← Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪
Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪
265. Baking it Down - Cookier Interview: Sharon with Fabuela Q Cookies
01:51:08
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- [00:02]
A
Okay, guys, this is the beginning of the podcast but we've recorded it after we've recorded the middle of the podcast. So welcome to podcast inception. The reason why we had our first guest speaker, Sharon, she's from Texas and she has a very, very, very funny story. So you didn't want to listen to the rest of the podcast to get that?
- [00:22]
B
Sharon's been with us. She's been in the college since 2024, but she is a baker who, who has a full time day job where she goes into it nine to five but she makes her work after hours and she had a giant order she's going to talk about. You're going to love to hear it. And then a Mustang in a bedroom. That's all I'm gonna say.
- [00:41]
A
I'm saying bedroom, giant order. So let's go back. We're gonna do the intro to the podcast and then we're also going to film the outro to the podcast. It's confusing. It's our first one. It is together. This is what you guys wanted. You wanted this. All right. We are the sugar cookie marketing group on Facebook. You can find us on our website sugarcookiemarketing.com My Soul Tree Voice. Compliments of some cold I picked up at the beach.
- [01:04]
B
Nice. Keep it. I like it. I can understand you.
- [01:06]
A
My sultry cold from the beach. The beach. Thanks for everyone who wished us well in our cocktail and shrimp consumption. It was high. All time high. It was delicious.
- [01:19]
B
If you don't know, we are a from a group on Facebook. It's called the sugar cookie marketing Facebook group. Highly recommend joining. We actually have prompts like what's the best seller thread especially you know, July 4th coming in the 250th anniversary to see what people are doing. We've never had that holiday before before. You can also have people have discussions, customer service related. You can see bits and pieces from the podcast and then you can see like what's going on in the industry. What's new forums app just came out. We made a post about that. So that if you are.
- [01:51]
A
Did you download it?
- [01:52]
B
I did. I did download it.
- [01:54]
A
I didn't get an option to download it yet. Android's still there in the.
- [01:57]
B
Oh, I'm so sorry.
- [01:59]
A
So sorry. So yeah, join us in that Facebook group. Join us on our Facebook page. The TikTok, the Instagrams.
- [02:08]
B
Do you have a quote for us?
- [02:11]
A
You do? Yes, as a matter of fact. It's good to learn from your mistakes. It's better to learn from other people's. Mistakes. Warren Buffett.
- [02:19]
B
And I mean, you're gonna learn. Don't hit the. The gas pedal from Sharon.
- [02:24]
A
It's quite tempting with this. So right now, on the count of three, I'm going to take the Sharon section. Put it in here.
- [02:32]
B
Okay.
- [02:33]
A
Corey and I are going to boop out, and then we'll be back.
- [02:36]
B
We'll boop back in.
- [02:37]
A
Boop back in. So 1, 2, 3. Here, Sharon, Corey and Sharon, I'm happy to have you on here. Just for the people listening, we've recorded this out of order. Okay, so this is actually the first part, but you're going to hear it as the second half of the podcast. But we're super happy to have Sharon to be our guinea pig. The poor girl. The poor girl sent me an email and she was like, hey, I just want to say listen to podcast. I'll read her email in a second. And she was like, I'd love to be one of the speakers if you guys are having. And I was like, what about tomorrow?
- [03:04]
C
And.
- [03:04]
B
And she was like, what was she about that.
- [03:08]
A
So we finally got the schedules on, which is actually going to be one of the questions I want to ask you, Sharon, but thank you so much for being here. The one, the first.
- [03:18]
C
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
- [03:21]
A
Okay, Sharon, I'm going to have you do a quick intro, but I just want to read your email to me, if you don't mind. Can I do that?
- [03:26]
C
Sure, go ahead.
- [03:28]
A
And if you guys. I know I'm going to say this in the beginning of the podcast as well. My sultry voice. You enjoy it. Just this week I'm on the mend, but for now you can understand me. She said, good afternoon. I've been listening to some of the podcasts lately, and I heard you ask for members to be a guest, if only to share a testimony. The episode for me was Next Uses, and I believe there was an overwhelming task that you came up with a plan of attack. I'm going to try to make a long story short, but knowing me, short is still long. I'm a cookie cutter addict. I've got more than I need. And I was using Peak Nest app to log every cutter. I had an inventory of over 3,000 cutters. So much so that the app really couldn't accommodate me. So I'd been using their beta version. Last year, it crashed. When it got me back in, I lost half of my inventory. Inventory. I cried because in many cases, that app was the only way I could identify my cutters. I know there are cutters I will never be able to identify again even if I can figure out what they are. Some of the shops are no longer in business. So sad. Typically, my approach to a tasize would be to put would be to put the timer method work.
- [04:26]
C
30.
- [04:27]
A
Break. 30. Repeat this one. 30. Seems like it was never making a dent and knowing the money I put into these had me. Oh, it had them had me depressed. I'm so sorry. In the episode you took a different approach. I decided to do the same. Instead of feeling overwhelmed, I've set a goal of x cutters per day. In the last few weeks, I've logged 300 plus cutters versus the zero I was doing before listening. I've also given myself a come to Jesus attitude adjustment. Instead of viewing that financial loss that will occur as I come across those I can't identify, I'm embracing the fact that I'm able to purge them. At some point I'll give all these unidentified cutters to a new cookie year and let them experience that anx. That's so sad. That is so sad. But tell us what happened with that. I've never heard of the peak nest app Pnest.
- [05:17]
C
So when I started this cookie journey, I happened to find a couple of local bakers that were giving up cookies not because they weren't getting the business, just because different life events had happened and cookies just didn't play into the scheme of things for them anymore. And so I inherited probably six to 800 cookie cutters for free between these two cook years. So in my mind I'm thinking all cookie, all cookies are cookie cutter addicts, right? So I inherit all these, I find these buy, sell trade groups and I'm getting cookie cutters for like little or nothing. And before I know it, I've got, you know, maybe a good 1500 cookie cutters sitting here and I'm like, how am I going to organize these? And I have posted in the group before, which it doesn't look like that now, so I don't want to post a picture for you. But I've posted in the group before how I had all my cookie cutters organized. I used Uline totes for them. I have large ones for my bigger collections and smaller for something like say crab boil cookie cutters. You know, I don't have very many of those. So I had them all category categorized within the pink nest app and I found, I just googled, I was like, I need an app to, you know, do inventory and what I would do. I had a Picture of what the cookie cutter looked like decorated. Took a picture of the cookie cutter and I throw it in the app. And I'd say, okay, here's a corn on the cob decorated or whatever. Right. And I didn't necessarily put who the cutter was from because I'm not that great at identifying that unless it's a green Kaleida Cuts. And I know that right off the bat. Right. The bad thing is with so many people with 3D printers, I don't know, is that green Kaleida Cuts or is it green from Sam down the street? I don't know. So anyway, Peak Nest is only like 30 something dollars a year through Apple, but it's only for Apple products. I'm not. I am team Android. I'm, I'm here, I'm staying here. My son is really, for years has been trying to get me to go over. I could probably be Yalls parents. My son is like 35. I feel like y' all are in that age range there in your, you know, younger 30s. So I could probably be your parent. But. And so for years he's been like, mom, come to iPhone. No. And so he gifted me an old iPad a long time ago. That's what I was using, using. He gifted me a newer iPad a couple of years ago. And I guess as long as he keeps gifting, maybe someday I'll go to iPhone.
- [08:15]
A
But you know, the full suite, maybe you'll be tempted. Yeah, I'll switch if you buy me all the stuff.
- [08:21]
B
No, mama Sharon will have to buy it for you.
- [08:25]
C
So for now the phone is staying Android though. So anyway, I would use the P Nest app through the little iPad he gifted me. And it was great. If somebody said, hey, here's the cutters I'm looking for, I could just get on pness and search. This peakness could, however, like I said, not accommodate as many cutters as I had. And so they had me using a beta version of the app. There were several people. I actually reached out to them and I'm like, hey, it's, it's lagging a lot. And they were like, oh, you just have so much. We never really thought anybody would use it to this capacity. And so here, use this beta version. Well, the beta version is only meant to be a test version, not to live in. Right. And so periodically it would have to refresh. I'd get a new link saying, here, use this. But I had never lost anything. September of last year it happened and I was devastated and I'm like reaching out and scrambling, emailing the owner of the app. And I'm like, hey, like what? You know, like, I, I just didn't even know how to reply to this. And when I say I cried, I really cried about this because I'm like, that's, that's every. Like, I have no way of identify now. I, I have the point. I'm at the point that I have so much inventory. How do you even go through Google Reverse Image? All of that is hard to do for me. And so I'm just looking at this and I'm like, I'm never going to be able to identify some of these without the pictures. And so I just had it sit there for months. Look, I am guilty of not using my membership to its full advantage of everything I should be doing in there. And I had never listened to the podcast. I had jumped in the group a few months back and I was like, hey, I've been asked to teach a baby shower class and I don't know where to begin with this. Like, have y' all ever thought about doing a class for Summerween or, you know, Christmas in July or whatever? And. And I never saw a response from either of you from my post. And so like, two weeks later, I'm like, hey, what's it take to get a response here? And somebody replies, have you listened to the podcast? No, I haven't. What episode should I go listen to? And so then I was like, okay, another part of the membership I'm not to going well, and you don't even have to be a member to hear this. But another thing I'm not using to my advantage. So started listening. Here comes the next excuses. And I was actually driving to Houston. My son lives in Houston and he was expecting a daughter. And so I'm driving to Houston and that's about a three and a half hour drive for me from Fort Worth and listening to the podcast and this is the episode that comes up and I'm. And it's just this aha, Come to Jesus moment. You know, the angel are like, hey, try this. And so while I was down there, I was like, okay, what's another plan of attack for me? Because the, the thing that made it overwhelming, all of those in those totes or cases that I had them in to go pick a big one just seemed overwhelming. Right?
- [11:57]
A
Yeah, sure.
- [11:58]
C
Okay. Well, the part of the story that I've neglected to share, when I say I'm an addict, I really mean that. That hadn't stopped me from buying cutters since September.
- [12:10]
A
Anything's not your own girl.
- [12:12]
C
Yeah. So now I. When I'm so now, not only do I have that big task of those, I have boxes of mail that have been piling up since September and literally I've been throwing them in a room and that room could have almost been going towards like an episode of Hoarders. So I was like, you know what? She took a different plan of attack that was not overwhelming to her. What can I do? Instead of starting with those, I'll start with the mail. But I don't have totes to put them in. So what can I do? Went to the dollar tree, bought two and a half gallon Ziploc bags.
- [12:56]
A
Great.
- [12:57]
C
Made. Made the bags be like my categories. So for example, I have a birthday bag, I have an Easter bag, I have a Christmas bag. And I just started categorizing the mail that I that came in. And what I do when I buy cutters from somebody through Marketplace or one of these buy sell trade groups on Facebook. Facebook. I screenshot everything I buy. So I have those pictures. Save it in Messenger. So when they're messaging me saying, give me your address to pay, I throw those screenshots in there. So when the mail comes, I can just go search messenger and I can say, oh, I bought these from Heather. Here's my pictures. And that's how I inventory mark. So the first part of tackling this was finding a new app to use for inventory, which I use Sweet Bites app, which I believe she's also a member of Cookie college. I've seen her in there. I. I will say it was a little difficult for me to understand that app at first, but now I'm in there. I'm happy to say that since sending you my email, since listening to that episode, I've already just this. I don't know if I'm happy about this. It's probably a little cookie cutter Anonymous meeting admission here. Confession. I've already logged. All of my mail is done.
- [14:28]
A
Congratulations.
- [14:29]
C
Those totes. Once at a time, one at a time. But I've already logged over 1200 cookie cutters.
- [14:38]
A
That was from 300 to 1200.
- [14:41]
C
Yes. And so it really was just hearing that episode, something clicking and you know, now I can tackle. Now I can go back to my timer method or choose one small tote to work on and if I can't identify it, like I think part that was so devastating was knowing like some of those were free, but some of those I put money in and. And it's a loss. It is. There is some loss in there. But instead of focusing on the loss, like I said, we're just going to make it a purging moment. I already have a big box. Like, I should probably already start trying to give some of these away because I already have a big box. And then you know what's so sad that I'm finding?
- [15:28]
A
What? Dupes.
- [15:30]
C
Yes. It's just like, man, if only you had long beat, right? And that's just in my mail that I bought where I bought dupes. Really sad. I bought dupes from the same person.
- [15:45]
A
No.
- [15:48]
C
So anyway, that's my moment. I look forward to, you know, having more aha. Moments in the podcast. Thank you for all you do. Like, truly appreciate y'. All. I didn't even realize this piece of gold was out here, and I'm happy I found it. So thank you.
- [16:05]
B
Well, Sharon, thank you so much. If you're just tuning into the podcast right now, the next uses one is you can have your excuses or you can have your results. And Sharon took it to heart, and I appreciate that. I suffer from the same thing, and I was the one who recorded the podcast. We did a video bootcamp recently, and I.
- [16:23]
C
My.
- [16:23]
B
I suffer from collecting clips, video clips, and not editing them when I need to. So then it feels daunting to look at my iPhone and be like, wow, there's so many videos I need to edit. This is going to take about five to six hours. Whether. If I broke it down like Sharon did, I could make a video fairly quickly. Top of mind. I just filmed the clips, but we are our own worst enemies. And it's overcoming these excuses, you know, knowing who we are as people and then being like, this is who I am, but this is who I want to be and taking those steps like Jaron, That's. That's a ton of cookie cutters. I know I have a lot. And I've. I think my come to Jesus aha. Moment was last year when I said, I have got to find out where these belong. They. They don't belong together, so we have to divide them far apart. So I've gone through my cookie cutters and put them in different bins. Probably not as specific as yours. Like, birthday is like, fairly large. Like, you gotta have like, some. There's an astronaut in there. I know he'd be living in there. But I use it mostly for over the moon, something like that, some birthday set like that. So that's really encouraging that you took that to heart.
- [17:29]
A
The.
- [17:30]
B
The podcast are just words to listen to it. It takes the action is all you guys, right?
- [17:35]
A
Sharon, how much time do we have you for before I got, before you got to leave us?
- [17:39]
C
Oh, no, I'm, I am actually off today. I, I, yeah, I, I actually took off today, so. Yeah.
- [17:47]
B
Crazy.
- [17:47]
A
Well, I'd love to ask you some questions. Here's the thing about Sharon. She took the video boot camp, which I'm, I've took it too, even though I edited it. I'm also gonna do it. But you actually did it. So the. If you guys are new to the Bootcamp concept, which I'm sure we talked about before we recorded this in this backwards podcast episode. The. The June boot camp was recording cookie videos, which Corey taught us about. Now I edited the videos, and the whole time I'm having my own. Come to Jesus, Mom. I apparently fear the camera lens. So Sharon actually had this cool thing she did. She ordered the meta Ray Ban knockoffs off of TEMU or something, and then she was going to tell us about them. But then you went an extra step, forgot the glasses, and you went to a restaurant, recorded yourself and did like a. You know, I want to let you know that was delicious looking the place that you went to. But that was so well recorded. It was so interesting. If I was local, I would have loved to have watched that. Did you and did you post it to your socials?
- [18:48]
C
I did. So. So a couple of things I want to say about the boot camp. I didn't follow Boot Camp 100%. I didn't use in shot. I just went ahead and jumped my, my son. A few years ago, I had did a couple of videos for fun, and one is my play on. I'm in a pool and there was like this cap cut template of this lady slapping her thighs together and the water shoots out.
- [19:20]
B
I know exactly what you're talking about.
- [19:22]
C
So I. But I took the opportunity to combine that with the lyrics from Cardi B's song, you know, grab a bucket and a mop. And I'm doing all of this stuff at our neighborhood pool, but I'm in the kiddie pool portion of it, and it's my son and one of his friends are recording this. But. But for the big splashes, like he is throwing a bucket of water on me. And so if you see this, the second bucket I'm really not ready for, and it actually throws me over in the pool.
- [19:57]
A
You were so dedicated.
- [19:59]
C
So I used cap cut because that's what I had used before. Although I am going to say, and here's where my age may show. And no Shade to anybody else in their 50s. I suddenly feel like my mom. Like, when my stepdad passed away, mom could. Didn't even, you know, wouldn't do the ceiling fan. She would call one of the kids to come over and, hey, the ceiling fan is on too high. Can somebody come change it? And I remember thinking, like, oh, my God, reach up and pull a freaking string. Like, what are you doing right now that she's passed? Like, I'd give anything to get the phone call to come change the setting on the. On the ceiling fan, but she would call for anything. Like, she'd call one of my brothers. She had, like, a. The satellite cable thing, and she's a huge Yankees fan. And so God forbid something happened to that satellite cable while the Yankees are on. And it's the distress call, you know, like, somebody get over.
- [21:00]
A
What's your emergency?
- [21:00]
B
The Yankees.
- [21:01]
A
I can't do. We got a fan out too fast and the Yankees aren't on at all.
- [21:05]
C
Right, yes. So. So I couldn't tackle that, so one of my brothers would have to go. And I just remember thinking, oh, my God, like, but now here I am, that person, and it's probably my son saying, oh, my God, like, because those cap. Those cap cut videos from a couple years ago he had to help me with. Now I have this bestie called Chat GPT, who I jumped in Chat tbt, started a thread, and I'm like, hey, I have been challenged to go create a reel. I know the place I want to stop at on my way home from Houston. Give me some tips. How am I going to do this? And it told me, I want you to get a shot. When you pull up, I want you to get a shot walking up. I want you to walk in, pan the room, and show everybody what it looks like. Take a picture of the menu if you can. I mean, it literally told me all of these things. So for you to tell me, like, hey, this is great. And now the bad thing. ChatGPT can't do it. Can't watch a video if I'm uploading it. So it couldn't really tell me, like, okay, edit out this part or do the middle five seconds of this video. But it did tell me, hey, don't. Don't go shoot a minute at one time. You want five to 10 seconds at a time so it's less editing on you. I didn't necessarily use it to edit, except for I didn't. So I just threw those things into cap cut, put them together, and then I was like, okay, now Tell me how do I add text, but only to this portion so it doesn't go through here. How do I add in? It actually told me to add that background classical music to. I found, I searched waffle music and very oddly, because it was a Waffle house.
- [23:05]
A
What do you guys got?
- [23:07]
C
And so it gave me this classical music. I don't know why it's named Waffle, but whatever. And so it really walked me through. So I know there are a lot of people you're either for or against AI and, and there's no in between. But I've embraced it. You know, I, I do work full time. I do cookies. That's my part time. I work full time for a bank. I close SBA loans, which is, is a lot, man. If you. My prior closing experience, I've closed residential, I've closed commercial, commercial real estate. I've closed loans that were $100 million loans before. I never did as much work on a closing as I do on a Small Business Administration loan.
- [23:59]
A
When the brick and mortar people are opening, they said whatever you guys are asking for, it's like they're, you know, they're crying tears. They have to provide you so much information.
- [24:08]
C
So I have worked for this bank where I'm currently at for. I think I just hit my ten month mark.
- [24:15]
A
Oh, wow. And
- [24:19]
C
for these loans, like a small business loan, they average 1 to 5 million, most of them around that $1 million.
- [24:27]
B
Sure.
- [24:28]
C
These are the hardest loans I have ever. This is the hardest job I have ever had. It is because of the government requirements. When I, when I tell you I have CL and shut me up if I'm going down a route.
- [24:43]
B
I love this.
- [24:44]
C
I love on.
- [24:45]
A
If I,
- [24:47]
C
if I'm taking up too much of yalls time like just say, hey, zip it because I, I will ramble on. So stop me if you need to.
- [24:54]
B
No, I think this is great. I think a lot of, A lot of bakers who have brick and mortars on the brain are thinking what, what is an SBA loan entail? So this is great information.
- [25:04]
C
Listen, it's not impossible to do, but it is a lot to do and I am the backside of it. So I'm not the loan officer that you're meeting with that's starting the process. I'm the end process. And what I see in my loans, you may have already been working with somebody two to six months before it ever even gets to the process in the bank where it goes before a loan committee for approval.
- [25:33]
A
So what, what's your title I. I
- [25:37]
C
am an SBA loan. Closer. So closer.
- [25:40]
B
Okay, go ahead.
- [25:41]
C
So I come in at the point that underwriting is truly underwriting your loan. And either it's about to go for approval or it has been approved by credit loan committee. Right. And then it would get assigned to me. And I come in then and I'm going to review your approval package, which is usually somewhere around a 30 to 40 page document that I'm looking at that it's got, you know, know the meat and potatoes of it up front of like what your rate's going to be, what your term is, blah, blah, blah. But then we get back into collateral, you're providing and all of your personal business. Really what is different about SBA loans? For me, again, I've closed my last bank I was at. I was only doing commercial real estate loans that could be developments of an entire neighborhood. So say for example, I live here in. In my neighborhood development that's, you know, just finishing up. And they've been building here for about five years now. Yeah, six years. So when this builder came to get funding, the bank I was at actually funded this. You funded yourself. I used to work for this home builder a long time ago at their corporate office. And the funny thing is the way this is actually my son's house that I rent because he had to move to Houston. Here's where I'm going to get off track if you don't reel me in. He's an air traffic controller. No way. And so he moved for work and it moved to Houston. And so because I'm here in Fort Worth, I was like, let me. I'll just take over the. The.
- [27:40]
A
We love whoever this son is.
- [27:42]
B
Bring him.
- [27:44]
C
We. We have a very close relation. I have so many friends that are like, I love Yalls relationship at, you know, the age that, that he is, that y' all are still so, so close. But it's because I come from a family of seven siblings. The. My mom was married and divorced four times. The kids are spread apart, I think from the oldest, from the oldest to the youngest. There's like a 22 year old. 22 year age difference.
- [28:16]
A
I'm gonna have somebody fix my technology.
- [28:18]
C
Oh my God. So I had one. Yeah. So back to loans. Sorry, Back to loans. So in my past closing life for something like doing this development over here that I live in, I would not have had to. Had jump into that. That developer's personal business. Like I have to jump into Heather's personal business if she wants to come get a loan. And that is government requirements.
- [28:50]
A
How deep are we talking? Like, are you asking?
- [28:52]
C
We are talking deep. Deep. I have to. So you're going to be required to make a good faith deposit, Right?
- [29:01]
A
Okay.
- [29:02]
C
The. The account you send that from, you're going to have to give me three months of bank statements prior to sending that wire. But now I am going to have to go dig through, because sba, the government, wants to confirm that, number one, you had those funds in there that Corey didn't loan you $5,000 to send in as a deposit. And so I am literally going through. I'm not so much concerned about your expenses in your account, but I am concerned about deposits that have come into that account three months prior. Do you have a job and that's where those deposits are coming, or are there deposits? That incoming wire, what is that from? Right. And. And I have to question that organization of the business.
- [29:52]
A
If I was an llc, do you still got to get deep into my own personal.
- [29:55]
C
Yep. Deep into your own personal. If you. So, okay, so on an SBA loan, I. I haven't seen just a loan come through. And let me just say this. I am used to. Before coming to SBA, I'm used to having a pipeline of anywhere from 10 to 30 loans going on at one time. I'm used to closing. I'm used to closing, you know, on average, about 15 to 20 loans a month. I come over to SBA, and since I've been here. So I started at this bank in August of last year, and I was told. I was told, hey, this is hard. This is nothing like you're used to. The details are so much more extreme. And in my mind, I'm like, oh, I'm an overachiever. I can do that. Like, I'm gonna come in, I'm gonna learn every other job. I feel like I've learned faster than they anticipated I would, and I was able to take off running and go on my own here. They're like, it's gonna take you about a year before you're able to work on your own. And. And I'm like, get out of here. You don't know what you'. You don't know me, right? Yeah, no, no, they don't know me, but they knew SBA, because here I am 10 months in, and I'm still like, this is so overwhelming. There's so much to it. So you apply, and there's going to have to be a guarantor on that line. So chances are you're going to apply as sugar Cookie marketing group, but at least one or both of you are going to come in as guarantors, as individuals, right? And so. So if that good faith deposit. Because here's what. Here's what I see. You don't know where you should be sending stuff from, right? A new business or somebody trying to jump into this business because they're. They're buying it from somebody else or whatever. They don't know, hey, you should have a business account, and everything should be flowing in and out of this, right?
- [32:01]
A
You heard it from Sharon. Guys, if you're listening, that is.
- [32:04]
C
Is. And so here they are. You may have a couple of personal accounts, and you're like, okay, well, I got to move front funds from here to this account so I can send out one $5,000 wire. Well, now I see funds coming out of there, or I see funds incoming from Charles Schwab. And now I have to say, okay, now guess what? Give me three months of that account that I have to go look at because you have to prove. So, so sadly, here's the thing. It's SBA putting all of these guidelines in because they guarantee the loan, but only at 75%. And so you have a bank saying, I'm willing to take a risk on you because it's only a 25% risk for me. It's 75% risk for the government. However, the government, if you happen to default on that loan, and people do default on these, sadly, yeah, if you default on that loan in the first two years, SBA is coming in, and they are going to audit that with a fine tooth, like one of those little lice nitpicking cones. They are coming through looking for any reason that they do not have to guarantee that loan at 75%.
- [33:21]
B
Oh, my God.
- [33:21]
C
It falls back to the bank that. That the government can get out of reimbursing the. The bank 75%. Wow. You specifically. Yes. So what they. So what they want to do is come in and say, hey, we're auditing her bank statements. And look, this money was a gift. She never really had those funds herself. She was never in a position to be financially responsible for this. Why did you approve that? Now, let's be honest. If you're getting a SBA loan loan, you probably couldn't get a loan someplace else. You didn't have adequate collateral for another bank, or even for you to come directly to our bank. That's what these loans are for. You don't have the adequate collateral. Sometimes if you're doing, like, business acquisition and there's vehicles involved, you know, now those vehicles have to be collateral. Anything we can take extra. If you have a, let's say, you know, personally, you're good financially, you have a home, you have a couple of rental properties. Yeah. Guess what, those rental property properties are now going to probably have to be taken as collateral for us.
- [34:42]
A
Would they ever do personal residence as collateral?
- [34:46]
C
Not your personal residence, but if you have extra. Right. Then, then those would probably be collateral. And that's just something I haven't seen yet. Right. My volume of closings. Nothing like what I'm used to at other banks here.
- [35:03]
A
Because you have so many details.
- [35:05]
C
Yes, yes. So they told me when I started in August, they're like, you'll probably only close one loan this year.
- [35:13]
A
No way.
- [35:14]
C
And I was like, what? And so I get in my first loan and I have focused only on, there's a couple of different types of SBA loans you can do. You can do 7A and, and don't get me to start talking on what the differences are because I just don't know enough about it yet. But there's 7A, there's a 504 loan, and then I think there's like an SBA Express loan. I haven't done express and I haven't done 504 loans. I have focused solely on 7A loans. Come in in August, get assigned my first loan. Guess what? That loan closed in September. So here I am ahead of the game.
- [35:53]
B
Yeah.
- [35:54]
C
By January 1st, I had already closed three lo loans, which was crazy because they didn't expect it, but it's just how fast they were moving because. And there are different kinds of loans. One was a business acquisition, one was a franchise business, one was a construction ground up business, you know, ground up construction. So there, there's different types of loans, but just the detail and that, that's just the equity port. Equity portion is what comes into your personal bank accounts. But you know, there's, there's different things required that I've just never seen before. And so it's just a lot to take in. I can only imagine being on the other side of that and being overwhelmed because there's probably a ton of stuff you've provided before it gets to me. Once I get that approval, my first one to two business days of working on your loan is putting together a needs list of things I think I need. Need. Yeah. And I'm getting, I'm getting that email out to you. Our loan officer or SBA specialist is probably going to set up a Zoom call. So there's an introduction between you and I. It's just a little more personal than you getting emails. Right. And one thing that I've found, if you're frustrated with me as the borrower or I'm frustrated with you as a closer, seeing you face to face, it's a little harder to be mean or ugly to somebody nice.
- [37:29]
A
That's a great, that's a great life tip.
- [37:31]
C
If you have. Now they're human. Right. Because you have. They've been humanized. And so it's just also great for the business model of it, of, hey, I see you. I'm here for you. I am. You know, I'm a person just like you. We're going to work through this together. How can I help you with these things? The bank has certain requirements for insurance, so you're definitely going to have to get general liability. You're probably going to have to get business personal property, if there's vehicles involved that we're taking as collateral. Now, I need this. And so it's like, hey, let me work with your insurance agent and take that off of you if you want that. Yeah. If you don't, go for it. And there may just be a lot of emails back and forth of, oh, no, they didn't list the bank as additional insured or on this policy, the bank has to be listed as lender, loss payee or whatever. And so there's those details that I can take off your plate. I will say a lot of these. SBA loans. Loans. Every. Everyone that I have worked has required you to get a life insurance policy. No way. On the main, or sometimes both people, depending on what role you play. A life insurance policy. On the, on the amount of the loan.
- [38:50]
A
Wow. Question for you, since we can just do hypotheticals. Would you, as a, a bakery business owner ever take an SBA loan now that you, you know, you wouldn't?
- [39:00]
C
No. Why? Well, okay, so several reasons. First of all, I, I don't think I ever want to be brick and mortar. If I'm doing.
- [39:10]
A
I am.
- [39:11]
C
I'm here for the cottage baker life. Look, you can see from the, you know, I'm smiling now because I'm laughing at myself, but I have hard RBF here going on. I am not, I am not the face of any business, which is why I have a back office employee.
- [39:28]
A
Okay.
- [39:32]
C
I think my face is meaner. It looks meaner than I am. Right. And so as your nails match, your
- [39:38]
A
glasses match, your outfit, if you get
- [39:41]
C
past this, if you get past this, tough Exterior. Well, then you get to know who I am, whatever. But, you know, I, I just never want to have that. But also, I, I just, just. Oh, I, I can't imagine like I, I am doing cookies in the sense that I hope it, you know, can supplement travel income or with me, with me about to be 55 next month, maybe, you know, five years down the road, it's, it's good supplemental income when I want to quit working. Right.
- [40:18]
A
Yeah.
- [40:19]
C
That I can still hustle cookies as a cottage baker and, you know, maybe make some money. I am nowhere near yet because I'm still trying to figure out how to grow my business. You know, the I'm in all the community pages and, and, and I go through these spurts of I'll be really busy with orders, and then now it's just crickets. And so I can use that time to work on inventory, cookie cut inventory and cookie cutters. Although I've taken a break from that. Taking a break from that because now I'm on the thing of, okay, I got to get my website built. And so I'm using Chat GPT to build out my Shopify website.
- [40:56]
A
Oh, you want my shop? If I was going to ask you,
- [40:59]
C
I did, just because I, that's what, that's what mixing bowl it is cookie uses, right?
- [41:06]
A
Yes.
- [41:07]
C
And so I was like, if it's good enough for you, it's good enough for me. So I'm in here trying to do it. Me and Chat GPT have had some arguments about different things, but Darren, it's nice for you.
- [41:18]
A
It's a good idea to push back on that. That's how chat.
- [41:21]
C
But I, I find myself in a thread and I'm taking literal pictures of my laptop and I'm like, this is what I seeing. Tell me what to do next. And we have this plan of attack. There are bullet points within the thread. Now what I, what I find this is a really long thread. And so I have to remind Chat GPT sometimes it'll say, hey, let's go do this. And I'm like, no, that's not what we're supposed to be doing. Like, let's get back to this and let's finish this, right? Oh my gosh, yes. So, and then it'll apologize. And I was like, you're right. I, I, we're not supposed to be doing that. And I'm like, okay, but I'm worried about the things that I'm going to for and whatever. And so I keep a list. And so I'm crossing Things off one at a time. The sad thing is I had paid somebody to build that website for me and life got the best of them and we wasted three months only for me to find out they really did nothing on the site. And so it came back to me about a week ago and I probably spent 10 hours in there, which is probably more than it would have taken somebody else else. And I'm about 70 finished right now.
- [42:31]
A
So you'll know exactly how the back end works. Those tiny tweaks you need like. Corey's pretty dependent on me. Sorry. Now you'll be able to do it yourself.
- [42:41]
C
Unfortunately, I don't have a twin, but I, I will make the most of my chat. GPT does not have the time. My son does not have the time to help me with the new baby.
- [42:53]
A
So how is it juggling this is what I want to ask because I mean you, you sound like you're extremely well versed in banking. How is it juggling a full time job that's eating up all your time and then a part time cookie business that's also one seat up all your time.
- [43:09]
C
So it can be difficult, it can be challenging. In my mind I have had this thought that, that I have to have two weeks notice on a, on a cookie order. Right. I just have to because my time is limited. I think that's some stupid thought I put in my mind. In a perfect world, would I love to have two or three weeks notice? Yes. I'd love to get you on the calendar. The what I see most people coming to me are last minute though very close to me is another co cookie college member, Keenan, who does mama's treats. I've been to a few of her cookie decorating classes. And so I actually had something happen a few months ago. I had somebody reach out to me
- [44:05]
A
and
- [44:09]
C
I should have took the order, but I didn't believe in myself. I needed, I think they needed 10, 10 or 14 dozen a lot cookies for a softball banquet.
- [44:24]
A
Okay.
- [44:24]
C
And there was probably only a week turnaround and I was like, you know what? I don't think I can help you. I sent them to, to Keenan. And the sad reality of that is yes, I sent them to another baker. Yes, I got them what they needed. The sad reality in that it for me is I'm never going to get that customer back. They're never going to come back to me. They're always going to go back to her now when they need something. And, and that's just, that's part of it. Right. And, and that's not the first time that's happened to me. That's the second time. Just because me not believing in how I could juggle my time now from Keenan. Keenan was self calling a manual dough sheeter. And I'm gonna tell you, I want a Eugene so bad because I am tired of cranking the manual one. And sometimes I'll be cranking it so much, the freaking handle falls out because it's loosened up and then it hits the floor and I'm like, okay, time to. Time to tighten that. That is a game changer. What the. I came home one night, so I had. This is after I gave away that order to Keenan, I had a business reach out. And they were like, I need 30 dozen cookies for a trade show and I'm gonna need them. And they did give me a month's notice. Okay. But I had this wonderful little dough sheeter. And so for me, it's about. It's about planning. It's about coming up with a plan of attack. Every. Every weekend, I make my to do list for the week. I'm looking at my calendar. Do I have cookie orders? What is due? How am I going to plan this out? I'm going to do all my baking on Sunday, and then I'm going to start planning out. Okay, how many dozen of these can I decorate that? 30 dozen. I hand decorated those.
- [46:22]
A
Oh, girl. Oh, girl.
- [46:24]
C
Because I had not done my training for my little blue print.
- [46:30]
A
Oh, you could have printed them. You had the printer, but you hand piped.
- [46:34]
C
Yes. So there's a story behind that. And again, here's why I say, if you don't shut me up from rambling, we're going to be on here and I'm going to take up your whole podcast. You're going to have a lot of editing to do. No, you're right. But so on the 30 dozen, made all my dough up. And I said, you know what? I am not about to roll out 30 dozen cookies. So when I would come home from work, first night, rolled out 10 dozen dozen, you know, 10 dozen cookies, got those baked, throw them in the freezer, next night, come home, ten dozen, get them baked in the freezer. Third night, same thing. The next night, I took a night off. That's when I pulled those one box out of the freezer and said, okay, now I'm going to decorate these 10 dozen. Well, now I'm almost at the weekend. And so I did. I decorated all 30 dozen of those.
- [47:23]
B
Oh, my goodness. Was it the same design for all 30 dozen?
- [47:28]
C
No, so they were actually. This is a Christmas lighting company.
- [47:32]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [47:33]
C
And they were working a trade show and so they wanted all Christmas theme because that's fun. Here. Here's where Small World comes in. First of all, I know them personally and they love my cookies, so it was kind of a shoe in for me.
- [47:48]
B
Yeah.
- [47:49]
C
But they go around and they solicit like, like the neighborhood. So they actually do the lighting for the neighborhood I live in.
- [47:57]
A
That's so funny. You're so connect.
- [47:59]
C
And the entry to the neighborhood, you know, you'll see like the wreaths and the lighting. They go around and they hit up the neighborhoods, the HOAs, whatever, and property management companies, you know, anything like that, they're hitting up those companies, but they're also doing, look, there are some predominantly wealthy neighborhoods here in DFW as anywhere. And they're targeting those neighbor those neighborhoods because you may spend $10,000, you know, to put lights on your house, especially some of these neighborhoods where it's a big thing for you to come drive through those neighborhoods.
- [48:37]
A
Yeah.
- [48:38]
C
And so they're targeting those people. Will they also do your house even though you're not paying them? Yeah, they will. But you're not their target customer, right? Yeah. So these were 10 different designs they asked for that were all Christmas related. So they got three dozen of each. Each design, it, it was doable, but it was a lot. And so there's where I use my timer method. I like it. Okay, let me, let me do this and walk away for a minute and then come back to it. And so it didn't feel quite as overwhelming. The story behind my printer, I. I sat in. So I stalked some Eddie groups and some icing images groups. What is the other one?
- [49:30]
B
I know what you're talking about, but I can't remember. Edible images. Intricate edibles.
- [49:36]
C
Yes. That one.
- [49:37]
B
Yeah.
- [49:38]
A
Okay.
- [49:38]
C
That one is like the most expensive one. And so in my opinion, the one I was looking at and it, it just looks. Looked odd to me. And not to, you know, not to sway anybody else's decisions, but that one, just off the bat, came out for me. Like it was never. That one was never an option. It was always going to be a little blue or used to be called Blue Junior. I think now it's called a little blue. It was always going to be that or an Eddie. As I was stalking the groups, I felt like I saw more people put out the. The call, you know, throw up the bat signal saying, help with this or my sassy tray isn't doing this. Or this is this. And I was just like, I'm sassy enough, I don't need a tray. Like, I am not. Eddie is not for me. Sorry. He's just not. So. So I decided several months prior to pulling the trigger it was going to be little blue. And the funny thing is I think images of probably like, I wish she would just pee or get off the pot already. Because I would call them and I'd ask questions and I had so many questions about what if I. What if I can't afford to drop, you know, the money. All what are financing options? What are this, what is that? And it just so happened at the time that I landed did this job with sba, which actually fell in my lap. They came and found me.
- [51:14]
A
Talk about wanted.
- [51:16]
C
I was like, you want me? I don't have SBA experience. They were like, yeah, but your closing experience is this. And somebody here at the bank actually knows you from closing. And because of your detail oriented, they suggested you. So let's talk about this. And this ended up being about a $15,000 a year increase for me over that six figure mark with this. And I'm a little good into it with this because I was just right under it at my last bank. But in leaving, I was like, okay, I have my 401k money. Didn't pull it all out, but I did pull 5,000 out that I'm gonna eat the, you know, the slap on the wrist for. And I was like, let me just buy it now. So this arrived. I ordered with icing images, though. You know, they don't have Eddie May ship as soon as you buy it. Yeah, I think images is more like a, hey, you order order. And when we get a pool, then we're going to have these made. And so whereas I paid for that in August, it didn't actually ship out until October. I was on a cruise though. So I was like, you need to
- [52:46]
A
work how you spend this $15,000.
- [52:51]
C
Well, so I get this a whole other thing. I get free cruises from Carnival from their casinos. So where I only pay for, I'm paying for like my taxes and port fees. Sometimes I'm paying a little bit on the room, but it's little or nothing for me. So I'm going to cruise nine times out of ten because I can't go anyplace else for the price that I can cruise.
- [53:11]
A
Sure.
- [53:12]
C
So I was on a cruise. So I was like, hey, don't ship yet, wait to ship. So they ship in November. When I'm back, you have to be here, here. Because it is. It's a bulky. Well, it's a bulky thing. Comes in a big crate, like a big wooden crate, like the, like the fragile lamp. It's like a crate like that.
- [53:38]
A
No way.
- [53:40]
C
And so they have it on. It arrives on a FedEx truck that has like, this ramp that lowers down because it's so heavy. And then they pull it on like a pallet jack thing. And the pallet is what they're bringing up, but they're not going to put it in the house for you because. So bulky. So. So here I come home and I. I tell my job. I was like, hey, I'm gonna work a half day from home. And so I come home and as I'm pulling into the. To the driveway, something hits me to call one of my. One of my son's friends. Like, it just overwhelmingly comes on my heart. His mom had passed just a couple of weeks ago. They were extremely close, like myself and my son are. And so it just came on like, let me call him. And I'm sitting there there in the driveway talking to him, and I'm. I'm crying because, like, you know, I'm emotional for him because I've known this kid since he was in the first grade. And here they are, 35. And so you. In my head, I still picture all of these kids who are grown men now as like the little first graders that I met them at and, you know, I could be all of their moms and, and whatever. And he just has a circle of friends. And so this kid, since he's my moved to Houston, this kid will like, come put the ring light ring cameras up around the house for me and stuff like that. Or I refuse to go up in the attic. He'll go up in the attic and change the air filter for me and different things. You know what he wants in exchange? Uniced cookies. He loves undecorated cookies.
- [55:15]
A
They're delectable. They have a place.
- [55:17]
C
So it's a win. Win. So I'm in the driveway, I'm talking to him. Him get off the phone. I, you know, I'm like, wiping my face. I open the garage, pull into the garage, and normally I look over at the right side of the wall and there's my, like my WI FI box. And that's my sign when my window lines up with that stop.
- [55:41]
A
Hilarious.
- [55:44]
C
This is going to get me mom of the year here. I accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake and I drove through the garage wall.
- [55:53]
B
Sharon.
- [55:54]
C
And when I Say through the garage wall. I mean, my Mustang was all in that room. Darren Jaren, you have no idea the horrible part of this. I had just put this, Is this a five bedroom house? House. That bedroom was empty. I literally just bought a bed to put in that room as a guest room. So now me driving through the wall, here's what happens. The totes that were in the garage, that went through the wall before I went through the wall now pushed that bed from one side of the room, through the closet of that into the closet of the room. Next.
- [56:40]
B
No.
- [56:41]
C
And I'm sitting there in my car, car. Like, oh my God, what just happened? Like, what? What? And I don't get out yet. I then I'm like, how the hell do I get out of here? So I put the car in reverse and go back out and I leave it in the garage and I jump out. Listen, my mind is not grasping. There's a live wire there. Oh no, never did I consider that.
- [57:11]
B
I would never have thought of that either.
- [57:13]
C
There's a lot to think about.
- [57:14]
A
That wasn't it?
- [57:15]
C
Oh my God, I'm so overwhelmed that this has happened. Meanwhile, I'm still waiting on FedEx to show up with this printer.
- [57:23]
A
Oh, I forgot about the printer.
- [57:25]
C
And I jump out of the car. And in my mind I'm like, oh my God, is the house about to fall down? Like, I'm trying to process what happened. My hands are shaking, I am just a mess. And I'm like, like I had to call my son. Like, wow, my God. So the first thing, first thing I do, I call my job and I'm like, or I, I text my manager a picture and I'm like, hey, I just text her a picture of the wall. And I was like, safe to say I'm not about to log in. I'm sorry, I can't call you. I can't process what's going on. I gotta go. Bye. And that was my text to her. And she don't reply for like three hours. She didn't even know I hadn't logged in. And because she busy herself and so she was like, oh my God, take a couple of days. Like just let us know when you're in a good play and keep us posted on what's going on. I now have to call my son to tell him I'm trying to FaceTime him.
- [58:27]
A
It's his house, right? It's his house.
- [58:29]
C
Yes, it's his house. Yes. Now the sad thing is he's at work, he's up in the Tower. He's not supposed to take phone phone calls.
- [58:37]
A
He's directing airplanes.
- [58:39]
C
Yes, yes, he is up in the tower. So they are not supposed to be on their phones when they're in the tower. So I have to send a text message saying, I have an emergency. I need you to answer this call. I'm not playing. Like, answer the call. Yeah, so send the text message. He was like, okay, give me a minute to step out. And he calls me on FaceTime. And he was like, what's going on? Are you okay? And I was like, I'm fine, but I'm okay. But I'm so sorry. I don't know how to tell you. And him being my son. And this is so funny because we are so opposite. I probably would have lost my crap if somebody else made this call to me. Yeah, But.
- [59:30]
A
And.
- [59:31]
C
And here's why. He's an air traffic controller. He has this pleasant demeanor, and it takes a lot to trigger him. And he was like. I show him. And he was like, mom, are you okay? It's just a house. Are you okay, man?
- [59:44]
A
And send his clothes into the world.
- [59:47]
C
Oh, my God. He's like. He's like my concern. Are you okay, though? And he was like, I'm going to call. He's in, and he says. He's like, I'm gonna call Edward, which is the kid. I just got a phone. And I was like. I was literally just talking to him. And so he's like, I'm gonna have him come check on you. Blah, blah, blah. And so he was like, don't worry about it. We'll figure this out. You know, just make sure you're okay. And, you know, you're in a. Say I'm going to have Edward come over and we're going to close everything. You know, it's going to be okay. We can. We can get this fixed. And I'm just bawling because I'm like, he should be going off on me. Right?
- [60:22]
A
Yeah.
- [60:23]
C
Meanwhile, FedEx still hadn't made it here yet. Well, here's where I figure out, like, something isn't working. Now I can't close the garage. So now you see my car in the garage. There's this huge hole in the garage wall. And now here comes FedEx.
- [60:44]
A
Oh, no.
- [60:46]
C
I don't know how to close the garage. Here's where I'm. My mother because I don't know how to manually close the garage. Right? And so the FedEx guy pulls up and. And he takes this down off, and he's bringing it up the driveway. And he's like, oh, my God. Oh, no. And I'm like, tell me about it. And he's like, are you okay? And I was like, yeah, this is about an hour ago. I'm still shaking. I'm still mentally, like, what just happened to happen?
- [61:18]
B
Extra bedroom still.
- [61:21]
C
And so he moves the crate into, like, the other. An empty part of the garage. Shoot.
- [61:33]
A
I think it froze, but this is the clip ultimately.
- [61:35]
B
Yeah, I know. The cliffhanger.
- [61:37]
A
Wait, she's back. She's back.
- [61:38]
C
I. Oh, I'm sorry. So I haven't been into the house yet. Right. And so he puts us down, and I'm like, I can't close the garage. And he's like, you're gonna have to close it manually. And I said, can you help me? And he said, I'm not allowed. He said, it doesn't be a liability to FedEx. I can't. He said, but even if I close this manually, it's going to come down. How are you going to get in the house? Then I was like, oh, good point, because I usually enter the house through the garage. Do I have a key to the front? Yes, but I never use that. And we have a storm door that is, like a. A. A really solid storm door that you can't just come up and break the glass on that. It's going to require, like, one of those power rammers to pass it. So. So I'm like, okay, well, let me go inside. This is my first time going inside. Now's here. Now here is where I realize the. A third of the house has no electricity.
- [62:37]
A
Oh, no, girl.
- [62:40]
C
Those two bedrooms that are. Are faulty. The garage has no electricity. I've knocked out the WI FI wires or whatever. Or the wires that, you know, go to the router, where the router is. That hallway has no electricity. The extra bathroom has no electricity. And I'm like, oh, this is so bad. Like, my son is going to be like, get the heck out of my house asap. Where am I going to go with all my cookie stuff? Like, what? These are the thoughts running through my mind. Right? And so this happened in November. Little Blue sat in a crate in that garage, probably until January.
- [63:25]
A
Because, Sharon, I'm gonna tell you this. That's the best excuse. You're allowed this.
- [63:30]
B
I'm gonna allow that.
- [63:33]
A
To not take it out of the box.
- [63:35]
C
Excuses. Excuses does not apply. There is no excuse for this, because the priority now became we have to get a contractor out here.
- [63:45]
B
And.
- [63:46]
C
And, man, that's a task in and of itself. Like, there were people that came over, and as soon as they heard insurance, which I made the claim on my car insurance, my son had called his homeowner's insurance, and I was like, no, no, you will not do that. You will not take any hits on this. This is all me. I'll. It's my. My car insurance is how we're doing this. And so I told. And his insurance agency actually scared the crap out of me, making me think it could be more than my car insurance allowed. No way. But. But it wasn't. Right. So anyway. But you would have these contractors come over that as soon as they hear insurance, they don't want anything to do with it. Oh, no, they. They want it because insurance I worked in, like, it's in the. You know, the cartoons where those eyes like, about that. That's what they see, like, money, money, money, money. You know, they're. They're thinking, oh, we're going to clean up. I had one guy come to me and say, oh, yeah, we're going to take your insurance for all of it. And then if we have to, we'll go collect on his homeowner's insurance. We can replace the floors in here. We can give you one of those nice coated floors in the ground. I was like, you get the hell out of here. I will not do business. No, I want this fixed. I don't want extra. We're not trying scam anybody.
- [65:11]
B
Yeah.
- [65:11]
C
You are not my contractor. Right. I ended up, there's another small business here in the neighborhood that does contracting. I wanted to use him. Although he had no availability, he recommended somebody else. We did have a professional electrician come back out. And so all of this got fixed within. We started in December. I was able to work. My job was so flexible with me, which is crazy, because as a new employee and not knowing so much about sba, they let me work two weeks from home, which is what they wanted.
- [65:49]
A
They wanted.
- [65:50]
C
Yes, yes. And so I halfway wonder, though, with as much as I kind of talk back or question things or question their processes, because I do think this bank also makes things harder than they have to be. Now I wonder, like, do they ever question, like, man, why did we. Why did we take her?
- [66:10]
A
Sharon, this is a crazy story.
- [66:11]
C
So now I have knocked out a lot of projects for them because I am so detail oriented and. And, you know, I see processes there where I'm like, y' all work harder, not smarter. I don't want to do things multiple times, so let's work smarter, not Harder. So anyway, so back to Little Blue. So Little Blue sat in the garage until January. The one thing I will say about Little Blue versus Eddie, your Eddie you can pick up and you could go to the local school and print out cookies and say, oh look at what I can put your picture on a cookie. Little Blue is still too big and too massive to do that. I had to go next door and get the neighbor to help me. Once I took the crowbar and pride the crate, I could not lift this thing by myself. So Little Blue is still, still pretty. Pretty.
- [67:09]
A
That's. That is large.
- [67:10]
B
He's got the best view in the house.
- [67:12]
A
I will say though I know pretty
- [67:15]
C
Little Blue is still pretty massive. I could never. If they ever offered a. A smaller like a mini blue that was portable, I might try to capitalize on that. But right now I. I still need to make Little Blue earn his money back for me. Now what I have started doing is I have actually shot a few reels since our boot camp. I went ahead and I went ahead and I paid for cap cut just because I want all those neat templates.
- [67:46]
B
Yeah.
- [67:48]
C
And I filmed a few reels already. And what I have decided I am very behind. I didn't participate in the Main street collab but I did finally just do so where I work next door in the same building as my me isn't is a Aloft hotel. I used Aloft hotel as what I took the pictures of and I printed those cookie. I've decided anything I'm doing for one of the collabs or if I'm gonna print cookie, if I'm gonna do cookies to make a real from by going to visit, I'm only doing printed cookies. I'm not gonna waste my time handpiping those. It doesn't let them see my handpipe decorations. But I don't care here for time purposes this is what I'm going to do. So I printed my aloft cookies. I threw those in a reel and
- [68:45]
A
you did the Main street collab like yesterday.
- [68:47]
C
We did it yesterday.
- [68:49]
B
Oh, smart smart.
- [68:51]
C
Just did it yesterday. And I actually I even said I'm a month behind on this. I didn't use the Main street collab hashtag because I feel like at this point the nobody's going to see it and no, no other bakers are going to go out there and I'm not about to go hunting down their stuff from a month ago. But the other I capitalized on just that boot camp has helped me so much. I went so here you know DFW is pretty big. It's nothing compared to Houston is what I'm learning. Like, I had no idea how big Houston was until now. I've had to literally try to go drive Houston.
- [69:27]
A
Wow.
- [69:28]
C
I hate it. I hate.
- [69:29]
A
Everything's bigger in Texas.
- [69:31]
C
Oh, my God. Houston could easily swallow all of DFW and its surroundings. It's nothing to go. What would take me maybe 30 minutes to drive here would easily take an hour in Houston. It's just so crazy if you. I have been down there and missed an exit because sometimes Google Maps will be like, in two miles, take the veer right. But it doesn't say take the exit. It says veer right. Right. And so then I drive past because I'm looking for the ve right versus an exit. And now in Houston. Well, here in Fort Worth, no big deal. Just go to the next exit in Houston. That easily adds 20 or 30 minutes to your drive just to find a place to get off. So Houston is massive, but here in Fort Worth. So I'm in west Fort Worth, kind of closer to Alito, which means nothing to y', all. But on the other side of downtown is a little city called Hal City.
- [70:31]
A
Okay.
- [70:32]
C
I don't know why this has popped up in my news feed, but there is something called called the Halum City Rainbow House.
- [70:40]
A
Okay.
- [70:40]
C
And it is a homeowner, and it's hitting at the right time because what is this month? It's pride month, right? And so it's hitting my news feed, and the homeowner decided he was going to paint a rainbow around his house. And I'm like, that's a cookie opportunity. Yeah, that is a real opportunity.
- [71:02]
A
We talked about trends last week, and now you got it. Which thing?
- [71:06]
C
Yes, yes. So I chat GPT bestie. Hey, look, here's a picture that other people have uploaded of the house. Help me design six cookies. Perfect. And it. And it did. It. It gave me a Texas that had like, the pride flag on it and it says y' all means all. It gave me a heart cookie with the rainbow schmear that is a love living lives here.
- [71:36]
B
Did you gave me.
- [71:38]
C
Yes, I did. I printed all six.
- [71:41]
A
Did you take them to the house?
- [71:42]
C
I did. I did. So I actually reached out to. Because they have a Facebook page that is the Halton City Rainbow House. Reached out. And here's the thing. They have become. I really expected this place is going to get hate come. This is Texas. And I'm sorry, the. It's just.
- [72:06]
B
But I'm sure they just had open Open arms to you though, for that. That's amazing.
- [72:11]
C
They're getting open arms is what's. Is what's amazing. The city has embraced them. The city has not. They're getting support from the city, they're getting support from the community. So much to the point that this guy has had to say, please don't stop here. During the week.
- [72:29]
A
You're welcome to come.
- [72:30]
C
Come here. You're welcome to come here 10 to 4 Saturdays and Sundays.
- [72:36]
B
I want to tell anyone who's listening, the collabs are great and we, we like to plan them and we do them once per month because that's manageable. But if you miss a collab, there's no reason why you can't go off and take the marketing know how from the collab and do it on your own time. We have a collab that's actually coming up on Friday. It's one of the easier ones. It's Meet the Baker collab and you just snap a foot photo of yourself and then you could copy the caption is going to tell about you. You're going to connect with your audience, tell your backstory why you do what you do, your reason behind your bakery. And it's a great way to use these as excuses. But that happens on Friday. That doesn't mean you don't have to do the collab every quarter till next year. That's a great excuse.
- [73:20]
A
Corey does an intro Meet the Baker post probably once a quarter. And then Sharon, which was exactly what we said is, is that the Main street collab concept is a great way to get corporate orders if you just keep doing it around your local area. Well, okay, Sharon, if you could only ever do corporate orders or customs, which one would you pick? If you could only pick one or the other.
- [73:41]
C
Oh, now that I have unboxed little blue. I'm, I'm here for corporate all day.
- [73:46]
A
Yeah, I'm here for corporate all day. Do you feel like your day job, which is constantly meeting small business business owners could be incorporated into the lead gen or is that like cross contamination? You can't do that.
- [74:01]
C
I am afraid to cross contaminate. Now one thing I will say is like the loans I've closed, I want to like cookie them so bad. The funny thing is the first, the first loan that I closed was a business that is actually in Tomball, Texas, which is where my son currently lives.
- [74:29]
A
Oh yeah.
- [74:30]
C
So the funny thing is I go visit him the day before his fiance is supposed to go to be induced and we all say, hey, let's go get our nails done. I'm like, man, the street sounds so formidable. Why would I know the street? Never make the connection about Tomball. Tomball. I am in this nail shop, and I come out and I'm like, this is bothering me. Like, how would I know this street name? And I go across the street to the HB, which we love HBs here. HB grocery stores. I park and I look back across the street where I just was. There is the franchise was.
- [75:16]
B
So you closed one of your first guys?
- [75:22]
A
Yes.
- [75:23]
C
Like, it's kind of proud, but it's also like. And so I'm like, oh, this is going to be weird if I just pop over there. And she may not be in there anyway. You know the bar.
- [75:34]
B
Yeah.
- [75:34]
C
And so I said, well, when I go back to work, I'm. Next time I log back on, I'm just going to email her. And I took a picture and I email her this picture. And I was like, am I stalking you or am I not stalking you? Like, and she replies back. And she was like, how'd you get this picture? And I said, well, you know, my son lives like, five minutes from here now. And so she's like, oh, next time you're in, stop by. I haven't done that yet. But I'm sitting here thinking, like, I want to make her cookies. You know, I've. I've closed her loan. I've closed, like, a glow tanning loan that's here. And I'm like, I could put all their stuff on a cookie, but I am afraid of cross contamination. Like I said, don't want. I don't want my job to say, hey, we didn't hire you for you. So what I have done, though, my. The location I'm at, so Fort Worth is, you know, known as Funky Town. They're known as, like, Panther Island. Purple is a big color here because of tcu. So my location, twice a year does a Purple Panther Award. I took the opportunity. I'm on the committee of picking who wins it. Like, I'm on the culture committees and stuff at work. And so I took the opportunity to say, why aren't we recognizing nominees versus just the person who gets the award? Oh, well, how can we do nominees? Oh, I'll tell you how. I'll print you a cookie. And I'm actually giving. And I gave those seven cookies away for free. But I did, like, this big scalloped cookie called my Chat GPT bestie. Hey, help me design a cookie for this. And it came out fabulous. And they were so, so impressed by it. And so then I can say, hey, if you ever see an opportunity.
- [77:23]
B
Yeah.
- [77:23]
C
Where you could throw me out because my bank has just partnered with like pbr, which is the Professional Bull Riding association, is a big client for the bank. You can maybe you can throw me out to PBR for something. Or maybe I gift you a few cookies for you to take to pbr. And then they're going to be like, oh, put me in touch with this cookie lady. Like, if there are those opportunities, I don't consider that cross contamination. But me just going on my own, I do feel like. I do feel like that's kind of. I don't know, is that a morality thing? Is work ethic maybe? Yeah. There is something there that I don't want to necessarily use it to my advantage.
- [78:10]
B
This has been amazing. I know I'm gonna cut it.
- [78:14]
C
I love the.
- [78:15]
A
I love the car in the house. That was that.
- [78:19]
B
We couldn't have asked for a better first time person to speak on this. I'm gonna cut you loose. Me and Heather have to fill in the first part and the last part to this, and then Heather's gonna do some voodoo work and put it all stitched correctly. Thank you so much for being on here. I. You're a great storyteller. I don't know if you knew that, but you had us the whole time. We love you.
- [78:39]
A
We love the sun, we love Eddie. You love the FedEx guy.
- [78:42]
C
We love them all.
- [78:45]
A
Okay, thank you, Sharon. I'm gonna boot you. And then we're going to record the rest of the podcast.
- [78:49]
C
Okay, thank you for having me. Sorry I rambled so much.
- [78:52]
B
Take care.
- [78:54]
A
Three, two, one, Twins again.
- [78:56]
C
We're back.
- [78:56]
A
That was a hilarious story. Thank you so much, Sharon.
- [78:59]
B
And thank you for everyone who has
- [79:00]
A
volunteered to be on the podcast. This went great. So I'm going to be reaching out to more of you. See how easy peasy that was? Easy peasy.
- [79:09]
B
Sharon was a natural gift to talker, though. And she had a storytelling ability like none other. I didn't feel like me and you had to do any work. We were just.
- [79:15]
A
I also feel extremely boring. Am I going to just my car into something give us to take? I need the sun to write a book on that level of composure, whatever that is. Could you have kept your cool if Archer called?
- [79:33]
B
You know, it's something so big. I would hope that.
- [79:36]
A
I can't.
- [79:37]
B
The thing is, is that's what insurance is there for, right? I don't know if Arch gets in A little fender bender. I might be.
- [79:45]
A
Corey, you have gotten into Fendi Bendies yourself sometimes. I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tattle on Corey. She'll do something or drop some or spill something. And I. I just look at her, be like, you would yell at Archer for this? She doesn't yell at him, but I just. I just like to add the brother,
- [80:00]
B
like, but good thing my name ain't Archer.
- [80:03]
A
Corey. Okay, we're going to back to the Cookie College boot camps, which you heard Sharon mention she took the. And she. If I didn't have a fire under my bun heiny before. And now I do. Cause Sharon's out there just recording everything. Yeah. It's great. And I did watch her first video. She posted it in the sugar cookie marketing group, I think.
- [80:19]
B
Yes.
- [80:20]
A
Where she goes to the waffle cabin. I wonder what waffle classical music sounds like.
- [80:25]
B
No, but what I appreciate about Sharon and the boot camp is. And she liked that podcast Mountain excuses. A lot of people are like, I'm too technology, you know, technically just challenged. I don't want to learn something new. But I want to say, if you don't put yourself out there to learn something new, it's going to leave you behind. Video, unfortunately, is where the world's going. AI can't do video quite yet. You are the secret sauce in your business. So you being on camera and showcasing
- [80:53]
A
where you live, where you work, what
- [80:54]
B
you do is a great way to differentiate you from the person down the street. And Sharon was able to take the Video Bootcamp course. She used Cap Cut. And we do cover what Cap Cut is in the course. I actually use Inshot. They are comparable apps, but both of them have a payment thing. And since she started with Cap Cut, she just went with Capcut. I started with Inshot. That's the only reason I stayed within shot. But both of them can be used to create these videos for social media.
- [81:21]
A
Speaking of how technology ever changes, I make these dumb little, like, recap videos when we go on a family trip. Nobody ever sees these. It's really just for Cory to watch two years from. From now and then tear up a little bit, I guess. So she said, make one for the beach trip. And I was like, okay. Because it's the first time we all our family schedules have a line. So it was the original six Miracles are back on a trip, but now we're all in our 40s, 50s, and 60s, and this is the first video I've ever made that I filmed completely vertically.
- [81:50]
C
Yeah.
- [81:50]
B
Horrifying.
- [81:51]
A
Really realization there.
- [81:53]
B
Yeah.
- [81:53]
A
Typically you do 19, 20 by 1080, the YouTube, the TV, TV size. But I said nobody will watch this on a tv. They'll watch it on their phones.
- [82:01]
C
And you're right.
- [82:01]
B
That's where I got the video and watched. It was on my phone sitting on the floor.
- [82:05]
A
So Corey, you have a roomy review. I'm gonna let you read that. I think it's from the Bootcamp.
- [82:09]
C
I'm.
- [82:10]
A
I'm gonna grab a coke. I'm. I'm trying to get over my sultry voice. I know. Of course I'd keep it, but okay,
- [82:16]
B
so the boot camp is beginner friendly. So if you're already making videos proficiently, you're not gonna necessarily get a ton out of it. But we do talk about market marketing strategy. What we do in this is I guide you from step one, how to import your clips into inshot, how to film your clips so they're nice, crystal clear. And then we start doing things like muting the clips or adding text over the clips. Kristen is actually one who has really taken to that entire thing. And here's her roomy review. She said, corey and Heather, I don't know what kind of voodoo you do, but as a right Now I have 3066 views on my IG cookie page. I uploaded a video I created with the techniques you taught us in. Oh my goodness. I've never had this many views on ig. I'm off to edit another video. That is the thing is you can take all the courses, you can sign up for the cookie college, you can sign up for the Bootcamp. But unless you put it into practice lest you fumble a little bit and you finally get your sea legs under you, you'll notice. Not that it'll be as if it didn't matter if you took those things. Kristen, you have Sharon, they and you have Heather, who are my babies who actually took what they learned and put it into practice and they've saw a boon from it in their business. I saw, I asked people yesterday in the sugar cookie marketing group, what's your biggest struggle right now when it comes to your bakery business? And a ton of them said marketing. I'm going to tell you right now, video is where marketing is. So. So if you are not creating video, you are leaving so much reach, engagement and orders on the table. Do I wish video wasn't the main game right now? I do wish that because I hate always filming. But I love watching videos. I love watching them. Let me glimpse into the life of somebody Else. So that is my roomie review. If you want to. The boot camps are 13. You can get the ones that I've already done, which we just finished up the video one. So you can snap snag that one. We did in person cookie classes at the beginning of the year. We did pre sales, which was, I want to say February or March. And then we did a 3D printing, which Heather did, which was phenomenal. Her little baby student for that one.
- [84:26]
A
I was telling Amazing Grace there because you kind of had it into an altar call.
- [84:29]
B
I know my last thing. If you like the boot camps. The boot camps are 13 and now there's a few to choose from. If you just join the Cookie college, you get all the boot camps that. That have happened for the price of the Cookie College show. It actually saves you a bundle to just sign up for the Cookie College and not just buy those boot camps individually.
- [84:47]
A
Yes. And if you sign up, we're actually. The midsummer membership sale is the only other sale we run outside of the Vendy blending. And you'll be able to get those boot camps included. I'll have more information coming at you soon. But the next boot camp. I know you might think this is weird. Not weird, a little bit more niche. It is cracking community group. So July is a slow month for a lot of bakers, mostly because their clients are out of town or we're out of town or just a natural lull of holidays in July leading into August. It's the best time to start laying the groundwork. Or if we want to talk about my landscaping, laying the sod that will take root in Q4, which is the cookie Super Bowl. A lot of people say, oh, my market's so saturated and Facebook groups are so saturated. And they are. That's. That's not wrong. So how do you stand out amongst the crowd? And this is what that bootcamp is
- [85:35]
B
going to show you.
- [85:36]
A
I can teach it proficiently because Corey has made me run a community group. We're in a place I don't live for the last three years. Four years.
- [85:43]
B
Four years.
- [85:44]
A
It's been a while. It's been a while talking to these people.
- [85:47]
B
I don't know.
- [85:48]
A
So kind of telling you the strategy behind creating these relationships. This is a relationship based marketing approach, but it really. It really turns these Facebook groups into Astroturf surfing, you know, grassroots boots on the ground. Get those recommendations that you are so envious of all these other bakers getting tagged. Yeah, that's how you do that. That will be July 2nd and you can purchase that now at thecookiecollege.com bootcamp6forward/buy. Or just go to thecookiecollege.com after that. I have an exciting one. Another one of my babies. We're doing Procreate Basics. Procreate is a design app on iPad. It is extremely powerful app and it's only. Only like 10 bucks, but you could just do anything with it. In fact, I'm designing some cookie class kits for Corey. She's been my boss recently. And we sat down and I pulled up Procreate and we went through some sketches together. And she's like, change this, change that. And I like that. I don't like that. So we were using that to come up with some of the cookie class kits. So you can use the same concepts that we're using to design the class kits to design sets for your clients. And Procreate is very forgiving. In fact, I know mostly how to fix problems, not how to design anything.
- [86:59]
B
Oh, that's great.
- [87:00]
A
Yeah.
- [87:00]
B
Because I don't know how to draw anything.
- [87:02]
A
It's. I. I sometimes watch people draw on it and I'm like, shoot. I. I didn't know the nose had gray in it. Like, they're seeing shadows and I'm seeing like, yeah, my skin is 10. Like, that's just one color. They're like, no, it's 50 color. Okay. That's why what I draw look like a stick figure. But Procreate is definitely got some slight of hand that makes you look better than you are. I can say that because it makes me look better than I am. We'll talk about that in our August Procreate class. And in September, we had. Actually, Corey, I did look up what you came up with. You wanted to do a Google business profile optimization bootcamp.
- [87:35]
B
Yeah, that. That one is how I've been getting my corporate orders. So I actually have gotten partnered with this Corporation in Washington, D.C. and I'm
- [87:44]
A
like, isn't it crazy? Cory was floating around the pool and she's like, I got a lead. And she's like, they want it immediate turnaround time. I'd have to bake the Saturday we got back, which was this past Saturday, and they want me to deliver to D.C. and I don't want to. So she tells them like, blah, blah. And what was the story of it?
- [88:01]
B
I couldn't deliver to D.C. the. The money Jesse would eat up any profit, and I wouldn't want to charge them to go to D.C. myself. They got a courier service that ended up Picking them up. But she was like, the cookies were perfect. It was a quick turnaround time. Two designs. But corporate orders are. Are nice because it's easier. You're not having to come up with six different designs per set. And they typically order more than just one dozen. So you could get the two, three dozen. I did a order for Coach. She found me on Google that was a four dozen cookie order. And the people are really easy to please. It's a different, it's a different vibe than just custom orders where you're doing like B2C. B2B business to business. They kind of understand like the limitations. Like I, you know, I can make this happen in a day. But the, the designs are going to be fairly easy.
- [88:50]
A
Easy.
- [88:51]
B
And they're like, whatever, just bake it happen. And. And that's where I wouldn't get happen
- [88:55]
A
or make it happen.
- [88:56]
B
Bake it happen. I wouldn't get those leads if it wasn't for Google, my business.
- [88:59]
A
Well, that's another thing with Sharon. And you know, she is the small business loan. Like she's the sba.
- [89:05]
C
Yeah.
- [89:06]
A
Getting these printers that print, they just open up these doors and they ain't cheap. She spent 5,000, Eddie's 3,000. I don't know what incredibles. Is that the wrong one, what I'm saying? No, it's in intricate edibles. She said that was the most expensive of the three. So these are not for the faint of monetary heart. However, these corporate orders really, I mean, how much did Coach. How much was your Coach contract?
- [89:29]
B
I want to say it was 56550, 600 with deliver those. Yeah.
- [89:34]
A
And I would love to know what her 30 dozen paid out.
- [89:37]
B
Oh, I couldn't imagine.
- [89:39]
A
So a lot of times I see people like, hey, I'm taking that risk in the buying, investing in this piece of equipment that isn't cheap, but it's paying out the margins of, you know, like Corey said, the company she's working with is like, you know, there's no budget. We just want the thing and worked for. You know, when I worked for, I worked in property restoration. So I do know a little bit what she's talking about. When we work for them. It was like, hey, I. I don't care about the money. I want the problem solved. And that's the difference between the customs where everyone's like, hey, this is the shade of maroon I want versus corporate. Who's like, can you, can you get these tomorrow? You know?
- [90:12]
B
Yeah, yeah. Different, A different thing. And I could see it. Why a Lot of people like to focus on corporate orders. So this is. That would be how to get those corporate orders coming to you vers you having to go get them. Granted, you'll have to do some marketing where you do a little bit of
- [90:25]
A
both, but really I thought we could just not market. I thought we could just set it and forget it.
- [90:29]
B
I'm so sorry. That's not. Have this w. The unfortunate part of
- [90:32]
A
the boot camps is you got boots on the ground after the boot camp ends, going out there, recording yourself at a waffle house, going to this homeowner's house and reaching out to them. It does put you out of your comfort zone. Corey, you had to do. You went to the ramulations and put yourself out of your comfort zone.
- [90:46]
B
But such.
- [90:47]
A
Such is standing out. And really for the past week at the beach, Corey and I really talked about this kind of video marketing forward approach to a lot of this. And it's. It's pushing out of your comfort zone. That's why it's working. Because your competition isn't doing it. It's too uncomfortable for them. It's uncomfortable for me, it's uncomfortable for Corey. But it makes a huge difference in terms of the. The reach.
- [91:12]
B
Yeah. Yeah. It really does. Does it does.
- [91:14]
A
Okay, that is great. So if you guys want to check out the boot camps, you can always go to the Cookie College dot com. The whole platform had a bit of a facelift over the weekend and it's brought in a lot more of a community vibe to it on the platform. So we saw you can have a
- [91:28]
B
little profile on there.
- [91:29]
A
You did. I had to upload my little picture going to the gossip column. Nobody texted in, but I. I was just going to gossip about something I read in another group. It was this other group and it was the age old. You know, the client says, hey, the cookies taste like soap. So if you don't know what happens with that, there's a couple different reasons. It seem like the primary reason is that almond extract, which does not contain almonds, can taste like soap. It's this cilantro. Cilantro issue, right? Cilantro tastes like what? Soap to people? I don't think it tastes also like soap to people. I dated somebody and he was like, I love cilantro. And I'm like, I don't get it. Yeah, I wish I loved it. So the. So the client says, hey, the cookies taste like soap. And then there's the caveat. If you're using a baking mat and you washed it and you didn't get the soap.
- [92:12]
B
I mean, one time back when I first started baking, and this is why I don't let anyone in the kitchen if I'm baking cookies. My husband made a ham, like a baked ham in the oven. But I was making these carrot shaped cookies for Easter. They were just for my family, but I brought them the next day to their house. But when I bit into the carrot cookie, it tasted like ham.
- [92:36]
A
I. I froze. I'm not sure now you're not frozen, but you. He's working on it. This is as hard as we're gonna get it. That's pretty good. What I was gonna say is, did you throw away the bake mat?
- [92:49]
B
No, it wasn't the baking mat. It's that I cook next to a ham. And the cookies leached that smell. So if you have a candle, if you have an air freshener, you got to be careful with those things. The cilantro tasting and the almond tasting thing, that is subject to someone's taste bud. So you can't look at anyone. Be like, your taste buds are broken. But bakers love to argue that the customers are making.
- [93:09]
A
Okay, this is the funniest part is, okay, everyone. The customer is always trying to. I know I'm a big black blob, but you're gonna have to be okay with this. It doesn't like the backlist better. So the thread was like, the customer is trying to steal money from you. And. And the reason why this looks so crazy is just the cats are so crazy. So just go.
- [93:30]
B
Just be back to your bad self, man.
- [93:32]
A
So, you know, Cory and I say, yes, there's some bad apples. There are some clients who are trying to. But I'll say probably the largest, overwhelming, large majority of who engage and place orders with your business just want the cookies. Maybe you get one or two. Maybe you get one or two people who are just. However, the comment section was like, this person is trying to steal from you. They want the cookies for free. This is their plan all along. They researched the soap excuse and. And so this was an unmoderated group. So the comment section just, you know, crazy, heck, in a hand basket. And then this one solution, I just thought it just made me giggle a little bit. They were like, of course, it was an anonymous penguin. 5, 5, 7, whatever. And then it was like, hey, you should bake an extra cookie and decorate it for every set. When the client picks up the order, make them eat that cookie in front of you and state if they're happy with the taste or not. And if they're, if they say they're happy with it, they can no longer ask for a refund. I was like, you know what? I guess that would work.
- [94:28]
B
Could you imagine going to Chili's Bar and Grill and saying, you know, the, the cheese wasn't good on my cheese. Pull mozzarella sticks. And they say, bring one out from the back. We're bringing the chef, we're bringing the manager and your waitress. You must eat this and tell us you hate it to our face.
- [94:46]
A
Give me that cheesy mozzarella stick. Just give me a little giggle gaggle. I don't believe most of our clients. I do not believe all clients are without their issues. And I do believe there are bad apples floating around there for sure.
- [95:00]
B
Oh, sure.
- [95:01]
A
But I think that making every single one of them eat in front of you would be so funny. That would be funny.
- [95:07]
B
Like, would I offer my couch while she ate it? Would she come into my kitchen to.
- [95:11]
A
Would you charge them for the extra cookie? The extra test? Forced to eat cookie? What if they look at me like,
- [95:16]
B
yeah, I don't like this one either.
- [95:18]
A
Oh, shoot. What if it was like, they were never going to eat it. They were gifting it. We had to get the gift receiver there, get their butt tried here.
- [95:25]
B
Whoever said it tasted like so get them in here. And they're like, but that was my kid at college. Get him back.
- [95:30]
A
That's so funny.
- [95:31]
C
So funny.
- [95:33]
A
Upcoming events collabs. We have the Meet the Baker collab which is on Friday. If you've already seen signed up for that, you have gotten your reminder emails and the copy templates. If you said, oh, Heather, I missed the sign up window, but I, I do want to participate. Go to Sugar Cookie Marketing's Facebook group. Go to the events tab. Go to that collab event. And in the pinned comment section, I have pinned those.
- [95:53]
B
I, I want to add to this though. If you're joining the Meet the Baker collab, me and Heather cannot guarantee that you will show up for the hashtag. So what I'm going to ask you to do is if you are purchasing participating and you're getting comments on your post, I want you to click to the comments on your posts that we know are from other bakers and go and comment on theirs. That's like a surefire way to make sure that you're reaching people. Even if their post isn't showing up under the hashtag, I can't force it to show up on people's phones. And there's a weird way, like, Someone had it scheduled, so the post didn't show up under the hashtag. I have no control over that. But what I did do to make myself be able to find them is if they commented on my post, I actually clicked their name, went to their profile, found their post, and it'll be the meet the Baker one. So it'll be easy to spot because it'll be their face, and then commented that way. That's a surefire way to not miss anyone that has commented on your things by finding them.
- [96:49]
A
Yeah, I made that. You're.
- [96:53]
C
You're.
- [96:54]
B
You're no longer audio. You click something when you just touched your microphone there for that two seconds. Heather has a spreadsheet that you can, can access if you want to. It's a few extra steps because you're having to click to it, but it does exist out there. Do you think you can talk now?
- [97:09]
A
I think so.
- [97:10]
B
Now you can.
- [97:12]
A
Wild technology, man. Wild technology. But yeah, I did make that spreadsheet hyperlink. So now you can download it and click on them. That's how I'm going to do it on Friday.
- [97:22]
B
And, and going forward, the next collab after that. Heather, I feel like, because you're sick, like I, I don't know where your brain is, the next sentence is coming, but I know.
- [97:30]
A
I'm so sorry. You did great.
- [97:32]
B
Great.
- [97:33]
A
The. The next collab. I don't know if we can talk about this.
- [97:36]
B
The next collab is going to be cookie, that hobby. The great thing about being a baker is we can turn anything into edible artwork. Our goal is to let people get to know the person behind the baking account. You make birthday cookies, you make wedding shower cookies. But what if we turned a cookie into the hobbies that you enjoy most? So Heather's doing this rug tufting, making rugs. We would just take a plaque is the goal. And we'll have the details more in there and then you're going to put on there the things that, that are hobbies to you. I like walking my dog. So you're going to see a little bulldog on there with a leash on them and it's going to showcase that. I like walking my dog, but I also like walking. So maybe I'll do a path, like a path in Lake Ridge. I don't know what it'll be, but it'll be your hobbies on there. Photography. You know, I might put a camera on there. I have to, I have to really come in tune with what my hobbies are. Our goal is to not just showcase that you like baking sugar cookies. Our goal is to let people get to know the baker behind the cookies so they can connect with you. Mahjong is really big now. If you're a mahjong player and someone's like, oh, you play? I play. You've created a connection that can end up in a sale or end up in a referral or a tag in a group. And that's the goal behind this next one.
- [98:50]
A
I want. Well, you're going to limit the signups to this one, I think was to 30. That way we can can kind of figure out this hashtag issue. I hate for people to put in all this effort and then not get any engagement. So if we can limit it and then force the people that are there to really kind of show up, increase that participation rate and that would be great. Next up, the Cookie Con Happy hour is very soon. So I can't believe we're already here.
- [99:13]
B
I think I see people packing for it right now.
- [99:16]
A
Oh, I hate. I hate packing. I hate packing. Cory's son packed two outfits for six days. He watched my house too close.
- [99:22]
B
Let me tell you, he smelled like that too. The Cookie Con Happy Hour is hosted by Heather Campbell Brookshire. She is a Disney adult, but also a Disney planner. And if you are looking to meet two very happy go lucky. I don't think anything negative has happened in their life. They've never frowned. Kim Sims is going to be there and Heather Campbell Brookshire and they're going to be leading this meetup. Heather, tell us where they can find the meetup.
- [99:46]
A
You go again to the sugar cookie marketing group. Go to the events tab. You'll find Heather Campbell Brookshire one you can just summoner. She just appears everywhere. I think if you click your shoes together three times, she shows up in your living room with the monorail dress on. But go there. She's making a ton of comments. They're willing to help you through everything. She's posting in multiple groups, I think Cookie Con attendees group. I'd recommend if you are attending Cookie Con, you can now join the Cookie Con attendees group. It's not our group, but it's their group. It's Cookie Cons group that you just have to match your ticket to an email address and you can see that Heather's posting there as well. It's also a great way when the event is happening to kind of stay on top of what's going on. Like if a quick announcement, they need
- [100:22]
B
to push out, connect with people, ask where things are. It's a great resource but meet Heather, meet Kim. They're as nice as pie. You won't find nicer people out there. And they're the sponsors of the happy hour.
- [100:34]
A
Great people. After that, we have the midsummer membership sale. I'll post more about that coming up, so stay tuned for that. It's the only sale we run outside of the second sale, the Vendy Blendy, which is way too far away to think of about. Thank goodness. I guess I got to start promoting it soon, though. We said in August.
- [100:49]
B
In August, not a day before. Don't. I don't even want you to ask me about it.
- [100:52]
A
I don't even want to. I think we're. I think most of the people are out of school now. Right.
- [100:57]
B
Safe to say, well, our counties around me have ended last Friday, so.
- [101:01]
A
People. That one's a hard one for me to put on a list. But we. We are there.
- [101:05]
B
Right there.
- [101:06]
A
Or you're past it, or it's. It's coming. Father's Day is this weekend. Don't forget to say I love each other to your father. I got Dad a card and it is a cat sitting in a litter box. He cleans the litter.
- [101:18]
B
I know, exactly. I've seen that.
- [101:23]
A
Summerween is in two weeks. That's not a major holiday. But we're trying to force it because we want something to bake for Fourth of July, which is also America's 250th birthdays in three weeks. And then national cookie date. Nothing there. But I would like it to be something three weeks, then a massive lull through all of July and all of August for any major federal holidays. And then it's back to school.
- [101:43]
B
Yeah, back to school. I see people actually going back to school on July 22. I've seen. Are you kidding me? Baking for it now. It's going to be staggered. I know our kids go back end of August, so we have some prep time for that. And that will be absolutely a blast
- [102:00]
A
to send them back. Okay, moving on to the STL me about it segment, I got a cool update from Cookie Design Lab. Also think they've rebranded a little bit. The name's the same, but the logos changed. But I just got that email. It says, for your upcoming podcast, can you mention that Cookie Design Lab will be at CookieCon? We'll be in booth 105 and we're giving away a bamboo A1 mini in addition to exclusive discounts and demos of the software.
- [102:23]
B
Let me tell you, I am a Cookie Design Lab believer. I don't want something to have a huge learning buy in. Like I don't want to spend hours and hours learning something new. Cookie Design Lab is not hours and hours to learn something new but I I've been doing the main street marketing just like Sharon. I've been doing it outside of the collab and I've been using my Cookie Design Lab subscription to Cookie Fi people's logos so I could put their logos on a plaque. But how cool is it to make the shape of their logo cookie that bring it over to them and create
- [102:58]
A
a relationship that way. I love it so and also if you text in she says not all of you guys are claiming and your wins here. Now we got a ton of texting questions but if you text into the podcast and you're selected, you get a month of Cookie Design Lab for free. Even if you already pay for it. They can tack that month onto the end. So just email heather sugarcookiemarketing.com and I'll hook you up with that Cookie Design Lab 123456 texting questions. Who is the magic number? 41234 it's a 717-7177 Chris Kristen from Kristen's Cookies Cottage please email me heather sugarcookiemarketer.com and you can get your month of Cookie Design love she says. Besties. This is your bestie Kristen from Kristen's Cookie Cottage. We're actually kind of neighbors. I'm just 90 miles north of you in Chambersburg, Penn. Gettysburg, Pa as a widely known historic landmark. Hello neighbor. Hello hat. Heaven help me. What is the name of the app or program you mentioned on the POD where you can accept customer student info from job form and have that information transferred to Excel spreadsheet automatically? I taught my very first public cookie class yesterday. Thank you girls for all the info inspiration materials. I grabbed the contact information using my iPad in job form in a kiosk mode. I didn't work as planned. Technology never does but it I need it to transfer to my customer contact spreadsheet now. Advice help. I have plenty of love to give so no favorites here. Love you both. I love that question. I actually told you it connects to and the app is called zapier S Z A p I e r.com zapier.com it connects to online things. So yes, I'm really talking more about Google sheets. It can connect to that. Can it connect to an Excel spreadsheet? Yeah, but you'd have to use and it used to be called SharePoint. You'd have to use Microsoft Office Online to get it connect to an Excel spreadsheet that's going to be a little bit more advanced but definitely doable. What I would probably do is have it connect to a Google Sheet. Have that Google Sheet just mirror what your Excel spreadsheets columns are and just copy and paste that over over when you need to. Yeah. Because typically I, I have my, my Excel spreadsheets always local storage. Should I have them even synced up to the cloud? Risky. But then I'll have them. I'll have a Google sheet that I'll just paste that information. So it still is an extra step. But doable.
- [105:12]
B
Nice.
- [105:13]
A
That's a great question and congrats. Sorry if you just use Google sheets and you don't need the extra step. Okay.
- [105:18]
B
Congrats on your first class. So proud of you. That's amazing. And your customer follow up will lead to customer retention. So way to go on that one. I could take a note out of your book.
- [105:28]
A
No, Sharon was very organized as well. Another texting question. Hi twins. One of my favorite episodes episodes was Too Busy Too Business. I was hoping you could revisit some of your solutions in a future pod. Thank you so much for everything, Sarah. I had actually looked this up. Too Busy to Business was Corey had gotten bogged down. I think it was episode 179 or something. She had gotten bogged down and somebody had sent a message and she didn't get back to them in time. So, so we were saying like what ways can you kind of create buffers so that the clients are like, what, where are you?
- [105:56]
B
Yeah, fine, blind here. I thought you wanted my business and I've heard nothing but cricket, so great.
- [106:01]
A
I'll add that to the list of more ways we can buy back time and look a little better. Because listen, life happens, that's for sure. You know, sometimes we just run our cars through our houses and we have to buy back sometimes. So having these kind of little fail safes in there. And the key is, and I'm learning this one is don't forget them when you need to update them again later. Those vacation away messages you guys have set up when I send out the newsletter, remember those. Here's a. Here's a great feedback one. This is just a kind from Ellen Wa Dear favorite twins, thank you for the boot camps. Even if you think no one's listening, they are background lurkers like myself who somehow absorb some little nuggets of info and run with it. I was late to the video making boot camp and the main street collab. But since I'm a cookie college roomy, I have the comfort of knowing I can go back in my spare minutes. I took heart in your previous podcast about showing our real selves in the world of AI. So I decided to get off my booty and try making a real awkwardness and Kermit voice. Who cares? That's me. I saw that a favorite small business was doing a bookstore crawl, so I made a logo cookie of each of the four participants and filmed myself at each stop. Not only did each door share my reels, engaged more views than any previous attempt, increased my followers, and resulted in three bulk event orders. So thank you for what you do, even if you don't think it's going out into the void. We're here, we're listening. P.S. if you want to see my second part. Small biz collab, real attempt. My IG is Ohana Party Company.
- [107:24]
B
That's amazing.
- [107:26]
A
That is great, guys. I'm saying I know stuff out there.
- [107:30]
B
Being on social media. We are all on social media. So now what is people? What is the next thing people aren't doing? It's creating video. So if you feel like the world's oversaturated because everyone's in a Facebook group, be on a video in the Facebook group and you're going to set yourself apart.
- [107:47]
A
Okay, last one. I'll read. Thank you guys so much for texting in the f Phone number is 571-55-65644. I think as they lure me into the grave and they'll be like, do you have any last words? I'll be like, 571 556. Hi twins. If you haven't. If you haven't sent out a newsletter in around eight to nine months, very big life changes got in the way and I'm still on break. I'm just playing my comeback. Is your email list still good or do I need to scrap it and start over? Thanks in advance for everything you do, Kelsey from Texas. Kelsey from Texas. I would say your email list is still good. What's going to happen when you send out that first blast is people are going to unsubscribe. And that is their thanks to you if you can reframe it that way. Otherwise you'll get your feelings hurt. Nine months is a lot of time. You could have moved, you could have divorced, you could have changed jobs. You could have done all these things. So those people unsubscribing are basically like, hey, girls, I haven't heard from you. My Life changed as well. And I'm no longer interested. Another wild thing. While I was at the beach, I was checking my email, my personal one, and I, yeah, I signed up for Steve Madden to get a discount code the shoe store. And it said at the top of my inbox, you have not opened these emails in quite some time. The, the Google Gmail AI said, would you like to unsubscribe right now? Just click this button.
- [108:57]
C
Yeah.
- [108:58]
A
So unsubscribing is these platforms? No, no, we're not opening them. So they're making it easier to unsubscribe. But it's actually going to save us, the senders money because we pay for those email addresses that we're never going to open. So don't scrap.
- [109:13]
B
Go ahead, look at it as a positive and not a negative. If you look at it as a negative, you're going to stop sending out emails because it hurt your feelings. But look at it as a positive. The people are telling you we're no longer your ideal audience. So carry on. Find someone new to take. Take my spot.
- [109:28]
A
And you know, we meet some people and they're like, I have this list and it has a bunch of people I don't want to. And then they have to go through and manually delete it. They're going to self delete, which is great. So no, don't scrap the list. It's still a strong list if you have them from past orders. Absolutely. Just expect that first email is going to be a little bit of a bumpy ride.
- [109:46]
B
A little bump, nothing bad.
- [109:48]
A
Maybe, maybe the email senders shouldn't tell us as soon as we log in, how many people, in spite of. Maybe it's that maybe they should leave live.
- [109:55]
B
Leave that under like click here to see unsubscribe so you can like brace yourself maybe.
- [110:00]
A
So qu. This podcast has actually gone to two hours. That's why my camera canceled. Quit. But I loved it. I love the Sharon part of this. This is so fun. Sharon's was the most fun part of this.
- [110:10]
B
Me and you are just snooze fest right this point.
- [110:12]
A
I'm actually going to cut out the snooze fest part. I'm not going to do Twintress or Twintelect unless you have something burning. I don't have anything burning. Burning in my snooze fest of life. Yeah, nothing going on, folks. I had a nice little shrimp at the beach.
- [110:27]
C
That's about it.
- [110:28]
A
Okay, see you guys next week.
- [110:31]
B
Collab Friday Collab Friday 11:00am EST Eastern Standard Time. I hope to see you there. There is a hashtag you need to use. Go to the Sugar cookie Marketing Facebook group. Go up to the Events tab. Click Events. It's the next one happening and it will tell you everything you need to know to be involved in that collab.
- [110:51]
A
Thank you so much for filling in the gaps between. My head cold. I seem to be collecting them. You've done great. You've done better. I would subscribe subscribe to your podcast.
- [111:00]
C
Bye.