251. Baking it Down - Posting Do and Donuts

Summary

Podcast Summary: Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪

Episode 251: Posting Do and Donuts
Air Date: March 11, 2026
Hosts: Heather and Corrie Miracle

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Overview

In this lively episode, twin sisters and sugar cookie marketing mavens, Heather (broadcasting from her new home in West Virginia) and Corrie (still in Virginia), “bake down” the ever-evolving world of social media marketing for cottage bakers. The focus: how to build reach and meaningful engagement on social platforms amid constantly shifting algorithms. With plenty of humor, personal anecdotes, and practical tips, the twins share the latest “do’s” (and “donuts” — aka, don’ts) of posting for maximum bakery business growth.

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Key Topics & Insights

1. The Changing Landscape of Social Media Posting

[06:03]

• Social media platforms constantly change what performs well; today’s best practice may flop tomorrow.
• The switch from chronological to algorithmic feeds (Instagram: March 2016) means content needs to be tailored to what the platform wants to show — quality and relevance are key.

“Set it and forget it mentality doesn’t apply to Virginia, and it doesn’t apply to baking sugar cookies either.” – Heather [06:50]

TikTok Case Study

[07:24]

• Early TikTok stars like Charli D’Amelio built audiences with dance content. Now, as the algorithm evolved, value-driven, niche content gets reach — allowing latecomers an opportunity.
• Importance of continually shifting content strategies in response to these changes.

2. Should You Post Every Day?

[13:07-18:00]

• DO: Post as frequently as you can manage with quality.
• Corrie’s February challenge: posted 23 out of 28 days, resulting in increased views, sales, and followers.
• Use CONTENT BUCKETS: Mix sales, value, local, humor, personal, and trend-driven posts.
  • National holidays offer easy prompts (e.g., National Toast Day, Employee Appreciation Day, etc.).

“You don’t always want to be selling at your clients. A great way to bring up sets and showcase what you do is using those national holidays.” – Corrie [16:56]

3. The Purposeful Post: Don’t Post Just to Post

[18:49]

• DONUT: Don’t post for the sake of posting — every post should have a clear purpose.
• Before hitting publish, ask: What do I want this post to do? (build relationship, provide value, show location, etc.)
• Proactively plan content using content calendars (Corrie shares free ones in the Facebook group).

“If you can’t answer the question ‘What do I want this post to do?’… go back to the drawing board.” – Corrie [19:00]
“Making sales is always the end goal, but building trust/relationship is the layer that helps you sell.” – Heather [22:28]

4. Make It a Conversation

[25:57, 36:31, 39:11]

• Social media is meant to be social — it should mirror a two-way conversation.
• Engage audiences by inviting comments, asking questions, or using prompts.
• Example: Instead of just posting a finished dog cookie, say, “Show me your puppies for National Puppy Day!”
• The more you talk with (not at) your followers, the more the algorithm will reward you with reach.

“A conversation that’s one-sided is not going to last long. Because if Heather just always talks at me, I’m going to be like, time to hit the old dusty road.” – Corrie [38:20]

• Test: If your post would get removed from a Facebook community group for being too “salesy,” try rewording it as a conversation.

5. Use Insights to Drive Strategy

[26:49, 29:46]

• Check your platform insights (analytics) regularly.
• Tailor future content based on what gets views, clicks, and engagement from your target audience.
• Be careful: viral posts (controversy, drama) may drive engagement but not sales.
• Note your top-performing posts and look for patterns: In Corrie’s case, a personal update about her cancer journey (“get your checkups”) reached 66,000 people, far surpassing even high-quality cookie photos.

“You have to look, are you creating content that has ebbs and flows? So your sales posts, they're not going to perform as good, but another post might prop it up.” – Corrie [36:31]

6. Content Mix: Tiers of a Tiramisu

[34:57]

• Imagine content as a tiramisu: different “layers” (personal, sales, value, local, humor).
• Each layer supports the other — variety keeps audience engagement and supports sales indirectly.

7. Test, Analyze, and Adjust

[45:00]

• Experiment with new formats (e.g., graphics, reels, video podcast clips).
• Don’t abandon a new strategy too quickly — repeat and gather enough data to judge what works.

“If you do the content calendar for one month and get maybe one comment more than you used to, that means it is working.” – Corrie [47:06]

8. Relationship-Based Marketing for Saturated Markets

[51:38]

• The “secret ingredient” that differentiates your business isn’t just your cookies — it’s YOU.
• Build relationships and maintain high customer service for new AND repeat customers.
• Example: Corrie travels an hour for her regular haircut because of the trust/relationship, even if skills are equal elsewhere.

“My strategy is: ‘Corrie Miracle, who happens to bake cookies.’… I’m the secret ingredient people are buying from.” – Corrie [50:33]

9. Additional Notables

Bootcamps & Events

[57:45, 61:12]

• Announced photography and upcoming pre-sales bootcamps, 3D printer classes, and fun Facebook group events (e.g., “AI Cookie Collab” and “Pipe a Park” collab).

Community Q&A

[73:37+]

• Answered listener questions about product photography (when/why to show packaging) and Costco memberships.
• Shared listener stories: e.g., a customer came back two years after ghosting on an order.

Twin Twists & Takeaways

[85:25+]

• Stress relief tip: Take a deep breath, then inhale even more — the “psychological sigh” to reduce stress [85:25].

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Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Quality content means quality audience.” – Lee Oden (episode quote) [05:53]
• “You can post like a gossip tabloid and go viral… but did it make me a sale?” – Heather [34:49]
• “The algorithm’s always changing, if you do the content calendar for one month and get maybe one comment more, it is working.” – Corrie [47:06]
• “What worked yesterday doesn’t always work today.” – Corrie [04:23]
• “Treat your clients as if they’re first timers each and every time.” – Corrie [81:12]
• “We have to create content in a world where content is how you stay relevant.” – Heather [26:00]

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Selected Timestamps for Quick Reference

• Virginia vs. West Virginia Marketing Banter: 00:05 – 02:24
• Group Intro & Resource Rundown: 02:29 – 04:23
• Evolving Social Media Landscape: 06:04 – 10:23
• Posting Frequency Debate: 13:07 – 18:00
• Purposeful Posting: 18:49 – 22:29
• Engagement via Conversation: 25:57 – 42:38
• Reviewing Insights: 26:49 – 34:49
• Mixing Content Layers (“Tiramisu analogy”): 34:57 – 36:31
• Testing & Adjusting Content: 45:00 – 50:33
• Relationship Marketing in a Crowd: 50:33 – 54:16
• Photographing with Packaging Q&A: 73:37 – 75:45
• Deep Breath “Twin Twist”: 85:25 – 88:48

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Tone & Style

• Warm, casual, and humorous; full of twin banter and relatable analogies (“layers of a tiramisu,” “content buckets”).
• Practical advice punctuated with real business examples and candid stories from the hosts’ own bakeries and personal lives.
• Inclusive and encouraging: emphasizes learning from experimentation and community sharing over perfection.

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Summary for Busy Bakers

If you haven’t got time to binge the full episode, here’s what you need to know:

• Post often and with purpose: plan in advance using diverse content buckets and ask “What do I want this post to do?”
• Foster engagement by initiating conversations, not monologues — use prompts, questions, and personal stories.
• Regularly check your analytics to see what’s resonating; shift your effort based on real data.
• Don’t chase virality for its own sake — build relationships for enduring sales, even (especially!) in saturated markets.
• Experiment often, be patient in seeing results, and always keep customer experience top-of-mind.

Listen for a boost of motivation, practical content ideas, and a few good laughs — and remember, the marketing game is always changing, so bake up a strategy that’s uniquely yours!

Transcript

[Corey]

Foreign.

[Heather]

It is the podcast Corey from the tornado watching area of West Virginia that I have moved to over the weekend. Heather is officially moved.

[Corey]

Corey still located in the same area of Woodbridge. Heather now an hour and a half away. It's like we're not even twins anymore. From wombates to roommates to not even state mates anymore.

[Heather]

As if Corey can't get in a car to drive. She has acted like the literal hat of West Virginia. Also, Virginia and West Virginia were the same state. Did you know Virginia originally was from the bottom of Virginia all the way to Maine? And then they slowly triple toppled until Virginia for a long time was just Virginia and West Virginia together. The big old blob. It was a massive state.

[Corey]

Yeah. Then we had to cut you guys

[Heather]

out because you guys do weird stuff.

[Corey]

So it's West Virginia, wild and wonderful. What is Virginia?

[Heather]

Come on, you know this. It's on the plates. Virginia's for lovers. And do you know where that came from? Virginia was so poorly moved to by newly married couples that they decided to come up with a tagline to get newly married. Trapped in congestion.

[Corey]

It worked. Let me tell you. It worked so good. It worked twice.

[Heather]

What does that mean?

[Corey]

I've been married twice because Virginia is for lovers.

[Heather]

Who came up with Virginia is for lovers? Hi, Glenn. I wonder what. If you're listening, text into the podcast 571-1-556-5644 with its marketing tagline.

[Corey]

It's tagline. And if you tell us how it came about. Bonus points. Five Internet bonus points. One e hug.

[Heather]

Ah. Virginia's for Lovers was created in 1969 by Robin McLaughlin, a copywriter at the Richmond based advertising agency.

[Corey]

It.

[Heather]

Literally nobody wanted to go to Virginia. They had a higher marketing and there. There we go, guys. There we go.

[Corey]

69, you're tuning in for the first time. Welcome to the Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing podcast. We are your host, Heather, West Virginia, Corey, Virginia. But we are twins and there's a

[Heather]

little telepathy that we do you think you categorize how you live your life more as a wild and wonderful or for lovers.

[Corey]

I'm a four lovers now in my late 30s.

[Heather]

Wild and wonderful.

[Corey]

I love for lovers.

[Heather]

But yes, this is the Baking it Down podcast through a group on Facebook called the Sugar Cookie Marketing Group. If you guys want more information, you can always go to sugarcookiemarketing.com I'll be updating the website later today with the

[Corey]

sugar cookie marketing website. Let me give it a few little kudos. Kuda dooskis.

[Heather]

Don't be googling it right now. We'll be updating you soon.

[Corey]

From the last time I remember there's actually a lot of resources on there. So there is. If you are new to the baking world, Heather has done a communal local group groups to you. So everyone came and tagged a local group to them that was baking centered, baker centered. So that's a great way if you're just starting off and cottage laws have you confused, you can go find your state and find a group and ask in there. It plus it has a link to all the past Facebook lives. Me and Heather did our darndest to get those before Facebook deleted them. And we have uploaded them to YouTube and they cover a gamut of different topics that you can find trying to grow your bakery. And you might be saying are farmers markets for me are pop ups for me? Do I? Should I do deliveries at a different location? There's something that covers everything there.

[Heather]

Yeah, I'd really say if you got the YouTube component which is, you know, four or five years of people's experiences, how they did this, how they got started it plus finding a local hyperlocal group match made in heaven. Because what somebody from Ohio is going to do isn't the same laws as Virginia wild and wonderful. Although they're working on changing the in person sales. There's somebody who has taken a baker at local has taken it on themselves to kind of get those laws updated, which is great and I saw an update posted yesterday. But marrying the concept with the local community is the secret sauce to getting your questions answered directly from the Facebook group.

[Corey]

And if you haven't joined, we highly suggest you do. We're letting people in weekly. If you answer all the questions we are able to see what is the topic that bakers have on their mind. This podcast has been around for eons at this point, so we've covered about everything thing but sometimes it's always good to go back and cover things yet again. Things that we are seeing is the algorithms landscape is always changing. What worked yesterday doesn't always work today. And now people are wondering why don't I get engagement on my post? And it's a question we have addressed a lot. But because the algorithms always change, because they're always trying to stay up, current, new, fresh, it's always good to come back and answer those questions again because it might look a little different than it did last week, last month, last

[Heather]

year or four years ago when the right before. Since Corey loves to jump ahead of my little definitely text box before what she's saying. We have upcoming is the AI cookie collab. That'll be next week on Friday, which is March 20th. I'll be sending out copy help and updates on Monday. We also have the cookies and carrots cookie class kit that just dropped Monday. And it is a cute guy. We'll talk about him in a second. And then we just wrapped up our pre sales bootcamp, which I'll talk about in a minute as well.

[Corey]

We didn't wrap up the pre sales boot camp. We wrapped up the photography.

[Heather]

Photography. Yeah. I'm starting on the pre sales. Two peas, one month. It's hard for me.

[Corey]

Two peas in a pod.

[Heather]

We need to separate the peas from the month. Our quote that supports today's topic is quality content means quality audience. And that's by Lee Oden.

[Corey]

Lee Odin. That is so true as we come. What's great about social media is the things that worked last year don't work this year. And you're like, not great. That's bad because I knew what I

[Heather]

was doing last year.

[Corey]

The problem is people are not a clue this year.

[Heather]

No clue what I'm doing this year. But last year was dialed up.

[Corey]

People are always coming and going. Whether you take a break, whether you're new to the industry. It's unfair that just because someone maybe was born before you and had their social media before you be able to take the entire market share. So we do like when things that happen that are new in it, it levels and evens the playing field for people who are newer, people who are coming back to and it keeps people who have never left a little bit sharper.

[Heather]

Yeah, I think it is great. I mean, even if the state of Virginia needs to hire a marketing company, what are the rest of us to think? Right. So the set it and forget it mentality doesn't apply to Virginia and it doesn't apply to baking sugar cookies either. And that is both the blessing and the curse. The blessing is like Corey said, people who are first to market don't dominate the market. You know, you always see those people who are like dancing on TikTok when it first came out. Yeah. And they have the million followers. But now you see people able to get a million followers through different types of content that is is quality. Right. So the dance, the dance of yesteryear is gone.

[Corey]

If you guys want to bust out

[Heather]

a move, I'm not going to say no. Just send it in, please. I'd like to watch what's very curious

[Corey]

about Heather, what she's Saying dancer, I don't know her.

[Heather]

Not familiar.

[Corey]

Super Charlie d' Amelio was one of the first ones to garner millions with an S followers. And she started all with doing the dances. Back during COVID someone did a study on her account. And while she has a lot of views, girl cannot get comments worth anything because her. Her audience was that of the dance realm.

[Heather]

That's what TikTok before was. TikTok. But this rebrand of TikTok only has happened in the last six years. It was called musically, musically, Musically. And it was for those dances. Then TikTok's algorithm updated and turns out we just like very specific content. So that is a great example. If the dancers had dominated the market, we wouldn't have been able to move in. But now, because the algorithm has changed, because the rules have changed, we are able to get in there. And if you saw my dance moves, you know I'd never go viral. But maybe we have the opportunity to go spiral. It was something else. So that is the good and the bad. The bad. You constantly have to be reinventing the wheel so someone will say, and I think I saw a post today in the sugar cooking marketing group, hey, this is working. And now it's not. What gives? I had this dialed in and now it's dialed out. Like, what am I supposed to do here? I thought I had it the secret sauce, and now I don't. Same thing with the Facebook lives core was talking about when we first started this group. In 2020, Facebook Lives could get about a thousand people watching. Abuse of Facebook lives. Between the, you know, the spam, the stream, the, the like MLM type things, the sales stuff, Facebook has greatly depreciated the reach of Facebook Live. So you got to figure out a new way to get that. Then Facebook reveals unveils reels. Yeah, but they're shorter, short form content. Turns out the 10 hour Facebook Live. And now Facebook's like, we're not even going to host that content anymore. You got 30 days to get it off our platform. But hey, if you want to do reels, we'll push them out farther. Especially now I see that with Facebook groups. Facebook actually sent us a notification and says, if you guys would take a chance and make this a public group, we'll let it reach people. Yeah, yeah, I don't have to worry about that. I don't love public groups.

[Corey]

The other day I accidentally posted in

[Heather]

a group, thought it was a private, was a public group. And Cory's like, why'd you write this darn it and you know Facebook's gonna show it to your friends. Yeah.

[Corey]

What's so funny, though, me and Heather back in the day in our marketing company used to do text post on pictures and those did really well. Back in the day, we're talking 2017, 2018 timeframe when things were still chronological. That had since gone the way of the do photo. But if you have looked at the sugar cookie marketing Facebook page, I have been making little graphics with text on them with some sort of border, and those have been doing very well. So the ebbs and flows, the comebacks, the gones, it's always ever changing. And some things might come back. It depends what the algorithm is looking for. And that is what you're going to want to feed it.

[Heather]

When did Instagram switch from a chronological feed to an algorithmic free feed? Got month in year. I want to say January 2020, March 2016. Baby girl, we've been at it chronological. I remember that big switch and everyone hated it. Consider this. Chronological means when you posted at the time you posted it, everyone would see it at that time. So you could scroll backwards and just see a log throughout the day. When it switched to algorithmic, somebody could have posted something three days ago and you would see it today. But somebody could have posted something and you'd never have been shown it. People hated the concept. But in real, you really actually do like the concept because now you're not seeing stuff that doesn't perform well. How do we get it to perform well is the topic of today's podcast. The do's and donuts of social media posting and what we say today may or may not apply when you're listening to this down the road. And that is the magic of it. The magic of it.

[Corey]

But it also tells you it's so funny on TikTok, I'm really into Summerween, which people are in full fledged getting ready to celebrate Halloween in the summer. So it's so funny because.

[Heather]

Explain to us why somebody would do that.

[Corey]

Because people love Halloween so they all year round. You actually celebrate Halloween in the summer.

[Heather]

Is it a specific day or is

[Corey]

it the whole summer? Oh, I don't know if it's a specific day. I'm sure they're trying to make it a thing. I saw a bunch of bakers do it last year and it was kind of big.

[Heather]

It's the fourth annual Summer Rain. So this is a newer concept. And it is June 27th.

[Corey]

Okay, June 27th. And I saw a lot of bakers

[Heather]

take advantage of it and Add it to my countdown.

[Corey]

Yes, maybe, sure. Because I've been interacting with the content of Halloween. I'm actually getting fed stuff from January and February that has to do with Halloween because I've told the algorithm that that's what I want to interact with. So knowing that is the same way you want to feed your local audience of buyers, whether it be local content that people like to consum getting them engaged, featuring local places. Because we're local bakers, most of us, a lot of us cannot ship. Most of us don't ship. How do you get the algorithm to show your content to people who can actually buy, not just other bakers who like to look at pretty cookies? And that is what it always comes down to. That is the chicken or the egg. What do you make? Do bakers engage more? Do your local audience engage more? And that is why posting what you post does matter.

[Heather]

Okay, so Corey's got point one, do post every day.

[Corey]

Controversial.

[Heather]

Hot take. I'll. I'll tell you, posting every day is a lot. How often you're not posting every day to your personal.

[Corey]

Not in my personal one. On my Facebook page. In the years prior, I would have said, you don't need to post every single day. Just stay top of the feeds. Now that how much content and how much people are consuming content on their phones daily, I do say you need to post more often than not. Last year, I mean last month in February, out of the 28 days, I ended up posting 23 of those days. Okay, that's more than I normally do.

[Heather]

Question. Is the, Is it always a feed post? Is it a feeding story? Like, what are you counting as posting?

[Corey]

What I am counting as posting is just my page feeds post.

[Heather]

Okay, so what was your. What was your results of your 23 day test and what happened on those other days?

[Corey]

I didn't have anything to post and I said, man, I need to take a breather or life got busy. But it's still more on average than I ever posted before. Everything increased. My views increased, my approximate earnings increased, my followership increased. So it does tell me that this world that we're living in does want more content than it wants less content.

[Heather]

Okay, this is your month of February. Is this what you were doing?

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

Okay, I'm gonna scroll through because I pulled up your Facebook page here. One that oddly performed well, but I think it performed well for bakers is your very clean oven, which everyone was asking for tips on. It did.

[Corey]

So I will say, because Heather has mentioned my baking page on this podcast. Oh, so many times. A lot of bakers have come and followed it over the years, but I appreciate them because they still do stop and engage, which I thank you so much. If you're gonna be there, be square and help me out. But that was post. I didn't know the bakers would like it. I should have guessed that they probably like a clean oven. But that was just more of a value post to show my audience. Hey look, I'm baking out of a clean oven.

[Heather]

Yeah, I like that one. Corey says as a home baker you don't know. I'm just summarizing. You don't know what you're going to get. But here I'm going to show you how clean this is. Then we got a meme here. Then you got the reminder of daylight savings time. I love daylight savings time because it gives us content to post. Yes. Then you have this funny one and I think you posted about it in the cookie college this National Employee Appreciation Day. So you did one of those funny humor things. Then you got back to your sales pitch, your same Patrick's day presale post and then we went back to the personal content bucket with National Sunset. Well this is all just still in March. Haven't gotten to February. So your content posting as high back to a sales post for a pre order. Then you did a page giveaway that did well to that. Oh, and she claimed. What did you get with she?

[Corey]

And I'm learning I don't typically do

[Heather]

a lot of giveaways.

[Corey]

I thought I wrote it correctly and I said choose one thing from my pre sale and she chose one thing from everything of the pre sale.

[Heather]

Well would you let her have it? I can tell you. Then we got back to sales again. Back to sales again. And then you changed your logo to have little shamrocks. I think I was wrong. I'd like to. I would like to correct may the record state. It's been corrected. I do not think I was right about the shamrock. I was driving up the street here and there was like shamrock construction and it did have four clovers.

[Corey]

I think a four leaf clover is lucky.

[Heather]

Okay then what's the difference between shamrock and clover and four leaf? What do you think it is? Oh no, shamrock is a three leaf clover. Then what is that store doing out there with four leaves?

[Corey]

Maybe they just didn't know. They didn't know.

[Heather]

Unfix the record back to what I originally said. So back here you have National Toast Day. So I can see what you're doing is you have a content bucket that's those funny days. Yes. And now when you. You it is. But you're bringing your sales content into the funny days.

[Corey]

Those are national holidays. And if you're in the sugar cookie marketing group, each month, I've done it for one year straight, thank goodness. Pat on my own back is a content calendar that I drop each and every month to give you ideas because we don't necessarily always want to be selling at our clients. A great way to bring up the sets and showcase what you do is using those national holidays. So the national holiday Heather's looking at it was National Toast Day, but I actually did a toast slash graduation set. So it was a great way to say, hey, look, here's what I can do. Here's National Toast Day. More of an excuse to bring up, instead of being like, guys, look, I'm amazing, you know, and I like those national holidays for that.

[Heather]

You have a lot of letterboards with topics, but around it is always sugar cookie, which I like. She has one for snow day. So there was a snow day the other day, and Corey announced it on her page, but in it, it has cookies.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Heather]

This is great content. It's a lot of mix of personal, but always kind of circling back to cookies. You even did a poll. I didn't know you could do that on your page.

[Corey]

I know, I know. It was my least performing post, but it was good to know and it's good to test that content out.

[Heather]

You had 22 votes.

[Corey]

That's pretty good. But if you think of the page of almost 5,500, that's not very many.

[Heather]

It's interesting. Okay, so that is good content. So Corey's hot take is do post every day, not religiously. What she's saying is suggestion. When the option is given to poster, don't do that is because content is king. And we said the quality content. So what you're. What you're going to be like. And unfortunately, with this podcast today, it's got to be all the layers of the tiramisu. Right? It can't just be at one layer. And everyone's like, it's not working. I posted every day and nothing happened. Yeah, you're going to be just as frustrated, but now with a new task of posting every day. So she's going to say post every day. And then we're going to make sure that we want to post. And that's the next topic. The next point is don't post just to post. So please explain that to us.

[Corey]

So posting with a purpose. This is something that we've been covering in the cookie college on our Monday morning roll call meetings that we're doing. And every time you make a post, I want you before you click publish is ask yourself, what do I want this post to do? So I have content buckets, content pillars, Heather calls them sometimes. And I have one that I really want to pull from most in 2026 and that' relationship Content Bucket. So I want to ask myself, is this helping me build a relationship with my audience? Is this building value with my audience? Does this tie me to a location for my audience to know where I'm at? So answering those questions means your post has purpose. Because if you can't answer it, you're going to have to go back to the drawing board. A lot of people get where it's late in the day and I see like yesterday was National Mario Day because March 10th, March 10th looks like Mario Ray written out. I saw a bunch of bakers post it late in the evening. It's probably because they didn't have a content strategy and they saw someone else posted in their feed and they ran to to post it before the end of the day. But you lost all the juice from it because you're posting at it 8 or 9pm at night. So the strategy in the purpose is going to help you in having and I let me grab this book. I know we've been going through this in the cookie college and it's called My Social Media Planner. And planning out your content gives you a little bit more strateg than just saying, oh shoot, it's Tuesday and I haven't posted since last Tuesday. Let me just throw something up there. And then we ended up throwing up a set. And you're like, well, I sell cookies, Corey. It's good that I'm posting up a set. It shows what I can do. But then you, you don't get any engagement on it. There's no reach on there. And you're like, wow, all that work for nothing. I mean, it still shows proof in the pudding when someone's doing their research about you. But if our goal in this year is to get in front of more people, because getting in front of more people equals more sales. There has to be strateg strategy behind each and every single post that we make in planning out your content, using that content calendar, answering those questions, having content buckets is going to help you post with a purpose and post with a plan in mind. I know one. I think the next post or the next topic is we're all bakers wanting to make more sales, if that is our bottom line, but how do we get there? So if you're like, oh, I'm just going to post up the set because I just want to make more sal.

[Heather]

True.

[Corey]

And you know what? You probably will make sales from it. But if you would like to be the, the top, the top of someone's mind when they're in a community group and someone asked for a baker, how do we create a relationship with those people? And that's what I want you to ask before you make a post.

[Heather]

I think some people could be like, okay, what do I want this post to do? I want it to make sales. Right? That's every single post. If every single post made a sale, I wouldn't have to tell you how to make sales. So you could say, okay, what do I want this supposed to do? Well, we want every post to help us make sales. So that's not the best, best defining question to ask. So, yes, we want them all to make sales. Corey says, I want this post to connect me as a person better with my audience so they feel more comfortable buying from me. So again, making sales. But the way Corey's doing is look at my clean oven. Here's a little bit about me. I'm not going to take your money and run. That's how Corey's content bucket layering is helping. So I'm going to make a post. I want it to make me money. I want it to make me money because I wanted to build a better relationship with my clients. So now you see that this broad thing, post anything, it'll make you money. Is now more focused on post this content of my clean oven because it's going to help people trust my clean atmosphere for their cookies.

[Corey]

Right?

[Heather]

Yeah. So she has don't post just to post. Post with the purrs. Corey posts those content calendars in the sugar cookie marketing group for free about a week before the month turns over. Right. So that's a proactive plan. You can say, oh, it's a week, it's five days. Sometimes she waits till three days. But either way, it comes out before the month. You can say, okay, it's full of funny holidays.

[Corey]

Right.

[Heather]

It's like I could just pull it up right here. But so you can say, okay, I'm going to pull that up and I'm going to schedule out some of the content. That's a proactive schedule. What happens when you do a reactive schedule is we can all feel it. We can all feel that the Mar10 Mario set that you posted at 9pm is because you forgot.

[Corey]

Exactly. I did a funny post that I showed the cookie college how to do it, and it was Employee Appreciation day was last Friday, and there was a funny way to do it where we just made a collage, and I did a collage, and every single square was myself. And I was the baker, the CEO, the decorator, the dishwasher, and everything like that. And it made for a great post, and it. It built a relationship. They saw my face eight times in little tiny squares. So it's really funny.

[Heather]

If you guys don't know what it looks like, go to Corey's fixing bowl page and scroll down to the beginning of March.

[Corey]

And then I saw that baker saw that, and they're like, oh, no, did I miss the day? Can I still post it? You can still post it whenever you want, but being proactive and being in front of your content is going to give you the best bang for the buck. You'll be the first person to post it, therefore, getting all the likes, reactions, everything like that.

[Heather]

Can you hear Munch meowing at the top of his lungs? I forgot to shut the door here. I'm pulling up the content calendar for March, and we're just going to preview it. This again, it's free. You guys just go to the sugar cookie market group.

[Corey]

Also, Earth Day is actually first day of spring. My Beth.

[Heather]

Oh, is there something wrong here?

[Corey]

I put Earth day on the 20th,

[Heather]

but it's the first day of spring. Oh, okay. So we have March 2nd. So again, she posted this February 28th. March 2nd was International Rescue Cat Day. And then it says, share a picture of your cats. Or you could share a picture of a set of decorated cat cookies.

[Corey]

Well, the reason why we want to connect with our audience. A lot of times I see people say, man, I post every day and I'm not getting any comments or reactions. Look at this. That little kitty cat on International. International Cat Day.

[Heather]

That was on the second.

[Corey]

On the second is because we're always. And this is a point down below I'm skipping forward, is if me and Heather were having a conversation, and Heather asked me a question and I say, yep, and it always ends. That's no longer a conversation. That's one person talking, and the other person's just having to listen. Your social media has to be a conversation. So using International Cat Day. Hey, guys, I need to see your cats in the comments. And then creating a relationship. They're letting you into their life. What a gift. A little tiny gift wrapped in the comment section. A double whammy. Not only are you getting comments to push your content out, you're getting the ability to connect with your audience on a more personable level. Those, those are great excuses and that's a double whammy. That's a great post idea. Since the, the pet industry is a billion dollar industry, a lot of us do have pets and it's great to show, hey, maybe I do have a pet. And here's the cat that I rescued and I believe in this shelter and I'm going to tag this shelter that I'm really involved with and it ties you to your location. There's so many layers to that post and it's such a heavy lifter. But if you forget about it, the day comes and goes and you post nothing.

[Heather]

Woo.

[Corey]

Woo. Wow.

[Heather]

It can be, it can feel a little pandering to be like every day I have to post like hey guys, what you say? Listen, that's, that's every business. We have to create content in a world where content is how you stay relevant. We have to post something. So how you go about posting on something to make it more personal, just a little bit different or a little bit more interesting is how you cut through the noise. Otherwise you'll be having that same issue where like I'm making all these posts and nobody's seeing them. I feel like I'm spinning my wheels and wasting my time. That cat is so annoying. But he's so cute. He looks like a teddy bear. He hates our voices specifically. Don't blame him. Just triggers, not blame. You know what? Amen cat. I'd be myself if I could. Okay then we have point three. Check your insights. Do check your insights. WI fi blind if you have daily insights. It's so funny. I have your page pulled up here and now there's an AI guy. I'm so tempted to click on him. But go tell talk to me about your insight. Insights.

[Corey]

Your insights are going to tell you how your audience is responding to your content. I have this book that I'm actually inputting all of my reactions and likes and shares. So I, I know an ongoing of what it looks like cause I'm really deep in my content. But instead of just letting your content happen to you and you get to the end of your march and you're like I don't know. Did that work? Did that not. And you never checked your insights, how would you know what worked? By going to my insights. I saw that my individual photo post perform 75% better than my multi photo post than my text post, then my polls post. So that's great for me to know how my audience is responding and I can give them more of that because if I give them more of what they want, they're going to in turn give me more of what I need and then I'm going to reach more people and I'm just a locomotive when I can learn my insights, use them to my advantage instead of just being like, oh well, shoot, I didn't see, see that, or I didn't log in or I, I don't have a Facebook page or that's I'm too busy, I don't, I can't. Then you're coming to the SCM group and you're being like, I keep posting and I'm not getting any reaction.

[Heather]

What gives? I think that, you know, I'm not good at pool. Playing pool, not a clue. Didn't do well in geometry, but actually didn't actually somehow we skipped geometry, we transferred schools and didn't take geometry. So in theory, maybe I'm spectacular and I just don't know yet. But call your shot, right? So when you play pool, you got to say, here's what I was, here's what I'm going to do. And if you don't do that. So I think in the world of insights, it can be overwhelming. Like, did I want views, did I want clicks, did I want, I want sales? So yeah, of course I want it clicked. But that may not always be the short term goal. Sure, yes, we always want to make sales. That's, that keeps us in business. But Corey said in her month of February, I want to increase my reach. Right? So that is views. That's different than engagement, that's different than click. She said I want to increase my reach, which is more eyes but not fingers on her content. Right? So she could say, well March, I want to increase increased reactions. And that's going to just change a little bit because she's probably going to post more content that asks people to engage.

[Corey]

Yeah. Yes. Knowing your insights is going to be huge as you move through this algorithmic world that we are living in. I can see just by scrolling down on Sugar Cookie Marketing's page, what's doing really well is post that bakers can share on their pages. And that's telling me like, hey, on a busy day, throw one of those up. It's something, it's better than nothing. It'll be shared. It might not necessarily push my bottom line of getting people into the sugar cookie Marketing group. But it's there and it's a content bucket we can pull from. And maybe the next day, because I had so much reaction on that, I can plug the sugar cookie marketing group and get more people in there. So there's a strategy behind it. Some days you're going to have just knock it out of the park. The next day might be a sales post and you might not get hardly any reactions.

[Heather]

That's okay.

[Corey]

Hey, that's the strategy around it. Sales posts by nature don't get as many reactions because people don't always like to be sold to. They're not always willing to buy. But that's why we're marrying it with a bunch of other content. A meme that's funny. A local spot that just opened that ties me to the area. A school closure ties me to the area. And now we're resourceful when we do the pick a park collab. That's now your resource again. So it's having these content buckets and pulling from them and making them work together so when never have to say, oh well, shoot, that was a ton of work. And nothing, nothing happened. Nothing moved.

[Heather]

Okay, I have your page insights pulled up your specifically. Right. And I'm just doing the month of February because that was where your strategy started and stopped. You did a test through February. If I include March, then it's going to skew everything. And you guys got to understand if you do something that increases views and then you stop it, you're going to see a lot of negative numbers. It's not the forever going up thing. But In February, from February 1 to February 28, your views increased by 39%. Now what's interesting is the type of content now of hers. The most engagement was from 70. 71% of her engagement was from non followers. People who don't follow our page but were displayed this information because of the strategy. Now I find it very interesting. Is that your top performing post? You know which one it'll be?

[Corey]

I'm not sure.

[Heather]

The cancer awareness post. That's from your personal content bucket. So a year ago, Corey had cancer surgery and then it was what cancer awareness. It was.

[Corey]

Yeah, it was getting. Getting checked up or something like that. Or like I think that January was the month of. Or something.

[Heather]

Yeah, that was your highest performing. Your average is between under 10,000. But that was shown 66,000 times. Yes, 66,000 times.

[Corey]

And it's my head in the getting ready to be wheeled into the operating room. I am hideous. There's not makeup. I Have a little hair net on there. But because I want to grow my relationship content bucket so much in 2020, 2026, I was willing to share that and saying, hey, get your checkups and everything. And because of that, it pushed that content out. And you're like Corey and Heather, that's not cookies. That you're not making sales there. But what I'm doing is, you know, I make cookies. That's why it says cookie co. And a lot of our baking pages have something baking, so and so cookie so and so. So we know we bake. But why should they choose you?

[Heather]

Why?

[Corey]

What makes you different? That they should pick you over the person down the street making the same things. And it's creating a relationship with your audience. If we go back to Charli d', Amelio, she did very cool dances, but all we knew was she her name in that she could dance. There was no substance behind there. So now as she's trying to launch a brand, people don't know who she is. So they're like, why should we buy her brand? She just does dances.

[Heather]

So did you see yourself? What I want to, I want to compliment you. Here is you had that post on Facebook February 4, seen by 66,000. February 6 was the Instagram collab, the reviews collab. So it's the second highest performing post was 2 days after your first performing post. And the second one is asking for reviews, which you got what, five or six reviews from them?

[Corey]

Yeah. Fantastic for me.

[Heather]

So the content bucket, the content strategy, content pillar thing is think of it as a spiderweb. Something will stick. You'll capture them into the web.

[Corey]

But they may.

[Heather]

How they enter the web may not be where they stick. Yes. But it's how they get into that funnel. I know there's a lot of analogies because I think when people don't think of marketing as this physical object and they kind of think of it as this mental thought, it's kind of hard to grasp where it goes and how it directs your audience. So what Corey said, hey, I'm trying to build relationship marketing. So then I'm going to post this picture of me. It's unflattering, but it's of me. I'm going into cancer surgery. I'm reminding people to get that checkup. I'm going to put a little bit of my story here. But then my next post is going to be cookies. Your third performing post is the set that I think you actually made for for summer. It's something with cherries. I can't see on it without clicking.

[Corey]

I believe in that would be her say yes.

[Heather]

And then the fourth most performing is Be my six seven is a Valentine's Day cookie set. Right.

[Corey]

So we have.

[Heather]

And then after that, the next one is Archer being born. It might have been Sun's Day. I can't see what it is. Right.

[Corey]

Well, it was his birthday was in February.

[Heather]

So you guys can see even the insides are telling us for every piece of personal content, she's getting rewarded with her cookie content being shown. I hope that makes kind of sense in why we have to be Tiara Massu layers about our content strategy. Because posting just post every day. If that was easy, we wouldn't have to do a podcast. Okay, well, post with intention. If it was that easy, then you would just say, okay, well, I'm gonna make this intention to make money. So that's what it is. And again, you're gonna be like, I've tried everything and nothing's working. So then post with a strategy. Post consistently and post by looking at your insights. What are your insights telling you? Cause you the invisible hand of the market will always be like, we like that and we don't like this. Right. So what are your insights telling you? That which content your audience is resonating with.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Heather]

At the end of the day, you got to think, am I still making money? Is it still. Because I can post. I can post like a gossip tabloid on my banking page and go viral.

[Corey]

Right.

[Heather]

I can like, Taylor Swift broke up with her boyfriend and fell in love with Spider Man. Everyone's gonna be like, no, no, that's true. That will go viral or whatever. It will perform out outrageously compared. But did it make me a sale? So again, that Tiramisu layers, does it also support making sales? Yes.

[Corey]

If you see that your sales drop off and you've just created baker drama and it's brought bakers to your page and they're weighing in and they're like, this person's wrong, this person's wrong. But you are not getting any more custom orders. Your audience is telling you you have gone too far left. You might be getting all the comments in the world. Congratulations. Reaction shares, the people mudslinging down below. If you're not getting the sales, your audience is saying, we don't like this. We like the drama. It's tasty, it's easy to share, it's opinion based, but it doesn't add value. So what I need to do on my back end is look at my February content. How many orders did it come through during my month of February. And that's going to tell me, should I keep sharing my behind the scenes, my cancer journey, my son being born, everything like that? Because that's going to tell me if my strategy is working. Now I know my strategy is working because I'm making hyperlocal content and I'm building a relationship. But you have to look, are, are you creating content that is controversial? So it does good because it's viral based. Are you creating content that has ebbs and flows? So your sales posts, they're not going to perform as good, but another post might prop it up and then you

[Heather]

can kind of see that way again, back to the layers of it. You have. Don't just post a statement. I think what you mean is when you go to social media, I hate to, I hate, I hate to do a generalization here, but let's pretend it's a male owned commercial tree cutting business. They know that man out there, he knows that he needs to cut down some trees. He knows he needs to be on social media. So they say tree cutting from us. Tree cuts, we cut them. You need a tree. Gone. Gone it is. Those are statements. Buy from me, buy from me, buy from me, buy from me. It just gets long in the tooth. And it's not a strategy. But, but Heather. But no, I'm posting every day. I'm posting with sales in. I'm checking my insights. Why isn't it working? Well, now you're not having a conversation. You're just like, what? Corey says you're talking at somebody versus talking with somebody. So talking at. It'd be like, corey, you should buy this from me. So Corey's like, oh, thank you so much. Hey Corey, just so you know, I'm running a sale.

[Corey]

Okay, great.

[Heather]

Corey, here's a set I just baked.

[Corey]

Wow, nice.

[Heather]

Corey, I am baking for Mother's Day. You should order. You see that? There's no conversation here. So now I say, hey Corey, I would love to show you a picture of me and my mom. Here's when we went to the National Cathedral. I had to do a project in college and she wanted to go with me. We actually got lost on the metro. We ended up in Maryland. Took us forever to get back home.

[Corey]

And then you end it with what's the best story of you and your mom?

[Heather]

And now we have a conversation. Yeah, so, but you, but you guys may be listening to somebody like this sounds like a whole full time job. It is. People literally hire marketing companies to do this. But because we wear 17 hats. It needs to be integrated with your marketing approach. Otherwise you're going to get that frustrated. I'm doing everything and nothing's working. I'm spinning my wheels and going nowhere. Yeah.

[Corey]

So just national puppy days coming at the end of the month. If you made a dog paw print cookie, a dog set you've ever done, that'd be a great way to be like, guys, it's puppy day, so show me your dogs as puppies. I need to have a. What you're doing is you are showcasing that you bake something. So if you have the dog paw print cookie or a dog set that you've done, great. If you have the cookie class kits that we've offered, you already have the dog class kit in there. That's something you can share. And what you're doing is you're bolstering up. They're seeing the cookies, they're great. But you're also having a conversation with them. Hey, show me your puppy out. People love to show people there. But a conversation that's one sided is not going to last long. Because if Heather just always talks at me, I'm going to be like, well, time to hit the old dusty road. I'm going to head on home here because it's not fun for both of us. It's only fun for one of us.

[Heather]

What's happening is Corey won't even see my post. The algorithm won't show it to her. It knows it won't be fun for an old driver off the platform. Here's a good little test. Here's a good little test. If you wouldn't post it in a community group and get violated for breaking the sales rule, maybe you should reword it on your page. Right when I, I'm in these car groups. I don't know, I don't know how to work on cars, but I like to. But they, they'll like a guy you can clearly see, he just wants to post a picture of his car. But he'll be like, front end Fridays, let's see pictures of those front ends. Daylight Tuesdays, let's see the stale lights wheel Wednesdays. You see, they're saying, I want to show something to you, but to show it to you, I'm asking for something back. That way we can pretend this is a conversation and I'm not just trying to show you a pict my car. The same thing applies to your page. Corey's saying you could just post the dog set or you could say, hey guys, here's a Dog set. Let me see a picture of your dog in the comments. And you see one creates a conversation and one is just a stagnant piece. Yeah.

[Corey]

If there's a content or a content creator that you have interacted with in the past, you'll often see that they end up in your feed naturally again because of how the algorithms are set up. Wow, you guys, you liked their post last week. You might like this new post they did this week. And that is is our goal the puppysat asking to see someone's puppies. We're not selling puppies. I totally understand that. But what the goal is is to get people involved in your content so that when you do post that sales post it has the chance to sit in front of them. They may not order. That's totally okay. But because we're building relationships while we're posting this content, they have you top of mind. So someone in their circle, maybe they go to a PTA event, someone's like oh I'm looking for someone to bake cookies. My daughter dollars turning, blah blah next week. I happen to know Corey with Mixing bowl cooking company. We are brands that need to connect. You can see government contracting brand probably doesn't need to connect with the normal consumer. Me and Heather, you know they're not going to create content. Corey, let me see your puppy. Because us consumers aren't going to buy from them. They're B2B business to business. We are B2C business to consumer and our consumers are over inundated by con content constantly. They're being advert on the radio, social media. So how can we build relationships while everyone else is selling to them?

[Heather]

I agree. It's funny. I kind of see this new type of marketing on TikTok specifically where big brands that don't necessarily have a reason to engage with the consumer have found a way through hiring and I can tell it's they're hiring a marketing agency that's becoming the Advil. Like think of like DeWalt drills in the comment section of a TikTok being like this is a vibe or it's

[Corey]

something hilarious and you're like why would Advil be commenting on this photo of this kid crying and throwing a fit in Walmart. But what they're doing is, you know, they're rising to the top of the comment section just because the pure wit of it all. So that's great. They're able to advertise organically. That means nothing paid behind it just because they have a witty comment that's from a random Advil or DeWalt that shouldn't be there, but it's hilarious that it is. And that's where the content algorithm is going. It might not last forever and you'll see it change as it adds and flows and more, more brands, more DeWalt lamps, blinds come to it. You'll say, okay, this is too much. Now the algorithm is going somewhere else. And you'll see everyone ebb and flow towards it.

[Heather]

I find the interesting thing is that type of marketing currently is. They're wanting to think that these big companies gave this tiny intern the keys to the marketing kingdom and this intern has just taken advantage of it. In reality, it's a massive strategy and I can guarantee you they've hired a company that's very good at this approach to do this. But to give you the feeling that it's this little person just like us behind the screen just wasting their lunch hour commenting on TikToks. But it's a very interesting new type of marketing. I find it very enjoyable. I find it so much more enjoyable to see Slim Jim commenting about somebody's breakup story than it is just to be told to buy Slim Jims.

[Corey]

Now what you're hearing, Heather, is you could hear and be like, be your page, comment on drama with your, with your bakery business page and be funny about it. Not necessarily for us either. What we want to do is always come at it with the approach is will this comment serve my business well or will this comment not serve? So if you like high controversial politics, I'm going to say keep your bakery page out of it. But if you want to be involved in these smaller community groups that allow your pages to join, it's a great way to get in front of people. Oh, look, this mixing bowl cooking company gave my little comment, my little post a boost with their comment and it was a nice compliment or something like that.

[Heather]

That's a good outtake. I don't think we have the. The size to think like, oh wow, Advil's here commenting. Advil, the pill. You know, I think that's kind of reserved for those bigger brands where you wouldn't necessarily ever expect to see Coca Cola commenting on a breakup. You know, those kind of ones for the rest of us. So we can still be that page. That is a personal take on it.

[Corey]

It's so interesting though, because Coca Cola has had giant, massive money campaigns over the years. But what you're seeing right now, comment on a post that they paid $0 for technically, is outshining anything. The millions of dollars where they had someone famous drinking a Diet Coke somewhere. So you see the ebb and flow. It's not always what it was is what it's going to be because that's not what people want. They now want this more relationship, conversational approach to marketing. Not these big, you know, woo, woo, Tom Cruise drinking a Diet Coke on A, an F18.

[Heather]

I'll take that too. I'll take both places.

[Corey]

So the more approachable is where you see the, the marketing is right now when it comes to brands and sales.

[Heather]

And that will not be what we say in two more years. Point five is test your audience. Now this one is an interesting one. So for the podcast, great content. About the podcast, every week we send out the Wednesday Wednesday newsletter, but I need to get it on Instagram, I need to get in the Facebook group, I need to get on the page. In a perfect world, each one of those would have their, their own unique content. But we only have so many hours in the day. So what I had been doing for a long time was the Apple Notes graphic that actually recreated it in Photoshop. And I would do the bulleted list. But that performed well at the beginning and then now it didn't perform at all probably a year ago. I say to Ashley and Corey, like that Apple Notes graphic. While I like a list that I can save, it's not putting up numbers at all. The audience is like, well, you don't like it? And I'm like, no, you'll still like it, I'll still post it. So I said, I feel like I'm wasting my time. They, they don't want to see it. What's the option actually like? Well, conversational podcasts have gone to these flick screen things where it's two people talking and then the little blurb at the bottom kind of tells you what they're talking about. So we started doing that, I don't know, maybe 20 episodes ago. And it performs a lot better, but you have to repeat it enough times to create enough data points to see if it performs better or not. I think what we get kind of stuck in is like I posted that once, it didn't work. So I'm not going to do Corey's content calendar. No, you'll have to actually do that content calendar for a couple months to actually get enough data points to see if it is an increase in performance or decrease in performance.

[Corey]

Imagine you do the same thing for 10 years straight, then you walk into work and I'm like, yeah, that same thing you did for 10 years. We're doing something different. You're like, what? What? Oh, my goodness, where do I go? The same thing is with your audience. If you have just talked at them for the last two years on your bakery page, and then one day you ask them a question, they've already been scrolling them past your content because you've not made it a conversation. You can't expect them to be like, oh, wow, she finally asked me a question. It's going to take time. If you aren't a pre sale person, it's gonna take time. If you aren't a farmer's market person, it'll take time. People have to realize what you're doing. Oh, wow, they're there. I didn't even see him. Oh, wow. A question. I didn't even know she. I usually scroll past because she's always talking at at me. Everything takes time. I wish it was instantaneous, but if it was, this would be challenging for people who are just coming into the market. So it's always changing because the algorithm's always changing. If you do the content calendar for one month and you get maybe one comment more than you used to, that it means it is working. Just because you didn't get 20 comments like so and so down the street doing the the same thing, your audience is different. You have grown them in a different way. Charli d' Amelio trying to sell shoes isn't hitting because she has raised her audience on dances. She hasn't transitioned them over to the fact that she wants to be an influencer to influence you to buy things. So your audience is just a simple person. A simple person with a lot of things trying to take their attention away. So we're training them, and it's training wheels. My son just got a bike and you're pushing them and you're hoping, like, huh?

[Heather]

Has a bike been acquired?

[Corey]

The bike has been acquired and put together.

[Heather]

Oh, it needed assembly. Who needed assembly? Who assembled?

[Corey]

Okay, so because I'm trying to teach Archer life lessons from six. I knew it.

[Heather]

I knew this.

[Corey]

I said, here's your bike. It came in a giant box, but it was in three very distinct pieces that needed to be put together. I said, you have one hour to do. Do as much as you can by yourself. I'm going to the store. So I removed myself. So I couldn't even be asked to take over and I wouldn't assert myself in the situation. He spent the entire hour trying to undo one screw that was impossible for both him and I to do. But I appreciate that he sat with it for an entire hour even though

[Heather]

the bike had not been put together

[Corey]

by the time it got back. So we did a little teamwork. We still couldn't get that screw undone. So we waited for my husband to get home and use his muscle on that screw. And he rode his bike.

[Heather]

Oh, he did. Good time, Good job. Now bring me back my air compressor.

[Corey]

I gotta fill up my bike tire today, and then I will on Saturday.

[Heather]

I said, did I want to ride my bike? If you guys listen to the podcast circa 2020, Corey and I got bicycles. Turns out it's not like riding a bike. You gotta kind of remember a little bit.

[Corey]

It's hard.

[Heather]

We did gearing on it because they said that's what adults do to get up hills. And it did help us to. To get up those hills.

[Corey]

What's so funny is me and Heather grew up riding bikes, and there was this little kid that rides bikes in the neighborhood. So I'm testing Archer's bike and make sure it doesn't fall apart before he gets on it. So I'm on the bike. You know, I haven't been on a bike since 2020. So yeah, it was a little wobbly at the front. The little kid was like, I want to race you. And I was like, okay, we'll race.

[Heather]

Okay.

[Corey]

So I let him win the first

[Heather]

one, and I did let him win.

[Corey]

So he's like, I think I can beat you again.

[Heather]

And I said, I could see Corey's like, I want to die before I let this kid. Better luck next time. But back to the points. It would be cool if we could just tell you, here's this one thing you need to do and all your marketing and social media reach streams will come true. Unfortunately, no. And what we say today won't apply tomorrow. And what we say today won't apply again in five years. But the layer currently is using each one of these pieces to build a strategy. I hate that. That will help you rise above your competition. Right. So we have a lot of people, a lot of baker are selling cookies. I see it all the time. The market saturated. Pack it up, boys. We don't. If you don't want to pack it up boys. What we can do is come up with these sharper strategies that are ever evolving as the algorithms change on what they're willing to show people. Yeah.

[Corey]

I used to run my bakery business page as mixing bowl cookie company who makes cookies. Now my strategy is Corey Miracle, who happens to bake cookies with mixing bowl cookies cookie company. Why is Because I'm the secret ingredient that people are buying from. They want to support me, they like me, they want to help me out. We're all buying from the same packaging, the same cutter shops. We're launching at the same time. So what is it that's going to differentiate you from the person down the street? It can't just be that you have an oven. We all do.

[Heather]

So think of it like this, like buying insurance. I've had to buy insurance recently. Your policy isn't any shinier to me than the next policy. I. And you know, they're, they're spitting on it like 500,000 umbrella combined bodily injury. And I'm like, okay, yeah, whatever. Like what's, you know, what's the price versus coverage? For sure I want to be covered. But you know, the value of an insurance agent, an agency, if you ever to sell an agency, it's not the pretty policy, it's the book of business. And that's what we. I worked in, I worked in that

[Corey]

world for a while.

[Heather]

It was always this agent is leaving, they're retiring, they're selling their book of business. And that is relationship based marketing. Because if they were selling the policy, who cares? We can all drum up these policies. In fact, the policies don't apply the next year when your rates increase. Yeah, honestly. But what does matter is the book of business. So I had to call this agency. They replied so fast. I said, I said, dude, you replied after hours. And he's like, I just want to let you know if that's the experience you'll have with us, great. So he spits out this policy. Could care less. The numbers looked good, but I was like, wow. I was really. So I'm driving through this area I've moved to that I didn't explore before I moved here. And I'm like, that's the people. That's his name. That's the guy last name Jones. So I was like that, that's the, you know, and it was like relationship based marketing versus policy. You know, I could have just gone to geico.com and typed in something. But instead I contacted this agency and now I kind of like them. Now I have a relationship with these people.

[Corey]

Yeah. And the relationship is a big thing. I got my hair cut on Monday from a person. I've gotten my haircut from the same gentleman for so many years.

[Heather]

He's been amazing.

[Corey]

But I just couldn't get over this there in time with my schedule. So I said, it was so hard

[Heather]

for me to give some people Some context. This Corey's haircut guy is an hour from her house.

[Corey]

He's an hour from my house. So it's a dedicated day that I have to go see him. But I said my hair hasn't been cut in so long because I can't get out that way. But you should have saw me. I was so worried about hiring someone else because I know my haircut guy and he's amazing. So finding someone else, they might have gone to the same cuttery school. School. They might have the same amount of time in the industry. But it was so worrisome because I don't know so and so I know this gentleman. I know how he cuts my hair. So that relationship marketing is going to be something that stands the test of time. When they say that's my baker, that's what we want them to say because you have made them feel good, you have told them how it works and now they love you forever. And obviously you don't want to go and find, find someone new. It's if it ain't broke, don't fix it, you know?

[Heather]

Right. And I think that relationship based marketing and that drawing from the My personal relation, you know your content bug, you said is how you are able to strategize in a saturated market. I'm not saying the markets aren't saturated. I'm just saying when you use that as a cop out, we can't fix it. Right? Yeah. So okay, well, Heather, it is saturated, but I don't want it to be my cop out. Then these strategies are what's going to put you across. Cut above the rest.

[Corey]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Take that, that content calendar. Make it work for you. Just to save it to your phone and not look at it. It's not going to do anything for you, I promise. Except for take up some storage.

[Heather]

Listen, you saw the things I saved. Yeah. The mass amount of knowledge untapped by even me. Because I'll never go back and look at it. It feels so great to be like, you know, I'm going to save that and I'll come back to it later. I'm never coming back to it. But if you take that next step and be like, okay, I'm going to save, sit with this. Okay, this is work. It looks like a really cute content calendar. But behind it is I have to go find this photo. I have to go to Facebook planner. I have to schedule this out. I have to write copy that compels. But it's also interesting. Let me go get my emoji search feature and get out there and really put content up. You will see the results of that and it won't be perfect every month. Be forgiving of yourself. Some months I have the best laid plans. Mice men. But not Heather because I don't get there but I'm working towards weds it. Yeah.

[Corey]

Yeah. So you have national pie day coming up. 3.14. That would be on the 14th. How many.

[Heather]

Okay, look at me, look at me, look at me. How many decimals can you take it at?

[Corey]

Just 3.14159.

[Heather]

There you go. That's as far as I can go. Gr it 2.14159. Okay, go on, read us some more. That's upcoming so we can kind of. We have.

[Corey]

The first day of spring is a big one. That's a great one to showcase. We have national Puppy days coming up. National walk in a Park Day. That would be a great location. One you could become a resource to your audience and tell them when the park times are. And that would be a quick Google search that you can share there. We had Meatball day which would been a great one to share your spaghetti in. Meatball set. There is. There's a holiday for each and every day and some are funny, some are not. And I don't always put them on there because sometimes we have to share client reviews and stuff. Sometimes we have to share the sales post. But if you dive in there, I'm just giving you the ones I like. But if you get in there and you Google National Day calendar, it can give you an excuse to post all the time.

[Heather]

Okay, I like it. I like it. Sorry. The spam filter has been just upticking on these Facebook groups these days. I caught some in the spammy filter. But thank you so much for the content calendar. When do you drop them so we can expect them? We can.

[Corey]

I enjoy doing them on Saturdays as people talk at me. So you always find them the Saturday before the new month.

[Heather]

Okay, got it. So that takes us through this.

[Corey]

Definitely.

[Heather]

If you're feeling a little stuck in your social media media, give us a relisten because it may not. It may trigger something else. Be like, oh, you know what, I should try this other thing. Or I tried that thing. Turns out it wasn't. It didn't land. So let me try this other other thing and do that. We have just Moving us on. Moving us on. We have just wrapped wrapped up our second boot camp of the year. It was in person photography and I have a roomy review. So if you're in the Cookie College membership, which you can join. If you sign up for a Cookie Boot Camp, you can get access to the Cookie College at a great discount that gives you your Boot Camp money back. But Abby, she's a member of the Cookie College who was able to access the Boot Camp for free. She said, I took some of the tips given in the bootcamp and took photos this evening and sent my photo to the client. And her remark was, I love the cookies, but what a beautiful photo. Yeah. So photography. And that's what we focused on, is the photography, which goes right back into the content that we talked about. Because a lot of that's posting up pictures. The photography. The better it looks, the cleaner your kitchen looks. I can't help but say that bright white makes me feel like your kitchen is clean. Yeah. That dull and dreary makes me feel like you haven't seen a Windex bottle in years.

[Corey]

It's.

[Heather]

It.

[Corey]

Heather's correct. It's the layers of the onion that.

[Heather]

It works with your tamisu, but we

[Corey]

can go with onion tiramisu. Onion, a blooming onion. Sounds delicious right about now.

[Heather]

Just.

[Corey]

But it is layers to your social media. When I see Baker say content dumb, haven't posted in a while, and it's a bunch of dark pictures of the cookies in their bags in a dark bakery box. I'm like, all that hard work, all that marketing wasted in one singular post for a photo dump. Making your hard, hard work work for you in a strategic way is going to get you in more feeds and make you more sales. I know we get excited to post the set that we just did. You don't owe it to your clients to post their set today, tomorrow, next week. You post it when it works for your content strategy. And you know they paid you the money, they got the cookies, so the job is well done. You don't have to post it the next day, but they'll keep an eye out. And if you want to thank them the day that you do post it, it'll work. I did a set of mahjong, which is quite.

[Heather]

I saw you. You fought to that set, buddy. You fought. New one.

[Corey]

I see. I did that mahjong set and I could have posted it. The client says, please don't post it till at least Friday. Girl, I'm not posting it anytime soon. I'm waiting till mahjong hits its peak and then you're gonna see that post from me. I know she wants to see the cookies, and I've sent her the photo and she's used it and she has it and I appreciate appreciate her for it. But I'm actually going to make that set work for me on maybe national Mahjong day or.

[Heather]

When did you just google it? August 1st.

[Corey]

August 1st. So I'll have it to August 1st. But there's like hobby hobby months. Like I think February was National hobby month. That's a great way to get your audience involved. And also Heather made me do her hobby so I have a video to post about it. There's so many ideas you can do and I want you to do as many that support your end goal, which is probably making more sales. But to make more sales you have to end up in more feeds and to for people to choose you, they

[Heather]

have to get to know you.

[Corey]

So you see that we're peeling the layers back. How can I make this post let them get to know me a little bit while I get to know them a little bit in turn that I still showcase what I can do. And you see we're now building a strategy that strat a strategic talk right there.

[Heather]

I like it. I like the strategy. We have a bootcamp coming up. It's going to be on April 1st through the 3rd. So it's a three day boot camp. Trying to keep them towards the beginning of each month so you guys can kind of project this. It's going to be pre sales start to finish. Corey's been into big into pre sales this year. She said trying pre sales my thing and she does. She is running through pre sales so she can get enough data points to report back how to start this. She's already assigned me with I have to make her form and I have to make it do all the stuff and we have to the do all autoresponders and that's going to be a part of this bootcamp. So if pre sales have been something you're like oh shoot, I would like to know more about that. I'll have that link up this week and you guys can purchase the bootcamp or sign up for the cookie college and get that included. And in that bootcamp we'll join. We'll have you join the private bootcamp Facebook group where we only talk about pre sales. I just booted everyone from the last boot camp group. Each time the group resets very vendy blendy esque and I boot everybody and then it restarts the new topic. That way when you join it's just about that one topic. You're not in it inundated with a million questions. About this, that and the other. It is just on the topic you subscribe for. Then you get access to modules and these pre recorded modules or if she wants to do them live, she's kind of spearheading this one. We'll have them loaded up into Podia, which is the cookiecollege.com platform we use for you to access and watch and then we'll discuss about that topic in that Facebook group.

[Corey]

Yeah, if you wanted to. The boot camps are just a one time thing. So if you're like, you know, my, my photos are pretty good, but I haven't mastered pre sales. You just buy the pre sale one, it'll be 13 bucks and you can tune in for that, get all the content, learn it, implement it and then maybe come and visit us for another one topic that tickles your fancy.

[Heather]

Uh, someone that had said this, they said, I didn't realize I could just sign up for the bootcamp without signing up for the cookie college. Yeah, you can. You do get access to the door opening of the cookie college at a great rate if you sign up for the for a bootcamp. But no, you do not need to be a member to get the boot camps. Uh, we also had the boot camps expiring after 7 days. Changed my mind on that. We'll have them accessible for as long as the product is supported. Which means you could sign up and purchase a bootcamp that's already passed and I'll have more information on that. I thought people were really happy with that little shift. Nice. However, that discount code for the cookie college does expire. So if you miss it within the seven days, which if you signed up for the last bootcamp, you still have until March 14th to get the cookie college at a discount. If you sign up for that last bootcamp, you can sign up to the cookie college. You'll never have to pay for another boot camp again.

[Corey]

As long as you're a member of the college.

[Heather]

As long as you're a member of the college. So again you can look for that information in the cookie college.com. it's going to be pre sales and we'll have it starting on April 1st. Not a joke. I hate it.

[Corey]

Nor a joke.

[Heather]

Next up after that we'll do May and that will be everything you know needed to know to get started with 3D printing cookie cutters, including which one to buy. We'll put it together. I'll put together yet another bamboo printer.

[Corey]

Now I am an STL queen.

[Heather]

Corey was my, my test subject. Guys and I spent a year Working her. We're wearing it out. She's had a printer forever for this one. I think I'm going to give away a printer to somebody who signs up for the bootcamp right there.

[Corey]

Now Etsy doesn't know what to serve me anymore in the ads because I'm if it ain't an stl, I don't want to see.

[Heather]

Saves you a ton of time and effort. Corey did have to come to me to buy to get the STL made, but now she's got on her own.

[Corey]

And I want to say it has helped my. Not only has it helped me save on a bunch of shipping costs and the cost of like a full price cutter, it's also helped my clients. Clients because when they have a specific idea or shape, I can come to their aid and create that using things like cookie design lab and stuff like that to make something more custom to them.

[Heather]

I love it. I love it. Okay, and then Corey and I are working on the June boot camp topic. We're arguing about it, actually.

[Corey]

Whichever twin wins the bicycle race will be able to choose. Okay, what did it? You're on. Yeah.

[Heather]

Look for April pre sales boot camp. That'll be April 1st. And then the May 3D printing bootcamp will be May. May 7th. Love it. Okay, to our gossip column. I'm going to read this. Crickets are my favorite Bug is the title. This is an anonymous submission, so if you submit this, we'll never know who you are, but we'll read it on the podcast. Here's this one. I got an inquiry back in 2024 for a custom set. A first grandchild baby shower. It was a referral from the past client, so I make those a priority since now there's a past client and a potential future client involved and I like to keep my referral ground watered. The thing is, it's a last minute order and there needs to be quick turnaround time. So I'm on it. Getting. So I'm on it. And getting to a response quickly. Literally minutes after she submitted. I tell her I can get her everything she requested in her order. Crickets. Why crickets, ma'? Am? You came to me. I follow up again later that same week. I confirm details, tell her we're ready to roll crickets again. Finally, a follow up email to cancel the order. You know the deal. Hey, client reaching out one last time. If I don't hear back, I'll cancel the order. I look forward to working with you in a few in the future. Yada yada. You'll Never guess Crickets. It's been two years since this email chain. This week I got a response to that email from back in 2024. She responded two years later and you'll never guess what she wants. Four dozen cookies due Friday for a second child that's since been born. Since this email thread, a literal human has been created. From the beginning of the this email thread until I finally got the response, I was so curious if the baker took the order. But that is a lot of cookies in a very short amount of time because it needs to have to secure payment.

[Corey]

Cricket. Crickets. I don't know. I would say maybe we'd be like, oh my goodness, we've been praying for you ever since we hadn't heard you since 2024.

[Heather]

You know what you would actually say?

[Corey]

Hello, Sheila, thank you so much for replying.

[Heather]

If this were you, if this were you, how would you rep. Apply to the second order? If you had, which I'm pretty sure you would have rejected the second order just for the time constraint.

[Corey]

I think because she's a type, I make my form and my autoresponder do my heavy lifting. So I would be booked. She would get hit with an autoresponder that says, you need a book here if you're trying to order. And then it would just close itself out.

[Heather]

There you go, Corey. Avoiding confrontation every step of the way.

[Corey]

Avoid a conversation. I'm avoiding the cricket. The crickets have come. Gone. John died. They're carcasses now.

[Heather]

See, I'm not sure that I could be the person who would start a new. Okay, a couple years ago, you had asked me to email a cat breeder about the specific cat. I wouldn't email her again. She ended up not lowering the price. Right.

[Corey]

We never.

[Heather]

She never. She actually ghosted me crickets. But I wanted to email her again. But I like want to delete the old thread so she doesn't remember me. Just some little thoughts there. I don't think you'd bring myself just be like, hey, let me bump up this old thread that we just. We're just not going to talk about. That's not me.

[Corey]

I would. I would have to do a new thread. It's not like I would. I don't remember people even that ordered last year, let alone two years ago. So if she would have just emailed, I guess I wouldn't have known. I wouldn't have known. And probably wouldn't have looked it up

[Heather]

if you had a CRM, you know.

[Corey]

Oh, but would I have looked it up? Would I have used my CRM?

[Heather]

The CRMs that I've used is whenever somebody emails you 20 years ago or today, it will show you that chain when you pull up the name. Moving on to upcoming events. The AI cookie collab is in nine days. That's in one week. And this one is a really neat one. You're going to. Have you gotten started on it?

[Corey]

I have. It is downstairs waiting for me to go down and do.

[Heather]

You're taking. We've created. We have a. We had chat generate a bunny. He looks hard to create. You're going to recreate him to the best of your abilities. And we're going to use this to educate your clients about AI inspo and what you're capable of. Again, always pushing towards. Towards the sale in a very interesting way because that's a good strategy. Yeah.

[Corey]

You might not use AI in your business, but your potential clients might use it in their request for you. So being able to show them what you can and cannot do when it comes to an AI inspiration is going to help you. And I see a lot more people are tending to send inspiration via AI because it's just easy to type in. Versus versus Just like scrolling on Pinterest and Instagram to find a set.

[Heather]

They kind of like consider this a little. A little side view like Corey said, let's say. Okay, in your photography bootcamp you had done a lemon shark. That was the most obscure fusion of two things I've ever seen. Imagine the client trying to tell Corey, describe, have you. Do you know what a lemon is? Do you know what a shark is? And now imagine that they use AI to kind of create some mock ups that are closer to what the client wants. Because that's such a broad few fusion of two things. But if that's another way to use it. Okay, done with my sales pitch, April. I'll post this up soon. I'm working on this week as well. It's the pipe a park collab. You're going to pipe a flower cookie and you're going to take it to a local park and you're going to tell your audience why they should like this park. It's going to do two things. You're able to make a flower cookie and join the collab, but you're also able to connect with your hyperlocal audience about a park. I'm going to make Corey come to West Virginia.

[Corey]

No, I have got to do a park close to my bakery.

[Heather]

Yeah, that is smart. And then May, we're going to do Main Street Collab May because they both start with M. So I'll have more information of that. That'll be May 22nd. Corey, do you have this pulled up or you want me to read it?

[Corey]

I do not have it pulled up because I have one singular screen.

[Heather]

What's popping Con is in five weeks. That'll be in Kent, Ohio.

[Corey]

Cookie Con.

[Heather]

I think the tickets already went on sale. Not sure if they sold out or not, but that'll be in 15 weeks in Orlando and the Vendy Blendy is in. Thank goodness. 37 weeks on black Friday. I just have to add that one so I myself can like stomach it. I don't when we get down to like when I say 15 weeks I'll be panicked. Also, what happened with the first two months of the year? Where did they go? Where have they hidden? Do not know already. March 11 I I know it. Yeah, we should do the podcast yesterday. Sorry we were a day late now short. I had pre purchased a snowboarding ticket back in November and I it expire this week so I had to go and just couldn't bring myself. But here's the thing. You actually buy them in a pack of three. I do not see myself coming back this week before the mountain closes. So I hid it under a rock and then I went to this Facebook group for the mountain and I found a recent post where a lady's like my husband and my daughters want to ski for the rest of the day. But we didn't buy any. Does anyone have any passes? And I said to her, under this rock, if you journey into this park. She went and got it.

[Corey]

No way.

[Heather]

Yeah. She's like, where's the rock? But I said, look. I said do you see where this door is? If you walk straight out this door, it's under this rock. I'm just like thank you so much. It's so fun.

[Corey]

Oh, good for you. Yeah.

[Heather]

So at least my money didn't go fully with I enjoyed the day and then now these two girls get up to ski longer.

[Corey]

Yeah, there you go.

[Heather]

Passed it on major holidays. I we have the major holidays so you guys can get wrap your head around when to order or print your cookie cutters. St. Patrick's Day one week. It is on May, March 17, Tuesday. Why do you know that?

[Corey]

That's so my pre sale pickup is on Sunday.

[Heather]

Ah yes. It is on Tuesday. April Fool's Day is in three weeks. It's also the boot camp day. That is a Wednesday. So don't believe anything that's posted that day on Easter is earlier this year, it's in four weeks on April 5th. Keep that in mind, because last year I think it was on the 17th. I don't know why that stands out of my head. But it was later in the month. Now it's earlier in the month. That changes your promotion because, you know, usually when we have the whole month, like Christmas, Halloween, and Thanksgiving, you have the whole month to promote this one, you're actually promoting what feels like a month earlier. So you're promoting in March for an April pickup.

[Corey]

I know, it was so funny. Was. I posted a picture of, like, in this foodies group. It says, post a picture up, we'll choose a winner. Thing with the most likes.

[Heather]

Mine never gets the most likes, but

[Corey]

I posted excited for Easter. And someone's like, that's next month. And I said, but barely.

[Heather]

But barely. Barely. See, the problem is the audience is like, April. So we just think like, like end of April. That's why I find Valentine's Day always awkward, because it always falls on the 14th, halfway through February. Teacher Appreciation Week is in eight weeks. So if you're ordering cutters, now would be the time. Same with Nurse Appreciation Week. It is in eight weeks, but just two days after Nurse Appreciation Week starts, right? Yeah. We have Mother's Day. That's in nine weeks. Corey thinks it's not the big seller. I think she could just market it differently and make it a big seller. But her, her. Her thing is, men don't order cookies for Mother's Day. But you could possibly get a mother ordering for another mother or for the daughters to decorate or the kids to decorate and give to the mother some ideas. Think about it. Thank you. Specifically. And then we have graduation. I just went with the graduation date for our county. It's June 12, but that may be different for you guys.

[Corey]

For our county, as in West Virginia county, for Fairfax county in Virginia, that's for lovers. That's what I thought.

[Heather]

That's what I thought. Virginia border. I said, if I'm 37, if I die at 80, I'll have spent equal, almost equal amount of time in both states.

[Corey]

I also thought that who you marry, you spend more time with them than your own children. Because your children, you only have for 18 years, and then they can come and go. They could leave, you know, at 18. But you're stuck maybe with a spouse for like 40 some odd.

[Heather]

But sometimes you're not stuck with them. No.

[Corey]

And I know that as well firsthand.

[Heather]

Stl me about it. We have three texts and this cookie design lab you can go to cookie design lab.com and use code TWINS for 15 off. That applies to every plan they offer. It is one of the few subscriptions I actually pay for myself. But Corey's still in her year free plan. They gave her to test it out and she is using it. We have three texts.

[Corey]

Two.

[Heather]

Two. The area code is 227 which is Maryland. I did not know that. I have no Maryland friends apparently. 227. If you email me at heather sugarcookie marketing marketing.com you can claim your one month free of Cookie Design Lab. I was listening to last week's podcast on photography and I have a question. Do you photograph with packaging? Maybe not with customs, but for things like pyos and DIY kits. I feel like there's some cases where packaging can actually help sell the product but then, well, you're stuck with trying to photograph a box. Sprinkles, icing bags. You get the point.

[Corey]

I do find that taking a picture of what the end result with the customer customer will actually be walking out with does make me more sales than just saying and then this will be packaged in a cute box. So if I can portray it as the gift they will be gifting. I tend to get more sales than just speaking it into existence in the copy because people aren't reading.

[Heather]

I like that. Do you ever photograph your customs in cello bags?

[Corey]

I do not photograph my customs in the cello bags because if you took the photograph photography boot camp cellophane is a very reflective. You get a lot of glares. You lose a lot of the details in the cookies. If you are doing a DIY kit, I actually have a box here to my left that I've taken the little film out. So if I were to take a picture, it's actually missing that whole film thing, the part of the bakery box. So there is no glare. So I can showcase the packaging. It's not necessarily the packaging it's to going home with, but I can showcase what it looks like. Sometimes if my content allows, I can add value by showcasing how I package because there's a thank you cookie the tool and I use that as a content bucket but I don't normally have that in my photos to take.

[Heather]

I tell you, you do take packaging photos when it's a corporate order because I think you like to demonstrate that they're individually wrapped because that sells people on corporate orders.

[Corey]

Every corporate order I've ever had inquire says and will these be individually wrapped? Which means it means a lot when they're choosing who to go with Right.

[Heather]

So when that when Corey knows that corporate wants to see individually wrapped individually wrapped she should photograph that would help sell that so even though she says well I don't do customs as not you would if it helps sell that product So I agree with the commenter the texter 571-556-5644 saying that there is cases use cases where you would photograph packaging. What are you doing with your hands blank? Okay we have another text in not the winner but first my heart. I like their opinion Costco is absolutely worth it and get the executive membership for sure you get cash back throughout the year and when it's time to renew if you didn't get enough cash back to justify the difference for the membership go to customer service and they'll give you the difference so you can so you only pay the bigger price for the executive membership for the first year. Oh interesting. Also if at any point you change your mind they'll refund you your membership team Costco all the way.

[Corey]

Wow.

[Heather]

Southwest Ohio. Nice to know that's a good one. I'll think about that. Corey said she go have these on it on it turns out and I asked in a local community group great question if you guys ever I asked them about Costco they said you can bring anyone to Costco with you but

[Corey]

they're always asking for your ID when

[Heather]

you check out the person who's there is the ID holder and haver but you could bring somebody else. Well I guess it's like bringing somebody to go shopping with you. I don't know. I guess they don't tackle you if you're not a car carrying number. Good to know. Let me know if I'm wrong before somebody tackles me. Last X is 313I think that's in a Detroit area code. I heard you guys mention and mention the AI cookie lab and I don't have a question but I want to tell bakers listening that AI can be a tool. Yes. Even for the clients sending crazy inspo pictures. I had a client send me an insane AI photo and we were able to use it as a starting point for her custom set. All that to say make that money.

[Corey]

Love that.

[Heather]

Love that. Thank you. I agree. And if you guys are curious if your audience is receptive to it go check out that AI cookie lab by going to the event section in the sugar cookie marketing group and you can get all the deets there including the STL to print.

[Corey]

Nice.

[Heather]

I don't have a printer. I gave you the handcut file, buddy. They no excuses. I got you guys coming and going. Our sponsors tip. Corey has threatened me within an inch of my life if I don't do this.

[Corey]

I.

[Heather]

But. But we actually have Primera coming on as a guest on the podcast and I know Amalia wants to come on as cookie design lab as well, so I'll be working on that. We've got Jennifer scheduled with Primera end of April. End of April. So I gotta get me. That's a. That's our April person. What are you doing?

[Corey]

Playing with the scissor.

[Heather]

Okay. We have Cookie Design Lab Code twin saves you 15% off baking me Crazy is a great supply shop and that code is favorite twin and it saves you 10%. Bakety bag bakes codes twins, plural. 10%. That big old bag. I keep thinking about it every time I see your name. That big old bag.

[Corey]

Five million pound bag.

[Heather]

What's Popping Con, which Corey and I'll be attending is coded twins to save 25. That's a very cool. Corey asked on the Facebook page, what have you baked once and never again. And the overwhelming answer was cake pops. If you say I would really like to understand cake pops, you're going to want to make what's Popping Con and you're going to want to make the workshops where they teach you everything hands on. In her workshop.

[Corey]

Yeah, yeah. She has a mold that makes it a lot more easier than the balls of yesteryear.

[Heather]

I love new technology that makes life a little bit easier. Primera Eddie Etsy edible food printer. Now Jennifer with Primera is going to come onto this podcast and talk about both Eddie and Freddie. She sent. So I'll have more details with that one. But if you're considering an Eddie, which is what Corey uses for those corporate order she bags and photographs, go to the Eddie Printer users group on Facebook very much inspo stuff. And if you're like, I don't want another Facebook group, go check them out on Instagram because they're constantly reposting people's creations. And then last but not least, Bosch Nutra Mill. Use Coach Sugar cookies to save 20 dwellas. 20 dwellas. Corey, your twin trust says being a new customer, what to expect.

[Corey]

So it's so funny is a lot of times me and Heather will go to a restaurant so many times for years and years that we become thick fixtures there. And you know, there's camaraderie and we like the camaraderie. But it's so funny. I went to this new haircuttery place and they thought that I had been there before and I had not. So the way that they were treating me was as someone that needed to know things that I did not know.

[Heather]

Identity. It was.

[Corey]

He said, I thought you were this so and so person.

[Heather]

And I said, so they just thought you come there a lot, but you never, never been there before.

[Corey]

So he's like, oh, what have you been washing your hair with? It's so oily. Shoot, dude, I don't know. My first rodeo right here, just cutting you down.

[Heather]

So then, like, I showed him a picture.

[Corey]

He's like, yeah, that's better. Your hair is so thin that it's honest. Like, he's shooting like, we've been best, but your hair's thin, it's oily. What are you doing? And I'm like, oh, okay. Halfway through the haircut, he said, how so? And so I said, I'm not quite sure I this my first. First time here. He's like, this is your first time here? And it's so funny. We treat people as if they should know things. And you know, when it comes to the bakery world. And we'll talk about it with the pre sale boot camp. Presale is a weird word that only exists in the cookie industry, but it exists so much there that cookies are like, everybody knows what a pre sale is. No, people know what a pre. Pre order is in a drop. Like, they don't even know. So it's so treating your clients as if they're first timers each and every time. Sometimes people will come up to me and be like, yeah, remember me? And I'm like, you gotta throw me a bone. But if you're like, hey, I'm Corey and you actually made my order. But I just wanted to say, hey, how's it been going? It gives them some context to go with. So I love the way the guy cut the hair and. And I think my hair wash was great. And maybe my hair is oily and it is thin. But to treat someone as if, you know, even though they're not new, to even say a little bit new. I know when me and Heather are fixtures at the Olive Garden, they'll be like, I know you. Do you guys want to refill on the side? I know you're going to say yes, but I have to say it. It allows you to, if you wanted to change your mind, to change your mind, but also gives the same customer service that you would give to someone who didn't know you any of the times, the same option.

[Heather]

It's so interesting if you Go to the Zoist, those little kiosks. Now they're on the tables of Outbacks and Olive Gardens and whatever. It really. I hate them. I hate them because it, like, takes you out of this experience and it feels like you're like, please tattletail on your. But one of the tattletale questions is, were you offered a refill on your drink? Were you offered a refill on breadsticks? And were you offered a reference refill on top? But while I think that's a weird experience to ask us to tattle on these people, what it does show is that they have to offer it every time, even if they know that your order that they're not going to order the second or the third refill. We are. We are. Just ask. But I think it keeps you fresh. So something I like to do. If I'm telling somebody something that I've already told them before, I say, hey, I'm going to tell you this again. If you already know it, feel free to stop me. Right? So it says, hey, I'm going to repeat the instructions here, but without assuming you're stupid. And if you. You don't want the repeat, say skip.

[Corey]

It's just nice to give them that option. So if someone orders from me a lot, you know my same rigmarole. So what I do is like, as you gosh darn well know, I'm going to be back in your inbox in one week from now, and we're going to go over the address so you don't have to go back through our old emails. We'll cover the pickup time. And it's just allowing them to have the same customer service service that they had at the beginning, which is what they liked you for, to keep it going throughout there so you never lose it and be like, well, I haven't heard from so and so. It can't be. Ever come back to your customer service because you've always treated them with the same customer service the whole time. It was just so funny that they thought I was a different person. So he's like lambasting how I do my hair. Granted, I have thick skin and he wasn't wrong about my hair being thin.

[Heather]

Thin hair.

[Corey]

I'm sure his conversation would have been a lot different. When I showed him my inspo photo, he was like, yeah, I can do that. It's pretty. But you, you need that. You can't do so many layers. You need to do something. Make her feel good.

[Heather]

Yeah, Very interesting. Was it Familiarity breeds contempt. We always take for granted. The quiet many. Yeah, we forget that like they deserve the same amount of respect as that squeaky complainer. Yes, it is hard usually because you're like, I'm too busy putting out fires. Like if you're not on. On fire, then I've just gotta, I just gotta.

[Corey]

I know, but you want to almost reward the non fire people because they are not on fire. And it's that slippery slope of they know, they know you know the person who orders and you're like, they always order so I'm gonna dress in my sweatpants when they come to pick up because you know, they know me. But we're still a business and they still have the option to go to other businesses. So treating them like you know it's the first time. Even if you have to repeat yourself and be like, oh my goodness, I know we've done this and million times. I know. I make a thank you cookie for everyone who orders, no matter how many times you order. And that's my way to say regardless. Thank you so much if this is

[Heather]

your first or your 50th.

[Corey]

Appreciate you.

[Heather]

I think we live in a world where it's like massive free stuff and discount when you sign up new customers only like, oh, top liver shoot. But yeah, it is nice to feel thanked for being the quiet one.

[Corey]

Do you have a twin twist?

[Heather]

Yeah, I do. I've been overwhelmed. I just have a lot going on. So if I owe you an email, my apologies, I'll find it and I'll get to it. But this whole moving thing, moving on your own. I've never had to talk to so many strangers in my life. But I was listening to Andrew Huberman a while ago. But I also pinged this tip again. So I was thinking about it. Take a deep breath like from the bottom of the diaphragm all, all the way in. So breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe. Suck, suck, suck, suck. Pause. Now take a deeper breath on top of the breath. They said right there. Now release slowly. They said that second breath is called psych, the psychological sigh. And it immediately lowers your cortisol stress levels physiologically. Like so you know, you'd be like, you meditate, whatever, just taking that breath with the breath, the deepest breath you can and then and adding more automatically your body responds to it for some reason. So I've been trying to be like, okay, wow, a little bit overwhelmed here. A little bit, A lot going on. Just take this deepest breath and then take it. So a couple years ago, Corey had it as her twin twist. I bought Corey, a calmigo, but that was one of the breath exercises. Is that really deep breath and then an added breath on top of it before you exhale. I found it's just a nice little. A little, little like stop being overwhelmed for two seconds and just calm your soul. Yeah.

[Corey]

The call Me go, which is an anti anxiety breathalyzer kind of thing, is you breathe as deep as you can, as Heather said, and then you breathe out and it counts it. So you want to hit all three lights to come up and then it will vibrate and say, okay, do it again. And you do it for two straight minutes. And then it has these little tiny halves of spearmint that you're smelling in as you're breathing. That is also a calming thing.

[Heather]

Whenever somebody's like. Like you go to the hospital and they write shortness of breath. Like shortness of breath and problems are hand in hand. You know, like they're really calm, like how short the breathing is. But you're like hyperventilating. I can't catch my breath. Breath and like mental state, I think are really tied into each other. And if you do any meditation or like mindfulness at work, it's always about slowing down the breath.

[Corey]

Interesting. That sounds twintellectual as well as a twin tress.

[Heather]

I'll blend them together. It's been on my mind and on

[Corey]

my diaphragm and on your breath.

[Heather]

Yeah. But I think, okay, we can't always get that back massage. But we can take just a couple minutes to just slow down, slow down a little bit before you talk to that client or before you have to deliver some bad news about their order. Just take that deep breath. Breath, exhale slowly.

[Corey]

Yeah, that's true. I mean, you can happen to your day, your day can happen to you. No one's. Well, I would say no one's died over cookies, but I'm sure someone's choked on them once or twice. You know, the color of your cookies. While it may be stressful for them in those moments, it's not going to end their life. We need to have wits around us. A lot of people rush. You know, they rush to respond and, and that's because it makes it feel better. Like, okay, I gave a response, but you might be rushing into the wrong answer to the wrong solution there.

[Heather]

So a 24 hour pause between the problem and the response is like the business breath.

[Corey]

But what's so funny is this local bakery shop took a pause because they wanted to get the full side of

[Heather]

I read the whole thing.

[Corey]

Yeah, they Wanted to get a full side of the situation. So a wedding happened on Friday and they paused till Monday where they could meet with the person who baked the cake for the wedding to get the full side of the story. But the client did not like such a big pause. They wanted a shorter pause to give fully context.

[Heather]

This is a brick and mortar, so I think it's a bigger operation. The client orders a cake, they're delivered the wrong cake interior. So they had ordered like they came as Funfetti is all I know. They didn't order funfetti. It's their wedding. Although what a fun little surprise. But that's not what they ordered. And there was the allergen factor there. Right. So it's important. So they cut open their cake. It's Funfetti on the inside. It's not what they asked. So they reach out to the brick and mortar who the owner wasn't working over the weekend, said they'd get back on Monday. The client was not happy with that possible. But I would say yeah, I was right. They blasted him on social media. But it was surprising because in the judge during Executioner that are community groups, they actually sided with the baker because the baker had said please give me till Monday to reply to get the full cool, cohesive story. Yeah, baker had fully refunded the order, offered an additional cake. Obviously it could be a wedding cake. So they offered them an anniversary cake. And maybe there was one other thing, but the client had already lambasted them. But it was funny because the comment section, at least when I read it, because I'm, I was going to read absolutely every part of that. The comment section actually sided with the bakery because they had done everything within their power to try to make it right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Corey]

I, I, I thought was pretty interesting. I mean it sucks that they still ran to social media, but the comment section, even people were able to see through that and still give the baker some credit. Granted they have a negative review, but they have so many positive reviews. And that's goes back to, you know, really patting your reviews profile. So that one bad review, which is inevitable because we can't make everyone happy. We are humans at the helm of these ships.

[Heather]

The baker made a mistake. They should not have done that. They said that they had a bunch of base cake layers out and the decorator had just mistaken the order. So somebody else got the whatever the not funfetti one was. Yeah, so yeah, it was. But they were not perfect. So we're going to make mistakes. I thought it was Impressive how? It was funny though, the bakery and I want to put them at blast. I actually had never heard of them before the bakery had said thanks so much for not waiting till Monday before you put us on blast. And then they screenshotted that the client and posted in the group. So you gotta really think three times about if I what I write is read in the court of law, how would it reflect back on my business?

[Corey]

I know, I see some makers are messing with who they think is scammers, but I've also seen the bakers mess with people who are not scammers or actually clients in screenshot that and have

[Heather]

shared it in groups.

[Corey]

You always just got to be careful what you say. Heather's little court of law thing is probably some something to abide by.

[Heather]

I had emailed this real estate agent the way I email, I had more information than needed but it had all the information so there would be no additional questions. And the real estate agent is like, it's so funny how you write it comes across me as a scammer because it's too comprehensive. But imagine she had done the trolley thing where they, you know, like troll people like, oh yeah, it's a billion dollars to buy apps. Like, you know. But instead she was like, wow, this is actually a really easy process because you're so, so organized. She's like, but yeah, she's like a thought in my mind, maybe I wouldn't reply to you. So I was like, hey, good feedback because I need to know if I'm coming across as scam vibes, as a

[Corey]

robot, as a robotic.

[Heather]

So that takes us through today's podcast. I think it's great stuff. I think if it's, it's strategy and strategy is never just check a box. It's always like, think about it, get in, become one with it. But I think if you actually became came on with it, you would see the results that you coveted for so long.

[Corey]

I hope, I hope you enter the rest of March and into April with some strategy. You'll see it come around May. You'll definitely reap the bennies. Come around November and December, the super

[Heather]

bowl of the baking industry. And I'll be here before I know

[Corey]

girl, you're telling me. It's actually a gwed of squads, tornado

[Heather]

warnings across the both states and snow

[Corey]

in the forecast next week.

[Heather]

Okay, I will see, I'll talk to you, I'll bribe you about lunch.

[Corey]

I'll see you. See you around. Virginia's for lovers. Maybe you'll find West Virginia we're doing just fine.

[Heather]

Yeehaw.

[Corey]

Wild and wonderful Wild and wonderful.