212. Baking it Down - Admin Hours

Summary

Episode 212: Baking it Down - Admin Hours

Release Date: May 20, 2025

Hosts: Corey and Heather Miracle
Podcast: Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪

---

Introduction

In Episode 212 of the Baking it Down podcast titled "Admin Hours," hosts Corey and Heather Miracle delve into the crucial yet often overlooked aspects of managing a bakery business. This episode provides bakers with actionable strategies to streamline their administrative tasks, ensuring smoother operations and more time for creativity and baking.

---

Understanding Admin Hours

Time Management Challenges

Corey opens the discussion by highlighting the common struggle among business owners: dedicating time to administrative tasks without feeling overwhelmed or unproductive.

Corey (00:08): "Admin hours can be this enigma where you're like, every time I sit down to do something admin, the time seems to fly by and I get nothing done."

The Concept of Admin Hours

Heather emphasizes the importance of having a structured approach to administrative tasks, transforming them from time-wasters into productive activities.

Heather (01:33): "We have four different admin hour types. There’s no way one hour can accomplish anything if it doesn’t have a focus point."

---

Breaking Down Admin Hours

The episode outlines a comprehensive framework for managing admin tasks by categorizing them into specific focus areas. This segmentation helps in maintaining consistency and efficiency.

1. Social Hour (03:02)

Purpose:
Dedicated time for managing social media presence, scheduling posts, and engaging with followers.

Strategies:

• Content Scheduling: Heather shares her method of scheduling content using tools like Facebook Planner.

  Heather (04:15): "Scheduling out content for the Sugar Cookie Marketing group actually does take me eight hours, the minimum. The MVP here is one hour."

• Engagement: Allocating time to reply to comments and interact with community posts to maintain an active online presence.

Tools Mentioned:

• Time Timer: A visual countdown tool to keep track of time spent on tasks.
• Pomodoro Technique Apps: For focused work intervals.

2. Inbox Hour (12:13)

Purpose:
Managing emails and communications efficiently to ensure no lead or customer inquiry falls through the cracks.

Strategies:

• Inbox Zero: Heather advocates for achieving and maintaining an empty inbox to reduce stress and enhance productivity.

  Corey (15:08): "If you're looking to grow your bakery business, the first person to respond does get."

• Email Management Tools: Utilizing apps like Quiet for Gmail to limit inbox notifications and prioritize important emails.

  Heather (13:10): "Quiet for Gmail only lets my inbox ping me twice a day."

Best Practices:

• Prompt Responses: Setting a goal to respond to all emails promptly to foster customer satisfaction.
• Follow-Ups: Regularly following up with pending emails to keep potential sales moving forward.

3. Inventory Check (30:40)

Purpose:
Ensuring that all baking supplies are well-stocked and organized to prevent last-minute shortages.

Strategies:

• Routine Checks: Allocating specific times to evaluate inventory levels and reorder supplies as necessary.

  Corey (35:29): "I can know if I look in after you've done this for a while and I would highly suggest one day is to make."

• Organization Techniques: Maintaining an organized storage system for cutters, ingredients, and other essentials to streamline the baking process.

Tools Mentioned:

• Google Calendar & Asana: For tracking inventory needs and scheduling reorder dates.

4. Weekly Meeting / Asana (25:04)

Purpose:
Planning and reviewing the week’s tasks to ensure all administrative and operational aspects are covered.

Strategies:

• Self-Meetings: Holding weekly personal meetings to assess progress, set goals, and adjust plans as needed.

  Heather (26:08): "Having a weekly meeting feels weird for one-person operations, but it's highly recommended."

• Asana Framework: Using Asana for project management to keep track of ongoing tasks and deadlines.

  Heather (29:08): "I use Asana to remember two months out and it has a calendar view which is what I always default to."

Best Practices:

• Task Replication: Creating templates for recurring tasks to save time and ensure consistency.
• Performance Tracking: Monitoring metrics like social media growth to inform future strategies.

5. Planning the Week (30:01)

Purpose:
Organizing the upcoming week’s activities to balance baking, marketing, and administrative duties effectively.

Strategies:

• Priority Setting: Identifying primary and secondary tasks that will drive the business forward.

  Corey (30:40): "Yes, that would make my business move forward."

• Flexibility: Allowing room for unexpected tasks or adjustments without disrupting the entire schedule.

Tools Mentioned:

• Google Tasks: For setting reminders and to-do lists integrated with calendars.

6. Baking Prep Hour (31:01)

Purpose:
Preparing the kitchen and supplies for the upcoming week’s baking activities to ensure efficiency and reduce last-minute chaos.

Strategies:

• Cleaning: Allocating time to wash baking mats, utensils, and sanitize surfaces.

  Corey (31:04): "Sundays are my prep day for the week, mentally. I clean the house, get everything ready, and I prep for what needs to be baked this week."

• Organizing Supplies: Ensuring all ingredients and tools are readily accessible and well-organized.

Best Practices:

• Batch Preparation: Preparing dough or ingredients in batches to save time during busy weeks.
• Storage Solutions: Investing in proper storage to keep ingredients fresh and easily accessible.

---

Tools and Techniques for Efficiency

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Corey and Heather discuss the benefits of using a CRM system to manage customer interactions, track orders, and streamline communication.

Corey (20:31): "A CRM is going to help you level that out because you want two heavy weeks to be lighter."

Scheduling Tools

Utilizing Google Calendar and project management software like Asana helps in planning and ensuring that all tasks are accounted for and deadlines are met.

Heather (19:06): "Google Tasks has a reminder. So sometimes like I need to follow up with somebody from an email."

Automation

Automating reminders and follow-ups through tools like CallFire can enhance efficiency and reduce manual workload.

Corey (37:17): "And then you're up the creek without a paddle."

---

Customer Service and Refund Policies

The hosts address the importance of having clear refund policies and maintaining excellent customer relationships even in challenging situations.

Full Refund vs. Partial Refund

Corey emphasizes the philosophy of ensuring customer satisfaction by offering full refunds when necessary, fostering trust and loyalty.

Corey (67:22): "I tell people if they are not happy they will get 100% refund."

Handling Difficult Customers

Heather shares strategies for dealing with dissatisfied customers without letting negative experiences impact long-term business growth.

Heather (74:08): "If something smells so bad, I will bag it up. I'll put it in the kitchen, bag that up, put it in the big green."

---

Cookie College and Memberships

Corey and Heather promote their Cookie College, a comprehensive membership program designed to provide bakers with resources, courses, and community support to enhance their business operations.

Heather (43:25): "Cookie College is to buy back the cost of doing business time so that you can ideally raise your prices and spend time with your family."

Benefits of Joining:

• Access to all courses, including business basics and advanced marketing strategies.
• Exclusive discounts and resources.
• Community support through the Sugar Cookie Marketing Facebook group.

---

Stupid Questions: AI and SEO

In the “Stupid Questions” segment, Corey and Heather tackle a listener’s inquiry about AEO (Assumed to be AI SEO) and its implications for bakery businesses.

AI in SEO Strategy

They discuss the role of AI in search engine optimization, highlighting its benefits and limitations.

Corey (51:42): "AI is a great tool that a human can use. I think at any point."

Authenticity vs. Automation

The hosts caution against over-reliance on AI, stressing the importance of maintaining authentic and personalized interactions to build trust with customers.

Heather (53:43): "If you use AI solely, then all this information, it is. You have to fact check it."

---

Conclusion

Episode 212 of Baking it Down offers invaluable insights into managing the administrative side of a bakery business. Corey and Heather provide a structured approach to handling various admin tasks, leveraging tools and techniques to enhance efficiency and productivity. Their emphasis on customer service, effective time management, and continuous learning through platforms like Cookie College equips bakers with the necessary skills to thrive in a competitive market.

Key Takeaways:

• Structured Admin Hours: Breaking down administrative tasks into focused segments enhances productivity.
• Utilizing Tools: CRM systems, Google Calendar, Asana, and automation tools can significantly streamline operations.
• Customer-Centric Policies: Clear refund policies and excellent customer service build trust and loyalty.
• Continuous Learning: Joining programs like Cookie College fosters ongoing business growth and community support.

---

Notable Quotes:

• Corey (00:08): "Admin hours can be this enigma where you're like, every time I sit down to do something admin, the time seems to fly by and I get nothing done."
• Heather (03:14): "Social hour is great... the goal is to never get to 'My page is dead.'"
• Corey (15:08): "If you're looking to grow your bakery business, the first person to respond does get."
• Heather (19:06): "Google Tasks has a reminder. So sometimes like I need to follow up with somebody from an email."
• Corey (67:22): "If you are not a complete happy customer with me, you're going to get your money back."
• Heather (43:25): "Cookie College is to buy back the cost of doing business time so that you can ideally raise your prices and spend time with your family."

---

For more detailed discussions and resources, join the Sugar Cookie Marketing Facebook group and explore the Cookie College at TheCookieCollege.com.

Transcript

[Corey]

Welcome to the Baking it down with Sugar Cookie Marketing podcast. We are your host, Corey, and Heather said in the correct order as always.

[Heather]

Can I do a quick aside? It has been brought to my attention that Cory's husband Nate has exclusively watched Every podcast on YouTube.

[Corey]

He couldn't bring himself to listen to it when it was just herbal podcast.

[Heather]

So I'd like to give a shout out to Nathan Jones. Nathan.

[Corey]

Nathan says Heather plays with her hair too much.

[Heather]

I'll do what I want.

[Corey]

And my face just gets wider and wider, blending more and more in with the background.

[Heather]

We talked about adding some color back to your makeup routine.

[Corey]

It's right there. Right there.

[Heather]

Faster. Okay, Corey. This is the Baking It Down Down. Wow. Baking It Done podcast. This is a Baking it down podcast with. Everyone had an intervention with me on Saturday.

[Corey]

Why?

[Heather]

To say I need to talk slower and lower. You've always.

[Corey]

We've known that for years. People know you for who you are.

[Heather]

Thank you. I will not be talking sore anytime soon. And this is a. An outcropping now. Cropping out. Cropping. Yeah, cropping.

[Corey]

Didn't you say crop year?

[Heather]

What was that?

[Corey]

I want crop.

[Heather]

Crop from the back of the throat. Crop and out. Cropping. Cropping. Think quarry. Would you say, was it croppier?

[Corey]

A crop. Bumper crop.

[Heather]

A bumper crop now bumper cropping of a Facebook group called Sugar Cookie Marketing Group. And. And we will be talking today about admin hours.

[Corey]

Admin hours can be this enigma where you're like, every time I sit down to do something admin, the time seems to fly by and I get nothing done.

[Heather]

Let me tell you what. Nothing. It's a time warp. An admin hour is a time you look up. It's five years to pass.

[Corey]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Heather]

Nothing was accomplished. So we have. Corey and I were saying you can't just. You have to have an admin hour focused topic. Yes. If you're into the techniques of focus techniques. Pomodoro the one hour. Heather has a timer.

[Corey]

If you're just listening, Heather has these little devices, gimmicks. Little gimmicks that she has bought into exclusively 100%. And they. You like one is a squared. You flip it over time and it tells you, like, how much time you spent on a task.

[Heather]

Really. That one's intended to track. It's actually intended for people who bill hourly for various projects. So you would turn it to the project and then you could bill the hour. And if you paid for the more expensive plan, it would create a spreadsheet of how you'd Bill it. Yeah, this one. This is from Ash. It's called the time timer. Yeah, it's not a clock, it's just a countdown timer. I can hear it barely clicking.

[Corey]

I remember that when we used to do piano practice.

[Heather]

Yeah, exactly. Except it doesn't have that horrifying ring which of freedom at the end. Yeah. So this one. Go. And then you can get the apps on your phone that are pomodoro techniques and you can get them on your computer.

[Corey]

The biggest key to success for using your time wisely is you and your focus.

[Heather]

Focus. So we broke these up into four different admin hour types.

[Corey]

It's definitely not just one hour.

[Heather]

There's no way you can make an hour. And I say four. There's no way one hour can accomplish anything. Yeah, it can accomplish some things if it has a focus point. So we have four focus point. So social hour.

[Corey]

A social hour is great. At the end of the day, you became a business owner and you thought you were just going to be baking. You're not. Your social media, your marketing, your hr. So if have a social media directed admin hour that's going to help you secure more sales in the future, you do need to market a lot of times in the baking or in the sugar cookie marketing group, people will be like, time has just gotten out of. Out of my hands and I forgot to post for the last month. Now that my page is dead, what do. The goal is to never get to the My page is dead. What do.

[Heather]

Even if he's limping along. Yeah, I want to hand him a crutch, but we don't want to take him out back.

[Corey]

So an admin hour that's dealt with social media can help you negate that.

[Heather]

Now here, if you guys are like, well, when do I do this? My Mondays are broken into these types of hours.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Okay. And some of them are a little bit more time intensive. So scheduling out content for the sugar cookie marketing group actually does take me eight hours, the minimum. The MVP here is one hour. So if you could just do this one hour a week. A week. So we're talking about you're looking at four hours a month. I don't think I'm asking a lot here.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And if you wanted to add some hours to that, that is great. But this is my minimum hours.

[Corey]

To me, what is a smart thing to do is have this one hour that's dedicated and focused throughout the week. You can touch base back into if something, you know, there's a trend that happens and it it, the trend started on Tuesday but your admin was on Monday. You can jump in on the trend on Tuesday.

[Heather]

This is of course she was like, yeah, this, this crazy thing happened on TikTok, but it's already ended. Cause you haven't been here all week. Because I uninstalled TikTok for the week which makes my weekends a blast. Also my social hour, like Corey said, you may have. Your Monday may be divided into. Let's say we have. Let's say we have eight working hours on Monday. You may divide these into that and then throughout the week pull from the additional hours as they present themselves available. Because your week may be heavier, maybe lighter. You may have a cookie class which is going to throw off the week. So the social media hour, we're looking at this and I'm always going to come back to the foundational post, the minimum post we want going up so we don't have to resuscitate the page and we have allocated 20 minutes for that. I think it's a decent enough time to gather good enough content. I don't know that you're going to.

[Corey]

Blow everybody out of the water. Well, I would like to say this is my, my fourth or fifth month of doing the free content calendar in the sugar cookie marketing group. There's prompts in random holidays to help you come up with ideas instead of just posting. Here's a set I did. Here's a set I did. Here's a set I did. There is like National Gingerbread Day would be a good. Hey, if you're gonna look to get your Christmas orders in, you want to get in in early.

[Heather]

We need to get them here in May so we don't want the Christmas season passes.

[Corey]

I'm gonna tell you something, you've never baked a Christmas holiday.

[Heather]

It's gingerbread.

[Corey]

It's in June.

[Heather]

It's ridiculous.

[Corey]

Yeah, I don't know, I was just, when I was making the content calendar, I was like, oh, that's a good.

[Heather]

Okay. Yeah. So Corey's content calendar. Now if you scheduled out every day, you're looking at an eight hour day of scheduling. Yeah.

[Corey]

How are you going to do that?

[Heather]

So what I'm asking or my pitch to you is the minimum two to three times a week and those are just the. What do we call them? I know I call them foundational but just like. Yeah, just keep you going. Just to keep you going. And then if you want them to be less. Thanks Joe for turning 5. You would follow like a content calendar or you would kind of dig into those content buckets and you can make it more advanced or less advanced. Right. But for 20 minutes, we're probably gonna get less advanced. We're gonna get some posts. The content calendar helps. Facebook Planner. Facebook Planner, Ma' am. It was like, hey, Saturday is National Baking Day. World Baking Day.

[Corey]

Okay.

[Heather]

Schedule a post to the sugar cookie marketing page.

[Corey]

I think it was World Baking Day.

[Heather]

Yeah. No. And someone's like, it's tomorrow. And I was like, well, this wouldn't be the first time Facebook Planner's done me dirty. But it was a two versions of it. They were like, some people do it on the 17th, some people do on the 18th. So Facebook planner prompts as well. Corey has a lot more of them. Facebook Planner, you're looking at two a month. They kind of give you. So you would schedule your post. And if you use planner, you can do that to Instagram and Facebook. And then if you use, like, third party apps, you could do it to LinkedIn and Google.

[Corey]

If you want to know where the the cook your content calendar is, I pinned it to the featured section of the group so you can go and find it.

[Heather]

So we got 20 minutes for that. 20 minutes is enough to incorporate a copy formula. So it's not. Thanks, Joe, for turning five, because that one doesn't do as much. You can also do a little bit of hashtag research there. 10 minutes. I'm gonna say reply to comments that were made since the last time you did your admin or.

[Corey]

My goal that I made for myself in 2025 is don't post another post without having commented back to the people in the prior post.

[Heather]

Did you see I was trying to do that on the sugar cookie page because I saw you come back.

[Corey]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Heather]

And if something goes viral, you're gonna look at a heavier. It's gonna be more than 10 minutes. And if nothing went viral, it's gonna be two seconds.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

But do we want to make sure we reply to comments? And you may say, oh, just right. Thank you. I would always encourage you to ask another question because the strategy there is. It gets people to have to come back and answer. Strategy there is. They are on the platform, longer Facebook shows and posts to more people. I have been noticing in my feed older posts cropping back in.

[Corey]

They have.

[Heather]

I don't know if that's a glitch or something, but hey, capitalize on it. And the grass is green. Then we have 10 minutes. And I like this one. This could eat longer than 10 minutes. Go to local groups and Comment on all the most recent posts.

[Corey]

Just adding value. Someone asked for a landscaper, you give them a recommendation to your landscaper. Just engaging with the post. You know, if you remember that how to Sell in community Groups podcast we did two weeks ago, I think it was. They can look out for the admin post. You know, there.

[Heather]

That'd be a good time. Just going through. I like to sort by most recent. Most groups are defaulted to most relevant. But sorting by most recent and then engaging. Even if you're like that's such a cute dog. Sure. Oh, I love this restaurant. Oh, I've never been to this restaurant. I'll go remember that's a part of becoming a part of the community.

[Corey]

As an admin yesterday I posted the best strawberry picking places around Northern Virginia as an admin. It was valuable content. Someone in the comment section took the time. Just let you know Wegmire Farms didn't have a good crop year. It's been closed down. But that was helpful for the people. Me as an admin, thank you for updating my list and for people who are reading it that they yeah, there's.

[Heather]

A lot of ways to be a part of a conversation in a community group. I do like 10 minutes. If you spend 20 minutes on that, I would still say time will spend.

[Corey]

You obviously going to want to spend more time in the groups that feed you.

[Heather]

And that's what we talked about. Not all groups are created equal. We want to water the ones that we want to grow from. This One Corey has 30 minutes allocated for and I hate it and I love it at the same time creating one reel a week and you may say 30 minutes. Yeah, a quality reel is going to take more time.

[Corey]

I honestly am making reels all the time in TikTok videos. It takes about 30 minutes to to slice it. Cut out the.

[Heather]

Now let me ask you, are you recording within this 30 minutes as well?

[Corey]

No, this is prior. So the week, the week that has gone by, I've taken one video and the clips are there.

[Heather]

Great. So maybe that every other social hour you're creating content you're editing content you're creating because it does take more time than you just editing this of which there is absolutely nothing going on in this podcast. My computer takes an hour to render it. Yeah, right.

[Corey]

It takes a lot more time than I would have thought it would.

[Heather]

The reason why I love and hate this is because we are living. I you know, I'm on Reddit, social media marketing subreddit and someone's like Instagram is dead I'm a photographer, I can't get any traction. And someone else said, are you posting only photos? Because that's the reason why it's dead for sure. It's not no longer photos first. It is video first. Now, within that video content, photos are great because you're like, it's a photo. Yeah. Now the video content has to have a hook. It has to either add value, it has to teach something. So it is a lot more effort. Now your focus typically is product reviews.

[Corey]

I love product reviews because me as a consumer wants to see what someone else bought before I bought it.

[Heather]

Now, other bakers who are selling to a local audience, you're not going to post product reviews. Right? Right.

[Corey]

You could. You packing a DIY kit, you prepping for a cookie class. You going to a local farmer's market.

[Heather]

Now and say, like, what's the voiceover? Because Corey adds voiceover. If my local, if I was making a real. For my local audience about cookie class, I'd say here's the five things you need to know if you've never been to a cookie class before. Number one, bring an apron. Like, things like that. Right. Because what we're saying is like, I teach cookie classes without saying, you need to buy my cookie. Yes. And then you can have the call to action in your copy, which again, those reels require copies.

[Corey]

Reels.

[Heather]

TikToks, they are taskmasters.

[Corey]

They are task.

[Heather]

They require everything out of you.

[Corey]

But I want to say if you, if you film within Inshot, that means you can export it and it doesn't have a TikTok tied to it. No. You can use that across all your social media.

[Heather]

Am I correct in saying capcut is now fully paid?

[Corey]

It is fully paid now. It was owned by TikTok and it was free. But the.

[Heather]

And now it's not on my TikTok.

[Corey]

No, it's still owned by TikTok, but I think to separate it out. So if TikTok gets banned, cap Cut doesn't get banned, it's now paid.

[Heather]

So that's our social hour. Now you're like, that wasn't a. A ton. It will probably eat actually more than an hour.

[Corey]

Sure.

[Heather]

Especially as you continue to do this, you're going to have more comments to reply to. As you continue to do this. You're going to join more groups and grow them. So that's going to. And I am not mad about it at all. If this is a two social hour. Two hour social hour, I'm fine with that. Yeah. And the idea is that you repeat this each week. Consistency being the key here. This is not a one and done.

[Corey]

I wish wish inbox.

[Heather]

Okay. The next type of hour you can snag this hour. You can put all these hours on your Monday. You can do one hour each day. An inbox hour. Okay. Life and breath of a business is your inbox. That's where your leads come in. Right? Especially for bakery businesses. Other businesses who take phone calls can be a little different, but for us, most of us are in our inbox. If you use Facebook messenger, here's my challenge to you. To break free of the shackles of an unreliable inbox and get them off of Facebook. Yes, I agree it's fewer clicks if you just take their order on Facebook. But so, so, so often I get, I mean, really, honestly, every week, hey, guys, this person in my inbox isn't on Facebook anymore.

[Corey]

What do I do? I have their order accounts are getting banned. Right and left. If I spelled how wrong and that gave me a 30 day suspension.

[Heather]

Can't use your inbox anymore.

[Corey]

Yeah, you can't risk it. So what we want to do is you can start the conversation there, but always get the like. Just like when you call into a business and they're like, just in case we're disconnected, can I call you back at Blah.

[Heather]

Right, Another one. If you're like from a cold, dead hands, you'll probably Facebook messenger from me. At least get their email address within that conversation so you have a backup. Yes, but okay, we're going to talk about inbox. So that means we've taken them off messenger. We got into our inbox. I'm going to say 20 minutes. Reply to all emails, follow up with all pending emails. So let's say you do this. You know, you don't have to be in your inbox every day. I believe you do not need to loiter in your inbox.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So you actually see me. I use an app called Quiet for Gmail and it only lets my inbox ping me twice a day.

[Corey]

Oh, that's smart.

[Heather]

Right? Because otherwise you're just, you know, one email. And I always told Corey, I say somebody sends me one email, but it equates to eight hours of work.

[Corey]

I will say though, if you're looking to grow your bakery business, the first person to respond does get.

[Heather]

Maybe if you're newer here, maybe you're like, I'm hungry for it.

[Corey]

If you're scheduled out, you don't need to be in your inbox every two seconds.

[Heather]

Okay, fair.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So I'm Going to say, okay, let's say an inbox hour. I prefer them to be earlier on Mondays because I feel like over the weekend, maybe you see me on Saturday.

[Corey]

You're like, why are you typing so vigorously?

[Heather]

Corey does them on Saturdays. Why we're sitting around the kitchen table. I do not know why she always would be like, hey, this is a great story. Inbox. So 20 minutes. We're going to reply to all emails and we're going to follow up to all pending outstanding emails. Meaning I followed up with this person. They've indicated interest. I haven't heard back. Yes, Corey was doing that on Saturday. She was closing up. All loose ends.

[Corey]

All loose ends will be closed. Every Saturday, every week, one week prior to someone's pickup date, I send them a week reminder. Because if you had a baby and you didn't tell me, I'm going to need to know because I want to bake those cookies and I don't want.

[Heather]

You to try to say, oh, I had the bake. Now, if you're in the cookie college and you've taken my Gmail course, you know, I'm really heavy into Google Gmail labels and you can use that to really make your inbox fly through it because you can tag them like needs reply. You can use a star feature. Yeah, you can use a check feature.

[Corey]

I want to give this credit to Heather in the cookie college.

[Heather]

She has a whole course announce clearly and loudly.

[Corey]

In the cookie college, she has a course called Inbox Zero. I have never lived my life by Inbox Zero until I started this bakery business.

[Heather]

It's actually called Tips and Tricks with Gmail because it takes all those tricks and tips to get to Inbox Zero. That's the ultimate goal.

[Corey]

Now, I live by Inbox Zero. If you're in my inbox, you're something I need to do. If you're out of my inbox, you're done.

[Heather]

Yeah, I'm gonna actually add something in there. We didn't have it unsubscribe from any things that you got that week. I find myself constantly. And I do do this, do do. If you sign me up to a newsletter, I didn't sign myself up for it. I will report it as spam, which happens when people scrape emails.

[Corey]

Yeah, I hate that. I don't like. Yeah, I get the weekly Yelp Weekly next door.

[Heather]

Those ones you opted in for when you signed up, you can unsubscribe for those. And. And being the good email receiver that I. If I signed up for your newsletter, I'll just unsubscribe. But if I didn't sign up and I'm getting it from you and I go to your footer and it doesn't tell me how I got on this.

[Corey]

List, you might be asking, well, how could someone. When you go to networking groups, it is a little hostage situation. A lot of networking groups. Print your email off on a piece of paper and the people will get that, add you to their newsletter that you didn't want to be added to.

[Heather]

I can buy a $10 application and I can say, I want you to go through Google and scrape any website emails that fall within this keyword. It's very simple to do. I hate it. It's not effective marketing. It's cold call risky marketing. Burn your email now with AI, it's.

[Corey]

Like, no, no one's trying anymore.

[Heather]

You signed up for TikTok business with the sugar cookie marketing account and it somehow has put us in a list of emails for solicitation.

[Corey]

It is. It puts it in. But that's how. If you wanted to make money on there.

[Heather]

So if I was in that. But I'm not. So I'm always deleting this 10 minutes to inbox the year. And you may say that would take me 10 hours. Yes. This is for the person who's already gotten to Inbox era, like Corey has. So when Corey goes to her email address, she's only seen five emails.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And then she's getting rid of them. And she's getting rid of them by archiving them, following up and deleting. So if you get to Inbox zero, maintaining Inbox zero is a lot easier. Getting there. The hard part. Yeah, I'm going to say ten more minutes to. And this is core and I agree with it. Any orders, transpose them to your Google Calendar. I live and die by multiple calendars, but I have them all talking to each other. I like to have it on my Google Calendar and I also like to have it in my Asana project management software, which we'll talk about in a second. Because I want to make sure that nothing gets lost.

[Corey]

Yes. And here's the thing. If you're like, if we're working so efficiently and we know that our inbox, what's in the inbox is now on our calendar, we're not going to forget an order because it's there. And then when you're out and about and you need to schedule your doctor's appointment or a dentist appointment, you're going to be like, oh, I actually need to be Baking for that hour. So I can't.

[Heather]

Nothing, nothing keeps my head from creasing my cold side of the pillow than not having put onto my calendar a dental appointment. Yeah. Because I'm like, that guy's floating somewhere out there and he's not. Not written down. So I, you know, when I go to the dentist, I'm like, hey, do you mind if I bring up my phone real quick? I'm gonna add it to the calendar while you talk. Like, that's how you gotta get that in there. So transposing now. Here's a. Here's one I didn't add, but I actually use it. Google Gmail computer is integrated Google Tasks, which is a third. It was just. It's an app on my phone. But within your account, your Google Gmail on the right side is a check mark. Yeah, that's called Google Tasks.

[Corey]

Oh, so it's like a to do list.

[Heather]

To do list. Yeah. And it has a reminder. So what I do is sometimes like I need to follow up with somebody from an email. I'll put in my Google Tasks. So come next week at 10am I can be like, oh, shoot, I gotta do that. And it'll ping my phone with a reminder.

[Corey]

Oh, that's really good. So if you say, okay, a lot of people scheduling out orders months in advance. Here's the thing. We don't want them to go by the wayside. We need to remind them, like, hey, you have this order coming up. The thing that really helps me reminding people is that they're not late for pickup.

[Heather]

Yes.

[Corey]

The more times I can tell you this order is coming up. So having that on your task to do is going to allow you to set up for success. You're not sitting there in there saying, oh, I'm so sorry, I totally forgot. It's. It skipped my mind. You've kept it top of mind for them.

[Heather]

Why I love task even more is it's integrated with Google Calendar as well. So remember, within Google, a lot of these are. If I open up Google Calendar, I can add a task to my calendar. It will become a task within my Google Tasks that I can see within Gmail. And so I like, I have to take out the trash on Monday nights. It will not go away until I say I've done it. So it's hard to forget it.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

My favorite reminder thing. Because it is. It's like if you swipe right, it's like, okay, fine, if you don't care, but it will always stick there. So if you get used to Checking it.

[Corey]

My problem with having an app or an iPhone is that I use the calendar that's on there. But you're right, my Gmail is tied to the Google Calendar, so it's really teaching yourself. Just when I was at the orthodontist, I pulled up my calendar and I was like, oh, shoot, I'm using the wrong one.

[Heather]

Yeah. And people always ask like, why don't I get an iPhone? It's for that. The ecosystem within Android always naturally pulls in Google stuff. So, you know, it's an option for you.

[Corey]

But if you have an iPhone, you can download Gmail just cognizant and choose.

[Heather]

It so you're not using. But I'm positive there's a way to get iCal, if you guys call it that, and Google Calendar to talk to each other, possibly tell, like a zapier saying, if it's added to this calendar, push it over there. And then last one. And Corey added this one. And I love this one because we're in our inbox hour. Spend 10 minutes going to your CRM and pulling up people at place orders within the next week. Last year, right?

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So if somebody placed an order in the first week of June, you're gonna reach out to them and say, hey, I loved working with you last year. Just checking to see if there's anything else you need from me.

[Corey]

Since bakers do kind of a month out, typically you would want to look kind of a month out. So if I know we're getting ready, we're in May and June's coming up. I want to reach out to those who had ordered in June for the weeks I'm not already booked.

[Heather]

Yes. So when you have a light week, you're going to want to ping that CRM. Now, CRMs are pretty awesome. They're versatile. They allow you to create tags depending on the one that you. You select. You could say you could make it. Here's when they placed the order, here's when they picked up the order so we can kind of know, like, here's when they picked up the order. That's a light week for me.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

So likely this is when they'd pick it up again. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna filter by pickups in this week of June that doesn't have a lot going on and that requires a CRM. You mean like a CRM would take me forever set up? Yeah, yeah. Once it's set up, this is gonna be real streamline. You can see that this required a lot of effort at one Point. So we can make it an hour.

[Corey]

If you and your business are like, I hate where I feel like I'm super busy and all of a sudden like I'm not busy at all. A CRM is going to help you level that.

[Heather]

Yeah, kind of level it out. Because we want to. We want two heavy weeks to be lighter.

[Corey]

You're doing proactive marketing to someone who's already bought from you. The likelihood they buy again, super high.

[Heather]

Super high. You're a war. They're a warm lead. You're a company. They've already experienced if they had a great experience. Awesome. That takes us through. That's one hour. That would probably take up a little bit more than an hour. But if you could do that once a week and even do it for an hour, you're going to be so much further ahead than if you hadn't done it at all. I may require an eight hour day to get to the point that would let that be an hour because you'd have to. Okay, we'd have to get to Inbox zero. We'd have to set up a CRM. We'd have to use our Google Calendar. We'd have to use Google filters, Gmail filters and stuff. Admin task hour. I hate this. It's gotta be done. Part of doing business. I was talking to Heather and Kim M. Sims and I was. And they were talking, you know, Kim has the beans and brews franchise. And she was just telling. And I was like, wow, look at how much is not baking in your life.

[Corey]

I know.

[Heather]

She's like, yeah. She's like, I have. Have. I know terms I've never thought I'd know what the. She said an acronym. I was like, I never heard that before. She was like, oh, here's what that means. I said, do you have your. She said, my vocabulary has expounded beyond the realms I'd ever thought it was. And a lot of it falls within this admin task hour. So quick. Books, bookkeeping, updates. If that's talking to your accountant, if that's categorizing charges, if that's auditing charges to see if you know anything should be cut off or there's any fraudulent charges, adding new leads to a CRM.

[Corey]

Hey, if they've inquired and maybe that you weren't the right baker for them, it's still a lead. They now know your name. They know how you work. It is a qualified lead. Put it in your CRM.

[Heather]

A couple weeks ago, I got a phone call out of state. One I never get phone Calls anymore. Two, I never get out of state phone calls, but it was from the man I bought my car from last year. It was the day I bought the car. So I answered it because I just thought, this is so funny. And I said, hey. I said, last call I ever expected was for me. And he's like, listen, I have a CRM program. I got to check it off, like, because he was in Connecticut. So I was never going to come back there, ever.

[Corey]

When I sold cars, it was like, did you write your letter to the people? Did you call them?

[Heather]

You know, I was saying this the other day. I know I'm on a checklist, but I like being on the list. I know you're calling me because you have to. I know you're sending me that. When the cat died, Frank, I got all these CRM triggered things. We're so sorry. A letter, a donation in his name. And I was like, love it.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Hate that. I love it.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

But. But it's so much better than Nothing.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

And CRMs are helping do the reminding for you.

[Corey]

Yeah, it's just keeping track of something. If you asked me what I did last week, I couldn't tell you, but if I wrote it down, I would.

[Heather]

Be able to tell you I worked for a company and they wanted, halfway through my tenure there, they introduced a CRM. And I was like, because this isn't baked into your culture. Yeah, this isn't going to. So they would just, you know, please, please. And I'm like, you want me to add somebody I spoke to five years ago to your CRM? Okay, so you, you bring it up there, you get it to where and then it becomes like a well oiled machine. So Corey's going to be like, you've already said it. The CRM. Now we're going to add what, maybe three leads, five leads to it. If you took it, taught a cookie class. 10, 20 admin task hour, inbox zero. So we're always going to shoot for having inbox zero again. You can see, but that's in my inbox hour. Pick and choose. We're just kind of building out these frameworks for you guys. 10. This was Corey's 10 minutes on inventory check.

[Corey]

Here's the thing. You don't want to need a box and not have a box. If it's a cookie class week, you're going to need a lot more boxes than typically you would. If it's just a customs week, keep.

[Heather]

In mind we're doing this every week. So we'd be saying, okay, I have a cookie class in three weeks. I still have a chance to order boxes.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

So, and then Amazon with this quick shipping could get you an emergency box.

[Corey]

Yeah, I like to include a business card in my orders. What's my business cards looking like?

[Heather]

Stickers, Thermal stickers, things like that.

[Corey]

Your labels. If you have to do your ingredients list on there. We want to make sure that we're staying above so we're not stressed out when that order has to go out.

[Heather]

Okay. We have last day of school coming up. Cookie tags you bought last year. You may know you have them. You don't know how many you have. What? I hate for people, and I see it happen all the time.

[Corey]

Does anybody have any of these left over?

[Heather]

They don't sell them anymore. And I've already sold out of this and I've sold more than I have.

[Corey]

Yeah. That. I've been there. Stressful.

[Heather]

Stressful.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

And then you're losing money because you're paying somebody. Shopping desperately. 10 minutes. Weekly meeting or using your asana. Now, in the Cougar College, a lot of us are one man bands. Right. So having a weekly meeting feels weird. Highly recommend it. Highly recommend coming to yourself and saying, what's the week look like? Now, I use an asana framework that I stole from somebody and Corey and I will actually have the meeting and we'll go through these various tasks and then I'll add them to my project management software.

[Corey]

Yeah. As much as you think it's weird, do it with yourself. You need to say, what was my Instagram? This? We even go, what was the Instagram following last week? What is it this week? So you can know just by hearing the. Oh, something popped off in the last week. I did something right.

[Heather]

Yes. Or wrong. And then. Yeah. Yeah. So I actually have a couple formulas running. Nothing scientific at all. Just saying, what was a percentage increase or decrease? Because the percentage. Okay. Numerical value, we can kind of tell percentage increase and decrease is very easy to be like, we're down 50 or we're up. What happened? Yeah, Corey said, well, I posted this reel. So I make a quick note. Corey posted this reel. Here's who it hit. Was it good or bad?

[Corey]

But I want to say, even from that. Okay, now I know for my social media hour, since that got X amount.

[Heather]

Of follows, that's where I'm going.

[Corey]

Let me lean into that next.

[Heather]

Next week. Right. So I'm not. So every week we get a little sharper. If you're saying, well, I've never used asana. I've Never heard of it before. Again I teach a cookie college course on it. It's honestly I lean on this more than most because of this concept. If I say to myself don't forget to do this in two months it'll immediately be forgotten. You you could you remember something two months out? Probably not right. So I tell asana to remember two months out and it has a calendar view which is what I always default to. So again like I have two cal I use asana but my asana and my Google calendar talk in various ways that I want them to. I don't need my asana to tell me to take the trash. Yes, absolutely. So the asana thing I'll say hey remind me in two months that I need to reach out to this person. You know what you're going to use.

[Corey]

It as a baker is it remind me in two months to reach out to the venue that I planned my Christmas class at and make sure everything's good to go. Things can happen, businesses are sold right and left. What you don't want to be is like I plan for my Halloween class to be at this venue. I haven't talked to him in about five months. Do you reach out? It's a new owner. They're like no, I don't like what you had going on. We're not going to do that. And then you're up the creek without a paddle. So in the mid summer having your asana say reach out just touch base. Just say hey can't wait, season's going.

[Heather]

Here's a great one to use asana for my advocation for a project management software in your life should you choose to is okay I have a cookie class on Saturday. Let's pretend right Teach a cookie class is is covering a multitude of sins. There's so much more cookie class. Yeah there is within Asana I can say it's called teach a cook I can trigger it for Saturday but what it does is it back builds my week. Yeah so it says okay on Monday I need to send that follow up email to the attendees to remind them on Friday send up a second follow up email and then schedule that after class email which I do this all ahead of time on Thursday print off the attendee list so that we can check off when people there on Tuesday Sen Corey what she needs to bake. Yeah and upload the PowerPoint because again if any of these steps are skipped we got a problem. We do on the Sunday after teaching a class trigger that I need to upload the class photos to the social media and start scheduling out content, and that's what you can use in Asana. So I created this framework. I just trigger it when I need it. It's always there.

[Corey]

And because she's done it for one class, she can now replicate that for each and every class. So you see, there's a lot of upfront time cost, but then it goes slower and lower.

[Heather]

And then as Corey and I make mistakes and learn from them, I'll go and edit my template and be like, okay, don't forget that. Yeah, don't forget.

[Corey]

Yeah, yeah.

[Heather]

Like, one was the class because we. We teach it in a space kitchen showroom. I had not been sending a reminder to the employee that works there, and it turns out she was working there that day.

[Corey]

We butted it up with my for Easter class.

[Heather]

Run back to my template and say, make sure you send this email. And then within Asana, I can check him off as they get going. So I really do like that. That's 10 minutes you'd have, you know. And I edit my asana every week.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

10 minutes. Plan out your week into the future. So what does that week look like now? I used to eat that frog. Give me a framework, man. Yeah. Give me somebody that has figured it out. Yeah, A frog hates to see me dark in the doorway. I use it. So what's my primary task today and what's my secondary? If I got both these done, would my business move forward? Yes. Then this day is taken care of. And if that's a cookie class week, it's going to look different than a different class. So that's your admin hour. So 10 minutes QuickBooks. 10 minutes adding new leads to CRM. 10 minutes inbox zero. 10 minutes inventory check. 10 minutes weekly meeting or asana. And then 10 minutes planning out the rest of the week.

[Corey]

Yeah. In that I want to say putting your new leads in your CRM for your newsletter, that's how you create.

[Heather]

Oh, that's a. That's an extra step, too. Add them to your newsletter. Yeah, I know that's a good one.

[Corey]

But that's a great one.

[Heather]

I would do those two at the same time. Yes. Because you would have all that stuff right there. And then you just do there. Okay. We have an example of a baking hour.

[Corey]

So this is what I do.

[Heather]

Baking prep hour every week.

[Corey]

I typically do do it on Sundays.

[Heather]

Do, do, do, do.

[Corey]

Sundays are my prep day for the week, mentally. I clean the house, get everything ready, and I prep for what needs to be baked this week. So take us through the list.

[Heather]

10 minutes washing baking mats and other supplies.

[Corey]

I like to throw them in the dishwasher, it says, but I've done it for a while.

[Heather]

It's dinner. Saves me so much. Maybe she'd be in church on Sunday, not sitting in the dishwasher. But yeah. So making sure all this. So again, you're like, we're not baking for this hour. We're prepping for baking for the week.

[Corey]

So when it comes to your baking during the week, we're not running around like, I didn't order the cutter in time. We know what we got. We know what we don't got.

[Heather]

We can say, oh my God, and we'll get to the cutter things. I like this one. I'm a clean freak myself. 10 minutes to wipe down surfaces and disinfect. Okay. You may be like, that takes a lot longer. No, no, no. This is just that one. Hey, before I get baking, every surface is going to be wiped down. Yes. Cleaning a kitchen takes a massive amount of time.

[Corey]

This is. We' had our deep clean kitchen whenever you did that. This is yes. We're prepping for. When I roll out the dough, I know that my husband's crumbs from the night before aren't anywhere near really?

[Heather]

If you said, okay, we got four examples of an hour frameworks. We got four hours right here. If you did this every Monday, you're going to be sitting pretty in your business. You're never going to have that little guy on your shoulder saying, you didn't do it Right. So that's the example. But other things take massive amounts of time to get us to be able to just spend an hour. So we have 10 minutes washing baking mats illegally and other supplies. 10 minutes wiping down surfaces and disinfecting. Making just everything's clean. Making sure the bacteria population has been decimated because we want to make sure we are following food handling safety rules. Also, if you're germaphobe, we just want to do that anyway.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

20 minutes, Corey out of them collecting.

[Corey]

Cutters if you aren't organized. Ten if you are.

[Heather]

So remember like we said, you could spend eight hours, which I think you did, organize your cutters so that this is a 10.

[Corey]

I want to tell you you the amount of time it took to do the cutter storage. Originally I said, this is insane.

[Heather]

It didn't cost a massive amount of money. Time building the shelving. Yeah. Organizing things like horrendous. And you people who use apps, which I don't think you do, like Google keep to organize your Cutters horrendous.

[Corey]

But then, well, Nate actually has his desk next to my cutter storage.

[Heather]

Poor man.

[Corey]

And every time I come down he says, do you think that still saves you time? I said, immense amounts of time. Because now I have birthday set. In my birthday set you're gonna find candles.

[Heather]

I posted an absolutely hilarious meme on the sugar cookie marketing page. If you guys want to go see it and you want to be entertained.

[Corey]

Like the page hilarious.

[Heather]

You're only. And I posted free. A free transfer sheets. I've been working.

[Corey]

I know it's a choo choo train.

[Heather]

And it's a good one.

[Corey]

Candles candel.

[Heather]

I was feeling it.

[Corey]

You are. I want to say candles are Christmas. So you are in the Christmas mindset as well.

[Heather]

Well, I think her name is Kimberly. She had asked for candles. So I was like, well, I designed them from scratch in Illustrator. Which is hard for me. But they're very cute. So I was like. Instead of just doing a skinny. Because she was even like, I know. Skinny candles.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So I made a chunky boy. I made a medium boy and a skinny boy. And somebody was like, this is great because the chunky boy is going to be my holiday candle. My medium boy is going to be my pumpkin candle. My skinny candle is going to be my birthday can. So collect your cutters. Why was I telling people? Oh yeah. Somebody said it's hard for me to organize my cutters when this shape could be for a baby shower, it could be for a Christmas class, and it could be for this other thing.

[Corey]

So what I do. And you're going to find what works for you. What do I use that cutter most for? Because what is you don't want to do is be like, where did old me think I was going to put that? If I know I'm always using the candle for a birthday and Christmas only comes once a year. Let me put that in the birthday stash.

[Heather]

Okay.

[Corey]

So it'll be easy.

[Heather]

So when you get to Christmas and you need a candle, you would say that would likely be in the birthday stash because I use it the most.

[Corey]

In the Christmas is literally Santa Claus's face. Because he's never going to be used outside of Christmas.

[Heather]

Mostly no Halloween claws.

[Corey]

You could do Christmas in July, but at least I know it's still Christmas.

[Heather]

Okay, that's a good thing. But that's going to be a personal preference. The heart I do like that can.

[Corey]

Go for Valentine's Day and for weddings.

[Heather]

Okay.

[Corey]

Most used heart weddings goes in there. The ones hearts that I Only typically like for Valentine's Day are in the Valentine's Day.

[Heather]

We have a heart hierarchy.

[Corey]

We do have a heart hierarchy.

[Heather]

Okay. Collect cutters. 20 minutes if you're disorganized. 10 minutes if you're organized. But we're going to leave this for 20 minutes for this framework. 10 minutes. Dough ready or a dough day planned.

[Corey]

So I can know if I look in after you've done this for a while and I would highly suggest one day is to make. If you have a big batch I I can make five dozen cookies from one batch of cookies.

[Heather]

Big bite.

[Corey]

Big bite. Big batch of dough. You.

[Heather]

So this isn't making the dough. This is knowing the dough.

[Corey]

You need to know your dough and what one batch of dough produces. So if I know if I have an order for 3 dozen 36 cookies and I know one batch of dough can produce 36 cookies that are roughly 3.5 inches, I can look visually and know how much dough I need or how much dough I have left.

[Heather]

You got to know the dough, man. No, the dough would know 10 minutes. Icing color, piping bags, powders. So getting that organized is really royal icing.

[Corey]

If you use it with meringue powder doesn't go bad. You can store it in the fridge and freezer. I love to not waste. So if I know I have a set coming up and it's here comes the sun, I'm going to look for my orange and yellows and that I know I don't have to remake I might add to it but that's something that will save me a lot of time. It's already been mixed, man.

[Heather]

If you did and and there you obviously can make more frameworks. Right. More hour frameworks. If you spent your and tackled this each Monday. You know, sometimes I like to keep Friday a free space but I find that it gets eaten up a lot.

[Corey]

It does.

[Heather]

But if you did your Monday is admin hours 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Let's say you do five admin hours based on social inbox admin baking. You are a force to be reckoned with. I would hate to see you coming. My little bakery business would be quaking its boots if you were in my area.

[Corey]

Yeah, you have to think. Most people actually pick up up for orders on Thursdays Fridays because the event is typically on Saturdays. That's when people have off work. You can plan your week. Freezing cookies can help you make sure that this week is framed up very nice.

[Heather]

That's a pickup reminders. Yeah, they're gonna be in that Inbox because you're gonna say I'm gonna ping them. They can say what I love in my life is scheduling softwares.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

Because I may have the gumption in Monday but Friday me ain't there. So you can use call Fire. It's what we use to text into the podcast. You can schedule text blast to the people who need to pick up. So you could do that. A twofer and hot plate's pretty neat. But it's a 5.5% on top of your transactions and that's great if you want to do it. I'm all about letting automation handle it for me. But if you wanted to manually automate on my planning on Monday I'd automate an email reminder reminder. Then that morning I would automate a text reminder. Which means my form's gonna need to collect a phone number.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

Not a landline.

[Corey]

And while you I don't never call people. Here's the thing. If you do have a pop up or you have a market not everything sells using utilizing phone numbers to actually get that product gone faster. You have to think I check a text message at the drop of a hat email. I'm probably logging in once or twice. So if you wanted to get those grab bags what's left over gone now.

[Heather]

My asterisk for that one is make sure that they opt in to marketing text boss. I would not. I think that and I would put this on your forum required phone number. I will text you about your pickup.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So they opted in right there.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Then you could say check here. If you want to get texts from me then you could add them to that list.

[Corey]

I bought soap for cleaning my car and why am I getting texts twice a day?

[Heather]

I would like to talk to Paula's choice. I would like to talk to that wisp online pharmacy. I would like to talk to not your average Joe's and be like stop it.

[Corey]

The reason why I like Michael's text is they're always telling you what the the coupon is for the week. That I can handle.

[Heather]

I prefer if I sign up for your text to only be bothered when there's a sale.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

I don't want to know like no like like specs S, P E K S is that fidgety thing. It'll be like it's a Monday. Do you want to buy an overpriced fidget stick? No.

[Corey]

Go away.

[Heather]

Yeah. Yeah. Y But it is very effective. Corey and I obviously have the preference to not be bothered unless we opted in.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

So I would not Send a text blast. Unless people opted in. Yeah, I agree.

[Corey]

I agree. Let them opt in and ask.

[Heather]

Okay, that takes us through our one hour of admin. If you guys have any ideas yourself of how you break down an hour of admin day, I'd love to hear it. Post it in the group because this is going to help a lot of people. I love borrowing frameworks from people because if you already had the problem, why do I need to have the problem myself to implement a framework? Right?

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So if you guys could be so gracious as to let people borrow your frameworks, we'd appreciate it. I would appreciate it.

[Corey]

Yeah, yeah. Just post it in the group. Here's the thing. Everyone works off of different people. Heather is a computer girl.

[Heather]

Everyone works off of different people.

[Corey]

Yeah, you are. Someone's gonna see yours and be like, oh, that clicks with me. I do like pen and paper.

[Heather]

Corey's a pen and paper girly. Somebody had asked, I think it was Patty. And she was like, like, how are you guys keeping lists for yourself? And I'm like, right there she is talking about pens and paper. Because a form girl is going to be like, I'll just make a form. So that's fine.

[Corey]

I'm a middle of the road.

[Heather]

What do you find?

[Corey]

I love job form. Sending me the. The reminders and that stuff like that. But I have to write it down one more time for myself.

[Heather]

I was reading and I did this in high school. And I think you. I think I. I gotta apologize. What? In high school, I would. I would write out my notes.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Then I would take those handwritten notes because my handwriting is just horrendous. And I would type them out and then I would actually quiz you who hadn't done anything on my notes to help you study a little bit. That was gracious of me. But they were like that transposing of notes embeds it into your brain.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

So I was like, I'll write the notes. And I'm like, secretly, I'm just gonna. Gonna do that so I can remember it. I did quiz you on my notes. You weren't gonna write them anyways. I was gonna steal your notes. So. Yeah, I mean, that could help, but I would. I. I'm very reliant on digital reminders because I find that paper gets misplaced.

[Corey]

What's so funny is last month this lady bypassed my form. Shame on you, lady. But I really liked her. She's giving a lot of shame on you, Corey. Yeah, I know.

[Heather]

Shame everyone.

[Corey]

Which I had written it down. For the order was. I had written it down that it was like. Like, April 7th instead of May 17th, April 17th instead of May 17th. These weird months. Middle months.

[Heather]

So then I was like, oh, your.

[Corey]

Order is due tomorrow. I'm so sorry. If you can push it back, I'll make it. She's like, no, it's not until next month.

[Heather]

You're good. You know, it is kind of hard. I had to do. I was going on a trip next month to Pittsburgh, and I had. There's, like, an itinerary, and I prefer to see, like, Friday, June 29th. I have no idea if that's right.

[Corey]

Versus 6. 29.

[Heather]

Yeah. Like, I need an anchor somewhere. Is it a Friday? So this guy was like, well, here's the schedule that we're following. And I was like, is that a Tuesday? Is that a Tuesday? Is that a Tuesday? Yeah. And it really. Yeah. And I. He was actually using, like. I think he just said Friday because the event is very specific. Saturdays. And I was like, like, I need Friday the 29th.

[Corey]

Yeah, that's what I do now when customers email. I'm like, okay, so we're good for Friday, May 28th, because you'll be picking up on Friday, May 28th.

[Heather]

Oh, I love that. Okay, here's the thing. The therapist lady, she'll be like, here's my schedule. And she'll just blob it out there. And so I'll reply and be like, here are the days and the times at which I'm available. Like, in an ordered list. It's Friday, comma.

[Corey]

When a month has four Friday. You can't just say, yeah, we're good for Friday. What does that mean? Are we on the same Friday?

[Heather]

I need it to be. I need a number there stuck to a number. And then she'll be like, I can't do these two days. What are these two days? I'm like, shoot, I'm gonna. It takes me forever to get through that. So those are our frameworks. Now, moving into the cookie College. A lot of this, what we talked about here, the streamlined stuff, you'll see that I am very into letting technology do the thinking and remembering and reminding for me.

[Corey]

And she teaches you that. Get in the cookie college, which is a monthly membership you can sign up for. It's constantly being added to, whether that be a cookie class kit, because the college actually gets everything. If you sign up for the college, you save the most money with us because you get all of our five memberships in your one membership, which is the college. But you get the cookie class kits. You get every. Every course that's in the college now and ongoing as long as you're an active member there. You get the digital downloads. You get the basic. The basic business. The basic bakers.

[Heather]

I forgot what it's called. The baker's business basics.

[Corey]

You're a basic baker.

[Heather]

And the transfers of which this month you've gotten over 10 transfers. Wow. Yeah.

[Corey]

So you get that. And the reason why twins aren't you losing out money? If I sign up for the college, the reason is the college is going to be the most beneficial for you. You're going to find benefit there and.

[Heather]

Stay and you're going to want to take longer. So that cost of customer acquisition we're able to pass on to you because you're sticking around and we don't have to be like, like to everybody. You should try this.

[Corey]

I know, I know.

[Heather]

Now I. We're doing a mid summer membership sale. Last week of July I signed on. I signed sign on. She signed on. So we'll be talking about that through the month of July. So brace your bets, brace your butts, brace your bets. And that'll be the last week of July which takes us into actually the first couple days of.

[Corey]

I know. August, August, August.

[Heather]

I cannot believe today is the 20th.

[Corey]

I you even said it when I told you the 20th. Here's my thought. My son's last week of school is this week.

[Heather]

I think a lot. This is I think the last week for heroics count is it.

[Corey]

I feel like they have two weeks left to be clear.

[Heather]

They could be. They could be wild.

[Corey]

Wild. Why y' all the.

[Heather]

So if you guys want to check out the cookie college, you can sign up today and then get that membership discount come the last week of July. This is the time Corey and I talk about it where we see bakers get into their baker breaks. I think that summer you got your vacations and stuff. It's kind of hard to plan be like, I can't take your order now. I don't want to think about I to want. So now would be that time to kind of sign in to get do.

[Corey]

Those big eight hour days to make this a one hour yes day.

[Heather]

Because this one hour stuff is going to do really well in Q3 and Q4 when we are pressed for time.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

But this heavy lifting to get a sandbox era, to get the cutters organized, to get our inventory organized, you're going to want to do that in the J months.

[Corey]

I want to say in on Saturday, while I was Watching Alien movies. It was just my calling on Saturday. I just felt like I was emptying out my Google Drive. So you can do this.

[Heather]

Google Drive is enough stuff.

[Corey]

It doesn't have to feel like, oh, when I think of an eight hour overwhelming day, I don't want to do it.

[Heather]

No.

[Corey]

But if I can say for every time I watch a movie on Netflix or my favorite show, I'm going to start adding people to my CRM.

[Heather]

These big projects I'll spread over a couple weeks.

[Corey]

Yeah. And it makes it so much more palatable.

[Heather]

These are the couple weeks. Okay. Corey and I are saying, like, this year's flying by. We're at the end of May, so we are almost in June and July.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

These are the months where you get a little bit of breathing room because then it starts contracting again come August, September. And then you're in a headlock.

[Corey]

Then you're just like, fine.

[Heather]

Yeah. And you're not going to be like, let me spend those eight hours to organize my cutters. Do you need. You're using the cutters. Right. So here's my challenge. My challenge. And I am 100 by biased. My life is. I, I. My life is so much easier having implemented these stuff. Yes. These things.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

This is the life which you and I get emails a lot. How do you guys do it all? You don't do it all, but the things that we do do well. Doo doo doo doo is a theme on this podcast.

[Corey]

A lot of doo doo doo doo.

[Heather]

I think that's the truth. The things that I do do well is because I have already done it. And then I've taught other people how to do it. And the people who have taken the class, I. Can you tell? Tell. Because I'm like, you did it. Yeah. And they're like, yeah, I did it. I know, I know. Now I'll never go back to my pre this life.

[Corey]

Yeah. Pre do life or a post do life.

[Heather]

You choose. But if you guys want to check that out, it's TheCookieCollege.com if you have any questions. I'm always here to help.

[Corey]

Wait. There is a message that someone wrote that you took a screenshot of on Sunday.

[Heather]

Yeah. I think I sent it to you and sent it.

[Corey]

No, I don't think I got it. I don't think I got it, girl. But it was so nice. Such a nice reminder.

[Heather]

And you don't think I sent on.

[Corey]

I don't think you sent it to me, girl.

[Heather]

But I told you. Well, I clean out my screenshots. Every weekend.

[Corey]

Did you?

[Heather]

But here you go. I got it. Rena said this post heart the twins have spent years learning, developing and testing, tweaking, updating, teaching and sharing in ways that are understandable, manageable and implementable to help us thrive our in businesses. You can spend years trial and erroring as they did to gain the same knowledge divided by two of them of course. Or you can spend $76 a month to join the cookie college and gain all that knowledge as well as the amazing think tank that is the Facebook group and save on the cost of your time. It was on my anchoring post and she said see how I anchored the value of the college with your time.

[Corey]

That was but she's you're learning from people who have been there done that. I who have gotten sick of having to waddle through their inbox not knowing where the orders are and the spam is and well, I can't see somebody.

[Heather]

Yesterday was like hey cookie college. I got a Eugene dose eater. Walk me through it. Yeah, and that's going to save on that time again. Kind of what the goal of the cookie college is. And people are like is it a baking class? No, it is to buy back the cost of doing business time so that you can ideally raise your prices and spend time with your family. Spend your money. Yeah. But to allow you to have that option, that time is, is valuable and we only have so much of it.

[Corey]

We do. I'm always you will only have 24 hours. And I'm always I said I can buy back time, organize my cutters, but I cannot buy any more 24 hours.

[Heather]

You can't. So you really need to fight. I think you know, you see in life that you claw trying to climb the corporate ladder which takes up more hours then you spend the next half your life trying to get back the hours by clawing out of the corporate life. And I think that's where the cookie college is for a lot of people is buying back the time so that you can enjoy your life. Because you take you reach a fork in the road, you can either get burnt out because it's just taking up too much of you or you can strategize on ways to not burn out but still make money.

[Corey]

Yeah, agreed.

[Heather]

So if that is compelling to you, go check it out. The cookiecollege.com yes. If you have any questions about the cookie college, you can ask that in the sugar cookie marketing group. Moving on to stupid questions. Corey, feeling stupid today?

[Corey]

I'm always stupid. Apparently in high school when you were trying to teach me my little.

[Heather]

Did you know I was stealing all the information? Okay, we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Texts. 7, 1, 2, 3, 4th, 5, 6, 7. This is the winner is a text in question. So 8, 6, 0 area code. You are the winner. Send me an email at [e-mail] with the rest of your phone number. What do you think that is? Wisconsin? Connecticut. Funny, because I've already mentioned Connecticut on this podcast, and I really, honestly never think about Connecticut.

[Corey]

If I'm honest in my mind, I've never. Have I ever been to Connecticut. I don't believe. I think it's a pleasant place in my brain.

[Heather]

Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode island, you're the same to me.

[Corey]

I want to say fall happens there.

[Heather]

I think you guys get three days of summer and you get a lot of fall. Maple syrup that's in my head. I have no idea what's going on.

[Corey]

A lot of flannel blankets.

[Heather]

What's going on in Maine?

[Corey]

I want to say lobsters.

[Heather]

Lobsters.

[Corey]

Lobsters in Maine.

[Heather]

I don't know. That sounds good to me. Hi. My favorite twins. Thank you. I'm leaning towards Corey as my number one favorite because my name is never spelled correctly either. My name is Carrie K E R.

[Corey]

R I E. Carrie K E R R I. I had a friend named Carrie spelled the same way. We are kindred spirits.

[Heather]

You're caring experience. Here's my question. I've been reading that AEO is the new SEO. I almost think that must be AI SEO. How should we be adapting into our strategy? Thank you for all you do. I'm at the very beginning of this cookie journey. Let me just confirm that AEO means what I'm gonna see that it's you. Unless she meant Authorized Economic Operator, I'm assuming that it's AI integrated.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

SEO. Complicated question to be asking at the beginning of your cookie journey, but we love where you might. I did say this to Heather and Kim last night. AI is amazing. It will one day replace me right now.

[Corey]

It's quirky.

[Heather]

Yeah, it's a quirky.

[Corey]

He's got his little double dash deer legs on him. His little baby doe legs.

[Heather]

He's just learning how to walk, I think is a great tool that a human can use. I think at any point. And I was talking to my older sister, and she was like, why do you have a stick up your AI? But I was like, because I think people are too reliant. Reliant on it. And it's creating a lack of Personality blob.

[Corey]

It's a copy and paste is what people are doing. So she was like, well, the way.

[Heather]

I used AI is I had it mock up an ad and then I sent it to our design team. I said right there, that was a good part. You sent an AI assisted design to a human that used it to better understand your idea. And that I think is 100% where it should go. So in terms of SEO, which can be complicated, we can rely on AI solely, which is there's a rumor that if you get AI to write an article, Google can't tell.

[Corey]

Here's the thing. AI is pulling from the information that is already out there.

[Heather]

So keep in mind, AI creates no new ideas.

[Corey]

It doesn't learn. It just knows.

[Heather]

It learns from humans. Yes. Great. Okay then. Well, then all this information, it is. You have to fact check it. And when you could get into.

[Corey]

You asked it the second president, and it was like, I don't.

[Heather]

It.

[Corey]

It's some random president.

[Heather]

Benjamin Franklin. Right after you made the light bulb with that, I was like, that's not right.

[Corey]

And they were like, oh, yeah, you're right. You're right.

[Heather]

You know, I had asked it. I was talking about the OS we have. We live in the D.C. area, and we have Quantico just right down the road and Langley up the street.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And there was these Osprey, if they're airplanes that operate, like helicopters and airplanes at the same time. So I said something. I was like, hey, are the Ospreys only developed by the Marines? Because Quantico's Marine base. And it was like, like, Marine life really does not like the Osprey bird. And I was like, oh, I'm sorry. I'm talking about the machine. It was like, thank you so much for correcting that.

[Corey]

I have no idea.

[Heather]

Yeah. So in terms of getting AI to do 100% of your SEO. Not yet. In terms of getting AI to audit your SEO, 100%.

[Corey]

Me and Heather were talking extensively about AI. AI is great. It takes out your personality, though, and say it's a jump from people they know they like and they trust.

[Heather]

And you build trust by being authentic.

[Corey]

By being authentic. So while AI is a good bounce.

[Heather]

Board, Kim had mentioned it last night. If you need to send a really stern email. AI.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

If you want to send like, hey, thank you so much for reaching out. How can I make this right? I'm not sure that AI is the only way to write that.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So as terms of SEO, the biggest challenge I see people have with a baker With a bakery. They never update their website.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

If I could tell you there's a podcast we did on a blog. Start right there. If you can get AI to kind of help you generate ideas, or you can get it to audit your H1 tags and see how they're nested. Absolutely. To get AI to write the blog completely. I'm going to say no. Maybe get it to write the first draft and then you come in and.

[Corey]

Add stuff to it. Add your personality in there.

[Heather]

I really think you got to. They call it the death of the Internet. It's a real weird theory I've heard about. We've talked about it. The death of the Internet is if AI learns from the current web.

[Corey]

Web, yes.

[Heather]

It's learning from humans. If humans use AI to write the next iteration of the web, then AI is learning from AI. Well, then that AI will then learn from that AI and then it becomes a different Internet siphoned out of there. Yeah.

[Corey]

Me and I were talking about it while I was talking about. I just came to grips with. Me and Heather have lived a life pre Internet and post Internet.

[Heather]

A weird. A weird blip for the millennials. Have experience.

[Corey]

Yeah. Like my son will never know. A life with. Without the Internet. But me and Heather have had to go to a library to find out information from the 80s, the most current thing you could find out. Whereas now the Internet is so current.

[Heather]

I remember when we were in high school, it said, like, you cannot use Wikipedia. I'm not sure if you would still use Wikipedia to cite a thing, but now you could get. You can.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Oh, you can't.

[Corey]

Yeah. No.

[Heather]

He said, no, darn it. That was such a great resource. I would use it. I would use Wikipedia to find the resource site in the Bible. Them. But yeah, AI, it ain't going away.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

I think the thing.

[Corey]

I think we and Heather have lived a life pre and post Internet, pre and post AI.

[Heather]

I would, in this stage of AI, be looking for every place I could adapt it into my workflow. I would not make it replace my workflow.

[Corey]

I agree.

[Heather]

So for now, I said to Kim and Heather last night, that is my job replacement is a robot. Do you see Duolingo fired a bunch of people. Oh. And they said, we're going full AI.

[Corey]

They one turned off all their social media. And then they said, this is 14. I feel like I'm 14. It was like, hashtag. I feel like I'm like. Because they got such a.

[Heather]

Someone said it felt like a teenager got broken up. I was like, I don't like you anyways. Yeah. So if you don't do a lingo. The language app, it had a really, really. It was one of the first platforms to use their social media to just be quirky.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Because, I mean, how are you gonna.

[Corey]

It was an owl and owl's doing. He had so many outfit changes. We're like, who do you have on staff that's making these outfits overnight to fit a trend?

[Heather]

And it was really engaging because at the end of the day, you know what Duolingo's competitor was back in the day? Rosetta Stone. That rk. You wanted Rosetta Stone. Yes, they did. You know the language, how learn. So then Duolingo comes in with this cute app with this green bird and super fun. And it really adapted long before everyone else come to this, like, new version. And then the CEO writes in an email. We did apps before apps. Yeah. Before language instruction software did apps, we entered it first and we're doing that again with AI, but we're going to fire every contractor and if you can't get AI to it, don't do it at all. Yikes. I don't know. That wasn't the best email to send out.

[Corey]

I know.

[Heather]

They had to create.

[Corey]

Created such a fan base and lost it.

[Heather]

Like people were ending their tenure straight. They had a Duolingo death party. They were canceling it. As she saw it on her phone. I can see it sometimes.

[Corey]

Is she even taking it? Oh, she was saying, I don't know. I feel very turned on.

[Heather]

Okay, another text. So my winning text was Connecticut. Connecticut. [e-mail] I'll connect you with Phil from Stupid Cartridge. If you did not win today, you can still use a code Sugar at checkout for 15% off. Aren't you getting a new stupid card tray? Yes.

[Corey]

Finally.

[Heather]

Good. Another text I have from 662. Not the winner, but try again next week. You're the winner in my heart. What are your thoughts on wish lists if you don't know what I'm talking about? Some cookies have themes they really want to create a set around, so they offer a wish list special. This could be a discount, extra details to the first person who books a set for the order. Thoughts. Love it.

[Corey]

This became super popular in SEM a few years ago, so they call it the cookie bucket list. The wish list. It's themes that you want to make that you would be like, if I made these would make me really happy. And people typically do it at a 10 or 15% discount from their normal pricing.

[Heather]

Now, I think this fits really well for a month where you don't have a ton of orders, but you'll want to make some money.

[Corey]

Love that. People will post it a lot of times in January. Here's my wish list for the year. And throughout the year, they'll repost it and lines will be crossed off the ones that they had already ordered.

[Heather]

Word. It's a creative way to introduce your own audience. Neither ideas. Yeah, it's a great way for you to create content. Like, if you're like, I really wanted to create a set, nobody's ever ordered it from me. I would like to turn this into content. Great way. Talking about that reel, let's say it had a watercolor technique into it. You can say, hey, guys, here's how to do a watercolor. Again, that's appealing more to bakers. But you got the point that we're generating content and it's a decent way to bolster. Like, I wouldn't do it wish list around Christmas.

[Corey]

No, it. That wouldn't fit unless it was a Christmas wish list.

[Heather]

But that means you have low orders at Christmas time when you typically shouldn't. So I would say that's indicative of some other thing is broken along.

[Corey]

I think wish lists are great if you're in between being booked all the time and then you have slow times. Like, it's a great.

[Heather]

It's a great way to get new clients. But a lot of times the people that are seeing that are people already. I would maybe use that as my sales post on a community. Community group.

[Corey]

That would be great. Here's the thing. If I can get an order that's paying full price, that isn't a theme. I don't care. Like, I could care less if I do or don't. I'd much rather make the full price.

[Heather]

I agree. Some bakers will do it when they're feeling burnt out because they're getting the same types of voice.

[Corey]

You're getting creative juices flowing at a 10 discount. So you're still winning because you're doing something you want to do.

[Heather]

So I'm gonna say one thumb up for the wish list.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

I'm not gonna do a thumb down at all. I think it has its place. I think when used strategically to bolster a week, month, or to take a little ment from the same old baby set that you're doing. Yeah, that would be a decent one. Again, it cuts into your profit. Like Corey said, if you're charging enough, if you don't know where your number's at. It's going to be two thumbs down for me.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

If you do know where your number's at and a 15% discount. But I like what she added there. I would not do a discount. I would add a. It's a higher tier for a cheaper tier. Right. So we're not really cutting into our profit as much as we're adding some details which I know is still affecting our numbers. But I like the wish list idea. It was very popular one time. I still see people using it all.

[Corey]

I still of people.

[Heather]

Have you ever not?

[Corey]

I have not. Because I want paid.

[Heather]

Okay.

[Corey]

Full amounts. I don't.

[Heather]

If you had to be in the kitchen. I want to make the maximum amount of money. But do you get interesting orders?

[Corey]

Like I would love to.

[Heather]

What's an. What's it style you're tired of? Like if somebody never ordered again, you'd be like thank God.

[Corey]

When they say that. I don't feel that construction is hard cuz there's a lot of straight lines.

[Heather]

Is the only reason why.

[Corey]

But I never get tired.

[Heather]

I love. Well, you're also not doing Disney on eyes.

[Corey]

I'm not doing Disney eyes. I typically don't do like the Mickey Mouse.

[Heather]

I see people get burnout on any child TV show that's trending.

[Corey]

People said they're burnout on Baby in Bloom. I kind of like it still flowers. Yeah.

[Heather]

It's kind of wide open. Yeah.

[Corey]

But they are like if I have to do another baby. It's a trend right now for sure. Pooh Bear. Naked Pooh Bear is a trend right now. Where he has no shirt.

[Heather]

Yeah. The old guy.

[Corey]

Yeah, the pre one.

[Heather]

The one that's now.

[Corey]

I would love to do a baby goosette. That's trending right now.

[Heather]

You haven't gotten that?

[Corey]

No.

[Heather]

Do you want me to have a baby?

[Corey]

Could you please?

[Heather]

So I could bought one on it for free because of them. You're twin. Oh.

[Corey]

You get a discount. 10%.

[Heather]

18 years. Okay. That is a good one. Yeah. I'd say if you're new to the cookie game and you don't have those leads, that might be a decent thing. Okay, we got another text from 66 1. Not a winner winner but could be a winner next year.

[Corey]

What's 661 Arizona?

[Heather]

Why do you feel that?

[Corey]

I just feel like 6 and 6 are dry humid areas.

[Heather]

You think they were like, you know it's hot here. Just make it 6la.

[Corey]

I was close.

[Heather]

Santa Clarita. I saw this meme the other day. And it was like, yeah, Californians. They're like, yeah, I'm the Rancho Pomodero. And then that's like, that's where I'm from. But all of California's name those funky Santa Clarita. Yes. Like Santa Clarita.

[Corey]

And they're like Santa Monica.

[Heather]

Yeah. It just feels like I'm the boopity boop cactus. And everyone's like oh, you're from there. I'm close. That's what it sounds like when you don't live in California because Fairfax renamed after all the old European things. Hi twins. I look forward to your podcast every week. I love the information coming to my ear holes, ear holes nuggets and no one else. My question is if you were going to offer virtual classes, would you do a pre recorded video, a live event in a Facebook or a Zoom or would you just send the PowerPoint and walk them through it step by step? Now we did do this. We do do this. We did do this. And people were like please go back to in person. So the few times that we did what we did is a little confusing. I had Corey actually in this tiny room set up on a table right here and I used the Archon mount which I wouldn't use again because it was kind of leaning. So I would probably use a different thing. I I used your iPhone as the webcam.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

And then I screen shared on Zoom. So what I told Zoom was is I have two sources right here. I have a webcam and I have my desktop and what I do is we would go to the PowerPoint, display it to them and then I'd switch to Corey hand decorating in person and we narrated in person.

[Corey]

It comes down to whatever you're deciding right here is who is your audience? Are you making classes for other cookiers? And these classes are are extensive pre recorded because they're going to come for parts and then have to stop because life happens if you're doing in person local cookie, not in person, local cookie classes to local people virtually virtual. Because the reason why we did it in Covid. We did it in Covid, right? The reason why it was nice to do it on we did on Zoom, right? We did because we were able to relay our personality so we were able to talk. How are you doing Trisha?

[Heather]

I thought it added value. Now the reason why I use Zoom is because Eventbrite connected to Zoom. That's how Eventbrite handles digital tickets. And we used Eventbrite platform. You could obviously do it yourself. Would I do The Facebook group. No, because I find like it's orphaned after a while and now Facebook's deleting all those after 30 days.

[Corey]

It is.

[Heather]

Not everyone uses Facebook anymore.

[Corey]

Here's the thing. There's so many glitchy things that can happen with Facebook. Like I've seen people try to go do their PowerPoint on a Facebook Live.

[Heather]

Screen share on Facebook is a wild experience.

[Corey]

Yeah. So honestly, Zoom is made for that. For sharing your screen and sharing your face.

[Heather]

Yeah.

[Corey]

So it's a little bit built better for that.

[Heather]

Zoom has some features that Facebook doesn't have, like a waiting room, a chat. Raise your hand. I can force cameras on, force cameras off. I can ask someone to turn their audio on if they have it turned off. So it gives you a little bit more management. Yes.

[Corey]

I will say when cookiers do like eternal classes and they have a Facebook group and it's like dead as a doornail. But it's been dead for years because you just are adding people who bought the classes. It's like there's no. Doesn't feel like exciting.

[Heather]

I also found. I find it really risky to leave anything on Facebook when AI like okay, Corey and I turned Facebook on the other day and it was like AI, their AI role manager just pinged everybody and it was like we deleted 50 posts in your group because. And we can't tell you it was cyber security.

[Corey]

So we can't tell you exactly what they did.

[Heather]

Those people got a ding again. I guarantee you they did nothing wrong because they knew where the names were.

[Corey]

But imagine if you get shut down.

[Heather]

Then that all that content is gone. So I prefer to keep it now if you Zoom, it records every meeting. You can upload that to Dropbox or something and then Facebook doesn't want to keep your lives anymore anyways.

[Corey]

Yeah, you could always do. What is that? That it starts with P and you can sign up. It's like a subscription based. And Patreon, you could do like a.

[Heather]

Yeah, Patreon is a monthly charge.

[Corey]

I'm just saying if you're always adding to it.

[Heather]

It Some people dep. It depends on who you are. I think she's asking about local cookie classes personally. In which case I would use Zoom. I would actually use Eventbrite because it does a reminders and everything and it creates a link for you to send to them.

[Corey]

Nice.

[Heather]

Can obviously do all this stuff yourself and not pay the Eventbrite fees, but you can pass those fees along as well.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Last one. Hi twins. I look forward to your podcast every week I that sounds very familiar. She texted in and buzz spraded, but it was from Bakersfield, California. Okay, this is funny. It's Deb again. She told me this time. Hey, it's Deb from Alvina again with a question. If I want to trade a fifth time, please pass it along to somebody else. But Deb is proof to me that consistency truly works. Yeah, she shows up. She said. I love last week's podcast about refunds. Question. Using Corey's refund example, let's say all the blue icing matched and the client wanted a refund because she didn't like the taste or your design wasn't exactly like the photo that the client sent. Let's not factor in here that you sent her the photo the night prior. Would you be as effusive. That's a fancy word with your apology and give that 100% refund meaning you didn't really do anything wrong. She perceived the wrong. Now you perceived the wrong in the example last week. Let me continue on. Or would you just ask the question how can I make things right by you? And then if she asked for a partial refund, you'd still give her the full refund even though you know you'll never get her back. She doesn't like the cookies flavor something. I get why you refunded the woman in your example as a color wasn't right and you knew you could still keep her if you treated her right. But does your philosophy change if you'll lose a customer due to factors outside of your control? That is a great question.

[Corey]

I go into every order telling myself if they are not happy they will get 100% refund. Before any of that, once you make peace with it, it's so much easier to do. At the end of the day, the one thing I don't want you to feel is like your money is a hostage situation. Yeah, taste is is you gotta have in your terms in services and your whatever we call that policies. Hey, the cookies and the colors, the designs are going to vary based on your in providing that communication up front. Hey, so and so I'm just using these as inspiration. I'm going to make a set unique to you that's going to use what are the top three factors in your insp photo that you would love to see in the set that I create and using that and creating the communication will alleviate a lot of that. But I have already told myself a long time ago that if you are not a complete happy customer with with me, you're going to get your money back. I want us to fight. Who's going to take the money?

[Heather]

Okay, so to Deb's question, which is a very well worded question, I'd still give a full refund even. Okay. Now you'll see in other baking groups, you'll see that if any baker posts that there is a taste issue issue outside of the almond extract almost or a texture issue, almost 100 of bakers will say they are lying to try.

[Corey]

To get a refund. But I want to say what's so crazy is that same baker will go to the local steakhouse and say, this steak is not cooked medium rare, like I asked.

[Heather]

It's so funny. I was reading a thread. It had gone to hell in a handy. And someone's like, but you still send the steak back.

[Corey]

You can't want the same service given to you that you would not extend to somebody else.

[Heather]

I'm sorry, I didn't give enough context there. Some lady had said that. The lady said that the cake she had ordered cupcakes. The cupcakes were delicious. The frosting was just. Something was gnarly with it.

[Corey]

Sure.

[Heather]

So she was like, I just. I spent a lot of money on these and the frosting was bad. She said it tasted rancid. Was the word used. Someone cited that it was the sprinkles from Willems. It could smell bad. Yeah. I don't know. But either way, most of the bakers said you need to ask for the product back because even in the steakhouse, you'd send the steak back. You wouldn't eat the steak. You wouldn't take the steak and throw it away and then say, can you remake the steak?

[Corey]

To me, the reason why the steak is being removed from the table is because there's no space and you don't want to be staring at this steak while you're waiting for a new steak to be made.

[Heather]

The I'm not sure I was thinking about reading the other. Are my trash can habits odd? If I had something I would describe as rancid.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

It wouldn't go in the kitchen trash. It would go in the outside big green bin that the guy comes and takes cakes rancid. So they.

[Corey]

That's a crazy word.

[Heather]

The icing.

[Corey]

If something smells so bad, I will bag it up. I'll put it in the kitchen, bag that up, put it in the big green.

[Heather]

So they were like, if she does not get it out of that trash can and bring it back to you. No refund.

[Corey]

No.

[Heather]

I just couldn't imagine Me having to get a step ladder to lean into something I already find grody because it's the big green ones. And to get something I found rancid out of it.

[Corey]

Here's what I want to explain a little bit. At the end of the day, I might win over that one client. I didn't give her the refund. She wasn't able to produce the rancid.

[Heather]

Cookies I had made.

[Corey]

I won. I will never bake for her. She's on my blacklist. I never want to bake for her anyways. I saw this in another group. Someone said, here, buy from this person. They were so great in the comment section. Said I wouldn't buy from them because I tried to reach out to them. They didn't come back. What if those. I may have won the battle, but I'm losing the war if they take every single second. If they see my name. Recommended nether groups to be like, yeah, one time I worked with them and their stuff was rancid and I didn't get a refund. Is that. Did I win the war? If I think I won the battle but lost the war.

[Heather]

That car that I had that was done dirty on, I wasn't made. I don't believe in. I wasn't apologized to, nor was I made whole. I was not made whole. I didn't necessarily want a refund. I did want to acknowledge myself and maybe it would have been nice to be refunded on the stuff that was broken. Yeah, sure. I'll never. I'm on Facebook constantly, chronically. There's people asking for shops all the time.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

I have never typed out that I don't like them, but I have never recommended them.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

You find me in a car show parking lot though, you're gonna get an earful.

[Corey]

Right, Right. So we don't know what that little.

[Heather]

The repercussions, the true long term repercussions. And me, who's chronically online could have been been their biggest cheerleader. And instead I'm like, hey, what I try is this shop over here. So that's that one. I'll never probably ever side with the dig through your trash and get bring it back to me and drive it to my house.

[Corey]

I do side with that.

[Heather]

Not everything is 100% refund. I think some people are like, rebake it for me. Yeah, I give you a shot. I think that the fight to find what's right is always the goal.

[Corey]

I have a loyal client, Kingston lady. Yeah, she's moved since, but she's still local. And even though she's moved farther out, will send her au pair to pick up from me. I once have spelled her child's name wrong. I said, dude, I'm so sorry. I'm gonna give you. You ordered two dozen. One dozen's on the house, but I will remake your sons. She's like, no, it's totally okay.

[Heather]

No, I'm guessing only one dozen had the name on it.

[Corey]

It wasn't even that one dozen. It was probably four cookies had the name on it. But me is over. Over apologize, you know, and then like, like, let's deliver.

[Heather]

Yeah.

[Corey]

So she's ordered for me a zillion times since that I could have ruined my little sales funnel down the road. Like at the end of the day I could have rebaked the four or whatever. But I love to overly apologize to. To make it so that when you're like, I have to order. And it would be crazy of me not to order from Corey again.

[Heather]

Here's a hot take. Not even. I don't think it's a hot take.

[Corey]

I don't like hot takes anymore. I think people are using them to bully people.

[Heather]

Here's a spicy take. Yeah. Because you know what you're about to say you shouldn't have said out loud, but you're calling a hot take. Mitch makes it sound like you're.

[Corey]

You're alienating someone in your audience. Cuz you didn't like one thing they said.

[Heather]

Here's a hot take. Wouldn't you want to full. Even if the client. Okay, let's say you found the one bad apple. Spoiled the bunch. Let's say you found the one bad apple. Get them gone by giving them the refund. Wouldn't you want to just. Cor and I have had a couple crazies. Yeah. I'm going to say they're crazy. And I'm like, where should I send your money back to?

[Corey]

And then honestly, the way it deflates them because they wanted.

[Heather]

They're like.

[Corey]

They're like, I wanna.

[Heather]

I'm not sure that they even were trying to get one over on us and get a free website. I don't necessarily believe that was that they were crazy people. And I'm like, let me refund you twice as fast as I would somebody actually liked because well, let's just end this relationship. And I said it in a positive way. But I said it with the intention of how fast can I get you your money back? How fast can I get rid of your control over my time?

[Corey]

So while we' See the crazies again. They'll never buy from us. I've never seen any one comment I wouldn't buy from those two.

[Heather]

Really. It's that I felt that I wasn't made whole. And how can you make them whole? Like Deb said, sometimes it may be a rebate, sometimes it may be like, hey, where can we meet halfway on this? And sometimes you're going to see us kind of default to, like, how much money can. Here's all your money. Like, once they have 100% of their money back, a lot of the energy is gone.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

I was telling Kim last night, when people don't apologize to me, my energy now is stored within me. And oftentimes because of rumination, it grows, it gains more legs. It is a centipede at sometimes. And because yawning and you're going, okay, moving on. 57-1-556-5-644. Or if you're on Spotify or Buzzbright, you could just click the text and a question button. They all end up here. Here. Santa Chero chip salsa. Yeah, you can text in. Use code sugar stupidtech.com to get a stupid card tray at a discount or stack it with their other promotions. Moving into our podcast sponsors, the people who make it happen make it. We have Royal Batch Bakey Bake Code Twins. We're just going to go through these because I think we've got these people in a hostage situation. Eddie the edible food printer. No discount. Well worth his cost. Cost.

[Corey]

Prints on food.

[Heather]

Prints on food. Definitely understand. You gotta market him. He just doesn't sell himself. But he's very good. One of you guys was running a Facebook ad for your Eddie printer and my older sister bought from you. Yes, she did. Very funny. She didn't want me to big because Corey was booked. Booked to bake. Go on. So we put that backers co.

[Corey]

Backers code backers co done for with you photography studio in your home.

[Heather]

Very nice. Nice.

[Corey]

Use code sugar cookie. 25% off.

[Heather]

I did code twins for 10% off for the bakey bake.

[Corey]

I can't remember.

[Heather]

That's that one.

[Corey]

That's that one. And then you have the cookie cutter shop.

[Heather]

Why are you putting it on me?

[Corey]

I don't know. You said, I'm just gonna go through it.

[Heather]

I need my list. I honestly need my list.

[Corey]

And then you have Daisy makes innovations.

[Heather]

Okay, go on.

[Corey]

Daisy makes. Makes molds for your cake Pop. I'm trying to say this. Short and sweet like you had it.

[Heather]

I like it. Daisy makes stupid cartridge sugar 15. I mean, that's as a quiz. You really. You said hostage situation.

[Corey]

Now they're even more.

[Heather]

Cookie Design lab don't have the discount. I'm not sure she's running a discount. It's a very cute website that looks like they just actually redid it since last week. Cookie design Lab is a 3D cutter making software.

[Corey]

Yeah, very cute.

[Heather]

So we have Cookie Design Lab Lab. Daisy makes stupid card tray Royal batch. The backers co Eddie printer. And then we actually have a Bosch affiliate. I don't know. They're not sponsored. But if you ever use code sugar cookies, you get $20 off for most of their stuff.

[Corey]

Is it 20 or 25?

[Heather]

$20. 20 DWAs, 20 DualAs. If you guys want to see that list, because I talked too fast and that was discombobulated. You go to sugarcookiemarketing.com and scroll all the way to the bottom and have it listed out there with the codes. I also have. We have a list of discount codes as well.

[Corey]

Yeah, yeah.

[Heather]

People are getting themselves to the list. And just a little bit of way to save some money so you can save that time. Do you have twin dress?

[Corey]

Do I have a twin to rest? I came to Heather's house to wash my car on Sunday, and she was discombobulated. Yeah.

[Heather]

Because on Sunday, what do you want me to do?

[Corey]

I was a bag in the wind.

[Heather]

That is my Sunday agenda. I am a bag upon the wind that bloweth.

[Corey]

I know. So I said, what could Heather possibly be doing? And you gave me some pushback to come over and wash my car.

[Heather]

Because here's my theory of my life theory. If you guys want to know my meaning to life, I think the meaning of life is to is relationships. I think that's the definition of happiness.

[Corey]

Okay?

[Heather]

And good relationships, not the bad ones. And I think everything within life should support the effort to grow this relationship. So when Corey was like, do you want me to blow your plans out of the water and come over to wash cars? I was like, I'd rather go to lunch with her and her kid than by myself. So bring it thyself and thyself soap, and then let's wash it.

[Corey]

Thy car talked into washing Ruth Ann's car.

[Heather]

She made no car wash.

[Corey]

This is my wedding.

[Heather]

Twin power. If you have two twins washing one car.

[Corey]

I know. So that was my twin trist that I.

[Heather]

What did you learn from the car wash?

[Corey]

If the towel goes down, it cannot go back up.

[Heather]

Car wash. You have to work for.

[Corey]

You cannot use a towel. Hi.

[Heather]

Yours. That's a good one. So I look and I, I, I'm a collection of things that have been mansplained to me and for some reason detailing has been mansplained to me a little bit. Thank you men to you.

[Corey]

Mansplain it to me.

[Heather]

So I passed. I said, I bequeath to you the man's explanation. If a terry cloth or if a microfiber or if a shamwow toucheth the ground, it can never toucheth the cardigan.

[Corey]

I do want to say cuz you mansplain so much. I felt paralyzed.

[Heather]

That's how it works in my next movement that I had to ask it every day. Turn the wild.

[Corey]

What do we do now?

[Heather]

Cor and I. So okay, so I put them in the grass cuz whatever. I'm lazy and I, you know, it's scientist, scientist.

[Corey]

Come to the front, come to the front.

[Heather]

Put it. They're not paleontologist.

[Corey]

Come to the front. Okay.

[Heather]

There we had many wet towels with all. They were washed with the same soap. They were involved in the same grime.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

One towel. He had a. I know what you're going to say. Maybe it's a different color. He had a twin towel next to him. One towel. Like five various sundry spiders on. On it.

[Corey]

Just sitting, dare I say sunbathing, you.

[Heather]

May say maybe it was wetter. No, it was right next to his brother.

[Corey]

They were brother towels.

[Heather]

One towel. Arachnophobia. The other towel had two. I don't understand.

[Corey]

So Corey, I said, oh my goodness.

[Heather]

Look at the massive amount of spiders on this. Anything more than one spider is a massive amount of spiders. And Corey grabs it and all the.

[Corey]

Spiders jump onto my body.

[Heather]

I've never seen her move.

[Corey]

I don't like spiders at all. And I hate walking into their forgotten webs.

[Heather]

Okay, I want to let you know after that big rain, I went on a walk. It's been beautiful. The past couple days every spider shot a web out of its butt and I walked into it. I don't know.

[Corey]

I don't like that.

[Heather]

And why do they all hit right across the eye?

[Corey]

Listen when they touch onto your glasses.

[Heather]

Oh, you can't get them out of that.

[Corey]

Wrapped around.

[Heather]

Yeah. And then you have to do this maneuver where you're like. And you look insane to the bystander.

[Corey]

Insane. But then you feel like spiders are on your body.

[Heather]

Well, they are. They're 100 nestled now creating a nest within your hair body.

[Corey]

Do not like a spider. I wouldn't be like spies. I even saw A spider in the house.

[Heather]

I said I'd give you. I have a spidey policy. I actually have a boog policy.

[Corey]

A what?

[Heather]

A boog policy.

[Corey]

A bug Boog. Boog.

[Heather]

If the boog enters the abode, the boog must die. You had the whole world.

[Corey]

Okay. I want to say yes to that for a spider though. I hate him so bad. I will tell him you have two hours to vacate. If I come down and I don't find you.

[Heather]

Yes. Lucky. And I know Spiderman sides eat bad bugs.

[Corey]

Yes. I said I had to have a better attitude about them eating the mosquitoes which truly have no help on this human's planet.

[Heather]

I want to say though the other day went to the garage to throw something away.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

A mosquito hawk. And I know your name is literally mosquito murderer.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

I should love you. Why are you so big? And why do you fly so crazy around?

[Corey]

Why are your legs so. Why is the walls telling you which direction direction to go? Why can't you use the little malls and like.

[Heather]

And you boop into the wall. You're not stopping. They do that thing where they just crawl up and down the wall. Crazy.

[Corey]

And then they'll hit the wall so hard one time they'll get lower into.

[Heather]

Your face and then. And what? They're haphazard. They're unpredictable. I love what your job is. I hate how you look.

[Corey]

You know, because they do such the Lord's work. I will try to fluff them out of the door again. Possible with a piece of paper using yellow spiders. Cannot. When you come into my space and create a web. How dare you? How dare you.

[Heather]

Within my web gets dust on it.

[Corey]

How dare you.

[Heather]

I don't like spiders. But I do agree with.

[Corey]

What is the difference from a web and a cobweb? Why are they different?

[Heather]

Come on.

[Corey]

AI web and cobweb web.

[Heather]

I'm gonna say density.

[Corey]

I'm gonna say one is long lost and forgotten with dust on it.

[Heather]

The difference is appearance, purpose and the activity of the spider that creates them. Spider webs are intricate, well maintained structures used by spiders to trap prey. Cobwebs are typically irregular messy collections of silk. Better abandoned and collected is a lazy spider.

[Corey]

When we were at here. I'm gonna bring you back a little memory.

[Heather]

Okay?

[Corey]

We're still back riding lessons.

[Heather]

Yeah. And the corners are filthy and huge.

[Corey]

There were so many cobwebs. Why are they only lazy in corners?

[Heather]

That's why webs are not actively used by spider.

[Corey]

They are now dust collectors.

[Heather]

So literally the spider came in, created a master lean to. No, no, no. I'm talking about a cobweb. Created a lean to.

[Corey]

Okay. Why are they lean tuning on the same parts of the barn?

[Heather]

Why did it say the cobweb is abandoned or neglected? Collected spider web.

[Corey]

Yeah, I just think it's a spider web that had. Move on.

[Heather]

It's an old spider. Yeah, I think. And he got funky and covered in dust.

[Corey]

I'm gonna say, though, spider lazy on you. You're supposed to eat that to replenish your web particles.

[Heather]

Oh, a cobweb means dusty web.

[Corey]

Cob web love them around.

[Heather]

Oh, and also, there's one spider that just does make only cobwebs. No way. What's his name? Cobweb. The red baby. You take that one at the bank. All right. Talking about a hostage.

[Corey]

You always let these people go.