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- [00:01]
A
Corey, it is Tuesday. It is May. It is May 19th in the 2020 sixth year. It'll be almost 100 degrees today and in a couple days it'll be 50 something degrees because it's going to be
- [00:12]
B
raining for the next 12 days straight.
- [00:15]
A
Which I am. I used to be an anti rain person. I used to love a sunny day. But now I'm a bigger anti large water bill person. So bring the rain on, sweetheart.
- [00:25]
B
Water is pricey. It is pricey. We have a rule in my house that I made this year that when you enter the shower, you play one song on Spotify. When the song wraps up, your shower is wrapping up.
- [00:36]
A
Okay, question. What's your song? What's your Spotify shower song?
- [00:40]
B
I don't get the rule because I
- [00:42]
A
pay the water bill. Interstellar song. You'll have a long shower. Okay, guys, it is the 261st episode and we're calling it Fun with Landscaping Funnels. It's something that I said, Fun with Funnels. Corey said she liked the landscaping room from last week. So we tried to marry them together. You guys let us know if it works or not.
- [01:06]
B
Heather is deep in the trenches, literally, of her yard because when she got this house, they laid down sod. Now, sod, if you're unfamiliar with it, it's just squares of grass taken from one place to another place to also be blades of grass somewhere else.
- [01:21]
A
The sod has to take and you only have the. You have to establish it. These are buzzwords. Take this all the way to the Home Depot bank. And you have to establish. You have to water it in the first couple of weeks of the growing season, which started back in April.
- [01:36]
B
Yeah.
- [01:36]
A
So I'm out there like, I got this timer running on my Fitbit. Is it to track health metrics? No, it's the water cycle. I'm watering in patches. We're working our way down. I'm hand weeding. Dad's coming over and fertilizing. We got this thing going, growing, trying to get it growing. Yeah, okay. But my next door neighbors, the nicest little couple with a six year old daughter, never watering, but they're always out there. So finally yesterday they came over and they said, your grass looks really good. Their grass looks like the Sahara Desert. How.
- [02:03]
B
How did that compliment hit?
- [02:06]
A
I almost like felt like bad because their grass was soaked down. I was like, oh, you're supposed to be. It's supposed to rain a lot this week. You guys have seen me slaving out there with water.
- [02:18]
B
But they don't want a giant water bill like you. They want a tiny water a dead grass pile. The thing with sod is when a sod square dies, it looks weird in a yard because it's one square of death.
- [02:31]
A
Perfectly catch wear too. It's not like a bomb. That's my notes. So anyways, we're blending in the the grass and the growth marketing the two.
- [02:42]
B
Speaking of blending in, I have a customer that's coming oddly at 10:50 and it is 10:38 right now. So I shall excuse myself briefly for for this lady when she emails me that she's here. So be prepared.
- [02:54]
A
Yeah. In the meantime. So a couple of things coming up. This is a outtake of the sugar cookie marketing group on Facebook. I have let everyone who answered the questions in. If you haven't answered the questions, try to go and cancel that and see if you can rejoin on a different device and answer those questions. Another way to do it is if you click join, go back to the group and then it should have the option to answer questions even if they didn't populate for you. Sure.
- [03:17]
B
Yeah. Or you can cancel your request, try again. Typically when I enter try to join a new group, I pause on the screen real quick and I'll be like the admins want to ask you a few questions. And then I click on that and it brings me to it.
- [03:28]
A
Yeah, I think that glitch, I think that delay is the glitch that's throwing people off. If it naturally took you to the questions panel versus the pop up that allowed you to decide.
- [03:36]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [03:37]
A
Most of the stuff, if not all the stuff can be found on our website sugarcookie marketing.com what's coming we have the Main Street May collab is this week. I'll talk about it more later. The video boot camp is coming up in two weeks and the cherry cookie class kit has already dropped and we're working on the summer wing class kit. I also opened up signups for our next collab, the Meet the Baker collab in June. Super easy collab to join. It's probably the best bang for your collab buck, which is free.
- [04:03]
B
Especially mid summer where a lot of bakers are taking off and a lot of people are taking off and going on vacation. This will keep you top of feeds during this boring time of the year where there's not a lot of holidays. Because our goal is to keep you top of feeds when it is busy and people are searching for cookies like around November, December time frame.
- [04:20]
A
Agree? I agree. Thank you twin. Okay, moving into the topic. So the reason why I wanted to call this fun with funnels, but it's more like kind of understanding that we talk about funnels a lot. Cornell be like, if your funnel is long, people drop out of it. And then we talk about acquisition funnels. There's. It's a concept that can be applied to multiple verticals within your marketing. Right. So the funnel of order intake would be someone finding you on Facebook. They click on Facebook to message you, send them to your website. They fill out a form, you confirm it. You see each one of these steps. It starts off with a lot of people sending you inquiries. A couple people drop out for pricing. A couple people ghost you. A couple people end up canceling the event. And finally somebody places an order. You see how it's very broad and it works its way down to narrow.
- [05:05]
B
Yeah.
- [05:06]
A
The same can be applied to the type of marketing you run these funnels, we use them interchangeably, but they do have different applications. So in marrying the type of funnel to a landscaping term. Here's today's podcast. Corey, listen. Corey's like, I want it to be about.
- [05:24]
B
I want it to be about watering.
- [05:27]
A
Okay. So the market, the entire market is your lawn.
- [05:32]
B
Yes.
- [05:33]
A
Right. So this is the widest thing. The lawn is everywhere. Right. So not everyone's grass is ready to grow all the time at the same time. Just ask my neighbors. Their grass is ready to grow. They're not letting it summer some. So in my lawn, there's some places that are, for some reason, really healthy. The front of the yard, this. There's some places which almost like different grass was. And maybe I put the wrong seed down or something like that, but it's like really thin grass. And then there's some places that. Where the downspouts are pouring water into it. They're really helping, you know, because they got extensive amount of water. But you would not treat the entire lawn exactly the same when some parts are really healthy and some parts aren't. Right.
- [06:10]
B
Right.
- [06:11]
A
So you're the same way would be approached to marketing. You wouldn't do the same thing everywhere. It wouldn't work.
- [06:19]
B
So what I hear a lot of times, and me and Heather ask it, who's your ideal client? And. And a lot of bakers will say anybody with a mouth. That is incorrect because not everybody with a mouth likes sweet things. They might not like sugar cookies. They might not like drop cookies. So saying that means you don't technically know who your ideal customer is. So you send your marketing and your water out everywhere and Then you wonder like, hey, I'm doing this stuff. Why isn't anyone coming back? And it's because you're not focusing on the parts of your marketing that need the focus. The ones who could turn from lookers to buyers.
- [06:55]
A
A terminology I've learned in my landscaping foray is dethatching. So when you come into a lawn and it's not been maintained for a long time, the grass tends to die. And then it creates like a grass layer of dead grass where it prevents things from getting to the soil.
- [07:10]
B
Yeah.
- [07:11]
A
And soil needs oxygen. Needs oxygen. So when we think about the dead path of grass, we think of cold leads or leads that have died. Right.
- [07:20]
B
So I always think that someone who ghosts me is my dead patch.
- [07:25]
A
Yes, they are something about them. So you wouldn't send the, hey, thanks for being a great customer to that lead, would you? But a lot of the times we use our marketing as like, I'm going to send out one email to my entire list.
- [07:36]
B
Yeah.
- [07:36]
A
And you're sending thanks for being a great client to somebody who never ordered from you. That's like putting water on a layer of dead grass and trying to get to the soil. There's no way to grow it that way because it was never meant for them.
- [07:47]
B
Yeah, agreed. Totally agreed. That's not. While they are a little bit of your ideal client because they reached out to you, they never came to fruition. They never dropped out of your funnel in. Into your ordering software.
- [08:00]
A
They never sprouted.
- [08:02]
B
They never sprouted. There's room for them somewhere. It's just not everywhere.
- [08:06]
A
Right. So what you would do. And then, okay, loyal customers are going to be that lush grass that's doing so great and you're so proud of it. I feel like everyone look here and don't look over there. And then you have people that are kind of in the middle where they're like, when the conditions are right, I'm going to sprout. But right now I'm not. But I'm not dead either. So you see, have different patches of grass. Now we see the landscape of our marketing. Now what you can't do is just put a sprinkler out and water everything the exact same. The dead grass. You won't be able to get to the soil. Remember, we always need to get to the soil. Cause we need to nurture. Yeah, nurture the middle of the road grass. It's not healthy, but it's not dead yet. That might do really great with that consistent watering. But the lush grass, you can over water and Drown your grass. When the grass is doing really well, you would actually handle them a bit differently than the, the middle of the road grass and then a lot differently than the grass instead. Or dormant. Yes.
- [08:59]
B
When it comes to marketing and I, believe me, I'm with you. As a small business owner, you thought you were just going to be a baker and turns out you're everything but a baker. You're running your admin task, you're having to post to social media, you're a photographer, you're paychecks, your hr. You will feel overindated. And sometimes you just throw something out there into the best and you hope that it's working. If you ever get to the point in your business, you're like, I'm doing this stuff, but I don't see a ROI return on investment. I feel like the time I'm putting in isn't doing what I wanted to do. And you want to dig deeper. It's probably something in your funnel that is either a turn off to potential clients or it's not cultivating the right clients. And that's what we're trying to get to today is finding and treating the different parts of your funnel correctly so that you water the right parts and you don't over inundate some parts to end up killing your grass. Or as we would call it, unsubscribe from your email newsletter or unfollow your
- [09:56]
A
Facebook page when somebody unsubscribes. If you can take this lawn application and apply it to that is they're weeding themselves out. Literally the word we. They are weeding themselves out of your list. They're like, you'll never, I'll never sprout. You'll never water me enough. There's no time you can put into me that will convert me. And that's where you almost say thank you so much because I don't want to waste water. Water in a patch of grass that will refuse to grow.
- [10:18]
B
Yeah. A lot of times as a baker, you'll see that you get unfollows on Instagram are people that unfollow your Facebook page. And that can be a, a hit to the gut. Like what? They don't like me? What.
- [10:31]
A
What did I do wrong? Yeah, your ego.
- [10:33]
B
Because you, you've done so much effort to grow your Facebook page. Why is it going down in numbers? But I want to tell you that's not an ego hit. If someone moves away from your service area, there's no chance that they can buy from you. They have moved Away for them to unfollow. And unlike your page, is doing you a service because they were never your ideal customers.
- [10:56]
A
So back to the analogy kind of what Corey's saying, you know, okay, when I bought this house, they made a sign. All this information, all this disclaimer that if the grass died, we wouldn't be able to go get them to fix it. As the grass was dying, however, in every house, they left this sprinkler. He's like, you know that. Yes. They left the cheapest sprinklers in the history of the planet, of the world. Like, somebody had to engineer them to be this bad. So I'm like, how nice. They left us sprinkler heads and like these hoses that are so rigid, they. They, like, wrap. It's like. It's like wrestling with a snake, this hose. I go out there to be this hairy homeowner that I'm trying to be, and I turn the sprinkler on. It doesn't have a. Like a. Let me turn the water on a little bit so it's not shooting into the atmosphere. No. It was either full machine gun power spray or it was off. There was nothing to get to the sprinkler. You had to run. It was like seeing somebody running for their lives. That's how sprinkler I ended up. So that was. That's the problem with most of us. Our marketing is here, let me blast everything and everyone. Everything will get water and some of it will grow, right? Yeah. Yeah. It feels like you're doing it. You are spending a lot of money on water and a lot of time because it's blasting. It's a lot of. It's a lot of out. Outflow, right? Yes. However, you're now treating your entire marketing lawn like it's the exact same type of grass. You are watering the weeds as much as you're watering the lush grass.
- [12:24]
B
You're watering the dead grass that can no longer grow. People that have that moved away, fallen out of your funnel maybe followed you because you had a little bit of a viral post. You're. You're hitting it with water, but they'll never grow. They don't even like the taste of sugar cookies. They think they taste like rocks.
- [12:40]
A
And this is a great example because you are marketing. You are doing the effort, but you're at the top of the funnel, the broadest net you can cast, which is going to get some riff raptor in it. So like Corey said, the viral. You know, the decorating reels where it's very therapeutic to watch. It almost falls within the AC asmr.
- [12:56]
B
Yeah.
- [12:56]
A
Is akin to the guy cleaning rugs. I'll never need a carbon cleaner. I love to clean myself, but I love watching other people's filth get cleaned. It's like my favorite thing to watch. He'll never ever make a sale with me, but I will always be on a social media. If he only produces that type of content, he's getting a lot of me's a lot of dead weight.
- [13:17]
B
Yeah. What we see a lot of bakers do is they stay at that top of funnel because we're busy and I get it. And to sit down and look at your funnel means time and energy. And sometimes we don't just don't have it. But bakers will water everything all the time, the same amount, which means they're only focused on their top of funnel. So you will get some wins, you will make some sales, but you will never know exactly why they bought from you because you're watering everything the exact same.
- [13:45]
A
And your water bill is just as high as mine. Yeah. Which is. That's what creates a burnout. Like you're spending. My water bill was so big that they sent me an email about it. They're saying we cannot detect a leak. So whatever's happening is on you. Listen, what's happening is the grass outside. I figured if I could do it a couple months and I'll be done, I'll get out of my system. Let's burn this.
- [14:05]
B
Yeah.
- [14:05]
A
Burn it to the ground. Okay. So when you do those big sprinklers, you mass water. It's going to be frustrating because you're expending a ton of energy. I know those at those reels take forever. All the editing takes forever. Just sending a single email takes forever. And you're like, why am I spinning on my wheels making no traction? Because you are not segmenting your lawn based off of its needs. The market will tell you what it needs, but if you treat it all the same, you're going to make. You're going to get some growth somewhere, but you're also going to get some depth somewhere else.
- [14:33]
B
Yeah, absolutely. You can over water your great part of your lawn because you're like, well, there's a patch in the back that's kind of dead. But then here's the thing. Your great growth grass, the ones who really feed you, who order all the time, they get annoyed because they're like, wow, okay, we get it. You exist. I got it. And then you'll start See them fall out of the funnel because they're over annoyed. They're like, I've liked your page, I've liked your stuff. But, like, you're begging me an email to like your stuff.
- [14:58]
A
But I am another on the flip side of it. You get burnout. So you take the big step back because I'm overwhelmed. They're going to take off July, right. And then you come back in August or September, much like my neighbors. And they hold. They hold the hose like for two seconds out there. Yeah. And I was like, you know, the grass is like, dude, we're dead. Like, what are you doing? Like, we haven't heard from you in so long. That's what's happening. When you take these big breaks and come back, it's a jolt to alons. Like, oh, we thought you gave up here, but you still live here and it's very confusing.
- [15:26]
B
Yeah.
- [15:26]
A
And Big Breaks podcast, huh? I hope the neighbors never listen to this podcast.
- [15:32]
B
Big breaks don't just count as you're taking the summer off. Big breaks can be. You get busy in the kitchen and you forget and neglect your social media. So we say, oh, I'm not taking the summer off, but you might get some so busy taking your orders during the summer that you ghost your social media. You throw up the. The post that says, thank you, Janice, for turning 62. That is the same similar thing where you're just playing catch up. You're watering for two seconds and you're like, I hope this works.
- [15:58]
A
Is Janice the. The name of today's podcast? Like, we always pick a person to pick on. I like to.
- [16:03]
B
I always choose Janice's name. Janice and Chelly. My go to. My bad, my bad Baker Janice.
- [16:10]
A
So, okay, now let's talk about. Okay, you guys say, okay, yeah, that's me. I'm stuck in the broadcast Sprinklers. Okay. We want to start focusing. We want to start creating a plan for the different patches of our lawns. Right?
- [16:21]
B
Yeah.
- [16:22]
A
So think of interest, interest based or acquisition based as a drip line. They in irrigation, you can like create like these hoses that have small drips in them and they offer water at the root system of things. So kind of think if you're running like, and I'm not going to do a vegetable garden, but you would handle that a lot differently than you would handle your lawn. Right. So you'd irrigate it differently. Do have some flowers out front. I'm more hand watering those. I'm getting down to the root with the big patches of lawn in the back, I'm blasting those and with the healthy lawn up front, I'm only doing like 10 to 15 minutes. Right. So we have different aspects. So that's what we're going to do is once we get somebody's email and we caught. We've talked about this in other podcasts is list segmentation. How did you get their email? Now this is going to put more work on you, but it's more hyper focused. So if I got someone's email through a cookie class.
- [17:12]
B
Yes.
- [17:13]
A
I would upsell them or cross sell them differently than I would if somebody got there. If I got their email through a vendor show.
- [17:19]
B
Yeah, yeah. Or a custom order. Those are all three different buyers. I think a vendor person is more like a pre sale person. You're buying the one off maybe to gift, maybe to eat. The class person is not a custom order kind of person. Do they intersect sometimes? Absolutely. But the people who go to classes regularly are not my ordering custom type of people all the time. No.
- [17:44]
A
So you wouldn't water them the same. It would be weird to have placed a customer with Corey and then her just be like, thanks for coming to my cookie club. Be like, that's not. This isn't meant for me, you know. But it would be natural for me to order customs from Corey and her to tell me that her books are closing for next month and she'd like to invite me to try out a cookie club class. Yeah. That. Now you can see the funnel is. Cor is going to build out a different funnel for her customs acquisition clients versus her cookie class clients. Yes. To water both of those funnels the same way is going to be very confusing for your audience and it's going to create a lot of churn.
- [18:23]
B
I will say as bakers, we get our email list, we don't do the segmentation. Some people come to class, some people order the customs and then we just send out our monthly emails willy nilly because time is time and we don't have a lot of it. What you'll find it is that you will get unsubscribes and you will be like, do they not like me? But it could be because you're not nurturing each audience the way they need to be nurtured. Is it okay to tell your classes people that you do custom orders? Absolutely. But we don't want to say our classes people. Then they get 12 emails about custom orders only.
- [19:00]
A
Right. So now you're saying, well, I have to double the amount of emails I sent. But no, you don't necessarily. You could do every other. And you could say this, which is where a lot of us fall. But I've already collected so many emails, I don't know where they came from. Just start today. I. I forgive you for not tracking before. Start today. Yeah, it's okay to start today. It's okay to start building up that list. I'm sorry, I got blurry. Sorry, YouTube. Sorry, YouTube. So it's okay to start today. But now you can see when your marketing is more focused on that different type of patch on landscaping person, it makes more sense to your audience.
- [19:33]
B
Me, I will say jam on Corey Jaymon. Corey, I don't have an email list that I email regularly. If they got an email from me,
- [19:39]
A
that they would be blown away.
- [19:41]
B
My issue is my.
- [19:44]
A
As I do.
- [19:45]
B
Yeah, do as I say, not as you do. My issue is that I put everyone on my Facebook page. That's where I gather all my people. Unfortunately, it has the same M.O. as what Heather's saying with your email audience. If I did just those decorating videos and people follow it because it's relaxing to them, and then I'm like, all
- [20:04]
A
right, my pre sales happening.
- [20:06]
B
Those people who just followed for the relaxing videos aren't necessarily there for the right reasons. That's why you have to kind of guard your content to fit your goals, to match your goals. So if I'm getting in the creator rewards program and it's making me Beau Cooloo. Yeah. The ASMR videos. But that's why you don't see a lot of ASMR videos on my content. Because it's not watering the grass that I need to grow.
- [20:27]
A
A lot of times I see bakers and what a tempting thing. I can. I can post the content I'm already having to make to make sales, and I could get paid for that content. That is a whole different lawn. That's the. That's a different type of strategy. So it is hard to have. It's like almost saying, okay, Heather, I'm going to buy two pieces of property, but they're actually in different areas. They're 100 miles apart, but I want to water them at the same time. That's. That's how confusing that strategy would be to maintain. Although it feels like. But I'm producing the same content. It's like trying to get your sprinkler to water two different plots. Blant.
- [21:02]
B
Yeah. This is where I see. Oh, I'll be right back, my friends.
- [21:05]
A
Corey's like, and here's the most important part of this podcast, then ducked out. So kind of bringing it back to recap the land. The lawn is our market. That's. That's our marketing sphere. That's where we want to generate, germinate our leads within the leads. We have leads that we've already acquired, right? That's the healthy grass. We have a warm audience or leads that are thinking about it. They're open, they just need that final push. They need that kind of perfect condition to surround, germinate. Then they'll place their order, but they are considering it. And then we have that. Those dead patches where the dog pee peed in the lawn or food, I'm not sure, I don't have dog have these cats peeping, pooping everywhere. But in that we need to dethatch and we need to still see it's not a complete loss. But they haven't been warmed up, they haven't been cultivated. They're either dead or dormant. If they're dead, we'll get them out. They'll see themselves out. If they're dormant, they take longer to cultivate. But there is some potential there. So when we're thinking of this lawn, when something sprouts, when something germinate, when the seed pops up, we have made the order. So we have created the perfect conditions for someone to be convinced that reaching into their wallet is the best place to put their money, their exchange of their life force, which is a dollar. They're saying, you have done it. I have been watered, I have been fertilized, I have been cultivated. I'm ready to sprout. Here's my money, right? Here's the green. So when we do the germination, it only happens when the messaging, the timing, and the offer kind of all hit at the same time. That germination process will be a lot longer. When the grass is dead, it's a lot more fertilizing in the. I have some of these dead patches out here I am on my hands and knees pulling out weeds, pulling out massive rocks that they have just put the sod on top of finding this, like, weird netting. I guess they do when they construct houses, I guess, and that's what's making that. But I haven't even spend a lot more time there. Now. My other option with that dead or dormant grass is to completely get rid of it and put a garden or, you know, something else there. These are all options. If you're like, wow, that's so far gone, I can eliminate that part of my lawn. That's an option. I Can plant a tree, put up a playground set. Right. Turn into a dirt path. But when we have that middle of the road grass, that's where a lot of us say we have a lot of sitting business just waiting for us to make the conditions right. And then we have our lush referral network that we never want to miss out on, which. Extremely excited about your order.
- [23:30]
B
What's so funny is because I don't have a great CRM software. Again, bad on court.
- [23:36]
A
Do as she says, not as she does.
- [23:39]
B
She ordered construction themed cookies one year ago for her son turning three. She actually ordered construction themed cookies again for her son turning four. But I only have one set of construction themed cookie cutters. So I am so glad I looked up her name because I was going to just make the same set again. I am in the sprinkle factory library. So I printed off new ones and
- [24:01]
A
it was super cute and she was
- [24:02]
B
excited that they were different.
- [24:05]
A
So Cora actually had a lush, a lush grade of grass show up. Treated it like a middle of the road grass. Yeah.
- [24:14]
B
But I've looked up, so I was able to treat it like good grass because there was something that tracked that she wasn't just a random blade of grass. She was actually my green lush grass in the front of my lawn.
- [24:24]
A
I like that. So that takes us off to the green lush grass. When the grass is green and lush, to maintain it, we need to fertilize it.
- [24:33]
B
Yes.
- [24:34]
A
Right. If you fertilize. I've learned this thing. It's another buzzword coming at you guys. Pre emergent.
- [24:40]
B
Pre emergent. I've heard the word.
- [24:41]
A
Yeah. Apparently you can only put it down in a very certain time of year based off of your zone. Okay. If you put pre emergent down and grass seed, the weed killer, which I think pre emergent is like weed killer kind of preventative thing. Prevent. Yeah, Actually kill the growth of the new grass. So we would want to put pre emergent down before, but now as a grass can grow, we'd want to fertilize it. We gotta fertilize it in different stages. So you would not just say, okay, my grass is lush. I'm only gonna water it now.
- [25:12]
B
Yes.
- [25:13]
A
That would be coasting. And that's when your really warm leads, your really healthy grass starts to deteriorate because you started treating it like the. Like it doesn't matter as much. Yeah.
- [25:22]
B
And I can see that with clients. That's why a CRM software is important when you have those good clients that come to you year after year. And it's harder because unlike, you know, a restaurant where you might go four or five, six times a year, even more if you're Heather, these clients are coming once or twice per year. So it's so easy because we're coming in contact with so many people that I could forget Stephanie, who just came
- [25:48]
A
to pick up her order.
- [25:49]
B
I could forget that I've actually worked with her multiple times in the past.
- [25:53]
A
Past.
- [25:53]
B
Over the span of the last six years. And I could treat her like the same person once. She's going to not feel the princess treatment because I'm just treating her like everybody who comes in. Not. Not treating her bad, but I'm not treating her great.
- [26:05]
A
She's.
- [26:05]
B
She's a huge part of my business because I don't have to remarket to her. I've already done the marketing, I've already done the watering. But I have to treat her in a special way because I want her to continue growing. Be my lush, green grass that I don't have to put so much time and effort to. Like, I gotta do the dead grass
- [26:21]
A
in the back, right? So this is a great quote. Getting someone to buy once is watering. Getting them to come back is feeding the root system. So the first one, when we get them to germinate, which is the whole analogy here, is that we've created the perfect conditions for this seed to sprout. And when it sprouts, we're making money. Now when we have it sprouted, we don't just be like, okay, you're good. I'm gonna go focus on the back of the lawn. You guys keep growing up here. Like, that's not what's gonna happen. We have to create a different funnel for a retention. So that will be a retention funnel. Once somebody purchases from me, what happens to them after that? And if you haven't asked yourself that question, you're not thinking in terms of funneling. And what's happening is that's deteriorating this thing. You've spent so much time. Imagine that I've gotten this 250 water bill this month, and I'm like, well, that's it. Congratulations. Grass. We're good. You guys got it from here. And I stepped back from the whole landscaping thing. By mid July, I will have my neighbor's grass.
- [27:17]
B
Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
- [27:18]
A
So we need to fertilize. We need to water. We need to focus that water in specific requirements of this lawn. And then we need to make sure that even though it's green, we cannot forget about it.
- [27:31]
B
A great way to water your already green, lush grass. And you have to do this carefully. Is a VIP group. A VIP group. Groups are big on Facebook right now just because Facebook is pushing them so much. A VIP group treated like a very important person's group can be your bread and butter. The thing it needs to be is that content. These people who keep your books booked needs to be exclusive to them. So they get first dibs on classes. They get the buy one, get one class tickets. They get to have their orders on your calendar at the beginning of the year. They get the first dibs on it before you open it to everyone else. I see with a lot of people's VIP groups is they're treating it like an identical Facebook page to them. Unfortunately, there's no.
- [28:17]
A
You're watering everything the same. Yeah.
- [28:19]
B
There's no reason for me to join your VIP group. You're treating it like your Facebook where everybody is. So what's the point of me being in this exclusive group just to see your same content twice? Now, I will say VIP groups that if you want to make them work, the content in there, being exclusive means you are working a little extra.
- [28:37]
A
But when you walk stuff really diversifies your marketing. While it cleans it up, it also makes it more work because you're creating for the different aspects of your funnel or your lawn, different types of irrigation systems, different types of fertilizing schedules. Versus I'm just gonna put everything everywhere all at once and hope it lands.
- [28:54]
B
I know the thing me and Heather did way back in the day, before I wanted to sell cookies, or if I knew I wanted to, was I did wanna sell cookie classes. I did wanna do cookie class tickets. So we actually created a separate Facebook page for that. If you go to either one of my little custom order bakery page or our classes page, the content is very different. And that's because the audience is not the same. The. So it feels like twice the work. And that's because it is twice the work.
- [29:22]
A
There. Specialized.
- [29:24]
B
It's specialized. But what it does is even though it's twice the work, I get twice the return on investment. Because the contents created for the class people incentivizes people to sign up for class. And the ones for customs incentivize people order customs.
- [29:38]
A
Now, if Cora and I. And there's the limitation of willpower, There's a limitation of time, There's a limitation of just how many orders you even want to take. So if you say, well, girls, I don't want the whole lawn to Happy Grain, I just want it to look pretty Good from about 10ft away. Yeah. Well, that's why it's when I see people like, well, I don't want to run when they have like a. A cutter shop and they also have a brick and mortar, and they're like, well, I don't want to run two channels. Okay, I said it. It's going to negatively affect you, but it's going to positively affect your time management, you know?
- [30:06]
B
Yeah.
- [30:06]
A
It's a give and take. And like Corey says, I know I need a CRM, but I'm. I don't have one because I'm lazy or whatever her reasons are. Lindsay. So I understand there's a million excuses, and your excuses are your own. Are not going to take them away from you. However, if you are like, I'm tired of my lawn. I'm tired of the high water bills every six months. What if I do landscaping all year long and I don't have to hide the high water bills. Here's what that looks like. But now it's landscaping all year long.
- [30:35]
B
Yeah. Yeah. Just from the people who order from me year after year. And this is where a marketing funnel actually really does work. The people who become your base orders for every single month. So I know Stephanie's going to order sometime in May. I know Elizabeth's going to order sometime in August. Those people are easy to work with because they've already worked with you once.
- [30:56]
A
It's a reason why I go to the same restaurant multiple times. Yeah. You know what to expect. I know where to sit. Yeah. I went to a new restaurant the other day. My favorite thing to do. And I was like, I had to, like, psych myself up.
- [31:08]
B
Yes.
- [31:09]
A
I was like, okay. Like, like. And I said, I'm a better person to go discover if this only has parallel parking. But my body wants to be, okay, we're gone.
- [31:18]
B
But I'm saying, when it comes to your marketing, if you feel like you're always having to water your grass, like, I'm always trying to ask for orders. I'm always. Why you need to look back. What in your customer relationship funnel. The funnel to keep that lush grass green are you missing out on? Because as you spend more years in business, the people coming back should be bigger and bigger each year. So you should know what your May kind of looks like. You should know what your June kind of looks at, because the same people are coming back year after year. I understand that kids kind of do age out of sugar cookies and they want, like, pizza parties. Ask me how I know that is my son. But if they have small children, you'd be baking for the five year old and the two year old now the six year old, the three year old. If you are not seeing those people returning, there's something in your customer service realm of funnel that might need a little bit of a look see whether it be your reply. Yeah, yeah, whatever. Your reply times might not be as fast. You might be hard to reach. Like maybe you, they can't reach you on your Facebook messenger page. And then your emails, you're only getting them to them once a week or they're DMing you and you used to take their orders for your dm, now they, now you don't. But you never set that expectation with them. That's something to look at too because we want our front grass. We want the work of our this year that Heather's put into her front grass to benefit her next year. If she's constantly having to re sow. Is that how when you put grassy down, regress, reseed.
- [32:48]
A
I think it's called overseeding.
- [32:50]
B
When you. She's constantly having to reseed the whole lawn. That's exhausting. So what we need to do is that grass in the front, we want to make sure that it's watered well before the fall comes so that when spring comes next year it's a no brainer. It's going to grow.
- [33:03]
A
And she just has her little issues in the back that she has to take care of. She's in the back. Okay. Now we've talked about the healthy lawn, the lawn that just ordered from a Stephanie. So Corey says right now I have Stephanie. Stephanie's actually a returning customer. I see my gaps here. Let me shore up these gaps and fertilize where the water, where the grass is already green. We also have our mid range with these people. Like I'm pretty close. I just have to have either a little bit more sun, a little bit more water, a little bit more tlc. I'm going to germinate. But then we have our dead grass. And these are either people who have potentially order from us and ghosted but more importantly people who have ordered from us and stopped ordering.
- [33:40]
B
Yeah.
- [33:41]
A
And the takeaway is that likely they're not dead. Unless it was a bad experience. They're not dead, they're just dormant.
- [33:46]
B
Yes.
- [33:47]
A
If they, if it was a bad experience. Take them off of this stuff. We don't need.
- [33:52]
B
They don't want to see you, you don't want to see them.
- [33:55]
A
Let's come loose. This is why I Do have. I do take up a bit of an issue when somebody has a really bad experience with a baker and the baker says, I'll discount a future because they've already had a current bad experience. The likelihood of them signing out to have a second bad experience is really low. But while you feel justified, I did offer them recourse. You've offered them a recourse. That's almost a hostage situation. Yeah.
- [34:21]
B
They have to order from you again in order to get the recourse to feel whole again.
- [34:26]
A
I had a really bad experience a couple years ago. You guys lived through it with that car. And I asked them why the work wasn't completed and they said, well, we'll do it the next time you come up. And I said, you'll never see me again. I'll lift. Coming up here again, this has been horrible. So that's that. I'll give you a percentage off your future order is the. I know this sucked for you. I'll try to make it suck less if you risk this entire experience again. It'd be hard for me to ever make that thing. So anyways, if you had that bad experience and somebody's had an A or left a better review, remove them from this marketing stuff completely.
- [35:00]
B
Yeah, I, you, I, I did recently look it up. You can't unfollow have people unfollow your page anymore. You actually have to block them and unblock them for them to be unfollows. Now me and Heather used to say like, you know, delete people or remove people that follow you that aren't local. It's harder to do now, let me tell you.
- [35:20]
A
Well, again, everything takes work. Facebook does not want to lose its web. It does not.
- [35:24]
B
It does not.
- [35:25]
A
To shut down a Facebook group, just so you guys know, is you have to manually remove each person. Then only when you remove the admin can you shut down the group. Sometimes if you do, you might be thinking, I'll just remove the admin. The group will shut down. No, it'll now have an administrative group.
- [35:40]
B
Yeah. And they used to like give the admin ship to some random person.
- [35:45]
A
There's still things that it does. I don't know how it works. So anyways, when someone is a dormant grass, we need to reengage them. And that the landscaping analogy here is aeration. Aeration of dried out patches. And Corey and I were talking about aeration the other day. She manually aerates. I did. You said they really work. So lapsed customers are not dead, they're just compacted. A well timed we miss you email or a seasonal drop, things that are coming kind of loosens the soil and lets that water get back into the root system. Again with that dethatching.
- [36:15]
B
Speaking of that, when I went down to my customer, my phone went off with a text message and there's this big car wash chain here in Northern Virginia called Flagship Car Wash. When I had my other car, I went. I lived at the Flagship car wash. For $30 a month you could go at as many times as you wanted for that time. Of course it ruined the paint job. So when I got a new, new used car, I decided not to go to Flagship. It said, please come back, we miss you. We'll give you 20% off the next six months if you sign up.
- [36:44]
A
So that funnel, this funnel we'll be talking about is a reacquisition funnel. Meaning I've already acquired them, I've already done enough for them to germinate, but somehow I've not been able to maintain that. And they, they become dormant. Right. They're not dead because they don't hate us. They're dormant. They liked us. The experience was good, but they haven't returned. How can I do that? And a lot of you have less segmentation because we're always like don't discount prices. There is a time and place where discounting could revive dead grass. I am very likely to re engage if a discount is off to me.
- [37:13]
B
Absolutely, absolutely. Especially if you are on the fence and you were already looking and then someone you know are a place you know that you kind of liked gives you a discount. You're more. Bath and Body Works works on Heather. Bath and Body Works sales work on Heather.
- [37:26]
A
I'm sorry, Bath and Body Works sales through SMS work on Heather. The email thing is ridiculously too much. They have over watered.
- [37:33]
B
Yeah, yeah, over watered.
- [37:36]
A
So example, Paula's Choice, Steve Madden Bath and Body Works all have SMS and I hate that you can get. And I'm signing up for them to get the 10 off. Yes, that is me. Same Steve Madden was like we're gonna, we're gonna text you every morning at 7am we're gonna text you again at 8am like it's way too much for shoes.
- [37:53]
B
Like you have to think for a shoe. For custom cookies, Nair. Do we need to be the, the good morning wake up call for these clients?
- [38:01]
A
Right. So to I got my 10 off. Okay great. The exchange was made, you made your sale. But now I'm going to unsubscribe from their text. Bath and Buying works only text me when there's a big sale on candles or soaps which are two things that I bought. Yeah. So when they they if and I'm not sure bath and my work says this because their emails are ridiculous. But if they segmented they're like Heather buys candles and soaps only text her when she. When you have candle and soap sale. The likelihood of me going back which happened. Cory and I went to the candle sale. Yeah. Was exceptionally high. So that that CRM stuff that we keep referencing allows you to take every client. It actually you can integrate them in with Google Workspace which is Gmail for work and you can have it saved. Stephanie, when she emails me put it in this log of her name. So every time I've ever spoken to Stephanie create a timestamp log so I can reference it. Then within that CRM you can say she is a customs order client. She has kids, she orders in August, she ordered this year. Year now. Okay, it's a year later. I want to start, I want to start watering my lush grass. I want to see who I can get to return. I want to fertilize here. Who am I going to do? And then she can say okay, who ordered me from me two years ago and hasn't come back and she's going to add them to the re engagement acquisition funnel and run some aeration and that might include that discount which isn't going to touch her cost because she has her numbers.
- [39:21]
B
Yeah. If you have pre sale clients you're probably going to run a pre sale maybe every month or every other month depending if you're going with the big holiday. They could accept more emails from you because they are your pre sale clientele. We know that custom order people order one to two times a year on average. We're not going to over inundate them with hey, another pre sales here. And that's where that segmentation comes where we're watering differently because it's different people.
- [39:51]
A
Do you see that this is more work but you see that it's the shotgun approach versus the sniper. It is the weird cheap watering hose they gave me when I moved in versus now I have this one that I can put on a timer and it makes a little fan. I can make it high or low. That's a massive difference in my effort and water bill. One is like hey, it is effort, right? I'm blasting water everywhere and I was blasting. And then the other one is hyper focused effort. But that hyper focus effort needs different levels in different aspects of My lawn.
- [40:24]
B
Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of plants, I have this money tree that I've grown quite fond of over the years, but he was taking a 10 for the West.
- [40:34]
A
He took a turn for the worst,
- [40:35]
B
and he was dying. And I was kind of sad that my money tree was dying, but I was treating him like grass of the outside. I was actually putting him in direct sunlight because I said, the grass likes it. Of course my money tree will like it. No, he likes indirect natural light. So I was treating him like the grass outside, and it was.
- [40:52]
A
He didn't like your photograph. Geography, Indirect natural life. That.
- [40:55]
B
Yeah, that's what I thought.
- [40:56]
A
Has he made a.
- [40:57]
B
A turn?
- [40:57]
A
Has he taken.
- [40:58]
B
You'll never guess. We have five new leaf blooms on him, so he is doing better. I've repotted him, which he needed. He didn't need as much water as I thought he did. They said, let the ground get dry, girl. Let it get dry. And then he didn't need so much sunlight, so he needed, like, this is my cookie room. He's actually on the floor in here because it's the warmest place in the house. Do you want me to show you to him?
- [41:22]
A
Yeah. Also, I want you to take a picture and post it in the group and just saying podcast reference with no context. Oh, God, he looks so pretty. Oh, where's his little new blooms? They are actually. This is a new bloom. Oh, he's a little baby. He's a little baby. They grow pretty fast. How long have you had him?
- [41:40]
B
A couple years.
- [41:41]
A
Crazy. Interesting. Yeah. Anyways, landscaping turns out Corey's plant needed not what she was giving it. And Cory's frustrated, but it dies. Like, you can be like, no, this is fine. You'll, like, love this direct sunlight and you'll eat this water. But in reality, you got to cultivate it. And they all different aspects of your lawn need different cultivation. It does. It does. So ending with this point, which Cory and I are talking about, over watering is a real risk. Emailing too frequently, discounting too often, or pushing every offer drowns the root system. Audience tunes out or unsubscribes, which is me. And healthy growth needs rhythm, not flood. So my neighbors, if they were like, you know, okay, let's just. Just water endlessly. Like, that was what Heather's been doing for the last three months. We're just going to water. What's going to happen is that that water is going to run off because there's no grass to water. There's nothing to nurture. There's no roots. They have to have now such a bigger cost. Granted, it won't be water, but it's going to be topsoil, it's going to be fertilizer, it's going to be new seed, then it's going to be water, and then they're doing it in the hardest season, which jmuts the hot ones. Yeah.
- [42:49]
B
And that's what I see a lot with bakers when they're like, I'm posting every day. I don't understand what's wrong. It feels right that you're marketing your business every day, you're showing up for your business every day. But because you have let the ground grow dry, you've not engaged with your audience, you not created engaging content, you've not created a relationship with them. It feels like you're spinning your wheels and nothing's growing. And then that's because it's not. The people have checked out because you're always talking at them on your social media. You're always emailing them, saying, me, me, me. You're not doing resourceful things. You're not saying, hey, here's where a list of the fourth of July parades are, or here's a new business that's opening. You're never shouting anyone else out on social media. You're talking at them. And then you're like, but I'm posting every day. That's what we're supposed to do.
- [43:35]
A
You're blasting them with water. And it is work. And I'm not only discounting the effort that goes into it to. To making those posts and take. You're taking the photos, you're like, I'm doing this stuff.
- [43:44]
B
Yeah.
- [43:44]
A
But it has to be these different types of aspects that build into a funnel. So we'd have a wide net cast to get people into the funnel. Then we'd need to narrow that so the wide net is called top of funnel tofu, the middle of the net, which is like, okay, you saw my amsr video, my decorating video. Here's what's going on locally. I'm doing a. I'm doing the Main street main collab. That's going to be middle of funnel mofu.
- [44:08]
B
Yeah.
- [44:09]
A
And then from mofu, we're gonna say, hey, guys, I have a cookie class I'm teaching on Saturday. I'd love to invite you to. That's bottom of funnel bofu. Yeah. So we have to take them to the ofus to get them to germinate into that sale. Yeah. And if you're ever correlation to do funnels and Landscaping. But I think we did it.
- [44:25]
B
I think we did it. And I'm proud of you because Heather was like, pushing back on that. But I liked the idea that you water your funnel when you find that you're focusing on one part of your funnel more than the other. You can't just go ask for the sale for someone who's like, I just heard your name. You know, that doesn't make sense either. And if you stay top of the funnel and people are like, well, you never asked for my order. So I, I just thought you were bugged. That's not either. It's this cultivation where you spend enough time getting people moving them down. They're getting to know you, they're getting to like you. They see valuable content behind the scenes. It's if you see I posted the June cookie content calendar. It's free in the sugar cookie marketing group. And it just gives you prompts to get your ideas flowing. One is National Food Safety Day. That's a great way to show them how you as a home baker treat the orders with the utmost respect. Whether you use gloves, you use a hairnet, you have a HEPA filter. The baking sheets are only for cookies. You use your boss mixer only for that. That's a great way to build the relationship, the value of and schle people down your funnel to where they know.
- [45:29]
A
It'd be an interesting challenge for us to go through one of your content calendars and just label each day as top of funnel, middle of funnel, bottom of funnel, content.
- [45:35]
B
Oh, that's a great one. We went through the. The content calendar day for day yesterday in the cookie college. If you didn't know, on Monday mornings, we do a Monday morning roll call. And I just bring a topic that's been on my brain for the week in this one because. Because it's so much easier to grow your business via social media because it's a free entity. You know, it's not complicated like a website. It's not weird like a Google business profile, but it's where everyone starts. And a lot of people are on there. There was a reason behind each one. So I said, here's the value. Post of the week is National Food Safety Day. And then here's another one where it says, tag your best friend for National Best Friends Day. That's content about them. So you're not just talking at them. They're. You're talking now with them.
- [46:18]
A
I'd say the tag, the best friends is top of funnel, super broad. It's not expert, but it'll get people's attention. I would say the food safety is middle of funnel.
- [46:27]
B
Yeah.
- [46:28]
A
You're like, hey, here's why I'm a great person to buy from. And I would say, do you have any bottom up funnel called Actions?
- [46:34]
B
Yeah. So I posted today. Here's my ideas for Father's Day. It'll be this popcorn thing. I will only be making cassettes. That's going to be the bottom of funnel because I'm going to pop out six people that want the popcorn thing for Father's Day.
- [46:47]
A
So you guys make sense. So we have these funnels in terms of content types, but we also have the funnels in terms of the type of client that we have. A lush Stephanie who's order multiple times. And then that dormant person that came to that class five years ago and hasn't come back since. What are the odds I could get them to come back five years ago? That's rough. Three years ago. Maybe a last year. Higher propensity.
- [47:07]
B
Yeah.
- [47:08]
A
So you can kind of see this thing. So you. So you're doing the work. You're listening to a podcast on marketing. So we know that you're watering something. You wouldn't be here and being like, I'm not marketing. I hate marketing. Right. You're here and you're doing something. I think a lot of us stop at the blasting of that big. Yes. I know what to call them.
- [47:27]
B
The Lawn Blaster 5000.
- [47:29]
A
Oh yeah. They're called broadcast sprinklers. Anyways, shoot you in the back sprinklers. But what we need to do is get hyper focus. So now that I think I've got my sod to take, the root system has penetrated the ground below. Now I can start diagnosing. Well, this is on a top of a rock. I can tell. Yeah. This is in the sun 24 7. This has great shade. This is at the bottom of the hill. This is the top. And then we start creating strategies. You can do the exact same thing. Marketing. It does take a foundation to take us a system. I love systems because you can constantly tweak them. The system that Corey and I had when we first started cookie classes is much different than the system we have today. Because every time we're like, there's a gap in the system. Somebody's falling out of the funnel right here. We can patch that.
- [48:13]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [48:14]
A
The.
- [48:14]
B
The patch would be offering more classes because that's our biggest complaint. Like you guys fill up so fast with it.
- [48:21]
A
There you go. Fight for your seat. Or else. Just kidding.
- [48:27]
B
I want to commend you guys for showing up for your businesses and posting like you do. But when you can add a little strategy in the mix, you're going to see that that hard work is going to turn into sales. And, you know, while fun content is fun content, our goal is to get more sales, to get more custom orders. You know, that's, that, that's what's so crazy about business is a lot of us do this by ourselves. We're one person, two hands, 24 hours. So you get booked. So Stephanie, if she orders the next time, and I am booked, Stephanie's gonna find a new baker, and now you're gonna have to water Stephanie, and she's gonna work down your funnel till she pops out as an orderer or a repeat client. So it's never that if you've, not if you've done it wrong for the last year, that you're screwed. No, you can start today, and then you'll, you'll see that you, you're gonna have a new patch of clients, a new patch of grass, and you're like,
- [49:18]
A
oh, it feels so watered. It feels so, so nurtured.
- [49:20]
B
They like me. I like them.
- [49:22]
A
I agree. And it may feel if you're like me and the system wasn't invented in time and I've, like, fallen off of the system. I feel like, you know, like, ew, gross. Like, I don't want to do it because this is there. I have to. Like, I've wasted so much, but I'm like the system even today. And let me hit you with another quote. The best time to plant the tree was 30 years ago, but the second best time is today. So it's not the most ideal, but good gosh darn, you'll be so far ahead of the curve if you just start it today.
- [49:49]
B
Yeah, Abs, absolutely.
- [49:51]
A
I, that's so far ahead of the curb appeal. Let's just lean into the landscape.
- [49:56]
B
Yes, yes, that is good.
- [49:58]
A
That is good.
- [49:59]
B
No, but I, I, I appreciate it.
- [50:01]
A
The.
- [50:02]
B
A lot of times us bakers look over our shoulder at the baker down the road or the baker that end up in our feed, and we'll see that they're posting just a blase caption, and we're like, what, that's working for them? We don't know if it's working for them. And that's why you need to make sure that you focus on your content and you check your insights to see, wow, this content really hit this day, but this one, not so much. What did I do? Differently. Whether you made the. The question about them or you've just been selling, selling, selling, and you've seen a drop off of comments. I see a lot of bakers get that. That's so beautiful. That's so pretty. And they never comment back. One day they're going to look back and they're like. Like, all my comments are gone. I don't get comments anymore. And it's because you didn't water the people that were commenting.
- [50:44]
A
Yes, very much agree. You guys, contents. Go get your little gardening gloves and your hoe, as Corey likes to call. You know what I bought, and this might be my twin. I bought this tool that is used. Do you know when, like, you look at up somebody's lawn and the grass doesn't touch the sidewalk because it has that gulp.
- [51:04]
B
You did talk about this last week, but I know you have a bad
- [51:06]
A
memory, so you can go on. But I did. It looks great.
- [51:09]
B
Yeah.
- [51:10]
A
Yes. So what I was thinking is I'm going to create a design of they. In the houses. They just did, like us.
- [51:16]
B
Yeah.
- [51:17]
A
Rectangle, a little curl. Yeah. I don't like how they cut the lawn. Like somebody was cutting the edge. The edging of the little flower bed. And then they were like, oh, no, I'm too far out. And then they curved back into the last section. People. Come on, people. I'm psyching myself up for this.
- [51:37]
B
It'll be a hot one when you do it. Let me tell you.
- [51:39]
A
You know what? Maybe I'll do it at the end of the week in the rain. It'll be 60 degrees.
- [51:43]
B
There's got to be some law about don't do this in the rain.
- [51:45]
A
It'll make it collapse. There's so much landscape law out there. Like, you know, like, don't do this when the sun's up. Do it when the moon and the three stars. Orion's bells are.
- [51:56]
B
Isn't that what everything is to me? I'm like, just water it. Give it a little prayer and hope that it grows.
- [52:03]
A
One time Corey had. Somebody had scratched her car very deeply into the paint because they were moving furniture around it. And she hired a detailer. And he's like, I can get this completely. We've talked about this before. I can get this scratch completely gone. And two hours later, the dude gave it his best effort, but it definitely was visible. And he looks at us and he was like, you know, this is more of a 5ft away scratch. About 5ft away. You can't see it. And I think I'm fine. With a five foot away line, you know, about five feet away looks great. Yeah.
- [52:31]
B
And if you don't go around back, it looks amazing.
- [52:33]
A
The back isn't that bad. And I'm a five foot away girl. Like Megan doesn't need to be perfect. But five foot away, it looks pretty good. Moving on. I hope that Corey and I are actually. I've been talking to her a lot about this funnel building and this top of funnel, middle of funnel, bottom of funnel and the cultivation and segmentation. It's so. And I tell her this is a tremendous amount of work. Work. But once it's implemented. Oh yeah. The one thing I did write down what I wanted to add here is automation is an irrigation system. Yes. So I don't have an irrigation system. So I'm out there constantly moving this, these wavy sprinklers around, turning around. They're constantly getting wet all the time. Like all the time water is somehow seeping onto my legs. The. I'm going to come in and install an underground automated irrigation system is using automation to make this work for you. So what you do is when I take a Shopify order, let's say you use Shopify. Have Zapier send that email to a drip campaign in Flodesk for my new orders. Yeah, yeah. And it's going to tell them, hey, thank you for coming. Here's how to keep your cookies safe. Here's some tips and tricks. Here's how to best serve them, things like that. That is the automated irrigation system, which means I still have to cultivate, I still have to be on top of it. But a lot of this can happen in the background while I'm out there fertilizing the specific areas. Areas. Oh, then that's called, that's called scalability.
- [53:55]
B
Now you have your business working for you behind the scenes while you're out there getting new business. It feels less overwhelming because things are going while you're not there, which is amazing. It's, it's overwhelming. It's always the chicken or the egg. Should I grow my business? I have no time. So you're like maybe I shouldn't. But then maybe you hire someone to come and make the dough in the evenings. Now we're, we're talking scalability. Now we can grow. You have more time on your hands and that's what automation really does.
- [54:23]
A
Does. I think the argument for AI, unfortunately in the baking groups gets stunted by the photography, photo editing and maybe the caption writing this. AI. These AI agents are v. Have vastly more capabilities than where this conversation always gets stunted. You can download an app like cloud or you can use Gemini or you still use Chat, gopost something GPT go past.
- [54:48]
B
Yeah, grade point Tavern.
- [54:50]
A
Great point average. You can use those and have them write up your captions. Right. I think that's a limiting view of what these AI agents can automate for you. So I was looking into Claude and it has a desktop agent so it can access and you can grant it access to Google sheets. And now you can say, hey, AI automate order acquisition and this, make this, talk to this, make this organize like this. And you know, half the time it works, half the time it doesn't. I think it's getting better. I'm just saying let your mind open to what automation can help you with. I don't think you can pilot the ship yet, but no, in the background. Yeah.
- [55:24]
B
What's great is you get an order at like here's I have to take my son to the dentist tomorrow. But in my email, my I don't know if it's Apple software or whatever said we noticed that you have an appointment. Can we add it to your calendar? That's one step saved for my, for me. So now I don't have to go look back or be late date or be early or miss it all together because it's been automatically added to my calendar.
- [55:47]
A
Something I have is Eventbrite. When I add an event, put it on this Google Calendar that both Corey and I share and have it add a reminder like just a little thing. But now I know Corey's not going to schedule something on that Saturday. Yeah, my automation had failed and I scheduled something on the next Saturday and I said, why is this Saturday date August 11th like or July 11th? Why is it so apparent in my brain? But then I was like, that's the classic.
- [56:10]
B
Yes, that is the classic.
- [56:12]
A
Okay, moving on to roomie reviews. I've got one. Samantha says my win is that I've been printing cookie cutters and business card holders non stop for two days on the 3D printer. We have a cottage bakery and a dog treat company as well. So obviously they each needed their own. So she got, she's got one now that I was able to watch the boot camp videos. Thanks to Heather and Corey and Jonathan for the helpful post to get me started. So last two weeks ago ago we had our 3D printing boot camp. That's what I keep telling Corey. These boot camps, I want them to be bare bones. What's the minimum effort and money I need to get started for the maximum bang for my buck which is a printed cookie cutter. Yeah. That's what we're going to work on in our next boot camp which is Corey's kind of taking the lead on. And that's June 4th and 5th and it's how to record cookie videos. So that top of funnel content we were just talking about.
- [56:59]
B
Yeah. So not just the ASMR type which I know a lot of bakers like to just do that because. Because it does get clicks and views as people, you know, sit and watch. I know Sweet AMS has done it for a bazillion years, those kind of videos and it's really worked well for her. But there's other videos like behind the scenes A Day in the Life of me packaging an order. Me and Heather were talking about videos with text over them now perform well. So I tested it yesterday in the sugar cookie marketing group. Do you close your bakery in the summer or not? And it's got 49 comments on there. So that's, that's fantastic. And that's what you can incorporate in your business. So it's not just one type of video, it's a few different types and it's super beginner friendly. So this is just on a cell phone using natural light. I'll just show you a couple of different light sources if you want it, a couple different type of stands and then how to bring those into a software, edit it quickly and then you'll be on your way.
- [57:51]
A
Aquarius and she told me this yesterday. She's working on some like popular ideas, popular video ideas and how to record those. So you said like I'm going to teach them how to do a couple different, different content ideas.
- [58:03]
B
Yeah, the ones that, that I like to, whether it be panning over a set that I've completed, putting a bunch of photos because we all have a ton of photos into a pre done template so that my photos can be turned into videos and give me a little Runway to begin with so I'm not just like, well I have no videos to use.
- [58:21]
A
I love that. So that Bootcamp is June 4th and 5th. You can sign up today at TheCookieCollege.com Bootcamp5. You can go to the CookieCollege.com get links for that. You can sign up today and you'll get access on June 4th and 5th but if you can't, somebody emailed me yesterday said hey, I took the, I signed up for the 3D printing bootcamp but lifelifed and I wasn't able to access It. Can I still access it? Absolutely. If you sign up, you have access to it as long as the product is supported. Now, the only thing about that 3D printing bootcamp is there's some promo codes that do expire. So definitely sign up now before May 31st and you get a week of cookie design lab for free. So the bootcamp. Maybe Corey can see if she can get us a promo code. I know you've always tried it with Shop Canvas and they never reply.
- [59:02]
B
They never have replied.
- [59:04]
A
So we'll try our best to get some bonus stuff for those bootcamps. So in June, we have how to record cookie videos. July, we have crafting community groups. A little bit of a more broad strokes marketing approach, but it will have a specific strategy in it. We chose July. It's the slowest month for bakers because most of them are out of town and their clients are out of town. So if you start watering the lawn of community groups. Yeah. In July. Talk about the lush landscape you'll have in our super bowl season of September through December. I know.
- [59:33]
B
Yeah, I agree.
- [59:34]
A
If you're a new baker and you want to cut the crud out of having to play catch up, sign up for the community group cookie college boot camps Odyssey. Because you can get a lot of Runway really quickly by using community groups and doubling it, layering it on top of the super bowl season of September through December for bakers. That's when bakers sell the most product. It would be hard to be a new baker in January.
- [60:00]
B
It would be hard. You'd get your sea legs under you pretty fast.
- [60:04]
A
Yeah. But if you want the easy, breezy, fast pass of success, start. Start with the community group bootcamp and then join it up to really cranking out orders in December. In August, we're doing designing sets in Procreate, which a lot of bakers actually don't design sets. And I am all there with you. Cord isn't either, but if you wanted to add it to your highest tier or add that little differentiator. Procreate has got some pretty cool tools. And if you're artistic in any capacity, which I am not, sky's the limit for you. Yeah, sky's the limit because I'm not artistic. I can show you some hacks and shortcuts.
- [60:39]
B
You know, it's so funny is I have this repeat client. It was so funny. I baked for her wedding shower. Then I baked for her wedding, and now her child is having its first birthday.
- [60:49]
A
Say so Icy's life.
- [60:53]
B
Yeah, she's like, she's like you've grown up with me. What's funny is she knows I don't do any of those pre done designs through procreate.
- [61:00]
A
But she said, hey Corey, I was
- [61:02]
B
actually sitting in the library and didn't
- [61:03]
A
have anything to do.
- [61:04]
B
So I designed some ideas for you. Feel free to use them or don't
- [61:08]
A
use it, but it's.
- [61:09]
B
It's like what a cookie would make for a client.
- [61:11]
A
I said, you're fired. Next boot camp. Teaching your clients how to work for you. Just kidding. Retire if I could tell you how to do that. So that is our boot camp camps. The boot camps are specific two to three day workshop intensive, marketing intensive. That focus on a very specific thing. It was our new 2026 thing. I'm really happy with how they're going. If you liked the past boot camps and you weren't able to sign up, you can still purchase those. The, the message there, they still work. We have in person cookie classes. Food, photography, Pre sales and 3D printing cutters are the ones that we've already passed. Moving on to the gossip column. I have some gossip.
- [61:48]
B
Yes.
- [61:48]
A
I actually have a vent and nobody submitted so I am taking the microphone to. Today I saw in a local community group that was kind of near where I lived, a lady said her son, first grader was looking to speak to a race car driver and engineer.
- [62:03]
B
Race car driver.
- [62:05]
A
None of those things. But I said, hey, listen, it's a first grader. I said, second grade questions I might not be able to take, but a first grade I think I could do. I have these things like hold up five and hold up five. How many is that? 10. Now make a V. That's a V. 10. Like heather. Like Heather was prepped to be this kid's superhero. Yeah. Because when I was in first grade, my uncle took me out in a car and showed me what it was, a prindle. But like he showed me what each gear did. Do you know what prindle means?
- [62:33]
B
It's from the archaic times of driving.
- [62:37]
A
It's just automatic. So.
- [62:38]
B
And it's automatic. That's what I was gonna say.
- [62:40]
A
But I was like, wow, that's. So I said I could be this guy, this kid's uncle Mark. Like I could. So I messaged her and I was like, hey, I'd be happy to actually drive that, that antique sports car down there. You can get some photos in it. We can pop open the hood which opens backwards. So it's always fascinating to kids kind of do it. And she's like, oh, it's so great. Like my kids needs this planets to align on Tuesday at 4:40 in an hour from my house. Which is fine.
- [63:05]
B
Heather was going one. If you don't know, Heather has no children. So Heather going out of her way and she's moved to West Virginia. So Heather's putting herself out of the way. And Heather got the car fixes. Actually was in the shop. And Heather detailed the car was in the shop.
- [63:19]
A
And I say to these grown men, I need the vehicle back. I have an appointment on Tuesday. Not telling him it's a first grader but like give me the car back. It costs thousands of dollars to fix as it does. And then I spend all Sunday detailing because it was disgusting because the shop had left it outside for three weeks. Yeah. So like Heather was gonna give this
- [63:37]
B
kid this little first grader. Like it was gonna alter this kid's should.
- [63:41]
A
You should take photos for them at the night camp.
- [63:46]
B
This kid's life trajectory was going to change today.
- [63:49]
A
She was going to join the Dodge lifecrew factory that had school. So I was like, I tell her as one who is on top of their schedule. I said, awesome, let's meet at this specific parking lot at the mall. I'm not trying to kill anybody. Right. So it's safe. Yeah. At 4:40 because she had to get her kid and do all this thing. And I said, I'll message you on Tuesday the 19th in the morning, make sure we're still on target. And all the all last night I said this doesn't work out.
- [64:14]
B
Yeah.
- [64:14]
A
But it looked down. She said like I could be there at 4:35 or 4:40. Like that's a very specific time. That strikes me as somebody who's on top of their schedule.
- [64:22]
B
Yes. Been there cook years. Do understand what this this turns out to be.
- [64:27]
A
Sorry. Send her at 7:02 because I woke up at 7. I sent her a message saying, hey Carolyn, just making sure we're still on target for today at 4:40 at the dick Sporting good parking lot at this specific office. Buy her house. Not by mine.
- [64:41]
B
Yeah.
- [64:42]
A
And she was like, oh man, I was just gonna message you. When anybody says I was just gonna message you. You weren't because you didn't because I messaged you first. Yeah, I was just gonna message you. We've had an electrical issue and we have the guy coming and his window is today, this afternoon. So I'm gonna have to cancel. Are you free this weekend or next week?
- [65:00]
B
Wild work.
- [65:03]
A
And then backspaced it.
- [65:07]
B
Continue with your story.
- [65:08]
A
We're waiting, baby. Brad, he's meowing like death. And so I, I was met with the issue and maybe someone can text into the podcast and let me know how you'd handle this. I think when somebody does that stuff, they shouldn't be held accountable for that. I think that you shouldn't get off scot free. Like, you shouldn't be like, oh, me? Like, oh, yeah, okay, let's meet next week. Like, I'm not going to be here next week. So no, but I also want to say, like, come on.
- [65:34]
B
Wild work.
- [65:35]
A
Yeah. And so I back. I did talk about wild work, but I backstory stuff. And then I said, hey, I had pushed a shop to get a massive break work done and I did detail it on Sunday, but no, I'm not. I'm not available next week. Take care. And then she writes back like, listen, if I don't get this done, the house burns out. Like, essentially, like. And she's like, I'm sorry, but, like, this is more important. Like, I'm like, you asked. Asked me. Yeah, you asked me. I did you.
- [66:02]
B
That's why they say no good deed goes unpunished. I told Heather one time I was trying to grow the cake pop side of my business, so I did a giveaway of six cake pops. This lady reaches out. I just need. I. I would love the six, but I just need six more. I'm willing to pay for the six. Okay. The thing is, the cake pops were made, but like, she's having a party. So I said, no sweat, I'll make the six. Okay. The day comes and I said, are you ready to pick up? And she's like, friend, I'm so sorry, I've got to cancel. Life is lifing.
- [66:32]
A
What does that mean? My life is also lifing. July 1, you can take prepayment in Virginia. Isn't that.
- [66:39]
B
I know, I know. Fantastic. I. But I want to say. And we'll have to do a podcast on this. The value of free is zero.
- [66:48]
A
Corey. Corey will take us to a great. We. Cory and I are talking about this while we're playing today's podcast. When somebody has no skin in the game, they also have not to lose. Right. So we. That works on the both that I have. I didn't pay. They didn't pay me to show up with my car.
- [67:02]
B
Yeah.
- [67:03]
A
To. To. For her to not say, hey, well, I'm canceling. She doesn't risk anything much.
- [67:08]
B
She never loses anything. Heather, did Heather go above and beyond more than she should have? Absolutely. But she Was also doing a favor for this lady to get her kid to see the car. I don't know. I think cookieing has made me have some PTSD around the value of free because I like to free things, you know, giveaways. Because it gets people in my funnel. Like people who haven't tasted the cookies could then now taste them. Especially because a lot of people who order the cookies don't ever taste the cookies themselves. They end up bringing it to an event or something. But when I try to do something for free, either the people don't show up. They have a million excuses. But even If I charge $5 or a custom dozen, $78, they have skin in the game. They are more apt to show up because they are losing something when they. They don't their money.
- [67:58]
A
Yeah, but when. But otherwise you're losing my respect. I. I ended up, you know, when the lady was like, my house burns down if I see your car. Like, what I want to say is like, your son's life doesn't change this afternoon. Yes. Like this could have been a big thing for him. You had access. I was driving out this old car. I was going to take the nice photos. Like you get none of that. But what's the point? She was just going to dig her heels deeper in the fact that I was rooting for a house to run down. I know. Know. So say you have an appointment schedule, which means you knew that this appointment was scheduled a couple days ago. You just forgot to message me because you don't have to take it personally. I'll never forget. That's my doomsday. That's my goss frustrate. That is.
- [68:39]
B
It is frustrating. It is been there. I have been there and I done that. And I always have a leering towards doing the free stuff to go out of my way for someone because. Because it has burned me so many times. And Heather's like, but why does it have to burn the nice people? Because then they won't be nice. And that, my friends, is the question.
- [68:58]
A
Corey and I decent amount of times get food comped at restaurants. And you might say it's because you guys are dressed up. No, no. We look like death warmed over. Yeah, I look like my dry patches of lawn skin is flaking off my face. But it's the being so thankful for a small inch that. That felt so good to that person that they give you a mile because they want to see how thankful you're going to be towards them because it
- [69:25]
B
makes them feel good when they are seen Heard, understood, and acknowledged. So even if they give us, like, a free appetizer, I'm like, this is the best thing I've ever tasted in my life. Even if the free appetizer isn't necessarily the something I love, you're gonna think that I want to be buried in it because I'm so thankful you've thought of me.
- [69:44]
A
Oh, very interesting. Coming up with the upcoming events, the Main Street May cookie collab is this week. It's actually on Friday. You should have already gotten your first set of reminder in meals. We did.
- [69:54]
B
We did. It stressed me out. It stressed me out.
- [69:56]
A
Yeah. Cory will not be going to Bourbon and Fig with me. She has waited to the last minute. She'll be going by herself, like a rudely. I know. I'm so sorry. We were here today. Turns out their clothes are. They are close.
- [70:06]
B
But I have my base layer ready.
- [70:08]
A
Okay. Really waiting to the end here. I know. But, June, the Meet the Baker collab is one of the best collabs because it's the easiest one. You're just going to take a photo of yourself holding a cookie. No AI generated stuff. Just go out there, you have a cookie on your table. Go take the photo with it. Yeah.
- [70:23]
B
We're going with authenticity here. So authenticity. No sparkle. Dress by chat.
- [70:28]
A
GPT.
- [70:28]
B
This time, we're gonna just be in our. In our elements in our kitchen.
- [70:33]
A
Yeah. The more authentic you are here, the better your results will be in terms of engagement. People love to see your face. They do, right? Even if you don't like I'm. I'm. I hate my selfies. I hate the way I look at them. I'm a five foot away type of face, so. But people like your face. In July, we're coming up with a collab topic. If you guys would like to see something that we haven't done before, let me know. Otherwise, I'll pick something from our Rolodex, our rolly.
- [70:59]
B
We've done some new ones this year that I've thought we were really good. Someone brought up their favorite one because I asked them if they ever did one, and they said that we did that blind pumpkin decorating challenge. That was our real challenge.
- [71:10]
A
We did.
- [71:10]
B
And you had to film yourself trying to decorate it. That was a great one.
- [71:14]
A
It was so funny to see people decorate with ice.
- [71:17]
B
And then someone else brought one. Remember when we did that big pumpkin hype of pumpkin? We did the pumpkin patch one where you took everyone's pumpkin and put it one patch.
- [71:26]
A
That was harder on my end than I thought the collage. It was hundreds of people hadn't partaken. Yeah. And I had to remove the background and hundreds of photos and put them in a patch. I shouldn't post that photo again. I still have it.
- [71:38]
B
That was. That was a good one. Honestly, AI could have helped you.
- [71:41]
A
You're like, hey, we could do that
- [71:43]
B
a flower version for like July.
- [71:46]
A
Uhhuh.
- [71:47]
B
Should we do something like America is turning 250?
- [71:50]
A
No, because the collabs are always on the second to last Friday so it be long after the fourth. I see, I see, I see. Also anything's r in the fourth. You and I have learned people don't attend. But I don't think anyone's going to
- [72:03]
B
attend the July one. Regardless of what you do to pick,
- [72:07]
A
people aren't attending the collabs. So when we stop doing them, you guys ask where the collabs are. So then we do them and then you guys stop attending them. A lot of great reasons why you can't att attend them. Yeah, let me know.
- [72:16]
B
Because this is dress that I act because I don't get the chance to not be a part of the collab because like I need the photos.
- [72:23]
A
Come on, man. They're good. They're a great excuse. Different. It's a great excuse.
- [72:27]
B
But I. I will say that if I see fewer and fewer people attending, I shall pull the plug and do my own collabs on my own time.
- [72:34]
A
You're not going to make me cry, girl. It's a lot of setup. I do all the copy, all the writing, all the inspo photos, all the remaining reminders. You do, you do.
- [72:41]
B
So guys, if you want them, show up to them because I do not mind pulling the plug upon this.
- [72:46]
A
Don't pull a. My first grader wants to see your car. Oh lol jk because it's gonna cost you. And yes, I did block that lady. Good before you guys think that my message is like, hey, I'm putting on you that my car needed a break job. I said I did rush people and then I used a crying emoji. The long crying tears. So it did.
- [73:04]
B
So yeah, I say you're putting me in a bad position here, my friend.
- [73:09]
A
I'm just gonna hate you for the rest your of upcoming events. The cookie con frappy hour. It's actually a happy hour at a coffee shop by Heather Campbell Berkshire. Maybe Kim de Mil Sims. I think she'll go is in five weeks on June 24th. You can find all the details and every week Heather Campbell Brookshire you have to say all three names. Then she summons to plan your Disney trip is posting a tip and trick about both going to Disney Disney Springs and Cookie Cutter Con within this happy hour. So if you're thinking about Cookie Con, or maybe you're just doing the shopping pass and turning it into a Disney trip, swing by her. She's also in the groups, but swing by she is. She has a monorail dress. And if that doesn't convince you to get your Disney trip planned, I don't know what will. I know. Yeah.
- [73:52]
B
Disney trip planners are worth their weight in gold. And Disney pays them, so they're even freer than gold.
- [73:58]
A
How many weeks away do you think the venue is?
- [74:01]
B
25.
- [74:02]
A
Life? 22.
- [74:04]
B
Oh.
- [74:04]
A
Getting into the teens.
- [74:06]
B
No, I'm not ready.
- [74:10]
A
Last year's was pretty good. I ran. I met Ms. Cookie Packaging at what's Popping Con.
- [74:16]
B
Yeah.
- [74:16]
A
And I asked her, like, what do you think? Her and her assistant were there. And I said, what do you guys think of the door prizes? And I said, because I'm giving more chances with a lesser prize than one giant prize where I only have one chance. And they agree.
- [74:29]
B
We met labeling at what's Poppin Con? And we're like, sorry, for your first year of vending Blendy, you were baptized by fire. And she said it was insane, but I appreciate it and I will be back.
- [74:37]
A
I like to tell people, the person who emails you as a vendor for the Vendy Bundy isn't me. It's only me for that one month and that one day.
- [74:47]
B
It's her after you canceled on her and her first grader to see her cats.
- [74:52]
A
Here, Come on, come on, come on. Give it a show. Upcoming holidays. Graduation is different for a lot of different school system, but that's in three weeks. For. For us, the last day of school's in four weeks. But Corey's son's last day of school is Friday. Yeah. Father's Day is in five weeks. Summerween is in six weeks. We're going to see if that takes us here. It's going to be our cookie class kit as well. And the fourth of July is in only seven weeks.
- [75:15]
B
I want to say Summerween starts, but it continues all of July from my research shows. And I've been in the Halloween everything. So it does continue all of July.
- [75:25]
A
Sorry, it is July 27th. So it's at the end of the July.
- [75:29]
B
It starts technically, I want to say June 25, and it runs through all of July.
- [75:35]
A
It's a very weird made up holiday, but I'm here for it.
- [75:38]
B
Yeah, it goes with some of the
- [75:39]
A
Zodiac something the stars Planet worshipping. Okay, sponsors. I'm sorry. Text in sponsor is Cookie Design Lab. That's the software that if you sign up for bootcamp, you get a week trial. But if you don't want to sign up for the bootcamp, you can use Code twins to get 15% off. Cool little software right there. Very easy. Bust out any cutter Corey uses all the time, which says a lot. And that's Cookie DesignLive.com we have one text from Albany, New York. It is our girl Debbie from and she I keep saying Albany. She said it's Albany. Albany, Albany. Thank you D. I'll never say it wrong again. She said, ladies, just listen to the podcast on May 12th. Please don't disparage your podcast. You don't understand what a lifeline it is to us lonely beggars out here in our kitchens while you think you're repeating topics ad nauseam. We are grateful for the repetition to drive home the facts fully. Trul you present the same topic in a different way, in a different spin. Because months later the world has changed. Tech has changed. I've registered. I've listened to older episodes on topics I like and I can tell they're outdated tech. So I don't worry about repeating the topics. I don't worry about repeating the topics. I'm always grateful to hear about process strategy, pricing, imposter syndrome, putting yourself out there, et cetera. Keep the repetition coming, please, and maybe all of your advice will one day stick. Laughing, crying, emoji. Oh that's so nice. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and lines with us. I really find compandre and friendship in your podcast. Podcast. Thank you for all you're do.
- [77:01]
B
That's so sweet of you to say.
- [77:03]
A
We kind of needed that. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you.
- [77:05]
B
The it's just hard to show up each week and feel like we're saying the same words because I'm like is this wasting people's time? But Deb, you said we're not wasting people's time, so we shall continue.
- [77:15]
A
Five years it is. Sign me up another five years of landscaping term. I will be emailing you for the the 10 or 12 people who signed up to be interviewed. I'll be emailing you you this week. Finding some Tuesdays that work for you guys, even if we have to pre record them to fit in your schedules. I think that'll be a nice little twist.
- [77:34]
B
I'm holding your feet to the fire question girl.
- [77:37]
A
My feet are glued to the fire fire feet. You. Those people sell pictures of us. We don't have to our sponsors. And without the sponsors there is no podcast. It's cookie design lab. Code twins is 15% off. Bakey Bake is the meringue powder of your dreams Cook code twins is 10 off. Daisy makes code twins gets you 10 off. That is the cake pop mold. She dropped a cake pop mold and everyone sold her out. So whatever it is now it made me want it And I don't know how to make the cake pop.
- [78:05]
B
I did read she had an update and she said her express speed shipping is going from one to two days because so her business has grown to two to three days now as they look for people to come on and work. That will change change in the future. But you she made a post about that.
- [78:22]
A
That girl runs a business.
- [78:24]
B
I don't think she. I think she runs on caffeine and zero sleep.
- [78:27]
A
Yeah but she hosted what's Poppin Con. We get a meet her once a year and then she'll also be in the Fenny Bundy. I got a verbal confirmation.
- [78:35]
B
Oh good, good, good.
- [78:36]
A
Primera Eddie. The edible food printer. I've seen more Freddy posts but Freddie is their direct to frosting machine. So it's automated frosting. And talk about automation. But Eddie is. If you're wondering between the two machines definitely start with Eddie because Corey's going to be Aren't you using him for this collab?
- [78:53]
B
Yes.
- [78:55]
A
Eddie allows really fast turnaround. It's a very specific thing. It prints on cookies with edible ink. But wow. Does it open up possibilities for patterns. If you're really big into piping and you think that well is that taking the artistry it's allowing you to cut out the error brush.
- [79:10]
B
What's so funny? Someone said I have probably a thousand dollars worth worth of stencils because stenciling was the only way to get a pattern back in the day. Unless you were hand piping it wet on wet kind of thing. So because Eddie has entered the chat it really honestly I don't remember the last time I opened my airbrush and I cannot tell you the last time
- [79:27]
A
I put the system airbrushes before Eddie
- [79:30]
B
was ever in front. Yeah because to clean that they clog. I don't like Eddie. May I die with him in my arms.
- [79:37]
A
We'll bury you with Eddie. And then last one code sugar cookies on the Bosch or Nutrimil website gets 20 bucks or W. What if we for and I'm Saying this in public. What if we give away an artiste mixer at the cookie boot camp? The cookie videos boot camp.
- [79:55]
B
I will ponder it. We'll see how many signups we get. If we can get to the signups that I want, how many signups do we need? We have to get 25 videographer to
- [80:04]
A
be people to sign up. So if you remember the cookie college, you don't count because you get the bootcamp included. But if you're considering the cookie college and we can get 25 of you, which we only need. Not 25, we have people already pre ordered for it. Then you have a chance at winning a nutrimil or T stain mixer. Yeah. And I use my words. Okay. I'll keep a running tally in the group so you guys know. There you go.
- [80:26]
B
There you go. A countdown to 25.
- [80:29]
A
Countdown to 25. Corey, do you have a twin trist?
- [80:33]
B
Well, Well, I, you know, I thought my life is pretty boring, but I appreciate my boring language life. I don't think I've purchased anything new. I've just continued walking. That is literally all I got is
- [80:48]
A
kind of just consistency. I do like pushing my limits a bit. You only live once a little bit. YOLO.
- [80:55]
B
I had a chaotic early 20s, so I. I crave the boringness. I did go on a walk today. I will have to use my jacket, my bug jacket that I told you guys about my remember because the bugs are out. So I will use that, test it
- [81:13]
A
out, let you know about it. Thank you so much. My twin dress is not a great one. My cat Munch got into some turkey deadly meat. My bad. He seemed to really want it.
- [81:26]
B
What's so funny? Why do you think turkey deli meat is bad?
- [81:30]
A
He immediately threw it up.
- [81:32]
B
Okay, it could be like unsettling for his stomach. But he had it wet for 0.2 seconds.
- [81:36]
A
Hands maybe Possibly that reckless owner thought it was just a nervous upset tummy and not a result of the turkey cutlets because he seemed so excited by him. And I kept feeding it for maybe three or four days, Pinterest optional. I was on a plate, right. So he went. I was like, well if it's hurt your stomach, you're not going to eat it. But he kept eating it. Then I realized he was throwing up every time.
- [81:55]
B
Oh, maybe an allergy.
- [81:57]
A
Maybe. But they said that turkey deli meats full of nitrates. Especially if you got it from the tear open package. Of course that's what I got it from. Like you know, turkey hill or whatever.
- [82:05]
B
Yeah.
- [82:06]
A
So then what I believe has happened is it's created an ulcer or some issue in his mouth. So he keeps. Like if some. Like if a human had dry mouth. He keeps.
- [82:17]
B
Yeah.
- [82:17]
A
And he seems to have an aversion to hard food. So something's going on in his mouth. He's. And then this morning, and I hate to say it, and I know that an animal drooling is always interesting, but I saw a little bit of water. Maybe he'd drink something. But when we have a doctor's appointment tomorrow. Tomorrow. I cannot catch a break.
- [82:32]
B
I know bulldogs grow all the time. If it makes you feel better.
- [82:35]
A
Yeah. You know what? I don't think the kitty bitties were supposed to. So I am going to take him and tomorrow. And I think it'll be. I'm gonna put my money that'll definitely be spent for sure on mouth ulcer or something on the. On that caveat, though. I also got the kitten at the same time that started. I thought that turkey would be a treat. So he wasn't jealous of the kids. Yeah. He has been biting the kitten. They wrestle and he bites his fur. The fur is in his mouth. So I'm like, is. Is it here in his mouth? Could be stomach ulcer. Is there a dental issue? I'll tell you more tomorrow when I'm less. Have less. What time?
- [83:10]
B
Just so I know when to text you.
- [83:12]
A
11. Oh, 11. 11. Our cousins used to say 11 and 7. So we.
- [83:17]
B
Yeah, we always say that. Yeah. I hope Mr. Munch is not doing bad. I hope it's just an easy fix.
- [83:25]
A
You know, I had Googled, obviously, endlessly. They were like, is he active? Yeah, he's still chasing. He does seem thin, but he was already thin.
- [83:35]
B
He's little himself.
- [83:36]
A
Yeah, yeah. It's just that mouth tapping thing. Clicking thing it has.
- [83:41]
B
Eating stuff.
- [83:43]
A
Yeah. But not hard food like he did before. So that's why I believe it's like a mouth. It could be a tooth issue.
- [83:48]
B
Do you remember when Phoebe rack one
- [83:50]
A
two with us, I did stick my whole hand in his mouth and I don't see any rotting gum lines. So it's going to be a vet checkup. No. Yeah. I think they say it's residual nausea. Shabil. Nausea something. And he might say. Is he still drinking water? Yeah, I watched him drink water. So we're getting water. We're still eating treats that are liquid. He's. He's playing with the hard food because I've set it up in a way that I know if he's eaten it and he's eaten something, but that's as far. It's almost like, okay, like when you. He wants me, but when I get it right up to his face because I've been wiping it on his gum, like, it's like, yeah. Can't bring himself to eat it. So that's what I'm thinking. It's either nausea or some kind of mouth sore.
- [84:32]
B
Are they saying nausea is caused by turkey?
- [84:35]
A
Yes, they say that cats are so small, their bodies are so small that nausea is, like, really bad once it starts. It's hard for them to get around it because they just are put off. Interesting. Yeah. Anything that's high in whatever a nitrate is can create stomach upset, which creates the throwing up, which creates the acidity, which creates this aversion to food because they don't throw up again.
- [84:56]
B
Ray has turned 10, and I don't
- [84:58]
A
remember the last meal I've eaten by myself.
- [85:01]
B
Anything I eat.
- [85:02]
A
Yeah. Dogs are just like, I'll eat my own poop. The cats are like, did you think about these? It's cost me a little fortune. And going to the grocery store and buying and stuff. Yeah. The little new cat eats raw food, which is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. He eats raw hamburger meat. That was when they breed it. Whatever, guys, listen. I'm just trying to keep these things old lot my twin select, though. I've been. I've had this thought that a lot of our weird behaviors are coming from a place of fear. Yes. Right. So the brain is saying, I don't want to be afraid, so let's be weird to kind of make myself not be scared.
- [85:38]
B
It seems weird outwardly to people looking in. It seems normal to the person protecting the fear.
- [85:43]
A
To give the brain to see itself as weird is hard because the brain's like, this isn't weird. This is how this is protecting me. So I've been writing down my fear. So, like, this car was having an issue. They never ordered the part this and then the other. And I was like, automatically tell my mood it's soured. So I was like, well, then write down what are my fears here? Well, I don't get the car back. Okay. Do I never get the car back? No, I get. I'll get the car back. Well, I have this trip planned. You save money if you don't come.
- [86:10]
B
Yeah.
- [86:11]
A
And I was like, well, then it also. All that. All that angst is just trying to create a fence where none was needed.
- [86:18]
B
It's because we're so overly protective about our pain points that we try to protect them and it turns us to
- [86:25]
A
be weird because you're like, why are
- [86:28]
B
you acting like that? Because I don't want to get my feelings hurt. Right.
- [86:32]
A
So then we create almost the fear creates the environment. And I'm not whether I'm manifesting or. I do agree that if you have target fixation on a motorcycle, if you look at something you don't want to hit your body cat like. Like microscopically adjust to heads toward that thing.
- [86:47]
B
Yeah.
- [86:47]
A
And people are like, how did I hit this? I was trying not to. And they're like, you did. You focused on it. You focused on it and you didn't realize your body adjusted for it. So had I gone to the mechanic shop with this attitude of like, I'm never getting the car back, it would have put us at a lot of at odds with each other. And guess what happened when I wrote down my fear and then the reality behind that. They called and said, oh, the car's ready. And I was like, all that for nothing. Like, all my angst in my head. No Benefit. Benefit. What's so funny?
- [87:12]
B
I think I saw a TikTok and this guy and he's like dancing in the street and he's like, you'll never believe, but everything I've worried about has 100% turned out for my benefit. Like, so he's like, he's trained himself. If I worry, it still works out. But honestly, if he didn't worry, it was going to work out regardless how it was.
- [87:28]
A
Like, even with much. I'm like, I'm like. I'm like, there's. They have a vet appointment at 11. They've already contacted the old vet and got his paperwork. Like, there's nothing more I can do. So there's nothing more to worry about. He's not. Not. He's not lethargic. He just begged to go outside garage.
- [87:42]
B
Yeah.
- [87:42]
A
So like. But my brain is like, oh, let's mourn his death right now. Like, that's. We've seen you leave the podcast twice. We. We are still there. So that's what I've been doing is I bought. I went to the Walmart paper aisle and got a spiral mount notebook. And I just said every day, if I write down what my fears are and then I write down what in reality is, it really kind of gets you. Like, that's a weird thought that you are worried about. Cart has hated to see you coming.
- [88:08]
B
I think we've got a spike in
- [88:10]
A
sales in West Virginia. I think you go there for funsies. I've never seen just to meander. I do not ever touch a rolling cart. I hate rolling carts. I hate them getting them. I hate having to wipe them down because I'm a gerber fill. I hate taking them back to the cart and having to find a cart return.
- [88:27]
B
So it's whatever's in your hand.
- [88:29]
A
Yeah. So when I bring a tote, those like foldable tape totes, I only buy what can fit in there and the rest of Walmart is right there when I need it the next time it's my storage unit. I only have to pay when I take it out.
- [88:40]
B
But you're there all the time.
- [88:43]
A
It is one light up for me. Yes, but I.
- [88:45]
B
You're just going to go.
- [88:47]
A
Sometimes I'm just like, what do you got going now? I'm starting to learn this. Walmart's kind of like, you know, each every little building has an ecosystem. Yeah, I'm starting to learn the Walmart. Like when people are working and what.
- [88:59]
B
That's what Heather was at Wegmans to what she is at Walmart now where she was so much at Wegmans. People ask like, hey, do you work here? I see you here all the time. Someone said, you're off today.
- [89:08]
A
And I was like, y today just shopping like a normal bird. The reason why I think it's my definitely Wegmans. I hated the guy I was dating at the time and it was like my place to get away from him. Wegmans is the grocery store as your safe space. Maybe we consider the release too.
- [89:25]
B
So what are you escaping right now at Walmart?
- [89:27]
A
Cats. At least you know.
- [89:32]
B
All right guys, we're heading on out. Go water your grass. Go water your clients. Feed the cats, don't feed them Tacky.
- [89:40]
A
Yeah, please don't.