053: It’s More Than Just a Box - Building a Thriving Community of Subscribers

Have you ever started something that didn't go as planned? Today's guest started her subscription box and was ready to throw in the towel by only month 2, but she didn't. She figured out what she was missing, relaunched it, and has built a thriving community of Flower Mama Box subscribers. 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. Welcome back to the Launch Your Box podcast. Today I have Jenny Hines here with me from Jameson Flowers and the Flower Mama Box. Jenny, just say hi to our listeners.

Hello.

Today, today we're going to break down Jenny's story, and there's some good teaching points here that I want you to listen to and really soak in, and I'm going to give them to you up front. So as we talk about them, you can soak those in. The first teaching point we're going to talk about today is how Jenny went from an open subscription model to a closed subscription model. Super important. And if you don't know what that means, we'll explain it as we go. There was a way that Jenny really deep dived into her messaging after she started her box. She learned a lot of things, she changed some things, she really went deeper into her niche. We're going to talk about what she did there and I'm dying to know her shipping woes because, um, if you don't know, she's shipping flowers. So we're going to deep dive into those three aspects while Jenny shares her journey with us. So Jenny, let's start from the beginning. I want you to share your story on how you came to have this flower shop.

Yeah, so I'm a third-generation florist. So, um, my long story short, my grandparents started one in a small town that's about 45 minutes away from here, then my aunt owned it. My parents moved to Wichita Falls and then my mom got tired of teaching, so she wanted to— my dad kind of knew the business from growing up in it, so he was like, you can own a flower shop and it's gonna be great. And they started it when I was in junior high. If you would have asked me growing up if I would ever own the flower shop, I would have been like, nah, not for me.

I hear my kids would tell you the same thing about my business.

They're like, yeah, you're gonna take over. Yes, you're like, oh, there's bills. Um, no. So I ended up working for a local Chamber of Commerce after I went to school for marketing, worked at our local Chamber of Commerce for 3 years. I was their events director, loved it. And then my parents got— someone came in and offered to buy the flower shop, and my dad called me, and I just felt like this sense of like, no, it's mine, which I don't know that's a good thing or not, but just like growing up, I didn't want to see it go to someone else that wasn't a family member. So And I was really sad to leave the chamber, but it was a good move for our family because we wanted to have kids one day. And, and that's what started it. Whenever I first bought the flower shop, I rebranded then, and it was Jameson's Flowers, etc., because Mom did kind of like a lot more like gift type items and stuff like that, balloons, and I didn't want to do any of that. I just wanted to kind of like narrow down, kind of like you said, like a little bit like the riches in the niches. I just wanted us to be really good at flowers and just focus on flowers. And then if we wanted to add stuff back later than we could. So we just— it was Jameson's Flowers, did a new website, stuff like that. And we were rocking and rolling. We've been growing consistently each year.

And then let's, let's go back a minute, because if you're listening and you don't know, Jenny lives in the same town that I live in. And I specifically remember like you painting the front of the shop and how you gave it this whole new look, this whole new like branding colors and everything. And I remember that specifically. So You bought the flower shop in 2018.

Yes.

And you said to me that subscriptions were something you wanted to do right from the beginning. And tell me a little bit about that because you, you went through a— you called it a nightmare. Let's talk about that. We can laugh about it now.

It wasn't so—

yes, it wasn't funny in the moment, but we can laugh about it now. Tell us about your first attempt at subscription.

So I had this idea And maybe this is something too, like, I just need to learn even better, but I don't think I need to. I think it's fine. Um, but when I first bought it, I really had the idea, like, when we were rebranding, I wanted the flower shop to part of it, like, our whole overarching brand was like, we help people celebrate life, whether that's in death, whether that's in life, you're celebrating somebody, just the life that they lived or are living or whatever is going on in their life. And so I wanted to come up with a Celebrate subscription where essentially a man at the beginning of the year could choose 3 dates that he always forgets just at the beginning of the year and choose those 3 dates, and then we would take care of it. It was a motherfucking nightmare. This is the worst thing ever because it was like we'd get super busy at the shop and like One would get lost and we just did not have the organization to handle it. And on top of like, I'd hand it off to one employee and then just employee turnover. And then it was just like, it was not a great—

So it wasn't this regular thing that you knew you had to do each month. It was like somebody wanted something for Valentine's Day, somebody might want something for Mother's Day, maybe an anniversary date was in there. And so it was always this random time of year and it was really hard to keep up with when stuff was happening. Is that what you're saying?

Exactly. It was just, there was not the consistency to it to know when what was coming up. It was just not a great time.

So then here comes 2020 like a wrecking ball, and you told me that you needed to start to pivot your business and you needed to figure out shipping. So tell me what happened when the pandemic hit.

So a lot of our clients part of— I'm sure some people have heard of called like FTD and stuff like that, Teleflora. And what that is, it's essentially like a networking thing between flower shops. One of those went bankrupt with 2020, and a lot of flower shops are closing for a long time, if they weren't closing down indefinitely. So people would call us, so what that means, like, people would call us and say, I want to send flowers to my aunt in Tennessee. They would pay us, we would charge a fee to handle it and then find a flower shop in that area to then create the arrangement, deliver it, stuff like that. I never liked it because it was a huge time suck. And then on top of that, I was always trying to find a flower shop that kind of matched my style because I still wanted the client to like what they were doing, but I wasn't doing it. So that made it kind of hard because once COVID hit, we'd still have clients. We were only closed 2 days in COVID because we were considered quote unquote essential because of funerals. So we, they came out with that mandate on a Friday, we were closed that Monday, they made amendments, we were back open on Tuesday. So with that, with funeral stuff still, we're trying to find flower shops, going on then, and it just was not easy. And it ended up being like we were spending all this time calling other flower shops, we couldn't find that were open or they were closed. So I just stopped taking them off for a little while. And I had had in the back of my head, I want to ship, because I figured that was the next way we were going to be able to grow outside of our immediate community. I just didn't know how to do it, but then COVID gave me that shove.

It was like, okay, you've got to figure this out or you're not going to have a business, right?

So it was just like, it was either we're going to end up going backwards or we can step forward and make that big push.

And honestly, that's— this is why the flower shops you're calling weren't there anymore. They didn't want to figure it out and they thought, okay, it's time to let this go, this isn't going to work anymore. And but you dug in, you dug in. Because shipping flowers is not an easy thing to do. It looks easy when you call 1-800-Flowers and you can just have them shipped anywhere, right? But you're Jenny, you're a small town business, never shipped flowers before. So what did you do?

So first thing we had to do is completely redo our website. So that was what we spent that summer doing. We— which was scary because we had to invest money in paying someone to basically ship, go from Squarespace to Shopify because That was the only way we were going to be able to set it up online and be able to do it, which I had a hard time with because I love Squarespace with all my heart and soul because it's pretty. Um, Shopify is not set up to where— in our Shopify, it's still pretty, but it's just not as customizable as it is and isn't as Squarespace. But so first we had to deal with that, and then I ordered our custom boxes, Jameson's Flowers boxes. And I really started trying to figure out, okay, how do I even flipping ship them, and learning the rates and stuff and all of that. And that was really what was going to be killer, was our rates, because we'd have to overnight them. On top of me and you kind of talked about this, the size of the box was the hardest thing to figure out because not only were we having to have it large enough to have the flowers in there, we didn't want them to get crushed. But then also what was going to make the most sense for our rates and stuff like that to make it not cost an arm and a leg, because I knew if they got to checkout and saw it was going to cost $40 to ship it, they're not going to check out, right? I wouldn't check out and I own a flower shop. Like, yeah, it just— that wasn't going to happen. So I really started— I'm one of those people that if I can't figure it out, I'm going to ask a million questions until I figure it out. I'm going to I might randomly message someone on Instagram. I mean, you've caught the brunt of it before, like, I'm gonna ask my questions. Um, but I know that's how I learned. So it's just one of those, like, I think it's probably an insecurity of mine. I don't like being caught with my pants down. So it's like, I don't want to ever feel like I'm in that position. So I even— I follow another flower shop that I think is in like North Carolina, maybe. And they have a flower farm and they ship flowers. So I've gotten some of our flower frogs from them, which, for those of y'all that don't know what flower frogs are, that is not like a ribbit ribbit frog. That's like a little wire metal cup that you put stems in. But I ended up messaging them and they were so kind and emailed me back and just told me what FedEx plan that they were on. And there is essentially like a FedEx membership out of California that you can join, and I got in on their rates, and our customers really don't pay more than $20 for shipping.

So, and that gives you the overnight shipping?

Yep.

That's really great information, and I'm sure there's lots of listeners right now that that's going to be very helpful to. Any other flower shops that are listening, what, what advice would you give them as far as packaging those flowers to ship?

Uh, make sure you zip tie those suckers in there. Um, that was the biggest thing is making sure that they are secure in there. Um, shout out to my other flower friend Karen that's in the Launch Your Box group. We're the only two florists for a little while. I think we might still be the only florist unless someone else is coming. Um, but she, she answered a bunch of my questions because she started before me also on shipping flowers. And she also, she found the source for just like in the colder months, which we really don't have that issue being just shipping in the kind of the southern states. It doesn't get so cold that it's going to freeze my flowers, but she found a kind of like a material that goes around the flowers before she zip ties them in. It kind of insulates inside the box so they don't get freezer burn. And that was super helpful also. Awesome.

Well, I'm glad that you kind of stumbled your way through the shipping and you didn't give up on it. I think sometimes when we don't find the answer right away, or we don't find the solution right away, we tend to like just give up and figure, well, I can't do this. But you stuck with it. You had some trial and error and you kept going, and, and I love that. And so, okay, we figured out shipping. We're now decided we're going to do a subscription box. Tell me about the start of Jenny's Bouquet Box.

So we started shipping all of our flowers just in like our purple box, kind of learning trial and error from just doing that. We started that in August of 2020. Um, then your ad popped up for me, um, in January when I was like making my goals, and I knew I wanted to do subscriptions in 2021. I just didn't know what that was going to look like. I had no clue what I was going to do. And then I saw your membership and I was like, this is perfect. And I even know Sarah. So I joined that and I decided in January I was just going to take the time to kind of learn and just kind of glean from your trainings in January and then get through February, Valentine's Day. And then I was going to launch in March. And that's what we did. And I started as Jenny's Bouquet Box. And I'll be honest, I only just chose that name because I was like, there's a ring to it. I was like, so that's what we did. And it was hard those first few months. I, I remember, I'm pretty sure I cried with you on the phone at one point. But it was just like, A, I didn't want to dive into custom boxes with it yet because I wanted to try to figure out, make sure that's what I was wanting to do first.

It's an investment and you don't want to put all your money into something that may not work. You had to, you had to go through some trial and error first, and I'm glad that you did because you, you realized that that box was too big, right?

Yeah, so we were— that was also our period of testing out box sizes. So the first 3 months we had a different box size every month. Um, I'm glad we did it, but it was like putting on the stickers with the custom tape. The water tape was a nightmare. Hate that stuff.

Me too.

Oh, it's the worst. That's up there with the shreds. That needs to be on there.

I agree, except for all those people in Launch Your Box. I see all those videos that they're making of their machine that, that wets it, you know. I need one of those if I'm going to use it, but I'm not going to use it.

It's going to use it. No, that stuff can burn. That is the worst. So just do that. March, we had a great— whenever we launched, I got, I think, like 20 subscribers.

And then what happened in April?

We chose the color purple for our theme. No, it was— so we— I think it was just we went so all out on that first one, or I was like, we're going to put peonies in there and go all out, celebrate this first one. Well, then it's at the bar. Are real high for people. And I just, I think it was just not a— it was great and it looked beautiful, but then the next month I was like, okay, now we're gonna get back to reality. I chose— at first I was doing it just by like color theme. That was really the whole premise of Jenny's Bouquet Box is every month it's going to be a surprise color theme that we're going to go off of. I chose purple because April is our birthday month, and you would have thought I shot someone choosing the color purple. They hated purple. Oh, they hated purple.

I'm going to note that down for my own box. People hate purple.

I got so many nasty emails and I was just like sobbing for like a week. I mean, it was the most— I took it so personal. And because I really like, even though it was the color purple and really the whole premise behind it was just a color at that point, I got so disheartened. Just like I was ready to throw in the towel. I was really like, okay, this is subscriptions, not it. Um, it was awful. So that was also at the point I also, we had kind of talked about our need to outsource complaints because I, some of it is not even, I can't do anything about it. So it was, I have a VA.

You take it personal. And what happens is those kinds of things suck your energy. And you know, we're gonna get complaints. Every subscription box owner, you're gonna get a nasty email, you're gonna get cancellations. And especially, I think, in the beginning, you just take them personal. Just like you said, it was personal to you because you spent so much time working on this, and then someone doesn't like it. And maybe that was 3 people, but in your mind, it's everyone, right? Everybody. I have been there and done that myself too. And so I think I encouraged you to have someone else be the buffer of those emails so that it didn't affect your mood every time you opened one of those emails. Someone else can handle that. And if there is a bigger issue, they can come to you and say, hey, look, this was, you know, over 50% of our subscribers said this this month. Let's just, you know, take that into heart and use that information going forward. But when it's 3 people, it's 3 people. And in our mind, it's everybody. And so if somebody else can deal with the 3 people and it doesn't suck your energy away, then let them do that. Let them handle the cancellations. Because spoiler alert, y'all are going to have cancellations every month. It's a part of our business and it doesn't mean they hate you and it doesn't mean they hate your box. It's just a fact. And people will subscribe and unsubscribe and more than likely those people will come back later. So you can't, you can't take it personal, although it's very much a personal thing. And that's why I encourage you when you can hire, you know, you already had employees, but if you have someone on your team that can buffer, be the buffer of customer service and cancellations, super important to protect your energy.

Well, and you also told me, and this is even fed into like now us being in the Flower Mama box, You encouraged me, like, when we get good stuff, yeah, hang it on the door. And I have a board over here in my office now that's got all the just praise and like so excited about the Flower Mama Box. And really, like, once we kind of— whenever we got into that summer, I think we were Jenny's Bouquet Box up until August. And I had also in March started a podcast, and it's called the Flower Mama Podcast. And I had no premise behind the podcast either, but it turned into just really like encouraging moms. So that summer I did TRIBE with you. And then I was also in a mastermind at the same time to kind of narrow down my message and like why I'm doing this and what's the point and all of that. And both in the mastermind and at TRIBE were pointing to the same thing of like, this person forgets to celebrate herself and her wins. She forgets that she stretches herself too thin. She's probably a mompreneur. So she's either, if she doesn't own a business, she's working a 9 to 5. So she's juggling the kids and husband at home and their job. But then also on the flip side, forgets to sell. She loves celebrating people. She helps celebrate people. She likes the birthdays and all the different holidays, but then she forgets to celebrate herself. So that's been the kind of the premise behind whenever we went over to the Flower Mama box, and there was more purpose and intent behind it, and I wasn't having to explain it so hard, right, as much as I was with Jenny's Bouquet Box.

So now you had— you, you started the podcast, the Flower Mama podcast, and then you decided, okay, this box is more than just flowers, and I really want people to understand that it's more than just flowers. And so you went through this rebrand with your subscription box, and that was what, about 6 months in of having the subscription box. And so you also, at that time, you decided that you were going to move from an open model to a closed model. And let me explain that for our listeners if they're unsure of what that means. So when we have an open subscription model, it means that we're open to the public all the time. So if Jenny was open, you could go subscribe to the Bouquet Box any month, anytime you went to her website, you could sign up. That's an open subscription model. When we move to a closed subscription model, it means that we are only open at certain times of year, and that could be once a quarter, that could be twice a year, that could be once a year, whenever we determine that we're going to open up to new subscribers. And what we do when we have cancellations, in order to keep our, our numbers where they're at, We fill from a waitlist, so we encourage people to sign up on a waitlist when we're closed. And then when we have a launch, when we open the subscription, we, we take an influx of subscribers and we build our waitlist in between our opens. So that is a closed model. So Jenny decided, okay, I'm going to rebrand. I've got all this new messaging. I really dived into who my customer is and what I want this experience to be with my box. But I'm also going to shift from this open model to this closed model. And I'm scared about that. And I'm nervous about that because I don't know if it's going to work. And I don't know if I tell people they can't join, if that's going to shoot me in the foot. And that's what 99% of the people worried about the closed model worry about. Like, if I say it's not open, I can't go back on my word. And then what if somebody wants to join? And I'm nervous about that. But tell me what happened when you did that.

So it was scary, but so whenever I launched Jenny's Bouquet Box, I think it got 20 to start off. It might not have even been 20. I don't remember what it was that first month, but I was excited about it. And then I took on a few, but I felt like I was constantly like in the sell mode, sell mode, sell mode, sign up this early bird special each month, sign up, sign up, sign up. And it just was like repetitive and redundant. And then I started going backwards. I think I got up to 35 and then I started going backwards and I was like, whoa, I'm putting way too much time and energy to be going backwards. Um, and then we got into Tribe and that's an ever, which like you had talked about open and close, but I just don't think it was really clicking for some reason, like what the difference was. Um, and I was just taking in so much information. I was like on overload. Um, but then that's whenever I was like, okay, I need to close it. But it more for me became like, I want to close it so I can invest into these Flower Mamas and really get to know my subscribers too. It became much more personal once I niched down and was learning who they were.

You didn't want that rotating door, like you wanted to build relationships to people. And you know, for me, when I went to the closed— I went from open to closed with my subscription, like it was a huge difference. Because it gives people urgency. It gives people scarcity and it gives people a reason to sign up right then, because in our minds we can say, oh, I'll sign up next month. Oh, I'll sign up later. Oh, I'll sign up next month. But if you only have a short window to sign up, you're giving people a reason to sign up for your subscription. And that's exactly what you did. Tell me what happened.

So we, I closed it. I decided in July I was going to close it. So I didn't take any more subscribers in July until I was going to do my launch in August. And I went from like 30-something subscribers that weekend to, I think I got 75 by the time I closed it that Sunday. And I was just so excited.

You more than doubled your subscriptions over a weekend, which you've been working 6 months to do and kind of spinning your wheels at it. Yeah, and now you've rebranded. Now you've really honed into your messaging. Now you've created urgency and scarcity and gave them a reason to sign up, and you more than doubled your subscription over a weekend. And I want you to really listen to that, because if you've been on this kind of hamster wheel of, you know, having— showing up every month and trying to sell the new box, and you're just feeling like you're not getting anywhere, it might be time to close it. I was at the same situation. I had kind of plateaued. And for me, it started in month 9. So it was right around that same time Jenny was at month 6. I was, I was in about month 9, like the newness had worn off of this. Um, and so I started to plateau and then I started to decrease and I thought, whoa, I got to do something here. And that's when I made the decision to close it. And I more than doubled as well. I went from $300 to 500 and some. And so, um, we're giving people a reason to buy. I don't want you to look at this as a scary thing. I think you've got to look at it as I'm doing something big. I need to treat it like a big event. I need to make sure everybody knows about it, and I need to create this urgency for them to get it. I need to give them a reason to subscribe.

And it's been great too, because it's allowed me to, in a sense, slow down.

Yes.

And just really take in what we're doing, why we're doing it, and just getting to know the subscribers. It's been— we have gotten to walk through with these subscribers, being able to slow down and just really get to know them. We have walked through— I mean, we've had some moms that have gone through unimaginable tragedy since we've closed it, and it's just been kind of cool to be able to just get to know them, meet them where they are, and then also other flower mamas be asking like, what can we do to help? But then also—

You're cultivating a community. Yes, building a community with your subscribers.

Yes, and I— that's my whole vision behind the whole thing is like, right now I feel like I'm constantly the one pouring out encouragement, and that's what I put less emphasis on, the flowers that they're getting in the box every month, and more the encouragement that's going on in the box, and they love it. I don't And really, like, since I've been doing that, I don't hardly get any complaints anymore. I mean, we might get a cancellation because something's going on in their life. Um, and you've built your connection with them.

We talk about it all the time, how important having a connection with our subscriber base, how important it is. And you've just really mastered that here. And you built connections that really turned into something amazing over the last few weeks. And I, I want you to share what happened with one of your subscribers.

Yeah, so like I said, we've on the flip side walked through tragedy with some of our flower mamas, like even with like stuff that's going on with their kids and just bad things. But then on the flip side, we've also had flower mamas that have gotten married. We've had a couple of them that have gotten married towards the end of the year. And we were wrapping up the Christmas shuffle. I mean, we were, we were hoping that this December, and we were also shorthanded because we had I had one of my girls out on maternity leave, and it was just like, it was a bizarre Christmas. But then we had one of my flower mamas come in and she's like, I call them super fans. She's like a Jameson's Flowers super fan. Like, she wants to do all the workshops, she wants to do whatever we put out there, she's like in it. And she came and saw me, it was the week of Christmas, and she was getting married on New Year's Eve in Florida. They were doing a destination wedding. And she said, Jenny, I cannot find a florist that I like in Destin. Like, I, I, like, I trust you and love you. Will you do the flowers? And the conversation at first started like, can we ship my bouquet there? Can we, like, can you ship these arrangements there? Will they be okay? And then it shifted into, why don't you just come? And we talked through it. And I mean, it was a big deal. And my family got to take our first vacation. As a family of 3 since I've had my daughter. And we, it was great.

So not only did you get a vacation out of the deal, but you got a $10,000 job out of the deal, which is incredible to think that the love that you've been pouring into your community and the love that you've been pouring into your subscribers was also able to really, one, fund a vacation that you've not had for a long time with your family. And also paid you very well in a different job. Like, you cultivated this community and someone couldn't find that anywhere else. They wanted what you had and you created something special and different and unique. And that person knew they wanted you for the job, so they were willing to pay you 5 figures to come do that for them.

Yes.

And I think, yeah, I think it's incredible. Now, um, I ask you about your challenges. As you know, we were chatting about pre-interview stuff and, and you said the most underrated thing in Launch Your Box is this little My Box Budget that we put together. Tell me about it.

Okay, so I look into it. Sarah has provided, it's called the, I think it's the My Empty Box Budget spreadsheet, I think. Is that what it's called?

That's the file name. But yeah, we call it the My Box Budget spreadsheet. Tell them what it is.

Open, because at first I was like, I don't know how to do this with the stems, but you're able to customize things. It's a spreadsheet. And what it is, is like, I put in every single cost I have in my box on this spreadsheet. And I love it because it took out— there were so many— I think you can get so overwhelmed whenever you're adding so much new to your business. And that's what the subscription felt like to me. I felt like I was adding so much art. My word of the year last year was consistency. But whenever you're like, I was consistent in I'm focusing on subscription, but it's also all these different variables that you keep on adding. So then you're sitting there wondering, am I even making money at this? And that's why you need to have this spreadsheet open, because I would not make a single decision without inputting it into this box spreadsheet. From— so in our box, we have the flowers, we have an extra item in it, and then we also have our inserts. And sometimes I'll even throw in a bonus item in there. But I don't make a single spreadsheet or a single decision about what's going into my box until it's in this spreadsheet first. So like, even when I go to market, and I know my range of The only reason I go to market is for these extra product items. That's been also very new to me because I haven't had any connections as far as like wholesale products or anything like that. I know my range of what I can spend on that extra item to keep my margin what it needs to be to make money, because that was the whole— like I told my husband, if I'm doing this, I'm not just doing this.

We're not doing it for free.

No, no, no point to doing it.

And we're guilty of that. We're guilty of putting one more thing in or one more thing or— and you said like in the beginning, your first box, you probably weren't profitable on your first box because you kept adding stuff and putting the expensive flowers and putting all the extras in it to make it amazing. But if we don't look at our numbers and if we don't set a budget for that, we're going to be guilty of doing that every month because we want every month to be amazing. And then you're going to sit down in 6 months and be like, well, I've sold a lot of boxes, but I have no money in my bank account. And we don't, we don't want that.

We don't want to be like that profitable.

No, we're not. We're building businesses. We're not building hobbies. We're building businesses. And so that spreadsheet allows you to put every single product you have and its cost, allows you to put your packaging, and it really allows you to look at what your profit margin is. We want to have at least a 30% profit margin, and I want you to get closer to 50% as you grow. But Jenny, I knew we were going to talk about it today, so I think we should give it to all of our listeners because they might need it. So I put it in my texting app. So all you have to do is text me. So if you're listening to this podcast on your phone, I want you to pull your phone out right now, open your texting app. I'm going to give you my phone number and I want you to text me the word budget, just the word budget, and then I'm going to send it to you. So I want you to text me at 940-204- 0023. 940-204-0023. Text me the word budget and I'm going to send you this spreadsheet that Jenny's talking about so that you can really look at it and plug your numbers in and see where you need to adjust. Because if we don't know where our starting point is, we don't know what we should be adjusting.

And that's— I, me and my husband are Dave Ramsey freaks. I'm ADHD and I cannot I love the idea of spreadsheets, but having to organize one is a nightmare for me mentally. So having it all there where all I have to do is input my numbers and it gives you your profit margin, like, and I always try to keep it around 40% before like our actual flowers. Like, they are very cyclical, dependent on demand and shortages and all the things. So, but I mean, it's really, y'all, if you ever listen to Dave Ramsey, he'd be so proud of this too.

We'll give it shout out to Dave here.

Uncle Dave in our house.

Uncle Dave, I like it. So now we're, we're here, we're in the beginning of 2022. You're at 86 subscribers. Yeah, like, you're so close to 100. I think all of our goals are to get to our first 100. So what does this year look like for the Flower Mama Box?

So we're doing another launch in March. I am getting through February is just kind of like the Valentine's is coming, whether you like it or not. But that's one of— that's our next Super Bowl after Christmas. So we're really kind of focusing on Valentine's right now.

I am—

I always have to try to sneak it in there a little way because you get guys' attention twice a year, really just once a year, Valentine's. But we're adding in a collection piece where they can get an arrangement and come with a gift certificate saying that that girl's subscription will start in March. So great idea.

So they can buy flowers for Valentine's Day and also a subscription so they can get flowers all year long.

Yeah, every arrangement that we're sending out, it'll have a QR code for the woman to read about the Flower Mama community. So then hopefully We'll get more people on our waitlist through Valentine's Day, and then whenever we launch beginning of March, that will also kind of help as well. So we're doing that. Um, I told— I put in there too, you had asked me before, we— I like made super ambitious goals for, um, 2021, and I didn't hit any of them, but I'm okay with it.

You're okay with it.

Yep, that's where I'm at right now. So that's where we're, we're just kind of like, we still grew, we, our sales went up and stuff like that. So we were really excited about it. I, Sarah Cummings in Launch Your Box also, she's also kind of been another one of my hype girls in our community. And she told me, because one of my goals is to hit so many dollars in sales um, at the end of 2021. And I didn't hit it in 12 months, but I hit it in 13. She told me, but you still hit it in 13 months. So I was like, you're right.

That's right.

So I just need one more month.

Okay. So you just, you hit it in 13 months and you, you said, I'm proud of that. And you should be proud of that because that's a big deal. It's a big number. It's a big deal. And so what are we looking for for growth this year? Do you have goals for 2022?

So obviously I still want to hit my first 100, and I told you when I very first started, I— my goal one day, I don't have a timeline on it, I want to hit 500 subscribers. I don't know when that will be. This year I'm hell-bent on hitting 100.

You're going to hit 100 by March, just mark my words down. You're going to have 100 in March, I guarantee. And if you don't, you call me, I'll come over to the flower shop and I will help you get 100. 100 in March.

Yes, so I want to hit 100, but then I also just really— my word of the year, I'm a big word of the year person, and this year my word of the year is deeper. And that goes from my faith to just really going deeper with my flower mommies, adding more value to their subscription. I have been very arm's length of ever doing any type of workshops, and just being in a small town, if you show someone your craft then you— there ends up being someone doing it out of their kitchen, and then you learn of people anyway. So that's why I've always been very arm's length on doing any type of workshop or anything. But then in December, we rolled out with a new product. We did Whoville trees. They went over like the next thing since— it was, it was great. So we did a workshop for Whoville trees only for our Flower Mama subscribers, but they could also bring a friend. Um, and then that night, if their friends signed up, they both got a mystery bag. Um, so that's how—

I love that. I didn't even know that. And you know what you just did there? You created a VIP treatment. You created something very exclusive for your members, and they're not going to forget that. And that's going to create retention for you as well. You keep doing those little surprise and delight things that are only available to them that's going to help with your retention numbers. So I love that you did that.

So we're doing another one at the beginning of February. We're doing a Galentine's night. But then we're also doing another like kind of simulcast thing called If Gathering at the beginning of March. And all of these are only going to be open to Flower Mamas, but they can bring a guest. So then if that guest signs up, they'll both get something. And it's just kind of a way for that person to get a taste of who the Flower Mamas are. And then maybe get some subscribers that way. But just going deeper and kind of getting to know the subscribers, but then also adding value to their subscription this year. And not— I am competitive with myself, so obviously like I want to have new, new goals and stuff like that, hit 100. But at the end of the day, I'm trying to keep myself grounded and realize like, hey, let's just Focus on who we have and love on them and go deeper with what we're already doing. And that'll take care of itself.

I love that. Well, Jenny, it's been awesome interviewing you today. Why don't you give— I always ask people at the end of these podcasts, what one piece of advice would you give to someone listening that maybe hasn't started their subscription yet? Maybe they're in their head about it. What piece of advice would you give them?

Just do it. Yeah, just do it. Because that's the thing is I think we get so caught up in overthinking everything that we get in like this whole mind funnel thing and then we're overthinking. Well, I don't have this or I haven't done this. Just start and you're gonna, you're gonna fumble. Like that's not an if, it's a when because that's the only way we learn. So just do it. Just Start, build your audience. Otherwise it's gonna— don't just throw it out there. I mean, do take the right steps, but just do the work.

Do the work, but just start and do the work.

Okay, so I think that's it. But then also kind of just don't get caught up in the numbers. I mean, on your box budget spreadsheet, get caught up in the numbers, but don't get caught up in like how many subscribers you have, because I think That was hard for me. Just like hearing person launched and got 500 subscribers overnight and I'm like, okay, that's like my 3-year goal. And I would get so like, just kind of beat myself up over it. But don't, just realize that you're where exactly where you're supposed to be for a reason and just learn while you're in that season of life.

Jenny, where can they find that if they want to be a flower mama? Where can they find you?

We're on Instagram, we're on Facebook. So I spell mama M-O-M-M-A because that's how I've always spelled my mama. So I know that's weird for most people. Most people do M-A-M-A, but there's a little sentimentality behind why it's that. But it's theflowermama.com, or you can go to jamiesonsflowers.com where you can see We have separated our Instagrams from the Flower Mama and Jameson's Flowers, um, just to kind of speak more directly for the Flower Mamas versus everyday stuff. So Instagram, Facebook, website, all the things.

Okay, and we'll put Jenny's website and Instagram and stuff in the show notes today. Jenny, thank you so much for sharing your subscription box journey with us today.

Thanks for having me.

If the idea of creating a subscription box is swirling around in your head, I encourage you to head over to launchyourboxwithsarah.com, get on our waitlist, and grab some of our free downloads to help you get started. That's launchyourboxwithsarah.com.