208. Baking it Down - Multi-Holiday Showdown

Summary

Episode 208: Baking it Down - Multi-Holiday Showdown
Release Date: April 22, 2025

In this engaging episode of Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪, hosts Heather and Corrie Miracle delve into the complexities of managing and marketing multiple holidays within the bakery business. Recorded on Easter Sunday and released the following Tuesday, the episode offers a blend of strategic insights, personal anecdotes, and practical advice tailored for bakers aiming to maximize sales during diverse holiday periods.

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1. Recording Amidst Easter Chaos

The episode kicks off with Heather and Corrie humorously addressing the challenges of recording a podcast on a busy Easter Sunday. Corrie shares her plans for upcoming medical procedures, adding a personal touch to the discussion.

Heather [00:01]: "It is a podcast being recorded on Easter Sunday, but posted on the Tuesday after Easter Sunday. I know."

Corrie [00:20]: "I'm pretty sure you don't. Going through these surgeries thing, they're gonna be like, you're great."

2. Navigating the Holiday Marketing Maze

As Easter leads into a slew of other holidays such as Teacher Appreciation, Nurse Appreciation, Mother's Day, and Father's Day, Heather and Corrie explore the dilemma bakers face in selecting which holidays to prioritize for marketing their products.

Corrie [02:01]: "If you want to pad your pockets, you got to be strategic in what you decide that you're going to offer."

Heather [07:02]: "What we don't want to do is Sunday. So I'm going to change the date to Tuesday, 22nd of prompt. Okay, go on."

3. Selecting High-Performing Holidays

The twins emphasize the importance of focusing on holidays that have historically performed well for individual businesses. They caution against spreading efforts too thin across numerous minor holidays, which can dilute marketing effectiveness.

Heather [09:04]: "If you have a primary holiday, you're going to post mostly about that. And you're going to post just almost as much as that secondary holiday."

Corrie [11:18]: "Here's the thing. Whatever audience you cultivated last year, odds are you've cultivated them throughout the year."

4. Implementing Content Buckets and Promotion Timelines

Heather and Corrie introduce the concept of content buckets—specific categories of content that align with marketing strategies. They advocate for organizing promotions within a structured timeline to ensure adequate "runway" for marketing efforts, typically recommending a six-week planning phase followed by four weeks of heavy promotion leading up to the holiday.

Heather [16:11]: "So while those threads are awesome and you can glean some ideas off of it, it shouldn't be your guide."

Corrie [24:27]: "So me and Heather typically say that we have a Runway time and this is just a rough estimate of six weeks when we're doing an event."

5. Leveraging CRM for Targeted Outreach

The discussion shifts to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, highlighting their role in nurturing past clients and facilitating repeat business. By effectively using CRM, bakers can streamline their marketing processes and focus on warm leads from previous holiday sales.

Heather [28:35]: "The best lead is the warmest lead. Because the warmest lead is the cheapest lead."

Corrie [30:41]: "If you launched your kit and sold out to past clients before you have to post to social, you would be the highest margin, lowest cost."

6. Enhancing Engagement Through Cookie Classes and the Cookie College

Heather and Corrie elaborate on their Cookie College membership, which offers comprehensive resources for teaching and managing cookie decorating classes. They discuss the benefits of bundled classes, DIY kits, and the value of having structured programs to engage customers and generate additional revenue streams.

Heather [36:24]: "The cookie College gives you options of different memberships that cater to various aspects of your baking business."

Corrie [38:28]: "The Cookie College makes it so easy to teach cookie decorating classes."

7. Spotlight on Sponsors: Maximizing Business Tools

The hosts take a moment to acknowledge their sponsors, discussing products that can aid bakers in enhancing their business operations. Highlights include RFID chips for efficient inventory management, meringue powders from Royal Batch, and high-quality backdrops from The Backers Company. They provide discount codes and personal endorsements, emphasizing how these tools can streamline bakery workflows.

Heather [61:59]: "Royal Batch meringue powder works like a dream in our classes. Use code twins to save 10%."

Corrie [63:24]: "Royal batch is the one that I use and I still like it. It worked terribly in class yesterday."

8. Listener Interaction and Personal Stories

In the latter part of the episode, Heather and Corrie engage with listener questions and share amusing family anecdotes, adding a relatable and entertaining layer to the discussion. They reflect on the importance of maintaining personal connections and the humorous side of running a baking business.

Heather [71:00]: "The problem is you have to almost log into them weekly and clean them up."

Corrie [67:56]: "What we did was craft the perfect text and send it out, but my mom was making faces at Summer, which we can't see."

9. Closing Thoughts and Future Plans

Wrapping up, Heather and Corrie reiterate the significance of strategic holiday marketing, effective use of CRM systems, and leveraging educational resources like the Cookie College. They express gratitude to their listeners and sponsors, promising continued support and valuable content in future episodes.

Corrie [65:05]: "You guys listening is support. The podcast we can do is show up. Absolutely. Even if it's chaos."

Heather [59:02]: "If you want to sign up for what's popping Con, check it out at what'sPoppingCon.com use code twins to save 25%."

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Notable Quotes:

• Heather [02:24]: "Introspectively. That was a very good word for me on a Sunday that I worked seven straight days."

• Corrie [09:22]: "With the DIY kit, you have to think about marketing strategy, not just posting a product."

• Heather [16:27]: "I'm a lister. It's how my brain works."

• Corrie [30:53]: "That would be the most efficient form of marketing because you spent less time, which means you made more money."

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Conclusion

Episode 208 of Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪 offers a comprehensive guide for bakers grappling with the multitude of holiday marketing opportunities. Through strategic selection of high-performing holidays, effective use of content buckets, leveraging CRM systems, and enhancing customer engagement via educational resources, Heather and Corrie provide actionable insights to help bakery owners optimize their sales and streamline their business operations. The episode blends professional advice with personal humor, making it both informative and highly relatable for its audience.

Transcript

[A]

It is a podcast being recorded on Easter Sunday, but posted on the Tuesday after Easter Sunday. I know.

[B]

So that's why if you're trying to catch a visual, you ain't getting it.

[A]

Yeah. You know, sometimes you have to look back at the week and say, I've showered too much. I have used heat products too often.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And heat protectant spray is not doing what it was.

[B]

The reason why we're filming early is I have a little surge planned, a little exploratory. So hopefully they find nothing. But I'm pretty sure you go into.

[A]

An explorer, the explorer.

[B]

I'm pretty sure you don't.

[A]

Going through these surgeries thing, they're gonna.

[B]

Be like, you're great.

[A]

We found a tissue. You're scheduled for a follow up surgery.

[B]

So we're getting out of the way so I can get my week cleared because I will be MIA out of commission.

[A]

But before you think the group is unbridled client lambasting. Safe haven. I'm still working.

[B]

Listen, I may be in a hospital bed, but these little clicky thumbs, they still be working.

[A]

They'll be like, ma'am, we need you to put your phone down to begin jumping into this because it is Easter Sunday and Teacher appreciation is coming at us. And Mother's Day is coming at us. And then Father's Day. Actually, I'm going to pull up the countdown count. Yeah.

[B]

Easter was so late this year past years, it's very much early in April. This was the.

[A]

I heard a collective voice of bakers just moan when you said that. Cuz that has been the biggest grind.

[B]

Yeah. For sure. So we just. I mean, today is actually Easter. So bakers are literally putting up the egg cookie cutters, but they're having to snag. And that's the question.

[A]

Which ones do you sn.

[B]

Do you need to focus on teacher appreciation? Do you need to focus on Nurse appreciation? Father's Day right around the corner.

[A]

That's a great question. Because this is the time before the big great lull. It is. So you kind of want to be like, I want all these.

[B]

If you want to pad your pockets, you got to be strategic in what you decide that you're going to offer.

[A]

What we don't want to do is Sunday. So I'm going to change the date to Tuesday, 22nd of prompt. Okay, go on.

[B]

Okay, so what you want to do is if we need to pad our J months, our slower months, with some cashier, we want to make sure that we strategically choose the right thing to focus on. Here's the thing. We all have different audiences. So the answer isn't going to be just one answer that works for everybody. It's going to come down to you looking introspectively in what you've done the past year.

[A]

Introspectively. That was a very good word for.

[B]

Me on a Sunday that I worked seven straight days.

[A]

It's very eastward. Okay, so I've got the calendar countdown. Here's what's headed our way. Granted, these are most common. Doesn't mean they're exclusive. So there's some that even are here.

[B]

That you sure, sure, sure.

[A]

These are the ones I see most bakers post about. Somebody's always like, you left out national raccoon in a trash can day. And I think that is very offensive to raccoons and trash cans. I'm gonna be like this graphic to great is my literal hell. I know.

[B]

I love it.

[A]

And I'm not gonna add national.

[B]

So we're just hitting the biggie.

[A]

Trash can today.

[B]

Yeah, read us.

[A]

Okay. So Easter will have passed because today's Easter. Yes, yes, yes. So then we were looking at in the 5th and 6th of May. For some odd reason, they don't start the same day, but they're a week long. Teacher appreciation, nurse appreciation, the 11th Mother's Day. Then it gets kind of messy here because it's graduation, last day of school. And that's different for everybody.

[B]

It is, but it. It does Landle in May.

[A]

Right. So I picked our county.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And we have graduation is on the 31st of May. So you can see in May we have these wish washy.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Holidays outside of Mother's Day, last day of school. I have it first week of June.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Right. Then we have Father's Day, fourth of July. So we're into the J months for those two guys. I've added this year, National Sugar Cookie Day. It's also. I like to celebrate it. What do you do for our big holiday?

[B]

I give everyone a freebie photo to use.

[A]

I don't know.

[B]

I see it everywhere I want to be.

[A]

I want to celebrate it as a family.

[B]

And do what?

[A]

Make them all do a DIY kit. Like we did class that Christmas or Thanksgiving. And then we have back to school again. So really a massive lull in August. So you can see that now in these kind of messy holidays come the Q4. Those holidays fall at the last week of each month.

[B]

It's very predictable.

[A]

This Q2, Q3 is wild rough for bakers because you're like, well, I got to pick one of These. And what if I commit to the wrong one? Christmas? We know you're not committing to the wrong one. Yes, teachers, but what about the nurses? Was it a nurse? A Covid thing. And now we don't care about nurses anymore. We do.

[B]

We do.

[A]

But I have seen a trending down of posting nurse.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Nurse appreciation. Teacher appreciation. Always a decent seller. But then that puts us into graduation. A decent seller. Last day of school. A decent.

[B]

And Mother's Day.

[A]

Mother's Day. And you wanted to talk about that. And we'll drive into our list.

[B]

Our list. So we all have a. We do have a list. Me and Heather figured out a while ago we work better with list.

[A]

Apparently it is ruining my life. I went to the therapist and she's like, you are turning everything. Oh, yeah. And I was like, no, I'm not. And she's like, that's a list. And I said, no, it is.

[B]

You honestly have infiltrated my life with lists. So now I'm like, not as much heavy listed as you, but I'm a lister.

[A]

I do some heavy listing, get into the gym, make me list. I don't know why list. Just allow. It's really how my brain works. Yeah. I feel like when it's written down in listicle form, you can reflect.

[B]

I think when it comes to me and you, I'm less of a lister. More of a list. Less of a lister. So I have to come up to your lists, which is easier for me to come up than you to come down. Go to chaos.

[A]

Usually a lot of software works off of lists, right? So you use a project management software. You're going to create a list in a workflow. You use Google Calendar. You're going to essentially create a list for your days.

[B]

The reason why I'm anti ish list is because I actually hold my list to a higher standard than you hold your list. I have to finish the list that day.

[A]

You're filling up all the books I've read.

[B]

You're willing to boot a list.

[A]

I read the list isn't the prison. The list is just record keeping. I choose what enters the cell and what is bad and forever. See, but that might.

[B]

That's. You feel like I have to hit the list top to bottom.

[A]

You got to think. Or if you. If you want to. You know when you go bowling and you're really bad and they put the bumpers on, that's your list. And it's like, hey, we're just trying to keep you centered. You may not get a strike or a spare you may actually still get a gutter ball there at the end.

[B]

So if you're like me and you feel like your list is a prison.

[A]

Then I think you need to actually reinvent how you relate to lists.

[B]

But I'm getting things done right and left. Right.

[A]

And that's the goal of the list. That's why not everything has to get done. That's why I'm like, you know what, bud? You didn't make.

[B]

Yeah, so I'll make Heather a list.

[A]

And she'll be like, yeah, I moved.

[B]

It to where it's on the list.

[A]

Speaking of me and me and it, we just. It wasn't us. It was just the time and place that we.

[B]

Okay, take us through our list.

[A]

I'd love to. Don't. Number one, don't choose every holiday. I think when you come to a group like Sugar Cookie Marketing, which I've been posting these Best of Bakes. Right. Amy, if you're listening.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

The Best of Bakes is you say, what's your biggest seller for this specific holiday? And I'm getting really nuanced there. So it went down a St. Patrick's Day. I know we did New Year's like these kind of. But some people are like, actually, this is a big seller for me because.

[B]

Everyone has grown their audience different. The reason why I love and hate those threads is it because you're like, someone sold trash panda cookies and they.

[A]

Sold out for National Trash Panda Raccoon and a Trash Can Day. I need to start offering that. Like, here's a great example of why not every one of those threads is meant for you to peruse outside of Inspo thing. I did what was your bestseller for Mardi Gras. You know who posted in there? People from Louisiana. Yeah. And that fits them so well because that's where that state flourishes and they should capitalize on it. But you guys and Washington State, maybe not. You're as far away as possible from that. Fun Beads are not reaching.

[B]

So while those threads are awesome and you can. You can glean. Is it glean with an N or gleam?

[A]

Gleam, I think is a gleam in my father's eye. Glean is your aunt. Okay. You got a bumper crop and you're out there.

[B]

You can glean some ideas off of it. But to look at it, it shouldn't be your guide. It shouldn't be a guide.

[A]

Right. So Corey said, and this is that big debate, and somebody actually asked about it yesterday. Mother's Day is a tough seller because it is rough to buy a Gift for yourself.

[B]

Let me tell you, my audience is made up mostly of mothers buying for their kids, their teachers, but it's always the moms that are buying it rare are the days that I get a man in my inbox. So what happens on Mother's Day?

[A]

It's very happy, but oh, man, shoot. I was back in my 20s.

[B]

What happens on Mother's Day is men aren't necessarily lining up to buy their wives cookies.

[A]

So the big question always around the week before Mother's Day is like, how do I get these sold? And a couple bakers have come up with some pretty genius ideas. One that I thought was pretty creative. I've never done it myself is, hey, moms, tag your husband in this thread of the page and I'll reach out to him and get this cookie set gone.

[B]

Still a toughie strategy.

[A]

Still a toughie. Funny.

[B]

I find Mother's Day to really work well with is mothers buying for their moms. So younger generation buying for an older generation. That's why the cookie class kits, we included a Mother's Day set in there because what better way to spend time with your mom than distract the kids.

[A]

With the DIY kit?

[B]

Class kit.

[A]

Yeah. So that's an interesting approach. Now, your marketing would sound a lot different if you're marketing to men or if you're marketing to moms. With moms, that's gonna sound differently. So again, you're gonna have to create a marketing strategy around this. I think it's easy to fall on the laurels of I posted a Mother's Day set they should sell. Again, that that's no strategy behind that. It's a part of the strategy. You posted something for sale. Great job. You're active, but you didn't have that target audience built into the pitch yet.

[B]

Your copy the caption with that needs to specifically talk to a certain person. Husbands, mom squad, they would like you to buy them some cookies. It has to say, it can't just be like this is for sale. Because this is such a harder holiday.

[A]

We almost have to invent the issue for which we solve. Yeah, don't know what to get. Don't know what to get your mother in law. How about cookies? Something she can eat. And if you want to sell customs like, what are five things she loves? Just bake them into a cookie.

[B]

What's so funny is last year I made my mom a cookie bouquet for Mother's Day. I brought it over to the house on Saturday. My older sister said, I'll buy it off you for $50 for her mother.

[A]

For her mother in law.

[B]

Because she said, I don't know what to get her, you know, because the.

[A]

Mother in law, that she's part of your life, you didn't ask for her to be there. She came with a bag. Yeah.

[B]

If your husband is anything like my husband, birthdays, holidays come and go and.

[A]

He never sends anything her way, so. And then you have that, you know, Ashley, where she's like, I need to give something. If I don't, it'll be bad.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

But I don't know what to give. Especially when mothers in law who are those like wealthy ones who have everything and you're like, okay, what do you buy? You can't buy them jewelry.

[B]

I know, but she loves a little.

[A]

Handmade that doesn't take up space and you don't have to see it and it doesn't have to be this awkward thing. It's a cookie, they can eat it. So I like that approach. Uh, another one. Don't choose all the holidays. Choose the one that has been a best past performer. Uh, past performance is an indicator, an indication of future performance, right? Yes. So if it did well for you last year, we're probably gonna pick it again this year.

[B]

Yeah. Here's the thing. Whatever audience you cultivated last year, odds are you've cultivated em throughout the year. And it will be the same audience, maybe a little bigger, maybe a little bit more pinpointed.

[A]

So if you are okay, if you're a nurse yourself, you have connections to nurses, you and Nurse Appreciation Week are hand in hand. So you wouldn't. Okay, let me focus on teachers this year.

[B]

Right.

[A]

You would say if I got to pick between one or the other, I'm going to pick nurses. Maybe a secondary Mother's Mother's Day, who doesn't want to capitalize on that, but your primary heavy hitter, you're going to see a lot more. So for every one post about Mother's Day, maybe two to three about Nurse Appreciation, so you can say what happens when you choose every holiday is you choose none.

[B]

That's very, very hard to do.

[A]

Right. Remember, everything has to have messaging behind it. We have to have a target audience. When everything's your target, you're kind of hitting nothing. It's that jack of all trades, master of none.

[B]

You also have to think that no matter what you decide to sell, making a sample is just one and done. But you have to think whatever you sell, say if you only sold two Mother's Day, but 52 nurse appreciation, you're going to be Cursing the day that you sold the two Mother's Day because it's now a waste of time. You should have focused 100% on the nurse appreciation, because now instead of just making the blue and red and white colors typically you make for nurse appreciation, you're making this rando Mother's Day pink and yellow set.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And that takes time.

[A]

Yeah. And now when you factor in truly all the little, you know, the. I don't know, there's primary holidays, there's federal holidays, and there's those trash panda days. Yeah. Like some people like to sprinkle that in. But if you did for everything, your messaging would be so bland because it would be trying to appeal to everyone. I know.

[B]

And that's very, very hard to do. And those like, you have your primary holiday. Secondary and then third year. Yeah.

[A]

Tertiary. You can say 30 area.

[B]

30 area. This is very, very hard and niche market.

[A]

I would say at any given time, I'd probably be focusing on max two holidays. And they're. They're coming and going faster than we can even count.

[B]

My audience, I wish they were a Mother's Day audience. They are a teacher appreciation audience. I have tested them with nurses.

[A]

You have a kid in school, and.

[B]

I do have a kid in school. I do have the connections for it. I'm already making those for the teachers any who. So it's like almost if I line everything up, it really benefits me to focus on teacher appreciation.

[A]

Not to mention the cutters can kind of scooch over to last day of school and graduation.

[B]

Last day and beginning back to school.

[A]

So you can really get some Runway on those cutters. Okay, Number two, promoting two holidays at the same time. I'm not telling you not to pick more than one holiday. I'm just saying maybe a primary and a secondary is a safe bet at any given time. If we look at the quarters, you can see that almost every quarter is divided into that, except when we get to Q4, which is Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. But they fall at the end of the holidays. The end of the months. And it makes it much easier to promote during these months, which is Q1, Q2, and Q3, where the holidays fall mid month. It's not as easy to divvy it up. Right. Also make space in your calendar for the last Q4. Those are just a given for sure. And these other ones got to be a little bit more nuanced. So when I think of the Q1, I'm always thinking of Valentine's Day. It's.

[B]

Yes, typically Easter, except for this year.

[A]

Then the next one January, we have Mother's Day. Father's Day, Father's Day, rough one. Mother's Day, rough one. And then we have sometimes Easter and then we have that teacher nurse. So that's my Q2. My more blurry lines. Yes. My Q3. One of the hardest months. The hardest set of three months. But we fortunately have going back to school. So that's my primary.

[B]

It is secondary.

[A]

If you have that Fourth of July Independence Day. Corey and I find it a hard seller here in the nation's capital. But most people actually leave our area.

[B]

They do.

[A]

But if you have a place where people are arriving, that would be a better thing for you.

[B]

Platters would be good. Diy.

[A]

I always think of that like something to distract the kids on a hot summer day.

[B]

Something that's laying out on a picnic table that people are just snagging and grab.

[A]

Yeah. But that June we got the end of Dad's Day getting out of school. School really floats us for that one. July money. Sahara Desert. Just a rough.

[B]

That's what we're really hoping. We got some summer birthdays.

[A]

Cory and I will teach classes late July. We did try teaching an Independence Day class. Had to cancel. I know. We did. Later we ended up doing a burger set.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And now for the cookie class kids, we did a grill and chill set. We did, we did, we did. At the ever controversial bacon. Right. So that's how I'm kind of looking at this. So I'm saying promote two holidays at the same time. Treat them like content buckets. I know. I'm big into the content buckets. I said we were going to do a podcast on it. We're going to do it again because I think it's, it really helps understand this. So a content bucket, a content pillar is a focus of content that you push to your social media. Right. It helps you kind of get a guide, a list there I say of things to tap and you're going to tap one or the other. Corey and I have a meme bucket. Yes. We have, we tap into it all the time. Low engagement. Give me, we have the, you know, the class tips.

[B]

Comes once a month.

[A]

Right. So we have these content buckets that kind of fit when you're doing your.

[B]

Content buckets during this time where you're like. But I want to offer all three holidays. You're going to skip the meme bucket because sometimes too much content coming at somebody, they're going to check out like, oh, it's this page again.

[A]

I, I, I Don't use content buckets. Like, well, I guess today's weekly countdown bucket day. No, I just say know this one, it would probably do well right now I'm going to focus on this one. I'm going to table this bucket. Here's some buckets that I use for the cookie marketing. Sugar cookie marketing group. There's content buckets, location roll call. I'm going to run out of those. There's only 50.

[B]

You can go. The world is your own.

[A]

We did Aussie, we did Australia, we did Montana. Not one person roll called from Montana.

[B]

Someone said Montana isn't online. That's what they said.

[A]

Montana. What are you doing? If you want no competition, go to Montana. Uh, so this is a location roll call, which means. But you'll see that I hit that bucket pretty consistently. It does get engagement because people would like to check in bestselling bakes. That's a content bucket I hit once a month.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, as there's no holidays, there's no best selling bakes. I'll hit that six weeks out from the holiday so people can be inspired.

[B]

How you would translate these into your bakery business. And you're gonna say what, what's all best audience, what are you gonna do.

[A]

Is what's it like?

[B]

For me, it was National Pet Day last week.

[A]

Okay. Those little nuanced are great.

[B]

Please post your pet in the comments. I would love to know its name. And then you start a conversation. Those are great.

[A]

That is a great one. So I would say, I don't know, I'd probably call the content bucket quirky holidays. Yeah. And I probably tap that one whenever I'm not really selling much. I would have a content bucket called cookie classes. If I'm teaching classes. Absolutely. It's a great one.

[B]

That's great.

[A]

I'd have a content bucket on customer reviews.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And then I'd have a content bucket on my primary holiday I'm trying to promote and my secondary. And those would be my two most hit until something sells out, which is my next point. You're gonna post. If you have a primary holiday, you're gonna post mostly about that. And you're gonna post just almost. Just as much as that secondary holiday. And the minute that product sells out, like the first one, say my Mother's Day that sold out. We're gonna act like Mother's Day doesn't exist.

[B]

It's off. It's off. We're not gonna be like thanks for everyone who ordered the Mother's Day set.

[A]

No. We need to focus on that secondary holiday. If. If that would be. Let's say you do want to do, like, teacher appreciation.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

We're like, mother's Day is gone. Like, moms are taken care of. Teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher. Absolutely. You may be like, but that content bucket, he did his job. He's laid to rest. You take that bucket and put him in the shed.

[B]

I know, but we don't want to keep resharing them if no one can order. You're wasting your newsfeed. Yeah.

[A]

And we have more products that we want to sell as other things. So you're going to switch it off. I get that question a lot. When should I start promoting for this if I'm already promoting for that? You can do it too. At the same time, remember, please keep in mind nobody is seeing every post you make. Absolutely. So we're trying to kind of go with a more shocking effect. Right. Like, if I post this, hopefully somebody sees it. And if I post about it again, maybe somebody else will be able to see it.

[B]

What I tend to see bakers do, they'll have sold out of a holiday, but they'll post a set because you're proud of it, you worked hard. They'll post it up and someone's like, are you still taking orders for these? And I'll see the baker. No, we closed the pre orders last week. So then they'll be like, you wasted the comment section. You wasted that customer's time. But if you would have just pulled that from your content buckets and focused on what you're now offering, you would have have one. If they saw it, they could have went into ordering it. Here's the link to order or something like that.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So, yes, going on to our next topic.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

So Heather actually said, oh, shoot, there's one Availability.

[A]

Ashley just rsvp. That's wild.

[B]

What am I gonna do? I don't know.

[A]

Keep talking.

[B]

How about this? How about you pull? How about Arch? How Arch drops off here? We leave them here. Arms off.

[A]

Just kidding. I don't know. You'll have to edit this out. I can't figure it out. Okay. Anyways, we're going to lunch after this. I reserved a table. Everyone who RSVP, I reserved a table for. And now they're sold out of every table because it's Easter Sunday in the most populated land of all the history of places.

[B]

If Arch gets dropped off here and stays here and I bring a McDonald's back, that would save you his seat. Right.

[A]

So what if we just leave Arch at Mom and Dad's house. House. This right there.

[B]

Oh, then that would be perfect.

[A]

Now just get him out of here. No.

[B]

Okay, so tell them real quick.

[A]

Tell who?

[B]

Tell mom to not bring Arch with her.

[A]

Okay, you keep telling in a different. I know, sorry. Idea.

[B]

What to talk.

[A]

Oh, yeah, Newsletter. You want to talk about newsletters? Like, okay, I'm sending out a newsletter. Okay.

[B]

Okay. You type and finish quickly.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

The next thing is newsletters. In your newsletter, you want it to do all the heavy lifting. Here's the thing. We get them for a split second when they open the email. They might not click to anything. So what we want to do with our newsletters is focus on the biggest holiday that you're trying to sell out of instead of trying to fit four holidays in one newsletter.

[A]

That's a lot.

[B]

There's a lot to ask of someone to pick and choose and they get lost in the sauce. You get analysis paralysis, and they end up clicking away from your email because they want to think about it. Come back later. Make sure your newsletter is doing the heavy lifting with one holiday in particular. Don't post all four of them. Just post the one that you know is going to do well. That's going to resonate with the audience that you've cultivated that maybe one that you did so well with last year that you know it's going to be a heavy hitter this year. If it was for me, it would absolutely be teacher appreciation because I have cultivated my audience that while I do say that I'm a custom cookie baker and I lean more into customs than anything they know, I'll come out of the woodworks for teacher appreciation because my kid is in school and I've been making teacher appreciation so cookies for so long.

[A]

I probably say the primary focus of the newsletter is going to be like this. This is what I want to sell. This is, you know, choosing one.

[B]

Choosing one.

[A]

And maybe, maybe at the little bottom you can say also if you're interested and you know, the minute we sell out of my primary, my newsletter is going to switch over to that other.

[B]

For sure.

[A]

For sure. I don't want to be.

[B]

Like I said, don't list four holidays. That's too much. We don't want to be like.

[A]

And, you know, place your order for going back to school too. Like, it's almost too far away.

[B]

So I say focus on your major heavy hitter.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And then if you want to include like in a Mother's Day class in.

[A]

A little picture like you don't have fighting for that real estate Equality.

[B]

Here's the thing. When I open an email, you got about 20 seconds to hit me with a real good header. Otherwise I'm going to click.

[A]

Let me ask you your workflow when you see an email. Sure. Which we get. Billions.

[B]

Oh yeah.

[A]

Promotional tab. Right. So it's already orphaned over there. Yes. Found a primary. What makes you open it? Is the subject line. Okay. The subject line is the biggest reason you'd open it. What do you think is your motivator? I can guess for you.

[B]

Okay, go ahead.

[A]

Discounts.

[B]

Yeah, discounts. Last minute, last chances. Those kind of things. Those words, last chance to order.

[A]

So you're a big FOMO click. I love.

[B]

Oh yeah, FOMO gets me every single time.

[A]

Then you have the different approach, the new drop. Limited. Limited drop. It's not the discount, but it still brings in fomo. And then you have that, just that consistent newsletter where it's like, hey, here's a product.

[B]

I think, here's the thing. If you did a consistent newsletter and then hit me with a last chance, you're the first to see this extra newsletter. I'm going to be more apt to click it. If you're consistent and give me an extra newsletter. I'm like, oh, an extra newsletter. What am I missing here? What could be in there?

[A]

You know, what I fell for. And then it became a little overly done, but it was like, oh, we sent the wrong thing.

[B]

I don't like that anymore.

[A]

I did like at the beginning.

[B]

Oh, when the first person.

[A]

No, I don't like it.

[B]

Not the 50,000th person.

[A]

So that is. So that newsletter is going to focus. So you're not going to like the subject line. Subject lines are a great way to limit your ideas because you can only have so many characters. You can say, which one of these holidays is your big one? Right here.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You're gonna say it's either Mother's Day.

[B]

Yeah. If you're doing a teacher appreciation, a little pencil emoji, it's gonna get me to click. Especially if I'm hyper aware that teacher.

[A]

Appreciate this subject line your mother in law sent me.

[B]

Oh, that could be a great one.

[A]

And then it's the Mother's Day. What to buy the Mother's Day. And then I would focus on that messaging too. Like Corey's like, I have moms and they mostly buy for moms. So I'm gon focus on that messaging of that mother in law. That hard to buy for mom. But if Corey was like, your mother in law sent me and we click on it it's like, Cinco de Mayo is coming up soon.

[B]

Like, we'd be like, my Cinco de Mayo class. I want it. Since that's the next thing coming up, I want to bring it to your attention. That's a waste of their time and energy.

[A]

Yes. So when it comes to these newsletters, we got to think of like, who's the most likely to open and when they open, what are they most likely going to want to see and what's going to make them take that action. Number three, when there's two holidays, the promotion time does need to increase for more Runway.

[B]

So me and Heather typically say that we have a Runway time and this is just a rough estimate of six weeks when we're doing an event.

[A]

I like six weeks because it gives me just a little more than a month to get the planning in. So it's not six weekend. I start a heavy promotion schedule. I'm like, six weeks is my planning stage.

[B]

Getting things in line to go execution stage. Hopefully that you launch in a month's time because.

[A]

And then I'd have. Yeah, for four weeks. Which I feel is close enough to launch day or whatever the holiday is that people are like, okay, I can dial in. Uh, you'll see though, for some things where I am lazier. Cause we gotta factor in the humanity of us.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Corey and I will post our class list the beginning of the year. It does create a wildcard in case somebody needs the venue cancel.

[B]

You can actually see the cutter shops as soon as they knew Easter. To get a cutter shop to send you cutters in time for Easter, you have to order about three, three weeks out. So as soon as the cutter shops knew that you were no longer gonna order Easter, everyone in my inbox was graduation coming up.

[A]

Here's a graduation mark. Because they say I've gotta have. You know, they're looking at more of a two month runtime because they got to get you the cutters to start your plan.

[B]

Because if you're running a six weeks runtime for your marketing, that means they have the cutter in hand and decorated.

[A]

And our cookie class kids membership operates that same way. Because if we were like, okay, Mom's day is the 11th, and then on that's what, May 11th and May 1st, you got the Mother's Day class. You wouldn't have enough time to promote it. So we drop it on April 1st.

[B]

Yeah. To give everyone enough runtime. So I mean, I used to say, like, cookers can't like really experience a holiday because they've already Experienced it a month leading up to that. Cutter shafts you too much like you're.

[A]

Like already in July at the Vendee Blendy. A lot of people are shopping for Valentine's Day. They are so. And it's. That's how the nature of the beast is. It is so Same kind of. Your marketing is going to look the same way. I wouldn't. If you want to be a last minute baker, if you have last minute things, you can be. You could be that baker that shows up two weeks out, one week out.

[B]

Absolutely. You're going to make sales. Because a lot of people are last minute.

[A]

And there's some bakers who just don't like the last minute. Yes, absolutely. There's a place for every baker.

[B]

There is.

[A]

There is. And then you have the people that are able to not do last minute but can do Eddie options. Which you are. You're like, I'm not gonna pick up a piping bag three days out, but I'll turn on a printer.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

And that kind of fits that as well. Kind of this space of like last minute. I gotta have something.

[B]

My reasoning for not being. I. I will be a last minute customs baker because you're paying a high price tag. My reason for not being a last minute pre sale baker is because you're buying a pencil cookie for me for like $6. It's not enough for me to turn my oven on for one person.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Or three people. That's too much back and forth.

[A]

Corey likes to make her icing prep her cutter purchases. Androgynous. Like, you'll bring it. I can be like, oh, you're doing something because you've given it as a free cookie for the class.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And you're giving it as the giveaway in the community group. And you're also selling it and aren't just taking to school. I'm telling you, Cory's gonna get some Runway. I am going to get some runaway. A pencil cookie cutter hates number three. When they. There's two holidays. Okay, sorry. There's two holidays promotion.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Number four. Once one sells out completely drop the promotion and focus on the other. Which we just hit with that newsletter thing. So it's maybe like. Well, they said the content buckets. Content bucket, bucket, bucket. No. 1 content bucket can shut down for the year. Yeah.

[B]

Your content bucket is not a. It's not a Corey list. It's a Heather list. It can be.

[A]

You're gone. You can be.

[B]

You can mold it in a couple days.

[A]

So we have the content bucket Once one closes, we can replace it with another one. And that could be a holiday, it could be a class, it could be a just. I'm out of town so I'm taking a few orders. So let me do that. Look at this set.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I think it's always interesting when I say if you want to not sell anything, do a look at the set post. And if you're taking a vacation, July, do a look at the set post. People won't buy. Yeah, absolutely. And that is a strategy when it's intended. Absolutely. That's a content bucket I would hit if I needed a throttle order. Yes, yes. Or like throwback to when I did this, which wouldn't compel me to buy. And if that's the goal, great. Right, get that. But once one sells out, if you're like, okay, then that's what I want. You can ask yourself, do I want to get greedy here some more or do I want to focus on that other holiday? In which case you're going to table the old holiday, that sold out holiday, that old fart holiday, sold out holiday. And then you're going to move into that other one, heavier promotion and people are going to be like, whoa, she's not doing Mother's Day anymore. You sold out so you're not doing it any longer.

[B]

I never heard of her.

[A]

Five reach out to past clients who bought for that holiday. The best lead is the warmest lead. Because the warmest lead is a cheapest lead. Yeah.

[B]

Especially if you have a really good serum, which me and Heather were discussing. Me getting a really good.

[A]

The biggest issue with CRMs is the consistent use of them. A CRM that's only used intermittently becomes a baggage.

[B]

Here's my thing. I think I would be really good at CRM. A lot of times people tell them what it is. CRM is customer. What's the R?

[A]

Relationship management software.

[B]

Yeah. So if you, a lot of times you have the best laid plans. Like my dentist uses CRM software. I can tell because when I'll go.

[A]

In there and she'll be like, every dentist is using CRM software.

[B]

She'll be like, hey, our child. I see her thing 9th grade. How's the 9th grade going? But she's been with us for years. She's been with him since he was in fourth grade.

[A]

CRM software, if you purchase one which insightly nutshell, Zoho, there's so many options, you gotta find one that fits you. Some of these are very sales funnel heavy and some of these are more, you know, Inventory of contacts. They're pretty fascinating. I can link it to my Gmail, which I have professional Gmail G suite. And every email that comes from that contact is stored in the CRM under their name, meaning Corey. Let's pretend Corey ordered cookies from me two years ago.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I can click on. Corey can email me, and two years have passed. It would be hard for me to find that information, but it's stored in the CRM. So when I click on her email in my CRM, it'll pull in all the history now within there. I can customize it further. I can say, Corey has a son who is. His birthday is this day and he turned this. So it gives me information. Okay. Corey lives in Lake Ridge. Corey has a police officer husband. Now I have enough information to upsell sell Corey. Yeah. On that. But now what I can do is I can also go to my contacts and I can filter who bought from Mother's Day, who bought from me Mother's Day last year. Yeah.

[B]

Because odds are those people who bought from you in the past are willing to buy from you again. Since these holidays are so androgynous. The ones who have purchased from you for teacher appreciation and you know, their kid is still in middle school, that would be a great one to. I mean, they could pad your pockets before you even launch anything.

[A]

That would be the ideal piece of marketing. And then we're like, post on social media. If I could could sell out before I even had a post to social media, you best believe I would. And then I would focus on cultivating that other audience for that secondary holiday to pad that as well.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. It could really cut down your whole marketing time. Unless you, like, don't have any parameters or boundaries and you're like, I'm willing to bake for anybody who orders. But if you say, launched your kit, your Mother's Day DIY kit, sold them to the people who bought last year, they sell out. And you never even had to post one thing.

[A]

And that is the most efficient form of marketing because you spent less time, which means you made more money.

[B]

So now your social media media post will be for that next holiday you're trying to. You won't even post Mother's Day.

[A]

That would be sold out. If you could get your business so dialed in that you sell out to past clients before you have to post to social, you would be the highest margin, lowest cost.

[B]

That's why CRM is so great. Here's the thing. I get a lot of baby showers orders.

[A]

Okay, well, then now I Can tag them as this kid's probably.

[B]

1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. You could be with these children all the way up till 18. And it's just getting back in front of the right person at the right time.

[A]

My oil change place has a CRM they implemented in the last year. Every first of the month I get 15% offer for an oil change. Yeah. Any services. Right. Then they also have the CRM, my registration when it's due and they have recalls on my car.

[B]

I want to say that's fantastic. The dentist office who calls my son every year. Happy birthday to Don. Those aren't great.

[A]

No, I would need that from my own change. The gym I go to calls me on my birthday every year a person is there. Hey, Heather. Just want to wish you happy birthday. Thank you for being a member. I'm great. One life. We haven't seen you in decades. Thank you for paying your bill on time. Yeah. So those CRMs could really help these more hard to navigate months. It.

[B]

It could. It could help everything.

[A]

Honestly, it's not a good. It would.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

The problem with CRM is you have to almost log into them weekly and clean them up.

[B]

Yeah. Here's the craziest thing that I was thinking about. We've taught classes for years. I one time got a custom order and when she came to get the order, she said, said, remember me? And there was no chance in. I was like, yeah.

[A]

She's like, I was at your class.

[B]

Two years ago last month.

[A]

If you come to a cookie class and I lay eyes on you for an hour and a half and you leave, I can't.

[B]

And I was like, wow, I could have really connected with this lady. And I would have known through her email that she would have come to a class.

[A]

The problem is you. I run the class class back end. And you never see those emails. I know, but I did stare at.

[B]

Her face for an hour. So what if you put the. In the class into my CRM so I could butt up the emails against each other.

[A]

We could do that and I. That would be me and Corey being. It would be a part of our list workflow.

[B]

Yeah. Because a lot of times people who come to class, I will see them the next day, follow my mixing bowl on social media so they're in my little funnel. But for me to be able to look at her and be like, I think I've seen you. Yeah.

[A]

Do you see what I did yesterday?

[B]

You called a lady your own name.

[A]

No, I definitely did that. But what else did I do? One lady Came in. I thought like, maybe she's from a past class. So I was like, have I seen you before? And she said, no, I've never come. And I said, oh, you got one of those faces. Like hit my best. Like, have you come? Yeah. Then the lady who had returned, I said, who are you and why are you so good at this? You got to really kind of think on your feet. If you're going to be bad at people, you got to be quick. Yeah, I know. And she had been.

[B]

And she was so gracious and she was like, yeah. I was like, you're really good. She's like great teachers.

[A]

In my defense fence, there was a Pam and a Peggy. But. But just the double piggy had signed up with her first name. Margaret. Yeah. And it really hurt me. Yeah.

[B]

That is difficult. Sometimes people will sign up for class and I'll be like, Pam, Pam, Pam. Like Pam bought everyone's tickets.

[A]

Pam, Pam, Pam.

[B]

So we do not know, like it.

[A]

Was Twenya, Martha, Martha and Pam and Peggy. And I called Peggy Pam the entire time. She was totally fine though. That lady did not hear a word I said. She's gonna care less.

[B]

She was really trying to learn.

[A]

She was. Yeah. So we taught that. We taught a class yesterday and we'll probably talk about that right now. That wraps up our list. So. Yeah. Choosing more than one holiday. Absolutely appropriate. Honestly, at the end of the year, you better choose all three of those holidays. Yeah. Even four if you're in town.

[B]

Easier though at the end of the.

[A]

Year, that one is just. You know, if Corey and I rode the pine pony for volleyball season, my mom made us. She was like, either you're going to learn another instrument or you're going to go to volleyball. And we were like, if I learn another instrument, I'll explode. Please don't ask us to play anything thing. None of it stuck or. So we said, let's do volleyball.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And there is. What was it called when you set somebody up for spike? I think I said, yeah. So bump set.

[B]

Spike.

[A]

Oh, yeah. When the end of the year is a bump set.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And you bakers can spike it out. Like there's no excuse to not just print money.

[B]

What really, really, truly sucks is I thought I was okay.

[A]

No.

[B]

And I wasn't. I really, truly wrote.

[A]

You also really thought you could sing, baby girl. I volunteered to sing at church. It was wild. You sign over everything.

[B]

See, I told you I can find.

[A]

The beauty in anything.

[B]

I do.

[A]

A list hates to see me coming. A sign up sheet microphone hates to see card. So yeah, in these more hard to sell months, this is what I would approach. If you're like, I need more sales, how do I navigate two or three of these? This would be my go to too. Definitely a little bit more footwork.

[B]

More footwork. I would honestly more bumping and setting than me. Taken aside from this, I would focus on one your money maker. I'd really pour my time and energy and Cory's.

[A]

I know. Is anything related to a school book.

[B]

Or don't be a school cookie. Give me a little pencil which you.

[A]

Can kind of plan for better and then you can slowly introduce a new holiday. If you're like, I want to add my numbers back.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. Moving on to the cookie College. The Cookie College.com is our membership. Corey and I actually taught one of the classes from the 2023 free cookie class kits which is included in the cookie College membership. Otherwise it's individually purchasable. It's so much more cost effective just to sign up.

[B]

Also, I posted a reel if you're on Instagram or TikTok of the class that we taught yesterday. And a lot of you guys had a question. You're like, that is a very cool class playlist. Where'd you get it? Is it offered in the class kits? No, it's actually in the college. A member of the college makes them and that's why. Yeah.

[A]

So everyone's like, we'll just put it in the class gets. Not my intellectual property.

[B]

Julia.

[A]

OMG is the one who makes those and she has gifted them. Corey. This is the first time we used it. We did. To kind of give you more context here. The cookie college consists of five different memberships. We have the Cookie College itself which gets everything. That's why we call them that confusing nomenclature.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Then we have the cookie class kids also included in the cookie College membership. But it's all the materials you need to promote, market and manage a cookie class. We have a relationship with a cutter shop where you can order those from SDL or physical, which is great. And then we have the baker's business basics. If you take that, it's just 13 foundational courses module 15 as a discount code. If you want to jump up to the cookie college at that grandfathered rate, we don't offer anymore. And then the digital downloads, which is usually a canva, which has offered some new technology this is coming up. That'd be very cool. But digital downloads is something that optimizes your print workflow. And then the $2 transfer clubs you'll never guess what it is. Transfers. It is. We have finally gotten the transfer per transfer down to a penny. I know. Been working for that one. It's like. It was like I use a formula. It was. It was like 010952 and I was like if I had enough. I was like 01 0951. So we finally got it down to a penny per sheet. So anything beyond that's gonna take that down to less than a penny per sheet. I just added a bunch. I think I added about five. Somebody asked for butterflies. Got them up there. Yeah.

[B]

I wanna say the cookie class kits makes it so easy to teach cookie decorating classes.

[A]

Okay. So let's just walk em through what we did yesterday. So we have actually it was the jumping into Easter cookie class kit set.

[B]

One of my favorite. It's so stinking cute. 2023.

[A]

3 2023. And it is a bunny in a flower pot. Just as you're popping out. It's a bunny's face. It is a bunny. Foot is a carrot.

[B]

It is a egg.

[A]

I miss the egg.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

What I. Come on. We just stared at this. Come on. Okay, we have tulip.

[B]

A tulip.

[A]

So it's these. They're all chunky shaped. That was Corey's goal with this. That everything kind of looks chunk and it is always four colors. So Cory, prep the icing. We use eventbrite. I actually teach you how to use Eventbrite in the cookie college course. Been using it forever. Hate that they take a fee. Love that they handle a lot of my issues. Here's the thing. Everyone always asks, what do you do with no shows? Well, in the cookie class kits I give you my email template that I tell people, hey, outside of seven days there's no refunds or credits. We did have to change that policy this year because Eventbrite disabled credits. We had some lady, she's like, hey, I can't make it. Just want to let you know if you could sell the ticket to someone else. Never ask for a refund. We had a lady order two DIY kits. She didn't buy a classic and she never showed up to get those. So Corey is going to donate those to her neighbor. It's just interesting to see when your policies are really dial in. People really object to them less. And if I wanted to do, if I wanted to give them the refund I could.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And that's the point of these policies. So you say, well, how would I know what those policies are? This is what the cookie college helps you manage. So I give you exactly what our policies are and I tell you where I put them. I put them in the eventbrite listing and I also put them in an email reminder.

[B]

Yeah. So we set up the class. We made the cookies. There's six cookies. Cookies for icings, which makes it really easy. Plus you get a list of whatever sprinkles. We had sugared pearls and some like pink sprinkles yesterday for the bunny nose. And a little bit.

[A]

You'll be happy to know that Cory was not stingy with these. But a lot of people wasted them. See?

[B]

Yeah. They were everywhere. I know.

[A]

We secure a venue. It's a venue we've always used because it's free. And it's not the most best setup.

[B]

No.

[A]

But we like the free. And then we set up the PowerPoint which is included in those cookie class kits and it takes them step by step. Step. It's also what I use as an upsell to get people to just buy DIY kits for the class. They'll come by and pick them up and they'll get that PowerPoint as well.

[B]

You might say PowerPoint. How are you bring. How are you showing that in class? You can do it any way you want to. What I do is bring this archaic.

[A]

Every time that TV turns on, I'm like, he's lit. I even thanked him. Corey picked up the TV and she was like, you lived for another class. We'll see you next time.

[B]

The TV is a 32 inch LED TV. It's 15 years old.

[A]

The reason why it's her son's old TV but allows us a little bit more control. I hate that we have to bring it. There is a TV in there. It just doesn't swivel far enough.

[B]

I'm carting that dude back and fro.

[A]

I know. So we tried the playlist. This class we did to see.

[B]

So we had the PowerPoint going regardless. Plus I decorated it in class and we included the playlist. The playlist in a DIY kit. People beg me for it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

They love it in a DIY kit in class.

[A]

I got really disappointed in class.

[B]

They still wanted to steer it me.

[A]

They did. And they wanted that PowerPoint.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So it was just good.

[B]

So I said, you know what? I'll save some trees next time and maybe not print that off. But in DIY kits this year, they loved it.

[A]

It's perfect.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

They truly did. Yeah. And then we're able to teach the class. We teach hours. We build them out to be taught in an hour and a half because that's how long we teach it. I think we went over 15 minutes cuz we got caught up on that. One class is an interesting one because we have one wild card cookie, which is the only cookie class kit where we have this, where it's kind of.

[B]

A freestyle, I think we've learned in the past. Freestyling.

[A]

No, it's distracting.

[B]

It takes too long because people get so lost in the sauce they want their egg to look unique.

[A]

I thought the class was pretty good. We wished that people had blended with each other more. Usually we can make the different groups feel like one. This was a little harder.

[B]

Yeah, there was a group of three ladies. They really were there to have a fun time with each other. Totally fine. But they weren't connecting with other people in the room. But they took up three seats with almost a whole side of dinner.

[A]

And that those bigger groups. Right. Rough. But otherwise I thought it was pretty good. Yeah, I thought it was. I thought it was.

[B]

Everyone had a great time. Even though they didn't connect well with each other, they connected well with us.

[A]

And, and then what we always do because we always say at this class, hey, you guys want to sign up? This is what always, always I say, hey guys, listen, come to me, listen. You're my favorites because you're here. Do you guys want to get early access to the Christmas class? Because I can give that to you because it will sell out and they'll all just rush over. Have it. So the Cookie College. If you say, well, I'm interested in teaching cookie classes, I don't really know where to start. Sign up for the Cookie College. It's the highest tier membership. If you want to save a couple bucks, actually sign up for the Baker's business Basics, get that discount code, go to your settings, change plan, use the code and then you're in the college for a cheaper price.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

You're able to take the cookie classes module where Cory and I recorded a class and we taught it and then you get access to those 2023, 2024 classes and you get the 2025 classes.

[B]

College honestly is worth it for that, for all those archived classes.

[A]

So if you sign up for the cookie class kits, you get our 2025 classes. But if you want that jumping on Easter class and you don't want to overspend on buying it individually for cheaper than buying it individually, you sign up for the college year.

[B]

If the class kits is still in high demand, I will go back to an Easter set. We'll Read.

[A]

Yeah, let's go back to the primary holidays. I think I will kind of give us some options. What's your next cookie class basket?

[B]

We have a Dad's Day.

[A]

Father's Day. We just dropped Cinco de Mayo. I gotta say, the Cinco class has got to be my favorite. Just in terms maybe, because I love.

[B]

It's very cute, though.

[A]

It's very cute. It's a. You might be like, are people really selling Cinco matter class. No, it's not one. But it's now an option for people to do private classes again. The cookie class kits, the cookie college giving you options?

[B]

Yeah, I think the. That class, the synchronomatic class, would be great for a brewery. You know, if you're doing a class there, there's, like, an avocado chip with some casserole.

[A]

Girls night. If you were, like, really solo.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

That's definitely a party holiday. I think you could incorporate it into, like, those kind of locations.

[B]

So we definitely have Father's Day, and then next, I think, is Independence Day.

[A]

I forgot we still have our stupid questions, even though this is, like, early. So whoever texted in, you have a higher chance right here because, you know, we're doing this so early. So we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, 4,.

[B]

5, 6, 7, 4.

[A]

1, 2, 3, four. I've caught up on all the podcasts, and I'm so appreciative of your advice. This is from Albany, New York.

[B]

Albany, New York.

[A]

You are the winner of the Stupid Cartridge. You have seven days. Actually, I'll give you till next Tuesday. Oh, this is posting on Tuesday. You have seven days.

[B]

Can you read part of her?

[A]

Yeah, I'm getting her, but I gotta tell her.

[B]

Oh, okay.

[A]

Be the winner, she said. I'm assuming she said, you've grown so much in your delivery. Thank you. And I love the best friend feel of the podcast. Your last podcast hit home, and I fear I'm both a perfectionist and a serial starter. But your podcast advice has helped me open my website when it wasn't truly done, and now that that's where most of my business comes from. Actually, now I have to film myself creating cupcake designs. I'm so scared I don't have all the right tech, but I've now set a date. Gasping Emoji. Good job. My question, should I start a newsletter or a blog on my website? I don't have time to do both. Thank you. Well, congratulations.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

If you guys missed last week's podcast, it's the Perfectionist or the serial starter. But the not never executor.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

I have all the ideas and I have no forward movement. So she's saying, you know, I launched a website because we said, hey, listen, you can always go back and fix it, but you can't travel back in time and launch it. Yeah, the woulda, coulda, shouldas it sucks because you're like, if I had only done it earlier, I would have had the results.

[B]

But you did it. Congratulations.

[A]

Albany did it. So she's like, okay, I am moving on to another day. I'm making content. Should I start a newsletter or a blog? Okay, we got two options here. Both are great.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

I'm gonna say right here. I'm gonna pick one. Do you have on your head?

[B]

I just. Hold on, let me think. Okay, I have one in my head.

[A]

I'm gonna tell her, newsletter. Because blogs are an SEO based thing. Search engine optimization takes time. I would love for you to do both. An option is to put your newsletter on your blog. That's something Corey and I do now. Now for the, you know, we have that content that is a little bit more evergreen than my offering.

[B]

That's true, that's true, that's true.

[A]

But I'm gonna say newsletter is gonna be the biggest moneymaker because it's chronological still.

[B]

I know when you send a newsletter, it ends up in the inbox at.

[A]

The time that you sent it.

[B]

Unfortunately, you can write a blog and it will be on the 52nd page of Google. It doesn't.

[A]

Just because you wrote it doesn't mean its own algorithm.

[B]

It's got time. It needs time in the saddle there.

[A]

So if you are like, well, I want to make my website even more of a traffic source for me. I'll do a blog. If you say, I want a different avenue. Yeah, I would go to newsletter because.

[B]

You already said that you get most of your leads from your website.

[A]

So we know he's already doing good. I would probably start getting that newsletter going because I think it's a different avenue. If you ever lost your website, we'd still have our newsletter. I always like to think in terms of like hedging bets.

[B]

Yes. If we put all the eggs in one basket and we lost the whoops.

[A]

On it in one Easter basket.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Oh, Easter. Happy Easter.

[A]

I didn't get an Easter basket. Yeah, cuz you're 36.

[B]

I would like an Easter.

[A]

The trend on TikTok is them saying like, you know, I want no contact with my mom. It's really toxic relationship but in the background you hear the mom saying I.

[B]

Just told you you're too old for an Easter basket.

[A]

Okay, going on to the next text. Not a winner but a winner in our hearts. If you want to text into the stupid card tray texting questions, stupid questions. It's 571-556-5644. You can do it. Albany, New York did and just click the text. This podcast which you can do on Spotify. I'm Buzz Brad. If you don't win but you still want a stupid card tray because it's stupid cool. Use code sugar at checkout for 15% off stackable. And they do run a lot of promotions through the year meaning you could add the 15 off on another promotion.

[B]

You want to get something for your mother in law she'll actually use.

[A]

It'll be that she's gonna think stupid and long.

[B]

Oh yeah, you think I'm.

[A]

I think a super cartridge is great but I think you'd have to really sell it to people. Hi twins. First of all, thank you for all that you do and done for the baking community. All the knowledge you shared has helped so many bakers in the community is better better with you in it. Heart emoji. I was wondering, do you prefer to manually edit photos in Lightroom or do you use presets that you've gotten for free or bought? Great question.

[B]

That is a fantastic question because the time of day matters when you take your photo. If you're taking it in the. If you're taking it in the evening around golden hour and then you have a preset that's called warm, it's going to make it bright yellow.

[A]

Yeah, I love presets. So if you are new to Lightroom, it's a photo editing software. You can do it both on mobile or on your phone. Phone. I mean on your computer. If you do it on your computer, it's 100 paid. You have to pay for it. The phone has a free version.

[B]

It does have a free version. You can do a lot and you can upload presets to it.

[A]

It's through Adobe. I do use Adobe stuff even to produce his podcast. So we do pay for it. So everything is coming from the paid aspect. Yeah, I you buy the preset that matches this time of day, this the photo setup. So okay. Light and Airy is a preset collection I bought. Right. They have light and airy web weddings for the outdoor wedding at golden hour. It it has to only touch photos you took at a wedding outdoor.

[B]

You can lose a ton of Money in presets. Because not every preset works for every time of day. So I do find that I do not use presets. That is my answer. I do not use them.

[A]

Make your own present.

[B]

I don't. I know what I go to first. I will up the highlights, I will up the shadows. That gives me a good base. And I can see with upped highlights and shadows if it's too yellow. Because if you take a photo in the afternoon, you're gonna have a yellow tint. If you take take a photo in the morning, it'll have a blue tint.

[A]

If you take a photo with fluorescent lighting involved, you're going to have a different cast. If you take a photo with shade your camera, if you have like a designated camera, I think even smartphones doing that, you can tell it, hey, this is what the time of day is. Here's what I'm dealing with. Cloudy skies, overcast. I'm in incandescent. I'm underwater.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then the camera will adjust to kind of get. I think the goal is to try to get it as natural as a perception of your eyes.

[B]

To me, I say always aim true to color.

[A]

True to color. And then you can add that little. And it's funny how color produces mood. Right. You can add that little color tweak. If you say I want more romantic.

[B]

I want to say though, when you're dealing with icing on cookies, romantic turns icing white, icing yellow. I know, like it looks dingy. So I always say go for brighter, go for true to color.

[A]

Because we got that clean food kitchen. I don't want to see a kitchen that has romantic lighting. I want to see a kitchen like I'm talking about like a restaurant kitchen. Right. I want to see that kitchen be blasted white because I need you to see the crumblies and the cruds you gotta clean off. So Corey kind of leans into more that white and then she goes to that brighter thing. So she's dealing with highlights. If you was a histogram, you'll see that kind of mountain looking thing. She's going to have the peak of that mountain leaning towards the right.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

But I think it's going to be unique feature in every person in each and every place.

[B]

Yeah. Because I've moved over the years and like at some point like was the sun. Only I have always lived in a townhouse and the townhouse is always in the center of the townhouse ring.

[A]

So I'm always chasing the sun like a label. Like she's like she's a center. Townhouser. She's a center. She's a corner townhouse over there.

[B]

So you're kind of chasing the. The sun wherever. This townhouse. Cuz you're blocked in on both sides.

[A]

House Sandwich. And you're sandwich. I am a lamy in the middle.

[B]

I am.

[A]

Last text. I'll read and thank you guys so much for texting in. That has really bumped up this little cycle. I know it was just me and you. Yeah. And really anything.

[B]

And you're like.

[A]

Nah. Nah. You're like just the irs. I hope you guys are able to answer this because I'm going to drive me nuts until I figure out the answer.

[B]

Oh my goodness.

[A]

I'm so entitled this. At one point you all were raving about something. I can't remember what they called. I think they were akin to QR codes. But they were a device people can scan. Do you know what I'm talking about? I do. What? Papels.

[B]

Oh, is it popple or Adopt Apple?

[A]

P O P L. Yeah.

[B]

You liked this?

[A]

I don't like it. I like the concept of RFID chips.

[B]

I will say I actually got in the mail. Someone was like reached out to me and he3d prints these.

[A]

What. What did you just call it? RFID chips.

[B]

RFID trips in a themed 3D print.

[A]

You know what's cool because. Because these 3D printers have so much more technology about them. You can pause a 3D print and then put something inside of it. That's what he did.

[B]

He actually has. And I'll have to make.

[A]

I have to.

[B]

I promise him. I said I would make a reel to show you gu guys. But it's a Instagram logo. Inside it is a tip that leads to my Instagram handle. And he told me you don't. You're not married to sending them. Always.

[A]

You can override them.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You can send it somewhere else. Hard coded ones. And then. Yeah. I thought it was fantastic. Here's. Here's what I'm gonna say. The Popple itself, the company. It is a subscription. And that I hate.

[B]

Is it a subscription just for them or anything with that ri.

[A]

No. Their populous thing to be able to change what it sends them to is a subscription. Some of it's free, but most of the part you'd wanted to edit. It's almost like a link tree. And you're paying for link tree. It is professional looking though.

[B]

It is professional.

[A]

Now you can go to Amazon. Yeah. And you can buy a pack of 300 of these RFID chips for like 30 bucks. They're little stickers. You can stick them to anything. I actually use them to manage my life. So I'll stick one to the folder that I keep my car service records in. And when I tap it, it takes me to the Google spreadsheet so I can update it quickly. So you see that you're a weirdo. Sometimes I can feel the weirdness cropping.

[B]

Up my life with no RFIDs in sight.

[A]

Now consider this. Okay. Let's say you had a bin of cutters from design Shop. He. Yeah. Okay. And you could tap that, and it takes you to a Google Drive folder of the pictures of those cutters. Because you guys are always struggling with the pictures.

[B]

You mean we're not supposed to just dump it on the ground and curse the words where we're trying to look?

[A]

They took that picture off their website. Hang on. Whatever Corey complains about, RFID is basically just a connector between what you want to send people and where they go. You can send yourself places.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

You could do it on packaging. Like, here's the box that's in this. Here's my box. Yeah.

[B]

That's a person I wish I was. I don't see myself one day.

[A]

No. I'm big into. Once I'm accepted, I'm not going to remember anything. Anything. I start writing notes to myself.

[B]

You have a bad memory.

[A]

I do, and it's really helpful to understand that it's not going to be remembered. So I like. I created a. I got a sticker thing.

[B]

You got a label maker.

[A]

Label maker. Yeah. And I write myself little notes. I'm going to say, hey, listen, the left side of this string of lights plugs into the left socket outside for Christmas. Just go straight across Heather. And if you need more tax, they're.

[B]

Also in this bizarre.

[A]

Yeah. And I'm like, pass that girl. High five from the future. Yeah. Okay. But the rfid, you could use that.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

To help. Let's say you put it on a DIY kit and say, tap here to get the introductions.

[B]

Yeah. They could send them to your website.

[A]

I would not do the popple because that's a subscription and it's kind of. You know, if you're paying $5, I think it's $5 a month. If you're paying $5 a month, I'm gonna have that one send them to my payment portal or something. Yes. Now, these single use. Guys. Guys. You could just stick them. They're 10 cents a pop or 30 cents. You could have them on each of your Boxes telling people to go, right. Click here to leave me a review.

[B]

It would be great at a market. Tap here to pay.

[A]

Tap here to pay. And you can overwrite those with my phone. I just tap the chip to my phone and it says, where do I want to send them? Was it the most like user interface friendly thing?

[B]

Did you have to download an app for free?

[A]

Yeah, that's what I heard. You'll have to help me make the.

[B]

Video because you already have the app down.

[A]

Well, no, you have it on your phone at the back of your phone. The tap to pay for Apple Pay. Yeah, yeah. That's the same kind of concept. Okay.

[B]

But he was telling me, like there's a website you can go to change the destination.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, I have that on my website. So that is a great question. Huge fan of the concept. Not a huge fan of Popple specifically. There's a couple competitors for that, I'm sure. I think they are big into making the business card, the RFID and.

[B]

Yeah, I saw that.

[A]

Okay, moving on to our sponsors.

[B]

Sponsors.

[A]

We've already talked about the stupid card trade. That's code sugar. What's Popping Con is coming up.

[B]

What's Poppin Con is coming up.

[A]

Isn't so close.

[B]

It's so close.

[A]

We got a cute outfit. If you guys want to say, ah, at age almost 40. Yeah, White House black market is my vibe. Maybe it's a little bit fancier than who I am as a person.

[B]

However, the local White House more than you are.

[A]

Oh, that'll take your knees. I know the local white. Yeah, I never buy full price.

[B]

I can afford it.

[A]

The local White House black market's closing, so they did 25% off inventory plus 15.

[B]

You had to get rid of stuff so they didn't have to track it all super expensive.

[A]

So we're not going to cut off yesterday. I know.

[B]

For what's Popping Con. So what's Popping con goes down May 4th through the 6th in Kent, Ohio. And you're going to have the biggest names in the popping world there. And for some odd reason, whatever happens to cake poppers when they're being molded in the oven, they become very nice people. They are so stinking nice. Amy, who's running it, she's the pop tact.

[A]

I said she's behind the population. She says, thank you.

[B]

You have some huge things. And I've seen these people, the people, they're having their on tick tock and they got like millions of followers.

[A]

Here's the thing, if you're like, well, I don't really know if I want to. It's actually more of a marketing and business side thing with the add ons of how to make them. So I'm looking at the prices. Right. Building a sweet business that pays you back. That's one one of the core classes. Make a brand that pops. Creating a sweet identity for your cake pop pips. It's so funny because I didn't give her the title of our segment. I just told her it was about. And she's writing all these. I love. She did for us. Hold on.

[B]

She loves a great pun.

[A]

She is.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Sell where you scroll. Turning local community groups into profit powerhouses. This lady thinks there's peas. She got peas.

[B]

Right?

[A]

This is really cute. So they've actually published the. Published the schedule. You can look at that@what's poppingcon.com use code twins to save 25. They still have that introductory pricing. It is their first year year. But we'll be driving up there.

[B]

What a fun, fun way to meet one. Meet local bakers.

[A]

2K pop con. Like I don't think there is one.

[B]

And if you ever wanted to look at what a brick of mortar and what it takes to. Amy has one.

[A]

If you stay the extra day. Like there's no cost to the extra day. But you could go to her brunch. I'm not sure if that's paid or not. But at her brick and mortar and.

[B]

She is a cake pop truck.

[A]

Oh wow.

[B]

Yeah. And this brick and mortar and I mean they're pushing out so many cake pops.

[A]

Here's what I want to say about Amy. She was a vendy for the Vendy blendy this years of first year. She is a business lady.

[B]

Yeah, she really is.

[A]

And I'm not saying that the rest of us aren't. I'm just saying that this lady is like I'm. I put my name on it. It's gonna be nice. Yeah, it's gonna be good. Yeah.

[B]

She's fantastic. And she's just a sweetheart of a person.

[A]

Right. So we get to meet her. You guys could meet us if you wanted to. I'm just saying if you want to sign up for what's popping Con, there is some things you can sign up for. You don't have to buy the ticket. If you just wanted to be around. If you lived locally, you could do that too. Check it out at what's PoppingCon.

[B]

Did you make the post and pin it to the top of the group?

[A]

Nice.

[B]

So if you go to the sugar cookie marketing group Go to the top where it says the the account featured. Yeah, it's under featured. It'll have a blue dot next to it if you haven't clicked on it yet this month and you can find it will be right there at the top.

[A]

Yeah and I added the list of add on classes you if you want to take them for 75 they're on that Sunday. Nice. I'm not sure that you have to have it take the whole thing to take those classes. You can ask Amy. Just seems like you could buy it.

[B]

Yeah. Heather tagged Amy in that post. So if you have any questions you.

[A]

Can a lot of the answers I have most of life's answers just not the ones about what's popping.

[B]

I'm sure you have an RFID reader.

[A]

List about the life question.

[B]

Next up is royal batch. Royal batch is a meringue powder. It actually yesterday I did go crazy.

[A]

Crazy got those little add on bags but I will say our how much did this cost? I can't remember.

[B]

You. I can't remember. Okay.

[A]

So she does.

[B]

If you wanted to try royal batch right now meringue powder is in this shift in the world. Genies is hard to get. People are having issues with the little.

[A]

Wilton's is hard to get.

[B]

Wilton's is hard to get.

[A]

There's something else going on too. I want to say I did check.

[B]

Out Enco brand that is very nice. There's just unrest in there. But if you want to try out Royal badge she does have two ounce bags. How much are they?

[A]

This is not the cheapest thing. It was not the cheapest thing. You get a sample pack of 10. It's $4.50 cents each.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

But if your class was left I.

[B]

Know if you wanted to try out robots you totally could it. They have these sample packs and you see it's $4 but I honestly it's the one that I use and I used it in class yesterday. It worked like a dream. Everybody loved it.

[A]

We're very excited. You know we did raise our prices. So granted that was covered. We raised our prices.

[B]

Technically. Will I not.

[A]

I won't.

[B]

I just wanted them to have a little treat.

[A]

It was are you never going to do it again? Even the lady that came back from the other class she's like this is a whole new stuff. I know.

[B]

I said don't expect it next time.

[A]

She immediately signed up for the next class.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But yeah. Bakey Bake Royal Badge Code twins saves you 10%. Corey really likes it. Cory really likes it.

[B]

Really? Really.

[A]

You would have thought she birthed it by the way she talked about it yesterday. I know.

[B]

I'm just so glad that I've now been using it for years, and I still like it. You know, sometimes you can grow old with something and you're like, I don't know. It's not the best. It already has three ingredients.

[A]

Talking about Nate. Yeah.

[B]

That's why I got a second. It already has three ingredients in it. White food coloring, corn syrup, and vanilla extract. So you don't even have to add that if you don't want to. Next up, we have the backers company. The backers company is a. If I'm using lightroom, I need the backers.

[A]

Co. I don't think you Lightroom, a cookie set are not involved. With a backdrop.

[B]

With a backdrop. So it's a backdrop.

[A]

I don't think you've ever taken a cookie from. No, Never.

[B]

Ne you guys are like, I just.

[A]

Can'T figure out photography. That's the missing sauce.

[B]

Yeah, it is.

[A]

What's the code?

[B]

It's the code. Sugarcookie actually now saves you 25%.

[A]

Very, very nice. That's a whole quarter off.

[B]

Yes. Yes.

[A]

For something that will make a huge difference in the quality of photography. And we buy with our eyes.

[B]

Yeah. So if you've ever seen a photo of taking a Ben on a background. So if you want to check them out, thebackersco.com use code sugarcookie saves you 25%. You take our last but never least, Eduardo.

[A]

Eddie has a cousin, brother, lover.

[B]

Freddie.

[A]

Don't know. I think he's rolling off the assembly line. I think so soon. Jennifer from primero is like, hey, I'm gonna send you some talking points. Haven't gotten them yet.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So I can only speak through the eyes and ears of the people who saw it at cookiecon.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. But I'm not, like, confident enough to say anything. It's just an icing printer.

[B]

He will ice cookies for you. We've never been able to witness it.

[A]

In person, but out and our butts out of the house.

[B]

I know, but Eddie, the direct of.

[A]

Food printer, his cousin, his lover. I don't know. Whatever. Eddie Corey would go to battle for it. Cory even said, I love.

[B]

It's the coolest thing ever. It's still cool. And he's what been on the market.

[A]

For a few years now, but it just opens up this whole. Like, it opened up a door that wasn't otherwise. Otherwise available.

[B]

My box door to my airbrush has not been open since Eddie has entered.

[A]

That's so funny. I did on the sugar cookie marketing Facebook page. If you're in the group, great, go join the page because it's a lot of more in conversation. I said, what's one tool you bought? And you said, I've never opened it, I never use it. And it was overwhelmingly an airbrush. Yeah.

[B]

It's so much time and effort. Here's the thing. Eddie can print so many different colors onto the cookie without having to clean. Not one clean. Not buying so many colors. Not having to clean your airbrush, not. Not having to clean the stencil, not having to buy a million stencils. To use it for a design, you.

[A]

Gotta get a dehydrator, dry it, and then. So Eddie kind of eats up all those additional costs. Eddie, not cheap though. $3,000. But you're going to save time, space, effort without that stencil thing. And then you have the option to do these really last minute orders.

[B]

I know. And that last minute is really nice because you're not making a million different piping bag colors. You're actually just print. You're having a cutter. Cutting, flooding white and then printing with Eddie.

[A]

Eddy Printer users group on Facebook. They never made another post about this. Just a couple months ago, they were like, what if we sold Eddie without the carousel? Which Corey doesn't use a carousel. I know. It's in my basement. Can you get it?

[B]

I want to say the only reason is because it is. My cookies are tiny.

[A]

Some people love them.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Some people don't use them. Corey does a manual feed, which you can do. But they were like, we'll discount. We may. Or think about discounting Eddie. I think that's kind of. And not giving you the carousel. There's not a lot of. Honestly, I feel like there's a ton.

[B]

Of carousels on the market that you could be like, like wheeling, dealing. And like you could just.

[A]

Trays. There's trays that work with. There's trays that work with manual.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

The type of baker. Yes. Those are our sponsors. Thank you so much to our sponsors for paying into this. Otherwise there would be none of it.

[B]

There would be none of it.

[A]

Would be none of it.

[B]

The most consistent iffy podcast in the baking world is what I've named us.

[A]

It's so consistent. It's consistent. We miss about two podcasts a year.

[B]

The quality.

[A]

Oh, not all over the map.

[B]

Oh, yeah. For sure.

[A]

But the production. Consistent, Consistent.

[B]

Consistently mediocre.

[A]

And a big thing about that is because the sponsors do pay.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

For this. So they have to keep us.

[B]

I want to say, because the sponsors pay for. This is why I. Instead of taking this.

[A]

I know I said, Corey's gonna feel obligated to do the podcast. Yeah.

[B]

Because thank you for the support. You guys. Texting in is support. You guys listening is support.

[A]

The podcast we can do is show up. Absolutely. Even if it's chaos. Absolutely. Twin trist. You got one?

[B]

Do you have one?

[A]

Yeah. Sometimes chaos, maybe.

[B]

No, you are chaotic.

[A]

But I'm. It's because I'm. I'm construct. I'm held down by my list.

[B]

Are you?

[A]

And when sometimes the internal monster comes out and says, let's just be chaos. So I sent a text. Actually, that's why I had to fix on my phone, send a text to my sister, to my mom. I have a group on Snapchat called Crazy Ladies. My mom named it.

[B]

Technically right now is Easter break, Spring break for my son. So he's been at my parents house.

[A]

Right. So Corey, I was like, Cory's like, I gotta go pick him up today. Podcast. And I was like, what if. Yeah, I tell people lunch is on me at the steakhouse by my mom's house. So like I'm sorry. The feeling that like whatever endorphins were released. I said, listen to me.

[B]

You're wild.

[A]

This is. She sends it in a Snapchat. Listen to this.

[B]

You'll never get a message like this.

[A]

For the rest of all the little heads pop up. Which is my favorite thing. You know, like whoever has their bun cheeks in front of this steakhouse at noon today with Archer. Archer must be included. Will get lunch on me.

[B]

Granted. Now Archer's out because.

[A]

Okay. And my oldest sister. Okay, this is K. She's cast. She's wild. It's Easter Sunday.

[B]

I want to say we had a family vote of the least odd person I won in the family.

[A]

I thought it was going to be. I thought for sure it was going to be voted. I was mean me.

[B]

I was least odd.

[A]

I was least odd. I was not most odd. You were second most. Second most odd.

[B]

I wasn't most odd.

[A]

Yeah, I was thinking for sure she went for most odd.

[B]

I can't believe I won least odd.

[A]

Ashley, our older sister, got voted most odd. And here's exactly the reason why. The girl best gift giver in the world. The girl most beautiful hair you've ever seen in your life. Thoughtful beyond all the thoughtful. Kind, funny, but he. But okay.

[B]

But bizarre.

[A]

I texted everybody. Clearly I need to make an rsvp.

[B]

Absolutely. It's Easter Sunday.

[A]

Easter Sunday in the nation's.

[B]

You're going to church and you're gonna be hungry.

[A]

Arching right. Okay, that's cool. So everyone. My mom's like, absolutely. This is chaos. I'm in.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Knew my mom is. Because she's where the chaos comes from. Summer. My mom's right hip. She was coming.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

They're bringing Arch for sure. Corey in.

[B]

In.

[A]

Me in. So that's five, right.

[B]

So Ashley Nara head pop up. Nara.

[A]

She even checked it. Yeah.

[B]

So we just assumed.

[A]

So I said okay. Made the reservation for five. It's. It's. It has to be at 11:45.

[B]

Here's the thing. There's no more reservations open.

[A]

No. So. So just while we're doing this podcast as she's like, I'm in. Should we dress up?

[B]

Like what?

[A]

Yeah, that's where you cordially.

[B]

That's how you win most odd.

[A]

So. So now Archer's not going to be there. You think he's going to.

[B]

No, he will not care.

[A]

I'll get a McDonald's on the way home. Okay. The kid. The whole point of this is so that you can get Archer. Yeah.

[B]

What Crazy wild. Wild.

[A]

And that's my twin. Trust that chaos. And just when I'm thinking I'm most chaos, I'm second chaotic.

[B]

Because Ashley, why was I most voted least odd?

[A]

I think you're predictable and you don't leave your house.

[B]

That's very.

[A]

If anyone. If the police called me and they're like, we can't find your sister. I would say, did you check her bed? There's Netflix playing. She's right there. You just gotta push the covers. And she's under the.

[B]

I do think I'm predictable and I can think predictably for like. I would have read that you also have a kid.

[A]

So you were strapped to I want to school.

[B]

I got a dog too.

[A]

You got it. See, I strapped really are like, let me anchor in here to.

[B]

But I also think I use my brain and like I would be like.

[A]

I would read that and be like.

[B]

Okay, table for five. If I say yes, that will be for six.

[A]

Ashley's not crazy. Her life is extremely predictable. That behavior is unpredictable. And that's why she got most grades. And that's why I'm consistently unpredictable. And I think that's why I got second oddest.

[B]

I don't think you're using Unpredictability and odd aren't the same thing. They're really.

[A]

Here's the thing.

[B]

I know that feels good for you.

[A]

People think I'm odd because you just don't know what I'll do next.

[B]

No, you're odd because you have RFID chips throughout the house.

[A]

You don't know where they'll be stuck to. Are they on the cat's litter or not? Summer is quirky. She. I'm surprised she didn't.

[B]

She was less. She was second to me.

[A]

I'm surprised she didn't beat you up.

[B]

Because she had that boyfriend and she hid a lot of stuff, and that.

[A]

Was way too recent. We'll drop every normalcy for a man.

[B]

Yeah. And keep the things hidden. She actually broke up with him. People are like, I don't even know Summer. She broke up with him, didn't tell anybody.

[A]

Had Cory and I write the Hail Mary text without having told us they broke up. So, Cor, like, hey, we really, really, really, really. Okay. That's what you do with sisters. We all.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Crafted a text.

[B]

When you're bored, you're willing to take on any name.

[A]

When somebody has that. Like, I think I said, what if we all wrote a text together? And usually people shoot down my stupidity.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

She was like, actually, everyone grabbed their phones. I was. You open your notepad.

[B]

We all had to write our own.

[A]

I was like, how?

[B]

We would do it. And then we combined the best parts of it.

[A]

We were like, cory, that was a little too.

[B]

Yeah, that was a little too on the nose.

[A]

And, Heather, you're a little too. So we combine this perfect text and we send it. But the whole time, my mom's making faces at Summer, which Cory and I are not privy to because we have no idea what's going on. Yeah.

[B]

We're just trying to figure out this relationship.

[A]

So we send this Hail Mary pass text, and it's kind of laying it out. Kind of the healthy relationship where you're like, hey, I really like you. I'd like to pursue.

[B]

I need to know what the boundaries are.

[A]

Are you willing to continue if you're in? I'd love to be. It was very well written.

[B]

Kudos to me and you for that.

[A]

Corey calls me on the drive back home, and she was like, she would have gotten involved in there. I was like, shoot. I had that little thought, and I thought, if I had it by myself.

[B]

And it was an uneasy feeling.

[A]

It was an uneasy thing. And so we were, like, driving, and usually I don't even take phone calls because I have to shift the car, but I was like, this is that important. So I'm, like, shifting with my left ankle, and I'm like, Great. We were fine. She asked us to right the Texas grade. And how 20 minutes later, I'm getting.

[B]

Ready to get into the shower, I'm.

[A]

Changing clocks or something, cuz it was that day. And boy calls me. And she was like, did you check your phone? And I said, no. And she's like. And I said, just the fact that you're calling me is not a good sign.

[B]

Abort. Abort.

[A]

Abort.

[B]

Abort.

[A]

So he was like, yeah, actually, I don't want to pursue this at all. And he's like. And when we broke up, I thought. And I said, right there. I said, we're missing a little piece. We're missing.

[B]

We're missing a big chunk of a conversation that we were not pretty, so.

[A]

We couldn't have addressed it right there. We did all these. You're great, Summer. It's not him. It's not him. It's great.

[B]

You're amazing.

[A]

Yeah. And then she kind of like was fine. And then so I was like. When the dust settled a couple of days later, I was like, quick question. What was that part in the middle where he referenced when this already happened once? And someone's like, yeah, I was hoping he wouldn't pick up on that. We actually already broke up. And I told nobody. And I was hoping this was kind of stirring back. I was like, okay. And that's why you're odd.

[B]

Your second odd to the least honest, which is me.

[A]

I. I told my aunt. She immediately calls her oldest son and says, rank everyone odd. Then they had us rank. He had. They had Jess rank the cousins who.

[B]

Was the most often of their family. Jenna's odd.

[A]

He. He ended up ranking them in terms of who he didn't know the best. So he said, oh, that's not good. Yeah. So he was like, well, I know Jen, the j deed agree you were the oddest.

[B]

Me, Which I think she.

[A]

Jess put me at least odd because he said he didn't want to lose his favorite cousin's ass. But that was bribery. Yeah. No, I don't. I do. Thought the entire thing was fascinating. They were surprised Ash got voted most on. But when the evidence was laid out. I think we got to go to lunch. All right.