087: From Registered Nurse to Subscription Box Owner with Tiffany Hill

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 have Tiffany here from Queen of My Castle, and I can't wait for you to hear her story from RN to subscription box owner. It's been a long journey, and I can't wait. She's got a Door Hanger of the Month Club, and she paints these beautiful door hangers month after month. She's got a couple other passive streams of revenue, amazing Etsy shop. So Tiffany, welcome to the Launch a Box podcast.

Thank you.

All of that down, and we're going to tell them how you launched your subscription box this year, what's happened, what's in store, but I'd love for you to start. Let's go back because you said I've been doing this for a decade, but you are also an RN. So let's go back to that moment in time when this all started for you and how things have changed over the last decade.

So yeah, I graduated from nursing school way back in 2004 and did that and really thought that was my life. I was prepared to be a nurse until I was older, retired, and that would've been fine. And then about 2012, I bought a door hanger at a local market and brought it home. And my dad was like, you know, that's just made out of luan or whatever, which is another term for the wood that we use, that most people use for door hangers. Next thing I know, he's brought me a piece of wood and a jigsaw. And so I cut one, made myself one. I think it was a baseball. And then I did like a cupcake and I posted them on my social media just for fun, like no intention of ever selling anything. Like when I tell you, like having a side gig was never even like a, a baby in my brain, you know what I mean? Like I never even thought about it.

Leave it up to the dads to be like, we can make that. Like that's totally my dad too. Like we can make that.

Yeah. And people are always like, well, were you always artsy? You know, did you always draw? And I'm like, I really didn't. I don't think I ever took an art class in school. I mean, I was a cheerleader, so we did like the fence signs and the run-through signs and stuff like that. But nothing like true art. And I can remember one of my sons had asked me, he wanted to color— I have 3 sons, by the way— and one of them, when he was probably 6, he wanted to color Angry Birds, which is random, but I couldn't find any coloring pages. So like, I just pulled up a picture and I like drew one out, and I was surprised at how accurate it looked. I was like, wow, you know. So that was kind of the first inkling that I ever had that maybe I could even do anything like that. And it still was just not— I mean, I don't know, I just wasn't even in my world. So Anyway, that was 2012, and when I tell you, I always tell people, this is like a snowball rolling down a hill. It was tiny. It was never meant to be anything, and it just, you know, it just grew, and I just ran with it. I have a sort of entrepreneurial spirit, and so when I have an idea, I'm like, okay, how can we make this profitable? You know what I mean? It's all fun and games to paint and do all the things, but you can only have so many personal door hangers, you know what I mean? I can only decorate so many doors. So at some point If I want to keep creating, I've got to sell them. And that's exactly what I did. And we just, you know, it was just me for a while. And then I brought on my sister when I got bigger. And, you know, now we have about 4 people that do this full time. And, you know, that's just, that's just our version of how we've grown. And it, you know, it just started slow. And I always try to tell people that, like, don't feel like you're going to start today and a month from now you're just going to be this huge success. Like, that would be great. Maybe it might overwhelm you and you might quit if you were to have that overnight success. But growing slowly is what I think allowed me to be confident enough to, I mean, quitting my nursing job was like, seriously, I, I can remember saying that like, well, I'm gonna be a nurse till I'm old and retired, you know, unless I just win the lottery. You know what I mean? Like I can remember making that specific joke. And so let's, let's go back.

Let's go back to that because I feel like as you're talking, there's so many similarities to our story. When I started my business, you know, I worked for a Fortune 500 company and it was me making these frames for this artwork and that I had, and that turned into me making frames for other people. Just same thing as you posted it, and they're like, oh, can you make me a frame for that? I have that exact same, you know, painting that we did at paint night or whatever. And, and that turned into me making and creating these frames, which turned into my sign making and my door hanging, and now my monogram box. So I feel like it all is, is very same. But I remember when I was at the point of, you know, quitting my day job, right? And so let's go back to that for you, because You had a great career as a nurse. You'd been a nurse for what, 8 years at this point, maybe longer. But let's talk back about, you started your business. I'm assuming Etsy shop was the first thing, cuz that's what all, you know, a side hustler, it was, we do an Etsy shop. And as that grows, you're making great side money, which is always great for the family. Now you have money for vacations and extra things, the car payment and whatever we want. So now we gotta transition into, okay, if I'm gonna really do this, I've gotta quit my job. And I remember what that feeling was like. So let's go back there. Where, what were you thinking then?

Where were you at then?

Are you, were you selling regularly on Etsy at that point?

Yeah, Etsy had gotten very stable. I mean, as stable as a one-off sale, you know, thing can be. That's scary in and of itself because you really don't have any control You know, I mean, you can think like, well, I've had steady income for the last year, I feel like it's reliable, but you really just don't know because those sellers could just fall off. I mean, we're in the middle of inflation right now and it's, you know, that's what's going to go first, the frivolous arts and crafts that people are buying on Etsy, you know what I mean? So, you know, that's, that is a real fear. But the subscriptions, you know, that's more of a steady income for sure. You may lose a few members here, you may gain a few members there, but you know, I'm going to have about this much steady income. It's more like a paycheck. And so I did have the luxury as a nurse to cut back on my hours without just severing that tie completely. I think having that income gave me a unique ability to really grow the business without being nervous because I had money to pay my bills. So if it flopped, it didn't matter because I had my nursing income, you know what I mean? So I was able to just really enjoy it. I didn't feel like I had to just be obsessively focused on selling a million things because I didn't have to. And so anyway, I cut back to like part-time and then I cut back to flexi, which is like barely working at all. And then I finally really fully quit just at the beginning of this year. So I have been working as a nurse all this time. You know, my business is 10 years old now and I had been working until January, or actually this March is when I finally said I'm not working, I retired, I say, as a nurse.

Yes. So you had this as like a side gig, right? So you were juggling both, which a lot of entrepreneurs do. It's a security blanket, that paycheck, even though the paycheck was dwindling because the growth of the business was growing cuz you were working less, it was still like, if all fails, I still have a job, right? Like, and so it removed that amount of pressure and stress. People going into this that need to make money right away and they don't have a job, they're relying on this to be their sole income, it's stressful. So the way that you built it allowed you to not be stressed about it, and I think that helped with your creativity and it helped you grow in ways that didn't feel like, I have to make money today or we can't eat. You know what I'm saying? So I love that you talked about, I didn't feel comfortable quitting my job fully, even though I'd let it go a lot until I had those subscriptions. So we've been making signs on Etsy. You've been— they're beautiful and gorgeous. You're probably making a ton of signs on Etsy. So now it's like, okay, I think I'm ready to launch my subscription box. And I remember because you were in the group, and I don't know how long you'd been in the group before you launched. Take us back to that.

Probably about 6 months. And the real, like, I mean, I had this idea. I have a friend who's in the business with me that does a similar business like mine. She had done a door hanger of the month. We actually do a digital teaching group together. And so she had had hers going for maybe a year. And so I, you know, I had thought like, I want to, I want to incorporate that. I love my digital membership subscription. So like, you know, it just makes sense to do a physical one. And I also now have these employees. And so I'm thinking like, well, if the door, you know, in the summer when sales slow, sort of, you know, this will be a way to keep them on because they rely on this income as well now. So it's not just me. And I was trying to think of a way that I could have these steady door hanger sales because that's what they do is they paint the door hangers. You know, I was linked up with Nicole because I had this, I had the idea for how to do it, but like I am too busy to paint. I'm too busy painting to try to do all the things, you know, like I had made my initial website, but like I knew I needed to be on Shopify. I knew I wanted to be able to offer options like different payment levels if they wanna do longer subscriptions and all the things. But I had no idea how to implement that. Well, and you didn't have the bandwidth either.

Like you didn't have the bandwidth to even like try to learn that and take that on.

Right. I don't even wanna know how to do that. Like I'm so, that's one tip I would always say to, for people to like hire somebody that knows, don't think you've gotta do it all yourself. But so Nicole made my website, that was last summer. We went through that and then she, And it was perfect. I mean, it was just exactly like all the subscription boxes I'm in. It was, it was similar to that, the look of it, the landing pages, all that stuff, you know. And so that gave me the confidence to feel like, okay, I can take this on because I don't have a lot of extra time. Even before this, we were really busy, you know what I mean? And so I thought, I need it to be streamlined. I need it to not just be like, I don't need it to be a mess. Like, I need to know this is who ordered, this is what they've ordered, this is what it's due. And so anyway, they, they made all that happen. She recommended a virtual assistant who still to this day is running the group. So I mean, that, that was a major help, you know, just all of it. I mean, the whole group is great. And then seeing other people do it, like seeing other people that have gone before me that are thriving, you know, so it was really the push. It really made a huge impact in my confidence to pull this off.

So you get all the tech together. You've been, you're, you're great at building your audience. Your audience is already built. You're ready just to launch the thing. So here comes January 2022. You're like, okay, I'm gonna launch this subscription. I'm gonna do it. And I'm gonna do it with 30 spots. Right. Tell me about that and that decision.

I don't really know how we came up with that number, but it just seemed doable for us. And you know, and I had the idea in my head of what we were gonna do. And so I thought, let's just start with 30. And we did, and it was, it was relatively easy. You know, we have a laser that cuts. So I, I used, I mentioned that jigsaw. I used to cut everything by hand with that jigsaw. That would have probably not been realistic for a subscription of this size now. But anyway, you know, we did the 30, it literally sold out in hours, like in a couple of hours those spots sold out, which was a shock. And usually I think what helps with that one is people don't— like, you listen to one of your videos earlier and you were talking about how sometimes you're too close to your business, you forget that people don't realize what your business really is. You just assume they know because you talk about it all the time in your own head. That strangers on the internet are gonna grab. And you were like, they have 7 seconds to grab them or whatever. So that first month I actually used pictures of the actual door hanger because I thought if I talk about a door hanger of the month and a surprise and yada, yada, yada, they're not really gonna grasp it. So that, it was beautiful. I mean, they're always beautiful, but this one was a Valentine's Day one and it was gorgeous. And I took these really beautiful pictures of it. And I mean, people just latched onto it and the whole sale, you know, the fact that that door hanger, if they bought it, one time on Etsy would be $67, and as a member of the subscription, they get it for $50. You know, that's a big— obviously that was a big selling point. But anyway, people just latched on to it. I mean, and then because it sold out so quick, people were desperate for the next month, you know what I mean? Like, they were getting on the waitlist.

Like, you created that scarcity and that FOMO real quick. So even though you had 30 spots, it really set this intention that I've gotta watch to get in next time. So I'm gonna be urgent with my reaction when she posts for next month, so I can get in. You're already setting that scarcity, exclusivity, the urgency, like you're already doing all the things that I want you to do to get subscribers. And you did it because you limited how many spots. If you would have had 300 spots, well, first of all, that might not have been feasible as a handmade item. But second of all, it would have taken longer to sell out, and you wouldn't have created the urgency with it. And so with 30 spots, you instantly created urgency. You knew that your team could handle 30, or you felt like they could. They did it flawlessly. So you said, okay, let's double that next month and see what the team can handle, because they are physically painting every one of these door hangers. Some have bows, some have beads, like there's stuff that goes on them. It's not like you're just throwing them on the laser and, and shipping them out. They have to be hand-painted. And so I love the way that you've eased into this, and you mentioned mentioned it earlier that you were really— slow growth really built your business. I truly believe that slow growth makes long-lasting, sustainable businesses. And so by not trying to go 300 on your first launch and really slow growth in it, we got to figure out what we're going to do to make, you know, 30 door hangers at once. We've got to figure out how many we have the capacity to do, because the last thing that you want to do is disappoint. Hundreds of customers. So then you doubled it, and then you added more, and then you added more, and now we're doing about 175 hand-painted door hangers for your subscription. Is that monthly or quarterly?

That's monthly. We do have a quarterly subscription that has 50 members in it, and it ships January, April, July, and October, so they get one for every season.

Okay, so they'll get 4 door hangers a year instead of 12.

Exactly.

Okay, so let's talk about this because now we've launched, we've launched in January. Now here comes March and you're ready to quit your job. And I love how you said it was that recurring revenue that made you feel confident. Let's talk about that for a little bit.

Yeah, it was just like we talked about, you know, even though Etsy had been successful for such a long time, like Etsy doesn't owe me anything, you know what I mean? These one-off buyers don't owe me anything. So if they want to shop somewhere else or if they don't want to buy door hangers anymore, like, you know, that's fine. But then I'm just left in the lurch, you know what I mean? And, and for a lot of people that are risk takers, that's fine. They're good with that. And they think, well, if that happens, I'll roll with the punches. And, but that's just not me. Like, I'm very— like it or not, I'm very money driven, for lack of a better term. I don't want to worry about how to pay the bills, you know what I mean? So if I need to work, like, I'll happily work around the clock if that means we've got plenty of money. Now, I don't want to do that, but I'm just saying, for example, if I thought I needed to keep my nursing job to just sleep peacefully at night and not be worried about money, I would have done that. So having this and just seeing the response from it, you know, really, and the fact that people are not quitting, you know what I mean? We'll lose a couple here and there, but for the most part, our turnover is like almost nonexistent. Even with this kind of depression, not depression, that's an extreme word, but you know, even with the economic downturn that we seem to be going through, the people are staying. And so, you know, that just was, this was the push. Like, I already had the money. I didn't need the hospital funds. It was just, it was literally just that peace of mind knowing that if I need to pick up a shift, I can. And I hadn't needed to pick up shifts in years, but it was just, that's just me. I needed that confidence. I needed that like reassurance. And so anyway, adding on the actual physical door hanger of the month just felt like the, I don't like to say nail in the coffin because it's got a negative connotation, but it was the push. It was the, you know, it was okay, you're done. Like your time is better served at your house with your small business, with your people. You know, and I love nursing and it has a special place in my heart. And that may have made it a little bit easier too, because I can always go back and be a nurse. And I know my unit would have me back in a heartbeat. So there's that in and of itself is some reassurance, but still it was that push of, you know, the response, the people were loving it. I felt confident that with that group I could keep my workers here because like I said, they rely on this income as well. And I don't ever want to let them down because they're so integral and important to me and the success of this business that, you know, that, that was the push. That was it. And so we had January, February, March, we got up to 90 members. We did 30 a month up till 160. And then last month we up to 175 and we're going to stay there this month and probably through the holidays.

So, okay, so we've quit our job, we feel great about it, we're growing. You just told me that you're capping it at $175 for a little bit, but I wanna talk a little bit about growing and scaling a handmade business, because I think that there are a lot of makers in the group, and maybe listen to the podcast right now that think, I make a great thing, and I would love to put it on a subscription model, but I'm just a little bit nervous on how I would even be able to grow and scale. And I know just from my own experience, you can't grow and scale by yourself. Right? You can't physically do all the things. So let's talk through what that looked like as your business was growing, what you hired for, what you outsourced, what— you know, we always have those equipment upgrades. You said you went from the jigsaw to the laser. So let's just talk through some of that so we know realistically what it takes.

So yeah, initially I was cutting everything with a jigsaw. I was doing it all by myself. The first thing that I took on was my sister, and she— so once I'm finished painting a sign, whether it's a subscription sign or an Etsy order or a local, whatever whatever. I put it on the rack and I don't touch it again. So she gets it, she takes it outside, she sprays it, she adds the wire, she makes the bows, and she ships. So, you know, that was a huge— because that's not fun, you know what I mean? Like, she doesn't want to paint. She's not— that's not her forte. That's my thing. And so knowing that that's not hanging up over my head is a huge— you know, like, people think like, well, I don't want to pay somebody. Yeah, you do. You want to pay somebody because the money that you can make when you take those little, like, just headaches off of yourself allows you just to double down and make even more cute products, creativity, launch new things, whatever. So hire the help. Like, I'm, you know, I feel like I kind of was leery to do that for a while, but it makes all the difference. So anyway, okay, so she does all that, and then I brought on a painting assistant, Courtney. She's precious, and we grew up together, and our kids all go to school together, and she is for lack of a better term, a painting assistant. Assistant is probably not good enough for her. She can do just about all the things. So, you know, she sped me up a ton. I do the finishing touches for her, you know, and we work alongside each other every day. And then we got the laser January of 2021, and my mom actually runs it. It just sped everything up, you know what I mean? Like, I, I always tell people that want to get a laser because I feel like that's like the cool thing to do right now for door hanger people. If you really truly have enough orders to paint every day, like 8 to 5 or whatever, don't think that you can get a laser and speed up because somebody has to run the laser, you know what I mean? If you're running the laser, then you're not painting. Yeah, so, you know, I couldn't— it would have— the laser actually would have slowed me down if I didn't have somebody else running it. So I just always— because that's a lot of money to spend if you're— to get it and find out it's not really something you can work into your business model. So anyway, then she— so she came in, and then once we did Door Hanger of the Month, I've hired another assistant painter and she paints at home. So she's got little kids and she takes the signs home and she's got all the things there and then I get them back and we finish them. So that is the staff that I have working for me consistently. And my mom and my sister and Courtney all work full time pretty much, and I work more than full time. I work like—

Oh, we all— So you're really at this point, you're the finisher, right? So they are You're just going in and putting your little Tiffany touches on everything, and then sister's getting it out the door, mom's cutting it, your girls are prepping it for you because all they need are the little Tiffany touches. And so you've really been able to streamline your business. If you were sitting there painting 175 door hangers from start to finish, you would be running yourself ragged. You can fail without help, and what it takes is batching. I'm sure you guys do a lot of batching.

Yeah.

Base color on this one. We're gonna— let's do all the feathers on this one real quick, then we'll switch to polka dots. Like, you've gotta batch these so that you're streamlining your process. It's just like you saying, like, to her taking over the finishing of the spring and adding the bows and the beads and packing it. Like, if you made a thing and stopped and did all of that, or even if you spent all morning painting and then all afternoon you were shipping, like, you're losing half a day every day, just the work that someone else can do. Not everyone can do what you do— the Tiffany touches, the little touches that you put on everything that makes your product so great. Not everyone can do that. And at some point you're going to be able to train them to do the Tiffany touches. So just know that, that that's going to come to you. You've got these amazing people that are working for you. They're learning. Painting is a learned skill. You can teach them the Tiffany touches so that Someday you'll just be there working on the overview of your business, creating the products that they're gonna make every month, and, and just really leaning into the CEO part of your business. But I just wanna reiterate to every handmade maker that's listening right now, you have to have help to grow and scale. You can't grow and scale your business thinking you and your mom are gonna do it all. Like, like I just feel, I feel like they get in a trap, you and your you know, like you and your best friend are going to do all of this work to grow and scale. If you're not willing to hire help, you won't grow and scale.

And that's just right.

And you can, you can hire one person and it will more than double your productivity. So just adding one person, just adding her sister in, probably more than doubled her own productivity because now she had stuff off her plate, off her brain that she didn't want to do, and she could focus and work that much faster. Probably quadrupling her productivity at that point with one hire. And so as you look to hire in the future, just keep that in mind, everyone listening. You cannot grow and scale without hiring physical help to make the things. Okay, so we talk a little bit about challenges. All businesses have challenges. Tiffany, what have been some of the challenges that you have faced? As your business has grown quite rapidly?

So we touched on some of them, just the, you know, having the help, finding good help. That was, that's one important thing. And we really were lucky and blessed, you know, to get good help pretty much from the start. But I have to imagine that there could be an experience for other people where you hire help and they're just not as committed to it as you are. They're, they're not, you know, they're, they're not on the line like you are, you know, and I think you feel that to a degree everywhere. You know, you want to be a perfectionist, but then you have to remember this is handmade. Like, I'm making every single one of these. They're not being printed in a factory and showing up at my door for me to just throw a wire on and ship out. So, you know, being able to kind of relinquish that— like, I am a perfectionist, but at the same time, like, I embrace handmade, you know what I mean? Like, if the lines aren't— and I always teach this in my painting groups too— if the lines aren't perfect, that's okay. It's perfectly imperfect. This is happily handmade, you know what I mean? Like, if they want cookie cutter they can go to Hobby Lobby or whatever, you know what I mean? Like, that really is a selling point to me. So I don't get hung up on that. I teach people not to get hung up on that. And so I pass that on to my painting help, you know what I mean? Like, it's fine, you know, wherever I have— whatever I've drawn on there for you to paint, you just paint it. I'll clean it up, you know, when it gets to me. And, and I do, and it always ends up being fine. So people, you know, if you're very Type A, you're very controlling, that would be a major challenge to just Relinquish some of that because you, like you said, you cannot do it all. You can't. I mean, I could— could I paint 175 door hangers a month? Yeah, but that's all I could do, right? I wouldn't be able to sell anything else. I wouldn't be able to teach my groups, you know what I mean? You limit yourself.

Your hands would be curled up because you couldn't move, right?

And people, you know, people— I hear this a lot in my groups. Well, you know, where did— how did you find your help? How did you teach them? Like, you just have to start. Like, you just— the first step is to just start. And you may find that the first person you hire is not the right one. And you may move down the line, but to just say like, to just think like, oh, that's too much work. I'm just going to keep doing it myself. Okay, well then you're limiting yourself, right? You know, right off the bat, like that's fine. If you don't want to grow, that's okay. Your business can be whatever you want it to be. But if your goal is to grow, which mine has always been and still is, you've got to work on your mental state and you've got to figure out a way to incorporate help. You know, because that there's just no other way. There's no other way.

Well, if you had to do it all over again, if you had to start back at the beginning and start all over again, would there be anything that you would do differently?

Um, I probably would've quit my job sooner.

Okay.

Not that I didn't love it, but I, I think I, in hindsight, like I think we were stable enough a few years back to quit the job, but because I've just like, now that I'm, now that this is all I'm doing, I just have so much more to do. And even, even if the time that I'm allowing or allotting for my business has not changed any. Just not having that overhanging over my head is like, oh, you know, I mean, just like a— like, yeah, I mean, you know, it just has allowed me to just really just go wild in the business. And so, you know, there are things we sold this year that I've never sold before that were like insanely successful, and I don't think I would have ever even had the like mental capacity to add them to our offerings if I was still stressing out about picking up shifts at the hospital, you know what I mean?

So absolutely. All right, this has been awesome. So if you are looking for a cute door hanger in your life, you've got to go find Tiffany. Tiffany, where can they find you?

Okay, so my Facebook and Instagram are both Queen of My Castle Designs. Here's a little tip: if you're just starting out, research your business name before you start. So if you want to have an Etsy shop, make sure there's not an Etsy shop with your name. I didn't know that, and my Etsy shop is Queens of Castles because every version of Queen of My Castle was taken, and they're not shops, they're just buyers that use that as their name. But anyway, if you want to shop, if you just search Queens of Castles or even Queen of My Castle, it'll eventually get you back to my shop on Etsy. And then my website, so if you're interested in— I have some workshops, I have some teaching groups, My website is queenofmycastledesigns.com. If you want to learn, I can paint you door hangers, or I can teach you to paint door hangers. We do all the things.

Awesome, I love that. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode. It was great insights to a handmade business. 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.