224. Baking it Down - Main Street Money

Summary

Podcast Title: Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪
Episode: 224. Baking it Down - Main Street Money
Release Date: August 12, 2025
Hosts: Heather and Corrie Miracle

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Overview

In Episode 224 of the Baking it Down podcast, hosts Heather and Corrie Miracle delve into the intricacies of their upcoming "Main Street Cookie Collab." This episode provides a comprehensive guide on how local bakers can leverage collaborative marketing strategies to boost their business, enhance community relationships, and increase online engagement.

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Main Street Cookie Collab

Date & Time:
August 28th, Thursday, from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.

Purpose:
The Main Street Cookie Collab is a one-hour Instagram event where bakers create cookies featuring the logos of local businesses. This collaboration aims to cross-promote businesses within the community, increase mutual engagement, and expand each baker's local follower base.

Heather explains the logistics:

• Hashtag Usage: Each collab uses a unique hashtag (e.g., #SEMCollabLocal) to track participation and engagement. Heather notes the evolution of hashtag effectiveness on Instagram, highlighting the necessity of unique hashtags for each event due to changes in how Instagram prioritizes them. "[...] the hashtag is vital" ([00:48]).

• Participation: Bakers are encouraged to not only post their featured cookies but also engage actively by commenting on other participants' posts within the hour. This mutual engagement helps amplify the reach of each post through Instagram's algorithm.

Key Insights from Previous Collabs:
Heather shares the success story of Lydia Eldridge, a member who transformed a local business's logo into a cookie design. Her post significantly boosted her local follower count and generated substantial order requests. Lydia's approach emphasized:

• Engagement from Businesses: Local businesses shared her posts, attracting their customer base to follow her.
• Building Community Relationships: Highlighting and supporting local businesses fostered a sense of community and mutual support.
  • "I'm averaging about 50 local new followers each week, usually within 24 hours from posting the shop." ([03:30])

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Strategic Execution for the Collab

Selecting the Right Businesses:
Heather and Corrie emphasize the importance of choosing local businesses with an existing moderate to strong following. They caution against featuring overly obscure or non-social media-active businesses, as the goal is to maximize audience overlap and engagement.

• Criteria for Selection:
  • Local Popularity: Businesses should be well-known within the community to ensure recognition.
  • Social Media Activity: Active social media presence increases the likelihood of reposts and shares.
  • Cult Following: Establishments with passionate customer bases (e.g., Graffiti Cat Pizza) are ideal as they inspire enthusiastic engagement.

Heather’s Recommendation:
Focus on businesses like local restaurants or coffee shops that naturally attract frequent visits and have a visible online presence. For example, Graffiti Cat Pizza in Occoquan was highlighted for its unique story and active engagement on social media.

• "It's a historically preserved area...So Corie's chosen and that's what we're going to talk about today is which business should you choose." ([08:00])

Corrie’s Insights:
Corrie stresses the significance of timing and active participation. Posting at the designated hour (11 AM EST) ensures maximum visibility and engagement. She advises participants to:

• Engage Promptly: Respond to comments within the first 30 minutes to capitalize on peak engagement times.
• Avoid Automated Responses: Genuine, personalized interactions are crucial to maintain authenticity and comply with Instagram’s policies.
  • "Bot-like actions will restrict your account. So for you to be like I saw a lot of...You can't do bot-like actions." ([23:50])

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Enhancing Engagement and Reach

Algorithm Benefits:
The podcast discusses how increased engagement through comments can enhance the visibility of posts due to Instagram's algorithm favoring content that keeps users engaged on the platform longer.

• Manufactured Engagement: Encouraging members to actively comment on each other’s posts boosts overall engagement metrics, making the posts more likely to appear in followers’ feeds and attracting potential new followers.
  • "It's the algorithm's job to keep people on its platform so it can serve them ads...The algorithm says what type of content is keeping people on this platform?" ([27:00])

Community Building:
Beyond algorithmic advantages, the collab fosters a supportive community among local businesses, encouraging networking and mutual promotion. This strengthens the local entrepreneurial ecosystem and builds long-term relationships.

• "The first part is connecting with a local business. The second is manufacturing engagement from other bakers." ([28:42])

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Practical Tips for Participants

1. Preparation:

   • Design Quality: Ensure the cookie designs are clear and visually appealing. Heather advises using high-contrast images and showcasing the logo effectively without overcrowding the design.
     • "The higher quality and bright the image, the better it will perform." ([38:12])

2. Execution:

   • Timing: Post the collab at exactly 11 AM EST to align with the peak engagement window.
   • Engagement: Actively respond to comments, ask questions in captions to encourage interaction, and avoid generic responses to foster genuine conversations.
     • "Your goal with your caption is to almost throw up a little lava. Little volleyball in the air so someone can smack it over the fence." ([24:30])

3. Post-Collab Activities:

   • Cross-Posting: Share the collab content across other platforms like Facebook Stories, Reels, and local community groups to maximize reach.
   • Follow-Up Engagement: Continue interacting with commenters even after the primary engagement hour to maintain momentum.
     • "Even if you can't post at the exact hour, go back and engage later when you can." ([36:30])

4. Content Variety:

   • Utilize different content formats such as carousels, reels, and detailed reviews to keep the engagement diverse and interesting.
     • "You can do both printed and piped designs to showcase your skills." ([19:21])

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Community Testimonials and Q&A

Community Success Stories:
Heather and Corrie share testimonials from community members who have benefited from previous collabs, highlighting increased reach, follower growth, and enhanced business inquiries.

Listener Questions:
The hosts address questions from listeners regarding collaboration challenges, such as handling rush orders and managing business relationships. They provide thoughtful advice on maintaining professionalism and fostering positive interactions within the community.

• "Once you build trust, you can start to relax back on policies, but initially, it's better to uphold them to maintain relationships." ([55:50])

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Conclusion

Episode 224 of Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing offers an in-depth exploration of the Main Street Cookie Collab, providing actionable strategies for local bakers to enhance their marketing efforts through collaborative engagement. Heather and Corrie's insights emphasize the importance of community support, authentic interactions, and strategic timing to maximize the benefits of such collaborations.

“It’s engaging, it’s being there, it’s being authentic. And it’s eating pizza with cats on it.” ([34:32])

By participating in the Main Street Cookie Collab, bakers can not only grow their businesses but also strengthen local community ties, fostering a supportive and prosperous environment for all involved.

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Notable Quotes:

• “We take the sweet art of selling online to the cottage bakery world with marketing methods that move products (and pastries).” – Heather ([00:22])
• “The hashtag is vital.” – Corrie ([02:01])
• “Bot-like actions will restrict your account.” – Corrie ([23:50])
• “It's about making your content work for you.” – Corrie ([32:22])
• “The higher quality and bright the image, the better it will perform.” – Heather ([38:12])
• “The algorithm's job is to keep people on its platform so it can serve them ads.” – Heather ([27:00])
• “If you can’t post at the exact hour, go back and engage later when you can.” – Corrie ([36:30])

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By following the guidance provided in this episode, local bakers can effectively utilize collaborative marketing strategies to elevate their businesses and foster a vibrant community of like-minded entrepreneurs.

Transcript

[A]

Round two for the Baking it Down podcast.

[B]

Today with sugar cookie marketing, it is Tuesday, August 12th.

[A]

You gotta keep your temperament.

[B]

Tuesday, August 12th. It is hot in the nation's capital. Even though Heather told us we were in for crabby.

[A]

Cory and I are crabby.

[B]

Crab.

[A]

We're not crabby. We're not. We're not.

[B]

Get your bun and head out of each other.

[A]

What we wanted to talk about today is the upcoming Main street cookie collab. Now, before I even get into what a collab is and how this is structured, it is on August 28th. That is a Thursday. It is not a Friday. My bad. But intentionally, it is a different time. It's from 11:00am Eastern to 12:00pm Eastern. It's middle of day 12. Right. So we've got two switches here. It is on a Thursday, not a Friday. And it's not at 10 this time, it is at 11. And that's to allow our west coast friends to participate.

[B]

Absolutely. And the only reason it's on Thursday is because I learned a few typos, but the majority of the typos said Thursday. So we just ran with, you know.

[A]

I really did some introspective thinking about what's going on with me and the wrong dates. And it's because sometimes some calendars, like I usually have Google Calendar pulled up here, it starts far as farthest is Monday. True. But on my phone, farthest is the Sunday.

[B]

I almost need the farthest to be Sunday.

[A]

You can do in asana. You can change it. My week starts on Monday. My week starts on Sunday. So it's variable based off of who likes to see or whatever.

[B]

So what is a cookie collab?

[A]

Single day, single hour. Instagram.

[B]

You.

[A]

Yes. Image.

[B]

And it's themed out.

[A]

And it's themed out. So there's many types of collabs, there's many platforms you can use the collabs on. But for us, for me and my house, we will be using Instagram on Thursday at 11 to 12. Now, you may say, if we just make a post, why is it an hour long? And that's because it's more than just a post. It's a post plus engagement. Now, that engagement is not following, but we're gonna talk about that in a second. But the most integral part of the success of a cookie club is not only the participants, because the more people that play, the more you get out of it. But the hashtag is vital.

[B]

Back in the day, we used, and we're not using this anymore, we used SEM Sugar Cookie marketing collab. Since then, Instagram actually has like depreciated the value of hashtags. And it used to be that when you search the hashtag, you could put it chronological so you could see the latest and greatest. So we could always use that, that hashtag and it would show the newest. Now you cannot search that way.

[A]

So the adjustment, we create a unique hashtag per collab. So the hashtag we used in the last collab is not the one that we use. We will be using SEM. Collab. Local. Local.

[B]

I like it.

[A]

That'll all be one word preceded by the pound sign. Okay. Hashtag.

[B]

The theme of this collab actually goes back to a cookie. College member Lydia Eldridge, she actually showcased this in the college and she said, guys, look, in the college we spitball a lot of like, strangers strategies. A lot of, hey, this helped me. Hey, this didn't help me. And one day she made this post. And this was a few years ago where she actually had cookified a logo of a company that lived on Main Street. So let's say it was like Barns and Boots. She went to the Barns and Boots website, found their logo, turned it into a cookie, then drove out to Barnes and Boots, held up her hand with the cookie in it and took a photo of the cookie in front of Barnes and Boots to.

[A]

You know what year this was?

[B]

No.

[A]

July 30, 2021.

[B]

Oh, no wonder it feels like lifetime ago.

[A]

Yeah. So she, she did a whole post kind of breaking down what it was.

[B]

And how it helped her. Here's the thing. The company that she featured went crazy. Shared it on their social profiles, placed orders, and other people who saw the post placed orders, became a genius marketing thing.

[A]

She actually tells us exactly how it benefited her. You want me to tell? Yeah, sure. She says the benefits. Absolutely. The shops always share my post when she features them. Sometimes even the employees and shop owners will share them on their personal pages. The shops always engage with my posts. I'm averaging about 50 local new followers each week, usually within 24 hours from posting the shop. Cause she ended up going through the entire main street. That's huge for a cottage food bakery. Local followers are the best as they benefit your business most. She also says I'm getting more and more order requests and starting to get booked up more quickly. She said this is creating hype and excitement and each business looks forward to seeing my posts every week. She did this for.

[B]

She did it for a while.

[A]

A few weeks. Yeah. Some of the owners have started wanting to purchase their local cookies, which is the goal of this collab, it is setting me apart from other bakers. It's cross marketing, gets attention to both other businesses and my cookie business and it's creating community relationship with locally owned business. Yeah.

[B]

So we're going to go over the strategy of how this can benefit you. But the first thing is to know it's August 28th, which is the Thursday at 11am Eastern Standard Time. And we're only requiring people who participate in this collab to engage with the content for one solid hour.

[A]

Yes. So we're gonna get to why that's important. The timing of this is important. One thing I wanna offer you though, if you check the show notes or if you're you're reading this in the Wednesday Wednesday newsletter or if you're watching this on YouTube, go below, you can register for this collab. You do not have to register for it to participate. However, when you register. Yes, I send you reminders. Cause the big thing is a lot of people will sign up. A month and a half for sure.

[B]

And then the life gets lifey.

[A]

If you registered and can't participate, you do not need to confess your sins to me. You do not have to participate. Just don't post that day.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

However, if you want co, meaning I'll help you with your caption, I'll help you with your replies. A little bit of 101 on what to post, how to take the photo. Yeah, you can register in the link below. How many people you think we got.

[B]

Signed up for this bad bow you've made?

[A]

I think 80.

[B]

And you said it was over a hundred.

[A]

I think it was 116 yesterday. I haven't made another post about it should be 116. 117. Somebody squeak 117.

[B]

So that is 117 people. Potential, tentatively, tentatively, but potential for you.

[A]

To get 117 pieces of engagement on this. So let's go back to. That's what a cookie collab is. A single day, single hour event using a specific hashtag. We talked about this in the last podcast, but why did we stop doing collabs?

[B]

We stopped because one busy season got busy and a lot of bakers have best of intentions. They want to do the collabs. But when busy season comes around, you know, you got to make that money.

[A]

We are, we are tasting the beginning of busy.

[B]

We are, we are.

[A]

The biggest way I know that the, the shift happens in the cookie calendar year is when podcast listens reverse the direction, start going back up.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

People dialing back in, they're Dialing and a lot of us do that because of back to school.

[B]

And this is a great opportunity. These collabs. If you've taken off the summer, you haven't done much with your social media to really get a jump in engagement. And that's a great start off point if you're trying to get back into it.

[A]

So.

[B]

So the thing is this one is on Instagram. Facebook is just the wild wild west and hashtags are hard to find. So we haven't mastered the technique over there. I know a lot of people are like, well, I only use Facebook for business.

[A]

Then this might, this could be the jump point for you.

[B]

This could be a great starting point for you. Or if you're unwilling to. This is a good one to skip.

[A]

What I see. People who refuse to get on Instagram, that's fine. You have your boundaries. What they could do is still post it to their Facebook page. You're not going to get the engagement from the sugar cookie marketing group members. You're still going to get the benefits.

[B]

To be posting it at every single place.

[A]

And that's how I would definitely do this. I saw, I think it was tiny Clowers. She participated. We did two collabs this year already. Meet the baker and cookie your logo. And she posted the Cookier logo. Of course. Her penmanship in Frosty.

[B]

She's fantastic at it.

[A]

If I had a Mont Blanc pen that was $5,000 she writes better with.

[B]

I know.

[A]

She posted it to her Facebook page. She still explained why she did it. But she, she got a bunch of audience engagement. Because what's going to happen is Cory's featuring a pizza. A pop up pizza place in a very, very cutesy part of town. Yeah. That's very known for people stopping by and grabbing lunch.

[B]

Listen, everyone who gets to I95 passes the town.

[A]

If you're in the area, go to Agricorn. It's definitely an experience. It's. I've taken every man I've ever dated there.

[B]

You really have.

[A]

And they've said this doesn't feel like the rest of Northern Virginia.

[B]

It's almost like a town lost in time.

[A]

Yeah. So it's a historically preserved area. That's why you can't even build new stuff. So it is like a little. It's by the Potomac. Is it the Potomac river there?

[B]

I think you're right.

[A]

I think it's right. Don't swim in that. Don't drink that water. It's disgusting. But what Corey's chosen and that's what we're going to talk about today is which business should you choose? There's a couple recommendations. Find a business that people already love. I love the thought of donating your time and effort to a niche company that doesn't market at all like a hole in the wall secret one. And you are letting your audience know about this. Never heard of seen before business that so obscure doesn't even have a website. However, in terms of social media, while that is a strategy in of itself, I don't know it's the best strategy for what we're trying to accomplish here.

[B]

Here's the, here's the overall premise of this. We want their audience to be our audience.

[A]

Yeah. We want our audience first. Yes.

[B]

They have to have an audience to have.

[A]

So that obscure reveal. Maybe another time.

[B]

And I do like that idea. It's hey, my. The secret gems. Those perform well just because someone.

[A]

Because you're going to get that one person who's excited that it's their gym. However, we want something with moderate excitement already behind it so that when somebody sees it they're like, I've been there. We want the I've been. There's the. I've been.

[B]

There's. We have the cult. The cult following places that are great because so many people love it. We have the controversial places where people are like, I hated their food. I love their food. Great, fantastic.

[A]

McDonald's. This is not a McDonald's challenge. Fast food chains. Okay, I'm sorry, I stand corrected. If it's a. If you make a Chick Fil a thing, it's going to do great.

[B]

A Chick Fil A one, an Olive Garden probably might not do.

[A]

I don't think their corporate offices are going to share your content. So what we want to do is focus on local. That's why it's called the main street Cookie clap doesn't necessarily have to be attached to your main street. But if it's a hyper local company that people already know and love.

[B]

You're right.

[A]

That would probably be my sweet spot. So let's talk about. You had a couple. Okay.

[B]

You're right. You're going to have a list.

[A]

Going to have a listy list.

[B]

If you create that giant list, it's going to be overwhelming. You're going to choose zero.

[A]

Right. So I let.

[B]

Some people are like, can we do 52 in this month?

[A]

You can do as many as you want.

[B]

Here's the thing, however, we want to kind of niche it down because it's very hard one to make that many cookies to go to Those places and to really give it a quality post.

[A]

Somebody had a great, great question. They're like, I want to do more than one business. Should I post them all in the same post? I said no, because it. The first company. If they sh. The first company benefits. The third company in your carousel is. Is going to share it and it's going to see the first company.

[B]

Yeah. Because your caption, while it can do a lot, it can't do everything.

[A]

I can't do. It can't separate images. Yeah. So what I would do if I was you is just pick one for this collab and continue doing it on your own. You're not going to get the collabing age, but you're still going to get a ton of.

[B]

Absolutely. And this is a great starting off point. So I would say niche it down to one.

[A]

I'm going to say make the one a restaurant.

[B]

The great thing about restaurants is we. A lot of people go to them.

[A]

So you might say, well, I love this decking company I use. I got a beautiful deck from them. They're gonna love this. Nobody's ever talked about them before. And everyone wants decks. The problem with that is nobody cares unless they want a deck. Here's the thing.

[B]

If your strategy is I've been trying to get this deck company to buy a corporate order for me for the last year.

[A]

I'm gonna allow it.

[B]

I know that not everyone's buying decks right now, but I really want this deck as a client. That that's a strategy there. If we're trying to say I want to get my post out far and wide. Something that's easy for people to go to coffee shops, coffee shop, restaurants.

[A]

Unfortunately, food is so at the tip of the tongue because it's such a transient quick place that we have to. Everyone has to eat.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So the odds that you have most of your audience have experienced or at least heard of now to keep it hypernetic, we did a pop up. Not my favorite because a pop up company closes, it only open two days a week.

[B]

The great thing of. Okay, so I was like, should I do this coffee shop that just opened, this hot dog vendor who has a trailer.

[A]

I'm not talking about the hot dog guy. You switched from the hot dog guy.

[B]

Yeah, I did switch from the hot dog.

[A]

That was where I initially.

[B]

Just because my son likes pizza and cats.

[A]

And I said pizza company that has a cat logo.

[B]

So there's this guy, his name's Dave's Dogs. It is a truck and a trailer. He doesn't Even have a location. But he is dedicated to his business. He's been around for so long.

[A]

Dave's Dogs donates the proceeds to dogs in need. Also, he's so notoriously well known here that he's in the Wood Wood game. Board game.

[B]

Yeah. And he's. He will be somewhere every single weekend. I know his go to spot. I pass it all the time. So I said ain't he's so active on social media. Okay. So I said this would be a shoe in. He did have a difficult logo. Shame on you, Dave dog for being so difficult. It's his face and we'll get to there too. It's his face. It's the words.

[A]

There was a lot going on with this logo. See Dave's Dogs.

[B]

It is Dave Dog black cloth. But I was just going to do the letters because I do like his chunky letters that says Dave's Dogs.

[A]

You could pipe that. He does have a lot of text.

[B]

He does have a lot.

[A]

That is a lot of text. Okay.

[B]

But Dave's Dogs is a great option because one his audience is hyper local. His place where he sets up most the majority of the time is a hop, skip and jump from my home. So his audience truly is my audience. Granted, he does go around Northern Virginia so his audience is pretty wide. People are willing to go around Norwegian and come to me to pick up their order. So it's not out of the realm of possibilities.

[A]

I'm sorry, I did click to Dave's beautiful website. Very beautiful. But he has a not tips jar. When you click to it, it says Dave doesn't accept tips. All donations to his not tips jar are used to cover adoption fees, bay neuters and medical expenses for hard to adopt cats and dogs. At the Prince William County Animal shelter As of November 2023, he's helped 630 shelter animals.

[B]

That's fantastic. And I love. Dave is behind the dogs and I love dogs. So it will. It still is a great option. It's still on the docket. But in this little town of Occoquan, the chocolate guy, he's a chocolatier.

[A]

I'm going to tell you right now, Corey has that local community group. The man's wife is in it. The man's wife is in it. So. So she. Dave can't be in. It's a girls only thing. Girls club.

[B]

Granted she's not like super active in there, but my son loves the town of Occoquan. We drive through it once a week.

[A]

Now the another benefit of choosing a hyper Local thing. Corey's found one with a unique logo. It's a cat. The building was actually graffitied. While they were building it, somebody came into the night and graffitied a cat on that. The pizza company's called Graffiti Cat Pizza for that reason. We already got a really interesting story, so our copy's already gonna jump off the page. We've got a cat and a pizza.

[B]

And the logo, it's black on white.

[A]

Because it's graffiti cat. Right. So, Cor, there is some nuance in choosing your target here. I'm gonna say pick one. For this collaboration. I love the idea that Lydia kept doing it and I would recommend that.

[B]

And I think down the road I'll.

[A]

Do Dave's talks that were great for this collab. Making one post carries so much weight is a little.

[B]

It does things we need to look at before as we're choosing. So we've narrowed down our list. Okay. We said restaurants, coffee shops, things people frequent, often who share an audience that you share. Okay, that's great.

[A]

I have a little buzz already that.

[B]

Do have a little bit of a cult following.

[A]

We love that. A positive cult following.

[B]

What we want to look now for, are they active on social media?

[A]

Because Lydia's big thing is that the companies then reshared. So Corey jokingly said Olive Garden, which place that would do well. A lot of people who like Olive Garden love it. Corporate Olive Garden. The likelihood that they'll reshare it is pretty low. I think they did reshare Lisa Q's on her birthday though. Sad.

[B]

I could only hope. Granted, she doesn't ship her cakes worldwide.

[A]

So while it's great that Olive Garden again, we gotta say the goal of these collabs is not to gain far away followers. You really always want to focus on local. And that's why Lydia said hyper local gets hyper local.

[B]

So there was a new coffee shop that opened in the little place next.

[A]

To where I live.

[B]

And I said this would be a great one. People were so excited when it opened up. You know, I was able to go there. It tasted great. Here's the problem. They have no social media for this.

[A]

Not even a Facebook page, even though it meets some of the qualifications. It's a restaurant, People really like it. We miss out on that share so it does not become the optimal one.

[B]

The great thing about Graffiti Cat Pizza is not only is it a Graffiti Cat Pizza is a place itself. It's under this historic Occoquan. And I happen to know the lady who runs the account.

[A]

So you have the Local. You have the. Yeah. So Corey's actually got two targets here. Occoquan has its own marketing company to help promote the area. And then Graffiti cat. We know that the owner runs his own marketing and we. We've talked to him before through his chocolate shop doing the same thing featuring a local business. We didn't cookify it, but he was really open to it. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Very, very nice.

[A]

Very. Now some of you guys are going to say but copyright laws, you don't own the logo. You couldn't cookie fight. All you need to do is reach out to the company and that's if you are.

[B]

I've done cookie logos for years. Not one person is that. How dare you.

[A]

So if you want to say, well I don't think. Then don't do. Reach out and ask. Now here is the thing I was going to say the logos, reach out and ask. What I would do is find somebody that's really willing to be shared and featured in. You can see if they've been featured in news articles. When you go to Google search, you can click on the news tab. That chocolate pizza guy, he likes to be in the news. He loves it. He loves it. So we know that he's. Now if you find a shy business owner who when they see you with a camera hides behind the desk, that's not going to be my. My ideal one. They're probably going to not.

[B]

There's a French restaurant in Lake Ridge that I love to go to.

[A]

That would have been a good one.

[B]

It is. Unfortunately though we have featured him in our about town videos not on social media. And he probably logs in once a year to his social media.

[A]

So it was.

[B]

He found it months and months after. You know, while it still is a fantastic. It has a cult following. People love eating there. I didn't get the zhuzh out of it because it was found so later.

[A]

But I like that you picked not only an area that has a marketing company, but a company. So we got even more potential for sure.

[B]

More potential. A little bit more.

[A]

A little bit more. Now what you're going to do at 11am Eastern, you're going to post up your club. I'm going to coach you through the copy. But the copy isn't scientific. You're going to say, this is why you love this place.

[B]

I want to say let's. Instead of just doing generic highball, it's very hard to engage with someone who's like, this is my favorite restaurant. I want you to say, guys, when you go to the menu on Here they're going to have this fully loaded sourdough pizza. He. He only offers it once a month. It's my favorite. Ask for this special sauce on it.

[A]

Things you can also do. Telling the story about the graffiti cat.

[B]

Say Dave's dogs doesn't accept tips. His tips actually go to the Prince William and then I can tag the Prince William County Animal Shelter who also.

[A]

Has their own social media. So now they benefit. So maybe their likelihood is if nobody reshares, it's still a win of a. Because you're still going to get your audience engagement specifically from people that say, I love that place. I know.

[B]

And people are like, I didn't know that about Dave Sock. That's fantastic.

[A]

Right. People are asking me, can I print the logo or can I pipe the logo? You can do whatever you want. I think you'll get more bang for the buck if you introduce some form of piping in there.

[B]

I like how some people did in the Cook your logo collab. They printed and then they piped some things on it. Really like showing off your both skills. Like, I can print this, I can paint.

[A]

I love that. Because this is a little bit of a demonstration now. You can say what I'm always going to say. What's your goal here? Yeah. Do you want more Eddie printed logos? Go right ahead and print on that bad boy. What you're not going to do is use AI. That's not flexing any muscles here. So we either need to produce it, it needs to be on a cookie. Yeah. If you are using AI, I'm actually going to ask you to sit out of these collabs. I need you to get some skin in the game because we want you.

[B]

Yeah. The reason you're doing yourself a disservice there because we want to be valuable to these places. You're like, well, you know, I ran out of time. I made the. The logo into AI so I could post something and still feature them at the end of the day. The strategy here is to showcase your business, your skills to these businesses.

[A]

Because they might place that. Yes. Order come Christmas.

[B]

Yeah. And if they share your content and there's other cookies in the community and they're like that'. Aye, aye.

[A]

You don't want to leave a little loop.

[B]

Give our little bottle. Because at the end of the day when they share that post, you have no control over the comments anymore.

[A]

You don't, you don't. Yeah. So what you're going to do is if you want more Eddie logos, you're gonna print if you want more logos in general or more local customers you're.

[B]

Gonna pipe if you wanted to. Why didn't you bring one of each.

[A]

Printed in a pipe that are you gonna do that?

[B]

I didn't know. I think I so think it's so cute if I piped it because it would be puffy.

[A]

Question for you. Because you have the cookie cutter.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You could do it in both ways and just make it a future content of hey. Oh, absolutely. Here's what it looks like. Piped. Here's what it looks like.

[B]

I want to say put those side by side so that you could send a business like, hey, my pipes are a little bit pricier. But I just want to show you what it looks like side by side.

[A]

Now Corey and I are going on Saturday to take this photo in the. In what I like is the exact same way Lydia took it. Maybe I'll see if I can repost her thing. She is holding her cookie in front of the store.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

The cookie and the logo of the business are within the same frame but it's slightly blurred. So it's kind of showing you like here's what that logo looks like and here's me holding the actual cookie. So the focus is on the cookie but we still get to see that. So Cory and I are going to see if he has this pop up sign. Yeah. If not, we're going to take in front of a pizza.

[B]

And that's something else you gotta work because this is a pop up shop. There's not like always a defined sign because it's only open two days a week. That's another strategy. If you know the graffiti on the side of the building is on the side of the building and it's very squished together. Squished together. So I am limited in that.

[A]

We're going to try some options. Now you got the question. Yeah. Lydia's holding her cookie bare handed. I know some of you gonna be like, well I wouldn't. Then don't put a glove on and take the picture with that. You can say, well, I think wearing the glove would signal that I do this at home. Absolutely. If you want to do that, please do.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But what you're gonna do is at 11, you're gonna make this post. Try to get as close to 11am Eastern as possible. That's when you're going to most bang for your buck. Because that's when everybody else is posting and that's when everyone starts their engagement. We ask them to engage for an hour but their best bet is in that first 30 minutes.

[B]

If you say, oh shoot, I forgot it was supposed to be at 11, now it's 12 o'. Clock. We've asked people to engage for one hour. At the end of the day we're all busy people. Thursday's crazy. Probably a day before pickup. You only have about an hour in your life that you can do it. I saw someone comment, listen, I want to participate. I'll be in a meeting at 11, but I could come back at 12. And I get that. As long as you're keeping yourself true and you're going back and engaging takers take. There's not always benefit in that it's the giver's gain. You're going to get a lot of comments. Going back and making those comments is fantastic. That's the goal.

[A]

So I tell everyone if you can please, please, please, please. It's the best benefit to you to post at 11am Eastern. If you can't go back and post when you can and then go back and engage because you're still gonna get. There's people that comment on Corey's like people comment 24 hours later. Oh yeah. I'm like, oh, you guys are crazy. Thank you so much for giving me fantastic job on us. You're gonna not only comment, you're gonna make your post right? You're gonna post it. You're gonna have this delicious caption. You're gonna use the hashtag SEMCollabLocal L O C A L because we use a different hashtag region. You're going to then click on that hashtag on your post. It's going to take you to the other members who have also started it. I like to click on the first one. Keep in mind they're getting posted for the entire hour. I like to hard it to symbolize I've been here and then I leave the comment. Yeah, I help you with some comment replies. The important thing is to not just copy and paste those. Just you can't do bot like actions.

[B]

Bot like actions will restrict your account. So for you to be like I saw a lot of hey, I'm in. I'm with the SCM collab.

[A]

Love this. That was mine.

[B]

That was very generic and they were copying and pasting it at record speeds.

[A]

Yeah. And then they got slapped on the wrist and they were suspended for 24 hours. Not what I want for you guys because what if somebody from the business comments and now you can't. So what I'm going to ask you to do is read the captions and then do a little like. You can comment. Oh, my goodness. I would love to try this place. Oh, I've stopped in here one time. Oh. I actually live within 30 minutes here. I'll love to drive and try this out.

[B]

Your goal with your caption is to almost throw up a little lava. Little volleyball in the air so someone can smack it over the fence. If you're just like, love this place. That's very hard for me to comment because I'm sure you love the place. I know nothing about it. So I'll be like, looks good. Sounds amazing.

[A]

I prefer to ask a question to the poster because then they have to come back. Yeah. What you'll see is almost need you to make one for me for. So I can post it on the SDM page. Unless you want to do it there.

[B]

Oh, just a random company.

[A]

I don't know company we should do. How random we could do.

[B]

We'll talk, we'll discuss.

[A]

We'll discuss what I like to do. And you can see it in the last class. I'll go and reply to every comment left on my post. Yeah. Because I'm pushing engagement and I'll engage with those people. Like no way. And we have a conversation. Hot take. Not sure if this is proven at all. Question. What are your theories here? If an account posts something but is commenting over there and gets replies, do you think Facebook meta the algorithm favors that account more in its content? I don't.

[B]

I don't necessarily know that.

[A]

I don't think anybody could.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

In my opinion, if Facebook rewards behavior on the platform, it's factoring in all behavior on the platform.

[B]

I think what it really truly rewards and I did not do this as shame on me. People who comment on your. Your collab photo for you to comment back to each and every person. That is where oh, this. This creator's creating content that's conversational. I see when people comment back to people, they get more comments per post on average than people who just accept comments.

[A]

Right. Because it's so tempting to just click the heart comment button.

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

It is work to write. It is. It's a lot of work to write. More than. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Right. So I like to like, oh, that's so funny. Or oh, in the last collab, the cookie, my logo. I used it to pitch the midsummer membership sale and someone's like always got always be closing. I was like, yeah, you know, you know, girl on TikTok while scrolling over the weekend, a girl said she was laid off from TikTok. But she had this insider information and she said accounts that post content and immediately go engage with other accounts as content is favored by that TikTok.

[B]

And that's interesting. I know there's so many factors that go into it. So I mean, I can't say no, I can't say yes. But obviously I have not been good.

[A]

At coming, not coming at all or commenting. I would tell you you're going to get more juice from the commenting.

[B]

Okay, so you're probably like, but Heather and Corey, why do I want other bakers to comment on my stuff? I don't sell to other bakers.

[A]

Great question. Especially bakers from really far away.

[B]

Yeah, I know.

[A]

Because the sugar cookie marketing club will be globally attended. Probably because there's always somebody from another country.

[B]

So why would it behoove me, a local baker, to have other bakers comment?

[A]

Consider how the algorithm works. The algorithm's job is to keep people on its platform so it can serve them ads. At the end of the day, it's always about money, right? Yeah. The algorithm says what type of content is keeping people on this platform?

[B]

What type of content? It's not only keeping them on there, it's causing them to expand the comments to leave a comment on the post.

[A]

Yeah, again, because you gotta see the algorithms like, because the more they're on this platform, the more ads I can serve them, which is the more money I can make from advertisers.

[B]

The person, the. The bots don't have eyeballs. They don't know that we're all part of a Facebook group that did a collab. What they're realizing is there's a lot of traction going on this, with this specific post. The bots don't know they're all cookiers. But what it does know is this post is getting a lot of engagement. Let's send it out into more feeds of the people who follow this account.

[A]

And even people who don't follow but are similar to the follow account. Now that's the important part. You're not going to follow these accounts. You're going to engage.

[B]

And I would say most everyone did fantastic last time. Granted, you can follow sugar cookie marketing. We got great memes over there. But for my personal account, because I did it personally, I didn't get a ton of followers from it because you.

[A]

Gotta say, okay, if we're trying to grow local, I don't want a baker from Virginia following another baker from Texas because I can't do much for you. You can't sell.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

What you do want is for this baker from Virginia to comment because it's going to expand the reach of your post to more of your audience who lives in Texas. Grant you. Yes. You're getting people of your audience because you got the follower. Non follower. But it is that baiting of engagement, that strategic astroturfing of getting comments where otherwise comments wouldn't exist. That's the other twofold. So the first, the best part of this is connecting with a local business.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

The second best part is this manufactured engagement.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

From other bakers. And they're going to do it for an hour and they're going to do it from 11 to 12. And you're going to get a lot more comments. Now, you saw somebody posted the other day. Yeah, she said I posted.

[B]

Go ahead. She said she posted the clap. She said the clap. I'm up 220% reach with the clap, which makes sense because it is manufactured. Engage.

[A]

Because everyone had to go engage her. This is what she saw on increase. Yes.

[B]

She's like that. I know I wasn't gonna get replicate that with my post after she. But the post after actually reached more people on average than my post before the collab did because the.

[A]

The algorithm is like, well, she's producing content people really like. When we pushed out this content to her audience, they also seem to really like it. Let's keep testing this account. Let's see what they say.

[B]

And it really gives you a strategy to go on. Now, if you post the clap, you have a great caption that says your favorite order. You know, things that you would order again. Things you wouldn't order again. That's very informative. Tell us when the place is open and then your next post after that club is like, party hardy. Love the set. You're not giving your audience something to connect to again.

[A]

Imagine, though, if you did what Olivia did and did multiple one of these. Oh, you'd have people weeks.

[B]

Listen, what if you, on your next post after the collab asked, who should I feature next?

[A]

I would love to vote.

[B]

Comment below. Tag them now.

[A]

Another thing about this collab is it's Instagram only. I can't. We actually filmed this podcast already once today, so I can't remember if I said this in the first version of the second. Can you repeat it?

[B]

Just.

[A]

I'm gonna say it again. Sure. Even though this is Instagram only. Please, please, please take that content. I know what Corey's already gonna do. One, she's gonna make a video out of this content. So she's gonna post it to her local accounts reels. I know she's going to take this content and she's gonna post it in her local community group. She may even post it in a business networking group she's in. She's definitely going to post it to her stories and behind the scenes, as.

[B]

We walk up in the cookie college, we're doing a challenge, a community group challenge. How to turn community groups into your sales powerhouses. A great way for me to use my sales Saturday post. I get one a week.

[A]

You're going to see we have sold zero times in this community group. That's how this works. Yeah. So Corey on Saturday.

[B]

So on Saturday, instead of being like, hey, guys, accepting new orders for birthdays, weddings, anniversary, divorces, please contact me here. What I'm going to do is we're going to put my cookie. I'm gonna have a real. It's a cookie in front of there. I'm eating a piece of the sourdough pizza from the shop. We're walking down Occoquan. And while I'm not necessarily selling so hard, anyone who's ever been to Aoko Con, which is everyone in the group, because it's right down the road, is going to be able to associate. They're going to then comment, oh, my goodness, have you tried this?

[A]

Blah, blah, blah.

[B]

And in turn, I'm getting my name out there and not such a salesy way a lot of times.

[A]

It's just such a pleasant way to get your name out there a lot of times.

[B]

Each Saturday, because we allow people to sell on Saturdays in this local group that run, you'll see the same person.

[A]

I'm like, same person, same exact pictures, same exact copy.

[B]

Absolutely. And it falls on deaf ears. And they get one to two likes, no comments. And they're like, all right, I'm good for the week.

[A]

We have a lady in Corey's local group. Her business model is so interesting. It's yoga with possums.

[B]

It is yoga.

[A]

And it's not just possums, it's other creatures.

[B]

Yeah, there's goats I've seen.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, what an interesting thing. However, she has not figured out that posting the same content each week, it always lands her in the spam filter.

[B]

And we don't get notified about the spam.

[A]

Spam filter. Spam filter is also upticking. So if you see a lot of your posts getting screened out, that's why. So mixing it up with this type of content makes it so interesting. Now, of course, also Also, and this is what I'm going to tell you, she's also going to post it on her personal Facebook. Not her personal Facebook, her business, my business Facebook. Because even though she's not getting the Instagram collab comments, it's going to perform so well there for all the reasons we talked about in this podcast.

[B]

It's making your content work for you.

[A]

It's stretching your content's shelf life.

[B]

Yes, it's if Graffiti Cat Pizza shares me on Instagram and then I go to post it on Facebook and they share me on Facebook.

[A]

Oh, that's fantastic. But she has an audience on Facebook. She has a different audience on Instagram. She has a different audience in her group. Absolutely. We're going to stretch that. And then within those content types, she's going to create different content so she can do a reel, a story, a feed, post a carousel. If you want to feature the menu. That's another thing I said when you're there, especially if it's, if it's a restaurant, which makes it so much easier, go there, take your photo, take a photo of the parking lot, take a photo of the menu, take a photo of the drink you ordered, take a photo of the food you ordered, do a whole write up and then say, hey guys, here's everything you wanted to know about here. Here's what the parking sit is like. Here's my favorite thing I ordered. And then do a review. That content just does so well.

[B]

You can do this one and done. You went outside, you didn't even go into the business. You just picked a business, done. You can still do it, but you could use your time wisely and really make this content work for you and for your business. You know, a lot of groups don't allow you to sell during the week. Totally get that. Okay, we didn't sell. But I have a full write up of this business and the owner happens to be in that local community group. I'm not telling, I'm just telling you how much I love it.

[A]

I know, I know. A baker is just clutching and saying, I, you're not in my group, doesn't allow sales. We're not going to sell. Then we're going to not even mention. We're going to just say, for my day job I needed to feature a local business and here's what I did. You're not going to say what that day job is. You're not going to say I cookie fiddle. You're not even going to mention baking. But they know we know. Oh, no, wait, look at the capabilities that the image.

[B]

And I want to say if the owner who saw your post, saw your tags, comes into that group that can't sell and said yeah, look, they actually gave me the. They cookied my logo and she gave it to me after. Look how cute it turned out.

[A]

The magic words. Now within your group, post within your page, post within your Instagram, you're going to reply to each of those comments. It's frustrating, it's annoying, it's. It seems redundant, it seems boring. And you know, it takes a lot of time. My thingy start hurting. It's just how you increase reach. So everyone's like how do I crack the golden. How do I get the golden ticket to crack the code on reaching more people? It's this.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's engaging, it's being there, it's being authentic. And it's eating pizza with cats on it.

[B]

I know. And it's sourdough. So I'm in my sourdough era. So I cannot wait to taste it. It looked great on the website.

[A]

That is in like a week and a half.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Two weeks. What do you think? 2ish. Oh, two weeks in a day.

[B]

Two weeks in a day.

[A]

Two days. So if you're listening to this, you have plenty of time to still get this storyboarded. Run out there, take your photos, cook a Vine.

[B]

When you're sitting down and trying to figure it out, just think about the strategy you have in mind. I want more corporate Eddie logo cookies. Okay. That's a strategy. I want to woo this business because I would love to work with them. That's your strategy.

[A]

I would like more real estate agents. You're going to go to a real. Here's what I would do for that one. Real estate agent agents, we eat this stuff up cuz you know they have to shout their names from mountain top. They know mark, they know marketing.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I would find a house listing they have and go to their sign. Cookify their sign.

[B]

That would be it's problem is they always put their faces on there. That's so hard to do. You could do like the face with no eyes. It still would be cute.

[A]

You'd find the. The essence of it. Or use the Eddie printer.

[B]

That be hilarious if you printed it on a kite. Yes, we should do that.

[A]

We should do it.

[B]

Maybe we'll do that as a next collab.

[A]

That would be real estate agent. Remember our next collab we're supposed to do close your eyes and make a reel.

[B]

I know.

[A]

Decorating a circle.

[B]

We'll have to discuss.

[A]

We'll have to discuss. So anyways, that's a cookie collab. Just to reiterate, the hashtag is SCM collab local. That'll be all one word and with the pound sign in front of it. That's how hashtags work. It's on August 28th, which is a Thursday at 11 to 12pm Eastern Standard Time. So it's the middle of the day.

[B]

Oh yeah. 11am 12pm so sorry, 11am 12am is.

[A]

When the venue blog starts. I know because I hate that time. You can register if you check the show notes, this or go to the group. I have the registration link there. That registration closes a week before because I gotta send you the reminders. Yeah, go ahead.

[B]

My one thing I just noticed in.

[A]

The last two clouds, I like this.

[B]

And this is you can do whatever you want. Some people posted so many hours after the that 11 to 12 time, which you totally can do. The thing is you're. You're not getting as much bang for the buck because you've posted it so far. After that time they still were getting comments and I was still finding them and commenting on them. But you could get so many more comments if you just stuck to the time. And granted life happens. You know, your kid hit his head and you had to take him to the er.

[A]

You're not going to happen life happening there. It was a while happening.

[B]

I was remembering Arch when he. Arch one day, he was very young, we were at the gym, he was in the little gym daycare part and he drank from the water fountain instead of just doing what kids do and wiping his mouth off with his sleeve. He said if I spin like a tornado, it'll dry my mouth fast.

[A]

You know, his theory is not wrong.

[B]

And then he hit this metal thing in the wall. I didn't know how to take it.

[A]

There, it was expensive. So I was thinking about the other day.

[B]

That stuff happens. I get it.

[A]

So if your kid is spinning like a tornado and you can't make it, you should post it eventually. But definitely go back and engage because it's a paying back into it.

[B]

Yeah. A lot of people, what I see them do is they'll get a comment, they'll go click on that comment. Go comment on that person's thing.

[A]

You gotta just go through it as a numbers game. I know. And it's too hard to maintain that.

[B]

Tip for tat, tit for tat, tip for tat. If someone you commented on their picture and they didn't comment on yours, we don't have the tattletail. We don't have the hotline. Tattletail hotline.

[A]

That's between them and their almighty.

[B]

You can go delete to comment if they didn't come back to you. But no, we don't need to know if someone didn't participate. It really, truly is on everyone to have the mindset. A giver's gain mindset that you're gonna give and you're gonna get hot take.

[A]

Not even hot take. The higher quality and bright the image, the better. Better the better it will be. Better it will perform.

[B]

That's why I think it's great because you're outside of the building so you.

[A]

Get the depth of field. Which, which Portrait mode. I'm speaking on Android, but no iPhone has a portrait mode.

[B]

It does, it does.

[A]

Portrait mode will allow your cookie to be in focus and the background to be blurry.

[B]

Blurry. And we just want to. To see their logo in the back just so it knows like, oh, at the end of the day, I know she can cry.

[A]

Brighten up them whites, bump up that brightness in post processing and then that's going to do pretty good. Here's another one. Don't post a real. This is not a real challenge. I know a couple people did reels in the last one. Allowable. It just works so differently than posts. Yeah, I. I'm going to say focus on the image. I think it will perform better. Yeah, I think it.

[B]

At the end of the day, when you just see the logo, it's easy to be like, I know that business versus having wait for this unveiling.

[A]

You know, if you're real started in the parking lot, I get what you're doing, but you're not getting that like when you see that image and you know you've been there. We want that. Like, I know that company. People love to say what they know.

[B]

Absolutely. They do. They do.

[A]

Do you think a great American restaurant would perform? So we have. And you know, I say sometimes you just gotta be happy you're born in the area you're born in, in Northern Virginia, not even Maryland, I don't think. And not in D.C. there's this company called GAR Great American Restaurant. Yeah, they started with one business and they've expanded it now. All the restaurants have different names. There's a couple that have duplicate names, but each restaurant is very similar in menu but has different features on it. And it's like different vibes when you.

[B]

Walk into it, you never feel like you're going into the same place.

[A]

Ozzy's Corn, I went on Sunday after a walk, actually, is Italian. Coastal Flats is fish.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Mike's is Great American All American Fair. Yeah. Yeah. And then what, Silverado is Tex Mex? Yeah, I think so. And then Arty's is kind of, I think, back to the American fair, but a different taste.

[B]

Is Patsy's one.

[A]

Patsy's is the.

[B]

Isn't that like more of like sandwich type?

[A]

I think it might be. And then they have the best breads. Breast buns, Bread Company. Yes. And then they have that one at Turlington. I forgot the name. We're just talking about it.

[B]

Yeah, I can't remember.

[A]

So anyways, these restaurants are the best restaurants they've ever been, you might say. Well, they're so dialed in, it almost feels like a chain. They're not. They're just local. There's about what, 10 or 15. But people love to either worship them or hate them.

[B]

They do. And that. That's got. It's got a following because it's controversial. Do you love them? Do you hate them?

[A]

Could you. Is it Coastal Flats one?

[B]

Hard to do Coastal Flats one. What do you mean already there?

[A]

Huh?

[B]

What do you mean already there?

[A]

Oh, is it hard to their logo? Is it complicated?

[B]

Oh, I can't even remember.

[A]

Oh, it's got like tiny little text on it. No, it's a palm tree that's green and then Coastal Flats.

[B]

You could print the Coastal flats to the palm tree.

[A]

That'd be cool. Yeah, it's a. In a monogram, like a circle.

[B]

I wonder what their social media is like. Is it one social media rule them all or is everyone have their own social media? I would say everyone has their own.

[A]

You think? I'll tell you right now what's crazy.

[B]

Is if you're on local TikTok to this area, it's trending right now because a lady is doing. Featuring each and every one of the businesses. So everyone's like in the comments discussing it's being shared to the foodies group.

[A]

They have that, you know, Coastal Flats has the two locations. It actually seems they have three locations now. That one shares an Instagram across Fairfax and Tyson. Interesting. Where's Downtown Crown?

[B]

Downtown Crown?

[A]

Is that Maryland? I've never heard of that. Downtown Crown. Coastal. What do you think this is? What do you think? Maryland Gaithers.

[B]

No way.

[A]

Crossed over those three versions of Great American. Russians have their own Instagram together.

[B]

Oh, that's interesting.

[A]

Let's see where the content is. It's probably very. Well. No, it says that Someone took a picture of them graduating. Oh, no way. That's fantastic. I wonder if they'd share it anyways. That is the strategy. Yeah.

[B]

It can work for you if you are like, oh, I don't know. It's not the one for you.

[A]

If you get it, you get it. Yeah. This collab is the corporate girly era entry fee.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's great way to get their audience, especially if they share the same audience as you. That's a great way. And it's fingers crossed if they'll share the post. They don't always have to. And they don't always. Let me tell you, I know for a fact.

[A]

Did you see if Graffiti Cat. Graffiti Cat pizza is here?

[B]

I. I think they are.

[A]

If I remember correctly. Cat is so cute. He's not gonna reshare to his Instagram, I can tell you that. It's just their menu. I don't even think. When do you think his last post was?

[B]

I don't know, 20, 23 days ago.

[A]

Okay, but it's just the pizzas.

[B]

It could be this. A share to the stories.

[A]

I'll take a share to the stories for sure. Or you can always archive it. Businesses. Listen. Oh, and he had no pop ups. It was just an empty box of pizza. So. Yeah, that's how. Oh, look, he did. I'm sorry. He shared from your private group. A share. Said Graffiti Cat Pizza and Aquan is pa. Amazing. That is all. Oh, that's hilarious. Yeah, it was. It was almost a year ago. He said, nice shout out from the Lake Ridge ladies Facebook. Oh, nice. And then visit Aquaman says, I'm not sure. You could ask for a better review. Those are the two accounts Corey's targeting for this. I'll be curious if we can land. Trying it. Trying it. Yeah.

[B]

I'm going to tag both accounts.

[A]

Do it, man. Do it, man.

[B]

All right, moving on. Tell us about the Cookie College.

[A]

The Cookie College is a blast. I did my get to know your membership live yesterday.

[B]

Yeah, I loved it.

[A]

We'll be giving away that Bosch mixer on Friday. I'm going to record you.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Because the only requirement is they had to be in the Facebook group. The private group that comes with their membership.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You just dropped the happy birthday class. Okay.

[B]

Yeah, a lot of people. So the class kits is actually included in the college. You're like, what is it?

[A]

What is that?

[B]

It's everything you need. It's the curriculum. You need to teach a cookie decorating class. We come up with the colors, we come up with the shapes, we come up with the icings.

[A]

I call it planning, prep and marketing. Yeah, that's what what you get. So you the marketing PowerPoint if you want to do the three piece planning, prep and PowerPoint. Yeah. You get all the shop lists to recreate a class. We actually taught one of our class kits on Saturday as well. The cat's cats class. Yeah.

[B]

It was very, very cute.

[A]

Very, very cute. But each month, as long as you're a member of either the cookie college or the cookie class kits, you get a new one of these kits. It always is six cookies. It always is four icings. If you're like, okay, well what can I do with that? Cory and I sell our tickets at $85 a ticket. I went, I did a get ready with me. You did for a cookie class. I was putting on my makeup and talking about it and if you guys tuned into that, which was maybe 30 minutes early in the morning, I missed it because I wasn't told.

[B]

Even though I should be privy to such information.

[A]

Yeah. We had one of the members who signed up for the cookie college during the mid summer membership sale join us in cookie classes so she could see what it's like in person. She was actually going to adapt the class kits in Spanish.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Which I thought was Grant.

[B]

So that's all the class kits are included in the Cookie College membership and we just dropped the birthday class. People asked for more generic things that they could teach all year round that weren't themed out.

[A]

It's interesting. I thought people were going to use this class as private, like, hey, I'm teaching a private class for your birthday. Someone's like, it's my birthday in September. I'm offering this as a class to celebrate my birthday.

[B]

Oh, that's hilarious.

[A]

That's good.

[B]

So, so that is what the cookie college is. The cookie college outside of the class kits had tons of courts.

[A]

That was a wormful.

[B]

Tons of courses that can really make your business more efficient. If you're like, you know, I, I need a website. I don't know what to do. The website platform I have, I don't like it. It doesn't have all the features. There's websites that Heather covers and you can choose the one that's best for you.

[A]

Website builders, website host. I talked about Shopify. I'm working on a notion Brandom course this month and then next month I'm working on my Heather sets up a 3D printer.

[B]

If you're like, I saw a post in the main group and it said, you know, I'm getting into cookie decorating. I'm really figuring out I'm going to be buying a lot of cookie cutters. What should I do next? Heather actually unboxes and puts together one so you can see how to set it up so you can start saving money that way.

[A]

And we also build a cutter with the sponsor of our next segment, Cookie Design Lab, which is actually Corey has a cookie cutter I printed with cookie design. Got pizza. I want to let you know, Cookie Design Lab bought a Freddy.

[B]

A Freddy.

[A]

And she's posting up content on herself. She sent me an email last night and she was like, does Corey want her own login now that she has her own 3D printer? Yeah. I want to tell her she's a spoiler.

[B]

I do, however.

[A]

Yeah, I was like, oh, I need a. Like Cory's not going to make a graffiti cat logo ever again. Right. I really didn't want to. Like, you're. I just took off a jacket.

[B]

I took off the jacket.

[A]

I just opened up Cookie Design Lab, threw in the PNG there. But what I didn't realize is it can see JPEGs. No way. Yeah. So when I upload, you know, typically I do a PNG because I remove the background.

[B]

So a jpeg, say if it's this.

[A]

JPEG has a background.

[B]

It has a background.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So it takes the background away.

[A]

It factored in that there was color only where the logo was.

[B]

Oh, interesting.

[A]

Granted, if your picture's too busy and you're like, whoa, you couldn't read it. You could just drag and drop these little pinpoints. Oh, that's even nicer. And shape it out. That's pretty neat. That's pretty cool.

[B]

So that's also in the college, if you're trying to become more efficient.

[A]

It took me two minutes to make.

[B]

And it's very quality. Let me tell you. Heather used to make me really, really chintzy ones.

[A]

Yeah. I said, listen, does it cut dough? Cuts. Cut corners. Cut corners. This is a one time use. Yeah. So these. And now they've added a feature to kind of round the handle out. That's.

[B]

Yeah, I thought that was great. Yeah.

[A]

So the cookie college, if you want to check that out, if you want to get into your 3D printing, if you want to learn how to make STLs, you can go to TheCookieCollege.com and sign up there on the second Monday of each month. I do a get to know your membership. However, in the last 30 days, you can watch the one I taught before.

[B]

Yeah. And Then those expire resoundingly. People love the private Facebook group that the college gets.

[A]

It's a massive benefit from it because it's weird. It's a lifeblood. It's a heartbeat of the whole thing. It's not just this stagnant. Like, I signed up, now I gotta take classes. I signed up and now I'm in this community. And here's what we're doing in the. That's the challenge.

[B]

Corey was talking about the great thing. You take a course you're doing. You're like, wait, I did something. I clicked something wrong. Let me go to the Facebook group and ask what I did wrong. And you're gonna have eight to 900 people who have been there, done that help you. So it's real time help, which you don't get often in coursework.

[A]

And it's, you know, I tell people, that's why I say when you sign up for the college, you have a marketing question. Ask in that group because it's. It's money where their mouth is mindsets. Yeah.

[B]

And everyone's like, got the giver game. Like, they're never gonna be like, oh, I can't believe this person.

[A]

Look, I'm hate them. Yeah, Right. So I. I really do like the environment there. I don't have to police that one. Hardly at all. No, that's the cookie cotch. Would love to have you. The next sale we run will be in the Venny Blendy. I'll be talking more about the vb.

[B]

The old VB at the end of.

[A]

This month, which is actually doesn't. I'm sorry, August, where are you? Where'd you go?

[B]

12Th.

[A]

Where did you go? Yeah, it's the 12th.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Crazy.

[B]

Moving on to our stl me about it.

[A]

Cookie Design Lab is a sponsor here. If you did not win Cookie Design Labs giveaway today, you can use code twins for 15 off. But let's see, let's see who did. Let me get to that.

[B]

So this little segment, the STL me about it, you can actually text in your questions and we'll choose one to read. The first one wins, but we'll choose about 2 or 3. This segment only works.

[A]

Read 2 or 3. We'll choose the first 101.

[B]

That's what I thought it said.

[A]

You said we'll choose 2 or 3, but we'll choose the first one.

[B]

The first 101 will choose 2 or 3 to read. This segment only happens if you text in.

[A]

Okay, we only have four texts, so they have one in 20. You had a 25 chance one in four shot to take a month of the cookie design lab poem.

[B]

Catch a tank of Rachel 2 okay.

[A]

Hi twins. Here is my question this week from Bakersfield, California. That's why we made the cookie collab lite. There is a very popular man who does cookie classes once per week in my area and they are 60% classes that sell out within an hour of him posting. What a great setup. How weird is it if I go to one of his classes? I would love to see what he does differently and what makes him successful. However, my husband told me that is super, super creepy.

[B]

So we've had other bakers come to our classes and I think that's fantastic. The, the greatest thing that they've done and I think and this is how I'll encourage you to do it is they'll ask, hey, I'm actually another local cookie or you do such a great job of teaching. I would just love to be able to come to your class. I'll be the little fly on the wall in the back. And you know, we've had tons of bakers come to our classes. We're never saying, you know, I won't get say no to $85 ticket at.

[A]

The end of the day. Right.

[B]

Probably. What I wouldn't.

[A]

Word is I'm trying to steal some of your audience.

[B]

I'm trying to see why you're selling out.

[A]

Yeah. And I'm gonna copy you.

[B]

Yeah. But I think it's a great way to build a relationship, one you're investing into their business. So they're already going to be thankful to some sort.

[A]

What I said when we had the cookier that's teaching locally cookie classes, I was like, hey, we don't do private classes and we definitely. I can't speak Spanish so I would love to be able to refer you. And she was like, oh, I'm just getting started. Wait, Just teaching my first. My first. But having that option to be like. And you know, I'd love to. I know you got. I know you fell in classes quickly, but I'd love to refer some.

[B]

Some bakers do have in their brain that everyone's out to get them trying to take their thing. So asking and then if they say no, being able to respect that is totally fine as well.

[A]

I think humans, hello, I am the human. Have an insane fear of rejection. So much that we preemptively rejected ourselves. Which your husband probably is like, what if he didn't want you to go? Husband's probably really dialed in to subtle Nuances to see if people are selling him no in roundabout ways. On the other side, the answer to every unasked question is no. I would find it really respectful. What happens when people message us about taking our cookie classes. I say, oh, thank you so much for asking. Just when you get there, tell me it's you. Yeah, but if he says no, he says no. Or if he says, hey, you know, it's not someone. It's fine. It's fine. Yeah, it's fine.

[B]

One lady had messaged me, this was a while ago to or an order for cookies. I was like, wow, she is a baker. That's crazy that she's asking me for cookies at the end of the day.

[A]

Paycheck's a paycheck.

[B]

So I said, I'll bake whatever you need.

[A]

And if dude is selling out in 60% in hours.

[B]

Yeah. So she ended up coming to me, and I was like, oh, yeah. I said, here's your cookie. I said, I thought you could knock these out of the park if you wanted to. She's like, no, actually, my hand pain has gotten so bad I can no longer do them. And I just love your designs. I was like, oh, that's so great.

[A]

Yeah. And you know, Bakersfield, you are the winner of the STL me about it. Send me an email at heather sugarcookiemarketing.com with your friend, and I'll connect you with cookie design lab for that month there. But I would ask, I'd ask. I'd ask and I'd ask in a really, like, hey, I'm a super fan. I've always wanted to attend one of your cookie classes. Full disclosure, I am a baker myself. If that bothers you, let me know. If not, I would love to.

[B]

If you wanted to preemptively, if you're selling out that fast, you know, instead of signing up and be like, I think I've seen that Corey Miracle name. I hate her. You know, you could preemptively be like, hey, I'm just reaching out before your next job because I know you're going to sell out. You always do because you're fantastic. I just want to know if I ever signed up for a class, would that be okay? And then when he does drop the class, you could be in there and swipe all your ticket real fast versus it selling out.

[A]

Yeah, because he's got.

[B]

Are you buying first? And then having to explain.

[A]

Bakersfield, Bakersfield. If you do go, please tell us what it is. We'd love to know. Gotta know. Secret sauce. I think a lot of it, my personal take is time in the market, time in consistency. If he's she says post once a month so he's teaching every month.

[B]

But I think he's made it that he is a cookie class teacher and that's the consistency.

[A]

I read a quote the other day and it said you could be the best there is but the guy that will beat you is twice as consistent as you are. Yeah, shoot.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Shout. This is so funny. The other text, they didn't win but it's from the same lady and she's like I just wanted two shots to win and I think you're Jesus.

[B]

That's hilarious.

[A]

But she did say in my second one, could you read my first question? Oh, that's so I twins. Quick question on what you would do in this situation. A couple weeks ago I quoted a school for 75 cookies for back to school. The lady has stayed in communication. However, she's not going to have approval for the order until this comes coming Tuesday. And the order is due three days after approval. Wow Tuffy. I can definitely pull it off but now I feel like I should charge a rush fee. However, the rush fee was not included in the original invoice because at the time it was not a rush order. Should I message her and tell her there will be a rush fee added or do I just do it at the original price or quota? I'm going to tell you original price.

[B]

The reason why when you add anything to it it has to now go back through approval.

[A]

But also businesses pay typically net 30. I hate that word. Some play pay net 990 which means after the the deliverable they pay 30 days later. Yeah, it is the price of corporate girly era deeper pockets. Here's the thing.

[B]

Now that you know this is how it's going next time you can build in that fee because now that you know what you don't want to do is be like get the approval. You only have three days to make it. You say but there's a rush fee. Now she has to go back get rushed approval. It's put it on her. The relationship is souring.

[A]

Just a tiny I don't my take on this one and maybe you approach it differently. This is all the orders are always going to go this way. Once you build the trust of the first order. Sure. No rush fee because you can bake it at any time knowing that they are going to pay. Knowing that they only have approval. It's such a. It's such a. That's a rough turnaround In a normal world, I'd bake it before approval and just hope everything worked out. But that's so risky.

[B]

That's very risky.

[A]

That's very risky. That's very risky. However, as you build more trust, as you see that they're approving 100 of the quotes they're paying 100% of the time, you can start to kind of relax back on there. Not to say again, you bend your policies, you get the results. But what I would. That's a tough three days. But she said she can do it.

[B]

So the labor, she's willing and ready to do it. She's just saying, should I include for.

[A]

This first one, I'm not going to do the rush fee. I'd rather build the relationship again. It goes back to pre approval. Yeah.

[B]

I think the next one you can say, okay, I kind of know how this is laid out. And then one I want to say you on your end have some holes to fill on your intake form. Form that you need to have that information like the order is going to be picked up. This, you need to pay by this date.

[A]

And don't think you made a mistake. Sometimes you just don't. I would never plan for this because I would never expected it until after I've seen it. And then he'll be like, shoot, okay.

[B]

Yeah, I think working with corporate is a little bit different. And you don't know until you get there. Like I know when I work with.

[A]

Neiman Marcus, he's always paying late. So he pays so inconsistently that Corey will always be like, maybe this will be the one he doesn't pay. I know.

[B]

But then at the end of the day he always has paid because these.

[A]

Bigger companies have the money, they just don't have the time. That's what's happening. Yeah.

[B]

And then the approval thing.

[A]

Yeah, I think, I think it'd be great if you got a long term relationship with these people. You stayed consistent. I'm gonna say no rush order on this one for me. Yeah. But see if you can have them extend that approval turnaround time kind of. I'd word it to them like, hey, my point of contact, like, hey, if you could talk to them and we could make that a two week turnaround time would give me a little bit more flexibility and it would allow you.

[B]

To avoid a rush fee in the future.

[A]

Yeah. So you really want to still charge a rush fee on this one?

[B]

No, I'm saying do not charge a rush.

[A]

You have no time.

[B]

But now you know that you're going to Be rushed with these orders. You need to build it in or you need to say, hey, you need to speed up.

[A]

Let me help you not go to this. Okay? Okay. Decent. Last one. Hi twins. I wanted to let you know about a recent experience. Meeting a new cookie friend. A new cookier moved into my area recently and posted in my community group. Even though I knew better, my initial reaction was to freak out and be annoyed. Yeah, we're human. At the end of the day, we had somebody cancel their cookie class and.

[B]

I was human at the end of the day.

[A]

At the end of that day, after calming down a bit, I decided to change my attitude instead. Decided to reach out and invite her out for coffee. Wow. That's very, very nice. I'm very much an introvert. Well, even more impressive. But I've been wanting someone local to talk about cookies with besides my husband and my friends, who I'm sure get sick of it after a while. Lol. Let me tell you, we both had so much fun. We ended up talking for over two hours. I don't think I would have had the courage to reach out if it wasn't for the two of you always talking about befriending local bakers and not getting worked up over competition. So thank you. Thank.

[B]

Congratulations.

[A]

That is.

[B]

Takes so much internal self reflection to do that because it is annoying. You are right. It is frustrating to be frustrated that someone else is yucking your yum, you.

[A]

Know, taking your food off your table.

[B]

Yeah. There's a local lady in my community group group and she sells cake pops. And you know, she actually does themed cake pops. I couldn't even possibly imagine. I'm more of like a circle kind of girl.

[A]

You did a circle with a bite out of it.

[B]

That was pushing my. So I actually reached out to her and I said, hey, I just wanted to know you sell cake pops in everybody's group but my group. I hope, I pray that I am not the reason why you don't feel like you can post in the group just because I'm a baker. I am inviting you to post in this group. And you know, I felt so much better to be the person who asked her to post in the group.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Because. And she was insanely nice. She's like, no, I just feel like I never invest in the group. I don't know anybody.

[A]

It's interesting. The first text we read where the husband's like, that's creepy. And the second text we read where it's like annoying, but I reached out. Yeah, it's kind of that, like, you know, risk it for the biscuit. Especially as an introvert, you get into your own head, and you're like, what if they say, ew, gross. Like, not only am I annoyed by them, but when I ask them for their coffee, they're like, get away from me, you creep.

[B]

Yeah, this someone. Yesterday in my community group asked if someone could make. Make axolotl cookies. At the end of the day, I just wanted to make an axolotl.

[A]

Oh, did you make it? No.

[B]

I said to her, I said, hey, listen. I said, I'm kind of obsessed with axolotls at the moment. I'd love to be able to bake.

[A]

These happen.

[B]

If I'm not the right baker for you. Sylvia came to our cookie class on Saturday. Is actually local as well. I said, if I'm not the right baker for you, you got to check out Sylvia with, you know, cookie chica. She's right down the road. She also could knock these out of the park. And it just felt so good that at the end of the day, I only have 24 hours.

[A]

Hours.

[B]

I only have so many sticks of butter, so I'm gonna have to say no to people. But what if we could build a community where Sylvia poured into my bucket.

[A]

By coming to class?

[B]

I can now pour into Sylvia's bucket by referring her people.

[A]

I was to say, find somebody within your skill set, because that's a natural lob over when you're like, hey, I can't take that. This person's right on par with you. So you don't feel like one thing. I do.

[B]

I have a list of bakers who decorate the same style as me.

[A]

There you go.

[B]

And I never say, these are my favorite people. I say, if you're. Look, if you like my design style. Style. They have the similar design style to me.

[A]

Right. So some of you guys will be like, I don't have overflow work. I don't have enough work as is. I can't be giving it away. But the. The friendship. And like she said. And Corey says, you know, my husband didn't really care about listening to my stories, but I. Yeah, who else am I going to tell? Having somebody to bounce ideas off of. Here's what I'm going to tell you two guys. If you're listening to me partnering on cookie classes, listen, having two bakers. So here's the thing. I don't sake, but Cory and I taught a class together. It allows her to go around the room while I narrate. Yeah, I have experience in that. So I can tell them what to do. I can tell them, don't try that. And then every time they ask a more complicated question, I say, cory, I'm gonna need your help over here.

[B]

Your first class, though, you kept saying. And Corey, I'm gonna just say this in front of you. Is this correct? Now you know though, but it just took some time in. So the longer you guys teach classes together, the more that the non are.

[A]

You're both bakers, so you're good to go. Yeah, I'm the non baker. Yeah, you're the. Like Cory and I talk about about it. Kim and Heather, they're actually going to be guests on the podcast in a week or two. They partnered on cooking classes. Now they're both bakers, but they're able. Kim has a brick and mortar. Heather has been on tv. They're able to teach even more people because the two of them. And that's why I tell people it's not necessarily now every dollar you make is divided in half. It's. You're allowed to. You're able to make more dollars. I want to say at the end.

[B]

Of the day, while I could teach those classes alone, this, the silence why I'm helping someone is deafening. So I say it's worth it to have them have a better refer their friends and family.

[A]

I just was paying attention to how we talked in those classes on Saturday. Yeah, clearly going around and be like, hey guys, I'm going to just narrate why you got your heads down. When you're working on this, you're going to start from to the corner and you're going to flood it and then you're going to work from left to right from the outside in adding whatever it is. It's just such a infomercial.

[B]

You're. You're a walking infomercial.

[A]

But otherwise it's dead air.

[B]

It's dead air. Dead air.

[A]

So that's really great. I'm really impressed by that. If you guys want to be entered to win a week of the. I'm sorry, a month of the cookie design lab, you can text into 571-556-5644. But if you're on Spotify, you can actually click that button that says text to the podcast. So thank you guys so much for listening. If you find it in the bottom of your heart to leave us a review on Spotify or Apple podcast, apparently it helps this podcast reach more people. We would be ever in debt. I think it's very nice of you.

[B]

Very kind. And if you don't like Heather's voice.

[A]

Just send that to our Nadine. You know I don't like Heather's voice and it's my voice.

[B]

I know.

[A]

I know what you guys are going through. I hate this for you. I have to edit this whole podcast. I have to hear this voice.

[B]

Crazy. Next up is our sponsors. Without a sponsors, we would not be here, my friends. So let's give a little moment to the sponsors. First up, I'm gonna let Heather go through the list.

[A]

Okay. We have Cookie Design Lab, their sponsor. They also had that segment code twins saves you 15% off. They have some new stuff coming. She said stay tuned for it. Can't wait. Actually, can I. Can I pull this up? You tell me about making me crazy. The code for that one is Favorite twin.

[B]

Baking Me Crazy is online supply shop. Supply shops are great.

[A]

I love when I can order online.

[B]

Because I never have to leave the house. Especially when we're coming to the end of like a sprinkle canister that we really like.

[A]

You know, it's top of mind.

[B]

So ordering online is going to be top of mind for me. I don't like to drive.

[A]

I agree. So that code is favorite twin. 10 off baking me Crazy. Back to Cookie Design Lab. They are running a sale. That's what I wanted to read. From 8. 27 to 9. 3 more details to come, but it'll be more fun than our usual SEM discount. But it's not as big a savings as they'll be offering in the vending. No way.

[B]

I love that.

[A]

So you'll be able to save more in the Cookie Design lab starting on 8. 27 to 93. I'll get you information there.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

And then she said, if you want to learn more about Freddie, you can mention. Because I said, I know. She's posting themselves. She said they're on the YouTube channel for cookie Design Lab. Oh, nice. Yeah, you can see Freddie.

[B]

I think she. She did star shapes yesterday.

[A]

She did. Also, she said Cookie Design Lab, stl, the Instagram. That's her Instagram handle. She's posting. I'm cross posting them. I love that. If you want to see that.

[B]

All right, next up, we have Royal Batch. Royal Batch is a meringue powder. I know the world of meringue powders has been upset lately from people not being able to find them then selling out.

[A]

Hopefully this levels out before the busy season. I know, I know.

[B]

Stock up now. If you can find it, grab it.

[A]

What?

[B]

Royal Batches is the one I actually use for my own cookies.

[A]

I've used it for.

[B]

For a few years now. It has vanilla extract already in it and my cookies are vanilla based so it tastes delicious. It has corn syrup in there that gives it a softer bite. You can add more corn syrup to it. It does not change anything about it, which I think is fantastic. So you can add that. I've been adding it lately just because it was. I thought it was going to be fall and drier and it wasn't as very humid.

[A]

So I don't know. I did that. Anyways.

[B]

Weather with Heather was incorrect.

[A]

Sorry. And then please tune in next week.

[B]

Last but not least, it has white food coloring in it. So it whips upright white. I always in my sets that I make, try to have white as a color that I do. One last step for me.

[A]

Smart.

[B]

Without mixing any colors. But you can snag that for 10% off using code twins Daisy makes.

[A]

Now you got your daisy mix. Did I even eat those cake pops you gave away at cookie class?

[B]

I did, yeah. One smart cookie.

[A]

It was one smart cookie and it was a circle with a. Out of it. With a bite out of it.

[B]

And I used mini chocolate chips as it was.

[A]

It was exceptionally cute.

[B]

Oh, thank you.

[A]

Yeah, that was cute. And people liked him.

[B]

And it was easy to use. And I used her cake pop mold in her tray.

[A]

Oh, her tray.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

She's different sizes. You put that in the video?

[B]

I did.

[A]

Very nice. So if you guys want to check out that video, where do we find it?

[B]

You can find it on TikTok or Instagram or the main.

[A]

And what's the handle?

[B]

It is @sugarcookiemarketing underscore. On Instagram, On Instagram and everywhere else. Sugar cookie marketing.

[A]

Darn you. Last but never least, Eddie, the edible food printer. We were just talking about Freddie. If you want to see Freddie, go to cookie design labs. But Eddie is a direct to food printer. It's so funny. During this cookie class we had two shapes that were a little bit more complex.

[B]

It was a mouse and he had an ear.

[A]

So giant ear.

[B]

A giant ear. But if. If you didn't know what his original shape was, you'd have a tiny ear. A wide ear.

[A]

Some folks will take edible images. These are from the cookie class kids. They'll take an edible marker and trace it. But. But we also give the Eddy print print file. So what Corey did this. First time I've ever done this actually. She grabbed two. She is a cat laying on his back. He was very cute.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And a mouse with a giant ear. She Eddie printed the PNG outlines onto those shapes. Everybody who walked in class is like, how is this happening?

[B]

Because you thought it was. But they all thought it was so cute because it looked so cute. You could see like, it's really created.

[A]

Uniformity in their mouths.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

The mice all had the same size ear. It was a very interesting case study of that. Yeah, I thought it was. I.

[B]

There's some things that would change. Like, you know, my cookies do spread just ever so slightly or they shrink. It depends how which roll.

[A]

The Eddie was either underprinting or overprinting. Not for the Eddie is scientific. Corey's.

[B]

It's my advice.

[A]

So it was very interesting to see that. So what you can do and what some people do is they print off the whole set on top of these using those edible food printers. Fantastic use of technology. And Eddie was who we were referencing in regards to printing the more complex logo. Yeah.

[B]

But I think it truly helped the class because everyone kind of knew where to go. The outline was there.

[A]

It made taking pictures of my cookies a lot cuter.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

And then Bosch Nutri Meal. Not a sponsor, but we do have an affiliate with them. Use code sugar cookies. And you save 20 bucks on their 20 dinner. I want to save 100% on a Bosch mixer. Join the cookie college before the drawing on Friday and get into that Facebook group. Could win one. One lucky winner there. Yeah.

[B]

So you have a Twin Trip Trust 20 terrace. Anything you've been doing to.

[A]

Interesting. TW interesting. Have you been doing anything too interesting?

[B]

Have I been doing anything? Like buy. Does it always have to be buying?

[A]

No, no. Sometimes I do.

[B]

Like, okay, then these past few months, minus my little oncologist meeting, I've been walking over 10,000 steps a day.

[A]

Cuz you use this extra app that has a dog on it.

[B]

Yeah, it's step counter. And they just put you in line with four other cats or dogs. We're only cats or dogs. We can't talk to each other, which I love. And you just see who walks the most per week.

[A]

Corey. I texted her and I, you know, you know when like, you know, somebody's got probably more fun things to do than hang out with you, but you're like, you're very quiet. I use every like ball emoji. So it was a basketball, football. I said, I'm lobbing this ball gently over. I said, if you tell me no, I will not take this grudge to my grave. Do you want to walk Burke Lake Park?

[B]

It's about a five, five mile lawn.

[A]

Yeah. It was a little hot.

[B]

It was twisty. But it was all mostly covered with foliage canopy.

[A]

And then we had some nice breeze and Corey wanted to beat the dogs that were.

[B]

I know. And I won.

[A]

Yeah, I like it. So we're going to do that as the seasons change. Allegedly. If that ever happens.

[B]

If they ever decide to do so.

[A]

Okay. I'm going tell you my twin. And it is a purchase. Okay. If you don't like to weigh yourself, don't listen. You won't want to purchase this. But, like, you know, if you stand on a scale. Scale. Yeah. It's not a great experience. Regardless, I'm holding my breath. I'm just doing it as like a scientific data point.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because I'm trying to do weightlifting. Okay. So I'd like to, you know, put on muscle weight. Okay. I'm hoping the fat X is stitch left. But you, when you stand on scale, you're not going to remember that number tomorrow. No. So. And I can't. I have the memory of a mushroom. I can't remember anything. So I bought.

[B]

I do have the same similar.

[A]

I don't think it is, because I think you sent me a picture of this one. I bought this scale from a company. I found it on Amazon. Renfo R E N P H O Health. And every time I step on the scale, it just logs it into the app. It's. It's so quick. How it. You know, you. Sometimes you have those Bluetooth connections and they just take. And they fail a lot. As soon as I open the app, I step on the scale. It makes a log of the time and weight. Okay.

[B]

Mine does, too.

[A]

Then it creates a trend report, and then it creates an average because I was doing it morning, night, you know. Okay. So that was probably the end of my interest.

[B]

When do you think I last weighed myself?

[A]

I want to say six months ago in February 5th. Oh, it's pretty close. February 5th. Okay. But the reason is because I'm going. You know, you listen to all these books on psychology and happiness and blah, and every one of these people is like, unfortunately, exercise is the key to happiness. Like, it is the number one naturally occurring dopamine effector. And I hate going to the. The gym, but who am I to say to the scientist, no, I want to find happiness at the bottom of the bag of chips.

[B]

Walking.

[A]

Oh, they say that counts. Oh, yeah. They said 30 minutes of walking a day. Is. Is exercise okay? About an hour and a half? Absolutely, yeah. If you just get up. And this is what I do. If you are like, well, I know I need to move because we all know we should.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I make. I make this promise myself. If you drive to the gym parking lot, you can go home. You didn't. On my own, boss. But if I go in five minutes, I can leave. Okay. When you're there, you're probably just going to do your. And I never stay more than 40 minutes.

[B]

Yeah, I would not be able to.

[A]

There's some people are like, if I'm not there for two and a half hours, like I don't have two and a half hours to stand at the gym. If you go on a walk sometimes they say I'm not feeling like going to the gym. But if I just go on a 30 minute walk. 1. I love it when the season change.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Oh, you will be able.

[B]

You have to pull me out of the woods.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Halfway through of the walk that I do is a cat.

[A]

Cat.

[B]

I've named him Mr. Mew. And I really am truly walking to see if.

[A]

When you get a cat on your path, your walking path, it really changes. On my path, there was always this black cat. He was. He's nice until he's the meanest thing ever. But he likes like two seconds of scratch.

[B]

Funniest name.

[A]

So one day I was walking and Cory and I always look for this cat and he's only there half the time. He's an outside cat, I guess. I think he's allowed to go inside at night. Anyways, I say to the man, I say, I just want to say I. I like your cat. And he was like, Diddly. And I was like, that's. You named him Diddly? Anyways, we look for Diddly all the time.

[B]

Diddly. And since I'm not an extrovert, I'll never ask those people what Mr. Mew's name is actually. But it is Mr. Mew, indefinitely until I find out.

[A]

Yeah. So that's mine. If you're looking for a scale, if you wanted. I just like the fact that I could pull up the data. I think it stores it and you can download it offline, you can export the report.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

Yeah. Cuz I want to export that. But if I'm. You have a goal. I do like tracking data. Where are we going? To lunch? Let's let your son design. This is the last free week.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Oh, wait, wait. Next week he's free.

[B]

I have the doctor's appointment.

[A]

Direct his appointment. So does Mr. Munchkin.

[B]

Yes. All right, guys, we will see you later, okay.