245. Baking it Down - Gimme Gimme Strategic Giving

Summary

Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪

Episode 245 — Gimme Gimme Strategic Giving

Hosts: Heather & Corrie Miracle
Date: January 19, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode spotlights "strategic giving"—the art of saying “yes” (or sometimes “no”) to partnership, donation, and sponsorship requests in a way that helps grow your cottage bakery business. Heather and Corrie dig into how bakers can navigate the parade of new-year asks from schools, community groups, and local causes, with business-savvy boundaries and a giving spirit. The heart of the episode is practical guidance on when to give, how to negotiate, managing expectations, and marketing your generosity—all delivered with the duo's signature blend of humor, relatability, and actionable advice.

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Key Topics & Insights

1. Defining Strategic Giving

[05:52]

• Strategic giving is partnering with organizations or causes in ways that move your business forward.
• It differs from purely charitable giving, which is driven by personal values regardless of business outcome.
• Focus is on local, mutually beneficial partnerships.

Quote – Corrie [06:02]:
“Strategic giving is opportunities to partner with companies that move your business forward while not necessarily generating income at the immediate start.”

Types of Requests:

• Sponsorships (banners, pamphlets, events)
• Donations (products for auctions, tickets, etc.)
• Partnership opportunities (blog posts, social media collabs)

2. Benefits of Strategic Giving

[06:38 - 15:46]

Business Visibility & Relationship Building

• Being asked means your marketing is working—visibility = opportunity.
• Supports existing customers and referrers (the "water where the grass is green" principle).
• Can open doors to new, higher-value markets (e.g., private schools, neighborhood groups).
• Sometimes has delayed gratification: returns can take years but often pay off in relationships and reputation.

Story – Make a Wish Foundation [07:28]

• Corrie donated a "princess set" for a Make a Wish child and built a long-lasting supporter relationship from the ambassador.

Quote – Heather [08:00]:
“Yes, that’s why it’s strategic. This is what this podcast is about. We’re giving to get. Just giving on your own? Please do it. But this is a giving-to-get strategy thing.”

Access to New Audiences

• Donating to newsletters, banners, or events can place your product in front of new customer bases.
• Strategic giving can cost less than paid advertising or direct mail and delivers authentic word-of-mouth value.

Content Creation

• Generating positive, feel-good stories for social media, newsletters, and press.
• “It’s always hard to have interesting content, but imagine… the feel-good content you get from this!”

3. Risks & Downsides of Strategic Giving

[21:46]

• No guarantees: Efforts may not yield direct sales, reviews, or even acknowledgement.
• Profit impact: Costs time and product, and means turning away potential paid orders.
• Risk of burnout: Over-giving—especially without boundaries—can drain resources and make you "the free-cookie lady."
• The more you give, the more you'll be asked.
• Sometimes opens you to negative reviews if, e.g., auction winners have unmet expectations (23:35).
• Relationship management: An unsatisfactory experience for either party can sour future business.

Quote – Heather [22:18]:
“If you’re giving something for nothing forever, you’re out of business.”

4. Goal-Setting for Strategic Giving

[26:57]

• Be proactive, not reactive. Choose opportunities that align with your business, not every ask that comes your way.
• Goals to consider:
  • Awareness/visibility vs. sales
  • Breaking into new demographics or industries (real estate, yoga studios, schools)
  • Supporting a cause you genuinely back
  • Creating “feel good” PR and social content

Quote – Heather [28:15]:
“Come up with your goal for strategic giving. Otherwise you will feel that you’re being taken advantage of because you’re not piloting the plane.”

Tips:

• Limit the number of opportunities (e.g., 4 per year/quarter).
• Name it so you can “tame” it—know what you want out of each partnership.
• Negotiate for exclusivity or for the type of recognition/posting you want.
• If your business is brand new or not profitable yet, it’s okay to say no.

5. Negotiation & Boundaries

[40:04]

How to Say No (Gracefully)

• Validate their ask: Recognize the organization/cause’s value.
• Blame the budget: “I've already allocated my charitable budget for the quarter.”
• Cookie compromise: If you can’t do five dozen, offer one dozen. (41:10)
• Keep the door open: Ask to be kept in the loop for future opportunities or ask to follow their social channels.

Quote – Corrie [44:01]:
“You can have a great relationship and have said no and they still want to support you.”

• Negotiation is key; many asks are starting points, not ultimatums.

Turn Opportunities to Your Advantage:

• Suggest alternatives, like contributing a ticket vs. products.
• Set expiration dates or trial periods for ongoing agreements to avoid being locked in.

6. Marketing Your Strategic Giving

[46:15]

• Any act of strategic giving should be shared proudly—in newsletters, on social, and in your local groups (with sensitivity around divisive topics).
• Tag or shout-out the cause/organization: it gives them content, too!
• Leverage these stories as “angelic content buckets” (Heather [47:58]).
• If a partnership hasn't generated sales, gently exit by highlighting your own busyness and referring other bakers.

Quote – Heather [46:23]:
“At no point would I ever do any of this if I wasn’t going to make a post about it.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Expectations:
  • “That’s why you’re sad. Your expectations (that) you did not say were not met.” – Corrie [19:04]
• On Being Proactive:
  • “Don’t be afraid to knock on the door of some business you just want to work with.” – Heather [27:57]
• On Social Media:
  • “If I want social media to be the result of this, I’m going to partner with somebody who is active on social media.” – Corrie [28:51]
• Practical Humor:
  • “You're holding the cookies and the cards.” – Corrie [13:32]
  • “If you need us to bless you: to say no to strategic giving–you’ve been blessed!” – Heather [37:26]

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Timestamps for Major Segments

| Segment | Topic | Timestamps | |---------|-------|------------| | Opening Chit Chat | Small talk, printers, decluttering | 00:02 – 02:42 | | Main Theme Intro | What is Strategic Giving? | 03:26 – 06:47 | | Benefits of Strategic Giving | Relationships, visibility, content | 06:47 – 15:46 | | Risks & Downsides | No ROI, burnout, boundaries | 21:46 – 26:53 | | Setting Goals | How to choose opportunities | 26:57 – 34:38 | | Saying No & Negotiation | Budget blame, compromise, sample scripts | 38:48 – 45:41 | | Marketing Your Good Works | Content, PR, example posts | 46:15 – 47:58 | | Ongoing Partnerships & Exit Strategies | Avoiding “giving traps,” trial periods | 48:12 – 50:45 | | Listener Q&A | Questions from the audience | 64:22 – 71:46 | | Sponsors, Collabs, Closing | Announcements, shout-outs | 71:56 – 80:41 |

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Practical Takeaways

• Only say yes to opportunities that fit your marketing and budget goals.
• Negotiate requests—don’t be afraid to suggest alternatives that better suit your business (fewer cookies, tickets, different designs).
• Market your giving: Make posts, share stories, tag partners—don’t assume others will do it for you!
• Gracefully decline asks by validating the requester, blaming your budget, and offering to stay in touch for future collaborations.
• Set clear boundaries and keep track of how many opportunities you take on each year to avoid burnout.

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For Those Short on Time

• "Strategic giving" is the best way for bakers to handle the stream of charity and sponsorship asks—focus on partnerships that genuinely help your business.
• Always measure the cost, goal, potential benefit, and emotional satisfaction of any request.
• Use donation/partnership stories to create content, and don't feel bad about saying “no” if the fit isn’t right.
• Keep your giving within budget and aligned to your business goals—your dough and your sanity depend on it!

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For more resources or to join the conversation, check out the Sugar Cookie Marketing Facebook Group.

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(End of summary. Advertisements, intros, and outros omitted per instructions.)

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to the baking down with Sugar Cookie Marketing.

[B]

A podcast.

[A]

I. I do have an outline this week, but it's via my phone so we can save on the trees.

[B]

I'll tell you what.

[A]

Printers.

[B]

Don't get me started.

[A]

Don't.

[B]

Do you have a printer? Yes. Who makes it?

[A]

Hp.

[B]

Oh, I hate those ones. Okay.

[A]

It.

[B]

Not to jinx it.

[A]

Knock on wood. It has been darling over the years. The ink. They must do one drop of ink per ink cartridge and it's a hubbabaloo because they're $60.

[B]

Yeah. Big inks. Just trying to get. Yeah.

[A]

There honestly are so me. I know.

[B]

Because that's annoying. So what I did was buy these brothers printers which allow you to replace the individual cartridge. In fact, you can self put in ink. So I don't like if my pink runs out. I can still use my yellow.

[A]

Isn't that what a printer normally does?

[B]

It'll do its best. HP has the brick for all colors.

[A]

No, it's. It's individual colors. You do.

[B]

Ruthann has the brick. I've never seen.

[A]

I'm sure. Maybe it depleted rainforest.

[B]

Deforestation is happening. Ruthanne right there. That woman will print out a thought and read it and listen. I disagree that save paper consider before printing.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That. That woman will print it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

She'll print it to read the fact that it says please don't print. That's how crazy it is.

[A]

I'm with her. Except for the ink part of it. I don't lock it.

[B]

Don't lock it one bit. Paper gives me extreme anxiety. I had to go check the wor mailbox and Cory just saw me have to go through the endless cl.

[A]

Yeah. Heather's been on an anxious declutter.

[B]

The paper, the pear, the.

[A]

The papel.

[B]

It's just not for me, man. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You don't.

[A]

But I want to say me editing this little thing on my phone. Also not for me. I need a big screen. Are you.

[B]

You've always been known as a pen and paper girl. Oh, I'm. I'm a big screen. Millennial through and through.

[A]

Well, I will print something out.

[B]

I. If you grab your phone to reserve a hotel in an airplane. Who are you? You monster.

[A]

But I think are doing everything from granted. This screen ginormous. It practically is an iPad.

[B]

There's. There's a big screen task and little screen task and they're not. And then there's pen and paper task. But my handwriting is so terrible.

[A]

I had to say your hand. My hand. I'm saying to myself, your handwriting's ugly, but it's your handwriting, so either use.

[B]

It or lose it. You bet. Printing computer? Yes. Cloud storage? Even better. That's how you're able to access. We're in a live doc.

[A]

I know. Okay. If you haven't tuned in, we're based off Facebook group called the Sugar Cookie Marketing Group. If you haven't joined, we'd love if you answer the questions and come join us. What you're hearing is just things that pop up in the group that we see people are asking about. So we bring it to your tiny little ear hole so you can listen to it while you bake.

[B]

Cory and I said the. It's already towards the last week and a half of January.

[A]

Insane.

[B]

The year will be flying.

[A]

Last year it flew.

[B]

Are we old that we're talking about years flying by?

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

I'm leaning fully into my boomer mentality. I call myself a boomer, and I'm not a boomer, but I am in my brain. So Easter is actually early this year. It's earlier by almost a month. It's classic. I think it's April 11th and it was.

[A]

Was it April?

[B]

May.

[A]

I have it. March.

[B]

April, actually. I think last year it's always in April, but it was the last week of April. And this year it is. Oh, April 5th.

[A]

Oh, man.

[B]

Closer. Yeah. Yeah. So the year is going to just storm us. I can feel it. Yeah.

[A]

Speaking of the year in the podcast topic today, my inbox this week has been filled with a lot of people asking for me to partner with their business, donate things like that. And it's because we're at the beginning.

[B]

Of a new year.

[A]

That's when a lot of businesses reach out because either they want to put a banner somewhere and they need to.

[B]

Print the materials, new initiatives, old sponsorship contracts ended, and we're halfway through the store school year. So it's the perfect mix for the topic today, which is. Oh, we didn't come up with the podcast name Strategic Giving. That's so boring.

[A]

It is, but that's all I had.

[B]

I'm gonna call it Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme. That's a good one. A lot of raise our quote, a.

[A]

Quote that I actually found and I thought it went, Winston Churchill said, we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

[B]

And to add a little asterisk to my old man Winston, there is within business, not every opportunity is created equally. So there's strategic giving, which is what we're talking About. And then there's charitable giving where you're not doing it necessarily. Both can fall within charity, but one is intentional to move your business forward. And then one is, that's what I want to support and cause. Yeah. My.

[A]

My prerequisite is if something is near and dear to you, this trumps any of that. If you're just doing it because it means something to you, this. Do it.

[B]

That's not what this podcast is. Yeah, that's not what this is. This podcast is about strategic localized partnerships. Yeah. And whether not. And you're going to see a lot of people. And Corey and I have been creating these podcasts so that we can link to them. When somebody has a question, people are going to just ding yet and say, hey, can you sponsor this? Hey, can you donate that? Hey, do you want to put a sign up here? Do you want to be in this booklet? Do you want to be on this banner? And they're going to do that specifically. Really through the first two quarters of the year is when I see it kick up and then I see it kind of diminished towards the end of the year. Right. So we're in the thick of it. I've started seeing even sugar cookie classes, getting emails about sponsorships, and then Corey has in her inbox been working through.

[A]

The strategy, working through them. And I. It. It's great to be asked, what an opportunity to be able to partner with things. A lot of bakers look on this as like a negative thing.

[B]

It's not necessarily negative. It could be strategic.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It just.

[A]

You have to be strategic.

[B]

If there's no plans, it can eat you up and spit you out. Yeah. But definitely, if you're wondering if we're just going to say no, this is not what this podcast is about either. It's how to say yes to the right options, opportunities, and how to make them work for you. So what was I going to ask you? Don't know. I don't remember.

[A]

Don't.

[B]

Let's dive into point one. So what is strategic giving? Like we said, it's like charitable giving. However, it's the strategic side of that, and we're going to focus on local things.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So Corey has strategic giving is opportunities to partner with companies that move your business forward while not necessarily generating income at the meet. The immediate start. Yeah. And that's why it's strategic.

[A]

Yeah. You'll see the way the emails come in, in our word are like, hey.

[B]

They'Re always really long. Yeah.

[A]

And so you have to think as a beginner, business People are going to approach you. Do you say yes to everything? Do you say no to everything? There's a little sweet spot in there that's going to benefit you and that's going to come down in a few spots where we talk about how to come up with your goal. The goal is always going to direct where you go and where you don't go.

[B]

Right.

[A]

But we want to talk about the benefits of strateg giving before we get to the goal, because there are a lot of benefits. Even though you feel like, well, they're.

[B]

Taking something for me for free. You don't tell you if you're not marketing well, you don't get pinged for strategic giving. So consider it an indication that you're doing well.

[A]

Yeah. You're around about people are seeing you.

[B]

And they were able to at least search you up on Google. And then a lot of this, you gotta understand some of it may be intentional and sometimes it may be like what they call it scrapers that are sending out masses. Yes. So big thing there. Well, you didn't write me personally. It's a numbers game. It's a big how many bodies can I ping to see if somebody bites? So there is. We're gonna talk about that in a second. Now, the benefits of strategic giving. Giving is good. Makes you feel good. Makes you feel good.

[A]

I got an opportunity. Make a Wish foundation is across.

[B]

Is it worldwide?

[A]

I know it's nationwide and they have a chapter, whatever they call, I'm not sure. In Northern Virginia. One of the Make a Wish ambassadors reached out to me a couple years ago to make a princess inspired set.

[B]

What?

[A]

It's done. I was one able to bake for this little girl's princess set. Amazing. It was a quick turnaround time, so it wasn't like super detailed. The lady, their ambassador, has supported my business air since she's asking to come to a cookie class. This was years ago.

[B]

And you see that, that's that delayed gratification.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

They may be loving to grab your pitch pitchfork and fire it and say you guys are only giving to get. Yes. That's why it's strategic. This is what this podcast is about. We're giving to get. Just giving on your own. Please do it. It's great to do. Supporting your local community, supporting your causes. But this is a giving to get strategy thing. So we are giving in the hopes of getting in. That was what marketing is. Yeah.

[A]

At the end of the day, when you give something, there can't be an expectation. So a lot of bakers get burned when they're like, why partnered with this? And I got nothing.

[B]

You know what? That's a big one. Like, I did all this. And then you'll see someone. Should I partner this? No. I didn't ruin me. So you got to kind of take those things as they. You. I'm sorry. Let me reset. You give in hopes to get. Yes. But it's not giving so that I'm guaranteed to get. Because there's no guarantee.

[A]

There's no guarantee.

[B]

However, you do this repeatedly over the course of time, strategically within budget, within the alignment of your business. You will get something out of this, if not just feeling good about your thing. Now, this is the one I just added. I snuck it in on Corey's. But the benefits of strategic giving are the ability to support customers. And these are the types of strategic giving leads which I find to be the most important. So Cori has this lady who tags her on every local community group post. She is a valuable resource for you. Yes. Now, she has said, could you sponsor this? Those are the ones where I would probably put my focus towards. Because it waters the ground that's already green. She's a referral source. And then it. It will create good juju between you and her in the future.

[A]

What's crazy is she's not technically my ideal customer. She doesn't live near me.

[B]

She's your ideal Facebook user.

[A]

She's my ideal Facebook user. So while she's not supporting me financially right now, it still behooves me because she actually tags me all the time in community groups that I do serve. She lives a little farther away down the road. I can't blame her for not wanting to drive up 95. Her younger sister orders from me often. So there's a strategic partnership where the school that she's wanting these cookies for will probably never order for me. I won't see the benefit. So my goal right there isn't to get orders from the school. My goal is to continue the relationship.

[B]

With that specific lady now. And we're going to use her as our little case study. And we'll get back to this.

[A]

The.

[B]

What they're asking for can actually be negotiated, Right? Yeah. Not everything is like, if I. If it's yes or does not black and white, we can find a wiggle room because the. The cause that the woman emailed you about is actually not within your target audience either, but strategic. So we're going to talk about finding that sweet spot, compromise that still makes the customer feel supported.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And still allows Corey to maintain the relationship. Yeah. Another benefit, Cory Reid, is always you.

[A]

Reach people you wouldn't normally reach. Now this is great. If you're trying to get into a place that, that has maybe more disposable income, supporting a private school in your area might be a great opportunity for you. They have extra income that they're working with, they're willing to buy things. And oftentimes the only way to get in there is sponsoring the school in some form or fashion. So that's a great way if you're trying to get into a new audience, whether it be a new area, up and coming, local neighborhood that's being built. There's opportunities there. You could be in their monthly newsletter, you know, things like that where you can say right now I probably won't make a sale, but I could be someone that's referred to because I appear in their newsletter. I appear on a banner in the gymnasium, things like that.

[B]

See, Corey said I could be not I will be. So it's easy to turn strategic giving into strategic pouting if you didn't feel like you got your money's worth. But like Corey said, she did the. What was that? Bake a wish.

[A]

Make a wish.

[B]

It was Make a wish. Should we call it Make a wish?

[A]

I know, but Make a wish does.

[B]

She did the Bake a Wish and it took years for. And here's the thing, I know at cookie class, we donated a cookie class ticket. And I'm going to talk about that in a minute. I love that. Because it is a low. It's not. It's cheaper than it does. It's actually financially the same impact. But for us it's cheaper to add somebody to a class than bake a desert. It is, it is. It's easier for Corey at least. Yeah. But we had that woman a couple, maybe a year later come back to buy a class and bring a friend. So it took a very long time to see anything from it. But we weren't sitting there stewing the whole time saying, what a waste.

[A]

But a lot of bakers will stew and they will turn their shoulder to any other opportunities because maybe the one didn't work out.

[B]

Yeah. So I'm going to tell you this one. It is strategic giving will likely be cheaper than paying for an ad or running for every mail, every day direct mail program. A client I had was really big into that. So running about a five mile radius in a high housing area in the mail, sending spam.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Was about $300 a lot. But sponsoring the kids local Soccer team was whatever it was. However, it was a lot cheaper for a baker. Right? Yeah. And they're not asking us to. To necessarily sponsor the kids soccer team as much as can you donate product? Which I love going towards a donation.

[A]

I'd much rather donate a product that someone could taste test versus just being on a long lost forgotten side which.

[B]

We'Re say is not. Every opportunity is created equally donating product cheaper. But maybe it's to a silent auction. I always like that one. Because people can do that. Any auction type things means that for three hours someone's getting shown your name.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Then you have the would you like to sponsor the kids pamphlet for the performance? Yes. That's supporting. I don't know if that's the most but let's say you could marry that to. And provide cookies. Can I also provide cookies for the end of the event at the end of the day?

[A]

And we have a point. This, this is all negotiable. There's questions that you can ask. They're coming to you. So the cards are in your hands.

[B]

You're holding the cookies and the cards.

[A]

Yeah. So while they say can you sponsor our newsletter for 300? I can. Is there any way I can write a blog post that tags my website? It's all up for negotiation.

[B]

Social media posts about it. Yeah. You can see that there is ways to get more from this because I think the person. Listen, listen. Have you ever been. I've not even had kids, but my mom has been on her own. Pta. Yeah. You're desperate. Open an email, write back. Right. So they're willing to probably play a lot more ball than you expect because they're getting rejected by so many people. Yes. Another one we have is creating relationships with new people. Like we said, Corey was referred to by lady who she wanted us to donate. I think she wanted a dozen. But we came back with negotiation. How about a cookie class kit?

[A]

Yeah. Ticket.

[B]

And then now she's a huge fan of cookie class because she came back a year later and I think she came back a few times actually.

[A]

She has Joe.

[B]

Joe. I liked her. So yeah. Creating relationships with new people. We were only introduced because someone referred to us to their charitable program. And then now we have a relationship.

[A]

So Heather's talking about someone actually won the silent auction. She won the class ticket. The relationships can form with the person you're just talking to whose job is to reach out to bakers to donate stuff. There's relationships at every stage of this. There's a real person you're talking to that you can create a relationship with. So before Baker's like you didn't even support me. I'm gonna tell but how would you ask for something if you didn't support that person at the end of the day doesn't need that kind of. But they are a potential order in and of themselves. We don't know who they know. They have a whole circle of people.

[B]

Within their remember they could actually just buy themselves. Yes. And I think when in that instance Joe was the winner but the lady who also set up the event came as well later.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So we made two wins. I know Joe came back many years.

[A]

Yeah. And we love Joe.

[B]

We also have showcase that you're working within your community and that's going to be actually added. I snuck in an extra point. Right. We weren't looking marketing your. Your strategic giving. So. But yeah, we're going to talk about that because we're always talking about content buckets and it's hard to have interesting content. But imagine the content feel good content which I think we need more of it, not less of it feel good content. You're able to create a whole piece and we'll talk about this in a minute. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna slow my row. Okay. Go on to the next topic. I love it. Just get more orders.

[A]

It you can just get more orders when. When the stars align. And this is not every time. Let me tell you that first and foremost, when the stars align, you can really honestly get more orders. Me and Heather partner. And when you think giving, you're always thinking charity. No, at the end of the day it can just be giving to someone. On TikTok yesterday, some local lady said, I'm new to the DMV. The DMV is the area we live in. And she's like, I want to show you.

[B]

It's so Wild side DMV Department of Motor Vehicles DMV DC Maryland, VA I know Wild to do that to people. If you're not local to interchange, you wouldn't know.

[A]

So this local lady says, I wanted to show you things around the DMV you can do solo. Listen, we have so many solo people who come to our cookie classes. This gal is making a video about it. So in the comment section, I said, we haven't launched our classes yet, but I would love to offer you a ticket to a future class.

[B]

Great idea. Strategic giving. A full loss of a ticket, but a full potential for her to make this one.

[A]

She's not afraid to make content.

[B]

Did she respond, she said oh yeah.

[A]

Let me know, I'd love to come.

[B]

So when you hear that like right there, you're going to say they just want stuff for free. Yes they do. That is a part of the strategic strategy.

[A]

I have to say if, if it's a free ticket but she makes a video about it. That ad revenue.

[B]

Let me tell you guys the. And this might be a little outdated. The average price of UGC user generated content to buy the video is over a thousand dollars. Corey saying for 85 which that's our. That includes our profit. Right. But our cost here is what like $40. But like it's such a minimal impact to get someone to post to their social media that, that we're great.

[A]

At the end of the day it's up to me to. It's gonna feel weird when I'm like okay, here's the ticket. I need to. As the business owner. Hey, I was wondering could you make a short video and it's. That'd be great. The ticket's worth 85. If you made like a video that was worth 85. She's a local lady and not necessarily an influencer who has a book of how much her videos cost. It behooves me to ask the right.

[B]

Question and she can reject that. She cannot. Absolutely.

[A]

And that's a part of an imagination.

[B]

And it gets icky sticky feeling weird.

[A]

But it. We're a business at the end of.

[B]

The day just got it know it's a part of the business.

[A]

I've actually donated cookies to a local real estate agent and she never mentioned me anywhere. She never thanked me for it. And I said I could have been like real estate agents are the worst. I'm never going to partner with them again if that was just not the right real estate agent for me to partner with. And that's okay. It was a risk I took. It was a risk that didn't have a lot of reward. But I can't close my entire idea in mind to strategic giving just because one didn't work out when others have worked out.

[B]

I don't. It's. You remember they say it's not personal, it's business. And that phrase is so important. It's not personal, it's business.

[A]

A lot of times I see bakers very sad after they've done some giving because it sucks.

[B]

It does suck. Death doesn't feel good.

[A]

Sure. And it's because their expectations were high but their communication was low.

[B]

Because you're hoping you're willing. Every book I've ever read on relationships in any capacity ever written penned by a scientist. They are like. Communication is key. It is setting communication, setting expectations, negotiating. It cannot be mind read.

[A]

It cannot be mind read. But that's why you are sad, is because the expectations that you did not say were not met. So communication can feel weird because you're like, hey, what do I get out of this?

[B]

And they're like, I thought you were.

[A]

Donating to the kids soccer team. No, they're getting that, which is great. And you can ask for things as well.

[B]

Love it.

[A]

So I want to say, don't be afraid to ask. And then it can break you into an industry. If you are like, I really want it can bake you into an industry like ants in a sugar cookie.

[B]

That's a long, long time. You'd have to be chronically in the sugar cookie market for half a decade.

[A]

If I wanted to get more real estate clients. Partnering with somebody is a fantastic way. Business having openings. I was talking about this to the cookie college. A business that is getting ready to open. We've had. Have you ever heard of the Hive flavor place?

[B]

No.

[A]

It is. You bring your bag of chips and they put meat tacos.

[B]

I've seen those on TikTok. They look like a blast. Okay.

[A]

They've opened four locations. One just opened in Manassas last week.

[B]

We should go. We should go.

[A]

So someone had made a video about it, and I asked her, like, do they have chips that you buy there? Do you have to bring your chips from home? And she's like, bring your chips from home.

[B]

You have to bring your chips.

[A]

Yeah. Or it's a place.

[B]

Doritos. It is.

[A]

It's Chipotle style.

[B]

So you could also just get a bowl. Yeah.

[A]

They brought. Not sure where I was going with.

[B]

Oh. If I went where I was going with this nacho.

[A]

If I wanted to break in an industry, I could partner with Flavor Hive and say, hey, I know you're having a ribbon cutting. I would love to provide some logo cookies to you. And then that's me in a restaurant industry partnership, you know?

[B]

And now it's a way to bridge a gap. It's kind of like almost a cookie collabs where like, you wouldn't do that normally, but now we have an excuse to. Yeah, I like that. So breaking into an industry. Imagine that Cory's. I can tell you what I love about real estate agents is they love to copy each other.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So imagine Corey breaks into a real estate agent who gives it to clone closings because this Woman probably just likely made $20,000 off the sale.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

What is a dozen cookies? Well, I can guarantee you Corey can. I found these Facebook groups for real estate agents and they're called pop buys.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

So imagine Corey says, hey, it's so funny when guys give you this fun idea about these ideas to drop off to the clients. I actually cookified the client's house.

[A]

You know what's so funny is a yoga studio opened up in Lake Ridge a few years ago and she, the lady asked if anyone would donate something. I said, I'll donate a dozen cookies. It's so funny after that, so many yoga studios have reached out because they were seeing what that yoga studio was doing. Granted, loss. Loss for me. Right.

[B]

I think that yoga studio has come back a lot.

[A]

That was the one you saw with.

[B]

That other yoga studio. Did Cory gets a yoga studio studio order? All I know because she needs me to send the invoice like once a year. And it's from this thing where she donated cookies and a whole nother. We like that to us.

[A]

And you have paid.

[B]

She did not donate them to.

[A]

I didn't donate to them.

[B]

You guys can see that there is a lot of opportunity here. Point three, with opportunity. With great opportunity comes great downsides potentially. So the downsides of strategic giving is you truly do risk getting nothing from it. Like Corey said, with a real estate agent, nothing came from it. She never posted about no good reviews. Bummer. Easy to get your panties watered. Yeah, but unwad the panties. You knew that was a risk going in. If you thought that, that there was a secret, I think you entered in for the wrong reasons.

[A]

And I want to say to the real estate agent, I never said, do you mind posting me to your social media? So guess what? She never did. So that's why there was never Kumbaya.

[B]

Yeah. Can she read my mind? She turns out she absolutely can't.

[A]

But I learned a lot from that one. Now, I know you say the right thing. It does impact your profitability. One, you're turning down orders you could have.

[B]

And two, you're not making money on this order. Now this is why I love a business budget. I would allocate some of my marketing. Marketing my funds to be this is allocated for this strategic giving. This is a part of my business model. If you're giving, you know, I'll talk about that in just a minute. If you're giving something for nothing forever, you're out of business.

[A]

True.

[B]

So there's strategic giving within. And we're gonna talk about the Restrictions of it. So you're not just burned out from. Yeah, because what you're gonna see, and this is another point, is the more you get involved with stuff like this, the more you're pinged for it. Yes. Right. Because why wouldn't you? You said yes. That would be an easy lead. If I was a PTA president, I would say, they said yes once. We'll try them again until they pass away.

[A]

You'd be dumb not to.

[B]

We'll burn the bridge.

[A]

Burn it to the ground.

[B]

Burn it to the ground. It impacts. It is a. It is a lack of profit. You're not making any money on this, but you can make it a part of your marketing budget that I knew I wasn't gonna make money on this. And I am investing in the same way you would be running a Facebook ad and paying it to Mark Zuckerberg. You are run strategic giving it campaign and giving the money essentially as product or a ticket to this.

[A]

While you can track the views, the clicks with your Facebook ad, you can't necessarily track the views and the clicks and the sales from strategic giving because like we said, the relationship's cultivated over a long time. Jo came back to a class a year later. She did. So I can say that didn't work. No, Jo technically came back. That money Joe paid is allocated to that strategic giving. It's so it's just harder to track because you never know where did these people come from. You don't.

[B]

And then the way you could do that is, you know, if you sign up for class, you could say, how.

[A]

Did you hear about it?

[B]

Yes, if you want. If you want to do that, if.

[A]

You wanted to do.

[B]

And it can leave you open to bad reviews. You know, you don't have a lot of control over the product again, especially in the auction ones. People may not be refrigerating. It may taste stale. You don't know who's getting it. You don't know what expectations they say.

[A]

Let me tell you the auction one in a cookie class. This is the one I see probably once or twice a year in the sugar cookie market group. Someone will donate a ticket to a cookie class. Someone will win it in the silent auction. They'll not there. There was no expiration date. Or maybe there was an expiration date. But now you're no longer dealing with that feel good moment. The. The setter upper of the asylum auction. You're dealing with the person who won. And the person who won said, I won the ticket. I want to come to a class. You Your classes are all booked. What gives? I won this ticket. I want to use it. Do you bend your boundaries and open up up another seat? Maybe your place does. It can cost you relationships and that sucks.

[B]

Every time you open your mouth, it can either strengthen something or break something.

[A]

Yeah. Me and Heather were talking about it sometimes with the clients. We were there saving grace when we came and blessed their business with marketing. We could have had. We had this one client. We gave him so much marketing help.

[B]

And grew his business over the years.

[A]

His final interaction with us is he wanted something for free and we said we can't do it for free. Here's how much it would cost.

[B]

Okay. I can. I can gesture the scope of work and we could send you over. Quote, I wrote it, remember, Always write if it's being read in the court of law. Yeah. His response couldn't read in the court of law.

[A]

All the years of working with him where we had great run. He will now only think of us in a bad light from our final interaction.

[B]

I really. I like to think maybe this is my coping strategy. That in the dark of the day the moon is in the center of the sky. It's midnight, it's quiet. The crickets. He says I did them dirty in that response. I wish I didn't see it that way.

[A]

I hope so.

[B]

Corey and I were talking about this. A little side note is that to respond to somebody you actually have all the time in the world you need. But that knee jerk response that you feel like I need to say this right now to prove my point. You have lost all your bargaining.

[A]

The cards no longer in your.

[B]

You threw them cards out the window as fast again. But you can take as long as you need to revolve.

[A]

Yeah. Your ideal, your best client coming to you who has supported you all over the years asking for you to give something. And maybe you're booked and you can't. Their final interaction with you and you, you run the risk that they never come back because maybe they've supported you all this years. They asked you to support one time. You can't. You say no. Now we never hear from this amazing client ever again because they've moved on.

[B]

Right.

[A]

That's also something you gotta keep in the back of your mind.

[B]

Don't be afraid. I wish I had. I could put this somewhere else. Oh no. I'll put this as the next one. Our point four is how to come up with a goal for your giving strategy. I would tell you this. Don't be afraid to knock on the door of some business you just want to work with. So if you say, wow, this school is right smack dab in my target audience of women with two kids that are under 10, I would love to get in front of them. Don't be afraid. Because you know what? That rarely happens to the people who have to manage getting sponsors.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So if you say, hey, guys, I'm just curious if there's any opportunity for you to work with me. Here are some ideas I had. So guide the conversation. Otherwise you're going to end up in a pamphlet that gets thrown away.

[A]

A new business that's opening and they're having a ribbon.

[B]

They're desperate. We imagine yourself. These business owners aren't unlike us.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

They're not some. Let me get a top my high horse and let you know that you'll never touch me again. They're desperate for a. You know, Corey, I think it was the Yoder's Dutch delight. You're like, hey, can I swing by? And they're like, oh, my goodness, thank you so much. Desperate. Thank you.

[A]

I'll reshare it.

[B]

Like, oh, shoot, I thought you were.

[A]

Gonna think I was annoying.

[B]

Yeah. So to be able to reach out, Corey has an interesting story. But, like, the police department, if you donate anything, they'll take a picture of it.

[A]

They will. If you go to the central place, you can't go to the other two. You have to go to the one.

[B]

Corey and I were saying, the person who's running the police department, Social media is just somebody like us.

[A]

She needs content. Right?

[B]

She needs content. She's supposed to. So come up with your goal for strategic giving. Otherwise you will feel that you're being taken advantage of because you're not piloting the plane. You're just in the backseat being buffeted by the choppy wind. So do you want awareness? Then you're gonna look for something that' maybe has eyes. Those are two different goals. Awareness and sales. Right.

[A]

A business that is active on social media, that's a great place to partner with.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

You know, I've partnered with companies that don't have a lot of social media interactions. Okay. They were appreciative of it. The people were at the party. Great. I never got a social media post. They're not even posting their social media.

[B]

And of course, like, I want social media to be the strategic result of this. Maybe not sales, but I want social media awareness. Then she's going to want to partner with somebody who is active on social media. In fact, Corey and I, and at this point, I'm like, you're going to get a post from them or you're. You're never. Yes. Didn't you do something with a restaurant that was a French restaurant? And they were like. The guy. It's like some man who never posted social media. Of course he never posted. We.

[A]

It was a collab that we did and you highlighted a business and it was graffiti cat pizza in Occoquan. It was so funny. I've posted them everywhere. And then that was back in August. Just now they're finding the reviews and responding to them.

[B]

Delayed gratification. But Corey could have. It was a risk.

[A]

It was a risk.

[B]

All this is a risk. This is strategic giving. Not strategic getting.

[A]

The risk, though, was calculated. I know he doesn't post to social media a ton featuring other businesses. He posts his pizza every week. Not necessarily a ton of. It was a. It was a gamble.

[B]

But your true goal for that one was to join the Main street cookie collab and post it in a community group. So Corey still won that way. And that's why she chose that. Now she's benefiting a little extra. Extra. Yeah. So you can see. Do you want to. Okay, like this one. Do you want to reach a demographic or do you want to support a cause? So those are going to be two different types of outreach. If you're like, oh, that school in that expensive part of Northern Virginia I want to get in with. That's going to be a different email then. I really like what you guys are doing with homeless cats.

[A]

Yes. I see.

[B]

And you're like a cause.

[A]

I have to look for a 503C. No, there's causes that will present themselves all the time. I see it saw someone found like there was a dog hit by a car. Let's raise funds. It was at the shelter. Let's raise funds for it. So a portion of everyone who bought the dog cookie. 10% went to that. Dave's Dogs got behind that situation because he one loves dogs. Hot dogs is what he sells. And it was just so. And it was an opportunity that arose. It wasn't necessarily like this charity that's been here for 50 years. You'll see these opportunities arise around you.

[B]

I want to tell you, Dave's Dogs is interesting. The Dave's Dogs is a hot dog truck. And he donates proceeds to the shelters.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

But he's been around forever.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

He is now a part of Woodbridgeopoly. Like, and that's not a joke. Whatever. Whoever. Where they Hasbro who makes monopolies Put Dave's dogs on the woodbridgeopoly board.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So that took forever. But wow, you're on a printed game board.

[A]

So what it would behoove me to do if I'm thinking like, okay, no dog was hit recently. It behooved me to partner with Dave's dogs.

[B]

No dog was hit recently. No dogs.

[A]

Lord. But to partner with Dave Dogs. He's on social media all the time.

[B]

He's very popular with.

[A]

And then I could get maybe if I think like, oh, I could get maybe on a social media some great.

[B]

Strategy and that's how you kind of say okay, to hook my trailer to somebody else who's real good at strategic giving.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Last minute opportunities. Now this one, I always find you have to be boots on the ground in these groups, living and breathing.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Somebody will say I had such a bad experience. I've seen it like last year somebody got a cake or the cake wasn't delivered and I think a bunch of bakers got in and said we're going to do it.

[A]

Yeah, we're.

[B]

And they got a lot of strategic social media launch from that. Granted, made no money but a lot of people in the comments are like, oh, I'll keep your name for the future. You're going to be my go to baker. It's those last minute opportunities of strategic giving do require to be real close to this stuff. I'll send Corey stuff every once in.

[A]

A while and be like, yeah, can you will?

[B]

Yeah. So things like that, do you want to reach a new audience? Audience? Like which audience would you want to reach? Talk about it from a marketing standpoint. Okay. I like senior living facilities but those people don't have the expendable budget to purchase cookies. So I'm going to do this because I want to reach the audience. And that's more of a giving thing. Yeah.

[A]

But then to the antithesis is, you know, there's a new preschool opening up. I would love to get into the minds of the parents as these kids grow older.

[B]

So. So neither one is better nor worse. One is more feel good and one is more. I would like to get sales from this. But both do benefit humans in the community.

[A]

Me and Heather have been shopping around old folks homes, elderly living facilities because we want to teach a class there. These people aren't going to come to a future class. This would be a feel good moment to be able to say, hey, we went and me and Heather in high school, our church always went to these facilities.

[B]

When you got to see that, they just Want.

[A]

They just want someone there.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

You wouldn't be filling class. That would be a feel good moment.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

I could use that on my social media to say here's what our.

[B]

And we're going to talk about that because that is what you would be doing that for. Because that's a part of the strategy. Yeah. I always see people. You're giving. You're just giving to get something. Yes. This is a business. It has to be profitable. And if it's not financially profitable, it can be good karma problem. Absolutely do. How many opportunities are you willing to take? That's a good one. Set that up now because like we said, the more opportunities you take, the more you're going to be asked. Yeah.

[A]

You are going to be asked a lot. Lot. It's taking opportunities to make money off your plate. But you could. I see a lot of bakers who do this more as a hobby, take on a lot of this extra curriculum, really good marketing.

[B]

But I think it can get out of control.

[A]

You can be like, well, I'm just working for free. I'm the free person worker.

[B]

Because like we said, it's not an immediate turnaround of a lead. Yeah. It is a long con and maybe you're looking at two or three leads. But it does help the community.

[A]

When I've given things away in the past, I'll get an email. Hey, I got your name from Michelle. She said you donated something last year to this and I would like that too. And I'm like, oh, Michelle, you did me dirty girl.

[B]

Michelle, I needed the money, not the need for a person. So you say you dictate that yourself. Nobody can make you do something you don't want to do. You can say, okay, this year I'm going to take three strategic giving opportunities and I'm going to do. I would make them all strategic giving opportunities for a business. Yeah.

[A]

And I want you. When you can name your goal, it'll be so easy to see what aligns with it and what doesn't align with it.

[B]

That's our next point and that's name it so you can tame it. Right. So I'm giving myself. I'm doing four opportunities this year. I'm doing four opportunities this quarter. So now we have. And Corey has this broken out really nicely. Something to butt up the no against. It doesn't make you the bad guy. It doesn't make them feel bad for asking. But our last point is maybe strategic giving isn't the right fit for you. I had met this guy, he started from Nothing. And I watched him become something and it was very interesting to see him in person. And he ended up becoming a business coach. I had asked him some questions, tell me what. And he was like, it's interesting that people with very new businesses automatically want to go to. For every thing you buy, I'll match it and donate it. He said, when you're not profitable, that is not the best thing to do for anybody. In fact, you are far more useful for strategic giving opportunities if you're in business for a long time. Yeah, not a one hit wonder. So he's like, people are so keen to be like, I'll donate everything you paid, I'll give it away. And he was like, not until you're in the space to do that is that the right thing to do. It's not fair to anybody, it's not fair to you and it's not fair to the people asking.

[A]

You can turn, you can get cold hearted towards giving when you. So many people are asking, you've given, given, given, your business has not grown and you're like, wow, I'm, I'm jaded. Yeah. But maybe you were saying yes at the wrong time.

[B]

I think that's when we see the people like don't take, do free stuff. It, it never works. I think that's because they didn't have a strategy in place. They didn't have their own boundaries in place, their policies in place behind it and they did get burned and they have every right to be upset. However, now the Papua in every thread about it, when I'm like, there is a lot of opportunity here, this is not, this is definitely a strategic thing. You have to have the strategy. And if it does, if the strat, if you look through the numbers, you look through your thing, you're like, this is not. Even if I did get leads, I can't bake them. Or even if I did get like Corey saying this, this opportunity that's so far out of our demographic, it's like an hour south.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It will not get you the leads you want. She's doing it to work with this lady that gives her referrals.

[A]

Yeah, so.

[B]

So Corey's saying, well, I'm just going to put all I'm going to the ask was 150 units or something.

[A]

So the, my client's friend who doesn't order for me needed 150 of something.

[B]

For a school system for a pizza.

[A]

Hour that's an hour away. So not my deal, any of it.

[B]

So if, if Corey said, well, I'm just. I'm just going to take every strategic giving opportunity and do it. You'll be out of business.

[A]

Yeah. And you're going because it wasn't strategic. An hour away. No one's coming down 95 for cookies like that. That's going to make me be like, well, I'm done.

[B]

This is.

[A]

I just feel used and abused. People just keep coming.

[B]

Here's the thing. If you work at the school, you will get more. Ask for the school. That is not within your.

[A]

This lady who asked me for the cookies this year will ask me for the cookies.

[B]

Why wouldn't you. Why would be a natural strategic thing to do. Yeah.

[A]

My next point is how to turn these into opportunities. Is going to tell you you have more cards to play with than you.

[B]

I think you have all the cards. So when I'm going to tell you this. If you said if you need us to bless you. To say no to strategic giving. You've been blessed. You're allowed to. If you only do one thing this year and it's very small, congratulations. That was strategic. You've done it. Right.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So if you. If you feel guilty, don't. If you feel obligated, don't. And if you feel that you have to do this, you don't. So how to turn down the opportunities. Okay. That's par for the course. Yeah. People who get free stuff want more free stuff, especially when it benefits them. They're not running home and eating it. They're looking good in front of the school. They're looking good. Hey. Because they got to report to a boss, too. So when you start taking strategic giving opportunities, you will get asked more than you thought. It's free. It's a.

[A]

The floodgates open.

[B]

Once when I got a speeding ticket and I had to do mitigation efforts and sign up to work a free thrift store. Yeah. It wasn't a free. My. My labor was free. Your labor was. It was. Because I did. I broke the law. Yeah. Now they ask me for money all the time. And I was like, that's not even why I was there. So. But why wouldn't they. They have my. If they don't ask, the answer's always enough. I was listening to some book on negotiations and they were like, asking for donations to, like, some. Like, we need you to donate for a cause or something. They were like, it's a numbers game.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And it's coming back to people who've already given because they're most likely. Remember, the warmest lead is the one you already got. Oh, so we understand that now. Let's. Let's curate it. Corey, take us through.

[A]

Okay. How to turn down the opportunities. What we don't want to do is say, how dare you. You've never supported me. I've never seen you like my post. You comment on nothing. How dare you ask for something from me. Yeah, it is a numbers game. Someone else is doing a job because someone else told them to. So we can't necessarily lambast people just for asking. Um, so don't slam the door. Keep the door slightly open for future work. The first thing we want to do when we turn down is to validate them. I love that what you're doing for the homeless prevention center. The work you have done at the animal shelter is so commendable.

[B]

We were driving out to West Virginia the other day and I was pointing. I was taking Corey through every strategic giving.

[A]

You'll never know what it.

[B]

Where you're going to end up with this. We had this dog and it had had a life as a breeder dog. And then the breeder gives it up. It did not have a great life. Elderly. Elderly and cancer diagnosis. So they. The dog's name was Matilda and Corey's like, strap up. At that point, it was an hour and a half from my house.

[A]

It was not beneficial.

[B]

Matilda got adopted immediately the next day. So it was beneficial for Matilda. Then it was like, you made me donate sandwiches. And then we did this hike and we did this. We don't want. We don't to want.

[A]

Want. We don't want. Okay, so you're going to validate them because what they are doing is good work. It's a numbers game. They're in the streets, they're in the inboxes.

[B]

It's hard.

[A]

What they're doing is probably good things for the local community. So we want to validate them. They've done a good work and that.

[B]

They'Re being rejected so much.

[A]

No, they're being rejected all the time.

[B]

They're being really left unread, probably endlessly. And then I want to say what.

[A]

Behooves you is to not lead these people on red. To not just delete the email and never respond. We're going to talk about to the next. Is blame the budget.

[B]

Yeah. So we start with validate. Oh, thank you so much for contacting me. I love what you guys are doing. Very nice.

[A]

I love to say thank you so much for thinking about me for this opportunity.

[B]

Love that. Love that. I've already allocated my charitable budget for the Quarter month or year. Like, so it's not me. It's a budget. And I hate to budget. It's a big bad budget. But you know, I. Right now it's not the great opportunity. But we're saying it like, I've already allocated my charity budget for the quarter order. And then I like Corey's this alternative one. So that's when we're going to that. No, not right now. But if we have the other option is the cookie compromise. So instead of, you know, no, we could say, hey, I can't make a five dozen donation work, but what about one dozen? So now we got a little bit of a yes, but what's within what we actually want to do?

[A]

So the lady that asked for me to donate to the PDA where I can't even service, she said I need to give 150 things. Things.

[B]

And she said it. And she said, we saw it. There's negotiation.

[A]

Okay, 150 wide range, tons of time. But when I say I can't do 150, but I can do two dozen. So I've taken 24 people off the 150 list.

[B]

That's still.

[A]

That's more than what she had before.

[B]

And she can say, well, that doesn't.

[A]

But whatever.

[B]

We're compromising, we're working on compromise. And that was when somebody had asked Corey to donate a dozen. And she said, the cookie class kit ticket.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. Your expiration dates have possibly. They wouldn't even rid. Redeem it, but we did it.

[A]

It's just the cards are in your hands. They've got to throw out some starting point. 150.

[B]

It would be like going to a dealership that definitely isn't CarMax, but a normal dealership. And they're. You're like, how much is this? And they're like 60,000. You're like, no.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

No, no. And they're like, no, no, ask me. No, it's your turn to come back. When I was 18, I sold my dad's. I said, I would like to sell a car. And he said, you can do it as long as you do it yourself. And I have no idea what I was doing.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

So listed the car, what I thought was a competitively priced vehicle, but it was priced according to everyone else's asking price, which was a negotiation starting point. This man calls from Pennsylvania and he was like, hey, I would like to offer this on the car. And I said, thank you so much. It's a note. And I hung up on him because I was like, that's not what I want. He called back and he was like, hey, would you mind if I speak to your dad real quick? And so he's like, hey Glenn, you know, this is actually what the car's worth and we'd really like the one that you guys are selling. It's like well kept. So. So that's what Corey is saying. Here is the cookie compromise is ask the 150. See if anybody plays ball.

[A]

Yes. You will get offended to see that someone wants 150 of anything because you're like.

[B]

And you go to the groups and.

[A]

You'Re like this idiot right here. Can you believe that? For 150 and they need it tomorrow. They just need to have a starting point. If I came up and I was like, well, I could do 140. Well, I've taken care of most of the things. She wants to worry about 10 more things. Okay, I can't do the 150. I can do the 25 five. And she was so thankful.

[B]

You say custom decorated. Hey, how about we do Eddie printed? Yeah. You know, I want this thing. How about this smaller thing? You can play ball if it's still. If you're like, oh, I still. That's too much. Or that's not within my plan or my. My strategic.

[A]

But the opportunities and I like it.

[B]

I want to. I want to keep my foot in the door. So I would go with that. If you want to do the no. Or even if you want to bake the. My budget. Hey, listen, that's out of my budget. But what I can do. So we can do the hybrid. The budget's bad guy. The cookie compromise. If you still want to take the order and even if you don't want to take the order in this way, I'd love to know when future opportunities arise. Can I follow you on social media or sign up for a newsletter to stay up to date about this?

[A]

Keep the door ajar. We ne' er need to. If these. If none of these strategic givings works out, the person you're talking to has a wallet and a job.

[B]

They do. And you're easy to work with. They.

[A]

You can have a great relationship and have said no to them and they still want to continue to support you.

[B]

Right. Because they understand trust. Greet them. So let me just read that together. Hey, thank you so much for contacting me. I love that you considered me before this and I love the work that you're doing with this organization. So I've already actually allocated my charitable budget for the quarter that said for Next quarter. I'd love to know when future opportunities are. Can I follow you guys on social media? Can you, can you add me to an email list about this? So wow. That was a really respectful way to say no while still keeping the door open.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. You'll see a lot of these and I'm getting a lot of em. Would you like to sponsor a banner? Would you like to be a banner around the soccer field? That's a monetary like a thousand dollars for was one of the banner sizes. That's out of my thing and I don't love the banner because what you're looking at a banner, I mean you get your name out there, recognition, maybe someone's reading.

[B]

Have you ever ordered from a banner?

[A]

No, I haven't. So what I would say is I would turn down the banner and be like if you're doing an open house, I would love to provide the the cookies for that. That way it's beneficial to me because people are eating them. And then hey, when you do the open house, do you mind if I leave some business cards with her?

[B]

Because we got such a cute little Cute consumable. We have more options for this type of stuff than the plumber. The plumber, he has to land on the that flyer. He is the flyer. He has no other option.

[A]

Wait, you can donate a toilet.

[B]

Feel free to use that toilet publicly displayed. So for us, because we have a cute product, we have more opportunity to say hey, no. What, what about something where they're consuming this? We're seeing this.

[A]

A PTA comes to you and says can you donate something? Hey, I can't donate anything right now, but I would love to do a dozen back to school treats for the teachers and then one, you could use that for your own pre sale item. You're dictating the design. That's the great part about it. You, you have so much control and you can make that work for you. So you do the pre sale designs and now you can use it to market your own pre sale. But you're giving them to the teachers.

[B]

A lot of them are going to ask you for a financial donation. That is the goal. But they'll be open to playing a little ball, right? Because a lot of the business they want to to the plumber, they can only do a financial donation.

[A]

The end all be all to all this. Whether you get a lot from them, it's a great content bucket to share with your audience that hey look, I am in my community, hey look, I'm sponsoring this school that your child Goes to Hey, Matilda was do adopted a day later.

[B]

This great content. So point six is marketing your strategic partnership. At no point would I ever do any of this if I wasn't going to make a post about it. That would be to me shortsighted.

[A]

So you might be giving.

[B]

You don't give to God. Here's my word. Gotta toot it. You gotta toot your own horn. So when it's local community, now I'm gonna say you can do whatever you want. Your business think twice about politics because that's gonna divide your audience. But when it's the shelter, the cats, the senior living facility, the make a wish icing smiles, I would say, I would shout that. It would be in my newsletter. It would be on my social media. Why? Because it's feel you did a good thing and now we're using that good thing to what if I see somebody helping somebody makes me feel good. Like those food trains where you pay for the person. I love.

[A]

I love when I see a local business put their local dollars back in locally.

[B]

Love it.

[A]

It is something. I'm like, oh, when I go to Chile on top, it says born in Lake Ridge because it was its original thing. And I'm like, wow, I took my cookie money from a local lady that I made and I'm putting it back into chili on top. A local company. We're keeping the money local.

[B]

Think of the PTA board like, hey, I've loved this school. My kid goes, they love the school. I love working with it. Actually. Susie has been so great. I'd love to encourage any business who want to partner. You know what Susie's gonna think? Susie's gonna be like, oh, my goodness. One, that was so nice. Two, I can share this on my own page. You can't share content that doesn't exist. And I think a part of the strategy because you are not guaranteed leads here. At least you'll be guaranteed likes. Yes. You know, and that's a part of, of making it work for you because it's still great. It's almost above the typical content bucket. This is the angelic content.

[A]

Yeah. And it's what a great one to pull from. Another thing, I made a post about this in the sugar cookie marketing group. So you can see someone had a great comment. They're like, Corey, I'm, I'm in. I'm feel like I'm trapped in a strategic give right now and I don't know how to get out.

[B]

Yeah, I know you.

[A]

The great thing about this is at the beginning when you're first having these conversations, you can say, let's do this for the next three months. Let's try this for the next open house. If you put a timestamp on it, an expiration date of time when we can come back to the table to discuss if this is working for both of us. It'll be so much easier to get out of these things in the long run. So her issue was she donated a dozen to a Longhorn steakhouse. Kids night in. Like, where the kids. Great. She's like the lady who runs this who works for Longhorn, knows everybody in the town. Town. I've gotten $0 from the kids night. Okay. We have discovered that maybe this isn't the great strategy.

[B]

Wasn't as strategic as we want. So she says, how do I get.

[A]

Out of it without burning this lady? Like, I don't want to create an enemy out of this. So I said, you thank her for what? She said, hey, thank you so much. I'm making a name. Tracy.

[B]

I.

[A]

It. It worked. I'm booked. Blessed in bacon. And I don't want to hold this hog this opportunity because I'm actually turning people away. She had done her own marketing and is turning people away, not necessarily because of what Tracy did.

[B]

We don't need to be like, tracy, you're loser. Tracy, you're a loser. Lame opportunity. Yeah.

[A]

I made zero sales. So I said instead, say I would love to be able to step back while I try to catch up on all these orders and give someone else. And I can give you a few names of bakers that I know who are new to the industry who would love this opportunity. Thank you so much, Tracy, for thinking of me again.

[B]

Don't take it personally. A business.

[A]

Yeah. But so I would say before you get locked and loaded and I feel like they're taking advantage of me, have the come to the table moments built into the original.

[B]

The original correspondence.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And that's why it's a solution. Coulda, woulda, shoulda, didn't, though what do. But if you could have, would have, should have consider all the avenues, you know, like exploration dates on free stuff. Yeah. And then say, you know, this is the one opportunity I'm going to take on this.

[A]

This quarter to that we have this Lake Ridge association for this area that I live in. I've never clicked on their magazine, but I did click on it in the car line the other day. And I was just looking at the sponsors of this magazine. They're coming to small businesses to sponsor it. There was like five real estate agents in there. You can ask for exclusivity. Like, hey, if I partner with you, will I be the only baker that will appear in the newsletter? You can ask those questions.

[B]

Just clarifying details. Not threatening details.

[A]

No, not threatening, just clarifying. Because I said, oh, would I want to be propped up next to another baker who offers the same thing? Maybe not, but maybe they would give you the exclusivity. So that. That table of discussion, that table where everyone's coming and you're negotiating and the car's being sold and they're asking to.

[B]

Talk to your dad.

[A]

You can bring a lot to the table, and you can ask a lot. The worst they can say is no. And they've been told no a lot. So the worst you can say is no.

[B]

Right.

[A]

It can work so well for your business. It's a great way. If you're new to an area like you just moved somewhere.

[B]

Military people who was always asking about that.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. To really kind of break in there. I know in military towns. And Quantico is just right at the road. I used to live there when my husband was in Marines.

[B]

Those.

[A]

Those moms have those groups and people are coming and going. Yeah. It'd be a great way to get in there. There's these fit mom groups. It's just. It's called Fit for Mom, and it's where you have a kid in a stroller and you push them and you meet up, and it's a great way to get out of the house. That's a great way to partner with them and then have an expiration date on Manage.

[B]

Community groups are a whole. Another part of strategic giving those people. I love it when people come and say, how can I sponsor? How can I. How can I work with sugar cookie? Yeah. Like, listen, dude, nobody's knocking on my door. Like.

[A]

Like that. That Lakeridge ladies group that we run, we got a local mechanic to donate for tires. Yeah, he.

[B]

Because he. He. They call him Gabe's Girls. Yeah, he's just a guy. The business called Gabes, I don't know. And then the Lake Ridge ladies, so they rename themselves Gabes Girls, which I thought was hilarious. And he loses four tires, but they were at cost for him. And everyone entered to win a contest or something. Was. Yeah. And that's a whole nother marketing thing.

[A]

Where we talk about scalability because. Cause he had an onslaught of ladies supporting him that he couldn't handle the business.

[B]

He should be knocking on our door to do the tired giveaway every year.

[A]

I know. I know. And it's on us if we wanted to to be knocking on his door.

[B]

Right. Okay. That takes us through this strategic giving. It's a yes for me.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's not a net positive. It will be a net strategy.

[A]

A net strategy is a good one.

[B]

Yeah. So you gotta go in with the right expectations otherwise you'll get burnt out and say that. Yeah.

[A]

And you don't wanna get the animosity. I've had a lot of em that.

[B]

Haven'T worked out down. I would. I would walk in thinking that first. Yeah. The content bucket always, always hits.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Right. To have your camera take a picture. Yeah.

[A]

You're going to get something out of.

[B]

Regardless some content like. Okay. And a senior citizen with a cookie is going to eat that one up. When you have a likeness of the do as a cookie going to eat that up. And then there's ones that are harder is where you clean up a creek. But you can make it work. We can make it work. Okay. That takes. See that? Corey actually made me go to the mailbox. It was funny cuz they're like who are you? And I said well I actually have a mailbox here.

[A]

Yeah. This was such a nice note. It came with someone's Christmas card.

[B]

Love it. Thank you. The review for the cookie college. I know, I know. You guys are like. You guys talked about the boot camp and then you didn't do it. It's all I'm. It's all I'm working on. I actually have to get the cookie class kit out for Valentine's Day and it is super cute. I posted a preview in the people.

[A]

Were very, very in love.

[B]

It is our new intermediate class. This still testing it out but you guys are liking it.

[A]

So our ceilings are getting up under us now. This one is from Karen Lloyd and she's from sugared South Shore. Dear Corey and Heather, I wanted to send a quick note to let y' all know just how much you have all impacted my life. For the better of course. If not for the two of you, I don't know if I would have ever realized how much I enjoy the marketing part of my cookie business. I'm going back to school for marketing naturally and join the American Marketing association where I've made some great friends and connections while making cookies. Mostly just for fun.

[B]

Now I like that.

[A]

I still love decorating cookies and listening to your podcast especially when you answer one of my text questions on air.

[B]

Thank you for supporting Howdy From Texas.

[A]

Wishing you all all the greatest things.

[B]

Love that so she the cookie college. If you're new here, it's our. If you like the content you're hearing. You know I was listening to somebody's content. I was like wow, what I wouldn't give for community to join of kind of be around their orbit because I like the content I'm hearing to ask a question. Yeah. And to be around with like minded people is kind of hard to come by. So if you've been listening to this podcast for years and you're like wow, I'd like more of this. I would like more of this. That has more of an action plan to it. You're going to want to consider the cookie college. Especially in this boot camp. Each boot camp will have a different focus. This month is in person cookie classes. Next month is photography. You're not going to want to miss that one. Corey has me setting up her pre sale one for myself. I know.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

My photos are cute. I got a link. I have to ask you what you want me to do with this. So that is going to be. We're able to dig in there. Tell you what we did.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Tell you what we wouldn't do. Tell you what we'd do differently with the cookie classes. We've done them for so long. I can pretty much guarantee you what I'm going to tell you is yeah.

[A]

And if you just like to hear that I do a Monday morning roll call every Monday. Just getting your week started. It's about 45 minutes long. Tune in live and I just bring a topic to your little ear holes till we get started on the right foot on Monday days.

[B]

And then we have. You can find a study buddy. You can actually it's one of the only groups you can sell in. I have a monthly sales for the.

[A]

Challenges are fun challenges.

[B]

You guys baked for them. So they're coming back. So.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And then just a lot of like good camaraderie. Key. I gotta tell her. She. She has a brick and mortar. There's quite a few brick and mortar people in there. And she had someone run their truck through the front glass.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Which I thought was like well that's gonna be a massive impact. No. By that night they had already been approved to keep selling. Selling. The person who drove the truck was super apologetic.

[A]

Sent flowers to her.

[B]

Sent flowers. And then the landlord is like this happens all the time. So you can kind of get like a more in depth perspective. Nobody is rude to each other there. And if they do go duck that I know it's.

[A]

It's just A different vibe because everyone's in there to make money. So the mindset's a little bit different.

[B]

And you don't get the peanut gallery. It doesn't make anymore but has a lot to say. So yeah, the boot camps, we're going to be working on that one for a next week drop and then February photography. And Corey is excited about that.

[A]

That I love photography and if everyone sees an AI and you still using.

[B]

Yale camera, I said last week we talked about it caused some ruffling of the feathers. People who would love to have an opinion but didn't listen to the podcast.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So yeah, the. The person who's good at photography, whether you like AI or not, it is a tool. But the person who can outperform the tool, that's the person we reckon with. And I can guarantee you when the year changes and you need that quick AI to Photoshop that 2020, 25 to 2026, you're gonna be glad you listened to the old podcast. The gossip column. The Goss call. The Goss call. Don't be afraid to submit your gossip.

[A]

It's anon.

[B]

It's anon. So this anon one says pain on my buttercream. That is hilarious.

[A]

Pain on my buttercream. Pain.

[B]

Oh, it said pain on, but it's probably pain in my buttercream. Either way, it was super funny. I'm gonna read it. Scene this customer comes back year after year and let me tell you, she is a pain in my buttercream every single year. The day after her birthday cake, she immediately starts informing me of next year's theme. Not asking informing. Like we've signed this multi year contract this year though. Oh no, she switched it up. She changed the theme six months in and then started submitting hand drawn sketches of her cake. Multiple annotated notes. She wanted a gravity defying characters, all fully hand modeled and somehow expected me just to figure it out. Keep in mind, this order is due eight days after Christmas, AKA the absolute busiest time of the year for bakers. By some miracle and a lot of negotiating, I convinced her to go with a similar design that was actually within my skill set. But did that end the Absolutely not. Then she insisted on personally selecting every single edible image requested character cookies and casually asked me to theme the entire party while I was at it. Wow. And the worst part, she never pays. She claims the exposure is enough. So why do I keep accepting this order every year? Because somehow she's still my favorite customer. Is this her kid?

[A]

Is it?

[B]

I don't know. It doesn't end there. But that's hilarious. If that's your favorite customer, I. I'm all for it. But if this is your kid, that is hilarious as well. Hilarious. Strategic. Given.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Choose you love them. Love to hate them.

[A]

Hate. Hate to lose them.

[B]

I have to see if I. I'm so curious.

[A]

Well, let me talk about the claps while you search that part. The collabs for February is our next collab. We thought we'd give you guys a month off in January since a lot of people are.

[B]

Let me tell you how many people are signed up for the club. The reason why I tell you guys how many people are signed up because that's the potential. So the love reviews collab, which actually find to be the most easy right now is at 61.

[A]

Oh, nice.

[B]

Registered attendees. And since.

[A]

Okay, so tell me is it's me holding a red heart cookie.

[B]

Now I know people are actually asking, like, does it have to just be a plain red heart? If it's red and shaped as a heart, I don't care what you do with it.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

But we want it to be piped and not printed necessarily just to kind of bring the cookie thing back to it. What we're going to do in the copy is tell your customers, hey, I've joined this collab and it's all about reviews and how reviews help small businesses so much. Not being in a collab and writing that it may feel a little harder giving you a little. Yeah, a little thing to bump.

[A]

A little excuse.

[B]

Like, I'm not doing this, but they made me, so what can I do? And then you're going to ask them, hey, if you guys loved what you do, it really helps me. And you're going to get some reviews from this.

[A]

Yes. And I'm excited about that because if you think if we haven't gotten reviews, 2026, their timestamp, 2025, even if you.

[B]

Got it on December 31, 2025, it looks to me like, oh, they haven't gotten reviews in a year.

[A]

Yeah. So I need them. I need that myself.

[B]

I will be a participant.

[A]

Pretty.

[B]

Then you guys are eating up the march. AI, I like it. I'm excited to make my own this one. And I know you guys are trying to. Trying to. You're trying to find a corner. I didn't cover, but I covered them all. Someone's like, if I give you the stl. So we had AI Chat GPT generate this bunny image. And it's adorable, right? But it's also not very Realistic. So we took the bunny image and we created an STL that you can print yourself if you have a file. If you don't, I actually tell you how to handcut the dimensions. And I give you the PNG outline so you could print that out and can cut it.

[A]

Just one did it on a plaque. That works.

[B]

Whatever. There's no requirement. Actually, what the challenge here is, is how can you take this AI rendering and make it your own to set the expectations of your clients? So I want to challenge you guys this. I want to challenge you to stay within the expectations of what you'd actually sell. I know some of you guys are going to be like, I'm going to show you how I can replicate this exactly. And that's fine if you want to send that message to your clients. But what you're going to get is more AI generated cookies, and they're going to expect a duplicate.

[A]

Some of you will choose to print him to say, like, you may send me an AI thing and I can print him on a cookie.

[B]

I allowed that for this one. I didn't allow it for the love reviews collab. But yeah, if you guys want to say, hey, I want more Eddie printed orders and I'm willing to print AI on a cookie, you're allowed to do that for this one.

[A]

What I'm going to do.

[B]

Okay, let's.

[A]

Is I'm actually going to pipe my version of him.

[B]

What.

[A]

What's pipeable for me. So he's gonna have a bow. It's not gonna look like it's jumping.

[B]

Off the page, right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

She, you know, it doesn't look real.

[A]

He looks like a cuddly.

[B]

Someone's like, he doesn't have arms. He did have arms, actually. And Corey said that people are going to say, that doesn't look like arms. It looks like another. Where he was. Where the arms were. I did remove the arms. If you want to add the arms, you can say, guys, listen, a. AI gets weird with hands, and I can fix that. However you want to brand to your clients. When you send me AI and this is what it looks like and you may not know it, I'm here to help you understand what's feasible within these. Within this parameter. And that's going to be unique for everybody. Your cookie is not going to look like Corey's cookie and Eddie cookie. As long as.

[A]

As long as your cookie is an AI generated.

[B]

Yeah, you're good to go.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Come on, people, we gotta be a little bit into this. So those are our upcoming collabs in April, we'll have another one. So we're trying to do them kind of strategically once a month. Guys like them. We like them too. Yeah. Events. What's Popping Concord. And actually the closing speakers on Saturday. And that's in 12 weeks. If you use code twins. Gay at $25 off on that.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

Cookie con is in 22 weeks, which feels far away.

[A]

I want to say the. The what's Popping Con. The hotel we stayed in. Super nice.

[B]

Kent University.

[A]

Kent Convention. Yeah.

[B]

Something. It was very cute.

[A]

Very nice.

[B]

It was very easy to get to. Cookie con is in 22 weeks. And the Vendy Blendy is in four.

[A]

How dare you. Take.

[B]

Take that.

[A]

Take that off.

[B]

I can see it. I really just want to have my own. I can't believe we're at the end of January.

[A]

I know, man.

[B]

January is supposed to be the longest.

[A]

It's not this time.

[B]

No upcoming baked holidays. Corey, you want to take us through that?

[A]

We have the super bowl. And that's February 8th, which is coming up. It's in three weeks. Valentine's Day, February 14th. Just four weeks away.

[B]

Four weeks away, guys.

[A]

They're already posting this stuff.

[B]

Ramadan actually did. Over 80% of people haven't as of Thursday. I know.

[A]

It made me feel so much better.

[B]

Now, not launching Valentine's Day, we have Ramadan.

[A]

That's four weeks away. Mardi Gras, also four weeks away. St. Patrick's Day is March 17, eight weeks away.

[B]

It be time to order them cutters.

[A]

It would be time. Yeah. I know some shops haven't launched theirs.

[B]

Yet, but you have. What?

[A]

You have April Fool's Day, April 1st. That's not a joke. That's 10 weeks away.

[B]

That feels far away. 10 weeks. 10 doesn't feel right after that. On April 5th is Easter. Oh, wow. I just haven't added it. I got into the super bowl drama.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

The STL me about it segment sponsored by Cookie Design Lab. Thank you so much for that strategic sponsor sponsorship. You guys have signed up. She's loving it. You can use Code twins capital for 15% off. I do enjoy the software.

[A]

And also if you're like, well, you know, I usually have a lot of cutters, but I did get one AI generated image. I need to make a cutter for it. They have it where you can actually test to see if. Without.

[B]

Without paying. So if you want to say, I'm not sure it could work for me or not sure if it is the right fit, you could test it out. Just. It lets you have the whole app except for the download button. Yeah. So. And they got a couple different pricing plans there. I like that they have a seven day option.

[A]

A seven day.

[B]

Let me just make a cutter. If you know, if you're like, this is. I'm here for a short time, not for a long time.

[A]

How much is the seven day option?

[B]

I'm just curious, Cookie, what do you think it is? I know the. I think the discount code works on that as well. Let me scroll down to pricing. Seven day access pass is five bucks. That would be so cheaper than buying it on Etsy. Yeah. And the annual subscription is a hundred dollars. But you can use code twins save 15%. That might even also work on the seven day pass.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

So far we have 1, 2, 3, 4 text in question.

[A]

Give me, give me number three.

[B]

281 area code.

[A]

I feel like this is 21881 Minnesota.

[B]

I feel like we just did it last week. Oh, and I'm so sorry, it is not. Oh, wait, it is Houston. Houston, Houston. We have. We have a texted question. How do you. From text Texas. Oh, sorry, it's right there. Oh, y' all have your Twinterest feature, but I have an idea for additional feature. An additional feature. I love this.

[A]

Twintelect. Twintelect.

[B]

Y' all could talk about something new you learned. Or maybe it could be something. And I love. There's so many y' alls in this. Or maybe it could be something y' all are answering questions for from listeners. I love y'. All. Can't wait to hear the next episode.

[A]

Twintelect.

[B]

I love the pun right there.

[A]

You're always listening to some business thing.

[B]

Mostly psychology bs but I like that. I like it. Sometimes I like to do investment advice, which we'll talk about. I'm not giving it. But we have our retirement guy, Royal icing retirement. Although he's only allowed to say a few things.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But he said he wanted to be on the podcast because he thought you guys would like to know about finances. He'll do that February 10th.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Our first guest of the year. First guest of the year. And we'll open up the guest things because I'm working on it.

[A]

Let's add Twin Tillect to the end.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Thank you, Houston.

[B]

Thank you, Houston. You got an answer?

[A]

A yes.

[B]

And you get Cookie Design Lab.

[A]

Oh, great.

[B]

Yeah. So email me with the rest of your phone Number@Heather SugarCookieMarketing.com I'll get you hooked up with Cookie Design Lab. Remember, if you've already have Cookie Design Lab, she's willing to offer you an extension on your current membership. So if you are in a year, if you're in the seven days and you still win, still climb. Nice. Another text guy. I thought this was a funny question. Do you guys have any superstition when it comes to your business? For example, I can't bring myself to fully clean up until after an order has gone out just in case I have to fix something. I feel like I jinx myself if I empty out my bags of icing and I put all the icing away before they pick it up.

[A]

I okay, I guess if you're saying that is I have to fully wipe down and put everything away before I start a new order. Mostly I thought that was because my brain needed a clean space. But maybe I've never not done it.

[B]

I like it.

[A]

So maybe the super stitch and I always put the cutters back before I get the cutters for the next set. I thought that was our in addition but it could be be superstition.

[B]

Maybe not superstition but it's close. It's whatever the premonition is close to superstition. I can feel when I've forgotten something for a good class and I say to Corey I have every single class. I forget a lot of stuff. I say I feel. I feel a feeling. Last time it was a small parchment papers the time before the whole tv. The time for that. Amazing. So you guys might say guys make a list never logic get out of here. When I get there I said something's missing. I can't. I can't wait to see what it is. Superstition with the punches I love. Guys, you should text in if you have you have a superstition. So the phone number for that one is 571-556-5644. Tell us your superstition but also you could win cookies island. Yeah Nice. I like this question right here. I got a question for you. When scheduling out posts, Facebook allows you to schedule a post with a recommended time and day where there's going to be the most engagement. But it's only for a couple of days and it doesn't give me a chance to truly schedule out a week in advance because it doesn't have to that data have you happened to notice if it tends to be the same suggested reach every single week? Meaning like if a Tuesday at 5 is one week would I be able to do Tuesday at 5 the next week? I'd love to hear yalls insight on this. Thanks ladies.

[A]

Average business is going to have that normally average throughout the times.

[B]

For some reason, Facebook pages used to tell you the average of the day, the most popular day of the year, and the most popular day of your week, and the most popular hour of that day. But Facebook groups still have that. You may not knew that. So I can tell you that every time I check sugar cookie marketings, it's typically always the same hour in the same day.

[A]

I want to say my son trying to reinvigorate his YouTube channel. We had this whole conversation with himself.

[B]

Oh yeah.

[A]

You have to think of your ideal audience. My ideal audience is a mom who's busy, who sits in car line waiting for two kids. So I know around 3 o' clock is a great time for me to post it because they're digesting information. I also know in the morning before school starts, another great time for me to post because they're busy, the kids are eating breakfast, they're getting ready to go and start their day when they're on the road, when they're at work, not so good.

[B]

Mm.

[A]

So weekends are good. Mornings and evenings are good. And if your audience never like, if we're not going mega viral and we're not getting thousands of new followers each week, it's odds are that's going to be same week after week after week. So just knowing who your audience is and who you've grown your page with is going to help you kind of navigate that. Since we can't necessarily see that information anymore.

[B]

In the last 60 days for the sugar cookie marketing group, what is the most popular day? Is that what you think? Wednesday. Yeah.

[A]

Why? Wednesday wins.

[B]

Yeah, it is. So you gotta be keeping. Let me see if it switches. Okay. I'll tell you this. From the 60 day setting to the 28 day setting, it switches to Tuesday when I drop it down to 28 days. And I'll tell you why it's doing that is because on Tuesdays I've scheduled a new content bucket in the last 30 days.

[A]

That's funny.

[B]

Yeah. I got a little sloppy on my content buckets for the group, so I brought it back in. So again, it does shift, but you can almost feel it.

[A]

You can feel it. I know. I told my son, I said it. When you post on a holiday, if, when Bakers post on July 4, everyone in every company in every iteration is saying Happy July 4th.

[B]

Yeah. This is a lot to compete with. So if you Black Friday, don't even post. Yeah.

[A]

So you're, you're fighting against a lot of easy feeds that are using that. So that wouldn't be the day I would launch my pre sales for the next holiday, you know, but it would just have it in the back of your mind. So I told Archer. He said, I posted on Friday night and got 111 views. And I posted on Sunday night and I'm sitting at three.

[B]

I said, oh, humbling.

[A]

I said, but your audience is your age. And I said, on Friday nights, I let you have an extended bedtime. You don't have homework due the next day. So a lot of people your age, you included, can access that video. I said, on Sunday night. What did I just yell to you?

[B]

Go to bed. I said, go to bed.

[A]

Get off the thing. And they're dealing with that too. So knowing your audience is going to help you dictate when you should.

[B]

Which is why. Which is why when you do follow trains with bakers, remember there's time zones. Yeah, right. You really skew off those analytics. Because the analytics are defaulting to my time zone. If most of my audience. So it's saying 4, 4pm on Wednesday. If most of my audience is west coast space. That's not. That's there 2:00pm what do people at 2 or 1:00pm actually do?

[A]

People who move, like for the military, across state lines. And times are hard.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

At least I've only.

[B]

So that's why it's even more of a better strategy to keep your audience hyperlocal. And, you know, we just don't. I just can't support the follow train thing. I like. I like the foundation, but there's a way to do it locally as well.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I would always opt for that local thing. Good morning, twins. I got another question for you. Was Squidget. Oh, wait, that's one. I'm so sorry. Why am I missing this? I think it was just texted twice. That's hilarious. Oh, yeah, it was. How did it paste it in twice?

[A]

Mine is idiot.

[B]

Am I an idiot? Let me just check my texting questions. Ladies, ladies, ladies. There's too many inboxes. You can always read down, ladies. Oh, I scooched him down here. I'm so sorry. Good morning, twins. Let me see. Make sure that. Oh, yeah, it was just texted twice.

[A]

Oh, nice.

[B]

I'm not insane.

[A]

All right, that brings us to our sponsors. Without our sponsors, our strategically amazing sponsors, we would not have a podcast.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

So first and foremost, we have royal batch. Royal batch is a meringue powder. If you're familiar with sugar cookies, meringue powder is the number one thing in royal icing. It makes the cookies Hard. It allows you to go step, step allows the cookies to be stacked once dried. The meringue powder that I use is royal batch. I love it. It whips up bright white because it already has white food coloring in has vanilla in there. And that is what I like to eat, vanilla. So it's vanilla extract in there. And then also has corn syrup. So it gives it a soft after bite. You can always add more corn syrup to it if you like, especially if you're working with heavy florals and really thick layered cookies. But I just like that it has all three in there all already. And you can use code twin. Save 10%.

[B]

Thank you, Corn, for that corn syrup update.

[A]

My name is Corn now.

[B]

Yeah. Our little sister Summer just decided Corey's name is actually corn and just yells corn. Yeah. And then she'd be like, come on, Corn. I love it. Cookie design lab. We talked about that. That's code twins for 15% off. Really neat. Or text in a 5751-556-5644, ask your question, get featured on the podcast and possibly win a month of cookies.

[A]

Nice. We have Baking Me Crazy. If you need any supply sprinkle rolling pad. Baking mat.

[B]

Rolling pad.

[A]

Rolling pin Pad. Rolling pin.

[B]

This new thing they're selling Breaking Me.

[A]

Crazy has so much stuff in their shop. And I love when these shops have everything in their shop and you can order from one place.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And get one shipping in one box.

[B]

And that's why I really think Amazon is only successful because I can be like one click button.

[A]

I know.

[B]

So I don't have to give my social to everybody in the world.

[A]

I know. Does Baking Me Crazy have a discount code?

[B]

Making Me Crazy does. It's called Favorite twin for 10 off.

[A]

Twin or twins?

[B]

No, Favorite twin. Which one is it?

[A]

We never know.

[B]

Probably Heather. But when you type that in there, you're thinking, who are you guys thinking of when you type in favorite.

[A]

Yeah. But definitely check out Making Me Crazy. I've been using her piping bags. She has an extra small and I really like them.

[B]

Oh, nice.

[A]

Yeah, I really like them.

[B]

I've been doing that for the intermediate cookie class kids because I see there's a bag what's popping Concord. And are speaking at that. This Code twins to save $25 off your early bird ticket right now. So if you go right now and don't sign up, you could get a twofer deal. Twofer. Yeah, they have their workshops. It's quite a. Yeah, quite a thing. So you can sign up for the workshops. You can Sign up for the cork classes, the corn classes, if you want to hear.

[A]

Cory Daisy makes has her brick and mortar up there and she did a lot of classes in there.

[B]

So you can kind of see the.

[A]

Inner workings of a brick and mortar. Plus learn from the experts there as well.

[B]

You and I will be talking about popping out from the competition. Popping it when you get pricing objections.

[A]

Oh, interesting.

[B]

Yeah. And how to kind of bridge that gap. So that is what we'll be talking on. And then she's actually asked you to do a live with her on TikTok talk. So better now. Nice Primera the edible food printer. Direct to food printer. You heard us talk about Eddie. That's what I mean. Direct food printer. And you can print directly on the top of the icing. And that is what is allowing. That's what Corey's a yoga studio is always just. They're always Eddie printed, aren't they?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And that's most of your Neiman Marcus orders. Yeah.

[A]

Yep. Yeah. And that's what I do for corporate orders. Eddie has made it so much easier to say yes to those because the. If you look at the Neiman Marcus logo that is hard to pipe, easy to print. So that's opened a lot of doors when it comes to last minute orders. Plus logo orders and corporate orders.

[B]

So if you want to say, hey, listen, your AI cookie, I can print it. You're gonna, you're gonna be. Of course it's the work you're gonna generate because you're doing it. So when it comes to strategic giving.

[A]

I would always lean towards an Eddie.

[B]

Because it's easy to press print and.

[A]

You could always incorporate like maybe a piped congratulation hats. I mixed some Eddie printed logos.

[B]

Love it. However you want to make your own. And then not a sponsor, but an affiliate. Bosch Nutrimil use code sugar cookies. You can always save 20 bucks off. You get 20, we get 20, the world turns. Okay, I'm not going to do my twin tolect one because if I'm going to do that, I'm going to kneel into it next week.

[A]

Okay. Then we'll add it as a thing to add.

[B]

I will twin to rest. I do have a twin dress. What is that? Okay. Reddit. I love it. I'm in a skincare so red it. Women only. Dude, you got to tune out for this. If you have hormonal acne, which is the acne, it's always the ones that last forever and it's on the bottom side of your face. So around your chin, around Your lower mouth area. That Spironolactone is a prescription and it, you know, every prescription has side effects. But someone said on Reddit that spearmint tea is the reason why spiralactone starts with a spear because it's derived from spearmint. So getting spearmint tea and drinking that can help with acne breakouts around the lower half of your face. And I've been drinking it and maybe causation correlation, not sure. But I haven't had pimple.

[A]

Heather let me taste test her spearmint tea this morning.

[B]

Okay. It's tea which is. Doesn't taste great. Is that the name? Yeah, I think so. It doesn't.

[A]

Oh yeah, it's. It doesn't taste great. It doesn't taste bad. It's just like you'd be drinking something.

[B]

You know what does taste bad? The penoxyl face wash. I'm drenching around my face to not get it down there.

[A]

Oh, Panoxyl, the blue and white one.

[B]

Do you know how you're supposed to use that one?

[A]

You said rub it in for 3,55,000 minutes.

[B]

Yeah. So panoxyl. Penoxyl.

[A]

Panoxyl.

[B]

Yeah. You can get at Walmart. It is. And don't get the sudsy one. And yeah, I'm a sudsy girl. I think suds makes it work, but that's actually a harsher interesting composition or something. So the cream one, put it on your face and let it sit for like a minute. Do not get it on your clothes. It will stay in your clothes. It has the benzoyl peroxide.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So put that on your face, let it sit for a little bit. It allows the penoxyl to penetrate to skin bar. Obviously me and acne have been in a never ending battle since I was a teenager, but that I really thought worked as well. Nice. I like to keep my skin routine simple and not expensive. I hate falling in love with expensive products. I know. So I just told you. Spearmintique. Talk about cheap. And penoxyl, which you can get at Walmart.

[A]

My twin trust. I just need you to text me and let me know. It's kind of boring. My mom gave me gifted. I had to buy an iPad years ago. But she never removed herself from the iPad.

[B]

IPad?

[A]

She forgot the password and she also.

[B]

It's not using the icloud email address that she has now on it.

[A]

My mom's name is Larisse.

[B]

It just says Larisa's iPad.

[A]

It's not on linked to her icloud. We already looked it gave me three attempts to guess a six character password. I've used all three attempts. None worked. Now it says this iPad is disabled on the screen.

[B]

So if it helps, it was purchased in 2016. So whatever Apple was doing circa 2016. Does anybody know how to get the iPad unbricked? Yeah. Where I could.

[A]

I don't want the content on it so it can be reset. I just want it to be put in my hand.

[B]

I refuse to believe Apple's letting bricked products out there, but maybe, and I.

[A]

Don'T know, they do. So this one does have a home button and a power button. I know that was a big ask when I was doing it. I've done the steps that it said. Like I asked, you know, hard reset. I tried to do the hard reset and it didn't. It wouldn't catch.

[B]

And she also connected it to my mom's laptop. Again, the laptop has no ownership or the iPad. They weren't able to see each other. We do not have any other thing. And my mom's memory has wiped. Well, the iPad cannot be wiped. My mom's memory of the iPad has been wiped. So if. Let's say we believe she has two.

[A]

Icloud accounts, she doesn't have access to old one.

[B]

Am I.

[A]

Is it a.

[B]

Is it a paperweight? Right. Are we done? If you ban what My thing just turned off. Oh, they'll never know what your face was when we ask this question. Okay, that takes us through the podcast this week. Thank you guys so much. Tune in next week for TwinX TwinTX, where the names are. All right, guys, appreciate you. See you on the other side.

[A]

See you in the groups. Okay, I totally forgot this. Heather went to the mailbag and we.

[B]

Had mail, which is so cool. And I just went up. Oh, what is the. Did we.

[A]

These are from.

[B]

But we did them as stickers. These are magnets. These are magnets. These are so neat. So it says sugar cookie marketing SEM. I gotta put one on my car. This is so funny. I got an email about this. Oh, that's so what. One of the members said she just wanted to make a. This is so nice. There's so many in here.

[A]

Look at them all.

[B]

That's so funny. That's so.

[A]

There's so many.

[B]

My car. Yeah, but it. Oh, this is. It's a shipping information. Oh, yeah. Oh, thank you so. Thank you so much. Trying to find a name. It's from Zazzle. That's ships to Anna. Yeah, Anna.

[A]

That is so nice.

[B]

Here. Just right down the road. Too. This is so sweet. These are magnets, if you can see right here. You should hand them out at Popping Con.

[A]

Oh, that's okay.

[B]

Yeah, that's genius. Can you tell them into the podcast? My, that's genius.

[A]

We're going to hand them out at what's Popping Con on.

[B]

Thank you so much, Anna. That's so sweet of you. Okay, guys, I'll see you next week.