225. Baking it Down - Diamond Demand

Summary

Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪

Episode 225: Baking it Down – Diamond Demand
Released: August 19, 2025
Hosts: Heather & Corrie Miracle

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Brief Overview

This episode, “Diamond Demand,” features Heather and Corrie using the diamond industry as a fresh analogy for the crowded cottage bakery market. They dig into ways bakers can successfully carve out a niche, standing out against the competition even as more and more bakers enter the field. The hosts relate everything from diamond grading and branding to marketing strategies and pricing approaches in the cookie world, offering encouraging and actionable advice—all while keeping the conversation light, witty, and honest.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Four C’s: Drawing Parallels between Diamonds & Cookies

Timestamps: 03:17–06:46

• Four C’s of Diamonds: Corrie introduces Cut, Clarity, Color, and Carat.
  • “So what I wanted to tie in today is you got the four Cs of diamonds. Cut, clarity, color, carats.” [04:24 – B]
• Baking Analogy: Just as the diamond industry is filled with jewelers, the bakery space is saturated. But multiple businesses can thrive by differentiating, not copying.
• Hedonic Treadmill: What was once exciting for a baker becomes normal as business grows.
  • “What we only dreamed of at one point becomes what we're used to. And it's no longer the shiny object.” [05:20 – A]
• Encouragement: Like jewelers, bakers don’t need to fear saturation—they can find their audience.

2. Niching Down: Ethically Sourced, Allergy-Friendly, and Dye-Free Baking

Timestamps: 06:50–11:43

• Setting Apart: Drawing the parallel between ethically sourced diamonds (which cost more) and bakers who offer dye-free or allergy-friendly cookies. These “niches” let bakers charge more and position themselves as specialists.
  • "You could say... when it's a diamond company that's ethically sourced, they lead with that. That's messaging, it's their branding. So they're saying, hey, it is more expensive. It's more expensive because we did it the right way.” [08:36 – A]
• Cost Considerations: Niche ingredients like dye-free gels or gluten-free flours are more expensive—passing those costs to clients is necessary.
• Referral System: If a baker isn’t comfortable with a specific niche, refer clients out—collaboration, not competition.
• Encouragement not to Undercut: Find your niche and raise your prices.
  • “What we're doing is saying niche down, raise your prices and become the go to person for allergy friendly needs.” [11:22 – B]

3. The Power of Branding: Be the "Tiffany's" of Your Area

Timestamps: 11:43–14:23

• Luxury Branding: Tiffany’s can charge more simply due to brand and packaging. Bakers can emulate this by creating a cohesive, branded experience from social presence to packaging to client communications.
  • “Tiffany says Tiffany Blue... The Tiffany diamond will be 2 to $6,000 more for the same cut, clarity, color and carat. Because of that packaging and branding...” [11:43–12:25 – A]
• Consistency: Consistency in style builds brand recognition and clientele who desire that particular “look.”

4. Competing by Price: The “Wholesale” Approach

Timestamps: 14:23–19:19

• High Volume, Low Cost: There is space for bakers who offer value, mass quantity, and less focus on packaging or customization—the “wholesale diamond” version.
  • "That's my niche here, is that I'm gonna charge less and sell more." [15:21 – A]
• On Not Worrying About Undercutters: Bakers should appreciate competitors who serve the low-budget market, as those clients were never ideal for a higher-end, niche-focused business anyway.
  • "The market will fill them up quickly. Absolutely. The type of client they have, that's not the client, that's your business..." [17:44 – A]

5. Drop Cookies, Printed Cookies, and Other Niches

Timestamps: 21:45–25:44

• Drop Cookie Bakers as “Moissanite” Makers: Drop cookies and Eddie-printed cookies inhabit their own space, serving large orders or prioritizing different aesthetics.
  • “Drop cookie people have almost removed themselves from the sugar cookie battle. They are like the moissanite ring... Let's not even deal with diamonds.” [22:12 – A]
• Mass Production: Some bakers serve corporate bulk orders or use printers—just as lab-grown diamonds disrupt natural diamonds.
  • “There is a market for everyone and it is a different structure and a different niche.” [25:10 – B]

6. Efficiency & Streamlining: The Power of Process

Timestamps: 25:44–27:59

• “Lab-Grown” Bakers: Those who focus on streamlined, repeatable sets or sell via presales serve a distinct market, thriving on consistency rather than elaborate customization.
• Pre-Sales & Repetition: Efficient bakers use the same cutters/templates yearly and cultivate more frequent, reliable sales.

7. Embracing Competition & Market Cycles

Timestamps: 28:40–33:37

• Competition is Vital: More bakers in the market mean more demand and more visibility. The "invisible hand of the market" helps everyone improve.
  • “The industry growing is good for business. It's good for everyone's business.” [29:53 – B]
• Seasonality: The demand for cookies fluctuates—don’t get disheartened when business slows. Many seasonal bakers disappear after the holidays anyway.

8. Differentiation & Practical Strategy

Timestamps: 33:37–39:14

• Focus on Yourself: Don’t fixate on competitors. Instead, identify how you can truly differentiate your offerings.
  • “You cannot control what other people do. What you can control is how you can differentiate yourself from the other people around you.” [37:29 – B]
• Ideas for Standing Out: Style, branding, niche product, customer service model (be the “phone call cookie baker”), unique packaging, or accepting pay-at-pickup—these create micro-niches.

9. Community Groups & Authentic Engagement

Timestamps: 39:39–62:24

• Community Group Challenge: The hosts repeatedly stress the power of authentic engagement in Facebook community groups—not just sales pitching, but becoming a valued, LOCAL member offering recommendations and conversations.
  • “If you participate [in the community group challenge], you will make more money in the holiday season. I can boldly say that because community groups are the number one legion.” [55:52 – A]
• Engagement Tips: Ask questions, use local events, celebrate holidays, and feature real pets or family. Not all posts should be about sales.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Niche Marketing:
  • “Find your niche... niche down, raise your prices and become the go to person for allergy friendly needs.” [11:22 – B]
• On Competition:
  • “You would not love to take all competition away because you then would have to deal with people that were never going to buy from you.” [20:23 – A]
• On Branding:
  • “That’s why the, like, we're licensed and insured is always more expensive than the fly by night guy. Because you're taking more risk here.” [34:26 – A]
• On Community Building:
  • “If you can look in front of you at your audience that you've cultivated, you are the secret ingredient.” [38:31 – B]

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Important Timestamps for Key Segments

| Time | Segment Description | |-----------|-------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:17 | Diamonds & Cookies Analogy Introduction | | 06:46 | Overcoming Bakery Saturation – Learning from Diamonds | | 08:36 | Dye-Free/Allergy Baking as “Ethically Sourced” Differentiator| | 11:43 | Tiffany’s Branding & Luxury Cookie Branding | | 14:23 | Competing on Price (“Wholesale Bakers”) | | 22:12 | Drop Cookie Bakers as “Moissanite” | | 25:44 | Pre-Sales & the “Lab-Grown” Baker Analogy | | 28:40 | Competition Is Good for the Market | | 33:37 | Carving Out Unique Offers & Service Models | | 39:39 | Community Group Challenge: The Power of Peer Engagement | | 52:07 | Instagram/Facebook Growth Q&A | | 55:52 | Custom Content & Forcing Engagement | | 61:00 | Community Group Challenge Structure & Tasks |

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Listener Q&A Highlights

Q: Should I follow other businesses from my baking account or my personal one? [50:09–53:43]

• “I love to follow businesses with my baking account. Why? Because I can still engage with their content. It keeps my brand top of mind.” [50:33 – B]
• Recommendation: Be authentic—follow and engage if you genuinely like the content.

Q: How can I get more engagement beyond family and friends on Instagram? [54:44–62:24]

• Consistency is great, but create posts that ask questions, invite interaction, and feel authentic.
• Leverage national days (e.g., National Dog Day) to create engaging posts that encourage comments and sharing.
• Participate authentically in community groups to build a local following.

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Closing Encouragement & Mindset

• Heather and Corrie’s Final Thoughts: Focus on what makes your baking business unique. Embrace the “competition” as inevitable, healthy, and often beneficial. Niche down where it feels authentic, price according to your effort and specialties, and take pride in the community connections you create—whether you’re the Tiffany’s, the moissanite maker, or the wholesale volume baker.
• Stay Positive: Don’t get disheartened as the market ebbs and flows—use each season as an opportunity to refine your specialty and find “your” clients.

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Next Episode Teaser

Next week, they’ll have guest speakers—including a baker with Food Network fame and a brick-and-mortar franchisee—diving into even more specialty perspectives on building a thriving baking business.

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Keep those whisks up, and remember: there’s room for everyone in the diamond (and cookie) market—just find your own sparkle!

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Transcript

[A]

Cory, it's a podcast. I am under the weather.

[B]

Heather's a little under the weather with Heather. She's no longer predicting the weather because she is incorrect when she does zoom.

[A]

You know, I like, I have a bone to pick with my weather training immune system. That one I gave up on. What are you doing? Immune system show up. Yeah. You get paid the big bucks. Heather, I want to tell you.

[B]

You get paid the green drink. I want to tell you. Heather buys this green drink.

[A]

What's it called? AG1.

[B]

AG1.

[A]

I've been sipping on that earth dirt for years. Doesn't it taste kind of. They actually reformulated it last month. And you can switch your subscription to one of these.

[B]

Have you tried the new formulation?

[A]

It tastes like lemony dirt. Probably better. I don't know. Would you swear? Listen, Heather swears by AG1 till she gets sick because she thinks she needs to be like, oh, no. I gave up swearing by AG1 about last year when I got sick.

[B]

Immunity.

[A]

For a while. For a while. I didn't get sick for years. Then it all caught up.

[B]

But I want to say, at our age, which is not young. No longer.

[A]

No spring chickens. We're summer chickens over here.

[B]

It's okay to get sick once a year and not.

[A]

Here's what I want to say. I have the sinus caverns of Luray Caverns. There's Luray caverns and there's my sinuses. And they're both trying to win an award of the depth and size. Yes.

[B]

I don't know. Your brain must be tiny and your cavern's large.

[A]

But my teeth are massive, so it's all teeth and sinuses. I'd say nose, but I paid to have that range, so. But yeah. And then also this. I don't think people truly understand how hot my body runs. The thought that it might be hot today will increase my body temperature. I don't know if it's some form of PTSD or mental issue. Yeah.

[B]

My husband also runs hot. That's why the house is always 68 or below.

[A]

Ruthanne, the other day.

[B]

The other day.

[A]

I can't know if you're 78.

[B]

70. I could not.

[A]

That would be like the huge to the fall.

[B]

You're looking forward to it.

[A]

Well, this is my body shedding off the summer. Yeah. I'm itchy, I'm stuffy.

[B]

Well, you gotta be. Today is like low, low 80s.

[A]

It's overcast with Corey on the ace.

[B]

Yeah. Finally someone actually looked it up. Well, welcome to the baking it down with sugar cookie.

[A]

Marketing podcast.

[B]

We're back on track off Heather Sinuses on to cookie baking and the things that come from it. We are spin off from a group on Facebook. If you haven't joined, please do. We let people in all the time now that we've caught up.

[A]

Yeah, I did. I do. If you haven't answered the questions you pinned. And my little caveat here. I see an uptick in this. If you use a fake profile. No.

[B]

Just because we don't know who Y is and you got a weird name. Robinson Carusto Cake middle name is last name Tasty.

[A]

That's going to be a no Cake is Tasty. Because I don't know what you're going to do, Ms. Tasty. Right.

[B]

You might have some tasteless comments.

[A]

It is fascinating. That's hilarious. It is fascinating how anonymity kind of breeds Helen people when you have your true name behind you. I know that there's some profiles there where it's an alt profile, but it's your full name. But these anonymous.

[B]

Prof.

[A]

These anonymous groups are these secondary profiles that you can make. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Just out there living large. So if you haven't joined the group, please do with your original profile, not your alt id.

[A]

Sorry. Cake is tasty.

[B]

What we wanted to do is we actually see topics in the group all the time each and every week. Something's trending. Either something's big question and we like to bring it to your ear. Holds on this podcast what we see. This one is kind of overarching and I. It was brought to my attention because my first marriage, I had nothing to do with the ring and the ring reflected that my second marriage. God bless his soul, I knew that, you know, love technically isn't as forever as it was. So I got involved in the ring and I chose the ring that I wanted.

[A]

What did you do for your third marriage?

[B]

I still plan in the words of violence. Don't tell my husband.

[A]

Just kidding.

[B]

So what I really dove into was everything that goes on with diamonds.

[A]

Okay, here's. Here's the disclaimer. And if you don't like diamonds, you can still listen to this podcast. I'm not a diamond girly myself. However, it is Corey's fetish.

[B]

I just enjoyed learning about them. So before you start grabbing your bibles.

[A]

And your towels, we're talking about ethically sourced, not blood diamond. So down. Down dog. Down dog. That's not what we're talking about. Let's also focus that this is a marketing podcast on cookies.

[B]

It is.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So what I wanted to tie in today is you got the four Cs of diamonds. Cut, clarity, color, carrots, color.

[A]

When we were scripting this, Corey was like, carrots is spelled C A R A T. Like, I was like, so broke. I know she was going to spell.

[B]

Like a C A, R, R, O, G. Oh, why do they need vegetables.

[A]

When they get diamonds?

[B]

When it comes to being a. The great thing out, the greatest part of being a baker is starting out because you go from nothing to something, and your family and your friends are rooting for you. You know, they're.

[A]

Well, I mean, that first, that first order first. Second order the first order, not from a family member.

[B]

Oh, it's almost like someone tagging you.

[A]

In a group and somebody else ending up in your inbox to place an order.

[B]

There's nothing sweeter. The problem is, once we get into the thick of things, friends and family get busy. You know, your orders can fall off. You see more bakers coming into the industry.

[A]

Well, even that. Even if your orders don't fall off and they just remain consistent. It's called the hedonistic treadmill, where what we only dreamed of at one point becomes what we're used to. And it's no longer the shiny object. We used to be like, wow, I got an order. Now we're like, I got. Yeah, okay, I got those orders. Where's the other one?

[B]

Yeah, more so I wanted to kind of liken how the industry works with how diamonds work. The. The great thing to know is there's so many diamond jewelers out there, and none of them are shutting down because another one is opening. So that is encouraging. De Beers just reported a lot.

[A]

Okay. We're just don't take this all the way to the diamond analogy. It's just a brandable way to talk about this. So Corey says the way there's a couple ways that diamond producers, right. Ethically sourced, are setting themselves apart. And we can extrapolate that as well. Diamonds relating to cookies being something we don't need. They're these sugar cookies we don't need. We love them. Beautiful. Yeah. Delicious, Stunning. Love to look at gifts, but diamonds and cookies are not necessary for life.

[B]

They're not. When you go to choose electricity, you know, is the house gonna have electricity today or am I gonna get a new diamond?

[A]

There's two shiny things in here. Which one do you want? We could go off by the ring, use it as does the cut, color, clarity, and carrot matter if you can't see it. That's true. So when do think about in terms of your diamond bakery, right? Yeah.

[B]

And your diamond bakery is one of many diamond bakeries out there.

[A]

Yeah. And you see that, you know you, if you watch Sid De Beers documentary, they control supply and demand. So a lot of this is about supply and demand. Unfortunately, you can't control supply because you'd have to murder somebody. So we have competition now if we can't control supply and we can't control demand, that's how it naturally works. What can we do? What can we learn from these diamond manufacturers or these diamond miners to, to set ourselves apart? And we have some, we have some interesting things. Now you see there's a ton of bakers, ton of bakers, tons of bakers. So we got that, that's what, that's what the ball field looks like. Now we see this kind of. And you can think about it this way. This was when somebody else does marketing for you, it's that die free movement. The marketing was done for us. Right. You got all this political stuff and I wanna talk about it. But all this. And we shouldn't have died and everyone's talking about it. It's this hot button topic right now. You can say I want to be the diamond company that capitalizes on dye free or allergy friendlier, allergy conscious. And you know that there's very specific things you have to do to incorporate allergy free. But with the dyes it's kind of akin to the ethically sourced diamond where you can see that, you know, ethically sourced diamonds are more expensive because they are sourced ethically.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But that's how they're setting themselves apart. So I know these dye free dyes or whatever you call them, dye free. What colorings. Yeah. Are a lot more expensive. Yes, they are. There's also a massive learning curve. Yeah. There's also a give and take. So while it's healthier or whatever the science says. Yeah. It's also not as punchy in the colors.

[B]

And, and before the die free people, you guys are, you guys got, you're working on it. It's. They're coming.

[A]

We're talking about diamond mines or landmines because I feel like we're like.

[B]

Not to hurt your feelings here.

[A]

Okay. Let's.

[B]

They all know we're not trying to mean man.

[A]

So we'll just continue forward. So you could say. And you could see when it's a diamond company that ethically sourced they lead with that. That's messaging, it's their branding. So they're saying, hey, it is more expensive. It's more expensive because we did it the right way. Yeah.

[B]

And that's what they're doing. So if you're like, there's so many bakers around me, how do I set myself out apart from all these jewelry stores selling the same diamonds I do? There's things you can do within your business that you can control and that is going to do these dye free.

[A]

Routes, which would be interesting if someone contacted you today and said, can I get a set of dye free? I don't think you would do the order, but I think you'd find somebody who could.

[B]

Can you do Die Free? I got the diet free stuff.

[A]

Are you good at it? Ready to go? Are you good at it?

[B]

No, I'm not good at it.

[A]

Okay. But I know you'd tell them you'd be my guinea pig. So I'll give it to you at half price for sure. If somebody was like, hey, I need this or I need it to be perfect, you can kind of get that sense. Would you refer them out?

[B]

I would refer them out.

[A]

So that's right there is setting yourself apart while not also like getting angry at competition. Because if you become known in your area as the dieter, what's going to happen is the bakers in your area who are like, hey, listen, that's not something, that's not the bite I want to take right now. I'm not really sure how to approach that. They're going to start referring that work to, to you.

[B]

And just like ethically sourced diamond companies, they are just a bit more expensive. The thing is you can't work at a loss. And the dye, the dye free gels are very expensive. I'm just going to.

[A]

They are expensive, like considerably, I want.

[B]

To say twice as much as a.

[A]

Normal gel bottle, you automatically increased your cost. So your, your, your list price has to increase or your profit has to decrease.

[B]

But you're, but what you've done is you've niched, niched down and I know.

[A]

Ethically sourced companies and are like, we got this ethically sourced. So. But we're going to eat that cost cheaper. Yeah, they don't. Instead they're going to be like, hey, it's more expensive and here's the reasons why. So you're appealing to, you're not appealing to someone's necessarily, oh, that tastes good. You're saying I'm appealing to your almost in a weird way morality. Yeah. Die Free, the healthier option. Right. Okay, do your own science project there. But I'm just saying that's the positioning that I see some of these diet free bakers taking, I'm like, hey, that's a great position to take.

[B]

And right now you could ride the wave. It's really a lot in the news.

[A]

You see Skittles. Yeah. And every time one of those companies takes that dye coloring out there, I would be the baker. If I was a dye free baker, I'd be like, guys, exciting news. We got scales on board too. Just to remind her my bakes are dye free and I'm left, you know, that kind of message.

[B]

So if you are a baker and you're like, I feel like this before we go to. It's oversaturated and I'm quitting, I'm shutting it down. There's too many bakers out there. Let's see. How can we niche our business down? Can we become allergy friendly? They are, they're. Everyone has allergies now. When you become as large friendly. Yeah, you probably have an allergy. When you become allergy friendly, you've niched down. You're not inexpensive by any means. We're not saying discount to get more sales. What we're doing is saying niche down, raise your prices and become the go to person for allergy friendly needs.

[A]

Now here's the thing. Gluten people. Gluten people who have a gluten intolerance know that food tastes less good. They know that gluten free flour, am I right? The others is more expensive. So it's that positioning you're going to take, but it's going to be a more expensive position because ethically sourced diamonds are more expensive. Yeah, moving on.

[B]

Packaging. Listen, Tiffany says Tiffany Blue.

[A]

Tiffany blue is, isn't it patented or whatever you're.

[B]

I think it's called Tiffany blue.

[A]

Yeah, the Tiffany Blue. You know exactly what it is. I was looking at these car dudes or something. They went to some trip or whatever and I was scrolling through the pictures of the cars or whatever and then I guess it got their wives gifts. But all I could see was Tiffany Blue. I didn't even need to know which store it was. I was like, oh wow, they went to Tiffany.

[B]

Here's the thing. The diamonds from Tiffany's can be just as good as the diamonds from Mervis diamond importers. They actually are on the two doors down from each other over in Tyson's Corner.

[A]

Yeah, I saw that. I drove right past the Tiffany door.

[B]

But the Tiffany diamond will be 2 to $6,000 more for the same cut, clarity, color and carrot.

[A]

Because of that packaging and branding, he Went to, you know, wasn't it from. It's from the movie from the 60s. Yes. And then the phrase he went to Tiffany's. He got it at Tiffany's. Then he got The Tiffany blue B.O. box. Yeah. That branding and this one takes a little bit more time in the market. The quick, the quick shortcut to this is just upping your packaging. The whole brand, the whole experience. The brand experience. So when somebody contacts you, everything is just beautifully done. The other thing is, is time in and making it that luxury experience every time.

[B]

Every single time. And from your website, looking it, choosing the right words, not so colorful and plain.

[A]

Cohesiveness. Yeah.

[B]

Where we feel like it's luxury from the top down. That is a great way to separate yourself from other jewel stores to be the Tiffany's. In a world full of just normal jewelry stores.

[A]

Filigree metallics, golds, warmth.

[B]

A lot of what I think someone, when I think of a baker who has a true style about them where it's not like they're not just going with the colors from the invites, they're saying, listen, there's this way that I do it and I'm always like when I see them in my feet, I was like, I know exactly who, who did that. That's their style.

[A]

That's a part of that.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Again I can see that those men went to Tiffany's. The bag, I couldn't even see the logo. I saw the blue color or whatever you call that color. So that Tiffany blue. Right. You see people, I want that ordered app Tiffany blue. Like it's such a specific greenish, orange, bluish, whatever, teal. So yeah, we have the allergy dyes which is a Quinn akin to the ethically sourced. We have the packaging which is that luxury experience like Tiffany's where you know, sometimes you're like that's not worth that. But it's Tiffany. So it is because they said it was.

[B]

And here's the thing. When you niche down and you become the Tiffany of the bakers around you, you've niched down so you're going to get higher end clientele and that's totally fine. And there's some people who want to go to Tiffany's for the experience that Tiffany's offers and there's some people who don't. So there's enough for everyone. But before you think like let me shut this down. There's too much competition.

[A]

Find your, find your niche. So Corey does like her some fancy jewelry. I not so much. But you're not a Tiffany's Girly. I don't think I've ever seen a wholesale girly. Corey likes to find the cheap brand, which is what we're going to talk about next. That VVS score is what does VBS stand for?

[B]

I can't stand for what is it?

[A]

I don't know what it is.

[B]

Little jewelry lover.

[A]

VBS stands for. It stands very, very slightly included. So what?

[B]

An inclusion is such a made up word.

[A]

VVS sounded so technical. But very, very slightly included.

[B]

There's VVS1, VVS2 is 1, is 2.

[A]

Things like that.

[B]

That is how many inclusions. So what is an inclusion? It's a spot in the diamond. That's an imperfection. The fewer imperfections you have, the higher it's almost a perfect diamond. Diamonds with inclusions are relatively cheaper than diamonds without inclusions because you can't fix an inclusion. You can like zap it. You can try to zap it.

[A]

It's still there though. Nature having its way. High pressure volcanics. Yeah. So we have the, the baker that does this. The baker and Corey mentioned wholesale. The baker who's like, listen, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be the price competitive baker. That's my niche here, is that I'm gonna charge less and sell more.

[B]

And I see bakers do this often.

[A]

Say this is a baker that gets a lot of flack from other bakers. But I want to be like, listen, you guys don't understand. The invisible hand of the market's always working.

[B]

And I want to say sometimes they always give a lot of flack. I don't waste any money on packaging. My customers don't like it. Hey, that's totally fine. You are the VVS. VVS 2 is 2.

[A]

You were just making what is is?

[B]

I don't know, but it's the one less than vvs. I have no idea what I mean.

[A]

Inclusions.

[B]

It's going to be like something satisfactory is satisfactory to a do.

[A]

It doesn't have the is in here.

[B]

Well, I can't remember, but we'll have to look it up after. So when you're coming to your bakery and you want to save on packaging, your customers don't need that, you know.

[A]

Si, Si. Sorry. Slightly. Slightly. My bad.

[B]

So when you're coming to your bakery and you I.

[A]

This is so crazy.

[B]

In the group, someone's like, do you guys offer individually heat sealed cookies in yours? And there will be a baker's like, I never let them live without the heat sale. Some people say I could save, you know, a cent per. Per cookie.

[A]

By not.

[B]

And the labor, there is a lot of labor cost that comes with heat seal. So by offering saying, hey, customer, you can get them heat sealed or not heat sealed, it's an additional cost. You are the wholesale baker, which is fantastic because you have Corey, because there's.

[A]

There's the person who wants a Tiffany experience and they're going to record it and post it. And they spent six hours there trying on everything. And then you have Corey and she's emailing them and you're like, are you getting ripped off? I don't know.

[B]

It's showing up in like a brown box.

[A]

Right, right. So we have the lower cost, high volume. And that's the person who's like, listen, it isn't perfect. It isn't Tiffany. It isn't ethically sort. It is just, you know, you're going to get your cookies, you're gonna do mass volume. You're able to get them out quickly. Yeah, that's the baker that has their own market. And you can't be mad. And I always say, people, there's a new baker and they're undercharging in my area. They're undercharging in your area, they're booking out. I already can tell you the market will fill them up quickly. Absolutely. The type of client they have, that's not the client, that's your business. Anyway, so she just. This other baker who's charging less than you and ruining your market, just took away all your tire figures.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because they were never going to afford you anyways.

[B]

One time I had a client, a potential client, ended up not booking. They knew my dad, who was one of the people who worked for him. And she was like, yeah, can I get these cookies done for my son's Boy Scout troop? And then my dad's like, yeah, I'm gonna connect you to. We get connected. I give her the quote. My base pricing, it was this. I don't know, whatever a Boy Scout logo is. So it was my base pricing, $78 a dozen. She says, wow, I just want someone to slap some icing on a cookie. That's way too expensive.

[A]

That's what she wants. Totally fine. Low cost, high volume. It don't need to be perfect. The boys are just gonna eat them. I just want a little something special. There's a baker for them.

[B]

There is a baker for them. And I can't be offended that that's what she looking for. And I can't discredit myself by discounting my prices just because one person bucks.

[A]

Oh, that's so expensive.

[B]

I couldn't believe that.

[A]

Yeah. So Corey didn't run to a group and say, there's somebody out there charging too little because that's. Cory didn't want the order because the lady didn't want to pay. Okay. You could have worked with it. But if she was like, I just want to slap icing on a cookie, you guys were too far away anyway.

[B]

We were too far away. I wasn't the baker for her, but there's a baker out there for her. And it's a wholesale baker.

[A]

Wholesale diamond. It's going to. You can eat it. Yeah. I love bakers like that. I think we got to thank the baker that takes that approach because they do have a more hectic schedule, but they are removing the lower budgeted people because that's who their target is. Absolutely. Because there's also a lot of time loss in talking about pricing with potential clients who never want to buy.

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

Because you're like. And then you're left thinking like, they ghosted me because my prices are too high. They ghosted you because the prices were out of their budget. Oh, yeah.

[B]

And that's not something you should be offended at. I have on my phone, in my notes app, bakers who decorate in similar styles to me. Bakers who are cheaper than I am. Cake decorators. And these are just copy and paste. When someone's like, your prices are too high.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Hey, here's someone that's probably more in line with what you're willing to pay. And the designs kind of reflect that.

[A]

Perfect. I like that. Because, you know, Corey, there's our cousin's outside detailing car right now. Right. And he's going to spend about eight hours on it. Corey took her last car through the drive through car wash. The he is a gas that Corey goes through drive through car washes for 10. For 10 bucks. I think you had a subscription, so $30, you could go through it 30 times. Could you imagine you're paying. But there's. There's people like that taking their car to my cousin who's detailing it for eight hours. And there's people who are taking it through the drive through car wash. That Jason doesn't care about the drive thru car wash. In fact, what he actually sees is it gives him more work because people are like, oh, wow, my paint looks better.

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

So there is that give and take. You just can't be. I think if bakers could snap their finger. What's that? Marvel. And he snaps his finger and everybody half the world Dies. I can't remember. Half the bakers die. No, it's a baker hearing a lot of snaps. I think bakers would like to say, I would love to take all competition away. You would not love to take all competition away because you then would have to deal with people that were never going to buy from you. Yeah. And sometimes when you just tell somebody, hey, I think I'm out of your budget, they're upset.

[B]

You know, back going. That takes me back to my car selling days. Because you couldn't say, like, there's no car on the lot for you.

[A]

You too SC your credit score.

[B]

But what you did was instead of just having them peruse a lot and choosing the Lexus outside that they truly can't afford, you'd say, let's talk about your budget before we go out to the lot just to make sure that I'm showing you the things that are in your price budget. I don't want you to fall in love with something that you can't afford. Unfortunately, with cookie decorating, we can't just be like, okay, before we talk about your son's birthday, are you a broke baby?

[A]

On a scale of 1 to spelling carrots, C, A, R, R, O, T. Where are you? Spell careful. So we have the lower cost. Hot. I love having one of these bakers in there.

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

You should say, thank you so much.

[B]

Absolutely. She charges so little.

[A]

She's stealing all the business.

[B]

She was taking business here.

[A]

She is taking in inbox messages. You are gonna have to fight with.

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

Okay. I like this. I like this. We're moving on. Thank you, baker. We're moving on to drop cookie people. Drop cookies. I think sometimes this podcast specifically forgets about the drop cookie people. And I don't forget about you. I look at your little cookie split in half with all that chocolate in the middle and my mouth is drooling. However, you market differently because you can't say, look how pretty the top is. You say, look how pretty the inside is. You know what the sugar cookie baker is not doing? Breaking their cookie in half and saying, look how pretty.

[B]

It's just not as pretty.

[A]

It is ugly. So, yeah, drop cookie people win in the overhead shot or in the break in half shot. And the sugar cookies went from overhead. Drop cookie people have almost removed themselves from the sugar cookie battle. They have. They are like the moissanite ring, which I've seen this, the shift towards let's not even deal with diamonds. Yeah. That is a De Beers controlled market blood diamond. All this stuff. Let's do this moistening thing. So I see this. I found a subreddit for it. Don't worry, I'm not buying myself a ring. Everybody can come, but it's like now that market isn't controlled at all by this De Beers. Yes.

[B]

You know, moissanite, technically sparklier than diamonds. Not as tough as diamonds. From the naked eye, you can't tell what is a moissanite and what is a diamond. The price, vastly different. You can make so much more moissanite than you can diamonds.

[A]

Doesn't that sound like a drop cookie?

[B]

It does sound like a drop cookie.

[A]

Delectable, Cheaper.

[B]

Absolutely. It can be. Even people who just focus on Eddie printed cookies, there's now market out there for them.

[A]

And I think people are like, Eddie's not a real sugar cookie. It's not? No, it's completely. A completely different approach. Yeah, the bases are the same, but the production is completely wildly different.

[B]

And I've seen more and more cookiers going to Eddie printed cookies. Instead of spending 22 hours on a set, they're working about quant quantity over necessarily the quality of all those separate colors and things like that.

[A]

We taught a cookie class the other day and one of the girls there, I always ask these questions. What's your name? Where'd you roll out a bed from? And what's your experience with cookies? I really want to know what your experience is because if you're too good, I'm gonna have to kick you out of class. One liner lands every time. You take that if you want. We get to this girl and she's like, oh, actually I'm a nurse at the hospital. But she was in regards. She worked in a capacity of marketing. Yes. So she's like, last year for our holiday gift, the hospital has 50,000 employees. Yeah. So we ordered 50,000 printed sugar cookies. And she was like, I just wanted to see the work behind that. And I was like. She was like, you know, I jokingly said, corey, would you want to take this order? And Cory's like, there's just no ability for me to take that order because it was never meant. That was meant for a mass production facility. She ordered from like something like Cheryl's.

[B]

Or something in my brain. I said, I'm so sorry, that number of cookies is so far gone for my brain.

[A]

So when you take these small, like Rory's like, brother Eddie, people are stealing our cookies. You'd never take a 50. They said, the I want to just.

[B]

Tell you Your numbers are 10,000.

[A]

The hospital had 50,000 employees. She ordered 10,000. It cost 40,000.

[B]

They were 2ish. Some odd dollars each.

[A]

40,000 because you. Okay. Hey guys, raise your hand if you want an order. That's $40,000. Everyone. You raise your hands. Yeah, you need to have them done in a week. And they're 10,000 and they must be fresh and they have to have a logo on it. All the hands slowly go down because nobody in that class wanted that. So what we're saying is that moisten. I think it's. It's completely almost separated. Yes, they're edible food. Yes, it's cookies. Yes, they're. They're a rock that goes on a ring. It's a completely different structure and it's a different niche.

[B]

Yeah, it's a different niche. What you're finding throughout these things. There's so many diamond jewelers out there. Literally when you drive through Tyson's, there's one on every single square foot of that area. Because it's a nicer area of this where we live. The thing about it, there's different things about them. Me, this diamond import is. He goes straight to the source and that's why he's able to offer you at a discount. Tiffany's doesn't want to offer you at a discount. They want to offer you an experience going lab grown.

[A]

No, no, no, don't jump into there.

[B]

Oh, that's our last point.

[A]

That was my favorite.

[B]

Oh, I thought we had like. I was going in closing last one.

[A]

But this was a good closer. So if you can rem.

[B]

Okay, I'll try to come back to it.

[A]

Okay. Easier sets, consistent production. So sometimes you see these bakers and wow. Wow, you must have spent 50 hours on that. That's a fantastic thing.

[B]

Wow, look at that.

[A]

Like, you know those famous bakers that make the 3D popping out.

[B]

I can tell how much a baker spends on a set with the unique cookie cutters that are so pinpointed to that set. Like, you know the character cookies. Like when there's like 12 different characters and everything looks like it had a specific cutter to it.

[A]

It was like the Disney animator showed up at your cut out that dollar.

[B]

You had Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse.

[A]

So you have those bakers and you're like, wow, they're probably. And they're charging a fortune and they should be because that's how much their labor costs were. Now we have the baker who's like, hey, I know how to make. Corey, do you think you fall into this? You're like, I'm consistent with My sets. You're going to get this. When you order from me, you're going to get.

[B]

I even think there's even someone better at that. And that's the person who didn't buy 52 million cookie cutters when they started. It's someone who uses a plaque very efficiently. And that plaque is being used in every single set that they're making. And they're using it wise. They're like Amy, they're not buying 52 million cutters. She's buying very specific cutters that she needs to be more efficient in her bakery.

[A]

So that's the equivalent to labran. Lab growns aren't real diamonds. It's a different type of strategy. The same way moissanite. The same way ethically sort. Okay. It's a different strategy though. That doesn't count. It doesn't count for your business, which is great that somebody else has niched down away from you. So when you have that baked secret, they're really big into pre sales.

[B]

Love a pre sale.

[A]

What you see is what you get. They're really good about cultivating that audience. They're very consistent. Corey and I, our sugar cookie class kids are always beginner because we know that's where we make the most money. Well, where are you more complex? You're not. You're leaving out. Yeah, strategically we're leaving out the more advanced classes because I can't get them to sign up. Like I can get the beginners to sign up.

[B]

I would say the more efficient baker, instead of buying a new cookie cutter every year for their back to school pre sale, they're using the same things they've used every single year.

[A]

It's a way to keep the cross out. Now the lab grown diamonds apparently are better looking than the real ones.

[B]

Well, lab grown you can decide if there's an inclusion or not and you.

[A]

Can produce them a lot faster. Yeah, that's the. It's so funny to see the disparity.

[B]

Like that's not. You don't really love your wife.

[A]

Okay. Whatever you want. You know, of course somebody who sold ethically sourced diamonds from South Africa would, would be mad about the lab grown diamonds because they're taking it personally. But you guys are in different sections that that efficient baker and you and your custom and ornate and then that baker who's doing prints and then that baker who's doing die Free. You're all in different niches and it really helps not look at the market as is crowded. Yeah. You're not saying look at all this if, if we, if you want to take it all the way. Anything that produces consumable food is your competition. Yeah, I know. Okay. Okay, well, no, well, these are gifts. Okay. Any gift shop is your competition. Okay, well these are custom gifts. And a custom gift, like you can.

[B]

Say we are lucky that we're not in the diamond industry because how often are people buying diamonds? Not very often. They're like anniversary gifts. A ten year gift. When someone's getting one. We eat three times a day.

[A]

Day.

[B]

That's even more if you're me.

[A]

Do you see? And I think about this all the time. There's so many restaurants in our area because they know that every day somebody has to eat three times thinking mattresses because everybody has to sleep.

[B]

But I want to say when you only they suggest replacing mattress every 10 years, like thank goodness we're not.

[A]

Could you make cookies? Every mattress industry. When the bed in the boxes came out.

[B]

Oh, I couldn't air guess what? They pivoted. Now they offer bed in a box. That's why the thing with cookie decorators is we're getting ready to come back into busy season. Me and Heather see that the amount of podcast listens are increasing. The amount of people following us on social media increasing. A lot of people are waking up from their summers off.

[A]

That's how you guys make a lot of your back to school sales. You got your bags. Yeah. Your book bags and your other bags.

[B]

The bakers who are consistent throughout the year, can form in their little heart of hearts some animosity that people are coming back. Like you weren't here for the long haul. I've been here for so long. Look, people are just popping up. I saw, saw a stay at home mom just start a bakery yesterday. She doesn't even know what she's doing.

[A]

I saw that comment the other day.

[B]

Yeah, you can take that personally. But you have to think, take a step back. The industry growing is good for business. It's good for everyone's business.

[A]

You want me to tell you the number one assist in getting the cookie industry and thus sales to grow was Covid. It was the peak of search volume that year.

[B]

But can you imagine the bakers before.

[A]

COVID the cooking before COVID to see all the bakers that came. Why you know, we were out closing your scale of your house. Get into some hobby. Yeah. To see all the bakers into the market. And I see them now say I, I'm a pre Covid baker. Like it's like a dispatch. Which it is because you weren't bored. You got into it when you had many other options. Right. But to be upset. The invisible hand in the market is the most beautiful thing. The more competition, the better Production people.

[B]

Don'T understand that, but the more people that come to it, that means there's more people buying it, which is who.

[A]

Buying it is more people that want it. Your product has to be better. Yeah. Everyone benefits from competition. Yeah.

[B]

But just as much as people flood the market during these next few months, that many people leave in January. I promise you. I promise you. So before you come to the sugar cookie marketing group or before you sit in your kitchen and you get sad about it and you say, well, someone just popped up. There's another baker that popped up in the group that I really get a lot of sales from. She's kind of good and I kind of hate that for myself because she's taking people from me. Let's not think about it that way. Let's think how can we create more separation from us to them? Is it the die free? You know, is it marketing more for corporate orders so we can sell at a higher quantity?

[A]

Oh, once you taste of the corporate order nectar. Yeah. You almost are like, get away from me with your custom descent. Yeah.

[B]

I'm trying to get corporate. The person next to me that offers pre sales loves me. Cause I don't offer presales. I hate the anxiety of having to reach out to 20 people in one day.

[A]

The client class we taught, if it wasn't this past Saturday, this Saturday prior. Yeah. We had one of the members from the group who's also a member of the cookie college who also lives where Corey lives, come to take the class to learn how to teach classes. Yeah. You could immediately be like, oh my goodness.

[B]

Oh my goodness.

[A]

She comes here and she's like, I'm going to teach him in Spanish. Yeah. Suddenly, guess who was in competition.

[B]

We weren't even. We were worlds apart.

[A]

The wild part is we don't teach where Corey lives. So I even told her, if you want to teach him in English, let me know. I'll pass people that way.

[B]

Absolutely. Here's the thing. I could have looked at her. She, she's the nicest lady on the planet and said, you're my competition. Please don't come to this class. You're gonna be trying to take people and take everything that I've learned and use it against me and try to take all my clients when actually we can work together. She said that she still works a full time federal job and she commutes into D.C. every single day. That already tells. She said, I can't even take as many orders as I want to because I'm still working.

[A]

The wild part is she's like, I've been trying to sign up for classes for months and they're always booked out. So there's enough to go wrong. I know people are like, irresist saying that. That, yes, if there's competition, you're not getting as many orders, but I almost think you're not getting the orders you didn't win anyways. Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

And you'll see the value of sugar cookies goes down in the summer. Not many people are buying them. The value of sugar cookies goes up in December. The value of diamonds are constantly, ever changing.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It can be extremely expensive one day, extremely cheap the next day. But you don't see people shutting down because it's extremely cheap. Because it's changing the amount of bakers that will come in December a lot. The amount of people who want cookies in December even more. And that's why people will be turning people away in December and saying, I. So I am so booked.

[A]

I saw a post yesterday, a lady's like, I do customs. I get super booked out. Am I missing a huge piece of the pie by not teaching classes? And everyone's like, yep, yeah.

[B]

But here's at the end of the day, if you want to be booked out, if you want to teach the class, there's something for everyone. It's literally just stepping back and not being. Woe is me.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And not saying I'm throwing the towel. There's too much competition. It's. How can I separate myself from those competitors around, around me?

[A]

It's funny, I see this, like, vexation and I agree. I don't like to be called on the phone by suppliers ever. Please just send me a text now that I get that option. Like, do you want to be texted? Yes, please don't call. But I see that sometimes you see bakers and they go to event threads and they're like, I hate it when the clients call.

[B]

Look at this.

[A]

She just keeps wanting to call. And always the comments like this probably an older client who is used to calling. Yeah. You can be the phone call cookier.

[B]

You calls and you're going to take.

[A]

Market share of an older demographic. Not me. You'll never hear from me. But you're going to find those people who do. Like the call, the confirmation, the clarity. Yeah. The carrot. After you see it, you can find that you can be the baker who Allows people to pay at pickup. Yeah. Now Corey and I are preaching pay, pay at time of order so you.

[B]

Don'T get screwed over.

[A]

You can be the bakery's like, I trust my clients. Yeah. And you can build that into your price. Because, you know, that's why the, like, we're licensed and insured is always more expensive than the fly by night guy. Because you're taking more risk here. You're exactly taking the risk on. So you can find these little ways to carve out something that makes you unique, that eliminates competition for the fact that you just don't offer it. Yeah.

[B]

And you'll never hear me and Heather's be like, if you don't take payment at time of ordering, you're a loser.

[A]

No.

[B]

Because you're not. Your business is unique to you. And you might live in a smaller town where everybody knows everybody and everyone's going to pay. And that is a wonderful niche way that you can separate yourself from the competition. The reason why we take orders and money at time of booking is because we don't know who lives around Northern Virginia. It's always somebody new. Someone just moved to the area. Someone just found you. So we don't know anybody. So that's why it's just a little different.

[A]

But I was talking to Brian, and he was like. I was like, I don't run into anyone I know ever. I never. The odds of running into somebody are so low that it becomes the story you tell other people.

[B]

You actually, when you run into somebody, it's almost like your heart skips.

[A]

This is how we do it, guys. Everyone take one. I'll give everyone one guess. Who do you think I ran into?

[B]

Whereas when I. My husband is from the tiniest town. Big stone gap. Only reason I think people know it, because there's a movie we made about it a few years ago. But when we went down there, everyone stopped every. Like when we went to the Little Piggly Wiggly, which is a grocery store, everyone was stopping.

[A]

Oh, who are you?

[B]

You're Nathan Swan.

[A]

I was like, oh, everybody knows. Must have felt like a celebrity sweating. Okay, so that wraps up the podcast, but I want to say, have you watched the movie Blood Diamond R on camera? Spoilers. So close your ears if you haven't watched it in the 25 years it's been out at the end. This whole thing is this, like, fight for the diamonds. Like, you know, I really did fall asleep through this movie, but I did wake up for the last scene, like, you know, trying to get these diamonds and all this, like, vexation. But the last scene, it's the guy who like the De Beers diamond vault where they're controlling supply. And it was just diamonds as far as I could see. That's hilarious. So is it hilarious or is bad? I don't know. The thing is, demand is about to increase. So will supply. Yes, that's how it's. One is led by the other. It would be foolish for a person who has all the supplies, who took off the summer not to enter back into the market when money is to be made.

[B]

And it would be foolish for someone who did not take off to throw in the towel. Because you see more competition right there.

[A]

Altar Call took me to my knees with that one. Yeah.

[B]

There's so many diamond jewelers around and there's something for everyone. The wholesale people got me in a.

[A]

Chat at the mall we have to go to after this. At the mall? We'll be here on the mall next week too, because we have guest speakers. Right. That fancy jewelry store with a security guard.

[B]

I cannot remember the name, but yes, with an H. Yeah.

[A]

It's too expensive for my blood. It expanded now.

[B]

There's.

[A]

What about. I'm gonna say there's about five or six jewelry stores just in that mall. That doesn't include Tiffany's, that doesn't include the other one. You mentioned it.

[B]

Just not just in walking distance from each other. And they're expanding their locations, so that tells you there's something for.

[A]

Everyone's overpriced.

[B]

They are overpriced. But when it comes to your cookie decorating journey, if you keep the blinders on and say, how can I make myself more appealing to my clients? That's the only thing you can control at the end of the day. There was a post in Trigger cookie marketing and she was like, a new baker came to market here where I live. And she's posting at the same time that I do do. And I think she's copying me. You cannot control what other people do. What you can control is how you can differentiate yourself from the other people around you. Is it that you take another floral class and your florals are just dialed in?

[A]

Copy that. Excuse me, I drink my water.

[B]

Your florals are just really dialed in. Is it that you set up a website that is just so custom to you and looks very high end increases?

[A]

There's a million ways to carve out the difference. Okay. Yeah. And Corey and I were talking about Cory's. Like, at the end of the day, there's only so many Holiday pumpkins. The cutters all look the same. Cory's like, they're like a plaque over here, a flower over there. Yeah. Cory's like years and years of production, everything kind of starts to have that same look to it. Yeah.

[B]

So when people are like, they're just copying me. My pre sale is the same as their piece. I want to be like, we're buying from the same cutter shops that whatever's new, we're all buying what's new. They like, they're offering a little and I a do not because it's trending. So you can look side to side and that's really going to make you start hating your business. It's going to make you start hating everything about it. But if you can look in front of you at your audience that you've cultivated, you are the secret ingredient. That is why they are buying from you. You are ethically sourced or you are dye free, you are lab grown or you're able to just get these suckers out really fast. That, that is your differentiator. And you can be unhappy if you want to be. No one can stop you.

[A]

But I don't want to, I don't want to pick you up off the ground. I don't need that energy.

[B]

It's just hard to pick up the ground. Because if you want to be unhappy.

[A]

You'Re going to find something else to be on the ground.

[B]

Yeah, for sure, for sure. But I encourage us as we enter this season and I we've been entering it many, many seasons over all these years, it's the same rigamarole. You either niche down and figure it out for yourself or you get unhappy throwing the towel. Yeah, but that's one less baker to add to the joy of the holiday theme.

[A]

I say this, I'm going to say I'm going to drag the cookie college people a bit. Okay. We're doing a community group challenge now. Community groups. If you ask people, I'm just getting started, how do I get my name out there? 90% of the comments will say community groups because they're just such powerful tools right now. In this community group challenge, I took a poll, I said, how many of you are doing it? Under 20%.

[B]

But I want to say because under 20% are doing it, that leaves so much.

[A]

Yeah. So these folks, you know, and they had great reasons for why they are for sure. Uh, some of them were great. Uh, but that means only 20% of people, if we took that and extrapolated at 20% of your market is even.

[B]

Capitalized on these groups.

[A]

I know. And it's a strategy to make groups work for you. That's why this is a 30 day challenge and not a one day make a sales post challenge. Because that you could be that cookie or in that group that they always talk about.

[B]

Right, right, right.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So that is. I hope that conveyed it. I know we were spacey a little bit. Really?

[A]

Well. I was on under the Weather.

[B]

Under the Weather with Heather.

[A]

All right, all right. On that note, could you tell them about the cookie collab coming up next week while I. Sure.

[B]

So what is the cookie collab? The cookie collab is something that bakers do. It's been around for a million years. A million years. It got popular a few years ago and then Instagram kind of redid their hashtag structure so you kind of saw a fall off. We're bringing them back. Bringing them back in 2025. This is our third one. This is the Main street cookie collab. So I'm going to explain it. I did a video in sugar cookie marketing and on Instagram if you want to see it. What you're going to do is choose a business in your area. Something that has kind of a cult following. We did a whole podcast on it. If you go back a few, you can hear it. I think it was last week's podcast, to be quite honest. You're going to choose a business and you're going to cookie the logo. If you're a cake baker, you can totally do that. If you're a drop cookier and you have custom packaging, you can absolutely join on in. It's August 28th at 11:00am Eastern Standard Time. That is a Thursday. What we're going to do is all post at the Same time time, August 28th, 11:00am Eastern Standard Time. And we're going to post our Main street collab. There is a specific. Now you took a photo I did this weekend dedicate. It was 1 million degrees outside.

[A]

Hashtag is SEM collab local. Yeah.

[B]

And collab has two Ls. I saw some people misspelling that last time. So you spelled it right.

[A]

You just. Oh, no, I'm saying shoot for those people. I know. Yeah.

[B]

So collab has two L's. So collab local. L, O C A L. And that's how you're going to. That's how we're going to be able to find you.

[A]

You took some nice photos. I did. Corey took a bunch of options for herself. Now I'm curious which one you're going to end up picking. But you took the. And I know which one you're probably going to pick. You took the logo cookie? Yeah. With the background of the logo. I did. Now it's a pizza place. It is a pizza place. So Cory literally took her cookie and put it on the pizza, which I thought was kind of a cute way to say this is a pizza place. Yeah. Cory took a picture of the cat on the side of the building that we talked about. You took a picture of somebody just.

[B]

Tell you how to to how my brain's going to utilize this. I actually made a cookie with my business card for whoever was behind the.

[A]

Did you give to him? I did. Was it the guy?

[B]

No, he had just people working.

[A]

There was someone else who made it. Probably didn't really check. Do I talk?

[B]

Yeah, I don't think they uploaded it but what I did was I made a cookie for them with my logo. When I went to throw in the the trash away which you just threw away in the building, I went to her and I said hey, I'm just wanted to let you know that I have cookied your logo for graffiti cat pizza. And at the end of the month I'm going to actually feature you on my social media. So I want you to just brace yourself when you see it because you're gonna get that. But this cookie's for you. I just wanted you to be able to taste test it. And on my business card you can just find my social media. So when you see the tag, don't be alarmed. I'm not raking you through the coals.

[A]

Of a local community group.

[B]

What I did was take a lot of photos. So what I'm going to do at the end of the month, I want them to feel an onslaught of wow, this girl is really trying to get our attention in the Nova Foodies group.

[A]

I know. I was hoping you would do that. I did.

[B]

In the Nova Foodies group. I'm going to do a write up. Here's how the parking works, here's what I ordered, here's the price of everything. And really just give it a raving but with details. Not this smooshy, no quality, low value.

[A]

Look at me.

[B]

We're gonna do a really good post.

[A]

Are you gonna mention why you cookie their logo?

[B]

I'm not even gonna put my cookie logo in there. Cause I want them to be able to say wow, she's really likes us as a company and I don't wanna get shoo shooed by the admin for putting my logo in there. In my local community Group that I run. I've made a whole reel. I actually voiced over the reel for you guys to tell you about the club. I'm gonna remake the reel.

[A]

Very nice use of content.

[B]

Absolutely. And just to showcase it. And I, I even took a video with my hand with the logo cookie and then without the logo cookie. Just so I had options because I don't want to break any of one's community group rules.

[A]

Now I know you guys are thinking, well, you guys run the cookie group. That's why she made two content. You can tell your audience that you're in a cookie collab and then you can tell your local group about this restaurant. If you choose a restaurant. Oh, yeah. About this business.

[B]

The great thing that I use in shop four, voiceovers. So I'm going to redo the whole video.

[A]

She's not even redoing the content. She's just redoing her voice. She's not doubling the effort of making whole new video. It's the same video, two different audio. Yeah.

[B]

The photos I took will be going to their Google reviews as well as their Facebook reviews.

[A]

Very nice.

[B]

And then this collab that we're doing is on Instagram. So I have them covered in local community groups on Google, on Facebook and on Instagram. They're going to feel a lot of love. We're doing it all on the 20th.

[A]

You're gonna. This guy's gonna be stoked.

[B]

Oh, for sure. Because at the end of the day you are getting more views.

[A]

And this is a very unique pizza place that. It's a pop up. I can see their counter. They're only open two days a week. It's a very interesting. It's actually inside a Choc chop.

[B]

I know, right?

[A]

That does a lot of local stuff. So it's a very interesting strategy. You guys have still two weeks to get involved with this. There is a sign up form, a registration form. I'll coach you through. I'll show you what Corey's photos are so you can kind of get an idea of that. That closes a week before the collab. You can still participate. You just make sure you use that correct hashtag. Yeah.

[B]

So that will be a lot of fun. And if you really use this to your benefit.

[A]

This is a 1. This is the De Beers, the diving one. This is V CVS1. This could be make your. Your niche be business. Yeah.

[B]

If you wanted to get into corporate.

[A]

Orders, this is a fantastic way to do so. And it's a ton of work. But it really does show. It really does Set you apart. So you guys can check that out. You can go to the events tab in the sugar cookie marketing group and find the information on registering there.

[B]

I want to tell you the out of body experience. For me to take my camera out and take photos in public, you have.

[A]

To do a deep exhale and be like, it is what it is.

[B]

It is what it is. And I said, at the end of the day, they will benefit from this. In the sweat that I'm sweating as I feel awkward doing. This is okay.

[A]

My grandma said, Our grandma said, if you realize how little people thought of you because they're too busy thinking about themselves, you wouldn't. You wouldn't care. Yeah.

[B]

I said, at the end of the day, those people staring at me doing this because Arch is like people staring at you. Granted, he's 15 and that's the biggest thing on his mind. I said, listen, I will be an afterthought tomorrow when they're stuck in traffic and someone cuts them off.

[A]

They weren't even like, look at that idiot over there.

[B]

They're like, I wonder what she's doing.

[A]

I wonder what she's doing in her hand and the camera. And it's crazy. Yeah. So that takes us through the collab. I'd love to see you guys join. We actually have a ton of people signed up. Over a hundred. So you have potential to even get just 100 pieces of engagement. Moving on to the cookie design lab. Cool stuff there. I went to make a cookie cutter. We retooled the digital downloads for the cookie college. So the cookie college is five memberships. I'm backing us up a little bit there. The Cookie College is five memberships. It's the $2 transfer club. The digital downloads, the baker's business basics, the cookie class kits, and the cookie college. Yeah, well, I don't know why. I just can't. I haven't loved. I liked it. Don't worry. It's good stuff. Yeah, I. I said, cory, I need the digital downloads to be more consistent.

[B]

When Heather loves something, her heart is into it.

[A]

Corey knows when I fall in love with something, I tell heaven and earth cannot make me. I do.

[B]

I'll have to put on Heather's docket 52 times before she'll get it.

[A]

It'll be truly okay, Ms. Labubu.

[B]

Baker Labubus, I do not love.

[A]

Corey has to make a Labubu cookie and refuses to. Every Monday morning. I'm like, hey, what's. What's the Labubu status? I hate them so much. So the digital downloads is a monthly digital print file in some iteration. And I said, corey, I like the freedom I have there, but I don't think it's as fair to the subscribers. Subscribers as it could be. So I told her, let's. Let me make.

[B]

Let's make something more cohesive that's easy to replicate.

[A]

Yeah. So it's a digital download now that includes a cookie tag, a cookie backer, a pattern, a social media frame, and a transfer sheet and STLs and the PNG prints to match. Yeah. And each. Each month has a different theme. So this one was a sweet, small fall treat. Yeah. And the phrase is a small fall treat for some sweet. So you got the whole setup that you could take that from digital concept, print that all out in production. Corey's gonna make one for me. Alle door.

[B]

Yeah. I already put the dough in the front.

[A]

So to make the STLs, I was like, well, let me just jump in. And Cookie Design Lab, it is a sponsor of this podcast. You can use Code Twins, I think, for 50 off, and I'll pull it up in a second.

[B]

Favorite.

[A]

No, that was making me crazy. I go in and they have added the ability to add text to walls.

[B]

Which is what everyone wants. That is what I love.

[A]

Click of a button. Click of a button. I. I know that, you know, people use cookie CAD because it's free. Yeah. And I saw that they rolled out text walls, but everyone's like, it doesn't work.

[B]

Oh, that's crazy.

[A]

And if you use cookie cad, great. But if you wanted something real consistent. I'm further impressed with Cookie Design Lab yet again.

[B]

If you're making me a cookie cutter, it doesn't have what it is on the side.

[A]

Korea hates it. But this was so simple to add.

[B]

Get out of 2019, come join us in 2025 to make those leaves.

[A]

And I made leaf. Leaf falling leaf cookie cutters. So I had to draw them to make those into STLs. Using cookie design Lab was. I mean, really, honestly, I made them two different times, so I made eight different STLs. It took me seconds.

[B]

Well, if you're wondering why we're so raving about Cookie Design Lab, they are the sponsors for the STL me about it section. And that's where you can text any questions. You can text in by 571-556. 5, 6, 4 4. We have how many questions this time?

[A]

Two. Oh, just two. Just two.

[B]

One, two, one, two, one, two, One, one.

[A]

Hello, miracle twins. This is from six hundred and twelve.

[B]

Six hundred and twelve.

[A]

Do I feel like it's New Mexico right there. Why you feel like it's, I don't.

[B]

Know, 612 feels like mountainous.

[A]

Someone in 612 dead outing at their screen right now.

[B]

Colorado.

[A]

Minneapolis.

[B]

Oh, not even close.

[A]

Minnesota, you're very much cold, not hot. First of all, I wish Corey all the best with her health. And I hope you're truly doing well. I have two questions for you. One is in is in mind from day one, but never asked. Okay. What is the proper etiquette of following other businesses on IG and Instagram? Should I follow from my business account or from my personal. What is a good number if there is one of following other businesses?

[B]

Okay, I love that. So it's going to come down to what is your end goal? You're going to find that bakers a lot of times follow bakers and maybe if there's a local competitor, they won't like it as much. I love to follow businesses with my baking account. Why? Because I can still engage with their content. It keeps my brand top of mind. When they go clicking, I'm. I'm selling what I hopefully they're eating. So I would love to get a corporate order that way. So following businesses with your bank account, 100% recommend. Fantastic way to do it. Is there too many? Sometimes it can feel disingenuous. We run a bunch of accounts for our clients, so it's so funny when I see them.

[A]

Back in the day, there was a strategy. We could easily run bots on Instagram. Yeah, those days have long since been laid to rest.

[B]

Long since.

[A]

I know we all must be authentic. But you could program a bot to say follow as many accounts, wait a period of time. If they don't follow me back and follow them. That way your follower to following ratio wasn't so far off. Funny.

[B]

You could also tell the bots follow anyone using this hashtag, so hashtag Northern Virginia. Unfortunately, while we're running these client accounts, which could range from, you know, landscaping to an ice cream shop, this one baking account follows all of them in the span of 10 seconds.

[A]

It's a delay. You can really make it look authentic. And I know there's still bots running amok on Instagram. You can see it.

[B]

What I suggest to be authentic, if you follow an account, follow the account because you like the content. And you say to yourself, I'm going to engage with their content. That falls in my feed because I truly do want to create a relationship with them. We're not just following to follow because you're not going to get any benefit from that. It's not going to do you any good. It's not going to do them any good.

[A]

I would say Corey should be following graffiti can't pizza.

[B]

Oh, absolutely. And you're going to see me follow them because I want to be able to tag them. I want to be able to show them that I'm in it to win it.

[A]

Right. And then Corey is going to want what I would have done. I would have picked my. I would have picked my company a while ago, a company I really liked for this collab. But I would have been engaging with him along the way so that this isn't like a shocking hello I wish.

[B]

I didn't do well in because I was so in the mud about who.

[A]

To do it's such a forethought. But to create Corey and I we had a client that worked at a that had a show like a vendor expo and they had signed up for it and Corey and I had gotten the vendor expo, had its own marketing company to market the expo. Yeah. And we had realized that behind that is us for somebody else.

[B]

Someone else.

[A]

So we would post content, tag them.

[B]

They would share it, tag us. And we were like whoever you are out there, I said, you other group.

[A]

Of twins behind computers. Yeah, we're all. I said it was just a bunch of marketing people sitting by hoping they get tagged.

[B]

At the end of the day it's probably if it's a small business, it's a small business owner behind there and you can truly create a relationship with them. There's this admin of a local community group and she has a business and because I want to add value to the community group but also add value to the admins, I went and followed them on social media with my baking company the other day the admins went live. She was able to name my company. She said we love mixing bold cookie company. She's never bought from me once. I've never done a sales community group talent. But I'm saying using that and really being authentic with it is going to be worldly different than just following Authenticity.

[A]

In marketing is always. It just takes so much time it cannot be replied. You have to care. Yeah. So that one, she has a question number two, if you don't read my text this coming week, do you consider this text for the following week or does my question go into rest in peace status?

[B]

It does go to rest in peace.

[A]

Status which is why we say you can retext in your question if it.

[B]

Hasn'T been read yet but congratulations Minnesota.

[A]

Minnesota. Email me heather sugarcookiemarket.com and I'll put you in contact with Cookie Design Lab who told me to tell you guys are running it.

[B]

So sale a little S, A L.

[A]

E S T L, S A L E. Oh, lots of S's from 8, 2, 7, 10, 9, 3. More details to come. It will be more than our usual SEM discount but not as big as savings that we will be offering in the vendibilities. So they're back for the VB Nice lot of acronyms. That is code. Hold on. I want to read the code for the discount twins to save 15 and then they have that sale coming up and if you go to their YouTube channel cookie design Lab you can watch the them unbox and use it already. We'll read question number two. You didn't win but we appreciate your question.

[B]

And if you want to text in a new question next week and you have the potential to win, back to.

[A]

An Instagram Facebook question. Hi twins. I'm struggling with Instagram and Facebook. I started in September 2023. I have just over a hundred posts but only 400 followers on IG and only 36 followers on Facebook. My posts only get 10 to 20 likes on Instagram which is always the same friends and family members. And my Facebook likes are literally just me and my mom. Sad. I know. I love your mom. I love your mom. This summer I try to start scheduling out posts at the beginning of each month so I can consistently post to try to stay in feeds. Though I'll admit I basically only have two content buckets which are customs and miscellaneous holidays and random days like Shark Week, First Day of Summer, etc. I plan to participate in the Main street collab which hopefully will get reposted by the business I cookify and gain some local traction through that. I also plan to do the Cookie College community group challenge in September. I didn't have time to research which groups would be worth it. While worthwhile for me to focus on this month, what else can I do to gain followers but more importantly up my engagement so it's more than just friends and family. I love that you said you were gonna do that. Yeah, that community group challenge. That community group challenge will make you money. I even I boldly stated, I said in August we're doing a daily community group challenge. If you participate, you will make more money in the holiday season. I can boldly say that because community groups are the number one legion. So are cited by bakers right now.

[B]

Yeah, for sure. Um, so it comes down to, since we don't have your page in front of us, it's hard for me to look and diagnose. You know, a lot of times engagement comes from both what is the photo and what is the caption. Is the caption. If you're not asking the question, the first part of there, I would suggest moving that question, that engaging question to the top part there. August holds, I think National Cat Day, where I passed, and I think National Dog Day is coming up at the end.

[A]

If you guys. If you guys wonder what these weird holidays are. If you go to business.facebook.com if you. It pulls up business planner. And if you go on the left side and click on planner, pulls up the calendar and it has these. They call them. What are they? Oh, moments. Moments. And the right side, I'm on a computer. It pulls up moments. So August 26th, National Dog Day. September 1st, Labor Day. Okay.

[B]

But I want to say let's go to National Dog Day. This is a fantastic way to get people to engage. Instead of posting a cookie, what we're going to do is post your dog. If you don't have a dog now, the dog you had growing up, if you didn't have a dog growing up, post your neighbor's dog. We're going to ask people to post a picture of their dog in the comments and have other people guess the name of that dog if they had that dog.

[A]

Love that. So what Corey is doing is forcing engagement.

[B]

Forcing engagement. At the end of the day, people who have pets, it's a billion dollar industry. They love talking about their very expensive investment, which is going to happen if.

[A]

You pair what she just said with that community group challenge. And, and if the group allows you to share from your page to the group, you can kind of cross braid read those. September 3rd, World Beard Day. Corey's husband has a beard. She can post a picture.

[B]

Does your husband have a beard? Let's see him in the comments.

[A]

Which I think would be super funny. It'd be hilarious. Super funny is if you had him with a beard without a beard and said pick one. There's. Honestly, we'll do so many. It would take.

[B]

There's a filter you could do my son just did for a ball band filter.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

If you did a beard man filter. So your beardless husband making him beard.

[A]

If your husband truly loved you and your business, he'd shave his beard for you.

[B]

What we're going to do is not always feel clz. We're not, not always going to put post the cookie photo because, you know, that does feel like, oh, there's a sales post in front of me. Maybe I'll read the caption, maybe I won't.

[A]

She's got two content buckets. But I actually would challenge you to think that you only have one because both of those were cookies. It was customs or holidays. So it sounds like you're either telling people you baked a custom or you telling people you baked for a holiday.

[B]

Which I want to say what you just said, you're telling them. There's no asking.

[A]

Yeah. We can't see it, but I can only assume if those are the. When we. The International Day of charity is September 5th. Right there.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

Hey, guys, what charities should we. What charities do you like? What local charities?

[B]

Tell me about them. Which. Which charity means the most to you?

[A]

Friday the 13th it's coming up. Yeah, you're.

[B]

What is the spookiest movie someone made a TikTok Spooky movies you should watch during Halloween. I saved it. Yeah, I want to watch those.

[A]

And you could have a picture of your Hocus Pocus cookies. And that's such a better delivery of it because it's engaging content. Don't forget September 14th, Grandparents Day. You make some content there.

[B]

But gotcha. With my own grandma.

[A]

Yeah. So you can go to Facebook. International Coffee Day. Ask people what their orders are. Breast Cancer awareness Month. Cancer awareness. Everyone has like stories world teachers. So there's a ton of these.

[B]

So it's using. You're already on the right track.

[A]

As you say.

[B]

I love to do the. The big ones, you know, September 22nd, it's the first day of all. Everyone knows that. But these more niche ones.

[A]

Oh, yeah. So sorry.

[B]

We're playing and girl, he's over.

[A]

Give me my dad. I need some color. Right.

[B]

But the first day of fall, it's a big one. But a lot of people will be using that one. But turning the, you know, breast cancer awareness. What's the story behind someone? Why does it mean something to you asking people to share the photos of their dogs and having other people guess the names. Hilarious. Engaging. You know, and if you are like, well, I'm doing that. No one's commenting.

[A]

You should boy or have your arm with a tattoo of the dog and him with the same face in the background.

[B]

How can the ball that you gave.

[A]

Me years years old. I want to talk about the community group challenge because we referenced it a lot. But it's not fair to people who don't know what it is.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

It's in the cookie college, you do a monthly challenge. So each day typically has a task associated with it, depending on what the challenge is. This is what these prompts sound like for the community challenge. So you understand what I'm saying when this would help you make more sales. The task one was find a group that is hyperlocal and allows selling. That's the biggest thing. You also want it to be managed admin. The next one is you're going to leave 5 comments on 5 posts. That's the task. Yeah. It's going to mention nothing about baking. It's somebody going to ask a question, you're going to answer it, somebody going to make a joke, you're going to laugh at it. The next one is you're going to make one post recommending a local business. Yeah, easy peasy.

[B]

With this community group challenge. And we did a podcast on how to use community groups in your favor. This is based right now, this challenge is holding your feet to the fire. And the college loves these challenges. We have a walking challenge. It's September. You know, we've done a money challenge, mental health challenge. It's really honestly making you focus about your business in not such a focusy kind of way, in a roundabout way. And that's why the college. This one is how to use community groups. Before we get into the onslaught of busy season. How can you come top of mind when people start asking, is there a local baker who can make these cookies?

[A]

This is a 30 challenge and only one time do we sell. Yeah. So if that goes to show you how much authenticity, manufactured authenticity challenge, authenticity is required to turn a community group into a referral powerhouse. It's a lot. And I tell them this at the end of this 30 day challenge. You don't stop. Yeah, you just repeat it.

[B]

What's so funny? Heather told me to mention this last time, but last week, this community group that I've been investing my time in, I haven't sold in yet, went live. And the two ladies, I've only known them online. I've never met them in person or anything like that, but I comment in the group. They do Tuesday tips. I always comment because they always ask a question like, what was your tip? No, she says, here's a tip. Here's how you can overcome a bad review. And then I said, I said, you know, it's really hard for me to get the courage to ask for reviews. So I'm looking in the comments if anyone has a great way, you know, just engaging with their content. When they went Live and did that thing. They said, hey, listen, if you are in this group and you just post ghost and ghost, we will not like your business. We will not try to drive. But they said, I was just in the comments, like, hoorah, hoorah, you're great.

[A]

Thanks.

[B]

And they were like, wow, Corey, thank you so much. You show up on those Tuesday post, so they're seeing you.

[A]

There's humans behind the keyboard too.

[B]

You have to remember there is humans behind the keyboard. They are trying to run these groups. It's hard to do. So the more you can help them, the more. They've never bought from me, but they gave me a shout out.

[A]

So I'm just saying keep it going, it'll keep doing. It's just how, how we work. Yeah, it's just, I mean, I can't, I can't spell it out for you guys anymore. Leave five more comments. The next one, post a meme hyperlocal. Create a poll. That one. A lot of people tried and they were like, wow, everyone wants to vote. I was like, yeah, you ask for people's opinions, they love it. React to comments. Now, people don't realize there's a point system in groups. There is. That's how you earn those badges. Yeah, reacting to comments earns points, but it doesn't tell the group admin. So if you're like, well, I think they are going to put me on post approval. They can't see that, right? Ask a question, don't do anything. Because we have to be authentic, right? Not everyone posted a group.

[B]

I know. Even someone one time, me and Heather in our local group because too many people were using it for sales, said if you want to make a sales post on Saturday, you have to do a random post during the week. Sounds like, I have nothing to say during the week. Listen, there's this ice cream truck that has a cult following around my neighborhood. A lot of people's questions will be like, does anyone know where Mr. Softy is?

[A]

Mr. Softy.

[B]

That totally counts. And guess what? So many people can relate to it because everyone knows the hear his music. Oh, Mr. Softy's on hedges.

[A]

Ron. We had, you know, okay, if you haven't cultivated the group at all and suddenly you're doing all this, you will put some red flags up with the admin for sure. So this one participant, she was like, oh, I got put on post approval. Then the next day on August 11, we had shout out a members. She shouted out the admin. She's like, the admin does a great job the admin immediately messages and said all your posts had gone to the spam filter. I'm so sorry. This is the nicest thing I've done ever seen written about me. Let me tell you as an admin myself nobody's writing nice things I want.

[B]

To say as an admin when someone's post goes to post approval ends up in spam admins aren't notified. But what's so funny is when someone gets offended that but you had nothing to do with they'd be like this group. My posts never go up.

[A]

Why. Why are people Zuckerberg is ruining my life. He's saving my life and ruining at the same time. Anyways that is how I would get that engagement Back to the original question is put into these groups people naturally find themselves on your page on the page be engaging and that's what Corey's gonna do with the beer day with the dog day. And in between that you're gonna make your sales pitch. Yeah, between.

[B]

In between those. That's when you're going to do it. But really to get the engagement and I wanna say it's. It's hard out and then their streets you know I'm really focused on responding to comments you know to try to. To elevate that because people when they just throw you a bone every single time hey great set. Great set. And they never get commented. They're few they start trickling off. You know so it's really invest you do get even if it's your mom, if it's your husband. When Heather comments I act like I've never met her before a day in my life.

[A]

No I do. I do. Hey sis. I wish I could eat these. And you're like you'll never get so yeah it's that. It's that kind of like stuff if.

[B]

You have a great great questions by the way love that if you would like to text in you know without you that little segment does not.

[A]

I mean you had a 50 chance of winning. I know Month of the cookie design.

[B]

Lab phone number is 571-556-5644 and to.

[A]

Move on to our other sponsors. Thank you so much. Other sponsors making me crazy. Use code favorite twin for 10% off that is a supply shop. Love them back for the Vendy blendy.

[B]

As well right now tis the season.

[A]

To stock up on supplies. You know if the summer taught us anything about meringue powder it's to stock up.

[B]

So if you're wanting to do cute Christmas things, don't wait Till you need them to go order them.

[A]

Let's hope. Funny. We would try. Talking about it. Cutter shops have to operate. If bakers operate six weeks out of the holiday, the cutter shop has to operate 12 weeks. So they're all dropping their holidays. Yeah.

[B]

So if you need the sprinkles, if you need the gel, food coloring. I want to say, don't wait till after Black Friday. Everyone's ordering everything online, so anything that's guaranteed shipping after that, you don't know.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Ordering it now and planning ahead, that's going to be your best bet.

[A]

Absolutely. Royal batch, code twin. Somebody asked me that yesterday. They said, does that code expire? Not as long as she is a sponsor, which she's been a sponsor for years now. Royal Batch by BaketyBake.com Meringue powder. Corey loves it. Daisy makes you just place an order. These are cake pop molds and trays. And trays. And if you struggle with cake pops, these are the.

[B]

To me, this is where I hope.

[A]

The industry ends up because it's not balls. Right. They're like pucks.

[B]

They're called discs. Discs, yeah. So it's got a flat side on both. So it makes it just a tinge bit easier to dip in the chocolate and to not have it fall off, which that was the issue with the big circle.

[A]

It's so heavy. It's so heavy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, That's. I think, like, oh, I bought one. A cake pop for my cat. Yeah. Like Eddie printer direct to food. We talked about that as being kind of that niche down thing, that mass production. You can put out product really quickly. Back to the 10,000 cookies at $40,000. $40,000. Yeah, I know. I'm not sure any of us could mentally handle that. And then Bosch and Nutrimil. We actually gave away a Bosch in the cookie college on Sunday. Yeah, we just did. She. She said, I'm crying, throwing up, puking in the car. It's been amazing. That was fun. But use code sugar cookies there to sa dollars from checking out. It's an affiliate link. That is an affiliate link.

[B]

But thank you to our sponsors. Without them, we wouldn't have this podcast.

[A]

We wouldn't.

[B]

So I appreciate them holding our feet to the fire.

[A]

So we show up every time. A lot of times Cory's like, well, I was like, I don't feel good today. And she was like, do you want me not to go? Like, we got to do it for the sponsors. Got over the sponsors. Doing it live. Next week we'll have two Guest speakers. We will.

[B]

Cuz you guys love guests so much. We had two volunteers who actually are flying in, which is insane.

[A]

I love it. I love that they're going to like spas in the area. They're like sightseeing and stuff.

[B]

I know.

[A]

Hopefully the weather's good for them.

[B]

I know I'll have to look at.

[A]

The 40 day weather at Tyson mall is always good. So we'll take them to lunch.

[B]

But they're going to be on the podcast. And they have two very unique perspectives as well. One has been like chronically on the Food Network, which is insane. I'll be in the presence of someone famous.

[A]

Yeah. 10 Rickshire, the Disney trip planner. Yeah. But then Kim just passed her one year anniversary.

[B]

She owned a brick and mortar and a franchise, so it's even more niche and she's been killing it.

[A]

It's fascinating to see and if Kim's my only gateway into looking into franchises in terms of food, it's very fascinating to see how it all works.

[B]

It's beans and brews, which I think is popular down south.

[A]

So she's. We don't have them here.

[B]

Yeah, we don't have them.

[A]

I wish we did. Yeah.

[B]

She's from Texas, but she did a Facebook live in the cookie college. I think it was about an hour long. I listened to. Listened every second. Like when someone's coming into the kitchen, like my husband, I'm like, hold on, my show's on.

[A]

So like go ahead. Yeah. No, Kim's talking on tv.

[B]

But honestly the just the knowledge she has from doing it has just been fascinating to learn from someone who took it from a home based bakery, which most of us are, and brought it into a space that not many of us can get to.

[A]

It's so funny and I hope I'm not telling her story ahead of it, but she. They loan out the franchise. Loans out an inflatable like lot latte. Yeah. He was like huge. He's massive. He's sitting in front on their opening day. Yeah. And somebody shot him. Yeah. How Texas of Texas. You got the latte. So that is today's podcast. I hope it makes sense. If you buy a diamond ring, please let us know. Cory would like to see it.

[B]

We like to celebrate. Send you some Dwyman cookies.

[A]

Very, very nice. Diamond. That's such a wild word. VVS very, very, very, very clear. Your husband liked you very, very much. Not a very, very good one. Okay. Do you have anything?

[B]

Do you have a twin dress? Oh, you're dying. Dying. Okay, let me think. If I have a twin chest real quick, I go in for my final update today to see if the surgery went well.

[A]

Very nice.

[B]

I will be sweating yet again.

[A]

Hike your leg up. This is a Take clothes off, come.

[B]

To the edge of the bed.

[A]

Not the last one. I'll be wearing loose, fitted clothes.

[B]

That's why I walked in today and I forgot my deodorant. And I said, heather, I have to borrow your deodorant.

[A]

Oh, my goodness.

[B]

You didn't wear deodorant today. Yeah, it's gonna spank you. What?

[A]

You get mad at Archer for forgetting deodorant for you to have to ask for deodorant. You get mad at the things you also do.

[B]

I want to say 99 of the time I remember my deodorant.

[A]

If I get out of the shower. Sorry, guys, I'm not feeling well. If I get out of the shower, two seconds of that deodorant, I'm like, what is that smell? My arms. What are you doing? I. No needing. I want to tell you because I.

[B]

Will be at the edge of the bed, and she will be down there. I was worried that my legs weren't going to be smooth and they were going to be right by her face.

[A]

Doctor's getting the full treatment.

[B]

Getting the full treatment today, but I forgot the while I was worried about my legs.

[A]

Ah, the tangled webs. The tangled websy. Okay, kids, we'll see you next week. With some additional people and the podcast, we'll.

[B]

We'll have to finagle how that works.

[A]

They texted me yesterday, and they were like, what should we prepare for? And I was like, weird layers. It's so hot in this office, you'll want to start taking them off. All right, guys, we will see you next week, okay?