102. Baking it Down - Whisk-y Business

😳 Whisk-y Business 🍪

Who knew baking could be so... whisky. Okay - it's a pun on "risky," and Corrie wanted it to be the topic of today's podcast. Things you may be takin' a risk with - that you also may not realize. 

💸 And if you do realize it and accept the risk - that's okay! It's your business and your risk awareness. An assessed risk is one you're willing to take on - and willingly face the potential consequences if the worst happens.

 1️⃣ Copyright can be oh so wrong.

We've all been there - a client willing to throw cash money our way if only we could do this one Pooh set. It's tempting - and it's even cuter than it is tempting. And why shouldn't you take it on? Everyone else is violatin' the Big D's copyright (Big D = Disney). 

🐭 Will you get caught? Maybe not. Could you get caught? Maybe. But as long as you're willing to account for the risk involved with copyright infringement (a favorite topic of speculative arguments in the cookie groups btw). Take for instance this seller who didn't heed the Disney law teams' cease and desist on selling the Mickey and Minnie ear-themed headbands. "But everyone else was doin' it!" 🚔🚓👮 Yeah - I tried tellin' that line to the last officer who pulled me over - he didn't agree.

2️⃣ Allergy-Free ain't Risk-Free

🤧 When it comes to allergy-friendly or allergy-free requests, it can be risky business to promise somethin' you're not. And, if you're like me and don't suffer from severe food allergies, I doubt we truly understand how dangerous a food allergen can be to folks who are severely allergic. 

Which is why you won't find Corrie and I makin' promise we can't deliver when it comes to allergy requests. And who likes telling a customer no? 📑 No one - but I'd rather tell a customer no than tell a customer where they can send their lawsuit paperwork. 

3️⃣ Ensuring You're Insured

In the world of "whisk management," insurance is the plan. Insurance is the biggest racket, that is until you need it. FLIP insurance is a fan favorite in the bakery groups, and for around $25 bucks a month, you can rest easy with mitigated liability. It can also cover farmer's markets and events with its add-on dashboard. 

Why take the whisk when you can ensure the whe-ward (okay - the pun falls apart there)

4️⃣ Put it In Your Policies

Policies were written in blood - or well, for us - burned cookies. Most policies come after the fact which is synonymous with "too late." But you don't have to create a policy forged in blood sweat, and many tears because we crowd-sourced one in the Sugar Cookie Marketing Group! Click here to snag it.

5️⃣ Breaks Breaking Up Your Bottom Line

Hey, I love a good vacay - heck, I love a good, long vacay. But in the world of business, most customers don't accept "long" being any longer than about 2 weeks. Long breaks put the brakes on your bottom line. I'm not talkin' the weekend off here, or the week off there - I'm talkin' about "burnout breaks" where the baker plays Houdini for months at a time. 

🚗🚕🚙 Imagine being a local gas station and taking off like bakers do. ⛽ "Hey - no gas today. Actually no gas this month. But next month maybe. I'll let you know. Check on my Facebook page for details on my fuel-filled comeback. I'm not closing - but I'm not sure when I'll turn the pumps back on." 

6️⃣ Emergency No Fun-D

Nothing causes more stress like operating with a bare-bones bank account. This often happens when we have more bills left at the end of the month than we have dollar bills. 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

It is the podcast, but on a field trip,

Speaker 2: 0:03

We're

Speaker 1: 0:04

On a field trip. My older sister has run off to Hawaii with her husband, and we have raided her house. I would've rather been invited to Hawaii than her house. Uh, her cat, she has one of those little house lions. It is a Beal that is an expensive spot. Every, every time we've tried to film this podcast four times, every time we get started, he finds something else to mess with. This time, cookie cutters, last time cookies. The time before that. The podcast mics

Speaker 2: 0:28

<laugh>. But we're gonna just push through regardless of this crazy cat.

Speaker 1: 0:32

<laugh>, what's the name? Sha La Laies Candy. Don't ruin the podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:37

<laugh>.

Speaker 1: 0:37

So, Corey, intro, quick intro of the podcast. Welcome to the Baking At Down podcast. Oh, here it comes. Not, not Chicken strips.

Speaker 2: 0:44

Chicken nuggets,<laugh>.

Speaker 1: 0:45

We are Corey and Heather of the Sugar Cookie Marketing Group on Facebook. And I love to decorate cookies. But while I decorate cookies, I love to listen to podcasts. And thus, the Baking at Down podcast was born. It hits the platforms every Tuesday. It

Speaker 2: 0:59

Hits it, it slaps, it just slaps<laugh> a bit.<laugh>. We're trying to get'em out every Tuesday

Speaker 1: 1:08

And it just takes about an hour. Uh,

Speaker 2: 1:10

Last time we talked about skincare, so hopefully we'll talk about marketing some this

Speaker 1: 1:14

Actually, Gloria had an interesting topic. I'm gonna jump right into, we'll jump right in. Look, it's all based off of a pun. So the, the pun came before in the podcast topic. She wants to talk about whiskey business. Things you may or may not be aware of that you're doing in your business. That could put it at whisk.

Speaker 2: 1:28

Whisk<laugh>. Whisk<laugh>.

Speaker 1: 1:30

Let's start off with the age. The, this is the one thing people love to Aren. They do about, they do. Here's the one thing. Corey and I are not lawyers. And we're not your lawyers and we probably need lawyers ourself, but copyright violations specifically gotta bring in Big D. Big Disney. Disney,<laugh>. Disney does not sleep. Why? We sleep Disney works. And they got a team of lawyers against you. Little Baker. But here's the thing. Disney cookies are requested so much. I fi I feel like I get blame Disney for making us fall in love with our childhood. Yes. And then having to grow up and be like, snatch it from us. I, I tell my clients that I don't do Disney characters and it's probably not even because of copyright. It's because I can't do like little character eyeballs. And, and I would have to give three therapy sessions with anyone who ordered those cookies from me. So, yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:19

Yeah. Syd,

Speaker 1: 2:21

I

Speaker 2: 2:23

<laugh>, I was seeing

Speaker 1: 2:24

About the Eyes when before CGI kind of came. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. Um, but okay, should you or should you not do copyright? That is your business. And this is why it's called Whiskey Business. Now you'll have people inevitably in the muddling in comment on copyright arguments. Mm-hmm.<affirmative> saying that you can do inspiration or you can, should never even get closer. You can't even use the same color. So you can get, you can actually use the copyright but delete the photo or never take the photo or gift the, uh, set in exchange for a donation. At the end of the day, only Disney's copyright lawyers are gonna know what is right and wrong. But it is the whisk you take when you choose to flirt with copyright infringement. So a lot of people ask, well, can I recreate this, that, and the others? With back to school, coming up back to, you have a lot of college, I'm sorry, graduation. Graduation to school. They're going to school. Leav one school going another graduation. I don't do the graduation because big colleges do have a copyright online. Or cuz you don't know how to write the letters, which they don't know letters. Have you violated copyrights? I have not yet.<laugh>. Really? Yeah. Would you? I would. Would you not? No. Not I have proof that's with my audience. I don't wanna pick and choose what I say is good or bad. So I just have done the blanket. I don't do copyrighted images. Okay. Let's talk about this then. Let's say somebody's like, well get on Ask all the time. I know people do cuz it's asked, it's every kid's birthday for Oh, I get asked every single week. Yes. Spider-Man for a five-year-old. Yes. So let's say someone says, I want Spider-Man for a five year old and you wanna make the sale, but you don't wanna violate copyright. How would you handle that? I would say I can do a red number five and maybe a blue thing. That's a happy birthday. So kind of the inspired by, what do they call it? That, you know, the word that they're using that it's not the exact I feel like inspired by, is the word inspired by you? Uh, another one that I saw was pretty interesting is Make me a Disney princess. And they only make the dress, but it looks exactly like Jasmine just took it off. This is what I told my customer. I said, if I can hold up a cookie and my son yells out sleeping Beauty we're way too close.<laugh>. I would love to see what is he doing now? He's just, do they, can you guys hear the pounding of him, the lion against? I hope you can. It's insane. Hardwood. Um, yeah. The interesting thing about copyright is you'll be turning down a lot. But here's the thing. If you've been posting copyright, uh, content, you a you communicated to your audience, please come to me and ask me for this. And if you're, if your competitors are not doing that, oh, he's now taking the cookies off the shelf. This cat is very little for the amount of force he has. He's also got really, really skinny legs for him to be causing such a ruckus. Okay. Alright. Definitely not a Phoebe Wey.<laugh>, sorry that the Discombobulated podcast is going, but this is our only option for dinner. Um, but back to it. If you've communicated to your audience that you're willing to do copyright, you're going to feel like cutting off copyright. Now, if you're saying, well, that's not a risk I wanna take anymore, is going to completely sever your lead source, it will be a transition. If you were saying yes and now you're saying no, cuz you gotta recommunicate to your audience. Now, I'd hate to do this cuz you guys spend so much on your sets, but removing those photos would help deter people from asking if you're, I know you send people who ask for copyright content and really just want it. That is so crazy. He just ran down. He's on the way down stairs downstairs. Yeah. Yeah. I think, yeah, I don't think, I think half steps. Yeah.<laugh><laugh>. So you refer it out to other bakers. Yes. So, and I guarantee you, if you take, if you took on copyright, people would start referring you out to that one. It's just, hey, you can't. Yeah, absolutely. I I tell my customers like, Hey, I'm not the baker for you, but I still want, uh, want you to get the set that you, you want, you know, you dreamt of, you know, your Spider-Man set. I'd always say first line of defense. Well, if you're doing copyright things and you're taking that risk at by means I'm not gonna judge you. It's a, it's your business that nobody's gonna come after me<laugh> by. They make them after you. But if you say, okay, well I don't wanna do direct con, I'll do the inspired by. Okay. I would say when someone's like, give me Spider-Man Marin Carnet and Cookie for'em. See if you can get them to err on the side of finding that compromise. I wouldn't do that initial just, Hey, no, I don't do that. I would say, Hey, here's what I can do. Here's something similar. Here's what I can pull from inspiration by and really be that salesperson that still saves that lead. I mean, they already knocked on your doors, so you spent the most money already. So you're telling me I did it wrong. Corey's like, bad, I don't need you on money.<laugh> left you on red. So yeah, I mean at the end of the day, we're all salesmen saleswoman in our own businesses. Even if you're whisking it. Uh, and if you say, well I don't wanna whisk it, but I, I want maybe a little bit of that Disney type money, the Disney dough, that Disney doe<laugh>. It's a lot. It's hard to say no other things that I see. What are other copyrights that we see? We see a liar. Who bear. That's Disney. No, I, a question about P Bear. P Bear naked Poo Bear is he's outta Yeah, but what if I do a poo bear head? And then, then when someone's like, that's copier. I'm like, no. Technically he's naked. I just did his head. Have you seen the head of the naked one? He doesn't look as, he doesn't look like the cute clothed one. What if I just did a head on<laugh>? Why you're gonna put red shirt and just ha hope No way not. I dunno. How does that work? Completely threw irrelevant topics in one side.<laugh>, have you connected them? That's a new Disney lawyer. Uh, colleges are copy, copy wri copyrighted. I don't know, copyrited. Um, what else is, do you have all the characters? I know I get a request for the office a lot. That is Oh yeah. Super superheroes. Yeah, definitely any brand. Technically Amazon. You know, I, I wonder even if you're making those Amazon Box, I've seen the Amazon box cutters, which are super cute, but using the Amazon logo, it doesn't belong to you and you didn't get permission. Oh nice. Oh Super Bowl time is always a big copyright infringement cuz you can't even apparently say the word. Yeah. Big bowl game<laugh>. Superb Owl<laugh>. So yeah, the copyright infringement options are everywhere. Whether or not you wanna risk your business, just make an actual assessment of what you're willing to risk. If it shuts you down completely. Is that okay? Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, if you say, yeah, I'm willing to take the risk that somehow this shuts me down completely. Are you willing to have to deal with a lawsuit in, in the Sugar Cookie marketing group? Have I seen one person say that they were sued? No. I'll be honest, I haven't. No, that doesn't mean it can't happen. Cause I have heard rumors of it. I have heard Etsy taking down listings from it. And then you could get your Etsy account banned. Yeah. However, it must be few and far between that people are actually facing litigation. That doesn't mean it isn't a potential. Yeah. Most of the time if you choose to violate copyright, I think this process starts with a cease and desist. But if you generate a lot of income, it may be worth maybe more of a fight. It's interesting. Or you risk getting banned from platforms like Etsy. I will say on TikTok I saw a couple and they make Disney headbands. So what you'd wear to the park, you, you know, with the little two ears. Super cute. Super cute. But Disney has gone after them. Like they're in the courts that fighting that. That would be crazy. And I'm sure that in their mind it's just ears who's gonna care. Yeah. But in Disney's mind, this is our intellectual property. I know that there's some lob that you, if you have uh, trademark, you have to enforce it or you kind of lose it. That was a whole thing with hook and Loop. Do you know? Yeah. Yes. Uh, Velcro. That Velcro<laugh>, if you have not seen that commercial, it is one of my favorites. They got a pretend group of coral singers to pretend they're lawyers and saying, please stop calling Hook and loop Velcro. Cause we're gonna lose our Velcro copyright. Cause that's the brand name. Same thing you see with Kleenex. Uh, which is just tissues and uh, what's the other one? Band-Aid, which is a brand of bandages. Yeah. Uh, so, so again, if those businesses enforce their copy, you gotta respect that cuz they're doing what's best for them. If it's at your expense, will you put yourself in that line of Whisia Whisia? Next one. Allergen orders. Now I know Corey had experience with this this weekend. I did. Got you out of an order. Are you trying it? Are you trying to sell anything? You're trying to get outta cell? Apparently not. I gotta, everything Corey does don't the opposite. You'll be successful. Go. Um, the thing is, a lot of bakers I see and it's totally your business with what you do will take um, someone that has an allergy and still bake for'em. Even if they don't have an allergy free kitchen. And to be allergy free, it's a lot more than like, you know, my pan didn't touch, you know, it's peanuts, white, crazy. Yeah. Um, fortunately there's a Facebook Live coming up. What is today? Today's the last day of February. So it'll be in two weeks. Uhhuh<affirmative>, uh, if you're listening in the future, then you gotta go back quite a few weeks.<laugh>. But Kim is teaching it. She has really bad allergies, like severe peanut allergies. Yeah. And she does, uh, allergy friendly. So she's teaching us an allergy friendly life. Oh nice. To really kind of understand what goes into, cuz she said like, okay, Corey and I don't have allergies. I think you have an allergy to sushi. Now I take a soy sauce. Oh, soy sauce. Sushi. Unless we have fish allergies, not soy sauce. I don't know. I headed the other day without telling you, I said I'll just take the bus. Like whatever happened. Where do you go? Uh, Kira, sushi and Ashburn. You went back to c this<laugh>. Absolutely. But I ate my, I opened my mouth really wide when I ate it. No issue. So it's almost like the soy sauce touching my lips. Okay. And we think my mom has an allergen to the cats and my dad, but I almost think they kind of make it up, you know, like when it like placebo, they believe it so much that it produces the allergen. Uh, this cat, I'm allergic too though.<laugh>, he's allergic to his energy.<laugh>, he's chaotic energy. Um, but allergy friendly. So Corey got an order, uh, from a nice lady up the street. Anyway, uh, there Corey's like come Sunday she didn't wanna do the order. Asked the lady like, Hey, we're still on front pick up. The lady says even earlier, can I take it out? Corey's said, oh no, that's didn't go the way I wanted it. And then she said, oh by the way, my kids have allergies. Well for Corey was an alpi. She's allergic to money<laugh>. Uh, but it's important to say that is a huge risk. Now I did co I created custom boxes for Corey just to test it. I think we used box genie. Yes. Um, but I added on the boxes that this is not baked in an allergy friendly kitchen. Because I think it is so important when people do have allergies that they understand Right. The risk. And what you don't want to do is put anyone who suffers from an allergy at risk because of your whiskey business. Yeah. What they'll go for is you and your business. And if you don't have the proper things that are protecting you, you were just leaving yourself out there. What she ended up saying, I said, oh, I'm actually not comfortable taking your order cuz I do not have an allergy friendly kitchen. She said, well, you know, I have given my kids some things from people's kitchens that isn't allergy friendly. If you're comfortable with it. Always wondering. But when something when left and it goes left and not right, who stuck holding the legal fine? I said, I am not comfortable with it. Shut up my oven and head it on to the California where looking for anyway, to not be comfortable with it. That said, if you do get those allergy conscious orders or allergy free orders or gluten I know is just, you gotta really consider mm-hmm.<affirmative> what you've gotta do to meet that requirement. And if you cannot meet that requirement, so surely I would say I wouldn't do it, but I would definitely have flip insurance. The insurance for cottage home bakers to make sure that you're covered. I'm a little even scared. I won't recommend someone to another baker that is not listed as, you know, allergy free. Um, because I'm scared that I'll still be attacked if something went wrong. Like, you know, Corey, you said to come to you and now my kid. Okay. You guys are listening to two twins who aren't lawyers and speculating mm-hmm.<affirmative> from what horror stories we've heard from other people. This is an opinion. Yes.<laugh>. But if you talk to an actual attorney, I'm sure you can get more definitive answers. Hopefully Kim will give us an inside look of what it's required to actually be an allergy friendly kitchen. Um, I think the best, uh, allergy friendly or allergy free bakers or the bakers who have allergies. I know a lot of people's kids have allergies. They're, they're cognizant and they're not, they're not bringing those ingredients into their homes at all. Exactly. If your kid can't have peanuts, you're not gonna have peanuts in your house. Yeah. Unless you can do peanut free. Yeah. Um, but yeah, it's crazy. The cats found something else by the way. He's, sorry, he's in my bag.<laugh>. That's, that's so insane. I did wonder why that blind was drawn and I lift it up, uh, playing dress up. So this is playing dress up, acting like a business but not carrying the liability insurance that would protect you as a business. Now my dad is obsessed with insurance. He thinks everyone needs it on everything. I don't know. He probably has every, he probably has cat injured if we to guess. Um, I did have the snake injured. Weird. Why? Because you thought it would die. Um, oh, just pet insurance. Like so you could take it. Yeah. You did reptile insurance. Yeah. Yeah. It paid out for nothing. So don't go<laugh>, just risk your reptile<laugh>. Um, but when you put, when you have insurance, insurance is the biggest gimmick until it's not. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, you know, you pay into this thing GA saying it's annoying. I pay gam said I paid into the auto insurance. I've never gotten an accident once in my life. Safe. She But when you do get in that accident, yeah, you gotta, I was in a five car pile up on 3 95. If you sat in that traffic, you're probably still there today.<laugh>. It was probably eight years ago. The car that caused the pile up fled the scene. They suspected that he didn't have a license. Oh,<laugh>. Uh, so when the officers came, of course most of the cars are totaled. However, my car was the last car. You were the last that actually you were the caboose front there. And they, they said, here's the caboose. Right. So I looked at the insurance, uh, charge. Years later it had ended up costing for my fender bender. My car is only 32,000 in repairs on the other vehicles because they had to, you know, I think the other people had to pay 5,000 anyways, 32,000 paid out. Personally, if I had to pay that out myself, she would cry. Could you imagine? I think you would cry. And that's what insurance is. So when we talk about small business owner liability insurance, you'll hear people recommend flip insurance a lot. I it's a brand. So go look with them. A lot of people have great success for them. You can ask your homeowner's policy to see if they would. Uh, I used to work in property restoration and I know that your homeowner's insurance company doesn't want risk either. You don't. So I'd almost go to flip instead of asking my homeowner's policy. And it's not an insane amount of money that you're paying for it either from like, and hopefully and likely you'll never have to use it. But in that one, one small instance that you had to the an ex-boyfriend I had, uh, Corey and I, one of our clients was an insurance agent, Uhhuh. So I was like, well yeah, I I like how you pick marketing companies, which you ride up my policy. So when I had gotten a motorcycle, he said, Hey, I'm gonna, I do, I do believe in non captive agents. I think that they can Yeah. Find you great prices and write the policies in weird ways. So he said, I'm gonna write you a policy. I'm gonna include uninsured motorist. And I said, what is that? Like, not only am I paying what I think is he giving for someone else's. Yeah. Turns out a couple months later, Rob got Rob ran into a car that ran a red light. Uhhuh<affirmative>. So Rob hit the car with his motorcycle in his body.<laugh>. Yeah. Anyways, that guy was uninsured. Yeah. And that uninsured motorist policy Absolutely paid. It took what could have been an extremely stressful situation. And it was like candy and a candy story. Yeah. Doctor test. So in in with the plane dress up, is that where we talked about like, you know, Venmo and all those things You Yes. In the plating dress up and it's, you know, when you're starting off as a hobby baker, usually you're not like, and I'm starting my business today<laugh>. No. It's usually people knocking at your door. Hey, I saw you made cookies for your daughter's birthday. I was wondering if you could make'em for mine. And it kind of just takes you before anyone gives you this stink eye for not getting legitimately business size. Guarantee you they didn't either. They tripped into it just like everybody does. You started doing it for fun. Somebody begged to place an order, refused to do it for free for sure. That's how we all started. So if anyone tells you different, they're, but they love to be like, you need to get legitimate<laugh>. You need to pay your taxes. Yes. We all need to pay of taxes. And then, but getting there is usually not as direct as, and today I am in business. Yeah. And an acts a sense of a little bit of professionalism. If you are telling people like, hey, yeah, uh, pay me through Venmo, but just do friends and family. You know, and there's a level of professionalism that comes, you know, with the fact that if something goes wrong, maybe they could get their money back.<laugh>. Yeah. Uh, consider the trust factor. When somebody goes to pay friends and family for something, it says warning. Yeah. You are not protected. You'll never get your money back. So how long can you milk that train before you actually don't see that you're losing leads because they don't feel protected from you. Yeah. So yeah, flying by night skirting the things under the table. Money, it sounds all well and good and who doesn't wanna keep more of their hard-earned cash. However, being a legitimate business is less risk than this kind of like under thing. Because you see some people get reported for not having the licensure depending on your state. And then they get fined. Hmm. Was it worth the whisk<laugh>? You love that word don't you? The whis<laugh>. It's a whiskey business. Um, okay. This is, this is my my risky business. Take, break me off a piece of that business closure aka taking really long breaks. And I know life happens, but rare are the times that I see like a really popular like car like dealership Yeah. Clothes for three months cuz it got, cuz a guy got a little burnout. Yeah.<laugh>. So what I wanna say is understand that burnout is a real thing and plan your entire year accordingly. Yeah. Burnout only happens because you it the plan didn't plan. Yeah. It was, it's almost like you take on too much. And I hate when I see Baker, it's burnout. Um, because it's preventable. Mm-hmm. Um, but if you do not protect yourself and your time and your self-care and things like that, you're gonna end up being burnt out and you're gonna take an extensively long period of time, a break and then you're gonna come back and it's like starting over. Imagine communicating to your audience that you are in business. You are consistent with your orders. However, at random times you'll not be in business. But please come back cuz you'll be back in business at a time that will be confirmed at a later date. Please order from me, but not right now. But later I'll tell you when, but it's not now. Yeah. I'd be like, okay, I'm gonna leave her, she's going source some stuff<laugh>, I'm gonna go to another baker. Right. So then you're saying, well twins, we, you know, what if, what if life happens? Fi have a contingency plan, have a lead source that you can send leads to in the duration that you need to take off. That way you don't look like that. Like I'm no longer taking. Or also why the, why the harsh messaging on no longer taking orders. I don't know. What if it's like this pleasant like, Hey guys, you know, life got crazy. I'm had a kid<laugh>, I'll be back when the kid turns 18<laugh>. Uh, and just gotta be a pleasant, like, you know, I'm not taking orders now if you have to take a break, however it is, and I'll say it, it is whiskey business to keep taking these really long breaks as cuz it's like you said, you have to go back and redo all that hard marketing that you spend a ton of time on. Yeah. And it also creates with your customers, like they're not confident in you being there. Like, if I have like two months I wanna do a baby shower order and you take a lot of breaks. My my confidence is not necessarily with you if I, if you're known for taking breaks a lot. So I probably would go to a baker who I, you know, is not, not there<laugh>. Right. It's just, it's just hard. And as an audience, um, oh, sorry if I what? Sorry. Little email. Sweet pink, olive. Adorable.<laugh>. You gotta like, this ones better than the other ones. Not adorable.<laugh> uh, the cores working with, uh, Natalie of Sweet Pali on the Easter Easter set the cream classic kits, which I turned into transfers last night. Yeah. They were cute. I need you to email me the egg one. I'll just need it. Okay. Okay. You see I made'em half size for you. Yeah. I thought they were adorable. They're so little. I made an inch size and half size, but I'm gonna give some transfer sheets away to the main group for free noise. Like carrot You like you I think a carrot's a good one. I thought the egg is a good one. Okay. Would a bunny be a good one? A bunny bun? Because you put those on the back of those peep ones that Oh, that's super cute. Okay, perfect. I'll do that. Um, back to whiskey's, us<laugh>, what's our next topic? Our next topic is keeping your policies in place. And then it says parentheses bad reviews. No, I know we harp on bad reviews. Yeah. The number one thing we see in the cookie group is like, I have so-and-so customer, they're doing this one off thing and then everyone's like, what does your policy say? And they'll be like, what policy? What who is policy? I have never met her. Oh, go ahead<laugh>. It's a funny joke. Continue<laugh>. Uh, yeah, so having your policies in place before you need'em. A lot of us, a lot of policies have been been built from the embers that's left after the fire of the burnt down business. So when we say policies in place, have them ready to go so that in the event that keys fob for U US needs to say, Hey, we have a no refund psi. Yeah. I didn't have to say. Well you said no, it said it on the website by the way. I lost my little, uh, my counter. Yeah, we needed that. Can I have a extra, extra key That doesn't work.<laugh>. Um, when it comes to policies, I'll see a lot of bakers be like, I've never had two, you know, enforce people paying before pickup. And then I'll see like them five months later and it's like finally someone didn't show up for pick<laugh>. So it's not if it's when that was also what we, the insurance agent told me all the time. Yeah. And then he said buy an umbrella posse. And he said, whatever you just said sounds expensive and I'm out<laugh> for that reason, I'm out. Uh, but yeah, it's not, if it's when you, you'll have that lake customer, you'll have that customer that said it tasted like soap. You'll have that customer that canceled at the day of their cookie class when their seats ready to go mm-hmm.<affirmative>. And there's no possible way you could resell their ticket. It's gonna happen. It's part of doing business and we don't wanna do risky business. Now if you say, well I just don't know, nothing ever wrong has happened to me, so I wouldn't know how to build one of these contracts. Look in the sugar cookie marketing group. Hashtag cookie contract. We crowdsourced one everyone's experienced that experienced you<laugh> and then we re rewrote them to sound really pleasant. Yeah. Because what what I don't really like is a messaging like you will pay our dime. Yeah. When you can say like, Hey, payments due at time of order to secure your spot. I wanna make sure that we get those cookies to you and that that date is solid so I don't accidentally sell it out for Monday. Yeah. So you can be a little cordial while also having your policies in place and it's just, it's a more pleasant experience. People like to know what the rules are. It it is, it is. It saved me more than one time. It saves us a lot on cooking classes. It does. Yeah. Um, an emergency fund. So I have hate, I hate it when somebody doesn't wanna refund somebody. Somebody because they need that money and they've already spent it. Or life is hard. Or the bills. There's more bills at the month than there are. Yeah. You know, dollars. And then you are in that really frantic spot where it is a do or die situation. Uhhuh<affirmative>, if you do refund this bigger problems happen. Now the way to kind of stop that, it's a version of tunneling where all you can see is like, oh no. Oh no, no. Is to have an emergency fund in place now to build up an emergency fund. I'm not saying like just put$3,000 aside right now. That's Yeah. That's aggressive If you can, awesome. If you can't, what if in every order you put$5 aside until you build up an emergency fund of a thousand, 2000 or$3,000. It is. If you are one refund away from having to close your business mm-hmm.<affirmative> and go back to get a job with an employer and a nine to five, you are running a very whiskey business. I have an emergency fund for my personal self and Corey and I have an emergency fund for the business. I have one for my future. It's called my Kid<laugh>. I better become a doctor<laugh>. I'm not seeing it in our, I think he's gonna be professional. I think need me a librarian.<laugh> A library. Yeah. He's gonna work in it and he is gonna work in it. Support. He said that when he is old, he wants to use all his retirements on getting as many cats as he can. It support original. Yes. Tell him to take this little guy<laugh>. Um, but yeah. Have an emergency fund in place. Have it building. You will have to use it. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, you may have to use it. That's what it's for. Uh, I like whether or not you like Dave Ramsay. I really do like, like listening to the colon. Yeah. Um, a lot of people create this emergency fund and then never use it cuz they don't wanna touch it. Like No, no. It's meant when your oven, like what'll floor, your business is if your oven goes out. Yeah. One, it's how you produce and two, it's an expensive part to replace. Yeah. So I would have an emergency fund in both my personal stash and business stash to go to an oven replacement. Consider having an emergency fund. What are other big things? Uh, big things. Like a lot of people, we, we have laptops that we do our, our stuff on. If that crashed or something, you know, all those phone, those photos, everything like that, you would need to get that stuff back. Yeah. And unfortunately we are just a fleshy squishy thing around a hard thing. We are flesh and bone and if you break your wrist, if you have to do carpal tunnel surgery Yeah. It'll put you on your butt. Yeah. And you won't be able to produce. So that emergency fund could cover this lack of income for a certain amount of time. It breaks my heart when we see people like, I can't refund this. Um, you know, I've already spent the money and I already spent it on order and I do not have the money to refund. Now it's easy to judge those people and be like, well you don't have 45 bucks. You don't, some people don't. Life is expensive and inflation is take no prisoners. Where did we go to eat? We had to just have a moment. Siam Bistro love me some Panai, but they gave us the check also. I think we went to IHOP and you and I were like IHOP yesterday guys. First off, there's this IHOP heather called the Secret ihop. I I'm, I was no longer mind because nobody couldn't find it. And literally no one not even corporate could find it. Corporate rules were out the door, everything looked like it was homemade. This used to be my favorite ihop but it was um, not to dog, but if you go to Ross like I do, which I love Ross, I just, Peru, I let Ross find me. Yeah. Ross has to find you. You can't go into Ross wanting something. No. It has to want you. Right. It'll jump out and grab you by your ankle and you'll drag it to that long lines. And so anyways, when you go to the Ross, yeah. There's a straw section you'll know if you know, you know. Yeah. And they have like a box of a hundred straws. Turtle kiln straws, right? Yeah.<laugh>. So we go to the IHOP and you know, the waitress is like, can I have diet coke cuz it's all I drink. I have no healthy habits. She's like, absolutely. Would you guys like a straw? Yes I would. You're thinking the little straw where you can go click a little paper straw thing, point it at something. Yeah. No, no, no. She brings out the Ross straw and shakes it almost trying to unlodge one to come out. Which if this is a mom and pop shop, by all means gimme a Ross straw. But an ihop, IHOP like international house of pancakes and straws. Gimme the breakfast sample.<laugh>. It was a wild experience. Uh, it, it was a red flag that on the door it said the fire marshal. I've never seen that before. That this is a burning fire watch building<laugh>. Right? Like they had to do some major repairs but hadn't but they weren't allowed to take this paper or penalty of prison. Yeah.<laugh>. I said, I dunno if this is a good sign. I was like, look, come on, let's go get a, it was a sign and it wasn't a good one.<laugh>. And it was stuck to the door. Irre removable. Just like the syrup was stuck to the syrup container as well. Like do I expect, I love iha. Yeah, but that one was so wild. That experience. Why are we talking about it? Oh, I don't know. Emergency fund. Oh yeah. What's the next one? I don't know how I don not know how that Sorry guys. I just, we need to stop. I have e an emergency fund for their straws.<laugh> I need to do, there are some problem away from closing. But even then, if we look at ihop, imagine how many people are being turned off to going to eat with that giant fire department sign in the front. Likely whatever it takes to fix that cost money. And likely there is no money. Uhhuh<affirmative>. Uh, so having that emergency fund, I, it'll let you breathe easier. It'll let you breathe nicer. I know that I was saying it was easy to judge people, but life is expensive and inflation is expensive and IHOP and the prices out gone rainy. Good. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And as, as we see that economy is kind of squeezy, we've got high inflation. I don't even know what the economy, I don't think the economy knows what the economy's doing<laugh>. But as we kind of see that, you're gonna see people with less and less margin, less and less emergency funds. So if you can start saving that now future, you'll be like, oh my goodness. When you really do need it. Right. Uh, not an emergency fund buying an Eddie that's not that Just be cools an emergency That's not emergency<laugh>. I dunno. I think it was my emergency. I think it's an emergency. I don't have one right now.<laugh>. Uh, but things that our emergencies, fridge appliances going out that, that allow you to do the car that you used to make deliveries. Have your customer who's gonna leave you on snor room. Yeah. It'll cost you a lot more. So think of in term of an emergency one not having it, will it cost you more? Yeah. And you won't, that's stilt. You're trying to make the Eddie work. It's not gonna make it work. They're like, I make more if I had an Eddie. So it's an emergency<laugh> uh, password management. Okay. Low-hanging fruit. I, I know we talk about it a lot. No it's it if there's whiskey business out there, that one that we can about I wanna talk about right now. One, there's scams going on all the time. Yes. A lot of them are contingent on you giving your password away. But there is one I have got I you gonna say Yeah. Giveaways contest. Yes. Giveaways. Yep. Raffle. Using the word giveaway in a post will on your Facebook page will like, almost like it's a sunbeam down onto the hackers to see your page. They'll recreate your page. What I think is happening is that there are scripts running constantly combing through Facebook to look for the keyword raffle giveaway and hackers remember uh, like I put podcasts like hackers and then Oh yeah. If you use, if you say my account's been hacked to also summon the same thing. But this one weird one with contest and giveaways is so interesting cuz it is so ting. Yeah. What happens is you fun business owner reached a thousand likes on Facebook to pay into your audience and make them feel love, respected and heard. You say I'm doing it giveaway. Uh, if anyone comments in the comments section below, I almost think it has to include the giveaway and a requirement to comment. Yeah. Uh, the comments are where it gets deadly. So what happens is instantly, as soon as the post goes up your page, your business page is replicated up to five times. I've seen Yeah, that's what we're saying. All of the pages, all they look exactly like you. It's your profile picture and your business name. Huh. And it happens so fast you're not gonna know what happens. What they do is they go to your comment section and every one of your clients that genuinely entered that contest, they'll say you won. Message me right now. Click on my profile to message me for details. Yeah. What happens in the DMS is I think they try to get your audience hacked by doing something with, I'm not sure. No one's ever really gotten that far. A way to stop it, Corey and I found this last week as an option on our Facebook page is that you can say the only people who can comment on my posts are profiles that have liked my page for more than the last 24 hours. Yeah. Interesting. However, right now I wouldn't even whisk it. I wouldn't even use the word giveaway. So what we do is like wanna snag a free cookie class ticket and then x y common phrases or if you wanted to give away, put it in the picture. Yes. That's and have it in the image. Mm-hmm<affirmative>. But do not use those words in your business page for now. Yeah. Um, and if you do immediately change that setting to pe people who've liked my page longer than 24 hours, which I assume that setting's gotta be related. I am sure. But it, once those pages are created, you can't go change your post and take the word giveaway out. It doesn't delete those pages. You can only report those pages at that point. Yeah. And now you've got a huge cleanup. Who knows how long that's gonna take. And that's also gonna create a ton of audience confusion cuz your audience is getting replied to by what you think is you you it's a genius hack. I know. It is horrifying. Yeah. It's happening to a lot of people. So back to password management, all, it's a reason why we do not delete these posts. Even though they do seem repetitive in the group. People are constantly being scammed and the ways that these scammers are working is getting more and more believable. This, hey we've got a copyright violation back there. If you knew you didn't do copyright, you'd be worried about it. You got a copyright violation, click here to uh, counter this or your page will be deactivated in 48 hours. Yeah. Well the natural thing is if knee-jerk response you panic. You don't do any research, you click on it, it's asking you to confirm a few details and guess what? You're now locked out of your account. Yeah. Password managers, uh, are great. Last pass is the one I've typically recommended. However, they've been a little sketch lately. And you don't necessarily want your password manager to be sketched. No, no. Yeah, yeah. They ended up getting hacked. Lied about how intense it was. Turns out the hackers were able to get the entire database of people. However you can't get last pass to tell you who it was. And they said, well if you listen to us and had your master password be complicated, they likely won't ever. Yeah. So bit warden. I think password one are great options. Just however using the same password 50 times, uh, is not, is not the move. Yes. When I, my little sister is watching my older sister's house, which is where we are as soon as I walk in, she said craziest thing someone in Egypt logged into my Facebook. I said well change password. And she said, I don't know it<laugh>. I said well welcome to Egypt<laugh>. What do you wanna do? So really having password managers, password managers really recommend they help you never use the same password twice. Yeah. They help you create very hard to brute force attack is what's called mm-hmm.<affirmative> uh, type passwords and it keeps a log so you don't have to remember these really complicated passwords. So you can have last pass, I still swear by it. Last pass on your computer and your phone. So when I go to sign in something on my phone, I'm not having to remember this 10 character long thing's like that. Is the paid membership though? The Oh the paid membership. You can, as long as it's on a single device, you can have the free membership. Oh I like it on both because I just show my face and it will just put the password in there.<laugh> Crazy. And I do like this feature of paid last pass. It's$36 for the year I've, I've paid for it. And again, last pass, let me tell you do your research. There's sketch. I will stick with them. I do have a complex master password that I updated recently. If you have a I'm gonna need to do that. Yeah. Uh, but when you pay, you have this thing for your post humus access to your log, you pass away. Yeah. So if I pass away, I've actually said you and one other person who's one other person. I think it was Nate, like organic Nate, Nathan. I dunno. I think Nate doesn't even, you are. So what Corey can do is she can, she can request my login to my entire password vault cuz we share a business. So it's important that she has it. I have seven days to say no she's not allowed access to it. In the event that I'm incapacitated and can't stop it, I trust her enough to get access to that. So it'll release in seven days. So I just have to keep her away from her computer for seven days. Seven days. That's all you gotta do. Got it. Come on. You can go pay our taxes<laugh> ahead. I would hate for you to get that log into the V C<laugh>. Uh, but yeah, password managers will really protect you from the inevitable hack. It happens all the time. And I am pretty strict on my password management and password use and I still have had compromised credit cards and debit cards and accounts and stuff like that. If you are on Facebook or Instagram, I wonder if TikTok does it. I think they do. You need to, to turn on the two-factor authentication that's going to save you loads and loads of trouble if someone does end up hacking your accounts. Um, when something's hacked, uh, it alma like sends this flag to Facebook to be like, we've seen some suspicious activity. Sad. Facebook kicked Egypt out. Oh really? But that means her password is still compromised. Yeah. Mm-hmm.<affirmative> And he got or he or she got as far along during the process that summer even got notified, which means they had access to her account. What we always will let you do in the sugar cookie marketing Facebook group is ask if something is a hack. I want you to say, is this a scam before you click on anything. So I know someone's like, I've seen these post a billion times. It's so annoying. Well it's not annoying for the person that's going through it and the more awareness we can bring to it like the Susan Reeds of the world Oh yeah. The better it is for all US bakers. Yeah. And nothing, nothing is more heartbreaking than seeing that profile you curated and grew. And I if you know how the algorithm is so unforgiving mm-hmm.<affirmative> and you got that followership and people are, you know, buying from you and then you lose it all. You gotta start from scratch. Yeah. And it is a wild uh, ride and it break. It'll break some people. It does. Ah, that's a rough one. So use a password manager if you don't like the one that we recommend or don't recommend, find another one if you don't like that. I know some people are gonna be like, why keep'em in my head? Don't don't do that. I have a head too. I know how they work. They don't work Well they are not a vault. So. And the password manager, that last pass and I'm sure the other ones do it too, doesn't audit. And you can have it say like, Hey here's the weak passwords, here's passwords that we think are too old. Uhhuh that you need an update and here's passwords that we think you need to make more complex because of what the credentials behind them. Don't you guys go stealing my Roth ira. I just opened them<laugh>. I don't even know what I'm doing.<laugh>. Maybe you guys can invest the better for me. Uh, but yeah, that is our whiskey business. That's our list. That was your list. Wow. Did you like it? Yeah. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, we've been talking for 37 minutes. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Keep going. Keep Bon going. So we have some Facebook live coming up. I'm gonna actually pull my phone cause I'm not in front of my computer today and I think you guys are gonna really like these. I added'em all last week. So one year of bookkeeping in one day using QuickBooks online with Andrea Forte who is uh, she works for an accounting firm. I'm not sure really what it require. She's an accountant or a CPA or something, which she's like, yeah, she does this all time. Uh, my accountant makes us use QuickBooks and I don't like it. Heather hates it and Corey's never looked at it. It just seems clunky. But she's gonna tell us before tax day how to do or how to handle our bookkeeping, which I know bookkeeping and taxes and accounting are a bit different. So I I'll be watching that live B for sure. Watching the sift app for managing admin stuff with Emily. Reti. Mozo. I did wanna bring that up. If you have something, we don't necessarily allow straight up sales in the Facebook group. Great point I out where you're going. But if you have something and you're like, I really think this could help a baker in some sort of thing, I happen to sell it. If you do a Facebook live and add some value, not just a straight up sales post, um, where you're just like, Hey guys wanna buy a watch, watch<laugh>. I want you to show you, show it how it can help the bakers in the end and then at the very end say, Hey, you can buy it from here. Yeah. Give a little, get a little. So if you got into the group and you're like, well I tried to sell something and those little bees deleted it. Um, yeah, you gotta, you gotta give before you get and a great way to do that. And just one fell swoop. I told my mom that it's not one swell swop, you know, I like one swell swoop a little bit more. It's not, I had, I said it and you know, like you type it and then your computer's like idiot, this is spelled wrong. Yeah. And I was like, how could one swell swoop be spelled wrong? It's a swell swop. It's a really swell swoop. Sounds like something swooping really aggressively. Yeah. Like you, that was, that was a, that was a swoop. And you did swell it swell swell swop. You swell swed. Uh, turns out like when you cut down a tree, it's called one fell a tree. Cause it felled over a one fell swo means you cut down the tree in one swing. Oh the tree fell over. Okay. So Got it. Why are we talking about this? This is is not my like space. And now I'm getting going. You're right. This beautiful house we haven't eaten at the Olive Garden yet is why. Yeah. We are running E Man Diet Cokes and Dreams and I did have a cookie I hope. Oh yeah. One of the cookies. Al Al. Oh the sift one is March 7th. The QuickBook ones is this Saturday at five. And then on March 8th is the allergy friendly Baking Basics with Kim Sims. So there's that one that'll be at two. Then we have, and now here's a great example of the uh, uh, national food conference. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. Yeah. Woa. Lisa Wo is a platform Woa Kathy, like our podium is there. Woa, WOA<laugh>. So Lisa Ktz is with them. She's actually a book writer. She made homemade for sale but she, she said, Hey, I would like to promote the conference. Mm-hmm<affirmative>, which is paid, how can I do this? And I said, you can add value. So she said, I'll teach two lives. I'll teach'em how to get the most value out of the food conference and then I'm gonna teach them girl power. Five ways women thrive in cottage food businesses. Lisa is a book writer about cottage food businesses. She's published, I think they even have a Udemy class. Um, so they know their way, her and her husband. And they're planning the food conference That'll be at the beginning of April, which court and I are actually speaking of, we're speaking Anna. You're gonna get more of this high pitched voice that now. So she's doing Girl Power on March 15th. On March 22nd. The next week she's doing insider tips to get the most outta the National Food Conference. What a great way to give and get. Yes. Um, and then you can sign up or learn more about that. I think it was pretty affordable last time we spoke at, I think it was$20. I think so. It's a pretty new conference. If you hadn't heard of it. It just started in 2020 I think maybe 2021. But it's new and they're constantly adding value. Uh, so look at the lineup, see if it fits into your budget. Yeah. And your knowledge meets and we'll see you there. Yeah. And then we have a cookie club. A cookie collab. Yeah. Guys, Heather's late on Post-It, but we are a large and in charge and we are going to do a Meet the Baker collab and that is featuring you. So do, do that in a podcast on how to squeeze the most value outta the Oh that's a collab. That's a good one. So the piggy collab is March 24th and Corey is right. Go on Gwen. So how it is, it's featuring you, we really either want you to get in front of the camera, you can do a video or you can just do a photo. But we want to put a face to a name so your audience wants to support you. So we want them to see who they're supporting. You'll see your engagement go up on a post like that, especially if you haven't done one in a while or done one at all. Um, but I like to do'em every quarter if I can. You know, if I get a good smashy photo of myself, which is rare, I, you know, somebody in the comments and coronary will talk about how to squeeze the most out of this, but she was like, Hey I'm, she's like, it's taken a lot for me to just get in front of a camera. Mm-hmm.<affirmative> does a copy have to be about, I said the copy can be about everything, but you will see an in remarkable increase, one fell swoop increase in your engagement when people see your faces. There's something about the human brain that likes to see other human. It does brains<laugh>, you know, and I hate getting in front of the camera, literally do hate it. But there's such a positive aspect to it that I will take a shower and do my hair just to put my face in front of a camera. Yeah. It is rough. Corey made me shower today. It was against my will and I was upset<laugh>, but I did<laugh>. Um, and then here we are, me complaining about it. Um, that said, that is a great collabs are fun. They're not only a challenge to put yourself in front of the camera. Yeah. But it's also an entire group of people engaging with you who are also taking on the challenge show. I will say that the, the back and forth engagement happens on Instagram. But I would really encourage you to post that photo still to Facebook, your website, to your Google business profile. Get as much juice and runway out the Oh I have been active today, apple Watch then uh, get as much runway a out of it as you can. So right now, and I think we have a, about only 40 to 50% people actually show up, but interested is 166 and we're still a month away from the night. I can't believe it's the last day of February, but I know And it's also a shorty month. Schwa. It is short. It is short. Um, my stomach's gonna growl cuz we haven't gone garden<laugh>. So I just, if you hear that, pretend it's the cat<laugh>. Uh, but yeah, so that's the second amazing part, component of a collab is that the people who participate in the collab with you go and engage with your content and you'll engage with their content. Gordon, I'll break it down more. Um, however, what are the collabs that we did? We did a Susan Reed collab. We did a Susan Reed Club. This was in lab. Favorite collab We did uh, what's another one? Main Street Club. Oh, we did a feature yourself like so you made your logo into a bake. Yeah, that was a good collab. Collab. And then we did a glow up collab where I was and then recreated my first cookie. Yeah, I think that's all the ones we've done. We try to do it like we set a quarter now it's every half year.<laugh>. We do it once in a while.<laugh>. So those are the upcoming Facebook Lives, which I think you're really gonna like. I wanted to add some Facebook Lives is one that we did was you had to bake a cookie or something for someone who means something to you in your life. Oh yeah. It was a Christmas. Yeah, that was a good one. That was a good one. I think it was around Thanksgiving, if I'm honest. It was Christmas cuz I took it to Seasons 52. That was a good one. See luck. Maybe we did do other quarter<laugh>. Yes. Maybe we did. Twice a year. Once one time. Uh, that takes us through our upcoming Facebook Lives and groups. Stiff. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. The next up. I did wanna touch on the cookie class kits. I think we've talked about it every week now. Corey's like, I will hard, I may not sell cookies cause I don't wanna sell those, but I will sell you cookie classes. But the Easter set, tell me that was not the cutest thing I sent to yesterday. She sent it to me. It is stupid. Cute. It is a bunny head. It's a cute bunny head flopped over ear. It is a bunny foot. It is a bunny foot. That was It is a bunny popping out of a plant. It's ears popping out of a clay pot. Okay. That's kind of what I found. Yeah. And you just, you change that every word. An egg. An egg that's decorated. Yeah. And a flour air and a flower. Are we missing one thing? I feel like we are. Yes. Come on. Come on. Carrot. Carrot. And it's the cutest carrot I've ever seen. Heather. The carrot. It puts the carrot in ki It does. But you can get a cookie class kit. What is it? Does it sound like a di why kit? It does, but it's not What it is is done for you cookie classes. We do the promo photos, we do everything. Just add dough icing And you, you're the secret of gradient<laugh>. Your smile will make all the difference. But in reality it is not far from that weird sales pitch we just did without the jingle. Everything you need to teach a cookie class, you just have to secure your own venue. Yeah. So I hate making icing. So all you'll have the most as ever, four colors. One will always be white because we are about But how do I know what colors to buy? No, no, no. We give you the shop list again. Corey and I are taking the very class that we are that you can buy to go teach over there and we're teaching it also to our local audience. And they're eating it up. I'm eating it up man. Somebody said could we add a third Easter class? I was like, no. No way. No I don't. I'm in French on the My laziness copy<laugh>. I cannot fulfill your order<laugh>. Uh, but yeah, this is a really cute class. I think we'll have it ready. Yeah. Yeah. Want me to do tomorrow on maybe on Monday? Maybe. We're really trying to have it ready to go so you guys have plenty of time promote it. However, if you sign up for the cookie class kits or the cookie college, both of them include these cookie class kits. You get everything We've actually already posted, which is a January class, a February class, and a March spring class. Meaning you could teach them March spring class. Right. Really, really honestly, the, the February class is very Valentine's. It is. And the January class is snow based. So I know a lot of you guys are covered in snow. The day you guys had two feet of snow, we had 80 degree weather. I know. Uh, so corn and are working on a summer class. Kidding. Look, get to a summer class. We're at Christmas. So it's a really neat thing. And the cookie college, since we get to see how those members actually implement it. Yeah. A lot of people are just having a blast making money hands over fast. They're making money and they're having fun doing it because at the end of a cookie class, nobody cared what you did as a teacher and they cared what they did. Yeah. So if you are just a beginner decorator, you can do this. And I post uh, how to tutorials to our Instagram for each cookie.<laugh>. Great. Great. And then I create a coloring sheet. I create a transfer sheet if it's required in the class. Uh, Corey creates a shop list. We create a promotional schedule, an email joke campaign. The event copy social media copy, social media posts and promo photos. Wow. I mean there's even a lot I'm not mentioning cuz it's getting a little longer in the tooth and feels like a long, you can get it on one 12 swoop. One 12 swoop. It's a est of all the swos@thecookiecollege.com. Uh, and you can learn more about the other, uh, options we have. We have the cookie college, which includes every membership that we have including itself. Yeah. So that's probably the most robust. It's the biggest bang for the buck. You get everything for less. Um, if you pay just a little bit more, see what would've done there. Popcorn priced right up. Amen. But if you say, Hey girls, I don't care about marketing and sales. I just really wanna teach cookie classes. Everything else is dialed in for me. I love you. Love you besties. You can do the cookie class kits membership that's 63 includes just the cookie class kits, which are very comprehensive and the minute you sign up you can download everything and then cancel. Yeah. And if you say, you know what? I'm just not ready to deep dive into all that. I'm just starting out. We have the Better Business Bureau basics,<laugh> Bakers Business Basics. And it is 13 foundational courses that frankly if you don't have them dialed in, nothing else will make much sense to you anyways. You can't even sign up for that yearly. Cause we don't think you should be in it for longer than a month or two. But it gives you enough time to get through these very, very basic concepts to make sure that when we do say Instagram collab Yeah. You know exactly what we mean. Why we say it and how to set then. Huh. All right. Let's move over to our sponsors. I gotta start this one off. Okay. I got the brand new AE core backers and guys. Yeah. Oh goodness. It is the white super mat. So it is no texture. It is smooth all over. It is just this gorgeous white, so if you have polar white, there is a little texture on it. Usually when I take a photo you can't actually see the texture, especially after it's edited. But if you were doing a closeup photo, you might be able to see some of the texture. What this white matte does is it is smooth all over and it's matte so it's not gonna reflect a ton of light. Um, and then in edit you can make it super bright white. But it is definitely a white. I wanna your photo face. It is. It's But what about polar? Am I, yeah, I that's the textured one. I like textures textured. What do you mean texture? If you look on the very surface, you could feel like just a tinge bit of texture. Yeah. And you don't want texture at all mean you can't honestly see it. You've seen every photo that I've taken on white backdrop is on polar white. Yeah. So you've never seen it, but you seem so stoked about this thing that's very similar because someone said like they were taking a very close up and they could see the texture. This does away with the whole thing. Oh yeah. If you're doing macro yes photography, you're gonna be see it there. Yeah. Again, it could be vibe, you know, if you wanted it. I know. So this, but having options. If you have money to spend, if you have money to burn, cuz your emergency fund is funded, but this is safe 20% by using code sugar cookie at checkout. Nice. And that white mat one, I have used it all week. Really? And I alert it. I alert. Ah, okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Cooking with fire, she actually had a matte version back in the day and then they were like, yeah, we are unhappy with the white, how it's coming off. So we're taking it out production. And then she just brought it back. You you got happy with the wine. They did, they did all it's the s sweatiest swoop of whites apparently. And it's from, sorry, did I say ae core backers? Yeah. Okay. 50 times, but okay. My bad. My bad. Very hungry. So ae core backers.com is a website where you can find that, but uh, they're actually in the Facebook group so you can also search for that and see how other people are using their backdrops before you commit. Yeah. Hashtag ae core backers on Instagram. You can just see it instead of having to drive to your older sister's. Luxury. All white and gray kitchen. You know what somebody told I saw on TikTok, they said that unfortunately millennials, the word that we are millennial gray, that's the color we keep buying. Yes. And they say, look at your house. Millennials, you're gray. You bought everything gray and now it looks sad. Ashley's house is very great. It's very neutral, which makes it very easy for photos. Not as easy for podcast. I don't know. You know what, if my house looked like this, I'd be happy. I'd be so stoked. Yeah. But we had to drive out here and if you don't wanna drive to Ashley's house, you can get an AE Corp packet. Replace your polar white<laugh>, uh, to Yeah. It's like, it's like a kitchen remodel and a box. Yeah. Basically. And, and a fraction of the price. So moving on to our next sponsor. It is Eduardo. Eduardo. It's a direct to food printer. I know. I was dogging on him with the emergency fund. He's so tempting And he ain't cheap. The man's 30,000, oh 3000, 30,000. It's off sale.<laugh> sale for three<laugh>. He is$3,000. I know Canadians have that conversion right there and makes it seem a lot more I think. Yeah. Just that. Yeah. That shipping is crazy. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. But Eddie is by a company that is pretty phenomenal, uh, called Primera. Primera created Eddie the Edible printer. They're a printing manufacturer company. And suddenly somebody went rogue and said, let's have fun. Yeah. Uh, no offenses the prime. Let's picture and Eddie like a person. It's like CV 500 D Yeah. Blah blah blah. And then it's like Eddie. Yeah. On their website. Your your best boyfriend yet<laugh>. Yeah. It's like as if I know had a, had an office party and then they came up with the idea and launched it in an hour. Uh, but Eddie is a direct food printer, which means Yeah, it prints directly on food the same way your HP prints directly on paper. But it uses the same color as food coloring as your airbrush colors. So it's edible. You don't even have to think about it. It is so crazy if you don't believe us. I didn't believe it when Mark called us years ago and said, Hey guys, have you ever heard of Eddie? Uh, no.<laugh>? Is he cute? Do I need to know<laugh>? Is he single<laugh>? So, uh, check them out at Eddie Printer users group on Facebook. One you'll be inspired. Two, you'll see everyone asking every question to the sun. Cuz people are constantly pushing Eddie to his limits. And Prime says, wait, let us help, let us push out a product. Uh, you know, patch, uh, that'll allow Eddie to do this. Now he's printing on donuts. Now he's printing on m and ms, now he's printing on chips and salsa and all this crazy stuff. Chip chips and sausage and put it in my belly. Yeah. I I just don't, every time I say a food piece, my stomach eyebrow a little bit more. I'm talking louder so you can't hear. Next up, next up is a meine powder called Royal Batch. I actually just made a batch last night and it was so silky smooth. The cookies you ate Heather. That was just my last batch of Royal Batch<laugh>. Oh really? Yeah. It's still savor easy to work with. It's like silk coming under the piping. Was it a fell swoo? It was like swell sw working in a piping bag. It was fantastic. So when, when I said I'm ready to go to lunch. Okay, sweet. Our little sister in exchange for letting us break into our oldest sister's house, we're taking a little one to lunch. I said brine. That's a bribe to tell my older sister. We were not here<laugh>. But this royal batch is made by a company called Bacony Bake. And she is a cooker and said, you know what, I think I can do this whole meringue powder a little bit better. So what it does, it already has vanilla in it. It has white food color in it. So it whips up bright white and it has corn syrup in it if you like. Even a softer bite you can add more to it. But it has been just a godsend for me. He loves it. I I crave eating it. Yeah. I don't, I don't have to add so much to it like I used to, like if you're wondering what the recipe is that Corey uses, uh, just, it's on the back of the bag. It came with the bag<laugh>. So my weird scientific, you can't have my icing thing now. Like she gave it to me. Right. People always say like on Corey's little viral instagramy things, where's, what's the recipes on the back of the bag? Of the bag bag? I dunno. You gotta just go buy it. It ain't broke. Don't fix it. It tastes great. It works great and people love it. And you can save. Did you do the discount code? Oh no. You can use the code twins to save 10%. So I actually buy it in the five pound bag version and I saved the pouch from the one pound bag. I like the one pound to, to scoop out on. I wonder if people who've listened to this podcast are tired of this. I think she's been a podcast sponsor since the dawn of she. I has like But we have you better. Not every week. It's like a new thing that you take the one pound bag in the five pound bag and I'm getting scientific at my hospital. I like Dr. You seem so exuberant. Love. And we talked about it 30 every time naked. I was like, oh my god, I love it. I just love it. And it's off the back of back<laugh> still in the back. The back guys. I'm passionate about Roy Match. What can I say? Do you have a twin dress? I was thinking about it. Do you have one? So you can do mine then I jump twins. I'm trying to think about that. I know I just got acquired. You know what tiny Cloud is? Like you guys talk a lot about buying stuff on the podcast and she's like, yeah, I don't have the fomo. If anything it builds stress. I wanna tell you that this is the only thing we look forward to this and lunch on th Tuesdays. My life is sent. Don't buy what we buy. Just let us test for you if we thought it was a good purchase or not. When would she talking about our skincare purchases? I got Botox. Oh, I ran out, got bot Botox. So the podcast last week we were talking about skincare and Corey made me raise my eyebrows. Runs out Rain that afternoon. One. Okay. One. I've only gone a Botox twice. It's not cheap, it's not<laugh>. Wow. Who's your eyebrow? It's not, it's going away but it a little bit takes two weeks for it to hit Uhhuh<affirmative>. Um, when you get Botox done, this is something I learned you. You're not yout go lay down<laugh>. Oh you have got to stay facing one for four to triple hours in the other direction. Yeah. They don't want it to go down into your eye socket area and then have your eye lit not work. And you're saying girls, you literally injecting poison into your face. Absolutely. Absolutely. And, and, and you know what? I wouldn't have to if life was less lifey stressful.<laugh>. Yeah. If I didn't have to raise these, these brows up<laugh>. I kinda, I'll be honest, I've, it's it gonna be a part of my routine. I'm gonna budget for it. Uhhuh ahead of time. I use wine app to make sure my, I told Botox budget. I'll see ya when this wears off in about three seconds. Yeah. Unfortunately. Maybe Corey and I have Zeus like forehead muscles because they keep saying like, Hey, this could last six months but it could also only last three. I'm only trying to focus on not literally surprised. Literally try to be lesser. Like when somebody cuts me off, I'm like, oh no<laugh> darn it. When my husband doesn't clean the kitchen. Oh no. He says something crazy. I'm like, wow. Yeah,<laugh>. That's wild. Yeah, but I feel young. Can I tell you what Nate said to me last, you said, can I tell you what Nate said to me? He said, you look younger now than when we first got together. I would be like, I'll be back at Botox kid. Can you I man doesn't even know I had Botox. Can't tell him. He would just die if he knew I injected something to my body is just second up. I don't know. Oh, summer's coming. My, let's let's tune this up. Summer. Would you like to say something off the podcast? You big old clunker.<laugh><laugh>. So come wrap us up in the podcast. Tell us one thing this week that you purchased that has made your life, uh, incremental better you think, but also if it wasn't good, you need to tell them it's interest. So whatever interested you can be anything very close to them.

Speaker 3: 57:45

I am absolutely obsessed with skincare and Heather introduced me to a thing called slugging. I was in Target the other day and they came out with this new brand, which I do not know the name of, but you can't miss the packaging. It's bright, pink and red and it's all about slugging and it gives you different steps. Uhhuh,<affirmative> of first is a facial mis then a moisturizer and then the actual bomb. And I bought two of them and I'm obsessed and I think it's gonna change my life.

Speaker 1: 58:11

Wow. See this is why we buy stuff. Cause summer will be like this changed my life.<laugh>. That's why I have my new Walla with a handle.<laugh>. Okay guys, that takes us to the end of the podcast. Um, sorry for the different venue or maybe we liked it. I don't know. Do we need to sneak back here more often? Every Tuesday something the cat was out absolutely outrageous for the first few minutes. Finally hunkered out. Finally he ate cookies. He ate cutters,<laugh>. Then he just decided to make up a game. Okay guys, we'll you guys go.