200. Baking it Down - Bu-cee's

Summary

Episode 200: Baking it Down - Bu-cee's

Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing hosts Heather and Corrie Miracle delve into the intricacies of running a successful bakery business by drawing inspiration from an unexpected source: Buc-ee's, the renowned chain of gas stations. In this episode, titled "Baking it Down - Bu-cee's," Heather and Corrie share their experiences from a recent trip to Nashville, where they spent ten hours exploring Buc-ee's. Through their observations, they extract valuable marketing and operational lessons applicable to bakery owners striving for efficiency, cleanliness, and exceptional customer experiences.

The Nashville Trip and Buc-ee's Visit

Heather and Corrie recount their spontaneous ten-hour road trip to Nashville, primarily to experience Buc-ee's firsthand. Their visit was brief, limited to dinner and a quick tour of the flagship store on Broadway. Despite the short stay, the sisters were keen on dissecting what makes Buc-ee's a standout in a saturated market.

Heather [02:27]: "We wanted to be Broadway girls. Yeah, we were. We were. For about 10 hours."

Key Observations from Buc-ee's

1. Efficiency

One of the most striking aspects of Buc-ee's is its operational efficiency. The gas pumps are designed to minimize wait times, ensuring that customers can refuel swiftly without unnecessary delays.

Corrie [06:00]: "So if you’re going to a Buc-ee’s, you will be able to gas up right away."

Heather parallels this efficiency to bakeries, emphasizing the importance of streamlined ordering processes and reliable booking systems. She criticizes reliance on fragmented platforms like Facebook for orders, highlighting the potential for lost messages and inefficiencies.

Heather [07:22]: "When you take orders through Facebook and there’s no website, there’s no point of organization. Very inefficient."

2. Cleanliness and Organization

Buc-ee's excels in maintaining spotless facilities, particularly their restrooms, which she compares to high-end establishments like the Bellagio.

Heather [19:02]: "She likened the restrooms there to the Bellagio."

Cleanliness fosters trust and enhances the overall customer experience, a principle that Heather urges bakers to adopt by maintaining organized kitchens and presenting clean, professional setups.

3. Merchandising

The thoughtful arrangement of products at Buc-ee's encourages impulse purchases. Heather notes how every item is prominently displayed, making products look fresh and inviting.

Heather [29:17]: "Merchandising by being able to present your product the way that people want to buy it and they feel inclined to come closer."

For bakeries, effective merchandising means showcasing baked goods appealingly, both online and at physical pop-up events, to attract and retain customers.

4. Welcoming Atmosphere

Buc-ee's creates a welcoming environment through friendly staff, clear signage, and engaging visual elements like mascots and interactive displays. This hospitality ensures customers feel valued and comfortable.

Corrie [33:24]: "And BUC EE’s didn’t come up with that. If you ever went to Mo the restaurant. Welcome to Mo. That’s how they did it. So Buc-ee’s was willing to look around and say, we like that. We like this. We like this. We’re going to take all of those."

Heather emphasizes that bakeries can cultivate a similar atmosphere by being responsive, maintaining a clean workspace, and ensuring all customer interactions are positive and helpful.

Applying Buc-ee's Strategies to Bakeries

Efficiency in Ordering and Communication

Heather and Corrie stress the importance of having robust systems for taking orders, such as integrated websites with automated booking calendars and reminder systems. This reduces the chances of lost orders and enhances customer trust.

Heather [08:14]: "So efficiency and booking on the re. I liked Hot plate because it had the text reminders for pickups."

Corrie adds that tools like edible printers can boost efficiency by allowing quick customization of orders, catering to last-minute and large-scale requests without compromising quality.

Streamlining Product Offerings

The hosts advocate for a focused product lineup, advising bakers to eliminate low-margin or infrequently ordered items. By concentrating on core products with the highest demand and profitability, bakeries can optimize their operations and enhance customer satisfaction.

Heather [11:24]: "If you appeal to everybody, you already appeal to nobody. Jack of all trades. Master of none."

This approach mirrors Buc-ee's strategy of offering a curated selection of products that meet customer needs effectively without overwhelming them.

Targeted Customer Service

Heather and Corrie highlight the importance of understanding and catering to a specific customer base. Just as Buc-ee's targets motorists with practical amenities, bakeries should identify and serve their niche audience proficiently.

Corrie [13:45]: "Be the best at replying. Be the best review getter. Google sent out an email yesterday. Stop asking for reviews."

Effective Merchandising and Presentation

Visual appeal is paramount in both gas stations and bakeries. The hosts discuss how high-quality photography and aesthetically pleasing displays can significantly influence customer perceptions and drive sales.

Heather [30:25]: "So it comes down to like, that photography. I think when we bring it back to the home baker is like that photo looks like this. You spent heart, mind, soul, body, blood, tears, sweat on this cookie."

Competition vs. Market Saturation

A recurring theme in the episode is the distinction between market saturation and healthy competition. Heather and Corrie argue that competition, not saturation, drives businesses to improve and innovate. By focusing on optimizing their services and customer experiences, bakeries can carve out their niche even in crowded markets.

Heather [22:49]: "It's competition and they're doing something better and it, it feels like saturation to you because you've let them gain your market share."

This mindset encourages bakers to embrace competition as a catalyst for excellence rather than a barrier to success.

Listener Questions and Insights

The episode features a segment where listeners submit questions, allowing Heather and Corrie to offer tailored marketing advice. One notable question from Carly addressed repositioning school fundraisers as "Cookies for a Cause" to foster a more positive perception.

Corrie [49:08]: "If you’re doing a fundraiser instead, I could. You could say cooking for a cause. That's a way to spin it that we're still doing fundraising. But cookies for a cause kind of separates it from the word fundraising, which seems overwhelming and an exhausting to cookies for a cause."

This example underscores the importance of creative branding and terminology in enhancing the appeal and effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

Conclusion

In this episode, Heather and Corrie Miracle masterfully translate the success factors of Buc-ee's into actionable strategies for bakery owners. Emphasizing efficiency, cleanliness, focused product offerings, and exceptional customer service, they provide a comprehensive guide for optimizing bakery operations. By viewing competition as an opportunity for growth and continuous improvement, bakers can thrive even in saturated markets. Additionally, their engagement with listener questions and promotion of ongoing resources like the Cookie College and various sponsors add depth and practical value to the discussion.

Notable Quotes:

• Heather [07:22]: "When you take orders through Facebook and there’s no website, there’s no point of organization. Very inefficient."
• Corrie [06:00]: "So if you’re going to a Buc-ee’s, you will be able to gas up right away."
• Heather [11:24]: "If you appeal to everybody, you already appeal to nobody. Jack of all trades. Master of none."
• Corrie [22:49]: "It's competition and they're doing something better and it, it feels like saturation to you because you've let them gain your market share."

This episode serves as an invaluable resource for bakery owners seeking to refine their marketing strategies and operational practices, drawing on real-world examples and actionable insights to foster business growth and sustainability.

Transcript

[Heather]

It is the podcast.

[Cory]

Tuesday the February 25. We are almost in March.

[Heather]

March 9. Time changes.

[Cory]

March 9. Or was it March 16?

[Heather]

Oh, my goodness. Why do you think that maybe March.

[Cory]

16 could be this first day of spring, though?

[Heather]

March 9. And when's the first day of spring?

[Cory]

I could have literally told everyone in.

[Heather]

Christ day of spring. 2025. March 20th. Oh, wow.

[Cory]

Weird.

[Heather]

What is March 16th? National Panda Day.

[Cory]

Okay, good to know. National Panda Day. You guys thought you were gonna miss it. You're not.

[Heather]

290 days remaining in THE YEAR I can't believe it's already Q at the end of Q1. Yeah.

[Cory]

Feels like it was just Christmas. I know, I know.

[Heather]

Tell us what this podcast is about other than being an homage to our you guys. Unfortunately, guys, I needed some. And thank you so much for leaving reviews on this podcast. And your reviews are more than fair, but one of them was like, this is a. This is a grandiose exploration of their own egotistical narcissism. Here's what I want to say. The reason why I pushed the. And the reason why we push the cookie college and the reason why we push the sponsors is because without those components, this doesn't exist.

[Cory]

And this isn't grade A quality beef.

[Heather]

Oh, your reviews were accurate. I want to know. There was no lies.

[Cory]

But we do appreciate you tuning in. What you're tuning into is the Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie marketing podcast. It is a spinoff from the Facebook group, And there's about 48,000 bakers in there. From that. All right. From that, what we can actually see is trends, customer relation issues, things that are. People have a lot of questions about. And that's what we can bring to your ear holes. Each Tuesday, sometimes Wednesdays, if it snow.

[Heather]

And I think we're out of the snow threat.

[Cory]

I think we are. Well, I don't know.

[Heather]

Today's gonna be 6 spring weather.

[Cory]

I went on a walk.

[Heather]

You won't be able to find me.

[Cory]

The walk yesterday, sun. I felt warmth.

[Heather]

It changes my mood. Yeah. I went on a. An hour and a half, five mile walk. Wow. My knees yelling, you know, you're like, I wonder if I could crawl home. Am I close enough? Sometimes towards the end of the walk.

[Cory]

I'm like, just throw one leg in.

[Heather]

Front of the other. Maybe I'll get it. We can do. In my 20s, women used to come up to me and they'd be like, you will regret wearing those high heels. And I was like, no, I won't. They were right.

[Cory]

They were correct. I regretted It.

[Heather]

So, jumping into today's podcast. This weekend, Cory and I drove down to Nashville. 10 hours. We stayed the night and drove back to D.C. the next day.

[Cory]

We literally stayed for dinner and headed on back. But we went to Broadway. The Ryman Auditorium.

[Heather]

We went to. We stayed on Broadway. Mostly because I know nothing of Nashville. And it was a Morgan Wallen song that said Broadway Girls. We wanted to be Broadway girls. Yeah, we were. We were. For about 10 hours.

[Cory]

We were. The amount of sheer bodies in this, I want to say just one square block.

[Heather]

Very interesting. Whatever. Music. I don't know, wherever Morgan Wallen threw the chair, it was a weird mistake.

[Cory]

And Chiefs, which we Googled, and we drove right by it.

[Heather]

And then we went to Morgan Wallins bar. Nothing makes you feel like you're in your upper 30s like going to a bar full of 20s. Yes, yes, yes.

[Cory]

That was the people watching Prime.

[Heather]

I said Aquitaine. I said, there's a parking garage. I can see it. I can throw this car in reverse. We can park there. If we're there for under an hour, it's 10 bucks.

[Cory]

Yeah, let's do it.

[Heather]

Paid the 10 bucks, waddled into it, went up eight stories, looked out, said, oh, my goodness. Waddle down. And went back to the car. It was fun. It was fun. That's $10 I ever spent on our way. We do not have Buc EE's gas stations in Northern Virginia. There is, I think, a couple down in Southern Virginia, but they're at least a three hour drive.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And I think there's rumor one might be an hour away that they'll start construction.

[Cory]

When we went to cookiecon once, that was the first time we ever got to witness BUC EE's in person.

[Heather]

Well, I'd gone when I was dating the guy from Texas, and I got the original.

[Cory]

You betrayed me.

[Heather]

Yeah. Yeah. So I told Corey, but our little sister had gone to Pensacola, a college down there, and there's Buc EE's down there. She had said that you got to go to these things. So Cory and I went to a Bucky's when we went down to Cookie Con down in Orlando. Yeah. So on the way to Nashville, there was two BUC EE's, but they were both on the Tennessee side of things. So we had driven probably nine hours, and there was two buckies of a 10 hour trip. So we stopped at one. And, you know, if, you know, you know, obviously we're not. We're preaching to the Buc ee's choir here, but there's some Mark, Cory and I were standing there in the center.

[Cory]

Of this of just. It felt like a mall. And we were in a gas station.

[Heather]

Yeah. And we're sitting there and Cory's like, there's a lot of marketing lessons to be learned here. Now, the big thing about it, anyone can tell you why Buc EE's works. I would love to have seen the Buc ee. The first one, the one where the, you know, watching the McDonald's Brothers, that documentary movie. And I was like, the first one was one where the effort was applied in the right place. And now we can look and be like, wow, this works really well.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So we were sitting there and said, this works really well. I could get why people say we're going to stop at just the Buckies.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So we were. These are the five things that we probably took away. And if you could apply these to your business, maybe you can have some Buc EE's head in your direction.

[Cory]

And you know what? Everyone talks about Buckies. A lot of times you wouldn't wear someone's brand. Right. You know, they're not big enough. You're not going to see me.

[Heather]

That's a Corey's question. She said, how does a gas station get so popular that you want to represent it?

[Cory]

Yeah. So everything they had koozies with the little.

[Heather]

I'm sorry, nothing. Didn't have the branding on it.

[Cory]

Is Bucky's a beaver?

[Heather]

Bucky's the beaver.

[Cory]

An otter.

[Heather]

I think Buck B. What is Bucky? I've never used his name singularly. Bucky is a chain of gas station. What is Bucky?

[Cory]

Bucky's mascot.

[Heather]

The mascot.

[Cory]

It is Bucky the Beaver. Bucky the Beaver. So Bucky the Beaver just standing there and.

[Heather]

Oh. Because the founders was name was Arch Beaver. His nickname Beaver Applin. The third founder of Bucky's was nicknamed Beaver as a child.

[Cory]

Oh, that's so funny.

[Heather]

Yeah.

[Cory]

So Buc ee's was a lot. You could take a lot away from it. If you were able to apply it to your business. You might not be as big as Buc EE's, but you would definitely.

[Heather]

I think you capitalized on something. It was such an enjoyable experience. Although thoroughly overwhelming.

[Cory]

So many bodies there was.

[Heather]

I never waited for a pump. I just pulled in, got a gas pump, and then I never waited for spot, although I thought I would. I did not have to wait for spot. Yeah.

[Cory]

That you can sell art in a bathroom while.

[Heather]

So my big takeaway, my big thing about why I think it works so well is the effect efficiency of It. And now that's the shtick. And that's why I also don't think there's Bucky's in Northern Virginia is it has that single or dual strip of gas pumps. And there's so many. And the purpose of that is you don't have to wait for. To get. To get a fuel pump available. Yeah.

[Cory]

You know that if you're going to a BUC EE's, you will be able to gas up right away.

[Heather]

Right. And I really liked that. So in terms of a bakery business, that efficiency component, being able to know if I call this baker, I can go to their website. I get, you know, I have to get my hair cut on Thursday. I have to. I want to. Okay, I'm getting my haircut on Thursday. I have to do. Have to get a little Bali off when I. It's so odd this. Okay. When you think of haircuts in the 21st century, I would say it's online booking. Absolutely not. In fact, I have to call them to see if there's availability. And then. And there's no way to reach out to reschedule. I have to call again. I hate that. I think it's a lack of efficiency. And that's kind of what some of these bakeries. When you take orders through Facebook and there's no, like website, there's no point of organization. Ye very inefficient. Right.

[Cory]

A lot of times if people are taking orders from Facebook, not a bad thing to do at all. Especially when you're just starting out and the funds are. You don't have a lot to invest. A lot of times I'll see people be like, oh, I'm so sorry I lost your message. Or it got lost in song.

[Heather]

Or Facebook does that weird. Like, cannot message a person, cannot message.

[Cory]

It's not as efficient. It's not. And we were saying, like trust between two people who don't know each other.

[Heather]

Yeah. Because we're always like pay a time of booking. So we're taking their money. But now they're like, what is it?

[Cory]

Oh, sorry. I didn't see this message pop up. It just flags inefficiency.

[Heather]

I think this business might go out of business. Like no website.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So efficiency and booking on the re. I liked Hot plate because it had the text reminders for pickups. Yeah.

[Cory]

Which I thought, fantastic.

[Heather]

It's nice. That's integrated. You can do that manually. But again, that's all this efficiency thing. When you stay in front of your customers questions, they're going to trust you. So. Well, that's why I can say, okay, court, you want to stop at buggies, I won't have to wait. Yeah.

[Cory]

So if you're, if you're either there to shop till you drop or in and out, we got to get back on the road.

[Heather]

You're having a very efficient experience. Yeah, right. So I thought the endless fuel stations at endless availability and not saying be endlessly available for cookie orders. What I'm saying is have this booking calendar. I know you can do it in Jotform. That's how Core uses.

[Cory]

I want to say calendar website that explains everything.

[Heather]

Oh, autoresponder with next steps. Yeah.

[Cory]

If you have an Eddie or you have an edible printer like that prints on wafer paper, that allows you to take a lot of those kind of last minute orders. So you can be more efficient.

[Heather]

That is also. Yeah, that's a great efficiency one. Just specifically for last minute and large orders.

[Cory]

Yeah. If you do have an edible printer, a lot of people will keep blanks in their freezer and that allows you to be able to bring them out, thaw them for about two hours, print on them, dry them, and they'd be ready to go the next day.

[Heather]

You'd be exceptionally efficient. And then there's ways to be efficient in communication. There's ways to be efficient in your website. Sometimes Cory and I will look at a website and we're like, there's a lot of information that I don't need here. This is a very inefficient website. There's. You gotta think when you're writing a homepage of a website, like, what does the user want to see?

[Cory]

We were even talking because we're working on the sugar cookie marketing website. You can say too much and you're like, but I'm being, I'm giving all the information you can get. Someone lost where they're like, I don't what are we doing here? But you're like, I'm trying to overload.

[Heather]

Amount of things you can say to get the user to the answer of their question.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And I think that's hard to do because you're like, well, SEO means words. And then too many words means a bad user experience, but a better robot experience. And too few words means a bad robot experience. But yeah, so there's that, you know, compromise and you can do that with imagery. Again, not SEO, but that's the user. Or you can do that with good text and they can H1H2 text.

[Cory]

I want to say there's a little sacrifice for Both.

[Heather]

Everything in life is a compromise. It is, it is.

[Cory]

At the end of the day, we want the robots to be happy so we rank higher. But we also need the buyers to be happy so our bank accounts grow higher.

[Heather]

So yeah, there's too efficient where you're always available, but you're suffering because you're working till 2am but then there's the not efficient enough where it's really hard to see if you're available. You're using Facebook messenger and you're sloppy on your replies and you're not collecting additional information for contact. You're forgetting orders because you're writing them down on a pad of paper, not using asana or you're just, you know, scattered on note taking. So yeah, efficiency. Corey added this. Oh no, I added this one. When you go to a Buc EE's, it's like a threat. If you're a semi truck, there's a.

[Cory]

Sign that it's a truck and it's.

[Heather]

Endless signs for no trucks. And I think that there's a marketing lesson there. There's some orders you shouldn't take, there's some products you shouldn't sell because it stifles the optimization. And the reason why I think it's no trucks is trucks are hard to move. They're hard to park. They're not.

[Cory]

They're hard to do. They're hard to maneuver around.

[Heather]

Yes. And I think it would, it would boggle down the efficient lanes of getting the cars in and getting them out of there.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So every buc ee's when you're in that little one turn lane in. Because they all seem to be designed the same way. It has those no truck little billboards. Yeah. And I think that in terms of bakeries and we talk about this, not every order is a good order and.

[Cory]

Not every customer is a good customer. Just because someone wants to give you your. The money to you, it doesn't mean that they fit your business model.

[Heather]

But you really. But, but our business is making money. We're in the business of making good money. Yeah. Not bad money. And when you take or like when you're trying to appeal to everybody, I always say if you appeal to everybody, you already appeal to nobody. Jack of all trades. Master of none.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So you see that the. You can always see it. Somebody's like, my menu has 37 items and because I want to offer sourdough. But when I do sourdough, I can do pancakes, you can do this, I can do disc. I can do this, I can do that. And then I want to do cake pops, but then I do cake sickles. And then I can do cake balls, and then I can. And then sugar cookies. But I want to make sure that they have different. And then it's just overwhelming. You are not optimized for the orders that probably have the biggest margin. And there's orders that you want to take, but then there's these orders with the best margins. Yes. And again, the compromise there, you could sell yourself to the best margin orders and suffer.

[Cory]

But I want to say, like, okay, I decided when I was going to do cake pops, they're always going to be round, covered with sanding sugar. I'm not. I'm not a character cake popper. But at the end of the day, when I was first getting cake costs, everything was so fun. I bought so many molds. Do you know how much molds cost? And if you're making.

[Heather]

Are you going to keep that a secret? Huh?

[Cory]

A bazillion dollars.

[Heather]

They.

[Cory]

They add up very much. So if you were like, oh, clouds for baby showers, a carrot for Easter, you're spending a lot of money. And if cake pops aren't your bread and butter, you're way you're going to.

[Heather]

Try to sell the bread and butter too.

[Cory]

Yeah. But then someone's going to be ordering and they're gonna be like, I really liked if it had a rainbow on it. And that's the one mold I don't have. The ones I've already wasted my money.

[Heather]

On should be, hey, thank you so much. I actually don't offer shapes in terms of cake pops, but what I can do is a sugar cookie in that shape again, drawing them back to that optimized order for your business. We see some people are like, yeah, I don't really like the royal icing game. I don't like icing bleed. I don't like mixing it. I'm a drop cookier. That doesn't mean you should suddenly now offer sugar cookies. That means you're the drop cookier. Be the best drop cookier there is.

[Cory]

And when someone comes for the royal icing sugar cookies, when the semi truck comes to fill up the gas, you're gonna be like, we're just not the spot for you. But here's a spot more targeted for you. They have showers. They have big diesel places, really hot. They love you.

[Heather]

You can sleep in your truck over there.

[Cory]

It's okay to narrow your business down so you have a targeted niche of an audience that looks at you and says they are the best at what they do Instead of they offer everything. It's hit or miss what you're gonna get.

[Heather]

Consider this. We were on the road forever in a fuel inefficient car. So I had to stop for gas considerably. We only had the two Buc EE's. Right. The Buckies were oddly within 50 miles of each other. So I didn't need to stop at both. I could only stop at one. But the rest of the time I'm like, well, we're flying blind on quality gas stations here, so usually kind of navigate to sheets. It's like a safe. Sheetz is our bucky's apartment. That's what we're attempting to be a bucky's. Wah wahs. But it doesn't come any further. So. So I was like, but okay. Then there's a gas station where, you know, they're optimized for trucks.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And it always says on the little roadside sign, it says diesel 24 hours. And then sometimes it mentions sleep.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Right. So I'm like that. Have you ever stopped in a passenger vehicle, A little car In a truck centric gas station? Yeah. Because you're like, I am not supposed to be. Yes. I'm amongst the big boys. I am not.

[Cory]

And I am a little boy.

[Heather]

Please. Little boy. Big boy. Don't step. I'm a little boy. So then you go there and you're like, what? You got places to sleep? You've got places to shower? You've got like truck supplies. Yeah. You can buy the. The CB radio thing. Yeah.

[Cory]

Hey, guys, like, they have like deodorant, shaving cream. It's not for the person.

[Heather]

They're like, we don't want you guys because we make more money on the sale to these trucks. Right. So it's kind of that optimized. You may say, well, I don't want to turn that in this order. And the good salesperson would try to get that person to switch to yours. But in the event that they don't. Can you. I can see when Corey regrets that she does that. Can you just. Can you just try? Yeah.

[Cory]

When we used to sell. When I used to sell cars, it was always, sell what is on the lot. And sometimes people would come and they'd be like, I'm really looking for a Mercedes suv. No Mercedes suv. And I'm like, what about that suv? Is something you like? Is it a sunroof? Because I got about 40 miles.

[Heather]

The CX7 has a sunroof.

[Cory]

So it's selling what you're good at. Selling what you have, not testing on this audience or sacrificing the quality that you your branding to make it fit for someone else. Someone asked for cakesicles once. I want to say, you people who make cakesicles, do you walk on water?

[Heather]

How does it feel to be God's favorite? They're the big boys. Looking at the.

[Cory]

It was impossible. And I said, these are so difficult. I'm not necessarily proud of what I did. I don't want to stick my name on there.

[Heather]

Now you're processing refund and you not only lost your money, you've lost the time. So you're operating in a new lawsuit. Yeah, for sure. Optimized. No trucks. And I think BUC EE's was like, listen, we're not. They didn't even say, like, we're sorry. It's just like, no truck picture. I know. Yeah. Okay. I had a client once and he said if I made what everyone said, they'd buy from me if I made it, I'd have a ton of products and no sales. So you have. And I think that's that, you know, like, okay, if I don't want to go, if you invite me somewhere and I don't want to go, I'm not going to say I don't like hanging out with you. Instead, I'm going to be like, let me check my schedule. Yeah, and I would love to, but I just have to see if I'm free when I know very well I am free and I don't want to go. I think people, when they don't want to buy from me, they're like, oh, if only you sold this thing, I definitely would be in. So I'll wait till you sell that. And that's your way of saying no. I know signals to the business owner.

[Cory]

If I own this and then we'll for sure sure have this sale. And that's why I see some people do. I'll see them sell in a group, right? And someone will be like, but do you have gluten free sourdough? And they'll be like, no, but it's something I might be working on. They're like, well, let me know when you have gluten free.

[Heather]

And then you're like, putting all this effort into gluten free. And you're like. And they're like, yeah, well, they just don't reply. So kind of consider that if you have a really bloated menu already, what I would recommend is go through and see what hasn't sold at all and just get rid of that chopping block immediately go back to your orders and see what sold once or twice in 2024. Get rid of media. Yeah. Go and see what sells the most and see if you can squeeze that down to. Let's just say. Let's say you could take a baby steps. Let's say you trim it down to 10 products. Yeah. Let's say you work and then maybe in a couple months we trim it down to seven. Like, I think that's a really good, hearty offering, right? Yeah, I would be. The big takeaway is humans are. We. Don't we. We think we want more. We actually don't want to lose what we have. Right. So we're loss averse. When given the option for many options. We now face the fear that we will not pick the best one. Yeah. That creates a loss aversion and we end up picking nothing. Because it's better to not have lost anything than to have gotten something in some. So I told Corey the other day, in the event that there's two products to choose from, I have a 50% shot that I'll pick the best one for me. Yeah. But if there's 10 products to choose from, I have a 10% chance of picking the best one for me. I'd rather not take that risk. Yeah. I'll get nothing.

[Cory]

Yeah. I want to say sorry. There's a cat meow. Really strong. That's a cat meow. Heather has gotten a new cat Rip the other day.

[Heather]

Okay. It was a kid. Yeah. And that was why I went to Nashville. And the cat meowth.

[Cory]

He is the.

[Heather]

And Cory's like, this has caused me a lot of stress. I said, we have 10 hours of this. I know, I know.

[Cory]

I haven't been in the world of kittens and baby dogs in a while.

[Heather]

I said, I'm gonna need you to dial in. I'll dial this. I'm driving. So we need you dialing.

[Cory]

Because I'm an empath and my heart goes out to the meow.

[Heather]

Dial in to this cat is cr. But we ended up doing pretty well with the 10 hours together. We did obviously did not like being put away for the podcast. He did not. He did not. Okay. Cory has this one. And this is if you've been to a buc ee's. If you haven't, you should go. Cleanliness and organization.

[Cory]

Oh, yeah. We were talking to a lady yesterday and we were like. She was like, how was your trip down Nashville? And we were like, oh, it was really good. We stopped at Bucky's and she's like, oh, we plan our trips around Buc EE's gas station.

[Heather]

I told her we passed 2 and didn't need to stop a second. She's like, I will stop at them regardless.

[Cory]

You know what she likened it to the. She likened the restrooms there to the Bellagio.

[Heather]

She said, they're nicer than some. Because this lady was much wealthier than we were. Yeah. She was like, they're nicer than all the casinos I go to. Which it's.

[Cory]

It's. And that's what I'm saying. Like, I don't want to vacuum my house every day, but if. If a customer is coming over and has the potential to walk in, some of them have. I have to be ready for that. And I have to clean in spring.

[Heather]

Coin Eyes always do a podcast on sprucing up the. What do we call it?

[Cory]

Sprinkling.

[Heather]

Yeah. What do you call a curb appeal? Yeah. And it goes a long way because. Okay, why do you go to Bucky's? For fuel.

[Cory]

For fuel.

[Heather]

I need a gas. But then you say, oh, for food. Okay. But everything's really clean. And I said to Corey, what I've noticed walking into the restrooms and walking to the soda station because obviously I have to get a Diet Coke is the redundancy in terms of efficiency. So every Coke machine of which there was 50,000.

[Cory]

Well, that's our next topic.

[Heather]

Is efficiency. I do believe. No, we had already passed. That was number one and less fuel station. But the cleanliness. So, like when I went to the bathroom, there's the paper towel rol here, there's a paper towel roll here. But there's a third paper. There's two sinks, there's three paper towel rolls.

[Cory]

There's also a dedicated person, whatever that is.

[Heather]

That's amazing. Right? So. But remember, Buc EE's at one point put money in the right place and invested it in the right place. So now that there's a dedicated person who manages his bathroom and it shows. Yeah.

[Cory]

Sometimes if you go to an off the beaten path restroom at a gas station.

[Heather]

Okay, listen, if I have to ask a guy for a key that has a fuzzy little animal on it, I'm gonna leap. One time I asked Ricky.

[Cory]

It was attached to a feather duster. And I said this. Going to the bathroom isn't what we.

[Heather]

Were in the mountain. But when you're desperate, you'll pick up a mistake and use it. You'll do a lot of the. I will never do this in the option of. And I Think bakers can take this too? In the option of, let's say somebody has hired two bakers and one of you is just really, your house was clean, your kitchen was clean, your clothes were clean, you were nicely dressed. When they showed other person was disheveled, there was toys in the yard. You know, the door doesn't open all the way. Everything just. Which do you think the client will.

[Cory]

Call again when someone says that? Oh, it's just the, the industry is oversaturated. If, if we're all working with sugar, flour and butter, the minor differences, that's going to have to.

[Heather]

That's where competition wins.

[Cory]

Absolutely. So if we're all making the same cookie cutters, cuz we all shop from the same shops, they all look the same. The things that are going to put you one, that's someone's going to choose you over who you think is oversaturated in the market. It's going to be that curb appeal. It's going to be your efficiency. It's everything on this list.

[Heather]

Yeah.

[Cory]

That's going to be what differentiates you. It's not that there's just so many bakers.

[Heather]

No.

[Cory]

You can take someone's market share just by being a little bit better. Your packaging's a little bit better, you're a little bit cleaner. Presentation efficiency.

[Heather]

Yeah.

[Cory]

Photos look better.

[Heather]

Organization somewhat. You know, if I have to use a business and I don't get a reminder about an employment, I'm like, like I don't feel safe. I don't think you know that I.

[Cory]

Know that we're safe because then I'm reaching out to you and be like, hey, we're on our way.

[Heather]

Yeah. Am I, Are you guys expecting me to drive my car off? Are you guys expecting me to come for this? Right, yeah.

[Cory]

So I want to say it's good to have people in your industry because that means you have a viable industry. If people are falling out of the industry, that means people are like not buying sugar cookies. So people love to go.

[Heather]

Competition is good. Yeah. Market saturation is an excuse. I think it's competition and they're doing something better and it's, it feels like saturation to you because you've let them gain your market share.

[Cory]

One thing we Learned on our 10 hour drive is every time you take an exit there are six choices of gas stations. Yep.

[Heather]

You talk about how I feel inefficient.

[Cory]

You talk about being like over, like the industry.

[Heather]

If, if cookies are saturated, gas stations are drenched.

[Cory]

Drenched. And that's why BUC EE's is such the one that people choose because Bucky's.

[Heather]

Is not the oldest gas station, especially in Virginia where it is brand new. But how can we say gas station is saturated? Because every exit has five or six or 10. But BUC EE's is still able to take market share. And that's what I think. And people, I was reading a thread in another group and someone's like, well, it's just market saturation. It's not because there was more bakers in times of COVID than there are right now. There's more bakers leaving than are coming. So it's not a saturation thing, it's a competition.

[Cory]

It's the Exxon and the BP saying, you know what? People are going to stop here because they need gas. So don't care if the bathrooms get.

[Heather]

A load of city exits and entrances from the interstate. But we're old and gross. Yeah. And they're thinking, I don't stop at mvp. Blame the oil spill and then blame that disgusting bathroom.

[Cory]

What they're thinking is people need gas, they're going to stop here. They always stopped here. So you know what, we're going to clean a little less. You know, our pumps aren't going to work as efficiently. You know, we're going to put a cone out and hopefully people understand that, that it's not working. And Bucky came in and Bucky said.

[Heather]

Listen, you guys better shape up or you will be run out of business. Because we are going to be better, faster, stronger and clean.

[Cory]

Yeah, but Bucky's could have looked at Exxon, BP and like market saturated. They're already there.

[Heather]

You know, there's too many gas stations. Everybody's getting good.

[Cory]

Yeah, but it's just coming in. And I think if you could change your mentality instead of being like, oh, it's so slow because other people are selling to be like, I'm going to up my packaging a little bit more. I'm going to respond to every comment that I get on my social profiles.

[Heather]

And I'm going to optimize my wealth. Website to be the most efficiently welcoming website, which we're talking about welcoming in a second. The best website. The website where all the information is needed and it's put in a place that it should be. I'm going to be the nicest baker they ever speak to. Their emails are going to be replied to the fastest. I think you are a force to be reckoned with. When you stop sitting back and blaming market saturation and you start optimizing Optimizing. Optimizing. People are gonna be like, darn it.

[Cory]

Yeah. And I, and it's. I, I, I wish that if there's someone thing you take from this podcast, it isn't that your market gets too saturated, it's that, listen, I am not the best baker in Northern Virginia.

[Heather]

Cory and I were talking. Cory's like, I'm not the best baker, but I am the most efficient in this. I can. Cory's like, I have a niche and I, I optimize so well within that I'm never going to be the best, but I can be the best at this, this, that, and the other. And it makes me the best baker over.

[Cory]

Right.

[Heather]

Right. And because, like, some of these people are painting faces that look exactly like celebrities.

[Cory]

It's so out of my realm of even comprehension.

[Heather]

Yeah. Why are. I can't. How are you brought.

[Cory]

It's when artists and everyone's an artist who's a baker.

[Heather]

I get that.

[Cory]

When an artist who can paint on canvas enters the market, you're like, let.

[Heather]

Me just try it on cookies. You know what?

[Cory]

I like my little leprechaun face.

[Heather]

So you can always say, I'll never be the best. And then there's so many other people that are better than me. Be the best at replying. Yeah. Be the best Review getter. Google sent out an email yesterday. Stop asking for reviews. Yeah.

[Cory]

Why would they want you to stop asking for it?

[Heather]

Literally, it's like, you need to also accept negative reviews.

[Cory]

Over my dad, there's a button that says ask for reviews. And it's, it's literally a link to.

[Heather]

Share, to send it to people. I think they were like, we're gonna get in trouble.

[Cory]

We're gonna do my worries.

[Heather]

So this one, I also thought. So we did efficiency optimization. Cleanliness and organization is one. Because that place is clean. Clean. This is not even on the list. Any, any bathroom, any woman's bathroom that has a door that goes all the way up. And I don't see the feet of.

[Cory]

The people where I, where I have privacy.

[Heather]

Privacy. Yeah. They had a, they had a little gap here. And I'm like, that's understandable. You don't know if something's ever falling. And I'll allow it. Yeah. But the fact that no that it. The goes to the ceiling and it's sealed.

[Cory]

I see when I go into BP and I can make eye contact with the person outside when I can see.

[Heather]

The person waiting for the stall I'm in when the little kid pops through and is looking at Me when I have to see the feet there. I said, no, but this one had the hand sanitizer in there, had the little toilet cover in there, had endless amount of toilet paper in there. Like it was just ready to go. And as soon as you unlock the door, lady looks in. Can you clean anything up? No. No.

[Cory]

Yeah, it fits.

[Heather]

Fantastic. Also, back to the efficiency. The vacant. Not vacant.

[Cory]

I loved that.

[Heather]

It solved the problem of somebody had to play air traffic controller.

[Cory]

One time we did go to BUC EE's and it was an air traffic controller in there.

[Heather]

And she was.

[Cory]

Because people are like, I don't know, I don't want to make the rounds. And there'd be no. She was like, we have two. One you left there.

[Heather]

Now, safety exits are on the right and towards the front.

[Cory]

She was getting in because in the bathroom, Buc EE's makes zero dollars.

[Heather]

Well, that's where they make all their money. But.

[Cory]

But you're not spending any money in there. If she can get you in and out of the bathroom, you're gonna go shopping.

[Heather]

Yeah. Here's one thing I was thinking about. Buckeyes. Their entrance to the bathroom are really wide for the line that could form. Yeah. And okay, when you go to Tyson's mall and there's that bathroom that always has the line and it's too hard to see around, it creates this bottleneck because they're like, are you in line? Are you in line? Are you? This one is like, we got coming and going. We got entrance and exit, just wide areas. And that's why I think Buc ee's takes up so much space. And again, why it's not Northern Virginia.

[Cory]

My one feedback for Bucky's, though, while the artwork.

[Heather]

Artwork. Gorgeous.

[Cory]

Two ladies were shopping the artwork while I needed to be in a bathroom.

[Heather]

And I was like, man bobbing and weaving. This was our studio. Yeah, it was great. Oh, yeah. Heather Campbell. Berkshire was like, do you guys not need a nugget dealer? Sorry. There's none of these in Northern Virginia.

[Cory]

It was a nine hour drive.

[Heather]

Please, everyone who thought that this was in Northern Virginia, send us your Buc ee. Good.

[Cory]

Love, Bucky.

[Heather]

Okay, merchandising. Cory and I went to the chip section, which is probably just sacrilege.

[Cory]

Absolutely.

[Heather]

We should have gone to the sandwich section.

[Cory]

But Cory pointed this, soaking it all in.

[Heather]

Corey said, I find it Interesting. Buc EE's has no place to sit. And I said, because I don't think they want you to stay. I think they want you to get it and get on the road. That's where their money's made. That efficiency again. If we had three tables, it would cause such a bottleneck because there's 50 families at any given time in this BUC EE's. So they're like, don't offer any tables. Offer the food and then be your cars, your table.

[Cory]

That's what nothing but cakes. You're. They're like, there's no place to sit.

[Heather]

Someone is there. Silverware. Nothing but cake seems to give a fork. I'll eat it in my car. I don't mind.

[Cory]

True. But them not letting you do that so you don't stand out one. It's probably alleviating a cleaning position because just imagine kids, there's so much to eat there.

[Heather]

Spills, increase in trash, increase in mess. Increase in turnover.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Or decrease in turnover because people are. Yeah.

[Cory]

Because you'd be staying longer.

[Heather]

So merchandising. Cornine did not get these steak lunch because I didn't let her eat my car.

[Cory]

Just. It's a gamble what your belly's gonna feel like.

[Heather]

When's your next Bucky available? Maybe if we went to the first one, the second one. But I was like, every chip bag here is pushed to the front and fluffed like a. Yeah. I said it's like nobody has been in this aisle yet. Yeah.

[Cory]

But look at the.

[Heather]

Look at all these people. There's probably been thousands of people in this BUC EE's just this morning.

[Cory]

But it looked like no one had bought a chip before.

[Heather]

Every chip, you know, like when you can see that when you go to the grocery store, Walmart, basically, it's where I live and eat and breathe. You go. And you'll be like, okay, 1, 2, 3, 5. People need a ketchup before me because that's how many products. This one, Every single product was brought to the front. It looked fresh, it looked new. It looked like nobody touched it. It did.

[Cory]

It did.

[Heather]

The options were endless. So the merchandising, making that product look.

[Cory]

The best, that's the presentation part. If you're a home baker.

[Heather]

So it comes down to like, that photography. I think when we bring it back to the home baker is like that photo looks like this. You spent heart, mind, soul, body, blood, tears, sweat on this cookie. And it's the best one. Like, I am your. And I can't help it. Like, if you drop your car off at like a mechanic shop and they take a picture of it. Yes. And they're like, oh, so happy. Other brought. And I'm like, yeah. And I Think the same thing happens when your clients see the picture of their bakes on your Facebook.

[Cory]

What's so funny is, and Heather knows, and I don't know if this is good or bad. Sometimes I want my content. I make it work for me. So I might not post someone's set for a few months that they'd bought, but they will circle my page.

[Heather]

I can't help but feel like I, that was me and you, that was us.

[Cory]

But I'll see these people that have placed an order, they'll circle my page. They might not ever comment, but when they see their set being posted, they're like, oh, my God.

[Heather]

Yeah, that's for the digital side. Merchandising for you guys at the farmer's markets and who do the pop ups and the vendor shows. I think you can all learn that. Make it look fresh, make it look, look brought to center. I can see some of your guys's displays and compliments to you because that's always hard to come up with is it's stacked so it's welcoming, it's bringing people in. Your branding is there? Yeah. Nothing screams I don't care. Like just a folding table under a tent.

[Cory]

Yeah. And you know what? We all start somewhere and you learn a lot.

[Heather]

Yes.

[Cory]

But if you can skip over the learning part and realize like when cookies are flat themselves and they lay flat on a table, someone to be able to see it would have to approach you. And in this 20, did this stop falling? No, he took him.

[Heather]

Okay.

[Cory]

In this century that we live in, people want to see before they buy.

[Heather]

Yes. In.

[Cory]

In social medias and online sales has really made us comfortable with being able to see it before we buy it. When everything lays flat and you have to approach someone and then I'm like, oh, I'm in this.

[Heather]

Yeah. What if I see and I don't like it?

[Cory]

But I'm like, so then it's merchandising by being able to present your product way that people want to buy it and they feel inclined to come closer.

[Heather]

To see it to. I think when Corey walked in, Corey's like, something smells really good. And I was like, that right there. That was by design. Right. So they had the steak thing in the center. They have the fudgy thing off to the left. One thing we didn't add is Buc EE's signage is very funny.

[Cory]

It's hilarious.

[Heather]

Instead of like low key good fudge, it was like high key, best fudge. They said it's not the destination, it's the jerky And I think those are so funny. Yeah. That's their biggest. I think one of them was like 78 miles. You can hold it. And it was like, wow, that really is very approachable. And then when you get to the store and this is the last one. It's so approachable. Welcoming. Cora and I. There's a lot of entrances to a Lucky. I was like a park at the front, but I'm not sure which one's the front. They all look like the front. As soon as you walk in. There's these again, back to the efficiency. These really long checkout lines. And there's checkout lines everywhere. Yeah. And then. But Corey is like. We're like, I parked. There's a beaver. And then it's all said here. Welcome to Buc ee's. Oh, hey, thank you so much. And it's a smile on their face. And I'm like, you're the. This is the thousandth time you said that. Yeah.

[Cory]

And BUC EE's didn't come up with that. If you ever went to Mo the restaurant. Welcome to Mo. Welcome to Mo. That's how they did it. So Buc ee's was willing to look around and say, we like that. We like this. We like this. We're going to take all of those.

[Heather]

Yeah.

[Cory]

In and really optimize what our gas station can give to people.

[Heather]

Bucky's is bright. Everything is welcoming. The people are smiling. Their shirts are red. A beaver came out. He popped up and he was taking.

[Cory]

He like, looked famous people. He had a bodyguard. Hard. People were taking photos.

[Heather]

There was a. An enamel buckies out front. You could take a picture with. It was just very, very welcoming. In a world where it could be very, very overwhelming. It was overwhelming. It was very welcoming.

[Cory]

And you're like girls. Everything you say, it's cost so much time and money.

[Heather]

Here's.

[Cory]

Here's what I'm already doing. What I'm thinking about for my own little curb appeal is I'm now researching places that can do. What is it when you pressure wash. Pressure wash my front porch? Because over the winter it's gotten a little drab and dreary.

[Heather]

Yeah.

[Cory]

And I do my own, like, replacing of the mulch.

[Heather]

Rem. Corey does the vanilla candle.

[Cory]

I do the vanilla candle. It doesn't have to be so overwhelming. There's just a few things that you can change easily.

[Heather]

It's very welcoming. You can use welcoming in your correspondence. Yeah. That's when I think people kind of suffer from. Especially when things go sideways. We all sudden, see those formality. Thank you for requesting this refund. Before thy is considered thy refund, thou must. Yeah. And it'd be like, hey, oh man, I hate that that happened. Let me ask you a couple questions. Questions. See if we can figure out what went wrong. And I think that welcoming, even in times of trial and tribulation is a very differentiator. Like a very. Like I'm taking care of with these people even when the things are not right.

[Cory]

What's great about Buc EE's is I've never had an issue with Buc EE's, but I feel like when I go in there, they've made me feel confident that any issue I would have, they'd be there to at least come up with a resolution that was benefit beneficial to both of us.

[Heather]

Right, Right.

[Cory]

Whereas sometimes when I go into a BP and I'm like, well, your building just dropped down on my car a little bit because you didn't maintain it.

[Heather]

What do.

[Cory]

And they're like, I don't know.

[Heather]

I pulled off the highway and I said, you know, you got. You got three gas stations. The right, three to the left. And I was like, I'm going to close my eyes and we're going to go to the right. And there was a bp. Right. And I was like, this isn't it. So I made a U turn in their parking lot. I said, I hope they witnessed this happen because I am going across the street.

[Cory]

Yeah. And we're talking about something that's so easy as a gas station can be a turn off. Like, you need gas. What you're selling is a luxury item.

[Heather]

That people don't need. So you actually have to try. BB can still be around because it's. We have to get fuel. Right. If you are one of those people who goes. And I'm not this person who waits till the light comes on, you're gonna stop it.

[Cory]

You're gonna have to.

[Heather]

I'm a. I'm a. My. This car has little squares. Yes. I'm a three square girl. The three squares. I start my eyes at two squares for shop. Yeah. Mine's a.

[Cory]

It says 30 miles to empty. I'll go when it turns yellow.

[Heather]

Usually it comes in on 30 miles. So then you'll stop at 30.

[Cory]

That's where I am.

[Heather]

Right. And then there's you guys who are like 9, 8, 7, 6. Who are you? You are my worst nightmare.

[Cory]

You're at the beepee.

[Heather]

You're beeping at the beeping. Oh, but I.

[Cory]

It's just Buc ee's is just like. Like an anomaly to me. It's the neatest thing I've ever seen. I don't even mind that there's a crowd there. I want to be a part of the crowd because I want.

[Heather]

Like, we're all in the club. The clear, real. You know, we're Bucky people. Yeah. And, you know, it was just fascinating. We stood there for a minute. We're like, wow. Wow. Yeah.

[Cory]

People were. I said, it's like people are doing their weekly grocery shopping.

[Heather]

You could. You'd be like, listen, I'm gonna get this for my grandma for groceries, Christmas. And then I'm gonna. I'm gonna get this for myself now. And then I'm gonna buy this thing for my car. I know they had a. Those lawn chair seats, like, for soccer moms, but it was two. And I'm course, like, you want to sit in. I was like, please do not sit in this corner.

[Cory]

What's funny is because the way that they have positioned their. The inside, their merchandising, the way they set up, people were touching things to buy that they would have never thought to buy.

[Heather]

Like, do we want these cookies? And she's like, you don't even like that flavor. I said, I know. I'm compelled. I was like, I think it's right here.

[Cory]

Pineapple slices. That was not even a figment of it.

[Heather]

Cory literally picked up a packet of pineapple, and I was like, not in my car, you don't. I watched her spill everything when she got in that car. So. But here's the thing. When all of this stuff works, the business model works, because you guys know what BUC EE's is, even if you haven't gone to one. Right. It's such a word of mouth thing because it's so good in every direction that you're like, wow, this is. This is phenomenal. I gotta tell somebody about this. So I've only been to Buc EE's initially against my will. I was not. I did not know where I was being taken. There was a hood over my head. They revealed.

[Cory]

They're like, you're out of Bucky's.

[Heather]

Fever was standing over saying, where were you last night? You gotta get yourself some pineapple slices. And that's why I think when everything is dialed in, you don't have to be the best. You can just be the greatest. Still. Yeah, I knew that Bucky's food was the best. I don't know. I. It was better than BP's.

[Cory]

It's refreshing to know you don't have to be an actual artist on royal icing and painting to be able to be successful. To be successful.

[Heather]

Right. It's so these components level the playing.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

There are people who will always be better than you. Everything. And if you make peace, I will not be the best baker. I'll do my best, but I will not be the best. I. I am not capable of that. Yeah. But these things, I will rock socks. Yeah.

[Cory]

And I think that. And knowing that the market can be. There can be a baker in every house next to you and you still can be the most successful one is so. Feels so reassuring that even if your neighbor starts selling, it's okay.

[Heather]

If a guy had a number six here. Buc ee's is great. And people. There's still somebody out there that'll complain and never and say. And make it their identity. I don't stop at them. They're too overwhelming. You cannot please everybody. This podcast is free. And people are like, I still have things I don't like to have. Absolutely.

[Cory]

And you know what? That is okay. And that is why there's more than one podcast. There's more than one gas station and there's more than one bakery.

[Heather]

And just. Just because maybe this other baker is really good at all these things. But somebody's not gonna like them. They're not gonna find something not to like about them and they're gonna like you instead. Hopefully they're not mean.

[Cory]

Sometimes people take that to heart. That one bad review, they take it to heart. They wanna close down. Because you have to see.

[Heather]

People don't like Buc EE's.

[Cory]

Yeah. You have to see. You have 24 people that did leave you a positive review and countless ones that just don't like to leave reviews who still love you.

[Heather]

Right. Who listen in like, okay. I had to pull up Apple podcast. Cause we're market working on the website and I was getting some of your guys's reviews that were nice. And some of the reviews were like, you know, I don't like. I don't like their faces. Listen, most of the days I don't like my own. So I looked in the mirror as well and I gotta. It wasn't that bad. But I was thinking, like, it's so easy to be like, I can't believe, you know, I sent Corey. You know what? I didn't send Corey the positive reviews. Yeah. You know, I was like, can you believe I said this? And I was like. And then I texted her. I was like, we gotta remember this. Rated at 4.8 stars and it doesn't even need that. And I said, at the end of.

[Cory]

The day, it's a free podcast.

[Heather]

You can listen and you can. And you don't have to. And you can have your opinion. You're allowed to like and not like something. You're even allowed to leave feedback wherever you want. And the same with a baker. Like, don't let that bad review take you to your knees. Don't let it make you quit.

[Cory]

Don't let the neighbor that is starting to sell baked goods be the thing that drives you to close down.

[Heather]

I didn't see that. I teach classes and I gave them my recipe and now someone's selling like, great, you made their money, though. You got their money. They were going to sell anyways, but you got some of that. That money.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So don't let the negative feedback, let it adjust. You let it be like, hey, is this something we can incorporate?

[Cory]

To me, your competition keeps you sharp. It really keeps you fine too. To really go back, do you think.

[Heather]

BP has to try a little bit harder now that buck is.

[Cory]

Absolutely, absolutely. And if they don't, BP will close down.

[Heather]

Right.

[Cory]

Me and Heather hate doing websites. We do them all the time. We're redoing our own website. I want to tell you the reason why we have to redo it is.

[Heather]

Because our other website peoples are better.

[Cory]

Other people's are better. And that's if we were like, well, there's a better. Just give up now.

[Heather]

You know what? Yeah, we can't. No, no. We'd be like, sorry, you know, gap analysis. Going through these other websites. I'm like, here's a. Wow, shoot. This is nice. This is better. Yeah. Let me take notes. Are like, oh, this I didn't like. So let me optimize that here. And that's absolutely free fair play. Yeah. And that's what you should do because guess who wins? Your customers for sure.

[Cory]

And the industry itself wins too. It becomes, it becomes better as an industry when the bakers are doing the best they can in every avenue they can.

[Heather]

Yeah. Competition keeps everyone sharp.

[Cory]

Yeah. One day we're gonna do another podcast.

[Heather]

Of we had to deal with a.

[Cory]

Lady who was the worst of no one. So she had zero competition. So.

[Heather]

And she was not a baker.

[Cory]

She was crazy.

[Heather]

Lady crazy. We said, wow, this is such an experience where we typically walk away, but there's no other option. So she's allowed to be the worst experience. Experience, which is the opposite of bakers. And especially if you think market saturations Thing you've got to be the best option. And that doesn't mean you have to be the best there ever was. It means you just have to be better than what there is. And that's a freeing thought.

[Cory]

Yeah, a freeing thought.

[Heather]

So just to recap, efficiency, optimized, cleanliness, merchandising, welcoming. And then not everyone likes Buc ee's.

[Cory]

And you know what, there's BPS in it. Sounds 4,000.

[Heather]

Yeah, I don't know.

[Cory]

Buc ee's was. It's an experience. I really truly do love going. Going.

[Heather]

It's a wild experience. If they make one here, I almost guarantee people journey to it. Yeah.

[Cory]

They're planning to make one in Stafford if you want to know how far. That's about an hour ish away from us.

[Heather]

Yeah. I don't think this area is conducive to that because it's an. On the interstates you can't just have a BUC EE's on the interstate here.

[Cory]

I want to say the BUC EE's weren't in giant towns. They were in smaller pull offs.

[Heather]

Yeah. It's like the big towns, they were like this is taken. We're going to go to the smaller and have a massive. It's just a massive land and I.

[Cory]

Don'T know if there the land is.

[Heather]

Could you imagine the cost of a buc EE's plot of land in northern.

[Cory]

Could you imagine how many Nova people would go to BUC EE's?

[Heather]

You're looking at 1, 2. So yeah, that was a really interesting experience and I'm glad we got to experience it. That was a crazy drive. 10 hours down, 10 hours back screaming. And he's finally more Broadway girl. Broadway is it Mar. But somebody's like what if Margaret Wall and throws a chair at you? I said I'll catch you.

[Cory]

We saw zero famous people. Zero famous people we're seeing.

[Heather]

We saw a lot of girls on bachelorette parties and a lot of 20 something boys. Yes, we get girls on bachelorette parties.

[Cory]

The people watching Prime.

[Heather]

If we could have gotten that chair from Morgan Wall and put on the side of the room. Just watched one more please.

[Cory]

Thank you.

[Heather]

I love you. Yeah, so that was interesting. But that takes us through this. So the cookie college again. Mastering our ego. No, it's what supports this. And thank you to the people who are members of the cookie college. We're working on it. The next class, the cookie class kit will Dr. On March 7th. It is a Mother's Day theme.

[Cory]

Mother's Day theme and actually kind of like a puzzle. So it's a floral Mother's Day, not build your, like, build a set.

[Heather]

It's like there's kind of cohesive together when it's laid in a certain way.

[Cory]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. A great gift from Mama Mother's Day.

[Heather]

So if you're like, what is a cookie class kit? It's everything you'd need to set up, teach, and organize class. You purchase the cutters from our partnership with Sweet Pink Olive. She has some deals there for you, and you bake up the dough and then you teach class. But it's the PowerPoint, it's how to decorate the cookies, it is all the promotional materials you need. So. So. And it's my spreadsheet of how I use to play in our cookie classes, which we sold out of the Easter one already. Oh, nice. That Easter class that we're teaching here locally, we taught it. It was a cookie class kit in 2023. Yeah. So if you're like, well, maybe I don't want to do a Mother's Day class. I want to do an Easter class. How do I get that class? It's much cheaper when you just sign up for the cookie college. So instead of signing up for the class kits, which is just our 2025 classes, the cookie college is every class we've ever taught. So that's 2023, 2024, and 2025. You're looking about 27, 28 classes. In addition, the cookie college, it gets a private group where there's about a thousand people that are really strategic. If you are like, I don't like, I feel weird posting in cookie groups because I feel unprotected, or I have to post anonymously or I'm not getting the answers I want, or get a bunch of virtue signaling or, you know, join the cookie college group, you're going to get a whole different tier of answers.

[Cory]

It's a different vibe, it's a strategic approach versus I would never do that. Like, that's not where you're going to see in the the cookie college.

[Heather]

As far as the content, it's very safe. The content I have to delete, there is few and far in between. And even if then it just was like landed differently, it was not attacking. It was very like, hey, like, somebody yesterday was like, I typoed and I put a product half price when I should have doubled the price. What should I do? And people are like, hey, listen, here's what I do. I'd honor it. Here's what I'd write to those clients. And then here's how I adjust that. So thecookiecollege.com if you want to learn more about that. It is a lot. It is overwhelming, but I like to think it's a Bucky's overwhelming. Overwhelming. You're like, there's so much heat, but I love it. But yeah, you wanted the bathrooms, you wanted the. The nuggets. Yes. And then you wanted the gas. And that's where we can like kind of partner you up with the material that you want. But our job is to keep it fresh and exciting and welcoming. So it does get pretty overwhelming. But every second to second Monday of the month, I do a Facebook live on how and that's Heather's. Welcome to Buckets. Welcome to I'm the cookie college. So you can learn more about [e-mail] if you missed any of those February freebies from the beginning of this month, they are available there. They're include in that membership at no additional cost or they're also in the Digital downloads for 10 bucks.

[Cory]

Nice.

[Heather]

Either or.

[Cory]

Now that takes us to the stupid questions.

[Heather]

I always get that one out of what?

[Cory]

So the stupid questions is. No question is stupid, I promise you. But it's actually sponsored by the stupid car tray, which is the coolest little gadget. It actually levels out your passenger seat. So if you're delivering cookies, if you're taking them somewhere, cake people, that's great for you. It's a great way to level out the. The passenger seat actually has Velcro that you can tie around your boxes so it doesn't budge. If you're a crazy driver like Heather, which I experienced.

[Heather]

Did you take a picture of it in your passenger seat with cookies on it? I can. Thank you. We got nine.

[Cory]

Nine. I got to choose a number. I'm feeling 7ish.

[Heather]

7Ish it is. This is a texting question to 571-556-5644. That's who you text in. And the winner is 260-260. Email heather sugarcookiemarketing.com with the rest of your phone number and I give you the form to fill out to get that stupid card tray of seven days. Seven days. Our. Our tray was claimed last week. Oh, what?

[Cory]

Karen Gordon.

[Heather]

She was like. I was like, that was a very funny story. Remember, she was the one who got the thousand three thousand cookies. Hello, twins. I'm sending a text again for a chance to win a stupid car trade. But also I'm interested in some help that's if she just sent the text like that, she'd still have a two for a love, so might as well shoot your shot. I have been running school DIY kit fundraisers for the last two years. I use the cookie class kits and people love them as DIY kits, which is a great way to use those class kits. If you don't want to teach them, make them a DIY kit, a do a kit. I have been fairly successful, but I'm always looking to make it better. I've noticed that parents have really negative feelings about the word fundraiser because the schools are always asking for more money from them. I'm really trying to promote them as family fun activity. I'm looking for a way to change my marketing from a fundraiser to something more positive. You have any ideas on how to promote them without the negative feeling of just another fundraiser? Also, I love you both. I have ch. You have changed my cookie business and I love every minute of it. I'm so thankful to have found the podcast and the cookie college. Carly from Indie.

[Cory]

Carly.

[Heather]

Thank you. Carly from Carrie and Indie. Carrie and Carly.

[Cory]

Indie.

[Heather]

Why is it cute Name too.

[Cory]

A name that I've seen. You're right. The word fundraiser is thrown rampant in the school district.

[Heather]

We're in the middle of girl scout country season.

[Cory]

If you're doing a fundraiser instead, I could. You could say cooking for a cause. That's a way to spin it that we're still doing fundraising. But cookies for a cause kind of separates it from the word fundraising, which seems overwhelming and an exhausting to cookies for a cause. And then you change your cause. So whatever you're trying to fundraise for, you can switch it and kind of market it cookie specific.

[Heather]

I like that because you told us what it was in the name. So fundraiser is like, okay. Selling wallpaper, popcorn bars, the cookies for causes. I know I get this cookie. And then you can the next sentence instead of the next sentence telling you what it is, it can be the sales page. Like, do it yourself. Decorate cookies at home with your kids.

[Cory]

While also supporting X, Y and Z in their efforts to do blah.

[Heather]

Yeah, I like that one. Yeah. I can't even think. I'd have to almost think about that.

[Cory]

For a couple hours. Peak of my.

[Heather]

That was good. I'm gonna say that was. I'm looking around here and I'm like, that was good. Let me read another one of these again. If you guys want to. Carrie, Carly. Carrie, Carly. She won. So she gets this. She has seven days of claim. I guarantee she Is because she's just texted into that if you want to win, if you want to. Every. Every seven days we drop a new podcast on Tuesdays and somebody wins a stupid car trade from stupidtech.com which if you want one and you didn't win, you can still get 15 off with code sugar. Yeah.

[Cory]

But if you're like, you know, want, I kind of want to win one, just text it in. Or sometimes when you're on a podcast, it says you can. What is that called when you says text in?

[Heather]

Text me, I think.

[Cory]

Is it text me or is it like send something. A fan, something fan.

[Heather]

There's a button on Spotify that you can text in a podcast and this is one of those that somebody did this. Oh, nice. Hi again, it's Debbie of many questions. I know Debbie because she was on vacation and like the Turks and Caicos, but she won a super car.

[Cory]

Jealous?

[Heather]

Yes. Thanks for the invite. Thanks for always enlightening me with your marketing wisdom. It's always helpful. So you responded to a person's question saying, if you send a photo to a customer the night before pickup, what if they don't like them? Do you redo it in the short window by staying up till 2am what if they wish that the shade of color was different? It's partly because your camera's lighting. It seems like you might be creating more work for yourself from Albany, New York.

[Cory]

So I have done over the years. I always send it so I can tell you what.

[Heather]

Actually there's a huge, huge school of people who are like, don't send. And huge school people that do Said and Corey do send. And she's going to tell you why. Because I've asked the same question.

[Cory]

Yeah, the reason why I do send is I have misspelled some names before and it's.

[Heather]

Did you do that recently? Yeah.

[Cory]

It's giving me the opportunity to fix it before having to refund the whole thing. So it's in my mind a chance for me to save the sale versus being like, they show up at the door and there's no chance to fix it. Also, I allow them to use that pick picture when they want to post about it to their friends and family or on their on community groups. Because pictures do sell. The better the picture, the more sales you make. So I'm like, feel free to use this photo.

[Heather]

Would you add a disclaimer like, please factor in lighting is different from my camera to your cookies.

[Cory]

You could absolutely do that. It comes down to if you're worried about this part it's because there's something over here.

[Heather]

There will lack of communication to dial in the colors.

[Cory]

Yeah. So when I'm talking to them, I'm like, what colors would you like to use? Do you mind sending me the invitation? Because you telling me Canara canary blue is different than what I could see canary blue being as. So there's a lot of communication that needs to go through. If you're like, I really need the colors to be specific to my invite, I'll be like, hey, Heather, do you mind sending me the invitation so I can make sure I get to them as close as possible?

[Heather]

I'm going to. I'm going to push some people here.

[Cory]

Okay.

[Heather]

Right. If you say, well, I know that my camera's lighting is changing the colors here, Lightroom allows you to adjust that that back. So it does require a little not base user click and send. You're going to say, okay, I know the color that she requested is the color I produce. My cameras alter this. I'm going to take it back into Lightroom and I'm going to make those pinks back to the shade that I know that the customer wanted. Because I want my. Because the camera adds 10 pounds. Yeah. It also adds 10 colors.

[Cory]

You want everything you photograph to be true to color to what you're visually seeing.

[Heather]

Right.

[Cory]

I'm not going to send something that has over the contrast has been turned up because that's going to darken and everything that's in that photo and it's not going to be portraying what I actually made. So if I. If my photography isn't dialed in, maybe I would say, I'm not going to send it quite yet.

[Heather]

Yeah. Maybe I'd work on my photography rather than always being like, if I send this, I'm going to get pushback because my photography is not dial in. So instead of fixing my photography, I'm going to also, the verbiage, when you.

[Cory]

Send it, it's not like, hey, do you like this set?

[Heather]

I agree. Say, I'm so excited to show you the set. Here's a preview of it.

[Cory]

I think I always say, say, I am so excited to show this to you. I think we really, truly nailed it down.

[Heather]

Here's what you need to say. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[Cory]

I think we nailed it. I truly think we did. I hope you love them as much as I love them what we captured in here. And I go back to their order form you really wanted blah, blah and blah. And then I did blah, blah and blah to support.

[Heather]

That's very nice. Yeah. So. Oh, Deb, There you go, girl. Yeah.

[Cory]

If you're questioning the way that you're. If you're like, hey, I hope you.

[Heather]

Like these, then that entry, that's a whole. Like, some people are like, do you ask people how they like the cookies after you send them out? No, because you just ask somebody for their opinion and opinions are like bum hines. We all have one. Yeah. I always tell Corey if you ask someone their opinion, they're going to form one because you asked them. Yeah.

[Cory]

Just even if they didn't have them.

[Heather]

Before, like, sometimes I think people are like, did you like them? Please tell me. I'm good at my job.

[Cory]

So a part of car sales is assuming the sale. You're going to love this vehicle. It's got the four tires that you wanted when you walked in. You're going to drive away on them. If I come to you and I'm like, I hope you like this car. I know it's not exactly, exactly what you wanted, but it has the sunroof.

[Heather]

You're right. It's not that Mercedes. It's a Mazda. Yeah. Yeah. So I like that. Guiding them. Corey's pro sending that picture. It saved her some time. And okay, well, you're gonna be up till 2am no. Sometimes you're just giving them a refund and said, I still hear the cookies.

[Cory]

Absolutely.

[Heather]

And that's embarrassing. Egg on your face. But it was going to be egg on your face and they had no other options. Yeah.

[Cory]

Yeah. So I've just seen a few more benefits from sending the photo than I have from not sending.

[Heather]

Do you send it for every order? Yes. Oh, you do?

[Cory]

I do one as a marketer to have stuff to market. So if I have to take the photo, I'm going to have content. It's never going to be something that leaves my house. And I'm like, well, I didn't get to catch a photo of it, so I have more content to work with. You've seen how many photos that I have seen. And sometimes I'm working Skin of my teeth. With time, it's the cookies are laid out. The reason why they're laid out is because they're wet still. But I'm getting a photo so I can have it, so I can send it. So sometimes it's. I can stage it. I got enough time.

[Heather]

Sometimes they don't work more efficiently. Listen to podcasts and pull the buckies. Yes, yes. That's when I'll read Constant here. I'm a newish cookie college member. Oh, Cookie college. Showing up, showing out. I keep trying to guess if Corey's gonna pick a high number or a low number for the stupid car tray. And I continue to fail. Misery.

[Cory]

I just want to say I remember if I do a low number. So if I chose a low number last time, I'm gonna try to choose a high.

[Heather]

Do you. You picked seven today. Is that lower high? Do you.

[Cory]

Because you gave me nine. It was a high number.

[Heather]

Okay. I thought you were gonna be like 33. Like, no, there's only nine.

[Cory]

Yeah, I try to jump around so no one feels like I have a favorite number.

[Heather]

Well, here's the thing. She actually texted in twice. So she had two chances to win. Like, don't send me the ABCDEFG in 26 different texts. But my question is about artificial free food colorings. Do you think it's a good business move to offer natural options along with artificial ones? How would you avoid the confusion about that if you're a dye free baker or not? If you plan to offer both, how would you handle pricing differences and adding that option to an order for him? Thanks for all you do for cookies. And then she voted for the cat's name as cash. But. And that was our poll last week. However, the cat is not a cash. If he was cool. Yes.

[Cory]

He's a little nerdy.

[Heather]

Quirky.

[Cory]

He's quirky.

[Heather]

Yeah.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

He's finally given up on meowing.

[Cory]

So he named him Mr. Munch.

[Heather]

Mr. Munch.

[Cory]

Munchy Munchie, for sure. Okay, with that question, I actually posted yesterday that I am now offering die free in addition to my typical food color.

[Heather]

It did. It wanted how you position very well. Right. So what Corey is saying is instead of saying like, we have dye free and we have not dye, you want to die? Do you want to die free? Yeah, like, do you not. You know, Shaqui's like, hey guys, I have a new option that is open to you guys. I think Wegmans kind of are Wegmans. If you guys have one of those, they went only dye free. I like the option of giving people options.

[Cory]

There will be a price difference. Dye free food coloring is expensive.

[Heather]

It's also a learning curve.

[Cory]

You said it is a learning curve as well because the colors can fade out after you use them. So what is great about using forms and having a website is you can have them choose sugar cookies and then within that form they can have a drop down. A variant is what it's called. And they could choose dye free and from that it would adjust the Price.

[Heather]

The verbiage would need to very much explain that they are these cool pastels. It's not these punchy colors. Wegmans, when you go to the bakery section now, they again, they are not dye at all.

[Cory]

Yeah, they have no.

[Heather]

So there's a little placard for a long time and probably still there. And it says we use dye free food coloring. As such, our colors are not as bright.

[Cory]

Yeah. Because they used to be super bright. Then when they went dye free, it's very pastel. So my planning and this is going to cost me time and money, but is going to make me more money in the long run. Is my plan this week or next week is to make two identical sets. One using my traditional Americolors, one using dye free.

[Heather]

Would you from a website perspective, I do like the fewer products the better. But I would almost separate those two out so that the dye free listing explains a lot of it. Because I don't think people are going to be like I want sugar cookies and be like, oh shoot, there's a dye free option. Yeah, I think they'd be like I want dye free sugar cookies. And having a dedicated page on your website. I got to agree.

[Cory]

I think people come to me and they already have made up their mind. They want die free.

[Heather]

Because I think we got to think of the motivation of the end user. The end user isn't like oh yeah, add to cart dye free. I wasn't even thinking about it. The dye free user is searching for the. They're just to me like the gluten free user. The gluten free obviously has medical condition. They can. But I think the die free person is actually coming from that same space where I think this is healthier for what I want. And I think they would search a website and they'd look for dye free. They wouldn't be like sugar cookies. Oh shoot.

[Cory]

I think that that's a good user experience. They call that ux. So if you know that people are coming to your. My thing just turned off my little.

[Heather]

Keep talking. All right.

[Cory]

If you know that people are coming to your website and they know that they want die free, don't hide it as an option because you're going to lose them as a client. If people are wanting that, especially because Wegmans around here is offering it, people know that it exists in the world, giving it as its own page, its own prime time real estate. You're going to make more sales.

[Heather]

I like it. Okay, wrapping this up. If you guys want to text into the stupid Car tray. Stupid question segment. It's 571-556-5644. If you don't like trying to guess where Corey is going to pick and you just want to buy one, you can get 15% off. That's a stackable code, meaning if they're running energy promotions on top of that, you can get additional 15% off by using code sugar, which takes us to our podcast sponsors. Yeah, that is one stupid cartridge. Thank you. We also have Eddie, the edible food printer. We talked about him in terms of efficiency. Not cheap, not on sale, no discounts. $3,000. Definitely an investment. Definitely something to consider if you're like differentiator. And that differentiator, per buc ees is efficiency. Corey and her Eddie have paid for each other. And then, and then, and then. Yeah.

[Cory]

I don't remember the last time I've opened my airbrush machine because Eddie does that. So when you have an airbrush, you got to clean it.

[Heather]

It gets clogged.

[Cory]

You have a million stencils. You got to clean the stencils. They're air dried. You got to find a place to put them. Eddie has alleviated a lot of that turmoil and time.

[Heather]

Yeah. So the Eddie direct to food printer, like that's exactly how it works. You can go see it on preview in their Eddy printers users group on Facebook or on Instagram. If you just want to say, I don't want the Q and A. I don't want the help desk questions. I just want to see what this bad boy can do. You could go check that out. I'm going to say, somebody said, should I buy one? Like, did somebody ask this question? They were like, hey, I want one, I want one. I know that I it. You don't just buy it. And they come. You have to go market it. And she was like, but you know, it's not cheap. And I was like, hey, at the end of the day, he has two different. He has the benefit of those corporate orders. Right. But he also has a benefit of, of efficiency. Even if you never sold a corporate order, you're still buying back sometime now. The corporate order is going to pay.

[Cory]

For them for sure.

[Heather]

Right. That, that I'm not using airbrush anymore. That would take many in order to get there. But he still has that secondary benefit of that efficiency. Yeah.

[Cory]

And a lot of cookie cutter shops are now creating graphics for Eddie specifically. So it's really coming around. A lot of people are buying into.

[Heather]

I'm glad that the industry has finally opened their hearts, minds and souls and Wallets to accept that Eddie was a good addition.

[Cory]

Yes, yes.

[Heather]

More.

[Cory]

Way more common than he used to be. So now I'm like, oh, I see. That's Eddie printed for sure. Gotta find that graphic.

[Heather]

Like, it's Eddie printed. We hate Eddie. And it's cutting out the. It's cutting out the artwork out of it. Now it's Eddie printed. They're like, oh, how do I get one? Yeah, take out a second mortgage. I know.

[Cory]

And if Eddie would have taken some backlash at the beginning and shut it down.

[Heather]

Imagine if they were like, well, it seems like people don't like it, so we're just gonna get rid of it.

[Cory]

Yeah, don't be that. Be a buc ee.

[Heather]

They tripled down. They're like, going to be selling the air.

[Cory]

Next up is the Backers Co. The Backers co is a food photography backdrop that transforms your home. Honestly, I have a lot of very dark kitchen, so what I use is these 23 by 23 inch backdrops to take my food photography on. They're great because they're food safe, they're matte, they're waterproof, scratch resistant. So, I mean, if you see a photo that I've taken and there's a cookie on there, it has been taken on a backdrop. I don't just put it on my granite countertop with all my little crumblies on there and snap a photo anymore. It's definitely trying to get better photos because I know I'm not the best baker.

[Heather]

So my little sister, she didn't want to go with us to the trip. We also didn't invite her. So she came over to my grandma's house and made some muffins or something that she found from Pinterest and took a picture. And Cory's like, I hated your photos. And she's like, yeah, I didn't have the.

[Cory]

I said, what are we calling these bad boys?

[Heather]

I was like, I really need to work on my food photography because they didn't look as good as they tasted.

[Cory]

I know.

[Heather]

And that's an interesting thing. And I think kind of with the Buc Ees, like, you know what Buc Ees is because of the pictures of it. I mean, just the endless. Yeah. I think your photography can also get dialed in there because your product can be phenomenal and your photography ruin it.

[Cory]

Yeah. So if you wanted to partake and test out in a. The Backers company, they rebranded, you can use code sugar cookie and it will save you 20%. I always suggest starting off with white matte finish, super white matte finish. Finish is great. You can dress it up, you can dress it down, you can use it as itself. You can stage it. It's a great starter one to start with and that's why they always sell out of that one because that's the.

[Heather]

One I think your flagship. Yeah.

[Cory]

Have a star, star studded one that.

[Heather]

People want to buy last. Never least bakedy bake from. I'm sorry. Royal batch from bacon is a meringue powder. Code Twins 10 off. Right. Saving on shipping. Corey loves it. I think now we get the cookie class. People use it.

[Cory]

There's a lot of people that use it. What's great is I bought some of the two ounce packets and they're so cutely branded.

[Heather]

You know I'm a sucker for brand pink and fun. Yeah.

[Cory]

So if you wanted to test it out, you can test it out without having to buy a pound or the five pound bag. You can just get a two ounce bag and really test with it. I made a real about it yesterday and someone asked for my specific recipe so I took the time to type it out. So if you want that recipe you can go to the sugar cookie marketing underscore on Instagram. Instagram. It's in the comment section there and that's exactly what I use. What it my recipe does is allows it to crust a little slower. So for us who are slower decorators who are flooding and need to have time to fix any issues, it helps there. It also helps alleviate any color bleed. So that I know is frustrating across any brand of meringue powder. It's really making sure that it's stabilized enough that it doesn't allow for the color bleed.

[Heather]

I heard someone say once you go bake it a bake you don't go back. Agreed. Yeah, I guess it really does happen. I'm not the baking twin. I just read the threads of about what people say and I think Wilton's is fading, phasing.

[Cory]

It's harder to find. So a lot of people are searching for that.

[Heather]

I don't like that I'm a, I'm a consumer who if I can't find the product that I want, I'm start panicking. I know like when I start like having a search and hunt and peck, I'm like now I'm, I'm finding something.

[Cory]

I know I don't like to relearn something new. So when Sweet Tooth Fairy from Michael's went out, now they offered a new one.

[Heather]

I feel like I'm starting from zero. So if you want to check out bakegity bake because you're a Wiltons user and the Wiltons is getting hard, hard.

[Cory]

And now Joanne's is going out on. They used to sell a lot of the will.

[Heather]

Yeah, I knew Joanne's was going. I didn't know they sold the Wilton products. Cory went to Joanne's and said it was a wasteland.

[Cory]

It was crazy.

[Heather]

It was closing all of them now. Yeah, they had some. They had one gentrified Joann's in our area and it was really nice and you could teach classes. I know, but that one's going on. Yeah.

[Cory]

But you can use code twins to save 10% on royal [e-mail] if you want to try it out.

[Heather]

It's very well pronounced.

[Cory]

Thank God. Thank God. I said a lot of times in my re yesterday, so I knew I.

[Heather]

Had to say that. Do you have twin Trist?

[Cory]

Do you have a twin?

[Heather]

Yeah.

[Cory]

I love him.

[Heather]

Love. He is a funny little cat.

[Cory]

He is a funny little kitten.

[Heather]

He is a quirky, quirky, quirky attitude. He is attitude, attitude. Here's a funny thing. He's a kitten. I haven't had a kitten in years. Yeah, years and years and years. Usually like me. I like me an old.

[Cory]

An established fellow.

[Heather]

Like, give me a cat who's seen life.

[Cory]

Yeah.

[Heather]

But yeah, this is a kitten. He's not seen anything. But it's funny. Every time someone walks in a room, he runs and hides. And then when he realizes you're not. You're leaving, he'll run and chase you to be like, please don't leave. I'm so sorry about that.

[Cory]

I kind of like getting the aunt that the aunt feeling. An aunt where I get to have the best parts of him and then leave.

[Heather]

You didn't have to cut the poop nugget out of his fur this morning.

[Cory]

Right. So that was a blessing for me.

[Heather]

Yeah. We're trying to figure out kitten. I had an automatic. These automatic cat poo poo potties. Yeah. That, you know, it advertised on TikTok oddly, but it was really. It's really neat. It's meow want. But I didn't realize it has a weight minimum. Like because if the cat's in there and it starts turning on it, the cat's gonna be dramatized. Yeah. So still trying to figure out what to do with this guy. He's a little too little, I guess.

[Cory]

My twin trist is sugar cookie marketing on TikTok. Finally got accepted into the creator rewards program.

[Heather]

Woohoo. Lunch on Corey.

[Cory]

Listen, you sell yourself to get those views, but it's.

[Heather]

You fall out of it. Once you get in it, I think.

[Cory]

You can fall out of it. Here's the thing. You. It's based on the amount of qualified views. Qualified views. If you're a follower than me and you're clicking to my profile to see my new content, that's not a qualified view. It has to end up on your for you page.

[Heather]

Truly the turn and burn.

[Cory]

How long they watch it and your video has to be over a minute.

[Heather]

Yeah.

[Cory]

Do you know how much talking for a minute?

[Heather]

Giveth and take.

[Cory]

Oh, yeah. But we ended up making $50 so far. Not bad. 50 wallet.

[Heather]

That's great. That could be somebody's whole class.

[Cory]

Yeah, for sure. And diversifying your income. So I've really enjoyed seeing what hits. What doesn't hit a lot of time it's controversial clickbait content, which we don't.

[Heather]

Really want to look. Yeah. Cory and I were like, how can we get more followers? We're like controversy. And we're like, do we want them? No, we're not. It just keep producing.

[Cory]

But I'm going to study more into the creator's word program just to see it. Diversifying your income. If you're already making the reals, you.

[Heather]

Become the slave to the content generation.

[Cory]

And what's crazy is there's bakers out there with hundreds and thousands and millions of followers that are posting and anymore. So there's something.

[Heather]

Something about where it's not paying.

[Cory]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Heather]

Because if it was, you'd be there. That's what we say when there's no competition. There's a red bl.

[Cory]

So I know there's something out there that's a little negative to it that.

[Heather]

Maybe you guys why they want to see. Like I haven't seen my kids in three years.

[Cory]

I'm still making content. Nothing's taken off.

[Heather]

Yeah.

[Cory]

You don't know if it's going to take.

[Heather]

That would break your speed. And I see that people are like, hey, I posted this and one time I went viral. I cannot get it to hit again.

[Cory]

You're always chasing that, chasing that.

[Heather]

Jason, that high so far away. Also, we've worked on the new website.

[Cory]

Yeah, it looks fantastic.

[Heather]

If you guys want to check it out. That could be my twin twist. Sugar cookie marketing. Oh, www.sugarcookingmarketing.com.

[Cory]

Yeah, the platform we have, you have to type in www.

[Heather]

No, you don't have to. It only honors it. I'm working on the redirects. The problem is, like, if you go to a website and you leave off the WW and it doesn't take you anywhere, there's a redirect issue me redirects HTTP HTTPs. I I know the I know what I'm doing, but when I get there, I'm like, what do I do with my hand?

[Cory]

But I'm close.

[Heather]

I'm close. You can check it out at www.sugarcookiemarketing.com.

[Cory]

All right, guys, thank you so much for tuning in. Appreciate you appreciate Buc ee's. Appreciate the man who made Buc ee's, Mr. Beaver.

[Heather]

Thank you, Beaver. Thank you, Beaver. That was great. Appreciate it. All right, we'll see you next week.