246. Baking it Down - The Reviews Collab this Friday

Summary

Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪

Episode 246: The Reviews Collab this Friday
Hosts: Heather & Corrie Miracle
Date: February 3, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode is all about the power of online customer reviews and how they can set your bakery business apart in a competitive market. With an upcoming Reviews Collab scheduled for February 6th, Heather and Corrie “bake it down” (pun intended) on why reviews matter, how to effectively collect them, strategies for asking (without feeling awkward), and the best ways to incorporate them into your marketing. The episode weaves in humor, practical tips, and real-life stories from their experiences as bakery marketers and business owners.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Power of Reviews: Why They Matter

• Reviews as Social Proof

  • "A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is. It is what the consumer tells each other it is." — Scott Cook (04:39)
  • Customers trust Google reviews over curated testimonials on your website.
  • A strong review profile can give you a tangible edge over competitors using the same products and methods.

• Quality vs. Quantity

  • More reviews with a slightly less-than-perfect score (e.g., 4.8 stars out of 5) are more believable and compelling to customers than a handful of perfect reviews.
  • “A perfect review profile isn't always the most convincing, because it’s very unrealistic.” — Heather (06:40)

• Platform Matters

  • Google reviews are prioritized over Facebook since people often start their search there, and the intent is commercial.
  • Facebook recommendations still play a valuable role in community-driven leads.

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2. Review Management: How to Collect, Where to Focus

• Google vs. Facebook vs. Others

  • Google: Direct impact on SEO and customer purchasing decisions.
  • Facebook: Simpler in some ways, but privacy settings can obscure your feedback score.
  • Other platforms: Nextdoor and Yelp—Yelp is known to delete or filter legitimate reviews.

• Making It Easy

  • “The more actions we force somebody to take, the less likely they are to take them.” — Heather (15:16)
  • Use direct links (e.g., Linktree, Shorby) in your Instagram or Facebook bio to your Google or Facebook review form.
  • Avoid overwhelming customers with too many options—focus the request on one platform.

• Barriers to Entry

  • Google requires a Gmail account for reviews, which may limit participation, but even a single review is a win.

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3. How to Ask for Reviews (without the Awkwardness)

• Use Excuses: The Collab ‘Fall Guy’

  • Use events like the Reviews Collab to frame your request: “Hey, guys, could you leave me a review? I’m in this collab.”
  • “Blame the collab—make SCM [Sugar Cookie Marketing] your fall guy.” — Corrie (21:28)

• Don’t Incentivize (for this event)

  • Offering discounts or incentives is against most platforms' terms of service.
  • Instead, emphasize how much it helps your small business.
  • “Be vulnerable, but directly ask, but don’t incentivize.” — Heather (21:08)

• Make it Part of Your Content Strategy

  • Don’t overdo it, but aim to ask for reviews quarterly, using special events or milestones as natural prompts (e.g., your business’s birthday).

• Dealing with Awkwardness

  • It’s normal to feel weird asking after just taking someone’s money, but those who ask regularly end up with more reviews.

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4. Reviews Collab: What, How, and Why

• Event Details

  • When: Friday, February 6th, 11am EST
  • What to do:
    • Share a photo on Instagram of yourself holding a red heart cookie (Valentine’s tie-in).
    • Use hashtag: #scm.collablove
    • Engage with fellow participants’ posts during the first hour for maximum interaction.
    • Authentic photos only, no AI-generated images.

• Crossposting and Captions

  • Share to both Instagram and Facebook.
  • Pre-written captions and instructions are available via the Sugar Cookie Marketing Facebook Group.

• Goal:

  • Get at least one 2026-dated review to keep your profile looking fresh and current.

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5. After the Review: The Importance of Responding

• “Whoever responds better to their reviews gets the edge up.” — Heather (22:42)
• Always respond, even years later or if the review is negative (unless a customer is truly irate or combative).
• Use responses as an opportunity to show prospective customers your tone and professionalism, not just to appease the original reviewer.
• Example: “Thank you so much; I will dedicate the rest of my life to earning that extra star from you.” — Heather (23:02)

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6. Handling Negative Reviews

• It’s a matter of “when,” not “if,” you get a bad review.

• Respond to future customers, not just the reviewer.

  • Ex: "Thank you for your feedback. I don't work over the weekends, but I make sure to get back to every client request on Mondays." (29:56)

• Having a mixed profile (e.g., 4.8 out of 5) is more authentic and instills trust.

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7. Notable Quotes & Moments

• “It’s an easy cop out. It’s hard to learn new things, easy to blame old things. So what we try to do in the Sugar Cookie Marketing Group is expand your knowledge as change comes out.” — Corrie (04:01)
• “What worked five years ago doesn’t work today. So you have new opportunity to gain more market share.” — Heather (03:30)
• On affiliate links: “You know you're biased because you get something out of this. I do like affiliate programs where you get something and I get something.” — Heather (08:00)
• “One review is a win. One 2026 foot in the door is all we’re here for.” — Heather (16:43)
• “The value of a user is relative to their ability to give you money.” — Heather (60:01)
• Running from your reviews? “...There is an internal problem you must take care of. Are you getting in fights in community groups? Do your cookies taste like dookie?” — Corrie (33:35)

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Important Timestamps

• [04:39] — Scott Cook quote on the definition of brand.
• [10:42] — Introduction and explanation of the Reviews Collab.
• [14:17] — Detailed instructions on how to participate (hashtag, time, caption help).
• [22:38] — How (and why) to respond to every review.
• [29:56] — Handling negative reviews—real example and response walk-through.
• [32:34] — Strategies to overcome the “weird” feeling of asking for reviews.
• [33:35] — Reviews as core business strategy; self-reflection if you’re “running” from reviews.

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Additional Tips & Segments

• Easy Review Link Setup: Ensure your review profile is one-click away for every platform you use.
• Google vs. Facebook Details: Newer Facebook format makes finding where to leave a review more confusing; Google provides a reliable direct link.
• Quarterly Review Push: Repeat the collab strategy at regular intervals (e.g., Q1, Q2, your business’s birthday, Thanksgiving).
• Respond to Old Reviews: Even years later, it’s never too late to show you value feedback.

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Upcoming Collabs & Events

• February 6 — Reviews Collab (red heart cookie, #scm.collablove)
• March 20 — AI Bunny Cookie Collab (includes free STL file and options for hand-cutting)
• April (TBD) — Local Feature Collab
• Cookie College Bootcamps — Three-day intensive with prerecorded and live Q&A sessions, includes class kit and scripts for teaching
• Speaking Engagements: What’s Popping Con (Kent, OH) and CookieCon (Orlando, FL)

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Listener Q&A (Summary)

• How to Target Local Audiences in Reels:
  Focus on content that references local events, locations, or collab with neighborhood businesses for more relevant reach (58:19).

• How to Increase Sales for Maternity Leave Prep:
  Focus on passive income, consider raising prices if fully booked, and re-examine margins (61:38).

• Tech Tips: Gmail Templates on Mobile:
  Not natively available; best managed from desktop, with workarounds for auto-responses (56:13).

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Final Takeaways

• Reviews—especially Google reviews—are a core differentiator for small bakery businesses in saturated markets.
• Make it easy, authentic, and part of your ongoing business strategy.
• Don’t be discouraged by the “weirdness” of asking—normalize the ask and use events like collabs or personal occasions as your prompt.
• Always respond to every review, even the bad and the old; show potential customers you care.
• Use strategic quarterly pushes to keep your review profile fresh and growing.

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Memorable Heather & Corrie-isms:

• “One review is a win.”
• “Blame the collab—make SCM your fall guy.”
• “Running from your reviews, you're leaving a lot of money on the table.”

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Want more strategies? Join Sugar Cookie Marketing Group on Facebook or visit sugarcookiemarketing.com for resources, event info, and bootcamps.

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(End of summary. For more, listen to the full episode or check out their Facebook group for templates, collab instructions, and business resources.)

Transcript

[Heather]

Welcome to the Baking it Down with.

[Corey]

Sugar cookie marketing podcast. You didn't hear from us last week.

[Heather]

And we know you missed us a little bit.

[Corey]

Snow. It didn't just snow. It snowed and then it snow creeded. Snow creted. It basically iced over the snow.

[Heather]

Does it snow in our area? Yes.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Sure, sure, sure. A banger is like 10 inches. Yeah.

[Corey]

And this was.

[Heather]

They said it was going to be 20 inches. Mass panic. There was no bread, no milk. I don't know. I don't know what overcomes this area. At the thought of snow, bread and milk.

[Corey]

I ended up clearing the shelves of lasagna.

[Heather]

I got a shrimp disc. My little snow treat. However, it actually ended up switching over to sleet, which. Which just to snow totals down.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So much. Everyone was like, really great. If you didn't like snow, you were happy about the sleep. No, no, no, no, no. It turned into snow crete, which means it's this layer that's so incredibly hard of snow covered with inches and inches of rain. Rock hard ice. Yes. It's completely immobilized.

[Corey]

There was nowhere to put it for one.

[Heather]

It. You can't. The. It's so hard, the plows cannot get under it. It just takes the plows up.

[Corey]

Today is the first day public schools are actually back and it's still a two hour delay. And they're still having.

[Heather]

It snowed last Sunday.

[Corey]

I know. I.

[Heather]

It was. I have not worked one. I get it. Not. You're not shoveling at the gym. Right. It's in. They're called novel movements and that's why they lead to heart attacks. Because anything over the chest, the heart rate.

[Corey]

Hot.

[Heather]

This. This snow. Concrete. Yeah.

[Corey]

Crap. Yeah.

[Heather]

And. Yeah. I said the hard thing.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

It has been exhausting for me. I had to bribe.

[Corey]

Okay.

[Heather]

There's a couple widows on the street. Okay. I don't know where the men all went. They went to bed. So I've been kind of helping shovel. And there's a older man that's our grandfather's age that is also helping shovel. But it is so exhausting. I had to tell the lady across the street, I will get you out in exchange for using your metal shovel. Because otherwise I couldn't get myself out.

[Corey]

I. I know.

[Heather]

Never in my life. Never in my life. Give me. Give me two feet of snow.

[Corey]

Two feet of snow. I'll never do powdery goodness.

[Heather]

And if you guys are like. Well, if you had a snowblower. No. They were ineffective with sleep. I know.

[Corey]

It was crazy.

[Heather]

I thought I had this Genius idea. So it snows all Sunday. I go out probably four or five times on Monday. I say, I'll do another pass. Sure. No, the snow blower went above it. You could not get it.

[Corey]

It's a thick. It's still a thick sheet of ice. We saw kids walk into school, sliding to school, sliding to school.

[Heather]

Oh, just so crazy. However I pexatani feel saw his shadow. But they say we'll end in the D.C. area at 50 degrees at the end of February. So the snow crete is so hard packed though it will last into March.

[Corey]

That's crazy.

[Heather]

The melt off. Good luck. Any car washes out there?

[Corey]

If you're hearing us for the first time in 2026.

[Heather]

In 2026, we are part of a.

[Corey]

Marketing group on Facebook called the Sugar cookie Marketing Group. Group.

[Heather]

Real creative with the name there.

[Corey]

Yeah, we're all creative. And what we're trying to do and what we think we've done pretty good job of is given people just starting out in their bakeries, people coming back to the bakeries, people trying to grow their bakeries. A place to learn marketing techniques, tips and tricks as the one thing great, one thing horrendous. Marketing is ever changing. So while you're like, I learned it, I have unlearned.

[Heather]

It isn't that great though, in a horrifying way.

[Corey]

It's great and it's horrendous.

[Heather]

What worked five years ago, what worked 10 years ago does not work today. It doesn't. And that sucks because you're like, I was really great five years ago. But imagine if you were just getting started today. Oh, and the person that what worked five years ago still works, they'll be so far advanced that you'll never be able to catch up. But now because of what worked five years ago does not work, you have new opportunity to gain more market share. I saw these bakers and they were like, it's just market saturation. All these bakers have popped up. But I'm like, you were, you were market saturation. You popped up at one point and the baker before you.

[Corey]

It's an easy cop out. It's hard to learn new things, easy to blame old things. So what we try to do in the Sugar Cookie Marketing group is expand your knowledge and bring things as change comes out and we navigate this new change. How can you navigate that in your bakery business?

[Heather]

No matter where you are at in it, Right. So Corey's not following my script, but I'm gonna go back to it.

[Corey]

No, I am. That was my intro.

[Heather]

You are where to find us. You can find these [e-mail] including that Facebook group, which is worth joining. And what's coming up in the next couple of weeks is a bootcamp and the root reviews collab, which is actually what we wanted to talk about. Cor, read that quote. Where is she not falling?

[Corey]

Okay. A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer. It is. It is what the consumer tells each other. It is. And that's by Scott Cook.

[Heather]

Right? Because I don't, I, I check, I check reviews, but I'll check reviews and believe them before I believe the last post you made on your social media. Absolutely. And if your website has a reviews tab, I won't even read that because I know you picked out the ones you liked. But I will go to Google reviews because those you had no control over, quote, unquote, which we're going to talk about a little bit of control over this. But I will go to the honest, organic, the one that's harder for you to control to see if it's worth it. So if you're the baker who loves.

[Corey]

To slightly think it's just oversaturation, any little help that you. This is what you focus on. A competitive edge. So we're all buying from the same cutter shops. We're all using the same Americolor gels. How can you step in front of your competition? The way I'm living my life in 2026. There's things you can control. There's things you cannot control. To put your energy into things you cannot control. Waste time.

[Heather]

Waste of time.

[Corey]

The things you can control.

[Heather]

Great use of time.

[Corey]

Great use of time. Your reviews. Something you can control.

[Heather]

Other bakers can control. You're not a murderer. But what we can do is edge up on all these small ways. And when you compare yourself to your competition, they'll be like, of course I'd go with this look at the cohesive upfront new fresh marketing. And that includes reviews that would make me choose between one and the other. If you said, which most of our end users, I need to hire a baker and someone presents to you two options and one of them had 120 reviews and they had a 4.8 star rating or one had two reviews and they had a 5 star rating. Which do you think you would trust more?

[Corey]

The one that people use more?

[Heather]

Yes. And a 4.8 star rating. I posted a meme about that the other day and it was like a perfect review profile isn't always the most convincing because it's very unrealistic to be.

[Corey]

Perfect in today's marketing landscape. No longer is it just someone gives, asks for recommendation, someone posts a recommendation and they just take it full faced and not ask any questions. We do know that people have alliances. People are like this is my cousin's brother's sister's dog groomer. You know there's, it's not just that someone can recommend someone and no one's going to do any homework behind it.

[Heather]

You know the sugar cookie marketing group doesn't allow sales. Right. Just what Keep the spam away. If you have something to recommend, be organic in your recommendation. And if you're affiliated or at this five years in on this bad boy thing. Amy's better at it than I am. But I can see when you write something in a way that tells me you are affiliated with it non organically. Yeah. And it's because you. Because typically I'd be like, yeah, it's pretty good. I didn't like these couple things about it but otherwise I would love it. That's very natural. But it's like it's the bestest in the westest ever, ever seen ever.

[Corey]

Affiliate marketing is newer. Newer. Ish. It's been around for years upon years but now it's so much more commonplace.

[Heather]

Yes.

[Corey]

That people can see it now for which they could not nigh three years ago.

[Heather]

Yeah. I swear. And listen, I don't not have a square affiliate. Yes. But I know that they have an affiliate. They do. It's pretty common. It's pretty smart. If you're interested in square and you get someone's affiliate, you and them both get like a name a place that.

[Corey]

Doesn'T have an affiliate right now.

[Heather]

But I swear square must have it. And you guys can tell me in the text in section if I'm right or wrong that square has the blurb that you just copy and paste it because somebody had said hey, I'm interested in a square website. Of course a couple users are like, hey, if you want to use my link we can both went. But it was the exact same text 2 times a copy paste. Right click this to copy. That's why I'm like, you know, you're biased because you get something out of this. I do like affiliate programs where you get something and I get something. I don't love the ones where I only get something and you don't. Yeah, yeah. What is it? Nutrimentalist affiliate programs. You get $20 off but they pay us the $20 to run ads or whatever.

[Corey]

Yeah. So jinx. Personal knockout blockout.

[Heather]

You want me to go Something like that.

[Corey]

When it comes to your reviews, if you're looking at your neighbors and your competitors and you're really like, I really like their stuff. They're really good. They have a lot of engagement on their page. The thing that can put you on the competitive edge is your reviews profile. And it's important to not neglect or not even focus on it because it's such a big aspect in today's market where people know affiliations, people know that you know it's your best friend's neighbor and you like to disclaimer as your own. People are being paid on the side for things like that. So your reviews can help get you more sales.

[Heather]

Consider this all as well. A lot of people don't start their cookie buying journey on Facebook. To me, they do in community.

[Corey]

It's where they do their investigation.

[Heather]

They do their investigation. Right. So community groups is a great way to start the process. And that one's different. I don't think they go to the search bar on Facebook and say cookie decorators near me. What they actually do is they go to Google and that's why I'm going to focus on Google reviews. Although Facebook reviews are right up there. They go to Google and that's why the, the user who uses Google actually is more likely to spend money because that is along the process. If I Google real estate agent, I'm not just killing time, right? I'm probably likely looking for someone to hire. And that's why Google search is so powerful. And that's why I actually pitch Google reviews over Facebook reviews.

[Corey]

The reason why you're like nigh, I don't think so. I get most memories of my work Facebook. It's the easiest place to start anything because Facebook is literally like, hey, you look like you want to start a page over there.

[Heather]

Here's how you do it. Can we introduce you to start a page? I'm going to event. It looks like you had to use.

[Corey]

The word event there. Most people will start on Facebook and that's why you're like, no, I get most of my leads on Facebook. True, you get a lot of leads on Facebook. But you have to think Facebook is a search engine. But the most powerful, biggest search engine out there right now Google is Google.

[Heather]

So that's what we're actually. The reason why we're talking about reviews is because on Friday this week, which is the fourth, sixth is the reviews collab. So the reviews collab was you had to Ken, you can still do this. Even if you didn't register, you can still. We actually have tons of people signed up for this one. 150 wow. And they don't have to. You do not have to be registered to participate. You do have to follow the rules though, and I have that detailed in the event listing on Facebook. That said, the reviews collab is Friday and the whole focus is to get a timestamp 2026 review. Yeah, we have SW switched over years. Even if you have a phenomenal perfect, robust reviews profile, you do not likely have a 2026 timestamp or in the new year. So it'd be nice to get even one review that says a star job.

[Corey]

Maybe will carry through quarter one, quarter two.

[Heather]

Yeah, collabs are great because they are an excuse to do something a little out of character you can blame. I joined this collab with the Sugar Cookie Marketing group. In fact, I've written the captions for.

[Corey]

You already and I know this collab is on Instagram. And the reason why collabs are on Instagram is because the hashtag is searchable. Sell. You might say there's no place someone can leave me a review on Instagram. You're correct. This is just a big old excuse.

[Heather]

To ask for review. I would definitely post this collab to my Facebook a thousand the Collab is this Friday 11am Eastern Standard Time. The hashtag you will have to use is SEM Collab love love.

[Corey]

Here's the thing, if you don't use that hashtag, we can't find you. So you're gonna have to use that. You can go back in. And what I tend to do after these collabs have come and gone is edit my caption so it makes a little sense to someone who's just stumbling upon it.

[Heather]

And let me tell you, they ain't written it. But this one is you holding a red heart cookie. It's funny because someone's like I piped reviews on it because your picture had reviews on it. But I never written that. I was like do whatever you want. But as long as the heart is red and you are holding it. And that's not because also no AI generated. I will get so mad.

[Corey]

We're going for authenticity.

[Heather]

So you can't ask for reviews when we're using AI generated cookie of you holding it. Right. I see the new fad is to get AI to make you into a caricature.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

But what we're going to do, and this is strategic, is you holding a red heart plays into Valentine's Day. That's why it's timed with love reviews. Valentine's Day Red.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

You holding it. You are actually asking your clients to leave you a review. And then. And that's how it works. So it's a lot more strategy than just forcing you guys to have to bake something.

[Corey]

And we're all making hearts right now.

[Heather]

Let me tell you, Valentine's Day is right, right there. It's not that hard. The heart. Can I judge it up? Your heart is red and it's in your hand and it's a picture of you holding it. That's all I ask. You have to use the hashtag so we can come and engage with you.

[Corey]

Tip for you guys. We only ask bakers to really engage for one hour. So at 11am EST Eastern Standard Time is where you're going to get the most bang for the buck. I see it every single time. Someone will post eight hours later. I know you're probably busy, you're probably working. Here's the thing, you're not going to get as much judge at it. I still think it's great for you to participate, but if you want to get take your lunch, your little lunchy lunch for 11 o' clock EST and you can take a bite, leave a comment, take a bite, leave a comment.

[Heather]

And then if you can't, what you could do is schedule your post to go up at 11 and then swing back around and engage with everybody else. To not engage is rude and that would be disrespectful to the event. So we're going to ask you to do that. That's On Friday, the February 6, 11am Eastern hashtag is scm.collab love.

[Corey]

There's two Ls and collab.

[Heather]

If you want caption help already wrote them for you. You can find them and go to Sugar Cookie Marketing Group. Click on events. Click on this collab and it is the pinned comment.

[Corey]

Yeah, yeah. But that leads us to the topic of the podcast, which is all about reviews, right?

[Heather]

So while I was writing out the collab copy. Right. So I. You have to ask yourself the workflow of asking your clients for reviews. And the best way to do that is in your link in bio. If you use a link tree cor as sure beat you could even link it to a Google sheet, right? Yeah. Have a place for them to easily click and get to your review profile. So if you go to. Well, don't go to Corey's because you guys aren't supposed to follow her. But in hers I switched it over to Google business Profile. So, and I put that in the collab documentation is how to get that direct link to Google business profile. Yeah, Reviews tab. You may be thinking, well, I'll just give. I'll just tell them to search again. The more actions we force somebody to take, the less likely they are to take them. I was thinking in terms of if you wanted a Facebook review. It's so complicated, complex.

[Corey]

Now it is more complex than it once was.

[Heather]

Right. So with Google, I can do a direct link to open up the star rating. And that's what I've done for you. And I walk you guys through it in that collab copy.

[Corey]

I would say Facebook is still easier because we know where it's at.

[Heather]

But you have to tell them, go to my page, which you can link. Direct link to the page. You could absolutely do that. Then click on the reviews recommendations tab. It's not a tab anymore. It's just a button. It's just a thing. And now that they've kind of redone the pages again, it's even weirder. And then they have to click recommend. Here's the interesting part. If someone recommends you on Facebook and they have privacy settings on lockdown, you won't know that. So you could even be winning here. We just don't know it. But it does affect that rating, that percentage rating. Now, it's funny how is a percentage. Is a percentage rating a ratio of how many reviews?

[Corey]

It was a combination of the stars back in the day.

[Heather]

Right. But now that's. And recommendation.

[Corey]

It's a combo of them.

[Heather]

How are they finding the percentage?

[Corey]

They're. They're grading it on their own percentage of what they think the stars were rated back in the day.

[Heather]

That's so funny. Okay, so they've subscribed their own. Yes. To switch it over.

[Corey]

You have.

[Heather]

Okay, so you would say, go to my Facebook page. Click on under details. Click on the star icon.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Then it gives me the option to recommend. Yeah, that's how you do that.

[Corey]

So it's not easy.

[Heather]

It's not necessarily easy.

[Corey]

That's why you're not going to get a million reviews.

[Heather]

The one review.

[Corey]

One review is a win.

[Heather]

One one 20, 26 foot in the door is all one here. But that said, in your Shore Shorby link, or in your link tree or in your bio, have a direct link to the profile you hope to get the review on. It may be tempting to be like, here's everywhere you could ever leave me a review, But I find you get more bang for your Buck, if you say, I want a Google review.

[Corey]

The one downside to Google reviews is you have a Gmail account. I know. But not everybody has one.

[Heather]

I know.

[Corey]

To ask my customers.

[Heather]

We're not. This is not a collab about greed. It's about one.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

So I would make it super easy if I posted this, cross posted this to Facebook. I would ask him to leave me a review on Facebook, probably if I posted it to my page to be a little easier. Yeah. Other review profiles you could consider, if that's where your focus is, is next door, Yelp. Yeah.

[Corey]

And Yelp is deleting reviews right now.

[Heather]

So if I had to ask, if I had all the review profiles laid out before me, I would focus on Google for the reason that it has SEO built into it.

[Corey]

I agree. I agree.

[Heather]

And I think the person searching for a baker on Google is likely to spend money immediately. But I would not be mad about a Facebook review at the end of the day.

[Corey]

My new phrase, Corey, unfortunately.

[Heather]

I'm sorry. Sidewall. Sidebar here. Corey has realized. Who told you? Summer.

[Corey]

Summer did.

[Heather]

Corey says at the end of the day, all the time. At her end of the day is.

[Corey]

Living at the end of each day.

[Heather]

At the end of the day. But now she sees it. You say as soon as the words come out, she's like, I said it again.

[Corey]

I'm like catching. Capturing it as it comes out. Some things do happen at the end of the day.

[Heather]

Nothing's happened at the beginning of your day.

[Corey]

At the end of the day, I'm becoming more aware.

[Heather]

I don't even know what I was gonna say.

[Corey]

At the end of the day, getting a review anywhere is a win. You're gonna have people comment their reviews. I would just say, hey, thank you so much for these lovely words. Do you mind just scooching up to.

[Heather]

The top of the page, clicking the little star?

[Corey]

I kind of leaving it there. That way it's. It's there forever, and it will help me long into the future. After this post falls out of feeds, you may.

[Heather]

I feel weird asking for review. I worked for a company, and we were like, let's have a review contest. And anybody leaves a review, we'll give them. That's actually against terms of service, but this was 10, 15 years ago. It's crazy to think that review profiles have been around.

[Corey]

Oh, they've been around since the dawn.

[Heather]

How else? We got to make a decision.

[Corey]

You want to know how I met my husband? You had to rate him.

[Heather]

Cory's like, yeah, five out of ten and she should have gotten a higher rating. This is her ex husband, but whatever. So what was I saying?

[Corey]

That you had a company that you worked for.

[Heather]

Yeah. We said, okay, if anybody. We sent out these emails when projects were finished. This is a remodeling company. And we said, if you leave a review, you have a chance to win $300 something. Nobody left reviews. They felt incentivized. They felt bribed. Fair. It was. That was exactly what it was supposed to be. So we switched the tactic and we had the project managers ask for reviews and the client was incented, was given nothing.

[Corey]

Nothing.

[Heather]

But the project manager would then be entered to win the 300 internally. An internal contest.

[Corey]

The reason why that works so well is the product manager was someone who was upfront and in the face of the customers. They were that touch point. They were the relationship marketing. Little hook there.

[Heather]

So they would say it was. It was them and the client against a big boss. They would go to the client and be like, hey, it really helps me and I have a chance to like, win. I'm not sure if they said it really helps me. My feedback with my boss. If you wouldn't. If you had a good experience, if you wouldn't mind. That created so many more reviews than the bribe. So what we're saying is you can say, guys, could you leave me a review? I'm in this collab. I know you may feel. I feel the need to give something away here. Yeah. I'm going to challenge you not to.

[Corey]

I don't think you have to. But that a whole strategy is incentivizing reviews. Granted, it ruins every terms of service out there for reviews, profiles. Yeah. Here's the thing. I feel icky, sticky Bo Bicky. When someone gives me a wad of cash for their cookies and I'm like, yeah, can you do a little bit more for me?

[Heather]

I think this is a great excuse to separate that transaction from the ask.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

In the copy, I said, if at any point you've had a great experience with me, it would mean a lot to my small business. You guys don't understand. 98% of buyers will actually check my reviews before they place an order. So I think instead of like, you want to buy a watch, that sleazy feeling, you're like, hey, guys, if you had a great experience at any time, I love it. If you just find it in your heart to maybe just. Right. Yeah.

[Corey]

Be vulnerable.

[Heather]

But directly ask, but don't incentivize.

[Corey]

But don't incentivize advice there. There's a whole campaigns you can do to incentivize reviews. I've done them in the past and.

[Heather]

Pull that out anytime during the year.

[Corey]

This one is pulling on a hot string, a hot streak. Valentine's Day is next week.

[Heather]

Right. I think this is a good one not to do a giveaway. Yeah, I think it's a good one to blame the collab. Hey, I'm asking because I do think.

[Corey]

Collab make SEM your fall guy.

[Heather]

Yeah. Me and the client against the big bad boss. SEM making us ask you guys for reviews.

[Corey]

It'd be really embarrassing if I had to tell SEM I got zero.

[Heather]

Yeah. Yeah. So that's what I'm going to do is put in your link in bio. Put in your links. If you're doing on Facebook, you can just put the link in the caption and ask directly, hey guys, my Google reviews, I've been looking just for one. 2023. If you had a good experience, if.

[Corey]

You have not set up your Google business profile on your Instagram account, you can link your Facebook page. It's a clickable link there.

[Heather]

So that's an easy way. Yeah. I would put it in both just to make it easy.

[Corey]

But there you go right there.

[Heather]

If you say, well, I don't have a link tree, I don't have a shorty, or whatever you guys are talking about. Just, just make for that one hour for that one day. The link in your bio go to the review profile of your choice.

[Corey]

Yeah. And so you could link your Facebook page there, your Google business profile, your Yelp.

[Heather]

The goal is just engagement on Instagram. You're going to get that just by participating. The second goal is one review.

[Corey]

That's it.

[Heather]

If we, if Corey gets one review, I know she'll be jumping.

[Corey]

Oh, I will be punching the air at the beginning, middle and end of the day.

[Heather]

A lot going on at the end of the day.

[Corey]

That's true.

[Heather]

Okay, point number three, responding to reviews. If you have reviews already and you haven't responded to them, now a great.

[Corey]

Time to really swept your reviews profile.

[Heather]

If you say, well, me and my closest competitor both have great reviews. Whoever responds better to the reviews gets the edge up. This is one of those things when.

[Corey]

You say, say Heather, there's a long lost begat review from three years ago.

[Heather]

This is my. How did I miss this? Thank you so much for taking the time punching the air that I didn't see this earlier. But. But your review has meant the world to me and it's even more special that I've read it 50 years later.

[Corey]

And I keep rereading it at the end of every day.

[Heather]

At the end of the day I read the review finally. So you gotta respond to every review, even the bad reviews. If you have a client that's irate, sometimes I don't touch those. Like why poke the bear? But if a client had a four star, I'd be like, thank you so much. I will dedicate the rest of my life to earning that extra star from you. But I appreciate that because remember, a perfect review profile isn't always as convincing as a just 4.83 star review profile.

[Corey]

Out of mind, Cold dead.

[Heather]

Come on, you'd be fine with a 4.8.

[Corey]

Stars.

[Heather]

A perfect review profile.

[Corey]

Trust not perfect. The thing with Facebook though, it's recommend. Our do not recommend.

[Heather]

Facebook's different. Although it gives you a percentage rating.

[Corey]

And it's because they did that little combo back in the day.

[Heather]

It's how they married.

[Corey]

I know.

[Heather]

It's like when Netflix used to have the five stars and now it's like, yes, this might be good for you. Like I want to know if other people. Yes, I don't want to know.

[Corey]

I don't want to know what you think. I like. I hate that. I loved when people could tell me. So now I'm just relying on Rotten Tomatoes.

[Heather]

Uh huh. Yeah. And that one's rotten rotten 50. Because again, the manipulation of reviews.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

However, every review you have, including stars, you have my responding to stars to say thank you so much for this feedback. It really helps. Oh yeah, I love me my business.

[Corey]

We don't have to really talk.

[Heather]

Old reviews respond to them. New reviews respond to them. Reviews should be responded to. If you get one from this collab, say thank you so much.

[Corey]

Here's the thing. Everyone who left a review probably could buy again. So you going back to a review maybe you'd forgotten about for the last seven months and be like, oh shoot.

[Heather]

I forgot about this review. And you don't reply to it. I take it as a personal offense.

[Corey]

Will you go back and delete it? Eventually.

[Heather]

Years down the road, I left a review for the garage door repair guy. Replied immediately, made me feel warm and fuzzy a second. Second time.

[Corey]

You know what's so funny? It was I had a storage unit. When I got there day one, they made me buy a lock. The lock was from the storage unit.

[Heather]

Okay, the lock.

[Corey]

The first day the lock malfunction and.

[Heather]

I called, is it a brand new lock?

[Corey]

It's a lock. A brand new lock from their unit.

[Heather]

Oh yeah.

[Corey]

So I told her, I said, listen, I got this lock from you and I can't get in. And she's like, I don't really know what to say. And I said, the locksmith said he would be $195. I literally bought this from you yesterday.

[Heather]

You the Lord trying to tell you not to get a storage un unit. And you said no, I still get it.

[Corey]

So funny. I called corporate, I thought I did. No, it called her again.

[Heather]

I was like, girl, I knew it was a solution.

[Corey]

Our garage door guy was in his little unit outside that she knew. And she said, javier, can you come over and help her? She's locked out and she doesn't want to pay $200. Someone, he gets in his. He was like, like a garage door guy had some tools, cuts it, sparks flying. Yeah.

[Heather]

Did you pay him?

[Corey]

I paid him and left him a review.

[Heather]

Did you leave a battery for the storage unit?

[Corey]

No, I liked her.

[Heather]

I baked her cookies for getting off your attention. Okay, so responding to reviews is point 3. Respond to them all. Respond to the bad ones, respond to the good ones. The only one I probably would create a strategy around. If somebody is irate because you were.

[Corey]

Just a baby, can I have a complaint real quick? Google, I left a review. I don't need you to tell me what it's doing five years from now.

[Heather]

Now. I'm so sorry.

[Corey]

Teach me about it.

[Heather]

Ruthanne is almost 90, right? So she gets a bill, an electric bill, but it's got a completely different company's name on it. Not Dominion Electric, which owns the power grid here in Virginia. And she starts freaking out, right? She's freaking out immediately trying to do a charger. You know how to do a charger. Just like somebody's hacked and they're paying their electric bill. Not even a thought, not even a thought that there could be a natural explanation. So I Google the company that's built this and in like a forum or something on Reddit, someone's like, oh, Dominion bought this company and has unfortunately piped their invoices now through this company and it's changed the billing thing, but it is still your Dominion Electric wheel. Log into Dominion and you'll see that the numbers match. So I leave a review for this company that's been bought by Dominion and I write in all caps if you are receiving a bill and you do not know what this company is. It was bought out by Dominion. I put it all in there today. That review, I left it earlier last year. Year 90,000 people have cuz they're all.

[Corey]

They're looking it up.

[Heather]

It's my best. It's my most highly rated review.

[Corey]

That's what I just went Google. I left it. I was good that day. Stop reminding me. It's like your. Your US general good. 30,000 people. One. I don't want to do anything that 30,000 people.

[Heather]

Okay there. Superstar local guide.

[Corey]

I was a local guide for a while.

[Heather]

They take it away.

[Corey]

They never take it away. But I've never grown it.

[Heather]

We were going. I were big into the reviews, so responding reviews. Okay. Asking for reviews is always hard. Feels weird. Like Corey said, the icky but out of body. But this collab is excused. However, it should be in your business model to ask for reviews. Even if, let's say. Let's say you do the collab on Friday and you get a great response. I would make it a quarterly ask. So four times a year, do this again. We might. If this collab goes well. This is the first time we're doing a reviews collab. If this goes well, we might do it again later in the year. I think it's a fantastic idea.

[Corey]

Right?

[Heather]

If it goes well, it'll go well.

[Corey]

But you. As the year goes on, you're going to have more clients and customers.

[Heather]

And just remember, the algorithm may not have caught that person that was willing to do it until later. Especially when we. We're in like sad February. Dry, sad February.

[Corey]

Lure l the month of lur.

[Heather]

But in Thanksgiving. If we do it.

[Corey]

I asked for reviews on my birthday two years ago. Fantastic idea.

[Heather]

Idea.

[Corey]

I said for my birthday present.

[Heather]

Oh, great.

[Corey]

I don't want anything because it removes.

[Heather]

The onus from like from asking you. You're giving me something.

[Corey]

Worked great.

[Heather]

If you. And you're not asking me for money, you're asking me for review. How easy would that be? Genius idea. Okay. Bracing for bad reviews. Like we said, it's not if it's when. It's just for the slide, not for the ride. It's not if it's when you get a bad review. Par for the course. Some people see review profiles as 1 stars and 5 stars and the other 3 stars don't exist. So you do something. Somebody got a bad review over the weekend. She said she just hadn't replied. Over the weekend?

[Corey]

She didn't reply in the amount of time. Thought that they should.

[Heather]

On a Saturday.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

During a snowstorm.

[Corey]

Yeah, I know.

[Heather]

So I told her, listen, I think they. Oh, was it a one star? It was something disrespectful. Yeah. And that the review the, the text was doesn't reply on time, doesn't check voicemail on whatever. Yeah, ridiculous. It was ridiculous. I said, listen, we're not writing to Tony. I think it was a Tony. We're not writing to Big. We're writing to the future people. And it says, thank you so much. Yeah, I don't, I don't work over the weekends, but I make sure that on Mondays I get back to every client request. I appreciate the feedback and I'm looking forward to possibly reviewing or earning whatever the jargon.

[Corey]

I will say just not saying she did anything wrong. If you can do that, like that thing happens now I have a you in your voicemail, you could say, hey, I checked this during the.

[Heather]

Just shoring up your little extra was setting expectations. You can't go back in time. That said, her review profile, he left at one star. But here's the thing. She's going to. If she gets enough five star reviews, bounce back to a 4.8, which is actually more convincing to the consumer. I'm not asking you guys.

[Corey]

Her review wasn't on, like the taste of her product. It was literally that she was in a search.

[Heather]

And in the response we addressed that it was the weekend on a Saturday and she works on Mondays. And I think that actually would make me feel really.

[Corey]

Oh, I, if I read that as a consumer boomer, I feel like, oh, that's nice. Little basic.

[Heather]

So that's how we do that. You will, you will not have a perfect review profile forever. I hope you're racing for it as well. Oh, I always am. And when that happens, it's. It's what you should expect. Don't be aghast. You should be like, great, okay, now I can work with this. Let me respond to this. Not to this person, but to the future people who are vetting me.

[Corey]

As I say, my life is divided into two things. Things I can control my responses, how I move forward. Things I cannot control. How a consumer maybe has the wrong taste buds in their body.

[Heather]

Yes. Cilantro.

[Corey]

Cilantro.

[Heather]

So again, just to recap, we have a reviews collab on Friday. If you sit out this one, I think you're gonna regret it. A lot of people participating, which means you'll get a lot of engagement. I'm so excited to see you setting, setting yourself up for reviews by making those links easily accessible. Google. Google, in three steps, gives you the direct link to leave the review and then Facebook. Okay. You can give them a link to your page at least and just walk them through that point. Three, respond to every single review all the time, as quickly as possible. Point number four, asking for views is weird. This is a great way to get around it. Course birthday idea was a great way to get around it. But just making it a part of your content buckets. Not too often. If you feel awkward asking some people, the people with the most reviews are the people who ask after every sale. And it's hard to do because you're like, I just took your money and now I'm taking your time.

[Corey]

And it's really a personal problem to get over that. I feel weird. That's a me thing.

[Heather]

Some of you guys have incentives so you'll leave. Like, hey, if you leave me a review after this one, I'll give you a discount on your future one. A nice way to violate terms of service for sure. But also get more reviews.

[Corey]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Heather]

And then people just have autoresponders like, hey, I'm checking up if you did like how this went. If you wouldn't mind leaving reviews. Cory and I do that after cookie class. Never works, but it is in the auto response. And maybe once in a blue moon we'll get it. I should try differently, but you're fine. And then 0.5. Brace for bad reviews. It will happen. It could be. It's just scammer. We thought, yeah, there was a huge.

[Corey]

Time where scam reviews and holding them hostage.

[Heather]

I saw somebody, a baker, a nice person, right. But their review was, hey, this is a one star. If you reach out to me and we work together, I'll take it away. Like, wow, easy. In terms of getting better reviews, the best kind you could get. Because people reading them, if they read them will would be like, wow, I.

[Corey]

Feel bad for this person. Let me give them my money.

[Heather]

A strategy I think works decently well. You can't use it but once a year just to say, hey guys, I got this one star review from a scammer. Would you mind helping me?

[Corey]

What if. And then you good people close your ears. What if you made an account and left yourself and then everyone gives you a good review. Then you need to talk to the.

[Heather]

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for forgiveness. But this is crazy.

[Corey]

All right. Over here.

[Heather]

So yeah, the reviews, it's just part. It's just. It's just business today.

[Corey]

Path of the course. But it is good to have a reviews profile. If you are running from your reviews, there is a an internal problem you must take care of. Are you getting in fights in community groups? Do your cookies taste like dookie? There's things that you can take care of. If you're running from your review reviews, you're leaving a lot of money on the table.

[Heather]

Let me just say reviews are an entire business strategy. There are businesses that make millions of dollars because their reviews are so good. And at the end of the day.

[Corey]

At the end of the day.

[Heather]

We. I check reviews. I know, I know they can be manipulated, but I still have to check them because how else could I know.

[Corey]

In a world where a. I feel.

[Heather]

Like the guy said this in a.

[Corey]

I said it there and you acted like I was in a movie entry. In a world. World where there's so many AI I can't go to Amazon and see an AI fake person trying on a pair of pants and know that that's.

[Heather]

I have.

[Corey]

I'm leaning on the review.

[Heather]

Do you see that Even Amazon knows how important reviews are that it put verified buyers.

[Corey]

Oh, and then if you're not a verified buyer, Sephora.

[Heather]

Sephora gives away. I don't know how you get on Sephora's review program.

[Corey]

Right, yeah, of course. Oh, I see it all the time.

[Heather]

Like I was compensated for this, but I like it like, get away from.

[Corey]

Me, you big fat liar.

[Heather]

Incentivized liar. So Anyways, reviews are 2026 marketing and.

[Corey]

Out of and we said as the world of marketing ebbs and flows, the one constant has always been reviews.

[Heather]

Because we gotta know.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Should be a part of your business model. The review is part of it.

[Corey]

It should.

[Heather]

It should.

[Corey]

And I need to things I can control. Get over the fact that I feel weird asking for Realm.

[Heather]

There's probably a way you could ask that would feel less weird.

[Corey]

I'm sure I'm gonna discover whatever that is.

[Heather]

I love it. So we're gonna cap this one. Anyways. It's Friday, 11am Eastern, so if you're on the west coast, it's gonna be like seven.

[Corey]

Sure.

[Heather]

11, 10, nine, maybe nine. I'm not sure how you guys do it. Your mount is. Are there four times? If we are talking about the 48, there's 52 times that I didn't know the tight 48. Sorry, I have no clue. Are you, Is there only three of us? It's easy. Eastern, Central, Pacific and Pacific. So is there four?

[Corey]

Four? Four.

[Heather]

I think there's four.

[Corey]

Yeah, I think there's four.

[Heather]

I, I, I don't like time zones.

[Corey]

I don't know what happens when I cross over one. I try to say East Eastern seaboard.

[Heather]

Just so you know. You keep seeing est, but there's edt, there's a daylight. So you. You know how we change our clocks? Yes. Right. You're saying Eastern standard, but there's Eastern daylight. And I'm not sure when it starts and stops. It's when the time changes. But you would change how you're adding that energy part.

[Corey]

And I'm not just est, I'm an EDT as well.

[Heather]

You're half the year. You're est, half. So if I said, hey Corey, let's meet after daylight saving time changes in six months.

[Corey]

I've never.

[Heather]

You'd have to adjust the timeline.

[Corey]

I've never said the EDT in my life.

[Heather]

I know somebody corrected me on a collab.

[Corey]

Interesting.

[Heather]

Just telling you so really, there's a lot of times I was gone. So that collab is this Friday. It is February 6th. If you're listening to this later, you missed out on it, but tune in. We're trying to do a collab a month.

[Corey]

Trying to.

[Heather]

The next collab has a ton of participants. We are remaking an AI cookie, an AI bunny, and actually gave you the STL to print that off on your own.

[Corey]

And for people before you say, well, if I don't have a 3D printer, you don't like me. You want to kick me another carb. Now she gave you how you can.

[Heather]

Hand cut it and a PNG so you can print it out.

[Corey]

And if you worst case scenario, a plaque will do.

[Heather]

Right. So it's just a demonstration of like AI could cookies. You love them or hate them, AI is here to stay. All you guys, let me tell you, all you guys sad reacting to the AI stuff. Stop that. Stop it. Stop it right now. Because you are using AI every time you do a Google search. Well, no, I don't. Yes, when you turned your phone on, you used AI. You had to agree to use AI on Samsung. Otherwise you couldn't use phone.

[Corey]

If you were curious what Siri is, I'm sorry to tell you, he's artificial intelligence ever.

[Heather]

Love it. I think Facebook captions now have AI integrated. Oh, if you use Gmail, it's just your butt tap. If you use can you. It's got AI. But I. But I. Okay, whatever. Stop sad reacting to those things. It's here to stay. You can not use it intentionally, but you're still definitely using it. That said, the AI cookie collab, the AI generated image of cookies, are giving our clients rough expectations on what we're capable of. However, a bunch of bakers are different skill sets too. So what we're doing is we're taking this AI bunny that's hard to bake and replicate and you're going to do it within your skill set and tell your audience, hey, this is an AI generated mockup. And here's how I'm able to translate that into your.

[Corey]

So you're humanizing your brand.

[Heather]

And we're also saying, you know, I know this is AI and you shouldn't be using like that's what that to tell your client to mansplain to your client that that's an AI generated cookie. They don't care. They still wanted it. Yeah.

[Corey]

So I've had customers that sent me AI generated images and it's up to me as a baker to be like, I see what you're doing. What am I going to do?

[Heather]

It's going to be Judy, inform, inform them and use it to make the sale. And this next collab which is next month, will help you do that and you get a free STL out of it. Okay. Moving on to the college boot camps, I have some a review for you about cookie classes. I know you guys are like. But you said you're launching the boot camp last week. Yeah. Turns out to build a whole new product takes a little bit of time.

[Corey]

And the Snowmageddon and Corey was like.

[Heather]

Make this real high quality. So people talk about it like so you can't just phone it in. If I take somebody's money, I need them to like the product and I'm going to tell you, you guys don't.

[Corey]

Like win when I say. And then she said does whenever I do. I I'd be doing that the other.

[Heather]

Day I had a sequoia down. I said when you do that, the second, the second it took you to command that stop making it look translate to five hours at the end of the day stop doing what I ask.

[Corey]

And maybe I won't ask.

[Heather]

Read us this review from Tony from the cookie column.

[Corey]

Tony, Huge. Thank you, Corey and Heather. I taught a class this morning and it was amazing. We had 13 tickets sold and 4 walk ins that I thankfully made enough extras for. I had been putting off this for so long and finally did it and I'm so proud. Everyone had a great time and most are already talking about signing up for another one. The cookie college has given me so much confidence and I could never have done it without your help. This is really huge for my business.

[Heather]

And for my family.

[Corey]

Thank you. Doing another one next month.

[Heather]

Great. So if you say Tony and she wasn't actually incentivized for that one, she Just wrote that in the group. She didn't submit it.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Thank you, Tony. Speaking of reviews, that one was not bought.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

Built, not bought. Uh, if you're interested in cookie classes, you're gonna really like what we're doing with these bootcamps. And yeah, to get it off the ground has taken more time because Corey said it had to be high quality. This first bootcamp is going to be next week on Wednesday through Friday. The first two days. The first two days are pre recorded and the final day ends up on a live and Q and A with Cory and I. So clear schedule on Friday.

[Corey]

I have my Valentine's Day pickup. February 13th.

[Heather]

Then we'll come to your house.

[Corey]

You can be in my house and my little cookie your own.

[Heather]

You can do it live from your own room. We can just do it together.

[Corey]

Have to run down. Sorry.

[Heather]

That's fine. Well, because that's the. That's. The next boot camp is in person.

[Corey]

I know sales.

[Heather]

But I'm sorry. This one is February 11th through February 13th. If you go to TheCookieCollege.com just give me today. Just give me today. I'll have the availability for you to purchase the boot camp price ticket.

[Corey]

This is nitty gritty, guys. I know Heather's saying cookie classes. Me and Heather have said cookie classes. Here's the thing. The confidence is behind the knowledge you have standing up in front of someone. You can decorate cookies, I promise you that. But knowing how to guide the class, what the steps are, the script, your checklists, that's what gives you the confidence to do it over and over and over again. Here's the thing. Me and Heather have done this for.

[Heather]

The last five years. And you're like, what?

[Corey]

We've taught cookie classes ourselves the last five years. If you would like to know everything, little teeny tiny spot that me and Heather know to teach your own cookie classes, the boot camp is for you.

[Heather]

Yeah. Uh, the bootcamp is only 13. And you say that's a very interesting price, girls. That seems cheaper than what we offer most things for. And the reason is this. Initially the bootcamps, we wanted you to put some money where your mouth is, but not all of it. It's. I want it to be. I want it to be accessible to everyone. $13. Two Star Race.

[Corey]

But I ain't want no tire kicker.

[Heather]

But we don't want people just to sign up and not actually take it. Bogs down our system, actually. So if you are willing to spend $13, attend this boot camp at the end of the boot camp. You can join the cookie college for 13 off. Meaning you immediately get your money back for the boot camp and then you get the college. You get access to all the future bootcamps. This bootcamp is the three days of prerecorded courses. But also you get a free cookie.

[Corey]

Class kit included fruits class and it's the beginner friendly. It's one of the cuter ones.

[Heather]

It's very cute. And the class script mirrors that class so you can walk through it and everything. And then you also get our shopping list all the things that are included in a couple class kit. You're going to love it. You're going to say wow, this is a lot easier than I thought it would be. When you do sign up for the college because you loved the bootcamp, you said I need more of this. You get 38 other cookie class kits. Yes. So yeah, this will be the best $13 you ever got back immediately when you signed up for the cookie college at the end of the boot camp. The in person classes boot camp is in eight days. I'm going to drop that on February 11th. Finally, thank you for the cookie college members who have been so graciously patient. The March photography boot camp camp 29.

[Corey]

Days, four weeks and you might be saying AI uses AI knows staged photo sell.

[Heather]

Coroner is saying a lot of bakers are opting for AI but having the foundation of understanding how to take your own photos in your own style is vitally important for that edge up we.

[Corey]

Talked about as more bakers start using AI the same sparkly background. The one thing that's going to keep you separate, the thing you can control is how you are focused photos look.

[Heather]

A lot of you guys are putting in the most marketing effort I've seen. Like you're, you're doing the content books, you're doing the collabs. Your photography is holding you back. Yeah. And you say well I'll just get A.I. i think if you understand the foundations, if you had more control over your photography you would, if you felt more.

[Corey]

Confident about it, you wouldn't rely on AI for it.

[Heather]

So that one will be a two day class and Corey will be pre recorded again and with a Facebook live. And I might have Corey stage in front of us.

[Corey]

Might, might do. Will probably been going through all my props to to get rid of ones I don't use and to use.

[Heather]

We'll talk about prop theory.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

We'll talk about a camera setup and presets and then I'm challenging you to also teach us on your phone.

[Corey]

Maybe, maybe not.

[Heather]

And then April pre sales, which Corey has been live testing a pre sale so that we can turn it into a course. And she just sold out. So she's going to tell us how to do that. If you want to check out more information about the bootcamps, the landing page is rearing and ready for you to read it at thecookiecollege.com you can read everything about the bootcamps and what's included there. We've got some fun worksheets going. Workshee. Fun worksheets.

[Corey]

I am punching the air at the end of the day that me and Heather did not get this up earlier.

[Heather]

Well, but in my excuse is if it's a quality product, it takes time. I have to build out the foundation and the template to be able to template it.

[Corey]

But we are going to be screaming it from the mountaintops for the next one week. So brace your buns.

[Heather]

Be screaming out from the mountaintops for 2026.

[Corey]

Brace your bun.

[Heather]

Planning a boot camp a month in 2020 26.

[Corey]

Read the Goss call.

[Heather]

You ready? The goss call is from me.

[Corey]

It is our own goss call.

[Heather]

Yeah, I know we talked about this, but this one is in Is what happens when cookie classes take a left turn. So one time I'd written up some generic copy to push a cookie class I scheduled out as one does. It had some line like grab a friend and come to class. Of course, by the time the post went up, the class had already sold out, but the copy was generic enough that it could apply to any of the classes we were teaching.

[Corey]

It just future grab a friend and grab a ticket. Roll those off like it's the same way.

[Heather]

Like buy a ticket. That doesn't mean you're going to do it. It just was like hinting towards the fact that you should. Well, I didn't factor in that somebody who had actually already bought a class ticket read the line and legitimately thought it meant she could grab a friend and bring them to class free of charge and free of seats. Since we were sold out.

[Corey]

It was. She didn't even necessarily think it was free of charge, but it was a very weird situation where I'm like, we.

[Heather]

We only can seat 10 people comfortably in this class. And I'm like, 1, 2, 3. And I have a checklist and as they come, grab their names. And I got. I said I'm.

[Corey]

I. When things are out of my control, my neck starts getting heated topically.

[Heather]

Corey decorates the class. However, for this class, she decided not to. Which means we had no extras of anything. But anyways. She shows up. The friend shows up but the extra seat and said do not. I'm counting. Fortunately, another attendee had purchased an add on ticket. So we comped her class ticket if she was willing to get up her take home kit to the extra lady. I believe. I believe that the surprise attendee did. Venmo. As a cost of a ticket we comp the other lady's ticket. I'm not sure if you made her a DIY kit. I think you did and it was great. But I did have to move up my Botox appointment.

[Corey]

It's so funny. There are literal people out there. Literal take things literally.

[Heather]

They're living one sentence at a time. At the end of the day. They're waiting till the end of the day.

[Corey]

They were like, they're waiting till at the end. I'm here at the end of the day. What gives? But I'm throwing it out in the morning. I know literal people.

[Heather]

You're living life a sentence at a time.

[Corey]

I know, but you take these non literal people.

[Heather]

Figurative, figurative people and grab.

[Corey]

Put us in the same room and you're gonna be sweating. I was like this. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11. No, I count wrong. 11. No, there's 11 bodies.

[Heather]

Then you had to have that awkward and I think I handle it decently. Guys, we have. And maybe my math is wrong. 11 bodies and 10 sheets. So one of you guys here and I don't have you written down if you mind. And we go through the class and get everybody's name because. But then at the end I'm like, it's you. Yeah, you're the witch. You shouldn't be here. I was like, hey, did you. Were you able to purchase a class ticket? And she was like. She said. She said bring a friend.

[Corey]

I was like, yeah.

[Heather]

Yes. So that is Corey and I had to post the. If you go to form jotform.com sugarcookiemarking forward slash podcast gossip your own one upcoming events. Corey, could you walk us through the.

[Corey]

Collab we have The February Review Club is this Friday. This Friday. You can bake a heart.

[Heather]

You can do it.

[Corey]

Let me tell you.

[Heather]

Your excuse is juicy the heart. Don't you dare. Don't you dare use a. Yeah, don't use.

[Corey]

What we want is you. This is going to perform better if you are holding a cookie.

[Heather]

Don't you dare. Just use an old picture of a heart cookie. You have to.

[Corey]

That's what I Said. I said n. You face what we're trying to do.

[Heather]

And you're like, h you can.

[Corey]

Clara, you're so. You're big old manies. No, we're trying to get you in the more feeds. Your face with a heart is going to perform way better. Right now everyone's seeing hearts everywhere. Hearts are all over the place because Valentine's Day is in voice makes a difference. Your face is cuisine.

[Heather]

Okay, look at me. Look at me. I said a picture, not a video. Don't do video. It's harder to find your videos to interact with when it's hard to comment.

[Corey]

On a video because it shrinks the caption.

[Heather]

Don't take your image and add an audio because now it's a video.

[Corey]

I want to say Instagram has always been like, do this. We'll show it to more people.

[Heather]

Listen, you guys know how to upload pictures? Upload it.

[Corey]

March, the AI Cookie Club. That'll be a good one. And then April. That is March 20th. Sorry, March 20th. And then April, we have a local feature. Still deciding on that one.

[Heather]

But that'll be. April and I were arguing about that yesterday.

[Corey]

As twins do.

[Heather]

Next up, we have our events upcoming. Cory and I will be speaking on Saturday at what's Popping Con. I think you can use code. Twins get $25 off and it's early bird pricing right now. And that's in 10 weeks. And April 16th in Kent, Ohio.

[Corey]

Kent, how are you?

[Heather]

Cory and I could stop by and see our ex husband.

[Corey]

Nice. I love that cookie con is June 24th. That's in also 20 weeks.

[Heather]

20 weeks. Orlando.

[Corey]

Crazy. And I can't believe this is on the list. Vendy Blendy. November 27th.

[Heather]

Can we just pause? It's February.

[Corey]

I know.

[Heather]

Dry January.

[Corey]

People say January is five years long. Wrong. I don't believe it was.

[Heather]

And February is going to be short because we have the holiday short month. Yeah. Then we have March. Kind of boring, right? But.

[Corey]

But then.

[Heather]

But then, wait. First week of April, March.

[Corey]

We do have St. Patrick's Day and in April right at the beginning. So March 17th, the St. Patrick's Day.

[Heather]

Had a Google halfway through.

[Corey]

Halfway through. And then one month later. April 6th ish. 5th is Easter.

[Heather]

It's not even a month later. That's two weeks later.

[Corey]

Two weeks. Seven years. Right.

[Heather]

Wow.

[Corey]

No. Three weeks later.

[Heather]

17Th is at the end of the month.

[Corey]

17Th to the 6th. How many is that? Three weeks.

[Heather]

That's all 17th. One, two. Two and a half weeks. Okay, I'll settle. Kind of middle, but yeah. This year is going to fly by. I can already feel it in me.

[Corey]

Bones in me bones. Holidays that are coming up. The super bowl, oddly. Why haven't I heard a lot about it? Maybe because I don't have cable television.

[Heather]

Who's in the Super Bowl?

[Corey]

The Patriots. The New England Patriots.

[Heather]

They always in the Super Bowl. They really are. And the Hellcat Seahawks. I knew it's up to Hellcat. The Seattle Seahawks versus the New England Patriots. They seem pretty well matched. Sixteen.

[Corey]

Yeah. So super bowl is this Sunday. Valentine's Day is next Saturday.

[Heather]

I'm sorry, did Valentine's Day just creep up on me in a back out?

[Corey]

It did, girl.

[Heather]

Taking you out back.

[Corey]

Ramadan.

[Heather]

February 17th.

[Corey]

Right there. After we have Mardi Gras. Also February. February 17th. St. Patrick's Day. One month later.

[Heather]

Thank you.

[Corey]

March 17th.

[Heather]

That's six weeks away. Of course. Just likes reading the dates. The. The reason why I put the six weeks away because that's when you said they have to order the cutters to get them on time.

[Corey]

April Fools. If you order that cutter, not sure.

[Heather]

What it'll look like. Eight weeks. Okay. April Fools. The brown E. Yes. And the eggs and the vegetable tray made of cookies. That is good. Looks like Brussels sprouts.

[Corey]

Brown. Easter.

[Heather]

Easter.

[Corey]

That's April 5th. That's nine weeks away.

[Heather]

I want to tell you last year Easter was at the end of April. This year it's at the beginning of April. We had all of April's market Easter. No, we didn't.

[Corey]

The STL me about it.

[Heather]

Okay, I'm gonna actually take this for me because you're just reading blindly now. Sure. STL me about it. Segment is sponsored by Cookie Design Lab. Now they have two new features that you emailed me about. You can. It's so funny. I made you a cutter the other day.

[Corey]

Sure.

[Heather]

I use Cookie Design Lab and I went to like the cut wall because you had said it does an angled cut wall. But now I had all these options to make a just a straight down. But she said we just added that feature. Said you can now make flimsier cutters.

[Corey]

Yeah. Because sometimes you just need a one.

[Heather]

Off a one off guy and okay, now if you do the bamboo Update, it takes 50 years to print a cutter. You'd want to make the cut wall thinner so it uses less filament cheaper to do. We hear you sm. Apparently several of you want cutters to print fast. So we've changed the minimums on several settings for that. Plus the hu added a built in warnings if there's A chance your design might run into some issues when you try to print it to help you figure that out in the design process instead of in your slicer.

[Corey]

Oh, that's so funny because I did run. I tried to put.

[Heather]

I was crazy.

[Corey]

Try to put a little name on the side.

[Heather]

It said the person who reached out on behalf of your group said she had texted you about this and she may have through the text and we don't read them all. And then this one, she also said we love Eddie users. Hey, I guess the husband wrote this. Hey. Amalia is one herself. Actually Eddie was the inspo for Cookie Design Lab way. So perfect placement matters. Now you can download the outline of the cutter you've created to print to use the tray alignment on every print.

[Corey]

Wow.

[Heather]

Does that make sense?

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So. And don't forget you can also download the full image and any edits you've done such as background removal through. So Cookie Design Lab actually is a background removal tool. Yeah, it has that are in there. So that's two new features that she also wants to be featured on the podcast and I think that would be a great idea.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Kind of talk about how she started in pivot it over and then she also said I see a lot of questions on how to design cookie cutters. They have YouTube videos on how to use Canva free and paid to get those cutters over to Cookie Design Lab. So I'll follow up with her on that. But I do like that flimsy cutter so I can make the cut wall super tight print off the thing you're never going to use again. And then I guess you could use anything. I saw you, I saw you printing a lot this weekend. What are we doing?

[Corey]

Oh, printing cookie cutters. Yeah. I have this.

[Heather]

I love to see Cory and I share the same bamboo. Look at her camera and see your trembling hands.

[Corey]

My little trembling hand.

[Heather]

You can look at my camera and see nothing.

[Corey]

You're not doing anything. One silly goose. I'm excited about the order because it's a trendy order right now.

[Heather]

Is it like a pooh bear looking thing?

[Corey]

It's a very cute goose. Like he's not.

[Heather]

Who's it cutter from?

[Corey]

It was. I want to say Cookie High had a set of them that I did on Etsy.

[Heather]

Very cute. Anyways, you can sign up for Cookie Design Lab at cookie design lab.com Code Twins gets you 15 off. And she said that also works on the one week program as well. Okay, we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 texting questions mostly because we didn't do a podcast last week. 5 1, 2, 3 4, 5. Oh, this is so funny. This is about cookie design lab. 81 5. You are the winner of Cookie Design Lab, which turns out you use it. So you get Holly from Texas, you get a free month of Cookie Design Lab. Even if you have Cookie Design Lab, they'll add it to the end of your month. So email [e-mail] for that. I just wanted to give a shout out and a thank you to Andrew at Cookie Design Lab. I guess that's husband. I don't think I've ever spoken to him.

[Corey]

Go ahead.

[Heather]

Double A's.

[Corey]

Oh, yes.

[Heather]

Also, just so you know, they live here in the area and she said, I hope you guys were able to penetrate the snow Creed. I bought an annual subscription at the event that shall not be named and had not been able to figure out how to make a cutter similar to the rest of my cutters in my collection. Their cutters. Oh, this is so funny. This is the text in questions they're referencing. Their cutters are substantial to say the least, meaning really thick cut walls. I prefer a thinner wall, still sturdy, but not a double wall with a hollow center. So I'm not making hundreds of cookies from the same cutter, so I don't need a huge handle. I felt that it waste of filament and time. Andrew answered my email immediately. I let him know the settings I was looking for, which were way below his minimums. He made the adjustments to the program and within 48 hours it was perfect. I love all the feature they offer, like the contact points and the background remover. I also love that you guys can use inches and millimeters interchangeably with a flip of a toggle. That's funny because Fusion, you have to make sure you have the inches set correctly. If you do it in inches but you're thinking your millimeters, you're printing off the biggest thing in the world. Uh, and I've been labeling all my cutters in Fusion360 in bamboo while using another program. This one does it automatically. If you all haven't tried it out, give it a shot. And the best part is I know there's real people behind the program. Thank you, Andrew, for your superb customer service. Holly from Colleyville, Texas, which is which with a Chicagoland telephone number.

[Corey]

Oh, that's so funny.

[Heather]

Okay, that is great. So, Holly, you win that and thank you for the plug.

[Corey]

Yes, thanks.

[Heather]

Or. And Andrew, I do like the color. Thanks for the great customer service. I The thinner cut walls make the. Yeah. And granted, if you want the big, sturdy, strong. Here's an interesting question. I had to look up this answer for you. Deb. Hey Deb, it's Deb from Albany. Deb is the most consistent texter into the podcast ever. And I've got a second question. I'm listening as I'm listening to the podcast, the one you just did. You're talking about templates within Gmail, but are these templates accessible on your phone? I do a lot of work for my phone and I have to use my computer to do the templates. Or can I do it from my phone? I have an iPhone. Thanks again for everything you do, Debbie. I like that your nickname is Debbie. That's. That's adorable. You cannot use it directly from your phone, but you can download a third party app to see if you can do it. So really I'm going to just tell you, you probably just want to do it from your computer. I am a big desktop user. Laptop user. I do very little from my phone in terms of Gmail. So unfortunately that one is set there. Now you can set up in your desktop. Yeah. An auto response template to go out even when you're not manning it. So it would be going out regardless, but then you'd have a little bit more control of the auto respons. You could say, I think and I have to test this. If someone texts into or emails into an alias, have this template go out to them for the alias so you can kind of manage it in there. A little bit of thread in the needle. Coffin's corner. Another question we have here. Hi, this is Jordan from the flower market, Murfreesboro. Plot twist. I'm in Tennessee, not Wisconsin. I recently posted my first first reel done did the thing but it ain't pretty and I'm proud for just getting one launched. My question, my views were approximately 1,600 but the majority of them were non followers and I want to change the reach for my next ones. What can I do to tailor the algorithm to hit my customers and not random people scrolling unless that results in sales and then case give me the randos.

[Corey]

You need to make more local content. And I know you're like but I'm making cookies. Baking cookies is very broad. There's a lot of people who are interested in ASMR who will stay for a tip on how to make your, you know, chocolate chip cookies nice and soft. So if you want more local content, you have to create more local content.

[Heather]

Great point. I TikTok download it every Friday. I follow accounts that post local about town things. Yeah, the real estate agents are posting local about town things. They're showing up in my feed because I am engaging with local restaurants. So if you did the main street collab as a real and said, hey guys, I'm cookifying this pottery. Paint your pottery place. Here we go. And then walk us through it. You've incorporated cookies and local content. It's going to narrow that.

[Corey]

That's the only way you're going to marry them. If real estate agents just did houses for sale, it'd be a snooze fest. If they only did content just about local happenings, then they're not getting.

[Heather]

They're not getting there.

[Corey]

So you have to marry them. And it's the marrying of them that is a little bit more difficult because you're like, oh, wow, now I gotta.

[Heather]

Get out of the house.

[Corey]

I was just gonna do this from. From my, you know, cookie room.

[Heather]

Let's say you found like in the side of buildings here. They hire mural artists to do that. Let's say you cookified the mural and then went there and told us about it. Right. That would be a great marriage of content. That's why I am camp team Viral Unreals does not equival equate to direct sales. It could equate to a great follower base. But then you have a bunch of followers like this weird number behind me that would not sign up for the cookie college. So what worth is it to me? Also, also, this inflated Facebook page follower number does not translate to likes in future posts. It doesn't. It does not. The likes we get on posts are mostly from other bakers who have followed the page for a long time. So there is a strategy there where numerical and. Okay, you're saying what if 1600 people ordered. Absolutely. Keep posting.

[Corey]

Real for sure.

[Heather]

Corey can't mail. We can't ship here in Virginia, so it's pointless for her to ever try to go viral. Unless it's local content. Yeah.

[Corey]

So I, even though I might might get a fewer view count, it might be still more valuable because those views are all local.

[Heather]

The value of a user is relative to their ability to give you money. If you're selling candles, then going viral might be very helpful. If you're selling a product you cannot ship and it expires, going viral may create a problem for you. Yeah, that's a good one. Okay, this one. Hi, twins. Can you please let me into Sourdough sellers group? I've answered all the questions. I promise. I'm dying to be in the that group. And that's not me being snarky. Thanks.

[Corey]

We'll get you in, I promise. Let me go through there. I know I've been snoring on it, sleeping on it.

[Heather]

Cory and I have talked about Saturday, so I just said I needed to get the boot camps off the ground. Okay. I need to kick my butt with a boot.

[Corey]

Okay.

[Heather]

Why are you stressed? Oh, I didn't copy the rest of my text. Okay, final one. Okay. Hi, Ashley from Houston here and I'm expecting a bit baby. I think she's naming the baby Phoebe because she calls. She keeps calling the baby Feeba River.

[Corey]

That's hilarious.

[Heather]

And expecting the baby in July. Congratulations.

[Corey]

Congratulations.

[Heather]

I thought we were naming it Heather, but you can name it Fever Ruben in July. So My goal for Q1 and 2 is to increase my sales so that I can set aside money for paid maternity. So besides the classes and corporate orders which I'm already doing, what ideas do you have for increasing my sales or profit margins when I don't have space in my calendar to take any more orders? Your girl is already booking several weeks of in advance. So she has said she's already booking out Q1, Q2, but in Q3, Q4, Q3, probably she wants to take off for the baby. How can she front load cash when she won't be baking in Q3 for the baby time?

[Corey]

I would say because you're already saying that you're booked. It's hard to say take on more orders. You could always try to do more of the rewards program stuff. So make more real, post more content that you know, it can be a meme. You get paid on static photos, you get paid on reels and things like that.

[Heather]

Yeah. So passive income is probably where I would say since you're booked.

[Corey]

So I don't want to say take more orders.

[Heather]

Well, here's what I'm going to say. If you're booked, raise prices and you wanted to ask about profit margins. It doesn't have to be a drastic increase. It'll slow, it'll throttle down the orders you have. But if you could throttle up orders for Q2 at a higher rate profit margin, then you set yourself up for an easy, easier Q3.

[Corey]

Sure, sure.

[Heather]

So if I were you right now, I'd start increasing that profit percentage if you're at 15, maybe 20%. And then some people be like too much. But that. But that's how they're going to get you. I don't Think I'd bulk at a small increase myself if I really wanted.

[Corey]

I think so.

[Heather]

Par for the core. Everything's more expensive.

[Corey]

I know.

[Heather]

Except for gas. It kind of came down a little bit. I couldn't get to the gas station. It's covered in snow creek.

[Corey]

I know, I know, I know.

[Heather]

Any turn you take right now, you just don't know if you're going to be met with the law of snow.

[Corey]

No, you do not know.

[Heather]

Do not know this. No. Thank you guys for so much for texting in. Text in again next week. 571-556-5644. And you could win a month of Cookie Design Lab. SP Design Lab code twins. 50% off. Works on the seven day five day trial thing. Baking me crazy favorite twin.

[Corey]

10% and I've been. I'm almost out of her extra small bags. I love them.

[Heather]

You really did like it.

[Corey]

Did I would have to order those again.

[Heather]

The cookie class kits for 2026 have been intermediate. Meaning they have more icing colors. Yeah. And piping bag size and cuts. But I've seen you incorporate the little guys in there exclusively. Bake ity bake. Code Twins 10 out. Didn't you say she was coming up with like a new type of something?

[Corey]

No. Remember she had glazed but she taken out our website.

[Heather]

I don't know if she still has there. Let me go to schwap. I don't see the glaze. Oh. 25 pounds pound bag.

[Corey]

25 pound bag. Yeah.

[Heather]

How much do you think it is?

[Corey]

That's Shay Norris. I have no idea. 825. I wouldn't even have a place to store that. The small child. I know.

[Heather]

That's so crazy. That thing would be.

[Corey]

I have a five pound bag and a one pound bag.

[Heather]

Yeah. I didn't know they had a 25. Well if you guys always. You guys act like I'm involved with her like production facility. We're not but if you guys where she's gonna sell get you that 25 pound bag. I know £25 stocking that rate. I bet code twins works on that bad boy.

[Corey]

Nice.

[Heather]

10% off. You're looking at 80 bucks. What's popping con is by Daisy makes.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

So that is her event. She's had a switch over from promoting Daisy makes to what's popping con. Code twins gives you 25 off. And I think they still have early bird pricing.

[Corey]

And we'll be there.

[Heather]

We'll be there Saturday closing square. We'll be talking about. We'll be talking about similar to this Standing popping out from your competition.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Everything there is a popping pun.

[Corey]

I know.

[Heather]

She's.

[Corey]

She's the punniest.

[Heather]

She's the punniest primera Eddie. They just wrapped up their eddycon. Looks like they liked it. Sounds like they'll be.

[Corey]

I asked a few people about it. They said they loved it. They learned a lot.

[Heather]

I've seen a lot of the speakers saying, hey, you can still access the courses.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Like, really? Someone said it is a deep dive. You're going to leave that knowing what is. Eddie is the direct to food printer that Corey uses for a lot of her orders.

[Corey]

I like using them. I like using for background. Guess the silly goose. Eddie will be carrying it.

[Heather]

I love it when people marry. Yeah. Light blue. Yeah.

[Corey]

Pink and sage.

[Heather]

Very cute. So Premier is a direct to food printer. You can go check them out, actually, in their Facebook group.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Eddie Printer users group on Facebook. And that's where you can ask all your questions.

[Corey]

You can see how people are utilizing him and how you could utilize them, too.

[Heather]

So great.

[Corey]

He's so popular. I will say all my competitors, quote, unquote, have one now. So we're all cutting edge.

[Heather]

But you would need it to add because it really takes away the time needed to use an airbrush.

[Corey]

Oh, I'm saying it. If you're doing conversation hearts for Valentine's Day, you're loving the fact that you have.

[Heather]

If you're doing any logo for any business. Oh, yeah. You might be like, but all I do is press print. Yeah, that's what they wanted. That's what they want to see their logo. They love their logo.

[Corey]

Absolutely.

[Heather]

Uh, Bosch News and Mail. Not a sponsor, but very nice company. They affiliate code. If you use the code sugar cookies at checkout, you get 20 bucks. And we get 20 bucks as well. Corey's twin, Trist, we call February 2nd. Christmas. Not for me and Corey, that's for sure. But our mother, Corey's son, our father, our sister, technically, my ex husband. Technically, ex husband. All have birthdays in February.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Second Christmas. Because it decimates your wallet.

[Corey]

Decim. You thought you were done spending.

[Heather]

You're not. And then Ashley just had a birthday, so it's a big win. Our little sister, she's very much younger than us, is just turning 30. So this will be her 30th birthday.

[Corey]

And she likes. I like a theme as well.

[Heather]

Okay.

[Corey]

So my eldest sister is taking it upon her shoulders. Last year, I took my eldest sister's birthday on my shoulders and gave her a Taylor Swift birthday.

[Heather]

This one is tying up your 20s. It's a bow and cherry thing. Cherry.

[Corey]

Well, I will say that I still feel like I'm putting it on my shoulders because I'm always elected to do the cookies.

[Heather]

I had to do the flyer.

[Corey]

Thank you, D. AI could have done that in two seconds.

[Heather]

I may have helped her.

[Corey]

You'll never know.

[Heather]

Yeah. So Ashley's assigning us tasks. If Ashley plans your birthday, it's going to be.

[Corey]

Oh, it's going to be great.

[Heather]

But she actually did our birthday with the floating pictures.

[Corey]

Oh, she did do that. But I did you a pasta party.

[Heather]

You did my birthday?

[Corey]

I did your pasta party. What's funny is I actually gave her a recommendation to a local cake baker that I'm obsessed with. So I will actually meet that lady face to face because I'll be picking up the cake.

[Heather]

Well, you're picking up the cake? Yeah. When are you picking it up? I'm so sorry. What day are we celebr this?

[Corey]

Oh, It'll be Saturday, February 14th.

[Heather]

So in two. In one. Oh, next weekend, huh? Wild.

[Corey]

Yeah. Gotta get to baking, my friend.

[Heather]

Gotta get to baking, my friend.

[Corey]

I know.

[Heather]

I gotta get you printing with AI. So anyways, Cory's wintress was some's birthday party.

[Corey]

I just said like, I like the theme. Tying up. I'm not sure how tying the cherries.

[Heather]

Tying the cherries at the top of.

[Corey]

A cherry is all.

[Heather]

I know tying and cherry in your mouth means you're good kisser. Tried that. Can't. So sorry, Lois. But do you guys. Does anyone know what. When I say the word jelly cat, do you know what I'm saying?

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

Extremely overpriced, but impeccably cute Beanie Babies of today. Yeah, we're cuter than Beanie Babies.

[Corey]

Overpriced.

[Heather]

Exceptionally overpriced. Summer, our little sister is real big into jelly cats. She has about 42 over 50 now.

[Corey]

50 now.

[Heather]

Yeah. So she. I took a jelly cat, I drew him, an illustrator, a cherry, and I turned into a cutter with a thin cut wall from Cookie Diamond. That's why I was printing that day.

[Corey]

Am I making that for as a birthday gift?

[Heather]

I thought you could just do it in the set.

[Corey]

That's not what Ashley wants. Elegant.

[Heather]

Cute.

[Corey]

He's cute. I have got to do what Ashley wants.

[Heather]

Make him or I will scream on.

[Corey]

This pocket as a side gift away from her.

[Heather]

Just make him. I'll eat him myself. It'll be a gift to me. Very, very cute. So, yeah, what was the gifts? We got her an air purifier.

[Corey]

A rose robe I think was done.

[Heather]

We're almost done.

[Corey]

A robinia air purifier. The cake. It's funny. The cake is a gift. Not that I'm making all this for free. The cookies. What happened to that?

[Heather]

She's turning 30.

[Corey]

I don't know.

[Heather]

Anyways, twin Cory want to talk about agreeableness. But I wanted to talk about ice melt. Ice melt.

[Corey]

Are you pushing mine off to the side?

[Heather]

Yeah, we'll get to it in a second. Melting ice. We had this question. It is so frozen. It's a frozen tundra outside. You can't park anywhere. There's nothing left. I can't even get out of the driveway because there's these berms.

[Corey]

Yeah, berms.

[Heather]

There's this been the week of berms. The snowplows just pushed the snow and ice out of the way and created these walls that people couldn't get through. But okay. I saw this guy on TikTok, he said it's so wrong. Ice melt should be put down. This is the correct way to do it before the precipitation starts.

[Corey]

I did it that way.

[Heather]

When it starts precipitating on ice melt ice salt. This melts. Correct.

[Corey]

Better.

[Heather]

It lowers the freezing point of water. So people think putting ice melt on top of ice melts it? No, no, no. It needs to go under it so it does not freeze to the ground. Once ice. Once the precipitation freezes to the ground, it allows the other precipitation to form on top of it. But the ice melt mixed in creates a brine that makes it almost impossible for the precipitation to freeze to the ground. That's how it works. Now I smell depending on. Depending on the type, salt is not as effective as the sodium chloride mix. It is ineffective after a certain low temperature. Which is the problems that we had here. Yeah, it was getting to 9 degrees. They said it's almost at 15 degrees salt stops working.

[Corey]

Interesting.

[Heather]

Yeah. So there is a freeze point. But the. The mix, the chloride mix is negative 20. That's why. Which type of salt you buy is important question before you about the salt. Okay.

[Corey]

Later down before the snow came. But then when you're shoveling, you're technically shoveling it back up.

[Heather]

So I put every time I did layers.

[Corey]

Yeah, I didn't have that much.

[Heather]

No. We got deed got a 50 gallon bin from Home Depot. Yeah, she'd gotten it the week before.

[Corey]

Yeah, I said I got one about two layers I can do.

[Heather]

I'll be honest, it didn't help at all. It was just the precipitation Mix was way too crazy. And then it got so cold. So anyways, the question we had today is which is better in melting snow above 32 degree or direct sunlight? What do you think it is?

[Corey]

Direct sunlight.

[Heather]

Direct sunlight, because it warms, it can be absorbed by the pavement and increase the pavement temperature to higher than 30.

[Corey]

I agree.

[Heather]

They said if you want to see any reasonable ice melting, the temperature needs to be about 40, which we will not reach this week.

[Corey]

Oh, maybe next per chance.

[Heather]

Yeah. They said we'll end February at 50 degree but because the ice, the snow pack with the snow. Crete is so dense, we'll be seeing it tomorrow mid March.

[Corey]

Now they're talking about Snow Creek falling from tops of businesses.

[Heather]

The flying icebergs, which is snow Crete on top of a car going at 80 miles an hour has destroyed people that send people to hospital.

[Corey]

Might make it illegal to have snow on top of your car while you're driving.

[Heather]

If you've seen how those things fly through the air and how they hit the car, it really destroys vehicles and can injure people injured. Kind of selfish if you don't clear that. Don't get me started.

[Corey]

Get me started.

[Heather]

So that was my twint segment is on. It's been on the brain. The snow melt. I'm. I'm like a old man. Get off my lawn. But I look out the window and I say I'm not sure if I see the melt today. That's my new personality.

[Corey]

Yeah. Elderly.

[Heather]

Yeah.

[Corey]

My twint is I have got to teach my son a tidbit a day till he's turning 16. Next.

[Heather]

Oddly been hit like a freight train with a freight tr. Son is turning 16.

[Corey]

16. I only have two years to give him all of the life lessons. So my life lesson this. Yeah. There's probably only two years worth that I had anyways myself. My life lesson this week. People like I. I don't use AI often. Maybe because I'm a boomer.

[Heather]

You looking out the window and talking about the snow melt.

[Corey]

Yep. But people are ahead of having actual conversations and friendships with it.

[Heather]

Sorry. They're falling in love with it.

[Corey]

Falling in love with it. And you got to take a step back and wonder why.

[Heather]

Because we determined that AI is very agreeable and validating.

[Corey]

Agreeable.

[Heather]

So you have the personality that is a devil's advocate.

[Corey]

Most people. Here's the problem. Most people, when you bring them like a story and it's an opinion piece they're going to have, you'll never guess an opinion.

[Heather]

And a lot of times that's going to be a counter opinion. Yeah. Because. And I think it's a little bit of, like, if I put you down, it makes me feel better. Yeah. So the devil's advocate, people. I wonder if that's a subtle way to get attention. Like, I. I'm gonna play the devil's advocate here. At the end of the day, I think you're ugly. Like, okay, you got my attention because you're. You created a cognitive dissonance. What I said and what you said are now opposite. Now my brain is so focused on convincing you.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

So you got my attention. But again, I don't like you for it. Yeah.

[Corey]

So it br. It begs pardon. Brings to the. The forefront of the brain at the end of the day. At the end of the day that people like AI because it agrees with them. And even if it doesn't agree, it will say, that's a very valid point you bring up there.

[Heather]

I had. Ashley made me read a book on validation. Validation can feel like hot air up your butt cheeks when it's not what you actually, actually think. Yeah. So you don't want to blow smoke after someone's bun. If you're saying something you actually don't believe, that is lip service, and that is lying, and it's inauthentic, and we can sense it. So the book said, find some part of their concept, their story that you do agree with and validate that. And a lot of ways you can say, if I disagree with what you said, I can say, I can see how in your situation, you would feel that way. Yeah, that's validating. While in your situation, specifically, it doesn't mean it's my situation. It still would be validating to hear that now you have. The other people are like, well, listen, you're wrong about that. Here's what you should feel. That's a lot more invalidating.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

Because you've told someone.

[Corey]

Here's my just. And I'll briefly say it. I don't love to go to the movie theater, but my son does. And I found a movie that I thought we'd maybe both like.

[Heather]

Okay.

[Corey]

I'm not married to it. I didn't produce it. I didn't make it. I literally discovered it, like, on Saturday. Told him about it Sunday. I said, we'll go on Sunday and watch it. Okay. Yesterday, he gets in the car, he finds a different movie.

[Heather]

You didn't go on Sunday.

[Corey]

Oh, you did. We're still planning. We're in the playing phases. He found a different movie.

[Heather]

And I.

[Corey]

He was like, yeah, it seems my. Like, mine's a little bit more horror, our genre that we're going for, than yours. Okay, now you put me on the defensive now.

[Heather]

Got stand up when I was filming this.

[Corey]

Yeah. So I was like, well, I think they're both got a little horror involved in there. I said, mine's maybe.

[Heather]

How could he have said it to you in a way. Way that you.

[Corey]

He could have said, you know what? Yours is horror, but, like drama. And it's so similar to a movie that's already out there. What if we went and did this kind of one and it seems like it's like, what's that one that people love with Matthew McConaughey in the space.

[Heather]

Oh, interstellar.

[Corey]

Don't let me go. Don't let me go. No, Merv, don't let me go. And it's like more like interstellar. I've been like, oh, yeah, I really liked it in her stellar. Let's go see yours.

[Heather]

Yeah.

[Corey]

But we became at an impasse then I said, bro, why is there so much energy in the vehicle right now?

[Heather]

Because I think he wanted his way. Yeah. He went about it in an invalidating way. When you invalidate someone, they either capitulate, but they're not gonna like you for it because you just told them they're wrong. Or they defend to the death, which I find most people opt for.

[Corey]

Heather took me to a very nice restaurant on Sunday.

[Heather]

Yeah, you had a big Sunday?

[Corey]

No, that's next Sunday.

[Heather]

That's why we're talking about it.

[Corey]

Really?

[Heather]

No, I did not.

[Corey]

Heather took me to a great restaurant on Sunday. They had this kind of raw fish appetizer that they brought and tuna tartar. Tuna.

[Heather]

Tuna tar.

[Corey]

It wasn't my favorite taste, but I.

[Heather]

Was like, oh, that's so fishy tasting.

[Corey]

Heather could have validated me and like, yeah, because you don't do anything but your same old dumb ramen noodles every night and would have been, like, rude. But Heather's like, it's similar to what we get at seasons 52, if you think about it, which I felt very validated in a funky little tasty fish.

[Heather]

That I feel like if you can. And it's hard to teach personality traits, I do believe you can do it. A huge thing. And you got to take it. You can't just keep using people's names all the time. Is how to win friends and influence people if you show a genuine interest in others. Somebody was asking on the anonymous subreddit of Reddit. Yeah, I like to pretend them. Whatever I want to be on there. Someone's like, I just don't know how to have conversations. He was going on a date. He was.

[Corey]

Yeah, yeah.

[Heather]

Looking for dates. I do not know how to keep the conversation going. I said the way to keep a conversation going is to ask people about their favorite subject, which happens to be themselves. And to ask in a way that's an open ended question. When somebody gives you that first line, can you extrapolate an open ended question meaning it can't be answered with yes or no? That is a about them.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Eventually you'll realize that you actually don't say anything. And somebody talks about themselves the entire time. And they had a grand old. They're like, can we do this again? You're like, no, go find a therapist.

[Corey]

So I was trying to tell my son that to, to, to invalidate someone makes them have to be even hardcore more on their side. I didn't make the movie. I honestly only learned about it last week, so the movie doesn't mean much to me. But that he said my movie choice was dumb. Is how I took it not as good.

[Heather]

Was it the delivery or other words?

[Corey]

It was the way it was that yours wasn't good. Mine is better.

[Heather]

But nobody could know because nobody's gone to either.

[Corey]

And neither of us know.

[Heather]

Right.

[Corey]

So it's just funny. How can you teach someone, and I.

[Heather]

Hate to say it, if you do not feel, if you feel like you're in a constant argument or a counter, you'll stop having the relationship to AI about. About anything. And you will feel extremely validated.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Even ask it to disagree with you. Watch how it disagrees with you. It validates you.

[Corey]

So what I needed to do with Arch has been like, you know, that's. That's a great point. That sounds like another great option. Yeah.

[Heather]

Instead you said, you sound real passionate.

[Corey]

But at the end of the day, I'm paying the bill.

[Heather]

When you told him, well, what's with all the energy? Oh, he became defensive as well. And you said he shut down after that.

[Corey]

Everything deflated.

[Heather]

Yeah. So there's, there's being able to handle disagreeable people. And that would make you likable. We talk about agreeableness a lot with dealing with client issues. So, like, the client's like, I don't like, I, I want my money back. I hate. Thank you so much. What, what I can do for you is this compromise.

[Corey]

But if you say no, you cannot have your money back.

[Heather]

Okay. You're gonna escalate.

[Corey]

There's an ant that's right.

[Heather]

That's what happens is if you don't give me what I want. Want.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

And really people don't necessarily want exactly what they ask for. They want to be validated. They want to know that you're on their side trying to find a way to get them something.

[Corey]

So if people are craving now this is just figment.

[Heather]

Well, they asked for a twin to like segment.

[Corey]

If people crave validation. People are drawn towards things that validate. Why do we hold it as this sepulcher that only we can drink out?

[Heather]

I believe my working theory. Not a psychiatrist. Psychologist. Not nothing.

[Corey]

Okay.

[Heather]

Is that people with a low sense of self worth find that validating somebody else takes away from their own minute value. If I agree with you, Corey, you're going to think you're better than me. You're going to think you're the boss. You're going to think you're always right. Yeah. So I'm going to disagree with you so that you don't have it in reality. You will not talk to me anymore. And I'll be left cold and alone upon my throne.

[Corey]

Man, you could have argued over the fish tartar. Did I say that right?

[Heather]

Tuna tartar.

[Corey]

Tuna tartar.

[Heather]

Close. We're getting closer.

[Corey]

Me and you both didn't make this tuna tartar. There was. There should be no. But you bought it for me so you could have felt more of a tie to it because your money was going behind it. But then I need to realize that I didn't buy it for myself. So it behooved me to shut up and stuff my mouth with tuna tartare.

[Heather]

Another pivot like such an interesting dish. I'd love to know why you like it. And then I. I won't shut up about some stuff I don't know anything about.

[Corey]

It's just so funny the way that people's brains work. We have. We know the answer. The.

[Heather]

I'm sorry. The best. The number one best way to handle any situation is to pause and send your response. And that is a learned skill.

[Corey]

Learn skill also to buy yourself time repeating so you can give yourself a pause.

[Heather]

Oh yeah.

[Corey]

So you're like, I don't like the tuna tartare. You don't like the tuna tartare.

[Heather]

And it gives you self in that negotiation book. Yeah. He said if you do that, people will feel the natural need to explain more because you're like.

[Corey]

You just.

[Heather]

You kind of asked it back to me. Now I gotta prove it.

[Corey]

Yeah. Just pinteresting one of my things. I'M teaching art as I learn it myself. Evidently, at the end of the day.