244. Baking it Down - Good Cop, Bad Cop, AI Slop

Summary

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Baking It Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing

Episode 244: Good Cop, Bad Cop, AI Slop
January 13, 2026 | Hosts: Heather & Corrie Miracle

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Overview

In this episode, Heather and Corrie take on one of the bakery world’s hot-button topics: the ever-increasing use—and controversy—of artificial intelligence (AI) in running a bakery business. Framing the discussion as “Good Cop, Bad Cop, AI Slop,” the twins explore the layers of opinion, ethics, and practicality surrounding AI, tackling moral dilemmas, the evolution of technology in baking, and how bakers can (or should) draw boundaries for themselves without imposing on others.

The episode is lively, honest, sometimes self-deprecating, and includes plenty of actionable insights. It also features relevant anecdotes, community Q&A, group event updates, and marketing advice—all in Heather and Corrie's signature chatty, playful tone.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The AI Debate in Baking: Where's Your Line? (04:04–08:22)

• Framing the Issue: AI is creeping into all aspects of business—copywriting, social media, photo editing, website creation, and workflow automation.
• Judgment & Morality: The hosts question whether differing uses of AI make anyone morally superior and point out parallels with past technology debates: airbrushing, stencils, and, most notably, the “Eddie” printer.
  • Quote [05:46 | Heather]: “If your line mismatches that of another baker’s, does that make you morally superior? Or is it just a case of using a different tool?”

2. Historical Parallels: Eddie Printer Wars & The March of Tech (06:11–08:08)

• When the Eddie direct-to-food printer hit the market, it sparked similar controversy over authenticity and skill.
  • Quote [07:13 | Heather]: “As new technology arises, first it’s ‘I’ll never use that.’ Then it’s, ‘Well, maybe I can add it.’ Then, ‘I always hand pipe over it.’ And eventually it’s, ‘Sometimes piping actually detracts.’”
• Even “cheating” technologies from previous generations (airbrushing, stencils, box mixes) went through cycles of skepticism, followed by widespread acceptance.

3. Counterpoints: The Bad Cop Arguments Against AI (08:08–15:01)

• Trust & Authenticity:
  • AI may damage trust if customers feel imagery or copy is inauthentic.
  • But using a template, crowdsourced copy, or even consulting others is also a form of outsourcing creativity.
  • Quote [10:03 | Heather]: "Is it no longer me if I use AI to write my captions, or was it me with help?"
• Devaluing Craft:
  • The “I suffered so you should too” mentality—resentment from those who spent years mastering old tools.
  • Quote [13:52 | Heather]: “The person who milled their own flour looks at box mix users and calls them cheaters. But who’s really smarter—the one who adapts or the one who refuses?”
• Photo Manipulation and Slippery Slopes:
  • Is using Lightroom or AI editing fundamentally different?
  • If you use AI to generate images you can’t reproduce, or drastically enhance reality for sales, there’s an ethical blur.

4. Business Reality Checks (15:01–22:11)

• AI as a Tool, Not a Replacement: The market, and your customers, will ultimately sort out who over-promises using AI.
  • Quote [20:43 | Heather]: “The invisible hand of the market finds those people and sits them on their butts... It sorts itself out without needing the baker to step in.”
• Customer Expectation Setting:
  • Using AI responsibly can be part of transparency: “Here’s what’s AI, here’s what I can actually do.”
  • Quote [15:58 | Heather]: "Instead of chastising customers for not realizing something is AI, educate and use it as a sales tool."

5. Is ‘Always/Never’ Dangerous? Tech is Here To Stay (27:23–38:13)

• Progress is Inevitable: “Always” and “never” are dangerous words. Every generation’s ‘never’ becomes someone else’s daily tool.
  • Quote [42:45 | Heather]: “Always and never are dangerous—especially for yourself.”
• You Can’t Opt Out: Most platforms and software now have embedded AI functionality (even if ‘hidden’), making total avoidance impossible—and often impractical.
  • Quote [37:55 | Heather]: “You’re using it, whether or not you like it, because it’s incorporated into Google. My phone has it by default.”

6. Environmental Arguments & Virtue Signaling (23:41–25:57)

• Early environmental critiques of AI (like the ‘water bottle’ analogy) were based on outdated data—technology is rapidly improving and these points can be more about emotion or virtue signaling than hard facts.
• Urges thoughtful dialogue, not knee-jerk reactions: “If you’re going to use the environmental argument, research it all the way.”

7. Leveling the Playing Field: For Better or Worse (32:12–34:01, 35:31–36:05)

• AI helps the less-skilled look more professional. Is it unfair? Or does it simply give business owners new tools to thrive?
  • Quote [32:30 | Corey]: "Now you can have AI generate a flyer immediately… the person who's really smart about baking science may not be the graphic designer. All that’s lost behind their pixel art."
• Adapting or Declining: Shops that adapt (e.g., cutter shops offering STL files) survive, those who refuse fade away.

8. Community and Industry Trends (43:28–46:14)

• AI-related questions and opinions will only increase.
• The group and podcast remain spaces for healthy discussion—host rule: no condemnation, only constructive dialogue.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Heather, on the cycle of tech adoption [07:13]:
  “First it became, ‘I’ll never use that.’ Then it became, ‘Well, maybe I can add it in.’ Then, ‘I always hand pipe on top of it…’ It’s an evolution.”
• Heather, on virtue signaling [24:21]:
  “I’m going to be bold: [the environmental argument against AI] was a virtue signal that took legs and ran away.”
• Corey, on the market correcting egregious errors [20:43]:
  “Trust the invisible hand of the market… bad actors get bad reviews and upset clients.”
• Heather, on self-policing [42:45]:
  “Always and never are dangerous for yourself.”
• Corey, encapsulating the hosts’ position [35:05]:
  “At the end of the day, you can run your business however you want… Just don’t condemn others for finding their way.”
• Heather, on adapting tech in business [39:12]:
  “Shops that said, ‘I will not change,’ have closed down.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Time | Topic | |----------|-----------| | 00:03 – 04:02 | Welcome, group housekeeping, and discount codes | | 04:02 – 08:22 | Theme introduction: AI controversy in the bakery business | | 08:23 – 15:01 | "Bad Cop" counterpoints: trust, devaluing craft, workflow, copy | | 15:01 – 22:11 | The customer, expectation management, and AI in product photography | | 22:12 – 25:57 | Environmental impact and "virtue signaling" arguments | | 27:23 – 38:13 | The danger of “never” statements and inevitability of technology | | 32:12 – 34:01 | Leveling the playing field, ethical gray areas | | 35:31 – 36:05 | Finding your competitive advantage in an AI world | | 36:07 – 42:45 | Accepting, adapting, and blending old/new while staying ethical | | 43:13 – 46:14 | Ongoing community conversation, AI’s permanence in the industry | | 51:13 – ~54:00 | Upcoming group collabs (February Reviews, AI Collab), event plugs |

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Additional Sections of Interest

Community Questions & Advice

• Advice on setting boundaries for business “away” periods (pregnancy, etc.): add a “scheduled post” clause and manage expectations in both post and comments [61:00–63:32].
• Marketplace musings: people don’t read full ads, so bullet points and concise communication are critical. Trust the “assumed laziness” in your own bakery marketing, too [68:36–70:34].
• Decluttering segment: Using “Shutter Declutter” app for photo management and how physical and digital clutter parallels business organization [58:33–60:43].

Collab Announcements

• February: “Reviews” collab—encouragement to leverage social proof before Valentine’s Day [51:13–52:18].
• March: AI Collab—make cookies inspired by an AI-generated bunny (and resources provided for 3D printing or hand-cutters) [54:02–54:19].

Marketing Tips

• Facebook ad basics: Video works best, prioritize a strong hook and appealing visuals; start by boosting posts to page followers with relevant creative [64:31–66:09].
• On pre-sales: Give plenty of detail for stronger group feedback. The broader the question, the fewer useful answers you’ll receive [81:13–82:41].

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Wrap-Up and Takeaways

Heather and Corrie ultimately advocate for a pragmatic, business-savvy embrace of new technology, AI included, but with personal boundaries and a refusal to shame others for theirs. They urge bakers to adapt, leverage new tools to stand out, and not get stuck on moral high horses or “never/always” dogma.

Final Thought [Heather, 42:45]: “Don’t yuck someone else’s yum just because you don’t agree with how they use [AI].”

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For More

• Join the Sugar Cookie Marketing Facebook group for live classes, resources, and lively debates.
• Visit SugarCookieMarketing.com for events, discount codes, and more.

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This summary omits advertisements, intro/outro banter, and non-content chatter to provide a focused, at-a-glance reference for listeners or those seeking actionable business and marketing insights from the bakery world’s leading twins.

Transcript

[Heather]

It is the baking it down podcast. With a script. With a script. I feel like a newscaster over here. Welcome to the Baking it Down podcast. More tonight with Corey on something about buying cars.

[Corey]

You gotta go up at the end. And more on this later with Heather at the time.

[Heather]

Oh yeah, can I. We'll have a gossip column later today. Okay. So we are Heather and Corey Miracle with the sugar cookie marketing group can find more. I just updated the [e-mail] and I just posted in the Facebook group the link to the group discount codes.

[Corey]

Nice.

[Heather]

Free to use shops that want to give the group just probably 10 off.

[Corey]

Heather's trying to be tour guide Barbie.

[Heather]

Tour guide Barbie. Just to let you guys know what.

[Corey]

You got here at the end of the day. Me and Heather have been in the groups the longest. So we, we know where all the nooks and crannies are. But people who are joining the group don't always know where the nook and the cranny be.

[Heather]

Right. And people come and go. People forget. And also like you can't just make one post about something five years ago and be like, didn't you reference the group discount codes?

[Corey]

NAR yeah.

[Heather]

What 10% could save you shipping.

[Corey]

Absolutely.

[Heather]

I have some good discount codes on these bad boys. Little discount.

[Corey]

I think it last year Heather allowed everyone to re up, read and add to the group discount code. So it was an eternal code. That was the one qualification. It couldn't expire.

[Heather]

It couldn't expire and I had to apply to the whole shop. Cause I didn't want to manage it. Yeah. Cookie mercantile. Tasty tin Sheer celebration Sweetest tears Sweet bite app. Bougie baker Christine's molds Once Mark cooking crack Cookie design lab Rose cookie shop Chu a cookie crafting fixation. Sweeping golf cute cookie kits. Baker's cutter and prints Lollibes cuts and cutter Sweet cheeks online fantastic treats and decor. Clear bags, bonus cookies. The backers goes Daisy makes cookie design lab. Again a podcast discount. Baking me crazy nutri mill and bake it a bake.

[Corey]

Wow.

[Heather]

I mean hey, it's not 50 billion chunks. It's no Vendee Blendy but little 10%.

[Corey]

Test throughout the year.

[Heather]

Somebody I got in my document I have an anonymous capybara. You enjoy that capybara. They left when I clicked on them. Enjoy it.

[Corey]

So as both through the sugar cookie marketing group over the next few weeks and over the past few weeks, Heather's been doing a little get to know.

[Heather]

You group posts because as I'm Surviving in the tufting group. Yeah.

[Corey]

She said it would be nice to.

[Heather]

Have someone say, I'm an admin. I'm here to hold your hand, walk you through this. My quote for the week. Instead of complaining about the rose bush full of thorns, be happy the thorn bush has roses.

[Corey]

That is a glass half full, glass half empty.

[Heather]

And I know you glass half empty people are like toxic positivity at the end of the day. What else do we have?

[Corey]

Technically, I'm a glass half empty type of person.

[Heather]

No way.

[Corey]

You a cynic, as they say.

[Heather]

Yeah.

[Corey]

But to wake up and write down one thing I'm thankful for, my goal.

[Heather]

Really shifts how the brain thinks when you have to look for the glass half full.

[Corey]

Because you'll see a lot of empty glasses if you don't.

[Heather]

Basically, when you are interested in a car, I sent Corey a TikTok and it said nothing makes you notice a car more than breaking up with somebody who had it. When you start looking for the cars, this specific make, model, color, it's all you start seeing and you're like, wow, does everyone have these? No, you just suddenly want it. So it's what you're looking for. What you look for is what you find.

[Corey]

So if you want to look for the bad parts of life, you'll find it and you're like, will be perked by it.

[Heather]

Yeah. I can tell when people are in a bad mindset in the cookie. In a cookie group. Right. Because I'm adminning so I can say like that person is going through a place in their life that has them in a bad mental state and it actually kind of seeps out in every comment, every post, every reaction. And you can kind of like, I hope they find their way. I'm not the therapist, but I hope you find one. Yeah.

[Corey]

Yeah. What's so funny is Nate, my husband, came home in a bad mood yesterday. I don't even know why because he's a cop. I'm sure someone yelled at him. Just how it goes. But usually sometimes I can put myself in the right mindset that when he comes home in a bad mood, I can overcome that with a positive move and rub off my positive mood over his bad mood. But yesterday I did not have that mindset, so his bad mood rubbed off on me.

[Heather]

That's what they say you are. If you want me to tell you about yourself, tell me the five people you surround yourself with. Yeah, yeah, it is. What happened. So we have that quote moving into the topic today. Good cop, bad cop, AI slop It is the ever, ever pervasive topic of AI as it relates to bakery businesses.

[Corey]

And here's the thing, the the people in the sugar cookie marketing group are asking more and more AI related.

[Heather]

It's not even, you know, I was locking the threads cause I kind of got like we got to talk about it.

[Corey]

Whatever.

[Heather]

We got to talk about it.

[Corey]

And I want to say it preface by saying at the end of the day, the great thing about running your own business is you get to run it.

[Heather]

So you're going to see there's no actual directive. We're not going to have a judge jury execution.

[Corey]

The twins said this statement.

[Heather]

So let me read the synopsis and then we'll kind of dive into it. The topic Bakers are quick to condemn other bakers that incorporate AI. However, AI is creeping into more and more businesses as help with copy updating and post processing photography, summarizing emails and increasing workflow and and creating websites and marketing materials. And for good reason. AI is a cost effective way to minimize production and labor costs while also being at this time free to use. The topic of today's podcast. Where is your personal line when it comes to AI integration into your bakery? And if your line mismatches that of another baker's, does that make you morally superior? Or is it a case of mistaken identity of the use of a different tool? That is the baker who uses Eddie versus the one who refuses to and only hand pipes. Taking that example to the extreme, the baker who does from scratch and buys a box mix, the baker who makes the batter themselves from scratch, and the baker who raises the cow and churns her own butter. In all three cases, a baker was baking in a kitchen who is business savvy and who is ethical and who is allowed to play judge jury.

[Corey]

So what that My synopsis of that is. At the end of the day, you can control only one person on this planet and that is you. And maybe your cow.

[Heather]

If you grew it up, you can draw two people.

[Corey]

It's so funny. We've seen this same argument come when Eddie was first announced and brought to the masses.

[Heather]

I'll say the quickest thing. Eddie devalues the skill set required. It's a cheap shortcut to decorate a cookie without any talent. You're just pressing print.

[Corey]

You're just pressing print. But at the end of the day, it allowed so many bakers to add aspects to their business they weren't able. There's some logos out there that are impossible. Yeah, the ones that are gradient. How dare you just Fall in love with one color.

[Heather]

It's not that hard.

[Corey]

That is where Eddie really shines and he allowed you to bring that to your business.

[Heather]

Where we say, Eddie, think of any direct to food printer just happens to be the one who sponsored the podcast. If you bought 50 eddies, we would make zero more dollars. So not really that much in bed with them. I do appreciate their sponsors of the podcast, but as new technology arises, first it became that I'll never use that. Then it became, well, maybe I can add it as a. That complements my hand piping. Then it was like, but I always hand pipe on top of it. Then it's like, well, there's some aspects when it is a logo where piping actually detracts from the end result. That company wants their logo as it sits. They don't want your piping on top of it.

[Corey]

What's so funny? Me and Heather didn't exist in the cookie world when airbrushing and stencils would.

[Heather]

Love to have survived that. That kind of takes the box mix to the I made my own batter to turn my own butter. Somebody who uses a stencil may look at Eddie as cheating, but somebody who doesn't use stencils already may look at that. Ye. At the end of the day, I don't believe specifically any of it is cheating. And we're going to get into that because I think there's a lot of emotions and there's a lot of unknowns.

[Corey]

There's a lot of unknowns and with anything new that that comes out, there's a lot of unknowns and a lot of people are making decisions on where they fall or whatnot. But as you can see as things come out now, airbrushing and stencils are so commonplace, you wouldn't even think about like, she used a stencil. Like, it's so commonplace now that it's found its way and where it fits in the industry. Just like Eddie has down where he is and where he sits in the industry.

[Heather]

Okay, so let's jump into a couple of counterpoints. So these are my bad cops. These are, I don't want this. I don't like it. It's a no for me. And at the end of the day, if AI is a no for you, maybe it's worth listening to this. You don't have to. I'm not trying to convince you to change you. I'm not trying to give you the 10 reasons why you're wrong.

[Corey]

You do you.

[Heather]

This is about where your line is and understanding it however, if you condemn somebody in the sugar cookie marketing group, you've crossed a line there as well. Because just because you wouldn't or you would never, which is a dangerous word to say always. Just because you would never always doesn't mean that somebody else is morally subservient to. Because you say this is because I suspect that there are times where you actually are incorporating AI. Even from now Google search, you don't have a lot of choice. Now, AI is incorporated whether or not you like it. But I, I don't, do I?

[Corey]

I shield my eyes from the first part and only link to the websites below.

[Heather]

And we're going to talk about the environmental impact. But it's like. But it hurts the environment is always like the trump card. Like when I say it hurts the environment, there's nothing you can say that reasons it.

[Corey]

But at the end of the day.

[Heather]

A search qu and Google still incorporates AI so well, I didn't choose that. Okay, but does that take any way more of the environment than if I did intend to either? Okay, so point one, AI impacts trustability. And I have to agree that this is probably the biggest point you could have. But when you break it down into its smaller components, you're going to see that it's not as strong as a counterpoint as it could be.

[Corey]

So break trustability down.

[Heather]

Explain that. Well, if you use AI, that's disingenuous. That's not you. That's a ren. A rendering of what you think you could be. I know right now people are thinking of images. Yeah, but here's the thing. You're using it for copy. Well, it's not you.

[Corey]

I know.

[Heather]

Actually, what I see it as is a tool, a crutch of sorts, but also a tool to get you over the finish line. So let's be honest, copy is an enigma to some people. Yeah. Copy is a caption that you write. It's the words. It's.

[Corey]

How do you get people to stop and read something?

[Heather]

So we got a lot of people saying, love making this for Jay's first birthday party.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Not a compelling copy doesn't make people read. So now I've used AI to write something more compelling, something more interesting. AI really likes a list. It really likes bold things, adjectives, likes that little sparkly star and how I've used that. And so people are actually reading it. That was the goal. I want people to stop and read, but I use AI Is that no longer me or was it me with help and that in that case I say you're in the sugar cookie marketing group to get the same kind of help which you see, people in the past have said, can somebody help me with my copy? Can somebody help me respond to this client? And in which case you're taking my words, how I typed them, and sending those to your client. I don't see that it's much different than I am flesh and bone and AI who's pulling from the Internet. And I know that there's a moral issue there of where AI gets its source code, but it's pulling from other people's flesh and bone. I know brains.

[Corey]

What's so funny is years and years and years ago, we created a document that was crowdsourced of terms and conditions. It's so funny, I will click to some bakers, some random baker of my feed website and I'll see that identical coffee list that we all source together.

[Heather]

And I look at them and say, smart use of crowdsource knowledge.

[Corey]

It didn't come from their brain, though. But you're like, well, no. Well, baker's put it together. At the end of the day, you still use something that wasn't yours necessarily.

[Heather]

Right. I think it's funny because we can very. The, the image component of the AI issue is very easy to pinpoint. Say no. Yeah, but I had it help me with copy. What's the difference between me using a canva template or me having AI generate a canva template?

[Corey]

Well, well, the template. I move two things around.

[Heather]

If you're in any sort of graphic design, any sort of marketing space, you've been using templates for decades. It's how every business works. There's template libraries. I go and buy a flyer and I, I tweak it myself while I tweaked it, but I didn't generate its origination. I know. Okay, so. But on the flip side, AI may impact trustability. And Corey was saying, look at this. Funny, it's a weight loss ad, but I can tell it's three women spinning in different months of the year. It's the same person. And she's showing you how much weight she's off. Of course. Like, it's so funny. It's AI generated. I can see that. But our grandmother couldn't. I would not buy from that company.

[Corey]

Right.

[Heather]

But maybe that company actually sells a product that helps with weight loss. But now the trust factor is gone because you used AI and I think that there is a component of that. So how do you get around that? And this is going to be the same thing. I say with Using freebie photos. If you can replicate it within 90%, I actually wouldn't mind using it.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

I would see it as a tool to increase workflow and lower labor costs.

[Corey]

Yeah. It's just with. It's so entertaining and you guys wouldn't even know. Sometimes I hate AI. I wake up hating AI. Sometimes I go to bed. It's so. I've never. I have. I've been on the cusp where the Internet wasn't here and the Internet was here. I've been where cell phones didn't have Internet access, now cell phones do. I've been on the cusp of many things in my life. This one is the biggest one because I know it'll be around till the day I die.

[Heather]

I'll tell you this. Before Canva, which is not more than six years old, I know it was Photoshop. And Photoshop was cost prohibitive. It's extremely clunky software. I use it every day. Huge learning curve, massive learning curve, multiple. And now it's a subscription model. It's an overwhelming thing. But the things you can literally make movies, we see in the theater. Then Canva comes in, and I see that designers like, you're not a real designer, graphic designer, if you use Canva. But I'm like, are you a real graphic designer because you use Photoshop? Who was allowed what I see, and this is the next thing is AI devalues the craft. It is the. I suffered through learning Photoshop, so thus you can't be my equal because you didn't suffer the way I did. And there is merit to that. You did suffer. I did suffer with Photoshop. I've been taking Photoshop tutorials for the last 20 years.

[Corey]

The person who before box mixes were around, who had to go mill their own flower, they look at you with.

[Heather]

Your box mixes and say, you cheater, liar. Steal them. But who is smarter? The person who's still milling their own flour, raising the catt, or the person who says, the tools around me have allowed me to increase production and minimize cost? So do I think AI devalues craft? I think it could have a component of that.

[Corey]

I think right now you're seeing a lot of things that have been devalued from it.

[Heather]

Photography.

[Corey]

A lot of people did not take their Christmas photos with a local photographer because AI put a sparkly dress on them.

[Heather]

A lot of that's Sora, which is.

[Corey]

The video 1 of OpenAI.

[Heather]

Right. So I found this subreddit. It's called Is it Real or Is it AI? And like, you know, it's a cat and it's going through a slide down the stairs. If it involves a cat, it's not real. That's why my. But I said it's fine. I still like to watch them. Does it devalue the craft of cookies? So it's funny. We're going to be talking about this in a second. We're doing an AI cookie collab.

[Corey]

I think this is a fantastic way to show AI in your business, but also reset expectations.

[Heather]

And it's actually Easter theme, so it's expectations, but when I had AI. So I actually think Nano Banana from Gemini, which is Google, is actually too good.

[Corey]

It's honestly scary good.

[Heather]

OpenAI, which is chat GPT. Thank you, guys. I finally figured out how to get the initials right. Goal post T. That one generates that weird yellow aesthetic. So I had it generate the cookie and it's that AI Hey, I saw this. Can you make this for me? So we have it generating a bunny, which is very cute, but it's. It's not really attainable. So what we're going to do is, for that collab is have every baker in their own right say, here's the inspo photo and here's how I recreate it.

[Corey]

Yeah. So honestly, it's. It's coming up to the level of AI Because AI isn't going anywhere. You're going to have customers. And I've had customers already send me AI renditions of things they would like to incorporate in their set. It's up to me, the baker, to be like, hey, love what you just sent me. I'm going to just tell you what I can and I cannot do here.

[Heather]

It's easy to say, and you're an idiot for not seeing this as AI. Nobody can do that. The sprinkles levitate. But instead of chastising people who may have fallen prey to this tool, I was the fell prey to the bunnies on the tripling. Okay, you know what? Then there was a truck on a trip. Instead of punishing the client, what we're going to do is help it, use it as a sales tool. Yeah, your. Your results of recreating the money cookie. If I had to do it, it would be embarrassing. Right. Because I'm not good at it. We'll see some bakers that can replicate it perfectly. We'll see some bakers who find work surrounds. They're actually going to probably print it with Eddie. I can already feel that coming. And we'll see some bakers that are pretty close and Some makers that are pretty far. And all of those are the right answers because you're saying to your client, hey, listen, I love this. I see this as AI generated. Just wanna let you know, within my skill set and capabilities, here's what I can recreate. Now, the issue, the slippery slope. And I know people are punching the air for me to say this.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Is if you use AI to generate something you actually cannot reproduce and you use that as a pre sale photo, or you have it brush up your issues and then you create a product image that was better than you can take. But you see that slippery slope. And Corey wanted to talk about this using a post processor.

[Corey]

Here's the thing. Yesterday I said, I don't think people should use AI on their photos. Okay. At the end of the day, I had to sit with myself and say, when I log into Lightroom, when I go into a photo editing app, the photo I'm giving the app is what I took.

[Heather]

That was the accurate photo that was going to say, I'm going to punch up my brightness so the photo looks brighter. That is an artificial modification of the image. And I know people are like, but it was still your image. But wait until I give you the next example. Cause I think you'll be scrambling for words.

[Corey]

So what I did though, I had to say, Corey, at the end of the day, you've been using artificial light that's not in your photos to make your photos look better. So where are you to say you can't do it?

[Heather]

Because I'm talking. So the question is, well, okay, Corey, you're taking, you have the bone, the meat and potatoes, the bones there. And you're tweaking, you're improving what's there. You see the slippery slope. Now, now here's the interesting part. Cory made a cookie class kit that says 2025. So I think it was a New Year's kit. Then there's also another kit for graduation. It says 2024. Okay. Both of those kits, class kits, took a tremendous amount of manpower over the course of a week. It takes about a week to produce a class kit. Outside of even the back and forth. You have a sweet.

[Corey]

I know.

[Heather]

Okay, so we produced this class kit. Now it is a waste of time because you cannot teach it again because in the.

[Corey]

You're never going to teach a graduation set has 2024 in it. Unfortunately, we are just not going to.

[Heather]

You're saying, well then remake it. But with a click of two buttons, we can regenerate the 2024 to be 2026.

[Corey]

Do you see if you bought the class kit and you're like, wow, that was. You know, I can a one time, one hit wonder. Yeah, one hit wonder. But I could reteach this or I could reuse it in 2026 for the graduation class. You would be able to justify. I'm just going to click into AI and make this 2026 so I can reuse this class in my materials skills.

[Heather]

So you're saying, well, why not just remake it then? Because it's the exact same way, the exact same skill set. It has just changed it out. You cannot tell. It is not the same cookie that Corey piped. It is to her skill level 100% matched. So it devalues the craft if used and abused. And I would say that that is for everything.

[Corey]

Yeah. At the end of the day, you're probably not going to. And I want to leave this open ended because I don't know what future Cory be doing out there. You're probably not going to see me use an AI generated of cookies. Because the one thing I do like, one aspect of my business that makes me stand out from other people is the way that I take my photos, my photography style. So I really like my photography style. I've worked hard to get it to there. So I'm probably going to keep that at least in my brain. That's what I think I'm gonna do.

[Heather]

I saw this argument in another group, did not comment, just read absolutely every sub thread in it. Someone said, here's my cookies. And it was a cute little birthday set with bright colors. And she said, I don't like how I took the photo. I am not a good photographer. So she had AI Restitch cookies and people were like, I can see a difference. That if you saw a difference at all, it was so slight. It was almost imperceivable really. The only way to notice was that we saw the before and after, but otherwise you would not know they're not. But it staged them in a much cuter way. It replaced the background entirely, which a lot of people. I see that one. Well, I'm okay if it changes the background. And again, that's your line in the sand of this very, very blurry sand line. You know, I'm okay and you can see. Well, I'm okay if I use it for copy. Well, I use it for my promotional materials, but I don't use it to sell a product.

[Corey]

I think you should do it this way because I do. I don't think you should do it.

[Heather]

This way, because I don't dangerous. I think you should do it the way you want to and somebody else should do it. And you say, well, that's not fair because they actually are generating images that are better than the skill set. You guys gotta trust. The invisible hand of the market finds those people and sits them on their butts and lets them get the bad reviews and the upset clients and people who say, don't use them. It sorts itself out without the baker saying, because I don't take that shortcut, you can no longer take it. I don't think you gotta worry about it. Invisible hand of the market makes all things equal.

[Corey]

At the end of the day, I know some of my cookies have imperfections in them. Whether my icing didn't sit super close to the edge. So you can kind of see where my edge icing is. I need my customers to kind of see that. So their expectations are just a tinge bit lower so they know what they're actually going to get.

[Heather]

Hmm. It's interesting, specifically, and I hope she don't mind me putting on a blast here. She was a Vendi and the Vendi blendy. Liz Viz is a graphic designer. So she's designing. You can kind of tell she designs these sets from scratch. But because she has such a clean file origination file, she can feed it. I can tell that she's probably using Nano Banana since she says, turn my graphic design work I've made in Illustrator. Or she uses Procreate, but it looks like Illustrator to me. And turn those into cookies, mirroring the imperfections that sugar cookie bakers naturally. It is hard to tell that those are not real.

[Corey]

I looked at her last. It. It's like fish and something.

[Heather]

I don't know.

[Corey]

She's the most. She's my favorite chop for the most random themes because she has.

[Heather]

She had a whole dental theme and they were like going, your Halloween teeth. It was hilarious.

[Corey]

So I actually zoomed into the photo. It had imperfections that I would normally have in my sets in her photo. So I said, I honestly couldn't tell that this isn't real.

[Heather]

So now we say, well, it's different because they're selling the cutters. But I hear you guys. I hear Corey say, I hate it when people use the clip art for the cutter to show me what it's like because it's hard for me to picture what the clip art is translated to.

[Corey]

Clip art has like 52 shades. And I'm like, I'm never gonna have that many shades to my Cookie.

[Heather]

Having AI generate what that cookie would be using that cutter does help the baker visualize what they would need to recreate the cookie. But now we're in the sub result. Well, they didn't create that. Those cutter shops didn't create that. There's levels to it. I can just really, if you guys are seeing the point of this podcast is to blur the line further between this morality it seems to be falling into versus a tool. And this is obviously a business and marketing podcast. We're always going to err on the side of things that increase profit and decrease costs. If this was a podcast about teaching you how to decorate, you're going to see us saying AI is the devil. Stay away from it because that would benefit us that you guys have to take our floral class versus being able to generate the image. So you can see that there's even a bias. There's a bias over now this is one. And I know you guys are saying, well, at the end of the day though, it kills the environment. It has an environmental impact. I'm not saying it doesn't, but so does your car. Yeah, but I need a car and some people need AI. It's. It's that moral dilemma. I know they say it's equivalent to pouring out one water bottle and I had to do some research on that because that is a peculiar measurement. It's equip. What's equivalent? The query. What about the query equals a water bottle Bottle.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

What if it was a long mathematic.

[Corey]

Like I need you to explain like the ace. A huge mathematical problem. Or if like is target open right now? Like, you know.

[Heather]

Yeah. Which ones? And how is the water being poured out? Is it an electrical equivalent to the.

[Corey]

Cost of generating a water bottle or.

[Heather]

The impact of pouring water out, whatever hankering worth the. Listen if you always end up typing well, its impact on the environment. I actually think, and I'm going to be bold when I say this, that was a virtue signal that took legs and ran away.

[Corey]

And it was from years ago.

[Heather]

Yeah. So even had AI said prove and disprove the AI water bottle theory of environmental impact. And it said that study was from 2023 from the University of California and it was about one of the first models that came out. So kind of think of this way. The first car was really fuel inefficient cars today, or hybrids or fuel efficient, they're turning off at traffic lights to save on the environment. We are at the beginning of something new. It does have an. And let me tell you 70% of the Internet pipes right through here. It is the ugliest thing you've ever seen. These data centers, ginormous. And they're right. It'll be like restaurant, restaurant, home, data center.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

I'm not saying it isn't the ugliest thing I've ever seen, and I'm not saying it doesn't have an impact. But if you are going to type that out to yuck someone's yum, you have to do the research the entirety of the way you.

[Corey]

Not just to the point where you're.

[Heather]

Like, there it is.

[Corey]

No, we gotta take it from the 2023 now. Where is it in 2026? It was so funny when phones came out. The big thing was, don't have a phone around your body because the cell phone signals are frying your brain.

[Heather]

I don't know, but it was always that, like, put the phone in a locked bomb shelter before you go to bed. And now phones are glued to our right hands.

[Corey]

We're walking through WI fi, whatever rings of WI fi are.

[Heather]

I think it's easy to, when something is new, to use a scare tactic to control it. Especially when I. And I think it's easy to say, you're getting ahead of me with this tool that I refuse to. I accidentally publicly said I'll never use it. So instead of saying, let me look and say, hey, how are you using it? I'm actually going to say, you're killing the environment. Like, I can stop at that sense and I don't need to explain myself.

[Corey]

The great thing and the bad thing about social media is you can see a headline. Our grandmother, she's how old now?

[Heather]

She clicks on every headline. She's 86.

[Corey]

Headline hates to see her mouse.

[Heather]

This will be her group of llamas takes out large road in Virginia head. What do you think that is? I said, I think you're falling for something here, girl.

[Corey]

And what she'll do is, is because it's clickbaity. She'll. She'll not even read and she won't read the articles. She'll be like, did you hear about the road in the llamas?

[Heather]

I'll be like, I'll be like, when did it happen? She's like, I didn't click on it.

[Corey]

Yeah, she said, I didn't click on it. The great thing and the bad thing about social media, we can digest and read information at an alarming rate. And we're constantly doing it. The research part is now the hard part. That used to be like, going To a library. I hate going to library. For some reason it makes me instantly have to pee. I don't know.

[Heather]

I can't tell you. Last time.

[Corey]

It's a mental thing where I'm like, where's your bathroom? But going to a library where you're actually doing the deep research versus just reading a headline. Headline that is clickbait because they need it to be clickbait so you'll read it.

[Heather]

I was saying, like I can write a clickbait headline. The podcast. I might even change the title be I never, I'll never use it. Just see what happens. To get the algorithm to favor something, it needs to be dramatic or polarizing or emotion inducing. Right. So if I say if the title of this podcast is AI is good and bad, depending on how you look at it, everyone's like, well, that's nothing thing that I don't want to read it. Yeah, but I always say AI is killing.

[Corey]

No, if she says if you use AI, you're a bad baker. Everyone. Yeah, you're gonna click on it for the fact that it's so clickbait. Divisive. But at the end of the day, if you're listening to this podcast, it comes down to you and your business.

[Heather]

Right. Again. That blurry line in the sand, that ability to virtue signal. I. I don't want to feel less than, so I have to make you feel smaller than. And I think that's where we get the AI is killing environment. I don't disagree that it is impacting the environment, but everything is impacting the environment and it is great to stay conscious and understand that. But before you type that, you have to listen to that Hank Green thing to understand the water bottle argument because I don't think it's coming from the right place.

[Corey]

Before you type that at the stoplight with your gasoline powered car, with your.

[Heather]

Phone in your hand, you shouldn't be using another one. AI requires people to not have to think as hard. I agree, it does. It is doing a lot of thinking for me. A lot of the time if I use it, I ask AI and I ping it as a reference because it's able to search Google faster than I can. Yeah, its ability to search is probably the most impressive part. And its ability to communicate in a conversational style, that's understandable.

[Corey]

The thing is googling something. One year ago, before AI really finally launched, you were clicking on probably five to six websites.

[Heather]

Let me raise my. When we first, when we were in the end of high school, Google came out dating myself A little bit. But the teacher's rule was you could never use Google. You had to go to the library and create a book citation.

[Corey]

They're like, you can read whatever you wanted on Google, but I think you have to have a book.

[Heather]

Yeah.

[Corey]

And in the book, the number of the page of the book.

[Heather]

I'm sure the library is punching the air about Google and now about AI because it's, it's taking people's research and making it quick and pointed. Granted, yes, I know AI is like, hey, girl, don't ruin your life. Do some fact checking on this one. Yeah, it always ends that. But AI is requiring people to think less. But I actually see it as a tool the same way. Like Corey said, when we crowdsourced the cookie contract, a lot of people didn't have to think so hard. Which one is a cookie contract?

[Corey]

If you had that in place and you were a brand spanking new business, you never sold anything before. You didn't have to go through the tumultuous.

[Heather]

Yeah, that cookie contract was a bunch of people. We had a bunch of people say, oh, here's a problem I had. So we added there. I'm not saying it's legally binding, but it was expectation setting. So, yeah, no, you didn't have to suffer from a no show. You didn't have to suffer from canceling a cookie class because of bad weather. Because we were able to think as a unit and come up with that. So AI requires people not to have to use their cognitive skills as much. I agree. And I think you could get lazy with AI And I think you can see when companies decide to step back and let AI run it.

[Corey]

I want to say, though, a little bit to the advantage of you who says, you know, I'm, I'm on the fence with AI. I don't want to think. I don't think I'll leave.

[Heather]

I don't want to think, period. I don't want to think.

[Corey]

Done. I don't think going to lean on it for my copy. You are going to still have your personality in your business at the end of the day, which is a sales point.

[Heather]

I think we've said this from the beginning of time since AI has really come out between when this podcast started and today. Yeah. To say that this podcast started, there was no AI and others. AI is the rough draft on which you bring back into the shop and add yourself back in. Yeah, I know we talked about it.

[Corey]

When, like the voice, AI is that thing, you know, where you could call into a call center, you Used to always talk to somebody and people are like, I'm tired of talking to people who don't know. So the call centers all went to these.

[Heather]

It's so interesting. First it went to you call in and you talk to a person. But then the wait times were like two hours. And then they were like, we have these things called call centers or route your call. And everyone was like, great. Now we're like the, the. The call center can. Can speak to you as a robot. Everyone's like, great, but this is terrible now. And then, now it's like we went back to Rovi Blue and you're like, great, but I have a two hour wait. And now we have this like AI version. You can all. You can still tell. I don't think in the future. And I'm not sure bubble or not. We won't know right now.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

It could be the dot com. It could be the future. But either way, I don't believe it's going away in any capacity.

[Corey]

It doesn't. But you can see the world will ebb and flow. Kindles came out. So you didn't. No longer had to go and get a physical book. But now people are like, I like the phys. I like turning a page. It always comes and goes. Summer, my little sister had an order that vanished in the mail. And then she wanted to get a new order. They sent her the new order. She didn't like it. She wanted to return it. And she said they suckled the money out of her bank account twice. So she says, I get online and I'm talking to customer service and it's AI and I don't want that. I wanted to talk to a person that could tell me if it was right or wrong. So you can see that there's still at the end of the day need for people in the business. People will still want the old fashioned way. It's not going to just be one robot talking to another robot. And no, people are no longer needed unless that moves.

[Heather]

Movie with Will Smith comes in. I wrote about it. Yeah. And then like the final point five, which there could be an endless number of points. I'm sure they'll come back to is AI is leveling a playing field that shouldn't be leveled. And I agree. I used to see businesses that made really bad posters.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And I was like, oh, you are a new business. You have not hired or figured out templates yet. And now you can have AI generate a flyer immediately. And Cory's like, look at this flyer. And. And I said, but look, it does give you information in a better, more palatable form than if that person had to hand create this. Because the person who's really smart about baking science may not be the graphic designer. Yeah. And all that great information is lost behind their pixel art. It.

[Corey]

At the end of day, I can see an AI flyer and I can be like, oh, they used AI for this flyer. But how is that different than using Canva? Because I didn't move a thing around a little bit.

[Heather]

The blurry line is so blurry.

[Corey]

So you're seeing I'm having the same thoughts that other people are having. But at the end of the day, I was using artificial light in Lightroom for years and years and years and years and years.

[Heather]

When I open a magazine and it's an ad for mascara and we're very close to the perfect humans blemishless poreless face, I'm fully aware that that has been retouched. Yeah. Hand retouched by an application called Photoshop. Yeah. And now artificially retouched. Because AI on my phone now can just say, do you have a zit? I'll get rid of it.

[Corey]

I know.

[Heather]

But now as we see AI taking over more aspects of business, we also see the rules, the laws around AI increasing. So Nano Banana, the image generator from Gemini, which is Google now puts its own AI watermark invisible to us. But it can actually see it now because the AI generated images are so imperceptible. They're so good.

[Corey]

Now meta can read an image that has AI. You'll see it now when someone posts. It'll be like, here's the AI info. It'll show it right at the top. So people can automatically see that this was generated by AI. Granted, it's missing a few.

[Heather]

It's brand spanking new and it can't see other apps. But we'll, we'll see those laws kind of wrap around that. I saw, and I think this is unfortunate. Someone had posted in another group and they're like, how do I create? I think it was a Grinch cookie. And the Grinch had four fingers.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And they were wispy fingers. How do I create the separation between the fingers? Ever so many comments were, this is AI. This is AI. Okay. Yeah. It was clearly. I had that little sheen on it almost. Open. Open AIs Gentlemen Generator. There was a way to make the fingers though. And somebody's like, hey, here's a great tutorial. It's on. You know when ghost costume has little ripples at the bottom that somebody had created a tutorial of how to make those seams at the bottom.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Which would allow this baker to make the green hands. But people were too busy saying is AI that we never got to the answer. But there was an answer at the end of this.

[Corey]

You can run your business however you.

[Heather]

Want to run your business. Run your mouth. We know you're running.

[Corey]

Run your AI math. You can run your business. And if you position your business to be the baker who hates AI, then that's going to be your business's positioning. But at the end of the day, every one of us, if you're listening to this, is trying to make more sales. And how can you separate yourself from the computers, from your competitors? Both we're trying and be unique in your own space.

[Heather]

I think we'll see a blend of incorporating AI to sharpen your product but also being able to rise above AI to show the differentiator between the baker that may use AI when you don't. Now your messaging is I hate AI. When you say that sentence, you're not saying the other sentences. Buy my cookies, right? As a business, we need to generate income. We need to generate profit that comes from sales. If you say the hill I'll die on is one that doesn't produce profit. I don't know that you're long for this earth in terms of your business model.

[Corey]

I in at the end of the day, you're like, well, I'm not. I'm doing this on the side. I don't need to. And that makes a lot of sense. That makes a lot of sense.

[Heather]

The voice of the voiceless.

[Corey]

Here's the thing. Some bakers are listening to this and you think whatever you want. At the end of the day, you can have your ideas. You're I'll never use AI for my photos, for my copy. AI can really help you with things like spreadsheets, the back end. Even in my Google, my Gmail, it's summarizing emails and God forbid I read. I enjoy reading that because it'll be like this person wants two dozen for.

[Heather]

A recap and a long chain of.

[Corey]

Orders said two dozen and it's due do February 6th. That's very handy for me to use and that is using AI in my business regardless if I mean I can block it out, I can delete it. It's. It's helpful in those aspects of your business. So to say this, the terms I'll never use A.I.

[Heather]

Dangerous.

[Corey]

Dangerous.

[Heather]

You're painting yourself into a hole.

[Corey]

You're put putting Yourself in a hole by yourself. Like the person who put yourself in the hole is you.

[Heather]

You don't do that shame faced tail tuck. I never use Eddie. Well I actually did purchase an Eddy. I think it does require some, some effort because it's not just pressing print and. And I'm like, oh, that's embarrassing. You didn't have to say the first part so you shouldn't have had to say the second part.

[Corey]

Me and Heather have been in that Eddie war.

[Heather]

I don't know why people think it's Heather Corian Eddie. He's not triplet.

[Corey]

The thing I think we found Eddie when he was brand spanking new and we liked it. But it was so funny to see all these bakers and I remember their names, I remember their handles who were anti.

[Heather]

Doesn't forget a name or a grudge.

[Corey]

Anti Eddie have slowly purchased Eddie's over the years and never did they say I was wrong. Eddie is okay.

[Heather]

I'd like to release a statement. Me and my press company. So I think it's important if you do not agree with using AI now I would probably stay quiet and watch what others are doing and find that component of it. You're using it whether or not you like it because it's incorporated into Google. My phone has it now by default. It tells me good morning and have a good day.

[Corey]

Canva has it. It's constantly insane.

[Heather]

So I never use it except for when I'm forced to. Okay, so you are. So we can't say never. You are using it whether or not you like to. I do not see it being taken out. That does have some great aspects. It will help your business in ways and. Yeah. And then it also could be destructive. But that's the way every new technology is.

[Corey]

It can. Someone's going to overuse it and someone's.

[Heather]

Going to underuse it and there's a balance there. And I think the quote really does come true here. AI won't take your job, but the people who learn how to use AI will.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

@ the end of the day you're a baker. You have to be in the kitchen. You have to mix this stuff. AI is not going to say that Freddie is coming up, but. I know, but at the end of the day you are irreplaceable as the bake. You have to create the icing, you have to create the. You have to cut the cutters and I know, but now we have AI generating STLs for cutters. That saves you guys a lot of time, a lot of work. But what about the cutter shops? What about the horse breeders when cars came.

[Corey]

Out?

[Heather]

Yeah. There is things that had its.

[Corey]

Heyday. It's so funny. But 3D printers just became really popular as of late years.

[Heather]

Ago. Bamboo on its shoulders.

[Corey]

Alone. Yeah, Years ago, a 3D printers and a baker having a 3D printer was.

[Heather]

Ridiculous.

[Corey]

10,000. We were like, wow, wow, you're cool. You know, now it seems like a baker can get one at the drop of the.

[Heather]

Hat. 100.

[Corey]

Bucks. You have seen that the world of the cookie cutter shops was appended by it. But the cutter shops have learned to incorporate STL files as an offering in their.

[Heather]

Shops. So they have rolled with the punches and created it. And you guys are like, wow, this is so much better. And Corey, I see her feverishly.

[Corey]

Printing. Look at.

[Heather]

Me. Yeah, she is in the sprinkle factory downloads and she has fronting away the.

[Corey]

Shops. Who said I will not change have closed.

[Heather]

Down. You'd have to. And I was saying this yesterday. The things that worked three years ago that you guys love to see, even though I haven't changed a single thing, you're like, oh, get that out of my face. I don't like it. Things change, preferences change. New things, shiny objects, we like them, we hit to them. Some of that, we keep. Some of it, we get rid of my grandmother. Back to the headlines. She read a headline, it was like, by 2030, all auto manufacturers have to have a hybrid or electric option. And she literally said, but what about the oil company? I was like, you're.

[Corey]

Different. What about the horse? You live through many changes in travel. It's. It's gams is a great representation of someone who has lived even longer and has to had to adapt so much more. Her life in 19, what, 39, when she was born, has changed. It's not the same world. She doesn't live in the same aspect. It was so funny. I went to a restaurant last night and the only way to order is through a.

[Heather]

Kiosk. Kiosk.

[Corey]

Wild. And I was like, why is that? Kiosk chili on top. Love it, love it. After the gym. Really gets me to the gym because I can go eat at it.

[Heather]

After. He never goes. I just sit by.

[Corey]

Myself. I was sitting by myself last night and there was an elderly couple, I want to say, probably in their 80s. And it was so funny. I said I had to walk in and use the kiosk, but they also walked in and use the kiosk. They were alive before kiosks in the Internet were even around. And it's so funny. We've all adapted and we're all sitting eating chili on top food and it was delicious. So you can say, I'll never. And I'm sure the couple next to me said, I could never imagine ordering food on a kiosk. But here we are ordering food on a kiosk and it's. If you want to hold off on the progression of AI will always be here. So regardless if you never use it, the only person at the end of the day it's hurting is you. Or you can say, how can I incorporate it into my business while.

[Heather]

Also honoring my own ethics here.

[Corey]

Yeah. My own self. I, I can't say right now. I don't see me using it for photos, but maybe I'm going to have a set one day that says the wrong date and I'll be like, instead of going to sugar cookie market, can I use Photoshop this? Maybe I'll, I'll type it into.

[Heather]

AI and you say, well, you know, you can see that mental.

[Corey]

Gymnastics. Well, you made the.

[Heather]

Cookie. You just made the seven client type. Yeah, six. Seven. The client typed the name wrong and I piped it in. But I'm just tweaking it because the client, you know, you can see that thing. So what I would say is don't define your stance right now, but watch. It does not mean you have to adapt. It does not mean you need to implement. It is already being implemented against your will. It is everywhere. Yeah, I think it is a tool. I do not think it's a bad tool. I think it can be used as a nefarious tool. But that's with most things.

[Corey]

Yes. You'll see things even out. It always, as the phrase goes.

[Heather]

It always shakes out the, the baker.

[Corey]

Who cannot replicate the amazing perfect set that they've shown that AI.

[Heather]

Is. Someone's going to.

[Corey]

Order. Someone's going to be like, don't order this. They've used AI but just it doesn't look like.

[Heather]

That. I.

[Corey]

Know. So it's out there. I would just refrain from using always and never statements because those are dangerous for.

[Heather]

Yourself. Yeah. And we always have said that. Always. We always say, I literally said don't say it. So that takes us through when I know you guys might said, oh, I wish they were going to tell us yes or no. I think you can kind of see that we're tending towards the yes, but finding your unique aspect of it that's fit your business model, your moral ethics. But don't yuck somebody else's yum. Just because you don't agree with how they use it.

[Corey]

Yeah. And just like people with Eddie and they're like, well, airbrushing is fine because you still have to have talent behind that. But now, like, you might have.

[Heather]

An Eddie at this one. Now it's gonna be like, AI is fine because you need to know how to generate the prompts. Whatever you gotta tell. Yeah. So it's just interesting to see it.

[Corey]

And. And we'll see the questions happen more and more in the sugar cookie marketing group. I'm going to delete every comment that says you shouldn't use AI because at the end of the day, it is here to stay. Friends. Me and Heather are driving by massive, massive building. That was quick. Heather's little camera turned.

[Heather]

Off. You know, I had him charging, but I didn't want to overcharge him because that kills batteries too. You guys get core this week? Usually you get me, but you get.

[Corey]

Core. Hello?

[Heather]

Hello. Maybe that was the AI saying, Shut up. I don't like what you're saying about me. Talking about me and I know it. So I'm gonna turn off my camera. Okay, moving on. Before Cory's camera turns off and you're just left with these voices. These voices. The cookie cons. I know you guys are saying we need more information on that boot camp. Corey's got me at level of slave labor and I'm working on. She said, get that cookie class.

[Corey]

Kit up and then get a digital.

[Heather]

Download post to get the boot camp up. And don't forget to change.

[Corey]

My. Your to do.

[Heather]

List. You.

[Corey]

Are. You're saying it out.

[Heather]

Loud. Identical twin to do list. But. So we have the boot camp scheduled for the last week, the last three days, weekdays in January. And that's where they're going to fall. It's at the end of each month people say, are you getting rid of everything in the cookie college? No, this is an addition to it. The doors open and closing now is a new aspect. However, the content that you've come to know and love over the past five years is here to stay. So yes, you'll get a new class kit, you'll get a digital download. You won't get a new baker's business basics because those never change. You'll always get the traffic transfers and then you'll get these college courses. And that only affects that top tier, which always gets everything it always got. Nothing changes. You actually get more bang for your.

[Corey]

Buck. Yeah, love.

[Heather]

It. More bang for your buck. So I forgot to put this in Corey's notes. But I got the Arumi reviews up here and you know, I have really bad memories. So I can't remember if I read these or not. But Kim says the cookie college is an excellent tool to help you succeed in business. The cookie classes couldn't make teaching a cookie class easier. And the marketing tools learned will take your business to the next level. And she says here that she uses mostly the Facebook group. Then she'll use the courses and then she uses the extra content. I have them list these in the order that you use them the most. And she said it's helped me get started with teaching cookie.

[Corey]

Classes. So our.

[Heather]

Food. Our first bootcamp is teaching in person cooking classes. We talk about it a lot. It's a great way to make money. And in dry January, I think it's a great time to get your feet wet. Getting those three to four people willing to attend a Valentine's Day themed class. Which Corey just sent.

[Corey]

Me. Bunny. He says I have made her do many a thing against her.

[Heather]

Will. We went through today as I pointed out that I had to make sandwiches for the homeless shelter. And then we had to go film a dog who was dying of cancer and get it adopted. You just had me sign up for lunch. I.

[Corey]

Know. And we will be doing a Mommy and me class. February.

[Heather]

8Th. That was for you guys. And February 8th. The day keeps changing. No, it's always been February 8th.

[Corey]

Friend. Always.

[Heather]

Been. It was never on a weekend. It was. You moved it recently to a weekend. And why is a school open on a weekend? You're eating up my Sunday. Your.

[Corey]

Sunday. Your.

[Heather]

Sunday. And I'm only doing this for you.

[Corey]

Guys. Yeah. And Mommy Me class. And what it is. It's so fun. It's school. So fun. I won't say that today a school has reached out and they wanted to offer this to their families. And this is a private school. So why they are. It's literally toddlers. Toddler. It's an age range. So it's the tubing. The youngest. Eight being the.

[Heather]

Oldest. They can't even speak the same.

[Corey]

Language. That's people just doing.

[Heather]

One. You did not tell me that. I did say they were two. You said they were two years old. You didn't say. And eight. Eight year olds are smart with questions. And it'll just be three steps right now. You gave me no details.

[Corey]

Okay. And because this attitude is.

[Heather]

Why. Yeah, because this is. And that's why I'm.

[Corey]

Feeling. Filming a dumb.

[Heather]

Matilda. You didn't remember her name. I.

[Corey]

Did. Matilda. You also had a bad Head Matilda didn't like.

[Heather]

You. So I'll be posting more about the Bouque camp coming up in between Corey signing me up for stuff that I have no time to.

[Corey]

Do. No time to.

[Heather]

Do. Does it get done? Yes. Does it get done? Begrudgingly, yes. Oh, yeah. That's how you know it's going to be good. The more we complain about it, the better product. So I'll be posting more of that soon. I got. I just got to firm up some details of that. First Bootcamp will be in person classes and it's in two weeks. It'll be on January 8th. It'll be two days of pre recorded classes and on the final day, it'll be a live Q and A with the final closing of the class. And then you can join the cookie college if you want to access that content longer than the bootcamp. If you don't sign up, you can wait till the next month when we do a photography.

[Corey]

Bootcamp. Yeah.

[Heather]

Yeah. And that'll be February 25th and then March a pre sales bootcamp of which I saw your email.

[Corey]

Yesterday. Thank you everyone who said I'll never use AI Frank motos. I better see in the boot.

[Heather]

Camp. Let's learn how to take photo. So yeah, we have that coming. I think it's a very fun way. I think you guys are going to like the content and the structure. Because you said we want longer content, we want fresher content, and we want organized.

[Corey]

Content.

[Heather]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Listen. Heard you.

[Heather]

Hurt. You've been.

[Corey]

Heard.

[Heather]

Yeah. So that's what we're.

[Corey]

Doing. Gossip Calm goss call my stomach may growl. Apologize for.

[Heather]

It. It has been growling since she got here this.

[Corey]

Morning. She's a hungry little.

[Heather]

Girl. So this is a submission this week. It's called the Boundary Breaker, part.

[Corey]

One. I like whoever wrote the double.

[Heather]

B. The boundary breaker. I can't wait for part.

[Corey]

Two.

[Heather]

Okay. Anyways, it said. I should have known she was going to be trouble from the start. Sigh. She wanted a simple printed cookie in 24 hours. Boundary 1. On my birthday. Boundary 2. For some reason I said yes. Anyway, she likes the order, so she orders from me again. Again. A couple months away due to some unfortunate weather the week before her next order. Making the next order proves rather difficult. But it gets done. And I have a crazy assistant. I have my. Sorry, I didn't say crazy. It's the next line. I have my assistant deliver it. That is an important detail for the actual crazy part of our story. We're getting there. It's next. Grab your popcorn. She Orders again from a pre sale and ask for delivery again. She pays, I make the cookies and I go deliver them. I pull up to the gate, they let me in. I knock on the door. No answer. No cars in the driveway. I text it that I was on my way in the agreed upon time frame. I text her again, wait five minutes. I call her. Still no answer. I don't want to leave the cookies again. It's been a bad weather week, so I go back home. She finally responds and we arrange delivery again for the next day. I go to the same address, but this time they won't let me into the gate. Why? Because that family doesn't live there anymore. But my assistant just delivered there a month month ago. So I had never been. She had recently moved and had already forgotten all about it. She hadn't even thought to make sure I had the correct address after the failed attempt the day before. Ultimately, she picks him up from my porch the following day. Surely now I have enough boundaries in place for the next order to go smoothly. Right side. To be.

[Corey]

Continued. Oh my.

[Heather]

Goodness. Oh shoot. That was a juicy good one. That was a good one. That was a juicy good one. Great. That was a new.

[Corey]

Circle. There's so many funny things that you just assume people know and they don't. And it I've listen Facebook marketplace and we're.

[Heather]

Gonna. I said Cory's gonna have to.

[Corey]

Talk about her decluttering.

[Heather]

Purge. But it's wild too. It's funny. I told Corey. Nothing makes me realize I'm not as good at explaining things as I think as telling AI to do.

[Corey]

Something. Oh.

[Heather]

Yeah. Oh, I can see why you accidentally thought I said that, but you didn't read my brain. That's not what I.

[Corey]

Wanted. Good. AI, please tell her she's not giving us enough.

[Heather]

Information. Corey specifically. Corey and I are in a constant state of. Why didn't you read my mind? It was right there in my brain. Just look at it. That is the new gossip column. If you want to submit a gossip column, it's actually pinned in the group. You can go to forms.jotform.com SugarCookieMarketing.

[Corey]

PodcastGossip we'll have to maybe just post.

[Heather]

That. Yeah, I gotta put it on the website or length. Ridiculous. Jotform said you will get that custom URL. But you will. It. It will cost you. It will cost you. Are we on page 5? Page 4. Upcoming.

[Corey]

Events. Upcoming.

[Heather]

Events. I'm.

[Corey]

There. I'm there. February Reviews.

[Heather]

Collab. These are our upcoming collabs yeah. These are the.

[Corey]

Collab. This is February 6th. It's just three weeks away. Here's the thing. It's hard. It is hard to get reviews on social media. Even in today's day and age where we know like reviews are so handy, people aren't handing them out like candy. So what we're going to.

[Heather]

Do. Not candy.

[Corey]

Andy. Yeah, what we're gonna do is a reviews collab and it's going off the fact that Valentine's Day is shortly after. So we're gonna say like, like what I do. Leave me a review and we're going to have this collab. Granted it's on Instagram, but no better way is it to ask for a ask for reviews than to blame it on someone like the.

[Heather]

Twins. As we said, it's kind of weird to be like, I want to review it. Yeah, that's, that's, that's hard to put your. Hard to do that. It's like, oh, dry bagging. Right. But when you say, hey, I've actually joined this collab and we're all holding red heart cookies in honor of Valentine' telling our clients we love them and we love them so much when they leave us review. And if you're reading this and you had a great experience with me, it would be mean the world for you to go to click and leave me a little bit of.

[Corey]

Loving. Little loving on the Internet. So this is a great way if you were like, my reviews profile hasn't been updated in a long time. Your last reviews say.

[Heather]

2024. Even though I said 2025. We're in.

[Corey]

2020. Oh, yeah. It would be great. This would be a fantastic one right now. 45 people. And I know we can do more than that. I know 45 people say that they're going to attend. You don't necessarily have to going or interested in the class, but what Heather does when you go and you fill out the form, she'll send you copy ideas written from her brain and.

[Heather]

A little bit of reminders, not AI. I posted in a group the other day, Tufting group. And someone's like, please do not use AI to generate your question. And I said, this came from me.

[Corey]

Brain. Were you flattered or unflattered? Flattered that they assumed your brain was.

[Heather]

AI? I blocked.

[Corey]

Them. Oh, you were.

[Heather]

Offended. Actually, I replied to them and then unblocked them, which means that they cannot see that I replied. Which is why they're like sneaky, sneaky deep.

[Corey]

Move. But you never see.

[Heather]

The. The I can't I get no closure unless I create a fake.

[Corey]

Bronco. So it's so funny. Heather's saying, like, someone thought she was so good at writing. That had to be AI My.

[Heather]

Talents are lost on the world as we speak. So the February reviews collab is in three weeks. All you're doing is piping a red heart. However, you. As long as it's red, I don't care if you go crazy. A little fun asking no Eddie Prince this time and no AI anytime in these collabs because that one's not allowed. There is a moral line in the suit, and that one you're going to post on February 6th at 11:00am Eastern Standard Time to give our west coast friends a chance to wake up. And it's just going to be you holding a red heart cookie. I'll help you with the caption, but basically you're going to say you love reviews. And the hashtag for this collab is scm. Collab A. Oh, love, love. The next one is a fun one. We're doing the AI collab in March. It'll be March 20th. I'll provide all the information you need along with a picture of the.

[Corey]

Bunny. Will you be giving us 3D printer cheater people? The.

[Heather]

STL. I will be giving you an STL. I generated it yesterday. And for you people who do not have a 3D printer, you could hand cut this one. I'll give you the dimensional. Nice, nice PNG outline there for that.

[Corey]

One.

[Heather]

So. And then we'll be doing an April collab because you guys love collapse collab. So that'll be a way to introduce information to your audience without being like information. It's like, oh, I was required to give you this information because I'm doing a collab. Yeah. So it makes it.

[Corey]

Easier. It's hard for me. And I was telling people in the cookie college live, it's hard for me to say, hey, I know you just sang my praises via email when.

[Heather]

I showed you your.

[Corey]

Set. Can you.

[Heather]

Sing? That's very.

[Corey]

Easy. Can you go sing it again, but publicly so others can see it? It's hard for me to do that. So this is a great way to do a mass bag.

[Heather]

For. I want to say. And we've. Why, Heather, why you keep making us take selfies? Because it performs better. So you're going to get an increase. You're going to see a lot of cookies with red hearts. It's going to be red. It's going to be Valentine's Day. If you trust the.

[Corey]

Process. Here's the process I'm tracking, as we did two podcasts ago, tracking the view count on my post. And my plan is to write them down in a spreadsheet so I can see what it does. So I have the date, the. The topic, the photo. Like an idea of what I posted. Was it a reel? Was it a, you know, packaging? Something like that. So far I have 15,000 views. It's my highest view count of the things I.

[Heather]

Posted. What was the.

[Corey]

Content? It was my face shave. Twas my face.

[Heather]

Shape. You like a face, ladies. You like a face. You like a face. Upcoming events that aren't collabs. What's Poppin Concord and I will be speaking at that. Amy has allowed us to do the exact same scenario last year. She said absolutely. You can do your one day and vanish into the night.

[Corey]

Nice.

[Heather]

Thanks. That be April 16th. So that's in 13 weeks. And there's a discount code for.

[Corey]

That. 13 sounds.

[Heather]

Low. I really thought that sounded like tremendously far.

[Corey]

Away. Far.

[Heather]

Away. 13 weeks away. You're an odd number. I ain't thinking.

[Corey]

Odd.

[Heather]

13. 13 the year. I know it's what, second week of January, but it feels like the tenth week of January. It also feels like beginning of June. I know. We haven't had any snow this.

[Corey]

Year. I.

[Heather]

Know. Haven't had a.

[Corey]

Shove. We had one.

[Heather]

Snow. It was barely a.

[Corey]

Snow. It.

[Heather]

Was. It was a sn. It was a no. It was more of a no than a snow. And then Cookie con is in 23 weeks and the Vendee blend is in 45 weeks. Thank.

[Corey]

Goodness. Thank.

[Heather]

Goodness. Major holidays upcoming. Cory, you want to take us.

[Corey]

Through? We have the Super.

[Heather]

Bowl. Just do the weeks you don't need.

[Corey]

Okay. Super bowl is February 8th, and that's in just four.

[Heather]

Weeks. Is that the day? Is that why I keep. February 8th is the day you make me do this little class with you? Miss the Super Bowl. I think she maybe didn't know cuz parents can go. It's not just Mommy and.

[Corey]

Me. It's parents and me, like so. But that Funny Valentine's Day, February 14th, just five weeks away. I can't believe that.

[Heather]

Ramadan. If you're. If you're looking to order cutters, now would be the.

[Corey]

Time. I think the time tis today. You better order them. February 17th, five weeks for Ramadan. Mari Gr is also February 17th at five weeks. St. Patrick's Day. We're already talking about March. March. That's March 17th, 10 weeks away. And good old April Fool's Day is April.

[Heather]

1St. That's 11 now this isn't a list of comprehensive list of holidays. This is just ones we see people tend to bake.

[Corey]

For.

[Heather]

Yes. This guy's got somebody in the comments on these little countdowns saying, excuse me, you did not honor people with two cats, but one cat says a.

[Corey]

Munchkin. My birthday better be on the November countdown list. Thank you very.

[Heather]

Much. S T Elmia About It Segment sponsored by Cookie Design Lab Use code twins for 15 off. I busted out Cookie Design Lab the other day. For.

[Corey]

What? Making a cookie.

[Heather]

Cooler? Yeah, gotta make me a cookie cutter. The.

[Corey]

Bunny.

[Heather]

Yes. If you want to text in, it's 571-55-65644. Or if you're listening to this on a podcast player, you can see that text in.

[Corey]

Button.

[Heather]

Nice. So Again, Cookie Design Lab.com thank you for sponsoring this core. I have 1, 2, 3 options for you. 11 Brighton, Massachusetts are the winner of the STLM about it.

[Corey]

Segment. Email me at Heather Sugar, what's the area code? I didn't even get a.

[Heather]

Guess. It's a different she text. She tapped the texting question and I can pull up her last four digits of her phone number, which is why I need her to text me. Oh, I see. Oh, but yeah, there's different ways to text it. Just wanted to recommend the app Shutter Declutter. It's a paid app, 24 a year, but it has helped me insanely reduce the amount of photos I have. And. And that's in response to last week's podcast.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Nice. So that is Shutter.

[Corey]

Declutter. Honestly, do I think maybe someone had commented about what it.

[Heather]

Was. I know, I like.

[Corey]

It. Shutter Declutter found similar images duplicates. Let's.

[Heather]

See. Shutter Declutter. It's actually Shutter declutter app. The.com was definitely a scam site. So don't do what I just did. Declutter daily each day we show you you the photos from this. Oh, it's exactly your strategy from this day one, two and three years ago. So every day they show you the photos you have from that day all these years are on your phone. Review your memories and swipe away the ones you don't need anymore. Step 1 View. View the photos taken on this day from past years. STEP 2 Swipe right or left to keep it or get rid of it. Just like man. Step 3 Declutter. When you're done reviewing the photos of the day, you delete them and watch your storage space grow. I really like this recommendation. It looks like it's eye Contact iPhone.

[Corey]

Only. So it's fun. It's a more fun way to do what I was suggesting.

[Heather]

Some. It sounds like it's designed to do exactly what you're suggesting without the manual labor of having to look it up.

[Corey]

Yeah. So for 24.99 a year, not bad.

[Heather]

Price. 24 for the year. So you're paying $2 a month. Clean up all you're paying. You're paying 24 a year for your storage. Yeah. So this is a.

[Corey]

Decent. I.

[Heather]

Know. Way to clean it up. And also, you don't feel so bogged.

[Corey]

Down. It's so funny because I was AT T Mobile as our phone carrier and I was talking to him. I said, what's the number one thing that makes people buy a new phone? And he said, it's always storage.

[Heather]

Space.

[Corey]

Interesting. We fall in love with our.

[Heather]

Memories. You're.

[Corey]

Betty. My little sister was so funny. She had so many photos on her phone. But one day she updated something. 10,000 photos deleted. And I said, could you tell me which ones were deleted? She said, no idea. It was on a.

[Heather]

Set. I think about it all the time. There's this show from before. I was even watching tv, but I've heard about it. But they would go into your cluttered house and they would take things out of it. And if you could remember that the clutter was there, you could keep it. But if you didn't remember what was there, you could not.

[Corey]

Keep. That is so.

[Heather]

Funny. My house would be empty. I have no memory of anything. You don't feel like. I think there's.

[Corey]

Stuff. You have stuff you like right.

[Heather]

Now. Yeah. I've really gone way into the decluttering aspect of life. And now Corey's knee deep in it. I'm watching somebody learn how to walk. I.

[Corey]

Am. I am being birthed, but I am in the birthing canal right now and it is tight, uncomfortable and.

[Heather]

Dark. She's coming, kids. I'm crowning. That was way too graphic. Mom would write you a citation. Not a winner, but definitely text in next week. Hey, ladies. I found out that I'm pregnant with her. Second congratulations. We are over the moon and thrilled and super excited about this next phase. I'm such a big planner, so I'm already thinking towards the future and how that's going going to look while I'm recovering and resting and spending the time settling into a family of four. I definitely plan on setting up posts on my social media page so it stays active. But I kind of have a strange question. Would it behoove Me like that word. To put a clause at the bottom of each of those posts stating that this is a scheduled post and I'm currently closed. Of course. I plan to make sure that my email, voicemail and autoresponders are set up appropriately, but I could easily see how someone could be like, oh, she's active on Facebook. Yeah, she must be taking order words again. Do you think that I. That would be necessary to put a clause at the bottom during the post this time? Thank you so much, ladies, for all your help. My opinion, love it, add it, love it. Schedule it to be like a countdown. Like, oh, that'd be great. You can, you can. Like we said, you can sound like you're there. Be like, you can say, would you say it's.

[Corey]

Scheduled? I would say it's scheduled. About the countdown thing, and I see a lot of moms go through this. Someone's like, when you go from one kid to two kid, not so bad. Two kids, three kids, crazy three kids, four. You never know if that plan time, so to say a countdown. Unless you know for sure coming back to the business, maybe not the countdown because we don't want to lower expectations. Or like, I need an extra five weeks. You know, this was a little bit more than I had planned. So you're saying for the countdown.

[Heather]

Like that What I do, if you sign up for any collab, my emails start off with, hey, this. Just want to let you know this is an autoresponder, but I love you just the same. Yeah. And then my second response, my second reminder is like, this is still an autoresponder, but I still love.

[Corey]

You. I think if you're doing pictures of sets and cookies and things you bake, I would put that. If you're just doing a meme, maybe.

[Heather]

Not. We could easily do here is like, I know I'm still not currently taking orders, but I couldn't just leave you guys without my cookies. Or I, you know, I'm still not taking orders yet. Thank you so much for your patience. You can kind of repeat yourself without sounding.

[Corey]

Redundant. You can put it in different parts of the copy as.

[Heather]

Well. Right. So it doesn't look like truncated and not a lot of people are going to see it. So I would even make a whole post like, hey, guys, just want to update you having a baby. You could schedule all that out if you want to. And then don't be afraid. Just because you schedule out doesn't mean it's like cemented. Now. I always go back in and edit those things as I see.

[Corey]

Fit. Or.

[Heather]

Delete. Delete them if I don't want.

[Corey]

Them. Put it in the comments. Yeah, no, I think if you're scheduling it out, I would put it in the scheduling and set.

[Heather]

It. Forget.

[Corey]

It. You don't have to think about it. Be like, oh shoot, I forgot to go comment it. Yeah, just put it in the.

[Heather]

Copy. Worth it maybe to keep in your clipboard. If you're an Android like me and you can have endless things on.

[Corey]

Your clipboard and like your Apple, we can have endless.

[Heather]

Notes. Okay. In your.

[Corey]

Notes. Thank.

[Heather]

You. You have to open, find and copy and paste. What you could do is put that as a comment. I always expand comments, especially if I'm interested in buying something in the post. And it's usually people saying they hate the product so I don't find. But otherwise you can say, hey, top comment. It's gonna be your first comment. Say hey. Just so you know guys, I'm currently not taking orders now. You got them in two places. Possibly the truncation of the post and then I would obviously make those pinned posts about your.

[Corey]

Break.

[Heather]

Yes. Yeah baby. You're having a baby. Cory's being born as a declutter.

[Corey]

Baby. We're both crowning the the declutter shutter declutter.

[Heather]

App. It's just babies. We're teaching babies apparently how to decorate cookies on the 8th. Last one. Hey there. I've been teaching cookie decorating classes for about a year, but hey have never run Facebook ads. I'm feel bit like a deer in the headlights. And what about content and about what content would work best. Any quick tips to help a girl.

[Corey]

Out? Thank you so.

[Heather]

Much. I love this podcast. Jocelyn from New York. The formula for good ads requires a hook and a captivating graphic. Right now it seems to be the flavor of the month is video.

[Corey]

Based. Video based does a lot of the work for you. If we think a picture's worth a thousand words, imagine how much a video is worth. So when it comes to really showcasing your classes, having a little video is a great way to do so. I know. I made a video of our Christmas class and I posted it to my page. I ended up getting a lot more inquiries for it for the fact that it was a video. Someone sat through the whole thing and watched.

[Heather]

It. I'd say, you know, it's easy to get lost in the trenches. Everyone asks, are you guys going to do a Facebook ads course that updates they're running, they're rolling out AI into ads and you see it, it's called Automatic placements now. But it's going to actually be an AI tool that helps you focus your ads. But don't be afraid. If are a deer in the headlight feeling just to post the video to your page and boost that. Yeah, just targeting kind of defaults to people who like your page. You can set parameter. You can get lost in the sauce there. But just boosting the post and making sure it's not going out to the entire world, really all you got to focus on the creative, which is another word for the graphic images. Do better. That means your cost per impression is cheaper. So the more compelling the image, the cheaper it is to run the ad. It truly does. Thank you for keeping people on the platform. Because remember, it wants to take your money and it will. Yeah. So it's going to take your money by showing it to people. But if people like what they.

[Corey]

See, it's cheaper for.

[Heather]

You. They're going to reward you with.

[Corey]

That. Yeah, it's cheaper if people like the content you're putting.

[Heather]

Out. Imagine like you have a really ugly piece of content and Facebook's like having to grab people hold their eyes up and be like, look at it. I have to take my.

[Corey]

Money. You know, remember that? I think it was Bird.

[Heather]

Bar. My husband keep my eyes open to see who won the door prizes at the venue. Yeah. So if you make better ads, Facebook will show your ads to more people and it will will charge you less. There is an incentive there. Sponsor tip. I haven't gotten that part coming, but we're doing good with the new stretch. But speaking of our sponsors, we have cookie design lab code twins is 15% off. Baking me crazy. Cory is getting through her.

[Corey]

Papers. Got.

[Heather]

It. That is on.

[Corey]

Page. That is on page seven. Favorite twin. 10% off. Bakey bake is the meringue powder that I use. Twins is 10%.

[Heather]

Off. Heads up. I think there's a backorder there. I think you guys think we're the bakey Bake Courtney. Post whisperer. Not. Nope. You're getting the same correspondence I.

[Corey]

Am. Same email you use. Same.

[Heather]

Email. I do think it's a pre order type thing. So it's not out of stock, but maybe it is. You can place your order, but you have to.

[Corey]

Wait. Wouldn't that be.

[Heather]

Pre? It is. It sounds out of.

[Corey]

Stocky. Pre.

[Heather]

Orderish. I can add.

[Corey]

It. What's popping? Con twins for.

[Heather]

25. I'm so sorry for you people asking. It says I acknowledge Royal batch orders will begin shipping on February.

[Corey]

6Th. Oh.

[Heather]

Pinteresting. I Wonder if there's a little note.

[Corey]

There. No Pinteresting what's popping. Con Twins is $25 off. No discount code. But Primera does make Eddie the direct to food printer. I. I want to hear how. If you went to Eddie Con, I would love to hear how it went. I would love to hear what you.

[Heather]

Learned. What was there two days long? I. I did see in primary there was a thread about it. Oh yeah, the Eddy Printers users group, I think or the unofficial Eddie group or there's a group about eddycon. Either way, people are like, it was a ton of information. Two days fully packed up and they said why? What I see is overwhelming. Printing on transfers, classes.

[Corey]

Yeah. Will they do it again, do you.

[Heather]

Think? That was a big question. Is if. Did they announce something? Are they doing again? Was this round one? There's. I thought it was a cat. No, it's not. It.

[Corey]

Is. I think I ate a cat and it's.

[Heather]

Dying. Am I stuck it? Oh man. I'm here to get this girl. Some girl I.

[Corey]

Know. And I even ate those.

[Heather]

Little. Stomach's been growling since you got.

[Corey]

Here. It was weighing in on my drum. Nobody ate nothing apparently. My stomach is just.

[Heather]

Unrested. My suit.

[Corey]

Twin. Oh my twin dress. Okay, I wanted to tell you, and this probably goes back to the texting question too, about should I write it in the copy? I am in the throes of selling everything that isn't tied to down in my house and you're like, that can't be. I sold all my plates and bowls. If you think people are reading anything out there, they're not. You're not reading. They're not reading. Your customers aren't reading. Facebook Marketplace isn't reading either. Nobody's reading anything. So it's funny how your copy needs to have bulleted points that say just the pertinent information. Sold a pair of Rothy shoes. Got them for Christmas last year. Never wore them. Apparently Rothy's are kind of expensive. What? At the end of the day, if they were under my bed, they were.

[Heather]

$0. This is Corey telling you she didn't charge a lot for.

[Corey]

This. I didn't charge a lot. I charged 15.

[Heather]

Dwarves. That's insane. They were 152. They might have been 150.

[Corey]

Still. There's no sizing on them. Did you wear them size? I didn't wear them outside of the house. They've only been worn on carpet. Not had been. What's funny? I gave them to Summer who wears Rothy's all the time. And I said, if they go to a foot that wears them, by golly.

[Heather]

That'S. I.

[Corey]

Agree. She had put them in a donation pile and they're for zero dollars. And I said, why, did they fit her or something? She's like, well, I had a pair, I.

[Heather]

Swear. She lets it.

[Corey]

Go. So let's hit $15 profit at.

[Heather]

The end of the day. I know. And somebody gets it that wants it. But that's so really.

[Corey]

Low. The amount of people who didn't read where I was located, who had said, I want it. And I was like, okay, when can you be here? And they're like, oh, I didn't see your location. I said, question for you. Is my location not in the ad? And they're like, no, it is. I just never scrolled down to read this. Nobody is.

[Heather]

Reading. It's because Marketplace is one of those things where Facebook just decimated Craigslist in every way, shape, form, knowledgeable. You can't Craigslist get out of my face. Yeah, Marketplace. You click this button, it's a quick response. It like messages them. You have seller profile. It's like protecting you.

[Corey]

Guys. Yeah, I like the wild wild.

[Heather]

West. The.

[Corey]

Exchange. The exchange is weird. Every exchange has been the weirdest experience. None.

[Heather]

Alike. I want to tell you, Cory is selling stuff for $5. And I was like, imagine that you get murdered for some crap on Marketplace that you sold for.

[Corey]

$5. But at the end of the day, if I was going to donate it, I would have to have it in a bag. So I'm saving bags and trips. I'm saving gasoline bag strips and.

[Heather]

You'Re making money and you're cleaning out the house. And I said, sometimes we just have to. Obviously I'm a couple years removed from mine. You are declutter rebirth. And I said, Cory, like, I can't stand away. You can't offer advice to somebody who's learning how to walk. You just gotta let.

[Corey]

Them. I'm toddling into it. Here's the funny thing. And I was thinking about it as I was going through my basement. I sat in there for hours yesterday cleaning you. Technically, when I first flew the roost of mom and dad's house, lived in an apartment. I lived in a bedroom in someone's house at the.

[Heather]

Beginning. That's a really good.

[Corey]

Story. And then I moved to a two story townhouse with a roommate.

[Heather]

Situation. I was there.

[Corey]

Yeah. Then a three bedroom apartment. Do you see how everything's gotten.

[Heather]

Bigger? And it's not because lifestyle.

[Corey]

Expansion. It's lifestyle expansion. My Stuff got.

[Heather]

More. So you'd be like, your space increased, so thus you felt the need to fill.

[Corey]

It. It's so funny. So I'd be like, we're tripping over each other. We're tripping over each other because a giant sectional couch is in the way. Because I had and had to have a big sectional couch. So I'd be like, we need a bigger space because we're tripping over each other. But now. Okay, we get a bigger space. Now the sectional couch fits in this new space, but there's another room that has nothing in it. So then you get more stuff for that room. Okay. Now let's say it's your crafting.

[Heather]

Room.

[Corey]

Okay. You start 50 million crafts in that house, and you're like, this room is.

[Heather]

Too. What I wouldn't give for another crafting room, would it? I need a bigger.

[Corey]

Craft. I need a crafting basement. And you see your life is expanding not because you're expanding kind.

[Heather]

Of. Well, yeah. Over the years, I have gained.

[Corey]

Toys. Your lifestyle expanded in the things you own. And we so get hellmen. And guys, this is me talking to.

[Heather]

Myself. This alter call is just a. Corey. It.

[Corey]

Is. I'm just saying it to myself, just hearing it back. We get hell bent on holding to. Onto things that technically have no value. Rothy's shoes. Yes. Are probably.

[Heather]

$130.

[Corey]

Yeah. But if I've never worn the Rothy shoes, they are $0 value to.

[Heather]

Me. I'm so sorry. They're actually not a $0 value. They're a negative value because you're not accounting for the cost of the loss of space. And I said, if we could have an app a. Come on. That allowed me to take the picture and be like, this is how much this would cost in a storage closet. Which you would do the math. What's the size of the closet? What's its cost? What's the size of this? Then I think we would be getting rid of stuff a lot faster because we would be like, there's an invisible cost here. Second cost of storing.

[Corey]

It. There's the Second there is a cost of visual clutter that one takes me.

[Heather]

To. Never know. I feel so overstimulated when everything is around me. I had to put it all away.

[Corey]

Violently. Yeah. If my. If you're my neighbor and you're.

[Heather]

Listening to this and you ask.

[Corey]

Me. Every neighbor I've ever had has asked me to do something in their home. If you ask me to come to your home, I will look through your stuff. Just I'm Going to take it all in. I'm going to take it in now with ring cameras everywhere. I'm not going to touches on stuff, but I'm gonna take it all in. It's so funny, at one point I had this neighbor, we're still friends. I go to her house, watch her cat. I was her go to cat first until the cat started eating his own tail. And I said, I can't do this. She had so many things on her countertops. But the reason why it was on her countertops because there was no room for them in the inn, in the cabinets. Because her life had expanded outside of the cabinets and now she had no countertop space. So she. When she moved, because we ended up moving roughly the same time, she says, I need a bigger kitchen. She never needed a bigger kitchen. And when I went to her new house full of stuff, it was even more full of stuff. So the bigger kitchen is now a small kitchen because she has more stuff on the.

[Heather]

Countertops. The way I see it is we vacation and stay at hotels and there's people who actually vacation to a hotel and that's the experience because they're trying to get away from their own stuff. Yeah. It feels overwhelming. And the hotel is empty and.

[Corey]

Simple. So if you're listening to this and you're going to be born again like I am, if you have to look, look at a. A cubby. If you look at a storage bin, if you point in the general direction of a closet and you say to yourself, what's in there? And your words to yourself is stuff. And you don't know exactly what's behind the door. Everything behind that door can.

[Heather]

Go. I know. It's so hard. If you guys hearken back to Veggie Tales, which corn. I grew up on.

[Corey]

The. Is it.

[Heather]

Gtl? Veggie.

[Corey]

Tales. Oh, Veggie tails. Blueberry.

[Heather]

Yes. Madame Blueberry was addicted to Stuff Mart. She lived in a tree house and she put so much of the stuff marked because she said it made her feel so good buying it. But she was so blue. That's why she spent money. She was on depression spending. And she put it in her treehouse and then it was in the tree, but it got so heavy it created a slingshot that shot her house all the way across the.

[Corey]

Road. She lost all her stuff and.

[Heather]

Then she was actually happier that she didn't have.

[Corey]

This. Yeah. So I was listening to this psychologist who said, you have to go through the sadness of.

[Heather]

Losing. Do you have the.

[Corey]

Name? No, I.

[Heather]

Don'T. I am so sorry. I've deleted.

[Corey]

That. So I can't even.

[Heather]

Access. Don't say you're listening to a psychiatrist when you just got a.

[Corey]

TikTok. And she was like, you have to go through the sadness of losing the stuff, but when the stuff is gone and you can no longer access the stuff, you're free. You're free because it has left your home. So a lot of the times I'm going through ideas that I've had that I never made into.

[Heather]

Fruition. That's what they're kind of saying. You're sad about losing the fantasy of what you thought you could.

[Corey]

Yeah. In getting in, I was telling Heather I had some airbrush machines that I've heard I use. Eddie, I don't remember the last time I've turned on an airbrush machine. N did I need three? So I.

[Heather]

Took. I swear you had six at one point.

[Corey]

Yeah. So I took them.

[Heather]

All. Cracky got minus.

[Corey]

One. He's going to be.

[Heather]

For. I had to sell that. He's on the table.

[Corey]

Yeah. Oh, and I'm punching myself over the cracks. I think I've had it for seven years. Okay. So I took and I donated the airbrush machines to this local brick and mortar mortar bakery who teaches K classes. And I felt so good that even though the ideas I had for airbrushing in my life were coming to an end, that it was getting a new life at someone who could absolutely use it, who it would benefit their business because she teaches these K classes. And now she could have an.

[Heather]

Airbrush for every station that she teaches.

[Corey]

At. To see it go on to be bigger and better, I love that. And she is taking the guilt that I would have.

[Heather]

Experienced. That's it. I'm like, if anybody wants this at all, in any capacity, please take it. Please help me. Me feel bad. I can't throw it away. I can easily donate it. I know that. You know, your husband doesn't like the donation thing. Some people think, like, you give it to these for profit donation centers that add it up and they're selling.

[Corey]

It for the $5 that I was selling.

[Heather]

It. Cut. Okay. So Cory's willing to risk her life for five bucks. Okay. But, you know, I gotta say, keep chugging along, chugging along. You're gonna go through phases. You're honestly on a high right now. And then you're gonna take like a slow down. But don't lose the fact I want you to feel like your skin crawling when you feel like you need to purchase.

[Corey]

Something. So I. I did what I did Baptism by fire. Walked into a TJ.

[Heather]

Maxx. Walked in. Okay.

[Corey]

There. Walked throughout.

[Heather]

It. The alcoholic walking into the bar left with.

[Corey]

Nothing. And that's what you need to.

[Heather]

Do. I had a couple at the.

[Corey]

End of the day, that is. And I went to Target to do my grocery shopping. And even if this it, you can fall in love with like spices that you use for a one off recipe and then it'll take forever of home in your spice rack and you'll never use it.

[Heather]

Again. Expiration set you.

[Corey]

Free. So I said, the. The things I want to make in the crock pot need to be things that I know I'll use. Thyme, rosemary. Like those things I'll.

[Heather]

Use. Huh.

[Corey]

Raisin. No. But I had them. So I'm saying I don't need to buy a paprika if I'm never going to use paprika. Except for on Thanksgiving Day, you.

[Heather]

Know, which you could, and I hate to say this, borrow this from somebody. Yeah. Yes. Also, does paprika have a taste or is it more of like a eyeball.

[Corey]

Red? Is paprika what you're putting on the.

[Heather]

Eg. What it said to me, I don't know. You're the one who was always using it. I didn't like it. I just said, okay, it doesn't.

[Corey]

Feel like it has a.

[Heather]

Taste. It's as light as air. That's why some of the eggs are dousing. It slowed it down on.

[Corey]

Them. So I don't know. So that is what I've been going.

[Heather]

Through. But I want to tell you.

[Corey]

If you think your customers read, they're not. Nobody reads anything these.

[Heather]

Days. I.

[Corey]

Don'T. Someone said, can you. Oh, I'm on my way. And I said, okay, what's your eth? She's like, oh, wow, I'm in D.C. it was a two hour drive. She's like, sorry, I'm in D.C say I won't be coming.

[Heather]

Out. Well, at least she had a bad day. Did you read that? No, she.

[Corey]

Didn'T. I didn't.

[Heather]

Yeah. We are not reading. I'm not.

[Corey]

Reading. Not.

[Heather]

Reading. I'm annoyed when you're not reading, but I'm not reading either. I know, but we're like, ah, it's only. I always are never.

[Corey]

Reading. It's.

[Heather]

Fun. That's right. I'm like, when somebody cuts me off, I'm like, get out of my only. I'm allowed to drive like an.

[Corey]

Idiot. There's always endeavor statements are so.

[Heather]

Dangerous. Corey will never let you forget that you Said always or never. Don't say it's.

[Corey]

Him. For the rest.

[Heather]

Of. I am your open diary. You.

[Corey]

Are. Do you have a twin.

[Heather]

Terrorist? A twin terrorist? I asked a question in the tufting group and a lady said, I don't have the answer for you, but I really like the way you wrote out this question. This should be an example on how new noobs ask for help because you provided all the information that you.

[Corey]

Need. As I'm going through macarons, I'm at a very low.

[Heather]

Point. I saw your question in a public.

[Corey]

Macaroni. Oh, you.

[Heather]

Did? I would have helped her different. I did metal trays or something. Huh. Metal.

[Corey]

Tray. Yeah. Oh, it's in a.

[Heather]

Public. I didn't even know that it's a public answer. That's.

[Corey]

Good. When you go through in the macaron group, people are like, the thing is, if you look macarons wrong at them wrong. They'll be bad. Um, so for someone to say, what happened to my macarons? There's not. It's so ambiguous. They need so much more information to go off of. Like, how many times did you.

[Heather]

Macaronage. Did you go around the.

[Corey]

Bowl? 50 times or 51. Because it was one too many if you want. So you giving them a little bit more information will have the best outcome for.

[Heather]

Yourself. Right. So what I did, if you guys want to know the diagram of a great noob question is I did a title tag with an emoji. Love an emoji. Right. That's why I'm getting cited clocked for being AI. Yeah. Then I did. Here are like a preview of the question. And then I bolded the question. I actually put the question in a bulleted point so it stood out. Because really, if I don't need to read one thing. We tend to tend.

[Corey]

To. To look at list.

[Heather]

Yeah. At the end I said, and just so you guys know, here's the materials that I'm.

[Corey]

Using. That's even more.

[Heather]

Handy. That way they'd know like, oh, she's using this setup with this tufting gun with this yarn style. That way that they can help.

[Corey]

Moi. I want to say if you could take those.

[Heather]

Tips. Also added an image. And I labeled the image.

[Corey]

Yeah. Into the sugar cookie marketing group saying, guys, my pre sales never work.

[Heather]

Why? A little too broad. You guys give us more information. Hey, I had a pre sale. Here's my question. This pre sale undersold by X units. And here's what I did to promote this. And here is actually a picture.

[Corey]

Of what I sold and what I'm going to tell you. And it's not because your original question was bad. It's I see a lot of people ask those broad questions and it's so broad that you'll end up with zero comments because there's so many aspects that you've left out of your situation. The more you can.

[Heather]

Give. I'd recommend you the title be does anyone hate AI as much as I do? And then ask your presale question because you get a ton of.

[Corey]

Likes. Yeah. That way you might not get any helpful.

[Heather]

Answers. No. But you get each other ton of.

[Corey]

It. But if you came and you're like hey guys, pre sales don't normally work out for me. The last pre sale I did was for St. Patrick's Day. I started marketing about four weeks.

[Heather]

Out. Helps to tell us that. Yeah. The. The month because there are months where it's easy of Christmas pre sale is going to.

[Corey]

Outperform. July 4th is a little bit harder because a lot of people are traveling platter.

[Heather]

Season. Platter.

[Corey]

Season. So you can learn from Heather and the way you write your posts can help you in the way that you can read your marketplace copy can help you make.

[Heather]

More. $5. I do love how much money.

[Corey]

Do you think I've made so.

[Heather]

Far? Taking a running tab. Well, you must have made enough. You must have sold 10 more things because you bought that oven counter. I didn't buy.

[Corey]

It. I'm still.

[Heather]

In. The research question was in the public macaron group.

[Corey]

Yeah. I was just.

[Heather]

Inquiring. I think you have made over 750.

[Corey]

7:56. Wow. 7:56. Flawless. $15 on its way tonight at 4:30 when someone picks up my.

[Heather]

Bag. How. What are you.

[Corey]

Selling? What is it Valentine's.

[Heather]

Day? I've destashing my valentine. Cory did a grab bag and people didn't like.

[Corey]

It. People didn't like And I've learned a lot about sales. The more valuable you can make it and that's not necessarily better staging. Marketplace doesn't like that you.

[Heather]

Are. You have to match the energy.

[Corey]

Yeah. You got to know you can't.

[Heather]

Wear a ball gown to the Burger King. You can't. You.

[Corey]

Can'T. They want to see it on my kitchen. T table is the best backdrop so.

[Heather]

Far. I want the war. I want you to use a fish island. I want. I want to see trash in the.

[Corey]

Background. You know what? I've. I've actually staged it with utter other decluttering items so they know. They think that I'm Moving out of the.

[Heather]

Space. It kind of paints.

[Corey]

The. It paints a picture that she needs this stuff gone and she's underpriced it because she's unbeknownst to.

[Heather]

It. That's what everybody wants. A deal. And we were talking about the psychology of marketplace. I found something that I shouldn't have found at a price. It shouldn't be priced at. For somebody who. Who's an idiot and didn't Google it. Yeah. What they don't know score is going to donate.

[Corey]

Otherwise. And here's the thing. I'm always looking up what other people are selling the same item for, and I'm coming in just a little bit under the median price range. That makes it seem.

[Heather]

Valuable. It's.

[Corey]

Staged. The photo.

[Heather]

Stage. I have a diagram, Coke canvas, but it's not staged. It's intentionally staged to look.

[Corey]

Unstaged. At the end of the day, marketing runs through my veins and I'm going to use it. So assuming the sale as soon as someone messages I realize that the photo faster I can get the message back to them. The odds are I will make the sale faster. So same for your bakery business. The faster you give back, the more chance that you can lock it.

[Heather]

In. Is a red light on or not? I Can you record this whole.

[Corey]

Thing? It's.

[Heather]

Recording. It is. You weren't even looking at the red.

[Corey]

Lot. There's reds up.

[Heather]

Here. Yeah.

[Corey]

Those. So many. Everything's red.

[Heather]

Red. Important.

[Corey]

Red. But when it comes to your bakery business, you can also use the same tips. It's the same marketing. It's just seeing what. What angle it's coming.

[Heather]

From. There's always gonna be an.

[Corey]

Angle. I know. And I've been infuriated. People not. No.

[Heather]

Shows. Of course no shows. This is par for the.

[Corey]

Course. I will rank you in one.

[Heather]

Star. Oh, yeah, that's another crazy part there. Craigslist is like, do you want me to murder you? And I'd like to sell this book later. And you wouldn't know that's the same.

[Corey]

Person. The great thing about that is. So let's say I wanted to sell. My husband wanted to sell this.

[Heather]

Carhartt jacket for $40k's husband owns five things in the.

[Corey]

Like. I really am, like, jealous that you're selling your stuff and I want to sell my stuff. So he sells this Carhartt jacket. The amount of men that wanted this Carhartt jacket. Insane. But everyone has a reviews profile. So if you're rated five stars and you have 46. Five stars. I'm more apt to choose you.

[Heather]

Because you got some skin in the game. Here's a wildfire. And we know I fell prey this week. I had to google a business but I'm like shoot, I gotta read the reviews and I'm like I could even buy the. You could buy reviews but what am I. I supposed to I have to make a decision and they small amount of time people reviews but I could easily pretend to sell something to you and give you a five star every two seconds long but you would.

[Corey]

Have to know the people that you're like it only gives you the option when you've locked in and AI is.

[Heather]

Reading your conversation with these. I know but let's say okay, you list something I buy it pretend.

[Corey]

Okay. But you can only rank me.

[Heather]

Once but okay you got gams deed me sisters. We could. We could pump up that.

[Corey]

Review. Yeah, pump it.

[Heather]

Up.

[Corey]

Yeah. And who's going to do that.

[Heather]

Much research at the end of the day? Apparently you're saying you gave the Carhartt Jack to the guy with the best review. I did because he had 46 five years.

[Corey]

Ago. Odds are will he kill me for this.

[Heather]

Car. Anyways, join the reviews collab. Give more reviews because clearly they.

[Corey]

Matter. They matter, but they don't matter at.

[Heather]

All. Let's go feed Corey's internal cats kindly from good.