

• The origin of Dani’s Kitchen Shop’s Colon Cancer Awareness Cookie Fundraiser
• Why selling a product can be more effective than asking for donations
• The difference between reach and conversion in marketing
• Why viral posts don’t always generate sales
• How email marketing continues to outperform social media for conversions
• The strategy behind marketing pop-up events and limited opening hours
• What small business owners should track during a marketing campaign

• 92 dozen cookie sets sold
• $3,003 donated to colon cancer research
• 112,000+ people reached on social media
• $5,580 in total cookie sales
• $0 spent on paid advertising

If you run pop-ups, markets, or vendor events, Dani shares the exact planning framework she uses.

Download the Free Pop-Up Sales Checklist
https://daniskitchenshop.myflodesk.com/pop-up-checklist

Join Dani’s upcoming webinar:
Profitable Pop-Ups: Plan, Price, and Execute Successful Baking Events
https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/event-details-registration/profitable-pop-ups-plan-price-execute-successful-baking-events

In this live training, Dani breaks down the systems she uses to:

• evaluate which markets are worth attending
• price products for pop-up profitability
• plan inventory strategically
• and market events so customers show up ready to buy.

Mixing Up Success is a podcast for bakers, creative entrepreneurs, and small business owners who want to build sustainable, thoughtful businesses.

Hosted by Dani Annala, owner of Dani’s Kitchen Shop in Hood River, Oregon, each episode explores the real strategies, systems, and stories behind building a successful creative business.

Learn more about Dani’s Kitchen Shop:
https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/