193. Baking it Down - Smart Baby Goals

Summary

Episode 193. Baking it Down - Smart Baby Goals

Release Date: January 8, 2025
Hosts: Heather and Corrie Miracle
Podcast: Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪

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Overview

In Episode 193 titled "Smart Baby Goals," hosts Heather and Corrie Miracle delve into the concept of setting achievable, bite-sized goals tailored for bakery business owners. Moving beyond traditional "Smart Goals," they introduce "Smart Baby Goals"—a refined approach aimed at fostering consistency, reducing overwhelm, and ensuring steady business growth. This episode is packed with practical strategies, real-life examples, and actionable insights designed to help bakers effectively manage and expand their businesses.

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1. Rethinking Goal Setting: From Smart Goals to Smart Baby Goals

Heather opens the discussion by critiquing the conventional approach to goal-setting within the Sugar Cookie Marketing Facebook group. She emphasizes that while "Smart Goals" (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) are beneficial, they often remain too grandiose for many members.

Heather [01:05]: "Buy goals should push you. The problem is when the goals are so monstrous, it's hard to wrap your brain around them."

Corrie concurs, highlighting the psychological toll of setting excessively high targets, which can lead to feelings of defeat if unmet.

Corrie [01:34]: "The problem with. And if you listen to like the David Goggins type people...the defeatist side of your brain that's like, we did not meet the goal is so overwhelming."

To counter this, they propose "Smart Baby Goals"—smaller, more manageable objectives that encourage consistent progress without causing burnout.

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2. Breaking Down Lofty Goals into Achievable Steps

The hosts discuss how overly ambitious goals can derail progress. They illustrate this with relatable examples, such as setting a goal to "learn how to fly a plane" versus breaking it down into smaller steps like "researching flight programs."

Heather [03:06]: "If I said my 2025 January goal was to research what it takes to sign up for the program, I would...make progress."

This approach ensures that each step is attainable, fostering a sense of accomplishment and motivation to continue advancing toward larger objectives.

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3. Practical Implementation: Social Media Consistency

One of the key areas where "Smart Baby Goals" can be applied is social media marketing. Heather and Corrie emphasize the importance of consistency over quantity.

Heather [08:11]: "Number one consistency on social media posting. But now I'm gonna make it even smaller."

They suggest focusing on posting two times per week on a single platform, such as Facebook, and adhering to a specific copy formula like AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action). This method simplifies the process and makes it less overwhelming.

Corrie [09:07]: "One platform with the one who's bringing."

By narrowing the focus, bakers can maintain regular engagement with their audience without spreading themselves too thin across multiple platforms.

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4. Developing Baking Classes: Step-by-Step Goals

Heather and Corrie outline a month-by-month plan for bakers aiming to launch or improve their baking classes. This structured approach ensures that each aspect of the process is handled systematically.

Month 1:
Learn the Basics of Teaching Classes

Heather [27:14]: "Month one. I'm going to take a class on taking classes. That fulfills that other goal too."

Month 2:
Set Up Technical Aspects

Heather [28:19]: "We're going to learn how our computer connects to a TV and put that PowerPoint on it."

Month 3:
Conduct a Dry Run

Corrie [30:11]: "Do a dry run first. Somebody who can't be offended or mad that you took their money, do it with them because they're going to just support you."

Month 4:
Find a Venue

Heather [31:31]: "Just look around. Libraries, cafes, churches have these rooms you can rent out sometimes."

By segmenting the tasks, bakers can tackle each phase effectively, ensuring that every foundational element is in place before moving to the next step.

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5. Gamification and Habit Tracking for Goal Achievement

The hosts introduce the concept of gamification to make goal-setting more engaging. They discuss apps like Finch and Habits that reward users for completing small tasks, reinforcing positive behavior through immediate rewards.

Heather [43:30]: "Each morning, like getting out of bed, you can check it off and you get points because it has goals for people."

Corrie [43:53]: "It's the same premise as these little check offs equal to a bigger goal."

This method aligns with the "Smart Baby Goals" philosophy by making daily tasks rewarding and encouraging long-term commitment through incremental achievements.

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6. Building and Maintaining Engaged Community Groups

Heather and Corrie share insights on managing community groups to enhance engagement and support among members. They stress the importance of creating a positive, resource-rich environment while minimizing promotional overload.

Corrie [20:51]: "The group turned into a giant resource for each other...they came with memes, jokes, questions."

They also discuss strategies to prevent the group from becoming overwhelmed with sales pitches, maintaining a balance between providing value and promoting business offerings.

Heather [82:00]: "If you're taking advantage of the sales day to have to pay back into the group or they kind of leave because they didn't want to pay back into the group."

By fostering a supportive community, members can share resources, provide mutual assistance, and celebrate each other's successes, thereby enhancing collective growth.

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7. Leveraging Sponsorships and Marketing Tools

The episode concludes with a discussion on maximizing the benefits of sponsorships and utilizing marketing tools effectively. Heather and Corrie highlight partnerships with brands like Royal Batch and Shutterstock, explaining how these collaborations can offer additional value to their listeners.

Heather [89:00]: "Royal Batch is by a company called Bakety Bake...Her website, click to order leads to the Jotform."

They emphasize the importance of selecting the right tools and partners that align with the bakery's goals and enhance operational efficiency.

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Notable Quotes

• Heather [01:05]: "Smart Goals should push you. The problem is when the goals are so monstrous, it's hard to wrap your brain around them."

• Corrie [08:17]: "Consistency on social media is still too broad. Let's tighten it up two times per week. Let's tighten it up one platform."

• Heather [43:30]: "Each morning... you get points because it has goals for people."

• Corrie [82:00]: "If you're taking advantage of the sales day to have to pay back into the group or they kind of leave because they didn't want to pay back into the group."

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Conclusion

Episode 193 of the "Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪" podcast offers a transformative approach to goal-setting for bakery business owners. By embracing "Smart Baby Goals," Heather and Corrie provide a roadmap to achieving consistent growth through small, manageable steps. From enhancing social media strategies to launching baking classes and fostering engaged communities, this episode is a treasure trove of actionable insights designed to help bakers thrive in their entrepreneurial endeavors.

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For more detailed strategies and resources discussed in this episode, listeners are encouraged to join the Sugar Cookie Marketing Facebook group and explore the ongoing support offered through the podcast’s additional platforms.

Transcript

[A]

I want you to change your pitch of your voice and your intro is really what I was talking about. Why? Because you're just like, it's sugar ice cream.

[B]

I want you to be enlightened. I want you to be excited.

[A]

I'm enlightened. I just want to challenge you in 2025 to give me a different approach.

[B]

Okay, well, then sometimes when you're lackluster, I feel like I have to make up for it.

[A]

I'm not lackluster.

[B]

You don't have your radio voice off.

[A]

Hey, guys. Welcome to Sugar Cookie Marketing, the Baking it down podcast. It takes an excerpt from a Facebook group called Sugar Cookie Market Group. We tried the name. Anyways. Join us weekly for some marketing nuggies and know hows and things that help increase your business workflow with your bakery. I love that. I love that sound like you.

[B]

Every year I rewatch Frasier the Show.

[A]

The all 13 seasons. I think it is great.

[B]

I'm listening.

[A]

In 2025, I'm going to be letting my lips touch when I talk.

[B]

Oh, you're going to enunciate.

[A]

Enunciate.

[B]

Well, then you're going to talk a lot slower because those lips flapping in the mirror.

[A]

Okay, let's jump into today's podcast topic. Smart goals. I know, I know. You've heard about. You've heard about it. You know it. You don't need to know it again. But here's what I see happens in the marketing group.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And in the cookie college, people say, new year, new me, 2025. I'm going to get these goals. I'm going to get this bread.

[B]

I see them waking up.

[A]

We make this paper and then their goals are gargantuan, watty.

[B]

And it loves that for you.

[A]

Goals should push you.

[B]

The problem is when the goals are so monstrous, it's hard to wrap your brain around them.

[A]

The problem with. And if you listen to like the David Goggins type people, they're like, you only have so much bandwidth to make decisions to try for something. And then the defeatist. The side of your brain that's like, we did not meet the goal is so overwhelming, it just crashes you down.

[B]

I want to say in.

[A]

In mom's terms, our mothers. You are being a mom when you.

[B]

Have a gargantuist like, I want to make more money in my bakery business or I need to get yogurt cups for the kids lunches tomorrow.

[A]

You see how that yogurt's gonna win.

[B]

Yogi is gonna win.

[A]

That's an easy win. And My brain's gonna want the yogi win. And then I'm gonna be like, well, I don't even know. This with regards to these big, big, lofty, undefined goals is like, well, I mean, I did better than last year. I think I did.

[B]

If you're like me and Heather and you can go get the yogurt win, you can go get the yogurt cups for tomorrow.

[A]

Path of least resistance.

[B]

It's almost like your other goals need to be bite sized like that.

[A]

And when your big goals are actually bite sized, then you're getting a lot more wins and you're making a lot more traction than you would be with these really lofty, enviable goals. If I said to you, I'm going to learn how to fly a plane, that's a beautiful goal. That sounds cool, but I have to be in the air. Now. If I said I'm going to what if I said my 2025 January goal was to research what it takes to sign up for the program, I would.

[B]

Say you'd be more apt to be successful at flying a plane.

[A]

But I'm not flying a plane, so I don't get the big hoorah. You don't?

[B]

You don't.

[A]

But I actually make progress.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And it's not celebrated like the big hurrah one, but it's the quintus. It has to happen. It does. And to get to the big technically.

[B]

If you think flying a plane, that is a step that's going to eventually.

[A]

And it could be this year and it could be in five years. But we have to do the small goal first and the big goal will come in due time.

[B]

Yeah. And when you focus and you love to say the big goals, the little bite sized goals are always going to take precedence over the big goal because big goal is undefined.

[A]

Right. So Corey just gave us an example. Yogurt cups and flying a plane. That's right. So I'm going the yogurt cups is an easy win. My brain likes easy wins. I'm going to do yogurt cups. Plane is going to take a step back and then it's going to keep taking the step back because yogurt cup type goals are going to keep entering. How do we compete with yogurt yogurt cup goals? We have to do yogurt cup plane goals as well.

[B]

Right.

[A]

So now let's take it back to the bakery. Right.

[B]

Back to work.

[A]

Smart goals. I do like the acronym because it, it helps us tighten the rope around a goal. But I Think a lot of us still lose that it needs to be smaller.

[B]

Like we're saying, like, okay, I want to make $5,000 more than I did last year. You did make. I want to make a million dollars. A little bit more bite size, but.

[A]

It'S still too big. Right. So smart goals. The acronym is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. Delicious. Right? That's great. All those, all those ingredients already know. In fact, I think we've done a couple podcasts.

[B]

Yeah, we have.

[A]

Now let's make it even smaller.

[B]

And if that is, I want to say I really want to get this baking fun. Those ingredients are a recipe for success.

[A]

You need to get out of your system. I got it.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

So Corey said, well, we can't just tell them, make your big goal sponk. Bye. So she said, let me let my lips touch to each other. She said, let's come out with six versions of goals that are bite sized and then we'll go through those. Here's. I dated this guy once and he loved a big old goal and he loved telling people about it. And after you're with somebody for 10 years, I was like, this is pointless. This is awesome.

[B]

I really thought you were talking about dude number two.

[A]

Both of them loved a big goal. They liked telling people about their goals. Dude number one was 10 years. And he would say, he would say this every year. I want to start a business this year. Okay. Oh, great. And then he would tell all these people and they'd be like clapping and happy.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because who doesn't want to see someone start a business? And then I'd. And then I remember we went to dinner with this more successful guy and he said, what are you going to do this year? And my ex said, well, I'm going to start a business. And he said, what kind? He said, well, I don't know yet. He's like, then you're not starting a business. He said, you can't have an idea about starting a business and not know what the business is.

[B]

I know the idea is so juicy. I love to see the ideas are the ideas.

[A]

And that's what Corey and I always condemn an ideas guy because they're all the fun and glowy action, but never the small, bite sized miserable goals.

[B]

Unfortunately, me and Heather are the miserable goal people. We won't say an idea that we don't think we could get done.

[A]

Right. Because we know on the other side of that, Corey's gonna say, do you remember when you said you were gonna do this and you did this. Being a twin has been great and sucks, but it really helps it. So I had said to my ex, who's Rob, I said, goals can start on Tuesdays. Goals can start in March. A goal can start at three. He can just start them whenever. But he was like, no, it has to be on the 1st of the year. 1st of the month. 10am I want to say everything has.

[B]

To be world entertainment. The news has primed us to be like, New Year, new me.

[A]

How could you not? It's delicious. It's like I get to close a chat for someone. Yeah. And I have. I'd like to take. I'd like to take. I have an issue. Why is there 365 days? It's such an arbitrary odd number.

[B]

Cause we got 12 months and they're.

[A]

All fighting for about 30 or 30. Like give me 300 days and let each month have something easy to. So anyways, this 365 days ends. We almost have to act like we're new people.

[B]

Rebirth.

[A]

I'm not that person I was two days ago. I am a January 20th. Who is that? I don't know her. Never met her non touching lips before. I only touch my lips in 2025. Thank you, baby. So in 20 January comes, January 1st comes. Unfortunately. I think it felt like on a weird day. Like a. Which is not. It doesn't. You know, anyway. Yeah, I know. And then we're like, okay, new Year, new me. I want to make a million dollars. I want to buy a Bugatti and I want to go on 50 vacations. Like delectable, flashy, showy, fun. Everyone's going to support that. And then it's so big and overwhelming. We're like, we're retired.

[B]

So you end up being like, I.

[A]

Got to go get some yogurt cups.

[B]

For the kids tomorrow.

[A]

I think the best goal you can set is the most unsexy one. It's the one where people are like, that's it. If somebody looks at your little goal and says, landslide, I think you got a good goal. And here our six very. That's unsexy one.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Number one consistency on social media posting. But now I'm gonna make it even smaller.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

I'm gonna make it even less interesting. I'm gonna say focus on two times per week. Love it. For January and February. Two times per week.

[B]

I think that it's very doable.

[A]

Can you do something twice?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

In a week. Right. But everyone's like, that's not even aggressive. No. Because we'll build on it later. Right now we're building the consistency side and I think January, February, March. That's got to be a consistency setting side. Yeah.

[B]

It's the training wheels. Because when you get busy, you're like.

[A]

Oh, crap, I didn't post at all.

[B]

For the last two weeks.

[A]

And that's not what we want. We want the consistency going. So we have focus on. We're just going to. I'm pulling out a number two times per week. I think that's fine. It's more than one. It's less than three in 2024.

[B]

Yeah. My goal was twice per week.

[A]

Great. So that is a great tiny goal. Let's just focus. Make it even. Make it even smaller.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

One platform with the one who's bringing. So we're not doing two times per week on five platforms, which is actually a ton of posting. We're doing two times per week on Facebook.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. If you get most of your orders on Instagram, Instagram's your one.

[A]

Yeah. And we're not. And if you want to set up cross posting, fine. But that's not what we're focused on because that's a bigger goal than what we're focusing. We want baby goals, baby make. So then our final baby gone. If we want to actually kind of add a layer is find one copy formula and just use that for the next three months. Love it. And people are going to be like, what? That's so boring. You weren't using anything before these copy formulas. Aida is the one I prefer people start with because it does the attention, interest, desire and action. It kind of covers everything to make a sale. It's a little tiny funnel. Just say for the two posts I make each week on one platform called Facebook, I will use the Aida formula. The Aida formula means it's four sentences.

[B]

Wow. A lot of you are rolling your eyes. Be like, nah, I like to. But here's the thing. Consistent. If you are not consistent in 2024.

[A]

I think you'd be like, no, I'm going to take on three different copy formulas and I'm going to post to three. I think you're getting too aggressive. I think what I see happen is that best laid plans of mice and men leads to these overly aggressive goals. Because it's not sexy to barely do anything.

[B]

That's your last use of sexy.

[A]

You said the word crap. So I'm going to award myself one more. No.

[B]

Because now we're two for one. So I'm going to use one more inappropriate Level.

[A]

So one consistency on social media is still too broad. Let's tighten it up two times per week. Let's tighten it up one platform. Let's tighten up in one copy formula. We're still learning something that's very good. If you did this for three months, whoa. You're gonna be like, whoa, I did.

[B]

It for all of 2025.

[A]

Whoa.

[B]

Wow. Whoa. Yes.

[A]

If I clicked at your page and I saw that every.

[B]

Every picture, I don't think I can help this person.

[A]

Right. Okay. Corey has number two again. These are examples of less than attractive goals. Ugly, tiny, tiny goals, baby goals. Financial goal. Not. I don't want to make all the money too big. But she says, I want to bake one extra dozen per week. Now, notice, one extra dozen per week could be one extra unflooded group of naked cookies. Do not. It is not. It's not. I want to make one extra dozen. My highest tier. Again, getting aggressive, getting too big. Her supporting arguments, if you remember these, ask, how would I find one more sale a week? That's a very nice question. Because one, I want to sell one more dozen a week is pretty.

[B]

It's still wide.

[A]

Still wide. But we got to say, how could I get to sell one more dozen a week?

[B]

And you're like, you know what, there's this community group that's pretty active. They do allow a sales post a week. That could be where I start focusing on my one extra dozen. The reason why I brought this one up is I saw a lot of people in the sugar cookie marketing group say, I want to make more money this year. Love that. Yeah. But saying that, it's so broad, it's very hard to track. And you'll get halfway through the year and be like, did I make more money this year? I don't know.

[A]

Well, okay, so measurable. Now, one extra dozen per week is measurable because it's one more, but one more against now. Okay.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Here's what we're going to do. We're going to go back to last year. Whatever invoicing software you use, hopefully it has an export feature. If not, you can take your little thingy and you can count on your screen, you say, how many orders did I take in January? 2024. Let's say each week you took around pretend two orders. Let's say you baked two dozen. So we need one dozen per more per week. So we're looking at three dozen a week. And then times that by four. Right. We now on weeks where you took fewer orders, you know you can take fewer orders in that month. So while our goal is still pushing us, it's not overwhelming us. We're not. Because you can't say I want one extra per week but not know what you did last year. That's not one extra. That's an endless, never ending goal.

[B]

Absolutely. And also when you make it bite size, when you see all these people posting the cutest options instead of you going out and buying everything to make those cutest options and making none of them depressing, sad, and I'll defeat you feels like failure.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

You can say, you know what? My goal is only one extra custom dozen. So I can bypass all these cute cookie tags, all these little pre sale options.

[A]

Because my goal, one dozen is one extra and maybe one dozen extra week is too aggressive for what you've been doing. Then make it even more right. Say one extra dozen months. You are still exceeding last year. If you do one extra dozen per month than last year.

[B]

If you end 2025 with one extra dozen a month, 12 extra dozen a year, you will feel the success of winning.

[A]

Well, absolutely. Beat your last year.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Monetary goal.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And that's. But it's not aggressive. It is because it's, it's pushing you from last year. It's not as a million dollars and it's not, I'm going to increase my sales by 50%.

[B]

But it's a yogurt cup.

[A]

Yeah. That's. It's doable and it's. But doing it is succeeding. And it's one that your brain likes, one that your business likes, one that your bottom line likes and one that your audience like. It's a total win. It's just not as like, yeah. It's not a flashy logo. Next one. Take one skill class per month. So that's 12 total.

[B]

Listen, there's some of y'all out there addicted to buying class.

[A]

Our little sister signed up for a makeup membership for a year.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And she bought it for herself in November. She's taken zero of them because she liked buying. The thought of who she'd be after she took the classes. Right. Who wouldn't want to be a beautiful lady on the Internet? But that's a waste of money.

[B]

Here's the thing. You're going to feel defeated at the end of the year with all these classes you bought and then you took zero.

[A]

So. So just one class a month. And here's what I'm going to tell you. Don't take the hardest class. Take the easy. Take the easiest class, Take the Class. I mean some classes you couldn't really like make. Let's say a class is like I want to learn how to do. I see this question a lot. When you post videos, I want to put blush on my cookie. My character cookies. That might not even be. That could be a 30 second reel. That could be a 30 second reel. And now you know how to make your cookies have that little blush. Rosy face.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

There. And here's what I'm gonna say. Don't take really aggressive skills courses because we're not probably going to implement that into our where sales are.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Again, real flashy.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Some of these classes, fondant are so ornate and wow. And to be able to post that. You did that. But are you going to actually sell that? I don't think that you could work at a profit with the cost of the hourly rate. So while that class is fantastic and you may get a skill that you could implement there. How basic can we get this course? What basic course can we find for something that we're actually going to sell tomorrow?

[B]

A class on dipping cookies.

[A]

There. Super simple. It's actually cutting the complexity out of things.

[B]

Not crazy flashy. A dipped cookie looks just like another cookie. But that's going to help you with your corporate orders for the year. It's going to help you take last minute orders for the year. It's going to help you have something in your freezer ready to go for a last minute order for the year.

[A]

There you go. If you have problems with icing consistency. I would be in an icing consistency class. I wouldn't even look at the word fondant ever.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Florals.

[B]

Never heard of her.

[A]

Yeah. That's for when again, we're only like we're not taking classes and all classes are great and they push in. That's wonderful. We're not going to overly sell ourselves. We're not going to fly a plane type class. What we're going to do is like, hey, here's a small issue I'm having. If I solve this issue with the course, I'll be a better baker tomorrow.

[B]

Because I will say when I get these orders, these last minute orders creep in. The first thing is my best leg plans. Like if I was like, I really am going to take this floral class this, this week. That's the first thing on the chalk.

[A]

If you have an eddy printer in the box, they offer a free class. Go take it. Because unlocking this one hour class, although it's awkward and you're talking to somebody, is the potential for streamlining more of your production.

[B]

Yeah, right. Some of these classes that we've bought. I only have two. I've bought, not taken.

[A]

You think about them for the rest of your life.

[B]

Yeah, but listen, I've only ever bought two, so I've taken zero. We've been zero percent because. That's right. They are. They're beef tastic classes, but they're broken down in a lot of ways that you could maybe bypass the fondant part and go to like easy florals part.

[A]

And I would still consider that having taken the class. Absolutely. Even though the entire class was completed, even though you can't post the stunning dress made with fondant whatever, you're still completing the goal of learning the thing.

[B]

And if you break up that giant class into 12 bite size, that would.

[A]

Count as 12 classes over the year. I would say that that's when you.

[B]

Get the class done. But I don't want you to have 14 classes that you've purchased. And now you're like, oh, but the twin said, go buy a dipping class. No, no, no. I want you to look at the.

[A]

14 you got and see which skill in there you could find.

[B]

You can take a class. What a whatever of the classes and take zero. But it feels good to be like, oh, I got one. It's going to help my business and never take it. It's not going to help you.

[A]

No. Let's normalize taking the middle of a course sometimes. Now YouTube, when I Google a problem. Yeah, Google. And this is a neat feature. Thank you. Google people who are doing this. It'll pull up the portion of the video that answers my question. I want to say, and I'm starting.

[B]

Like halfway through during the event that shall not be named. We had. Miller's wife had these courses. Hers are divided in a way where it has like the different type of floral. So you can be like, you know what?

[A]

I want this type of floral one.

[B]

Floral, Yeah.

[A]

I would say taking a portion of a class. Let's call it completing the class. Yeah. 20, 25. Here's the thing. If you haven't bought classes yet, do not buy one until the one has been completed. And if completion looks different to you, let's say Corey's like, I'm just going to take a portion of the florist class. That's fine. Then you can buy your second one. So you'll be taking 12. Whether you want to take a course you've already purchased and divided into 12, or find 12 free courses on YouTube, whatever that looks like you're not going to buy anything until we've accomplished our goal. Right. Because what's happening is when we buy so many of these classes and we don't take them, they gonna get that defeated mindset, the cookie college. Tons of courses. However, it's not just courses. And some people say I don't use the college for courses, which is great. They're doing exactly that. They're saying, that's not what my goal is here. My goal is either the think tag for the group, these challenges, or the freebies. Right. So they're taking their membership and they're making it work for them. Now what I define. I'm a class taker. Some people are like, I'm not a class taker. I like the think tank part of it. That's fine. It's different for each of us.

[B]

Yeah. I'm a visual learner.

[A]

I've realized over the years.

[B]

So if it's a video course, that's great. I am signed up. Well, I dragged Heather to a sourdough class last year because I'm visual. She spent three hours there. You do the MVP award.

[A]

Had a lot of jokes.

[B]

I'll be going to the Sur La table class next month.

[A]

Corey likes these in person classes. Now these count to me and put.

[B]

My feet to the fire. There's next creation dates.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. You gotta go and you gotta talk to people. That's tough for some people. I get why Corey does it. Cause it's gonna force her hand. Yeah. And then she finds out that she prefers those. Being behind a computer. That's my style. Again, not the wrong thing to do. You just gotta do, you know, you, you know, you, you know, you Number four organization. And specifically. Okay. A lot of people are like, I'm gonna get organized. And Tony talking about too big, too big, too chunky. Delicious though. And it was fun to say it. But let's say we niche it down to inventory. Let's say we niche it down and Corey had this approach and I thought it was pretty neat. Break inventorying down by holidays. Yes.

[B]

So we're already going to be doing it.

[A]

Right. So the thing is, we've. We've amassed quite the collection of stuff and we don't know what we have anymore because as soon as we get it, we throw it into a bin. Because we bought it ahead of time. Because we're being prepared.

[B]

As soon as Valentine's Day over, we're busting out the Easter stuff.

[A]

Right. So for a great example, Easter is the great example. We are too close to Valentine's Day to do inventory and fill in our gaps. Right. We can still do inventory and see what we've got. But. Okay, what we got, we're working with, we're selling. Let's use the Easter as. As an example. Easter is in April, I think.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

We can do right now. Let me just tell you.

[B]

In the college this month, our challenge is called the Touch It Challenge. It's not a decluttering challenge. It's not a throw it away challenge. It's an inventory challenge. I just want you to know what you have.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So each day we're taking it step by step. So since we started January 1st, we went through the Valentine's Day.

[A]

Right. Because you were six weeks out.

[B]

Because we were six weeks out. So I didn't want you to feel like you had to go buy something when you already had. Had it.

[A]

Yes. And that's an actual great bite sizing. So let's say. Let's take Easter as the example. Say I'm going to inventory all my Easter stuff. That means I don't care what I have for Christmas. I'm not looking at that yet. I won't look that until September. So we're saying in January, I'm going to see everything I have for Easter. My tags, my boxes.

[B]

So you're going to start because we're going to work from the top down. We're going to see what cutters that we already have.

[A]

Very nice.

[B]

The cutter is going to dictate what tags we use, what boxes we use, the color shred, things like that.

[A]

So you're going to start from the top.

[B]

I really like these options. I bought this cutter last year, Never got to use it.

[A]

Cory had a great example. I bought these boxes last year. I didn't sell out of the boxes, but I only have two left. Not enough to do anything with. I think that goes to the recycle.

[B]

It could. And you know what? It's sitting in a.

[A]

What you like to do. You give them to teach as teacher. Gifts for your kid. Smart way. I do. Smart way to. To get them going. Yeah. If you can't.

[B]

If you have the mental struggle like I do, where, like I spent money on that, I can't physically throw it away.

[A]

Something I know Corey does for inventory that we have, like, not a ton left, not enough where she, like, wants to take a massive amount of orders. You'll give them at cookie classes.

[B]

I will, yes.

[A]

And so that'll help us clear out some stuff without like, totally wasting that money, which gets us money back because we're using it to market in a future class. If we taught a Valentine's Day class, the freebie, the little goodie bag, Corey will include something from an Easter class. So they would get them over there. Even to the point that Corey will say, well, I never use this cutter. So she'll give them to class attendees.

[B]

Yeah, I'll let them. So one of the touch it challenge was piping bags. We have our favorite ones we use. There's ones that we really just pass on over. So those piping bags that I don't use that I don't see me using, or same for you one. We can use those for DIY kits. That's a great way to offload them or give them to class attendees or use them for class attendees. For the piping bag, it's. They're just using it for the one time they're having fun. It's not something you will use because you love the shape of whatever piping bag you're using.

[A]

Yeah. I think it's important to not be afraid of the recycling bin. Yeah. There's also some great groups on Facebook called Cutter Buy, Sell Trades. Yeah. Be, bst. Bst. You can search them. There's about five and there's content being post. People will buy anything. Yeah. They'll buy anything. So you can recoup some of that cost. Again, great business decision.

[B]

Yeah. And in your local baker group.

[A]

That's a good one. I see that happening there.

[B]

Even if you're like, you know what? I don't want to toss it, but I don't. There's not enough to sell it. Giving it away. Someone will take it off you, I promise.

[A]

Right. So you can kind of recoup or at least get good karma.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

From that baker. That may save you in the future. So again, organization delicious. Too big. Inventorying delicious. Also too chunky. Taking it by holiday. By holiday when? 12 months. You'll have gone through and inventoried everything you offer.

[B]

And like, we're talking about inventorying your Easter props for photography. Like, we want to know everything you have that goes to the Easter holiday.

[A]

Because that one is prop central for some reason. Easter and props. The pastels, the eggs, the bunnies. I know, it's so cute. There's a lot there. And then. Okay, say, hey, I actually bought this and I don't myself using it in my photography. Let's give it to the donation.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because HomeGoods, it's going to end up. And you know, I love that we can donate things and they End up in thrift shops because it pays back into true. Don't be afraid to let it go. If you like to listen to the minimalist podcast, they said if it's under $20 and under 20 minutes to get it, it needs to go because just treat Walmart like your closet.

[B]

Right?

[A]

You can always go get another one if the worst came to happen. True.

[B]

My community group loves when I do a give it away Wednesday. They are, they. I don't know why they think my stuff is nice for props.

[A]

You're great. Those buy nothing groups would eat this up. I know.

[B]

Yeah, because they love like it was. My neighbor was outside. She's like, sorry, I just saw you posted but I love your stuff and hey, do you wanna have me bring it over?

[A]

Maybe they'll find this podcast in the future and clear out their stuff. But for now it's better if it's better in another house, let her go. And then knowing exactly what you have is so much more confident.

[B]

So when you go into home goods.

[A]

You'Re not being like, oh my God, that's so cute. And you're like, oh crap.

[B]

I really. It was my second.

[A]

I get another one.

[B]

No, it's two for two. No, two for two.

[A]

Yours is worse than mine.

[B]

No, it's not okay. But going to home goods, the props will get you. The decor will get you.

[A]

Here's a problem with this whole thing. You buy the prop with the idea of the person you'd be on the other side of the picture. Every cookie cutter. You're like the baker I'd be if I took this class. The, the sales I'd have. If I bought this cutter, the photography would look like if I just bought this prop and that. The problem is we are the persons that we're the same person that walked in that walks out of a home goods. Unfortunately, we just may be bogged down. Is up another one. Okay, this one's an interesting one. 2025, new year, new me, I'm going to start teaching classes. I see that. Specifically the cookie class kits classes expire in January. So I'm always like, sign up in January, get all the 2024 classes. Get the. I even dropped the. The Galentine's day class. Get the 2025 class and cancel. So that leaves you in January with 14 classes. Yes, everything. You need to teach a cookie class. Right. It's so great. And then you're like, well now I need to teach a class because then why would I have bought this and not teach the class? Here's the thing classes. Big goal. Big goal. We're gonna teach a class in January.

[B]

Huge goal.

[A]

Because it's actually one of the hardest months to teach a class. But you just told us to sign up for the class kits. No, I said get the material just so you have it. Now let's break this down into a BB goal. My month 1. My January goal for cookie classes. I'm going to teach classes this year. My month one goal is I'm going to take a class on taking classes. That fulfills that other goal too.

[B]

Just a cookie college.

[A]

And you know, as a matter of fact, I'm glad you brought that up. It does. We recorded a class that we taught. I told everyone. I'm so sorry. You will be in this. Turn around if you don't want to be on the camera. And then we wrote down a script. It's actually a script how we started.

[B]

Teaching and we still use it to this day. It's memorized now.

[A]

So let's say. Let's say you're a genius here. You sign up for the cookie College. It's only $68 today. Cause I forgot to send the reminders for everyone. I got bogged down with a Galen's Day class, which turned out great. We'll talk about in a second. So let's say you sign up for the cookie college. $68. You take that course, you cancel also. But before you cancel, you Download all the 2023 classes. Class gets a 2024 classes. The 2025 class. Okay. You have now a 26 classes. You have taken a class on teaching classes. That's month one. You're done, girl.

[B]

You did it.

[A]

You hit the download and you watched one class.

[B]

Yeah. Way to go.

[A]

Now that's a huge goal. And it doesn't sound very attractive.

[B]

It doesn't.

[A]

I took a class on teaching class.

[B]

But I would tell you the amount of people who buy the stuff to teach a class and never teach a class. You've already.

[A]

You've already. Yeah. And you only watched one class. Yeah. Month two. Right. We're in February.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

We're gonna work on the tech side of classes, which is oddly. And that's actually. We'll be teaching for the college. It's a bigger concept than it is in execution. Now all Corey and I do. Here's my. The truth was set you free. You don't have to have any tech to teach a class. You do not. Now if you want to. If you want to add a little zhuzh all of February, we're going to Learn how to connect our computer to a TV and put that PowerPoint you just download it on it.

[B]

I'm going to tell you the TV that we use for classes of my.

[A]

Ex husband's cheapest or a cheapest sometimes it don't taste. I want to say it's 15 years.

[B]

Old, comes in two parts but I hook up my computer, my laptop to it.

[A]

How long do you think it would take you to hook up your laptop to your TV and purchase one HDMI cable? Maybe 10 minutes. It's pushing my Amazon Amazon. So we can knock out our February class teaching goal of just figuring out our tech intended. That doesn't even sound fair. That doesn't sound like a reaching goal but it's a huge.

[B]

If you can put a check by.

[A]

It you breach the goal, right. So month one we learned how people teach classes. In month two we got our tech dialed in. Now if you want to be a little extra. A lot of you guys like those document cameras corner. I don't even use them. I have one you can, you can learn how to connect that to your computer as well. And then you're going to use Alt tab to switch between that PowerPoint and that document camera.

[B]

The only reason we don't use it one Heather just so many cabling wires.

[A]

Just a wild.

[B]

Our classes are smaller. People can kind of see what I'm doing and they don't have to leave their seat. People are teaching 40 and 50 people.

[A]

Oh yeah. I think you'd have to for sure so but okay, let's pretend we don't even know what you're gonna. You're just gonna dial in the CL the class tech. That's it. That's all February is. If you do that sticker on your fridge. You got it. Month three we are going to have only friends and family. We're not going to add somebody we don't know. Let me tell you this is a.

[B]

Money move and you guys are sleeping on it.

[A]

This one's Corey and I had. I think we had Summer, my mom and Ash on a Saturday. We go to my parents house on Saturday we say can we dry run this with you? So remember you took the class on how to teach classes. You got the script?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Cory and I printed the script down. We had them sit there and as we were going through the steps of which they're designed in those classes kids we had them give us feedback because like Summer would be like what you just said there didn't make a ton of sense. So Corey and I would write it down. It doesn't make sense. Let's rewrite the script right there. And then they were like, I don't understand what you just said. Okay. That doesn't make sense to them. Let's try this again.

[B]

But it's nice because we're going through a mock class, but we have people who are willing to give us good feedback and not leave us a bad review.

[A]

And they're. Yeah. And they're not taking their money. Right.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

This is practice. This is month three. This is a big month. But you're not doing it in a venue. You're doing it in your kitchen. You're having your friends over. You're having your parents. Parents. If you have kids, have the kids. Kids.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And it make it really simple. But that's a huge step, doing a dry run class, which is what I tell everybody. Do a dry run first. Somebody who can't be offended or mad that you took their money, do it with them because they're going to just support you. Month four, all we're gonna do is focus on finding a place, a venue. Yeah.

[B]

If it's not your house, which, if it is your house, you can check that box.

[A]

You just look around. You know, if it is your house, you might need additional insurance. So just keep that in mind. That might be a little out of step here. I'm going to cut it. Flip insurance. There you go.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

See if they cover your classes. You might need to talk to your. Whatever. There's tons of options. And the sugar cookie marketing group is there for you to ask as well. But months forward, just going to find that venue. And bonus, if it's free for us to use, you're going to pitch them like, hey, I can bring, I think, 10 people. I'll do the marketing. No. No one will not know that you.

[B]

Exist in the college. There's copy to reach out to venues, venue, swipe, file.

[A]

It was a winery, brewery, kitchen, modeling, showroom, which is what we use. It was a shared, I think a coffee shop. Oh, coffee shop. And then there was one. I can never remember there was five there. But you guys, you took that class at the beginning, so you got that download then. And a month where that's all we're going to do until we have a venue, which is not as hard as you think it is. It is hard in some capacities, but libraries, cafes, churches have these rooms you.

[B]

Can rent out sometimes, depending on if you remember or not.

[A]

Yeah. Worst case, 60 bucks for the shared workspace. That's where Corey and I started yeah, it's not free, but it wasn't great. No, we were squished in there like, sorry, but we did it. And they provide the TV and they cleaned it up. So even 60 bucks, okay, we're month for month five, we're gonna start promoting that class, which you got the promotion schedule that Corey and I use because you signed up for the class kits in January. You canceled it in January. You're not even still paying us, but you're still completing all those goals because you got them and material in. And month six, we're gonna host our first cookie class, which puts us right before the cookie super bowl starts. Right? That cookie.

[B]

And you're like, you know what? I was on month six, only four people signed up.

[A]

That's great. One, that's great for July. That's a great first class where you took somebody's money and you taught for people. I saw some lady posted and she was like, here's my first class and I'm teaching 60 people. And I was like, oh, oh my. Bless yourself. And then somebody in the college like, how many should be in my first class? Like this. The lowest number possible. If you can handle that. Great. Awesome. You're phenomen. If you're getting started in July and four people sign up, you are cooking with higher.

[B]

If things go wrong, I want them to go wrong for 4 people vs 60.

[A]

The refund of 4 hurts a lot less. So, okay, that puts us in July. Now August, September, October, and November and December. These are much easier classes to fill. But you have spent these really small goals getting yourself fully prepared by, let's say you teach one again in August. So we did four. Let's say we add eight people to this class. Oh, you're set. I don't even need to worry about you come holiday season.

[B]

The problem is when you say, I want to teach classes in 2020, it gets to November, October, December time. And you're like, I'm stressed because I have to do so much. I don't even know how the technology works. How do I get people to sign up?

[A]

And you'll get people to sign up because that's an easier time. But if you haven't, wouldn't you rather this small baby step approach and be very confident?

[B]

Here's the thing. You can't always find a venue in two weeks. Yet there's so much that goes into teaching classes that the idea, fantastic, juicy, delicious. The execution, a lot harder when you actually piece it out and say, say what? How do I fill up an hour and 30 minutes worth of talking. How do I get them to the next step? Everyone's at a different step.

[A]

How do I get them to leave? Turn off the lights while they're talking. So that's. That's how I would approach a goal of I want to teach cooking classes in 2025 instead of just leaving that thought there. Take it back. My snake. It's big. I know.

[B]

He's a string bean right now. From the up sky to the down low.

[A]

Oh, is he trying to do that?

[B]

He's in the back and then he's.

[A]

Coming back to the. He loves to hide behind the back. Okay, I have number six and seven. I didn't kind of nail these down, but let's brainstorm together, Corey, what these would look like. I want to do better Photography in 2025.

[B]

Oh, you did add that one, didn't you?

[A]

Here's what I'd start with. Understand your iPhone one month one.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Just understand it's got the pro mode, right. I know Androids do say I want to go from automatic to pro mode. That could take. I know that guarantee. You can find a free class that on YouTube.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You can even do food photography with an iPhone 13. Whatever it is. You're 16. Your guys is 20201edition. And that can knock out your one skill set class and help with photography. So we're just understanding our phone better in month one. What a small, unattractive goal.

[B]

Yeah. I mean, if you just took one photo into your iPhone.

[A]

Edits. Your photo edits.

[B]

And you said the word brilliance.

[A]

I love that word.

[B]

What does that word mean when it comes to editing photos? Once you learn that what that means, you're one step closer to good photography.

[A]

Right. So you took your iPhone. You understand your iPhone settings. Let's say month two. I'm going to learn about staging a little bit of a chunkier one, right?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So let's just say I'm going to start basics. I'm going to get a white plate. Nice. I'm going to get a white plate. But with my camera, I'm going to learn how my camera interacts with my cookie on my white plate. And I'm going to take some free courses on YouTube. A free course on YouTube on staging.

[B]

I want to say I'm. Heather recently gave me a hard drive with all my old photos on it. And I was going through them the other day, me learning as I went and I did flower photography. That's really what got me into it. Taking my. Taking my camera.

[A]

I Remember when you were in your flower walking stuff? Yeah. I said, nate, do you remember my husband? He's like, yeah.

[B]

You always had your camera, and we always had to stop so you could grab a fire walk.

[A]

It's practice. We have to walk before we can run. Yeah.

[B]

And some of them were horrendous, and I deleted them, which is great. But they needed them to get to where I am today.

[A]

A photo challenge wouldn't be a bad idea for the college and have people go out and take a photo and everybody learn from the best photo. Like, what about the composition of this photo? True. Everyone go take a picture of your dog. Did somebody use the angle of thirds to really understand. What about this one photo makes a difference between this other photo? Okay. Then we're gonna say, we got staging, we got camera. Let's do props. What's about these props? These beads? I want to incorporate them, but they feel like they're the focal point. Let me ask. In the sugar cookie marketing, I make this photo, and I see people do it all the time. What can I do to make this photo better?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. Then we get the staging. Right. Now we go into editing. Lightroom, the retouch app. These apps that really give that final, you know, that really thing. And then maybe by month four, by month five, you're really happy with the results and you want to upgrade your. Your camera.

[B]

Yeah. Nice.

[A]

These are all tiny. Tiny, unattractive goals that are so small, you probably wouldn't even tell anybody about them.

[B]

You wouldn't.

[A]

I think that when you think I wouldn't tell anybody about this, that that symbolizes a good goal.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's not even good enough for me to brag, so it's probably a great goal. We think a lot of our goals, the flashy are, the better they are, but if they're not accomplished, they're the worst goal possible.

[B]

Yeah. Yep. Yep. Then it's, like, embarrassing, like, oh, I need to go back a couple months and delete that.

[A]

Right. Because you're like. You know, I said to people, when I was 19, I had this bright idea I'd get into real estate. It was the 2008. Oh, housing. Crashing. Yeah. I think I could market and sell stuff. And I told everybody, and I never got. I think about that all the time. Were you embarrassed? It must have haunted you. I almost think I'd go back and get it just so I could relinquish myself from the shackles of saying that when I was 20. But that's what happens with these big goals. It almost creates. By not accomplishing them, you create a prison of. I hated that feeling. So I'm going to stay away from getting anything accomplished.

[B]

Yeah. And you're almost. You're depressed. You can't. You can't rejoice in your goals you did accomplish because this overshadowing of the goals you didn't accomplish.

[A]

If someone came to and someone posted in the group, I made $15,000 more this year than last, I'd be like, that's a great accomplishment. And if someone said I got. I posted consistently this entire year, I'd say you guys have equally accomplished the same thing in my book. Because they are both goals that moved your business forward in respect to how you needed to handle that.

[B]

Absolutely. Absolutely.

[A]

I think. And you know, we have. You'll see that sugar cookie marketing group airs towards a positive inspo. Right. And I like that. And it can be a little dangerous when you see people reaching such lofty goals and it. Well, my goal. Stupid.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

My goal doesn't do anything.

[B]

But.

[A]

But that's. You got in your own head. There you are defeating your thought before it even had a chance to exit the game.

[B]

You put on those blinders. The problem is we see everyone.

[A]

And I used to be like such.

[B]

When I first started, I was like, there's so many people that are better than me. I have.

[A]

I'm known for nothing.

[B]

I'm still known for nothing. But I really have been able to take a joy in my own personal gains when it comes to.

[A]

Is this a freeing thought. There will always be somebody better than me. There'll always be somebody more attractive.

[B]

Unfortunately, being a twin, I've lived with a lot.

[A]

Yeah. When maybe. And Cory and I said, maybe that's the best and worst thing is that there's a break check built into your life. Like, hey, you said you were going to do that and you didn't. What gives? Yeah, the other day I sat my bun hiding down and I took a Procreate course. Free YouTube draw with Flo. Yeah. Or with Flo. And I posted it to my finsta. All five. My sister's following me. And they all commented like, wow, this is so great. Then I said to Corey, did you see my post? But I knew that she'd commented on the post on Saturday. Cory's like, yeah, bring it up and show it to everybody. I was like. I said, I'm so sorry, I'm looking for credit. You did comment on it. And Koi's like, I know. I need everyone to praise you. So you take the next one. That's what we work off of.

[B]

The praise gets us to the next phase.

[A]

If you want to and we don't allow. Look at the set I just baked post. But if you want to say, hey, I listened to the podcast this week, number 193 I think, and I accomplished just one small goal. If you add that caption, tell us what the win.

[B]

Yeah, I would love the babiest of wins.

[A]

If you said, I said I was gonna do this. You have to just cite the podcast. You're gonna get deleted. So you have to say I193. I listen to the podcast. Here's the tiny, tiny goal I accomplished. And if it is a one little flower, is a tiny little flower on a piece of parchment. I wanna see it. Yeah, I wanna be your hype man. Because you took that tiny goal and you did it.

[B]

You took that little teeny tiny goalie.

[A]

Go.

[B]

My new thing is I'm just doing extra layers on my cookies. I'm giving, I'm giving things backgrounds. So if it's a seahorse cookie cutter, instead of just doing the seahorse on the cutter, I do a layer underneath with a corresponding seahorse on top. So it's a double layered cookie.

[A]

So easy. Oh, the thick boys.

[B]

He's a thick boy.

[A]

That's my favorite one.

[B]

They're the most delicious. But I color theory eludes me. I don't understand it. So my goal is to create colors that complement each other well and do backgrounds for them. So instead of just doing the seahorse on a seahorse cookie cutter, he's gonna have a dark blue, dark purple background and he's gonna be a light purple black.

[A]

Are you using a plaque? Is that what I'm doing?

[B]

No, I'm just making the seahorse just a tinge bit smaller and putting him on.

[A]

Bring me a double deckerdoor. That would.

[B]

That one's going to some little girl turning five. Except for my neighbor said I don't really like the double decker.

[A]

It is overwhelming. I'm so sorry. It is overwhelming in terms of icing consumption. If you're not ready for it. I love me a double decker icing stacker. Fresh out the pipe bag. I don't know you meringue. Evaporating theorist. Get away from me. But something.

[B]

So now my goal is to incorporate some less iced one layer cookies and then two layer. Cause the two layers are cuter but.

[A]

Isn'T like two layer cookies. This risk, the fear of cratering and the puff.

[B]

And listen the ego behind a two layer.

[A]

So let's say that's a great example. If you're suffering from creator ptsd, that'd be something to solve. If you're suffering from transfers, don't know how to do them, they always break. Focus on that, bud.

[B]

Yeah, focus on that. Listen, if you are focusing on you have too many bubbles and you're realizing and you have fewer bubbles this round.

[A]

Bubble gum, get it figured out. That's bubble gum. You can get it. Listen, any bubble I had in this.

[B]

Under the sea theme became a bubbly.

[A]

Realistic. No punches. So that takes us through. Let's say smart baby goals.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Instead of just smart goals, which are delectable and I love them and they're even still constraining more of our goals, let's make them smart baby goals. And if we get our baby to toddle and then we can get him to walk, we can get him to run by the end of the day.

[B]

This app, Heather, did you allude to it last week?

[A]

It was my trickiers Honda.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So the app is called Finch.

[B]

It's the cutest thing if you've ever been into animal crossing.

[A]

This literal ident gamification of smart goals. Smart goals.

[B]

Yeah. So each morning, like getting out of bed, you can check it off and you get points because it has goals for people.

[A]

It calls them. If you go through it's goal inspo sets.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

One is like, I'm just having a really bad day. So the goal is like, got out of bed, brush my teeth. Yeah.

[B]

So it's, it's very easy goals, but it's giving you that high because your little baby bird grows into a toddler bird into a teenage bird.

[A]

Really working off this theory is small goals repeated over time create big wins. Yeah.

[B]

And the little rewards of brushing my teeth allow me to get a cute outfit.

[A]

I have to brush my teeth to get my bird to go on an adventure. You're so every morning he. He's off walking.

[B]

But it's the same premise as these little check offs equal to a bigger goal. So if I want to be a better me in 2025. Well, it starts off by brushing your teeth every day. You know, these small checks equal the better you at the end of 2025. And that's what the whole apps premise is.

[A]

You're gonna be a different person if you fall in love with smart baby girls.

[B]

Yeah. Yes.

[A]

Little baby.

[B]

That's why I like the little finch thing. One is smart baby girls like a sip, a cup, six cups.

[A]

But when you build on that.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

You can truly Become a different person and you didn't notice it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

We always say, like losing weight is so unfair because you can't see it in the mirror. You have to take a photo and then take another photo because it's so, so incremental. It's unnoticeable. But the massive change of a year of consistently going on a walk. Right. It'll change your whole life.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

But it's not very schmaxy. It's not to say that I went on a walk today.

[B]

My red light therapy mask. I don't know if it's working, but hopefully after a year.

[A]

Corey has done the red light therapy mask, mask and sunscreen every day for a year. Yeah, I didn't. I body use with sunscreen. Never even looked at that red light when we took a picture at Christmas. Corey is 50 shades lighter than me. 50 shades of gray right here. And if that's her goal for anti aging is lessening the sun exposure and increasing red light therapy for a more universal skin texture. It's working, but we wouldn't have noticed it all year.

[B]

But here's the thing. If it was just me, I wouldn't have noticed.

[A]

It had to be a picture of me. And you gotta clone yourself. You gotta have the clone not do the thing you want to do. I will be the younger twin. This facelift I will have with the money you don't spend on a child. Tom Cruise's doctors, Whoever touched who's that lady from the twin girl and she played the parent trap. Me and Lindsay Lohan's dog. They were like, the cost of that had to be $200,000.

[B]

Probably just because of his pure talent with it. He's gonna add on an extra Hyundai.

[A]

Probably. Betty, whatever you need to do. Listen, my twin's been using red light therapy for 20 years. I don't know.

[B]

Does the red light therapy work? Someone asked, does it work? I said, listen, I can't count the lines that aren't there. I can only count the lines that are.

[A]

You really truly don't. No. Unless you do that time in. Yes. Ruthanne Grandmother walks three miles every day and has for 30 years. She hates it. She complains about it all the time. But she goes with my aunt and they like to talk. And I've gone and walks with her as well. Okay. I told her I'm looking at her. She said, 85, sharp as attack. She couldn't get her pillow cover on today. And I said, she was so smart. She got you today. I said, you are struggling in Front of me. No, you know, I will say, I told her this the other day. I said, had someone come to me when I was 30, which is, I'm 36 now, and said, hey, if you walk every day for 30 years, you will never need a crutch, you will never need a cane, you will never be in a wheelchair, you'll never have pain. Would I have taken their advice? But do. You said, you're sitting in front of me and I can see that that's the answer. And I'm still not walking, so you're.

[B]

Gonna need to make it a smart girlfriend.

[A]

So I made it a smart goal. I said, I even told myself, you can go to the gym, you can walk in, you can leave. You did that.

[B]

You said, I'm gonna use the restroom.

[A]

And I'll walk in. Is that true? Got me in there. You got me in there. I think it's funny. Like, wouldn't it be cool if a gym told you how many times you came that year? They wouldn't do that because you'd cancel. Yes, but imagine if I said, I'm just going to the gym one time this month. That's very. You know what?

[B]

That'll be the same thing I did last year.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. So you can make. And that's such an unattractive. Imagine you said, hey guys, my goal this month is to go to the gym one time. People would make fun of you. You would never post that because it seems shameful. But that's more than you did.

[B]

I know.

[A]

It's actually a smart baby.

[B]

It's 100% increase.

[A]

I tell myself, if you go to the gym, you're allowed to do one exercise and leave. And for some reason that's so freeing that I can leave whenever I want to.

[B]

And it's because you know why I quit the gym is because I was under that cognitive, I have to be.

[A]

Here for an hour. I have to do fine.

[B]

I have to get logged in. I must hit pr. And it was, it was overwhelming.

[A]

So you stopped going. But then we're shame faced to say, I went for five minutes.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

So, yeah, if you reassess how you look at goals and you make them smart, baby goals. And they can start at Tuesday on A, at 3:00pm yeah, your whole life starts changing because you're not held to what everyone else cares about your goals. You're held to what you know you can do. And it's so small it's not worth even talking about it, but it's very worth doing. Love It. Love it. That's great. Corey and I, I came up with my. I downloaded this app, Android people. It's just called habit. It habits.

[B]

Do they not have it on iPhone?

[A]

I have no idea.

[B]

They definitely do.

[A]

It's so basic. Look at how, like, industrial. Oh, yeah. Nothing's cute about it, but it's just if I said if I did every single one of these weirdly small things a day, oh, by the end of the year, I'd love who I am. Like, it's as small as. Did I sleep seven hours? Probably. I love sleeping. Did I use sunscreen?

[B]

You know what my new thing in 2025 is? Is like, we grew up in a world that didn't have the Internet readily available. Like, you had to.

[A]

You were right there in the cutting.

[B]

You had to be like, yeah, I'm.

[A]

Gonna get on this and please don't get on the phone.

[B]

But in 2025, everything is tracked. Why I'm gonna lean into my life being tracked. I'm getting my sleep tracked, my water intake tracked, my habits tracked.

[A]

I wonder if the ability to track things is why we're, like, not even, like, dialed into them.

[B]

Is because it's so readily available.

[A]

Like, I wear my Fitbit every night. Let me tell you the last time I opened that app, like, it knows a lot about me, but I'm like, well, you're tracking it, right?

[B]

I get. Yeah, I think, I think if it alerts you. So, like, this water bottle shaking and being like, you're behind.

[A]

Listen, that's gonna be Corey's twin dress today. I'm telling you, my, my watch will.

[B]

Track how long I'm washing my hands. Yeah, like, everything is being trackled.

[A]

It's being trackled. Is it good or bad?

[B]

I, if you use utilize it, it's.

[A]

Good if you use it while it's tracking. So I don't need to care. I don't know that it's as good.

[B]

I, I, I am good at competition. So just tracking my steps isn't enough. I have this app, I pay a dollar for it, and it's me and my. I'm a dog. Yeah.

[A]

What is it called? Pet walk. Step. Step Dog.

[B]

I'm a dog and I'm racing other dogs and it's all five of us and someone's a winner and you get an extra dog bowl at the end of the week. That I love a good competition.

[A]

Gamification works so well. Our brains are naturally predisposed to gambling and to that effect of winning or getting something when we achieve and Then Cory and I give our own little gamification. I'll take. I'll tell myself, if you get this done, you can go get a burger.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Whatever your flavor of the month is, a burger is mine. I think I'm phasing out burgers now. Switching to something else. I. I got the burgs. I got the ones I wanted.

[B]

Like June, July.

[A]

Oh, I'll get back to burger season. I need like, I need a June. You do sometimes. Again to oyster season. I know it's. I feel like an oyster. An oyster's coming.

[B]

Sometimes we get into salad season.

[A]

Love a salad.

[B]

Yeah. And then pasta season really wrecks me.

[A]

Umami. That taste of like Korean food. We have sushi. I. That's a nice little gem for me too. Keeps me going.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then a chip and salsa never hurt.

[B]

Nobody never did. Except for when someone said if you eat four chips or tortilla chips, it's a tortilla and tortilla filling.

[A]

I don't need that.

[B]

If you eat a floury tortilla. Yeah.

[A]

They're different things. Once it goes through the fry process, they're different to me mentally, emotionally, size wise. So that is the smart baby. Goals I really rethink, I would actually go through. If you came up with a list of goals for 2025, go through and audit them. Make them really, really tiny marketing nuggies. Make them small and then really spread out how long you're giving yourself to do them. Yeah.

[B]

Because we know life gets busy. We have best laid plans. But you know, yogurt cups arise with the procreate.

[A]

Last year my goal was take one procreate course. I think it started as a day, then it moved to a week. So now I'm like, okay, scrap that concept. I said do any amount of procreate course smart every little day. Even if it's stream 3 minutes, 6 minutes is. But if I do a small thing, it's gonna get done and it's gonna get done in a way that's really easy for me to say. Well, I did it. I can check it off.

[B]

And at the end of 2025, could.

[A]

You imagine if I actually did it?

[B]

Little cute ornament. I think you made with an ornament.

[A]

A bauble, a B. You'll love it. You'll love him.

[B]

Somebody will be so proud of him.

[A]

Yeah. So that is it. That is Ashley's where she was going to do one like not anti aging but type of that concept once a month. So 12 things.

[B]

She's going to do like going and getting a laser peel done.

[A]

That was. And I said hey, that's a great, you know, look like our little sister in the whole back, I think. I don't think she cares about it. Sometimes I ask give me a recommendation for poor people. Not what you bought Ashley, but what poor people would buy if they wanted to kind of get close to that. Moving on. So we have our. Oh yeah, the cookie college. I said the price is going to raise on the 7th. I did. It snowed here. It's not a lot here. It's a lot to get 8 inches in D.C. it's a little bit of a foot. Oh really? Yeah, it's ridiculous. Open mouth coughing in this environment. We got a ton of snow. And I said to myself what's a tiny tiny goal I would like? And it was to get that. Our late grandfather had left a snowblower in his shed. It hadn't been moved in over 10 years. They actually think they found the instruction booklet 2016 in 10 years. Oh yeah. Oh, 2016. Oh, maybe it was only night he died in 2014. He couldn't have bought it and posthumously not a clue. It said 2006. I'm just doing the oh, he bought I want who said I'll send you guys. So I said let me. I don't know why they have only it's hieroglyphics to get this thing started.

[B]

In case you lose the informational booklet.

[A]

Yeah, it was. I was like we got Bunny, we got Turtle. I called the guy I'm dating now. Could you just want me.

[B]

I'm sure a YouTube video would have been out there.

[A]

I did watch it and the first YouTube video is like every snowblower is easy to start up unless you have this one and I go run out it's that one. But anyways it starts right up. Use this number. So anyways it threw off my schedule because the snow. That's why the podcast is today on Wednesday and on Tuesday which we probably should have mentioned at the beginning. No, you said can I come tomorrow? And so I have extended the cookie class kids archiving. So every year the the cookie class kids membership resets meaning that by the December you'll have 12 classes but on January you have one, we actually have two because it runs a month ahead of time by the 10th. So if you if you're in the cookie class kits membership or even if you're thinking about signing up on the 10th of January which is in two days the 2024 classes will leave that membership Even though you paid for them, they will not be there. So all you have to do is download them before the 10th. The cookie college gets them. The cookie college has always gotten them. They don't archive out of that membership. So if you sign up for the $63 a day, you get the 12 classes from last year. You get the January class which was New Year's so it's not really as useful school. And you get the Galentine's Day February class which dropped yesterday. Super cute.

[B]

Every cutter in the New Year's class can be used throughout 2025.

[A]

That's okay. Life hack here, I saw this posted in the community group. You run someone to live in a glass house for the rest of your life. 2025, they said get the new year stuff for your kid that graduates in later 2025. Because you can get all the discounted.

[B]

Of 2025 in there and it's going to be used for grad season.

[A]

And here I tell you what, we have a 2024 class kit that's congrats grad at 2024 in it. You could use the 2025 in there and make a Congrats grad. So anyways, the cookie class kits, those classes archive on the 10th. Meaning if you sign up today, you'd pay $63. You'd get 14 classes. That's $4.50 a piece. Yeah, if you're for $5 more. The Cookie College is on sale until the 10 month. It's 68. You were paying 63. Come up to $68. You can cancel whenever it cancels. At the end of your 30 day billing cycle, you get the 2023 classes, you get the 2024 classes, you get the two 2025 classes. You get all that Corey and I just said about how to teach a class. I will be teaching tech for classes this year. What are you doing? You're so distracted. This is such the longest segment ever. This is literally okay. Yeah, go. I didn't know you need my icon looking at my snake. Yeah, he's so picking at your face. It's impossible. I keep talking to myself. Okay, if you like to look into that, TheCookieCollege.com will allow you to sign up for either. If you want to learn what the cookie class kits includes, go to thecookiecollege.com cookie class. It's ridiculous. Okay, moving on to the. Can you dial back in? Dialed in Fun news. Okay. The stupid cartridge guys. Nice. I pitched him. I was like, listen, I said I'm giving away stupid card trades for our podcast. I've only done it for two weeks. Would you be interested in sponsoring the text in segment and giving away a tray?

[B]

What did they say?

[A]

He was like, yeah, and I'm also gonna offer them 15% off or some kind of discount code. I think it's 15 off. I haven't gotten a code yet. He was like, I'm in. Let's do this. And additionally, I want to see how many bakers come from your podcast. So I'm going to offer a discount. I was like, no need for the discount. Just give away the virgin. He's like, absolutely not. I said, I even had to say, are we on the same page? You're offering more than I asked. He said, yeah, it's a really great deal.

[B]

So tell me how I could potentially win a stupid card tray.

[A]

This is the deal we came up with. You text in to the podcast. We will pick one text each week that gets stupid card tray. Okay. And you have seven days to claim it. If you email me within the seven days, you get yourself a stupid car trait. Straight from Phil.

[B]

The question, and you might need to ask Phil, is this United States only?

[A]

I'd have to ask Phil. I'm going to say it's United States only. I'm going to say, so I can't do. I can't have him shipping out of country and it's costing him. He's not going to lose money. I know that for sure. So we're going to say United States only. You're still allowed to text in a question from out of the country. I'm just never going to read it. The real point of this is the marketing help. The gimmick is the tray, and a lot of you guys did it.

[B]

Oh, really?

[A]

How many did we get? Okay, it's actually quite a bit.

[B]

How many?

[A]

Okay. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Let me see. You got fan mail. I think we even got more. So that's already 10, 11, 12.

[B]

That's like five gajillion percent.

[A]

And guys, let me tell you, this is marketing. So I'm going to read more than one of you went wins.

[B]

One of you wins.

[A]

We said, we'll.

[B]

We'll read five. One of the five people would win.

[A]

Yes. Yeah, we'll read five. One of the 5 wins and then it resets. So the one of you guys who wins. And I'm gonna have Corey pick. Pick a number. One through five.

[B]

Two. Two.

[A]

Okay. I'm gonna click the second one. Oh, Tanya. From South Street Cookies. No. Iowa City, Iowa. Tanya, if you listen to this, email Heather at Sugarcookie Marketing and say, I run won the stupid car trap, and I'll connect you with Phil and you get a stupid car tray. You just have to do it in seven days, no exceptions. If you come in on the eighth day, I'm gonna say, girl, I'm so sorry.

[B]

I would be like, that would be. That stupid car tray would have looked good on you.

[A]

What of in Iowa City, Iowa. But here's the thing. Every week it resets. Corey's picking a random number you could get entering.

[B]

I will be contributing to the segment.

[A]

And texting in and hopefully we need more texts. How do they text in? What's the Number?

[B]

It is 571-556-5644. You'll never get a text back. That's the glorious thing.

[A]

I think I have one automated that says, like, thanks, we'll never text you back, but. Or if you're on, like, Spotify, it should have a text in or ask a question or send an email. Those buttons also work. So these are all congealed together in coral. Pick one out of there. So this is great. Thank you, Phil. And I'll get you guys that discount code from Feel. That was very nice of them. I have a stupid card tray, and I don't bake.

[B]

I have it, and I use it all the time. When it's not there, I.

[A]

What is it?

[B]

What a stupid car tray is. It levels out the passenger seat of your car. So if you were to put cookies in there and they all kind of shample to one side, we don't like that because it can really ruin the details on the cookies. This actually levels out the passenger seat. It has Velcro attachments. So if you're, like, doing a cake.

[A]

Slip and it has these little grooves that allow me to use it as, like, a little storage staging.

[B]

Other people are using, like, cake bakers will put their cake slicing utensils in there.

[A]

Smart. And then I have these new things that you have V1, I have V3.

[B]

I know I need to upgrade.

[A]

Yeah. They have like a. A cup holder for mugs and allows the mugs handle to go in there. Yeah.

[B]

So like, big Stanleys that don't really fit in your car's car.

[A]

These bigger things. Yeah. So I thought it was good. So here's the text. Hey, twins. This is Tanya from South Street Cookies. I was recently telling my husband Mike about the stupid card trick. So it seems like it's time to Write in. That's hilarious. Something I've been struggling with is balancing the different areas of my business when it comes to social media media. I teach cookie classes, I do pop ups, I do farmers markets and I do customs. I like that the business is spread across different areas otherwise I wouldn't be able to do this full time. But I feel like I often have to heavily advertise one specific thing at a time like an upcoming class or an event and the customers forget that I do customs. I already post near daily content, so is there a way to balance this without needing to post multiple times a day to cover all my bases? I also want to get better about doing non salesy content, but then I feel like that takes away from the opportunities to advertise to things that need advertising. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. If you're ever in Iowa, let me know. We have an Olive Garden here too.

[B]

So Tonya, she is actually a Fantastic creator on TikTok. She's really grown there. She's grown her YouTube, she has social media unlocked. But she does participate in absolutely everything a small bakery business could participate in. Here's the thing, if I know she actually worked on the board of advertising for her local market. If you didn't and if you weren't so involved in there. A lot of times they handle their own marketing so you can do less on your end especially if it already has a good show out.

[A]

I like that you can actually take.

[B]

A backseat to that because people are already going to show and I know you're like but I want them to know that I'm there. But you don't have to do the majority marketing for them.

[A]

If you have a subs someone subsidizing your marketing you can peel back 50%. You can.

[B]

And then you could just let them know maybe the day before or the morning of that you will be there versus having to post. This is what you'll find. Here's what will be blah blah blah. But five post out of it. That's a lot coming from your own marketing. To help this more of a communal.

[A]

Aspect marketing, here's a concept. Stick this in the oven. See if it makes Social media is kind of like we don't want one post to do too much heavy lifting because it's kind of difficult. But newsletters are pretty good about like here's what to expect from me this week. So let's say you do a monthly newsletter and the first part is here's the farmer's markets. People like to know about farmers markets Here is my potential pop up schedule and then here's my custom order form. That could be a nice way to be like here's where you can find me and be consistent about it. But it takes it away from the social media where it does feel like one post telling so much is too much.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And then too many posts also feels like too much.

[B]

Right. So here's a thing me and Heather do. As soon as a class is filled up, we're not talking about anymore.

[A]

Right. We do like maybe push the next class but it's like at half force because it's so far away.

[B]

So then between the time where that class is filled and between the next time when you need need to get more seats filled, depending on how many people are in that will tell you how much marketing goes to that and maybe that's when custom orders can enter stage.

[A]

Right? Yeah, it's an interesting one. When you're posting everything, how do you then balance the type of posting? And I like what Corey says, if somebody's helping you market, you can peel back on that one a little bit. I do like the implementation of something like a newsletter that takes it out of social where the algorithms are so much heavier. And we go back to chronological. You emails still show up chronologically. That is one of the few avenues where that is still. But then now we have emails bogging down like we have. I get, you know, 10 newsletters a day.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So something concept here. I kind of do this every Monday. You can consistently find a countdown calendar on all of our social profiles. I wonder if that how that would look for you on Monday at 10. Here's what you can expect from me this week. So here's the farmer's market I'll be at, here's the upcoming class that I'll be hosting and here's how to place custom orders.

[B]

And maybe that's that for a while for the time being especially because market season, it's not its heyday right now.

[A]

Yeah. We're really in the spring so it.

[B]

Can really take a back seat because we're in the colder seasons. Whereas markets really get piping hot kind of towards the spring and towards the summer that you could utilize, you know, taking back seats so when market season is big and crazy, you can start making posts about that post your custom. My custom orders are open for X to X date.

[A]

I like. Yeah. Because we do have the ebb and flow of the industry. We have the ebb and flow. She's in Iowa. Ruthanne is telling us. I Wish I have 10ft of snow. Right now, you're not doing a market.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So you can really focus on customs. When you're in markets, you need to sell fewer customs.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Now at the market, you can also push customs when people order a quick flyer tucked into their. When we went to Bath and Body Works, they were tucking in about their next room. So you can kind of allow them to support each other. We worked with a client and they had the kind of same issue. Like we want to put on events as a remodeling company and we don't know how to get people to keep coming back. Well, we positioned each event to promote the next one so that all the events were interconnected and that it took them through a workflow of remodeling and how it worked. So you can kind of do that. My vendor events, I'm going to talk about cookie classes and my cookie classes, I'm going to talk about my customs and my. My customers, I'm going to tell them about my vendor events. You can see that kind of. They all start supporting each other. And your marketing doesn't feel so much like I'm pushing this one up. If one rises, one must fall.

[B]

Also, you can create events on your Facebook page. There you have a discussion portion which you can post what you're going to be bringing to there. People who respond interested are going get the notification. So while you're not necessarily putting it out into the world, it's putting it out into the events. And events are being pushed by Facebook.

[A]

It's a different type of algorithm. Yeah.

[B]

And a lot of times when someone local to me says interest, like Heather posted that she was interested in going.

[A]

To this show and unfortunately all of you saw it. It was like, because Heather's interested in reptiles, her family must love snakes. So let's tell them all. My dad commented on it. I didn't even know he's.

[B]

But do you see how it's. Facebook is getting people who are local? So I was like, oh, I didn't even know there was a Fredericksburg Reptile Expo till Heather put that she was interested in going.

[A]

Now. Something that I noticed when we had a client that is making their own event for an event that already exists. What I'll do is a client's company at event name. So you may have the market, may have its own Facebook event.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But you're going to say South Street Cookies at Main street vendor event. And when somebody searches for the vendor event, they're actually going to find your event as well. And that's a type of SEO. Next text. This is from 224. What do you think? That's from 2. This is a text.

[B]

I'm going to say that is.

[A]

That is Chicago.

[B]

I was up north.

[A]

You're right there, buddy. Thank you so much for the helpful podcast. I want to start making reels and TikTok videos but I feel so unmotivated and overwhelmed to even start this sounds this right with the topic we talked about today. I know I should just start filming but the setup process seems like a lot to do. Any tips on getting started or maybe just staying motivated in a cookie business in general? Love this question.

[B]

Well, listen to this one.

[A]

Right? So okay, let's. Let's reverse engineer her smart baby goals of tick tock. First we're gonna do is we're gonna get your your setup first. We're just going to start with your tripod set up. Right. So we get know to do cookie decorating content. We need a phone and we need a stand. If you have an archon mount already that you use for your projector, that would work. Yeah. If you want something that includes lighting at that canvas lamp thing, that shop Canvas lamp, there's cheaper options.

[B]

Tonya. She actually has done many.

[A]

Is it Tonya? It's T o n Y a Tonya or Tanya. Please let us know if I've been slaughtering your name. You let me say card time but.

[B]

It is T o n y A.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

She has shown like a cheaper way, a more expensive way to do it.

[A]

So there's, there's somebody's getting started. Which one would you encourage?

[B]

I'm going to tell you because I've thrown myself in 2024 in the reels making thing. Step one, you need to find a window. Just a window with natural light.

[A]

Do that. Find an area. An area.

[B]

An area. Heather actually had purchased a very inexpensive IKEA table at one point.

[A]

It was white. I had my snake. Yeah.

[B]

So my office is conducive. It has a little white table in front of a window currently. But if I didn't have that and when I didn't have that, I used.

[A]

Your white table which is. It's so thin. IKEA products. This is being the cheapest one. I think it was $10.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You can move that around.

[B]

Yes. Which is very nice.

[A]

Let's say before we even even start pretending you and the 224 hasn't even gotten to photography yet. Let's find that white IKEA table. Month one and a window. Great, that's great. Month two let's get the stand dialed up. Let's get the stand so we won't need lighting if we found the window.

[B]

That. So I don't use any external lighting.

[A]

You have a shop camera slim. Do you not use it? I do not use the lighting there.

[B]

Because it is unfortunately with royal icing, it's reflective. You will see a bunch of circles in your video there. Yeah.

[A]

Okay, so we got the light, we got the stand. You can get shop canvas. More expensive. They have some cheaper options. You can always ask about that in the group.

[B]

Yeah, you can always edit via your phone. But there's apps that make it even easier.

[A]

So let's say that's month three. So we're filming content month two. I know this seems like you're like. But I'm. I'm so far from producing the content. This is how you learn to produce content.

[B]

Yeah, because I told Heather, I said the reason why I'm not making reels.

[A]

Is because it's too comfortable.

[B]

But then I said, heather, you know what?

[A]

The real that I'm going to make.

[B]

At the beginning look kind of trashy.

[A]

So my best work perfect. But content's king. So kind of getting it out. We want to polish it up. But let's say month one. Let me squish month one. Find a table, find a light source, find a stand. Okay, great. Okay, month two, let's start recording. We're not going to make anything with it, but we're going to create the content we'll be using later.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

You're going to hate what you first do. Yeah, but it's content, right?

[B]

Your hand, your head is going to.

[A]

Be fighting back in the same space Rising bag. I've seen a lot of them. The they'll clip the icing bag top to the nubs to really get it out of the scene. And that's something that you may be like, this is my only my setup for videos. I would never do this. Otherwise. You're gonna start practicing that setup. It's gonna be frustrating. You're gonna hate it. You're gonna have a lot of questions. Let's say month three, though. We use the editing software if you wanna use your iPhone to get started. But Corey says, let's cut out the iPhone editor and just go straight to capcut. Isn't that what you're using?

[B]

So cap is getting ready to be banned.

[A]

It's not getting banned, man.

[B]

Anyways, I do use Inshot. There's splice, there's inshot, there's capcut. There' different Editing apps, they all work relatively the same. So once I learned Inshot, it was easy to go over to Cap Cut and learn that one because it was identical.

[A]

Okay, great. So which one would you start with?

[B]

If it comes down to pricing, so you might want to price it out. Which one? Inshot and Cap Cut have free, but it says Inshot at the end. If you wanted to not have their logo in there, you'd pay. I think it's 17.99 for the year.

[A]

Not bad. Not bad. You're gonna be here and say, oh, we're gonna scream.

[B]

No. But they did have a monthly if you wanted, but it was cheaper to do a year.

[A]

Okay. So then by the third month, if you're following the baby smart goal plan, you're producing content and getting it together. Right. And you're being able to post that. Let's say you do. We want to post two times a month or two times a week with maybe two of those. In a month of 2, 4, 6, we have 8. Maybe two of the eight posts are these reels.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And that is great. That is more than you've done in 2024 for sure. And it took you three months to get there and it was baby stepping. But you'll be able by the end of this year, you'll be producing so much more content because you took the baby steps.

[B]

And then I find myself being able to use things I made last year again this year, whether I have to just refilm a voiceover, which I'm totally fine with doing.

[A]

Corey gave me all her reels content to now upload to YouTube Shorts. Granted, it's a year behind. It's still content. It still is content.

[B]

People still might want to see the blush on the cheeks.

[A]

Right? We're talking about cookie blush. Tikri. Take a rush. Five one, zero. Is that local? Five one zero.

[B]

I'm gonna give it North Carolina.

[A]

You think it could be North Cary, San Francisco?

[B]

Not even remotely close.

[A]

Hi, ladies. Happy New Year's. Cheers. Moj. I just joined the cookie college and I'm going through the pre sale lesson. Heather is walking us through Jotform. So I went to see Corey's Jotform to look at her finished example. I see that you don't have a website listed for mixing bowl cookie co. Why do you not have one? That is an interesting question. Question.

[B]

Here's the thing. I do have a website. It always leads to the job form. So if you're at the form, I.

[A]

Don'T want you to leave it Remember when we said don't make your funnel long because people fall out of it. Corrie wanted to increase her funnel because she only wanted to take the order she really, really wanted. That is her own strategy. It is the opposite of what marketing is, but it's. It's her off. She likes to market, then she likes to really only select the order shelves.

[B]

I love making the sale. I. I hate baking. Yeah.

[A]

So what we do. Cory actually does have a website and she. I think I built it after that course. Why you're not seeing it. But that website, when you go to her product section and you click order. I had a developer custom code in a line that sends them to the jotform.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So that is a really longer funnel than it should be in the world of marketing. The shortest distance from A being I want to place an order and B being I took your money. That increases sales. Now Corey doesn't want to increase sales. She's extremely selective about the order she takes. Here's the thing.

[B]

I get orders. When they come into my inbox after filling out that form, they're 100% ready to book.

[A]

Corey said, here, like we just went through a form the other day. She was like, I want them to go to the website. Here's what I want the website to say. I wanted this. And when they click here, I want them to see all this content. I said, this is going to drive down sales. And cor. Like, yeah, but the person who goes through this and tells me what they want, I'm going to know exactly what they want, how they want it, when they want it. I'll be available to take the order. They'll want the order then. And they'll know my pricing.

[B]

They'll be ready.

[A]

Right. That is not the most ideal marketing strategy. However, your business is your own and how you want to run it is your own. So yeah, Corey does have a website. It still leads to that form that you're seeing there. I know if you click to her form, it's been updated since then. More complex than ever. Me, my form will be fried out.

[B]

Of my coiled dead via.

[A]

God. Is it. Wait, listen. If I come in and edit your phone, don't edit my edits. Don't touch my edits. Don't touch it. I love to click around and leave. Have you had any issues with the date override? No.

[B]

Now they're. They're filling out for. We're now booking in May is the last one. It was open for April.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're filling out so you're getting. There's no. We had an issue with Corey's job form that people were finding a way. We had some dead dates, dates they could not book, but they were able to still book them. And Cory's like, I'm not sure what's happening. I went in to her form.

[B]

My mindset was not.

[A]

Your mindset wasn't wrong. Apparently with Jotform, you can't tell it no twice. You can't do an overlapping almost truly equal to yes in job form. So Corey said, I don't want this date range and I don't want this date range. And those date ranges overlapped. And it was like, okay, I guess she wants the date range. And people were able to book within there. So we took away the date range and tweaked some things. Yeah, but that is a great question. That's exactly. That's a good marketing question. So Happy New Year's to you. You're in the right space. Last one. This is great. This stupid car train thing has gotten you guys keep these texts coming and these are all like real good questions. Really good question. Hey, twins. Okay, it's four, two, three.

[B]

Okay, that's gonna be New Mexico. Texas. It's four, two, three.

[A]

Tennessee. Chattanooga, Tennessee. Chattanooga, Tennessee. Hi, twins. Hi, twins. Yee haw. Just kidding. One of my goals for 2025 is to launch a newsletter. My goal is to send the email monthly. But how could I balance the content I offer? Cookie decorating, classes, customs, macarons. What would the segment for each audience look like every month? Would I focus on one audience for each newsletter? Thanks so much for all you do with the marketing nuggies. Love the podcast and look forward to it every week. Whitney and Lakeside Suites in Morrison, Morristown, Tennessee.

[B]

Nice. Nice.

[A]

Here's the thing.

[B]

You even talking about segmented audiences is great.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

I see too often people love to take an email list of people who have nothing to do with nothing and include them in there.

[A]

A complex answer, and one that I'm not going to recommend is you can segment your audience in places like mailchimp or flodesk and within those segments send them the content that they opted in for. That's what we like. That would be ideal. But there is just not enough time. And your. Your goal, and I love your goal. It's a very munchable goal.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Is one newsletter a month. So we're only. We're not going to extend that because here's my thing.

[B]

Because you have have three, four different audiences in there. We Want to make sure the content reaches just a little bit of each person in there so that the cookie class person isn't getting inundated with macaron Valentine's Day things.

[A]

Question pitching this. Sure. If we're sending 12 newsletters, each newsletter needs to include a little bit about each. Absolutely right.

[B]

Because I don't want to sign up as a cookie class person. And then you're like, here's my pre.

[A]

Sales for kids going to school.

[B]

Like that wasn't ever me.

[A]

So what I'd say is macarons. Here's the flavors of the month. Then I'd have it. If you guys subscribe to the you can sign up at. There's a newsletter dot com. If you subscribe to our newsletter. Should go out on Wednesdays. Didn't go out on Wednesday. We were snowed in. If you subscribe to our newsletter, you're going to see that within the single newsletter are different sections.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Now I stay consistent with which is what's in those sections so that people know what to expect. You're going to get the banner image. Right below that you're going to get the free two dollar transfer because I know 99% of you, that's all you want. Right below that you're going to get the meat and potatoes, which is a recap of this week's podcast. Podcast. And then you're going to get a pitch for the cookie college. Now you see what I did there? The cookie college is what I want you guys sign up for. But I'm going to add a little bit of value that's universal to everybody. Although only a few of my audience still would want to sign up for the cookie college. Below that we're going to go back to value added. I have a calendar countdown. Heather's.

[B]

Heather's email newsletter is a funnel.

[A]

It's funnel. It's too long. I like it though.

[B]

Yeah, but I'm saying like your transfer being at the top could go to people who are hobby bakers bakers and baker bakers.

[A]

And it also says if you miss this transfer, it expires in six days. If you miss it, sign up for the transfer club. Right. So we got still within my freebie, we've got a little value added, a little pitch right there. And then I go back to adding value. So you could do that too. Let's pretend. Let's take it back to a baker. Right. Hey guys, here's my availability for this month. Click here to order My next part of that. I was like, and here's the five places I find the best sledding hills in in our area. Right. Maybe everybody already knows that, but we like a list. People love to see an address, a save that. And then if you're like, and I went there and parking looks like this. Let's say you went to the five sledding hills and said, here's what parking looks like. It's terrible. Right? Because everything's covered in snow. I'm not sure in Tennessee you guys are getting snow. But that is the kind of concept with the value added. Then below that we're going to say, and if you're looking for something else for your kids to do, here is my upcoming cookie class. We have this many seats left.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

So you can kind of see how that newsletter can be short but value added but still pitching them and hitting all your basics.

[B]

Love it, love it, love it.

[A]

Moving on.

[B]

Okay, go on. I'm just helping these other people. Okay.

[A]

They helped her that quickly. Helped them that quickly.

[B]

You know I sell salt shovels.

[A]

I gotta say, compliments. Okay. Corey And I in 2024 wanted to take her community group and make it better. We did the strategy sessions for these 4,500 people to go with week weekly prompts to create community engagement to do. I know you were finding really odd remodels and asking people how they still got them ready. Because as an admin of a community group, your goal is to create engagement which creates reach. Right. And then we were going to pitch on Saturdays. Right. So we really did work. And now we had this giant snowstorm which is very untypical for our area. And this group turned into a giant resource for each other.

[B]

But they almost came like they came with the memes, they came with the jokes, the questions.

[A]

They came with a huge ramp finding so many. Somebody was like, I have a Jeep. I have four wheel drive if you need me to take you. And people are like, thank you so much. Yeah. Sledding Hill 101. It was just really interesting to see how when you pay into growing and it, it's just eye searing work.

[B]

Insane.

[A]

But to watch it kind of come together and people like this is a great resource. I got all the information I need to survive a snowstorm. They were saying, here's where the milk and eggs are. You posted, there's no eggs here. I know. I know more about this area. I will. I don't live in the crazy part.

[B]

And this has nothing to do with the question she was asking is people now messaging us? I've been waiting to get into this group. Can I get in?

[A]

Right. Because they're hearing that's a great place to find one thing. You guys know we hate sales in groups because the groups can become so dead when this sales really.

[B]

It's a group killer.

[A]

Right. So what we did, like, Corey wouldn't let me scrap it all together. You guys know I love.

[B]

I said, you know what I do love? Love supporting local small businesses.

[A]

So we came up with this complex rule which caused a lot of footwork on the back end, is that they could only post on Saturdays. Had they made one non sales post.

[B]

That week and the non sales post was anything like maybe a picture, I could care less.

[A]

Not for free. That's where you get the sound. So what happened was it forced all the people who took advantage of the sales day to have to pay back into the group or they kind of.

[B]

They kind of left because they didn't want to pay back into the group. And that was good. We did. They weren't valuable to us.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And it was one less post. And as an admin, we love posts. But when you're just taking, taking, taking, you are the death of the group.

[A]

Yeah. And then it really forced that the rest of the week was actually a lot more value added because these people wanted to sell on Saturday. And then now. Okay. With the reach increasing week over week with these, you know, and we're asking dumb questions like if you could pick between a hot dog or a ketchup, it was a little bit more interesting. But just that. Yeah, that capacity. And I know people are like, why are you asking this stuff? Because my posts as an admin, I believe, reach more people.

[B]

I do agree.

[A]

Then as those people engage with my post, the group shows back up into their feed more often. And that just keeps watching.

[B]

The more you do that, wash, rinse, repeat, you can't skip one step for.

[A]

The next step through.

[B]

Like I, before we ever had sugar cookie marketing, I was a silent, stealthy stalker on the Internet. I didn't post anything because it's a scary place.

[A]

It's a scary place.

[B]

So having these groups has really made me seem like an extroverted person. Things I wouldn't care. Like, what's the after taking into 2025 with you? Great question.

[A]

It was a curious answer.

[B]

What app are you taking?

[A]

Oh yeah, I answered it. And again, it's that community building thing is so strategic, especially when you're dealing with algorithms.

[B]

Yeah. When location is the only thing that's drawing you to the same.

[A]

He said like, at least with the sugar cookie marketing group, everyone has the same goal, increasing sales. So it's very easy to narrow down in community groups. The only thing we have in common is that you guys happen to buy.

[B]

Houses, your body is in a living mode.

[A]

So you have a lot more personalities without the same goal. But now we've narrowed down that the goal of the members should be I want to use this as a resource. And if it's not a resource, if it's a take, then we booja ban three people for just selling the sweet.

[B]

What's funny though, in sugar cookie marketing, people don't want to lose the access to what's trending and things. So you guys actually a group of 50,000 follow the group rules better than a group of 4,000 people.

[A]

And the reason why is 50,000 over four years of consistency.

[B]

Yeah, but you, they, they're getting more value because we're coming, we want to build our businesses and things like that. Your location, it's hard necessarily valuable value.

[A]

Of a community group. And this is, I'm sorry, we wax older about this every lunch. The value of a community group is that it's a resource when you need it. Yeah. It has to be a resource when you need it because it's been a resource all along. Right.

[B]

But the value of a valuable resource is feeling protected.

[A]

So we have the thing of like I don't want to delete posts but I have to when they don't match a vibe. But I want more content. You know, I know everyone's like the twins. Don't let drama happen. Drama is easy, easy market. I love it because it's so interesting. It's enthralling. You can go back and forth, you can read the comments. Tell me about this like sourdough drama thing. Yeah, was reading the comment. I'm like, I don't even know sourdough. But I'm, I'm knee deep in this as a marketer. That's a great way to get quick likes and quick reach. But it's a terrible long term strategy when we want positivity.

[B]

Here's the thing.

[A]

How you get them is how you keep them.

[B]

If you get people who are hungry for drama, they're one. If you don't feed them, drama gonna fall out of the feed. They're gonna hurt your ratios because they follow you.

[A]

You're not feeding them. This girl was like, I'm gonna tell you, I don't know Nantucket guy. I don't know. I was just scrolling. So I was like, oh, I. About relationship Drama. I'm listening. About Nantucket guy. I get five episodes in and then the next one's about a shirt she's wearing. I'm like, unfollow. I'm here for drama. Nantuck. It's not about. But how much content she can produce about this guy. She's known.

[B]

I know.

[A]

So that's why.

[B]

And maybe we'll do a podcast on the value of a follow on a specific platform where we Talk.

[A]

They said TikTok's followers are the least valuable in terms of conversions because they're so easy to get when you hit that one algorithmic lottery.

[B]

Here's the crazy thing. I see bakers and they're like, here's how to make Roy Lacing. And it doesn't hit. But that video I know. Took you probably nine hours to make. So then you're like, let me just dance a little with the drama.

[A]

Drama's an easy dance partner, let me tell you. But the problem is you'll get followers, but you'll get people who like drama, not people who like baking. Yeah, I know. And it's, you know, it's a strategy. A little bit of drama. A lot of drama. No drama at all.

[B]

Right. We're the no drama mamas.

[A]

It's just too hard to maintain. I have to. This is what I said to Corey. I can never be friends with the people in the groups in this Lake Ridge group because I have to be bipartisan. If I like somebody more than this person, I have to enforce the rules, the equal. Because how unfair is it to the new person or the person breaking the rules that I allowed even a men even a whisper towards?

[B]

And that's why I think, unfortunately with other community groups, they do show favoritism.

[A]

How can you not? We're humans for sure. And if somebody came in, like we said to you guys, like, if you want to grow in a community group, add enough value, the admins can't help but like you.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But then when you go to break.

[B]

A rule or your feelings get hurt, when you feel like you've gotten better with the admin and they've denied something that you did.

[A]

Right. So my twin trist is that let them book. Yeah, let them. You know, at the end of the day, don't see me in Corey as like, well, they just don't like me. That's why they deleted my post. Oh, no. I like you a lot. And thank you so much for creating content in a group where it's kind of hard to get content content that one Got too close to a rule, though, and I've gotta enforce the rules or I'll have 50 other people thinking that they can do that. It's not about you. It's about the group as a whole and my coming across as fair to everyone who gets too close to Right. Why are we talking about this?

[B]

I have no idea. But let's go because I'm starving at this point. Okay, let's go to the group. Sponsors without sponsors would not have this.

[A]

Podcast AE core backers rebranded to the backersco. I know some of you guys from the event that shan't be named did pre orders. But they ship in February. Right. So there must be some new stuff dropping.

[B]

I do want to say she and we we because the podcast didn't happen yesterday. She ran random 25% off yesterday for.

[A]

Everything you got to get on her newsletter because you just never know when she's in the mood.

[B]

Yeah, it was just a newsletter five hours on.

[A]

So you go to the backers coast, sign up for a newsletter. Sometimes she'll just get a wild hair and run a discount on certain products, which is a great way. I'm a discount boo by trade. And finding the discount code. But a ecore backers rebranded the backers code Sugar cookie.

[B]

Singular sugar cookie. Yeah.

[A]

To get 20% off. However, sometimes she runs at 25% off.

[B]

Yeah, so that was just. If you sign up for the newsletter. It just came in the newsletter. She didn't post on any socials, but.

[A]

I just caught that and I said you do. Yeah. But if you're thinking small, go photography. You're going to want to start there.

[B]

That's my number one thing. Even if you want to do reels and you don't have the one white.

[A]

Table, you can use a white backer, which is. It really cleans it really. If you don't like what your reels look like and you don't have a backer, get that polar white or off white or shiny white matte finish and get started there.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And get it. Does she run discounts on that one.

[B]

That'S included in the 20% off. Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Get that at 25 off and that's you at one backer. Don't. Don't get crazy. Get you one. Get you one and learn how to work it.

[B]

Or get a little craft thing at one or two.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

The next up is. Is royal batch. Royal batch is the meringue powder that I used. I didn't always use it, but when she approached us for the podcast to be A sponsor. I said, you know what? I don't represent things. I don't.

[A]

You are very pretentious.

[B]

And it was pretentious.

[A]

So I said, you send me a.

[B]

Batch and if I like spanking, you get a biggest thank you.

[A]

I do do. Sound is on anyways.

[B]

Royal batch.

[A]

I've been using it for years. It's delectable.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You get a marriage.

[B]

Royal batch is by a company called Bakety Bake. She sells in sample packages now, which is great. Especially if you wanted to upsell in your classes. You could or give them as gifties.

[A]

Someone in the class was like, I sell supplies.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Wouldn't it be more professional not to re bag a Ziploc? I know. And do the little pack. Yeah. Cause they're cute and you're 20% branded.

[B]

It was.

[A]

It's adorable.

[B]

So she has it in the sample packages. I want to say it's one or two ounces, a one pound bag or a five pound bag. If you use the code twins, you save 10% and really cuts off on shipping. So it's really, really nice. I use Shop Pay. So Shop Pay gives you.

[A]

I don't understand Shop Pay.

[B]

I don't either. But it's almost like using.

[A]

When I go to buy something, it's like you oh, what am I owing? I thought I won so I thought.

[B]

No, It'll say like $40 towards.

[A]

I feel like they overcharged charge. I do like shopay filling in all.

[B]

My new Shop is almost like those, you know, fetch apps where you're buying through their specific things so you get a discount because you're buying through them.

[A]

Shop Pay also fills it. It works. It's integrated with Shopify.

[B]

Oh, it's genius. Because I don't have to memorize one thing.

[A]

It's dangerous.

[B]

Dangerous.

[A]

Let me have to find that three digit code.

[B]

Don't give me if you have shopay the odds that I'm going to buy from you so much.

[A]

I saw Shopify is running a major ad across Spotify and. And it was like the Shop Pay app increased checkout by 50%.

[B]

I agree.

[A]

Because it's just. I need to have to think about.

[B]

No.

[A]

And that goes back to that funnel. Shop Pay decreases the checkout funnel tremendously.

[B]

It does. But I have bought her stuff off Shop Pay, which is very nice.

[A]

She got a little pointed.

[B]

I got the points off. So it even saved me even more.

[A]

Last never least, I think Eddie is a great tool. Not cheap. $3,000. I think you could set up small goals this year to Cover the cost of him if you already have one. He has. I haven't boxed them. Maybe the goal is unboxing and they give you. They're quite the customer service oriented company.

[B]

Took one extra order per week at your rate.

[A]

Yeah, I'm just. So Eddie is a direct to food printer. That means it prints on food.

[B]

If I took one extra order per week, one dozen.

[A]

Okay. At your rate of $78 a dozen.

[B]

So that's my base pricing. I'd make $4,056 dollars.

[A]

You'd have Eddie plus a Carol plus a tray. Like you could get a lot of stuff there.

[B]

So if you were like, I want to get an Eddie in 2025.

[A]

All you would need to do is the one order. How can we make the one order and then we do this? Like, let's focus on the community. I think it's very doable when you do bite sized approaches to big goals. Yeah, I'm gonna get an Eddie. Delicious, Scrumptious.

[B]

Love to make that big post and tell people.

[A]

And then everyone's like, oh, I'm so happy. And then. But not saying that and still doing the small steps. Guess what? Instead of saying, I will be getting, getting it, your post will be here is the Eddie that I got.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And that is a great way to firm up a lot of the corporate orders. A lot of those last minute orders. Corey will tell people, listen, I can't take your order. But what I can do is I can print. Here's what that would look like. And they're like, yeah.

[B]

How do I say tell you how I utilized Eddie yesterday.

[A]

Really?

[B]

Someone had silver dots on the background of a number one cookie. And the customer said, I would love if those were snowflakes.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And I said, you know what I can do? A gray snowflake. Went to Shutterstock, Bonk, printed the gray snowflake, took my silver metallics, brushed it on there.

[A]

The weird Eddie ink. The edible ink attaches to like metallics perfectly. So it's a great way to add metallics in a perfect designated area.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Do you see Shutterstock sold to Getty Images. Yeah. Making it the biggest conglomerate of stock photography.

[B]

You know what I just signed up for? This is my twin dress.

[A]

Okay. I thought it was gonna be a cup.

[B]

Did I talk about that last week?

[A]

I don't believe you did.

[B]

I think I did.

[A]

You might have.

[B]

I think I did. I saw a TikTok and this girl was like, why are you taking photos and just hoarding them on your hard drive?

[A]

Is this an external Hard drive for your phone.

[B]

No.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Become a partner with Shutterstock.

[A]

But you weren't.

[B]

You did a Pixel Pixabay.

[A]

Pixabay.

[B]

But it was donation based. I got like $5 a year.

[A]

Okay. So what she's saying. Shutterstock is a stock photography website, but they allow out. I know that when I click on a photo, I'll say, here's what this creator has taken.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And it creates a collage.

[B]

So they're based. The majority of their photos are based by creators selling them.

[A]

What do you make as commission? I've always wondered.

[B]

It depends on how much it's used. So if you're.

[A]

When I go to some image, it'll be like, this one is highly used.

[B]

So you have your portfolio. They have to approve it.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

So you actually choose the name of it and the tag. So if you. If you're googling or if you're searching.

[A]

Shutterstock works really well off of how I can search and find very specific items.

[B]

So like.

[A]

But here's the thing.

[B]

I had like a picture of a Centipede I took probably eight years ago.

[A]

Oh, that walking time. It was.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Yeah. Walking through time.

[B]

It takes a five day approval process that they can say yes or no to whatever you take. It's trying to incentivize you. If no one ever buys the centipede, I make $0 off. But the more that someone gets off of, like if I take pictures of oranges and people love to download, I get higher.

[A]

Put an orange on a solid background and I will buy. Absolutely. So, but here's the weird thing. I pay a Shutterstock subscription.

[B]

Yeah. So they're taking some of that subscription money.

[A]

I'm never using. I have. I pay for 50 images. You never. I'm using most of them. Yeah. Yeah. Randomly.

[B]

So I just said, you know what if there's passive income? Let me just try it and see it if we're taking the photo.

[A]

So some of the bags of royal.

[B]

Icing that I take, that to me, a baker would search and want the bags of royal icing that are green.

[A]

For St. Patrick's Day. Because I need that content to produce like backgrounds of posts that I make.

[B]

Granted, AI might shoot this.

[A]

Well, they have an AI add on like that you can buy Shutterstock AI generated images. They're very particular on what they are. I saw AI Someone used, I think the Google AI my image and it made a person and it made their whole life. And I could not tell that they weren't. It didn't have that finish on it.

[B]

Weird. Where it's kind of like 3D.

[A]

Then they took her and turned her in a video, and I could barely see her teeth. Did weird stuff. But it was very cool. So the top comment is, I'm about to get scammed real soon. Yeah. Because that. That stuff's crazy.

[B]

Yeah. And now Facebook has rolled out where if it assumes you're doing AI, it'll toggle it on. But there's a toggle to say, this is AI.

[A]

Someone had asked, like, why did this toggle? And did the twins used a freebie photo? Did the twins use AI with this? No. No. I just thought it was so perfect. I said, listen, the human can't do this.

[B]

But I thought, you know, if I have these photos that I've had for years just taking up room on the hard drive, no one's ever gonna look at that flower but me.

[A]

I could turn cheddar stock into your external hard drive.

[B]

I'll get you later.

[A]

It's funny. My grandmother's best friend, when Ruthanne was 18, she went to, I think, oh, Des Moines, Iowa. She was from. From middle of nowhere.

[B]

Laverne.

[A]

Laverne went to Des Moines, took a flight reservationist class. Meaning, like, before the Internet, we could book your own flight. You'd call in, and these people would book a flight for you. She takes this whole class. At the end of the class, they're like, if you're not 21, you actually can't graduate. And she was like, why wouldn't you have said that at the beginning when I paid you? And, okay, maybe it was a cash grab. But they said, but we have a government recruiter from Washington, D.C. who's going to come and speak to you guys next season. Says, listen, if you come back here in 30 days, there'll be a Greyhound bus. Get on it. Here's your ticket. So R says, I want to go, but I don't want to go by myself. A random lady in the class raises her hand, said, well, I'll meet you back here in 30 days. Back in the state, you're not calling people to confirm. You're just taking their show up at the bus stop. Both of them happen to actually do the thing. They get on the Greyhound bus. It takes them to Washington, D.C. where they become fast friends, work for the Pentagon, back with the Pentagon, have no security. They're walking back, back to a burger joint. Three dudes pull up behind him and say, girls, you want us to get you a burger? They end up marrying two of the men and then having the same age Kids. Best friend had four and then Ruthie had three. And we're fast friends watching each other. Okay, fast forward. Both of their husbands passed away. Darlene moved down south of Georgia. She comes up to visit. They have not seen each other in 10 years. She comes up to visit and they take all these pictures. Picture. Why am I telling this story?

[B]

I have no, this is your twinrus and I'm just going with it.

[A]

It was very interesting to me. Darlene. Oh yeah, no, no, here it is. Darlene's son is the one who drove her up.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And he had said he had moved to China 25 years ago. He's a professor in China 25 years ago. Every year he's paid a thousand dollars for a storage unit for his stuff in Virginia. Wild. He said Heather, in 25 years I spent $25,000. I've never opened it once. And I said so it's a thousand.

[B]

Dollars a year total.

[A]

Yeah. So you know roughly around 100 and less than 100amonth or whatever. So he said. I said what sir? What is in the storage?

[B]

Yeah, I don't think you could.

[A]

I think it's just pictures. He said I can't bring myself to throw away pictures because that's where the memory. And I was like well, digitizing those pictures uses cloud based storage as your. And you know I pay pay Dropbox. 140 a year.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Which is not a. You know, I guess a thousand. But I don't have the stuff like you asked for a picture of Ruthanna and Ashley. Right. Gave it to you in two seconds. Here's the thing.

[B]

He doesn't know what any of those photos are but to him right now, those now photos are now worth $25,000.

[A]

And to get rid of them he even said I created my own conundrum with this and I don't know what to do but to to consider what if he lives 25 more years or we're now another $25,000.

[B]

You have to think if he passes away, nobody's saving is anyone doing anything with those photos and that's a hard thing.

[A]

So that was back to your twin trist. Was that Shutterstock?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I thought like what a pass away. Yeah, I know.

[B]

If I get them approved to see what they want or not, I'll be.

[A]

So curious because I'm buying weird stuff there.

[B]

So is it more like people want graphic designy type things?

[A]

No, I buy okay here I'll tell you kind of what I look for when I stock if you've got an A core backer. Backers.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And it is orange.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And you put a banana on it to the left. Something weird is. It's. I know it's so odd, but those get used a lot because they're so universal.

[B]

My Pixabay one Diet Coke in the sand. The number one downloaded because that's the.

[A]

Kind of content that is very flexible across a bunch of different.

[B]

I do want to say before anyone signs up for this, I did post a picture of my dog to one. Once you're pictures out there on there, you can never get it back.

[A]

And then they use Corey's dog as problems with inbred. Inbred dog.

[B]

So you have to be okay that.

[A]

Once it's in the air, it's no longer yours. Ah, it's so fun. Anyways, that is a podcast daylight dollar short, but just enough of a smart baby goal. We said we got to get it done here a little bit. You and I are so consistent with posting podcasts that we're in the top 5% of posted to podcast.

[B]

Oh my gosh.

[A]

Just because. You just got to stay consistent with this. It's not good content, but it's. Me and Heather might not be great. We might not. You're going to see our less than great content.