215. Baking it Down - AI-AI-Oh Yes

Summary

Episode 215: Baking it Down - AI-AI-Oh Yes

Release Date: June 10, 2025
Hosts: Heather and Corey Miracle

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Introduction to AI in the Baking Industry

In this episode, Heather and Corey delve into the transformative role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the baking industry. They discuss how AI is not just a futuristic concept but a current tool reshaping how bakers manage and market their businesses.

Heather [02:05]: "AI is the future. And if you're not in my baking industry, you will be left in the past."

AI's Impact on Business Operations

Heather emphasizes that AI can serve as a virtual assistant, streamlining various business operations and freeing up valuable time for bakers to focus on their craft.

Heather [02:40]: "AI can be your virtual assistant. It buys back your time."

Corey concurs, highlighting the inevitability of AI integration in everyday tasks such as email management and content creation.

Corey [03:40]: "Every time I write an email, every time I Google something, AI is being shoved down my throat."

AI-Generated Design and Creativity in Baking

The hosts explore how AI is being utilized to enhance creativity in bakery designs. Members of the Sugar Cookie Marketing group share innovative ways they use AI for designing unique cookie shapes and decorations.

Heather [12:21]: "She used AI to turn a photo into single line art, which she then piped onto her cookies. That's very custom."

Corey [13:07]: "A baker was asking ChatGPT to make a simple drawing that she could turn into a cookie cutter."

AI in Marketing and Content Creation

A significant portion of the discussion focuses on AI's role in marketing. Heather and Corey discuss how AI tools like ChatGPT and Google's Gemini assist in drafting copy, generating social media posts, and organizing marketing strategies.

Heather [07:20]: "Google Drive AI can find any picture of a black car in my photos. It's fascinating."

Corey [20:49]: "AI can tell you if you're being too accusatory and help rewrite your emails to sound friendlier."

They stress the importance of using AI as a starting point rather than a complete solution, encouraging personal touches to maintain authenticity.

Corey [28:33]: "If we're all sounding like a regurgitated ChatGPT, there's nothing that someone can attach to."

Community Examples and Use Cases

Heather and Corey highlight various community-driven examples of AI application. Members share how they utilize AI for tasks like generating lesson plans, devising unique cookie themes, and organizing content schedules.

Michelle [16:11]: "I asked ChatGPT to help me design a set, and even though I didn't love what it gave me, it sparked my creativity."

Jess [22:17]: "I use AI to break down June into every five days for our photo cleanup challenge."

Balancing AI with Personal Touch

Both hosts agree that while AI offers substantial benefits, it shouldn't replace the personal connection that bakeries thrive on. They discuss the necessity of blending AI efficiency with human creativity to enhance customer trust and loyalty.

Heather [14:24]: "I want to marry AI to my workflow. I don't want it to replace my personality."

Corey [29:00]: "Use AI as a baseline and then tailor it with your unique twist."

Challenges and Limitations of AI

Heather and Corey address the limitations of AI, such as inaccuracies in troubleshooting and the inability to fully grasp humor or nuanced emotions. They caution against over-reliance on AI, advocating for continuous human oversight.

Heather [06:03]: "If someone posts misinformation on the Internet, AI can pull from there. That's why making sure that you're double-checking what you're posting is crucial."

Corey [05:46]: "When someone calls AI to write an email, it’s not always effective without human editing."

Future of AI in Baking and Marketing

Looking ahead, the hosts predict that AI will continue to evolve, becoming even more integrated into the baking business landscape. They encourage bakers to embrace AI responsibly, leveraging its capabilities to enhance productivity and creativity without losing the personal essence of their brands.

Corey [34:31]: "By the end of next year, AI will be able to create ads, find the right audience, and sell products efficiently."

Heather [37:00]: "If you do the midsummer midnight sale, that'll be worth your membership plus some. AI is going to help you lower your cost per click."

Conclusion

Heather and Corey wrap up the episode by reiterating the importance of adopting AI thoughtfully. They emphasize that while AI can significantly aid in business operations and marketing, maintaining a personal touch is essential for building trust and lasting customer relationships.

Heather [38:16]: "Find where that 40% is for you. It can be organizing your photos, writing copy, or helping with photo editing."

Corey [40:29]: "AI is now being utilized so much that we can kind of spot it a little bit. Ensure you tailor it to your business and personality."

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Key Takeaways:

• AI as a Tool: AI can streamline business operations, enhance creativity, and improve marketing efforts but should complement, not replace, human touch.
• Personalization is Crucial: Maintaining a unique, personal brand is essential in leveraging AI's benefits without losing authenticity.
• Community Insights: Engaging with community examples provides practical insights into effective AI usage.
• Balanced Approach: A balanced approach to AI adoption ensures efficiency while preserving the personal essence of the bakery business.

Notable Quotes:

• "AI can be your virtual assistant. It buys back your time." — Heather [02:40]
• "If we're all sounding like a regurgitated ChatGPT, there's nothing that someone can attach to." — Corey [28:33]
• "Find where that 40% is for you. It can be organizing your photos, writing copy, or helping with photo editing." — Heather [38:16]

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This detailed summary captures the essence of Episode 215, providing valuable insights into how AI is revolutionizing the baking industry while maintaining the personal connections that are vital to a successful business.

Transcript

[Heather]

It is a podcast on a Tuesday, but filmed the Tuesday prior.

[Corey]

So this is our second podcast. So we are ready and warmed up.

[Heather]

What episode is this?

[Corey]

2:15.

[Heather]

She got it, boys.

[Corey]

She got it.

[Heather]

These pipes are lubricant. They are lubricant.

[Corey]

A new Diet Coke just been cracked open for podcast.

[Heather]

Mine hasn't been cracked open.

[Corey]

Give it a good. Oh, that was a good juice.

[Heather]

It's gonna be a good Coke.

[Corey]

Welcome to the Baking it down podcast. If you never heard of us before, welcome. Appreciate it. You are on podcast episode 215. You have so much to do to catch up, but we are so glad you're joining us.

[Heather]

Question. When you're listening to the podcast and you started mid cast.

[Corey]

Mid cast.

[Heather]

Did you start from one and journey forward or did you start from today? Journey backwards. You start in the middle.

[Corey]

I want to apologize to anyone who started on number one.

[Heather]

It was very. I'm sorry. I want to apologize for one to around 23. Yeah, it was very strict.

[Corey]

We're getting our sea legs upon.

[Heather]

Maybe the strict was the friends we made along the way. I don't know.

[Corey]

Every podcast I've ever, ever started and listened to like that's been around for years has started off lackluster, to say the least.

[Heather]

Don't know where you're gonna go. You never know.

[Corey]

You never know. But Heather made a street off Pavers back in the day. If you are wondering where are these.

[Heather]

Two Looney Tunes from?

[Corey]

We are from a Facebook group called the Show.

[Heather]

I was gonna say just outside Washington, D.C. virginia side.

[Corey]

That too. We are from the Sugar Cookie marketing group on Facebook. That is where this podcast stems from. Because from that group we can. What's going on? What's trending? What's the drama?

[Heather]

I want to be honest, if you're listening to this right now, I'm actually poolside. We are poolside.

[Corey]

I could be in bed, drink in hand.

[Heather]

Maybe she's not sleeping. Text in, ask if she's sleeping right now. 57-1-556-5644. Almost gave that number to a person in my personal life. Not a boy. It's a website. But I was thinking, like, I say that number so much more than I.

[Corey]

Say your own phone number.

[Heather]

I'm not saying that to nobody. Ain't nobody done ask for that. Ain't nobody asking. So.

[Corey]

So we wanted to dive on into the world of AI.

[Heather]

I think. No, I don't think. I know. Sure. AI is a future. And if you're like, not in my bacon industry, you will Be left in the past.

[Corey]

Well, you have to realize.

[Heather]

I do.

[Corey]

The industries that change stay relevant.

[Heather]

Here's a great quote, not my own TikTok. The AI won't take jobs, won't replace our jobs. I will, but it won't replace all our jobs. But the person who uses AI will take your job. The person who is well versed, who can make AI work for them, will be the person that will replace a person who refuses to adapt the new technology.

[Corey]

We have seen bakers kicking and screaming at the thought of Eddie entering the space. And look now he is so used, utilized, and a baker's best bud. So if you're like kicking, screaming because you hate new things coming to the industry, I'm sorry. A good industry needs new things coming to it.

[Heather]

We need technology, we need advancements. What it does, and this is where you can kind of re pivot your. Your angst here is it buys back your time.

[Corey]

It does.

[Heather]

And AI is that it is now, Right now, today.

[Corey]

Sure.

[Heather]

I don't think it can be the only thing. I think it can be the jump point AI large language learning modules. They're learning as they go and they get increasingly better and just so quickly.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

For The Baker, that's 100% making AI replace them. I don't know if it's there right yet because I can still tell when AI wrote it. One day I won't be able to tell in which case by all right now though, I think it's gotta be the. I think you and AI gotta work in tandem.

[Corey]

Here's the thing. Every time I write an email, every time I Google something, oh, AI is.

[Heather]

Being shoved down my throat.

[Corey]

It's every, it's literally every time I write a post, it's like, do you want AI to write it? Because you don't know how to write stuff.

[Heather]

Google Drive is like, do you want to tell you in this document before you open it? I was like, I'm about to open it.

[Corey]

So, so here's the thing. You can go kicking or screaming, or you can take a step back and think, as a business owner, how can I utilize AI for. To help me become a better baker? Here's a better business owner.

[Heather]

AI can be your virtual assistant. It can be. And there's cost associated with it, unfortunately. Hostage situation with my Gmail, it's like, we're giving it to you, you're going to pay for it. Okay. But we can use AI I was taking a short class on creating an agent also might be watching that right now. We just don't know. Mission Impossible 8. We just don't know what I'm doing. But I think AI has to be implemented. So Harvard Business Review wrote 50 or 100 ways and Corey said we're not allowed to read them all that people are using AI. Then I took that question, I asked it on our Facebook page, a sugar.

[Corey]

Page, a great way. I love the list that people are doing.

[Heather]

I'm saying the Harvard Business Review one is kind of on.

[Corey]

Sure.

[Heather]

I'm sure just every word they could think of AI probably came with the list. Here's what I think. I'm going to just go through some of those and then we're going to go through. I'm just these kind of funko ones. It says number one, therapy and companionship. Now I do use AI to research stuff. Google. Google. Have you heard about that?

[Corey]

No.

[Heather]

You can tell this AI.

[Corey]

Yeah, Google's.

[Heather]

LM to say, only from the literature I've given you can you derive your answers.

[Corey]

Oh, interesting.

[Heather]

I'm going to give you 10 pieces of literature, that is books or scientific papers, and then from there you're only allowed to formulate your answers.

[Corey]

I want to tell you where AI gets its information. It's not learning anything new. It's pulling information that is already out.

[Heather]

There from the Internet, which comes with the whole who owns the artwork when it's pulling from other people.

[Corey]

But I want to say you can't be like, hey, create a new recipe no one's ever seen before.

[Heather]

It'll be like, okay, it'll do its best.

[Corey]

It might taste like poo poo, but it, what it's doing is pulling information from things that are already out there.

[Heather]

Do you use AI?

[Corey]

I. Oh yeah, which one do you use? ChatGPTV?

[Heather]

I use Gemini, which is Google's. But now when I talk to it at the bottom I'll be like, but maybe check twice. We don't know if this is right.

[Corey]

Yeah, because here's the thing. If someone posts misinformation on the Internet, AI can pull from there. That's why making sure that you're double checking what you're posting, not just relying on it. Because we're not on a relying part of AI.

[Heather]

Not yet. Not yet. So same with the thing. And I've seen some therapists and you know, they're obviously biased, but I think some therapists are like, it's opening the door to the ability for people who didn't think therapy was for them to have that communication and feel what it's like to be validated. By a third party. It should not replace a therapist, but maybe they just want to take your money. Who knows? Number two, organizing my life. I agree. Yeah, I'm not even tapping it barely. If you use Google Photos now and you go use a search feature, it is AI based. They switched it over. I can tell it find me any pictures of a black car. That's a crazy thing that I'm able to tell it as I speak to another human and it takes an action and pulls in in my Google Photos anything it recognizes as a black car. Is it perfect? No. Is that fascinating? Yes, sure. So for you non organized photo people who keep all your cookie photos there, you could essentially say find anything that looks like Pooh Bear.

[Corey]

Any Pooh Bear. Any red, white and blue bear.

[Heather]

Yeah, you could do that. So organization. I know it's very implemented into I think I had asked it in my Gmail to find an email that mentioned this thing because I couldn't remember who sent it to. And then it could say because it's reading everything interesting instantly. So that's an interesting one. Number three, Funko. Finding my purpose. What people are using it to find their purpose.

[Corey]

Oh, direction.

[Heather]

Now here's one Generating code. I haven't been able to touch that one but I see people, these agents, these AI agents are able to understand what you said and create the code without you having to write it. Generating ideas. I do like that one. And we'll talk about that one in our baker list. Preparing for interviews. So you could have it be the interview. Here's an interesting way I found this group. Am I divorced? No. Am I been ever married? No. I found this group about divorced people in their 60s. I love to read stuff like that. Anyways they use Google has a version an AI model that you give it your text messages with your ex and it creates a podcast. Two podcasters and there's always Brenda and I think the guy's name is like Tim or something and they'll. They'll say yeah. Do you see what the ex did right here? Now this is an example of a narcissistic very interesting way to get a third party review without having to ask your mom creativity specific searches. I agree. So I asked it to find some movie recommendations for mom.

[Corey]

Here's the thing. When you Google something now you'll have an AI review. What AI is doing at the top point is pulling from the top articles there so you don't have to go click to a million websites. I love that part.

[Heather]

Yes. Things I it says troubleshooting I try to use AI to troubleshoot, and it kind of just makes it up. I'm like, that button's not there for me.

[Corey]

I actually ran into the room. It was dark. And I have an air purifier tripped right over it. Someone left it out in the middle of the.

[Heather]

People are moving your purifiers around.

[Corey]

It's right in front of the closet door. So I have to get in the closet. So I fell over. It also fell and stopped turning on. When we had our discombobulated moment in the dark, I tried to get on AI to tell me it was no. I ended up just clicking a bunch of buttons that did turn on. But AI was not helpful there.

[Heather]

Someone wrote, I mean, sorry, this list. Tax advice. I wouldn't. It wouldn't be for me. I would do as a preliminary research question. So I'm not stupid.

[Corey]

Am I evading my taxes? It could answer that. How to file my taxes? Maybe. I don't think it's.

[Heather]

Our accountant sent me an acronym. I didn't want to seem like a dumbo. So I asked AI if an accountant uses acronym of which Google is not producing. What he probably meant, what does he mean? Then it told me, I was like. And then, how do I get that? And it told me, I was like, thank you for saving me a personalized kid story. Now that's interesting. I don't have story. Yeah, so say write a story about my kid and I'll read it to him tonight.

[Corey]

Oh, that's crazy.

[Heather]

That's interesting.

[Corey]

I never have ever.

[Heather]

I want you to ask it to write an Archer story.

[Corey]

And I wouldn't know. I would be typing. It would just make up.

[Heather]

It doesn't say, hey, my son's name is Archer. He's 15. He's going through a hard time brushing his teeth or something. And they would write a story. He is going through explaining legalese. Oh, yeah, that's a good one. Adjusting the tone of an email. Great. Yeah, great marketing copy. We're going to talk about that. Generating a lesson plan. I see a ton of teachers doing that. I can see that being a one. Fact checking. Rough. Rough. Go. Because we're supposed to be fact checking the fact. Drafting a document or formula letter, reading books, giving me a summary. Yeah, I like to have it. Okay. Water bottle. If this is AI breaking the rules, why that's weird. Planning workouts. I do like that one.

[Corey]

Oh, that'll be a good one. Because you could say, here's my goal.

[Heather]

Generating videos. I'll be honest. I don't like seeing AI in my videos.

[Corey]

No. It makes me feel weird.

[Heather]

Yeah. I like to. I found this YouTube channel. It just allows me to watch the interviews of when you go to the. When you go to interrogation.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

That's all it is. But of course, it's kind of boring watching this person sit in a chair for two hours. Little do they know I love it. So they've added this AI stuff, and someone's like, whatever that is, don't do it.

[Corey]

Yeah, I know he's not great right now. It's almost like, why it's my Facebook. Unless people on. What is that next? America's great talent. America's Got Talent. It's these fake AI.

[Heather]

They're like turning dinosaurs. I don't get it. I don't know. But. And then it AIs the people clapping. And then it takes the actual. The graphics, the video of the judges, and they're real and they're covering them.

[Corey]

I unfortunately clicked to one not knowing that it was fake. But now I've only been served them a million times.

[Heather]

Shopping, work buddies, raising your kids. Well, the future's there.

[Corey]

Well, go and take us to the baker one.

[Heather]

So this is one. And I thought this was good. So obviously, AI and I think that those lists are great to get you to think, oh, shoot. I didn't know I could plan a workout or as an itinerary for my trip. So let's see how bakers are using it. And I found this was very creative. And I asked this question on the sugar cookie marketing page.

[Corey]

Yeah. If you want to know, Heather, is the wild, wild west on the page? So a lot of times she's asking, what's your idea to less spread in your sugar cookies? What is your ideal?

[Heather]

I very much enjoyed reading comments.

[Corey]

Thank you.

[Heather]

For everyone who leaves one. Renee said to make one line drawings for cookies. So what she did. And she posted a picture. She told AI she's using an image generator. I could guess it's probably Chat gtp and I think it has to be paid to use the image generator. She said, turn this photo into a single line art. Then she piped over that.

[Corey]

Yeah. So if you are unfamiliar, there's this technique called the Roundhouse technique made by Roundhouse Cookie Co a few years ago. And it takes a single line drawing, but oftentimes we used to Google, hey, turn this police officer into a single line drawing. And then you'd pipe that onto the.

[Heather]

Top of the cookie.

[Corey]

Now with Chat gtp, you can ask it to turn something random.

[Heather]

What I'm seeing here and I'm just looking at the image and actually kind of look. It's probably not. She tried to pipe, but the guy from you. It looks like him, but she has used the line, the single line. She didn't print it, she piped it. She used it as a projector. That's a really neat way. That's very, very, very custom cookies.

[Corey]

I saw someone on TikTok. A baker was asking chat GTP to make a simple drawing that she could turn into a cookie cutter.

[Heather]

Very cool. I can see people somewhere. They're getting AI and I don't think it's dialed in yet to create the SDLs. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Erica says when I'm brain dead, I'll have it rewrite my copy to sound like I'm a lively awakened human.

[Corey]

I will say sometimes we get so frozen when it comes to our copy that we end up saying, thanks, Billy, for turning to. That is not great copy because it's not converting, it's not adding interest. It's more just phoning it in.

[Heather]

So with the copy thing, I'll actually have AI. I'll be like, hey, I'm writing some copy for the cookie class kids. These single line posts, right? I don't think AI gets humor yet. I think it's very hard for it to understand humor. So it will write its best. Some puns. I always say include some puns and then I'll use that and I'll rewrite it. And I think there's a key right there. Because the other day I was reading and someone had posted like, thank you guys so much for watching my YouTube video. Bracket. YouTube video here. Bracket. Like, they didn't even edit the copy. I don't think we can just let it go unedited. I think we've got to have it. We got to kind of. Here's the thing.

[Corey]

People buy from those they know they like and they trust. If we're all sounding like a regurgitated chat gtp, there's nothing that someone can attach to. I'm friends with Heather, mostly because my mom forced us, but a little bit because she's funny and she has a personality that isn't replicated.

[Heather]

Your clients like your personality as well. I like AI. I like to marry it to my workflow. I don't want it to replace my personality. Yes. So they're in. I like Erica. Like, when I'm not funny, may it be funny, but when I'm funnier, may I be funnier.

[Corey]

What's funny, though, is people don't write content on the Internet. You have to remember Chat AI is pulling from things that are already on the Internet. People write on the Internet not funny because they're more writing informational things. So that's why it's hard for ChatGPTV to be funny.

[Heather]

Right. Here's a great example of what Corey's trying to tell you is that AI is only producing what has already been produced. It's reproducing it. It's fascinating that you can talk to technology now, whereas not more than two years ago we were googling and trying to attempting to bridge those ourselves. If you ask, I was listening to a guy on TikTok, he was an AI scientist and he said, ask AI to generate an image of someone writing with their left hand. He said it struggles so much because most people are right handed and most images on the Internet are right handed images. It's very hard to get AI to do left handed. He said also tell it to put on a watch in a specific time. Tell it to do where the numbers are, the 6:00pm 6:00pm on the nose. He said AI struggles so much because most product photos of watches show it at what, 2?

[Corey]

And yeah, it's at 90 degrees angle because it wants to. Photos are trying to show you what the little hand in the big hand looks like. So you'd buy the watch, right?

[Heather]

So he says AI really struggles to ever change it. You can ask it many, many times, say, try it again, try it again. It just cannot fathom it because that doesn't exist on the Internet where it's pulling this information from. Moving on. Katie's cookies. I just asked Chat GTP to help me design a set. I can't find Inspo pics for it and even though I didn't love what it gave me, it sparked the creativity. And now I have a whole set.

[Corey]

Design that's so nice.

[Heather]

So she used the image reader and it was interesting. Let me just click on the Inspo photo. It was a lady's. I'm not sure if this is a lady's name. She said a girl named Annie's probably turning one and then wants a banana fruit theme. So it says Annie Banani. It has the cutest little banana. It has a banana on top of a cake. It has one with little banana transfers on it and cherries. So very good. And she said this helped me and.

[Corey]

She'S using ChatGPT kind of get her creative juices flowing.

[Heather]

It's funny because she screenshotted her phone and the bottom it Says Chat GTP can make mistakes. Check important info. Thank you. Peggy says, oh, she asked which AI app is everyone using? Do you get enough help from the free versions or do you have to get the paid versions? I find that Most of these AIs out when this more technical stuff you'd want to pay. It's 20amonth. It also retains more information and allows the image generators. What I'm seeing, Peggy, because we didn't answer it there is people are using Google's using Gemini. So it's implemented into a lot of places. And Chat GTP seems to be the. The big one.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And then what else are they using? Claude is a big one for. And you got to kind of find the ones that do well for the specific task. So image generation is going to be different than copy generation.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Here's a wild wild west. It's moving faster than I can.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Vivian says once in a while I use it to change the background of an image.

[Corey]

I would say that has been fantastic. Some clients sent me, oddly, an AI generated image that she wanted on a cookie.

[Heather]

And this is what's getting bakers fired up. And we're talking about in a second.

[Corey]

What am I saying?

[Heather]

I hate when AI sent in an image. You AI just have to make a sale.

[Corey]

Yeah. She sent me. Here's the thing. I couldn't have taken the order without this AI image. She wanted a flamingo as an astronaut. That's what the team mascot was. And I said, I don't think I could pipe that onto a cookie and make you happy. And she was like, what if you printed this image?

[Heather]

This is.

[Corey]

Now that's something that I can do. Here's the thing. She sent it with a lot of black. He was obviously in space. And I said, you know what? Instead of having so many black, like such black on the cookie, where it's going to dye people's mouth a little bit. Let's take it, put it on white and I'll add some pipe stars to really make it pop. So I was able to ask AI, since it was an AI generated image, can you take the black out? And then it did.

[Heather]

Fascinating way to use that and to maintain the sale. Now, was the flamingo AI generated? Is that how they came with their logo?

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So you can see AI is more complicated, complex its images, but you can also tell it. Hey, lessen it. Like we got the single line. Yes, yes. Vivian also added, I'm involved in a networking group and we have to give 10 minute presentations. I'll have AI create the framework that I built. And I do like that because it organizes it. Kelly B. Says, copy ideas. When I'm having trouble with mixing a color, although I haven't found it as helpful with colors as I had hoped. So I see a lot of people saying, like, AI can help you just tell it the color that you own and tell the color that you want. Yeah, this is a risky one.

[Corey]

It's a risky one because you can't go back and make an uncolor.

[Heather]

You can't take it back. So again, it's going to be that testing thing. I still find that asking in a community Facebook baking group for a color mix is probably better.

[Corey]

I will say there's an app called Color mixing App. And you can say to this color mixing app, I only have the primary colors, but I need to get to this sage green. What primary colors can I use to. No, it's. It's just an app and it's a lot more helpful.

[Heather]

I will say. Okay, good. What's it called?

[Corey]

Color mixing app.

[Heather]

Okay, yeah, you're out for that one. Back on the bench, Michelle said, I started using it just for copy, but lately I found benefits for asking it to come with cookie set ideas, mockups, and even giving a cookie cutter and asking it to design a cookie because she'll give it the shape and say, make the cookie. Now there's the name. Escapes me. And as soon as I describe this, you're gonna know what it is. A company that sells metal cookie cutters, but they're using AI to generate what the cookie could be decorated. Like traditional cookie cutters. Yeah, yeah. So they. They give it the shape and it's coming up with the designs. Now, it's hard to extrapolate that to the actual design, but it's a guide.

[Corey]

I want to say it's a guide as a baker and I'm seeing this more on Etsy that people are using the AI to create the cookie. It's harder for me to want to buy that cookie cutter shop because I need to see either a flat image that I'm going to make or someone else decorating it. To see an AI with so many shadings and shadows.

[Heather]

Corey hates her some shadings. Ask me, am I procreate? Why can I need to see a flat ear? Heather. Not this Heather, but another Heather says it helps me with copy and client communications. And I like the client communications one. Now, here's the thing. You say type formally and it sounds like you're being taken into a court of law.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

I would have it remove anger, but I necessarily not sure I'd have it be so formal.

[Corey]

It can honestly tell you if you're being too accusatory.

[Heather]

Yes.

[Corey]

And it can rewrite it to be more family friendly for you guys wondering.

[Heather]

You can tell AI, hey, please rewrite this so I don't sound angry. It's going to spit out something. You're like, okay, add some, not identify. Add some additional parameters so you can say, great, this is great. Now make me sound friendlier while also not fully blaming the client, but taking on some culpability. These I. These parameters give AI and AI works with more information, doesn't want the less information. It wants more. Give me more information. And then it can kind of. And what you can do with your conversation, you can provide more feedback like, hey, I like what you did there, but can you change? This is not exactly what I want to sound like. Thank you so much for the feedback. I know what people are going to say right now. You're going to grab your little candle and you're going to Virtue Signal and say, we're killing the trees. Listen, AI and the data centers that support AI are in Northern Virginia. Oddly, they're massive. They are ugly squares full of air conditioning units. Use AI as it's provided to you. Even the Guy who owns OpenAI ChatGPT said the thank you does help AI learn better, but it is costing a lot of energy cost. So what I do, I thank it with my next question. That's a great point. Here's what I want you to do as well. Instead of a bunch of different back and forths. And don't be afraid to just leave the conversation. I did yesterday and I said, you know, that felt rude. That felt rude, but I don't think anyone cares. Jess says, I use it for posting ideas and I use it to come up with a schedule. So here's an interesting one we're doing in the Cookie College, a photo cleanup challenge in the month of June. I struggle with looking at a calendar and adding every five days because the photo cleanup challenge is such a task. I can't have a prompt every day. They didn't have time to do the thing. So I said, hey, I think I want it every five days. How many break down June into every five days. That was really quick to do. Now, we talked about in the podcast last week about content buckets. You can have it, how you can have hey posting strategies, what times grant it. Granted, it's not going to know the information that you want it to know it doesn't know your audience, it doesn't know your page. But we can have it kind of be that bumper guide to design a content strategy.

[Corey]

You might be like, no, I asked at what time? And it's spend that time. Remember, it's getting information from marketers who've been making this content for years upon years. So what worked five years ago? That information is still on the Internet. You got to remember that's even though it is old archaic information, still chat GP can pull from that.

[Heather]

Right? So again, test, test. I don't think that will ever change in marketing. Amy said, sometimes I need it just for one more design idea and sometimes I need just one more design idea and I'll have it come up with some ideas. So I want to say most of.

[Corey]

Us in the past have gone to places like Pinterest. I use hashtags on Instagram to get design ideas. But something you, sometimes you want something unique and you're like, hey, I got one more design set that I want to do that I want something unique. And some people have some weird themes out there that they want.

[Heather]

Flamingo space pack.

[Corey]

I had to do a baby shire shower baby shower shower from the Lord of the Rings. There was not much content out there. It was really taxing my brain to come up with ideas. Whereas AI could have helped me come up with some baby shower shower puns.

[Heather]

Now we have and I'll leave her nameless. She said, I don't and I never will. It's my personal choice.

[Corey]

That's your personal choice. And you totally can choose that. That is something you. But here's the thing. I don't want you to come into the sugar cookie marketing group blaming someone for choosing to either use an eddy, use a projector.

[Heather]

Don't let it fuel your anger.

[Corey]

Don't.

[Heather]

Instead of focusing on your marketing, which now you said, I want to manually do it all. Don't let allow that to give you the excuse to be like, and I.

[Corey]

Hate every other baker.

[Heather]

And then your marketing becomes and this.

[Corey]

Is why you shouldn't use AI because.

[Heather]

I see that is more damaging than not using AI altogether.

[Corey]

Yeah. Here's the thing. It all you can get mad at the person when you're like, I see people get mad at Eddie and I'm like, are you mad that you don't have one? Are you mad that Eddie exists?

[Heather]

Here's my question on this person over main nameless and I may delete the comments. You can't find it, right? I didn't ask who wasn't using it.

[Corey]

But what is that like?

[Heather]

If a psychiatrist or psychologist could come and tell me when I ask a question or when somebody on a Facebook group asks a question that counter opinion that wasn't asked for, why does it always need to be added? Why does a person who's adding nothing to the original question feel compelled? The compulsion to be like, I'll never use it. I said, how are you using AI if you use it? So really, she should have just scrolled past.

[Corey]

But it is what it is. The Internet gives everyone a platform, and.

[Heather]

I'm gonna hide that comment. So you guys can't bully that person. Tina said, writing the first draft of Copy for social media. I like what she added there. She's like, it's my first.

[Corey]

Writing the first draft. Here's the thing. AI has a way to say things that is glaringly AI written. It loves the three. It loves three adjectives.

[Heather]

I saw this guy on TikTok and he was like, here is the identifier snow. And it's called a this. Not that. So great. Not good. Like, AI will do these, like, things. Like a fantastic, wonderful, beautiful day. It loves three adjectives. Yeah. Yeah. It loves. It likes a list. It likes a double. A double dash. A double dash. It's very interesting to see the tells there. And I think AI will kind of figure out what it's doing.

[Corey]

Absolutely. And I think teachers are becoming. Because students like, it's an archer. When he got any assignment due this year, it says, do not use AI if we find out that you have used AI you will fail this project.

[Heather]

Crazy. The future is now.

[Corey]

It is.

[Heather]

I did go back to college as an adult, and it was right before AI models were released to the public. And I was like, thank goodness. Because I can't imagine. What if you write really well when you love a double diastole? What if you're just a double diasthere?

[Corey]

What if you love an adjective?

[Heather]

Tina also writes, I have it putting. I put in my responses to difficult customer queries, and I ask it to make me sound more friendly and sincere. Stephanie says I'm following because all I use it for is writing captions. Yeah. There's so much more versatility, I think, and these other people's ideas is a great way to glean more ideas.

[Corey]

And I will say that I'm not using it really well. I'm just using it for caffeine, coffee options.

[Heather]

Sorry I won't be recovering from that one soon. That'll be the only thing I talk about at lunch. Today. Yeah. Being a confidence. Sorry. Once we were in high school and the teacher who was also the principal, he said dune boogies. But he meant to say dune buggy. When the brain flips those vowels around like that. I, I think he said dune boogie. And I said to myself, oh my goodness. He said dune boogie. That's not only Is that the first funniest word I've ever heard. I can't, I can't handle me. And Heather started giggling. I looked at our, you know, like when you say I'm gonna look, I hope they're not looking at me. I looked at Cory's eyebrows and she's like, you know, the visual. Did you just hear Dan boogie? And then we start giggling. No, you can't stop it.

[Corey]

The principal.

[Heather]

Do you have something to share with the dialing back into Coffee's account? Jen said it literally writes on my profile, my product descriptions and my emails. I like the product description 1. Yeah. Especially when you're character limited.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Sometimes when you have truncation in social media or definitely on websites in products, you could say like we are only going to show 150 characters a preview text. You can say I make bada bing, bada boom in the. In 150 characters. And that will help with click through rate.

[Corey]

Where I see it's now being overly used to a disadvantage is people using it to make sales posts in community groups. I can see when they are all looking like chat GTP wrote it. It's so easy to scroll by it.

[Heather]

And that's a differentiator. And I know that the other poster was like I'll never use it. I think that what sets you apart is using it in tandem with your own self, your own unique twist on things. I think you'll be a force to be reckoned with.

[Corey]

Forced to be reckoned with.

[Heather]

Forced to be reckoned with. I was looking at those agents, kind of was trying to understand what they are. Right. So you say hook up the agent to a model, hook it up to a parameter and then give it access to apps. And then tell it. When I get an email that says this, send this email in response. That is a virtual assistant.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And you know, sometimes. Okay, like what are you saying? Like, let's say I get somebody who wants to win the podcast sponsor. When I get an email that says that they won, I'm talking to technology like it's a human. Yeah. Fascinating. They can interpret this. When somebody gets emails into my inbox, my Gmail that they won, the cookie design lab have them Send out an email that includes a form to submit.

[Corey]

That's that. And that is a VA right there.

[Heather]

Right? That's a va. And it just saves me time and I'm not having to pay somebody. So something to keep in mind. Someone said Cookie Darling says captions and backgrounds. And backgrounds is a big one. We talked about the backers code in the last week's podcast, which we recorded two minutes ago. That's why I can remember it finally. And I said, granite's very busy. It is granite countertops. And it's busy to hide spills.

[Corey]

Granted, it's busy. Granted.

[Heather]

I was like, it's all busy, though.

[Corey]

But she said, granite countertops are busy. And a lot of people who are just getting into the business of baking and wanting to sell things, you are like, well, I don't have enough to invest in the backer's coat. That's a goal down the line. What can I do right now?

[Heather]

Here's what I'm going to say. This is where you have a blended approach to this. I can tell when the back. I can tell most of the time. Yeah, I'm sorry. It's getting better. I fell for an AI video the other day and everyone made fun of me. I can tell most of the time when someone's removed the background of an image using canvas AI and then added. They can say, now put this cookie, take it off the granite countertop and put it on a picnic table. Yeah, I can kind of tell the shadowing. It's kind of struggling with. It's getting better. When I'm given the option, if you have a backer, a backdrop or AI, I would opt for the native photo. Builds trust. I'm not saying the other thing is distrusting. I can just see that it was not made natively. So then it creates that question how much of this is real and how much of it is not true? In a community group, lady was selling like banana pudding cups or something and she used AI to generate the image. For some odd reason, these AI generated flyers are always yellow. Like a yellow tinge to them. I don't know why. Kind of the comic strips that came in, it's. And someone's like, I would have liked it better to see the actual product. Although this is a cleaner design.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

They were much ruder than I just was there.

[Corey]

Right. But you see, at the end of the day, people buy from those they love. They know they like, they trust.

[Heather]

Right.

[Corey]

So we do want to create the trust. I do see some people who are starting out. It is a better option to have AI erase the background than the one.

[Heather]

That'S really busy and distracting. So you're going to have to ask yourself what's better for my situation today. Corey has a ton of backdrops.

[Corey]

I do.

[Heather]

But sometimes she doesn't have a ton of time. Maybe for this situation today, it's better if she has the background. You can have it do more than just a wood background. You can have it in a.

[Corey]

And at the end of the day, you have to think about your business. A lot of people say, I know a Corrie photo when I see it through my feed. I don't even need to see that she posted it. I can tell it's hers. So that to me is also beneficial to my business that I created a photo. Yeah. Photo that is branded to my business that they know.

[Heather]

And it's a photo style, something you can do. What I was doing the other day, you can say it. Match this photo style. Yeah. See what it does. Somebody was interested. An interesting case study in the. We have those cookie class kits now. Corey had made a groovy set in 2023. It was pink and orange. These, like, groovy colors. Someone's like, hey, I would like to teach this for the 4th of July. Is there any way to get the colors to go from groovy to red, white and blue? And then one of the members, red, white and bluey? Red, white and blue. Yeah. She said, I told AI, you should adjust the colors. And it did. And I'm like, wow, that's very. I can't tell.

[Corey]

I want to say, though, the photo that it was that AI was given was a clear white background, so it was easier for it to. Sometimes when I see people post their cookies on AI background, it's like taking a blob of the cookie because it couldn't differentiate the background from the foreground.

[Heather]

Garbage in, garbage out. I'll agree. So if you want AI to do its best, give it high quality. Okay. Let's say you have a backdrop and it's white and you say, I wish this were on a picnic table platter. Give it the most high quality image to work with.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Someone says, I use it to help. Oh, voiceovers. You can see that a lot.

[Corey]

I will say now TikTok has the ability to insert an AI voiceover in the app.

[Heather]

Who is the guy? David Attenborough. If you watch any National Geographic, he's telling you where the penguins are headed. They have his voice. It's actually called Santa Claus, but it sounds just like it so they have it voicing over someone's day and it sounds like you're watching a National Geographic, which is pretty funny. So there's our options there. Allison says post I have a doing color mixing theme ideas, condolences. I have a writing recipes in depth, details about a subject, tech questions and much more. Wow. I could tell. Allison is an early adopter, adapter and adopter. Tanya says at creating posts on days I have no idea what to say.

[Corey]

And that that is a great one to do.

[Heather]

Great again. She's like, on the days I don't know what to say, I'm not using it on the days I don't know what to say. Whisk and Wonder says it helps me draft social media. Post. Post for Instagram. Helium says I'm following. And Michelle says copy for my Facebook ads now. Meta announced.

[Corey]

Yeah, this week.

[Heather]

Then by the end of next year, 2026, AI will be able to create the ad, create the ad objective, find the user that will respond to the ad and sell the product.

[Corey]

That's crazy.

[Heather]

Crazy. So.

[Corey]

But it'll be crazy good for business.

[Heather]

Owners because imagine this. The current workflow is you have to create an ad objective. What's that? Do you want Brandon doing clicks? Which one's gonna resonate? Then you have to create the ad image.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Is it gonna be a video? Is it gonna be long? Is it gonna be short? Is it gonna be crazy? Is it gonna be a photo? Is it gonna be ugc? Is it gonna be a photo? Then you have to create the copy. Is it gonna be this? You're gonna use emojis and then you have to marry those together and put in a budget.

[Corey]

And then on top of that, find your right audience. You're guesstimating your audience until it can kind of take root. That's a lot of money to go to guessing who the right person.

[Heather]

And also for you guys who are on the fence about AI adoption, you can say, well, there's people's entire careers that's spent on creating. So now we got a baker wearing 17 hats and we're adding three more hats at all time. And now I have to figure out how to be a media buyer. Yeah, I have to figure out. I have to test. I could ab. I don't have time to a test, let alone A, B, C and D test. Now AI is like, hey, listen, we're going to help you. We're going to lower your cost per click. So we're going to be able to find for you the person that's most likely to buy. Does that sound like it saves you time? It does, it does. What is time? Money. Okay.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Something to consider. So before you say absolutely not for me, consider some ways you can implement it. Maybe it's not. And I agree. I don't think it should be the replacement for you. There is AI spam that is all over the place. AI is now attempting to join Facebook groups. It can write really good answers to join questions.

[Corey]

It can. And it's so hard to differentiate because the questions that we're asking like in my little local community group, it's like what's your favorite area in Woodbridge? That's such a googleable question.

[Heather]

It's so interesting. Yesterday, Corey's is a woman only group, right. So I just set the gender to male. I just reject those ones and I let Corey handle everything. The amount of profiles that are women that are set to men, which means they took over someone's profile. Likely.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

But answered the questions perfectly.

[Corey]

I know, I know. Yeah, yeah.

[Heather]

But yeah, that technology is ever increasing when all these big names, when Microsoft, when Meta, when Alphabet or Google say this, this is where technology is going. It would be an admonishment to you to figure out how to incorporate it, how to use it to your advantage rather than boycott it. Yes, welcome.

[Corey]

Yeah, welcome.

[Heather]

Obviously you're on a marketing podcast with a business centric focus and our goal is to create more income, spending less time working so you can spend more time and money on the things that matter most. And this is going to be one of those tools.

[Corey]

You guys saw me fight tooth and nail to not make reels or video content because I didn't feel like it was good enough. But listen, I was left behind because I was so slow to adopt to it.

[Heather]

The early adopters to real they do the early adopters to threads. The early adopters to when TikTok rolled out are the people with the multi millions of followers with that content. Gary Vaynerchuk's a great example of like whoa, you are an early adopter, right?

[Corey]

So you can wait. It won't go anywhere. It's going to be here. So you can either wait, fight it tooth and nail or you can say let me put my take off my opinionated hat and put my baker business hat on how I could utilize this for my specific business and it might just be a hey, here's a newsletter topic for you that your audience might be interested in. Or it could be your VA where you have it responding to emails so it can free you up some time so you can be busy in the kitchen baking your sets.

[Heather]

Right now I'm going to say AI 40% like you're still the 60%. I think it can be just an amazingly strong crutch I see when people are using it as 100% and it's not for me right now.

[Corey]

Right, I agree.

[Heather]

So I would say find where that 40% is for you. If it's the back end, if it's cleaning up your inbox, if it's organizing your photos, if it's writing a little first drop down copy, if it's helping with a little photo editing, do that.

[Corey]

People are even having it help price out things for them.

[Heather]

Very nice. I have it. I love to berate my sisters for not investing in the stock market.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So the average annual rated return in The S&P 500 over 10 years is 10%.

[Corey]

Right.

[Heather]

Okay. That math problem, I know I could solve it. I don't want to. So I asked Chad GP My little sister is much younger than us. She has time on her side and compounding interest so she gets an order for some Sephora thing had she put that money in the.

[Corey]

It's so funny what I told Ashley. She asked me to bake a set for her brother in law's getting married and then I said oh yeah, I'll do it. I said it's they're getting married on July 4th. So I said red, white and I do coming right up. And she said I asked ChatGPTV to make a set better than what I expected.

[Heather]

So then she just sent me big okay, that's as basic as it gets. It's as basic as it gets but it's very cute and you can kind of see that her her design idea there is on Starship but I want.

[Corey]

To tell you this. Seeing this tells me where her head's at.

[Heather]

Twins. Anyways, I told Summer I asked Chad GTP has she taken the Sephora order money put it in the S P500. Assuming everything goes according to plan for the next 40 or 50 years that would have resulted in a $5,000 return.

[Corey]

Listen, you can't live your life in.

[Heather]

Funny to 50s prayers is thin now figured out like you.

[Corey]

So I thought that was a great question. It was great to see how people are utilizing it. A lot of people doing it with their captions which is fantastic. We also say use it as a baseline not the end line, not the finish line. We want to have you incorporated in there. AI is now being utilized so much that we can kind of Spot it a little bit. So you want to make sure that you tailor it to you, your business, your personality. Because people want to know you, they want to buy from you. They don't want to necessarily buy from Chat gtp and we can kind of spot that out in the wild now. It's easier. I can tell when bakers are using it 120% not using it.

[Heather]

You need to be there. Buddies.

[Corey]

Moving on to either you want to talk about the cookie college or you.

[Heather]

Want to do your.

[Corey]

We don't have the segment named yet, but the questions part of the podcast.

[Heather]

Cookie Design Lab stepped up.

[Corey]

They did.

[Heather]

Stepped out. Stepped right. Stepped in. And they said, hey, we want to sponsor the texting questions. Now. You may have, you may have texted us the best name ever. You and Chat GTP sat down, came with the best name for the segment. Well, we had to record this a week early, so I haven't gotten your.

[Corey]

Text yet, but we will get it next week.

[Heather]

I'm from the past.

[Corey]

I'm from the past speaking to you in the future. How is it? How's the stock market S&P 500 doing.

[Heather]

Well, 10% rate of return. Should we be pulling out? Okay, so the text we got from last week are counting for this week. You have an additional person, you have an additional seven days to claim additional. You get one month of Cookie Design Lab. If you didn't win today, you can win later. But the code twins will get you 50% off. Cookie Design Lab is an STL designing software. They were part of the Vendi Blendy. I really like the app a lot. Yeah, I find it very, very, very, very simple to use. As somebody who opened Fusion360 last night, I said, oh my goodness.

[Corey]

Fusion360 is Fusion360 overwhelming because it does so much more than cookie cutters. Cookie Design Lab, Cookie cutters.

[Heather]

Cookie cutters. Very simple, very quick. When you say I'm only using this cutter one time and I need to be a workhorse. Yeah. So we have three texting questions left from last week that is now being moved into this week.

[Corey]

Number two.

[Heather]

Number two. 9,04. If you listen, Heather at Sugar Marketing.

[Corey]

Sounds like New Mexico or Montana.

[Heather]

904. All right, I'll be. So it's not Montana, cuz no bakers. Florida.

[Corey]

Florida.

[Heather]

Nassau. There's a place in Baker, Florida that could be from Clay St. John's Union County. Sounds like you're having a better beach trip than we are. You are. Are you Baker Florida? So you can email me and claim the Next seven days from when you heard this podcast. Hi twins. I have a new cookie on the. I'm a new cook. You're baking on the side on with a. To get a little bit of a joke right there. Hi twins. I'm a new cookie. You're baking on the side on top of a full time job with a family.

[Corey]

Wow.

[Heather]

I'm finding myself pulling overnighters to get everything done. I'd love some tips on how you schedule out your time for your business. Baking, decorating, marketing, et cetera.

[Corey]

I want to say as a new baker, you have a. It's, it's hard to find where that happy place is because you're still learning it. So knowing that a set, how long it typically takes you is going to help you be able to manage your time a lot better.

[Heather]

And she's like, how would I know how long a set takes me? I haven't gone there.

[Corey]

But see, it's individual to each person because as you get more advanced you can be quicker at things. You're no longer having to go on Etsy to find cutters. You already have the cutters available to you. That saves time right there.

[Heather]

Maybe you printed them with the cookie design lab code twins to save 15% off.

[Corey]

My biggest time giver instead of time sucker is having the cookie dough ready to go in the fridge. Since my fridge upstairs in my kitchen is so teeny tiny, my husband loves to buy food. I had to get an additional fridge from Walmart.

[Heather]

You got those tall fridges. Yeah, it's like just shelving.

[Corey]

It's just shelving and it's just a freezer and it just has cookie dough in there.

[Heather]

That is a physical time back buyer.

[Corey]

It was.

[Heather]

Can you put icing in there? White, right?

[Corey]

You can put icing in the freezer at all times. It actually is able to defrost rather quickly. You would think freezing, oh, that takes hours. Not when it comes to icing.

[Heather]

So I like this for her because she's like, I got a family, I got a full time job. This is my side hustle. Having this stuff in the flanks.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Is great. Now I'm going to tell you, Ms. Cookier, that is new. I'm speaking from the future of other cookiers. They regret buying every single cutter off the bat. They wish they stuck to basic sizes. And what you don't have, you can always print. Now it may be a bit of a fetish for you guys to just go to Etsy and add it to cart. Feels good. Feels great. Maybe not getting started because the Side effect is not only is it a money suck, it's a space suck.

[Corey]

It is.

[Heather]

So we're gonna stick to basics. We're going to batch our content. Now, you may not have the same 24 hours I have because you have so much going on. You're gonna use. I know Facebook planner on a page only lets you go about a month and change out. But you can use a third party schedule and I use one called feedhive. That, let me see. That lets me schedule out posts for months and months and months.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

It also lets me reschedule content so I can call, recycle content and change my caption a little bit so I can make my small access of content.

[Corey]

Work longer for me on Sundays because typically when you're, when you get going, you're getting a lot of orders in. I can know what I can take during the week typically, because I too work a day job and do cookies in the evening. But I, I still want a solid eight hours of sleep. That's seven dozen for me. Okay, so seven dozen. I know on Sundays there's seven dozen in front of me for the week. I can make all the sets on Sunday and put them in the freezer. I put them in their oven.

[Heather]

I make all the sets on Sunday.

[Corey]

I make all the cookies on Sunday for the week.

[Heather]

You don't decorate them, you cut them.

[Corey]

I'm just cutting them. So my bake day is ended on Sunday. It starts an end versus making a set. Okay, now I gotta defrost. Now I gotta wait for that defrost.

[Heather]

I think she's looking at batching. Both marketing and vague.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And that's how you're going to do that. Now what you're going to find is people are going to like you, they're going to like your cookies, you're going to like your stuff, they're going to like your marketing. And you're going to see that, like that question comes up, like, when do I take my switch?

[Corey]

Where's my list? When do I start turning people away?

[Heather]

You're going to hate this. No, I mean like switching from your full time job to being a full time baker, you're going to have to turn some people away. So that's when that happens. Like I'm losing. I'm leaving money on the table here. I think I could do this full time. I like it better than my job. Six months emergency fund. Yeah, six months. And I know you, it sounds like you have possibly a second income because you mentioned family. So then your emergency fund's gonna get to be less aggressive. But you'll want to have a combined emergency fund across your family with your basic expenses. Now, a lot of people say three months. If your spouse has a consistent job of which they're. They're employed by someone, that's typically the goal. Three months and you're going to cover food, shelter, water basics.

[Corey]

Right.

[Heather]

If you're both entrepreneurs, you're gonna want that to be 12 months. So it's gonna push that out a little bit.

[Corey]

Yeah. So here's what you're gonna think in if, say if you quit your day job and you're now fully reliant on your baking income, the oven goes out. That is a big thing and that's.

[Heather]

Going to do that emergency.

[Corey]

So you're gonna want to beef your fund because now 100% of your business.

[Heather]

Is depending on and emergency funds are meant to be spent in case of emergency. Emergency. Don't feel bad. You replenish it after the emergency. Absolutely.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So yeah, that's going to be my recommendation. So you have 1904. You can email me heather sugarcookiemarketing.com I'll connect you with Cookie Design Lab and you'll get a month.

[Corey]

And I wouldn't say that will help you even be more efficient and cheaper.

[Heather]

It is much cheaper to print your own. Yeah, sure. And a lot of the cutter shops have adapted to new technology and have provided us with the STLs.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Which is instead of saying I hate that people are getting 3D printers, I'm never going to sell the STL. They've adapted. Last text. I'm going to read Google my business questions now. Google Business Profiles, the acronym change. Google pulled that one on us. The number of views on my Google Business Profile has grown a lot since I've been consistently back in the cookie game. But my interactions and click through rate hasn't changed. As in no one is clicking through to my site. Do you all have any tips or tricks on getting that rate up for my Google Business profile?

[Corey]

The thing with the Google Business profile is it's your ranking in a Maps section of it. A lot of people don't actually show shop from Matt's. It's where they get an idea of you. That's where they're doing the research part of you.

[Heather]

Because remember, we're not brick and mortars. Yeah.

[Corey]

We're not brick and mortar. So when someone comes to my Google Business profile, I want to make sure that my reviews are responded to. I got up to date photos. I got my Classes listed, I got my updates, I got what I offer there. This is them doing the research on me. It's not necessarily where they're coming from.

[Heather]

I don't typically search a business on maps and then go to its website. I typically either navigate to it or just, just go. Now we are different. We're not breaking the mortar. So you typically think to place the order, they're going to have to click to website. Now keep in mind this, Google business listings and your website have a relationship in terms of Google search ranks. That relationship is not told. But if you're ranking well in maps, likely you're ranking well in search, meaning that click that may have been pulled into Maps is actually attributed to Google search. That is confusing. So your click through rate, if the views are growing up, I'm happy. If the click through rate is not there, we could try possibly creating a promotion and posting it.

[Corey]

You can post an offer on your Google Business profile.

[Heather]

Google Business profiles, those posts are hard to come by. They're weird.

[Corey]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Heather]

But you know, consistency is key. I'm not creating a Google business listing so I can be a social media superstar. I'm creating it so I can rank well. And that's really why we make those posts. Yeah.

[Corey]

I find that people come to a Facebook group, ask for a baker, someone tags me, they go to my Facebook page. It's always iffy on Facebook page reviews because now they're called recommendations. So they've done the research there, they see my work now let me go to Google where I can get more of an independent response with the reviews because it's more like people finding me on Google posting on there and then they do the research there, then they're ready to book. But they've had my information from.

[Heather]

So whatever you're doing to increase impressions. Great. The click through there, it would not be my biggest focus. I'd keep an eye on it. I would that click through rate because it's such a weird place. Google visits. Those things are wild. They're great. I love them. I hate them too.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Moving on. We have the cookie college. If you're listening to this from the future, we have dropped The Independence Day 4th of July Cookie class kit. The digital download thank you thing has dropped as well. We're moving into mid June, which is a little bit of a slower time for us. A lot of schools are out now. Our school let out today, our local county. So now we go on a Tuesday. Oh no, it might have been Wednesday. Yeah, we're in the doldrums we're entering the doldrums of summer. It's so funny. Somebody got asked in the sugar cookie migratory, how are you guys getting orders for winter? And I was like, she's in Australia. She's in Australia. I forget.

[Corey]

You guys are.

[Heather]

We're in the doldrums of summer. You might be in the doldrums of winter. Crazy to celebrate Christmas when it's hot. I know. Floridians. Quiet, quiet. I know. But for us, it would be wild for me to be like, hang ten, Sam. Yeah. Yeah. You could use all the Christmas in July sets and be just crazy. So funny. Yeah, they could really nail that one. The cookie college. The we're getting ever closer to that promotion. The mid summer membership sale. I'll be producing more content once I return from the beach.

[Corey]

Sun tan, recharged and ready to row.

[Heather]

What if it's raining while they're listening to this? That's okay. Cory said she's not gonna sleep at the beach this week unless it's raining. We're at the beach while you're listening to this. Ask if she's sleeping.

[Corey]

Say probably. So I like a little nappy nap. I brought a book. Couldn't tell you the name, but I.

[Heather]

Bought a book last night too. I'd never read a book in my life. I listened to books, but I said, you know, when in Rome.

[Corey]

Here's the thing. The doldrums of summer can be the doldrums. And you can just wait till things pick up or you can plan to grow your business in the summer.

[Heather]

Right. Kind of. With the podcast topic this week using AI, you could start implementing that now. If you listen to the podcast top last week and you listened to the texting questions, someone said, my fiscal year ends in June.

[Corey]

What?

[Heather]

What are my end of year tasks? You can make July, June, July, August your refresher, your cleanup your organize, your strategize. Because our cookie super bowl is heading out to at us in an unprecedented speed.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

I'm sorry. Did May even exist? Was it three days longer?

[Corey]

Six months? I'm so sorry I blinked.

[Heather]

It's June 3rd. I feel like it was June 1st two days ago. It was, but it feels like it's almost June 25th. Yes. I'll be at the beat. That's how I've been looking forward. Someone said strategy.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

That you can slow down your calendar year by implementing big different things. That's that make your brain register that this was unlike the rest of the day. Right.

[Corey]

And that could be the mid night summer night sale Corey Midsummer membership sales.

[Heather]

Last week of June July which takes us in the first two days August it'll only seven days. It starts and ends in exactly seven days days starting that last week of July it'll be the only sale we run until we get back to the Vendee Blendy. I can't worry believe I'm even uttering.

[Corey]

Those words but if you want to have your business ready for success, if you don't want to be overwhelmed and burnt out by the end of December, this is the membership sale for you.

[Heather]

If you are in our two dollar transfer club, I added a bunch of 4th of July transfers specifically as requested by query a couple podcasts ago. I p Trap oh yeah that's nice.

[Corey]

Yeah I think patriotic 4 a lot of us have to put that on cookie like when it stands out a little bit.

[Heather]

Yeah I added it and then if you just want a basic for you can just pipe over my little my little flag.

[Corey]

Yes yes yes.

[Heather]

Very fun. So the cookie college information you can check it [e-mail] after this podcast I'll be pushing out more content about what the cookie college is and how you can capitalize on the mid summer membership sale. The MSM.

[Corey]

If you didn't catch it, there was two Facebook lives last week. We had one on the 4th and it was about flip insurance. Flip insurance is big because it's this ambiguity. Do I need it? Do I not need it? So if you want to go you can go listen to it. It's there for 30 days now. Facebook will delete lives after 30 days.

[Heather]

I'm trying to get them to send.

[Corey]

It and if they send it we'll put it on the YouTube channel. If not you want to snag that. Also we have a Facebook live that was on Saturday and it was about how to get more Google reviews. You you using Eddie and that is.

[Heather]

How we get better Google ranking.

[Corey]

How neat? How neat you already know if you want to teach a class in July before July 4th. The independence cookie class kits is so stinking up. It's so stinking cute. So you can snag that right now if you want to. It's everything you need to teach a cookie decorating class. All they need is prep market and.

[Heather]

The dough you need you the dough. And we have a partnership with Sweet Pink Olive. There's a couple deals you can actually snag there when you sign up if you want to do that consistently recently because Corey and I find that cookie Classes are our highest margin item. We've been doing them for so long now that the August class, which I actually posted back in February, is already sold out. My Halloween class is filling up and yes, I already posted the Christmas class and it is starting to fill up, which is wild because we still have seven months.

[Corey]

I know, but the class kits are great. If you join the college, you get access to the three years worth of classes. The class kits right now is just everything that's dropped in 2025. If you want some variety, you can join the college and you can download all of them. That honestly makes your membership worth it. And if you do the midsummer midnight sale, if you do the ms, Ms. Sale at the end of July, beginning of August, that'll be worth your membership plus some. I promise.

[Heather]

Yeah. Next up, you are jealous of how I stay organized.

[Corey]

You gotta be jealous.

[Heather]

You can learn it.

[Corey]

Heather teaches it. It's like her brain written out in video form. Next up, without the podcast sponsors, we would not have a podcast. So thank you all, all who listen to the podcast, but who also support the sponsors because buying from them, using the code is how they track if this is working for them. So we appreciate each and every one of you who do that. First and foremost, we have Royal Batch by Bakety Bake. It's a meringue powder. If you are having a tough time finding your favorite meringue powder, it might be time for you to try Royal Batch. The great thing is she has little sample packets that you can use that you can try. I have posted my recipe that many people have used and have found found very great success. So especially if you live in a humid climate like we do here in the D.C. area in the Baking with Sugar Cookie Marketing Group, if you want to snag those sample packs for a discount, use code Twins and that will save you 10%. But you can definitely try it. It already has three ingredients in it. White food coloring, vanilla extract, and corn syrup.

[Heather]

I love it.

[Corey]

I use it exclusively for every one of my orders. People who say, why are your cookies so shiny? It's because it already has the corn syrup and I'll have to add to it. So that is fantastic to use.

[Heather]

Now, I talked about the backers code, the backdrops earlier in this podcast, but I do think if you're a beginning baker, if you're an advanced baker, photography sells better pictures. Sell more product, make more money. Simple as that. There's no formula there. Take better photos, make more money.

[Corey]

Exactly.

[Heather]

Backersco has offered us 25% off. This is the only place that they offer this from what I know and use a code. Sugarcookie. Corey likes white matte finish. White matte finish. White matte finish. I was gonna say polar windows. White matte finish. And then they have additional colors, as you say. Okay. I want to level up my photography game. Even if I'm using AI to assist, remember that high quality, less busy background is for AI to be able to better understand kind of what it's seeing.

[Corey]

I've been having a lot of cake pop and macaron orders, so using the L brackets that they sell and using two boards at the same time has made it so you're not seeing my living room in the background. It's creating like this own photography studio because the backers stand straight up together and kind of transform my space. And I have a matching back backdrop to like the cake pop or the macarons that I'm using.

[Heather]

And if you're a cake baker, they have different sizing too. Speaking of AI, Eddie printed cookies. A lot of bakers are moving to get AI to generate the photo that they can print the flamingo in space. Eddie is an edible food printer, meaning you upload a piece and imagery and it can spit that out right on the cookie. And that's where I see a lot of shops now offering AI prints, if you're into that. Some of them are really unique and some of them are more simple. However, Eddie, the edible food printer by Primera, it's best. My best recommendation is go find them on Instagram. Their Facebook group is amazing, but it's kind of more of a support group. Like, people are like, it's not working and it's midnight. How do I get help? The Instagram is best for somebody printed on this, like, really special kind of cookie. What it was like butterfly bakes.

[Corey]

Oh, yeah.

[Heather]

It was a cookie that had a fancy.

[Corey]

It was a meringue.

[Heather]

Yeah. And she printed on it. That's pretty neat. Yeah, it's a very neat use case. And you can print on a lot more. You can print on any type of of food, ideally with a white background. Yes, ideally. You want to say something? No.

[Corey]

I'm going on to Baking Me Crazy. Baking Me Crazy is our next sponsor. They're rolling in with us. They're giving us the information, but you can actually buy from them online. They're an online retailer. They have gel colors like the sugar art flavorings like Lorraine's. They have Whipsy on there, which I do love.

[Heather]

Whiskey.

[Corey]

Yeah. Satin ice fondant. They Even sell. Daisy makes cookie cutter molds. I mean, cake pop molds.

[Heather]

Cookie cutters. Yeah. You could use them for cookie cutters.

[Corey]

If you wanted to. Cake pop molds. And they have spring wrinkles, jimmies, everything like that.

[Heather]

So we're from the past. We're in the future. I didn't get her onboarding email just yet. She just signed on yesterday from the past. I'm sure she's provided. But thank you, Baking Me Crazy for joining us. Thank you, Cookie Design Lab for stepping up and taking the stupid questions where we're in the STL Questions. I'm not sure what. We're calling Filament Freaks. And those are our sponsors. The more you support them, the more they pay to sponsor this. Which can keeps this podcast going. If you like these voices. Yes, you do. You're going to want to support these shots. I can tell you're hungry.

[Corey]

Do you have a twin rest? Do you have a twin tress yourself?

[Heather]

A twin dress? No, I say this one. Bath and Body Works spf.

[Corey]

Oh, Heather, we can't walk in the malls.

[Heather]

Listen, I am a ghost. I'm a pasty pale. I lack color. You do. And oddly, I'm tanner than Corey. I should tell you. So Bath and Body Works. Love them. They have a beach line I didn't really think they had. Okay. Cream spf. I'm sure it works better.

[Corey]

Sure.

[Heather]

And I'm roasting right now.

[Corey]

It's hard to, like, reach your back.

[Heather]

It's hard to get an even application. And then I have like, just when my skin is sticky. I can't. I can't.

[Corey]

It's a wrinkle in the sock for you.

[Heather]

Wrinkle in the sock for me. So we were walking to Bath and Bod and we found this sprayable spf. And I thought it tasted like a beach coconut.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And it was like. I think it was SPF 50.

[Corey]

I think so, yeah. Was it 30 or.

[Heather]

It might have been 30 or 50. Whatever. And reapply.

[Corey]

Yeah, for sure. And we're apply playing in the water. Doing a lot.

[Heather]

We're doing it a lot. So that's my twin dress and I hope I'm basking in it as we speak.

[Corey]

Okay. My TO interest was from Frank, my H Vac technician that came by yesterday.

[Heather]

He said, are you having more problems with your hp?

[Corey]

No, it was just they do a spring and a winter tune up. Yeah. So he was very nice. He was there for about two hours, showing me pictures of his dogs and everything like that. But he was like, hey, Corey, I really like it. I'm going to tell you something. If an H Vac technician comes up and says your capacitor is going okay. He's like, they're not wrong. Anything you install starts going as soon as it's installed. He said, there is a range for your capacitor. He said, it's right on your capacitor. You could ask him to show it to you and then what? You say, what are the variants? He said, as soon as you say, what are the variants? When they say your capacitor is going, they instantly know to not take advantage of you because you know what you're talking about.

[Heather]

So I need two words, words, range and variance and capacitor.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

He says, please talk my H Vac technician off of the sales.

[Corey]

He said, well, I would charge you for a capacitor today. 700.

[Heather]

How much?

[Corey]

You can buy it off Amazon. $50. Yeah. So he said, if you want to help the elderly, help your parents not be taken advantage of yourself. He said, your capacitor runs the system.

[Heather]

And he's like, okay, you, I seem to know your stuff, girl. And you're like, and I'll order from Amazon. Then I don't know what to do with it. Out of the that.

[Corey]

He said, you just look up the capacitor. It says, it even showed me.

[Heather]

So you order the capacitor. Now you have to call him back to replace it.

[Corey]

Yeah. He said, there's only four quarts. He said, what you do is right outside of your wall where the system is. You open this little box.

[Heather]

Lord.

[Corey]

That's where you turn off the 245 volts to the system.

[Heather]

Oh, my goodness. We're dealing with electricity. This man has high electricity. That's how it makes it go. This man had high hose reading. Yeah, well, I just appreciate getting your certification in hpc.

[Corey]

So he explained everything to me. He even let me touch my condensating coil. It's freezing. He said it's not used during when someone says, your condensator, your coil is dirty. He said, it rarely is dirty because it condensates, so the water drips it off. He said, your system, if you're not replacing the filter, can cake up on there, okay? So they'll be like, filthy. He said, you, the filter is the number one thing that kills your system.

[Heather]

I change mine every form. Mom.

[Corey]

He said, you, if you have pets, you need to do every three.

[Heather]

Okay, here's what I want to tell people and, and, and this is a life hack, man. AI, get out of my way. This is a Heather hack.

[Corey]

Sure.

[Heather]

I filter is made of cardboard. I write on notes to myself. I always, I find notes from myself all the time. And I'll be like, Heather, you replace this on this day, you're supposed to replace it on this day. Here's where you ordered this from.

[Corey]

Yeah, he even let me. I said, where can I order this filter? He's like, technically me, he said, but I striped stuff from taking a photo up here and here.

[Heather]

Yes. So I got mine from Home Depot.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

Either Lowe's or something. Yeah. I leave little notes like that all the time because future me won't remember. Yeah, future me doesn't know, but past me says, girl, I'm lobbing since we're in a time travel episode anyways, I'm lobbing this one over to you so you don't have to think about it anymore. Honestly, if you do that on light bulbs, you buy a kit of light bulbs, you only need one. I know, right? I bought this light bulb for the upstairs vanity. That's where it matches. That's where it's.

[Corey]

That's what I'm going through right now. The biggest basement has the line out. I don't know where to get it.

[Heather]

It is a hell on earth.

[Corey]

No, it's very.

[Heather]

You know what your best bet is to take one out that isn't out and you just read it on the side.

[Corey]

I'm going to take him who is out.

[Heather]

Here's what I did. AI Google lens. Yeah, I took the bulb out, I had Google lens scan. It can do text to search cuz image to search. So it read the side of the bulb and it found it on Amazon.

[Corey]

Oh, that's nice. That's very nice. I might have to do that.

[Heather]

That is very nice. A very nice swing.

[Corey]

I to want, I have to say, if you have a child and you're like, should they go to college, should they go in trade school? Apparently HC is the trade to be in.

[Heather]

I wrote an article that says AI will have the biggest impact on new knowledge workers. So people just out of college with no experience, no nothing under their belt, and who have a skill that could be easily replaceable by low level AI, they'll be struggling. The side thing, the kind of thing is, is trade, which is mechanic, H Vac, plumbing, variable issues. That a robot car?

[Corey]

Yeah, the H Vac, that's going to be one. Plumbing, that's going to be another.

[Heather]

Electrician.

[Corey]

Any mechanic on a car remodeling.

[Heather]

Remodeling, drywall.

[Corey]

Yeah. I want to say that is probably cuz he was like, listen, I'm going to. I would charge you $700 for something that's 50 hours. Do you see the mark up there? And he was like, and I'm here for. In your house for one to two hours.

[Heather]

Once I read that the tray per hour. Their hourly labor rate is so high because trade work is so taxing on the body that they have to forefront the fact that they'll have such bad medical issues.

[Corey]

You know, he also said that when you're on call, he said a lot of single men join H Vac because they don't mind being on call 24 7. They're just there to make. Yeah, because you're there when someone in the middle of night my H Vac went out.

[Heather]

Here's what I love, right? How come that's such a thing? We know. We're all conditioned to know. If you call the H Vac guy after hours, you're going to pay a surcharge. But bakers are like, either can or can't imagine. You're like, hey guy, my house is flooding. And he's like, I can or I.

[Corey]

Can'T, I'm tired so I only going to bed.

[Heather]

Right, right, right. No, you'd be like, how much can I pay you to like be less tired?

[Corey]

Right? Because at the end of the day when I'm sweating, I'm willing to pay a lot more than when I'm not.

[Heather]

I need you. I need you.

[Corey]

All right guys, we are at the beginning beach, but we will be back shortly.

[Heather]

Long. No, I'll be back longly long.

[Corey]

Leave but five days, but don't bring to my house. My husband is staying home, so him.

[Heather]

And the dog will be breaking my house. Take my cat, feed him. Good luck.

[Corey]

Best of luck.

[Heather]

He's annoying.