018: Protecting Your Energy

Have you ever had a negative review, a nasty comment on social media, or maybe even an ugly cancellation email? This episode is for you. We're talking today about protecting your energy as a business owner. Come listen.

Welcome to the Launch Your Box podcast with weekly tips, tricks, and strategies to start, launch, and grow your subscription box. Now here's your host, Sarah Williams.

Hey everybody, I'm so glad you're here with me today. We're talking about something a little different on this episode, and it's really about protecting your energy. I know that energy can be drained from us in so many different ways. It's physical energy, but what I want to talk to you about today is really mental energy and how we should handle that and some of the tips to put into place for your business because you're going to experience it and you're probably going to experience it the way that I have. But every time it happens to me, I have to remind myself of a few things. And there's really some things that we can do as business owners to protect that energy so that we don't dwell in it. And what I'm specifically talking about today is when you get some negative feedback, whether that whether it's a social media post, maybe it's somebody canceling their subscription, you're going to have that. And I just want you to know right now, if you've not had that, you will have that. Someone is going to cancel their subscription. Someone is not going to like what you put in their box and they're going to tell you about it. You will have someone be ugly to you on social media. And it's, if it hasn't happened already, it's just a matter of time because as you grow, you really open yourself up yourself up to these situations. More people are in your world, more people that don't know you personally, and there's so many keyboard warriors out there right now that are just so quick to say something mean, hateful, or nasty to you. And it can ruin your whole day. It can ruin your whole mood and really affect the energy that we need to hold sacredly as business owners. And so I'm going to tell you what happened to me this week and how I handled it, some advice I have for you when this happens to you, and really I want to talk about, um, what to expect as you go through the subscription box business process, um, so that you're prepared for it when it comes your way. Because what I don't want to happen— I don't want it to derail you, I don't want it to deflate you, I don't want you to shut down all the things that you've been working on because something like this happens. So here's the situation. The other night I was checking my emails before I went to bed and I had a negative email and, and I've set up customer service emails, but this one came directly to me. And so I read it and it was all over a mustard-colored shirt. So my, my t-shirt subscription had a mustard-colored shirt. And not only was it the color, it was the saying. So the saying said, living my best life. And this lady wrote me several paragraphs to tell me how awful this shirt was, how awful the color was. I think she used the word ghastly, a ghastly color, and how I really missed the mark on my message that I put on the last two shirts. So the situation was that her friend had gifted her this subscription, and she thought the first month it was a fluke because she didn't like the first month. And then this month she hated it terribly. So now Everything I do is terrible and I'm not going to get it right. And how am I going to resolve this situation? So I had to just breathe in a little bit. You know, you get that and you're just like, okay, I'm going to, I'm just going to breathe in with this comment. And I forwarded it over to my assistant and I said, I cannot answer this in this moment. So I'm leaving it to you to handle tomorrow. I don't want anyone answering emails like that in that moment. You need time to sit with it, first of all. So I just I'm going to send it over to her. She's going to handle it. And I go about my evening. About an hour later, I'm still on the computer and I get another email about this same shirt. And it's all in regards to this color. They hate this mustard shirt and they're really just not being kind about it. They're just being nasty about this shirt. And so that second one hit me a whole different way because it's one thing to have one person say something about your shirt and your design and all the things, but it's, it's another thing to have 2 within an hour of each other. And I, I sent that over to my assistant and I, in the, in the notes, I just said, I'm really winning tonight. And I went to bed, but the next day it consumed me. It affected my mood the whole day. And that's really what we need to protect because then everything fell off for me. Everything I did the next day just fell off. I wasn't my fun, peppy, energized self when I came to work, and that was deflecting onto my employees. It was deflecting on designs that I was trying to create for future months. And so I really had to take a step back and realize a few things. I have 1,500 t-shirt subscribers. 2 people messaged me. So that's the first thing. If I had hundreds of people messaging me, that might feel different, but I had to remember that it was only 2 people and that maybe they're not my perfect person. And so we talk about this a lot inside Launch Your Box about really finding your ideal customer and letting go of people that are not your ideal customer. And so I thought about it all day. I was getting ready to do a live unboxing that evening and I said, I can't, I can't do it. I don't have the energy. I, all of, all of that, good energy that I would normally show up and do a live for was really sucked out of me. I let 2 people take my energy away. And so I went home and I said, I'm not doing my live today. And then I got in my group last night and I started answering some questions and I thought, you know what, I'm not going to let this take away my energy today. I'm not going to let them steal this from me. And I'm going to go back up there and I'm going to do my live and I'm going to show my members how to bust through that, and I thought it would make a great conversation today for the podcast. And so this is what I want you to think about: you are always going to have cancellations. Some people are nice, they'll say, oh, loved everything about the box, it's just not in my budget anymore. Great, we'll cancel them, no big deal. You will have people that will cancel and leave nasty messages to you, and it's really how you handle it to protect your energy going forward. So let's talk about just customer service in general. So when we're talking about customer service, I'm talking about social media, I'm talking about emails, um, the DMs, all of those things. You really need to give it to someone else to handle. And so if you're at the point where you're doing everything in your business, it's not always possible. But if you're at the point where you have a virtual assistant or you have an assistant that can help you with these things, this is one of the number one pieces I recommend taking off your plate as soon as you can. Get your email box to someone else, let them sift through it, let them handle all the things. You don't want to go back and forth with someone that has a lot of negativity towards you. So the last thing I want you to, to start a conversation going back and forth, that's going to take more of your energy that you don't want to give up. Once this happened and I knew it was affecting my overall mood, I had to reset yesterday. So when I went home and decided I wasn't going to do my live, one thing that helps me reset is taking a bath. Taking a bath or taking a walk. Those are my two go-to things. It was stormy yesterday, so I opted to take a bath. I just took some time for me to stop thinking about it and stop letting it affect me. And I took a bath and then I feel refreshed. If you can go take a walk or do something different than what you have been doing to reset your mindset, get your energy back, really protect that space that you are in. Reset, step away from it, or everything else that you do after that is going to have that negative energy with it. And you don't want to— I was working on a design yesterday, I was, and it took me 4 hours because I had this negative energy. That design would have never taken me more than an hour, but I just was consumed by it. Had I taken a reset earlier in the day, that design would have taken me half the time. Everything else I did yesterday wouldn't feel like I didn't get anywhere with it. So the quicker you can to take a reset, just do that. Take a walk, take a bath, go have lunch, get out of your environment that you're in, reset your mind and gain your energy back. The other thing that I want to tell you about dealing with these negative comments is that it's not about you. When they are being ugly to you about a mustard-colored tee, that is not about me. It is not about that t-shirt. It is about them, whatever they have going on in their life, whatever they're dealing with. It's being taken out on you and this t-shirt. But I need you to remember that it's not you. It's not about you. Something's happening with them that they felt the need to be ugly about whatever you have going on. So remember, it's not about you. And then the last thing that I can tell you to really help you get through when you have days like this is keeping some sort of a file folder, a bulletin board, somewhere that has easy access to you of all the positive things that come your way. So when I get amazing messages and, and emails and I get cards in the mail and I get texts about how much they love their boxes. I need you to print them out. I need you to keep them somewhere that will recharge your energy and recharge yourself when you go through periods like this with someone being negative to you. So if you can keep those somewhere, that's, that's another tip I have for you. And when this happened yesterday and I took my reset, which was taking a bath, I got out of the bathtub and I was answering some more questions just online, and I opened my texting app and I got the most amazing text from one of my subscribers. And it really just hit me at home at what I needed to do. And this was how much she loved this t-shirt. It was how much she loved the entire box. She told me how You know, this is her second Mother's Day without her mom, and the box got delivered on Mother's Day on a Sunday, which is very unusual. And it was just the perfect timing for her. She put her new clothes on that I had delivered to her, and instantly she was in a better mood. Instantly she decided, okay, I'm going to go spend Mother's Day with my husband's family. I'm going to enjoy this day. And so said something hit her with my box that just made everything better. And that's what I want you to think about. That's what I want you to remember when you get these negative Nellies in your email box talking about how ghastly a mustard-colored t-shirt is. You have to remember how many people look forward to the, the box that you're sending to them, how it might be the only thing they have to look forward to every single month, how it makes them feel when they receive it. That's those are the feelings I want you to hold on to because that will protect your energy. And the same thing really goes for cancellations. So I've got some, you know, tips on how to handle the cancellations. First, I need you to remember, you will always have cancellations. I'm going to say it again, because you will always have cancellations. And I've really seen some people get very affected by cancellations lately in my group. And I need you to know that that's That's part of the business. You are not going to have 100% retention every single month. It's just not going to happen. So the reality is that someone is going to cancel. It might be 4 people, it might be 10 people, it might be 40 people. And as you grow, those numbers are going to grow with you. And what happens is it feels like a lot, but when you look at your data, It's right where it's supposed to be. So the first thing is knowing that you will always have cancellations. You just have to know that. Number 2, you've got to know your numbers. So what is your retention rate? I want you to track it every single month. I've got a retention rate calculator in the show notes today. So you can plug in your numbers, how many subscribers you have, how many new subscribers you got, how many cancellations you have, and you're going to get a retention rate number. And I've got some information there that tells you where your retention rate falls in line. And if you're above 90% retention rate, you're doing a great job, even though it feels like you have a lot of cancellations. It's industry standard. It's above industry standard if you're above 90%. So you can take the feelings out of your cancellations and just look at the numbers. If you can have someone else handle it for you, that VA, that assistant, if you have someone that can handle the cancellations, Don't even deal with them. I don't know who's canceled every month until I realize they don't have a box, maybe many months down the road. But someone else handles that for me, so I don't have to see that a subscriber of 2 and a half years decided to cancel this month and that gets in my feelings. I don't have to see that my sister canceled her box. I don't have to see that my neighbor 3 doors down canceled her box. I don't have to see that. I see a number, and that takes a lot of feelings out of it for me. I can see I had 9 cancellations this month. I'm at a 96% retention rate, and that feels good to me. And all those other things, they don't matter anymore. And I'm protecting my energy because I don't know who has canceled. I'm not reading the comments on why they've canceled. And here's the important part. When we look at why people cancel, my assistant can then put it into a graph. This is the reasons why people cancel. And if there is a recurring theme that needs to be addressed in the business, she's going to bring it to my attention. They're canceling because of this. But most of the time, people don't cancel because of you or the things. They cancel because of them. So a lot of times that data is not going to make a— make difference to me unless it's something specific. So protect your energy by having someone else handling and responding to the cancellations. And the fourth thing here, when you're dealing with cancellations, is really understanding that this is an opportunity for you to handle it with grace, or your team to handle it with grace, because more than likely they will come back. A lot of times it's a budget issue. A lot of times they make cuts because they feel like they don't need it anymore. But most of the time we see them come back. When you're processing the cancellations, cancel them with grace. Be kind, invite them to come back, and just know that it's— they're in a place where they need to cut this from their expenses or their life or whatever's happening, but they may come back. And we want to leave an open door that they feel like they can come back at any time with us. And so And that will protect your energy to feel negative about it too. They're just taking a break and they'll be back soon. So it's hard. It's hard to deal with negativity. It's hard to move past it. And as, as you grow and grow, as the bigger you get, you're going to have to deal with it. And so it's how you deal with it that will really prove what kind of business owner that you are. And I think protecting our energy is super important and your team will understand how to protect your energy. My team knows not to bring me any negativity unless they absolutely can't handle it. And so I give them the power. I give them the power to solve the problems, fix the issues, and take care of the customer. And if it's bigger than what they can provide for them, then they'll bring it to my attention. But empowering someone to handle these things for you is going to protect so much of your energy, and it's going to help you focus. It's going to help you focus on the next box. It's going to help you focus on curating the best experience. It's going to help you show up in a way live that you want to and that you're on your game and you don't have to worry about what's happening on the back end because they've got it. They understand that your energy is important for growing the business. So do what you can to protect that and just know it's going to happen. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when, and it's how you handle it that makes or breaks your success. Make sure you subscribe to the Launch Your Box podcast. I'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review it. Let me know which episode is your favorite so far. Don't forget to join me next week right here.