084: The Journey to 3200 Subscribers with Damon Oates of DecoExchange

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. I've got one of my friends and mentors here with me today, and we're going to talk about subscription box journey. He recently posted in Launch Your Box, our membership, I think it was a couple weeks ago talking about how they just hit 3,200 monthly subscribers. And it's so exciting to watch you just explode like that. But then the questions came, the questions like, what did you do? How did you do that? And everybody's wanting to know. Well, we're gonna talk about it on today's podcast. We're gonna break down the journey from beginning to end, and Damon's gonna give you some great advice here. So Damon, for anyone that doesn't know, doesn't know you, why don't you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your business?

Yeah, for sure. Hey y'all, I am Damon. I own The Maker's University and Deco Exchange. We sell wreath supplies, we help other wreath makers start their businesses online and sell online, and we have a subscription box with about 3,200 monthly subscribers.

It's so exciting. And let's go back, let's take them way back to the first time you and I met. We were talking about my subscription box and you were talking about how much you hated your subscription box. Take them back to that journey.

Yeah, let's go back a little bit further than that.

Okay.

So before I met you, I had a subscription box that wasn't really a subscription box. We were literally launching a box every single month and it was like a one-time box. Like a one-time box.

Okay.

And then we were like, what the heck? We did it. We launched it. So Parker actually said, hey, you should have a subscription box. And I said, nah, I don't think so. Well, I tested the water. We launched to our audience and I sold 800 and something of those boxes overnight. So Parker wakes up, I'm like, hey, I sold 800 boxes. I ordered this stuff and we might have like 16 pallets of stuff showing up in the driveway next week. And he's like, what? And we did that for 2 months. And then I was like, all right, let's make it a subscription box. And I believe we had somewhere around 900 people and I absolutely hated it. We weren't organized. We didn't— it was just chaos. And every single month we were literally trying to buy 900 kits or things to fill in this box every single month. And I was like, I'm done with this. And I— it was too stressful. It wasn't worth it for me. So I slowly pulled back. And we only catered to the people that we had in the subscription box. And then when we met you, that 900, those 900 people had trickled down to about 300. And I wanna say it was 27 or 47 when we met.

Yeah. I was thinking it was around 300 or 400 you had left of that. So you had, it had gone down less than half of where you started. People were canceling. You were like, we're not letting anybody else in this. This is a mess.

They were canceling. I was celebrating. I was like, yes. Because it's easy to get 300 rolls of ribbon. It is not easy to get 900 of the same rolls of ribbon, at least within a 15-day period, right?

Right, right.

People would open their boxes and the boxes weren't the same, then they'd be mad. So it was too much stress. So then we met Sarah, and Sarah's like, subscription boxes are wonderful. And I'm like, what? I hate mine. What are you talking about?

And what was it in that conversation, I think we had some conversations over a 2-day period between you and me and Parker, and we were talking about really the ease of it. You know, I loved it because it was so easy. You hated it because it was so hard. And there was conversations about how to make it easier for you. Do you remember those?

I think the conversations were around planning and taking ownership a little bit further out than 15 days.

Yeah.

And luckily we had Parker there who said, you know what, if you're willing to help me grow it, I will take over the planning. I will learn from Sarah. I will do all these things. And you know, we'll have this box planned out 3 to 4 months in advance. So it's not so stressful for you.

So you go back home and you start planning out how you're going to relaunch this thing. Tell me what that looked like.

So the first thing that we did was we set up a waitlist. And that waitlist was very targeted. Every time I went live on Facebook, every text message that we sent out, every email that we sent out, there was a, hey, do you wanna join our subscription box? We are revamping it. We constantly talked about the subscription box and I think within 30 or 60 days that waitlist had went up to like 3,200 people.

Yeah, it was thousands and I don't even think it was that long, Damon. I think it was a matter of a month. You had all these people telling you, I want this, I want to be a part of this, I want to be included, I'm interested in this. And when we talked through that waitlist process, it's one of my processes that I've had forever. And it's like it suddenly made sense, like it suddenly clicked, like, okay, we build a waitlist and then we don't have to show up and sell this thing all the time. It's just we'll just send it to the waitlist, right? And it was like a game changer for you guys because once you had that waitlist built, You knew how many people were interested. You also knew where you were gonna get your next customer once you had a cancellation.

I'm actually looking now to see how big our waitlist still is.

Okay. How big is it?

14,611.

It's incredible. So you built this waitlist in about a matter of 30 days. Let's just be open and transparent.

Yeah.

That Damon has a large audience. Damon has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, and he's very consistent in the way that he shows up. For his audience. And so it wasn't a shocker or this big surprise that you built this waitlist the way you did because you've been nurturing your audience for 10 years or more. And so you've been building this clientele, you've been connecting with your audience day after day after day, and now it was time to show up and sell this to them. And they were ready for it because they knew you, they connected with you, they loved your products, they'd bought from you before. It wasn't like you were doing a— you started a brand new business and you had 3,000 people on a waitlist. That's not reality. That's not what happened, but through this consistency, you have built up this amazing audience that was ready to buy from you. So let's talk about that launch. So you launched the new and improved subscription box, and how did that go?

You know, I think before I even mentioned that, I wanna say like the realization for me was I did not think that our customers would all want the exact same product.

Okay.

Because basically they're all gonna go out and make a, I find our audience resells what we sell them, right? So it's a consumable. It's not a feel-good gift. They're all in business. They're all trying to sell products. And I was like, they're never gonna get 3,000 people on this list that all wanna make a wreath with the exact same product.

Mm-hmm.

So, you know, what we had to do was listen to our audience and figure out what they wanted. They wanted something unique. They wanted something that was different. They wanted something that would challenge them and how they can incorporate it. but they didn't want a kit. So although they may get 3,000 of this greenery, they can all use it slightly separate.

So they're making different things with it, right? They're not all making the exact same project. They're getting the supplies to make lots of different projects, and I think that's what you're great at is when you go live, you're taking some of those pieces from the subscription box, and you're making lots of different things. You're showing them what they can do with it.

Yeah. So our initial launch was a kit. So they built the exact same wreath as me.

Okay.

This new launch was unique supplies that pushed them out of their element to create something new, to add something new to their store. Okay.

And they were loving it.

They loved it. So we pushed the uniqueness of the projects. We pushed the ability to expand their growth with the boxes. We do live showing them how they can utilize the new product. So they're basically getting free education with the box. And we're challenging them to use the product every month and not just let it pile up.

Yes, because they have to consume the contents of that box, right? And so you're helping them do that every single week when you show up live somewhere, whether that's Pinterest TV or Facebook or wherever. You're showing them, you're taking those products and showing them how to use them in unique and different ways.

So the, the first thing that we did is we went back to our main supplier and I said, Hey, how much of an item do I have to buy so that I'm the only person that ever gets it? And they told us, hey, it's about 3,100 units. Okay, so that's how we set our goal, right? So I was like, okay, if I want this to be unique, something that no one else can get, I need to be able to buy 3,100 units of that product.

Okay.

And that's how we set our goal of we're gonna have 3, at least 3,000 boxes.

And what was the timeline for you on that, setting that big of a goal when you're sitting at about 350, you know, one-time box subscriber, the, the one kit subscribers, this was completely different. Now you're gonna, you're gonna like 10x that. What was the timeframe that you gave yourself to do that with?

So for us, our supplies, if we order today, it takes about 6 months for those supplies to come in.

Okay.

So we did our launch, we went from the 350. To $1,500. We did that over a 6-month period. Okay. And then the next 6-month period went up to $2,400, and then we did the jump to $3,200. So a little over a year and a half.

Okay. You went for, you 10x'd in a year and a half. Yes. Yeah. And so tell me what those look like. So when, you know, we're, we talk through launches quite a bit inside Launch Your Box. Talk me through not only that first launch, but then how you increased it and did secondary launches because that waitlist comes into play quite a bit, right?

It does. So we actually launch every single month. We open the box live. We talk about it. Everyone who gets the box joins the live. We do very targeted text message or email to the box members saying, hey, we're going to open the box on this day at this time. Come join us. And then there's that FOMO feeling for the people that can't get the box or they don't get the box and they want it. So they join the waitlist. Right now we don't have any open spots unless someone quits.

Right.

So it is super quick. Grab it if you can. You know, we've got that, that 13,000 people waiting for 200 spots that might open. Yeah.

You built that urgency and that scarcity. And there's, there's 3 things I always talk about: urgency, scarcity, and exclusivity. You built all 3 of those not only into the box, but into launching and getting the boxes every single month. That ribbon, those supplies are exclusive to you because you're now at the mark where no one else is able to sell them. And you're, you're, the scarcity and urgency is like, we've got thousands of people on this waitlist and we have 50 open spots, so good luck. You know, you've, you've created that urgency with them and you've trained them. They know to look for that email from you. They know that they have to They have to act fast if they're gonna get in, or they're gonna have to wait another month or another 2 months or another 3 months before someone else cancels before they're able to get in, right?

That's right. And then one thing that we purposely do now is we make sure we have a few extra boxes that are not part of the subscription, and we sell them as a one-off box.

Okay. Tell me your thought process behind that.

So whenever we buy supplies, it doesn't come in an even number and we can't say, oh, I just need 3,100. You know, a ribbon box might have 96 or 72. The floral stems may have 196 or may have 72. So we always have like this little fluctuation on the end, but we can't say, oh, that's going to be another 50 boxes and sell those 50 spots. But when we list those extra boxes, there's a whole like letter that goes in the box that invites them to join the waitlist. Oh, if you love this box, make sure you get on the waitlist. Oh, if you love this box, make sure you sign up here to get it every month.

That's awesome. So you're selling kind of the remnants that don't make a complete box, but there's some of the box, and then you're, you're inviting them to get on your waitlist from there.

And what we didn't want to do was commit to another 50 boxes, but next month we only have 25 extras, right? So it's a little bit harder, but I didn't want to hold onto that inventory. And if we say it's exclusive to the box, I still want to sell it in a box.

I like that. So talk to me a little bit about this latest launch. So you just tipped over the 3,000 subscriber mark into the 3,200, not just tipped over, like you jumped over.

Tell me about— actually, we've done that about 6 months ago.

You did.

And we've held it consistently for 6 months. Okay.

So tell me about that launch. Tell me what you did during that launch. Was that the jump between 24 and 32, or was it a stair step in between there?

So we actually went up every month by I think 200 or 250.

Okay.

From, so every month we just have that one little increase instead of like saying, oh, we're gonna open 1,000 new spots.

Right, right. Because you've gotta manage that growth too. Like adding an extra 1,000 boxes into the warehouse is not an easy feat, especially yours because your subscription box is large. And so it takes up a lot of space. So as you've been growing, it's like, okay, we gotta figure this out now. And it's better to figure it out 250 at a time than 1,000 at a time. Time, right?

Right. So right now, during subscription box packing week, we have anywhere between 7 and 10 of our employees who come here, and they're dedicated for almost 7 days to pack the boxes. Okay. So it's a process.

Yeah.

You know, we have to, uh, it comes in in a truckload. We have to open all the pallets, sort all the pallets. We assembly line it. Um, all the pallets are numbered so they know 1 out of this pallet, 2 out of this pallet. We do inserts, which is also something that we added after talking to you. Before, it was just, just a box of random supplies. We now have an insert. It lists out the retail value, how much they're saving by getting the box, a link to a coupon to make additional purchases off our website, which on average returns anywhere between an additional $10,000 to $20,000 in sales, just that one little coupon on the flyer insert.

I love it. I've seen a good return on that when I do that too. I don't do it every month, but I do it, you know, a couple of times a year, and there's a good conversion on people using those coupon codes. So a great way to surprise and delight your customer, whether you do that monthly like Damon, or you just surprise them every now and then like I do. It's a great way to sell some more things to your already loyal customer and to make some more revenue. Put that money back in the bank and off your shelves.

Yeah.

So when you think about the way you've grown and all the questions you got inside Launch Your Box about what are you doing, what advice would you give to people, you know, that are kind of newer on the journey? Maybe they're not so new, maybe they've got hundreds of subscribers and they are wanting to grow. They're wanting to grow past the 1,000 mark. They maybe wanna grow past the 2,000 mark. What advice would you give for them?

I think it depends on who they are, right? So if it is someone who already has an audience, I would say listen to what your people are talking about versus trying to push something that you just want to do, right?

Yeah.

So I mean, we could have launched a t-shirt subscription box. We could have launched all kinds of things to our audience, but what they wanted was that one unique item that I wasn't interested in. I was like, I'm never going to order custom ribbon. We only want custom ribbon. Okay, there we go. We're doing custom ribbon, right? Yeah, they can't see it, but you know, we did custom autism ribbon for our box in April, so we're going to look for an autism organization to partner with for that box. And then if they don't have an audience yet, making sure they choose something that they can niche down in and go all in on, right? So don't be all over the board and just pick one little trail to chase and really go deep with that, right?

Really go deep with what you do in that niche and the people you're connecting with. And I think it's so important to understand that these boxes aren't just numbers, they're people. People are receiving them and you're, you're delivering something very special to them, especially, you know, this day and age where our money is, is, it's taking more money to go a lot shorter distance than it used to. Like they're spending valuable money with you and we need to treat each one of those boxes as a person and not a box. And I love the way that you do that with your audience and the way that you show up, make them feel connected every single week, very, very consistent. And I think that's, that's your growth, right?

Right.

Show up. You're incredibly consistent. You're exactly who you are. No apology, no apologies needed. And your audience connects with you very, very well. You've drawn the people close to you that are like-minded and the people that aren't for you, they're not there and you don't want them there. And you know, something else I wanna touch on a little bit, as I've watched you grow over the last couple of years, you've experienced, and you talked about it a little bit in the beginning about how you, you know, you couldn't get enough product. You've experienced, we've experienced like shortages over the last couple years. We've gone through a pandemic, we are in, you know, maybe a recession. Like we've gone through these like incredible, like fuel charges and boats sitting in the ocean for months at a time. And so I love the way that your mind works and you just figure things out. And you've done that with your subscription box. You're like, all right, I've got 2,000 subscribers and I can't get product, so I gotta figure out how I'm gonna make it. Can you tell me a little bit about some of the things that you've done to expand your business? And not only you're your own fulfillment center, but now you're your own manufacturer in a lot of different areas. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, so the first thing that we looked at was, okay, now we have all these subscribers and our supplies are late every month. Like, what— we usually send our box out on the 7th of every month. One month we were on the 21st and we still had not received our shipments yet. And, you know, these people have been getting these boxes for years now and they expect their box on the 7th or 8th or the 9th. And like, where's our box? And I'm like, I'm waiting on one sign to come in.

And it was painful.

It was painful. And the customer service nightmare was painful. So I was like, all right, we're gonna figure this out. We started doing some research on how to make our own products, and I figured out that I could invest $20,000 in a sublimation printer, buy some heat presses, and we could produce all these signs ourselves. So before the next box was shipped out, we had our own machines to make our own signs. Um, that actually increased our profit by about 20%. And, you know, we added new products to our website and the box paid for it.

Yeah, it paid for it probably in month one, right?

It did. Yeah, paid for it in month one.

And what I love when you started making the signs was that Now it got more exclusive. Now it got more unique to you because now you have the freedom to do whatever you wanted on those signs, and it wasn't like you had to buy all of one product line or pick out something that some supplier had. Now you could create it, or you could have other artists create what was gonna go in the box, and it made it more special and more unique. You just took a problem, you figured out how to solve it, but in turn you created So much more value to what you already had.

So then that led on to our upsell to our subscription box, and now we offer a deluxe version that includes 5 custom design signs in-house. Those 5 signs cost us anywhere between $10 and $11 to produce every month.

Mm-hmm.

But on top of the value of our box, it added about $40. So do you know, just that little piece of extra profit helps pay for the whole operation.

Yeah, because you're paying for all the equipment, all the labor, like it's just tenfold and you keep growing because of it. Now you've added on this expansion revenue where you can get more revenue from the same customer that's super loyal. You're just giving them more of what they want and you're adding it to a monthly delivery for them. So you're creating incredible value and incredible convenience for them.

And, you know, we were able to once again listen to our audience and they kept telling us they wanted exclusive designs, exclusive items. So it was super easy for us to say, okay, we'll offer you 5 exclusive items.

So when are you going to get like a ribbon making machine in there?

That's too much.

That's too much. Yeah, it won't—

we can't print directly on the ribbon. You got to do like this metal plate and then every plate has its No, I'm out.

Yeah. I love that you know this. That means you've looked into it. That means you've thought about this. You're like, how can I just be world domination and not have to rely on anyone for anything?

That's right.

I love that you've thought about this.

And the flowers that they like are all hand wrapped, so I'm out.

No, it's too much.

It's too much.

It's too much.

They're just getting signs.

Yes. So let's go back and let's just talk to all of our people out there getting started. You gave some great advice on building an audience. Any Any last words on advice for someone that maybe has been sitting around thinking about starting a subscription box, but they haven't yet gotten started? What advice would you give them?

Just start. Just, I think that's the hardest part. But you can start with 10 boxes, you can start with 20 boxes, just try it, you know, and you don't have to jump into everything right away. I mentioned earlier that we started with a one-off box. Right? I wanted to test the water to make sure that people wanted the box. Once we did that for 3 months and I could run a report out of our pay— out of our PayPal, because it was PayPal then, I could run a PayPal report and I could look to see that, you know, 90% of the people ordered the same box over and over again.

They were coming back.

Hey, they want this. They're willing to pay every month. Yeah. You know, as far as social media, pick one that you love and go all in on it. Because, you know, I've got 100,000 followers on Instagram, but I hate Instagram.

You're never on Instagram.

No, no. I logged in the other day and there's like 200 missed messages from people like, how can I order this? I'm like, I don't know. Let me close that back.

But Facebook's your thing, right?

But I enjoy Facebook. I hang out on Facebook. So of course that's where I'm going to spend my energy. Yeah, even TikTok. I opened TikTok the other day, even though I get on TikTok every day and do a quick scroll. I looked and I hadn't posted a TikTok since July 11th.

Oh gosh.

Now I created all those videos, I post them on Facebook all day long.

Yeah.

And I hadn't even repurposed them over there.

Yeah.

Right. So if you don't enjoy the content or the media or where you're hanging out, it's going to be really hard to go all in on those places.

It's gonna be daunting and you're gonna, you're gonna start to hate it. Right?

Right.

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Pick one platform, be consistent, show up, pick your niche, go deep, build connections.

That's right.

And you'll be on your way to building your audience. And what I love about you as well, we've talked about this, is that you serve. You serve before you ever show up and sell. And so you've gotta start serving your audience and that's what's gonna attract more people to you. And you did that for so many years. So many years before you ever sold them anything. And, and I think it's important to note that, that you don't just show up trying to sell people something one day and become an overnight success. You serve and you connect and you grow and you build, and then you monetize, and then the people want to buy from you because they know, like, and trust you, you know.

And I think one more thing to add is to make sure that you are actually passionate about whatever it is you're trying to sell them. If you're not, it's going to get old quick. Yeah, you know, right?

Absolutely. All right, Damon, tell everybody where they can find you. Maybe they need a wreath supply box in their life, or if they're like me and they can't make a wreath for anything, they just like to watch you live make wreaths at night while they're laying in bed. That's what I like to do. Tell them where they can find you.

You can find us at Deco Exchange on all social media platforms. But if you're looking to talk to me, it's only going to be on Facebook.

Okay, we'll see you on Facebook. Thanks, Damon.

Thanks, y'all.

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.