110: It's Not Too Late to Pivot Your Offer with Rustic Glitter

Have you ever felt the pull to change what you're offering? Today I'm talking with a member that did just that. She started a new box which grew faster than her original and hasn't looked back. Come join us.

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 members here with me today, and we're going to talk a little bit about pivoting your offer today. Let me take you back to a few weeks ago. I saw a post from Joanne inside the Launch Your Box group, and it was a picture of her and these stacks of boxes. Now, Joanne's been a member for a while. I'm very familiar with her box. and these boxes were different, and they were pink, and I was like, well, that's cute packaging for Valentine's Day. And she quickly replied to my comment and said, no, this is actually my new subscription, and it's growing much faster than my original subscription. Well, I immediately knew that we had to talk about it. If you remember back on episode number 96, I talked with Julie, and the same thing happened with her and her Pilot Wives Club. And so I was like, let's get Joanne on the podcast. Let's talk about what she did, why she did it, and what's happening with the new subscription. So Joanne, welcome to the podcast.

Hello. Hello. Thank you for having me. I appreciate that.

I, I love having you here. I love you being a member of Launch Your Box. I've got to watch your journey unfold over the years, and I love it. But I want to take our listeners back a little bit. Let's go back to the beginning. Let's just share like the beginning of Rustic Glitter, which is Joanne's business, how it started, what happened, how we created the first box. So let's go back a little bit.

So in 2017 is when I started Rustic Glitter, and honestly it started as what I call like a hobby business. I was running a very successful salon that I was— that was my main business, but I love working with my hands, and I love being crafty and making personal things. And so I decided, well, you know what, let me just start a little— it was around the holidays, and I said, let me start a little side business making personalized gift items with my Silhouette, doing vinyl. And I, you know, dabbled into some of the shirts and stuff like that. Then I got to a point where I was like, I'm only going to do as requested orders. I didn't have a website. It was more local. And it was just as needed. So it, like I said, it was like a hobby, hobby business to me.

Like most of us start with, you know, like mine was a hobby business. I was just making frames for the artwork I was teaching at the studio. And so most of us start our businesses as a hobby business.

Yeah.

So let's talk through what happened next.

So, um, so we'll fast forward a little bit. You know, I've always had a dream to have a subscription box. And honestly, I knew nothing about them. I subscribed to two. They were makeup. I had no idea how big the world of subscription boxes were. And I honestly— I thought this was kind of funny, kind of funny. I actually thought there was no craft subscription box out there. I literally, like, my husband and I were talking about it, and I was like, I just, I don't know, me, like, I think we could be on to something, you know. And Boy, was I shocked because I had no idea. I mean, I didn't do any research. I was just like, this would be so much fun. So when we'll fast forward a little bit more, when the pandemic hit and my salon, along with several other businesses, were forced to close temporary while the world was trying to figure out what it was doing, you know, we were just stuck at home and we were bored. And so my husband's like, I'm gonna go in the garage and cut something. I'm bored. I was like, okay. Okay, so I printed out this bunny silhouette and I traced it on a piece of wood and I said, can you cut this out? He cuts it out and I go, okay, I want you to cut as many as you can for however much wood we have in this garage. So I think he was able to get like 15 or so cut out. We had some stakes and I was like, I'm going to make kits. And he goes, what? And I said, I'm going to make some kits. People are bored at home. It's about to be Easter. So I cut up some ribbon. I cut up some vinyl. I made little kits. They were in like Ziploc bags. They didn't even fit in the bags. They were hanging out of the bags, but I was like, this is it. I posted in our neighborhood page, put them out for people to come pick up. So, you know, you know, you know how to keep your distance and they sold out. Okay. I think we're onto something. Either people are like really bored or I think we're onto something. We started like working on like one-time boxes and I was like, okay, I think I want to do a subscription box. I don't know where the salon's going to go after all this opens. And, you know, I think I need to like have kind of a backup plan. So we started making like little boxes and I had a few people that would buy them one by one. Well, then I came across you and it changed my world because it turned my idea and my dream into a reality because I had no idea where to start, what to do. I didn't know anything about subscription boxes. I really liked to look at all these websites because then I found that there were a a ton of craft boxes, and I was not the only one.

You're like, darn it, I wasn't the first one that had this idea.

I was like, what? And then I was like, it's okay, there's enough people in the world to share the business. So I remember going to one of your classes, and it was, okay, we're gonna set a date, this is it. And I went with it, and I launched on that date, and we launched our original subscription box, which is our home decor box, and We like included all the wood pieces, the paint, the brushes, a 3-page instructions, which then turned into instructions.

Yeah, like here's colors.

They were detailed. It was so detailed, so detailed, plus a video. Then it turned into a booklet, and then the booklet turned into just video because the booklet was taking like a lot of time to do. But the video— a lot of people are more hands-on, so we did the video. Well, trying to source all of those products during a pandemic and shortages, it was a little challenging. So, you know, some months the containers would be different, the paint would be different, you know, all these things. So we had that subscription box for a good while and it got up to about 45 subscribers. And then we had a little shift in our, in our personal life. My husband got sick. He was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and So he's on the transplant list and doing dialysis and all this stuff. So while he helped me on the wood side of it, I wasn't sure how much longer he was going to be able to help. So we came up with the smaller box, which is the tiered tray subscription box, and the price points are very different from the big box to the little box, and I started to do like—

what, what made you start the tiered tray box?

So personally, I was obsessed with tiered trays, and I was seeing that there was a trend, and I realized that I wanted to jump in on that trend because if I loved it just as much, and sometimes when you're sending these bigger pieces it can overwhelm people, and then they have to store it. Whereas when you have a tiered tray, I mean, it can be stored in like a little Ziploc bag and put to the side, and it's in one space in your home. So if you are, you know, in a one-bedroom apartment or a huge house, it doesn't matter. It's one tray and that's it. So, and you can be very creative with the tray, or you can put it on a shelf. However you want to do it. I mean, we have people that get very creative, but I just kind of saw a shift in, you know, some of my subscribers and some of the things that they were buying. And so we started the, um, tiered tray box, and it started with only like, I don't know, 3 pieces. And I want to say we started with like 7 subscribers, and it just started growing and growing and growing. And then You know, we switched to the pink boxes from a white box, and everyone's like, they love their pink boxes when they get it in the mail. You know, they see it and they're like, oh, my pink box! So, you know, I think having a box with your name on it and being specific versus like just a generic box, I think it also makes it special, you know, whether it's personalized, whether it's custom that you bought custom, or you physically custom. But something about a specific color box and with your branding, it makes people feel special. Yeah.

It's not just a brown, another brown box at your front door. So, okay, let's go back a little bit. So we had the DIY home decor box and you'd been working on that for about 2 years and you hadn't even quite gotten to the 50 subscriber mark, right? Like you were really close there, but you've been working on this thing for 2 years. Now your husband's sick. Who you relied on very much to help you cut the wood for that box, and you started to transition. One, because you, you love the tear tray. Two, it was easier for you to fulfill on your own. You didn't have to rely on him because you were unsure, you know, of how much you could rely on him going forward, and it was trendy and people were really excited about it. And so you started to create this not really knowing where the home decor box was going to go. But you're like, I'm going to start this and just see what's going to happen here. And what you found in one year, that it surpassed your other box in half the amount of time, right?

Yes.

So you grew from 7 subscribers to 63 subscribers that year and such a quicker, faster way. And so what you noticed was Maybe it's time to let go of the bigger box with all the things that were consuming all of your time. And this is a trap that we get in when we are— I think when we're first starting our subscription box, if I had to do it all over again, do you think I would personalize everybody's subscription? Probably not, although I think that's what makes it special now. But right when we first start, we just want to give them everything, right? We want to do all the bells and whistles. We want to make it the best possible experience we can. So we just do all the things you were doing— the paint and the brushes and the ribbon and the wood, and like everything that they needed to create that. But what we've realized is that if someone's a crafter, if someone's an artist, they have all kinds of crafting supplies. They don't need us to send them brushes. They don't need us to send them paint. I probably have enough paint to last me for 20 years, you know. Same with ribbon. I still have tons of ribbon. So we were sending all of these things which weren't necessary, which was driving our cost up and our margins down, and was creating a ton of labor for you. And it was creating a higher price point than maybe it could have been because you were adding all the bells and whistles. And so you learned from that, right? Like, we always learn from what we do. And you're like, this next box, I'm gonna make it really easy on myself. It's literally going to be the, the pieces, the wood. I'm not giving them paint, I'm not giving them ribbon, I'm not giving them glue, I'm not giving them all the things. And you were able to price it differently. Talk to me about that.

This box, the smaller box, like you said, it's only the wood pieces. Honestly, I don't even include instructions because, like you said, a crafter can easily figure out how it goes. I do have like a VIP Facebook group, and I go in there and I'll craft, um, one of the most complicated things in there, and I'll answer questions for that. The box— sorry, the box is $25 a month plus $9.99 for shipping. And every single month there is an add-on option. So the base kit usually comes with 4 to 5 pieces. And like I said in the beginning, it started with like 3, and I just kept adding a little bit more because I was like, no, you know, it needs a little bit more here and there. And so now we're like 4 to 5 pieces. The add-on kit is anywhere from 2 to 3 pieces if they want to add like an ultimate tray that they're trying to do, and that is anywhere from $10 to $12 a month, and that gets shipped in their box. So there's no additional shipping, it's just automatically it gets put in the box. So most of our members choose to do the add-on. So you have the $25 plus 10 to 12, plus the $9.99 shipping. But what else I do in our VIP group is I do a— to keep it active, because I think that's one of— that is one of the challenges is trying to stay active in your group and keep your members, you know, intrigued and build that relationship because it's hard to build a relationship without a brick and mortar. So we have to find another way to build this relationship. So every month I do a giveaway and that giveaway is a simple question or post a selfie. It's just something real easy for people to do and they can win the add-on for free. So our members love that, you know, because it's real easy, answer a question or do whatever, and they have a chance to, to win. We also have our referral program and with the referral program, if our members refer someone, then the member gets a free add-on and so does their friend. So you get one, you get one.

That's awesome. Is that every single month? Like they could refer someone every month and get a free kit every month?

Yeah. So like, for instance, if someone referred like 5 people this month, they're going to get 5 months of free add-ons. Yeah, their friend will get the one, but they'll get one for each person. So it's not limited. Refer away.

And what's that? What's the cost on those add-ons?

The product cost, I would say anywhere from like $4 to $5, not including my time, but it just depends. You know, the price of wood is, you know, up and down, up and down. I try to keep it, you know, priced accordingly.

Well, I think it's a great price point to also give, you know, that bonus gift to them. If we think about our Facebook ads and the dollars that we spend in advertising, we are gonna pay more than that to get a customer to convert to a sale. Anyway. So not only are they connected because they have a friend that's doing the same thing, but now they can get together, they can consume the contents of your box together, um, and they're ready for the next one. And they feel good because they've referred their friend. They now have someone to do this project with, and they're getting the extra, which you feel good about. And they're probably— their lifetime value is a lot higher because someone else does it with them than if they were doing it alone. So I think it's a total win-win. On both sides for you to do that referral program. Now, I know something that you and I talked about before we started recording was making the shift with your audience. So I think that's a lot of people's fear when they're thinking about pivoting what they're doing. How do I get my current audience to pivot with me? Can you talk a little bit about that?

It definitely was nerve-wracking and I really sat on the idea for quite a while because I was like, I, you know, this is our original box, you know, I don't want to do it. But when I look down, a lot of our members that were a member of our home decor box were also members of our tiered tray box, and they knew what was going on at the time. Like, I've shared it with my groups. I haven't shared it publicly, but here it is. Um, but so they, they knew. And, you know, some of my members have been with me since the very first home decor box. So there is— like I said, I was very nervous to do it. But once I did it, the stress, it just kind of lifted off my shoulders. And I realized, you know, some people, we sometimes have like this picture of like everyone's watching us and everyone's listening to us. And really that's not the case. People do understand and it's real life. And I always try to be like, even when I go live on Facebook, sometimes I'm a hot mess. Okay. I'll be honest. And I'm just like, this is real life. I am not a corporation. I am me. I literally run my business and this is it. And I think people relate to real life. And so the pivot actually went Very easy. I think I worked it up in my head that it was going to not— this is going to be a mistake and la la la. But you know what? No one skipped a beat.

Yeah, it's so true what you said about we think everybody's watching. No one's paying attention. No one cares what we're doing. It's the same thing I was telling someone last week, like, it's time to raise your prices. Most people won't even notice. Most people don't even pay attention enough that they're even going to notice that you have a price raise. And so we get in our heads about that. Because we think everybody's paying attention to everything that we do and they're so self-absorbed, they don't care what we do. And so we just have to remember that and kind of get out of our own way when it comes to pivoting with things like that. Now, I know that you said you did a couple things that helped you drive new traffic to your website. Do you want to talk about those with us?

As in my social media? Yeah. Okay. So during the pandemic, I found TikTok and I mean, I knew about it, but I never had been on it. And I was like, okay, that's kind of fun. So, you know, I started posting just funny videos. I post behind the scenes. My TikTok page is very different than my Instagram and my Facebook. So very different, but I gained a lot of subscribers from that, from the quick little videos. People ask questions. And stuff like that. Instagram, you know, sometimes I'll post those videos as reels. You know, you just have to be consistent, and that's, that's, I think, what people have to— you know, you can take one video, post it somewhere else, post it somewhere, send it in emails and text, because again, not everyone's watching you. So because you posted it here doesn't mean that they saw it. You have to post it across the board. But on Facebook, I do Facebook ads, and that has also helped drive my subscriber set. That when there was that shift in that change of, you know, was it Apple or somebody like put that privacy—

iOS changes.

Yes, yes. So that hurt a little bit, but I think some of that's been leveled out. So I do, um, I do see a good response from my Facebook ads, and you have to target it correctly, and you have to target your people, not just general, you know. I mean, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna target men because that's not who my subscribers are. But so you have to really focus in on who your people are and, and focus in on that. But that, the ads have definitely helped me a lot.

Yeah. And I think right now ads are cheaper than they've been in a long time. And so if you're listening, I really would encourage you to go back and do some Facebook ads because right now we're getting cheaper clicks than we have. Then I'm getting cheaper clicks than I have in years. And I know that with our ad campaigns right now, we got over 50 new subscribers last month just by not me talking about it, but just my ads running on their own. So they're working. So this is Joanne and I telling you Go try Facebook ads again.

Yeah.

Because they're working right now and we, it's not always that way. Like fourth quarter was hard cuz there's a lot of ad noise everywhere. Turn those suckers back on. Let's see if we can get some traction on that. Something that I, I also wanna just, I wanna ask you, if someone listening right now has been feeling this pull to really pivot their offering, what would, what advice would you give them?

I would say, before you make the jump, to try it. So like in my case, I launched the tier tray box before I closed. Um, actually, I had the tier tray box for a year, and then I closed the home decor box. So it wasn't just a close one, open another, and hope that it works, you know. Slowly work your way into it. If you want to pivot to the other thing, promote that more slowly, you know, diffuse the other box or product that you're working with and heavily start talking about. So that way people will see that, oh, okay, this is a new thing. This is something, you know, and when you do make that decision, it's going to be really easy. And honestly, no one's going to notice.

Yeah. No one's going to, no one's watching. Right. We've already talked about that.

Yeah. So just do it.

Yeah, just do it. I think when we're replacing incomes, that's where we have to just tread lightly. We can't just shut down one expecting the other to perform the same way right away. So like Joanne said, it's a little bit of a test. Also, you could do a one-off box to test the new box to see what the response would be for this other audience. I would definitely get your audience involved. I would ask them some questions. I would do a poll. I would kind of tease it a little bit on your page and just see what they reaction is. But if you're feeling the pull to shift what you're offering, it's not too late. It doesn't matter how many years you've been doing it. If it's not growing, if you've done all the things to make it grow, to help it grow, and you're just sitting at the plateau for a very long time, it might be time to pivot. It might be time to make a change with your offering. Maybe if you have a craft box or any other box, you've been putting too much stuff in there. It might be time to simplify. Your offer so that you can simplify the pricing and the labor that it takes for you to package and fulfill that box. But no matter what you're feeling, it's not too late to pivot. It's not too late to change. We just gotta test the waters a little bit and make sure that our audience is ready for it. So, Joanne, why don't you tell them, if anybody listening is— loves their tear tray and they need more of that in their life, where can they go find you?

Well, you can find my information on rusticglitter.com. That's our website. You can also, if you want to watch some funny videos, um, you can find me on TikTok, which is Rustic Glitter. Instagram is Rustic Glitter TX. Facebook is Rustic Glitter. And then we also have a YouTube channel, and that is Rustic Glitter as well. Awesome.

Awesome. Well, thank you for sharing this information about how you made your pivot. I know that it's going to inspire someone listening right now that's been feeling the need to pivot but not sure where to start. So join us back here next time for another great episode of the Launch Your Box podcast. 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.