190. Baking it Down - How the Grinch Saved Christmas

Summary

Podcast Summary: Baking it Down - How the Grinch Saved Christmas (Episode 190)

Episode Information:

• Title: Baking it Down - How the Grinch Saved Christmas
• Release Date: December 17, 2024
• Hosts: Heather and Corrie Miracle

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Introduction

In Episode 190 of the Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪 podcast, hosts Heather and Corrie Miracle delve into the high-stress holiday season for bakers, drawing parallels to the classic tale of the Grinch. They explore the challenges of managing a surge in orders, maintaining customer relationships, and preserving personal well-being during the busiest time of the year.

Personal Anecdotes and Setting the Tone (00:00 – 01:15)

Heather begins by sharing a personal update about her cat, Frank, who recovered from an inner ear infection. This light-hearted introduction sets a relatable and empathetic tone for the episode.

• Heather: "[...] Frank is my cat. I adopted him back in May at Cory's behest [...]" (00:09)

The Holiday Rush: A Baker's Super Bowl (01:15 – 04:23)

Heather and Corrie describe December as the “Super Bowl” for bakers, highlighting the drastic increase in demand for sugar cookies, evidenced by a spike in Google searches by 5 to 10 times compared to other months.

• Heather: "If you look up trends.google.com and you type in sugar cookies, the spike in searches [...]." (01:17)

They discuss the overwhelming number of orders, the necessity of turning some away, and the emotional toll this can take on bakers, often leading to feelings of resentment akin to the Grinch.

• Corrie: "It can be overwhelming where we almost get resentful towards them." (02:44)

Managing Customer Expectations and Communication (04:23 – 12:45)

A significant portion of the episode focuses on effective communication strategies during peak seasons. The hosts emphasize the importance of setting clear expectations with customers to prevent frustration and preserve relationships.

• Heather: "Give yourself 24 hours before you reply to an upset client." (05:44)
• Corrie: "You can say, I will follow up with you in 24 hours to sound like a really happy baker." (07:05)

They advise using tools like funnels and forms to manage customer inquiries efficiently, avoiding platforms where messages can easily get lost, such as Facebook Messenger.

• Corrie: "You just kind of funnel them to that form." (09:00)

Maintaining a Positive Attitude: Channeling Sasha Fierce (12:45 – 22:46)

Heather and Corrie discuss the importance of maintaining a positive and professional demeanor, even when exhausted. They suggest adopting a persona, akin to Beyoncé's Sasha Fierce, to ensure that each customer interaction is pleasant and memorable.

• Heather: "If you have to channel your own Sasha Fierce, this is going to be the best experience [...]" (19:02)
• Corrie: "Don't let it stop in Christmas and cost yourself sales next year." (32:37)

The duo shares personal strategies for managing stress, such as implementing a rewards-based system to stay motivated during the hectic season.

• Corrie: "If I can get the next five emails caught up, give yourself a little something." (31:32)

Handling Last-Minute Orders and Setting Boundaries (22:46 – 31:32)

The conversation shifts to managing last-minute orders, a common occurrence during the holidays. Heather and Corrie recommend offering alternatives, such as directing clients to other bakers or providing DIY kits, to handle orders without overextending themselves.

• Corrie: "If someone places a last minute order, you can say, hey, I'm totally booked, but thank you so much for reaching out." (26:53)

They caution against venting frustrations in public forums, highlighting the risks of damaging professional reputations and client relationships.

• Heather: "Don't post any identifying details ever. And then Corey and I added the extra layer: don't client bash." (30:04)

Expanding Business Horizons: Sourdough Sellers Group (31:32 – 36:43)

Heather and Corrie introduce a new initiative to support bakers who specialize in sourdough, differentiating it from sugar cookie baking. They announce the creation of the Sourdough Sellers Facebook group, aiming to provide tailored marketing strategies for bread bakers.

• Corrie: "We're in the same house. We're in two different rooms. So she, we started this group Sourdough Sellers." (34:26)

Promoting the Cookie College and Upcoming Classes (36:43 – 43:43)

The hosts discuss their Cookie College membership program, detailing pricing strategies and the benefits of consistent marketing efforts. They emphasize the importance of planning and scheduling to ensure sustained business growth beyond the holiday season.

• Heather: "If you sign up today, you get all the 2024 classes for 61 times $63." (37:07)

Sponsorships and Community Engagement (43:43 – 58:50)

Heather and Corrie highlight their sponsors, including Backers Co., a food-safe backdrop company, and Bake Bake, a brand offering high-quality meringue powder. They discuss how these products support their baking businesses and enhance customer experiences.

• Corrie: "Bake Bake is the best meringue powder I have ever used in my life." (45:23)

Additionally, the hosts share personal stories about gift exchanges and community interactions, reinforcing the sense of camaraderie within the baking community.

Conclusion: Embracing the Holiday Spirit Without the Grinch (58:50 – End)

As the episode wraps up, Heather and Corrie encourage bakers to maintain a positive outlook, manage their stress effectively, and prioritize customer satisfaction to ensure long-term success.

• Corrie: "Have a less Grinchmas heart and a more Christmas spirit." (58:31)

They tease the next episode, promising to continue supporting their listeners through the ongoing holiday challenges.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Heather: "Frank is my cat. I adopted him back in May at Cory's behest [...]" (00:09)
• Corrie: "It can be overwhelming where we almost get resentful towards them." (02:44)
• Heather: "Give yourself 24 hours before you reply to an upset client." (05:44)
• Corrie: "You can say, I will follow up with you in 24 hours to sound like a really happy baker." (07:05)
• Heather: "If you have to channel your own Sasha Fierce, this is going to be the best experience [...]" (19:02)
• Corrie: "Don't let it stop in Christmas and cost yourself sales next year." (32:37)
• Corrie: "If someone places a last minute order, you can say, hey, I'm totally booked, but thank you so much for reaching out." (26:53)
• Heather: "Don't post any identifying details ever. And then Corey and I added the extra layer: don't client bash." (30:04)
• Corrie: "Bake Bake is the best meringue powder I have ever used in my life." (45:23)
• Corrie: "Have a less Grinchmas heart and a more Christmas spirit." (58:31)

Key Takeaways

1. Effective Communication: Setting clear expectations with customers can mitigate frustration and maintain positive relationships during peak seasons.
2. Personal Well-being: Implementing strategies like rewards systems and adopting positive personas help manage stress and prevent burnout.
3. Boundary Setting: It's crucial to handle last-minute orders gracefully by offering alternatives, thus preserving personal time and business integrity.
4. Community Support: Engaging with specialized groups, such as the newly formed Sourdough Sellers, provides targeted support and resources.
5. Continuous Learning: Programs like the Cookie College offer ongoing education and marketing strategies to ensure sustained business growth.

Conclusion

Episode 190 of Baking it Down provides a comprehensive look into the challenges and strategies for managing a successful baking business during the bustling holiday season. Through personal anecdotes, practical advice, and a touch of humor, Heather and Corrie Miracle offer valuable insights to help bakers navigate the festive rush without turning into the Grinch.

Transcript

[A]

It is Tuesday and we're back, and I'm back from my trip and my cat is on the mend. He's in Cory's lap right now.

[B]

I've never had a cat. Cats don't like to sit on my lap.

[A]

So I'm like, he doesn't. But now he does. So if you guys didn't know, Frank is my cat. I adopted him back in May at Cory's behest, and he has been a he. I came back the other day and he didn't catch himself in a jump, and I said that was funny. By the next day, he couldn't walk. So it turns out he had an inner ear infection, which apparently is super common, but super common in Persians and even the vets. Like, it's wild for owners to see an animal not being able to walk. However, it's an inner ear infection. Just give him these drops. And some oral antibiotics. Was gone for almost a week. When I came back, he wasn't even eating food. So I rushed him to the emergency vet. And that vet said, you've been treating the wrong ear. Which I know that she wanted to say, it's your fault. I said, I brought the medication from the other vet, and it says the other ear.

[B]

So he has a super healthy one ear.

[A]

Super healthy ear. Anyways, after since Wednesday. That was Wednesday at midnight, I was out till two in the morning with him. He's really come back around. But they said that ear infections and cats take about four weeks to clear up. So it's four weeks of wobbliness, which has turned him into quite a docile lap cat. And Corey capitalized on that by having him in her lap.

[B]

Okay, okay, keep going.

[A]

So this is the sugar cookie marketing podcast. It is. It hails the pro. It hails from a group on Facebook called the Sugar Cookie Marketing Group, where we're able to see a lot of comments and posts made by bakers and bring that to podcast land. And I know some of you are missing our marketing nuggets. This week we wanted to talk about how the Grinch save Christmas. This is a high stress time for bakers. Listen in a delicious way. We wait all year. You're surrounded by sweets, but your heart is Grinch. Like, this is our Super Bowl. If you look up trends.google.com and you type in sugar cookies, the spike in searches for for sugar cookies is. I want to say it's something like 5 to 10x more than the rest of the year. It makes January look like we're not even moving. Yeah, the doldrums of January. So December is wonderful, but as wonderful it is, is also taxing. There is no. And, you know, you have the ebb and flow of some businesses that, okay, car sales, maybe a little slower, maybe a little faster in some time. Home sales. We know spring market. Yeah. You know, landscaping is going to spike in the summer. With bakers, it's. It's not even a competition December, is it?

[B]

It is.

[A]

You could set up your whole year for what happens in December, but it's also so taxing because we still have the same amount of people working.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

We just have a tremendous amount of orders. Enough that a lot of bakers turn away orders. But for the orders that we do take, it can be overwhelming.

[B]

It can. It can be overwhelming where we almost get resentful towards them.

[A]

Because the other side of the coin is not only am I making your Christmas better, I'm sacrificing what I want to do for Christmas. I haven't seen my kids, and it's.

[B]

Like you against the customer. Even though you took the weather right.

[A]

So it's easy to turn into the Grinch. And we start seeing posts around this time like, I'm such a Grinch. How should I reply to this? Yeah, my printer running right.

[B]

Doing some updates.

[A]

We're all working today. So how do we stop letting the Grinch steal Christmas?

[B]

Here's a case in point. Heather saw it on the walk this morning. I got. I have my Apple watch. So my watch wasn't with me, but my Apple watch was there. And someone sent me a text message.

[A]

And said, I just wanted. You said, my watch wasn't with me, but my watch was with me.

[B]

Phone wasn't with me. And I got a text that came to my watch, and it was like, hey, just wanted to get an update on the order. Heather was there.

[A]

Corey immediately, eyes rolling in the back of her head, Corey's like, I just squeezed her in. I shouldn't even taken this order. Now she's becoming a thorn in my flesh. And then I saw Corey pause, and she's like, you know what? I am this person's only baker. This is an important order for her. This is a lot of her blood, sweat, and tears and money she's given to me, and she's trying to make sure she can trust me.

[B]

What she's not thinking of is she's not my only customer because she doesn't have to think about it. That's why I'm the baker.

[A]

When I go to a business, I want to be the first and last. I want to be treated like you've only worked on one car this year.

[B]

Absolutely. Absolutely right.

[A]

I don't want to be a line of oil changes and I'm just a number, right? Yeah.

[B]

Because when you're treated like just a.

[A]

Number, you're like, there's a lot of other places that can be treated like less than just a number.

[B]

You're right.

[A]

So. And less than just a number, a.

[B]

Lot of times it comes down to being self aware.

[A]

Self aware.

[B]

That's what this podcast is about, is how to become a little bit more self aware and a less. A little bit like Grinch.

[A]

So kind of starting off with where Corey kind of found herself this morning is email and communication. That's going to be at the forefront here. And it's going to be what suffers the most when we have an influx of orders, we have to fulfill the communication. Being hot behind the computer takes the backseat. So this is where you're kind of going to find that stress point for a lot of bakers. I was telling Corey today, you start baking or you start any company, and you're like, how to get somebody. Giving money is such an enigma. When you've been doing it and you're adept at selling, you're like, selling was a fun part. Baking is easy. Like, how am I going to do.

[B]

I know we switched because we're like, if I could just make one sell sale.

[A]

So some of you bakers listening, this may be your first Christmas, and you're like, I don't know how to sell anything. You'll come back here next year if you. If you practice the principles we talk about and be like, oh, man, I have to actually bake it. I like selling it. And that's the fun part of this. So, okay, now we're in this flip side. A lot of us been doing this for a while now. We've got to bake.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But now we still have that inbox. We still have that communication style that they're used to, but we don't have the time. So Corey says if a client is upset, which it's not if, it's when. Right. And extremely so in this time where there's a lot of things that we can miss because there's so many orders, there's so much going on. Give yourself 24 hours before you reply to an upset client. Yeah, I know we have that thing. And I can feel it myself when someone gets upset with me. I'm like, well, let me address this now. I don't want to Think about it. But tend to. We get too much emotion in there.

[B]

And it escalates, especially when your heart's three times smaller.

[A]

When you don't have any empathy, you're going to reply in a way, snappy.

[B]

It's going to be snippy. It's going to be straight to the point.

[A]

Modeling all of that. And Corey, Cory and I were talking about it. When you tell someone they're wrong, they have to either admit that they're wrong, which is impossible for most people, or defend their stance.

[B]

You have to cloak up their armor, grab their sword.

[A]

Let's fight. This time I got more time than you. So if, if a client's really upset, give yourself 24 hours. Unless you can respond with grace or unless you can have a husband or spouse right there. I run some of the stuff I write. Corey, am I too much? And she'd be like, oof, spankings.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Darn. Backspace, Backspace. But for follow up orders. So let's just say like Corey, the lady today, Corey didn't set the expectation that, hey, just so you know, when you have any questions, give me about 24 hours. It is a busy season for me, but rest assured, I'll definitely get back to you. Yeah, I know you're thinking, well, you just said put them first. Make them think that they're the only client in reality. They're. They're not.

[B]

They're not.

[A]

So we've got to give ourselves a little bandwidth here to say, hey, I'll respond within one hour. You're setting yourself up for now an angry client.

[B]

But what I've done is lowered your defenses by saying, give me a day and I'll get you an email. Sorry, can. Kitchen has held me hostage. She said no, completely understand. Don't apologize, please.

[A]

We don't want to say your, your call is important to us. Please wait for the next available. We want to be a little bit more authentic. But we also want to say your call is important to us.

[B]

And because we are bakers with the best intentions, if saying to yourself, you know, I'll get back to her today, so I won't say anything right yet. And then not getting back to her, what you're doing is creating yourself a problem down the road. So it's, it's fine to get in front of the problem and set an expectation so that everyone knows where the lines are.

[A]

Yeah. So for follow up, set expectations. Now, here's the one. And Corey threw this in here regarding especially because we're big into using Facebook planner I love scheduling stuff out. It works when I don't have to. The problem is when we have Facebook's planner or scheduled post saying, buy from me, buy from me. And then we have people saying, I'm trying to. You're not replying to me. There's a little bit of an issue.

[B]

You see, where if I'm trying to give you my money and my order I submitted is for January 15th, in your mind, you're like, I can get. I have so a month to get to.

[A]

Yeah, reply to her in January 1st. There's plenty of time. Yeah. But then we're like, buy from me, buy from me. And they're like, I'm trying to. Like, I see that you're asking for sales over here, but I'm trying to inquire and I haven't heard back from you. So there is kind of that time here. Just make sure people get replied to. If somebody is placing an order for February, say, thank you so much. I'll follow up with you in January.

[B]

And that's where I'm already seeing. My calendar is closed through December and the January orders are coming in. And to me, I'm so busy baking. Surely they understand. Surely they don't. They do not.

[A]

It's up to you. I haven't heard back from you. Because on. In their defense, they have to secure the.

[B]

We.

[A]

We punish our clients for not understanding. They have to give us runtime. And then we punish them for saying, I haven't heard from you. I clearly have.

[B]

You have a month. I get.

[A]

You gave me a month. And if you can't take it, I need to find somebody else. So it's the back and forth there. So in this time, you will get behind on emails. Don't get too far behind where it's a problem. Yes, right. And I find if you do, you are me. I find myself there. And I'm always saying, I'm so sorry. Yeah, I didn't realize my cat was at the store.

[B]

I want to say things like jot form, keep them in order and organized.

[A]

I do like that. So you can just go through it.

[B]

Go through and make sure. First dibs, first served. Facebook messenger is where things get lost.

[A]

And you can listen to a million podcasts where we say, funnel them to an area where it's very easy to manage when people message Facebook Page, Facebook, IG profile, Instagram message, text comments. It's really hard. So you just kind of. And we talk about that. Funnel them all to that form. Hey, thank you so much. If you fill out this form, I'll make sure I can get back to you. Corey won't even. Cory even said, I don't even check my messenger messages because my autoresponder tells them how to get a hold of me. If they're not going through that, they don't like something about that form, which means that I can't take the order. And that's hard to do because we work so hard to get these leads.

[B]

I know. And you know what? I had to break up with the fact that I was doing myself a disservice by taking their orders via messenger. When my thing says to place an order, click this link.

[A]

And you guys always know that fastest way to a sale is the shortest distance from A to B. So Corey's adding in a layer of funnel, but she knows because that adds in the calendar availability.

[B]

And you guys know in the past podcast where I'm. I took an order outside of my form and I messed up.

[A]

I lost Corey loss of money. So it's that always like, hey, how. How can I make the sale? Just taking a messenger is going to be the most efficient way to make that sale. But in reality, is it going to cost you in terms of organization?

[B]

It might not cost you this one, it might not cost you next one. It'll cost you.

[A]

Yeah. We'd always, we'd all love to be the perfect business owner with the perfect marketing, the perfect website. There's something's got a gift, someone's got a gift, it's gonna be you. Yeah. So that's number one is kind of monitor how your email response is. If somebody just wants an order update, let them know you'll get back to them in 24 hours and do that.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

If you need the 48, you can do that as well. For sure. Rough. You may get some people a little upset if someone's really angry at you and you're very worked up because you're tired and cranky. We only have so much bandwidth for emotion and a little empathy. Maybe give yourself the 24 hours to take that respite and then come up with that.

[B]

Well, you know what I learned? We are not doing brain surgery here. Cookies have never killed anybody.

[A]

No one's passed away.

[B]

Maybe analogy.

[A]

No one's passed away from not getting response. Yes, there you go. There you go. And then if you are constantly pushing sales, sales, sales, because you scheduled all these posts, don't be afraid to delete those. It's okay if you are truly.

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

You can just go back in and change the Description.

[B]

And you know, you're like, but twins. You said post something, don't just leave it. That's where a good meme comes in. If you saw my post today, I said, where are the Corey named cookies out there? I'm not seeing one person with a Corey name.

[A]

In the slow months we say, stop saying I'm so happy to bake for you, Josh.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

In the fast months you can say, here's content. So happy to bake for you, Josh. Because what we say in the slow months is that's a waste of a sale you made. In the months where you are truly busy and don't want sales. The thanks for the order Josh still says you're there without being like, it.

[B]

Doesn'T look like you're trying to make a sale. So it more is like a thankfulness. Thank you.

[A]

And it's content. Yes, it's there. I'm there. I don't want to fall out of your feed, but I also don't want you right now. Two say to yourself, this will be the best experience I can provide for these people. Corey and I finished the Vendee Blendy on those Vendi blendy days they stay up till 2 or 3 in the morning. It's grueling. And then the next weekend we had scheduled a cookie class because I don't know, it's fun, it's exhausting. The next weekend we scheduled a Christmas cookie class because Cory and I like to put our Christmas class in the first week of December so that we can kind of more enjoy December. But because of how Thanksgiving is a floating holiday and Christmas is not, it did put those within one weekend other. Right. So Corey and I are complaining that we didn't have two weekends off because I can't relax on a Friday when I have to work on a Saturday. But you know, we're setting up the class. You would have thought these two people got sentenced to life in prison. No, we're setting up the cookie class that we sold. That we sold and we marketed and these people signed up and I said, okay, we have got to take a deep breath and make this the best cookie class they've ever experienced. Because they gave us their blood, sweat and tears, their hard earned time and money and they bought our Christmas vibes. This is the beginning of their Christmas season.

[B]

Here's the thing. I know you're tired and what you're going to want to do is start your class off saying, no, we're going.

[A]

To get there in a second. Okay? But make that decision that I am going to be the best baker because you spent all year setting yourself up for this amazing December, and you're cashing in. You're getting all these sales, you're getting all these leads. How they experience you will determine what next December, how much work you'll have to put in next December.

[B]

I want to say how they experience you is if they're going to sign up for another class. It's hard to always market to a new audience, new people to sign up.

[A]

It's very expensive. Remember, the cheapest lead is somebody who's always bought from us. So all that effort all year, we finally book out of our Christmas class, but we have a bad attitude.

[B]

Yeah, we're the Grinch.

[A]

Yeah, we're like, you can see it on our faces. We don't want to be there. Well, guess who won't want to be there next year. The same group of people, just like.

[B]

Beyonce has the personality of Sasha Fierce, and she, when she goes on stage, puts on this new Persona to really give her audience the best.

[A]

Take that deep breath and be like, this will be the best experience they have today.

[B]

And sometimes you, me and Heather, we wanted to complain the whole time and I said, we can save it for dinner after.

[A]

Yeah, you load up on those complaints and we will spill them. But for that hour and a half or two hours, depending on how long your classes go or that 15 minute pickup or that 5 minute pickup, how great can you make that experience? Because this is. You are their only baker right now. You are, you're the only teacher you are able right now. You're able to lock in that they'll never go anywhere else. Or you're able to say like, well, that wasn't very pleasant. I don't think they enjoyed working with me. So I'm not going to go back.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

If I go to a restaurant and I'm like, I felt like a bird in there, I'm not going back. I'll give you your 20% tip and you'll never see.

[B]

What really sucks is we're like, how do you market? We market all year long and then we're our own Achilles heel by shooting ourself in the foot.

[A]

I wish the baking industry was more level bred out. Like, I wish that December wasn't so big and summer wasn't so slow. But it's just the nature of how Christmas works.

[B]

It goes back to the boundary podcast that we've done. Maybe taking fewer orders in December and having a pleasant attitude about them might be the better move for you. Going forward than taking every single order and hating your business after it.

[A]

I saw some people that they say, I only teach Christmas cookie classes in December because it's an hour and a half or two hours. And I can teach a bunch of those. I can make the same amount, but my weeks are clear.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

To do whatever you want to do for that.

[B]

And you know that. That honestly for the extroverts who like to teach the classes and the introverts who like to do the custom orders, it work out.

[A]

It frees up the invisible hand of the economy. Always figures it out.

[B]

Here's the problem. The greedy baker who thinks that if you client.

[A]

Here's the thing. They're going to have a bad attitude. They're going to make mistakes, and they're going to. They're going to make mistakes. Yeah.

[B]

You have to be okay with the fact that if you're not going to take customer orders, your favoritest client has.

[A]

To go somewhere else.

[B]

Might go somewhere else. They might like it. They might like it.

[A]

Cost of doing business. I know. Whisk we're willing to take. Risk we're willing to take. And the whisk. Corey. This is the one she was jumping to. Don't vent. They are not your therapist. It's easy to be exhausted.

[B]

I know.

[A]

And Cory and I finished the vendibundi. And I'm telling everybody, talking about, like, I'm so tired. And I'm like, they're exhausted hearing about this. And I said, I'm so sorry. I'm still going to wear vomit to you. But these are my family now. Our clients. Cory and I love this Thai restaurant up the street. It is phenomenal.

[B]

Love. Duh.

[A]

With a d. So Cory and I have this penchant to just. You find a place you like. Keep going.

[B]

I love it.

[A]

I like it when the waitstaff knows their names. I like it when the coke is on the T. Dan Cook. Before we get there, this restaurant had opened up in Covid. It was unfair to them.

[B]

I know.

[A]

And they were so thankful that we had this recurring support that every Tuesday they could expect us. But then the business owner thought, well, they make me feel good when I vent to them. Because we're like, well, you got great food. So what we created is a little therapy session. So every Tuesday, she would pull up a chair to the table.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And she would tell us about all the problems with the business and marketing and sales and how this competitor and Corey and I would pick her up off the floor and say, well, here's some strategies and then eventually we said, this is miserable for us.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

We're not even able to talk to each other.

[B]

I mean, we're not even getting a discount on the food. We're paying full price.

[A]

It's like we were paying to be a therapist. So we stopped going there. Even though the food in the atmosphere was tremendous, turning us into therapists was not fun. So pour in the cookie class, which she references. It felt like, guys, this is such a busy time. That's not what they paid for. They paid for this to be their specialty.

[B]

Jolly Miss Bakers.

[A]

Cory had us in these really long Christmas hats. They were so distracting. The bopple things falling off. But they paid for a great experience with teachers that were excited to be there.

[B]

The problem is bakery, home baker ownership is a lonely gig. And Heather doesn't let scm. You can't post. Vent.

[A]

Post.

[B]

Here's the thing. You need to get a best friend baker that you can vent to, because it's not the client picking up the order that you're going to say, oh, I've been murdered in the kitchen for 52 million hours. I don't even know if I have children anymore.

[A]

And every person that shows up to the door, you're like, this is one person who knows that I'm suffering because they just bought it it from me. They just bought my time.

[B]

What you don't want is to make your client feel guilty for ordering, for supporting you.

[A]

Because here's the problem with Corey. I'm going to call her out on this. She says she's not bringing this into 2025 New Year with family orders.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So it's so funny because I, I, you know, I get to my mom's house early, and Mom's like, is Cory taking orders? And I was like, I don't think so. She's just complaining about all of them. And Summer's like, I am nervous to order from Corey because I'm not sure if she's just going to take the order and complain about me in front of me or behind my back. So those clients can feel it.

[B]

Yeah. And those are my family members. Like, I'm not like, no holds barred, you know?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So they're.

[A]

It's different with family.

[B]

Yeah. Because I'm venting about the lady who.

[A]

Just picked up late. And they're like, are your clients hearing about the problems you have with your other clients? Are they hearing about the problems you had with your spouse not supporting you in this busy season? Are they here? Or are you, Mrs. Claus? Are they what they love. I know. I'm so excited to have you here. Thank you so much. I hope this is. If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to reach out. I am here to help. I really enjoyed this one. What a cute set you came up with. And I really hope that whoever gets it, if it's you, I won't tell.

[B]

Here's the thing. We know you're busy in the kitchen baking, but what your client picking up doesn't want to see you like your apron on. You have a your oven mitt still on.

[A]

You're getting to that.

[B]

Oh, I did. Okay, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.

[A]

You are loving. You're side eyeing me and the cat aside. Like, girl, you just told her to write that down. But yeah, make this. Tell yourself, if you have to channel your own Sasha Fierce, this is going to be the best experience that this person who knocked on my door, who gave me their money, who trusted me with their gift giving process is going to have today.

[B]

I know. And. And they are. They do want to support you and they're so happy they can.

[A]

I would love to support somebody and then be just as excited that I did.

[B]

Right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I'm like, oh, this is so great.

[A]

Yeah. No, yeah.

[B]

Enjoy that.

[A]

Corey and I switched accountants and this new account was like trying to save us all money. I'm like, you're great. You take that money, buddy, and you.

[B]

Go take yourself out to lunch.

[A]

This is great. And then he was so thankful and it just felt great. But imagine he's like, you know, clients like, you guys, I know we've a.

[B]

Bent sesh about people like us to us.

[A]

I'm gonna be like, well, they hate us, so. Okay. Corey wanted to jump to this one. Put it on. Our little sister had this like tricycle. She called him Happy Cappy. So Corey says, put on your Happy Cappy smile brush, clean, fresh faced. It is easy to get that stained shirt on and be like, well, I'm just gonna stain that again. You got these people coming to your door. And there's this lady, I think her name's and forgive me, not the baking twin. Artie Magoo. Yes. She looks like the person I'd want to take classes from. Like, that lady looks like she popped out of a cookie. I know. Like, just divine. Yeah, right. I'm sure whoever orders from her. Like, I think her shoes are custom made to look like cookies all the time. I think it's her stick. Yeah. It's so put together. She just is like, wow, did you come From a fairy tale buffet. Artie Magoo, we should channel that. And it's so hard. And trust me, people, I'm not wanting to brush my hair and my teeth, but that's what they want. I was talking to Corey. Don't you want. If you hired a real estate agent, would you want to know that they lost their house in a foreclosure or would you want them to have a pretty nice house because they're adept at real estate? Okay, so you're baker. Do you want to see the person that's like, oh my goodness, I left my oven on, it's on fire. Or do you want to see somebody who's like real put together, like, hey, thank you so much. Here's your order details.

[B]

What they don't want to see is your 2 year old running around with the spatula that you used to make.

[A]

Right now we just, we all like that's Mickey. I mix the whisk. When I give that back, I need.

[B]

To stir the next order.

[A]

Don't forget to spittle in the icing. I need to make a little water. So it is hard to be like in the time where you're truly exhausted, in the time where you're like, as soon as I pick up the sort, I'm back in the kitchen and I'm going to be covered in flour again. Do it.

[B]

You should have seen me yesterday. I had an order coming up between 2 and 3 o'clock. I got home from lunch with Heather at 1:35. I'm running around, I'm turning on the pura, lighting the candle, Christmas lights on Christmas music going. I was rushing around to make it look like a vibe because they want to support me. I want them to know that I appreciate that and that I'm.

[A]

They're.

[B]

I'm not squeezing their pickup in that.

[A]

They are the five minute order. Thank you. Sorry, I gotta go over and get my kids.

[B]

I know the five minutes are going to take from my life that I was going to scroll on the Internet anyways that I can give them my full 100% attention and effort.

[A]

You may have stains on your shirt. A quick cute apron. I know you got a hat. Hadley and Bennett, one for your birthday. Just strap that bad boy on. It covers them all. Yes. And then your attitude, just bring that back around. I think mascara does numbers. When I don't wear mascara, people are like, do you even have eyes? Yeah, but you put on just a little something, a little effort. And I hate to tell people to do that because I don't do it myself. But I know the difference.

[B]

You're seeing it like. And you're like, which ones? You don't have young kids. I was kicking the dog toys behind the door. Like it just needs to be a five minute presentation.

[A]

Just a little brush up. Because it all goes back into that experience. Like, wow, this person really enjoyed taking my money.

[B]

Yeah, I love that part.

[A]

And then they really enjoyed fulfilling my order and they enjoyed me as a client.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

The last thing I want to do is you were so happy to take my money but hated giving me my order. Okay, then we have this one. Don't write short and curt emails in this Holly Jolly time.

[B]

You are busy.

[A]

You are busy. Short and curt emails sent from iPhone. They're excuse my typos. Fine. They're the bare minimum of effort.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

What you can do and no excuse. Now that AI is our little henchmen. I'm using AI to like hey, I have a quick question. I'm using it. I needed to transfer a YouTube brand account. I said AI, can you help me transfer a YouTube brand account so you can use. AI said, hey, take this email. I know even in Facebook messenger now it's integrated that you can have AI rewrite your message to make it sound more holly jolly.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So you can say I will follow up with you in 24 hours and ask the AI. Actually, let me just do this.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I use. I've been using the Google Gemini one. I kind of like it.

[B]

Isn't that the one they said that's like the best one right now.

[A]

The their image one. Oh, I think it's still open. AI is to kind of.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Rewrite. I will follow up with you in 24 hours to sound like a really happy baker. Let's just see what it says. Really happy.

[B]

I'm so curious what I'll say.

[A]

Okay. Wrote it immediately. Oh, I'm so excited to connect with you tomorrow. I'll be in touch within 24 hours. Option two, warm and friendly. I'll be sure to get back to you within the next day. Can't wait to chat with you then.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

Option three, baking themed. Just like my bread needs to rise. I'll be back with you in 24 hours with a delicious update. Okay. So we don't really have a lot of options when you know, I have this Samsung phone. It has that AI written built right into it these days not to wear iPhone.

[B]

Gmail now has it integrated in there.

[A]

So. And even if that's not a thing it said, I said I will follow up with you in 24 hours. That's how it rewrote it three times. I'd much rather the three options than the first, although they communicate the exact same thing. And you're busy. These shortcut emails, kind of for people who are really empathic or read between the lines, oh, this person.

[B]

I know, I know. And while you didn't mean it bad, you're busy. You're in between the oven timer going off and your kids screaming and you're like, let me just get this out to them. There's just a better way to do it that makes them feel more invited and welcome and not a burden.

[A]

Not a burden. We don't want to be a burden. And again, you are there. Holly, jolly Christmas baker. Cookies are fun.

[B]

The problem with cookies, my grandma says.

[A]

Cookies are so fun. They should she, you know, venting about some of the dynamics in the group and people that are mean and customer bashing and mean to each other. And my grandma's like, you just don't think with how fun cookies are, how cute they are that, that this would be. And it's in every industry. But with our clients, let's not let them know.

[B]

But listen, when the dingy bread is smiling at you with heart cheeks, it's.

[A]

Amazing how cute the cookies can be and how mean the baker that baked them could be. So, yeah, you can, you know, don't keep your emails too short, too curt. Although it makes a ton of sense. When you're busy, you can use AI to do some heavy lifting. There's a lot of assists that we have out there if we just tap.

[B]

You know, a little emoji goes a long way.

[A]

I love an emoji. My dad will be like, girls, we had to put your cat down. Happy crying.

[B]

Yeah, dad loves the little warm face.

[A]

The man never not met an emoji he didn't want to. So when he sends a thumbs up, I'm like, you're not even trying because you know you have to send the other ones. So yeah, you can use AI to help you write the emails again, AI can help you write better emails and faster. That was instantaneous. When it comes, number six, last one. Don't complain about the last minute orders. People just don't know the time it takes. Here's the thing. We went, oh, here, please give me your money, I'll make your order, I'll bake your order. And then December, they're like, you know what? That'd be a great idea. I'm gonna place an order for cookies and we're like, ew, idiot.

[B]

I want to say most people think of Christmas cookie gifts orders last minute. They saw someone else do it. It came to them in the dark of the night, and they thought it would be a great idea.

[A]

I'm gonna add another layer to this. When I think of food that has an expiration date, I think the shortest amount of time possible to the day I need to give it is the wisest decision to make sure you guys are like, well, they don't know about. No, we don't. I've never heard about. You could put these cookies in a freezer for six months and they thaw out better than when you throw them in there. I'm thinking, well, you take all your orders last minute because that's how you keep the freshness.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So, yeah, three days is completely fine. I want to tell you that before.

[B]

I ever even had a mixer or made, even sugar cookies was even in my mindset, we bought the client some cookies, some sugar cookies for the first time. And she was like, when would you need them? And I said, I'm flying blind here, but if I said, tomorrow is that way off base. And she was like, it's three to five days. But I didn't know.

[A]

Right. And the baker was educating you. But we don't want to punish people. There are bakers. There are bakers out there whose entire business model is based on last minute orders. It's a strategy. It is. And they are wise to do it because you get it. You get a lot of. Do you know when it truly peaks the sugar cookie search term? The week before Christmas.

[B]

Oh.

[A]

Because people like not three weeks out, not four weeks out, the week before Christmas. And bakers who are willing to do last minute orders. Great for people who do pre sales or have stuff that's pre made and say, I can't take that.

[B]

Hey, listen, this is your time to put some circles with icing in your freezer.

[A]

Eddie printer people, this is your time to shine. What you can do is say if someone places a last minute order, you can say, hey, I'm totally booked, but thank you so much for reaching out. I'm not sure if there's some options here. Here are some public bakeries that you may be able to get something. And then here's some custom bakers who. I'm not sure if they're still open. You can do that or strategy here. You can also say, hey, I can't do a custom order, but I do have some DIY kits or I do have some Pre made or designed to make something?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

If you're already there cutting the dough, you could create an extra set of each thing. Some of you guys are really good at. Like I'm going to pre make platters and have them ready to go for these last minute orders.

[B]

I took a mini order, not a small order. They were all of minis and I typically don't do that, but after having done five dozen this past week, that's an easy way to make a little cute gift set that. I mean, they were done pretty fast.

[A]

Having a bunch of minis ready to go. So you run the risk of what if I don't sell them? Well, you got the week before Christmas to go. Hey guys, I've over baked.

[B]

Listen. Also, I gave a gift to my Cory's giving to my trash people.

[A]

Tell them about the UPS driver. Cory comes to the UPS driver.

[B]

It's my USPS lady.

[A]

It's a male lady. And Corey goes up to them and says, hey, I have something for you. She rolls her eyes and says, listen, where do you need it to go to? Yeah, of course to you. And she's like, oh my goodness, I thought you were having me mail a package. I did not. Where do you live? And Corey's like, you already.

[B]

Yesterday I came back and it was raining all day. All my packages were inside my storm door.

[A]

That's so it. Really? Yeah, you can. That's a form of branding. Like we're always like, how can we create new. You guys can take these to networking events, to stuff that you baked and weren't able. So there's a lot that we can do with these overs of orders. But what we don't want to do is punish that client for the last minute order. You know, I see it and I hate every time I see it. Like, it's one thing to vent privately. It's another thing to take and screenshot these requests and post them in these public baking groups and say, can you believe this idiot? I just can't. Because Cory and I get to see how these groups work. The amount of times that people have come to me and said, somebody figured out who I am, they figured out who my client was and they sent the client. What I said about them would make you think twice before you write. Just whatever you write in these groups.

[B]

If you're not sweet words of nothingness about people who I wouldn't post it.

[A]

Cori and I have a big rule. It's no doxxing D o x xing. It's from Reddit and It's basically don't post any identifying details ever.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then Corey and I added the extra later is don't client bash because what if they read this? What if they read this? So in these other groups somebody had posted something, had the client's information. They had ran the client through thinking well the other bagels would come as A. There's 47,000 people in these groups.

[B]

There's hundred thousand who's related.

[A]

So they contact a bunch of people in the group, had the phone number contacted client said this is what your baker's saying about it. And I'd love to feel bad for the baker but I can't because you came in there, you said that stuff, you posted their phone number and you thought you could trust 100,000 anonymous event.

[B]

Sesh ain't worth it. If you want to get a little diary, write it in there.

[A]

Get you a twin, go to lunch. Get you a sister, go out to lunch. I know they call each other roomies in the college or emotional support baking besties. Find these people and vent to them. Somebody that you can trust. But do not turn these groups into your vent session and trust that this won't bite you in the butt. Yeah. And then don't punish the clients at the end of the day. Corey base now but had asked somebody for a one day turn. Yeah, Ezra, we're just.

[B]

I'm my own worst client.

[A]

You know. It's all right. This freshness thing. I bake fresh. They've been frozen for two years. So that's how the Grinch. That's how the Grinch saved Christmas. It is grueling. It's hard. It's easy to see the client as a bad guy when they're taking away from your own family. But understand that we asked them for this. They trusted a bad guy to yourself. We only have ourselves to blame. So try to have that good attitude if. If you're feeling burnt out.

[B]

I'll just tell you how I work through the holiday season is a small rewards based system with myself. If I can get the cookies baked, I get a reward. Whether it be a little starbs where it would be a smoothie king on the way to pickup line.

[A]

That is such a up earth to me.

[B]

It's a little tiny thing to say Cory, you're rewarded. And I work very well off a rewards based system. But I am the only one who's gonna give me that reward. So I really have to work for my own.

[A]

It's an honor system with yourself Y but it really does Keep the carrot in front of the baker.

[B]

Yeah. So you can say, if I can get the next five emails caught up, give yourself a little something. Whether it be six minutes to scroll on TikTok or six minutes is so specific. Seven minutes to watch your favorite show on Paramount, plus 3.2 minutes. Listen, we're baking.

[A]

It's a busy season.

[B]

You don't got that much kind of time.

[A]

So, yeah, try to keep anything of all of these. If you can only do one of them. I would honestly just put that Sasha Fierce, I'm going to be the best baker. When they pick this up, it's only asking for about five minutes. Minutes. It'll keep you from turning it into a vet sesh.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It'll lay the groundwork for next year's December.

[B]

I want to say, since you've done so good at marketing and that's why you're busy, don't let it stop in Christmas and cost yourself sales next year. Because whatever you do this Christmas, whatever new clients you take on, they can be your best client all year round.

[A]

The cheapest client is one who's already bought from you. A warm lead, a recurring lead. These are the business strategies. You already got it. December is a great time to build that Rolodex up. How you maintain that Rolodex is up to you. And that's what we'll get to in January is these follow up emails, these newsletters maintaining this. So come next December, you can tap that CRM program, be like, hey, Sharon, you bought from me last year. Would you like to order from.

[B]

Scroll back to the business boundaries and maybe next year ain't gonna be.

[A]

So during December, May, you can schedule in your own Gmail, schedule a time. I've never seen how late you can schedule them. I'm sure you could schedule it out for a year, tell me I'm an idiot and then pass. You can have that intervention, but those are your options for that. Now, moving on to the cookie college, I think actually you want to talk about sourdough sellers.

[B]

Oh, yeah. Okay.

[A]

Completely free.

[B]

Yeah. So here's the thing. Me and Heather talked about it over the last year. I've researched it because I got into sourdough early last year and it's been about a year. I said, you know what? Sweets bakers can turn into sourdough people, but sourdough people can't and probably wouldn't turn into so much royal icing sugar cookie bakers.

[A]

Because sourdough bread baking works off economies of scale. Like a loaf can only get so attractive. You have to sell this money. And I'm like, wow. Compared to a baker who can build a Rolodex based off of their talents.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Sourdough people are like I gotta get these bread loaves out the door and they've gotta work. I would say that their marketing is actually more challenging.

[B]

It's because you have a short size.

[A]

If we buy with our eyes. No offense to bread.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But cookies will win.

[B]

Then at the end of the day you can say like my. My line is. Is perfectly drawn with my royal icing. Bread is like it's still flour cut.

[A]

That makes them the scoring. My score is everyday scarred. So Corey said, oh, let's make a Facebook group. That way that the baking group and the cookie groups aren't inundated with sourdough questions because they are different beasts. Although we're in the same house. We're in two different rooms. So she. We started this group Sourdough Sellers. You can go request to join and get you in. And then she contacted the creators of Hopper Plate. Hot Plate is a website for baking. Yeah.

[B]

It's really specifically made for bread drops.

[A]

So Bread drops.

[B]

Bread drops. So I make. I have eight loaves on Friday I'm gonna drop. I can pre drop them. So a pre order, pre sale. Just like with sugar cookies.

[A]

It's funny how pre sale is such a weird word. I know. Like you can repackage it. Yeah.

[B]

Or a bread drop. So you can be like I'm making eight loaves only and you can pre buy them on hot plate.

[A]

Very nice. But you can adapt hot plate. Which Rishi I think was the founder. We have no affiliation with him. I just see I just in the source and I said, you know what.

[B]

I would like to learn a little bit more. Could you do a Facebook Live?

[A]

But a lot of sugar cookie bakers are moving over to hot plate as an option to square.

[B]

The next one who's going to do a Facebook live in there is Bakesy.

[A]

Bakesy is big in cookies and I think they're less well known in the Sourdough group. The Sourdough the concepts there. You're not going to go there and be like oh my goodness. I had to all this marketing. I didn't know. It's just going to be a different application because that group is so small though we're able to still talk about how to make the bread and Corey's working on it. How to get started in sourdough freebie. So yeah.

[B]

Just so you can know because I know that cookiers are gonna join that and you could be successful at sourdough.

[A]

Cora and I have, like, how do we integrate her sourdough bread into her cookie website? And it's not the easiest transition. It's almost. While they are elbow rubbing products, they're very, very different.

[B]

But what I did discover, and I think I talked about it on Thanksgiving for our family, I said, what if I could teach a sourdough sugar cookie class? Cause you can make sugar cookies with sourdough.

[A]

Right?

[B]

And they did just great. So what if I could get a sourdough sugar cookie class and then get those people into my sourdough baking class?

[A]

That would not be a bad idea. I think drop cookie people will benefit a lot from the sourdough group because drop cookie people are like, I have a less attractive cookie. It's delectable. But the bike can make a lot of it. I can make a lot of it and work at economies of scale. So we thought this would be a little neat thing. It's sourdough sellers group on Facebook. There's a sourdough sellers page. And Corey's got the instruments. Instagram. Just a fun little other thing.

[B]

Yeah, just a lean, mean, small group.

[A]

And then we're going to be talking about how to make the sourdough of which now you're a slave to your sourdough because you got to keep it alive. Estada, estada, estada. So, yeah, you can check out there. The cookie college is back to its $76 price. However, on January 1st, I will honor the $68 price from when we launched. It was not the cheapest from the event that shant me I did a week before December. New Year.

[B]

New Year, Yeah.

[A]

So our challenge is new Year, new you when you sign up for the cookie college level membership, which will be 68. And if you've just signed up at 76, I'll talk to you how to switch that. If you're in the cookie college, it's everything you need to make December next year what we're talking about right now. If you're. If you're like, I'd only wish we want to make business. If you could say, I only wish I didn't have time to send emails. I have all the time in the world because I didn't sell well, it comes down to a marketing thing in marketing. And I said to Corey, if people realized it's just consistency over repetitive, repetitive time, more people would do it. But it's so long that we don't see that instant gratification that we're like, well, that wasn't it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

If you want to do a new year new me, you can sign up for the cookie college, which will be $68. However, if you're like, that's not what I want. I just want to teach classes. I like what you guys said about that. If you sign up for the class kits today, if you sign up for the class kits in this month. Yeah, yeah, December, you get all the 2024 classes, which is 12 of them. I fought Heather. Yeah, we can have the cookie class kits. Just keep adding and adding. Eventually, it becomes just a backwards product for us. So every year on January 1st, it resets.

[B]

So if there was a time to buy.

[A]

So if you guys don't know how the pricing works, the cookie classic kits is $63 a month. And each month you get a new kit. However, each month that passes, you retain the last kit. So if you signed up today, you get all 12 in 2024. However, in January, it resets to the 2025 classes. So if you sign up in January, there'll be one class there.

[B]

I know. But if you sign up now, you.

[A]

Get the 12 classes. We're halfway through this month. So you'll also get an additional class that will drop, which is the next class, the Galentine. It's gonna be super cute. It's gonna be very cute.

[B]

It's gonna be a hot seller. I can already say that.

[A]

So you can get all the 2024 classes for 61 times $63. Within that $63, you'll get a new class of drops. You can cancel there. So that means you can get. Get the 12 or 13 classes for.

[B]

$63 one time, $5 a class. If you buy today. You've done the math every year.

[A]

I know. I always forget. 63 divided by what it would be like 13 classes, it'll be $4.80. So. But in January, it'll be $63 for that single class. So if you want to sign up anytime in December, you get that. If you want to do New year, new me in the cookie college. Corey said, even though she acts like. Like I'm the bon. And she said the week before New Year's.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You get two weeks to. Two weeks to join the cookie college.

[B]

At the Christmas money. Meet us in the new year.

[A]

If you sign up for the cookie college, you get the 2023 classes and the 2024 class and the 2025. So that I know we have 26. So it'll be 27 classes. Let's do that. $68. Right.

[B]

You know what my ball and chain is? It's the cookie class, kids.

[A]

Yeah. It's so much work. Someone in the college that I try to make mine my own class, and now I realize why I pay you guys. That'll make each class $2.50. If you sign that one month for the Cookie College at $68, that would be.

[B]

We'll make some posts in the group to make it make. Make sense.

[A]

I know y'all are busy, so you have a little bit of downtime after that.

[B]

Yes. Let's move to the sponsors if you want to see if there's any text message questions.

[A]

I have one.

[B]

You do.

[A]

The thing that was confusing is you told this person, yeah, I'll get there.

[B]

I'll get there.

[A]

You want to give her a precursor?

[B]

Sure, sure, sure.

[A]

So a couple weeks ago we asked. Hi, is there an episode about whether or not to offer friends and family discount? I searched and I didn't see one, but I'm struggling with how. And I would love your awesome. But I have offered friends and family discount for as long as I've owned my cookie business. But now I feel like discounting orders makes me resent taking them, and I don't like feeling that way. Thank you, ladies so much. I'm sending this on your birthday. So happy this is what birthday?

[B]

Don't offer them. I don't.

[A]

Okay. But she's been offering them. So how do we go from. They're expecting it now.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Created it.

[B]

So the discount is less and less or your price is higher and higher.

[A]

There you go. I raised my prices, so your discount is still there. And this is a way you can kind of do this. There's no clean way to do this. And a lot of us build our business off of friends and family. That's how you get started. And then you have the friends and family trying to do you a favor, a place, an order. Everything feels good until you get to this point. Once resentment is there, that means we've got to have a change of pace. So what I would do is say, hey, I'm still doing that friends and family discount. However, my prices have raised.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

This year. And here's what that looks like now. However that looks like to you is up to you. Yeah.

[B]

So you're like, but twins are ordering on my website. My prices are not raised.

[A]

There's another.

[B]

Here's another option. If you want to do every. Every few orders, you get a discount. So every four orders, you get a discount off your fifth order. That's what a lot of people do. What we're trying to do is not just end it abruptly, we're trying to squeeze it out, we're trying to make it less accessible so you're dealing with less of the resentment.

[A]

Another thing I really love. Thank you so much. Cusp in for placing where I'm actually booked, but I really appreciate it. Here's another baker. When you send them to that other baker, that other baker is not going to give them that discount. They'll see how much this stuff costs. I assume that, and that's a problem with discounting stuff is that people now think that the value of the stuff is the discount price. Everything else is overpayment. So they're going to be like, wow, this other Baker charging me $60 a dozen where my cousin was charging me $30. It must be a $60. You can just, just be booked forever. Yeah, if you want. It is miserable. It is miserable because you created our own habit with which we want to now end. And they did nothing wrong, but we are resenting them for it. You can also add them to a pre sale things that are less customized. Give them the products that are less. Have less that you are less planning to.

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

And that will be kind of do that. But make it. And make it hard to order from you and then they'll eventually get them.

[B]

It's just like the client. That's not your ideal client. And we're a little booked more often. Our prices are a little higher. We don't do every other client.

[A]

The not ideal client. This will be that not ideal family discount. And yeah, just say, hey, my business is really taking off. You know, I joined this group, this podcast.

[B]

Use the thing every baker does. Eggs and butter are high.

[A]

Right. Like I'm having to raise my prices because the cost of eggs and butter is ironically just the cost of your discount. Yeah. But if you feel resentment, you have got to make a change. Even if that's a gradual change. I don't think that saying directly to them like, hey, I don't want to give you a discount anymore is the healthiest response. But also take it from me, a person who avoids conflict at all costs people pleaser. Right over there. People pleaser. You know, never saw somebody I want to please. You're not going to please me. It's fine, it's fine. You have your reasons, but I would love to please you. So I would say tread cautiously, tread carefully. It's people's feelings the people you got to keep seeing. But you got those subtle tactics that we've used to kind of fire clients without directly firing them. You can start using that on friends and family as well.

[B]

Absolutely, absolutely. So our sponsor. Sponsor number one, the Backers Co. I feel like after six months, we can stop saying, what do you think.

[A]

About Frank sitting either? Doesn't it hold?

[B]

He's not happy, but he's not mad.

[A]

He's not. He's happy. You're also fidgeting a lot for a dizzy cat. It's gonna be wild. Well, but he's relaxing.

[B]

He keeps trying to put his arm out like this.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I don't know why. Okay.

[A]

The Backers Co.

[B]

Previously known as a Core Backers. Eventually we'll stop saying the eight Core Backers, but they're still in that weird transition where you're renaming everything. Backers Co is a food safe backdrop. Not only is it food safe, it's matte. It's waterproof, scratch resistant.

[A]

It's.

[B]

It's what I use for my photos. I love that they have L brackets, so you can turn a flat surface into what looks like a beautiful kitchen. So I. I took these cutest little gift boxes that I gave to the teachers. I put the red wine one, which is what their recent drop was, against the white matte finish. It was gorgeous. It looked like a Christmas miracle.

[A]

Code, code.

[B]

Sugar cookie, not plural. And that'll give you 20% off.

[A]

Yeah, I was just gonna say Bastia does not sponsor anything. We're an affiliate for them. They pulled a fast one on me. Why? No, it wasn't on me. It was just they used a pricing model that I know. So they had their Bosch affiliates, at which. Pretty great sale. They have a Black Friday sale, and then if you buy through an affiliate link, you get an additional $20. Awesome. Okay. And then they. I'm sure they sold out of the Universal Plus. Yeah. The artist. There was no refurbed. Okay, great, then. Well, I'm like, wow, that was a great sale for you guys. I'm sure they were like, we're raising our price in January 1st. Like, like, now if you don't buy at our discount, you're gonna pay even more. I was like, that's pretty.

[B]

Can they still use our discount and get it?

[A]

You can get. Yeah. I. I don't know how they have. I think the affiliate's always $20 off with the prices. But, like, in my mind, I was like, I don't even bake, but I want one before the price. I know.

[B]

Well, what is. I think it's sugar.

[A]

January 6th. The code for them is sugar cookies, as with an S. With an S.

[B]

S. Oh, with an S. Yeah. They're not sponsors, but I did.

[A]

I was just thinking about that.

[B]

I was like, well, I just got my Bakedy bake order. That is the next. It's our next sponsor. It's Royal batch made by a company called Bake Bake. It is the best meringue powder I have air used in my life. It whips up bright white because it has white food coloring in it. It has vanilla extract in it so it tastes amazing. You can add whatever else you want to. It all goes well with vanilla extract and it has corn syrup in it to give you a soft bite. Now, I did buy and I'm going to use it in my next class. She had the cutest branded mini tester pack. So if you're like, I'm not one. I want to test it out before I buy it. You can buy mini packs. I think there's like 2 ounces in it. But I was going to use them for my cookie class as the gift for our next class that we do.

[A]

You look like that stuff's printed gold.

[B]

Yeah, but it was so branded.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

Just like the big bag match. It was cute. It didn't look like janky, like homemade.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah, it looked very cute.

[A]

Like I would be like, I could tell that a class, right? Oh, yeah. We were talking in the cookie college about. People are like, I make so much money during this Christmas. Here's funny. Okay. We teach this class on Saturday, right? These three ladies come in. They're like retired, and they're like, we're actually taking your class, going home and decorating the cookies we're giving out. And they were like, do you have anything we can buy from you? And we're like, no. So Corey gives away the scribes. I never want to give away.

[B]

I gave away like some pipe necks.

[A]

In the cookie college. The not idiots are selling. They have bins of products sell. Because so many people come to class, love the experience and say, what can I buy? They're buying DIY kits. Scribes, cookie cutters.

[B]

Jean, maybe we should test out one.

[A]

We should.

[B]

A ton of cutters do our last. Oh, you can get Bakey Bake Royal batch at a discount if you wanted to. 10% off with the code Twins last.

[A]

But I have some memes teed up for our last sponsor, Eddie the edible food printer. They said switch over to marketing Freddie, but I don't know enough about them to feel confident saying it. I know that it's an icing machine. I haven't been able to see it in real life. But back to Eddie. That's what I know pretty well. Corey has one. I think it's a great product. $3,000.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But they have the app, that app for direct printing.

[B]

It came back out nice.

[A]

They fixed some line of color. Something a little bit over my head. So Eddie, the edible food printer. No discount code. They know what they're worth. But here's the strategy with eddie. You spend $3,000, which is not chump change at all. No, but you use Eddie to pay for Eddie. Now, I don't like taking on debt, so I'm pro take your orders and put it allocate. There's a Facebook live on ynab. You need a budget app, which is great for kind of seeing how those orders can be allocated to paying for an Eddie up front. But if you're like, hey, they have financing. They have like a Klarna type deal. Amazon pay or you can pay that $3,000 because you've been such a great baker this year and Santa was like, give her what she wants. You can directly print on cookies. Now, you heard me mention in today's podcast those last minute bakers have this whole strategy. And Corey will do that too. She'll be like, you can't do a custom order. But what I can do is print.

[B]

I'll print all that.

[A]

And people are like, give it to me. Corey had a commercial client come and they were having an open house. They said, we do not want you to decorate. We want you to print our logo on a bunch of cookies. That is what we want. We want that. Nothing more. It's pretty crazy to me. And people are like, it takes the time out of cookies. We're here to make money, my friend.

[B]

We're business.

[A]

We're business. We're here to increase our margins and decrease our costs. And while Eddie the machine is expensive, the margin on commercial orders is so high and the time investment is so low because you just press print.

[B]

Listen, no one's going to argue with you that the cookie that took eight hours in 52 different colors and piping consistencies is it amazing? But they're not in the same category.

[A]

Right. I'm not sure that you could spend eight hours on a single cookie or two cookies and make a profit. Profit. You can make a piece of art.

[B]

You can't.

[A]

Right. So there is, there is the time cost in baking and you're going to See, Cory and I are always business centric. That's why you're listening to this. This is here. We're here to help you make more sales at higher margins. And Eddie can help you do that. Now, you can check them out at Eddie Printer users group on Facebook and Instagram, but they also have the primera.com website. If you just say, cut, cut it out. I'm going get me one noise.

[B]

Nice. You know, to interest.

[A]

Yeah. My mom and my little sister went to Target and they found in the sales section a card game called Stir the Pot. Stir the pot. It looks like a soup. And there's the noodle spell. Stir the pot. And they had mentioned it's. It's an interesting game. We didn't play it per the game, but it's just a bunch of prompts.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And it was most likely to. And then the question is pretty ostentation. So funny enough, the first one is most likely to never change your underwear every five days. Well, our. Our little sister doesn't like showering because she uses this fake tanner.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So she's very clean, but she does not shower. So we all voted for her, but she was like, but I would change my undies.

[B]

So before you go buy it, you must know everyone around the table to some extent.

[A]

Yeah. You either have to be. It seems like it was meant for people with friends, which we didn't have, so we did it with our family. It's funny how it actually. The game is supposed to be played. You pull the card, it has this question. You tell the person next to you. The person next to you just points at somebody. That person knows they're being talked about. About. You flip a coin, it says, do you tell this person what they've been nominated for?

[B]

How do you win this?

[A]

You don't win. You just make it gossip about. So, you know, there's probably, what, 300 cards?

[B]

There was a ton of cards.

[A]

There's a ton of cards. But every single one, every single one about who. If the theme was who does it shut up around the table, they're like, Heather. Heather. I was like, oh, Heather. Had a kind of. It was eye opening to see because, you know, each card has like a theme. Who's clean, who's. Who talks a lot, who is moody. But mine was never shut up. It didn't matter if it was like, opens your mouth, Heather, like, talks to shut yourself. I said, oh, most likely to start.

[B]

To start a conversation in an Uber, Heather.

[A]

You know, I'd be like, I could not live with the Silence of an Uber. I've never been in Uber for that reason. To save the Uber driver. So I thought that was pretty eye opening in terms of blind speech.

[B]

I know. I tried to be open minded about my blind. I didn't want someone to give me a. A crown I didn't know I needed was already wearing.

[A]

So Cory gets the one that's like who's most moody like me. I'm self nominating.

[B]

Don't nobody say why are you so self deprecating today?

[A]

But Corey. So I'm leaving in 2024. My Sirtox a lot.

[B]

It's just when there's a prompt. When someone's prompting. Tor.

[A]

If you've said this story five times you've talked to.

[B]

I believe my bad attitude sometimes. I will have granted Heather doesn't have a kid or husband or a dog or a cat.

[A]

Oh yeah, because apparently I want to talk.

[B]

He just wants to get down. Oh yeah, put him down.

[A]

But stabilize him. Sorry, my cat changed his mind. Stabilize him. Make sure his comb isn't down. Down, down. And we are good for takeoff. Cat is on the wobbly move.

[B]

Oh, my arm fell asleepful.

[A]

Oh man. Down, man learn.

[B]

And down. Okay, he's good.

[A]

He's gonna sit by the. He's already piping hot.

[B]

My hand sweaty from holding the whole time.

[A]

So you were leaving your bad attitude. You say I have no relationship.

[B]

So I went home and I said Nate, I was voted bad attitude queen also by yourself. But okay.

[A]

But I agreed. Yeah, but Nate was like, well, you.

[B]

Have a bad attitude. Cuz I often have a bad attitude. And he put it on you. I said yeah. Stop that Cory.

[A]

Stop it. He was trying to hoist you up. So I thought the stir of the pot. Some of them were inappropriate. So don't just open it. Yeah. Don't think it's G rated.

[B]

Most of them were just absolutely here.

[A]

At PG13 Random Prison. I will say the key is that it was on sale. I don't think it was worth the $35. It was worth the $12. It was on sale.

[B]

And if you use target red card, 5% off even.

[A]

It was an interesting. It was. It was so that's my twin dress. It was yours?

[B]

That was mine.

[A]

How have my twin vent gifts been going?

[B]

Oh yeah, I missed yesterday's. I was so busy I took a last minute order.

[A]

I hadn't done. Like a burden.

[B]

So Heather's gift giving. Top tier.

[A]

Top tier.

[B]

Top tier. I've loved every single one.

[A]

I'm gonna say you stuck the landing with rightly sized gifts of things that I do want. So all a lot of travel skincare, which is great because I hate bringing full bottles of anything, Especially when I want to get stuck on the mountain. Could you imagine like. Excuse me. Let me get my shampoo bag. Well, the reason.

[B]

Because you had the small box at the beginning. I bought half of the stuff when it was still the small boxes.

[A]

So this has been a terrible thing to put together. But in hindsight, what a fun day to wake up every morning with a gift.

[B]

If my life. If I could have 365 little gifts a day, I would have a better mood all the time.

[A]

So far. What's your favorite?

[B]

Okay. Heather knew this was gonna be filmed. Cause I said, I'm gonna film here. So she really went out. I think you had to go above budget.

[A]

I was. No, I came within a dollar.

[B]

No way. Even with all that shipping from different. Different things.

[A]

Well, I. I came out. I love me a spreadsheet. Right? So I found all your gifts and the sister mom gifts, and I got free shipping. The threshold.

[B]

I just thought Etsy is.

[A]

You know, Etsy got me. Etsy got me the shipping. Yeah, rough. But some of them are running like free shipping.

[B]

Joe got me this. It's a tea towel. It says want to start something? But it's a starter.

[A]

Is on starter. Starter.

[B]

Then she got me a custom engraved sourdough knife.

[A]

Did you already have a sourdough knife?

[B]

I had a knife, but we didn't like that one as much as we liked yours. Oh, really?

[A]

Because I thought I'd give you the even cut. It does. I bake because I need the dough.

[B]

It's so funny. What else? Heather gave me this funky lamp. Cute. Archer loves it. Oh, really?

[A]

I thought it was funky.

[B]

It looks like a Mario lamp that.

[A]

You'D find in the game. So it was like a pen holder at the bottom. I was like breaking case of lame gift.

[B]

Gave me a cat. Cat lamp.

[A]

Weird porcelain little cat.

[B]

Oh, cat night light.

[A]

Archer loves it. Weird.

[B]

Yeah, that's his. Some skincare gifts. You can't go wrong with that.

[A]

It's less fun to unpackage though. I think today's. What was today's.

[B]

I haven't opened it yet.

[A]

Okay, what was yesterday? What's today's date?

[B]

Today's the 16th. It's the 17th today.

[A]

Okay, hold on. I'll tell you right here. So did you open the 6 16? No, the 16 says, you may be a star, but you're not a pimp.

[B]

Oh, I know what it is.

[A]

And 17.5cents saved is 5 cents earned. Said the wise kitty. Witty. What is it? It'll come together when you open it. So. No, it's been, it's been the.

[B]

I. It's like while I don't want to do that again next year, I do.

[A]

Want to do it again. It is not. Now that I understand how it works, it is not.

[B]

I know. It's been an absolute blast to have a gift gift today.

[A]

White elephant family exchange. Second annual have to spend $50.

[B]

So it's like white elephant. Technically that means a gift you wouldn't want. But we're trying to do gifts. People do one. So while we're using the word very Lucy. I almost think Secret Santa is.

[A]

Would be better. Except for it's a white elephant where somebody grabs kids. Yeah. So I told Corey what I'm gonna do. $50. I had to go to a Wegmans. If you guys don't know what Wegmans. It's a higher end grocery store here. They have lotto scratcher kiosks.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I thought it'd be fun to get 51 scratchers that could win 2,500. Yeah. It took me forever to get to that. People were formula. I felt so awkward because I'm. It's not fair that I'm cutting 50 of these up.

[B]

That people are doing this every year. For every little corporate I know, somebody.

[A]

Was just like, listen, I'm getting off my shift. I want to see if I won a million dollars. I'm tired of working, working. Right. So I impose it. So I had a. The way it worked, I didn't realize how these kiosks were. You can only buy a debit card because you have a debit credit. So I put my debit card and say 50 bucks because I need 50 of these. But they're people forming a line and I can't live my life because I think it was unfair. The other kiosk was down, otherwise we would have been fine. So I am. I was twenty dollars left. So I bought two ten dollar cards and I said I'll just come back. So I went home and I feel like, well, I gotta use my own $10. Did not work. Still working my job. Job. What?

[B]

Oh, for mine.

[A]

Yeah, I ran this by Heather to.

[B]

See if it was good. Headache.

[A]

Okay. Corey has this. It must work. Everyone has headaches. It's a universal gift. Yeah. So she was doing a headache care package. This very tight. It's a head compression that you can.

[B]

Put in the fridge.

[A]

So it covered your Eyes too. Right.

[B]

Which is smart to black it out in case you. If it's a sight one.

[A]

I honestly I get to get the two in one. Ibuprofen and Tylenol. Yes. And then this.

[B]

You rub it on your neck and it's supposed to like so I don't know.

[A]

Cousin came to me yesterday and said he was like, do you have any leftover ideas? I'm not sure what to get from it.

[B]

Did you say the battery, Daddy?

[A]

I still think that's a good one. No, no, I didn't. I told him the 50. I told him the money. Wall out.

[B]

The battery Daddy is a case for like you never need a battery until you need it.

[A]

But then where are they organized? I agree and I love an organization. I probably would go for the battery.

[B]

Know cuz you right now everything is rechargeable. I will say the world of batteries is on its way, but when you.

[A]

Need one, you need a B.

[B]

So I thought I'd put like even.

[A]

Though would you fill it with the batteries?

[B]

I know that's it would look way over.

[A]

Look at those like batteries from like where they have a.

[B]

But thanks guys for tuning back in to the podcast. We checks calendars will be here every single week.

[A]

No plans whatever, but I hope you.

[B]

Have a less Grinchmas heart and a more Christmas.

[A]

Oh, the next podcast is Christmas Eve.

[B]

Oh, well, we're going to do it.

[A]

On Monday the 23rd. It could be. Or we could do Christmas Day since.

[B]

I'll be here Christmas day.

[A]

Oh, Christmas podcast.

[B]

A Christmas podcast.

[A]

You guys can welcome us into your holly darling houses with your family around. And they say what is that annoying voice of that girl who doesn't seem to not stop talking?

[B]

Okay, little Tim, let him go.