186. Baking it Down - The 5 Ds of Disarming

Summary

Episode 186 Summary: Baking it Down – The 5 Ds of Disarming

In Episode 186 of Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing, hosts Heather and Corrie Miracle explore the essential strategies for handling client conflicts within the bakery business. Titled "The 5 Ds of Disarming," this episode provides a comprehensive framework to help bakers manage customer grievances effectively, maintain positive relationships, and foster long-term loyalty.

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1. Dispel Their Worry (00:18 – 06:12)

Heather and Corrie begin by emphasizing the importance of proactively addressing customer concerns. When clients reach out with issues, it's an opportunity to strengthen the relationship rather than viewing it as merely a complaint.

• Heather's Example:
  "She immediately refunded her for those cookies or whatever the choice of refund was." (03:03) Heather shares a scenario from Cookie College where a member swiftly refunded a client for mistakenly added pink cookies in a gender reveal order. This decisive action helped prevent a negative review and reassured the client.

• Corey's Insight:
  "Thank you so much for caring about my business as much as I do." (04:58) Corey highlights the importance of acknowledging and appreciating clients who reach out before leaving a bad review, turning a potential negative into a positive interaction.

2. Deter Anger Before It Starts (06:12 – 13:24)

To minimize customer dissatisfaction, the hosts advocate for clear, generous refund policies complemented by leveraging positive reviews.

• Generous Refund Policies:
  Corey states, "If you're 100%, if you're not happy, I want you to keep the cookies, keep your cash." (11:23) This bold approach reassures clients that their satisfaction is paramount, reducing the likelihood of anger.

• Impact of Reviews:
  "Reviews are being prioritized yet again and are a great social signal that people enjoyed that." (12:57) Heather discusses how positive reviews serve as powerful testimonials, deterring potential anger by showcasing customer satisfaction.

3. Do Not Be Defensive (13:24 – 19:07)

Defensiveness can escalate conflicts, making resolution more challenging. Instead, Heather and Corrie recommend maintaining professionalism and empathy.

• Avoiding Defensive Reactions:
  "The problem with defensiveness is if you're defensive, they instantly only have one option and it's to defend their selves." (14:17) Corey explains how defensiveness limits the conversation to mere defense, preventing effective resolution.

• Handling Negative Reviews:
  Heather shares an incident where a business owner responded defensively to a negative review, exacerbating the situation. She advises against such approaches, emphasizing the importance of empathy over defensiveness.

4. Discharge Them Correctly (19:07 – 28:54)

Once an issue is addressed, it's crucial to part on good terms, ensuring the client feels heard and respected. This leaves the door open for future interactions or at least prevents lingering resentment.

• Expressing Appreciation:
  "Thank you so much for caring about my business. I truly appreciate the time you took out of your day to help me grow my business." (25:18) Corey emphasizes the importance of thanking clients for their feedback, irrespective of the outcome.

• Offering Referrals:
  When resolution isn't possible, presenting clients with alternative service providers can help maintain goodwill without directly affecting your business.

5. Delight (28:54 – 46:15)

Exceeding customer expectations can transform a negative experience into a positive one, fostering loyalty and encouraging repeat business.

• Chick-fil-A's H.E.A.R.D. Framework:
  Heather cites Chick-fil-A's approach: Hear, Empathize, Apologize, Resolve, and Delight. This model serves as an exemplary guide for providing outstanding customer service.

• Personal Anecdotes:
  "I gave her a dozen for free... she ordered from me again." (37:16) Corey shares her experience of offering a free dozen cookies after an initial mistake, resulting in continued business from the client.

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Notable Quotes

• Heather (00:49): "We always make it clean = no cursing."
• Corey (05:18): "It's because it's not sorry that you didn't do something wrong. You don't have to apologize."
• Heather (15:20): "But two people can say the opposite things and both be right."
• Corey (22:10): "Sometimes when I send you an email now, I got Gemini in my Gmail and I'll be like, what does it think that I'm saying here."
• Heather (28:06): "It's considering to like 'We have the best customer service' in line with expensive cookies."

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Key Takeaways

1. Proactive Addressing: Engage with client concerns promptly to prevent escalation and build trust.
2. Generous Policies: Implement clear and generous refund policies to reassure clients and deter dissatisfaction.
3. Maintain Professionalism: Avoid defensive reactions; instead, respond with empathy and understanding.
4. Positive Discharge: When parting ways, ensure clients feel appreciated and respected to maintain a positive reputation.
5. Exceed Expectations: Go beyond resolving issues by delighting clients, turning potentially negative experiences into opportunities for loyalty.

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Conclusion

Heather and Corrie Miracle provide valuable insights into managing client conflicts within the bakery business. By adhering to the "5 Ds of Disarming," bakers can navigate challenging interactions with grace and professionalism, ensuring their businesses not only survive but thrive through exceptional customer relationship management.

Transcript

[Heather]

It is the podcast. On a Tuesday on 12th November, time is flying. Flown, flying, flown. Cory and I will be 36 in barreling 10 days, and then that just rounds up naturally to 40, which my mom's already doing, and then she's just going to round it up to 50.

[Cory]

I can't.

[Heather]

She's already calling us 40, and it's 36.

[Cory]

36.

[Heather]

Technically, I'm 35.99.

[Cory]

Me and Heather just decided we don't feel a day over 22.

[Heather]

Yeah. And we don't look a day over 22. You know, you always looked at your par and you were like, wow, they know everything. And now that I'm not a parent. But you're a parent. But we're the age of parents.

[Cory]

In my mind, my parents were always 36.

[Heather]

Mine was 42. 42. Yeah. In the 40s. Yeah. We saw it in the 40s. Yeah.

[Cory]

I always thought late 30s.

[Heather]

So you are technically in your child's brain. Your parents age.

[Cory]

I know.

[Heather]

And then now you know your parents didn't know diddly squat. Oh, I still don't know anything. There's a what? Dead squat. So let's jump into today's podcast. Do you want to tell us what the podcast is?

[Cory]

Welcome. Welcome to the Baking it down with Sugar Cookie Marketing podcast. I love to bake, but while I'm baking, I got flour, I got butter on my hands. You know, it's just in the kitchen. So I said to Heather, let's start a podcast that bakers can listen to while they're doing what they do, which is bake. So it's actually a spin off from a group on Facebook called the Sugar Cookie Marketing Group There is barreling torn. Since we're rounding up numbers, 50,000 bakers in there might as well round up, right? Yeah.

[Heather]

If it goes against me, it can go for me.

[Cory]

There's about 50,000 bakers in there where we pull topics, trends, things that we see people struggling with, people have questions about, and bring them to your ear holes each Tuesday around the same time. So this topic, I think, is a good one. It's more of a thought process than, like, actual, like, marketing facts.

[Heather]

Well, I think it's a good topic because as this is our super bowl season, we're in the middle of it. We're not even halfway through it. Right. So orders are increasing, classes are increasing. That means problems will increase just by.

[Cory]

The nature of the more you bank, the more you make, the more problems you'll take.

[Heather]

Yeah. And that l. You'll Take will be a rough one. So I was in the cookie college yesterday. One of the members was like. She's like, I started the oopsie fund when I joined the college. And I think she's been in over six months or something. And she was like, every order, I just allocate some of the order, some of my profits towards this refund budget in the event that I'd ever needed to use it. And she was like, I. It was an interesting mistake. She had put pink. You know, she had really open design choices. The client was just like, here's the theme I want. So. But it was a gender reveal, and she had added some pink cookies, not knowing the gender she was. And the client was like, oh, the only thing I didn't want was pink or blue. So she's like, I immediately refund her for those cookies or whatever the choice of refund was. And she's like, it was so great. Because it was. Without even a second pause, I was able to say, hey, my bad. Here's your money back. And I said, isn't it so relieving to not even be, like, having to.

[Cory]

Fight for it or to be like, well, you didn't tell me. I didn't know.

[Heather]

And then. So she was able to do that because it's just the nature of how many orders we're getting. And then the type of people, typically, if you have somebody who only orders at Christmas time, they're very involved in the order, right? Because this is a gift. This is something they're taking to somebody's house, likely. And they're very particular. And the ordering process, if you don't have it really dialed in, it just, you know, you say when people keep changing things, at the end, it muddles what you are. Absolutely.

[Cory]

Yeah, I got one of those clients. Right? So problems will happen.

[Heather]

So Corey wanted to talk about the five ways to disarm a client. And then she wants to call the podcast. Something that my ex would tell me constantly. You've been seen, you've been heard, you've been understood. I almost think there's another podcast that has this name. I'm sure you really like that phrase. The funny part is, when my ex said it, he never changed anything. I was just seeing her, none of shit for that one event. So here is. And then Corey thought, five ways to disarm a client. Make everything start with D. Yes, she had a lot.

[Cory]

Look at us being creative on a Tuesday.

[Heather]

Your first one is dispel their worry.

[Cory]

The problem is a client's reaching out to you. Not because the. Not because they just want to chit chat with you. There's typically a problem and a lot of times people don't want to raise their hand because they don't want to get chastised, beaten down. So they'll be like, I just wanted to let you know, I think we.

[Heather]

Should see clients that are willing to do outreach before the bad review as being gracious, not as being complainers, but.

[Cory]

Rather being someone who's like, giving you the opportunity to.

[Heather]

Because a lot of times when you get the bad review, you'll say, I see the reviews and I see the replies. Well, I wish you just would have reached out. And when the clients do, we need to not penalize that by creating our defensive barrier to them, but rather say, thank you so much. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to get in front of this and to dispel kind of their anxieties.

[Cory]

I like to honestly give them a pat on the back. Thank you so much for caring about my business as much as I do.

[Heather]

But I know people are saying, don't apologize, don't apologize, don't tell your sorry. Admit no guilt. You're never wrong. And I have. I do not. Somewhere, somehow, someone said, the twins say, don't say sorry. I say, say you're sorry and then ask what the problem is.

[Cory]

It's because it's not sorry that you didn't do something wrong. You don't have to apologize. If your calendar is booked, you can, but it's not technical. You didn't do anything wrong.

[Heather]

I think that kind of misnomer got don't say you're sorry for what you didn't do wrong, but say you're sorry that someone had an experience that wasn't up to what they expected. So you may not have done anything wrong and still missed the mark in someone's expectations.

[Cory]

I say customers that give you the opportunity to reach out to you are honestly better than customers like me and Heather. Me and Heather will never reach out to you, but we'll also never buy.

[Heather]

From you ever, ever, ever.

[Cory]

So it's a closed. It's a closed lead. Like we were lost in the sauce. You'll never reach us. I'll never buy from you again, but also never let you know that I was unhappy because I don't like to be the script squeaky wheel. So the people that reach out, it is annoying because you're like someone else is reaching out. They're so annoying, but they're giving you the opportunity to make it right. So they can potentially order from you again in the future.

[Heather]

Right. And that is so right there. So somebody's already reaching out to you. They have put on their big girl panties and written an email or sent the text or made the phone call. So dispel their worry what they don't want. So remember, they're already upset at this point. For the next five days, we're going to get through. They're already an upset call.

[Cory]

I want to say not even the. If it was a level one through five. They're level one. They're.

[Heather]

This, this could take a level one. Take it back to a level.

[Cory]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Heather]

What you do here, when they first come a knock in is going to dictate. And you'll see, you know, sometimes in the cookie college where we can get a little bit more into the threads, I'll tell somebody, you've already passed level one. We're just trying not to get to level two at this point. Your immediate gut reaction where you didn't think and you just typed whatever your emotions were have, has closed the door on making this any less right now. We just not. We need to not make this more so that first line of defense is going to dispel the worry. Thank you so much for coming to me. Like Corey said, I appreciate that you care about my business. Thank you for letting me get ahead of this.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And you're going to try to find that resolution. Yeah, I did. Like, you know, Corey and I are kind of like, just refund. Just get it out of the way. But someone said if you're not. If you're kind of shy on the full refund, say, what can I do to make this up to you?

[Cory]

Honestly, if you give them the option.

[Heather]

They'Re not going to ever say a full refund.

[Cory]

Give me all my money back.

[Heather]

Right. If you made a mistake on two cookies out of 12, likely, even if they save 50%, they didn't ask for their whole refund back. Someone had said, someone had made a post. I think they had later deleted it. But they said that the client was asking. The cake topper had torn and the client was asking for the refund of 45%.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And I said, wow, they're not even coming at half off. They're not even. I said, even if, you know, the. The baker didn't want to refund anything more than 10%. But I was like, even if you met them halfway, you're still. If your costs are correctly baked into this, you're hardly touching your margin.

[Cory]

Right.

[Heather]

Like you're not even losing on this. But the client could be happy. Of course I can't do anything. So they had, they had torn past, dispel their worries. So they were already, you know, gearing up that negative review. But if we can dispel their worries and say, hey, I got you, let's make this right. What can I do? You know, you got Corey and me who are like, hey, full refund, my bad. Just because we don't like that anxiety. Or you have the other people, like, what can, what, what can I do to make this right for you? And you'll see that the client likely likes you. They love that you're going to do right by them and will do something that's fair to both of you.

[Cory]

Yes. I like when it's teamwork, effort. What can I do? What can I do to make this up to you? And now it's a teamwork coming to the solution together. Because honestly, they're not going to want you to be broke.

[Heather]

It's.

[Cory]

I've never had a client who's like, I would like your business to shut down.

[Heather]

Yeah. Corey and I have had an issue with a company we work with, like a commercial provider for our business. And they made what I consider a pretty giant mistake. And I had, at first I had to say, listen, I need somebody to apologize because this is clearly a giant error on your end.

[Cory]

They were approaching it as a sweep under the rug type of deal.

[Heather]

Yeah. That I wouldn't have noticed. And I guess, okay, if I don't shine a light on our giant mistake, maybe the client, maybe Heather and Corey won't notice. But I did notice it. And I was like, yeah, I need someone to take a little bit of accountability here. But it was like nobody wanted to say, I'm really sorry we mess up. Then I was like, hey, like I'm not. I said, I hate that I even have to ask for this, but I think there needs to be some kind of recourse on your all's end. I don't want a full refund. I just want you to make it whole. I just want you to acknowledge that the fees you charge and the service you didn't provide, just refund the fees like that. Refund your whole entire service. And again, just dragging their feet now. I said, well, I'm not one of my nurse a grudge, but you're getting me really close here.

[Cory]

I mean they've done everything that made us feel red flagged, unheard, un, understood.

[Heather]

They should listen to because they're about to hear from a lawyer now because I just don't feel like I was done right. I wanted to find that compromise. I don't want to. I don't want to take food off their table, even though they took food off my table. Let's find a halfway point. And I wasn't given that. And now, yes, it has fired me up to kind of because I don't trust what their next recommendation is. They didn't do right by me. Why should I trust them now? So when you tell the client like, hey, I want to do. I want to make this right for you. I've got your back in the event you're not happy. So you'll have. The other side of the coin here is that some clients, some people in general are just squeaky wheels to see what they can squeeze out of everybody. There are times where refunding that person and then blacklisting them may be your only option to get out of this safely. Yes, there are people like that. I don't think they are the large majority. I think they're the really, really loud, Very, very small minority. And we always get bad apples. It's going to happen. But in that instance, again, the refund in the run, the runaway after the refund may be your best bet. So, yes, there's not a perfect. Every client has their best interests in mind. But I think, and I always take the poll every year, how many orders have refunded. The average is less than one order per year. So I would say that most of our clients are probably just trying to get cookies. Corey has the next one. Deter anger before it starts. Refund policies and reviews are a great way to do that. Like I said, I think in last week's podcast, what was that? Harris teeter has a 200% refund on rotten fruit. Yeah, they do. So to deter the anger. Determining the decorative to deter the anger before it starts means that even if I'm not happy, you're going to. I think you have a refund policy like that.

[Cory]

I say if you're 100%. I said 100%. If you're not happy, I want you to keep the cookies, keep your cash due.

[Heather]

0.

[Cory]

People have taken me up on it.

[Heather]

Someone had messaged the cookie college and they said, hey, I actually do drop cookies. I see this is more centric to sugar cookies. I would this work for me. And I was like, hey, listen, I 100% believe it worked for you. Since it's mostly just marketing. Sign up if you don't like it. 100% refund and my apologies for even having. And you make an account because what you want to say is like, before you even get mad, you will not have to get. Yes. And that is going to disarm a client because they know if I even get mad and I don't get mad, but if I get mad, these people have my right. Right.

[Cory]

You feel like it's same team, same sides, and you don't have that.

[Heather]

People are like, you know, like, yeah, what's your budget? What you. What's your right? So you have that deterring before it starts. So presenting the refund policy now. I see how some folks write refund policies and it's very much like I. You are. You are liable. You are going to be left in the dark. You're going to be left outside in the cold. I won't have to do that. You know, it's very. That confrontational way. If you look in the cookie group, we crowdsourced a cookie contract and we wrote them in ways that were a little bit more amicable.

[Cory]

And if you were looking for it, just search hashtag cookie contract and it'll show up.

[Heather]

Right. So I think that writing your refund posse very in favor of the client is a great way to get in front of any problems because likely. And if you think back to it, how often do you have problems right now? Very rare. So if you do, though, if you do, I've got your back. I am. I will be your defense attorney against myself. Like, we will win this.

[Cory]

It's me and you against the company.

[Heather]

Yes. So I think that refund policies and then having really great reviews now. I saw this the other day on Facebook when I logged in. It was like just, you know, any reviews you leave on Facebook business pages can now be sucked into ads that the pages run. So reviews are being prioritized yet again and are a great social signal that people enjoyed that. I know. It's like, well, you can buy reviews and reviews are biased. We can't help it, though, as people. To find that other people enjoying a product means it's a safe.

[Cory]

Listen, I will. I will read a review. I know it's fake.

[Heather]

I know, I know. And really, when something has 4.5 stars, sign me up, you know, it's really good. So getting ahead of deterring a before it starts with really fair, really generous refund policies is going to really help people not get angry because they know in the event I'm not happy, this baker has me covered.

[Cory]

Yes.

[Heather]

Next one. Corey said, this is a D. She had to add two Ds for this one. Do not be defensive.

[Cory]

The problem with defensiveness, and it's so normal to go to that first because you want to be like, I did take 100% of the time with your order that I've taken with other orders. People love the taste of my cookies. I did do this. I did read what you said. The problem with defensiveness is if you're defensive, they. They instantly only have one option and it's to defend now their. Their selves and their opinions that they had stated to you.

[Heather]

Right.

[Cory]

And it's so hard to take an L, especially if you really, truly feel like you did not do anything wrong. But here's the problem. Once you are defensive, then they're going to bring out, well, you know, I did find a hair in it, you know, to be quite honest with you, it's because they feel like they're pushed back into a corner, that they have to defend themselves. And you've left them with no option but to defend themselves. So the thing is, is dispelling when they, when they reach out to you instead of getting defensive, instead of emailing back like lightning fast before you've had the chance to like, dissect and diagnose this issue, is to not be defensive.

[Heather]

Defensiveness is, Is a form of anger.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And I've heard that anger is the emotion that covers the true emotion. So I don't think I'm good enough. And now you're telling me, and I'm mad that you said what I thought, that nobody knew what I thought was my personal secret.

[Cory]

Instead of saying, I 100% gave you as much time as I do my other orders. I'm so sorry. You didn't think I gave you as much time as I do with my other orders.

[Heather]

Don't say you're sorry again. That's not. Please. That was me being sarcastic. I do agree. If somebody feels like you didn't give them enough time, and this is what I would say, how they feel is 100% right.

[Cory]

It does.

[Heather]

But two people can say the opposite things and both be right. And that's what makes this so confusing to manage. Because Corey can say, well, Heather, you didn't give me enough time. And I'm going to say, but I gave you as much time as I gave everyone else. She still feels like she didn't get enough time regardless of what I feel that I give all my other clients. So I need to acknowledge that she feels that way. And then we can address it when you Start getting defensive when you start listing. This is what I always tell people, especially in the cookie college. When you give people a list of reasons why they can't be mad at you, they create a list that starts with, I found a hair in it. Yeah. People who want to have the right thing done by them will not stop until it happens or they will stop and you'll get a bad review. Right. So the energy has to go somewhere. You can either absorb it. And that's the great business approach, is absorbing that energy before it becomes a bad review. The even worse than a bad review is a community group post, because those can trend. Those ones trend. People can weigh in. Judge, jury, and executioner. Everyone's playing that in the comments section. You're so defensive. When people are really defensive, it sounds like they're hiding stuff. Now, there is a way to defend yourself that almost disarms their bad reviewer while still standing for yourself, while still looking at, like, a good business. That's hard to do. It is. It's hard, it turns out to.

[Cory]

He said, she said.

[Heather]

Yeah, she said, she said.

[Cory]

And it's hard to, you know, unless there's facts. Like, here's the like. At the end of the day, we don't want to look like a very defensive business. It makes it look bad to others even looking on. We don't want to attack the character of the person that had a bad experience with us. It makes you a little cringe.

[Heather]

You can do it. You can. The art form at which to be able to accomplish that is almost out of most of our reaches. So I wouldn't even challenge you to try it. In our local community foodies group, there was a lady and she had said, do not go to this place that's sold kind of some kind of shellfish or restaurant because it's not very fresh food. And the doctors that I work with don't like. It was a very odd review.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So the review section was already like, why do we care with the Dr. Z? And then the business owner chimes in and it was like, I think the lady's name was Nancy Nance. Nancy, whatever you call her. And he was like, you called the other day and we told you that we couldn't provide you with the service you requested. You have been a loyal client, but just turning around and writing about because you didn't get your way. And I was like, he went about it the right way. Now what people did is they went back to this lady's post in the group and found out she had actually left them a bunch of great reviews, but when she didn't get her way, turned around and completely landed and at.

[Cory]

The end of the day you're like, that's not right. The business owner. Here's the thing. A lot of people, especially in today's day and age where social media is.

[Heather]

So quick, your opinion matters.

[Cory]

All you need to do, all most people are doing is reading, forming an opinion and scrolling. They're not doing half as much research as maybe you would or I would or the people in that post would. They're seeing, don't go to this company, don't order from this person. And that's where they're forming their opinion. The problem is when the engagement happens on that post and the post gets legs, starts crawling when it starts learning.

[Heather]

How to run and you're so defensive. If you're not very adept at that kind of nuanced conversation around bad reviews, you're going to look like a person who's trying to bog down the person with the honest experience. Because you're biased. At the end of the day, you're biased that you don't want to give a refund in that it's your business and that you're always going to parrot that it's the best place in the world.

[Cory]

And a lot of times on those comment sections is the business owner is going toe to toe. But you're giving that post so much more.

[Heather]

You're helping a trend.

[Cory]

You're helping it trend.

[Heather]

Right?

[Cory]

And I mean, I'm the person that will stop what I'm doing.

[Heather]

Oh, I will run to my microwave. I will. Yeah. Comments of the comments. Have a set of comments, please. Thank you.

[Cory]

Thank you.

[Heather]

So really try not to be defensive. It's not a good look when you're a biased business. And by the nature of what we're doing here, we're all biased towards ourselves. We're not going to be the first to lambast ourselves for sure. So that person's like, well, I gave the money in exchange for the service and now they don't want to give me my money back. But I didn't like the service. That's why, again, dispel the worry at the beginning. Get in front of this before once it becomes a community group post, you're in pretty hot water.

[Cory]

You are, you are praying that the comment section goes your way or the post doesn't grow, that something else is trending before you.

[Heather]

If you're on TikTok, there is the queen of afternoon tea.

[Cory]

Listen, I can't Tell you, I love watching.

[Heather]

I think I need to go to an afternoon tea. But she had to put in front of her videos now just because I had a bad experience. Do not write reviews for businesses you didn't go to. I know, and that's so dangerous because we all have the ability now to leave reviews even for businesses we have no experience with. And that's what happens in those community posts is somebody, the writer, the op original poster has so much fervor that they get other people to leave. These bad reviews, I can see kind of happen in the, in our sugar cookie marketing group, someone will have a bad experience with a vendor unrelated to the group, but try to get that turn off. I know once I was in a car forum and somebody had a bad experience with like a tire company and someone's like, this is not your Internet army. We don't know what happened, so we're not going to win. But a lot of groups don't operate like that. So it's very dangerous in terms of, you know, I'm going to say if you're, if you're not going to follow any of these Ds and you're going to end up in a community group, turn off your reviews.

[Cory]

Turn off your reviews.

[Heather]

Yeah, but you can't do that on Google. So again, you're running a riskier.

[Cory]

No. It's so risky. And I want to say, like, for people, you're like, well, they'll see my other reviews. A lot of times that's what we hope for. But a lot of times people are scrolling by and they'll look for that star rating. And if it's a 2.5, it's a 3 star. You do lose business from that because people are the way that we consume media. Social media is so quick nowadays.

[Heather]

They said your brain has seconds to choose between yes and no.

[Cory]

Right.

[Heather]

So we absorb all these little tells and then we're like, okay, well then it's going to be no. If I can. If I had to buy somebody a gift for Christmas and it has terrible Amazon reviews, I'm not going to sit there and be like, well, I'll order and then I'll return it. Let me research what the return policy is. I'm going to say that many people don't like it, then something's wrong. I'm going to keep going.

[Cory]

I would say maybe years ago people would take more time. Now you can form your opinion so fast and find something comparable to take the place of whatever you were considering.

[Heather]

Yeah. So again, we do not want to get. If all the gates have failed and now we feel like we have to be defensive, another gate's about to fail. That's what I'm trying to tell you. So you gotta say, how am I coming? What's the energy? If you can. You know what you can do now? You can ask ChatGPT. Here's what I'm about to reply. Do I come across as defensive? And it will give you an honest feedback on what it thinks you're saying, how you're speaking, your tonality.

[Cory]

Sometimes when I send you an email now, I got Gemini in my Gmail and I'll be like, what does it think that I'm saying here? So I'll be like, can you.

[Heather]

You. What is it?

[Cory]

When you. Can you tell me what this email is about? Like what it's going to think and be like.

[Heather]

It thinks you're.

[Cory]

You're telling Heather she's doing something wrong.

[Heather]

And that she needs to take some.

[Cory]

Time to learn you're not wrong.

[Heather]

Listen. So, yeah. And Grammarly actually has the AI will read what you write and it'll tell you what it thinks your temperament is. If it thinks you're too formal or if it thinks you're too angry, it'll even add a little emoji and it'll be like you've gone too far. So I guess yourself. Am I being defensive? Is my defense even if I need to defend myself? Is it disarming? Is it quelling this emotion? Or is it adding fuel to a fire because there will be a fire you can't put out?

[Cory]

It's so easy to say, well, imagine you had a bad service at the restaurant you went. You would want someone to make it right. But we get.

[Heather]

No, I wouldn't. I would never ask for it. I would never leave a bad review and I would tell them they were the best. But I don't know what it is.

[Cory]

About the pancakes you were delivered that were cold is different from the cookies that missed the mark but were so overly passionate about these little bakes that we make that we lose sight that you. You were mad at IHOP for the cold pancakes a week before.

[Heather]

I think it's kind of the like when people view cookies as artwork, which I always tell Corey, don't view it as artwork. View it as a product. Because once you say it's art, then everything becomes relative.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

It becomes subjective versus objective. When you buy a shirt from Target and it doesn't fit. Well, I'm returning it because it doesn't fit. Yeah. Okay. But somebody's like, I bought a cookie for her, and it doesn't fit what I wanted. So I'm returning. Because it doesn't fit well, no, it's an arts is art. I spent hours on this. This was perfect compared to what I thought it should be versus what you thought it'd be. Yeah. So that's why I'm always like, you know, it is. It's a skill set. But don't call it artwork, because then you will be defensive because you're defending what you believe is beautiful.

[Cory]

And I want to tell you, each and every baker we know, you spend a million hours on it. I can understand why you get emotional over it.

[Heather]

Cory and I will even bring up some. I'll be like, look at this. Look at this conundrum that this person's post about. And Cory's like, that's so hard. Because what the client doesn't like is the smallest part of what is otherwise an excellent set.

[Cory]

Like, sometimes I'm like, we're human beings. So not every cookie is identical to the same one in the set.

[Heather]

Right.

[Cory]

I'm like, what if they see this one little smudge? And I did with this gold. Like, I hate painting gold. It gets everywhere. It literally. My room is covered with gold by the end of it.

[Heather]

But, like, it'll be a little smudge.

[Cory]

And I'm like, will they notice that? Like, what if the whole set is perfect except for that one little sponge?

[Heather]

So then you say when they, like, I can't even remember what the instance was, but Corey's like, oh, my goodness. It would be so hard for me to one, refund this. Even though we know refunding it immediately gets them satiated. The client, I know, dispels the energy there. But is it right? Is it fair to the baker? And it's a tough one. And these are very case by case instances.

[Cory]

I know.

[Heather]

It really is. What's our next d. Discharge. Discharge.

[Cory]

You want to give anything? Likes, the thing is, if you. When you. Okay, say if we never get to level five, we stay at level one, get up two, come back to one.

[Heather]

Great discharge is.

[Cory]

Thank you so much for caring about my business. I truly appreciate the time you took out of your day to help me grow my business. I appreciate you. I hope I can earn your business in the future. Or I hope you can find a better baker that fits what your needs in the future.

[Heather]

That's a great point. Sometimes I find that when somebody says, I'm unhappy with this and you get a refund, the Baker's like, talks in a way that's so speaking down. Like, I. You can tell that if they could say it, I would never give any of this refund and I don't like you anymore.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Whereas Corey's saying, like, still you're going to discharge, you're going to roll them off in a way that says, and I can't wait and if you could give me another opportunity and that you.

[Cory]

Want to work with them and if you need to close that door to.

[Heather]

Punish somebody for saying, I'm unhappy with your service and I am exercising your refund policy and to mistreat them, or you can treat them, mistreat them by saying nothing but by being cold. That's a version of that. That's communicating without saying.

[Cory]

It's like coming from a. Hey, yeah, so excited to bake your email. And then a response as per our last conversation.

[Heather]

It starts with, as per our last conversation, if it has a word, thus and therefore, you are punishing them. But you're able to ethically say, I didn't say anything wrong. But your, your mood, your temperament, your lack of emotion, your lack of warmth is a form of communication.

[Cory]

The discharging. So they might have never made a review, but what you don't want them to do is be in the comment section of everyone asking for Baker and be like, I tried them and I didn't like them. Because that at the end of the day, can hurt your business over years to come. They never went flat out and post in a community group. They never left something on your review profile. But they'll always be like, I didn't. I tried them and it didn't like them. And I see people do that. I'm like, wow, you've got, you've held a grudge long.

[Heather]

Because they never felt truly discharged. They never felt validated. They never felt.

[Cory]

They felt like they had a fight.

[Heather]

They had a fight. And I find myself okay. So, yes, last year I sent that car off to this place. Everyone said it's the best place. I cannot bring myself because I wasn't discharged with validation. Like he did say. I had to say, like, hey, there's so many problems. I'm not really happy. I had to get another guy with the same car to help me write it because I was like, I'm so unhappy. I'm worried that I'll come across as just even petty.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And you know, he was like, well, you should like, you know, I had an expectation sending here and I hope you can, we can resolve this by meeting the expectation, the reputation for which you're known for. So I'm even having to ask this. So they barely fixed it. And again, I was never told, like, we're so sorry.

[Cory]

It's almost like they wanted you to disappear. Yeah.

[Heather]

And I have.

[Cory]

And you felt.

[Heather]

Emotionally felt that.

[Cory]

And it's almost created this grudge inside of you that you'll never recommend them. I know you never.

[Heather]

I haven't publicly ever laid. They do have a lot of fanboys, but I've gone out of my way to recommend anybody.

[Cory]

But, yeah.

[Heather]

In fact, I'll tell you, five shops between me and them that I think.

[Cory]

You should take your video and that's what you want to. People are coming to your business because they want something. They think you are talented. They love that about you. Sometimes we do miss the mark, whether it be the specific colors. And a lot of times, if we know the colors are a little off, we know that, you know, when they.

[Heather]

Say it to us, we're like, oh.

[Cory]

Well, it was pretty close. But, you know, at the end of.

[Heather]

The day, I can't match. I can't perfectly color match. You're right.

[Cory]

But to discharge them instead of being like, we will no longer be the baker for you, that's not a good discharge. A good discharge is seeing, hearing, understanding, and then releasing them back into the world. Like, even though there's a bump in the relationship between you and them at this point point, it doesn't need to be the grudge that they make their business for the next five years.

[Heather]

Right. And you control how that goes. And it's a lot about how you word it back to that commercial that we're there, our vendor. I was like, hey, I'm not, you know, I'm not trying to drag over the coals here. I understand. We get busy. Yeah. I'm in business, too. There's a lot going on. But I'm going to need something. I'm going to need some. Give me something. I want an apology, which I hardly got. So again, they didn't just start. Now I feel. I can feel that feeling.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Where I'm like.

[Cory]

Right. It's growing inside you.

[Heather]

Yeah, I see. Yeah, I know.

[Cory]

I know. What we don't want, I always like to tell people is the sweetest part of this entire event should be the cookies. So I'm gonna make sure that I'm your least worrisome person.

[Heather]

And if there is a worry the refund is gonna come at you so fast, it'll make your head spin. I got Your back.

[Cory]

Like the customers I have today. It's a mom and daughter duo. They are. I can tell these cookies and cake pops they ordered are the biggest part.

[Heather]

Of this event for them. I can tell it's the highest part of the budget.

[Cory]

And I. And you know what? And they're treating. I can tell I need to go gently and confidently and holding their hands through the process. I also have another order and like me and her have talked once in a month. So it's totally different. So you can match the energy of the people that you know are going to need it. So if I feel like the lady that, that's so worried about these cookies, I'm going to say, okay, I'm just going to confirm with you. We're going with this color palette. This is the stuff you sent me. Here's the name on the cookies. Because she needs that. She needs that. So we're doing this order together almost hand in hand.

[Heather]

Where's the other lady?

[Cory]

Not too much. She could care less.

[Heather]

Right. Don't, don't punish the could care less lady because I know me and the quiet ones. We just hope you're doing what you said you're doing.

[Cory]

But you can feel as soon as I get that original, like initial inquiry, I can tell what kind of client it's going to be and how I need to match the energy. If someone's super worried about every aspect, you're going to need to be in there holding their hands, giving them that. I'm, I'm here with you. We're going to do this together. Like the lady this week showed up to. She wanted these honey dip. Honey dippers. But she showed up and she literally reset everything we had already talked about in the email. And she's so worried.

[Heather]

Yeah.

[Cory]

Which is totally fine. And I need to match that energy and I need to be there for them along the road. Make sure everything is tip top shape so I can avoid that asking for the refund. We're not happy because I can set myself up for success. I can set myself up for failure.

[Heather]

What Corey wouldn't want to do is have this client where she's held her hand the whole time. And let's say this client's like, well, when I'm not happy with something. And Corey suddenly just abandoned.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And says instead of us being on the same scene where I've been holding your hand because that person was going to be a higher maintenance client and you need to be a higher maintenance business when it comes to any issues.

[Cory]

What's so funny? Is Heather took the fam out to this place called Capital Grill on this weekend.

[Heather]

Yeah, I had this random idea. This would be my. If I had a twin twist. I said, you know, you read all these books and they're like, buying stuff isn't happiness. Experiences and relationships are the definition of happiness. So I was like, well, for my birthday this year, instead of buying stuff, of which I'll have to declutter, let me buy an experience for everybody and take them out to this nice dinner. I'll just foot the bill. My parents included my dad usually when he pays the family dinner bill. So I thought it was nice.

[Cory]

It was very nice.

[Heather]

But here's the difference.

[Cory]

Like when we got home, my husband is like, if he can squeeze a dime, he'll make 11 pennies. Like he does not believe you never.

[Heather]

Heard that phrase before. But I love it. I will be using it too.

[Cory]

He does not eat out at all. So he was like, he made a steak last night not being mean to you or anything. He was like, how is this any different than what we experienced at Friday? And I said, here's the thing. I said, where's my hot towel?

[Heather]

Where's my diet cookie at the end of each portion of the meal that came with hot towels? And I was like, this is my dream.

[Cory]

You guys are the steakhouse of the cookie world. If I wanted to, I could go to Target, get those pre done ones that are already and that is eating at home. But when you.

[Heather]

It's everything else, it's still a consumable. It's still food. Absolutely. It's still a cookie. But now we have steakhouse.

[Cory]

They're giving us hot towels before our, before our main course.

[Heather]

You know, it's going to be a vibe when the sauce is dripped with a pattern. Yeah. You know, when it's not just ladled on there, when they bring you your.

[Cory]

Happy birthday and it's been icing scraped onto the plate. So that's what it is, is Heather had an expectation of the customer service that was going to be present at this grill. And it was that and beyond. They were amazing. They were attentive, they listened, they brought you everything. And that is what you guys are doing with these very expensive cookies. It's not just the product, it's this.

[Heather]

Whole thing wrapped around it.

[Cory]

If I would have the steak, my husband ordered $95. If he would have been like, I don't like the way it's cooked 100%, I would think they would have absolutely taken that back and said, we'll Bring you a new one.

[Heather]

I think the man would have crawled on all fours back to the kitchen and said, I will get.

[Cory]

I think he would have breathed his hot air on it to cook it a little bit more. I'm so sorry. Here it is.

[Heather]

It sounds disgusting. I think he would have done everything in his power. I think you would have been like, I'll buy the replacement.

[Cory]

Yeah, it was absolutely fantastic. And that's the experience. People can get cheaper cookies from Target, from Walmart. Those are always options.

[Heather]

You are customer service. The booking to be able to book the private room. The way that the lady took my. They followed up with me. They gave me so many options. That is the cookie. The sugar cookie baker in a world of Oreos.

[Cory]

Yeah. And while you are rolling the red carpet out at the initial inquiry, that same red carpet feel needs to be the thing that's rolled out when you have an issue.

[Heather]

Yes, absolutely.

[Cory]

If Heather paid for this private room.

[Heather]

And then they.

[Cory]

And she was like, yeah, you know what? The temperature's kind of cold. And they're like, I'm so sorry, we can't do anything.

[Heather]

But if. Yeah, they weren't. Every. Every problem I had wasn't treated with the same energy of taking.

[Cory]

Yeah, yeah.

[Heather]

I would have been really upset by it because I would have been like.

[Cory]

You would never have gone back. Or you would have been like, hey. I went, here's my experience with the Capitol Grill. They didn't listen to me for this.

[Heather]

They were so fantastic that I, as soon as I got home, left them a five star interview.

[Cory]

And that's the great part about it. Like, something would have gone wrong. Heather felt confident they'd had fixed it. But everything did go right.

[Heather]

Like I said, because it was a private room, you had to reach a room minimum. Which is why Nate had to order that steak. Because if they said, whatever you don't spend, we absorb.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

But then it became. It became the waitstaff and the private room lady on our side. And they were like, we're not going to let you waste any money on a room fee. We're going to. The man boxed up to go stuff. He was like, oh, I can make the to go steaks match your leftover.

[Cory]

Absolutely fantastic. And that's the experience that people want. These cookies are expensive. I mean, people are charging $10 a cookie. I would expect a little bit of same cider.

[Heather]

Imagine a $10 cookie and the refund policy of like, what's a really terrible place? You don't want to return anything. McDonald's. I don't know. I feel like McDonald's will even be better.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Imagine that you are the steakhouse, but when you want to send it back, they're like, no, it's good. You should eat it. And it's disgusting that you'd even send it back.

[Cory]

I know.

[Heather]

Yeah. Like a mean girl saying our final D. When in doubt, do it like Chick Fil a. Chick Fil a is very fantastic when it comes to problems like this. They have an acronym that they teach called herd H E A R D. I actually learned this from a member of the sugar cookie marketing group who works for Chick. Hear, empathize, apologize, resolve. And then this is my favorite part. Delight. So they hear what your issue is. They empathize. I'm so sorry. That wouldn't, you know, I hate that you didn't get your salad either. And I, you know, apologize. They resolve it. Here's the salad you wanted. And the other day, I didn't even have a problem. They were just taking too long for the food, so they asked me to pull the car forward, of which they. I was going to be on my phone either at home or in that parking lot, so no big deal. But when they came out with the food, which probably took maybe 10 minutes, which is unlike Chick Fil A. Right. They said, here's a $5 gift card.

[Cory]

Wow.

[Heather]

And I was. And that's the delight.

[Cory]

And you know what? You weren't expecting it.

[Heather]

No. You didn't deserve it. I actually didn't ask for any of the apologies, but they were being. And that's why you always have. Like, Chick Fil a is the poster child of great customer service because they operate off of this. Hear, empathize, apologize, resolve. So not only did you give her the refund, you've gone an extra step, and you delighted the client.

[Cory]

And which that has done is Heather might have been like, well, that 10 minutes out. Now I'm late for my appointment or whatever because they brought her out something when she didn't ask for it and she didn't have to raise a ruckus to get it. Heather will be going back to Chick Fil A.

[Heather]

You bet. You bet. Bottom dollar. That was the thing. Is because it's one thing to be made whole.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

It's another thing to be made whole. And then some. Yeah, the made whole. I still had the bad experience. The made hole. And then some. I'm gonna talk about the and then some.

[Cory]

A year ago, I had a corporate order, and unfortunately, I had used my dehydrator and a Lot of them had. Probably five of them had taken home in the back of the dehydrator. I did not see them. So the customer was like, hey, I asked for 100 cookies. There's 95 here. Like, I'm so sorry. I'll make them and I'll bring them tomorrow to your thing. I'm so sorry. A year later, she orders from me again. So just this couple months ago, and I gave her a dozen for free. I said, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity. A year later, even though I messed up. And she like, when I gave her the dozen for free, granted, it wasn't great to give it for free. Didn't feel great. She's like, you will be my cookie baker.

[Heather]

See? And okay, that's a great example. You made a dozen cookies for free. You probably lost on that order. But she's looking at the long. The long game here is I may have lost on that order twice. Right, because the first order, you had the issue. Did you?

[Cory]

Well, here's the thing. They were Eddie, and it was eight dozen. So I'm not gonna lose regardless because.

[Heather]

It'S such high margin. So it already starts with, you gotta charge enough. You gotta charge enough that your apology still doesn't hit your margins. If you're operating off of razor thin margins and every refund is absolutely taking money off your. The food off your table, a thousand, you got bigger problems. You go, 10 podcasts, go and raise your prices.

[Cory]

It would have been hard if she ordered one dozen and I had a refund. Doesn't refund that one dozen. So I made zero. She had ordered eight dozen. It's so much easier to refund one dozen when the profits. So much higher.

[Heather]

Right? The profit per cookie. So when Corey goes and gives an extra dozen, maybe like, oh, you know, like, like, well, that's. She didn't even ask for that. I already did. Right. But I already have. I already did it. But Corey wants to secure an order of this court again. Corey says, I want corporate orders. They make more money.

[Cory]

I want Eddie, corporate order. So I'm going to do everything I can to make you Eddie people happy.

[Heather]

Right? So now Corey's, you know, apologized twice. She acknowledged, you know, 12 months later, hey, I'm still sorry about that and thank you for taking a chance on me again. You would have me hook, line and sinker. I know that humans are human. I know we're prone to mistakes, but a human that's willing to acknowledge and do right, plus some. Yeah, I would.

[Cory]

I didn't Want to bring up it. I did not want to bring up the fact that I messed up a year ago.

[Heather]

Yeah, it's hard. It's easy.

[Cory]

It's hard. So I said. I said, listen, Tara, I said, I've triple counted this year. I've thrown in a few extra, and I'm giving you a dozen for free. I said, we are not going to have a rehab of last year. And she's like, oh, my goodness, no, you made last year. Right. I hate bringing up when I'm wrong.

[Heather]

Who wants to?

[Cory]

But I said, she's taking a risk right now because last year I didn't land it. So great. So this year, by going above and beyond, I've secured next year's order.

[Heather]

Ruthanne grandmother. You see her in those pictures from those giveaways that we've been doing for the Vendee Blendy. She loves to apologize. She actually apologized for things she didn't do. And I tell her, I said, it's very easy to get along with you because if I'm not even feeling wrong, you will apologize. And I said, if people could take a lesson from you, it would be that if they understood what their life would look like on the other side of I'm sorry, they would be saying it all the time.

[Cory]

The problem with it is people think if they say it, they're giving a part of themselves. Like, they're giving you the right hand.

[Heather]

Because remember, I can. You can be upset and. Right.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And I can be 100% opposite you and be right. Because I'm sorry is not I'm sorry. Now you're right and I'm wrong. I'm sorry Your experience was 100%, whereas I thought it was 100%. How can we get you to match me? Yeah. Like, how can we get us both to 100%? Or maybe we need to be at 80 and 80. Like, what are we maybe coming for? Sure. But it's not I'm sorry. And you're 80 and I'm 20. Yeah, it's I'm sorry you're 100% and I'm not 100%. How can we get us closer to that?

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And really being overly sorry, if you talk to somebody like me and you're, like, overly sorry, I'm going to do my best to tell you it wasn't even a big deal. Well, don't even worry about it.

[Cory]

It's okay.

[Heather]

I actually like this. Turns out this is my new favorite meal that you accidentally brought me. Right. Yeah.

[Cory]

Put yourself in the shoes of what you'd want someone to do to you. If someone messed up your special day, if someone messed up your wedding day, your baby shower, how would you want it to be handled? Would you want to pretend like it didn't exist?

[Heather]

No. No.

[Cory]

That doesn't feel good. Would you want to have to pry a solution out of the person? No, that doesn't feel good either.

[Heather]

Would you want, like, hey, I'm sorry, and be made amends? Yes. Would we secretly love if someone's like, I'm sorry. I made amends, and I'm going to make more amends than you expected. Delectable. And that's the true business decision. I kind of find it. I kind of find the person who's really resistant to apologies and refunds is the newer business owner who hasn't learned it yet.

[Cory]

And it's fair and it's because you haven't. Everyone has been wronged by a business in some sort. Like, whether it be IHOP and a.

[Heather]

Pancake, you and I have a panzer do something to you.

[Cory]

Remember that when I hopped and I was like, everything's horrendous here.

[Heather]

Yep.

[Cory]

This is horrible.

[Heather]

Yes. Yeah.

[Cory]

It's just so easy to forget the times where we expected something because we're so emotional in our businesses and that where you can separate emotion from business. Like me and Heather say, like, it's not emotional, it's just business. It's so hard to do when you're just starting out because you're so. Everything is so ego driven.

[Heather]

And I hate to say it's ego, because I don't know that you see it as egotistical, but not being able to say I'm sorry is a. Is a form of ego. Like, if I say I'm sorry, it means I'm not good enough. I feel like I'm good enough again. It traces back to that sign of ego. If I say I'm sorry and it touches my ego 0%, I'll be freely saying I'm sorry because it doesn't affect my self worth, My interpersonal belief of what I'm worth in this world.

[Cory]

At the end of the day, when you follow all these steps and someone still is mad at you at the end of it, that is okay. Yes.

[Heather]

That's a great takeaway.

[Cory]

Is okay.

[Heather]

We will make people unhappy with us. Yeah. I was talking to the guy I was dating and I had a small argument and he was like, I just don't think relationships should have arguments. So I said, right there. Relationships will always have arguments. It's that they have to resolve. And the easiest possible. I said, but to. We're. We're imperfect humans. Yeah. And we're not the same person. Corey and I have arguments and we are the same person all the time because we're just our perception of what you intended versus what I inferred were different. How can we get them better aligned?

[Cory]

You're going to say twins. I followed step one through five. All the D's seen, heard, understood. They still seem upset with me. That's okay. What you need to do is cover your basis. That's all you can control.

[Heather]

And now let them be human and let them have that. They're going to. They're going to look back and when they complain about you to another person, the other person's gonna be like, what Sounds like they did everything right by you.

[Cory]

Absolutely. And at the end of the day, that's negative. The only thing you can control is you can't control anything else. So if you're like, well, I still feel like they're mad at me. That's okay. That you've done everything you could.

[Heather]

Now maybe look interpersonally. And why aren't you able to let it go when you've actually done everything correctly? What self doubts do you have when you followed and you've done the extra step and you've given the extra dozen a year later? How come you can't forgive yourself? Right. You're human too. The guarantee is that we will make mistakes.

[Cory]

Absolutely.

[Heather]

We are not perfect. Our businesses are not perfect. How do you handle repairing mistakes? Is the true separating between the new business owner and the established business owner who will be in business the years to come.

[Cory]

My number one customer orders multiple times.

[Heather]

I almost think I knew this. Huh?

[Cory]

Her name. Yeah, she was from Kingstown. Oh, yeah, I spelled her kid's name wrong. Erin.

[Heather]

Two A's A wrong.

[Cory]

Yeah, I spelled it wrong.

[Heather]

I don't know what.

[Cory]

I spelled it incorrectly. She was like, oh, everything's great. Except for you spelled my son's name wrong.

[Heather]

Oh, that will take you to anything.

[Cory]

At the end of the day, I could be like, oh, my goodness. How dare you? I did my best.

[Heather]

Only read fun for those too. Yeah.

[Cory]

But because I was like, oh, my God, I'm an idiot. She's ordered multiple times since I spelled her son's name wrong.

[Heather]

But you repaired it, right?

[Cory]

I repaired it because I'd send those photos before they pick up.

[Heather]

So I was hilarious. Oh, back to that. Sending those photos beginning. So to recap what we did, five ways to disarm a client, dispel their worry, deter their anger before it starts. Refund policies and reviews are a great way to do that. Do not be defensive. Discharge them correctly and fairly and respectfully and appreciatively. They did fair by not reviewing. And then do it like Chick Fil A. Heard, hear, empathize, apologize, resolve, and delight. You. Follow this and you will have clients that become lifelong fans.

[Cory]

Yeah, even if you mess up, they'll still love you to death.

[Heather]

Because we all understand people mess up. Yeah, but how they mess up after what the actions are after they mess up really could change someone to be a true fan of you.

[Cory]

Yeah, absolutely. A fan that will not stop talking about you.

[Heather]

Who do you. And I'm like, oh, yeah. And then they messed up. And then because I tell that Chick Fil a thing, I was like, yeah, they took forever. But then I got a free breakfast, a free fry.

[Cory]

Yeah, you were delighted.

[Heather]

Ben's still delighted. Now I'm like, sometimes, like, why aren't you getting free practice?

[Cory]

Just kidding.

[Heather]

Okay, we got fan mail here. Thank you guys for texting in. You can either press that button on some podcast players or 571-556-5644, text in. Hi. So I was listening to episode 177 about marketing not working. What does campaign mean when it comes to marketing? Cookie classes. I don't yet have a consistent location offer monthly classes, so I usually schedule one and give it your six week lead time. What would my marketing campaign look like? Does it mean I have to run a Facebook ad for six weeks at $5 a day? Cause if so, there goes all my profit. And if I had one class a month, the ad budget would break me. I'm new and I'm making a sad $100 a month as I start up. Suggestions are welcome. From Albany, New York.

[Cory]

Nice.

[Heather]

Campaign is the phrase used to describe the start and stop of a marketing initiative. Right. So let's say our cookie class campaign. We have a December class. So the campaign would be everything associated with the promotion of that class. That could be a Facebook ad. That could be. That could be social media posts. In fact, it's all of those.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

If you're doing all those now, it doesn't require that you have to do all of these. Typically, you'd find your secret sauce behind the campaign and you would run that every time you're starting this promotion. So I'd say a six weeks runtime marketing campaign behind a cookie class. Right. We do not run ads for our cookie classes because we've been doing them for so long and we sit so few people we can sell them out. Yeah. Now we do prefer. Okay, let's say we're selling a class six weeks marketing runtime. That's our campaign. From the day we start marketing to the day we stop is our campaign. And it was a hard to market class. You'll see. Corey and I say, well this will be a harder time. We'll assess this before the campaign starts. This will be a more aggressive campaign because it's in March. Yeah.

[Cory]

I want to say, can I just. Because the vending blend is on the line.

[Heather]

Right.

[Cory]

It's on mind. I mean is it online and it's on the mind? The vending blendy is a case in point of what a marketing marketing campaign looks like because we have to redo it every single year. Typically me and Heather start marketing in September, October for the Vendi blendy in November. This year it was different because it was going to be a harder thing to market specifically for you who is doing these new classes. This year we were asking vendees to do 25% off harder product to sell. So what we did is extended our.

[Heather]

Marketing our campaign so we could turn around some of the vendors. While you have to give us more, you have to give us more of a discount, you'll get more of promotion from us because we'll be doing this longer than we were. So our campaign went from June is when we opened the group to plan I think June 17th all the way to November 29th. And I was able to say based off of what our reaches today, here's how many people you could reach if you're willing. So the campaign increased. Now the campaign hasn't had a Facebook ad until last week. Yes.

[Cory]

So here's the thing. When you're starting off with something new that your audience isn't used to. I started cake pops last year. Just now am I actually getting repeat cake pop orders? And that's because I had to show my audience over the over six months that hey, here I'm introducing something new. My campaign is a lot longer because it's something new. So when we say a six week campaign for your marketing, typically that's if you're offering a class and you've done classes before. If you're bringing something new to your market, you're going to have a longer thing because you got to show them, hey, this is something new. Here's why you want it, here's what you're going to do to get it.

[Heather]

I can see that Your thinking campaign involves money. And when you don't have a budget to invest in ad spend, it's going to involve more time and no money. So time is money. Yes, but instead of spending money in ads where it decreases your profit, you're going to spend that money in the time invested to promote it. Especially since you yourself are new in classes are new. What you're going to do is you're going to While I might be posting three times a week, you might be posting three times to your stories, three times to your feed, three times to your reels, three times to the event discussion section, you're going to be investing more time money versus maybe when you're more established, you can say, well, I don't like spending as much time. I'll let the ad handle the time and I'll just put the money behind it. So that is a great one. The fact that even making money is great. The fact that you just get. You know, they say businesses aren't profitable until the first two years have passed. So I don't even think it's sad that you're making a hundred bucks. I think it's great that you're starting in this time where it is a very great time to generate. Absolutely. So now think about this. Well, if what I do today, this is an easier time to sell class tickets, get their email because when it gets the harder time, the springtime, you're going to want to sell to these people. And you've already done the groundwork for that. Next up. Hello, my name is Teresa and I'm a longtime listener. First time caller. Haha. Throw back to the old radio day. Showing off my age. First off, thank you for this awesome business you have. I'm so glad I found you and I signed up for all things cookie College Facebook group podcast. It's good to have so many resources in my toolbox. I have a couple of questions. 1. Going back to the older podcast and given how fast technology and resources change, are there any podcasts that are obsolete? I want to listen to as many as I can, but I don't want to spend time on irrelevant ones. 2. Talking about content buckets. This may be the dumbest question in the history of questions, but where do I keep them? Should I make a file? Somewhere in my mind I see a file and in that file are sub files. But in reality, where's the best place to store them? So that when Thursday comes and it's meme day, I just have things to choose from and I can pull from that from a file. Hope that makes sense. Again, thanks for all your hard work and great ideas.

[Cory]

Westminster, Colorado I can speak to the content buckets on my phone. IPhone. I'll have it will say bread memes. It'll say cookie memes. It'll say birthdays.

[Heather]

These are folders within your gallery.

[Cory]

Folders in my gallery. And I take the time each day if I find a good bread meme and I'm not ready to execute it, I'll add him to the little folder. So when I'm ready, it's there and I'm not searching. All right, forget about it. So it is folders and subfolders.

[Heather]

I have folders and subfolders too. I actually create a guide in an app, a web app called Whimsical, so I can kind of storyboard what I want my buckets to look like on each day. Then I create the corresponding folder. I use Google Drive, actually use an external hard drive because it's just easier for me not to download.

[Cory]

Google Drive is how me and Heather talk to each other, though.

[Heather]

Corey and I use Google Drive to transfer files. I'll transfer them to an external hard drive that I back up into the cloud. External hard drives being the risk is that they they're easy to access, but they're also easy to lose. But I like to keep them everything backed up. But yes, what you're saying, that's actually not a stupid question at all. It's a really strategic question. Keeping things organized in a file so you could essentially have content buckets is the top level. Second level is Monday through Sunday, and within those you'll have whatever that bucket is. Now again, you could use content buckets differently than I do. I could say every Monday is me Monday. But you could say I'm going to have a content bucket when my reach is lower. That'd probably be more strategic. But if you want just the easy like plug and play one, you could just do the week of what it's looking like. Corey and I have a foundational content bucket, but we also have a policy if you feel like posting anything at all. In addition, feel free. Please do. The more the better. Sometimes I'll be like Corey, have you not felt inclined to post anything? Yeah. And as far as old podcasts that.

[Cory]

Go obsolete, we actually try to stay away from things that have a timestamp on them. Things that could change is like how Facebook calculated reviews.

[Heather]

It used to be stars.

[Cory]

Now it's recommend. Don't recommend. Google Business Profile is always in a state of change.

[Heather]

The names have even changed.

[Cory]

The names have changed. But the foundations of, of the things we talk about on the podcast are what we try to do is pretty standard and not obsolete in any of those.

[Heather]

The concepts of it are universal. The niche names. Yeah, that's going to like Google business profile change. Facebook ads have changed Google obsolete. Yeah, so that kind of stuff. But the marketing concept, I think we do a decent job of keeping it, trying to. Yeah. Keeping it a little broad and not like hear it when you log in, there's a button on your right and it says this. Now the cookie college courses, they do become obsolete because I'm literally recording my, my web app and it, you know, changes constantly, which is annoying.

[Cory]

But Heather does try to stay up on that. That's why she's actually redone the Facebook ads because Facebook ads had a change that we had to go delete the old course and create the new course.

[Heather]

A great example. I'll tell everyone, use Facebook Planner. We'll say that on the podcast now. Now Facebook Planner has added a feature we can cross post to Stories. I don't think it's the best use of Stories. No, we do it that way because I don't want to put my face on it. But yeah, now you can. When you schedule your Instagram and Facebook post through Planner, it can post it to your Facebook and Instagram Stories at the same time. That's not included in that podcast. However, I can't go back in time and update the podcast. It's still worth the listen when I say use Facebook Planner. Now I could say use Facebook Planner to post your stories. Yeah, great question. Okay, speaking of the Vendi Blendy, how many days do we have until. How many days?

[Cory]

How many days? Till the 29th.

[Heather]

Until November. November. November 29th. How many do you think? Just say a number. Hold on, just say number 16. 17. So the Vendi Blendy is a one year sales event that only happens in November, only happens on Black Friday, only happens for 24 hours, only happens in a Facebook group. Yeah. It is the defined embodiment of the word fomo. And this year, like Cory mentioned earlier in this podcast, it is going to be what everyone is rumoring, the best Vendi Blendy on record.

[Cory]

Honestly, guys, the lineup. So we're shoring everything up as we enter these last 17 days and the lineup, the discounts, the door prizes, the ambiance it is.

[Heather]

I see Cory and I said on.

[Cory]

The walk today, the best Fendi Blendy.

[Heather]

This will almost be the one. And I know we said it last year. But this one will be the one I don't think we'll top because here's.

[Cory]

They'Re all giving more of a discount.

[Heather]

There is so many great shops with so many great websites with so. So again, the vending blindness is the fourth year. But the first three years it was always offer 20%.

[Cory]

And you know what? Someone bless your soul did bring up that. And hey, people are still running the 20% even after the vending blend and coin.

[Heather]

I said, how embarrassing is that? That is very true. Disarm delight. Yeah. So anyway, we said that. That is a great point. Some of these shops are only running this sale that day. But how embarrassing is for us to be like the best sale in the.

[Cory]

World, only confided in the Wadden group and everywhere else. So what we did was we asked them, hey, if you like to be in the vending blendy this year it's 25% off or more. We know that is killer. So what we did to alleviate.

[Heather]

Because before small people think that we're stealing, we.

[Cory]

We lessened the entry by 2/3. Yeah, right.

[Heather]

Yes. So the door prizes are affected by the lesson. But we were like people love door prizes, but the odds of winning one are 1 in 10,000.

[Cory]

But everyone can win. Win the 25% off.

[Heather]

Everyone wins when the discount code. So we're like, okay, we can come off the court. The door prizes still haven't announced them in the group yet. I said if we. Oh wait, what's the pending.

[Cory]

I'll look what you say. I'll look what you say.

[Heather]

It's setting up to be great. We have. I have 78 vendors signed up. I'm working with 50.

[Cory]

It's 5020.

[Heather]

I need to get to 5059. And you're not talking about. I think we'll get it today. So we're having 10 door prizes, 10 big door prizes. But that doesn't include the vendor's own door prizes. In fact, it does include Corey and my door.

[Cory]

I know.

[Heather]

And we'll be doing door prizes as well, which I valued at. So the current door prizes valuation. And that includes less of the. What I'm saying, the their payments, the registration dollars. That even includes less. We're at quite a bit. Did you get back to doing my shop announcements? So I'm looking at a minimum of $17,000 in door prices. And I know I'm missing more numbers.

[Cory]

Does that not include the ones that we're doing?

[Heather]

That includes all that is every door prizes. Our door prize is actually Recalculated, it will count up to almost $2,000 because it's a year in the college. A year in the cookie class gets all of the cutters from 2023 and all the cutters in 2024. And that'll be four different door prizes. So a lot of people, you and the vendors. The vendor. I got to compliment my people. Right?

[Cory]

I know.

[Heather]

So Cory and I always like to see if we can get the vendors to play against each other to up the ante. And they did.

[Cory]

This is a phrase I heard this week. If they shenand before, they will shenanigans.

[Heather]

That's so funny. So what happened was like, I think it was once Mark Piggies and crafts was like, you know what? I was going to do 30 physical cutters or 30 STLs. I'm doing 30 physical cutters and 30 STLs. And then, like, Lizzie was like, I want to add a 3D printer. And then the cookery was like, hey, listen, I'm. For every sale, I'm adding a Bambi Bentley just emailed me. I haven't actually posted this one. She was like, I'm going to 40% and a free gift with every.

[Cory]

Wow.

[Heather]

And then his wife was like, you know, I had typed 45. Let's do. Let's do 50. Let's do 50% off. So I mean, and then the one lady was doing. Making me crazy was doing the discount on. So there's one exemption for these vendors. And we had created this last year when some vendors are like, I can discount everything but the wholesale, because the wholesale agreement I can't touch. So we did exempt them, but one lady was like, I messaged sugar art. And I said, I want to run 20 off. And they're like, yeah, okay. No, make the exception.

[Cory]

Yes.

[Heather]

So really, these vendors are coming. They really are trying.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And the thing. And it's funny because someone pointed this out. Someone's like, if they're doing cookie cutters by Nori's like, let's go 30%. Wow. Somebody had said, if they're doing this and we're still three weeks away, like.

[Cory]

Usually this is the three days before.

[Heather]

They start getting crazy. So there she's like, what's going to happen? I know your guess is as good.

[Cory]

As mine, but the Vendi Blendy, if you would like to join and be eligible for the door prizes, no purchase necessary. You have to look up the Vendi Blendy sugar cookie marketing on Facebook. It's a group. We will all pend until November 29th at 12:01am, the deals are shoppable for 24 hours.

[Heather]

If you're wondering if you're going to be confused, I will have a pinned video that tells you everything, everything you need to know. And I'll constantly remind you throughout the.

[Cory]

Day if you're like, oh, I'll come back later tonight. Here's the thing. The group closes down and Heather deletes everything in it.

[Heather]

It's 24 hours. It's 24 hours eastern standard.

[Cory]

Literally just 24 hours.

[Heather]

No exceptions.

[Cory]

There's no rain checks. There's no. They have to extend.

[Heather]

You can't talk about it in the main group either. So it is truly within that day. The door prizes, now I've firmed it up, will be chosen at 9pm and then you have. And you have seven days to redeem it. So I'll have a spreadsheet for that. Even though you know and you can access it.

[Cory]

But you do want to stay in the group because if you're tagged at 9pm, start looking for your notifications. See if you're.

[Heather]

10 big door prizes just sponsored by their registration dollars, then all the vendors who are offering door prizes, which I think only. Only four opted out.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And I'm not putting a pass that they. I know, I know. And then we have just some fun stuff throughout the day.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And then I'll have some threads, like some prompt threads. We tried that last year, really liked how it went. So you guys, you guys can't make posts that day, but you can talk to each other. Yeah. You know, and then my request for you is if you do enjoy this discount, support the vendors, even if you're not shopping from them. And you can do that by liking, commenting, hearting, encouraging, just thanking them for.

[Cory]

Being there, even if you're not buying one single thing, just a comment on their post. Because they're the only ones that can post in the group that day. Can help a post trend. It can help people find something they were looking for. And it really shows up, shows out for the people that you like the most.

[Heather]

And if we can get them to show up and shout, they feel like they've been appreciated. They'll come by now. So you guys are doing us a service by us doing you guys a service and us all doing the vendors.

[Cory]

But everything's coming together.

[Heather]

It's coming together, it's coming together. So I think. And we got. So I just have those two final vendors that are taking forever to sign up.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And. But we are closed on new vendors. I thought everyone's the Vendy's response was really great this year. So really appreciate everyone who has been interested in this. It's going to be a blast. I cannot wait.

[Cory]

I cannot wait.

[Heather]

Are we meeting at the mall today as per usual? As per usual. I like to see the Black Friday shop and my mayhem exist on the Internet. Moving on to the Cookie college. The Cookie college will be and I'm going to draw this back to the Vendee Blendy. The Cookie college will be the cheapest it's never been. If you're a current cookie college member. I will be teaching a Facebook live next Monday on how you can also snag these deals. Yes you can. Everything is always open to current and past members. I'll explain to you what the math is. I'll do the math for you whether this makes sense for you or not. How to do it. Because you will have to do it on Black Friday. Yeah. Because it will be the only day that we ever run this right past and present future. So the Cookie college, if you're interested in signing up for it, you can pre shop [e-mail] it is a lot.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

I actually did a Facebook live on it last week on Tuesday I believe so. And it was the Cookie College. What it is kind of what you get and what the deals will be and how you save a ton of money once you sign up for the cookie college in that grandfathered $63 cheapest. It's never been pricing. I cannot raise the price on you. Yeah. You also though, let's say someone was like well I'm not sure I want to sign up for yearly. The yearly is the best deal because you automatically get an additional two months free. In addition to this cheapest has never been pricing. And they're like, well I'm not sure I can pay all that much right then. And I was like, well if you get your foot in at the 63amonth tier at any time, you can switch up to the yearly tier because your grandfathered within those two pricing tiers.

[Cory]

Nice.

[Heather]

Because in the way the platform works they related. So 63 and 6:30. So you can say, well I'm just gonna get my toe in at 63 for a month. And let's say then I make my Christmas money.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Then I'm gonna upgrade and get my two months free at that cheapest. Never been. You could pull that in December. You can do it at any time during your active membership.

[Cory]

We'll use that as our cookie college part of the podcast.

[Heather]

What?

[Cory]

What you just said instead of giving them another. What is the cookie college part?

[Heather]

Yes, this is that part I'm doing.

[Cory]

But you segued into the vending.

[Heather]

Yeah. I said as we talk about the cookie college, I want to talk about it in relation to the Vendee Monday. And we're moving on to our sponsors. Sponsors are Eddie the edible food printer not a part of the vending. I know you guys are thinking that I'm going to pull him out of my butt. Not this year. I tried. I did try. I hate to disappoint you guys. Freddie and Eddie are off the table. However, Eddie is a direct to food printer. It's what Corey keeps talking about when she had those big corporate orders. We went to Neiman Marcus last week. Week. And Corey dropped off Eddie printed cookies. It is a machine for the person who wants a corporate line of work and it pays for itself so quickly. Yeah. As long as you market it. Because everything comes down to marketing. If you want to learn more about Eddie, you can go to Eddie Printers user group on Facebook. They're also on Instagram. The website is primera.com it ain't cheap. He's $3,000. Yeah. But Corey's pulling in thousands in sales that she wouldn't have otherwise been able to do because Eddie was really does streamline workflow.

[Cory]

I wouldn't have been able to pipe eight dozen logos. I could only print those. So it's been fantastic for that. The next is the backers company previously known as AE Core backers, but they're in a name change. The backers company is food safe backdrops that are perfect for bakers. Whether you have very buttery cookies or you pour chocolate fudge on them. They are waterproof, scratch resistant, matte food safe and file your taxes.

[Heather]

Now what I really like about them is their owners have always been a supporter of anybody. Yes. But they do it right because they run 30% off their whole shop. This one day only.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Right now 20% off if you use code Sugar cookie. Yeah. At checkout. But Black Friday. I know 30% off. That would be the time. And I can see people already shaping up. So what I think will happen might happen with them is they may sell out of their bestsellers. So if you want to snag those now or if you want to want to stay up till midnight. True. Might be worth it. But Acore Backers rebranded to the backers company. Really nice company has been supporting this podcast for a very long time. But we'll be in the vending blendy. Next up, also in the vending blendy Bakery Bake.

[Cory]

Bakedy Bake, which is a meringue powder. It's what I use for all mine. It already has vanilla extract, white food coloring, and corn syrup in there, and that gives it a softer bite. She's never before in my history of eyeballs done. 25 off for this. She does sell out. So if you were thinking about trying it, she has £1 bags.

[Heather]

She did.

[Cory]

I don't know if it will be at the vending money, but she did have, like, little taste or tester bags to buy. Yeah, but the five pound bag is the. That's what you want to aim for. If she's on your list, it'll be 25 off. If you don't want it to sell out and you need it, you can use code twins and get 10 off now.

[Heather]

Very nice. Well, that takes us through this podcast. Do you have a Twinterest?

[Cory]

Do I have a Twinterest? Nar, your cat wants in. Do you have a Twinterest?

[Heather]

Well, my twinterest was experiences. Okay, here's the thing. If you guys. Some of you guys think the twin twists need to be a purchase product. I was looking for a signature scent.

[Cory]

Wow. I know this.

[Heather]

Corey's talking to Frank, who's been upset that he's been locked out of this room. I was looking for a signature scent. Okay. Cory. Yes, we. Sephora sale ended yesterday. Yeah, Sephora and I were like, let's go to the mall and smell the back wall of perfumes.

[Cory]

You know, what do you do when.

[Heather]

I'm gonna be honest. Most of it. Sorry, I'm getting a treat for the cat. Most of it smelled like clean bathrooms.

[Cory]

Which is a little bathroomy smell.

[Heather]

A lot of it.

[Cory]

The one thing I liked about Sephora and I've never spent any time on their perfume wall because I don't wear it back. It says, like, warm and fuzzy gourmand or light and airy. Nothing said bathroom scent, but that's what we got from a few of them.

[Heather]

So Cory and I were smelling like you never smelled before with the heather.

[Cory]

Smelled like just about everything in the back of the store.

[Heather]

Right. And then Cory and I, and I'm like, I'm not sure any of this is speaking to me on a. I know. On a deeper level. But I. We go to this one smell, right? And we're like. I said, whoa, this is very nice.

[Cory]

What was it called?

[Heather]

I can look it up.

[Cory]

I can't remember, but it's called it's called Ginger Biscuit was the scent. I can't remember the maker. When we saw it, we're like, this is the one. Let's grab it. It's sold out everywhere. So when you must be late to the ginger Biscuit game makes me feel.

[Heather]

Like if it's sold out everywhere, then.

[Cory]

It must be really good. And I'll be honest. Smell like a little bit like a gingerbread, but like an elegant gingerbread.

[Heather]

Right. I've got to pick up the name. Here it is. I got it from. I don't know. Hopefully I don't get ripped off here. I know nothing about this website, Cult Beauty. It was the only place that still had it in stock. And it was Jo Malone London Ginger Biscuit de Cologne. But I would say it was so funny to me. Maybe I don't smell terrible. I thought it smelled great. It's amazing. But like the fact that you liked it. I liked it. It was sold out everywhere. That means a lot of people, like.

[Cory]

People are saying they love it.

[Heather]

So I told Corey, I will be bathing in this. Yeah, I will be. I will be offensively saying, and if one. I've never had someone stop me and say, I like how you smell. Which should be a tale of another. But what if this was the wine?

[Cory]

I know.

[Heather]

What if this is the scent?

[Cory]

I can't wait. It smelled delicious. If anything, I love it for the.

[Heather]

Holidays and watch it be backward and then cancel. But it was a very ginger. It's like, you know, you know, like you want to smell like vanilla, but sometimes vanilla is like a little too sweet. It is. Ginger is like smelling like peppermint. And holidays, without being too directly honest.

[Cory]

It was like a holiday spice.

[Heather]

Must spice. Yeah.

[Cory]

Because ginger is spice.

[Heather]

I would love to know if they ship it out.

[Cory]

I would love to know as well.

[Heather]

I'll keep you guys posted. If you ever see me and you want to stop and tell me I smell delectable, please do.

[Cory]

I use perfume today that I had in the door and my husband's like, wow, that was strong. I said, in a bad way or a good way? Who's like a very strong way?

[Heather]

Well, it wasn't enough.

[Cory]

I know.

[Heather]

I can smell it right now. It smells pretty good. It was a hazelnut. That was my twin drizzle. And I did the family dinner, which I thought was very fun. It was. My voice is annoying. But the private room, just for the amount of people we had, which is 10 or 11, you couldn't have sat.

[Cory]

In the main part of the room.

[Heather]

And be heard. So I was like, wow, this is a little pricey. But, like, what a fun way to have dinner.

[Cory]

You know what? We didn't order? And I can't believe me and Nate sat down. We didn't order any potatoes or mashed potatoes. Yeah.

[Heather]

Because nobody wanted to manage the sign, so mom had to.

[Cory]

Yeah, but why would you order three brussels sprouts?

[Heather]

Because everyone sounded so enthusiastic.

[Cory]

I can't believe there was an enthusiastic. I said, oh, my God.

[Heather]

Speak up, man. I'll grant.

[Cory]

There was. There was half. Remember the half?

[Heather]

You're making me hungry.

[Cory]

Got to go to lunch. Yeah.

[Heather]

This thin sprouts.

[Cory]

Yes.

[Heather]

We should have done that. Yeah.

[Cory]

And mashed potatoes.

[Heather]

It was. It was kids the candy store. Because we had to reach the room minimum. It was the first time everyone had to spend more. I know, but I had these heirloom tomatoes with burrata. And I would go back for that. Yeah, I would go back for that. I don't want to see someone just.

[Cory]

Ordering an appetizer in there.

[Heather]

But it was so good. Like, where is this tomato grown that it tastes fresh in the middle winter?

[Cory]

I.

[Heather]

Where did it come from?

[Cory]

It was very, very good.

[Heather]

It was very, very. What was your trenches that I guess.

[Cory]

I didn't have anything. Anything.

[Heather]

I meant to say. There's the final public facing live on tomorrow. It is the final vendibulendi Q A which is the question and answer for you guys. I'll come up with some preset questions. Yeah. Common questions that we see.

[Cory]

Let's really help Heather.

[Heather]

I think I had to make a.

[Cory]

Thread and get some questions.

[Heather]

What would. If this was your first unit of any blendy. What do you wish you knew?

[Cory]

I'll be in the comment section asking.

[Heather]

Because it is a weird thing. It is overwhelming.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

But it's shaping up one thing that's.

[Cory]

So annoying about your lives. You really have a bad memory. You'll say something and not remember two seconds later. So I'll be like in the first second and then like into your live in the first second. And you'll be like Corey saying in. In the first second. Don't know what that means.

[Heather]

Do you understand there's a delay. I know, but in the first second. I was in. In the first second means nothing to be in explaining it to me. I do have the world's worst memory. Yeah. Who are you?

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

What is it? We're on a podcast.

[Cory]

I never heard of her.

[Heather]

What do you do there? I will be answering my own question. But yeah, there's a Delay. When you do a Facebook live to the comment section that you can only see, I think it's 30 seconds.

[Cory]

Yeah. That's why I told Heather, go back up to the questions you haven't.

[Heather]

And the screen is this big to see your comments. So I'm like word by word. But if you want to check out my more of the vendors, Cory's actually been doing a phenomenal job of reviewing some of their products they want since.

[Cory]

Time changed and it gets dark at 4:30.

[Heather]

Wait, I was like stretching. I was like, it's 5:30.

[Cory]

I said, oh, my goodness. I honestly went to bed at 6:45.

[Heather]

You were in bed? I sent Corey any gas that I want to send or any factoids or any questions. I even sent her a vending blendy update last night. And it's just. It's just not been checked. And I woke up.

[Cory]

It says you snap for 10 hours and 25 minutes.

[Heather]

That is insane.

[Cory]

Delicious.

[Heather]

Don't you think there's a problem?

[Cory]

No, I think I'm gonna live forever.

[Heather]

I can't remember anything, so I'm not the right way to go. Whatever I'm doing, don't do that. I think. All right, guys, the rest of this month will be a vibe, and then we'll casualt off into December. And there's a lot of this is just a baking soup. Some people are like the Vendi blendies. On a day where I have a vendor event, I'm like, it's time for hours. Come to excuse me.

[Cory]

I got bigger things to do.

[Heather]

Don't buy my biggie. All right, guys, we'll see you next week.