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Sticker Mule Goes Ass-First into Political Marketing

the Just Trust Me marketing podcast. The words "Just Trust Me" are sliding down a bar and falling off onto hands raised up to catch them.

Show Notes

Well, this sure was a wild week in the world of marketing! Elizabeth and Rachel spend a decent amount of time wondering just wtf Sticker Mule was thinking. Tanya joins us again to talk about brands leveraging the bad business decisions of their competitors. And then we discuss cat poop, bras, and the siren song of Amazon Prime. We can’t wait to see what insanity next week brings!

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Transcript

[00:00:00] JTM S2 E007 – Cold Open

[00:00:00] Rachel Moore: And maybe I won’t burp in that segment. That’ll be great.

[00:00:02] ​

[00:00:13] Intro

[00:00:13] Rachel Moore: Welcome to Just Trust Me, the marketing podcast. It calls out the winning and wily ways of today’s marketing. I’m your host, Rachel Moore. And as always in the cahoots with my two fellow marketers and cohosts Elizabeth Allen.

[00:00:28] Elizabeth Allen: Happy days friends

[00:00:30] Rachel Moore: I hope it is. And Tanya Ballard Brown.

[00:00:33] Tanya Ballard Brown: Hello. Hello. You know what? I forgot to ask earlier, but what version are we on now?

[00:00:42] Rachel Moore: Yeah. What season are we, Elizabeth? We still 16?

[00:00:45] Elizabeth Allen: We are still season 16. So we made it through a single week without me getting by a TikTok.

[00:00:55] Rachel Moore: Well, you know, I bet it’s because everyone’s distracted [00:01:00] by all the shit that has happened in the space of one little week, everybody.

[00:01:07] Elizabeth Allen: I will say though given my behavior the last few days I’m not sure we’re gonna make it. We will probably be talking about season 17 by the time we meet again.

[00:01:18] Rachel Moore: Maybe they just can’t get to you because there’s so many keyboard warriors. Everyone in this room included. Uh, it’s been a week. It has a week.

[00:01:30] Elizabeth Allen: So this is always the issue with me, having to come up with another unique name for my TikTok account. But wanting to use Yoko, which is like what I started with. And I’ve had some really cute ones over time, but I’m like, I’m on 16 now, bitches.

[00:01:44] Like I am out of ideas. So when I was, when I was redoing it, I was so It was so mad and it was like late at night when I realized I got banned again. So it was like some bullshit, right? It was like, Yoko is sick of this shit and it didn’t even fit. It would be like, Yoko is sick of this shi- .

[00:01:59] Like, [00:02:00] that’s what it came out to. And you have to wait seven days to rename it. So I renamed it to Yoko Season 16. And I thought of us.

[00:02:10] So I might just keep that up, you know? And it’s so funny though, I have so many friends on TikTok who always give me recommendations for “the next time it should be”.

[00:02:17] I’m like, cause we know there’s gonna, there’s gonna be a next time, I know. But right now, she’s Yoko Season 16.

[00:02:24] Rachel Moore: I’d like that. And yeah, it’s I don’t do this anymore. So I’m not trying to give any of the, the hackers out there, the dark webs away, but I used to do that with my passwords where I would literally just change the last number of the complex password. I don’t do that anymore. Um, and don’t do that. That’s not that safe, but.

[00:02:43] Elizabeth Allen: We’ve had talks with that about our, our little Slack friend group, how, how it’s a miracle that I have not got my identity stolen because I am not great with any of that. First of all, if you knew me, you could very easily guess the word and then I just change it or I add like a, like a [00:03:00] special character.

[00:03:01] And now I know Tanya, of all people, she’s always looking at me like, what are you talking about?

[00:03:06] Rachel Moore: Her smile right now is kind of just like, mhhhhhmmm…

[00:03:08] Tanya Ballard Brown: Listen, listen, Linda. Linda, listen. You know, I’m so skeptical of all things all the time, but, um, I probably got seriously serious about it during my Neiman year when one of the Neiman’s partners who worked for the administration at the time. Well, maybe he didn’t work in particular administration at that time.

[00:03:31] But anyway, he worked with government folks, talked about the precautions and such that we would take. And I figured he was part of the deep state and he would know, right? So I was like, Oh, I should listen to this. And so from that point on, and I say that even as someone who at work, at my previous employer, they were pretty,

[00:03:56] Elizabeth Allen: Like locked down?

[00:03:57] Tanya Ballard Brown: Yeah, we have to, you know, use this [00:04:00] thing for passwords and such, whatever. But in a specific corner of the room that I sat in, because we were the people who had the keys to like social media, you know, like things like that for the organization . I mean, we should all be safe, but they really, really wanted us to be safe.

[00:04:17] Um, in particular for those accounts, even with that, even after all of that, I’d be like, okay, I mean, I’m going to change a couple of different because the thing about it would be remembering them all.

[00:04:29] Elizabeth Allen: That’s the issue.

[00:04:30] Rachel Moore: Yep. Yes ma’am.

[00:04:32] Tanya Ballard Brown: And then I just got serious about it because he kind of scared me. It felt like a come to Jesus because he kind of scared me and I was like, okay.

[00:04:40] And so then I went through and spent the time because you know, Google will tell you this has already been compromised. This you’ve used this one 55 times, you know. So I just spent the time one day and went through all of that and then added all the layers and securities and other kind of things and I’m not challenging anyone to try to break through those barriers

[00:04:59] Rachel Moore: No. Stay away.[00:05:00]

[00:05:00] Tanya Ballard Brown: Please do not try to do that but I do the best that I can with the little

[00:05:04] Rachel Moore: Tools that you’re given.

[00:05:06] Elizabeth Allen: Part of me is proud of anybody who figures it out because my password is pretty much the same for everything I use. So kudos to you if you figured it out and typed it in. I feel like you should get it then. Like, I’m proud of you.

[00:05:19] Rachel Moore: You gave me goosebumps just now in a bad way. I was like, no, no, no.

[00:05:25] Elizabeth Allen: I know I am so bad. And then there’s my mother in law who cracks me up. She’s been retired. She retired like the month before my daughter was born. So she retired in 2013. But before that she was in IT in banking. And we always joke around with her because her passwords are fucking nuts. Like there’s no way you could remember any of her passwords.

[00:05:46] Right. So like you went to her house and she’s changed her wifi password and you’re fucked. You’re like, I don’t know what this is. And I remember one time we were having this discussion, we still talk about it today. And we were talking about like, okay, but your security questions, what do you answer with your [00:06:00] security questions?

[00:06:01] And she goes, okay. So like, if they ask you what your favorite color is, it depends on what the app is or what the website is. She’s like, if it’s a banking app, of course, your answer would be green for money. And we’re all like, how does your brain work, woman? Cause we don’t know. I really like my favorite color is orange. That’s where I am.

[00:06:23] Rachel Moore: I like Oompa Loompas, therefore,

[00:06:26] Elizabeth Allen: She was like, no, because if I’m talking about banking, my favorite color should be green because it’s money and we still laugh about that today. But that’s also why half the time when she’s giving us passwords for things, I’m like, this is un fuckinghinged.

[00:06:40] It’s unhinged the way she writes her passwords.

[00:06:43] Rachel Moore: This would be an optimal moment if any password manager platform out there would like to advertise on this podcast. And Bitwarden, I’m thinking of you cause you’re my fave. But, anyway, good opportunity. Yeah, it’s the wild West [00:07:00] and, uh, to our varying degrees of security, we just say, you know, don’t, don’t try it. Don’t try it with us. And, you know, let’s be secure. Um, well, let,

[00:07:11] Elizabeth Allen: Maybe work your magic on Elizabeth and make her actually like, that’s the thing. Like, advertise with us and see if you can break my spirit.

[00:07:19] Rachel Moore: I mean, that’s what you do. What do you advertise on podcasts? You let them try it. And then that’s part of what we do. We talk about how it changed our lives. So Elizabeth’s life needs to be changed, Bitwarden or 1password or whatever else is out there. Um, not LastPass though. I’m turning you down. Sorry. I left you because you went stupid on me.

[00:07:43] Um, all right, well, now that I’ve just turned away one of one out of three

[00:07:47] Tanya Ballard Brown: potential…

[00:07:47] Well, let me wait while we’re talking about safety things. Do you all back up your computers.

[00:07:53] Rachel Moore: I’m a cloud girl, like my downloads folder is the only folder that has anything really in it. And I clean that out routinely. [00:08:00] So I’m a cloud, I’m a cloud freak.

[00:08:02] Tanya Ballard Brown: I don’t use the cloud. I don’t I don’t like the cloud. I do have a external hard drive. I don’t use the cloud because I don’t want to pay for I this is where I go back to being cheap. I don’t want to pay for that And it’s mostly just pictures and some, you know text records.

[00:08:20] Elizabeth Allen: Alright guys, so be frank with me, is this whole episode like an intervention for me about my security?

[00:08:27] Rachel Moore: No, it’s not. No.

[00:08:29] Elizabeth Allen: After you called out the like, where is everything saved, and is it saved secondary? I feel like I’m in the middle of an intervention, and you’re gonna be like, Elizabeth, we have to read your letters.

[00:08:39] Rachel Moore: No. In fact, let’s, let’s take this opportunity now we’re moving the focus off of trying to transform your life. Aside from the passwords thing , anyway. Let’s put something else in the focus of the discussion. Um, so here’s what we are going to talk about today, everyone listening. We are going to talk about some marketing thingies and I want to add a quick disclaimer. So one of our group, [00:09:00] which would be Tanya Ballard Brown, uh, we we’ve mentioned before she works in journalism. So sometimes we bring up topics on this podcast and we have to bring them up because it is literally the thing that is being spoken about in many different tones, uh, in the zeitgeist out there. There will be occasions such as today when our cohost, Tanya Ballard Brown, the journalist extraordinaire, needs to bow out and remain quiet during the discussion. It’s not that she ghosted us. She’s actually not going to get another emergency pedicure.

[00:09:33] During this next phase, uh, that’s not where she’s going. She’s literally sitting there waiting for us to finish talking about it. So she can rejoin the discussion. And I like that we get to disclaim that because that’s how you should do it. You are being the, the ultimate upper tier journalist that you are with ethics and credentials and all the things that are good about journalism, because, you know, as much as I know you’d want to be part of the discussion, you are abstaining by virtue of what you do. So Tanya, [00:10:00] did you want to add anything to that or did I do it?

[00:10:03] Tanya Ballard Brown: No, but if I had known an emergency pedicure, manicure was on the table,

[00:10:10] Rachel Moore: She would be like, she’d leave it like a cartoon, PEW! Just have like that, that cloud of dust leaving her behind in her chair that we’re seeing on the screen.

[00:10:17] Tanya Ballard Brown: But no, but I look forward to hearing you guys chat about this.

[00:10:20] Rachel Moore: Okay. Well, your expressions, we will just, we’ll just be watching those while we do. Um, all right. So, just so you all know, that’s why you’re about to hear just 2 of the 3 of us talk about this.

[00:10:29] Sticker Mule Kicks Its Own Ass

[00:10:29] Rachel Moore: But, uh, we are going to talk about Sticker Mule. And so you can Google that right now so you can get a little teaser what we’re about to talk about.

[00:10:36] Uh, we’ll talk about that. We’re going to talk about “Good Marketing, Question Mark”. Using brands, bad choices, and viral moments to market your own company. Uh, this is actually a marketing tactic and everybody should know about it. So we’re going to talk about two instances with that, one relating to a TikTok contractor and one relating back to the aforementioned Sticker Mule. Uh, and then lastly, we’ll cover the “We Got [00:11:00] Got” , We’re going to talk about things that, uh, we as seasoned marketers and professionals do get got by and go spend our monies on. Uh, well, let’s get started with this first segment Marketing Thingies. Sticker Mule.

[00:11:12] All right. Um, first of all, Elizabeth, have you ever ordered from Sticker Mule? I have, but I wanted to know if you had.

[00:11:20] Elizabeth Allen: I have. My daughter is an artist and I remember when I first heard about them, I thought they had a great, I loved their advertising campaign. I thought their prices were decent. And so I ordered a bunch of stickers of some of my daughter’s work and thought the quality was great. I then recommended them to my brother in law.

[00:11:41] My nephew does like battle bots. He does competitions with robots, which is kind of cool. And so he had purchased stickers for the battle bot, that actually my daughter had designed, cause again, she’s an artist. And so not only had I used this company, but I had recommended them [00:12:00] and was really happy with the product and with the service.

[00:12:04] Rachel Moore: I purchased from Sticker Mule in the last six months. I won’t lie. Uh, I have my own business called But Wait, There’s Moore. I have them sitting on my desk. I have purchased some stickers that have like QR codes and some of my, just like little sizes. I thought they were super awesome.

[00:12:19] So, uh, Sticker Mule has been in the discussion. Sticker Mule is a vendor that, uh, you can buy stickers from and a lot of people have. As such, one would imagine they have marketing channels and they have social and they have email. Um, I’m going to postulate what probably happened early Monday morning.

[00:12:40] So, uh, I am going to refer back to the shitty, oh my God, everything in one week shit show that went on last week, referring specifically to the fact that there was an assassination attempt on the presidential candidate, also a convicted felon under indictment. He is a convicted felon and yes, I’m going to say that doesn’t [00:13:00] change the fact. Getting shot at doesn’t change that.

[00:13:02] So be mad. Uh, but he was the victim of an assassination attempt at one of his rallies. And there was loss of life there, not just of the shooter, but also of an attendee who was there. Uh, so Donald Trump was shot at over the weekend. That has obviously absorbed the entire, everything.

[00:13:19] I even was interviewing someone today for something else. And I asked them a question, something about, is there something, a piece of media you’ve been looking at lately? And they’re like, ah, I’m going to skip that question this week I was like, I respect that. Anyway. So here’s what I imagine happened at Sticker Mule on Monday morning, is that I think the CEO and co founder came in hot from the weekend of all the things that happened, had an all hands meeting and said, here’s what we’re going to do.

[00:13:48] Um, I have the tweet pulled up. So, messages went out over Sticker Mule’s social media. as well as their email, and they sent an email to customers. I’m [00:14:00] going to read the tweet. We’ll link to it in the show notes because it’s still up. These folks be proud of this. Here is the tweet verbatim from the Sticker Mule account.

[00:14:12] “Donald Trump was shot. I don’t care what your political views are, but the hate for Trump and his supporters has gone too far. People are terrified to admit they support Trump. I’ve been scared myself. Americans shouldn’t live in fear.

[00:14:24] I support Trump. Many at Sticker Mule do. Many at Sticker Mule also support Biden. The political hate needs to stop. Today, a bullet almost killed Donald Trump. He’s got five kids, one still a teenager. No one should have to die and sacrifice the happiness of their family to run for office. If Donald Trump can risk that, at least the rest of us can do is vocalize our support and help end the hate.

[00:14:45] The more people realize that kindhearted, compassionate people support Trump, the sooner the hate will end. I’m speaking up today and we’ll do more in the future to stop this insane political hate. Awesome people all over the world love Trump. Don’t limit your friendships and diminish your happiness by indulging [00:15:00] in political hate.

[00:15:01] Vocalize your support. Stop the hate.”

[00:15:03] Signed at the bottom, Anthony Constantino, uh, co founder Sticker Mule. And there’s a damn big picture of Trump right after , blood’s on his face, raising his hand, American flag perfectly positioned up behind him, at the end of that tweet. But that tweet went out from the Sticker Mule account.

[00:15:20] Um, when did you hear about this yesterday? Elizabeth.

[00:15:25] Elizabeth Allen: So this was my experience with this. So I heard about it on TikTok, which is where I get all my news nowadays. Um, so somebody had posted a screenshot of this tweet on TikTok and I was like, Huh? Immediately because I have used this company before, I was immediately concerned. So I went to the tweet. I, I always, I am very definitive about this. Like, I always make sure this tweet fucking exists. There’s nothing I hate more than hearing this was happening, and like, you can’t find it anywhere in this person’s [00:16:00] tweet stream. So once I found out that the tweet existed, I told you about it, because I thought you would be interested, and we talked to Tanya about it, and then literally five minutes later, I got this email. Hi, Elizabeth. Okay. First of all, the subject is Trump 2024

[00:16:18] This is from

[00:16:19] Rachel Moore: Sticker Mule’s email.

[00:16:21] Elizabeth Allen: From their email. And the subject, again, is Trump 2024, so it sounds like a campaign email. Hi Elizabeth, Donald Trump was shot. I don’t care what your political views are, but the hate for Trump and his supporters has gone too far. People are terrified to admit they support Trump.

[00:16:39] I’ve been scared myself. Americans shouldn’t live in fear. I support Trump. Many at Sticker Mule do. Many at Sticker Mule also support Biden. This is calling back to the tweet a lot. Uh, the political hate needs to stop. Hopefully this email helps. By the way, this week, get one shirt for $4, normally [00:17:00] $19. I suggest buying one that shows you support Trump. The more people realize that millions of kind hearted, compassionate people support Trump, the sooner the hate will end. Awesome people all over the world love Trump. Don’t limit your friendships and diminish your happiness by indulging in political hate.

[00:17:18] Vocalize your support. Stop the hate. Anthony Constantino, co founder of Sticker Mule. So the fact that, like, I was already so grossed out by the tweet I had just learned about, and then in my own email box had gotten the same fucker saying the same shit. I was like, so I will tell you the very first thing I did was respond to the email because he sent it from a help.

[00:17:44] It was help at Sticker Mule. It wasn’t like one of those bullshit, like, it’s not going anywhere. So it’s like, I know it’s going somewhere. So I responded to it and basically said, uh, by the way, I’ve used you in the past. Um, thank you very much for the reminder [00:18:00] to unsubscribe from your emails. Like that, like, because I totally forgot that I was subscribed to their emails.

[00:18:06] I would not have remembered that for a bit. But I will tell you that it’s killing me because I mean, I use Gmail and within the last handful of days, I keep getting ads for Sticker Mule. And no matter how many times I say, no, I do not want ads from this company. No, I do not want ads from this company. I am still getting them. But you know, I basically told Tony Constantino there that I was like, no, um, thank you for reminding me that I forgot to unsubscribe, you’re garbage, and, uh, yeah, so I’ll make sure that I never buy from you again, and I’ll make sure nobody I know that I care about buys from you again.

[00:18:45] Um, but yeah, it’s killing me though, and I know it’s a weird coding algorithm thing, but the fact that, like, I cannot escape from these fucking Sticker Mule ads on Gmail and like no matter how many times I say [00:19:00] I’m not interested in this. I’m not interested in this. Since I started doing that I’ve gotten like six more of those ads. And I know a lot of it probably is because they know like oh, this is what’s of interest right now.

[00:19:09] Rachel Moore: Yeah, so, and let’s, let’s talk a little bit more too. So everyone listened to this too. Um, it’s obvious we’ve made no bones about it. I’m not necessarily an objective podcaster here, but it’s my podcast. So guess what? Um, just like he’s doing, I get to do this for my podcast as my platform.

[00:19:26] But let me put a pin in that for a second. So there, there’s so much here to unpack. But the reason I said, I have a feeling this all stemmed from Mr. Uh, Constantino rolling in hot Monday mornings, demanding probably to have an all hands, if not at least an all hands, um, a marketing team meeting declaring this is what we’re doing today.

[00:19:53] Um, he obviously wrote, or either he posted or had his team post a first person [00:20:00] message from social and from email at least. I don’t know where else it went out, but there you go He decided that this needs to be our message as a company even though his first person it is it didn’t go out from his personal accounts. It went out from the brand accounts.

[00:20:19] Now, he is the co founder and CEO. He gets to do that Um, he gets to tell his team what to do and to do that. So he does get to do that. These are all things in his power to do. Where we are drawing the question, all political leanings aside, it’s obvious which way at least Elizabeth and I roll.

[00:20:44] Um, This is, there’s so much wrong with this approach. There’s so much wrong. We can tag team this a little bit here. The first thing that I think is really wrong with this is, um, he [00:21:00] mentions in his own message, many at Sticker Mule also support Biden. And I actually replied to the social, I don’t expect to hear back from them, Sticker Mule.

[00:21:08] But I said, so where’s the pro Biden message? Is it because Biden didn’t get shot at thankfully, but, um, what’s the criteria here? Because he says at the top, I don’t care what your political views are. I disagree. I think he has proved he does care what your political views are. And he turned his marketing team, his marketing team and marketing channels into his own platform to say, this is the way that this company believes because I believe it. So I’ll, I’ll just stop there. That’s the first thing that I find a big problem with this.

[00:21:48] Elizabeth Allen: So one of the things I thought was very interesting is learning that his marketing director has only been in the position for two months Two months.

[00:21:58] And now he’s in the [00:22:00] position of having to protect this man. And now he tried, like, I will tell you, like this man tried to double down because you and I were talking about it yesterday. Can you imagine being on this marketing and PR team today? Just like a fucking nightmare. You would wake up to a shit show.

[00:22:16] Rachel Moore: Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

[00:22:17] Elizabeth Allen: And this marketing director, and I can’t speak to anybody below him because a lot of times we know like the people who are higher up exec level are more likely to tow the party line than the people who are like just trying to make a paycheck.

[00:22:30] So he’s you know doubling down on the commentary from Anthony Constantino. He’s agreeing with it, but he has only been in this position for two months and part of me is like, do you believe this? Do you agree with this? Or do you feel like, because as somebody who’s been unemployed since January, I’d be like, fuck, what do I do?

[00:22:57] You are putting your employees in a [00:23:00] situation where they feel like they have no other option. They have to ride for something they do not agree with. And again, for somebody who has been unemployed since January, I can understand how it’d be so easy to be like, I just have to repeat what you’re saying because I, I need a paycheck. I have a mortgage. I have a family. Um, And so it’s been really interesting to watch that. Which I hate when co founders and CEOs make these large declarations and these people did not sign up for this.

[00:23:35] A lot of these people, regardless of where they fell, if they’re Biden, if they’re Trump, if they’re moderate, like they probably didn’t wake up that morning expecting that they would have to choose a side. And now to be able to feed their family, they essentially have to choose a side.

[00:23:51] Rachel Moore: Uh, Agreed. I bet. And that’s where it is. And, okay. So everyone out there who is in marketing, you may or may not realize this, but you, and if you [00:24:00] aren’t familiar with it, so everybody on the marketing team is responsible for the messaging going out and then what they receive, there’s being on the receiving end.

[00:24:09] So just like, just like you replied to that email yesterday. You are one of how many people on their email list who probably did. And from what I can tell, what people are sharing on social, everybody who disagreed with the tenor, the message of that email did reply to whatever response they felt.

[00:24:26] But, um, that all has to get fielded by people on the marketing team or customer care team or whatever. So he’s creating work there. Um, now had he decided to go post this from his own social handles, the company would certainly have still felt some fallout from that. The team would have had to field comments because as people see that, let’s say he tweets out from whatever his Twitter account is.

[00:24:51] Um, but he’s got in his bio, I’m the CEO and co founder of Sticker Mule and he’s got the tag there. Well, then people are going to be, Oh my God. And they’ll go tweet out, they’ll [00:25:00] mention, they’ll DM Sticker Mule’s account and say, I’m quitting you. Or I love you, you know, based on how they, their political leanings are.

[00:25:06] Um, but yeah, Um, they’re going to interact with that, but not to the same degree. As when this, this comes out, he basically, um, hijacked the brand accounts made the brand voice his own. And as you said, it’s such a power play. Um, he’s got power already over these people. And like he said, some of them support Trump, some support Biden. There might be some third party people in there. People are like, I don’t fucking care. Um, but in any case, he made it so that, well, the popular, the best way here, the way to my heart at this company is people who go, who cape for Trump. I don’t know. I can’t imagine. I can try to imagine how his Biden supporting or non Trump supporting, at least people at his company must feel. But you made a great point with the current job market, probably feeling pretty [00:26:00] stuck. They can’t go anywhere. Um, I want to point out too, cause you know, we, we, we could probably talk about this for three hours. Let’s be clear.

[00:26:08] Um, there there’s fallout. I don’t know the data around the monetary fallout from this. But, uh, the, the hashtag and, and threads is the topic, kick the mule, became the topic and what I kind of loved about this, obviously a bot from Sticker Mule, but guess what? They, they are like this first or second Google search result when I look for, I need stickers. And so they show up. What has come out of the woodwork are tons of smaller, independent, family owned, Black owned, woman owned, uh, different independent and, even just vendors who are like we just keep the politics out of it. We just sell stickers. Okay. Do you want stickers here?

[00:26:56] We’re not going to get into the politics thing. Fair. Um, [00:27:00] and they’ve come out of the woodwork because people are jumping ship. That’s the whole point is that this move, uh, whether calculated or knee jerk, um, has, has caused customers to jump ship. You are one. I am another, um, we’re two for two.

[00:27:16] Elizabeth Allen: And I will tell you also, I have a friend who has a very, very successful business in Provincetown. Very successful. And she informed me that she spends thousands of dollars with them every month. And she’s a queer woman in a throuple. So she’s like, uh, yeah, we won’t be doing this anymore. We’re good.

[00:27:37] So the number of customers that they have alienated, it remains to be seen. Like, I think we’re going to see this longer term. Also, honestly, keep in mind the fact that I just recently learned after you and I were talking about this whole thing going down, I learned that like, they have a history of this, which I would not have

[00:27:57] Rachel Moore: known.

[00:27:57] I didn’t know that either.

[00:27:58] Elizabeth Allen: Yeah. They have a [00:28:00] history of that. There was one situation where, where an indigenous creator had created a t shirt about a lot of the women who are missing in the indigenous community because they just go missing and then nobody cares about them anymore. And the person had gotten a t shirt, they had ordered this and they got a t shirt response. that said, liberal moron. And maybe that was a mistake, but was it, like, now you can’t, I’m not giving you the benefit of the doubt now, right, right. And which kills me, drives me nuts, where you see people who are like, they were already problematic, how did you not know. I’m like, because I don’t live on Twitter? I don’t know how you want, like, we can’t see everything, we cannot see everything that’s coming out on social media. So apparently they have, I have expressed some beliefs that do not align with mine that I did not know about and I definitely placed orders after that.

[00:28:54] But it’s like, you get to the point where you’re like, how responsible am I for [00:29:00] deep diving every single purchase decision I make, you know? So anecdotally, I know at least one person who’s going to hit them hard. And I’m only one. And you and I both probably know more of them, especially being in the industry. There’s going to be a ton of people where it’s going to be like, this is not, this is not going to be like a one time, like, Oh, you know, we’re not gonna order from you at this point, and then we’ll kind of forget about it. Like, I think this is a longer lasting issue that they’re going to experience.

[00:29:31] Rachel Moore: And look, let’s be fair and honest about this. They’re going to gain customers because of this. I saw that that’s, that’s out there too. And that’s where I come back and I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the last 48 hours, or I guess about 36 hours, whatever, uh, it just happened yesterday.

[00:29:45] So it’s not 24 hours. Um, but, uh, I’ve been thinking about this a lot because it’s like, well, you know, there are aspects to marketing where let’s take a big swing. Uh, I definitely think we can call this that it’s a big swing. Uh, you can, you [00:30:00] can take risks. We’ve heard it especially over the last several years, like brands need to take a stand.

[00:30:05] Um, especially in these United States where companies are people, corporations are people. Uh, so says the SCOTUS or, you know, Supreme Court of the United States, um, based on how you can do political campaign donations. Uh, but, uh. And we, I told y’all, I keep coming back to it. Um, you know, younger generations are voting according to values. Like, okay, you sell things. What else do you stand for? Um, so there is, I think, a proclivity for companies to say, well, let, let’s come out with what we stand for. Guess what? Some companies are going to stand for the things you don’t stand for.

[00:30:37] As is just evidenced by Sticker Mule. They do not stand for what I believe or think. But they stand for what some people think and believe. So guess we have made that choice now. Accordingly, we’re not going to spend our dollars there.

[00:30:48] We choose not to, um, But the fact that you’re seeing the ads, the fact that they’ve doubled down, um, I think they see this as a strategic marketing tactic, possibly a [00:31:00] campaign that they’re going to turn it into. Wouldn’t surprise me if in like a quarter, we see some kind of earnings like, Ooh, let’s put out look how much we did, how well we did. And y’all losers thought we weren’t going to. Okay. Um, maybe, but, uh, it’s, it’s a big risk. It’s a big risk

[00:31:17] Elizabeth Allen: But the thing is, they’re not the only name in the game.

[00:31:20] Rachel Moore: Nooo as, as we learned.

[00:31:21] Elizabeth Allen: And we have learned that. And I think that’s one of the coolest things I’ve seen come out of this, is people sharing, like you said, queer owned, Black owned, independent owned, sticker businesses that, like, people have used before and had a great experience with.

[00:31:37] I know, for example, I will tell you, I’ve heard great things about Sticker Ninja. Sticker ninja. I’ve heard great things about Sticker App, and actually, I wrote Sticker Giant in our notes today, and then, literally before we started recording, my brother in law sent me the link to their website .

[00:31:54] Rachel Moore: Yeah. They were the ones I saw first on Threads.

[00:31:56] Elizabeth Allen: The names are getting out there, right? He was the one I gave the [00:32:00] recommendation for Sticker Mule. So I feel like responsible. I mean, I shouldn’t but you know how you feel that way where you’re like, I feel responsible. You spent your money with these idiots.

[00:32:08] So there are names out there and those are not even anywhere near all of the names of the companies that seem to have values more in line with ours, who have great products, great customer service. So, go on Twitter, take a quick look, and you will find people who are just like, randomly pushing out these, these sticker companies.

[00:32:33] Because, again, Sticker Mule isn’t the only name in the game. You have to be really confident that you have the market share. And I don’t think they do. And I don’t think they ever have. And the thing about Sticker Mule is like, yeah, I, like I said to you, Rachel, you and I were talking like, I knew they existed.

[00:32:52] They’ve existed for a long time. Right. You said, I want to say, you said 2015 was like the first time you really came in contact with them. [00:33:00] Um, but their name only really started coming up.= In the zeitgeist in the last like year and a half two years So they were just now feeling the benefit of that and they they might have messed it up, but we have all of these other options and there are so many other options. Now I will say Uh, Uline also has very similar beliefs to Sticker Mule.

[00:33:26] So, that’s the one thing I want to always like, people always like Uline because they’re like the industry standard, right? If you feel how we feel, Uline might not be the company

[00:33:38] Rachel Moore: Or it might be, maybe you’re, I mean, if you’re still listening and you’re like, I am so polar opposite from what y’all are talking about, but you’re still listening. Great. I’m glad this is interesting. And you know, go knock yourself out. Spend with your dollars. I mean that we’ve, we’ve talked about, I mean, that is, that is how people can choose and affect that data. It’s like, well, use your dollars and make those decisions.

[00:33:57] Elizabeth Allen: Use your dollars, and in our show notes, we’ll make sure we [00:34:00] include some of these alternative sticker companies in the show notes. So if you are in the market, there are so many other wonderful options that aren’t Sticker Mule. They were not the only, they were not the only ones doing it.

[00:34:13] Rachel Moore: You can buy local, you can buy, you know, again, based on your values, which is what people tend to be shopping with nowadays. Well, we’ve kicked this mule to death. Let’s go to break and we’ll be right back.

[00:34:25] ​

[00:34:25] Hey, Google. How do I create a marketing brief? Hey Siri, how do I customize my LinkedIn profile link? Hey, chat, GPT. How do I get better at marketing? The answer is always the same subscribe to the, but wait, there’s more YouTube channel. I get new videos every week to learn the fundamentals of great marketing from tools and operations, to concepts and creativity, and never forget data, but wait, there’s more. On YouTube. Right now.

[00:34:57] Rachel Moore: And we’re back.

[00:34:58] Good Marketing?

[00:34:58] Rachel Moore: And we can bring Tanya [00:35:00] back into this next segment briefly I think. And we’ll see how much time we have too. Cause I know we’ve got two bullets to talk about for the good questioning or good question. Good marketing. I have not drunk any alcohol today. I promise you.

[00:35:13] I thought about it and I didn’t have time cause I run down here cause I was playing Baldur’s Gate three earlier.

[00:35:20] Um, alright, This is going to be one, uh, to ask the question “Good Marketing?”. Um, Elizabeth, I think you need to fill us in on the TikTok topic. What’s going on.

[00:35:30] Elizabeth Allen: So I wanted to have a bit of a discussion about when brands use other brand’s bad choices and bad viral moments to create a market for their own company. And I think that’s the coolest idea. Um, so most recently I was on TikTok and I saw there was this viral video. Oh my God. So this guy got called in. So his company had installed a [00:36:00] mailbox on this woman’s house. Right. So he installs a mailbox, whatever. And he comes back because she says, Hey, it’s like impeding my view of my ring camera. Can you move it like a little lower to the left or whatever? And the video of this dude where he loses his mind and he’s basically like, How dare you call?

[00:36:25] First of all, he’s like, how dare you call me after hours? She’s like, I, I said, you guys could come tomorrow if you wanted. I don’t know what you’re talking about. How dare you call me after hours? And also you have called and complained about so many other things that my company has done. You complained about like somebody stealing a swing set or something. You complained about this, you complained about that. Turns out that he had the wrong house and the wrong person’s name

[00:36:51] Rachel Moore: no.

[00:36:52] Elizabeth Allen: He went on this fucking rage, like, calling her fat, he finally takes a mailbox off the side of her [00:37:00] house and like, flings it into her yard, like, loses his mind, destroys his business, right?

[00:37:07] The funny part is, is that there is a construction company with the exact same name, but they’re based in Canada. So of course they got a lot of shit about it, because this is the issue with like, all of this is like, so often people are, have no critical thinking skills to be like, Yeah, no, they’re not based in the same place.

[00:37:27] You just heard a name. And it was a very, I forget what the name was. It was a very basic name. Like you would hear it 3000 times for any construction company. And so this construction company in Canada, did this great TikTok video where somebody was like, Hey, I would like my mailbox relocated and they’re like, great, we’re happy to do it for you.

[00:37:48] And then they did it and then they had like a whole cute little video about it. These viral moments that these other companies have that is like might be the end of their [00:38:00] business and companies using that as a way to gain notoriety. And in the case like the one I’m talking about where it’s like actually it could have really hurt their business and it did because people are fucking stupid like I don’t, I don’t know guys pay attention to what you’re talking about like don’t leave negative reviews.

[00:38:19] Rachel Moore: Kind of like what you did earlier where you went and made sure before you decided to go to go off. Yes. Yeah.

[00:38:25] Elizabeth Allen: Exactly. So like in these cases, I think this is the coolest way to handle it because it’s, it’s very frustrating. And if I own this business, I’d be real frigging angry, but I feel like the best way to handle that is to, to lean into it essentially, which is what these companies are doing. And I think that’s good marketing.

[00:38:45] Rachel Moore: It is good marketing and I love that you brought the story up too, because it brings up something that marketing teams need to, A, do and B, be given the resources to do. Um, and Tanya, you can relate to this just from a journalistic [00:39:00] standpoint as well. Having your ear to the ground, you need to be listening.

[00:39:03] Obviously it’s fine when stuff kind of filters its way to you. And what’s likely to happen sometimes if you’re a strong enough brand or you’ve got people connected, if either of you were to see something, Rachel, there’s another brand out there called But Wait, There’s Moore, or there’s another podcast called Just Trust Me.

[00:39:20] Oh my God, go look, they totally fucked up. Um, you know, and I could be like, Oh, let me, Oh, let me go look. Um, but. Brands, the marketing teams, if they can be given the tools and the means to listen, because then they can find these opportunities super fast. Because what probably happened with the other one that wasn’t the, the culpable brand is they’re like, okay, we need to put together how are we going to respond? You know, how can we do this and capitalize off the fact that we just got mistaken for this other company. And that takes some time. I mean, you can do it quick, but it’s, you know, making a video and all that stuff, getting people to participate it and then launching that campaign takes time, but, um, the listening [00:40:00] part’s key.

[00:40:00] Tanya Ballard Brown: And it also, one question I have too, for smaller businesses, and I’m just throwing out a name here. I know, shade, you know, I’m not trying to get anybody hit with a stray, but like PepsiCo, for example, you know, they have crisis management people on staff, right? These smaller businesses have marketing staff, maybe, have PR staff, maybe, maybe they have a PR slash marketing person.

[00:40:26] Rachel Moore: Maybe.

[00:40:28] Tanya Ballard Brown: But yeah, A crisis, which is a different kind of thing.

[00:40:33] They may not have, and this could have been a crisis. You know, it really could have been dependent on the tone of the I mean. Honestly, I probably would not spend money with a business that I thought was screaming and hollering and going on Um at people that they were supposed to be, you know, like i’m I spend my money and you want to yell at me.

[00:40:59] I don’t think so, you know[00:41:00]

[00:41:00] Rachel Moore: Or at least don’t throw the mailbox up against my house.

[00:41:03] Tanya Ballard Brown: Right, you know, excuse me or whatever and you’re right people don’t do the deep dive. So forever and ever and a day this other company could have been known as the company that yelled at the lady and threw the mailbox, right? But how often in the life cycle of a business does this kind of craziness happen?

[00:41:28] So they likely didn’t have a crisis management person on staff. It took time to come up with all of this. It was the right tone. It certainly sounds like they, they decided. Because they could have put out the, hey, we’re not that company, you know.

[00:41:46] Rachel Moore: Yeah.

[00:41:47] Tanya Ballard Brown: Press release. No one would have read it.

[00:41:51] Elizabeth Allen: The idea that you’re not doing the, like, we’re not them. You are showing us you’re not them and I think that’s like the whole like show, don’t tell [00:42:00] type of thing, which is a group of writers here in this room right now. Show, don’t tell is a big thing.

[00:42:06] Rachel Moore: So to answer your question too, there are some things smaller teams can do. Um, but the first thing that comes to mind, Google alerts, that is free.

[00:42:15] Elizabeth Allen: I was just going to say, thank you.

[00:42:18] Rachel Moore: It’s free. Yeah. It’s free to sign up. I have one set up, which is kind of silly. I have one set up for my name, which is just kind of ridiculous. If Rachel Moore, it’s super common, but I also have one set up for my,

[00:42:29] Tanya Ballard Brown: That’s not silly. I have, I always have one set up for my name too. I mean, I’ve had one set up for my name since you could have a Google alert.

[00:42:36] Elizabeth Allen: I used to have a podcast called Under the Floorboards and I had a Google alert for it and I got all like crazy shit that was going on in like the true crime world. Yeah, it was like, and I still get it to this day. And I was like, Under the Floorboards because it was a Gilmore girls podcast.

[00:42:54] It was about like Lane Kim hiding all her life under the floorboards. And I [00:43:00] constantly got emails that were like, Hey, Google alert. Somebody had some like body parts under the floorboards. And I didn’t realize until afterwards where I was like, that was not, not what I was looking for. But I would say, I would say out of like, you know, a hundred of the Google alerts, I got 99. 9 percent were about like somebody doing something fucking sinister.

[00:43:26] Rachel Moore: So that is a, that is a good call out. Depending on the term or the phrase that you set the alert up for. I did find out there’s a bodybuilder out there named Rachel Moore. So I, I do get a bunch of things that are not related to me at all, but I have on occasion caught stuff where I’m like, Oh yep, that’s about me, but I knew about that or whatever.

[00:43:45] Um, so you can do that. You can do Google alerts. Um, If you have a social person, it’s worth paying them. Do not just assume they’re going to do this because their social media job is a very full time job, but that is the person that’s probably going to [00:44:00] have their pulse on the zeitgeist on what’s going on in the chatter and especially on the apps that you have channels on, you can have them just do a routine search. And also I would say, Google search your brand every like month or something and just see what comes up.

[00:44:14] Um, you know, it, it takes time, but you have to have some kind of listening crisis management. The last thing you want to do is be surprised by something like this. And then it can negatively impact. You get reactive rather than proactive. Um, I will say something, everybody should have a crisis communication plan, even if it’s like a piece of paper and you’re like, I’m going to do this in case something goes south or have a number for somebody you can reach out to.

[00:44:39] But, um, yeah, there there’s things you can do. People don’t do it enough. I’m really glad to hear this brand. That’s the way I would love to see a brand react where like, okay, like Tanya said, we’d either do the least path of resistance and just do something public relationsy. Or we can meet the moment on the same channel and, you [00:45:00] know, capitalize on the fact that like, well, we ain’t them, but we saw what happened.

[00:45:07] But I think it’s a great point.

[00:45:08] Elizabeth Allen: That’s exactly the thing. It doesn’t have to be these poor companies who get like the stray bullets from the companies that they’re related to. And all of a sudden that’s when they realize it. If you have a Google alert and you see a company with the same name, like do it immediately.

[00:45:23] That’s hilarious. And like, I, I would love that. And I would think that was really smart. And you’re also getting out ahead of any issues you might have, um, but you don’t need to wait until it becomes a problem for your company.

[00:45:37] Rachel Moore: That’s right. That’s right.

[00:45:38] Tanya Ballard Brown: Well, and the other thing is too, you can take advantage. Like if something good happens to a company, you know, like remember the time when there were all these Rashida Jones’s. Like, there’s the Rashida Jones who like runs M-S-N-B-C. There’s Rashida Jones, that’s Quincy Jones’s daughter who’s an actress. There’s a, there was like another Rashida Jones and they were all like doing the whole thing, [00:46:00] pointing at each other. You can take advantage of it in that way too.

[00:46:02] Rachel Moore: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It takes a little collaboration. You could be the Ryan Reynolds of your business.

[00:46:09] Elizabeth Allen: And you can even take some of the negative thing, the whole thing about the Four Seasons Landscaping Company that Rudy Giuliani had his press conference outside of, and that company took that and ran.

[00:46:20] Rachel Moore: They did. I’m so proud of them.

[00:46:21] Elizabeth Allen: So impressive. Like, you’re like, no, we are the company, but also, like, we know this is crazy, and so we’re gonna, we’re gonna, you know, take it and just, like, go with it.

[00:46:31] I thought that was, like, and they still are, and every time they post I am so impressed with them because it’s like, yeah, why not? You realize how ridiculous it looked. You, you found yourself in a situation that you were not expecting and like just take it and own it and move forward with it and yeah, there’s certain situations where even if it is you and it is negative, move forward with it. Like that’s awesome.

[00:46:57] Rachel Moore: Well, it just speaks to human nature. [00:47:00] We flock as humans, we flock to the messy. We’re like, Oh my God, did you see what just happened? And then to like ride that out and be like, I mean, I always think about when an email goes out and it’s run of the mill newsletter. Oh no, it’s someone fucked up like a date or something.

[00:47:16] So then they send an oops out and the oops inevitably gets open more. Everybody’s like, Oh my God, did you mess up? Let me go. Let me go read what you messed up. Um. And sometimes people I’ve talked to email strategists are like, we do that on purpose because we want people to open it.

[00:47:32] Elizabeth Allen: Do, do they?

[00:47:34] Rachel Moore: Yeah, they do it on purpose.

[00:47:35] Like, especially like, well, let’s just shake shit up, which kind of chases back to the initial story, um, in the first segment, but yeah, I mean,

[00:47:43] Elizabeth Allen: I’m gonna tell you that this makes me feel better about all the times I’ve fucked up.

[00:47:46] Rachel Moore: You did it on purpose, you know, you were being tactical.

[00:47:51] Elizabeth Allen: I was being tactical and strategic.

[00:47:53] I

[00:47:53] Rachel Moore: do sometimes I’m like, no, I did that. I wanted to see who was looking. Let’s go.

[00:47:58] Elizabeth Allen: I love that.

[00:47:59] Rachel Moore: [00:48:00] Well, on that note, we’re going to take a quick break and we right back with “We Got Got”.

[00:48:04] Did you know that most podcasts never get past dropping three episodes. Make your dream of brand building lasts through a consistent and compelling business podcast. I’m here to help reach out to Rachel more at www.ButWaitTheresMoore.com. Good things come in threes, but the best things and podcasts \ go into infinity and beyond. ButWaitTheresMoore.com ​

[00:48:35] We Got Got

[00:48:35] Rachel Moore: And we’re back with “We Got Got”. Tanya, did you get got this last week?

[00:48:40] Tanya Ballard Brown: I got got today, not even a week ago, honey. I got got today. I knew it was Prime day. I have no need for anything. I had already looked a couple of days earlier. The one thing I kind of thought, like, if there’s a really good deal, I might get it is [00:49:00] I need a modem or router because, you know, I rent the one from the company and I want to stop that.

[00:49:05] And this will make no sense. I’m slightly too cheap to buy one, but I’ll pay these people every month until infinity to rent theirs. That doesn’t make any sense. I know. Hence why I’m going to buy my own. I had already looked a couple of days earlier to see if they were planning to be on sale.

[00:49:21] The particular one I was looking for and it wasn’t though another brand that had been recommended is, and I have one more day to think about it. Anyway, I still went over there because you never know to look. And I realized that all my dog’s foods and snacks and treats. Uh, including something I bought her just yesterday at the local store that I go to that she loves and she thinks it’s a playground and sometimes we just go there to walk around the store.

[00:49:52] It’s a local store. I love them. It’s called, um, The Big Bad Woof.

[00:49:57] Rachel Moore: Oh, that’s so cute.

[00:49:58] Elizabeth Allen: Oh, that’s cute.

[00:49:59] Tanya Ballard Brown: [00:50:00] So I had just gone there yesterday to buy her some food it was all on sale today. I bought it I will continue going to The Big Bad Woof. I will continue patronizing them. I do like to spend my money at their small businesses that uh, you know are doing good things for the community. That said it was on sale

[00:50:20] Elizabeth Allen: Those goddamn prime days, I tell ya.

[00:50:22] Tanya Ballard Brown: Right and I was like, oh and so I bought that and I bought some snacks and then back when she was a little old puppy, she thought this natural kind of ute rug I had was outside grass. And so she would use that. We were broken from that, but I threw the rug away Because there was no amount of spraying that stuff was going to fix this with this rug because she just would not let it go.

[00:50:48] So I threw it out. But we’re better now even with last week. We are better now So the exact same rug, because the internet be knowing [00:51:00] y’all surfaced for me and it was on a ridiculous deep cut sale. Okay. I mean like the rug normally costs like two hundred and something odd dollars almost three hundred dollars. Eighty dollars.

[00:51:15] I was like bought bought Well, I pressed the button so fast. I forgot that there were other things, since i’m spending money now, that I wanted to get I went back again and bought me some um sponges and and some foaming bubbles for the toilet, you know, some. trash

[00:51:40] Rachel Moore: The adulting things..

[00:51:42] Tanya Ballard Brown: Yeah

[00:51:43] Elizabeth Allen: I will tell you, I’ve literally never bought anything from Prime Days. I’ve never found anything I’ve ever wanted from any of the Prime Days. And I know that people say now it’s not as good as it used to be back in the day. And so I feel like I missed its heyday, you [00:52:00] know?

[00:52:00] Rachel Moore: Yeah.

[00:52:00] Tanya Ballard Brown: Listen, I only started using Prime during the pandemic. Like before then I didn’t even understand why people were always talking about Prime or whatever I was like, what is over there that I need because you know I’m a person that is like I’ll just go to this store and buy this and then when I was trapped in my house for however many months when we couldn’t go outside to get air or anything else I started using Prime and I’ll be honest, I don’t even have my own Prime account.

[00:52:27] I’m going to work on that. I’m going to get my own Prime account. I’m sharing a Prime account with someone who shared it with me at the beginning of the pandemic? And I was like, Oh, so stuff gets here fast and, you know, Oh, I can put things on auto yeah. I mean, and that’s the only thing I got to go back and figure out all my auto stuff and swap over to the, to my own account. I’m trying to be an adult. Cause I didn’t, I didn’t get that part.

[00:52:56] Elizabeth Allen: I like to say that I’m surprised that you don’t have your Prime account, but I use your HBO max, [00:53:00] so. I,

[00:53:00] Rachel Moore: Yeah, I use someone’s Hulu

[00:53:02] Elizabeth Allen: It’s a community situation. just are a community.

[00:53:06] Tanya Ballard Brown: But you know we share.

[00:53:08] Rachel Moore: Yeah.

[00:53:09] Tanya Ballard Brown: We share.

[00:53:10] Elizabeth Allen: Every time I log in to HBO Max, I think of TdoubleB

[00:53:13] Rachel Moore: Um, quick, quick shout out too. Did you know with Amazon Prime that you get unlimited photo storage in the cloud?

[00:53:19] Tanya Ballard Brown: Oh, so that’s what you’re about to tell me.

[00:53:23] Rachel Moore: Uh, if that’s your gateway, if that’s your gateway, you know, up to you, but I did move. I was paying Google drive, Google photos for like monthly. And then I was like, what the fuck am I doing? I’m already doing this over here on prime and I don’t have to pay. So I moved it off, but it takes, it took some doing. I have a lot of photos.

[00:53:43] Tanya Ballard Brown: I do too. And what’s the owner of this dog, the intern, the intern.

[00:53:48] Rachel Moore: Well, she’s very cute intern.

[00:53:50] Yeah. That helps a lot. Elizabeth. What did you get got by?

[00:53:57] Elizabeth Allen: Alright, so I will share this in the [00:54:00] notes, in the show notes, but. Okay, so, as you know, I recently got a second cat, right? So, we learned that for two cats, you should have three litter boxes. Previously, we’ve had one litter box. That is a pain in the ass, right? So now we have a litter box in our laundry room, which is where our litter box has always been.

[00:54:23] We have a litter box in our bedroom, which has become a problem because our new cat loves to use like a sandbox. So like he just like spreads litter everywhere in our bedroom, which is lovely. And then we have a litter box up here with me right now in our guest room. Um, and I realized I only had one scoop.

[00:54:44] Like it was a nice scoop. It was like a stainless steel scoop and I was I was happy with it when we just had the one litter box, but now I’m like, I have to like travel with the scoop up and down the stairs and stuff. So I found the coolest thing on TikTok. TikTok shop got me. [00:55:00] It is the very first time TikTok shop has ever gotten me.

[00:55:03] Okay, so I want that to be known. And it is a litter scoop where basically like you scoop it and it goes into like almost like a cup and there’s like, you know there’s like a bag in it. So it goes into a cup so you don’t have to worry about like scooping it and then scooping it into a bag, right? Like, which is what I’ve always done.

[00:55:22] It scoops it automatically into the cup with the bag. And because I’m like, I don’t want to buy two more scoops. I’m going to be real friggin annoyed about that. You know what? This is 43. This is what I’m excited about.

[00:55:35] Rachel Moore: I love that.

[00:55:36] Elizabeth Allen: I’m very excited about it. I’m very excited.

[00:55:40] Rachel Moore: Cat owner here, so.

[00:55:40] Tanya Ballard Brown: Oh, thought you were going to say that you got the, the, the self cleaning ones. I’m all, I’m fascinated by that.

[00:55:46] Elizabeth Allen: Dude, I am too cheap for that. I have a friend who has two cats and has all the cool shit for cats. She has the self cleaning litter thing. She has the, have you seen where they have like the RFID feeders where it goes by [00:56:00] their microchip? So it says like this cat should be fed at this time and this much, and this cat should be fed at this time and this much.

[00:56:07] That’s the other thing we’re dealing with right now is because like, the new cat is a boy and he’s a hog. And we were used to girl cats who are like, I eat whenever. And it’s fine. Like we used to have a cheap plastic gravity feeder. And they would just kind of like eat whenever. And it was fine.

[00:56:20] Now he would literally just like walk in there and eat every amount of food he could possibly get until it was gone. So now we have to feed them separately. So I’m not there yet. I, I feel poor and broke where I’m like, I’m not buying the RFID feeder, but it is very cool. But my friend also has the hamster wheel, like, the treadmill for her cat. Like, she has everything. I am not I’m not that cat owner. Because, first of all, I’m unemployed. So, not a

[00:56:49] Rachel Moore: Girl, I, I, feel you. I’m not there either. I’m like, that scooper sounds amazing. Actually. I might ask for the link to that.

[00:56:55] Elizabeth Allen: The scooper, yeah, it was like 8 bucks, and it was 8 bucks! See, like [00:57:00] Yeah. So, um, I was very like, sadly, and it was one of those things where it was like, Ooh, that’s interesting. And then I waited a couple of days and I’m like, I’m gonna, I’m gonna go crazy and hit purchase.

[00:57:10] Rachel Moore: I love that. You’re like, I’m going to live wild, live dangerously.

[00:57:14] Elizabeth Allen: This, again, this is 43. This is where I am at this age, where I think that’s wild living. Yeah. So anyway, I’m very excited about it because it makes, it makes so much sense, like just to like scoop and it goes right into it. And so you don’t have to have a separate bag.

[00:57:29] It is definitely like with the two cats now and they are very different personalities because the new cat’s like a friggin dog, like trying to get used to their different personalities and like how they live. Because our original cat we’d had for like ten years on her own and we’re so used to all of her like little, you know, like her little eccentricities and now we’re constantly fighting.

[00:57:53] Like, what are, what are you doing? Literally, I will be sleeping in the middle of the night and that one litter box that’s [00:58:00] in my room, I hear him just like flying through it and I’m like and all I keep thinking is like tomorrow I’m gonna have to clean up like four pounds of litter

[00:58:07] And I won’t say because i’m i’m a trash monster. For the longest time like we’ve had our clean clothes in a basket over near where the cat litter was before the cat litter was there. And then we’d have like a separate dirty clothes like section and all of a sudden I’m like we can’t have the dirty cat litter all over our clothes. So then I was forced to actually like fold my clothes and put them away this weekend

[00:58:32] Rachel Moore: Oh I feel you there.

[00:58:34] Elizabeth Allen: I don’t want dirty cat litter all over them. You know what? This cat’s really becoming a problem He’s making me he’s making me act like an adult

[00:58:42] Rachel Moore: Uh, you’re reminding me I’ve got, for four days now, I have a basket of clean clothes I’ve got to put away. Do I like to? No, I, I hate doing that.

[00:58:50] Elizabeth Allen: Before this cat, it wasn’t a problem. Like, even if we left it there for months, it was fine. And like, you would pick through the clean laundry and it was fine. You, that’s how you would dress. [00:59:00] And now he won’t let us because, he doesn’t want to let us be great because he wants to play in the fucking sandbox.

[00:59:07] Rachel Moore: He’s like, this is my, this is my life. This is my, my area, my ecosystem.

[00:59:11] Elizabeth Allen: This is my life. Exactly. So, anyway, the cool scooper thing, I’ll put a link to it in the show notes, but I’m, I am very excited about it

[00:59:20] Rachel Moore: I might get it just cause that might encourage other people in the house to clean the cat box and see like, it’s not

[00:59:25] Elizabeth Allen: That’s a good point. Yeah. It, like, make it easy. Just a one step thing instead of having to have the separate bag.

[00:59:31] Rachel Moore: Cause your shit smells, man. I’m not kidding. Um, my, I’m talking about my cat. Anyone who’s yeah, he, he doesn’t care. He’s like, so when are you feeding me? Yeah. So I can shit more. Look at him his look is like. He’s like, yes.

[00:59:42] Elizabeth Allen: I can see his face right now. He’s like, ma’am, you shall do my bid.

[00:59:47] Tanya Ballard Brown: Oh,

[00:59:47] Rachel Moore: It’s not cute.

[00:59:47] He can’t hear you either because of these and thank god because he’d be like YES

[00:59:50] Tanya Ballard Brown: He’s tapping you because he’s like, feed me! Feed me! Hey! Hey! lady! Hey,

[00:59:55] Rachel Moore: This is what he does in the morning too. If I’m don’t wait, wake up a fast enough for him. Just kind of do [01:00:00] this little boop, And then if I don’t wake up after a while, a claw, a little tip of a claw comes out and starts going And I’m like,

[01:00:07] Elizabeth Allen: He’s like, let me test this.

[01:00:10] Rachel Moore: Yeah, yeah, but I, I’ll say two things.

[01:00:12] I’ll say one thing before I say I did get got as well. I’d forgotten. But, um, we used to have like one of those little, um, ours is in the laundry room and it’s a concrete floor and we used to have a little mat there kind of like textured mat so that like, as he comes out of the litter box, it kind of helps get all the litter pebbles off his paws.

[01:00:32] Except, I mean, it’s a, it’s a flappy piece of plastic. So he would come out and I know he fucking did this on purpose. I know you did this on purpose. I’m looking at you. Middle of the night.

[01:00:43] Elizabeth Allen: Now, everybody know that she just looked at him.

[01:00:44] Rachel Moore: I looked at my cat and he’s looking at me.

[01:00:46] You totally did it. Um, middle of the night, he shits, which by the way, smells.

[01:00:51] My husband’s got a very acute sense of smell, so sometimes he just wake up because he smells it, which is terrible. But, uh, right after he’d take a big shit, um, he’d come out. [01:01:00] The cat, I’m talking about now. Uh, the cat would come out of the litter box, and we’re dead asleep, right? And all of a sudden, we start hearing this thwap, thwap, thwap.

[01:01:10] He is asleep. Clawing the edge of the plastic, um, mat, so it flacks back onto the, like, on the concrete really loud. And we got to fucking hate that sound, and it inevitably was in the middle of the night. He doesn’t do that any more also, we got rid of it, but, um, cause we’re like, I ain’t fucking doing this anymore. But, uh, yeah, just in the middle of the night and then of course I’m technically, I’m the one who brought the cat into the family.

[01:01:37] So somehow at that moment, it’s my cat, so I get to go go to stink so bad. Can you go clean it? I’m like, anyway, um. So, but I did get got, I have discovered the world of, uh, wireless bras.

[01:01:55] Elizabeth Allen: Ooh,

[01:01:57] Tanya Ballard Brown: Yes, hunty! [01:02:00] Yes, I should Oh. Oh, oh, I forgot I did get got on that back in June.

[01:02:05] Rachel Moore: That’s okay. Cause uh, so I needed, I need more bras, but I was like, you know, bras are fucking expensive. So I was at Target with my daughter and I’m like let me go look. I finally need to get, I need to get some. I just need to get some. So I look around, you know, it’s hard. And also the fitting rooms are still shut.

[01:02:23] Like they won’t open back up. I’m like, so you kind of have to buy it and then like take it home. I actually have two bras I need to take back. Um, but I’m like, okay, so I buy like a two packer. I’m like, that’s pretty cheap. And I’m like, what are these? So I go over and there’s these like, when I’m like, Oh, they don’t have an underwire

[01:02:35] Interesting. Like it’s literally, you know, It’s almost like a tank top, like a tight little tank top, a cloth tank top. Well, not a cloth. It’s like a blend polish or blend some kind of tank top. It’s stretchy. It feels almost spandexy. Um, but they’ve got like the bra and they’ve got like the pads in the, you know, the boobs.

[01:02:50] Um, and so, uh, I was like, shit, I’ll try that. So I found the size that was me. And then I needed a racerback style one cause I have some tops that I, that one, I had [01:03:00] one bra that was racerback straps and it had just fallen to pieces. So I needed a new one of those. Same style where it’s like got the straps, but it was no, no wire.

[01:03:09] These have changed my life. I like can wear these bras and. I don’t know about you, but at the end of a day of wearing, like I’m wearing a wire bra right now. Later tonight, when I take it off, I’m going to feel like I’ve just released the Kraken because it’s like, it hurts. It’s just like, Oh, my skin can breathe.

[01:03:26] It’s not because it’s so if any dudes are listening to this or people who don’t need to wear bras, God bless you. But underwire just is this constant pressure digging into your skin, literally fucking all day. And the bigger you are, the worse it is. I’m like at the, uh, 40 C right now. But I have tried, oh my God, I feel like I’m wearing fucking pajamas with these new bras and it’s amazing.

[01:03:49] Like, and, and it is, it’s like you, there’s no, there’s no hooks. You like literally just kind of, you know, get yourself into it like a tank top, almost like a sports bra. It’s so comfortable. Tanya, have you had the [01:04:00] same experience? ’cause it’s just gorgeous and awesome.

[01:04:03] Tanya Ballard Brown: Well, you know what happened years ago? I bought these two like pullover bras from Soma. Love them, love them, love them. They’ve never carried them again. I look every now and again just to see are they, are my bras, but I love, I love these bras. I love them. However, back at the beginning of June I realized like Well, I, I think we’ve talked about, or maybe, well, we have talked about it.

[01:04:33] I’m not sure we’ve talked about it on this pod, how I am kind of crazy and buy underwear and bras all the time. I do. So I still have bras with tags on them. I’m going to wear those. However, I was like, oh, I was, I’m checking for that again. And they had these other two kinds and there was some, some deep sale.

[01:04:54] So I got four of these other kind, two of one kind and two of another. I’m, I’m actually [01:05:00] Googling the things now so I can show them to you.

[01:05:04] Rachel Moore: Mm-Hmm.

[01:05:05] Tanya Ballard Brown: Pretty and so comfortable. There’s nothing poking me. There’s nothing squooshed in me. There’s nothing, It’s protection or whatever, you know, but there’s no

[01:05:17] Rachel Moore: Mm.

[01:05:19] Tanya Ballard Brown: Poke or prod or feeling like you’ve got a band across your chest.

[01:05:24] Rachel Moore: Yeah. Yep.

[01:05:24] Tanya Ballard Brown: I love them.

[01:05:25] Rachel Moore: I feel the same.

[01:05:26] Elizabeth Allen: And the worst part with a lot of those is because as women of a certain age we are taught to like worry about our lymph nodes, right? So I always have the issue where if I have the the wire which like I have right here. It pokes in and I and if I’m starting to have like soreness there. I start to freak out that like I’m having something with my lymph nodes.

[01:05:47] It’s breast cancer. It clearly is breast cancer. What’s wrong with me? Like, it’s just an extra mindfuck. When in reality, then you realize like, Oh, the end of the wire is hitting right where I’m having that soreness. [01:06:00] That’s normal, but of course, because we’re taught to fear the end of our lives at all times when we’re women Um, I can’t tell you how many times i’ve been like that’s it.

[01:06:10] That’s the end I’m having a lymph node there in my right lymph node. And it is always my right and I think it might just be how

[01:06:16] Rachel Moore: And bury me in this bra because it’s the last thing I’ll wear.

[01:06:19] Elizabeth Allen: And so, yeah, like, I was just having it yesterday where like I had to remind myself again. I’m like, oh, it’s sore right there. And I’m

[01:06:24] Rachel Moore: It’s that fucking

[01:06:25] Elizabeth Allen: ’cause it’s right

[01:06:26] Rachel Moore: wire.

[01:06:27] Elizabeth Allen: the underwire

[01:06:28] Rachel Moore: Yep.

[01:06:28] I, my next thing I’m going to get got by, I was at Target earlier today cause I needed to get an eyebrow pencil replacement. So I do have some tops that are more spaghetti straps or strapless. And I got to tell you the strapless bra, I have a fucking hate it because it’s wired and that, that thing that makes me feel like I’m in a torture chamber after about four hours because it’s so fucking tight because there’s no straps on the top.

[01:06:52] So I am going to try out some of those ones. And y’all, I had a breast reduction like before I had my children, so I’ve never breastfed. My [01:07:00] boobs are pretty perky still. Um, so I don’t deal with all the sagginess. So, um, they have those ones at Target that are really just like the stick ons that, so they do the coverage over, um, I’m just to say it, the, the nipple, um, but they, so, you know, I’m not going to be poking out or anything like that, but, um, I’m thinking about going and try those and just see how those do.

[01:07:18] They were ones that are independent and then, uh, one that’s connected in the middle kind of, so, um, I’m going to try them because it’s like, I’m going to see if that works for the, the kind of stuff where I don’t want to show a bra strap. And that’ll be what I report back with probably.

[01:07:32] Tanya Ballard Brown: My only caveat for those is that they use sticky stuff and the one time I did one I don’t know if it’s still there the sticky stuff like pull some skin off.

[01:07:45] Rachel Moore: Ow, no, ow. Okay. I’m a little nervous about that then.

[01:07:49] Tanya Ballard Brown: I can’t remember now, but it was over here and I don’t know if that was just because I was trying to, you know, carry too much luggage with the,

[01:07:57] Rachel Moore: You have,

[01:07:58] Tanya Ballard Brown: with the thing in my,

[01:07:59] Rachel Moore: you’ve [01:08:00] lightened your luggage since then.

[01:08:02] Tanya Ballard Brown: Yeah, I think the tab, the tab was like, girl, no ma’am. But, just keep that in mind.

[01:08:08] Rachel Moore: Will do lighten the luggage. So we all got got and, um, we’ll have it in the show notes. If anyone else wants to get got by the things we got got by then have at it. But that is all the time we have for today on our way out. Uh, Elizabeth, where can people find and follow you online?

[01:08:23] Elizabeth Allen: elizabethallen1001 at LinkedIn.

[01:08:26] Rachel Moore: Excellent, excellent. And then Tanya Ballard Brown, where can people find and follow you?

[01:08:30] Tanya Ballard Brown: I am T double B on all of the things and all of the places. And the intern is Butterbean Ballard Brown. Butterbean Ballard Brown on Instagram. And she had a little new content last week and then we ran out of juice again.

[01:08:49] Rachel Moore: And y’all can find and follow me. Rachel has the mic mic anywhere and everywhere. Also follow us on Instagram, Tik, TOK, and threads at just trust me podcast. And [01:09:00] anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts, if you like this podcast subscribe. So you don’t miss an episode. If you really liked it, leave us a review because that’s good marketing.

[01:09:08] Anyway, we’ll catch you on the next episode of just trust me. I. Aye.

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