184. Baking it Down - Boo-urn Out

Summary

Episode 184: Baking it Down - Boo-urn Out

Released on October 29, 2024

In Episode 184 of Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing, hosts Heather Miracle and Corrie (Cory) Miracle delve into the pervasive issue of burnout within the cottage bakery community. Titled "Boo-urn Out," this episode offers insightful discussions, practical strategies, and personal anecdotes aimed at helping bakers maintain their passion and prevent exhaustion during peak seasons like Halloween and the holidays.

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1. Introduction to Bakery Burnout

The episode opens with Heather and Cory addressing the recurring challenge of burnout that many bakers face, especially during high-demand periods. They emphasize the importance of recognizing burnout early and taking proactive measures to ensure both personal well-being and business sustainability.

Notable Quote:

• Heather [01:30]: "Today's topic you'll never guess is Bakery burnout."

2. Understanding the Roots of Burnout

Heather and Cory explore the primary causes of burnout in the baking industry. They highlight how intense marketing efforts and the desire to capitalize on seasonal sales can lead to overcommitment, resulting in physical and mental exhaustion.

Notable Quote:

• Cory [02:01]: "I can already see posts arising in the sugar cookie marketing Facebook group saying I'm burnt out. What do is anyone feeling the same way that I'm feeling?"

3. Strategies to Prevent Burnout

The hosts present a comprehensive list of strategies to help bakers manage their workload and maintain a healthy work-life balance. Each strategy is discussed in detail, accompanied by practical tips and real-life examples.

a. Turn Off Your Order Form

Heather and Cory stress the importance of closing order forms once capacity is reached to prevent the influx of last-minute requests that can overwhelm bakers.

Notable Quote:

• Heather [07:50]: "Only you can prevent forest fires and turn that off. Only you can."

b. Set Order Maxes and Stick to Them

Establishing a maximum number of orders per month helps bakers control their workload. The twins advise unwavering adherence to these limits to avoid overcommitment.

Notable Quote:

• Cory [08:02]: "Set your order maxes now. Do not deviate in all caps."

c. Schedule Days Off

Allocating specific days for rest and personal activities is crucial. Heather suggests using calendars to block off these days, making them non-negotiable.

Notable Quote:

• Cory [12:01]: "Nothing is better than... Sunday is a free space. Stay in bed, watch some videos."

d. Set Monetary Goals

By defining clear financial targets, bakers can decide when to stop taking orders. This financial boundary acts as a safeguard against excessive work.

Notable Quote:

• Cory [21:44]: "Set a monetary goal. Once reached, stop baking."

e. Protect Your Sleep

Prioritizing sleep is essential for maintaining productivity and mental health. The hosts discuss techniques to disconnect from work-related notifications and ensure restful nights.

Notable Quote:

• Heather [25:00]: "Sleep is so precious. I say, the lack of sleep will be the cigarettes of our era."

f. Stop Looking at Competition

Heather and Cory advise against constantly comparing oneself to other bakers. Instead, focus on personal goals and boundaries without being influenced by others' achievements or marketing tactics.

Notable Quote:

• Cory [28:53]: "Stop looking at the competition."

g. Community Over Competition

Building a supportive network is vital. The twins encourage referring excess orders to fellow bakers, fostering a collaborative rather than competitive environment.

Notable Quote:

• Heather [33:03]: "Community over competition. If you're sending your extra orders to someone else, they can send their excess orders to you."

4. Reframing Marketing Strategies

Heather and Cory discuss the balance between effective marketing and overextending oneself. They suggest elongating the sales funnel to manage order flow without outright saying "no," thereby protecting one's workload while maintaining customer engagement.

Notable Quote:

• Cory [17:49]: "Don't always post links to sell. Elongate the funnel to slow down sales."

5. Personal Stories and Anecdotes

Throughout the episode, Heather and Cory share personal experiences that underscore the importance of setting boundaries. From dealing with unexpected large orders to managing last-minute requests from prestigious clients like the Washington Commanders, their stories illustrate the tangible consequences of not managing workload effectively.

Notable Quote:

• Heather [22:05]: "All the money in the world isn't worth your happiness."

6. Vendee Blendy: A Spotlight on Marketing Events

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to the Vendee Blendy, a 24-hour shopping event organized by Sugar Cookie Marketing. Heather and Cory explain its evolution, the role of vendors, and the substantial discounts offered to participants. They highlight how such events can boost sales while emphasizing the importance of managing participation to prevent overcommitment.

Notable Quote:

• Heather [48:32]: "The Vendee Blendy is the cheapest it's ever been. If you sign up today, you'll pay $76."

7. Conclusion and Final Thoughts

In wrapping up, Heather and Cory reinforce the necessity of self-care and strategic business practices to prevent burnout. They remind listeners that setting boundaries is not an act of negativity but a proactive step towards sustainable success and personal happiness.

Notable Quote:

• Cory [42:18]: "You're not alone in feeling overworked and burnt out, but the only you can stop forest fires and your burnout."

---

Key Takeaways

1. Establish Clear Boundaries: Define maximum order limits, schedule regular days off, and set financial goals to prevent overcommitment.
2. Prioritize Self-Care: Protecting sleep and personal time is essential for long-term productivity and mental health.
3. Avoid Comparisons: Focus on personal business goals rather than comparing to other bakers' achievements.
4. Foster Community: Collaborate with fellow bakers by referring excess orders, building a supportive network.
5. Strategic Marketing: Implement marketing strategies that align with your capacity, such as elongating the sales funnel to manage order flow effectively.

Resources Mentioned

• Sugar Cookie Marketing Facebook Group: A community of over 47,000 bakers.
• Cookie College: A membership program offering comprehensive courses to help bakers grow their business.
• Vendee Blendy: An annual 24-hour shopping event featuring discounts from various vendors.
• Feedhive & Facebook Planner: Tools recommended for scheduling social media posts.
• Asana App: Suggested for managing tasks and reminders.

Upcoming Events

• Secrets of Shopping the Vendee Blendy: A Facebook Live session on November 1 at 7 PM EST, focusing on maximizing the event's benefits.
• Cookie College and Vendee Blendy Podcast: Scheduled for the following Tuesday at 6 PM EST, offering deeper insights into the Cookie College and the Vendee Blendy event.

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By addressing the multifaceted issue of burnout with empathy and actionable advice, Heather and Cory provide invaluable support to their listeners. Whether you're a seasoned bakery owner or just starting, Episode 184 is a must-listen for maintaining balance and ensuring sustained success in your baking business.

Transcript

[Heather]

This is the third time we started this and I would like to exchange my twin for a new one. If you'd like to know why, please send me an [e-mail] and I'll give you a detailed 20 point list.

[Cory]

I would like to make a sales post for myself. Great at baking can help you.

[Heather]

It's the highest, lowest and mint bidder. I won't even charge it. Actually, I'll pay for shipping. It is the podcast. Do you want to run us through what the podcast is? Welcome. Free shipping and maybe 10 off.

[Cory]

Welcome to the Baking it Down podcast with sugar cookie marketing. We're actually a spin off from a group that is on Facebook. There's about 47000 bakers in there getting ready for the Vendee blendy.

[Heather]

Vendee Blendy. On the brain.

[Cory]

On the brain.

[Heather]

Let me tell you because guess what?

[Cory]

November.

[Heather]

It's. Oh yeah. Oh my God.

[Cory]

Is it Friday or is it Saturday? It's Friday.

[Heather]

Yeah. Wow.

[Cory]

Wowzers. Well, if you're wonder this podcast came to be. I love listening to podcasts and I said, you know what? I would love to grow my bakery while I bake.

[Heather]

Great.

[Cory]

And I texted Heather and said find out this. Definitely learn how to make a podcast.

[Heather]

Thousands of dollars later, here we are. Here we are. Episode what?

[Cory]

180.

[Heather]

What do you think?

[Cory]

Three, four? Oh, that's so crazy.

[Heather]

Good. Seeing as how you don't listen to.

[Cory]

Them that we bring you marketing nuggies know hows and to dos each week on Tuesdays so you can grow your business.

[Heather]

Today's topic, okay, never guess, turn it down.

[Cory]

Today's topic you'll never guess is Bakery burnout. There is a cool little name. I forgot it.

[Heather]

Be out Burnout. We try to make it Halloween, Boo. Earn out Burnout. So we want to and we cover this every year. And you may be like, I think I've already heard this. Yeah. Because for some reason we always still need the reminder.

[Cory]

Listen, we always forget get money hungry.

[Heather]

Here's why. Because all year you done the work you put in the market and now you're seeing the results of that. And it's easy to fall in love with the greed of the green.

[Cory]

I can already see posts arising in the sugar cookie marketing Facebook group saying I'm burnt out. What do is anyone feeling the same way that I'm feeling? I tell you, after this week we're all feeling it.

[Heather]

Right? But all that marketing, all that foundation that you've laid all year because you've done the. You know. Why is your eye touching.

[Cory]

Oh, God.

[Heather]

Winking at me.

[Cory]

Is there a little mascara in there?

[Heather]

I never wear it. Yeah, doing. But we work so hard all year. We follow best marketing principles. We're consistent. We're sending out our newsletter and now we can turn around and cash in on that. And we're telling you not to. Yeah, because it's too much. And I. I was saying to Corey the other day. Are you winking at me again? No.

[Cory]

Are you looking at me? I have mascara in my eyeball.

[Heather]

We were talking about it the other day. There's such thing as too much for a cottage baker. There's orders that are too large. There is deadlines that are too short for a one man band. And it introduces more problem than the money it generates.

[Cory]

Right, Heather? I suffer from greed, ego and greed blindness. But I made 37 dozen cookies and.

[Heather]

I was like, heather, I can't wait.

[Cory]

Till Friday because I don't have any orders on Friday and Thursday. They're all picking it up tomorrow.

[Heather]

As if Cory has this boss who's just relentless when in reality you get it.

[Cory]

But then I got an order from the Washington Commanders, which is the rebranded Redskins football team. Yeah, football team. Heather said she sent an email and it says, if I were you, I would say no, but I know you have an ego.

[Heather]

Right. And Corey did say no. Finally. So it is one of those podcast topics that has to crop up again this time of year. We're in our Super Bowl.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And it's easy to get lost in the sauce of that. Money is so green, though, with Halloween.

[Cory]

Here we're first. What's first down?

[Heather]

I don't.

[Cory]

First right down. Whatever. The little football. Red flags are flying.

[Heather]

So here is another list of 10 things to help keep your holidays cheerful. Cheerful. Because otherwise you can. You can sell yourself out and get no cheer. It's the doldrums of December.

[Cory]

What I don't want you to do is get to December. And you're the. The total grinch. And you're like, I hate being.

[Heather]

And everyone around you is on eggshells because you are a grump because you got greedy.

[Cory]

But then you also turn out to hate your business. And you're like, this isn't for me. I hate it. It took all my joy. The last.

[Heather]

And I'm gonna quit. Like, that's the worst kind of marketing is where you do too well. Then you take a huge step back and then you come back with a vengeance every year.

[Cory]

I see.

[Heather]

Right. So if we can Pace ourselves. And yes, the entire intention of this list is to have you make less money intentionally. That's actually the better business decision in this case, because I'd rather you make less money in December and still bake January through December next year than make the most money in December and quit for six months.

[Cory]

Inputting some of these things from this list is going to make you a better business person. Because if you have no goals or guidelines or boundaries, you say yes to everything. You're wishy washy. But if you're like, I have these set in stone and I cannot cross them no matter what, it's going to make you a happier person versus just saying yes because someone got at you. And then here's my big issue. Some random person will say, can you do this?

[Heather]

Oh, yeah, random person.

[Cory]

I can. And then someone I know says, can you please do this too? And I'm like, I said yes to the random person, but I can't say no to this person who knows me.

[Heather]

You guys are allowed to say no. In fact, we're advocating for the no in this podcast list. So number one, turn off your order form when you're done taking orders. Now. I got it. Corey just told me a funny story. She has a jot form, and then you can set the days when you want the calendar to allow you to select a date. So Corey's like, yeah, I've actually blocked off most all of November and some of December. I've taken the orders that I want for those months. She gets an order for mid December. And Corey's like, oh, I can take this order. When she reaches out to the client, the client says, hey, it's actually for the beginning of November that was grayed out. And I'm just wondering if you could still take it.

[Cory]

You're wild.

[Heather]

What's the answer to that, lady?

[Cory]

No.

[Heather]

No. It's no. Because that calendar was already grayed out. But you may think, well, I think I could squeeze them in. No, listen, because that is the bad business decision.

[Cory]

And you have to realize, we know that people out there, if they don't ask, the answer's always no. There's people that literally just ask. They already know it's no. They're not offended when you actually say the word no.

[Heather]

People who don't want to tell no getters, the no givers who don't want to tell a no getter. A no is the no giver who doesn't want to hear it themselves. Yeah, but the no getter is getting no's everywhere.

[Cory]

They don't mind.

[Heather]

They love getting no's because they just.

[Cory]

Want to double check and make sure it's a no.

[Heather]

And neither is wrong. Because they say, well, maybe you could. Maybe the answer is possibly.

[Cory]

I want to say that my son asked to go out to eat every day. I usually say no, but sometimes they say yes. And you know what?

[Heather]

Variable rewards, because I've said that now.

[Cory]

He'S going to continue to ask every day.

[Heather]

And I. I guarantee you the no getters, they've gotten told yes sometimes and they're like, this is worth keeping. I'm worth the rejection if sometimes I get what I want. So we can't be mad at them. Don't form a how dare you.

[Cory]

They took last week's podcast where you have to practice getting rejected. They're so good at it, so give it to me.

[Heather]

But people who love getting no's, they have a superpower. You are. They hear, maybe later. So, one turning off your order form. If you use Jotform, you can use the date things like Corey does. If you use Google forms, it's just dis table form. If you use a website, you can completely delete that for temporarily or set up an autoresponder. Like if you're using square or something, it says, hey, thank you so much. I'm not currently taking orders. Banners on websites do that as well. You can do it on Facebook as your autoresponder. So there's ways. However you take orders, there's ways to stop taking orders. Only you can prevent forest fires and turn that off. Only you can. Nobody can do that for you.

[Cory]

If you're so I want to tell you, it feels so bad business to turn it off.

[Heather]

Yeah. You're like, I'm saying no to money.

[Cory]

To all this marketing I've done. I'm saying no to the province.

[Heather]

We spent all year trying to get the best marketing out there so we can get orders, and now we're saying no. It is very counterintuitive in a business culture. 2. Set your order maxes now. Do not deviate in all caps. So let's say Corey's like, I am going to in the month of November, take 30 dozen orders max. The minute she gets that request for 31, the minute someone says, hey, I want to add another dozen, the answer has got to be no. You have to respect yourself.

[Cory]

Yeah. The problem is when you get these orders and they want to change it after the fact, that's when it gets dangerous. Because you're like, well, I'm already making the order. Well, I could. No, you got to resolve, but you got to be. I had a customer show up yesterday, and she was like, can you. She wanted to do these little cake pop things. Can you do this? I was like, I'm so sorry. I can't.

[Heather]

And. But you see that look of disappointment. You say. You see that the wall of reasons to say yes seems to overpower. Yeah, but I'll be miserable.

[Cory]

I know.

[Heather]

However, if you hate your business, you have no business.

[Cory]

Yeah. I want to say that she showed up yesterday.

[Heather]

I was just in a sports bar.

[Cory]

On pants because it was cleaning the house. Yeah. She shows up.

[Heather]

I.

[Cory]

My. My jacket in the kitchen.

[Heather]

She's.

[Cory]

I'm in the basement.

[Heather]

That is so awkward.

[Cory]

I was like. So I ran down to the washing machine to see if I could just pull some stop and wet things.

[Heather]

Did you not know when she was popping in?

[Cory]

Oh, she showed up.

[Heather]

She told me she was gonna show.

[Cory]

Up an hour before and leave something on the doorstep. No, she rang the doorbell and alerted the dog, and she's talking to the dog. I can't. I was like, I'm so sorry. I'm naked right now. That's okay.

[Heather]

Next time I'll have to charge it. Three schedule posts now, and we'll talk about more about what to include in those posts in a later. I know Cory wants to jump over there. So scheduling the posts now. Okay. If you want, like, a foundation, two posts a week for the next. I eat nine weeks.

[Cory]

Two posts a week.

[Heather]

That's my.

[Cory]

That's my good spot.

[Heather]

That's actually Corey's foundational standard. Anything beyond that, she sees as icing on the cookie. But that is the minimum viable product. She gets two posts a week. And then just so you could schedule those all out right now. You could, but you're like, but I don't know what I'm baking for Christmas. You have that set from last year. You have that content from last year. Absolutely.

[Cory]

You have classes and classes from last year.

[Heather]

You have cookies. I want to show you something.

[Cory]

Nobody in your audience remembers what you baked last year. Only you do.

[Heather]

I absolutely guarantee they never saw the post. Anything.

[Cory]

Some bakers are like, no.

[Heather]

They'll.

[Cory]

They'll realize this was a.

[Heather]

Unless your skill set has increased so drastically that it would be an embarrassment to post the old photos.

[Cory]

My skill set has decreased.

[Heather]

Lie to them, get them, and then give them something even less. But you can schedule those posts now. 1. It takes that thought off. Off of the table. Like, I do that for the clients that we Work with. I'll schedule those bad boys out for months. I use an app called feedhive. Yeah, but you can use Facebook Planner as well. But I'll schedule that stuff out. And then I just put in my Asana app. Hey, don't forget to make new posts. And I never had to think about it. And not having to think about it and just knowing it's out there doing.

[Cory]

Its thing, that's one thing to take off your.

[Heather]

Oh, I gotta do this. Because you know, the vegan is like, I know I've ghosted my page. And then you have to make that out. I know I've been mia, but I won't let you guys know I've been busy. So we just want to keep that consistency. There is that theory that ghosting a page, the algorithm no longer favors page. I still believe it. I think the more consistent posting, the more Facebook will show your post.

[Cory]

Rotisserie chicken guy.

[Heather]

He said it.

[Cory]

And forget it. And remember just a little bit.

[Heather]

Yeah, and don't forget to turn off the oven eventually. Like just. You can just schedule them out now. It takes. I would say if you did two posts a week, we only got what, nine, ten weeks left in the year? Yeah.

[Cory]

Till Christmas is like 7.

[Heather]

So gross.

[Cory]

Maybe a little way too short. Yeah, we're in the middle.

[Heather]

So we got 8. So it's 8 times 2. 16. And we're not talking about a lot.

[Cory]

No, that's not a ton.

[Heather]

That's not a lot. And you can knock 16 posts out, I think you could do in an hour. Yeah. So we got that foundation. We'll have to think about it. We are not socially burnt out social media management burnout. Okay, moving on here. Schedule days off now. All caps. No compromising. This is Corey's.

[Cory]

Listen, listen. Nothing is better than. I love setting up my weeks where it's busy and pickup. It's on Friday. Saturday is cleaning up all the stuff in the week. And then Sunday is a free, free space. Stay in the bed, watch some videos.

[Heather]

Apparently not cleaning. We're waiting to the week.

[Cory]

That was Saturday. This is Sunday.

[Heather]

Yeah, so. But defend those days.

[Cory]

Defend those days. Because I let this past Saturday. Neiman Marcus had ordered last minute like they do.

[Heather]

And I had work.

[Cory]

I know I had to work the entire day. And I said, wow, I am bedraggled because we had class on Saturday.

[Heather]

It was a rough weekend.

[Cory]

It was a. Can we call it a weekend? It was just an extension.

[Heather]

If we teach a cookie class on weekend, it's no longer. It's a Work. It's a work weekend. Yeah. I have to, I have to prep for it on Friday. I have to teach it and, and clean up after on Saturday. And then I have to clean up all the supplies going into my 14.

[Cory]

Day work week because I worked all weekend.

[Heather]

Right. So schedule your days off. Now. Look at that calendar.

[Cory]

I. I'm gonna take off my jacket. It's gonna make a little bit of noise.

[Heather]

Okay. I forced Corey's hand to use Google Calendar. But it's a great way to just be like, oop, can't take that order. Yeah, I have that day is blocked off. Nobody needs to know why day. It's. It's your little secret. Say I have the most important client ever myself. You don't need to tell them that. But you can say these days will not be touched. Schedule fun things out. Buy tickets to a holiday light show on those days. If you have a problem with saying no, schedule something.

[Cory]

Right.

[Heather]

That makes you. Forces the. No.

[Cory]

You know what? You can pre schedule a massage at local med spa places.

[Heather]

Buying tickets to a tree dining ceremony.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Inviting a friend to go with you.

[Cory]

So you have to. Yeah, yeah. You can really put some roadblocks in for yourself. So.

[Heather]

So if you have a promising note, force your hand there. And so we're layering these, we're turning off the forms, we're adding ticketed events that make us happy. We're putting in our Google Calendar so nobody can get around it. Set your hours on Facebook and make them shorter if needed. So Facebook pages have hours, business page hours. Right. Within those hours, your, your away messages actually work in tandem with how you set those hours. So you have an active away message if you want it. Autoresponder. And then you have the after hours autoresponder. Typically a lot of bakers unfortunately put 24 hours there. I never would because you're not working 24 hours. I know what you're thinking. I take leads 24 hours. I'll take your money 24 hours. But if you're in bed, you just need to say, I work from like a 9 to 5. So if this is a hobby for you, you could actually put your hobby out. Yeah.

[Cory]

You can do time blocks.

[Heather]

Right. You. I wouldn't go there and change my hours every day. I would just kind of sit. But I would change it for the next three months. And here's what I would do. Even if I was full time baker, I would still put shorter hours. That way people know you're not accessible all the time. Yeah.

[Cory]

When it says 24 hours. That to me says, wow, they're baking 24 hours a day. They can probably take this last minute order.

[Heather]

They're just sitting in the kitchen twiddling their thumbs. They're in the dark. It's 2am they're sitting in the kitchen.

[Cory]

That's what I think people think about me.

[Heather]

She must be just sitting in the.

[Cory]

Kitchen waiting for this order to come through.

[Heather]

I've seen this issue that bakers get offended when people submit orders at like 2am I am, I am a late night shopper. Yeah. I prefer to do it when in the dark of the night in my bedroom and I'm scrolling, scrolling by and buying, buying, inquiring, inquiring. Right. I don't know. I do not ever expect an immediate reply.

[Cory]

True.

[Heather]

I would.

[Cory]

Almost all on one early morning order. I'm an early morning emailer order.

[Heather]

But neither of us are like, it's been five minutes after 2:00am and Corey's like, it's been five minutes after 5:00am and we haven't gotten replies. So setting your hours back to the kind of topic here. Setting your hours and making them shorter. If it's a three hour day, that means I'm accessible to you for three hours. And then outside of the three hours, I'm actually doing other stuff, whatever that entails. If it's baking or if it's family time.

[Cory]

That's absolutely your hours to be the bad guy versus you being the bad guy. So like, oh, I'm so sorry. My hours are 9 to 5. I'm seeing this the next business day.

[Heather]

Yeah. Or my hours are, you know, from 9 to 12 and then I go and I think when I see a cottage baker, I'm not like you're working full time out of a bakery in your basement. I don't, I don't think that either. I think what I see when I go to a cottage baker and I see these bakes that you can clearly see are made at someone's home, that they're doing this probably most likely hobby. And if they're doing it full time, they're still not a 24, 7 bakery.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So I don't even know a bakery.

[Cory]

That'S a 24, 7 bakery.

[Heather]

It would be delicious. Some of those Korean bake shops are open super late and they are delectable. I don't know if you guys have them. If you guys come into the DMV area. Korean bake, I don't know. Someone call them bake houses. They're like beautiful enchanted wood with Enchanted trees. And for some reason their fruit tarts and their cakes are perfectly cut and wrapped with a kind of like cello paper.

[Cory]

I have no idea how they.

[Heather]

It is a treat.

[Cory]

Perfect.

[Heather]

They are everywhere here and they are glorious. Loves them. If you were like, they have fun.

[Cory]

Cakes and the shapes and it's not a problem.

[Heather]

It's a prep. I like it. It's a really, really.

[Cory]

Does not like sweet, sweet stuff. Unlike the rest of us who love.

[Heather]

I really do.

[Cory]

If I'm gonna eat a buttercream, I want to taste the butter.

[Heather]

This is like a light whipped cream cake outer shell.

[Cory]

It's like buttercream. But if you were two rooms away.

[Heather]

Yes. The idea of buttercream cake. I like them but they have so many options. They have ice cream and gelato and then they have all these baked breads and they. I got a potato bread. Delectable. Don't even. I was like, I'm going to trust the process. I know it was a sweet potato bread. So, you know, set your hours on Facebook. Unlike the Korean bakeries, which you can go to. Moving on to the next one. This is Corey's. Don't always post links to sell. Elongate the funnel to slow down sales.

[Cory]

You might think, why I'm posting, let me just link to my website. But if we're trying to take fewer sales because we're booked and we're guarding our safe space, but we know we can't abandon our social media profiles. You can post a caption, you can post a photo and just leave off the link. The link to order is nowhere to be seen.

[Heather]

So if you listen to 182 podcasts, we talk about shortening the funnel. But when we need a curtail orders, the elongating of the funnel can have the opposite intended effect of making orders drop out of the funnel. Corey and I say like two clicks to order. That's kind of the max. You see that Amazon got single click to order. And that's why. Because they know now if Amazon's like we're going to make it five clicks to order, you're probably half of your audience going to be like, well, I got distracted. My kids called, I found another product, I clicked over there, lost my logins. The longer we create that funnel that we can, we can slow down sales without having to say I booked. Yeah, because we know that the double edged short of saying I'm booked does get a lot of last minute orders. It's almost a strategy.

[Cory]

And I hate when bakers like chastise their like loyal customers. Guys, if I say I booked, I buck. Stop this. Dare you do what I've asked you to do. So instead of spanking your audience, just hide the linkage a little bit.

[Heather]

Make it difficult to sit there, make your calendar grade out. If you really don't want to take orders to take the calendar off the order for me.

[Cory]

You can totally do that.

[Heather]

You can do things to elongate that funnel so you don't have to be like now. Instead you can be like, no, no.

[Cory]

Yeah, because we don't want people do. I do see people order for me because they want to support me.

[Heather]

Yes.

[Cory]

You know, they're not necessarily. They need cookies. Like someone just ordered for their kids half birthday. I didn't even know that was a thing. I could tell she's just trying to.

[Heather]

Support my half birthday.

[Cory]

It's been a. Well, our birthday birthday is coming up.

[Heather]

So you have to think way half birthday. How am I typing this into Google?

[Cory]

Is it called a golden birthday?

[Heather]

That sounds like you turned to 55 halfway to November 22nd. Oh, a half birthday calculator. May 22nd.

[Cory]

May 22nd.

[Heather]

Happy belated half birthday. Yeah, so I. Sorry, I missed.

[Cory]

Some people are just thinking of you, and then you're like, you know what? This would be great to take as a hostess gift to Thanksgiving. You know what? Let me. I think Cory bakes. Let me go order from her. They're just being nice.

[Heather]

They're being nice. And we were like, how dare you? How dare you celebrate your kids quarter birthday.

[Cory]

I know.

[Heather]

And come to me when you knew I was booked.

[Cory]

I actually this thing went viral on TikTok this week and it was. This lady was like, yeah, I was having a birthday. I followed this cake baker for a long time and I really just truly wanted her to make my cake because I like her stuff. She's like, but tell me, why do I feel like I was chastised for making order? Because lady's like, my calendar isn't open. You can inquire in two weeks when.

[Heather]

It opens up those. For those. I'm sorry. And I call it lawyer's week. Because Corey's ex husband used to like, you'd be like, hey, I don't think I can make the drop off time at 2. Therefore thou shalt launch. I have received thine application to adjust the hours of exchange from New York. And so sometimes bakers are like, doo doo, had this fun time making some unicorn cookies. Your dreams come true with Bakedy Me llc. And then you're like, oh, can I Buy some unicorn cookies. Thou shalt never request on my door these cookies. So we don't want to have that personality change. We don't want to be that split personality where we. We love orders. And suddenly when we have these boundaries, we're like, no means no. I know. No.

[Cory]

No one's a complete sentence.

[Heather]

No. I would. If you have ever. Sorry. If you have ever said no is a complete sense or no means no to a client, please forward me their reply.

[Cory]

Yes.

[Heather]

I would love to know what hell and hand basket that went in. I would. So what we want to do is like slow down our sales. And we can do that by elongating the funnel or we can say, oh, so sorry, I'm actually booked for you to. If you have a problem with saying no, you can set up roadblocks that say no for you. Moving on 7. Set a monetary goal. Once reached, stop baking. This is Cory's. This Achilles.

[Cory]

My Achilles tendon.

[Heather]

Corey's. Cory was dipped into the greedy water and they forgot. You know what?

[Cory]

It's because we're twins and everything was half.

[Heather]

Yeah, everything.

[Cory]

And whatever that did to my psychology, my brain having everything divided by two.

[Heather]

Corey got great. So. Yeah, we just call it you got great.

[Cory]

Great.

[Heather]

It's like the short term. Are you greedy little son of a. So set a monetary goal once it's reached up a. So that would look like this in December. I want to generate $3,000. Yeah. However that looks, it all goes into the pot of the goal. Right. So it's not. I want to teach three classes. Because three classes could clear enormous class. I want to sell that many. I want to sell this many customs, whatever it is. Once you. And you're keeping good records because you're a business owner and you like Excel and you know where your money's going and you even use ynab. You need a budget app. You know when you hit that $2,000 and everything after that, is it clear and present? No. It's a no.

[Cory]

And it's okay to say no to that.

[Heather]

That's a great one. So some people are motivated to bend their boundaries by money. Corey being a great example of those. Those people. Corey is them. Them is they. So what you would say is, when I reach this monetary go matter what the ask is, it's a no. And that's a nice little boundary too, because $3,000, that's a. That's a lot. You can play with that. You can budget that. And once you reach that, everything after that, you don't really need it's actually not a savvy business.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Business decision, because you're going to get burnt out.

[Cory]

Because I know who I am as a person. What I've done to kind of force myself is like these DIY kits for Halloween, I only bought 13 boxes.

[Heather]

That'll restrict you.

[Cory]

So I had to tell people, no.

[Heather]

That is a great boundary. I think we get kind, like, why buy 10 when 100? I know.

[Cory]

And yeah. So then I said, you know, for Christmas, I'm only buying 11 boxes.

[Heather]

Great. Yeah. Myself.

[Cory]

No.

[Heather]

You can tell yourself no. So setting those restrictions around the nose is also another version of a roadblock. I like the financial one, because when we talk business, we talk finances. We talk finances. That's kind of why we're on the business. To make money. To make that dough. Making that dough. So when we say, hey, this is enough dough. Corey and I always reference this one time when we're like, what if we just didn't say no? It was the. It was the winter of 2020.

[Cory]

Yeah, it was.

[Heather]

Right. So no companies were still meeting in place. Classes were virtual. Oh, no. It might have been 2021. I remember it was one year. We just didn't say no. I think it was 2021. So it was still Covid. That's still Covid surge. Because nobody knew if we're still getting in the room together. Right. So we never said no to classes. We never said no to DIY kits. We never said. And I don't do course customs, but she was taking those as well. Well, we got so mentally sloppy that we started introducing mistakes.

[Cory]

Oh, there were.

[Heather]

That cost us money because we had to refund that stuff. And we were miserable. And I think the thing we said is never again. I almost think. And Cory doesn't see 11:30pm until the Vendee blendy. It's one time a year. That time we were there and we were hard labor slinging icing and said, never again. This was miserable. All the money in the world isn't worth your happiness. So that was that one. Take a lesson from 2021. Heather and Corey, 8. Turn off your lights and go to bed. Just end your day.

[Cory]

You know what? Nothing feels better than my people with iPhones. We can put ours into sleep mode.

[Heather]

Sleep mode on our potatoes.

[Cory]

Oh, really, Tater?

[Heather]

You just throw it in the bin or across the room and it breaks.

[Cory]

So turning that off and it stops the notification. So you don't see the Facebook notification.

[Heather]

You don't see your email notification on Apple people's devices. Sure. On your apple orchard folk, can you set this new thing where it's like you do not disturb and it tells all your Apple contacts this person doesn't want to be bothered, but you can press a button that goes above it for them?

[Cory]

I do believe so.

[Heather]

Yeah. I saw like, you can like say like, no, I know they don't want to be bothered, but I'm going to bother them regardless and click something.

[Cory]

I always, instead of do not survive. I just always turn.

[Heather]

You have no friends. Nobody's bothering you.

[Cory]

Instead, it is me. Instead of blocking Heather's name, I turn.

[Heather]

It on sleep mode. Right. So turning off the lights and go to bed. I'm real big into the smart home thing. If someone's spying on me, they're going to be mad. But I have all the lights in my office turn off at a certain time. Why? Because I'm not necessarily counting the clock, but when those lights violate, it startles the cat. Every night it's. I'm like, oh, it's 8:30, it's 8:30, it's time to call him and we gots to go. You need to set an end day. Sleep is so precious. And I say this, I read it once, and I think about it all the time. The lack of sleep will be the cigarettes of our era.

[Cory]

One thing I do protect with my whole heart, sleep.

[Heather]

Amy messaged you Yesterday at like 7:30, like, you lost her. Dude, you're two minutes too late.

[Cory]

My husband wanted to go to bed at the same time yesterday, but he was like, I have to take a quick shower. I said, I'm so sorry, my eyes are closing. He's like, you can't wait four minutes? I said, I cannot.

[Heather]

I'm not gonna dagia on protecting sleep because it is literally how your brain washes and cleans itself. So it is breaking down whatever brain plaques are and you can think clearly the next morning. The people who lack sleep are the people who are like, I forgot that order.

[Cory]

I know. And you know what? I love sleep. I love protecting it. I love a good night of it.

[Heather]

People are gonna say, but the order isn't done yet. I just can't walk away from the order. That means you took too many orders. Yeah. So you can see that a cascade failure effect when you didn't have a boundary over here, it cost you sleep, it cost you sloppiness, it cost you your oopsie fund over here. And then it's just a cascade failure. So if you're like, well, I'm not able to go to bed at 8:30. I'm not able to go to bed at 9:30 and still get this done. Then the issue lies with turning off the order form.

[Cory]

When I think about taking an order. Sorry, that was my watch. When I think about taking an order I know how much time in the day I can give to that order while still maintaining my sleep cycle.

[Heather]

I know it's on your mind, but I when you wake up you're like, I can't wait to go. Yeah. Oh, absolutely.

[Cory]

I even threw myself into bed last night. But like the. So I I told Heather we ended up making. I ended up making 37 dozen cookies this past week.

[Heather]

Don't worry. Corey's let everybody strangers know this.

[Cory]

I'm so tired. But not really because I've had But I've had to work every single second. So that means no endless scrolling on social media.

[Heather]

Darn it.

[Cory]

I know.

[Heather]

Which is some and I know endless scrolling does get dogged on. It is a recharging of sorts. It is that my eyes but you.

[Cory]

Can get lost in it.

[Heather]

So you're like so I have been.

[Cory]

Watching my YouTube little videos.

[Heather]

But I know you know your iPhone. I know your little iPhone. People tell you how much time you're in Android people. If you use app blocker it tells me how much time I spent on certain apps. So you guys can kind of break check that there as well. Which is in the other direction. Like too much doom scrolling and that's not healthy.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

If you're wasting all the time in bed doom scrolling to 2am not good either we have to get that that tight or at least to get that tight 10, you know, tight 11 tight 24 hours. I can't wait. So turn off the lights and go to bed. Find that cutoff day and help it. It will shape how you take orders. Because if you're like, I cannot. I'm not allowed to work after this hour and that order will not get done. I need to adjust how many orders I'm taking. 9. Posted about this yesterday in the sugar cookie marketing group. Stop looking at competition. We have no clue how many orders each of us can take.

[Cory]

Absolutely not.

[Heather]

But it is very stressful to see someone say I am booked for December. And you're like, I'm not booked. I have. I could take a million more orders. But we don't know. And that's what I always say. Corey and I use a free classroom space that only seats 10. Yeah. We will always sell out of classes because we seat so few.

[Cory]

So we always say these Classes will sell out fast because there's no seats.

[Heather]

There's only 10 seats now. Somebody. And then I say, it's so funny when I see someone's like, well, I haven't. I can't even reach capacity at any of my classes. And I say, well, how many seats you have? And they say, 4. 45. Yeah. Like, oh, my goodness, you're generating more than us. You're putting in more work than us. But you feel that you're not sold out, although you would have sold out our classroom times three.

[Cory]

And I want to tell you something. Lying is out there. Someone could say, I sold 45.

[Heather]

Well, here you have this. Here's a wild part. It's a strategy of. Some bakers say, I'm sold out because it does generate this. Oh, can you squeeze me in? And they were using that to generate orders. And if you think. If you agree or disagree with that, it's not up to us. It's not our business. But it's easy to be the baker that, oh, my goodness, my competition is sold out. When we don't realize. They're like, I'm not sold out at all. I'm generating these FOMO orders.

[Cory]

And I want to say, I feel this, too. If I get an order and I feel like if I say no, they're going to find someone new, they're going to like them better. I'm going to lose the opportunity to ever get their business ever again. You know what? It wasn't in the card for me in the Washington Commanders, and she probably found a baker who, let me say.

[Heather]

The win that they had on that day was not in the cards for them either. They were also surprised, but.

[Cory]

So you will turn down an order and you'll think, oh, my goodness, look at this revenue. Not only am I losing loss of.

[Heather]

Opportunity, I'm losing it in perfect. Yeah.

[Cory]

That is something I sometimes have a hard time dealing with as well, because I'm like, they're going to find another baker. We're so saturated with bakers here. There's no.

[Heather]

But you're also so saturated with orders because the area supports this many bakers because we have this many people. So the economy, and it's called the invisible hand of the economy. It always dictates. Dictates what we can do. The reason why it's saturated is because it can be. Yeah. If it was not able to support this many bakers, then no bakers would be here.

[Cory]

You're going to see bakers saying, oh, Mario, booked for December. You know what they did. They listened to this podcast and they said they took their days off, had their cap on the cash and they're saying that they're booked because they are setting up the correct boundaries to be successful and not burnt out by the end of December.

[Heather]

I thought, you know, and I appreciate where the people are coming from that say that. Someone's like, yeah, I'm just on this post I made yesterday, someone's like, yeah, I'm just a, a hobby baker. I can only do two orders every two weeks. Like, she's like, that's all I got. I really do have a full time job. She's like, it bothers me when people are like, if you bake it all, you're no longer a hobby baker. She's like, no, I'm by definition, this is my hobby to generate some income. And I know what they're saying is like, appreciate your time. You've done it. You don't have to call yourself. But she's like, I want to be a hobby baker. I do not want to do this full time. I do like the spending money from it. And I'm not trying to be anything more than I am, but I book out so quick.

[Cory]

Don't be a hobby baker means don't undercharge yourself.

[Heather]

That's what they're trying to say, but they're coming in on the wrong intention of the wrong thread. So I. It's like the no means no. I get what you're saying there. It's not helping. It's nice because you're saying defend your boundaries, but you're saying it in the wrong way in the wrong thread. The person literally wants to know what to say to their client. So you just stop looking at the competition or. And then somebody else added this to that thread was like, find three people you really like and send them the orders and say when you're booked.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Can you remember me?

[Cory]

I love doing that. Yeah, I got my little network, man.

[Heather]

Yeah, it feels better. Cory and I do not teach private classes anymore. Lessons learned. But there is a lot of money on the table that we leave. I hate ignore. I hate ghosting those emails because what I'm going to tell them. No, I'd rather say, here are three people.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

That would be willing to come to your house and teach that class. And I think that they'd be willing to send people to our class when they broke. Because there's not every day you can teach a cookie class.

[Cory]

Yeah. And community over competition. If you're sending your extra orders to someone else, they, in the future can send their excess orders. Orders to you. Meaning.

[Heather]

So make sure that you're not just referring them blindly. Say to them, hey, I really like how you bake. Actually think you're on par with kind of my skill set. I love to send you some of my overage. And if you find yourself in a place where you're booked out, I would love to take any of that.

[Cory]

Because Northern Virginia is so vast, yet so small, it traffic separates. It's also what my. I actually have it saved to my notes app. It's a list of local bakers. But I have a baker for every single area. Because. Because a lot of people aren't gonna travel 40 minutes to come and pick up something from me. Cause that is a lot of time in travel, right?

[Heather]

Cause here, 40 minutes means the potential for two accidents, and that's gonna be accidents.

[Cory]

So I have someone for Ashburn. I have someone for Sterling. I have someone for Vienna. Just everywhere I have my little network, I send them.

[Heather]

You know what's so funny? We teach cookie classes. Just kind of hit or miss whenever you feel like doing it, right? I'll be honest. There's no consistency there. But I love starting class. And I'm like, hey, we're gonna go around the room like we're in first grade and we're gon who what your name is, where you rolled out of bed from, and then your experience with cookies. I like those questions because it's an icebreaker. And I also know what their intentions are there.

[Cory]

If they're trying to really learn their names very well.

[Heather]

I write it down and they. I wonder if they hate it or if they love hearing their name in class.

[Cory]

On Saturday, we had two Jades. So that was an easy one.

[Heather]

I called Jade another Jade. Jade one JADE two It was so funny. These two Jades, they're from the same part of Australia. They found themselves. They did not know each other. They moved from Australia to Northern Virginia because of their husband's jobs. And they're both named Jade.

[Cory]

Crazy.

[Heather]

They happen to meet each other and now they go to cooking classes. So, Jade 1 Jade 2 you're listening. Hello.

[Cory]

Hello.

[Heather]

Crocky. There you go. Said it. Hello. In Australia, where you were heading with that story was.

[Cory]

I know you were going to say our competition friends.

[Heather]

No, I'm going to say every. Yes. All the other local cookie classes either that teach on Saturdays for an hour and a half, they have moved. One person moved to Denver. One person moved to Tennessee. So all the people in the class Are driving a tremendous distance. Yes. And I'm like, why Elias, what's her name? Elise was like, I came here from deep in Maryland.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Which in Virginia speak. That's about 10 years away. We're like, everyone got there and that's why she was like, I had to leave so early because I could have hit five accidents. So, you know, I was like, well, she's like, I can't find anybody between here and there's. So there's a constant ebb and flow of cook years doing things they're doing in the right day. Some at least only had an hour and a half. Some cook years have been teaching a two and a half hour class. So there's just enough to go around.

[Cory]

There is. There totally is.

[Heather]

Right. And I would almost rather at least not have to drive to Virginia to take these classes.

[Cory]

There's this locally a local bake shop. It's called Franz. But she was teaching cookie classes out there. But the cookie lady moved to Denver.

[Heather]

So is that coin. I actually took that cookie class in 2019.

[Cory]

But what's so funny is 2 of the class attendees came to our class on Saturday and found each other.

[Heather]

Like we sat by each other in that class.

[Cory]

So we called them Franz plants. And we were like, go report back to France that you had a great time.

[Heather]

She had. Jenna had emailed me and she's like, hey, I know that you're sold out of Christmas class. I was wondering if we still could get a DIY kit. And I was like, absolutely. Through Eventbrite. Same way you got the DIY kit. And she was like, oh, thank you so much. Sincerely, France Buy.

[Cory]

Yeah, that was hilarious.

[Heather]

So, yeah. So again, uh, there's. That opportunity is always creating itself. Don't look at your competition. Don't look at. The twins have sold out every class. They only seat 10.

[Cory]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Heather]

Teach haphazardly.

[Cory]

Absolutely.

[Heather]

Um, and then there's people that are teaching 45 person classes. There's people who are teaching. Oh, if you listen to Eventbrite sent out an email, you can do staggered ticketing times for a single event. Which I think you know, if you taught three classes in a day.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Instead of creating three events. Oh, that's amazing. Now you could do one event listing with three start times and it's free. It's no additional cost. I'm not sure. I haven't put it into practice, but it. They did roll that out yesterday.

[Cory]

You also have to think about your life. Comp to someone else's life. Me with a teenager who doesn't want anything to do with me. Has a lot more time on my hands than someone.

[Heather]

We are butt hidden.

[Cory]

I actually got him this nice cologne.

[Heather]

We did. Jimmy, too.

[Cory]

He.

[Heather]

I wouldn't like. Cory and I went to the men's cologne section of Nordy, which was out of my budget, but Corey said he. She was like, archer is finally interested in a girl and wants a signature scent. And Corey's like, if I feel like if I can introduce a signature deodorant will follow. Yeah, like, you know, at that age where you're like. Like, I. So we. I've smelled like a man. The whole thing.

[Cory]

The one we got.

[Heather]

It was delicious.

[Cory]

Oh, he was like.

[Heather]

He came into my room.

[Cory]

Of course, he's never apparently put on dinner. Our spray cologne.

[Heather]

He's like, I'm looking for one squirt.

[Cory]

We said to start with, but he came in. He was like, I'm looking for. Is there, like, a button on here? He didn't even know there was a lid on life.

[Heather]

Life comes at you, man. You just don't know.

[Cory]

But we spray. I said, you smell delicious.

[Heather]

Why are you telling us about.

[Cory]

Hold on.

[Heather]

Huh? Archer doesn't want anything to do with you. Yes, he does. Oh.

[Cory]

I'm saying when kids. I have an older child, so I have a lot more time and flexibility versus maybe, you know, a baby who needs to be fed and everything like that.

[Heather]

Is that what you do now? What, you're feeding them things?

[Cory]

I guess you do. Apparently, it works.

[Heather]

Cory's feeding them out garden too. So stop looking at the competition. Focus on yourself. We have no idea what everyone's line in the sand is. If anything, be proud of them. Like, oh, you learned how to say no. Congratulations. I'm learning that too. I'm hoping to be booked off of what my life looks like today.

[Cory]

What's crazy is Amy, who is a mod in the sugar cookie marketing group. Love her to death. She's five children.

[Heather]

It's like talking to her about. I'll be like, how's your Saturday? I haven't slept in 10 years.

[Cory]

How can you pick up your phone? Like, you have so many kiddos and she works, like, 52 jobs.

[Heather]

This is what it's like because she and you go to bed, so you don't know what Amy does. Amy will be, like, awake at 11:30.

[Cory]

What is she?

[Heather]

And I'm like, why are you awake? And she's like, my kid is in the hospital, broke his arm. I have nothing to do. I'm sitting in the emergency.

[Cory]

She's watching. She works five million jobs. She has five children, a husband. I don't know how she does.

[Heather]

She sleeps for five minutes. Yeah.

[Cory]

I think she. Her recharging battery is so much.

[Heather]

Yeah. Better. I don't know how she does it. We look like lazy. Oh.

[Cory]

I'm like, she, she's, she's awake when I wake up. And she's awake.

[Heather]

Cuz I'm like, why? I'm like, Amy, sorry, Ms. Cory. She went to bed. I know.

[Cory]

But the in the morning we must wake up at the same time. Cuz I swear I'll get a message from her like.

[Heather]

And I think we go to Bennet. I think they beat her to bed someday.

[Cory]

That's why I'm so curious.

[Heather]

Ama for if you're listening. Are you okay?

[Cory]

It's. Did you make a deal with the devil?

[Heather]

Like call her. Okay. Are you okay? 10 don't take last minute orders. It's a bummer. I hate to say no. Then you're like, but no. I'll charge him a rush fee. Delicious. And I, I, I'm right there with you. Tracking. Tracking. However. Don't do it. Don't do it in this period where burnout is just so right there. It's knocking out her.

[Cory]

Here's the thing. This is the super bowl champion for every baker. It's not that. It's just this one time that there. It's everywhere. Someone's gonna be knocking at your door.

[Heather]

The reason why the person's knocking at your door is because five of their doors said we were booked.

[Cory]

Yeah. Heather was like, the Washington commanders don't care about you.

[Heather]

They said that. They're not gonna be like, Corey, you remember that time where much like our football team, you went to the end zone when we didn't think you would. We would like to make you the official commander's cooking. They just needed. And I said, I said, corey, you know they send that 50 bakers. Cause I was like, did they rely on like no. And I was like, yeah. Because they got that much rejection. They wanted a custom set in two days. I probably delivered to what? D.C. yeah. I don't know where they were. They're headquartered anymore.

[Cory]

Ashburn.

[Heather]

I thought they moved from the marshmallow building.

[Cory]

They still have it.

[Heather]

It was deflate. They were literally deflating.

[Cory]

Deflated when I came.

[Heather]

I don't know if you guys seen these football fields. They put a tarp. They blow up with air. It's the biggest marshmallow.

[Cory]

It's because they can change the temperature very easily inside so they can practice in the cold.

[Heather]

Imagine if it snowed on it. You just go in the snowfall. I wish you could just jump on it. And then it's a giant Halloween part.

[Cory]

Calls it an igloo. It does look like.

[Heather]

I think it looks like a melting marshmallow. I see the horizon. It is a very unlike a building, but that's where you find it. That's where they play, I guess.

[Cory]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Heather]

So don't take those last minute orders. Tempting. Great business practice. Outside of this time it will be the order you hate.

[Cory]

It will. And next year you're gonna get a ton of those same kind of orders. It's not just like, if we don't take it this year, it's never gonna happen again.

[Heather]

In the cookie college in January, the first week of January, I say, write a letter to yourself about the lessons you've learned from the nightmare you made in December. They don't realize that I still have these emails. I send it to them on December 1st and they get to hear from them past salves. And it says, what did you wish you did? More of. What do you wish you did? Less than my towel. Huh? You'll get it in.

[Cory]

So busy. I come.

[Heather]

But in January, we slow down. We're like, o. I hated what I did there. Oh, I hated that. I. I took on too much.

[Cory]

It was so funny. Someone in the college was like, tell me about teaching classes in January. Compared to. I was like, I want.

[Heather]

I want you to take everything, you know, flip it upside down and then add some tears and then. And then come up with some coffee to cancel that class. I know. Some money.

[Cory]

With the money.

[Heather]

Yeah. Like if Cory and I could add. And I said to Cory, if we added 30 more Christmas classes. Not 30, if we added. Added one more, two more, three more, they still fill out. And people be like, hey, you're gonna teach another class? Yes. I can't make it on Saturday or I wanna. My family came in last minute.

[Cory]

Nothing. You know what?

[Heather]

It's great. This time is great.

[Cory]

It is. Nothing perturbs me more than people are like, can you offer more DIY kits? If you offered them, I'd buy them. So you're like, you go crazy. You order 30 more boxes. All right, guys, you asked for it.

[Heather]

Here it is. Crickets. Darn it. I'm stuck with a very, very specific walk style. Yeah. So that's just our list of 10. And you can go back every year on this podcast and find out a list of 10 Ways to Grow.

[Cory]

I want to Say you're not alone in feeling overworked and burnt out, but the only you can stop forest fires and your burnout.

[Heather]

Right? We are. We all took this leap of faith to be our own bosses, even be our own part time bosses. And only we can protect the employee of us.

[Cory]

Yeah. Even Heather loves her mind. When I complain about an order, she's like, I wonder who took that one.

[Heather]

Oh, wow, that's so unfortunate that you. You told them. Yes. And you let them add another dozen and you told them they could pick up whatever. Right?

[Cory]

So what I don't want. And I hate when I see negative backers post in the sugar cookie marketing group. I hate this. I'm quitting. How can I announce to my customers I hate them and I never want to take an order ever again for the rest of my life. It is our own fault. But we can also be the ones who make this a pleasant time of the year.

[Heather]

We are our delicious time for easy money that fits within our goals and our lifestyle and what we want.

[Cory]

Me and Heather, your biggest cheerleaders if you want to make a ton of money. And we're your biggest cheerleaders if you want to cover Christmas. Joy of Christmas. Yeah, yeah, we're cheering you both ways.

[Heather]

Both of them are great business decisions when they're intended. At the end of the day, we.

[Cory]

Are marketers and we teach you marketing tips. Marketing unfortunately works.

[Heather]

We have to do this podcast every Tuesday.

[Cory]

Yeah, marketing works. You're going to get more reach, more sales, more inquiries. That's what marketing does.

[Heather]

Too bad Cookie World wasn't more of a, like a monotone line of sales. There's like. But when you have these real slow times in the summer and then you have these just huge. It just starts so quickly in August, goes to football, super bowl in December, and then it goes back to nothing in January because everyone's like, you know, I'm on a budget now. Yeah, I overspend January. And I'm on a. Yeah, we also have January diets going against us.

[Cory]

I know.

[Heather]

We have all these things going against us. And then wedding season isn't until spring.

[Cory]

Really. I know.

[Heather]

Then we're like, oh, my goodness. But I remember the scarce times and I feel like I've got to gather when the harvest is ready and if I don't, I'm leaving money on the table and I'll. And it's just really an adjustment of expectations. Landscapers know it. They understand here we don't get a ton of snow. But you, you take on enough Summer grass orders. And then you hedge your bets with the winter plow stuff.

[Cory]

What's so funny is I feel like there's these like old season bakers standing on the sidelines like shaking their heads like, look, they learned the hard way. Because new bakers have never experienced this.

[Heather]

It's a wild. It's a wild wild. If this is your first year and you had the hellacious J and then you're like, oh my goodness. Oh my goodness, it's finally working. You're going to be like, I'll take every order possible because that's what I'm supposed to do because that's what I've been working for. And then you're like, oh my goodness, I hate this. I'm never doing it again.

[Cory]

Nothing will break a new baker more than this season in not being able to say no.

[Heather]

Yeah.

[Cory]

And it's so delicious to say yes.

[Heather]

It tastes.

[Cory]

I love making a sale. I hate making. Making the sale.

[Heather]

You hate baking the sale. You love making the sale. So that takes us through our list of 10. I hope that you guys make an intention to enjoy this season. Corey was like, I'm gonna put on my Christmas tree in October and I could see it all. And then Cory's like, well, I'm actually rushing through Halloween. There's Halloween decorations, you know, our kids. This last year's trick or treating or whatever. With his Jimmy Choo cologne. He's going as Jimmy too. Just kidding. But. But she was like, yeah, I gotta slow down a little bit. I'm rushing through this and I'm not really enjoying my life as it flies past me because I'm too busy with my head in a mixer. Yes, we should do. You wanted to go to New York City.

[Cory]

I, you know, I was thinking you.

[Heather]

Saw also Virginia Beach. There was a lot going on there.

[Cory]

I see New York City.

[Heather]

And so I was like, no, let's.

[Cory]

Go to Virginia Beach.

[Heather]

Let's go. It's four hours.

[Cory]

Which one?

[Heather]

New York City. Well, both of them are.

[Cory]

We did go to New York City. I know we talked about the podcast on Creek Christmas Day.

[Heather]

Yeah, it was completely empty, but all of the lights are still up on.

[Cory]

I know you could imagine honestly going any of the stores because it was closed. But it was such a fun.

[Heather]

It was like a quiet. And then we went to where's a place with the big square dirty rock with a big tree.

[Cory]

I know what you're talking about.

[Heather]

Someone from Times Square. No, I did go to Times Square. Rockefeller Center.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And people were ice skating.

[Cory]

I Thought the best part was there's. I want to see. It was Saks Fifth, Fifth Avenue. We went and it was that. That building that's a present.

[Heather]

All of Fifth Avenue turns into where.

[Cory]

It'S got like all these lights on it.

[Heather]

Did we walk the bridges? Like, were we the only people on the bridges?

[Cory]

I absolutely think, yeah.

[Heather]

Yeah, it was a vibe. We should go.

[Cory]

We should go.

[Heather]

Okay.

[Cory]

What?

[Heather]

We get one cheesecake from New York City.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

I feel like from Al Garden. Look at Times Square. They do.

[Cory]

Yes.

[Heather]

Oh, it's the one where Post Malone ate.

[Cory]

No way.

[Heather]

Yeah, there's a.

[Cory]

Where he has all those videos of him being funny.

[Heather]

Always there at that algorithm. And end times square text 571-556-5644 if you want to text in. Or there should be a button on your podcast player that says, like, text this podcast or something. This is one of those. Hi, twins. Twin emoji. Will Sassy Trace be participating in the Vendee Bunny? Holding off and buying them just in case. By the way, I love the episode on saying and hearing no. Last week after listening, I sent a follow up email on a deal that I thought was a no, and it's looking more like a yes now. Appreciate y'all hope in Knoxville. That's a great question. Yeah. And the Vendy Blendy is a great sangui from this. Is Sassy Trey signed up?

[Cory]

No, not yet.

[Heather]

And I know you're like, wow, you just went on a blast here.

[Cory]

Yes.

[Heather]

Because this past week we did. I don't know what I call it, the peer pressure post.

[Cory]

It's fantastic.

[Heather]

And you guys came in. You just came in with the. We needed tagged. You got to the end zone that Corey wouldn't bake for. So what we did is we post to the sugar cookie marketing page. Not the group, the page. And then we say, hey, bakers, tag the shops you would love to see in the Vendee Blendy that you will promise you will buy from. In the comments, it pings these pages. So the manager, the owners of the.

[Cory]

Company, like, oh my gosh, either I've done something horribly wrong and I'm right.

[Heather]

Like I'm getting tagged on to a post in the post explains how they can sign up and. And you guys came in and you did it. So that took the vendibundi. I set my goal for the Vendee Blendy this year and I know we pushed our luck with the 20. 25 was 62 vendors. Last year we had 72 at 20.

[Cory]

This year we were asking for an additional five.

[Heather]

And that's a lot. That's a lot to ask. And I said, if we. If. If we had 50 vendors, I'd be like, great. If you got 62, that was my greedy number. We now have 68.

[Cory]

68.

[Heather]

68.

[Cory]

Let's go over the new ones that signed up. Go. Sure.

[Heather]

Newest to oldest signed up this morning.

[Cory]

Signed up.

[Heather]

This moan Daisy makes.

[Cory]

If you are a cake popper, your light bulbs just went off. You're screaming, you're yelling, you're crying, you're throwing up.

[Heather]

Up. I'm throwing up. I am throwing up. And I don't even. Bacon. I don't know what Daisy makes, but she's running 25% off. Okay, then we have Lil B's cutters. She's running 25% off. You never guess what she sells. Cutters.

[Cory]

Cutters.

[Heather]

Savvy cakes Collective. This is an Australian company.

[Cory]

Oh, nice.

[Heather]

Yes. The Aussies. Yeah, the Aussies are, like, cracky. We need to get more of the on the list. Shrimp on the bobby. And they came in at 25% off. Baking me crazy. Crazy. 25 off. Why do I feel like baking me crazy was from last year?

[Cory]

We literally looked them up. I don't know.

[Heather]

Making me crazy. Come on. Baking me crazy. You're cut. You're in the tip of my tongue. I will. We'll check after. Wildflower Bakery. She was very nice.

[Cory]

You guys tagged her a million times.

[Heather]

Here's the funny part about her. She emailed me and she's like, how. What is this made up thing? And I was like, yeah, it's called avenue blending. I said, it sounds like a cult, but I promise you, it's like a shopping day. And I said, you just got to run 25% off. And then she submits herself. And I was like, girl, you came in at 35% off. She's like, I know. I felt the hype in the pan.

[Cory]

This is their first year.

[Heather]

This is their first year. Great. Thank you so much for making me crazy. Lcw.

[Cory]

Everyone is screaming, scrying, throwing up again.

[Heather]

Okay. Archon mounts. Which is so funny. Archon mounts. I had asked them to sign up our first vending bunny, and they're like, no in a sphere words. And they have come back this year. And he, whoever this is said, 30% off.

[Cory]

N. 30%.

[Heather]

Yeah, yeah. TPS cutters. 30% off. Why is that name so STL files is what it says. Very, very cute stuff I'm seeing right here. Periwinkle cutters.

[Cory]

We all know them.

[Heather]

We do, we do. We love this. We love this. 30% off said hold my cutter shop. I will be coming at 30% off. Danic Cara created creative. Don't mispronounce that one. But you guys, spander. She was like I already signed up before this. I know. I signed up before the boats.

[Cory]

I know.

[Heather]

So she got there and then. And it's the people I featured last time actually the people above this. If you want me to. If you want to know the rest of these vendees, I actually in a Facebook live last week went through each one. I told you where they're shipping to and if they offer free shipping.

[Cory]

And essentially this periwinkle cutters thing, it's elf decorating station pre printed tags. But look, he decorates on a reaper tag.

[Heather]

That is for the alpha on the shelfer. You guys want to know that. So the vendy blendy. If you're hearing this for the first time, the rock under which you crawled. Let me break this down to you. It's November 29th this year. It's always on Black Friday. It's a 24 hour shopping event. So for 24 hours these shops have agreed to get let you get these discounts at a 25% minimum. But you can see almost more, almost want to say more than half have come in at higher than the minimum requirement. But the minimum requirement is the highest it's ever been for this. This is our fourth year doing it. It is a vibe, it is a hype. Cory and I sat down on Thursday and we came up, we came up with our offerings, we came up with the door prizes. Everything is locking in here. It is going to be an upper.

[Cory]

When I shop something and it's 20 off, I'm like, that's decent. That's okay. If I say 25 off, 25 off gets me.

[Heather]

Where's my 25?

[Cory]

Where's my debit card?

[Heather]

If you tell me if I'm sorry.

[Cory]

If I see 25% off.

[Heather]

If you tell me 25% off and one day only, I will buy something.

[Cory]

My hands begin sweating.

[Heather]

Oh, I panic. Create a list.

[Cory]

I put everything in my cart and I just try to go through my cart. I need everything in the cart and then I'll go through the cart and decide.

[Heather]

I think the vendors last year were great at 20% off but one commenter stuck a a fork in us and we weren't able to pry out the fork. But they were like, these are great deals. But some of These shops run 20% off. Fall year.

[Cory]

I know.

[Heather]

And Cory and I were like, well, how can we call this? How do we call this the best sales day of the year when it's all year?

[Cory]

So we said, let's chit chat. We've been planning this since, I want to say, early this year. We've been in.

[Heather]

We started promotion in June. Yeah.

[Cory]

But we had to nail down what we were going to ask of these folks very early.

[Heather]

Yeah. And man, did you guys show up and show out. Okay. So the vendors have done their part. These are my peoples. Right. I need my penders. I knew I'd better show. You guys have been doing great.

[Cory]

Everyone has bakers following them on Instagram. How hard would it be to post your stories?

[Heather]

You know, I'm gonna make a graphic for them and I'm gonna say, hey, I'm gonna challenge you guys to post this graphic if you're pending and get more.

[Cory]

Listen, Heather is team vendors. I am team.

[Heather]

Yeah. We go to this battle. Okay, here's how many penders you have. 3371. Which is great. They're actually getting added like hourly now.

[Cory]

From last Thursday to today, we've had.

[Heather]

A tremendous amount of Cory and I in this dinner where she starts I three hours long. It was a blast. I loved. I thrived. I said I'd give somebody a 3D printer, a one bamboo mini if they were just pending. I know. And so I said, okay. Because like, I think sometimes people are like, how are you choosing these winners? Are you choosing your friends? Like, no, I can't. I can't begin to describe. Heather is like bipartisan. Either has morals.

[Cory]

She will not choose somebody she knows. So I would suggest that rescind your friend request from her so you can be on the list of winners. Winners.

[Heather]

Because if you're related, I'll pick whoever the system chooses. So I said, I came with this idea. Ruthanne was sitting on the couch and it's so funny. I've been talking about the Vendee blending. I know it's a made up word. And her face just glazes over. And I said, do you know what I'm talking about? She was like, mixers. And I was like, I can see where you're coming from, Blendy mixer. I said, no, it's this whole event anyways. I said, I gotta pick a winner. Give me your favorite two letters that would occur naturally next to each other in typical words. So don't give me X and Y. Yeah. It can't be like you don't give me like DNG like, I need a Val and a.

[Cory]

She chose her own name.

[Heather]

Yeah. And I was like, okay, did you hope you'd win? And then I said, pick a number, one through 20. So I went through the. When you manage a group and there's pending members, you can search through the members. I typed in the letter she gave me, which is Ru. Her name is Ruthanne. And then picked the fifth one down. It was a lady named Ruby.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And she should be arriving to her, like, in a couple days. Rue.

[Cory]

Boom.

[Heather]

So when you think that was fun, you are not ready. You are not ready for the Vendee Blendy and what we have in store for you that day. We have over $10,000 in door prizes and giveaways.

[Cory]

Next week will be the Vendee Blendy podcast where we break it down, we give you some strategize.

[Heather]

We'll go through it. It'll last a little too long, this podcast, because we have so many vendors and I want to talk about where they're planning to ship and how much to get free shipping. I was going to add something. I was going to add something. Oh, yeah. I'm teaching a live tomorrow my secrets to getting the most out of anybody. So kind of like, okay, girls, I can't be there for the 24 hours. Like, here's where I'd recommend. Here's how I'd enter these store prizes.

[Cory]

Heather's already done two lives Intro to the Vendee Blendy. So if you're like, I don't even.

[Heather]

Know what this is with a watch because it really kind of explains it.

[Cory]

That my favorite is when she goes through the shops and shows you their top sellers.

[Heather]

That I did. Last two she did.

[Cory]

And that was an extendedly long live.

[Heather]

An hour and a half. This one will be back to 30 minutes. And I'm just going to tell you the tips I tell the vendors. So then I'm going to tell you what I tell them to squeeze the most out of this. Yes.

[Cory]

Are you going to tell. Are you waiting on the door prize announcement?

[Heather]

What do you want? I'm sorry, what do you want?

[Cory]

Let's wait till next week when we cover that.

[Heather]

I'm going to make. Okay, we'll talk about that one. All right, you guys, don't get a herit, but I hope you're dying to know plants. Moving on. If you want to request to. If you want to see this list of vendies, go to the vendies.com.

[Cory]

It'Ll take you to the word vendes because the amount of times I typically t H e the the V E.

[Heather]

N D y s D y s Vendy is made up word. I was like, I had to be consistent in how I spell it. So I never do an IES I just went with the Yes.

[Cory]

I want to tell you IES is.

[Heather]

An actual company in uk. Oh yeah. Looking it up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do we have any text messages? I just read it. That was it. Huh?

[Cory]

Just one.

[Heather]

Also Sassy Tray lady. Sassy Tray lady Jamie Valentine. I even know your name.

[Cory]

Jamie.

[Heather]

I would love to get an Eddie Sassy Tray in there. No, Eddie's not signing up. I asked the hair.

[Cory]

The rejection tray would be nice. We got. We got people that are doing PNGs. Pinch pinch pinges. We need a tray.

[Heather]

We got stole stls stools. We need to try.

[Cory]

Okay, we're getting weird.

[Heather]

Moving on. The cookie college. I'll actually be Cory and I came up with our cookie college Vendee blendy offering. Do we say this? Do we? I think we do. Okay. So queso.

[Cory]

Queso in the past.

[Heather]

The Cookie College is 76 right now. If you sign up, it's 76amonth. Cancel anytime. You can sign up for a year and you get two months free. Yes. We run for the Vendee Blendy. The original grandfather prize which has always been 68. And you could sign up for yearly.

[Cory]

Which never ever been cheaper than $68.

[Heather]

It has never ever been. So that's what we always say is the vending blend is the cheapest it's ever been. But Corey was feeling good on Thursday. It was most let's do one day. But this will be the only time it will never happen again.

[Cory]

This will be the cheapest it's never been.

[Heather]

We're going to take the cookie college and make it the price of the class kits just for this 24 hours it'll be and that means everyone including current members can cash in on.

[Cory]

So if you don't know how much class kits is $63 63.

[Heather]

The cookie college probably gets three times the amount of content that the cookie class kids get. Listen, I'd even wager five times the amount. I'm going to tell you something Facebook group.

[Cory]

It will be for only 24 hours. Cory will not you say, oh my goodness, my alarm didn't go off. I overslept. I'm so sorry. I'm glad you had a great night's.

[Heather]

Sleep we talked about.

[Cory]

You will not be honoring it after the 24 hours.

[Heather]

This will only exist between and I'm.

[Cory]

Going to tell you it will never happen again.

[Heather]

It will never happen.

[Cory]

Amount that Heather had to barter with.

[Heather]

Me, I was like, I'm going to use the bathroom. I'm going to leave you with these thoughts real quick. I'm going to come back and I want to talk. I don't want to. I don't want an immediate no.

[Cory]

It will be for 24 hours. It will not happen again. That is my promise to you. Corey, you're just trying to get a signup. Listen.

[Heather]

Yes, we heard that.

[Cory]

I'm greedy. This will never happen again.

[Heather]

The 63 can't happen again because the cookie college is so much different than when we even unveiled it at $68. 3 for your years ago.

[Cory]

There's so much in there to grow your business.

[Heather]

You get the cookie class kits from 2023. From 2024, and you'll. You'll get the 20. If you stay, you'll grandfather it into the. I cannot boot you from a 63. Right. You'll essentially get the cookie class kits rate and all the cookie college content for 2025. Yeah.

[Cory]

So as long you get two years of classes, just start.

[Heather]

Cory obviously thinks too good of a deal.

[Cory]

Listen, the amount of time and effort it goes into making the class for Christmas, just the classes alone to get two years worth of classes, plus whatever you stick around for in 2025. Which sweeping Olivar. I said, yeah, we're doing them.

[Heather]

How did you want to do the door prize of the 2020? We should do the door prize of the 2023 class. Cutters and the 2024 class.

[Cory]

We'll discuss.

[Heather]

Okay, we'll discuss at lunch. I'm getting gritty. I'm getting gritty.

[Cory]

Crazy.

[Heather]

So that cooking college, if you sign up Today, you'll pay 76. You can switch to that plan on that day. Don't worry, I'll spam you. I'll make sure you know it. But everybody who's in the college currently can cash in on the Vendee blendy. Last year you guys couldn't because some of you had that old rate because you signed up at the beginning. This time, I hope every single one of you switches to that 63 plan. I will. I will fast forward.

[Cory]

I will make sure you don't hear about it. Heather will be making sure you do hear about it.

[Heather]

Listen, if there's one thing I can do, I can spam. I can spam. So moving on here we have a Facebook live. Now, you know, I do have these Facebook lives coming up. For the vendibuny. Let me just pull those up real quick. We also have a live taught by Bonnie Bradley on November 1, which is so quick. Yeah, let me go to events. So tomorrow at 7pm It's Secrets of shopping the vendibundi. I'll only talk till 7:30 on Friday. Friday is November 1st.

[Cory]

That's insane.

[Heather]

It's at 1pm Again Eastern Standard time for both of these cozy fall cake pops with Cake pops with Bonnie Bradley. And then Next Tuesday at 6pm the Cookie College and the venue Blendy will all talk more about what the cookie college is and what you stand to get at that cheapest. It's never been priced cheapest. It's never. I gotta post this in the cookie college Facebook group. You didn't know that the cookie college level. The cookie class kids doesn't get a group at the cookie college level does. So everyone in the class kids. You can also switch to the cookie college and see no change in.

[Cory]

The best thing about the college is the courses, not just the classes. It's the courses designed to help you be a better business baker.

[Heather]

Which that is a membership that you're confused. I want to say someone baker.

[Cory]

Your they said your job form is amazing.

[Heather]

Really?

[Cory]

How did you do it?

[Heather]

Tell them I have to. I keep her in a clock.

[Cory]

Had Heather do it.

[Heather]

That was kind of hard. Even had a. I think I had almost hired some somebody. No, I do that one.

[Cory]

Yes.

[Heather]

It has gone through a couple iterations.

[Cory]

Let's go to our sponsors.

[Heather]

I'd love to lead with AE Core backers, also known as the backers code. They rebranded, they'll be in the vending Blendy at 30 off but you can get that discount right now for 20% off using code Sugar cookie at checkout. It is a kitchen remodel in a box. It is everything you need to up your photography game. I would say if you're wondering what to get yourself for Christmas and you don't have any of these. Yeah. This should be at the top of the list. 30 off at the Vendee Blendy.

[Cory]

Two cake pop people.

[Heather]

You need the.

[Cory]

You need two in the L brackets.

[Heather]

You said cake pop people size up. Right. They have three different sizes.

[Cory]

No cake people, but cake pop people. You're fine with the 23.

[Heather]

Oh but you need the L brackets to create the back. So the L brackets will connect 2A core backers and create an L shape. So you get the countertop essentially and the wallpaper and you can really flip those around. Flip it in reverse. It you can flip it in, reverse it and you get more options. And then eight quarterbackers, they have special drops and launches and they have different colors. Are you looking at my snake?

[Cory]

Yeah, he's up on the top. He's wedged himself and now he's coming down the other side.

[Heather]

Snakes are wild pets.

[Cory]

You actually have more pets than I do now.

[Heather]

Yeah, three. And I have capped out at three. Two that have a lot of teeth. One that. That one that's of attitude. Yeah, yeah.

[Cory]

Next up is Royal Batch. It's the meringue powder I use and many of you have started to use it over the years. It is delicioso. It has vanilla extract in there, white food coloring and corn syrup in there. She has Nair N. Have I ever seen her offer 25% off? She will be a part of the Vendy Blendy at 25% off if you.

[Heather]

Want to see if she's doing a door.

[Cory]

She's known to sell out, though. So if you want to score it at 10 off now you use code twins. But if you're like me and willing to take the risk.

[Heather]

She is adorable.

[Cory]

What is it?

[Heather]

Five pounds, Five pound bag. Five pound bag. She did that last year and she let me. I know someone's like, I thought, you know, I thought she was doing it. I was like, oh, my goodness. She had to ask me to do it because she had to go, yes.

[Cory]

I want to say if you need to, you know, inventory your ingredients, now tis the moment to inventory it. I just finished a five pound bag, so I now I'm going to be going for a five pound bag especially.

[Heather]

Is that 25 pounds? Would it be like great to get two five pound bags or is there's no way you could use it before, like it expires or something? It depends on how much you're willing to use.

[Cory]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Heather]

Okay. Good to know. Good to know. Last but never least, and if you'd been truly good this year. Yes. Eddie, the edible direct to food printer. If it sounds crazy, they're not in the vending blank. They've never been in the vending blank. They're full price. But you can get. And I'm a refurb, girly. All those Canon cameras refurb. I love them when they're factory refurbished. And I know that the company is going to stand by its product. You can get. I feel like you're. You're dingling something. Your little cable is touching your trailer.

[Cory]

Okay.

[Heather]

The factory refurb, Daddy, you can get for like 20 don't quote me on the 2300. It's on their website. You can go over there. The real. If you guys are like, I like new inbox. Never touched, never seen $3,000. That's crazy. That's a crazy price. That is high priced. And you may be like, what product would be worth that investment? One that pays for itself.

[Cory]

Let me tell you something. I could not have said yes to Neiman Mockis.

[Heather]

Oh, it was in an Eddie order.

[Cory]

It was Eddie and I put gold on the print.

[Heather]

So that's another like slight of hand because Eddie is essentially a food ink printer. It prints on this thing and they've discovered these cookies that are trying everything with it.

[Cory]

I know.

[Heather]

If you brush gold with it, it sticks to the print color. Yeah.

[Cory]

So it looks like it printed gold.

[Heather]

I know. It's the only. It's. It's the easiest way to gold filigree.

[Cory]

Oh my goodness. I would. Otherwise you'd have to be hand painting it. This was brush on something that was printed.

[Heather]

So you're saying $3,000, but she's got a Neiman Marcus order and what are you charging? What are you.

[Cory]

It's gonna be over a thousand dollars for these ones.

[Heather]

So. And she's done Neiman Marcus word five times. So he's paid for himself in this one client who only wants sprinted orders.

[Cory]

I know, but there's so many other clients who have ordered med spas, yoga studios.

[Heather]

Maybe. Maybe your business boundary is I want to take as many orders that cover Nettie. Nice that you rack at $3,000. Definitely check them at Eddie Printers usage group on Facebook.

[Cory]

Yes.

[Heather]

You can also see them on Instagram. You can see how people are using this stuff.

[Cory]

You see him on TikTok.

[Heather]

It's great. I actually saw Jamie Bauman. The sassy tree lady does not know I exist, but I see her post on vendor money in the Eddie Group and she had like used the trays to print on donuts and it was so cute.

[Cory]

Let's all tag the vending bunny.

[Heather]

It's gonna be like you Belize. I'm not above it. The only way she can say is no. Right.

[Cory]

Do you have a interest the 20trs.

[Heather]

We got the box for this idea. Corey had the idea. Come on, man. Advent calendar between advert.

[Cory]

Oh, yes, they are. Do it diy. Make your own boxes.

[Heather]

I'm sorry, I just have to do a little aster. Heather Campbell, Berkshire and Kim have asked me five times to go to the post office mailbox.

[Cory]

How dare you?

[Heather]

I know. Why can I Not get my Literally.

[Cory]

There are on Thursday.

[Heather]

I could not but it closes. It closes at 6.

[Cory]

Could have gotten your butt I was.

[Heather]

Fighting for them to get a deal on the cookie guy. We were there at bar I know So I will be going this week and I know you two are listening.

[Cory]

I've chastised her.

[Heather]

I've been chastised. Although you live five minutes from it and I live 35 minutes. I'll tell you something.

[Cory]

Nothing in my life is over there. And there's about a billion lights between me and that place.

[Heather]

Oh I'm tallying up that I know you were there recently. Yeah. Also with me on Thursday. Why don't you get your no one.

[Cory]

Told me to get there there.

[Heather]

Nobody killed me there.

[Cory]

I was there this morning.

[Heather]

That was for the order. What did you get there?

[Cory]

It was the order I had to deliver you. They right across get your back. I didn't even know there was something.

[Heather]

To here's what I say. If you're listening. They're doing bridge construction to get out of that center. To get in that town center. Gladly is 50 light cycles. I need everyone and I I find myself saying if we all press the go go pedal at the same time at full speed we can make and if we try it just the two of us I'm like go, go, go, go, go. Nobody sewing. No se. No. So we just go. I know, I know. I'm going to go.

[Cory]

I know.

[Heather]

Get back to my twin dress. You got the Advent calendar boxes I assemble?

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

You'll have to take yours home and assemble it. And I'll take mine home. Assemble it.

[Cory]

Okay.

[Heather]

Was my twin dress. We went to the vori store. Corey's wearing it. I Vori not a clue. It's a California brand. But it is the softest fabric.

[Cory]

It used to be online only.

[Heather]

But you could get it at REI's here and then you could may at Nordstrom.

[Cory]

Yeah but the.

[Heather]

The quality and I'm into. I'm into my 30s. I'm rather one piece that lasts forever than 10 pieces that last a single sheen wash. Yeah. So Vori has really really soft fabric. Like when you put that on you're like this is more comfortable but than being in bed. Like this is a walking mattress glued to my legs. Very oddly soft. And I. I have a mental problem that I have to wash my clothes every time I wear them. I have to wash everything I have washed which the shirt I'm wearing. I have washed it. I'm going to say 100 times I.

[Cory]

Do not have that mental hang up.

[Heather]

Where I don't know, like I got a germaphobia on the horizon.

[Cory]

I don't want to wash the goodness out of this one.

[Heather]

Yeah. And I'm like, if it's not washed, I cannot touch it again. Like when I go on a trip, every clothes that I, I have to put them in a bag and wrap them up. They don't touch my clean clothes. And I wash them every time. Jeans. Y wash your jeans every time. Nothing I wear has not been washed the day after.

[Cory]

I wear bald.

[Heather]

Yeah, I donna wild, but nobody, I'm not married, so nobody's break checking me. I can do whatever I want.

[Cory]

Wear them 50 times.

[Heather]

Nobody's saying that's weird. I can watch. I want to wash them.

[Cory]

Maybe I'm weird. No.

[Heather]

Yeah. But look at this shirt. I've washed it a hundred times.

[Cory]

And that's the reason why I'm full.

[Heather]

Not a thinness, not a stain.

[Cory]

So I'm wearing an outfit I typically would ne wear.

[Heather]

I say, if you go to the viori store and you see the prices, you're gonna be like, but listen, but listen. Yeah, if you wear it and I tell Corey, cost per use. So, Cory, I do want to tell.

[Cory]

You this hack that I heard while.

[Heather]

I was at checkout.

[Cory]

If you buy from them and it's your first time buying, you get 20 off.

[Heather]

Just keep adding a period in your name of your email. You get a 20 off code each time.

[Cory]

But if you went to in store, the person like, because I couldn't get 20 off, I was already locked and loaded. She was like, they were like, can I get 20 off? They're like, as long as the email isn't registered, you can do it in person.

[Heather]

Okay, so here's my my dirty hack. I heather.miracle Gmail.com it's not my email. Giving you an example, right? Heather.miracle Gmail.Com let's pretend that's my email. Yeah, I've already signed up for the viewer. I got 20 off. Yes. But I won another 20% off because I hate. Yeah, I could do H.Other. miracle. I could do H E.R. they all go different to you. Unfortunately, you're now signed up on their list three different times. You'll get three different promotions every time they send any to these random emails.

[Cory]

But they all four.

[Heather]

All four. And a period in a Gmail is considered the same email without the period. So you can add as many periods you want because their newsletter sender sees it as a new sign up. But Gmail is like the same email. Gmail sees it that it's just a replica, but their system will add you that many times. No way. Ask me how many viewer emails.

[Cory]

Why didn't I use that on Saturday?

[Heather]

We panicked. Panicked.

[Cory]

I was very sweaty. It was hot.

[Heather]

When things are that expensive, like to buy a shirt for $60, $70 is a lot to me. But if the shirt lasts 100 times, that's, you know, a dollar wash dollar. Would you. If I sold you a shirt for a dollar and I said this is going to be the high quality shirt, wouldn't you buy it?

[Cory]

Oh.

[Heather]

The key is. And Cor and I have had this intervention with her. You have to wear it over and over.

[Cory]

That is my problem is I will collect nice clothes and never wear them.

[Heather]

Cuz she doesn't want to mess them up. But I'm like, the goal is to get to the point where there's holes in it. And you're like, wow, I got my money. I know. So I'd rather. And I've moved into this. I'd rather have the space between my clothes in the closet because I have so few clothes. But each one is everything I love to wear. When I put it on, I feel great.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

I love the way I look in it. And I wear it so many times. Like I was wearing this last week, but I washed. Of course I was wearing it the week before and I washed it. I wore it every three weekends. I've been wearing this before. I pan right and keep that good going. But if one article comes in, two must be donated.

[Cory]

Wow. Why didn't that.

[Heather]

Because we need to thin out the closet of the cheap.

[Cory]

I don't think I have cheap stuff anymore. I think I have quality stuff I've never worn.

[Heather]

If you don't think you have cheap stuff, I want you to invite me over and let me look.

[Cory]

You're gonna stand by cheap stuff?

[Heather]

I don't think you get rid of stuff. No, I don't. No. I told you.

[Cory]

I remember I went to this big old purge.

[Heather]

Yeah, but I did.

[Cory]

I went through through it and then I went through it again.

[Heather]

Are you. Is there space between your hanging clothes?

[Cory]

No. Okay, but I don't wear any of them.

[Heather]

Then they need to be donated.

[Cory]

I need to wear them.

[Heather]

You're not going to. How many times do you wear dresses in a year?

[Cory]

1 a couple weeks ago to a dress con. I don't have dresses anymore. I threw those out.

[Heather]

Donation.

[Cory]

I have one dress.

[Heather]

Okay, that's great. You did not know okay thank you.

[Cory]

I had no idea had that skirt.

[Heather]

Until donate that one dress today extra somebody who needs to wear a dress will be able to wear that dress you're keeping them BCBG oh Cory oh Cory Corey I just by the sheer.

[Cory]

Nature of the brand is that not.

[Heather]

Nice brand is that I'm not even sure it's still in brand BCBG was from when we was it I know the dress is ungodly old fashion company yeah we're seeing all used on thredup.

[Cory]

Oh it's not even a store anymore.

[Heather]

It is Max Zaria yeah I remember that I wish I had a wikipedia here burning in Colorado oh 1989 it was founded crazy yeah you can donate that one I know still carried at NY oh it is now I got to say the guy who founded the company died in 2019 oh no way oh I'm sorry BC CBG filed for bankruptcy in 2017Now it's a collector's item.

[Cory]

All right guys we are headed to get lunch in.