198. Baking it Down - Weather with Heather (and Corrie)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing – Episode 198: Weather with Heather (and Corrie)

Release Date: February 12, 2025

In Episode 198 of "Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing," hosts Heather and Corrie Miracle delve into the pressing issue of how unexpected weather events, particularly snowfall, can impact bakery businesses. This episode offers invaluable insights into establishing robust weather policies, effective client communication, and mitigating risks associated with adverse weather conditions.

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1. Unanticipated Snowfall and Its Challenges

Heather and Corrie open the discussion by sharing their recent experiences with an unexpected heavy snowfall in Loudoun County, Virginia. They highlight the difficulties faced when weather patterns deviate from the norm, causing significant disruptions.

• Heather: “[00:11] …shovel throughout the snowfall. So I was out there three times. Did a nothing makes you feel like the man of the street.”

The hosts emphasize how sudden snowstorms can overwhelm bakery operations, especially when they contradict typical weather expectations for the region.

2. Establishing a Comprehensive Weather Policy

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to crafting a weather policy that ensures both the business and clients are protected during unforeseen weather events.

• Corrie: “[05:44] ...have a weather policy in place. What you don't want is to have the snow come and then come up with your weather policy.”

Key Components of the Weather Policy:

• Preemptive Communication: Informing clients about potential cancellations or changes well in advance.

• Refunds and Credits: Offering options such as full refunds or credits for future classes/orders if a weather event necessitates cancellation.

• Freezing Policies: Educating clients on how cookies can be frozen and thawed to maintain quality, turning a potential setback into a value-added service.

• Heather: “[06:07] ...because when it the first flake falls … not you freeze these because they're actually a really great way to store cookies.”

3. Effective Client Communication Strategies

Heather and Corrie discuss the importance of utilizing multiple communication channels to ensure clients are promptly informed about any changes due to weather.

• Corrie: “[14:55] … you got to be in their inbox before the day comes.”

Strategies Highlighted:

• Email Newsletters: Regular updates and reminders.

• Text Messaging: Direct and high-open-rate communication.

• Social Media Updates: While useful, they acknowledge the limitations due to algorithmic reach.

• Heather: “[15:26] … absolutely, absolutely have to collect their emails on Eventbrite. You can force it to collect their phones.”

4. Mitigating Risks with Insurance and Safe Practices

The episode underscores the necessity of having appropriate insurance to protect against liabilities arising from weather-related incidents.

• Corrie: “[20:14] … to have really good insurance. So flip insurance.”
• Heather: “[21:24] …you have to assume. And a lot of people say, northern Virginia, is sue happy?”

Key Points:

• Homeowner’s Insurance Limitations: Clarifying that typical homeowner policies may not cover business-related liabilities.

• Flip Insurance: Recommending specialized insurance to cover slip-and-fall accidents during pickups.

• Safety Protocols: Advising clients to remain in their vehicles during pickups and ensuring pathways are adequately cleared of snow and ice.

• Heather: “[22:00] …running a business out of your house puts the liability back onto your house.”

5. Community Group Management and Policy Enforcement

Heather and Corrie address the challenges of managing a large community group, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a respectful and engaged member base.

• Corrie: “[40:30] …you just definitely have to respect that.”

Management Tips:

• Clear Rules and Policies: Establishing and enforcing guidelines for member interactions.
• Handling Anonymous Posts: Discussing the complications of allowing business pages to join and the resultant anonymity issues.
• Member Appreciation: Highlighting initiatives like February freebies to foster community loyalty.

6. Enhancing Business Operations with Digital Tools

The hosts explore various digital tools and strategies to streamline operations and enhance customer experience.

• Email List Management: Techniques for maintaining a clean and effective email list to avoid unnecessary costs.

• Heather: “[66:39] …Here's a hybrid option. Are you going to say scrub it?”

Recommendations:

• Bright Verify: A tool for scrubbing email lists to ensure only active contacts remain.
• Segmentation: Differentiating between class sign-ups and order pickups to tailor communications effectively.

7. Engaging with Industry Events and Continuous Learning

Heather and Corrie share their experiences attending "Cookie Con Reno," emphasizing the value of networking and continuous education in the baking industry.

• Corrie: “[50:05] …Cookie Con does a good job of keeping you entertained.”

Benefits Highlighted:

• Live Workshops: Gaining hands-on experience and learning new techniques.
• Networking Opportunities: Building relationships with other professionals and potential collaborators.
• Content Creation: Utilizing event experiences to create engaging content for their audience.

8. Listener Interaction and Q&A Segment

The episode concludes with the “Stupid Questions” segment, where Heather and Corrie address listener inquiries, ranging from email marketing strategies to Facebook hashtag efficacy.

• Heather: “[55:19] Savannah. Savannah.”
• Corrie: “[61:18] …email senders if they choose to.”

Notable Questions Addressed:

• Email Marketing Efficiency: Best practices for managing and optimizing email lists.
• Facebook Hashtags: The declining effectiveness of hashtags on Facebook compared to other platforms.

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Notable Quotes:

• Heather: “[05:44] …have a weather policy in place. What you don't want is to have the snow come and then come up with your weather policy.”
• Corrie: “[14:55] …you got to be in their inbox before the day comes.”
• Heather: “[06:07] …you freeze these because they're actually a really great way to store cookies.”

Conclusion

Episode 198 of "Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing" offers a comprehensive guide for bakery owners on handling unexpected weather disruptions. By establishing clear policies, utilizing effective communication channels, securing appropriate insurance, and fostering a supportive community, Heather and Corrie provide actionable strategies to ensure business resilience and customer satisfaction during adverse weather conditions.

For more detailed insights and continuous learning opportunities, listeners are encouraged to join the Sugar Cookie Marketing community and explore their various resources, including the Cookie College and specialized class kits.

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For additional resources mentioned in the episode, such as Bright Verify and Flip Insurance, listeners can visit the Sugar Cookie Marketing website or connect with Heather and Corrie through their social media channels.

Transcript

[A]

It's the podcast a day late in a day.

[B]

But Snowmageddon.

[A]

Yeah. Apparently the weather pattern shifted from when we were in high school and we lived in Loudoun County. Got dumped on.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Now they said Loudoun county is not getting any of the snow. It's coming south of the district.

[B]

I feel it.

[A]

I feel just outside of Washington. My back back. I spent the last day someone said this on the Northern Virginia subreddit. They said lifting 25 pounds is easier than 110 pound. So shovel throughout the snowfall. So I was out there three times. Did a nothing makes you feel like the man of the street. You're out there shoveling. Listen, it was me and a bunch of granted my husband had a work.

[B]

Early day first responder, God bless his soul. So he left at 4:30. So I said leave whatever's on there because it's dark anyways and I'll get it in the morning.

[A]

So he's.

[B]

He did last night his five pounder and I got the rest of it.

[A]

It's still easier than a single 10 pounder. I know. I know this. I will say the snow very fluffy at least last night.

[B]

But this morning it got wet.

[A]

Very heavy. If you guys are on the west coast and you don't know what wet snow is like, thank your little lower spot when it's nice and fluffy, easy. In fact when it's so fluffy you can actually use a. A leaf blower and just blow it away this morning. Compact it a little bit heavy and.

[B]

Then if you're in a townhouse subdivision like I am the etiquette. The townhouse etiquette of sidewalks.

[A]

Cory lives in a townhome and the townhomes to shove as many as possible. They weren't able to put the parking lot as far as they extended the townhomes. So every parking spot is shifted by two townhomes. Yeah. So meaning my parking spot is in.

[B]

Front of my neighbor.

[A]

Right. So you have that ethical and moral dilemma. Do I shovel just my walkway and my spot over there? Using the neighbor's walkway to get to your spot. That's a right. I will tell everyone I shoveled both neighbors walkways in front of the fire hydrants and by our vehicles and to the mailbox. I felt like I did my duty. So if you call me on a ring camera you can't be mad at me. It's a tough one. It's where that. Where do your ethics start and stop? Sidewalk addition.

[B]

She gets the best of all the.

[A]

Worlds because we've all shoveled herself. My parents Live in this kind of unique housing building that they used to build here where the single family homes are stuck together. They're considered single family homes. Where you are in an apartment townhouse ties out. Yeah. So it's like these big house. Single family homes squished to other ones. So my dad has an electric snowblower and he's definitely that kind of guy that will snow blow your driveway if he likes you. Yes. And if you don't wave at him when he leaves, he will not snow blow your driveway. But he was like. He was snow blowing all the walkways because that's the type of guy he is. And he says, I see the neighbor who never has ever waved at me and he's got a tiniest shovel. And here I am with this snowblower and I could make quick work of his. He's like. And I thought it might be the way to extend that friendly bridge, the gap across the. So he, you know, pushes his little snowblower over there 2ft Street. And he said, the guy looked up at him, put his shovel down and went inside it closed the garage, leaving my dad shoveling. We said he thought you were the hoa. That's so funny. So today, based off of that concept here, you know what I was thinking we'd do this week is ask the group what podcast topics they'd like us to cover.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

Not today though. No, I want to talk about weather because this is a great example. In our area that used to not receive much snow. This year we've gotten more snow that we've gotten last year.

[B]

We got a lot of snow too. It was one big dump.

[A]

One big. This one's multiple ones. And they're saying another weather pattern might be showing up there. So we wanted to have a podcast dedicated to weather. I'm calling it Weather with Heather and Corey.

[B]

Oh, yeah. Heather always wanted to be a weather girl.

[A]

I thought that would be hilarious. And I kind of like cloudforming. So what we're gonna talk about is different aspects of what we need to cover when it comes to weather events and cookie pickups. Cookie classes.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Which. Whether or not pun intended, whether or not you think it'll happen. It will. It will and it will. When you're least prepared.

[B]

Last year, I wanna say we taught a March class and it two years agoed on our way to the class and I'm like, how am I getting there?

[A]

The wildest part of that is it was not supposed to snow that day. And, you know, and the weatherman is the only Job you don't have to be right in still get paid for it. But this one was quite, they were quite surprised. And it was started as soon as kind of people would commute to this class. So what Corey and I did, we have a weather clause.

[B]

We do have a weather clause.

[A]

But this one was such a weird event because it's. The weather clause is that we will let you know if we cancel the class before the class, not during, when the class should start. So I put us in a weird predicament. People had prepaid because we collect payment at time of booking. And they were, it was actually a private class. They were all coming from army wars and they were, you know, they were starting to get the emails like what are you guys doing? Like, oh, we're here, the class is set up.

[B]

I felt like me and Heather needed to be there in case somebody showed.

[A]

Right. So we gave them this wild option. You can show up and we'll teach you today or you can opt out and we'll give you a credit to use at a future class.

[B]

I want to say what, Four people showed up.

[A]

There's the smallest class we ever taught. I think we were supposed to have 12. Four came. So that means we issued this.

[B]

I know, it was a loss.

[A]

It was four a loss. And it created a backlog of these credits never being used. Yeah.

[B]

And then they would email like we want to do a class on a random Wednesday.

[A]

And we're like, right, so lessons learned there. Here's what we're going to cover with these. The weather policies. So the biggest thing is have a weather policy in place. What you don't want is to have the snow come and then come up with your weather policy. That means that you will be refunding things or you will be dealing with high rate clients.

[B]

When you can think of it in the sunlight, the warmth of the sun, you can plan for just about every weather occurrence that could happen. What happens if the weather starts white right before pickup? Like how you should freeze cookies. How you can offer to freeze cookies. The wording around freezing cookies because people are weird. Like my cookies are old. You're freezing them. You know, and to explain it and write it out in a way that's.

[A]

Do it ahead of time. Because when it the first flake falls and hurricane and tornado and snow and exponential rain flooding, when that first thing falls to scramble and then reach out to your clients does feel like, oh, you're freezing these because you've run out of options. Not you freeze these because they're actually A really great way to store cookies. And I do it all. Hearing that ahead of time makes it feel like, oh, this is standard operating.

[B]

Fee versus like an after the phone.

[A]

Oh, shoot, we can freeze these. Did you know that? It's fine. They'll be great. Give me your money. I'm not refunding you. So we don't want to have that panic thing. So Corey and I actually, we use eventbrite and I know that it has an additional fees to it, but I like that it handles that crediting stuff and does the reminders. In the event listing I have the weather policy and you may be thinking, wow, that's probably a really long event listing. That event listing is so comprehensive. I think it's one. It's included in the cookie class kits because it's. I love it when I go to an event and it has two sentences. I'm like, I don't want to go to this event.

[B]

Yeah, I don't want to give you.

[A]

My money because I'm not sure you want to take my money. So that event listing, that description is what I can say. And that's what we always say. Like you guys repeat it more and more times. You'll find people that just don't show up to class because they know they can't get their money back. They don't want to go. But. But they understand. They've been told so many times. So the weather policy for our cookie classes is that in the event of a. Of a weather type storm, we will reach out to you preemptively with your options.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

In the event it's canceled, full refund.

[B]

Absolutely. If you don't come, I don't want your money. I don't want to hold you hostage.

[A]

If we don't come. If we don't come. You said if you don't come. If you don't come and we don't come. If you don't come and we come, we're keeping your money. If we don't come and you come. Sorry, you can get to my room. I will tell you. Heather knows it's a scratch Scrooge. Because if I make it now, you better make it out. This is how I'll say to going like, hey, someone requested a refund and they definitely, they're definitely within the refund window. So I'd like to. I've gotten better over the years.

[B]

It's just so frustrating to put in all the time.

[A]

And I think it would. I think we're able to sell their seats to other people. So Corey has gotten a lot better. But lest you think Cory runs for the Reva and she runs away from it, Heather gets to hear what I.

[B]

Want to say to them and then.

[A]

I type, hey, yeah, absolutely should see that in about five to 10 business days.

[B]

Here's the thing, you gotta always be aware that nobody is reading that part.

[A]

No, nobody is. And that brings us to our next topic. No one reads send the weather policy in an email if the thought of weather has entered the newscast.

[B]

The great thing about local community groups is everyone's always talking about the weather. So it's always on the tip of someone's tongue. It's in their ears. So you need to be in their inbox before the day comes.

[A]

So here's what I would kind of look like and the example we gave earlier with the surprise snowstorm, that was a wild one off use case and I don't even think it's worth like coming up with the, you know, and just in case that it snows when it wasn't supposed to, I wouldn't even answer that one. But if I had a policy, if I said if they're next week, they're thinking there's another snowstorm for my pickups that I have next week, probably today, I would say, hey, listen, in the event that there is a snowstorm, here is the plan of action. And that's when you can implement, you know, we have the ability to freeze cookies and I'll talk about that in a second. But you would, you would preemptively do that. What you don't want and you know you've misstepped is when you don't email your clients and then you get that barrage of like, what's the plans here? Yeah, like what are we going to do?

[B]

That's why I always say if someone's emailing me, I've left out a step of the communication that I did. So I need to go back and say, what little gap do I need to fill? Because I left it open.

[A]

Now let me ask you this. I was working on your website yesterday. Would you put a weather disclaimer on your website? I like having things in more than one places.

[B]

I think it would be, would it.

[A]

Be worth a top menu? No. Maybe a footer menu? Yeah, that way it's there, you can link it to people but it's not taking up that ever precious top side.

[B]

Typically Northern Virginia where we are snow is few ish and far ish.

[A]

I say that, but I think I might have to restate this. I know it's not fewish and it's not far between.

[B]

So, like, last time it snowed and this time it snows. I had both pickups.

[A]

Both today.

[B]

I have one today and last time when it snowed. I had a pickup then as well. So it was really me getting out shoveling. And I was thinking, like, I have to think before these people show up. What are they going to do? And that's a lot to think about because, like, what if I was not.

[A]

Able to shovel the snow?

[B]

So I'm going to make them, like, walk through.

[A]

Right. You can bring your shovel. Yeah, I'm sorry. I just want to cover one last thing in the topic before. Have the weather policy. Have a weather policy for classes and for pickups. So don't have one for classes. And thinks that that just would insinuate that that was meant for both of you. You need to have one for pickups when they're done at your home and you need to have one for classes when they're done at a secondary thing.

[B]

Yeah, the one thing with the secondary place is you don't know they're shoveling.

[A]

You don't know if they close.

[B]

Absolutely. So you almost need to team up with them and say, hey, what does it look like?

[A]

I would include that in my policy is that the venue is the final call on whether the class can take place or not.

[B]

Cookiers sometimes friend me, so I end up with their stuff in my newsfeed. And like, someone had a class, but the library. They were hosting a class at closed that day.

[A]

Yeah, like, but she didn't get the. She didn't get. She woke up and with everyone else learned that the library was closed. Here's an example. Somebody had linked. It's a Great Falls. And it was like a place to learn crocheting or quilting. And I thought I was pretty neat. So I clicked to the website. Right.

[B]

And so where they're local to us in McLean.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

She asked us to teach classes there, but I was like, where are those?

[A]

So neat. So whatever. I was reading about one of the people hosting, teaching the class, which I assume it's just a bunch of teachers coming to this location. And it was the quilting or crocheting or something. And it was like. And I, I. This kind of hit me the wrong way. It said, in the event that class is canceled on part of the host, you will not get your money back. You can apply it to a future class. And I thought to myself, that's not fair. If I didn't cancel we always say.

[B]

Treat your customers how you would like to be treated. If they have a no say so. Like, listen, I have a front wheel drive four cylinder vehicle. We're not covering mountains. But a lot of people in this area have jeeps and Subarus and SUVs.

[A]

They're out for a flat plot of land with no mountains. We're certainly. I know.

[B]

So you gotta plan that. You know, just because you didn't show, that's not on them.

[A]

Here's a hybrid, one that I like better. In the event that the host doesn't show, I can roll you into my next class or I can give you a full refund.

[B]

I think that is fair.

[A]

I think it gets. You know what we don't. What obviously the host doesn't want to do is lose out on the money they collected.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And they. You have all the reasons I baked or whatever. But to give people like, hey, I can put first. I can give you first access, like make it sound like an exclusive. I do the first dibs on my next class, you're going to love it. Or I can give you that refund.

[B]

With business, there's times you will win and there's times where you will lose. You have got to price accordingly to cover those times that you will lose. When that snowstorm happened and only four people showed up, there was no profit. No longer in there for me and Heather. A lot of people did take us up on the extending their tickets out to another class. But if we would have priced just right at what we needed to, there'd.

[A]

Been no elbow room. There's no elbow room.

[B]

So I'd be desperate and be like, no, you can't.

[A]

You have to show up, get your snowmobile. Here's something. This would be tricky, but if you worded it right, when you use eventbrite, do you have the option as a host to absorb that fee? Yeah. Or you can pass the fee along. But regardless, if the ticket is refunded, that fee is not. It used to be done and Covid used to and then now don't. If you had cited the reason for Covid, it would let you get. You could tell this and this would be a rough one. You'd have to really be good at.

[B]

How you're going to wear this.

[A]

Like, hey, it have to be in your event listing. In the event that a ticket is refunded, your fees don't get refunded. It's five bucks.

[B]

I want to say some of our local competitors have that.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. It's not refunded. Because it's the Eventbrite posse. Corey and I do absorb the fee, but you would say something like this. You could say, hey, listen, I can absolutely refund that for you, but if you choose the next class, you'll get your full ticket price.

[B]

So you can get incentivized.

[A]

I can refund you, but Eventbrite's gonna keep those things, which I hate to do that. So a better option. And if you're open to this, if we just roll you into my next class, you don't have to lose out on that money that you've worked so hard for. And Eventbrite doesn't make.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

An option. You can't sound threatening with that one. True. You have to word it in a very specific way.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Moving on. We said get in front of weather events. Have that plan in place already. And that includes having the policy. Having a policy for different types of weather events. I know in this area we typically focus on snow, but there are flooding events, there are turnovers.

[B]

This is where having a good newsletter, email list, posting to your social media, we know reach is hard. So making that post in a. Assuming people are going to see it. No, you got to be in the inbox. If you have a text messaging app, that would be great.

[A]

That's a great one.

[B]

Yeah. For classes because it gets right to them. Right at the time that they're.

[A]

I saw this question. It was a couple years ago, so I can't remember where I saw it, but it was in one of the groups and it was like, hey, I posted to my social media that class is canceled. They canceled it last minute for something. I'm not sure everyone will read it. Like, oh, no, that can't be the only place. No way. We already know the algorithm reaches only 2%, let alone everyone who had signed up for a class. You absolutely, absolutely have to collect their emails on Eventbrite. You can force it to collect their phones. If you're using square, you can force it to collect phone numbers. And that's when I would use that text message. I mean, you're texting 10 people. It's not going to flag your.

[B]

Yeah, but those text messages are going to get read and open. They. That text message is probably the number one thing that will catch my eye.

[A]

I will open a spam text message. If you go to spam, I'll check what you sent me.

[B]

The problem with newsletters is it can end up in the promotions folder. Social media, the reach is just not there.

[A]

So here's what I would do in the event I had to cancel class.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I'd send a text. Next, I'd send a personal email to the attendees through my Gmail, which I use G suite. I would send a newsletter, that one will end up in promotions, and I would post it to my Facebook page.

[B]

Because what we don't want is someone to show up to class that was canceled. And like, you're like, well, I posted my social media. You're lining yourself up for a very stressful situation for either a very unhappy person that will never forget that stress on you because they showed up and.

[A]

They'Ve wasted a lot of time and they've also braved a snowstorm.

[B]

I know, I know.

[A]

That is, is, that is rough. So we want to get in front of it. So have the policy, your weather policy, and have it cover each of those types of weather events, even if you think or don't think. And then if we're there, including your cancellation policy in the event that the host needs to cancel for various reasons. You don't know whether you have car problems or your car can't handle that snow or whatever it is, what I.

[B]

See, a lot of times it ends up either in the cookie college or the sugar cookie market. My kid became sick last night. I need to cancel. What do I do? I didn't have anything in place. That is a little rough because you didn't have the forethought and now people are paying the price for you not having the forethought. You can't change that your kid is sick. But what you could change is your.

[A]

Expectations that were set. That's one of the most in my head, and I know some people don't see this at all. That is one of the controversial questions. In the event that someone in the household is sick or that the baker is sick, the question is, should I cancel the orders in my germaphobic constant state? Yeah, please cancel on me. Question for you. Cancel on me.

[B]

I'm puking, barfing, throwing up and crying. Would you teach the class without me?

[A]

Yeah, I could. You would teach it? Uh huh. You would? I could teach it. I could teach it.

[B]

I could teach it without you.

[A]

How are you gonna set up your computer to talk to the TV to dock to? How are you gonna get the Spotify play?

[B]

Let's go.

[A]

I think we could. I think they'd have a better experience if you had a teacher without me, but I think I could.

[B]

I think they'd have the same exact experience. It's not like I'm decorating I can.

[A]

Come over and be like, you need to mess that up. You should get someone to teach you how to fix that. That looks horrendous. If Corey were here, she'd tell you how to fix it. She's not. You know what I'd almost do? I'd almost see if I could pipe you in. Do a live. Anyway, she made this yesterday for you. Would you.

[B]

If you.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Is that Janice?

[A]

You really do the. That was wonderful. If you had to. Okay. If your kid was sick with the flu. With the flu, and you had orders.

[B]

Orders. Yeah. I let everybody know and say, hey.

[A]

I want to choose, and let them choose. I do like that choice.

[B]

You want.

[A]

Cause some people are like, yeah, lock him in his room. Let him out. Yeah, I would definitely.

[B]

What I don't want to do is someone show up to pick up one. I'm like, so, you here, Janice.

[A]

Here's your order. So if you are sick, cancel them. I would.

[B]

I would tell them, hey, this is.

[A]

What either like, hey, I tested for.

[B]

A fever, and I'm in the thick of it because I wouldn't want someone working.

[A]

I'd always appreciate if somebody gave me my money back because they were sick. That's me personally. And some. Some folks.

[B]

Here's what I would honestly do, and I've made peace with it in my mind, if I'm sick and this order is due for a birthday and it had it on the books for a.

[A]

Long time, would you bake it and refund them?

[B]

No, I would reach out to my local competitor, pay their rush fee.

[A]

Oh, smart. So you're losing twice, but the client's happy.

[B]

But they would just pay that person. So I would be at, what, the 20, $30 with a rush fee and be like, hey, so and so. That's why it's good to have a.

[A]

Good relationship, especially with somebody who can match your style.

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

Unfortunately, my local competitor, who I love, is moving away. Gigi, she moved to Texas, but I would always ask her, hey, can I.

[B]

Pay this rush fee? It's one dozen.

[A]

That's actually a genius idea. Everybody wins except for you, but you keep a happy client. Yeah, I mean, and that client may switch to Gigi, which is fine.

[B]

The problem is, if they've had you on the books for months and then.

[A]

You cancel, it's not fair to the client.

[B]

They won't be able to find anybody.

[A]

But, you know, like, when they have disclaimers, I always find this used to be in the insurance world, kind of. And there's the act of God disclaimer. When there's just stuff that's so far out of the control of humans that. Yeah, okay. It's an act of God. Yeah.

[B]

That's why we do have a ton of local wakers around here. So there always is going to be like an option that's local that's, you know, comparable to what I'm doing. And it's just having a good relationship with those people. And I think we've made good relationships with the people around us that I could reach out to them and be like, hey, so and so do me a swallowed.

[A]

I like it. That's a great idea.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That's a solid idea. Yeah.

[B]

Cause what to be at 20 bucks with a happy person for someone else's rush fee.

[A]

That'd be great.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

In event of a cookie class, would you do the same thing? I'd probably cancel it then and offer the credit to the next class or a full review.

[B]

Yeah. I think it would be hard to put that class on some. Somebody else.

[A]

That's. That's a lot.

[B]

I know.

[A]

Because it's one thing to bake cookies in the privacy of your kitchen's another thing to be like, hi, guys, welcome to cookie. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Although I think some bakers may be open.

[B]

Some bakers would maybe be able to just step in and like, if everything's prepped, they just step in and that'd be wild.

[A]

Yeah, that'd be wild. Okay, personal opinion. Corey writes, offer a weather refund for classes and a free option for pickups. Because imagine if they had an accident on their way to class.

[B]

That would.

[A]

And now we have another. I know you're going to jump to my last topic, so I'm going to merge these together. If you're having them come to your house, meet them at their car and have really good insurance. So flip insurance. Right. Because if they slip and fall on your property and they make a claim against your homeowner's policy and your homeowner's policy, who is going to investigate why this person and find out you're running a business without insurance, they're going to deny their claim. And now that onus of the medical bill falls on the baker.

[B]

I know. So if any. I just am so worried about slipping and falling that. Let me be the one that's so.

[A]

Corey. Corey said her solution. And now she has this really short driveway. We just talked about no driveway at all. You have this short. It's just a parking spot.

[B]

So when I make sure parking spot is cleared.

[A]

Right.

[B]

There's Ice down. There's no snow. But I don't. I say do not get out of your vehicle.

[A]

Right. So Corey said, I also have been following your bath and I will not make it. The solution here is have flip insurance. So that way if there's a slip and fall. But you got to understand, running a business out of your house puts the liability back onto your house. That homeowner's insurance policy does not want to cover your business.

[B]

No.

[A]

Same with your auto policy. Doesn't want to cover your deliveries because that's not. That's out of the coverage of the policy.

[B]

So I'm more. So let me fall and break my back and maybe drop a few cookies versus you falling and breaking your bag. If I'm saying, like, come to the door and I'll meet you there.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Make it.

[A]

But some folks, rural areas have really long driveways and that changes things a bit. But again, you can still. If they come up your driveway, we're back on your homeowner's policy.

[B]

I know I would say hook the dogs up to the sled and ride them down.

[A]

I'm not going. Ching, ching balto. That's a hell of a high one. So, yeah, Corey says, I would always. So I had the freeze option. I would implement that in that getting ahead of. So let's say I'm not gonna. My plan is I'm going to have pickups, but I'm not going to have pickups. But I've already baked these.

[B]

Order.

[A]

Yeah. What I'd say is a week out, like, hey, client. There's a small possible chance there may be a weather event in the case that we are snowed in. I'm going to freeze your cookies. This is how bakers store cookies to preserve freshness. So there's no issue on the quality of your bakes. And I'll give you instructions on how to dethaw those when you're ready to pick.

[B]

Yeah, I actually made it. You made it a blog post on my website, how to freeze cookie. So what I can just do is send them and I in the blog post, make it sound like it's the best idea you gotta sell it ever happened.

[A]

Like, what I. What you don't want to do is like, go to a doctor. And they're like, I don't know, maybe this. And I'm like, I don't know, maybe if you don't think it's a good idea. But what do you want the doctor to be like, this is the solution to your whole problem. And I'll Be like, okay, this sounds.

[B]

Fresh as the day I bathe them.

[A]

Even better. Some people say that it tastes better after the dethaw. So get in front of that. Don't do that. Reactive. Like hey listen, I'm snowed in and we can't get out, but I'm gonna freeze them. Okay. And it's fine when I freeze them. Okay. Like, like that. Remember the general populace, we're not used to frozen cookies that have been baked a month ago. Yeah, that is a very odd thought to the general populace. Right, right. Cory's frosting and freezing and defrosting and thawing these things all the time. And I would not be able to taste a difference. However, if she told me, hey, this has been frozen for three months, I'd be like, I did not pay for a two month old cookie because I don't understand.

[B]

Right.

[A]

So that education component ahead of time doesn't look like a, a knee jerk reaction to try to say keep their money. Yeah.

[B]

With I have a customer that we're currently mapping out what she wants. It's order is six months away, so.

[A]

There'S plenty of time.

[B]

But she was like, yeah, you know, the chaos of a wedding. I'm worried that, you know, I need to pick them up before I get into my chaotic wedding. So like a week earlier, is there anything like to keep them fresh? And I was like, hey, listen, I said we have two options that we can do a simpler design that can be picked up local closer to your. Or we can do your complex design and they freeze perfectly well. And she's like, oh, I didn't even know that that might be a solution for me.

[A]

So explain positively as a feature, not a bug. So that takes us through those. So let's just recap. Have the policy in the first place. Have that policy cover every event and every type of order pickup class, I don't know, DIY kit, whatever all this is, we need to have it or pick up anything.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Then we're gonna say no one reads so. And you can't say like, did you not read in that footer link?

[B]

My favorite thing is like when bakers are buddy buddy with the person, like, oh yeah, Jimmy, love ya.

[A]

Sign my yearbook.

[B]

The customer is like, yeah, I'm not happy with this one thing. And the baker's like per my teas.

[A]

And thank you thou for reaching out to me on this glorious day. I regret to inform you that I'm rejecting a proposal for a full refund for your baked items. We call that lawyer speaking. Corey's Ex husband loves to jump into that.

[B]

I'm like, oh, it's a lawyer lawyer wreck today.

[A]

Corey, regarding our mutual son that we had our offspring. So yeah, no one reads. So you just definitely. Especially if we're in months, I would almost say in the footer of an email which is very easy to add. If you go to Google, go to your Gmail settings. You can scroll down to the bottom and that's your email signature. I would say in case of potentially bad weather, click here and just have that link to that weather.

[B]

Even on your Google business profile you can add upd there's like blog post honestly to your Google business profile but they show up on there.

[A]

So you can do that on Google. You can do that on all your social media. The weather update, I would say have a pre canned a post that says hey, it looks like we may be having weather next week. Here's what to expect from me, your baker. Yeah.

[B]

You have a banner across your website. You can do.

[A]

Yeah, you can do a pop up with that has that weather event and just remember to take it down when the weather event stops. And then, and then you can have those text messages and custom emails for the specific people and really just get that messaging out there because no one reads and the algorithm doesn't allow them to read. Yes. So we have the email newsletter is great because it's chronological. Text messages are wonderful because I check all of those. But Google is pretty good at spam now. Spam catch. I'm good. You're tapping on some and then you have the other options there.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. Get in front of weather events. Don't react to the weather event. What we don't want is Corey and I situation when we're at class and the weather event started. That was act of God territory. But we don't want to do is only respond after the snow starts falling. We want to do that. A week out would be delicious. Even four days out is delicious. And it is that balance because sometimes all the time the weathermen get it wrong.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And it's either more or nothing. It's a boomer bus. I like it. Now in our area they'll be like we think 4 to 6 could be a boom. 8 to 12 could be a bus 1 to 3. Like that's just everything that it could have been 0 to 12. It's gonna snow sometime somewhere here eventually.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So get in front of that and then maybe have it like you know, seven days out I'll post to social media.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Five days out I'm gonna send that newsletter three days out. I'm gonna start sending custom text personal opinion. Corey says offer weather refunds for classes or again, like we talked about that credit to kind of dissuade people from showing up because we don't want them to slip and we do not. And for pickups, that freeze option is pretty great. Yeah. Because that really. You get to keep your money. They get to keep their cookies. Absolutely. You got that issue though. If that event is on, their event that they need it for is that day, you better have flip insurance. And you could say, hey, listen, you can come. If you can come pick these up. You are free to. I just want to let you know. And this is where you're going to cover your butt. There's ice everywhere. There's tons of snow. This is a very unsafe environment. You have the option to pick it up. I want to encourage you. And again, it's going to say in the court of law if they slip and break that arm.

[B]

But I'm going to be like, listen here. I don't give my cell phone number out to hardly anybody. But I said, listen, here's my cell phone number. As soon as you pull up, text me. Don't exit your vehicle. I will be exiting my home with your cookies. Stay in the car at all times.

[A]

Please keep hands. Aren't flex insurance policies. And then that last one is, if they do pull up and you have just. Even tonight, there'll be a refreeze of this. So you can say, get it. Make sure you have that flip insurance policy updated. Tell them to stay in their car and then you take the risk.

[B]

As business owners, unfortunately, we can't take the lazy way out. You got to get out and shovel. Put the ice down. Because at the end of the day, you can't control if they stay in their car or not. Like I had one lady who was like, I'm really worried about the snow.

[A]

I was like, stay in your car.

[B]

And all of a sudden I see her hopping out of the car. I'm like, anne, what are you doing?

[A]

I'm coming to you. And can.

[B]

But I had made sure that I.

[A]

Shoveled that there it was that you just gotta be kind of think in terms there's this girl. And I was an insurance. So I think it's kind of interesting because it truly is a he said, she said. And that's why dash cams are so.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Are. Yeah. So important. But how. What did someone say? I was reading that someone had a water leak in their townhouse basement. In our area, and that water seeped into the neighbor's townhouse basement. And the person said, do I. My neighbor saying, I have to cover this for them. Do I have to? Top comment said, listen, in the world of insurance, did you take proactive measures to mitigate the loss before it happened? That's how you'll not have to pay for them. Because, you know, leaking hose bib is one thing. If you turned off the water to the house and you had the plumber come inspect it. Same with what Corey's saying is, did you spread salt down? Did you shovel your walkway? Are you able to prove that you took the measures to mitigate the accident?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, because I even flip insurance. And you gotta understand, you literally pay for insurance to fight your claim. Yeah. Against you. Yeah. Insurance is like, we'll cover it, but we'll do everything in our wheelhouse to not have to cover it. So you're gonna say, okay, I'm having p. I do have flip insurance. I have people coming to my. I plowed. I salted. You're gonna take pictures of that. You truly wanna cover your butts. It comes down to really proving that you took the effort.

[B]

A lot of people are like, no, my customers are so nice. They would never do it. At the end of the day, people can't put it in an impossible situation.

[A]

$10,000 medical bill. Absolutely.

[B]

It's nothing on you. I cannot afford to fix my arm.

[A]

So I've got to have someone pay for it.

[B]

So you just have to assume. And a lot of people say, northern Virginia, is sue happy?

[A]

So I just assume.

[B]

Everyone's gonna assume.

[A]

Do you just assume, or do you just assume it's just guaranteed? Everyone's going to do it too? And you can't really hold it against them. Medical bills are. And the liability falls. Sometimes they could go and claim it on theirs, and their insurance would be like, hey, this is the us. This is them. Yeah. And then you would subrogation. I know that insurance world is crazy. Random fact here. When I was at one of the classes, because we actually had to host the classes for the agents to get their continuing education credits, I was talking to one of them, and they're like, yeah, if you call all the time to ask whether this is covered under your policy or not, we'll drop you under a clause called propensity to file claims.

[B]

Oh, that's wild.

[A]

Meaning if you're constantly checking, they're saying, well, this person's going to see wild. I would cancel.

[B]

You say, when my car was A hit and run. It was parked in a parking spot. Someone took off the whole front bumper. But they also.

[A]

It was a year ago yesterday.

[B]

I know. They also hit the wheel. So I take it they fix everything but the wheel. And I was like, yeah, I'm gonna need the wheel fixed. And they're like, no, we don't think it's fake, though. I said, they don't want to pay.

[A]

They don't want to.

[B]

And I said, listen, it wasn't like this before and it will not be like this after.

[A]

Semantic words. If you ever have to talk to your adjuster, one, you can fire your adjuster. That's what they told me. And again, I was on the outside of this. They said, you can. If you get an adjuster who's been in the business for 30 years, they're going to just be like, I want to get you off the books, so let me pay out your claim. If you get a new hotshot who's trying to prove himself. So they're almost like Friday, bushy tail, say once a. The other thing they said is that the phrase is made whole and like, kind like, kind.

[B]

I would like my vehicle made whole.

[A]

And then like, kind like quality. So I, you know, I worked in home restoration. So they were like saying, yeah, do take those videos of your house every year and update it. Do keep receipts of large scale items that you uncovered. They said, a lot of times when a house burns down, people are like, yeah, I don't need my soap. They're like, like, makeup can be thousands of dollars and it is covered under posse. So make sure you take at least pictures of it.

[B]

Pictures. But then they said, if you can have your receipts.

[A]

I know.

[B]

I was even thinking, if the house burned down the amount that I would be decluttered immediately.

[A]

Even, you know, imagine you could get. But okay, they were like this. In the event that the house burns down and they're going to replace your TV if you do not have the make and model, but you say, this is what I said. If you say it had a. It lights up with a red dot at the bottom center, they will have to find a tv. Or as close to Canada, there's a TV that lights up with a dot. Red dot at the bottom center.

[B]

What a pain. Unless you could just show them like it was. That would be a blah.

[A]

It's funny. Rob got in a motorcycle accident and I'm like, I found all the receipts and gathered all the makes and models of the gear that. Because a person on a motorcycle. No, it's the helmet. Because the helmets are ruined if there's an accident. The police department cut all the clothes.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So but these were very expensive material. They said, wow, this is very organized. We're going to cover 30% of some of this. Like it's not even covering it all. Yeah. So you just got to understand you are for insurance and against insurance at all times for your customers. Against your customers at all times. You hate them, you love them at all times. So that takes us through this weather event policy stuff. Maybe Corey and I'll put it on our website in the bottom footer.

[B]

Yeah, let's do.

[A]

That's not a bad idea. And that way you can link to it when the weather event. You can put it in your signature line. Yes. And then take it out and happier time. Yeah.

[B]

A great thing me and Heather also utilize is email signatures. And in those email signatures they're very customizable. So it's cute. It looks like my brand colors. But like right now it has a quote. Like it says a Valentine's night is two cookies in each hand. But I could change it to weather fast.

[A]

That's a plugin that we found. We're in a lifetime deal on it because I took a risk. I love it though. But it's a Y stamp. Now that's not the only custom signature. But boy does it make them cute. If you're trying to save money, you can do this by yourself in Google. You can even make them in Canva. They're more comprehensive when you use these third party plugins because you can have hyperlinks and pictures and Instagram and every.

[B]

Time I make an email just pops up already.

[A]

Right. It's pretty neat. Pretty neat. I said that's one of my better lifetime deal.

[B]

But utilizing any and every avenue is going to save you from an unhappy customer of the day.

[A]

When it's made very clear. When I, okay, I had a fly out this weekend and it was like, do you want insurance on your plane ticket or do you not? And I was like, no. And I was like, okay. In the event that anything happens, either you are to this plane, you're not getting your money back. Do you understand that? Yes. Now I'm like, right? Yeah. I said I understood it. Yeah. So now in the event something happened, you wouldn't see me raising my money. Yeah. Because they've like, we've covered our bases. We offered it to you ahead of time.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Right. That is all we had for the snow. It's so funny we're not recording this.

[B]

Podcast because we're not recording it visually.

[A]

Not visually recording it because this was last minute. Because we thought the snow was gonna be a little bit worse before journeyed out. But what? It's funny, we uploaded it to YouTube last week. And now our family, who has never listened to the 198 episodes, are very attuned to the YouTube channel. And Corey's husband said, you know, I thought you singing was just something you did in the privacy. The privacy of our own home. I said, oh no. But seeing you bellow to these poor people for 100. This is embarrassing. Sir, listen, we're not. It's been 198 episodes of embarrassment. Power on through. Okay, moving on, Moving on. The cookie conch is actually a great buy and you should sign up immediately. What do you guys want from me? What do you want me to save? Do you want to make more money? Sign up. Do you want to make less money? Don't sign up.

[B]

Do you want to have better customer relations? Sign up. Do you want your customers to slip outside? Don't sign up.

[A]

Do you want the literal weather policy I write for you? Sign up. If you don't want the weather policy and you want to be liable to your entrance, don't sign up. We'll plow your yard. Sign up. We will add snow to your yard if you don't sign up. Oh, bring the snow here today. What it is.

[B]

The cookie college is a monthly membership. So when you sign up, you are a member. You can cancel anytime. You just need to go in and make sure you press the cancel button. We love to have you for as long as you'll have us. A lot of people join at the beginning of the year and towards the end of the year because that is a cookie type Super Bowl. We got a lot of holidays coming up where Valentine's Day is Friday. Then I already see people searching out Easter.

[A]

Oh, I'm ready. I'm ready. Why? Just for the weather or for the cute? In my Feb freebies, There's some Easter. You're gonna love it.

[B]

Easter, we have. What is the march one with the leprechaun dude?

[A]

What is that called? Luck of the Irish. Yeah.

[B]

What is that called?

[A]

No, now you're just the hollow. I gotta pin my February freebie.

[B]

We have so many that are coming up. The cookie class kits. The next one we're working on is Mother's Day. It's cute. We have a Father's Day coming up. There's so many holidays that are squished. Teacher appreciation and graduation hours. People are already talking about all of those. They see it on everyone's socials.

[A]

What did you tell me? When do you need to order cutters?

[B]

About six weeks out. Some shops are longer to take, some shops are not. So right now, if you want to utilize and make the most money in your business right now, sign up for the college, take a break during the summer, come back towards, you know, back to school and all that jazz.

[A]

Better. So you come back work.

[B]

We have tons of courses. We have tons of classes. We have a private Facebook group and a private podcast. So there's something for you. If you're trying to learn visually, audibly.

[A]

You'Re going to hear it, you're going to see it, you're going to part time.

[B]

But we love the cookie college. Right now you can sign up at 73. 73amonth.

[A]

76. 76amonth over that. Yeah.

[B]

Because you've changed the price a million times.

[A]

No, we've raised the price one time.

[B]

You have lowered it.

[A]

68. Then we went to 76. Yeah, that first bendy blundy. We went back to 68. There's only two numbers. 76. We went to 63 that one time. Yeah.

[B]

There you $76 a month. You can sign up any old time. When you get in there, if you're like, I only got $76 to sign up for a month, get in there, download everything. You get all of the cookie class kits from 20. Did we start in 20? 23?

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Years. 2023, 2024 and everything that's been uploaded for 2025. Plus you can get into the community group. We have freebie photos to help you. Like, I posted these felt letter boards that I collected. Collect odd collectors.

[A]

You have a lot of them.

[B]

You do.

[A]

How many do you have?

[B]

10.

[A]

Wow. All colors that I liked. I get them. I see them. Like, you posted three versions of Happy Valentine's Day fell letter boards.

[B]

So it's like if you're like busy baking, but you're like, I do want something to post.

[A]

Here's what. Every second Monday, I teach a Facebook live, get to know your membership 101. Right. And it's repetitive. But that's because we have members coming and going. Sometimes I get people from three years ago and they're like, yeah, I just want to see what's up. But what I said is the freebie photos are great in terms of the engagement ones. Like the Happy Valentine's Day, you could type that out, you could make a canvas. But Corey incorporates a very simple cookie around the phrase. And I said, it's one thing to say Happy Valentine's Day, which is easy to do, but it's another thing to say Happy Valentine's Day with a cookie floating around the image somewhere that associates that business with cookies. Yes.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because I can say happy Valentine's Day and take a picture of a roller coaster. That doesn't chime in with my audience, that this is a baker.

[B]

Yeah. Sometimes I see bakers.

[A]

This is a risk taker.

[B]

A risk taker. Sometimes I see bakers, like, use AI photos. But like, like, you know, the Valentine's Day, the. The E and the T have become one.

[A]

Because AI is like fingers in person. Listen, get it away from me.

[B]

But the community group is also great for putting, like, hey, I did not set up my snow policy and I got an irate.

[A]

And we're able to just really dig in instead of, like, don't clap back.

[B]

And of course, when you post that in the main group, who were like, steal our virus.

[A]

Have you tried murdering the customer before they asked for the refund. So it's a little harder over there.

[B]

We could dive in just a little bit deeper in the college. But if you're like, you know what? I'm not ready for the college, but I do want to teach classes.

[A]

We have the cookie class kits. You get the 20, 25 class kits when you sign up for that. That one's $63 a month. But you get any kit that's dropped this year. So right now you'd get three if you signed up today, you'd get another one in two or three weeks.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So it's a really great way to get that content. And the weather posse is in there as well. Now here's the fun thing. We, Corey and I have been talking like, you guys are in this group. You're listening to this podcast. How do we appreciate the members? Because what's a group without its members?

[B]

Absolutely nothing.

[A]

So Corey and I were like, let's stop. Let's halt new group member acquisition, and let's appreciate the members that we do have, because eventually groups can get too large to manage. So if you have a really nice, petite group with a really, a good amount of engagement, you have a really solid, solid offering for new. For people there to, you know, come and ask their questions and get answers. So we decided to do a February freebies. Every day leading to Valentine's Day, one free digital graphic. Here's today's. Did you see this? My first cookie care card.

[B]

A cookie care card.

[A]

How much love Your cookies. That's adorable. Valentine's Day theme.

[B]

That's adorable.

[A]

Right? Just in time. I did check for typewriter. Did you check for type? I did.

[B]

Did you?

[A]

But I also probably wrote them, so how can I see what I wrote? By reading. So anyways, this cookie. So but every 24 hours, the last digital download expires and the new one comes up, which is stressful for you guys. I hate it for you.

[B]

You don't associate FOMO with Heather. If you're missing out with Heather, you don't know her. You do something about it.

[A]

Just. I just love the feel. Yeah. You are wild. I love being.

[B]

If you're in college, I think Heather gave you access.

[A]

Yeah. So anyways, for the digital downloads membership and the cookie college membership, the digital Downloads are this February 15th graphics grab bag. That's great. Yeah. For 10 bucks. If you do the digital downloads, you.

[B]

Had given on this February freebie, a free cookie cutter. It was like a double heart one.

[A]

They had four cookies. Yeah.

[B]

They were printing it off and giving it as gift in their classes.

[A]

And you print it off as many times. I thought that was genius. The last one. So let me see what my. My one. Today is a care card. Today is the 12th.

[B]

I'll explain the care card while you look. What the cookie care card is is when someone picks up their cookies. It's how best to take care of them. So a lot of times insane. Like, instead of saying like, you need to keep the cookies out of the fridge because the condensation eats at the icing, these care cards, you include it and it just is above and beyond. So your customers can be like, I can't remember quite what she said. Did she say, put them in the fridge or not? They can reference a care card and say, oh, yeah, they said, don't. It's just a nice addition.

[A]

You know, you could do like, if you're like, oh, I don't like what Heather wrote there because I operate differently. You could just take this into canva, put a white box over my text and add your own text.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

But here's what I wrote. It said, freshest buy nice stored, best in.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Avoid the fridge.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

If they're heat sealed, how to freeze, how to defrost. Nice. Right. So it kind of covers. That's everything I would. That's everything I usually typically say. Yeah. Somebody see I. I did a search on what people would typically say. Here's my Winamar, guys.

[B]

It's so cute. It is a Easter tag.

[A]

It's an Easter Tag. It says Happy Easter. I made that egg. Adorable. And then I went. I thought the colors were fun. The colors are very Eastery.

[B]

I'm kind of ready.

[A]

Ready. Here's my last one.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

This is a cookie card, 3.5 by 5, so vertical, it says Happy Easter from your favorite bunny baker. And because it's the last day of February's, I included a peep bunny. Oh, that would. That would fit on that. Oh, this is like.

[B]

So it's a mini card with the cookie cutter in.

[A]

That's adorable. Measure. I measured in Illustrator, so it should fit. So that little bunny should. And this is a good, like, thank you cookie or car cookie concept. And it's super simple actually, though, so make your money. Listen, if you think the freebies are going to help you make your money, how much could the cookie college.

[B]

How much copy making money to Heather make you?

[A]

But I won't be here for long for I am fomo. But we would love to have you.

[B]

In any of the memberships if you come and go as you please.

[A]

We love that, too. That is a great strategy. Yeah.

[B]

Our goal is to make.

[A]

If you sign up for the year, though, you get two months free. It's our way of thanking you for.

[B]

The commitment dealing with us.

[A]

But you're going to get a ton of content. I see people, they're like, I'd like, love to leave. I'd love to cancel this, but I can't. I'll never get this content anywhere else.

[B]

What's so funny is I saw a comment, Kelly said I closed my cookie business and I could not leave the group.

[A]

There's something about community groups, especially when you tend to. A lot of these people have been in for months and months, some years, some have even been since the start of it. When those people leave because they've closed up their business, I always have a moment of silence. So like, wow, I've become your weird Internet friend. So I know everything about you. I know everything you do. Yeah. So, yeah. Thecookiecollege.com It's a blast. I'm gonna start teaching classes on the main group that drive more content over there so you guys can see what it's about before you spend your money. But if you like how the sugar cookie marketing group runs, if you like the February freebies, this kind of content times 10 is over there.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Love it. Love it. Call to action.

[B]

Get us our stupid questions.

[A]

Shoot.

[B]

Get our stupid questions. So our next segment is the stupid Question. Stupid questions. Are your questions stupid?

[A]

No. Yeah. There's no, you have to be stupid if you want to.

[B]

The stupid questions is actually sponsored by the stupid car tray.

[A]

So many texting questions. How many total? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14. Oh my. 15, 16.

[B]

So okay, let me explain. The stupid questions is sponsored by the stupid car tray with the scooping with the stupid car train.

[A]

Stupid questions. Okay.

[B]

It's a device, it's classic, made in the usa that actually flattens out your passenger seat. It levels it out. So if you need to transport cake, if you need to transport cookies, it keeps them safe. And it actually has this rubber lining to it. It has this Velcro top. So if you're driving like a maniac to deliver these cookies, you're good to go. Cookies will arrive there if you do or not. We don't know. But the cookies will get to their destination. My number, I am choosing.

[A]

Okay, 11. Oh, this actually went two weeks ago because some of these are from when we didn't open them last year. So I said there was what, 14 total. Okay, hold on. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. This is a texting question. The she said my stupid question is are you both attending Cookie Con Reno next month? Okay, this is from 508-area- CODE. If this is your text, email [e-mail] 508. You are the winner of the stupid card right now. This is getting posted on Wednesday, so you have until Wednesday next week. Give you that seven day grace period because as Corey and I said, the weather event is an act of God. It's not your fault that this is a day late.

[B]

It is not.

[A]

Regarding that. Are you attending Cookie Con Reno? If you guys don't know what Cookie Con is, it's pretty fantastic. It's a live in person cookie baker meetup. Lasts four days and it moves throughout the country. It does sometimes. In the past they've done two a year. I don't feel like they're going to do that anymore. I think they're going to consolidate it to one a year. And that one is in March. Last year I think it was in Texas. It was. Right. And we hosted a happy hour there. We didn't. Heather Campbell Bookshire did. She was Heather and other Cory. Yeah, but this year it's in Reno, which is in Nevada, which is pretty far away. And Corey doesn't like to travel.

[B]

Listen, I got a kid.

[A]

Cory's got an excuse is what she's got.

[B]

We're getting braces. We got a Lot going on.

[A]

So Cookie Con Reno. I actually think they still have tickets left if you want to sign up. But it's an. I mean, I would say. And some people say, like, should I go or should I not? Do I think you're going to be like, I'm a different person? No. Do I think you're going to have a very fun experience that I'm not sure. It would be neat to say you did it. Yeah, right. I think you should experience it once.

[B]

I think putting it on your bucket list is great. I definitely love the East Coaster one because I.

[A]

That would be great. Sometimes they do them in Orlando. One time they did in Ohio.

[B]

Put it in D.C. we have literally every event.

[A]

They're making a Kalahari in short pump.

[B]

And when will that be?

[A]

52 years. 52 years away. So you hold on your horse.

[B]

I'm holding on my horses.

[A]

But I didn't realize how many bakers are from New York area. See east coast be a four hour drive. Oh, that's not bad. Better than Florida. She's a little bit 17. Yeah. Cory and I, we. We were invited to speak at the first one. Corey sent this Hail Mary pass and was, hey, could. Do you have any capacity that we could show up here? I know you don't know us. We're kind of new to the space. And they were like, wild. You would email us. We had somebody that was supposed to teach a core class and be the closing speakers, drop out and could you do this? You'd have to show up in a week. Yeah. I was like, oh, my goodness. So Cora and I were like, well, you only live once. So we came up with a curriculum. We taught how to stage and photograph cookies class. We taught it nine times in one day. We had memorized her and me and Heather had like bounce off.

[B]

My joke landed, send it back to Heather.

[A]

Her joke lands, which is so wild because that day is very long. You only have, I think it was only 10 minutes between each class.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

So I had said all these jokes so many times, I'm like, did I already say this to people? Like, are they hearing this twice or is this a new group? And then that night, because it's so jam packed and I gotta say, Cookie Con does a good job of keeping you entertained. We had to do an icebreaker game, which went terribly.

[B]

It was horrible.

[A]

It was hilarious. Until it was. People were crying, kids crying, and then we had to be the closing speakers. So as soon as, you know, as soon as they have this big grand dinner plated dinner right And Cory and I, you know, they offer all these awards for all the competitions that have been going on.

[B]

Yeah, it was fantastic. And then raffles.

[A]

They had raffles. And then we do this closing speaking thing. I think we just had a couple jokes and stuff like that. And then Cory and I get back to the room and we were like, listen, we have to spend one more night. It was already nighttime. And then we have this 12 hour drive home. I think it was 12 hours. And I said to Cory Wilder, I've.

[B]

Never been so tired.

[A]

Do you want to leave tonight? Like, do you want to just pack up and go? Like, we'll be home around like 10 tomorrow. And she was like, okay. So we load up the car last minute because we're still in high heels. Bright pink high heels, I think is what we were wearing. We loaded the car. Were we in my car? Yeah, we were. And we set out into this journey into the night, forgetting. I'm in my 30s now. I thought I was still in my 20s. I know I'm like, Cory, my eyelids.

[B]

I had to Google question to ask somebody to get to know them. Not that I haven't grown up with.

[A]

We've played one Justin Bieber song so many times that now when I hear it, I'm like, oh, that dropped back. So do you. Do I think you should go to Cookie Con? Yes. Are we going to this one? No. That was the answer to the question. Typically we do the happy hours, but that's easier when they're a bit on the east coast. So if Cookie Con comes back next year on the East Coast, Maybe. Maybe. But five zero eight. Text me the rest of your phone number. Heather. Text me, email me at heather sugarcookiemarketing.com and I will. Will connect you with Phil from Stupid Cartridge who runs a discount. If you didn't win today, you can still use a discount.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Code Sugar15OFF. Now they do run additional discounts. This stacks on top of that. And I think Phil's still offering. If you get a stupid card tray and email him your review video, he will send you the add on silicone mat and cup holder.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

Right voice. GC Bosch. Send out an email. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say this or not.

[B]

Did I get.

[A]

But they changed the cookie paddles. No, we're the affiliate to what Redesign. So that they don't break. But I think there's.

[B]

People are like visually see that and inspect themselves.

[A]

They said. Because Corey and I are Bosch affiliates. Right. So put that on my LinkedIn we just do it because the Bosch, the Bosch Black Friday sale happens about the Vendee Blundy. So we use the affiliate money to run the ads to make the Vendee blendy better and pay in towards the giveaways. But now I'm on their affiliate email. They said if you make a video with the paddles, they'll give them to you for free.

[B]

So do you have to request them or do you get reimbursed?

[A]

No. Did you pay for those paddles? Did you make their three videos in exchange for the Bosch we give away?

[B]

I definitely made two of them.

[A]

Okay. So I didn't want to be embarrassed and be like, can we get it on? She's like, where's the videos from the last time? Listen, they need to be coming crawling with those cookie panels. The weird thing about that, I'm gonna pull it up. You tell them the problem with the.

[B]

The cookie pat paddles, it's called cookie paddle. So you assume they'd be good for any cookie. And the Bosch is a beast. It can hold so much. It's like a five, six quart type type of dude. The problem with the cookie paddles, they're plastic. As soon as it gets into a little jumbled mess with the butter and the sugar, they just break. So then you have plastic parts in your dough and you have to throw out the whole thing. So I've like never even used my cookie paddles and I just used the dough hook. But it's confusing. If you're just buying the Bosch for the first time, you'd assume the cookie paddles will do the paddling.

[A]

Okay, here's what it says. Okay. Introducing the pro line cookie paddles.

[B]

Pro line curved blade.

[A]

Okay, people are asking me, is it plastic or not? It looks plastic to me. I don't know. It says new and improved cookie paddles. We're thrilled to introduce our new and improved cookie paddles. These upgraded paddles feature an innovative curved blade designed for better ingredients corporation and an overall smoother mixing experience. Experience. Unlike traditional flat paddles, the curved shape keeps ingredients moving, pushing them towards the center of the bowl for less scraping, faster mixing, and a perfectly blended dough every time. Compatible with both Bosch mixers and nutrimil RT stain mixers, these paddles are a must have upgrade for home bakers and professionals alike. They launch on March 2nd for 29.95. I don't know, don't know that they're still plastic as well, but how much.

[B]

They'Re still plastic is.

[A]

So I guess what we Would is buy them and make dosk a triple batch. On breaking, someone had mentioned that they thought the gears were weak. The gearing was weak because the paddle's having to do so much work.

[B]

It could be the paddle. It just breaks. Just the plastic snaps.

[A]

It's like a guaranteed thing. I don't even know how to bake, but I know the Bosch cookie dough paddle is not the one to use. You need to use the dough fat dough hook. Yeah, Crazy. I don't know. It'd be if you wanted to do it, like, but she's not gonna want you to review and be like, don't buy this.

[B]

Well, then I'm only gonna tell Latre.

[A]

Then maybe you should buy it and do it myself. Yeah. Because the other one has to be a review. If you get the affiliate link, wait on March 2nd and buy it. Back to our text messages. Let's read a few of these. Hi twins. Let's be honest. I'm not known to text into anything, so I'm really just doing it for a chance to win the stupid garden dry. I have been in the SEM group on Facebook for four years and I listen to the podcast weekly. I want to thank you both for everything you do and all the time you guys put into getting relatable marketing knowledge out in such an accessible way. You two go above and beyond for your peeps and it does not go unnoticed. Marketing question. What's your favorite way to get reviews? Specifically on Facebook and Google? Savannah. Savannah.

[B]

Thank you so much.

[A]

Savannah spelled in the coolest way I've ever seen. Oh, Savannah. Oh, nice. The age and age.

[B]

Savannah. I tested this out this year on my birthday. I said, people love to do something for you on your birthday, especially if it's free. So I said, the only thing I want for my birthday this year is to get a review. If you've ever had my stuff, it ended up getting probably eight reviews. And of those that stuck was five or six, which is a lot for me.

[A]

That's more than you could probably get in a year.

[B]

So it was great. That was a great way to utilize me. Birth date.

[A]

Great idea. Yeah. Savannah, if it's not your birthday, pretend it is. Just kidding. If it's not your birthday, great way is to just ask and be like. It would help me so much. It would.

[B]

If you had a anniversary of your business.

[A]

That's a great way. You're a gift to me. Doesn't have to be giving me your money.

[B]

Some people do great with incentives.

[A]

I find that one a bit harder but you're texting in a stupid cartridge, so it clearly works. Incentives work. Incentives work. So, Savannah, you didn't win this week. We just text in again next week. 1. This was very nice. That was a great also. It was a very nice thing. Do this again next week. I'll talk twice if you're number three. So, yeah, asking for the reviews. Now that brings up a great topic. Google had a glitch this week where all the Google review count numbers.

[B]

The count numbers went down. Went down.

[A]

But the reviews were actually there. If you hand counted your reviews, they were correct. Total count number. But I saw yesterday it was reversing the glitch.

[B]

They said they were on the. On the case.

[A]

So if you don't know what we're talking about, you miss nothing. If you do know what we're talking about, you're made whole.

[B]

I suffered greatly.

[A]

I would like to be made whole with my abuse. Here's a Buzzsprout texting question from Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis, have you been to Tennessee? You're the only 10 I see.

[B]

It's because we're twins.

[A]

You have to say that. Otherwise the other 10 I saw me seeing because I'm filmo. I saw me leaving. Love the podcast. It's my favorite thing to listen to while decorating. Big question for you. Is there any chance that eventually Facebook business pages will be allowed to join the SEM group? I miss so much content because in order to see the group, I had to be logged into my personal profile. The majority of the time I'm logged into my business page and I rarely switch over. I'd love to see the SEM content from my business page feed. Thanks for the consideration.

[B]

That's a great question. And in the past, there have been people. The problem is there's too much an anonymity when you're behind your business page that you can do of like a scathing.

[A]

And I'm sure Memphis has to. I know you're probably not the problem. What we have experienced in the past is people. People will make personal profiles as business pages, which you're not allowed to do. That violates the terms of service. But people do it. Then they feel that they have the unmitigated freedom to say whatever they think.

[B]

So they hide behind these pages and we can't tell who.

[A]

I can't tell who they are because it's a profile page.

[B]

IloveJesusCookie Co is the meanest lady in the world.

[A]

We don't know who. Ilovejesuscookie co is we just know that that's a problem. And now Facebook's unveiled and kind of firmed up the decision not to allow pages to join, which is still a great question, and I wish we could, but the anonymous posting and anonymous commenting that is now a feature in groups has really allowed toxicity to reign free. Because when nobody knows it's you except for the admins, just so you know, admins will always know it's you.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So if you think you're going to say something that would get you canceled, somebody knows it was you. It's really created a cesspool in every sense of the word in the community groups that we engage in of people just saying things that they.

[B]

Yeah. So just because people can hide behind page business pages, the only reason why we don't do that, because it's making it harder to police the group.

[A]

I feel like if you. If I knew that I could look up your property records from your name, you're probably going to say something that's a little bit more kosher than say something that could get you canceled. So. What? Actually, and I hate to say this, but what we've been doing is actually clearing out those profile page hybrids because it does create that issue for us. I know, I know.

[B]

So probably you won't see that happen.

[A]

But. But here's what you can do that's not. This is Memphis now.

[B]

Memphis.

[A]

Memphis. What you can do is go like the sugar cookie marketing page as your business page. Absolutely. Fine. Content gets posted there constantly and it mirrors what's happening in the group. Granted, you don't see all the content. Right. But you can see there as your page and be like, I'll go switch over to the group. So it's a. It's a decent thing. Also, if you're subscribed to the Wednesday Wednesday newsletter, some announcements there. You listen to the podcast, so. But we love you. That was a great question.

[B]

I'm so sorry.

[A]

And I hate telling people now I know. Trust me, if everyone was just really respectful, it would be a yes. Because in terms of growing a group, having you guys in as pages would double our numbers.

[B]

The problem is some people have closed their businesses, but they still hide behind their cookie accounts. But they have nothing to lose at that point.

[A]

I can't even leave my battery. They do not care. And not posting, that needs to be studied because I've never seen people be so rude.

[B]

Cruel. Yeah, cruel.

[A]

Sometimes I'm like, oh, you were. You said what? I wish I could have said that. Anonymous 5, 4, 9, 1, yeah, it was in this group. Anonymous comedy had gotten so reckless that they finally disabled it.

[B]

It's crazy.

[A]

Nova Moms, a moms group was so toxic they had to disable anonymous commenting. So I'm a lady and this is. And Corey and I will send each other if you ever got a hold of our Snapchats. If they were like, can I get her phone? And look, it's just screenshots of this. These groups.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And this lady yesterday, anonymously. You can still post anonymously. You just can't they disable commenting. She said, I feel like cheating on my husband. Is anyone just bored and just get that ten year itch? And then she's like, oh shoot, they disabled anonymous commenting. I'm not gonna get any replies. What are you guys doing? Last one, I'll read. Hey ladies. I've noticed you all say things like I don't like hashtags on Facebook or use emojis. We love to see posts with emojis in situations like these. Are these personal preferences or a general marketing role? For instance, as a 65 year old grandmother, I don't use a lot of emojis and I tend to see the usage more so with the younger generation. Also, I personally use Facebook hashtags when looking up things on Facebook. Thanks so much as always and I love you both. Sign the self designated SEMG Grandma Gigi.

[B]

Oh Grandma Gigi, you're totally right. Heather loves an emoji. Me, not so much. I. I use about one or two.

[A]

Here's my preference. An emoji in the first line is a marketing strategy. I like that the rest of them, I find it creates a guide, a visual guide on what to read and do I overuse them? I do. Yeah.

[B]

Market research though just looking up hashtags on Facebook is next to none. So you're one of the few people who do utilize that. The majority of people do not utilize it. So that's not an opinion piece that is marketed research that just has come.

[A]

Back for some reason. Facebook and its search feature have always been in conflict with each other. In fact there's a constant running glitch where it just won't pull up the things when you click a hashtag. Hashtags on Facebook, we used to be able to tag posts with them. They disabled that that I want to.

[B]

Give you like feedback if you know sometimes me and Heather in the past have used hashtags like something to bold it like hashtag. It's a woodbridge as an eye catching thing. What I'm seeing people Doing is hashtag Novabaker. Unfortunately, when you click that hashtag, it's showing all of your competition in a nice neat row. So that's not something you'd technically the.

[A]

Most recent hashtag I use. I actually use hashtags in Corey's community group for the daily, um, because we. I categorize each day. So today would be give it away, Wednesday, use that as a hashtag. I don't believe people use that. However, it creates a bold hyperlink there. It does. Now for the Feb freebies, I did use that with the intention that people would click on that and be able to find the past post.

[B]

Here's the thing. Feb freebies, it's not a common hashtag. So anytime someone would click that, they would just be introduced to every February freebie. That's 14 of them.

[A]

What happened? When I clicked on it, it took me through my 14 feed freebies and then the posts below that were absolutely random and I don't even know they were not in the group. They were just random people's posts. So I'm not really sure.

[B]

So from a marketing standpoint, the hashtags on Facebook are not as valuable as like say on Instagram. And even Instagram has devalued them over time with the inability to search chronologically.

[A]

So. Right. So. But she asked a better. She asked an interesting marketing question. She said, I'm 65. Who is your audience? Who's a typical age that buys from if it's 65 year olds, you not using emojis may be the better strategy here. If you say I'm 65, but I'm getting a lot of the housewives that are in their 30s. I'm going to say I'm a. Not a housewife, but I'm in my 30s. I like the emojis. It's very attuned to that age group. So you can say if I typically get orders from grandmothers, I can say my grandmother does not use emojis. She's trying. She's trying.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

She'll send, if she sends anything that's outside of smiley face, she'll be like, did you see a different one? I did. That's very good.

[B]

My dad, 65, emoji lover. Lover of emoji.

[A]

He communicates through hieroglyphics. We have to interpret them when we get them. I don't think you're right or wrong to use emojis. I do use them to get the scroll to stop. When I'm inflicting group rule domination. I use the Alert. Like, hey guys, don't let this get political. Or hey guys, answer the questions. Hand topic here. And then I do use emojis to soften the blow Sometimes a little crying that expired. That Fetfreebi is no longer accessible. Crying about. But one goes up tomorrow. It's an option there. I don't think Gigi is wrong to or to not use it.

[B]

Great question though. And it's just think about who you were.

[A]

It's asking the right question. I don't use this. I don't prefer to see it. Should I be implementing this in my game? Right. Right.

[B]

Love that Gigi.

[A]

Grandma, I'm going to add this one.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

Emojis seem fun and bakeries should seem fun.

[B]

Overuse of emojis is not fun.

[A]

Too many emojis. Yes. Corey has some emojis she doesn't like and sometimes I use them just to make her mad. Don't choke. At what?

[B]

Don't drug at me.

[A]

My dad. I said, can we just not use a thumbs up? That makes me feel dismissed.

[B]

You're done.

[A]

You're done.

[B]

And so is this conversation.

[A]

My mom uses three dancing ladies to leave a conversation. We call it the ladies dancing right out of the conversation. But she was like, no, that's such a fun thing you said. I'm not going to reply otherwise. But here's three emojis. So you know, I read it. Hi, twins. I have good and bad news. You know, I feel like last year everyone's writing these really great questions. Hi, twins. I have good news and bad news situation. Good news. I've grown my email list to 500 contacts. Wow. 95% of those opted in or subscribed. Not sure what that means, but I like it. Bad news. Now I have to pay for mailchimp. Oh, I do hate this. This is how they get you. It's 26.50 per month. That's more than I pay for my website. Are there cheaper and comparable options or do you just have to suck it up and pay it? Bridget in Georgia. Actually, Bridget.

[B]

Bridget in the group.

[A]

Last week I asked what people were using for email senders if they choose to. And a lot of people were talking about the price of mailchimp. Once you pass, mailchimp is free. And that's how they get you. Yeah, the minute you fart, they charge it. The minute you do anything, it's like, hey, we're going to charge you for this. So in that threshold. Starts at 500 subscribers, meaning at 499, it's free. At 500 it is that. Here's a hybrid option. Are you going to say scrub it?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So what happens is people subscribe to your email list and then they never.

[B]

Open things over the course of your business.

[A]

It's hard to do Scrubbing list is hard. It is.

[B]

You've been in business, let's say five years. The people who signed up five years.

[A]

Ago may not live in the area anymore but you're still paying for them.

[B]

Could have moved on.

[A]

In mailchimp and in most newsletter senders you can see the open rate and quality. I think mailchimp does a star rating off of how often that they open your emails, how often they reply to your emails, how they click through rate. If someone's opening your emails consistently I'd keep keep them. If somebody never opened any email, I'd scrub them. You're right at that threshold where most of these platforms are going to charge you. Yeah. So it might be worth it to scrub. Now there's scrubbing websites. Websites where you can upload a list. It will do this sleight of hand where it pings the email address and reports back whether the email is active, whether it's blocking you or something. That's a nice way to scrub it. So it's called Bright Verify is the one I've used in the past. You would take your 500 context you would upload them to Bright Verify and Bright Verify would charge you. I think it's like a quarter of a penny per one. Nice. Pretty. I mean pretty effective. We're saving $26 to find investment and it's going to tell you which one it thinks are a. Okay. Which one it doesn't know and which one is like get rid of this.

[B]

Yeah, that's great.

[A]

So we could keep it.

[B]

You could really get a good email.

[A]

List and save some dollars. You mentioned 95% subscribed so there's 5% we could get rid of already which would take us back to the 20 under the 27th. Now here's the other side of the coin. If you that is a strong number. 500 and your let's say your open rates are really high and your click through rates are high. That $26 are getting covered in one order.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I also want to say sometimes.

[B]

I see cookies do this and it is a little confusing to the end user. You have people who sign up for your class newsletter and for your custom order newsletter. Those people are not the same.

[A]

This is called list segmentation and it's a really strong. It's Obnoxious because you have to say you are a newsletter subscriber over here on this list and you're over here in this list and it takes that manual operation. However, they all still count against the account.

[B]

Could you make two accounts?

[A]

You could, but that would be rough, man. So what Corey's saying is game the system, make two male chimpies and have your class account, which technically Cory and I do. We have a. A mailchimp account through the sugar cookie classes and then Corey has a flow desk for mixing bowl cookie company. Here's the thing. If you didn't like paperwork, you're gonna hate this. Here's the thing.

[B]

If you want to save $26 but.

[A]

Pull your hair out, how much is your time worth? How much is your shampoo, your regrowth shampoo worth?

[B]

If your class list. If you're already booking out your classes and you don't need to send those people something all the time and they don't want to be bombarded by.

[A]

By your pickups.

[B]

Pickups.

[A]

But it's a rough one because those class people are likely to order.

[B]

Are they likely to own.

[A]

That's a rough one. You're. You're in a very unfortunate sweet spot of paying more money.

[B]

I would.

[A]

I would. I would. Yeah. Audit your own list to see if they're not opening. I would clean those out. Then I would take that list, export it a CSV file, upload it to a website like Bright Verify, let it scrub it as well. And then what you would do. This would be why you could have it Bright Verify and manually remove them one at a time.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Or you could delete all your contacts and re upload that. But you'd lose their history. Rough. $26. $26 over a year. What would we be looking at?

[B]

Is it 26amonth?

[A]

Huh?

[B]

Well, 10 is 120. So you're looking at 240 something.

[A]

260. 270. She said 2650. What do you think it is? 273 mansion is so close. Like I said, there's a way to game this is but there are other newsletter centers that have better options because they're trying to compete with the market share of. Here's an interesting one. It's not cheap. Flodesk.

[B]

She literally is emailing for cheapness.

[A]

It was $20 for the first year fees and affiliate link. $20 a month. For a month. So we're already saving a little bit of money. But then it goes up. But it has no cap on subscribers. Meaning.

[B]

But what'd you just go back to where then it goes up double surprise.

[A]

In the next year. Remember, you're in a grandfathered one. It said if you take the risk on us and buy it now you get a lifetime deal grandfather at $20 a month forever. But it means you can't leave them.

[B]

We're a sucker for lifetime deals, right?

[A]

I love me an ltd. I'm in LTD groups. But yeah, it's a rough one. Okay, moving on. If you guys want to let's go to the sponsors. Stupid cartridge being a sponsor code SUGAR, 15% off and you can also text in at 571-5565644. You have seven days to claim a stupid car tray. If your text was one which we said that was five zero eight today and you guys can enter in every week. Your questions are great.

[B]

Thank you.

[A]

Thank you.

[B]

Used to be a sparse.

[A]

I love this segment.

[B]

I know, I know. Moving on. Without our sponsors, the rest of them too, we would not have this podcast. So if you support them, you support us. First is the back backers co the backers company is a food photography backdrop that transforms your home into the perfect photography setup. If you've ever seen a photo by me, it's on one of those. They are matte which means there's no glare. So you're not going to have the annoying sun in the lens which is great. They are food safe which we love. Scratch resistant. So put those props on there and scooch them around all you need to waterproof. So if you do something that's a little greasy, you can wipe that right up and you can save 20% by using the code sugar cookie at checkout. They are fantastic. I love the L brackets. Been using them a lot with my sourdough photography.

[A]

You haven't done great about that.

[B]

I have loved it. They have bright colors so you could do brand colors towards Easter. Oh, they have a bunch of pastels.

[A]

And that's great for that Easter vibe. Bunch of pastels which is going to very much match my cookie character.

[B]

I always suggest to start off easy with the white matte finish finish. Super white matte finish is what it is called. And you can dress it up, dress it down. It's a go to. It's one I grab the most. If you're asking what I like the most, it is that one. Next I would suggest a wood grain one. It's great. If you do a light wood grain, you could do it with breads. I love it for teacher appreciation. I love it towards Christmas because You get that little woodsy, piney feel. But then a bright brand color. If your brands are bright like mine, then that's a great way to really showcase your brand.

[A]

Brand in your branding. Branding said brand too much. And that's code.

[B]

What that is called Sugar cookie singular.

[A]

Then we have Eddie, the edible food printer. I misaid something a couple podcasts ago. That photo app is paid. The one where it says 1, 2, 3. It's a one time payment. I think it was 130, 150, something like that. Okay. Because it's built by a third. A third party company. So just fixing that there. If you don't know what I'm talking about. I think Easter is a great time for Eddie. Yes. Because I saw this design. Don't know who made it, where it's on. I just thought that was beautiful. They took the peeps. The peep bunny shape.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And they printed these stunning. I don't know, not filigree, but like china. Like you know when you get a glass of China China and it has that Fine china. Fine china. It has that printer.

[B]

Agree.

[A]

Is that it's like blue. Yes. But they took that style.

[B]

The name, I don't know. And I've searched a million times.

[A]

A little bright blue. You know what I'm talking about. They took that and they found different versions of it. Light blue, light pink. And they printed on the bunnies. And then they added a 3D floral tail.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

And it was like such an aesthetic vibe. And they did that with Eddie.

[B]

Vintage Italian is what they're called in the wrong gunderies. Yeah, I know.

[A]

Printed on fine china. I feel like it is always printed on a very white porcelain glass.

[B]

It is. I know exactly what you're talking about.

[A]

Eddie is a direct to food printer. It would take that pattern and print it onto the cookie, which is an edible ink. And it really can just level up your game. It is. And you can use it for corporate.

[B]

Orders, but you can also use it to replace all of your stencils.

[A]

Here's another brush. Corey planned a surprise party for my sister Ashley. It was Taylor's Swift thing. Taylor Swift has one record, one CD where the COVID of it is the image of clouds as a sun setting.

[B]

It is the most complex, almost watercolor clouds. Right?

[A]

Yeah. So cookies are like. Well, I have all these Taylor Swift themes because this is why she was, you know, doing her tour. And they were trying to recreate that. And every time we see someone's like, how did this cookie get this? And they're like, oh, that's Eddie. So imagine not having to become a watercolor artist and in two seconds you can recreate.

[B]

I know, it was fantastic.

[A]

Easy to do and it creates great consistency. Meaning that every single cookie that had that watercolor print on it looked like the other cookie.

[B]

What I see a lot of cookie is doing is now for DIY kits, they're printing the image onto the cookies so whoever is decorating them at home can just follow the Eddie print. So the teddy bear has his little nose, his eyes, and the kids are having a grand old time decorating versus having to pick figure out where the eye would go.

[A]

We did a pyo stencil quote unquote print for the digital downloads and it was pumpkin face.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

Yeah, you're right.

[B]

We did.

[A]

Yeah, we did. We did do that.

[B]

Last but not least is my favorite meringue powder and it is called Royal Batch. Made by a company called Bakety Bake. Royal Batch includes three ingredients already that you would probably have to add to. It includes corn syrup, which corn syrup is added to royal icing to give it a softer bite. It has vanilla extract which makes it taste delicious right out of the bag. You don't have to add anything extra if you didn't want to, but you can if you want to add a little almond to go with your vanilla. Totally works. And it has white food coloring so there's no adding additional food coloring. It whips up bright white. So it's my favorite. I've used it for a few years now. Actually went back to one the other day because I was doing this dye free food coloring on our social media. So I needed the, the actual meringue powder to be dye free. I will be sticking with Mulberry Pet.

[A]

Tell me, how can I watch this content of which you write reference you.

[B]

Do you want to go into my die free journey?

[A]

I would like to follow the dye free journey. Okay.

[B]

We've been testing out some dye free food coloring because there is a red band that's coming. Don't worry. In 2027 and all the companies who.

[A]

Sell it, they're going to adjust. They're going to feel no impact.

[B]

But it would be nice to offer to your customers because Corey got a.

[A]

Lead yesterday for a die free set.

[B]

Yeah. And she was like. I said, listen, I just got it.

[A]

In the mail and I'm learning it.

[B]

She's like, listen, I'll be your guinea pig.

[A]

Cory offered her a discount in exchange for letting her be the guinea pig. Sweet. Yeah. So we're in the Talk.

[B]

So I'm excited to use that. We have True Color, My Green Heart, Prism, Chef Master, and Supernatural. Those are our fives.

[A]

How Corey, can I watch this?

[B]

You can go to our Instagram. Yeah. And our TikTok. You can find them both there. Our Instagram is @SugarCookieMarketing and our TikTok is @TriggerCookieMarketing.

[A]

You'll be happy to realize that the Instagram logo is pink again. I had changed it and we talked about this on the Meta Verified podcast episode. I changed it for the Vendee Blendy to Vendee Blendy Orangish yellow. And then when I went to change it back after the 24 hours, it says no Meta Verified profiles can only change every 60 days. So we finally got it.

[B]

We're back to red. Just in time for the vending moment.

[A]

You don't think that's red? D. Pink.

[B]

Bright pink.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Just making sure that you can see. And I. Purple is my issue. You should have saw me with the dye free, which is already muted.

[B]

Did this change?

[A]

I made white. Corey can't see purple. That light purple. That's so light. She sees it as gray.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So, Cory, we came. She came with these sweater cookies, and we're like, that's such a cute purple. And she's like, they're gray. And we're like, what are you seeing?

[B]

Yeah, just so you know, I have to get in front of it with any customer who orders, like, something that's purple. I'm like, here is what the color looks like. And I will send them the Amera color, since I don't know technically what it looks like.

[A]

You have no idea.

[B]

You need those glasses.

[A]

So everything in Easter, is it just kind of a single grant? Why are we doing grand. Why are the eggs looking Eggs? Why are we painting the eggs white? So that. Yeah.

[B]

But I'm excited to do an order.

[A]

Are you seem very excited about it this morning.

[B]

I think I'll do True color.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I'll really put my.

[A]

Why did you pick True Color?

[B]

When I was doing the test this week was the truest color.

[A]

How many have you used yet? So far I did three.

[B]

Chef Master only had four colors in their little bottles, so it was like blue.

[A]

Corey said Chef Master was like, please be good at color theory. Yeah.

[B]

You're going to have to, like, know, like, what makes green.

[A]

So.

[B]

But True Color had a ton of those bottles. And I like gel versus powder. Powder. Because I think you have to use less gel than powder to get to a thing It's a mental thing. A menti be minty.

[A]

We're talking about mental health and cookie college.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Interesting. I did an anonymous form. I'll be posting the statistics there. I think that's it.

[B]

My 20s was going to be the natural food coloring the dye free food coloring testing that I made. If you didn't know we have another group called sourdough sellers.

[A]

You should join it.

[B]

And what I made is a reel on doing a sourdough sugar cookie DIY kit using the dye food coloring for Roy like slight I am I know I I love when my worlds combine and that is a great combination. I actually made for a client because I'm really wanting to start selling more sourdough so I made a client this order she had it was a lunar new year she got 12 cookies but I made one she got 13. I made one in a sourdough sugar cookie and I said hey I just want you I made her a thank you cookie in a traditional sugar cookie but this one sourdough snake for the lunar New Year.

[A]

I was saying the lunar New Year's snake theme is great for people who have pet snakes. I've been finding all this cool clothes and bags. Yeah. So I said hey I would love.

[B]

To get your feedback. Sourdough sugar cookies just are a little bit more breadier because of the properties of sourdough.

[A]

They're made with soda guests sugar or.

[B]

Sugar or whatever they're My husband loves.

[A]

The taste of them more than a regular sugar cookie.

[B]

He said they're less dense.

[A]

He's right.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I could taste a difference. I do think they're more airy.

[B]

Airy and cakeier.

[A]

Cakeier. Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

So I said I would love your feedback if you could try both of them and just give me your feedback. I just want people to start associating my no.

[A]

Are you going to incorporate the sourdough on your website currently that screams sugar cookies.

[B]

I am trying to so if you saw yesterday posted horrendously I posted my banana sourdough muffins a real here's the.

[A]

Thing if if saying pyos is hard for our audience saying sourdough anything but bread is also a hard to adapt because the word discard sounds like trash to me. So I don't taking your discard and you're making these other things Sourdough sounds.

[B]

Like exclusively bread but you can make everything in with the sourdough dough. Like one thing I'm I told myself you're going to try something new a new recipe with sourdough so this week is cheddar bay biscuits.

[A]

I'm looking at your best.

[B]

Yeah, it did horrendously.

[A]

But that's okay.

[B]

Someone said those look delicious. I just want to start associating my name with sourdough. I did get an order for bagels last week. The gals, great. It's a slow moving process because my. My brand has always screened sugar cookies. But I took a macaron class last week. I got a macaron order for Easter. We're working it. We're working it.

[A]

It's hard to. To add a new.

[B]

Especially when that's the one thing I'm good at is sugar cookies.

[A]

So that's what I lean towards waking up. You shed from last week.

[B]

Hello, my little baby.

[A]

All right, I think that takes us through. I don't know that I had Twinterest. I don't think that I miss anything. We're having a Valentine's Day card exchange with my sisters.

[B]

Oh, it was a card exchange and now it's a gift exchange.

[A]

I know. How did I get. I I.

[B]

Summer said I love gifts.

[A]

It's her birthday, she.

[B]

So she's getting a gift and then she wanted more gifts.

[A]

Yeah. The threshold was 20, but everything had to be exactly the same. Yeah.

[B]

So here's what I got.

[A]

This is ridiculous. Let me ask.

[B]

Because I can return. Maybe I did away with.

[A]

You get from Targe to the other targ.

[B]

You know, the fresh stuff.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

They had tester samples of all the different perfumes.

[A]

I'll take it.

[B]

That's why I got everyone a little tester set up. Each of them one.

[A]

I like it. I'm into my perfume journey. That was fancier perfumes. Whatever. You called me toilet.

[B]

No, thank you.

[A]

You know when you go and you're like. It's like day toilet with an asterisk. I think it's toilet. Don't know. I need to go to the toilet.

[B]

So let's.

[A]

Okay, we'll see you guys next week on time. Unless there's a snow.

[B]

Unless there's a snowstorm.

[A]

Getting ahead of it right now.