229. Baking it Down - Why You Should Do the Reels Collab

Summary

Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪

Episode 229: Why You Should Do the Reels Collab
Hosts: Heather and Corrie Miracle
Date: September 16, 2025

---

Episode Overview

Heather and Corrie Miracle—twin sisters, marketers, and founders of the Sugar Cookie Marketing community—share practical marketing tips for cottage bakers and small business owners. In this episode, they focus on why participating in Instagram Reels collabs is important for bakery businesses, the power of video content, and strategies to overcome common hesitations about showing up on camera.

This episode blends actionable advice, cheerful twin banter, relatable stories, and encouragement to embrace video content, even when it feels uncomfortable.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Recap and Podcast Housekeeping

• The previous episode had audio issues due to remote recording—Zoom mixes audio differently than external mics. Heather explains what went wrong and thanks listeners for their patience and feedback.
  "Thank you so much. You let me know many times. It was a hard listen, but you still listened. And that I appreciate." (01:58 - Heather)

2. Why Video Content Matters (03:34)

Structured as "Why Video" first, followed by "Why Reels Specifically".

A. Why Video? (03:34–16:41)

i. Video is the Preferred Content Type

• "It's the reason why we turn on Netflix versus open up a book." (03:50 - Heather)
• People prefer to consume information through video. Social platforms prioritize keeping users engaged, so favor video.

ii. Videos Convert Better

• Adding a video to a landing page can increase conversions by 80%. Visual demonstrations help buyers "see themselves" with the product.
  "The likelihood I'm about to buy when I see a video is higher than if there isn't a video on there." (07:47 - Heather)

iii. UGC (User-Generated Content) Builds Trust

• UGC, especially video testimonials, sways decisions more than polished ads. Authentic, imperfect videos work best and feel relatable.
  "They say sometimes UGC, when it's filmed too professionally, loses the trust factor." (12:23 - Heather)

iv. Video Improves SEO

• Videos embedded on websites or posted to platforms like TikTok/YouTube are indexed by Google and help with discoverability. Even locally-focused bakers can benefit.

v. Overcoming Camera Shyness

• Most bakers don't want to record themselves, but that makes video a less saturated differentiator. "You are the secret ingredient to your business, secret sauce." (17:35 - Corey)
• Audiences are less critical than we imagine—they enjoy seeing the faces and personalities behind brands.

B. Why Reels Specifically?

i. Instagram/Meta Favours Reels

• Instagram is pushing video (Reels) to compete with TikTok.
• Video content is more likely to be promoted and discovered than static photos.
• "When you upload a video to Instagram, it's automatically converted as reel.” (21:05 - Heather)

ii. Short-Form Video is Powerful but Underserved on Instagram

• Many Instagram users still cling to curated photo aesthetics, so video is a way to stand out locally. "You making videos on Instagram is a fantastic way for you to lead your area in this." (28:32 - Corey)

iii. Feed Aesthetic is Outdated

• Focusing on having a perfect-looking Instagram grid is less effective than sharing engaging, authentic video content.
  "You can either reach your target audience... or you can look pretty." (30:42 - Heather)

iv. Deeper Audience Connection

• Video gives your business a voice and builds parasocial relationships with followers. "If you've never met Heather in your life, you're probably like, she's such a fun person. ... You feel more connected to Heather because you've seen her and you've heard her." (34:15 - Corey)

v. Series Content and Consistency

• Video series (“Meet the Baker”, taste tests, etc.) encourage repeat engagement and familiarity.
  (Example: Corey’s 25-day cookie taste test series).

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On overcoming perfectionism:
  "I'd rather content go up than perfect content never go up." (31:25 - Heather)

• On differentiating your bakery:
  "When we're all buying the same cookie cutters... your differentiator is yourself." (17:35 - Corey)

• On series and personality:
  "The less you cared, the better it performed." (40:53 - Heather, about Corey's taste-test reel series)

• On audience skepticism:
  "You are your worst critic." (17:15 - Heather)
  "I want to say people have said by listening to the podcast, I feel like I'm laughing with my best friends. They just can't hear me." (34:01 - Corey)

---

Reels Collab Challenge Details (41:43)

A practical, community-driven way to "just try" video.

• Collab Name: Blind Bakers Reels Collab

• Date: September 26, 2025, 11am ET

• Instructions:

  • Ice a cookie bright white (any shape).
  • Blindfold yourself.
  • Turn on video recording (phone/IG app/third-party apps like InShot, CapCut, Splice).
  • Pipe a pumpkin on the cookie, blindfolded. (Orange & green or brown for stem).
  • Optional: Record an intro or voiceover.
  • Post the short video to Instagram (as a Reel), using hashtag #SEMcollabcircle.
  • Optionally, share to stories, Facebook business page, newsletter, etc.
  • Register in SCM Facebook Group event tab for "coffee" (caption help).

  "The whole point is to fail. It's the humans love to watch." (42:24 - Heather)

• Tips for Editing:

  • InShot is free and user-friendly.
  • Don't overthink it—phones work just fine.

---

Collab Challenge: Why Participate?

• Low Risk, High Reward: You can archive/delete the video after the event if you wish.
• Builds Confidence: Even if uncomfortable, you'll likely get positive engagement.
• Differentiates You: Very few local bakers are using video.
• Showcases Personality: Customers love a behind-the-scenes laugh—and seeing bakers “fail” is relatable.

---

Example: Measurable Collab Wins

(46:28) Listener Donna shared her Main Street Collab story: "Not only got me the most views on any IG post I ever made, but the owners of the restaurant loved the dozen local cookies I gifted them so much, they asked me to quote them a price per dozen so they can include them in their to go orders."
(46:43 - Heather reading Donna's message)

---

Overcoming “Feed Aesthetic” Anxiety (29:43)

• Video posts ("reels") can have a custom thumbnail if you want to maintain a certain look in your grid, but the main objective should be getting content out there for discoverability.
• Most customers never look at your curated feed; they discover you from one post or never go to your profile at all.
• Consistency beats perfection:
  "The unaesthetic video that you're so worried about will be pushed down so far, you'll forget that it's even there and your audience forgets that." (32:43 - Corey)

---

Encouragement and Real Talk

• It's normal to feel nervous about showing your face or sharing imperfect video. But it truly works—in engagement, in conversion, and in building relationships.
• "If you're listening and on the fence, this is an undersaturated aspect. This is your chance, friend." (17:29 - Heather)
• The video format lets customers feel like they know you, even before meeting you.
• "People buy from those they know, like, and trust." (22:46 - Corey)

---

Summary Timeline

• 00:00–02:45 – Audio issues, podcast housekeeping, group intro
• 02:45–03:34 – Topic introduction: Reels collab & why it's focused on video
• 03:34–16:41 – Why video is the future of social content and marketing
• 16:41–28:57 – Overcoming fears, examples of UGC, and why most local bakers aren’t using video yet
• 28:57–33:00 – How Instagram’s algorithm works, why photos alone aren’t enough, the myth of needing a pretty feed
• 33:00–41:43 – Building connections and authentic brand voice through video, using series content (examples: taste test series)
• 41:43–53:06 – Details for SCM's Reels Collab challenge (how-to, encouragement, hacks)
• 46:28–51:55 – Listener wins, collab testimonials, data/proof that reels outperform images
• 53:06–End – Community updates, fun family stories, Q&A, sponsor plugs (skip for main content)

---

Final Takeaways

• If you want to increase your reach, engage your audience, and book more sales, start using reels and video—especially where others aren’t.
• Don't worry about perfection or aesthetics; authenticity and consistency win.
• Participating in the Blind Bakers Reels Collab is a safe, fun experiment to break the ice with video.

---

“I want you 23 people to be like, oh shoot. So I got something that they aren’t doing.” (53:35 - Heather)

---

Ready to go beyond pretty photos? Set your phone up, blindfold yourself, and let your audience see the real baker behind the cookies. 🍪🎥 #SEMcollabcircle

Transcript

[Corey]

Welcome to the Baking it down with.

[Heather]

Sugar Cookie Marketing podcast.

[Corey]

These are your hosts, Cora and Heather. They're twin sistas.

[Heather]

I want to explain what happened in the last podcast. Shua. And this. And this is not the point of today's podcast. They're not the message. But this is a message that you just got to try it.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

You know, and it's not going to be good. It's not even going to be great. It's going to be very far from both of those. But you don't know until you try it. So what happened was our first remote podcast test.

[Corey]

If we were to ever have anyone, people loved that we had people that weren't me and you on the podcast. Not offended. Totally understand. It's been a three long years of.

[Heather]

Seeing this and hearing these two.

[Corey]

So we said let's test what it would sound like if we had other people. So we had to test it because I can't tell you, future baker who's going to be on here how to do it unless we knew how to do it.

[Heather]

Turns out when you have a Zoom meeting, which I didn't realize this Zoom, the software is constantly working on both sets of audio to form them into one type of audio. Because we've got input audio. A talking.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And output audio. You hearing right. Zoom is taking all four of those inputs and outputs. Cuz we got two and two and making them into a cohesive audio. Okay. But when you record. So we had Zoom recording but also had external mics recording. The external mics were recording true to form. Like what they hear is what they record.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Versus Zoom was trying to make us hear differently. So what happened is your computer's audio output, your speakers were. Were delayed compared to my speaking.

[Corey]

So did it make the YouTube video off or did it make the.

[Heather]

The YouTube video is off. I actually removed my audio completely. My visual with the external camera. So it turns out Zoom's doing a lot more than I realized. The solution is wearing over the ear headphones. Turns out that's why they're doing that on the podcast. Now we know. And to have Zoom accept the audio from an external audio source rather than externally completely or be in the same room. That is.

[Corey]

Thanks for putting up with us last week.

[Heather]

Echoey. And you guys texted in. Thank you so much. You let me know many times. It was a hard listen, but you still listen. And that I appreciate.

[Ashley]

Yeah. Okay.

[Heather]

Good to know.

[Corey]

Good to know. If you haven't heard of us, which your ears will be painfully doing. So last week we are A spin off from a group on Facebook called the Sugar Cookie Marketing Group. And it's a Facebook group and it's for bakers looking to grow their bakery business. Whether you're a hobby baker looking to turn into some side income, if you are a hobby baker turning into a full time baker, or if you're someone who's come and gone from the industry, it's just a place for you to learn what's up, what's new, what's trending. And this week, since we bring you one topic, this one is good because it's hard to get it off in the group.

[Heather]

Right. I'm going to tell you this.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

It's about the reels collab. And you guys are like, well, you can talk about collabs a lot. Yes, but. But when the collab is about reels, that means it's video based.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Facebook groups do not like videos currently. It's not their flavor of choice.

[Corey]

And you might be saying then twins, why are you doing a collab using reels if they're not performing well?

[Heather]

Because it's Instagram's drug of choice. Yes. So while it's not the Facebook groups where we like to push out information about doing the Instagram collab, it is a valuable collab. So now we're trying to attack it a different way. Coming to your ear holes.

[Corey]

So technically, what these past collabs, we've just told you like how to do them, but this one, because it actually takes just a little bit more involved ness. I want to tell you the benefits of doing video in your marketing to explain why this collab would be beneficial for you to figure out and do.

[Heather]

So, we've broken this into two different sections. One, why video in general and then two, why real specifically? Sure. Okay, sure. So video. Let's just. Number one, it's the preferred way to imbibe content. It's the reason why we turn on Netflix versus open up a book.

[Corey]

And YouTube is case in point. How much people love video.

[Heather]

Well, full disclosure, I have a YouTube subscription, not YouTube TV. But you are on it. I am. We're in a family plan. We don't live together. You're allowed to do it, but it's. It's a great way to w. I mean, that's probably 90% of the way I intake content throughout the week, remember? Because I uninstall tik tok throughout the week. You do on the weekends. It's tik tok. So. But either way, if you give me the option of a book Or a video. I'm going to choose a video. If you give me the option from a web page or a video, I'm going to choose a video. So Corey's, you know, what do you call it? Like a little quote quotation admonishment is photos are. If photos are a thousand words and videos gotta be a million.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Corey]

If it says the old phrase is if photos, photos are worth a thousand words.

[Heather]

Right.

[Corey]

So if photos are worth a thousand words, imagine what a video is. A video is just a capturing of photos. That's where you get the frames per second. It's just a lot of photos that tell you a great deal of information. Unfortunately, when you do a photo, you have to write a caption. And if people aren't opting to read like they used to, they like to.

[Heather]

Be talked at, we can see that all these social media platforms are truncating, meaning diminishing their, their abbreviating captions in favor of the image.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And you have the choice between the image or the video. So you have the picture worth a thousand words or the video. And it just. In this day and age, right now, on September 2025, it is video that is favorite content.

[Corey]

And listen, guys, I'm one to go, kicking and screaming. I love a good curated photo.

[Heather]

I know. And it has its place.

[Corey]

It does have its place. But I want to tell you, brushing your hairs, turning on a lighter too, and taking a video is going to. It just, it trumps it.

[Heather]

I don't know how it does better. Yeah, and I'm sorry, we'll end with the collab details at the end of this. So really the takeaway is this is going to convince you that you should be recording, but at the end, you should be recording for this collab that's coming up. Okay, so number one, it's the preferred way for people to accept content information. And as such, it will be the preferred way that the platforms send out information. Because remember, the platform's goal is to keep people on the platform, whatever platform that is. If it's YouTube, if it's TikTok, if it's Instagram, they want you to stay there. If you're staying there more because you're watching a video, it's going to favor videos.

[Ashley]

Yeah, right.

[Heather]

And I am a user. I like videos better than really long captions.

[Ashley]

Okay.

[Heather]

LinkedIn. A little behind the time, though. Number two, conversion. So this is a statistic. Adding marketing video to a landing page can increase conversions by over 80%. So what it's saying on a Website. If you add a video to that website, you could increase conversion sales by 80% just for the fact that the webpage has a video. Now, I like. I don't buy them. I don't even know why I go to Coach's website. I have two purses, and I want zero more. But I like how Coach, the purse company.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Has its images. It actually has images, but it'll always have a video in their product lineup. And in that video, it's a person walking around with the purse on. Then immediately, it's an overhead video of the purse and then putting all the stuff in it to show you the size.

[Corey]

And you're like, but that. You don't own any of that stuff. No, it's just showing you the capability of this purse.

[Heather]

The size.

[Corey]

It would be very hard to do in just a photo.

[Heather]

Right. So the video. Just for the fact that they have. That. They had converted me from a video one time because I was like, well, I'm. That person is cute. I like it. How big is that? I really can't get a scale here. Okay. They could put a banana for scale, I guess, but that's not the esthetic. And then seeing somebody style it, they were wearing a very nice outfit.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

They were wearing the purse. It almost made me feel like I could be that person. I can't. And then they put the things in the purse to demonstrate just how functional it was. Not only is it stylish, it's functional, and it does help me convert. I love it when I go to a clothing website and I'm like, I already like those pants, but I would like to see what they look like on somebody. Oh, okay, here they're on. And I love it when they tell you the model size. Oh, I love that. Love that. And then they have the person walking around in it so you can see.

[Corey]

What it looks like.

[Heather]

Yeah, I'm. The likelihood I'm about to buy when I see a video is higher than if there isn't a video on there. And that's what it's saying. So now we know video is a. Like, it's a way people want to imbibe information. But we also know that when we watch a video, when it deals with products, we're more likely to buy the product. Sure, sure. Get the yawning out.

[Corey]

That was a little bit of yawn. Sure, sure.

[Heather]

This isn't just my podcast. You're yawning at yourself. Number three. Ugc. So you explain that one.

[Corey]

UGC is called User. User Generated Content. And it's taken the world by storm. So you have UGC creators now and UGC creators for whether a partnership. So if you, you know, say I've seen Ms. Cookie Packaging sending out a lot of her boxes to people to create UGC content, that's where they do an unboxing. They show you what the cookie content calendar thing looks like and you therefore say, ooh, they bought it. I think I might buy it too. It looked really good in there. So UGC is user generated content. So you're not the owner, you are an end user creating content which builds trust.

[Heather]

It's UGC works really well on me. I even, I know the gimmick. I know the whole thing and I'm still like, well they liked it, so why wouldn't I like it? UGC is when typically a company will send out a product, it'll either be paid sponsored, which is supposed to be annotated on the video or somebody just likes something enough to make a video, which you actually do for the local restaurants. Yeah, yeah, we are not paid. No one has paid me yet. That way Corey can give a more honest thing. And that's always the thing is this review bias. So now on TikTok, it's almost like every other video is UGC. Unfortunately they make that affiliate program so.

[Corey]

Is a little biased, right?

[Heather]

So I actually have never bought a single product on TDOT because of that reason. I have, let me tell you, the cart overflow.

[Ashley]

Oh yeah.

[Heather]

But I never click buy button because the shipping always gets me. But ugc. So like typically when I go, okay, I have Those athletic greens AG1, that powder green powder, whatever it is, when I go to the website and I click away usually just to delay my shipment because I haven't been drinking it as often. All of a sudden I'm hit with all this UGC type of advertising content, which means athletic greens purchased the video from the creator, paid them and now runs in an ad because you're. Because it's so powerful. Here's how it goes.

[Corey]

Heather goes to the website and what's it called? Forever Greens.

[Heather]

Athletic but athletic.

[Corey]

Foreverly green. And it'll be like, here's the benefits if you eat athletic greens.

[Heather]

Is it Athletic Greens AG1? They keep rebranding if you eat AG1.

[Corey]

Okay. So Heather's like, yeah, okay, okay, that sounds fine.

[Heather]

I'm thinking about it.

[Corey]

She's thinking about it. It's done a good case. It hasn't sold her.

[Heather]

But it's also. They're very biased and they're super biased.

[Corey]

Then heather logs into TikTok and someone said, listen, guys, I've never had so much energy in my entire life, but I got on this AG1, I've been on it for one month, and I am mentally clear. I don't get sick anymore. I have lifted £1,000,000.

[Heather]

And Heather said, that's what this person, just like me, they're tired. I'm tired.

[Corey]

So because Heather is watching someone with a face, facial expressions, Heather can relate to them a little bit more than she can words and text on a screen.

[Heather]

Because it's almost like they gave me an honest review. All I can see, it's posted by AG1. Yeah, but I'm like, but I don't know. They made it okay. But it just really. That lizard brain. We want to believe our kind, right? So when I see ugc, it does give me pause. And I'm more apt to purchase something when somebody else is telling me it's a really great idea.

[Corey]

One UGC that worked well for me, that I could see working well is like, there was this cute swimsuit that I saw before we were going to the beach back in June, and I was like, I couldn't mentally figure out how it would look on.

[Heather]

If a swimsuit doesn't have a video with it, I will. I have got to see.

[Corey]

So I'd clicked to the swimsuit. I couldn't mentally see how it would fit on. So I've clicked away. But then it was these actual women wearing the swimsuit and they were giving like, I'm five foot two. This is my. And I could say from that I was so more inclined to buy the swimsuit after seeing it on someone because it was a fellow person that I could say, oh, this looks great on her. I. I think it might look great on me. I share the same stats as her.

[Heather]

It's kind of like the QVC of yesteryear.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Where we get to watch somebody who's touching, tinkering, tapping, explaining. And we're like, even though you're selling to. You are just a spokesperson giving us your honest perspective on it.

[Corey]

And the great thing about UGC content today, unlike qvc, is it can be filmed on your phone in a slightly messy room.

[Heather]

How much that adds to the.

[Corey]

It adds to the authenticity of it.

[Heather]

They say that sometimes ugc, when it's filmed too professionally, loses the trust factor because it looks like it. Yeah. It doesn't feel like. I just. Well, I love this so much. I just turned on my phone and.

[Corey]

I was like, yeah, you liked it so much, you didn't even have time.

[Heather]

To clean up the house.

[Corey]

It was so good, you had to.

[Heather]

Get it out to the bosses. So UGC, in the statistics, it says 84% of consumers have been convinced to buy a product or service after watching a brand's video. And I am a part of that.

[Corey]

Yeah. Just imagine how many videos you consume a day. YouTube, if you have cable, Cable, Netflix.

[Heather]

I mean, just advertisements running on the side of websites.

[Corey]

Oh, yeah. But just videos are constantly in our feeds. And you almost sometimes when you see so many of them, you, you're like, video marketing doesn't work on me. When it literally has.

[Heather]

And then what they. They always say the 22 touch points or the 21 touch points to convert. I am that person.

[Corey]

Absol. Absolutely.

[Heather]

My eyebrow growth serum knew I was that person.

[Corey]

Yeah, same same.

[Heather]

And then four. So again, these are the four reasons why you should opt for video. And then we'll do why we'll opt for reels. But number four is SEO, Search engine optimization. So again, if you can search on it, it can be optimized for. Typically, when we think of SEO, we think of web pages ranking. Well, what if I told you that a video on a webpage helps it rank higher? Because now there's different aspects of SEO. Back when it started, when Google was just a single web page and it was white. And now there's this. There's now this AI thing, there's now these Google my business map things. There's now ads above and below. Now there's outtakes, there's rich snippets, there's all these other aspects to rank. And then within apps like YouTube, there's ability to rank, which YouTube? SEO is one of the most advanced versions of SEO because of how many components go into the thumbnail, the title, the description, these things. So incorporating SEO, especially on your website, can be a ranking factor and actually a pretty strong one because that's what we're looking for.

[Corey]

Even if you're like, oh, Heather, I'm not tech savvy. I can't embed a video on my website. On TikTok has one of the best algorithms for learning.

[Heather]

Because you can search on TikTok.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So people can find you through video SEO.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Corey]

I have posted videos a year ago that still. It's about a stencil. I think it's about the sweetest year stencil holder, to be quite honest. And I still get likes and comments to this day because people are searching for that.

[Heather]

But now keep in mind, Indexed in Google search are TikTok videos.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So I can search something on Google. Let's say I want to learn how to use a stencil pencil.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Corey's video posted to TikTok can show up in Google Search, which is not a video platform.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

But I can click to tick tock from there. So even then, even if you say, I don't really know how to embed it in a webpage, it doesn't matter. It still gets your profile ranking. Now again, you're going to say, well, how does this help me locally? Right. This is still increasing that local reach. Again, Corey and I are in the camp of I wouldn't want to go viral if I could only sell local. However, it does help to have pad your numbers that. That vanity metric for sure.

[Corey]

Here's the thing. So you're like, well, Heather, I'm. I'm not trying to get millions of followers. I don't want to talk about the stencil holder. I'm not trying to sell to other bakers. I love to go around town to restaurants to highlight those things. I put them on my social media so people can find them. What you're like, well, they're not. People who are looking for a French restaurant might not be looking for sugar cookies. A hundred percent accurate. But it might be the real estate agent who's looking for a nice fresh restaurant that said, oh, wow, I found this on the. This place called Mixing Bowl. Oh, that would be a great gift to give to my future clients.

[Heather]

And back to the last collab. It may be the French restaurant that's looking for a baker to supply cookies.

[Corey]

For sure.

[Heather]

Which Corey did the pizza place. And we did that collab to find our corporate girly. Arakon. Yes.

[Ashley]

Yes.

[Heather]

So again, why video? Just look at your own usage of video.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Which Corey is chronically online. I'm chronically online. I'm chronically on YouTube. I like YouTube so much I paid to have the ads taken away. So I just honestly have it streaming in the background at all times. I am your views.

[Corey]

I think today's day and age doesn't do well with silence anymore. We always have something playing going streaming.

[Heather]

Give it to me. Yeah. Vibing with it. Yeah. Which, okay, you can say we're just a cog in the wheel. I'm a cog in the wheel, buddy. Left alone with other thoughts. Now I want to hear your thoughts even. Yeah. So there's a lot of strategy to rank. And this is one of those strategies. So everyone always says, like, I Don't know how to rank websites. Here's one of them. Them.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And here's what I'm gonna say. So many people do not want to record themselves, and I do not blame them at all. It is startling, startling to see yourself recorded because you're like, wow, I hate how I look.

[Ashley]

How.

[Heather]

How did they legally let me use that? But at the end of the day, and Corey and I are gonna talk about this in a second, because you kind of got over it in this challenge. You gave yourself people just like it. I don't see the imperfections that you're seeing about yourself. I'm just, like, so happy I gotta watch this. Absolutely.

[Corey]

You're going to be your own worst enemy on it.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

You are your worst critic. So the video is favored. And I actually do like seeing your faces.

[Corey]

And I want to say for people who are listening, who are like, you know what? I'm on the fence about video. And you think that you live in an over saturated cookie area.

[Heather]

This is the undersaturated aspect.

[Corey]

This is your chance, friend.

[Heather]

Because everyone's in their own head about recording videos, so they don't do it.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Corey]

So when we're all buying the same cookie cutters, when all the labo boos be the same, your differentiator is yourself. And I've said it before, and I know it's cliche. You are the secret ingredient to your business secret sauce.

[Heather]

And that's so true. Remember a couple podcasts ago when we talked about how there's so many diamond stores at Tyson's mall? It's because each have carved out a different niche. And one of those can be. You can be the video baker. The baker. I found Cory and I. I was on. Okay, Ashley. This is to show you the buying experience. Ashley older sister sent me a video about this local girl that's going to this chain of restaurants and trying all the secret things off their menu. So I was said, oh, that's interesting. I saved the video. However, because I saved the video, the algorithm served me the girl's next few videos.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Which was another one of those restaurants that Ashley hadn't sent me that's close to my house where there was a dish I didn't know they had.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So I say to Corey, hey, do you want to walk Burke Lake Park? And then after that, we'll go to that restaurant. When we get there, the guy says, what are you ordering? And I actually ordered only the things off the secret menu. And he said, I have to ask, how did you know about these things. I said, so funny. There's this girl, he's like, I saw the girl and I told her about these things.

[Corey]

So you're ordering the things that I like. And he had pulled up his messages and he was like, you have to try, blah, blah. And that's what was sitting in front of us.

[Heather]

So I opened TikTok again. There's a girl at another restaurant. I write, hey, I just want to let you know, I went to this restaurant because of you. And she said, that's so great.

[Corey]

That's so funny because it worked.

[Heather]

Yeah. And that's the only series she did.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

She's just going to this specific chain. There's about 12 of them in the area and ordering off menu. And I was like, wow, it made so many sales. She didn't realize her small thing had this massive impact. And I was even able to say, and she said, thank you so much.

[Corey]

And what's crazy is Heather is not going going to be one who comments or likes anything on TikTok, but she is going to save the video and she's gonna go there. So you might say, well, yeah, it only says 231 people viewed my video and I got four hearts and I'm.

[Heather]

I'm not even a heart. I'm. I don't like to part anything puts it in my sa. Yeah, no, no, I'll just go.

[Corey]

But I want to say, listen, 231 people saw your video. Give me 231 reactions. Oh, yeah, it's been a great day in marketing.

[Heather]

If 231 people ordered from you.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Be booked.

[Corey]

Oh, for sure.

[Heather]

Co we I am the buying experience. I am the person who likes to watch the videos and buy the now why reels specifically? Because this is a reels challenge. I'm going to tell you the details about at the end here. Meta is pushing video right now to compete with TikTok. TikTok is a powerful force. They just unbanned it yet again.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So TikTok's here to stay, which means Meta is here to compete in when we first started marketing, before we even started marketing. I've been in marketing since 2011.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Posting a single image. Cory and I say to look back, what we would our marketing strategy strategies were six or seven years ago is comical because it would never work today. However, it was the only thing that worked then. And that's how strategies come and go. You can't look back seven years and think that that would ever work today.

[Corey]

And you can't feel bad about what.

[Heather]

You post seven years ago, you used to be. Video is so disfavorish. It was that we would never tell. It was never even on.

[Corey]

On my roster.

[Heather]

Yeah, we would have clients, maybe consider YouTube, but I never post a video. Facebook would fall flat. On Facebook, we'd always post those little graphics which now you post a graphic traffic can get. No one's seen it. Yeah, that thing doesn't exist. But you post a video and it does really well. Lives used to be a big strategy five years ago. Now I can hardly get people to attend lives right now. So it's just constantly changing. Right now the flavor of choice is video specifically is real. So if you upload a video to Instagram, it's automatically converted as real. As you upload a video to Facebook groups, it's automatically converted to a reel.

[Ashley]

Yeah, so.

[Heather]

So it's reals.

[Corey]

It's reals. So what is a reel?

[Heather]

Okay.

[Corey]

A real. And I want to say it can only be up to three minutes.

[Heather]

It's dependent on the platform.

[Corey]

It's dependent on the platform.

[Heather]

When we say reels, that's Instagram and meta and Facebook. When you say TikToks, that's obviously TikTok. When you say shorts, that's YouTube. Who else is doing it? LinkedIn even thought about it. LinkedIn does have video now. Hate it.

[Corey]

We're there. We are there.

[Heather]

Oh, you have the different platforms calling this short, short, short form, vertical based video.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Different things. Because YouTube is an actual horizontal platform that has incorporated vertical. Do you understand what I'm saying when I say horizontal, is your phone this way? Vertical, is your phone this way? Yes. And there's major impacts on how you record.

[Corey]

Absolutely. If you record a tick tock in a horizontal format, you're very tiny. People can't really see you and there's a lot of black on the screen and.

[Heather]

Or it's going to ask you to change your phone and I'll listen. If the tick tock asked me to rotate my phone, I'll rotate my finger up through the video.

[Corey]

So it's really finding the platform and what you're going with the reels challenge. What we're doing for this, this collab right here is using reels. You can post your video anywhere you want to. You'll find mine being posted everywhere, I promise you. LinkedIn maybe not, but this reels one is important because it's getting yourself in front of a camera. You are the secret sauce to your business.

[Heather]

And it's very hard.

[Corey]

I'm telling you to get yourself in front of the camera.

[Heather]

Ask me how I know it's miserable.

[Corey]

But it's taking that saying, I know my. My competitors aren't doing it.

[Ashley]

Yes.

[Corey]

So if I want to differentiate myself, connect with my audience, people buy from those they know like and trust.

[Heather]

Humans like human faces.

[Corey]

Oh, yeah. Just putting your face will allow someone to watch a video longer than posting a picture and having a scroll.

[Heather]

And also it just hits a different part of the platform. So, okay, in Instagram, you have the feed, you have a story and now you have a reel. And can't you do thoughts now or something? I don't know. Maybe that's. Yeah, you have that.

[Corey]

People can discover you through your feed, through your stories, through the for you page.

[Heather]

Right.

[Corey]

Which is the Explore feed on Instagram. And they could like suggested post.

[Heather]

Okay. So there's a lot of discoverability.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

When you're like, well, I post tons of photos and nothing ever even you do a single photo or carousel. When I post tons of photos, nobody seems to be finding that. It's because. Because you're not being discovered through images.

[Corey]

The way that Instagram works is it serves your post that you just made your very curated, very cute cookies to people who follow you. So to a little subset of the.

[Heather]

People who follow you.

[Corey]

So if you have a thousand people follow you, maybe 20 people will see this. Based on the actions of those 20 people, Instagram will say, you know what? It didn't really resonate with this audience. We're gonna not show it to many.

[Heather]

More people because why Instagram wants people to stay on the platform. If those 20 test people clicked away, then Instagram's, oh, no, they didn't like this. They didn't like, put it away. Put it away. Yeah, that's some AI hand floaty content.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

My for you page is honestly, weirdly Disney princesses that morph into real looking people. Yeah.

[Corey]

See, you can't watch one of those.

[Heather]

I try not to click on it too long, but I do want to see what Ariel looks like.

[Corey]

So let's say you post and your thousand followers. The first 20 people are like, oh, I really resonated with this. I'm going to like it, I'm going to comment it. Maybe I'm going to save it. Maybe I'm going to send it to somebody so they take an action on there. Instagram says, ooh, this is keeping people on the platform. What we're going to do is let it go to 200 people now. So now of your thousand people, 220 people have seen it. But maybe now a hundred of your followers and a hundred people who don't follow you.

[Heather]

Discoverability right there.

[Corey]

Now Instagram's testing the content really hit with the people who followed this account. Will it hit the same with people who don't follow the account?

[Heather]

If it hits better with people who don't follow account, suddenly you're gonna go kind of that viral trajectory. You don't see how many people they don't know would like this content. Typically, for the content you and I post, I find that people who already follow you is always higher than people who don't. That's because of the content we. We post.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Corey]

So when me and Heather are talking about collabs, you would be like, would people who don't know them really understand the cloud? Probably not. So that content does really well with people already follow us. When I do those pink squares that have like, a customer's. A customer tagging me is the best compliment you could ever give me. That does fantastic with people who have.

[Heather]

Never heard of us because it's so shareable. It's actually an image as well. And it's actually on Facebook. But it's something we're testing.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

I think it's important. Now you kind of understand, if you're listening, why we say always focus on your target market. Because let's say we go viral with Corey's Little Pink Squares. Death of me, right? They're not bakers. They're not bakers that are monetized. I mean, they could be small business owners. The best review for me or the best. What was the quote again?

[Corey]

It's like the best compliment you gave to me, and I did include the word. The best compliment you can include to me as a baker, like I try.

[Heather]

To do is still keep that content with our target audience. Because what happens when something goes viral outside of your target audience? You actually get a lot of hangers. Honors. Yes. Because they suddenly they're like, well, I really like that business post you made. But now you're talking about a reels collab of a pumpkin.

[Corey]

But unfortunately, they followed you based on that one post that ended up in their feed. And then you're posting a real. And they're like, I don't like this, but they're there.

[Heather]

I Tick Tock creator. And they said, the problem with Tick Tock and why it's. It feels like the platform to be on, but it's not is because you go viral for one shtick.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Then it's like, he's like. It's almost like you become this circus and they're like, dance for me, monkey. Do that thing we like you to do. And you can't escape your PR of the one thing people follow you for because you fall flat in your face. That's why I always say not going viral, not getting a thousand, a hundred thousand, not getting 10,000 likes or shares is actually a strategy. It is, right? Because you know, it's one thing that you find these creators and they've gone viral on this thing and then all of a sudden all their content has to shift to that because they can't be very difficult to.

[Corey]

The lady said who she did a series, who did I marry now people followed her because they like the story.

[Heather]

Zero interest.

[Corey]

Does she need to go marry someone else and divorce that we have a new story eventually.

[Heather]

When the sticks are now like she would have to. And you can almost see it like celebrity progression. She would almost have to host a dating show.

[Corey]

Yeah, that's what I said.

[Heather]

That's the natural progression. Because if she's saying who the hell did I marry? Or who the heck did I marry? I'm sorry, which one of those is that? The next thing she posts. If it's about here's how I grew squash, I'm gonna be like, it's not. What. Who are you? He's going to step on the squash later. I don't see if he's not gonna squash your heart.

[Corey]

We're not in here.

[Heather]

That's why you know, you know Corey's pink squares. I even said like I love that people share them. I hate that it's not really benefiting us too directly. So you got to keep it back to that target audience which. Our target audience, if you're listening to this is your hyper local buyers who could order cookies. Right. If you're saying I want to sell to bakers, that's completely different strategy.

[Corey]

It's a different. And I see people muddled the. The waters there and it, it gets.

[Heather]

Confused is then we have. Okay, so two reels are recommended more than stagnant posts on Instagram. Stagnant images. When you upload an image and it's the only thing in there, or you upload a carousel, it's a non moving picture.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

I find that reels and based off of testing this perform so much better than those images.

[Corey]

I want to say unlike TikTok, which is primarily 90, probably 6% is all video stressed you.

[Heather]

If I see a TikTok photo, girl, I know I just have to block the account.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Because Instagram was founded in a way that was very photo forward it. Not many, not everybody on Instagram has gone the way of making videos. So you making videos on Instagram is a fantastic way for you to lead your area in this. So not a lot of people are making videos on Instagram as much as TikTok. So you don't feel oversaturated. Well, everyone's making videos on TikTok. Not everyone is doing it on Instagram.

[Heather]

Instagram, not anyone is doing it hyper. Locally. Yeah, no. Corey will go to. And it's always awkward when I do it right. She'll say, okay, I want you to hold the door open as I walk to you. It's gonna be weird. I'm just gonna make a video. But when given the option for a photo of the front of a restaurant, someone giving me a review or somebody walking with me into that restaurant visually through a video, I'm going to want the walkthrough. I want to be there. I want to feel it. I know it's so awkward for Corey, but because it's awkward for her, I get what I want. I got to watch it through my eyes.

[Corey]

I hate sweating. The whole time I'm like.

[Heather]

And we have to say the manager. Like, we're just recording quick video.

[Corey]

I just.

[Heather]

Real quick. I'm so sorry. So reels just perform better. And if you're a marketer with your marketing cap on, you're not going to fight the wheel. You're going to not even reinvent the wheel. You're going to do what's worked.

[Corey]

The great thing in people struggled on Instagram. I have a very curated feed, which I want to say that you're living in archaic times. No one follows for feeds anymore. But I understand where you want this cohesive look.

[Ashley]

Okay.

[Heather]

Because I want to tell you what she's saying. You used to go to people's profiles on Instagram and see all the images they uploaded. And there was an esthetic to it.

[Corey]

An esthetic.

[Heather]

And it worked really well. Five years ago, I'm going to say it worked phenomenally. Eight years.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

When image was the only thing our sister Ashley would upload for. She worked in marketing for a company. She would upload this esthetic. So the grid would always have this. Like the center one would be a tip.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Right. And left would be a photo of the remodeling.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So. So it was aesthetic. But now that content performs so poorly.

[Corey]

It's not the same. We can. I'm gonna give you permission to let go of the feed aesthetic.

[Heather]

Let go. I would almost say I never Also would be insane. Look at the scm Instagram's feed aesthetic. It is chaos.

[Corey]

Cause there is none.

[Heather]

There is not. Because Corey and I said we can either reach our target audience, which is our goal, or we can look pretty. And.

[Corey]

But here's the thing. Instagram says people are holding onto their feet aesthetic like it's their firstborn child. So they' given you an awesome place called a reels feed, so you don't even have to pin your. Your reels to your aesthetic.

[Heather]

Maybe you didn't even archive.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

If anything, I can see this platform is like, please let go of the aesthetic.

[Corey]

And now you can do a thumbnail on Instagram to cover your reel so.

[Heather]

You can keep your aesthetic. What coin I have found, and this is also just how we work is I'd rather content go up than perfect content never go up.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Because it just works so much better to put that, you know, And I sometimes I log in, I'm like, oh, Corey posted something crazy. Let me watch it. Not a clue what it is. And we're just saying, you know, and you can say, like, the how to. How to grow your YouTube following is to post consistently.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And they're saying, like three times a week. Like, it is truly a consistent person's game to win.

[Ashley]

It is.

[Corey]

And it's getting out of your head. And people just hold on to that Instagram feed. The old Instagram days. And it's time to let it go. No one's following you because the aesthetic of your profile, they're following you because what ends up in their feed. And it's you being relatable. It's you showcasing something, it's you talking about something. And sprinkled in there is the fancy cookie photos.

[Ashley]

Okay.

[Heather]

And. But Instagram and Facebook and even in Facebook Planner has now authorized mixed media, which means you could do the video and the photo together in a carousel setup.

[Corey]

And I think that's great.

[Heather]

I think it's great. A little bit of both.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

I would say. And I see you guys are like, oh, I have this very specific look. And I've nurtured this look for a long time. I would say if you could close your eyes and just say, I can always delete it later and make the post of the impromptu video. Yeah, it does really well.

[Corey]

And I want to say if at the rate we're posting, a lot of people are posting multiple times per week, your unaesthetic video that you're so worried about will be pushed down so far.

[Heather]

Absolutely.

[Corey]

You'll forget that it's even there and your audience forgets that.

[Heather]

I want to tell you this as a user, the last time I thought about buying something from a company and went to see their Instagram feed to compel me to order was zero. I don't do that. I would rather that UGC content push me to.

[Corey]

I think us as bakers like our aesthetic profiles and we call it branding.

[Heather]

It's what we know we're supposed to do.

[Corey]

We're supposed to look pretty, we're proud of it. We're the only ones looking at it.

[Heather]

I promise you that. Yeah, I'm not looking at it. Yeah, I'm not looking at. In any capacity.

[Corey]

I don't think you've probably ventured down mine in quite some time.

[Heather]

If you show up in my feed, I'll double tap it.

[Corey]

But you're not going to click from that feed post to my profile and be like, wow, look, she really has.

[Heather]

Alter call me in. The only reason I'm going to someone's feed post to see the last time they posted to see if they stop selling. Yeah, that's the only time I go out. I'm still not looking at the aesthetic number. Three reels are a better way to connect you to your audience, and that is because you can listen to the podcast. I could write these out.

[Corey]

You could.

[Heather]

I could. We could not. We could not post it to YouTube. We could not post it to the Spotify playlist.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And you could just read this. I guarantee you guys think you know more about us from hearing us than reading, even though it's the same person producing both.

[Corey]

I want to say people have said by listening to the podcast, I feel like I'm laughing with my best friends. They just can't hear me.

[Heather]

Someone says, it's like, you don't let me talk. And I. I was like, well, you pulled. Welcome. You are a miracle. Welcome in. You got a fight for your eyes this week. But because you guys can hear the inflections of our voices, if you're on YouTube, you can see the furrowing of my non botox brow.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

You can get more of my personality than you could just by reading a caption that I wrote.

[Corey]

And I promise you, if you've never met Heather in your life, you're probably like, she's such a fun person. I love when she talks about this. That was like.

[Heather]

It wasn't just an example.

[Corey]

If Heather was fun, she might sound like this. You Would say I feel like more connected to Heather because I've seen her and I've heard her. Whereas if Heather just did text only post, while she might have a funny joke in there, let's say I post.

[Heather]

Pictures of myself, but it's all beautifully staged, lit, and I run it through post processing. I look like a superstar. Yeah, you still know. You don't really know me.

[Corey]

Yeah, she's still this just rando on the Internet.

[Heather]

Right.

[Corey]

But hearing her seeing what is important to her, her cat named Munch. She likes cars, she likes speeding, she likes giving her money back to the government.

[Heather]

I like Rob Dick crying from a golden hand.

[Corey]

So you know Heather in those realms and that's what video does for you. It gives you. It gives your photos, your brand a voice. A brand voice because they're actually physically hearing you.

[Heather]

I. We humans tend to favor people we know even if they don't like us. Oh, do something we don't like because we like them. I'll see you in a more favorable light. It's funny, this mechanic shop. I don't believe that I have to replace my brakes and rotors at the same time. But they came and they said, you need to replace your brakes and rotors. And I was like, oh, I know. Not much, but I know if my brakes are still intact, my rotor should be fine. So I say to Corey like, I don't like them anymore. But then, you know, I had to go to another day and I was like, yeah, just kidding. I like them. I like because they are nice, because they know them as people, because I've had this relationship. So even if I disagree with something, I'm still going to say, well, that's an opinion. And I don't think that they're wrong. You could replace both at the same time. It would be a better performing car. But I'm able to favor them because I know them as people. Now let's pretend I never see this mechanic shop. Let's say magically my car disappears and it gets fixed and then they do something I don't like. The odds of me looking at them in a favorable light are low.

[Ashley]

Yes.

[Heather]

You know when unfortunately we become friends with the wait staff at any restaurant, it doesn't matter if they make a mistake. It's the best mistake I've ever mistake.

[Corey]

I've ever tasted better.

[Ashley]

Yeah, yeah.

[Heather]

It's because of that relationship you build by the interface.

[Corey]

And you don't understand. Your videos are building that relationship even if you don't know it. There's me summer is on TikTok as much as I'm on TikTok because Heather deletes it. I can't relate during to Heather during the week. So she like becomes my non sister and me and Summer watch the content.

[Heather]

Together, check back in on Friday nights.

[Corey]

So there's people who post that, you know, I don't want them to know I exist, but I'll watch them every single video they post and I'll be you.

[Heather]

And some are very weird about that.

[Corey]

Absolutely. Because I don't want to like interject myself in someone like. But I feel like I know these people now. I'm like, did you see what Paige did last week?

[Heather]

Interestingly, Corey and Summer find this girl from probably an hour and a half away in Maryland and she puts on a vendor show and we all journey up there and to support her, we bought something from every vendor.

[Corey]

But I want to say if I would never have seen the videos of her. Yes, I would have never felt like I knew her. I would never wanted to have supported her.

[Heather]

But she. That girl puts her face in a video.

[Corey]

She does, she does really work.

[Heather]

So now, weirdly, Corey and Summer call them her stalkers and she's like, you're not my stalker to my friends. We just pop out of these random places where she's posted videos. So it is a really phenomenal way. Even if you disagreed with everything we said here, people will like you more. They will buy from you more if they know who you are.

[Ashley]

Yes.

[Heather]

No leg dressed. Right, last one and then we'll talk about this collab. Specifically your own experience, Corey, with the taste test series. Now, our older sister Ashley told challenge Corey to do a series. The reason why is because just like Netflix, we love a series. I love to be. When's it dropping? I love to know. Come on. Yeah, love is blind. Let me know. Corey did a series and she was cello wrapped, heat sealed 25 cookies and ate one each day. Now this got funnier. Funnier because Corey cared and cared less about herself and had more people on. I thought it was really entertaining. Yeah. Yeah.

[Corey]

So while I was in my own head at the beginning, here's the thing, my issue, and I told Ashley, who has been very good at building brands and branding herself, is, I don't feel like I'm very brandable is what I said. And she's like, well, I'm going to tell you why you're only doing voiceover videos of your hands doing things. And it's just a one and done video.

[Heather]

Still.

[Corey]

It was video. It still was video. And I said, how can I connect with people more? I love telling them how to do something. I said, but then you in 30 seconds have learned how to make a floral wet on wet.

[Heather]

We don't know Cory at all. You know that. She's like, man, that's awesome. What is that weird face?

[Corey]

And I'm sus. I'm obsessed with it.

[Heather]

So Ashley's like, I think it'd be interesting to put yourself in front of the camera. And as awkward as it is. So Corey tries it with this 25 day taste test series. It's funny because I'm like, wow, this was the highest performing video content we posted everywhere, unfortunately. I know.

[Corey]

And so it was so opposite of what we had done. This one is a series my. It's opinion based. So it's not me telling you how to do a floral. It's more my thoughts on the taste of a heat sealed cookie.

[Heather]

Right. Which is super funny. And the final one, she has her husband Nate, who never has been in a video his life. And she creates a brand new cookie and an old cookie. And he couldn't tell. He actually guessed the wrong one.

[Ashley]

Yeah, yeah.

[Heather]

He said the old cookie tasted better, which is hilarious. The content, you might have been like, well, he'd sell cookies last. Yeah. It didn't matter that we all knew how it ended. In fact, on day 19, Mikey is a friend of mine from a lifetime ago. And he was like, yeah, I think she's doing really good. I think 19 is gonna be real friend. Are you watching it? He's like, like, I've watched every single one. He's like, I just. He's like, it's so funny because every day it's fresh.

[Corey]

And it was so funny on day 25.

[Ashley]

The.

[Heather]

The.

[Corey]

I want to say day one through 24 were as boring as boring could be. People on day with 25. This series was great. I followed along every single day because.

[Heather]

It did a couple things. It was a series, so it had us coming back. In fact, my mom was commenting every day at 10pm because I managed it. So I was like.

[Corey]

She even gave me a tip that Saturday when I said, my family keeps saying that. I keep saying the same things and I don't know what else to say.

[Heather]

Yeah. So because it was a series. Yeah, because it was a video based series. So Corey could have posted a picture of a cookie, but as intel, it doesn't show the expression of whether it was.

[Corey]

I could have posted day24 in a caption explaining the taste, text, texture, Cory.

[Heather]

Had could have done a tinsel strength and it would have been more scientific than watching her. Good. Oh, that's what Mikey said. He's like, I don't know. She grabbed for that Diet Coke real quick.

[Corey]

I don't think this is, I think what's different in Daydog dude.

[Heather]

But I think the big thing is, you know, it was educational and as much as taste testing could be. But Corey brought us in to see Nate. I think Archer was on it. I know grandmother was on it. The dog was on it. Munch is on it. I recorded one.

[Corey]

You saw me getting ready for bed. You saw me.

[Heather]

Oh, yeah. And then he stopped looking nice. Oh, yeah. Then I said, Cory's like, listen, I just washed my face.

[Corey]

My face is red.

[Heather]

You're going to see this. I haven't done my red light. My hair is wet. Sorry.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And it almost says the less you cared, the better it perform.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So in that. And I, I, I'll be honest, I wish it didn't perform. I wish I could be like, guys, this is trash. Don't do it. I know. Unfortunately, it did perform. So get putting your face in front of a camera. A series reels and consistency are the secret sauce. So now the collab. Yeah, this Collab is on September 26th. That is in 10 days from now. It's an interesting one because you're going to record yourself now. You heard what I said. If your face is in, it's going to perform better. Here is a setup. The collab. It's called the Blind Bakers reels collab. You're going to take a white cookie. I do not care. Shape is. It's going to be a white base. Right. Just so the image that you're going to pipe on top of it pops. It's really just for the aesthetic. You're going to blindfold yourself and then you're going to pipe a pumpkin. I. That is, that is the most of the rules. Yeah, you're going to record it. It has to be a recording because that's the only way to make it real.

[Ashley]

Right?

[Heather]

We don't want photos. We don't want photos turned into videos. We want a recording. And Corey, I think you did what first you recorded yourself explaining it.

[Corey]

I did my telephone and then I did. I took that audio out and I did a voiceover while I'm piping just to create interest during that downtime.

[Heather]

You do not have to do this. This could all be a single take shot. Remember, you could delete it after the collab. You could delete it an hour later. You can archive it, but you're going to. Cory piped a pumpkin. It was the worst thing I've ever seen in my life. It was, I'll be honest, phenomenally bad.

[Corey]

It was harder. I'm going to be harder to do than I thought.

[Heather]

Did you even try?

[Corey]

I did. And I said I can't use. I don't want to use Scribe because what if I'm just like scribing over.

[Heather]

Here with the cookies over here.

[Corey]

So give it a little shaky shake.

[Heather]

Anyways, the whole point is to fail. For it's the humans love to watch.

[Corey]

Absolutely. And I tell you at the end and I'll. If you want to, I can send you the video if you would like to include it at the end of this.

[Heather]

Great. So you could just watch it. YouTubers. Ah, YouTubers. Yes. Might have been. Insert it right now. I'll have to see if I can find this cut point. Maybe I can find it. Okay, good. So.

[Corey]

So in there, I said at the end, I said, listen, customers, I. I will do better. I'll use all four of my eyes for your order. But this is just to show you.

[Heather]

Very cute way to tie it back into. Because it's two parts. Yes. It's a collab. So other bakers are going to comment, but it's really for your audience. Really. It's a challenge to get you to post a reel to put yourself on camera. Even if it's just your hands. I do not care. However you come up with recording, this is up to you. But to get you to record the reel and then to see the benefits of it.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Corey]

I just want to do a few.

[Heather]

Tips if you're like, I.

[Corey]

You guys have excited me. I want to try this. I want to do. I want to do this. I used an app called Inshot. Inshot does a free version of it. What's great is Inshot, the free version.

[Heather]

It.

[Corey]

You are limited on a few of the aspects, but nothing that would hold you back from making this. And it at the end, it will do an Inshot logo. Once you download that to your phone, you can actually crop that out so you would look just as if you were me doing it. The Inshot allowed me to do that voiceover.

[Heather]

If you wanted to.

[Corey]

If you wanted to do that. It allowed me just to up the darkness of the video because it was kind of dark in my little cookie.

[Heather]

Room when I did.

[Corey]

It just allows you to have like, you can up that saturations just a little bit. There's One cap cut and there's splice. So those are the three biggies that people.

[Heather]

Oh, I'm sorry. Can we also just record it in the Instagram app?

[Corey]

In the Instagram app. And even just on your phone.

[Heather]

Oh yeah, that's all of them. That's probably what I would opt for.

[Corey]

All of them do that.

[Heather]

Use my phone's camera, record it and then upload it.

[Corey]

Absolutely.

[Heather]

I think if you overthink this, you're not going to want to do it. If. But if you're like Corey said, well, I don't like how it looks. I don't want to post it. Then use one of these third party editors.

[Ashley]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Heather]

Things I wanted to say. So here is the workflow. It's very simple. You're going to make a white ice circle cookie. Do that whenever. You could do it today, you could do it tomorrow. You could have one in your freezer, whatever. Yeah, but make it be crusted, I guess. Then you're going to blindfold yourself. Then you're going to start recording the video. You can explain it without the blindfold on to your audience, which I'll help you with. Copy. I'll send that out next week. And then you're going to pipe a pumpkin blindfolded. So Corey, use two colors, I think orange and green.

[Corey]

I use orange and brown for my little stem.

[Heather]

And then you're going to post the video to Instagram using the hashtag scm. And I just use a random hashtag that hasn't been used before because that's how Instagram works now. So this will be on Friday at 11am Eastern Standard Time on September 26th and that hashtag will be SEMCollabCircle. If you go to the sugar cookie marketing group, click on the Events tab. The event called SEM Cookie Collab. Blind Baker Reels Club has a link to register. All that does is means you get help with coffee. Otherwise you can still participate in that event.

[Corey]

Also if you go to the discussion portion, the description portion, I've posted the video that I'm posting.

[Heather]

Yeah, can see it there. Here it is. And then Kelly said, I love it. I feel like I need to find a super cute eye mask for this now because Corey did have a cute one you got on Amazon.

[Corey]

I did.

[Heather]

Do you use that? Do not. I literally didn't. Does Nate see you with a cat mask on?

[Corey]

No one has seen me with a cat mask on.

[Heather]

So this will be an underattended collab.

[Corey]

It will, it has it's asking parts for you to put yourself out there.

[Heather]

Yeah. And so you can see that the collabs we've done this year have increasingly got more of a challenge because of trying to push push marketing. Our collabs already always have two aspects. Reach more people with your profile and push yourself in marketing. So we started with the meet the Baker. It's the easiest one. You post a selfie. Then we did cookie, your logo. Then we did the main street collab and now we're on this reels collab. This will probably be the only video collab we do because it's so hard to market videos.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

In groups. So it's hard for me to tell.

[Corey]

You if you saw an up when you put yourself Meet the Baker club. If you're like, wow, I got a very good response with dad, can I read this review?

[Heather]

And I promised actually Donna wrote this in the group a couple maybe last week and I told her I was going to read it last week. We forgot. Oh, of course. This is about the Main street.

[Corey]

The Main street collab.

[Heather]

She said, I can't wait until Wednesday to tell you my win for the week. Corey and Heather, thank you. Last week's Main street collab not only got me the most views on any IG post I ever made, she got over 700 views. Remember, there was not 700 bakers attended.

[Corey]

No, there was not.

[Heather]

That means it reached her audience. Her audience, she said. But the owners of the restaurant loved the dozen local cookies I gifted them so much, they asked me to quote them a price per dozen so they can include them in their to go orders. Semers, listen to the twins. My current mood right now.

[Corey]

That is fantastic. So listen, she could have posted it and she got the, the response from the bakers because that's the great thing about a collab. Bakers come and it's a win win regardless. Yeah, it's a win win. Not only was she able to showcase between she showed up for the club, she was able to now show up for her local audience. And they've ordered from her. She's now quoted them out. What a great option. What a great step in the right.

[Heather]

Direction, you may say. Well, I tried the club and I didn't get that. Just keep repeating it. That's how marketing works. You got to test, test and retest.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Corey]

The pizza place didn't ever order cookies for me but they shared my content on their feed. It one of the best performing posts that they've done in months because they post boring stuff.

[Heather]

Yeah, that was interesting.

[Corey]

It was. And what I did what I got to share part of their audience. And their audience is local. And guess what? I serve to the local.

[Heather]

Even if the pizza place hadn't shared Corey, even if they never place an order, Cory still reached more people. She had you posted that in a couple different groups. Oh, good. Oh, yeah. Really well. So the collabs always have a couple of wins. This win will be that. I hope you guys who don't post reels will try it this one time. Trust the process and say this did pretty good. I think your audience will love to have a little giggle.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

To see that you can't pipe a pumpkin.

[Corey]

I'm proud of everyone who does clam. But the people who show up for.

[Heather]

This one, you're gonna.

[Corey]

I'm gonna tip my hat to you.

[Heather]

Real deal. Because I think we're asking a lot.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And Cory and I said this is probably ask almost, dare I say too much. It'll be the only one. The only reels collab we do this year.

[Ashley]

Yes.

[Heather]

However, those of you of which 46 of you have signed up, you will if you do. And I usually do a 50 actual showing.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So let's say 23 of you. Sure. 23 of you are going to say, wow. Shoot, that worked.

[Ashley]

Darn it.

[Heather]

They were right. Darn that. And as I said, when Corey did her taste testing. Darn it. She's right.

[Corey]

Gosh darn it. Her with her wet hair and a red face.

[Heather]

I just wish we could. And I did the get ready with me.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Hated that. Hated that. People tuned in. Hated. It worked.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And that's because it is. That's marketing. That's showbiz, folks. It's marketing because putting yourself out there. Video content in 2025. Face in video. UGC content. It's what we want to.

[Corey]

I'm excited to post that to Facebook. To my Facebook business page. I. I don't get often in front of the camera on my Facebook business page. This will be one of the few and far chances that people will actually see me. One, messed up, so I'm not perfect. But two, see my face and be a part of something. And they'll be like, I can't wait to see what the response is.

[Heather]

I post it to your Instagram reels. I would share that reel to your Instagram stories. I'd post it to your Facebook page. I would share it from your Facebook page. I would also post it to my Facebook stories, which is something else you.

[Ashley]

Can do as well.

[Heather]

We don't use broadcast. You could add it there as well. We have the option to get news broadcast.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Really interested in a whole nother thing to manage. But maybe it's the secret to success. And one day we will. But there's different ways you can use this material. If you have a newsletter, you could include a link there. There's just different ways to use video. If you have YouTube, you could put in your shorts to kind of put your face out there. So that's. That's the collab challenge. It is. On September 26th at 11am you will record yourself blindfolded piping a pumpkin. Just in time for October Tubre. I'm in the fall mood. I don't know about you.

[Corey]

I am in the fall mood. I really am. My body's ready.

[Heather]

You have decorated for Halloween already.

[Corey]

Even my husband. We went on a walk yesterday and there was a few fallen leaves. And he's like, is this making your heart happy?

[Heather]

I said, so happy. I drove through the mountains of West Virginia. Leaves are changing. It was really pretty. I had to take a picture. I had to pull up on the side of the road. And I said, I won't. This is very pretty. So we're about two weeks behind and then we'll start seeing these leaf changes. Of course it'll be a lot of raking, but I am here for it.

[Corey]

I am ready to rake and my yard's very small.

[Heather]

It's like you could pick up three of these and be done. So, yeah, it'd be cool if you guys joined us. If not, I would love for you to watch how it works for other people. Let's say our average Instagram post gets what, 200, 300. 300. I'm sorry, impressions, not likes. Yeah, maybe. Maybe the memes do. Well, your little pink.

[Corey]

I want to say through that 25 day challenge, we started off with a thousand. The average of you count that it got up.

[Heather]

I.

[Corey]

So the average watch time was 57%. It was went up from 49% to the average watch time being 50%, 7% of the video. So it upped it through the end. But there was videos that had 11,000 views. 5,000.

[Heather]

7,000. I'm gonna pull it up.

[Corey]

Tons of more views than I ever gotten before.

[Heather]

Tons of more views in our pictures. Yeah, tons of more views in our pictures. So, guys, if you're listening to marketing and you're like, you know, listen to Donna. She said the twins know what they're talking about. So let's see. Oh, that last one with the Nate on it, which was funny. Because you don't really. You talk about your husband. We don't really see. He also said he smized. He gave the bakers what they wanted.

[Corey]

He said I. I winked and waved.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

He thinks you guys thought he was hot to talk some people.

[Corey]

I did read everyone's comments to the ones who made him feel like he was a handsome feller.

[Heather]

He loved him.

[Corey]

Thank you.

[Heather]

Thank you. But that one got 8,600 views.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Viral by any stretch of the imagination. But for our audience, that is the highest performing video we've posted.

[Corey]

And what it did was the people who followed me from day one. I want to tell you, 25 days is almost. Almost one month for you guys who followed along.

[Heather]

And whose fault is that really?

[Corey]

It was definitely my fault.

[Heather]

I'm sorry. Your first video, the one where you announced it, I think got 9,000 views because I think people are like, what is this? Yeah, what is this? You can almost see the interest of people and how it morphs through different content posts, which is why that one probably should have been pinned to the profile.

[Corey]

It should have been probably at the beginning. I didn't think it was going to perform.

[Heather]

I love it when I'm like a nosy little tiktoker and I'm like, that's interesting. Let me find. They've got it pinned. Like, here's the backstory.

[Corey]

When I did, instead of pinning it is. I always answered a comment. So if you clicked back the comment, it would take you back to the original one.

[Heather]

I didn't know I could touch the comment. I did like that you were replying. I was like, she's not really answering the person's question. No, I'm not. I'm not.

[Corey]

But I used it.

[Heather]

I used it. So very interesting. The test run performed, and that's why we're doing this collab. Also, I think Lisa came up with the idea, so thank you for that. And I'll be curious how it turns out next week. Obviously, to give you guys enough time to prep, which is very easy thing to pipe. Not. I understand. I'm asking a lot for you to record yourself. Remember, you can always delete it. Always, Always. They can isolate this. Nobody has to say this again. It could be my little secret, but.

[Corey]

Maybe this is the birth of a.

[Heather]

New marketing initiative for you because I think you're going to hate that it works.

[Corey]

And I listen, I hate that it.

[Heather]

Works, but it works.

[Corey]

And that's why you see me and Heather's face on there.

[Heather]

Hey. And I will say the fact that only 46 people signed up. I say the meet the Baker class club. I had 200 and change signed up. I think almost 250. Only 46. That should be an indicator that your competition's not doing your competition is not doing it. And I'm not mad about 46. And if 20, if 50 of those show up, I'm not mad either because I want you 23 people to be like, oh shoot.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So I got something that they aren't doing.

[Corey]

Listen, listen, Linda. Join it.

[Heather]

Do it. It's.

[Corey]

It's one little cookie. Two colors of icing plus the white background. It'll be easy. Easy peasy.

[Heather]

Love it. So that's your alter call. Moving on. What if I told you I'll give you a cookie class kit for free? What? Yes. What? A fruit class? Exactly like all the other classes except for this one cost you zero dollars and no subscription.

[Corey]

What?

[Heather]

Why would I do that?

[Corey]

I don't know.

[Heather]

I think I'll do it. So you know exactly how much value is in a cookie class kit. So you might want to sign up for it. But you say, heather, can I teach that class? Please do. Please make money off of the zero dollar investment. And I almost think you'll be like, shoot, that worked out so well yet again. The darn twins. Maybe I'll sign up for either their cookie class kids membership, in which case it's $63 and you get all the classes this year and a new one drops each month.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Or you'll sign up for the cookie college which gets the 2023, the 2024, the 2025 and this fruits class included in a ton of other stuff. So that what Corey came up with the class. I've been working on it. I'll have it up maybe this week.

[Corey]

That is very cute. We have grapes. Grapes.

[Heather]

Adorable.

[Corey]

Who knew GRS could be so cute.

[Heather]

Pineapple.

[Ashley]

A of piece.

[Heather]

Pineapple.

[Corey]

He is my least favorite of them. I don't know why.

[Heather]

It's because you don't like his spikes.

[Corey]

But he don't like his spikes. We have an apple. The cutest apple. I air Ditzy.

[Heather]

A pear.

[Corey]

I actually used it. The pear cookie cutter is mine. I know we had a pear. What else did we. Oh, strawberry.

[Heather]

I love a straw. Straw.

[Corey]

And it's adorable.

[Heather]

So if you're like, well, I'm interested in teaching cooking classes. I'm not sure if I want to spend a single dime yet. I want to maybe practice a cookie class with my family. This is the fruits class I want.

[Corey]

You to get in there, I want you to download the PowerPoint. Even if you never use it. I want you to look in there. I want you to see it. I want you to be like, that's kind of cute, right?

[Heather]

Yes, it is very cute. Let me pull it up.

[Corey]

It's coming with marketing photos. They're stage marketing photos so that you can use if you want to do the class or you can just look at them. You're like, hey, that's interesting.

[Heather]

Did you forget the lemon and the cherry?

[Corey]

I did forget the lemon and the cherry.

[Heather]

So it's going to be set up exactly like our paid class kits. In which case, six cookies, four icings, all the marketing, all the shop list, all this stuff that you could use to recreate a class kit.

[Corey]

Guess what video comes with that video.

[Heather]

Guess what social media posts.

[Ashley]

Wow.

[Heather]

Guess what social media copy comes. Yeah, Guess what. Yes. So all this is included. So you say, wow, I really do like that. Maybe I would be interested in signing up for the cookie college membership, which is the biggest bang for your buck, or the cookie class kids membership, which is still a great deal. I think each class comes out to around five bucks.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

These classes individually would be $63.

[Corey]

So how are you rolling out the fruits Class is. Do we have to tune into a zoom where you talk about how the cookie cut classes work?

[Heather]

I haven't decided. I was thinking that's a good idea. But I was also thinking of including video to be like, hey, guys, I know you're new here. You're understanding what this is. Here's what this is.

[Ashley]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Heather]

So I will have that out at the beginning of next week. Nice. Very cute stuff. You did a great job. Pink olive. You'd buy your cutters or your STLs to her. That's the only part that's paid because it's not our content. But I think it's very cute. Very cute. Shoot. I'll be stealing for the social media copy. If you want to check out the cookie college, you can go to the cookie college.com or sugarcookiemarketing.com where I have kind of a little iteration. The don't sleep on the sugar cookie marketing website. It's not a sales pitch website. It's all our free sources and all the information of what's upcoming in the group. If you're not big on Facebook, but you want to keep tabs on it, I post a collab. I post upcoming Facebook lives. We just had a live on Square Top. We had a live on Bonnie Bradley and her pumpkin pop.

[Ashley]

Yes.

[Heather]

And then I have a live actually coming up from Kim Sims.

[Corey]

I just got to add it on the website. There is is local cottage baker groups to you that you can find because a lot of times we know broad stuff, but to you they might include.

[Heather]

You know, I love a hyper local cottage baker group because it's great to be like, hey guys, and I see you're talking tax codes or talking like this kind of new law that passed where it doesn't affect everybody. So I can't help you. But yeah, you can find that. You find the discount codes.

[Corey]

Discount codes is on there. Where to find the Facebook lives are now on YouTube.

[Heather]

YouTube, yeah. So there's a ton of information there. The podcast, the newsletter and all this stuff. So don't sleep on sugar cookie marketing dot com. But if you want to sign up, put your money where your mouth is, you can go to the cookie college.com.

[Corey]

Quam quam quam quam. What's next?

[Heather]

Sdl me about it Segment is sponsored by Cookie Design Lab. You host code twins for 15% off. But if you look them up on YouTube, they're actually walking us through everything about Freddy, which I'll talk about in a second. But we got texting. Questions, questions. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 2. If you want to be entered to win a month of Cookie Design Lab, which is an STL software. I really do like it. I use it for our digital downloads. You could text into 571-556-5644. Query has chosen two. You are the winner. And I do like the feedback. They said. Hey, twins, I just wanted to let you know that there was some feedback on the podcast this week. Still great though. From Tacoma, Washington. Tacoma, Washington. Please email email me with the rest of your phone number to heather sugarcookiemarketing.com and you have won a week. And I want to let people know this feedback about the feedback.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Is helpful.

[Ashley]

Yes.

[Heather]

I have to know what you guys hear sometimes. You guys like the intro audio is too loud. Thank you. I. I can't hear that.

[Corey]

Sometimes I hear tapping from twin number two.

[Heather]

Thank you. You needed to hear that. She won't listen to me. So the feedback you provide makes the podcast better, faster, stronger. However, the taste test run that was last week. Yes, I will be. I think we will be incorporating new guests remotely.

[Ashley]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Heather]

And you'll get your butt over here and we'll sit real close.

[Corey]

I'm gonna interview you.

[Heather]

It'll be fun.

[Corey]

You'll be under the dome light.

[Heather]

Yeah. I'll create the sign up for that if you guys want to sign up. I would love that.

[Corey]

And listen, you can't be too new. You can't be too old. You can't be too experienced. You can't be too.

[Heather]

I think we just don't like to hear just perspective. Your story, your unique story of how you got started. I liked Amy's. I liked Heather's. I liked Kim's. I think we're gonna reach out to Christina. Just how you got started, how you did it, how you ended up, what was the hardships?

[Corey]

What's selling for you now? What's your favorite thing today?

[Heather]

I like. I like those better.

[Ashley]

Yes.

[Heather]

And I'm the person that I don't want to watch. I know. Another texting question. Not a winner, but keep trying. All right. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, I know. And a new set of questions.

[Corey]

Joining my friend.

[Heather]

Was she number three one?

[Corey]

Oh, I was so close.

[Heather]

Team triangle. Awesome. These are very entertaining. Yeah. I learned more about Corey. My dad was a twin. So I'd love to hear your answers to these questions. Have you ever switched places? See if people noticed? Once it did not work. Did not work. Once we switched a single shoe to see people. As turns out, nobody cares.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

I always tell myself, like, I studied really hard in school. Why would I switch with Corey, who did not send. I really wanted Heather to switch with Two. Who's usually the first one to finish eating dessert? Cory Barna.

[Corey]

For some reason, I inhale it sometimes.

[Heather]

I look up and I'm like, did you order that?

[Corey]

It's gone.

[Heather]

It's such a. She eats it so fast. The waiters will always come up and say, guess you didn't like it. 3. Have you ever bought matching outfits on purpose or only when someone else gave them to you? We actually do it when we have to speak at events.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So cookie con. We dressed identically with hot pink jackets, white turtles, and jeans. I'm not sure that they're 100% the same cut of jeans because Corey and I have a different preference on that.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

But yeah, we dress alike often enough. You and I just dressed alike for something.

[Corey]

For what?

[Heather]

I thought it was white shirt, black pants. I can't remember, but I think it was a speaking thing. Photos maybe.

[Corey]

I can't remember.

[Heather]

Yeah, people love it when we do that.

[Corey]

We used to go around to a lot of market, like local marketing groups, and we try to dress similarly.

[Heather]

Hey, listen, it's a part of marketing, and it does help. If I could tell Everyone to climb on themselves. It'll be a pain in your butt, but you're gonna like the results.

[Corey]

But listen, I dress as a twin every single day. If I. I have no qualms with being dressed the same.

[Heather]

Yeah, I don't think I even would. If we did show up the other day, we accidentally should open the same outfit with that. We did. We took a photo together. We did four. What's the funniest mix up you've seen someone make between you two? No. Fortunately, no one's husband hasn't accidentally kissed me. You're. Oh, I'm sorry. Has anyone mixed this up?

[Corey]

Has anyone, like, funny mixed us up?

[Heather]

I think Archer mixed us up. Mixes this up every once in a while. And he'll accidentally call me Mom. Yeah. And I'll be like, what did you do?

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Aunt mom over there. But I know. I don't think growing up our mom would be like, you, Heather, Corey, Heather. You know which one I meant. So we just called ourselves. My mom called us. You know which one I meant.

[Corey]

None of my high school boyfriends thought Heather was I, mostly because she had a book open and I never did.

[Heather]

So it's easy to tell her. Yeah. Cory and I have completely different preferences. Five, who usually wins at board games or gets more competitive. Unfortunately. And I want to explain to you guys this. I'm going to try to explain it because it's a fun game that our family.

[Corey]

Do you know the name now?

[Ashley]

No.

[Corey]

Fishbowl.

[Heather]

Fishbowl. Yeah, It's a game of charades, but it's a more fun game. So there's three levels. Yeah, you play all three levels. So everyone in the group will write down a couple nouns on little small pieces of paper. You put the paper into a fishbowl. Everyone draws out a certain amount of papers they have. They're not allowed to look at them. And then you divide the room up into two different teams.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Cool. So you got it. Everyone has little papers. They don't know what's written on them. And we're in two different teams.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Corey]

The first one is charades. The second one is.

[Heather]

You can the second round. So the first round is charades, meaning everyone is acting out their little pieces of papers and the people on their team are trying to guess them.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

The papers stay the same through all these levels.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Whatever you call them.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Rounds.

[Corey]

Which I think you have that mixed up. The first one, you can say any word, but.

[Heather]

Oh, yeah. And.

[Corey]

And so I could be like, this is something we look out of it's I've got.

[Heather]

You just said the first round trades and then corrected. Is it?

[Corey]

No, because you are mine.

[Heather]

I was going to go. Heather says, okay, so the first round is what?

[Corey]

I think you'd say any word.

[Heather]

But okay, so let's pretend the word is munch. My cat.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

I'll say small cat.

[Corey]

You'll say small cat. I own this.

[Heather]

I love this.

[Corey]

I post it all the time.

[Heather]

Yes, if she's on munch. Okay, so you go through all the papers until all the papers run out, meaning everybody in the room has heard what each paper is.

[Corey]

So we kind of an idea of what the papers are. Unless you have a photographic memory, you're not going to remember all. But you know munch it somewhere.

[Heather]

That's a word that is guessable. Now the second round, it's the same papers, but they're mixed up again.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And this one is. You can use no words, but you hear charades. I think it's charades.

[Corey]

So Heather would do like a cat.

[Heather]

L. Yeah, yeah.

[Corey]

And then I would be like munch because I remembered that that was on.

[Heather]

So no sounds at all, no words. But. But we all know munch is a word that could be guessed. So odds are.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Now the third round, same papers. And I really like that you use the same papers because you know what the words have to.

[Corey]

But now it's the hardest of the rounds. You can only say one word to describe.

[Heather]

So I would say cat. I'd hope that they'd remember that munches. But been in two different rounds.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Odds of them thinking Munch is there.

[Corey]

Yeah, I heard his name.

[Heather]

So he was like this much. So that was a really fun thing. However, I did get competitive and I won. So you tell me.

[Corey]

I want to say Heather wasn't here for first family of this.

[Heather]

They did it on the fourth round.

[Corey]

We did it on the fourth round. Heather wasn't here, but Heather was here for the second round. And Heather got so into it.

[Heather]

Here's the thing, the girl Sarah, who's our. Who's a cousin's wife, so she's an in law. In law. She was like, hey, I just want to say Heather, have you ever played the this game before? You're exceptionally good at it. Thank you.

[Corey]

I said, sarah, shut.

[Heather]

Shut your mouth. Listen, on the tombstone, can you put that quote right there? I told these two, Ashley and Corey, my sister's like, competitive match. Year later, I said on July 4.

[Corey]

When Heather wasn't there, to my little sister Summer, I said, if me and Heather were on the same team, we would have obliterated.

[Heather]

Cuz Cory and I have a. Okay, yeah, I'll say that. There's a twin eyebrow twist, there's a.

[Corey]

Twin telepathy that goes on.

[Heather]

So if you guys want the details of the game, you can Google it. Yeah, Fish ball.

[Corey]

Yeah, it's called Fish ball.

[Heather]

If you want to destroy your family ties at Christmas or Thanksgiving, might as well play. It's a fun little game.

[Corey]

It was so fun and crazy and if you get like someone crazy on your team, like my mom was not good at it.

[Heather]

My mom is chaos. Yeah, but it was funny cuz she was just chaos. So yeah, I think that'd be a fun little game. Not really. Actually big into little party games like that. But that was a fun one. But that was fun. Okay, great questions. Please try again next week. You don't even have to ask questions. Okay, last one. Okay, here's my entry number one this week. I have to say I love the Halloween cookie set, but I think Corey gave the candy corn a makeover. The yellow and orange are mixed up and now I can't.

[Corey]

No ma', am, no ma'.

[Heather]

Am.

[Corey]

There is no way.

[Heather]

I've got to look it up. Texter inner is saying. Is that in the the Halloween cookie class kit we dropped last week or two weeks ago? Go. Yeah, there's a candy corn and Corey has piped either right or wrong.

[Corey]

No, I can't.

[Heather]

I'm licking it up right now. Let me pull up that class cuz I have it. She's right. Oh, that's so funny. So what is it? White, orange, yellow? It's supposed to be white, orange, yellow. No, cuz you always eat the yellow cap off of such a loser. That is so funny. Texture. They put a lot of hard hands in last. Okay. Cuz it's supposed to look like corn.

[Corey]

On the cob and mine looks like orange on the cob.

[Heather]

Oh my.

[Corey]

I swear I said I have got to get this right. And I even look, I want to say sweeping. Gollum sent me.

[Heather]

You got it right here. I'll tell you if you want to pass the blame, I'm going to pass the blame over to her. Okay. SPO graphics.

[Corey]

Did I do it wrong?

[Heather]

No, she has it orange at the bottom. She did it wrong. She said king God. Patent pending. Reverse acorn. Anyways, that's about the cookie class kit from October you signed up for get to get it. But there is a candy corn which is very cute. But that's hilarious that nobody caught that's so funny. Except for 480 area code. That's so what do you think this funny? Smarter than the rest of us. I she's living a life. I wish I somebody who likes candy corn. If you could do that. Arizona Glen Glendale.

[Corey]

Old Glendale.

[Heather]

Okay. Moving on to our sponsors which we were told it would be better if we mix these up. So I'm going to hack have you guess a sponsor. But I'm going to use one word just to describe them. Okay. It's like a little mini fish ball. Okay. Okay. Okay. Pop. Okay.

[Corey]

Daisy makes innovations is a cake pop mold maker. And these are 3D printed. But cake pops used to be kind of annoying because they were big 1oz balls on a stick. They were hard to keep on the stick because the chocolate weighted down. They'd fall off. Very frustrating. So a lot of people are like, I don't like cake pops because of this. These molds are. You roll it out like cookie dough. You use the mold, it's FL fat on both sides and you do a. You have a lot of more options with there. So a ghost can look like a ghost instead of just a ball. It's for people who don't want to mold them with their hands.

[Heather]

This has been great for it.

[Corey]

So that is her.

[Heather]

She does cake. Thank you. Okay. Powder.

[Corey]

Bakedy Bake makes a meringue powder called royal batch. It's the meringue powder that I use. It already has three main ingredients in it which is white food coloring, vanilla extract and corn syrup. I think it's just whips up great. And if you're like, hey, you know, I like when my cookies don't crust as fast. You just take a little bit out of there if you like. I don't have time. I need it to crust faster. You can do the 1/3 a cup but you can follow the recipe on our bag if you want. The recipe that I use, I posted it in the baking with sugar cookie marketing group.

[Heather]

Coach wins 10% off. Yeah. Filament.

[Corey]

Filament. That is the STL me about it section.

[Heather]

The design line which I said code Twins supply. Supply is baking McCrazy favorite twin 10 off. But it is a great supply shop. They sent me back for the vending blending. I've gotten a lot of confirmations for the vendor. Good, good. We're pushing that out and then I'm gonna follow you with announcements. Printer Eddie. Easy. That was Eddie. That was so easy. That was so Eddie.

[Corey]

Eddie is a direct to food printer.

[Heather]

They're actually not giving Eddie Con is what they want us to talk about. I think the prices did increase. Let me check.

[Corey]

Yeah, the early BIR pricing is over and now you're back just to normal pricing. But it's happening in January. But you get to go to Sunny Orlando.

[Heather]

Orlando. We're into regular registration. It's two days and it is 500. It looks real fun. This is the first year they're doing it. I love these conventions.

[Corey]

Yeah, a whole convention. So if you're a fan of Cookie Con and you have an Eddie, you might just be a fan of Eddie Con.

[Heather]

Yeah. And if you go, please post pictures. We would like to live. And I hear post videos or I.

[Corey]

Hear from above that they are going to be featuring a Freddy there.

[Heather]

Yes, I heard that as well. So that'll be neat. And if not, go to the cookie design lab. YouTube, they have a Freddy's website.

[Corey]

Sure.

[Heather]

He's a hard to see guy. He's an elusive man.

[Corey]

A few people have gotten him.

[Heather]

Yes, they're going down the list. Okay. This is not a sponsor. It's affiliate use code bucks. But yeah, I'll be working on the Vendy Blendy this week. I know a lot of you Vendys are saying, did I miss a sign up? I know.

[Corey]

I love the excitement.

[Heather]

I love. Question. Do you feel like people are talking about the holidays sooner? Sooner.

[Corey]

Listen, do it. I'm ready.

[Heather]

I am a lot of ads for Advent calendars, which I know you have to be December 1st for an advent you do.

[Corey]

You have to order now. And if you wait till November, you won't get the good ones.

[Heather]

Absolutely.

[Corey]

I did have done. I didn't do a video and I should have done it. But last I2 Christmas ago, I did a cookie cutter adventure calendar video series.

[Heather]

We did.

[Ashley]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Heather]

We should have done that for the October gift exchange for our sisters. Everyone buy everyone.

[Corey]

Oh, that would have been a good idea.

[Heather]

I'm sure we're too.

[Corey]

We can open until December. Technically.

[Heather]

Dude, I hate that number.

[Corey]

Yeah, I know, I know, I know, I know. I do love an admin calendar. Me and Heather for our birthdays last year made each other an advent calendar because our birthdays are at the end of November.

[Heather]

Here's my thing. I'm a minimalist person. I want you to if you receive something from me either donate it if you don't want it. But I would like to have gotten you something that you like to keep. I still like. I.

[Corey]

You know what I put on my lips every night? That pharmacy still do it.

[Heather]

It's almost gone because I used it.

[Corey]

For one year now.

[Heather]

Okay. There was 24 other things. I know. I keep those. No, I saw one in Archer's room.

[Corey]

That's hairspray. That supposed to make your hair? Not.

[Heather]

I actually use that myself. Yeah, I do that.

[Corey]

I, I every time I straighten my hair.

[Heather]

Wow. Yeah, wow. It was called, called the, it was dream. Dream coat. Yeah, I use that. I don't know if it works. My teamwork made the dream work with that. Okay. Moving to twin dress. I gotta tell you this funny story, so. Okay, cool. I specifically don't want to do this little tiny gift buying thing.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Corey]

We agreed last year after we opened our final gifts that that was too much.

[Heather]

And what's actually too much is I had this idea a couple weeks ago. Corey has a car that has now no exhaust.

[Corey]

Note, I've never, I've only ever had exhaust that comes on a vehicle.

[Heather]

So you might be saying, don't all cars come with exhaust? Yes, they do, but they don't all make noise. If you wanna, if you wanna sound loud. And I know she's annoying now and you can hate her as your neighbor, but she had been talking about. And I was trying to talk her out of it because I was like, what do you. You don't understand road noise. So I, this weekend I switched out my reliable Acura to that old Viper that's 30 years old. And of course, when I go to start it, it doesn't start, of course.

[Corey]

And I told Heather, I said, lose my number, lose my number.

[Heather]

And, and you know, when people get in the car, there's no talking anymore. Not this voice isn't going to talk over that. And also, if you don't know Dodge Vipers, the exhaust comes out under the door sill where your leg goes when you.

[Corey]

Yeah. So if you have to get out of the car because it's heating up the door sill, you have to step over it. But I'm think you're practically sitting on the ground. So imagine trying to put your 5.

[Heather]

Foot 4 inch leg, the whole thing in practice. Practical. Yes. Anyways, Cory's like, I'd really like exhaust in my car. And I'm like, I'm not sure if it's a car for that.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Also, don't you want to be quiet? Isn't that what people are paying for is silence in the cabin?

[Corey]

But I said, I've never been cool in my life.

[Heather]

So I had the idea. So I asked the guy I'm dating if he could find the Exhaust that. She is probably a good one. So he sends me the link. So then I had to find a shop to install it. So I email the shop that usually does wallet changes.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And I say, hey guys, do you even offer the service? And they're like, absolutely, absolutely. We don't, but we're in. We love this surprise thing. I was like, okay. So when I'm going to pretend I'm going to come and get the Viper inspected, I'm not. I'm actually going to just make it an antique car. It wins. The demon of the car has won. I said, but I'm going to pretend you guys are trying to tell me it needs all these fixes. When it doesn't. And I'm going to be kind of upset. And I'm going to have Corey record us so I can send it to another mechanic and get a second opinion. So this was this morning actually. So they got the exhaust system. Of course, it's the length of a car, so I can't put it in my own car. So I said, can I ship it to you guys shop and you guys text me when you get it? And they did. And I said, and then you'll have to dispose of the one she'll sell for.

[Corey]

Listen, me picking Heather up from repair shops is nothing new.

[Heather]

And Cory had the worst attitude, which.

[Corey]

Is to it had a bad attitude.

[Heather]

Because I text her last week and I said, hey, can you take me? Can you pick me up from the repair shop on Tuesday? I got to get the Viper inspect. And she's like, I got to go pick up my son. So I was like, call her husband. I said, I have the surprise if they don't get the car done in time. Her car, which go pick up the sun. And he's like, yeah, absolutely. Well, this would be so fun. So this morning I say, cory, meet me at 8:30. She sends me, of course, a picture. She's 30 minutes early or something. I said, what? Traffic was flowing. Traffic was flowing. Cory's already having a bad attitude, right? So I was like. So I pull up at 8:32.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And I can see the guy. And I said, hey, do you're in on this right? And he's like, yeah. So I said, let's go inside and we'll just regroup.

[Corey]

And I was just like, this is Heather's normal thing. Because she's going to go drop the keys off. They're going to take the car around.

[Heather]

Back, do what to do. So I say to them, the two dudes in there like, the first guy's like, I'm not good at acting. I don't. I don't want to do it. So the other guy, whose name is Wilbur, he's always there. He likes old cars. So I was like, hey, just come out and use big made up words and just say, the car has too many problems. And I'm going to tell her, record us talking so I can send it for a second opinion.

[Corey]

And first off, I don't want to be out of my vehicle.

[Heather]

So I come out, I text Koi, hey, can you record this? I think they're trying to sell me on something I don't need. I come out, Cory's not out of her car recording anything.

[Corey]

I said, do you. Only I thought I was recording covertly in my car. Your car?

[Heather]

Come on. I told him, you're going to record. Record this. All this is a lie, by the way. I made up all the. I said, record this. I'm just gonna. I just don't think we need to get all the stuff done. So I just want to get a second opinion. Cory's like, but it's equity. Like, you want me to. Does he know it? Like, you want me to pretend?

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Corey]

I thought we were, like, gonna be like, you know, millennials.

[Heather]

I'm hosting you online. I didn't know. I told him we're recording this. I just don't know that I need all this done. And I'm not even sure that they have the parts to fix it again. All this is made up on the cuff. So the guy Wilbur is like, yeah, it just has a lot of oil leaks on it. We just, you know, it. It's not going to pass inspection. It's definitely not going to pass admissions. And I was like, well, Cory's like. All of a sudden, Cory's like, we're going to take it somewhere else. I said, oh, no, she's going to start fighting.

[Corey]

So I was like, well, they've already.

[Heather]

Actually ordered the exhaust. And Cory's like. And I said, well, how about guy. Okay, Wilbur, how about you put the exhaust that you ordered for my car? Let's just put it on her car, and then we'll be. We'll be back later. And Cory's like, they can't even do that. And I was like, yeah, just kidding. She's like, I got you. I think that's your cool house. Did a great job.

[Corey]

He did a great job.

[Heather]

And then Cory had to drive back in my old antique Viper.

[Corey]

But that is both my birthday and my Christmas present. So we cannot not talk about holidays soon enough.

[Heather]

That's my Twitter. My swears. No, that's my Twitter. That's so cool. Go pick up the car. You'll hear me. You'll hear me. I'll be so curious. If you like loud exhaust, I'm sure I will. Not possible.

[Corey]

Love it. I wanted to say, see me come.

[Heather]

When the cops pull me over, I want them to know exactly the one they got. Have exhaust note laws, audio. What's it called? Audible. They'll put something on noise, something. Anyways, I look forward to seeing you and Raj. Oh, you know, good thing I'm married to a police officer to a courthouse near you. So anyways, let's go to lunch in my Viper. Let's go, let's go, let's go. Giving car. Let me tell you. I parked the Viper out front. The thing is as old as the hill. It is 30.

[Corey]

It's as old as us.

[Heather]

It is actually. It's actually a little younger than us. Little younger. It's so old, the sounds it makes when you get in just sound like your bones are cracking. But that man who was looking at it, he can't. He was dropping his coffin. He's like, I just had to ask, who has a. Who has a thing out front? I just wonder what it is. I was like, oh, it's a viper. I see vipers before. I haven't seen him. I. You haven't seen him this old. This is usually they're up in the graveyards where vibrant go to. It's a relic.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So anyways, that is a podcast, hopefully to see you guys on the reals challenge.

[Corey]

What would have hurt you next Friday, 11:00am The 26th.

[Heather]

Friday.

[Ashley]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Oh, yeah. Friday. And then that takes us into October.

[Corey]

October, guys. I have a great 20th time.