134: Never Give Up - Break Through the Plateau with the Crafty Lady Boutique

After making it to the top 1% of all Etsy sellers in the wedding category, Lexi was on top of her game. The global pandemic shut down the wedding industry and also Lexi's business. After struggling to grow for years, Lexi just kept going, never gave up, and hit her first milestone recently. Come join us.

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

Welcome back to the Launch Your Box podcast. Today I've got a great inspirational story for you and we're going to talk about it. I've got Lexi here from the Crafty Lady Boutique. She also is the owner of the Monogram Bride Box. And Lexi's story is a little bit different than some of the stories we've shared on the podcast. If you're out there and you've been struggling to grow, if you've been out there thinking my idea isn't great. I don't know if this is working. If you've been feeling that struggle of growing or even starting your subscription box business, I want you to put your headphones in and listen because we've got, we've got a great inspirational story that's going to take you through the highs, then the lows, and then the wins. And Lexi's here. Lexi, say hi to everybody. Why don't you introduce yourself? Tell them a little bit about your business and your box.

Okay. My name is Lexi. I am from Toledo, Ohio. I actually started my business in 2018. I was a nurse for 12 years. I'm still a nurse, but, you know, I quit doing that when I started my business. In 2018, I had 2 kids that were going to school and I was pregnant with my third and last child. And I just decided that nights weren't cutting it for me anymore. I couldn't do the 12-hour shifts at night anymore. It was just killing me. I couldn't make it to my kids' sports. So I was like, what can I do? So I started my business in 2019. I became the top 1% in the world in Etsy in the wedding category. Congratulations. Thank you. Which was super amazing. I was like, oh, this is a piece of cake. We got this. I had a product that I developed myself. It was the bridesmaid proposal box, and that was how actually that started.

Okay.

And now it's all over everywhere. Then COVID came, so— rocked all our worlds. Yep. It really shut down all the weddings and all the things. After that, I decided I needed to figure out what to do, and I pivoted to start the Monogrammed Bride subscription box.

Let's just recap that for a minute. So you were the top 1%—

actually, right now I'm in the top 0.1%.

Oh, excuse me, ma'am. The top 0— 0.1%, the top little, little fraction of the very, very, very top of what category?

The wedding category.

The wedding category. That's amazing. Like, that's a big, big deal because there's a lot of Etsy sellers. So to be at the top of that category. So we go through COVID, weddings are shut down. People are not getting married because they can't have their families there. So everyone's postponing their things. And your business basically gets kind of shut down too because they don't need the things you're selling because they're not having weddings, right?

Yep.

So now we're out of COVID We're in— is it 2021?

Yeah.

Okay.

2021.

You decide I'm going to start the Monogram Bride Box, right?

Yeah, it was at the very end of the year. Yeah.

Tell me how that thought process came along. So why did you decide on a subscription box? In that particular—

Well, my whole, my whole business was boxes. So I'm like, what can I do with a box? Because I always did gift boxes, you know, that was the bridesmaid proposal box. And I didn't want to venture out of the wedding category. I wanted to stay in there. Yeah.

So you were already at the top, right?

So I'm like, what can I do to make this different? And actually, I sent my items into a bridal subscription box and they turned me down. And I said, yeah, well, I'll do it myself then, right? Yes, exactly. Yep.

So, okay, so we get, we get the box launched. Tell me about the launch.

So the launch was sloppy. It was, it was quick, it was sloppy. And like I said, we were just coming out of that COVID thing, so I pretty much had no audience. So I had to build my audience from scratch because all of my brides were gone. They were all married. They had moved on. They're not looking for bridal engagement gifts anymore. So I pretty much had to start from scratch, build, rebuilding my audience. And when I launched my box, I didn't have a good audience. And I think that is part of the reason why my launch really didn't go well. I only had one subscriber to start.

One subscriber on the first launch. Yeah. Tell me how that made you feel.

Um, actually, I was excited. I was excited, like, holy crap, one person likes me, and that wasn't somebody I knew.

Okay, that's always the win when, like, the first person subscribes. It's not like your friend or family member, right?

Yeah. Yeah. So I was actually excited, but then I was also kind of bummed because I was like, oh, I can sell 50 of these in no time. I'm used to selling hundreds of items on Etsy every single day. So it was a little bit of a sting, you know.

So what—

we're not on Etsy anymore.

We're not on Etsy anymore.

Okay. Yes. We're, we're in, you know, a different world. And with Etsy, I didn't have to drive my own traffic.

Right. You can't put your subscription box on Etsy. So now you're off the platform that has built your business.

You don't—

you're not in front of all the people that are on Etsy looking for wedding things. So you're having to drive your own traffic to your website. You're having to build your own audience on social media. And that is challenging, and people don't understand how challenging that is, especially someone coming from Etsy, where when you put your products on Etsy, it's an instant audience. You don't have to work for that audience. You're just on a marketplace, and people are in and out all day long shopping for things. So it was probably a really huge realization for you, right?

It was, yes, absolutely.

What were your next steps then? So you're realizing, okay, I didn't build my audience enough. You can't just lob a thing out there and expect people to buy it, right? So what do you start to do?

So I started to build my audience. I kept my box open. I talked about it a little bit here and there, but I feel like the main goal was to try to get an army of brides that, you know, really liked me. And that was really hard to get to build that. And I feel like I didn't really figure it out until just recently, within the last 6 months. And I have a cute little team of brides now, and they like root me on and I root them on, and it's just a wonderful, you know, relationship.

You built a community.

Mm-hmm.

That was something you were missing, and you've been missing it not just from the beginning, but kind of along the way. And I want to talk about that with you because I think our listeners would really appreciate hearing this journey that you went through because It has been a struggle. I mean, I, I feel like I've been with you the whole time and I've watched you just show up and consume all the trainings and show up to the lives and the Zoom calls and just be there and absorb what you needed to absorb and go implement it. It's one thing to be in the group in Launch Your Box or Scale Your Box and learn the things, but you were learning the things and you were implementing the things. You were learning the things and you were so consistent and you were so steady. And you would do the thing after the thing after the thing thinking, okay, Sarah says we got to do this, I'm going to go do that. And then no results. Sarah says we got to do this, I'm going to go do that. And then no results. And I watched you on this path and I'll never forget this. And I wrote about this in my book, but I'll never forget the time that I was doing social media reviews and I looked at your page. Do you remember this?

Yes, I do. Because you always bring that up.

Yes.

That you didn't— you couldn't bust it. It.

I couldn't find what you were doing wrong because you were literally doing everything right. And I was like, what is wrong? Because she's doing everything right. And I was so baffled by it. I was so, you know, anytime someone comes off a launch and they say, I did everything, Sarah, I did everything and it just didn't work, I can usually go to their social media and I can see they didn't do everything and they didn't do a lot of the things that I needed them to do. But that wasn't the case for you. You literally did everything that I told you to do, and you just weren't seeing the results. And I was so— I was stressed out about it. Like, if I'm teaching you to do these things, like, it should work, right? And so I was really blown away by it. And what we kind of talked about a little bit was the fact that you do have so much turnover with your audience. It's kind of like, um, people that have audiences for children, like, they age out of that once they get married. Your audience is gone, right? And so it was like you were constantly having to recreate your audience. So all this buildup that you would have, the minute they got married, they were done. They were done with you, you were done with them, and you had to go constantly find new people. And I think that is the struggle that you had for a long time. But you launched and you had one subscriber, and then you would get a couple subscribers, but It never really took off until recently. And I think there were periods of time, and I specifically remember when you were going through Scale Your Box with me, of wondering what you should do, feeling like this was never going to be successful, feeling like you were just doing everything and nothing was working. Can you talk to me about that time and how you were feeling?

I had a shop. And I actually ended up losing my shop because I didn't have enough income, which is fine. I started at home and I'm at home now. Yeah, but I'll get back there. I'm not in any rush or hurry to have all those extra bills on my plate. Um, I just want to be comfortable with, you know, the income that I have. But once I grow out of this space again, I will do that. But it was very hard and challenging because anything after COVID just really, it never came back. Like it never, the wedding industry. For the gifts and things that never, like, came back fully, you know what I mean? And so it's really hard considering that's what my whole business was based on. So I did start going into making things for moms and stuff like that, which was fine, but that's not what I wanted my business to be. And I think that might have really put a little wrench in the whole figuring out your ideal customer type thing. Yeah. So now I have for a year and a half. Like, this is what I do. We're not going outside of this. Like, I am here for brides and their bridal party and that's it. And I feel like people, like, now I am attracting the right customer, you know what I mean?

Yeah. So let's talk to them about what this has looked like. So for the last 19 months, what— before we, we get to the win here, Where were we at? Did we ever get to 50 subscribers? Were we, were we about 20 to 30? Was that where it was consistently?

Forever. Forever.

Yeah. So can you imagine? I want you to put yourself in Lexi's shoes. She launches with 1 subscriber. She's happy, but she's also disappointed at the same time. She's working and working and working, and she gets up to 20, maybe 30 subscribers, and then loses some and then gains some and then loses some. And for 19 months, she goes through this period of only having about 20 to 30 subscribers. But here's what she doesn't do. She doesn't quit. She doesn't give up on what she really was passionate about, and she continues to be consistent. She continues learning. She continues to implement the things, and she's just being incredibly consistent. And what has happened over that last 19 months was you got more specific in your messaging and you got more specific on who you were for and you got more intentional about building a community. And you just had a huge win that I want to share with them. And I, I think you should share it with them. What happened recently after 19 months of having 20 to 30 subscribers? What just happened?

I finally hit my 100 subscriber goal that I've had for 19 months now.

Yes, she just hit 100 subscribers after being a top Etsy seller before COVID losing her business basically in COVID, starting over, floundering, frustrated, doing all the work. Like, I can't say Lexi didn't do the work. Lexi did every single thing that I asked her to do, and she did it well. She didn't half-ass anything. She up. She did it well. Her graphics are beautiful. Her message, like everything she did well. She didn't give up on herself. Even when she lost her shop, even when she had to bring it all home. And I remember being on that Zoom call with you crying because it was a mess. You were losing everything that you had built, but that still wasn't enough to make you give up on what you had dreamt about for so long. And I think that this is such an important message for everyone listening because we're going to struggle and it's not always going to be easy and it's not going to be perfect and you're going to have highs and then it's going to take you right back down to reality and you're going to be like, what? And you're going to have to start over again. And what you see sometimes is people just winning, winning, winning, winning. And you think, why are they winning? And I can't seem to find a win here. I'm working so hard. I'm hustling my face off. Well, why can't I have a win too? But you didn't let that get you down. You let it get you down in periods of moments, but you never gave up on yourself. And that's the powerful message here, because you kept going. You kept going when you probably had every reason not to keep going, right?

Yes, I really did. I actually was about ready to go back to be a nurse after I lost my shop there. And I was like, I can't do the 12-hour night shifts. And the trying to fumble all the school and the sports and the things with my business. It gives me the freedom. Honestly, if it wasn't for that, I probably would have went back to be a nurse.

Yeah. But that fire inside of you said, I don't want to give my freedoms up, right? That was your driving force. And I think sometimes with entrepreneurs, especially ones that still work a full-time job, they don't have the fire yet because they still have a steady paycheck. And so they don't work as hard or figure it out as much because they have a backup plan. You didn't want to go to the backup plan and everything inside of you said, I can't do the 12-hour days anymore. I've got kids. I need my freedom. I've had the taste of the freedom and I don't want to give it up. And so for you, that was your driving force to make sure that you could make this work and never give up on it. And you didn't. And now you have 100 subscribers.

Actually, I have 112 now, and I just got one while we were on the—

she just got another one when we started the podcast. 112, Lexi. Like, I'm about to cry because I know what you've been through over the last 19 months. I know what you've been through.

It's just crazy because it really didn't take off until just about 6 months ago. And I think it is really because I build a community and these people want to be a of my life and they wanna be a part of what I'm doing and they wanna be, they're curious and like, what are these people talking about? And like, I wanna be in on that too. And it took me a long time to gain that. It really did.

Let's talk about that. Let's talk about the things that you started doing about 6 months ago that have really moved the needle for you and made a difference. Tell us what you've been doing.

Well, I go live, you know, maybe not once a week. I'm trying to work myself into the once a week thing because I think it'll really, really be beneficial. I have been posting in my stories a lot on Instagram, like, hey, show me a picture of your box and I'll put the picture link there. And they love to like show their stuff. And then when I share it on my story, they're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe you shared my picture. Like, it makes them excited. They love that. They love to see themselves.

They want to, they want to feel seen and heard and be a part of something bigger than themselves. That's exactly what it is. You're letting them feel seen and heard. By just sharing them on your platform. And that's giving you so much user-generated content. That's amazing for your business. So it's a win-win. And were you not going live before?

I was, but not very consistently. Okay. And it's always been, yeah, it's always been a hard thing for me, but I have been doing it pretty consistently the last couple months. And I actually have people that show up and talk to me. And so that's really, really cool. It's really nice when you have, when you can have a two-way conversation with people.

Yes. And not, you're not just talking to the screen. Yourself, right? Because let's be honest, we do that in the beginning when nobody's there, but we have to keep pushing through because the consistency is what has gotten you here. Now we're going live, we're sharing more in our stories, we are sharing more of our audience, our subscribers. What else have you been doing?

I, I also go through my stories in the morning and I follow most of my subscribers. So when they follow me, I follow them back and then I go through their stories and I like their stuff and, you know, I engage with their posts and then they engage with my posts.

I love that. I love that. Also, I've noticed you've been doing a lot of short video. Talk to me about that.

Oh, yes. Tons of short video. Okay, here's a great tip. When I am sitting in my car, I am waiting for the kids to get done with practice. I'm in my car doing little, you know, 10-second reels, and then I just save them to my phone. And then later, I don't know what I'm gonna use it for at that time. I'm just over-recording, you know, the voice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What are you talking about?

Just like the funny voices that you hear, and then it's just an audio. Okay. So then I just like recreate that, and I don't know what I'm gonna talk about at that time, but I'll pull those videos back up later. And I might not use all of them, but I'll use most of them. And I'll just— then I have content all the time. Takes me 10 minutes to record 10 different little short videos. Yeah. In my car while I'm waiting for them to get done with sports. Yeah. And then I just pull them back up later and I throw some text over top of it. Uh-huh. And people like that because it's funny and it's engaging. It doesn't always have to be about selling.

Right.

You know what I mean? Yeah.

It's about something that's trendy that's happening. Yeah.

Yeah.

How have you been launching? So how are we getting the sale? Talk to me about that. Are you—

I feel like, okay, another thing that I have been doing is I send about 4 to 5 boxes to influencers that I find on TikTok or Instagram. Okay. And I ask them if, if I send them a free box, if they would do an unboxing video for me. And one of those went viral actually recently. So that was pretty cool.

So you're just reaching out to them on TikTok and saying, hey, this is who I am.

And they're like, you have free box. Yeah. And they're like not people with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. They're people with like 1,000 or 2,000 subscribers that they're trying to get their stuff out there too because they want to be an influencer, you know what I'm saying? So it's good for their portfolio. Yeah. And now they don't have to buy a product to try to, you know, talk about.

Okay. I love that. What other tips do you have for us for building our community? You've got some good ones. We're going live. We're, we're building our stories. We're engaging with our subscribers' personal accounts. That's a good one. We're doing a lot of short video stuff that's trendy and fun and just entertaining because not everything has to be educational. Not everything has to be product selling. But we're doing entertainment because that's what we do. I mean, I lay in bed at night and watch TikTok for hours. Reaching out to influencers. Was there one more?

Yes, there is actually Facebook ads.

Facebook ads. I'm so proud. Talk to me about that.

I have got that so dialed in, it is just not even funny. My engagement is down to $0.002 per engagement. My, my— think my traffic is at $0.06 per traffic. Like, it's just— and I've got— I work on it every week. Every Wednesday I sit down and I'm like, okay, Let me take a look at my ads and there'll be about 5 or 6 engagement posts, you know, under my engagement one. I'll be like, okay, which one isn't, isn't driving it anymore?

Yeah.

So we'll get rid of that one and we'll pick a new one and we'll put that in there. And it's, I've got it down to like, it's a science. It's wild. I love it.

I'm so proud of you. Oh my gosh. I'm so excited for you because I feel like it's your time. You put a lot of work in. Um, you're showing up, you're doing the things, you've been incredibly consistent, and look what's happening. 112 subscribers. And you've, you've grown more in the last 6 months than you have in the last 18 months. And so I want you to build on this momentum because pretty soon you're gonna be at 500 subscribers.

And I think so too. Yeah.

And tell me, And everybody that's listening with us, what does this 112 subscribers mean for you and your business and even your personal life?

I don't have the financial stress like I used to. Like, I, I feel like I'm finally getting to a point where my business is finally starting to come back alive and I'm not struggling anymore.

Yeah, you can finally breathe. You can have that space in your creativity to keep upleveling, doing better, doing more, being out there. And I think that that's kind of this tipping point we get into as subscription box owners. If we don't have very much profit and we don't have very many subscribers, it typically means we don't have a paycheck and it becomes a struggle when you're trying to buy more products for more boxes and you don't even have enough money to pay yourself yet. And you're thinking, why am I doing this? Like, why am I working so hard for this? But the payoff's gonna come. We don't know if that's gonna be 6 months or 19 months like Lexi.

Yeah.

But all you have to do is just stay incredibly consistent and don't give up on it. Dial it in and be really passionate about what you're doing. Lexi, what advice would you give for anyone out there that is wanting to get their subscription box started, or maybe they're just struggling right now to grow? What advice would you give them?

I have been there and I— the only thing that I can tell you is do not give up. Like, that is just keep going, keep pushing forward, keep moving. It will happen. It just— some people it takes 2 weeks and some people it takes 2 years.

So yeah, you're on your own pace, your own journey. Just keep being consistent. All right, if we have some future brides listening right now Where can they go find you?

So you can go to my website, it is craftyladyboutique.com, and, um, if you have any questions while you're in there, there's a little chat box that you can message me and you'll get me.

Yeah, and go check out, um, Lexi on Instagram. She does a lot of fun reels, um, and TikTok too. Um, but Lexi, thank you for sharing your story, and I hope that anyone listening, um, will just take her inspirational story of the struggles that she's been on and just internalize that. Keep going. You're going to have your win. And if you're part of the community, if you're part of Launch Your Box community, go in and give Lexi a shout out because she deserves all the shout outs for all the hard work that she's been putting in in the last 2 years. So Lexi, thank you for joining me. We'll be back next week for another great episode.