145: Hitting $1 Million in Revenue This Year with 3 of My Mastermind Students

Well, this is it, the last episode of the year, and there's nothing better to share than 3 of my mastermind ladies hitting $1 million in revenue this year. How did they get there? Grab your headphones and come join us. It's going to inspire the heck out of you. Welcome to the Launch Your Box podcast with weekly tips, tricks, and strategies to start, launch, and grow your subscription box. Now here's your host, Sarah Williams. Welcome back to the Launch Your Box podcast. Today I have a very special episode, one that I've never done before. I am bringing to you 3 of my mastermind members today that have hit $1 million in sales this year. We're going to talk about how they did that, what they contribute to their success, how you can rinse and repeat this yourself for your own business. And really, this episode is to inspire you because I guarantee none of these ladies here thought when they started their business that they would ever hit $1 million in one single year. And so I want you to hear their stories. I want you to feel inspired by them. And I want you to understand that anyone can do this. Anyone can do this. You hear me say that all the time. I'm not special and you're not special. We're not special. We're just getting up every day. We're hustling, we're implementing the things that we need to do, and you know what? Magic happens. And magic has happened for these 3 ladies this year, and we're going to talk about it today. And I hope that you feel inspired by the time we get done with this episode. So I'm going to let these ladies introduce themselves, tell you a little bit about their business, and then we're— I'm going to dig into all the questions that you want to know. So Tamara, let's start with you.

Hey guys, I'm Tamara Bennett from Southern Adornments Decor. I teach you how to paint door hangers. If you don't know what a door hanger is, you hang it on on your door, just like you would hang up a wreath for the holidays. But honestly, my ladies use these on places not even on their doors. They hang them up all around their house. It's just a fun way to get involved with painting and crafting, even if you have zero experience. And so I would say that my income comes from multiple different places. First off, I have an online membership with about 1,400 members paying monthly, so that's a great recurring revenue for my business. Secondly, I have a digital subscription where we give out door hanger templates every month for a one low cost. That's another big portion of my recurring revenue. I also have a subscription box that we send out quarterly, and then we also sell one-off items in our Shopify store all year round. And then there's another one of our— I almost forgot— one other big thing is an event that I do every year where we have people come and meet me in person and we craft together. And so All those things kind of add up, and I never dreamed that it would add up to be $1 million a year, but it's been incredible.

And let's just tell them this, Tamara. How long have you been in business at this point?

In February, it will be 9 years.

And how many years in a row have you hit $1 million in sales?

This is my third year, third year hitting $1 million.

That's some consistent revenue right there. Okay, great. Thank you, Tamara. Let's go over to Tracy. Tracy, introduce yourself.

Hi everybody, I'm Tracey Pounds and my business is Miss Tracey Creates. I am a creative enthusiast. I love to create and make all of the things and I love to teach and share that passion with others through membership groups and just online on Facebook. I love, love, love spreading creativity.

Tell me the various revenue streams in your business. Where does your revenue come from?

Okay. I would say, which is really awesome, is about 56% of my total revenue comes from my recurring revenue, which is my membership groups. So I have 4 different membership groups. 2 are subscribed— well, they're actually all subscription-based. 2 actually physical product goes out in the mail to our members and the other 2 are digital product. So that has really caused my business to really take off. I actually started business as a brick-and-mortar shop and had my brick-and-mortar shop open for about 12 years until I finally kind of took the plunge into the online e-commerce world. And things have just kind of exploded since I joined a little thing called Launch Your Box.

Nice little plug there, Tracy. Thank you for that. I want everybody to understand that what happened on December 1st, because this was a really big deal for you. Was it December 1st? Was that the day?

Well, we actually hit it a little earlier, but I waited till the end of the month just to see, you know, let the dust settle from the end of the month. So it was for December.

Okay.

What happened? Tell everybody what happened.

Well, um, we hit a very big number. We actually, we have our sales revenue and recorded every single month. And by the end of November, we had broke $1 million in sales revenue, which is just It's still totally surreal to me. It was like $1,057,448.14. I still have—

but we're celebrating over here on camera because this was the first time that Tracy had ever broke $1 million, and she did it with yet another month left in the year. And so this is a big deal. I can remember the very first time that I hit a million dollar year, and It feels like Monopoly money. Can we just say that? Because when we have that kind of revenue coming in, we got a lot of expenses going out. So it feels like money's coming in, then you got to pay Park Place, then you got to pass go and go to jail and pay $200. And there's just a lot going on with that. So I call it Monopoly money because it feels unreal that I have brought in $1 million into my business in 11 months. Right? Like that's what you're feeling in this moment because it's a huge milestone for you that you've achieved for the very first time.

Yes, most definitely. And you know, I started in the subscription business in about the spring of 2020. And prior to that, I had never even come close to this with my brick and mortar store. In fact, I had given myself the lovely nickname of the Queen of Breakeven. There's just something about taking your business online. I really felt like I was starting my business all over again. But yes, it's very surreal that within, you know, less than 3 short years, right? Less than 3 years, here I am making this kind of sales revenue. It's just incredible.

That's amazing, Tracey. I'm so excited. We're going to dig into what happened this year to tip you over the edge. But I want to go over to Cindy next. And Cindy, why don't you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your offerings?

I'm Cindy Manley, and I own a cute little company called Art Shattered, where we create art using glass, broken glass and resin. I actually have two art memberships. I have the Shattered Circle and a little mini membership for people who just want a little— want to dabble, I guess. Also have a subscription box. And thank you, Sarah. And I'll also sell a good bit of product in my Shopify store as well. I actually started Art Shattered in 2011, but I didn't really start my, uh, membership until 2017. So my membership is 5 years old, even though I did start with the Art Shattered business itself in 2011. So it's just like 5 years old, 6 years old.

Yeah.

And so tell me a little bit about Now I know this is your first year to hit $1 million as well, which is a very big deal. When did you hit $1 million for 2023?

Thanksgiving Day.

Thanksgiving Day. So you have also another month to be adding on top of that. But I also want to share with the listeners a little bit about something that happened in October that really tipped the scales for you hitting the million dollars, but you had almost a $300,000 month in October. And that is where Cindy's magic happened and she hit the million dollar mark— that helped her achieve the million dollar mark for the very first time. We're going to come back and we're going to unpack what happened in October because there's a couple different things that has contributed to Cindy's revenue this year. October was one of them, but she also started something else this year that has contributed to that. So we're going to come back to that. But I want to go back to Tamara. Now that everybody's introduced yourself, I've made one observation while we were talking here that I didn't realize coming into this podcast, but all three of these ladies are in the arts and crafts space. Okay. So number one, they're all in the arts and crafts space. That doesn't mean you can't make $1 million in another space. I'm living proof of that, that I don't, Teach Anything, and I Make a Million Dollars with My Subscription Box Every Year. So they're all in the arts and crafts space. They all have memberships and subscription boxes. So they have multiple streams of revenue. And I want you to hear that as they're talking about how they made their million this year, because we start something and we should start with one thing. We should always start with one thing. But as we continue to grow, as we continue to serve that customer, we have to constantly be thinking about how else you could serve them. Every one of them have, has digital offerings. Every one of them has physical product offerings. And so if you can find a way to marry the physical products with digital offerings, this is how you're going to set yourself up for success. And each one of these ladies has done this flawlessly and they've done it in a way. I mean, with Tracy, she started with the physical products and added the digital later. With Tamara and Cindy, they started with the digital memberships and they added in the, the physical products later. But listening to them, they need both. They needed both for their customer base. So we're going to talk about that. Tamara, let's talk about maybe this year, maybe last year, since this is your third year with the Million. Tell me, what do you contribute to you hitting $1 million over the last few years? Like, is there something specific that you did? Can you look at it and say, well, in this year I did this, and this year I did this, and this year I did that? Was there something different each year, or was there something that just hit you over the top that exploded that?

Without a doubt, the online digital membership was the thing that really boosted me from like small-time, just, you know, I've got a little small business, to, oh my goodness, this is like gonna be big. And I— you were talking about like, did we ever dream that we would hit a million? I can remember back in 2017 or so, I hired my first virtual assistant, and she was helping me with little things on the backside of my website. And every now and then she'd be like, we're gonna get you to a million dollars. And I would just laugh. I was like, you are so silly. Like, there is no way my little crafting business gonna hit a million dollars. Like, I just could not— I could not visualize it back then. And if you had told me back then, you know, uh, 5 years from now you're gonna have this, this, and this and this, it would have terrified me. And I'd have been like, nope, I'm hiding in my closet. There's no way I can manage all of that. So I feel like God gives us a little bit at a time of what we, you know, what we need and what we can handle. And I want somebody listening to this to, to realize that, like, we didn't start with you know, 3 subscriptions and a subscription box and all the things. I started teaching paint parties in my hometown and selling my door hangers painted one by one, and I made a good decent income that provided for my family off of that. But it wasn't until I started doing Facebook Lives and had like an online community that I was building that I realized it could be more than that. And even back then, I didn't realize how much more. And so when I launched my membership back in April of 2018, I got 400 members right off the bat that decided to pay me $27 a month. That was life-changing for me. I was like, and then all of a sudden when that bank hit, that when that money hit the bank the second month, I'm like, you mean this is going to come in every month? This is going to be dependable revenue? And from there it built and built. And eventually I added, um, let's see, we increased the price of our monthly amount, which helped increase all around how much I was making each year. But then we added in the digital subscription for the digital products, and that, you know, the template club. And so it was like peanut butter to the jelly, you know. Our members wanted both but couldn't afford to buy all the things. So adding the subscription made it more accessible for them to be able to just add it in monthly. And so little by little, it was like stacking bricks, and eventually I had enough bricks that it added up to a million every year.

And so Do you think, Tamara, adding in that digital subscription, the Template Club, is that what put you over the million-dollar mark the first time? You had the membership and then you added in the Template Club. Is that what was it?

I think that might have been a big part of it. Yes, because looking back, that was about the year, the first year that I hit the million. I didn't realize it until we were talking it out just now. But yes, I think that might have been the tipping point.

So you started off with a solid customer base with your membership. You had 400 members paying you and that grew quickly. I remember that I remember that launch actually. And then you added in the Template Club. Now how do you keep, how do you keep outdoing yourself that you keep growing your membership, right? You keep, and then those people obviously want to buy the Template Club. So you continue to grow that. Is there any other significant thing that you have launched or done that has contributed to your consistent success?

Constantly solving my customer's problems. So when they come to me with whatever the problem is, I figure out a solution to that problem. And so I'm not serving a new customer every time, it's the same customer, but I'm serving them at new points along their journey, right? So originally when I started this membership, I did not have a subscription box, I did not have a digital subscription. I was just serving the person who wanted to learn to paint door hangers. They already knew how to cut out the pieces with a jigsaw, so I provided them with the template to go along with the painting that I'm teaching. And so I was serving the point where they just needed the painting instruction and the template. And then eventually I started serving them in a way where I'm selling them wood blanks and I'm offering them a subscription box. This is serving that same customer but a little earlier in their journey. They haven't started learning how to use a jigsaw yet, but they do want to learn how to paint. And so I'm just finding little holes along their journey where I can continue to serve them.

And it's all the same customer, right? Like, it's not like every year you're like, okay, I'm gonna broaden my audience, I'm gonna go out, I'm gonna find a new customer, and And so, and I'm going to sell them a new thing. You're taking that customer base that you already have and you're finding different ways to fill the gaps, those holes you're talking about in their painting journey. And you did that with the digital subscription, which by the way is easy money. And then you did it with the big box of blanks. So you launched that last year, correct? Was it the summer of last year?

Yeah, June of 2022.

Okay, so tell us a little bit about your subscription box launch.

So we, when we launched it, we instantly got 200 people signed up. And when you look at the large number of people I have following me on Facebook, I've got almost 300,000 followers. 200 is not a lot when you compare it to 300,000 followers, but it was serving people who were watching me every week paint. And they were like, you know, when I have the whim to sit down and paint, I wish I had something to follow and I wish I had something in front of me to paint. Because a lot of times when we get the whim to paint, it's on like a Saturday and we don't— we haven't necessarily prepared. We haven't gone to Hobby Lobby and gotten all the supplies. We don't have a tutorial to follow. We don't know what colors to use. And so it served that customer that kind of just had that little bit of extra time and they wanted something sitting there ready that they could paint. And so this comes with the wood blank and the video tutorial and the color list. And so they, they have everything that they need.

Yeah. So you're just keep, you just keep providing what they're needing so that one, you can retain them because that's important in recurring revenue. And two, you can keep upleveling your business and your offering. It's just like you said in the beginning, if I would have done all this at once, it would have been a hot, hot mess, you know, express going on over there because you couldn't manage all of that at once. But as you started the one thing and you learned how to be efficient in that and you started to grow your team of people that could help you with that, That led to the next thing, and you did that for a while and you got that locked and loaded and you're solid in that digital offering. And then that went to the physical offering. And when you launched that, you were, you were locked and loaded and ready because you had the experience of launching the other things before. Had you tried to do all of that once, I'm just going to provide these people with everything they need, they would have been confused. You would have been confused. It would have been a hot mess in the back end. And that's why I tell people to just start with one thing. Get super clear about that one thing, work out all the kinks in that one thing. And it takes time. You can't start one thing and then next month you're going to start something else. You're going to need 6, 8 months, even a year sometimes, to work out all the bumps when you start the one thing. Um, don't get too eager to start multiple things. You've heard Tamara tell you, she's— this is years in the making. This is years of me being consistent, showing up and teaching people how to paint, listening to her audience with what they need and where their hiccups are. Because I might really want to paint, but there ain't no way I'm going to stand out in my cold garage with a jigsaw and cut all these little intricate pieces. Like, that's not going to happen, Tamara. I really love you, but that's not going to happen. She's like, okay, I got you. But it comes over time. And that's what you're going to learn from all three of these ladies.

Okay.

I'm going to go over to Tracy. Tracy, this is your first year to hit $1 million. And I know how busy you've been. I know what you've been working on. Tell, let's talk a little bit about what you feel like contributed to your million-dollar success this year.

Well, I'm going to back up just a little bit past that. When I first started into, you know, the subscription side of my business, I think one of the things that helped me the most, Sarah, and of course a lot of this was training that came from you, but in the beginning is just knowing that, that slow, steady growth, I think is almost the best kind of growth. And that's really what happened for me in my first year. I started with, I think like 52 or something like that subscribers in my first group. Well, then the next month we opened up to this many more and then, you know, 3 months later to this many more. And we really kept it under control because I think like Tamara said, if I had tried to do all the things at once, Number one, I would have been cash broke, right? I mean, I would have been, it would have been really hard to facilitate all of that at one time. So for me, it was starting off slow, just building and taking care of my audience, serving my audience. And like Tamara said, listening to them. I learned so much that first year just from my customers, right? And so then that second year I was able to kind of tweak things and with every, every little pivot or every little change, Things got better. I got better. You know, it just, just continued to, to grow. And then, you know, this year we're actually operating this year with 4 different groups. One of the big things we did this year is we decided to focus more on— I don't know, it's so funny how these things work, Sarah, but we kind of decided to focus more, or I decided to focus more on just loving all my customers, just maintaining those numbers. I wasn't really even trying to grow exponentially. We also started bringing in— again, listening to my customers— we realized that, you know, the customer wants everything that you're using when you're crafting. Would y'all both agree? I mean, all of, you know, the other crafters here are definitely going to agree. So we got to the point where it's like, well, why are we sending them somewhere else for all of these things, especially the basic things that we use all the time? We really worked hard to kind of create an online shop with the things that we really needed to carry to support them. And then those sales started to rise. And as those sales started to rise, all of a sudden, you know, memberships started to rise. Everything just started kind of leveling up. I think for me, another thing that really, really impacted my year this year is I spent a lot of focus on growing my email list. A lot, a lot of focus on growing my email list and then nurturing that email list and bringing them on board into membership groups. And like I said, this, this what started as kind of a kind of controlled growth, it's just continued to grow. And I'm really, this, this is something I'm really, really proud about, but we have no debt. We are a debt-free company. We don't have to worry about that. And that was something that I had, you know, really wanted to achieve. And again, I think that slow growth for us is what helped us to always stay within budget.

Yeah, I agree 100% because those things can get pretty heavy and they can weigh us down as business owners, especially when we just don't know what to expect from month to month or year to year. And having something like that hanging over our head can cause a lot of stress and a lot of pressure for us. And when we don't have that pressure that I have to make money today or I'm out of business, we can actually be more creative. We can actually do things in a way that lights us up and there's not this pressured-filled sense of having to sell, sell, sell all the time. And that has allowed you to be yourself, that has allowed you to love on your customer the way that you want to. And in turn, you know, you just see this rise in your sales. And you didn't say, Sarah, I did this and I started this and I jumped through these hoops and I did all of these things. You just said, you know what, I focused, I was consistent and I really poured into serving my audience and I listened just the same way Tamara did, that this is what they needed from me to be able to do the things that I'm telling them to do. They needed the tools to do that and you brought that in and it's just slowly filling those little gaps that you need in your business and that's bringing in revenue and revenue and revenue. Um, and so your million dollar year, And by the way, happened within 3 years of being online, right?

Yes, exactly.

$4 million a year. That's incredibly fast, by the way, has just been from your consistency, right?

Right, exactly. I just try to be really consistent. There are times when, you know, I'm just like everybody else out there. I have a little bit of creative ADD, right? And I want to do like all the things, but I'm very, I've gotten better about kind of utilizing my team to kind of help me. Okay, let's bring this back down to more of a realistic—

wait a minute, I'm gonna call you out right here. I'm gonna call you out right here because I remember us sitting at the beach in Florida. Yes, in September of 2022, and you had no team. Yeah, I had no team.

I have more. That was the other thing I was going to say. I think that also, even though you would think that by adding on team members this past year in-house and virtually, right, By adding on team members, you would think that we would have actually, that would have been more expenses and all the things. But actually, what I've really learned by that, and it was hard, you know, it was hard for me. It was hard for me to kind of relinquish some of those things and bring on other people to help me. We want to kind of be the master of our own ship. And, but when I did that, that also impacted my business because I now had time to do the things as the visionary as the creative director, whatever you want to call it, for my business, I had that time to invest into making that next kit or getting that next thing ready or that next launch, you know, and actually being able to do it and, you know, still have a, you know, I'm still working on the work-life balance. I'll be honest. I'm still working on that, but I think that's something you're going to be working on at every new level that you hit. Right? You've got to kind of figure out the balance again as you hit those new levels. But yes, actually incorporating more people in to help has definitely helped us to grow and to grow in a way that we can actually sustain.

And what's important for everyone listening is that we're scared to hire sometimes. And Tracy was in this state, you know, a year ago. She was scared to hire and she was handling everything relatively well on her own. And I couldn't believe it when I sat down and looked at all of her her revenue streams and what she had going on. And I, I was just really baffled that she didn't have any help. But you heard it from her that the moment she started to hire, it freed her up to think about the next thing, to think about the bigger picture, to think about the marketing, to think— she said, I spent this year growing my list. If she was still running all the things that she was in her business by herself, she wouldn't have time for list building, she wouldn't have time for the promotion and the next launch and the next, the next workshop and the next strategy that she was going to implement because she'd be too busy packing and shipping and answering customer service and doing all the things that she was doing every single day. And she was managing it fine. She was managing it fine. But that didn't allow her to work on the growth of her business. And because she spent time hiring this year, look what happened. Her first million dollar year.

Exactly. And I don't want y'all to think that it was just like, I mean, it was definitely fearful. I was, I was scared. I mean, I was like, okay, can I to handle this? How's it going to affect our cash flow? You know, just the money part. And then I was one of those people that always felt like, do I have time to really train somebody? Do I have time? Like, it's just faster if I do it myself. But the thing is, if you really do take the time and you allow people to come in, you're going to realize that not only are they going to have ideas that are going to be great to implement into your business. I don't think I factored that in enough. I kept thinking about all the things I would have to do. For them, you know, to get them up and going. And I didn't really factor in all of, all of their— what they brought to the table, you know what I mean?

What they were going to do for you.

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And so, yeah, it's, it's been great. And I'm, I'm even planning on possibly adding another team member in 2024.

I love it. Awesome. Okay, let's go over to Cindy Manley because Unlike Tracy, she has two significant things that happened this year that really contributed to her million-dollar year. So Cindy, let's talk about what happened this year. Everybody needs to know this.

Well, first and foremost, I started a subscription box back in the early summer and we first out of the gate subscription box I've ever done and we sold 500 boxes. 500 subscription boxes in June, which was major. I literally cried online. I was so surprised. I think, you know, no matter what's going on and no matter how long you've been doing the work or how hard you've worked, I think we all still have imposter syndrome sometimes.

Yeah.

And so I totally felt that. But we were able to start a subscription box and sold 500 subscriptions to that art kit. So it is a box box that the members get quarterly that has everything they need to create a special piece of art with the exception of paint. So we decided to do that because we have, you know, again, like Tracy, you listen to your people, listen to what they're asking for. And we had so many people that follow me consistently that did not have access to stores where they could buy all the things, or maybe they're older or handicapped or they have a disability that they weren't able to just run to Hobby Lobby or Michaels and buy the things they need. So we tried to listen to that and we literally sold our sub box, 500 boxes. So excited. And that was a huge factor in the summer. But I think the thing, the one big thing that really pushed us over the edge was our October launch.

Yes, let's talk about that. Okay, you do, you do a couple workshops a year. Look, I'm just going to outline this for everybody so they can really understand. You do a couple workshops a year, um, a small fee to come to a workshop with you where you teach them probably a simple art piece that everyone can do. And then your goal from that workshop, which is like 3 or 4 days or a week, is to invite them to come join your Art Shattered membership. So they can be a member and they can get the tutorials and hang out with you and, and do resin and glass every single month. So the goal is to put on the workshop— we would call this an SLO, a self-liquidating offer— to put on the workshop and then to sell them the membership. So you're going into October, you do a workshop every October. So we're planning for this workshop And this is a workshop that you and I had talked about probably in the summer or the spring or whenever we were at the beach together. And we were talking about what Cindy has really realized about her audience is that they love these kits because a lot of times they cannot find the glass, the particular glass that Cindy uses, which Cindy also sells, by the way. So they're wanting the glass, they need the resin, they want all the little fun extras that Cindy uses. So that's something that they've always asked for, for projects. And she's done one-off kits here and there, and every time she does a kit, she sells out of these things. So I'm like, Cindy, why aren't you doing a subscription box? Like, what's going on? You know I'm the subscription box girl. Like, why aren't you doing a subscription box? This is what we do. This is what we do. And so finally, after forever, I convinced her to do a subscription box. She launches that in the summer. It sells out 500, which she thought she was only going to sell 250, and that was wrong. And so then here comes her launch and she's like, I'm going to have to have these Christmas tree kits because she was teaching a resin Christmas tree. And Cindy, tell them about our conversation about these kits.

Well, I'm going to back up because this, this year, this October was my third year in a row to do the Christmas tree challenge. So the first year I did it, we sold— we only did 250 kits. Kits, and we sold them in like 10 minutes. It was ridiculous, and I had so many people upset. So the second year, you and I had sat down to talk about that, and I was gonna do 500. I thought, okay, I'll do 500 kits. And you slapped me around a little bit. You sat me down firmly with love and said, no, girl, you're doing more than that. I mean, you know, it's ridiculous. So we ended up doing 800 kits that year and we sold out so fast and people were upset. So this past year, oh heavens, this past year we did 1,200 kits and embarrassingly enough, we sold out in 5 days.

That's not embarrassing. That's amazing.

You would think I would know better.

Well, we live and we learn. And here's the thing, you're kind of like me, Cindy. We're not big risk takers, right? So putting together like 1,000 extra kits just feels like a really, a really scary thing because there's a lot of money invested in that, right? And so we're not big risk takers. We're not— we're just like, okay, I'm gonna increase it like a percentage. And you increased it quite a bit. You added another 400 kits to what you did the year before. And you're like, okay, like, how many times are these people going to make this Christmas tree? This is my third year teaching it. Like, I'm not— I know all the things you're feeling because I would have done the same thing. But based on that data, you needed to do more than 800, and you already knew that at this point. So now you sell out of 1,200 in 5 days. In 5 days.

And we started— we launched 3 weeks ahead of time, so we sold our kits 3, 2 and a half weeks. We sold out of kits and we still had 2 and a half weeks to talk about this challenge, which we like went into complete panic mode because people don't like it if they don't get a kit.

Yeah, they don't want to come to the thing if they don't have the stuff.

Right, right.

So how do you continue to sell the workshop without the materials?

We killed ourselves and got more materials. We were able to make a secondary kit. That had everything but canvas. So they still— they were able to still get a kit without the canvas. But the most important— the things that would be hardest for them to find and go out and gather up, we were able to provide. So we sold a ton more of those. And yeah, so we ended up with over 4,700 people in that $10 challenge. We spent every bit of those $10 though, investing back into acquiring, acquiring more people to come to the challenge.

Yes. That's why it's a SLO. She took that, she made $47,000 on that challenge just from the $10 purchases, but she put all $47,000 and more back into the ads to keep growing that group, to keep getting people in that group, because for Cindy, That was the SLO. If I can get people to come, have a good experience, make the Christmas tree, I can convert them to members. Right. And I— and you did. Tell us what happened.

We ended up with 511 new members. We converted from the challenge at about 8.5%, which is pretty good for 2023. So yeah, we had 511 new members, which is the biggest new member block we've ever had. And we sold a lot of boot camp, which is a course that we have. And that is literally what pushed me over the edge to the million. And we were also able to— because we sell glass, glass and other products that they need in our Shopify store. Our Shopify store, even the sales like quadrupled for that month as well. We could not keep glass in stock. I was begging the manufacturer for glass and that is literally what pushed us over the edge. Just doing that work to make sure that that was going to be a really good workshop. And being mindful about being able to supply product is what pushed us to the million this year.

So in October, we sold several thousand kits.

Yes.

In October, we got over 500 brand new members into our membership. In October, it literally— your glass shop was sold out on Shopify. So this is how you achieved that $300,000 month. And I want people to understand that now, and I don't even know if the dust has settled enough for you to understand this now, Cindy, but you brought 4,700 people into your world. Some of them were already in your world, but a lot of them were brand new to you.

Yes.

And these are all potential people that if they didn't join the membership, there's a potential for them to join the subscription box, to join the little bit of glassy glass club, the one-off thing, the digital subscription, like you spent all that $47,000 from your SLO onto building this audience that only 500 of them joined, which is great. 8% is a great conversion rate, but now you have another 4,200 people in your world that you can continue to sell glass to, sell your digital subscription to, sell your physical subscription to. So just because they didn't join the one thing, doesn't mean that our array of products aren't going to appeal to them in the future. That was your introduction to a lot of new people, and that was worth every penny that you spent to acquire them to come to your workshop. They got to know you through the teaching and training. They got to experience what it's like to use glass and resin for the first time. They have a new love for an art project that maybe they've never done before. And that's how you continue to build an audience. And I have no doubt Cindy's going to rinse and repeat this next year, that Cindy will have another million-dollar year because she is consistent in bringing new people into her world in this workshop way. And that's what contributes to an increase of sales. That's what's going to help us sustain our business long-term. And that's what's going to happen. Like Tamara, who has a million-dollar year back to back to back because she's doing the same thing consistently. She's running the workshops. She's spending the money back to acquire the customer, and that's how she's going to continue to sustain and maybe hit the $2 million mark next year. Like, we don't know what's going to happen, but that's how we continue to grow and scale our businesses. We can't get so caught up on, well, I've made $47,000 and I really only want to spend $7,000 of it. I really like $40,000 in my bank account. That's how we squash the growth of our business. We have to use something like that workshop as an acquisition tool. It's our sales funnel. And if we look at it as trying to get sales, that's only $40,000. That's only $40,000. And you— and, and I hear you, if you've not made $40,000 this year, that's a lot of money. But if we play small and accept that $40,000, she would have given up the $300,000 that she made that month and the additional money she's going to make next month and next month and next month because now they're members of membership. And so that's what I need you to think of. I need you to expand your thinking. I need you to expand your audience building efforts. I need you to expand your ad budget because all of that has contributed to these women's growth this year. And I want to talk about the recurring revenue just a minute because Tracy mentioned when she introduced herself that 50— did you say 57%?

Well, it's 56 point something. So yeah, if you want to round up to 57, Round up.

57%. When 57% of your business, you know, is going to hit that bank account month after month after month, that is a game changer for business owners. Tamara, do you know how much of your recurring revenue is, is the percentage of your total revenue?

My recurring is probably more like 75%.

75% between subscriptions and memberships. That's what mine is too. My subscriptions are about 75% of my total sales. And let me just be honest, like, we don't have to show up and sell anything if we don't want to, because 75% of our monthly income is recurring and it's coming in month after month after month. And that makes an incredibly stable business. Cindy, do you know what your percentage is?

Mine's right at 70%.

All right, 70%. So here's what this is telling all of you. If you can get your business to have some substantial recurring revenue in it, if you can be consistent in your marketing efforts and your list building efforts, and if you can just go all in with what you're passionate about and serve that one customer Don't go watch Shark Tank because they'll tell you you have to go broad. Okay, that's what Shark— now you're not broad enough. We're going niches. All right. Because that's our sweet spot. And if we can focus on that one customer that we have and if we can work through the years and fill all the little gaps that they're having, that's our sweet spot. That's what we need to focus on. We don't need to have the biggest, brightest, next best things. We don't have to follow the shiny object. We don't have to do this and do this and do this and do all the things. We have to focus on the one customer and create multiple revenue streams for that one customer. And I don't want you to look at it as, well, I'm just selling them too much stuff. No, you're serving them by selling them all the things that they need because they're going to buy it from someone. Why not buy it from you?

I can't tell you how often my customers tell me thank you. And I think you are supporting my family. Thank you. You know, but they are thanking me for showing up for offering products that they're excited to buy. It's, it's changing their lives, not just mine.

Absolutely. So let's wrap this up in a way that if someone's listening right now, what advice would you give to them? Go back to, go back to the, the beginning stages of your business where you never ever thought you would hit a million dollars. If you could tell that girl something, that woman something What advice would you give them, Tamara?

Probably just to show up, because if I take it all back to where this began, it was showing up. I showed up on Facebook Live and I served and I was giving so much good information away and like teaching people before I ever even made them an offer. And I was just doing it because I wanted to connect with people and really that's what they want. They want to feel connected. And so if you're not showing up, if you're hiding behind your camera and you're not, you know, putting your face out there and serving people, then you're at a huge disadvantage.

I think, I think for me, my, my advice is kind of twofold. The first thing I would tell you, those of you that are sitting on an idea, I sat on my ideas for my subscription boxes for almost 3— I hate to even tell you this, Sarah— almost 3, 3, 4 years. Because I was just like, well, I just don't know if I can handle it. I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I can do that. Nothing's ever going to happen if you don't just start, right? Like we all had to just start. And then as you start, just be there, love on your people and be consistent when it comes to all the businessy things, right? The launches, the emails that go out, all those things, just be consistent. And love on your people and things will just start to grow and just show up for them.

Well, I agree with everything that Tracy and Tamara just said, but I also think just stay in the course and believing in yourself. And you do that also by surrounding yourself with like-minded women, people who support you, people who believe in you, people who encourage you. I think Without that aspect, I'm not sure I would be here today. And I think that is super, super important.

I would agree. I would not be here today, I don't think, without the support of the group because, you know, your, your family members don't understand what you're doing to begin with, right? Mine don't always. Even your friend circle, you know, you need to be— it just helps so much to have the support. Of other female entrepreneurs, especially that because we do all have the common thread of having a subscription-based business. To me, that has just been, you know, night and day. That has been so integral in my success. Absolutely.

I would say probably all of our success sitting here is being around people that encourage you, inspire you, and push you. So let me sum up these three points of advice. Tamara says show up. You got to show up. And, you know, we've talked about that a lot on this podcast. Tracy said you got to be consistent. I am the consistent, you know, pusher. You got to be consistent. You don't have to be the best at anything. You just have to be incredibly consistent. Cindy says you got to surround yourself with people that, that can, that can lift you up and support you and push you. And I'm going to add something to this conversation. I'm going to tell you that you have to give it time and you have to think about your business in the long haul. It's not a get rich quick scheme. You can't start your business, make $1 million next month. I mean, you can. You're going to pay a lot of money for it. Your business might make $1 million, but you're not going to be profitable. So I think when you, when you get started and you think about showing up, being consistent, being around like-minded people, I think you also have to give yourself time and patience to get there. It doesn't happen overnight. It's not happened overnight for any of us sitting here on this call, but I can tell you that we've given it time, we've done the work, we've shown up, we've done all these pieces of advice that the four of us are telling you. Give yourself time, remove the pressure that it has to happen fast, and when you can do that, it's going to happen and you're not going to realize it. It's going to happen quicker than you, you think it could happen if you just take that pressure off of yourself. Ladies, I'm gonna put this in the show notes, but let's just go around real quick and tell our listeners— give them one spot that they can go check out your stuff. Tamara, where can they go find you?

Southern Adornments Decor on all the platforms.

Okay, Tracy?

Miss Tracy Creates on Facebook and Instagram, Pinterest, all over.

Cindy?

Art Shattered on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.

And I just want to say a huge, huge congratulations to the 3 of you and anybody else listening that's hit a milestone in their business this year. Y'all, this is not easy work. This is hard, hard work. We pour our blood, sweat, and tears into it every single day. I'm so proud of these women. I'm so proud I get to be around them all the time. And I'm so excited that you get to listen and be inspired by their stories because because you are going to hit $1 million at some point if you believe that you will. And so I want you to keep doing the work, keep focused, stay in your lane, be consistent, show up, and surround yourself with people that are like-minded. All right. We'll be back next week for another great episode. 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.