178: $0-$100k in 10 Months with The Crafty DIYer

Is your business struggling right now? Is it time to make a pivot, but you're just paralyzed with fear? My guest today was at the same place a little over a year ago, but what happened next changed everything. Grab your earbuds and 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.

We are starting the year off right. We're starting the year off with one of my favorite people. I want to introduce you to Denise Parks. I'm going to have her give you an intro. Denise has been a part of my world for several years now, and I have the joy of getting to see her in person 3 times a year because she's in my mastermind. But we were thinking about— the team and I were thinking about content ideas, podcast ideas for the new year, and instantly I thought about Denise. And what she has done over the last year to really pivot her business. And I feel like this is going to be super inspirational to somebody out there listening that might feel a little stuck with where they're at right now and is trying to figure out what their next move is. And so I want you to just go for a walk, get in the car and drive, put your headphones on and relax and just listen to this conversation that Denise and I are going to have today, because I think you're going to be inspired by it. So Denise, welcome to the Launch Your Box podcast. I'm going to have you do a quick intro. Tell them who you are. Tell them what you do. Tell them who you serve.

So thank you so much. Denise Parks. I am the Crafty DIYer and I serve women usually over 60. I would, I would say over 60. In the craft world, and I create printables that we cut up and craft with, and we make a lot of, a lot of crafty things.

I really had no idea that that was your age group was the over 60s. So that's really interesting. So this makes this even a juicier podcast now because of what we're going to tell them. But let's go way back. Let's go back a few years. Let's go back to, gosh, Denise going live every day. Denise. Crafting every day, Denise having her subscription box. Let's go back a little bit and kind of start there, and then we'll tell them what has happened since. Okay?

Okay. So, yes, I used to go live every day except Sunday, and it was wearing me out. And I used to sell craft products for another company, and I was just hustling, and I was crafting and showing people how to do it. And I really wasn't getting anywhere except I was growing a following on Facebook, but it really wasn't producing any kind of income. And then one of my customers actually told me about this woman named Sarah and she does a box. And I was like, oh, well, what is that? I don't know if I could— I don't know if I want a subscription box. I don't know what that is. So I happened to look you up and you happened to be having a coaching week. I instantly signed up for the coaching week. And previous to this, I had just kind of had a video go viral on Facebook and I was selling napkins like crazy, like super crazy. I was selling like $2,000 worth of napkins a week.

And these were, these were like other people's napkins that you were making an affiliate commission on. Is that right?

Oh, I was just buying them. I was literally buying them. What happened was I made a product, used a napkin, everybody wanted the napkin. So I went to the grocery store where I bought the napkins and put them on my website and they sold out. So then I went and got some more and they sold out. So I thought, then I started selling these napkins as well as the other products. And then came you and we, I joined your group. And then there was this lady called Miss Tracy, and she was doing a call with you, and she has the Napkin Club. And I'm like, oh my God, you mean I can have a subscription with napkins? So that's kind of what it started with. I joined your group and within the coaching week I actually launched my box and it was— I was selling napkins.

I had no idea. This is all news to me. So I love that I'm getting to hear this for the first time. Okay, so we have even more things to talk about. So you come to coaching week, you see an interview I'm doing with Miss Tracy and her napkin club, and that inspires you because you've already been selling napkins. You're like, oh, well, if she's got a napkin subscription, I could do something similar. I already have this audience. I've already been selling $2,000 of napkins a week. How could I turn this into recurring revenue? Right? Okay, so then what do you do?

So then I just started a napkin box, and then it sort of— I kept adding to it because I felt like I needed to add more things to it. So it sort of progressed over to not just napkins, but then it was a wood piece. And so it was almost turned into like a crafting box, but it was built around napkins.

And it was kind of like a mixed media type thing.

Is that what we would do? Canvases. And I would just show them how to use a napkin. And I felt, I felt quite a camaraderie with Tracy because I had never heard, knew anybody else that was making stuff with napkins. So that began the story of my box and it was going well. And then I ended up getting a warehouse. It grew fast. The first time I opened, I think I had like 120 people sign up for the first time. So it was received really well. Because I had an audience. I had been building my audience for quite some time. So then I got the warehouse and everything was going well until— and here's something that you need to know. Even though I'm Canadian, all of my members, all of my audience, I would say 98% is from the US.

Okay.

So I was shipping these to the US. Now, shipping got really expensive and it didn't— it wasn't necessarily that shipping to the US was expensive. Shipping even within Canada is expensive. So shipping was costing me, it was almost $22. And the box, it was like, it was just as much as the box.

And it was a tiny box. It wasn't even a very big box.

Like 9 by 9 box.

Yeah.

Our weight, the way it is weighed here. So if I had something under a pound, I still had to put it as a pound. You were not allowed to do it under. So it's just. Canada's not as savvy with shipping as the US. It was eating a lot of my costs. I had some health issues. I had to have my knee replaced. I was getting older and I wasn't happy anymore.

Yeah. So we're going to, we're going to go back there because I think this kind of was almost a realization over like a 6 to 9 month period. Like it was kind of one thing after another. And so You hear Denise talking about it. The first kind of hiccup that really hit her was, man, this shipping cost is getting out of control. It's eating into all of her profits. So she's not making very much money and it's hard to charge someone in the US a high shipping because we're not used to it, right? Someone in Canada is typically used to the high shipping charge because they live in that. Because like you just said, shipping from Canada to Canada is same as almost shipping from Canada to US. And so we're there, you guys are used to paying the high shipping. We live in this Amazon Prime world down here, um, where everything's free shipping or $2 or $6 or whatever the case may be. And, and so it was kind of, you weren't able to charge enough to cover the shipping, and so that was eating into your profits. Then I know you went through the knee issue, which really slowed you down. And you didn't— you don't like to be slowed down. And then all of these things started to put pressure on you because the profit margin was low. You weren't feeling your best and you're like, I don't love this anymore. And I don't know what to do because I still have to make an income. I'm not going to work for someone else. I still have to make an income, but I don't know if I can do it in this way anymore. And so tell me kind of your thought process as you were dealing with this. I think it was what, like fall of '23? So fall. Yeah.

So before I brought it to you in our mastermind that September, I saw the writing on the wall, but I didn't want to accept it because I'm the type of person, I don't give up. You can knock me down. Sometimes I stay down there and cry a little bit, but I always get up. Myself off and just, and just keep going. So I'm, I'm kind of that kind of person. And I, I really didn't want to give up and I felt like it was giving up. And even though I have pivoted before many times, I was a dog groomer for the majority of my life. I'm 60 now. I was a dog groomer for 40 years. So I know how to pivot. I know how to change. But this time I had a warehouse invested. I felt like I was a failure if I stopped and pivoted. But so knowing that, I started dabbling in printables because what I had done when, when I joined your mastermind, you're like, we need traffic, you need to have a lead magnet. So I had put a lead magnet out and it went bonkers. It literally went bonkers. And I was like, oh, well, maybe I do have something here. Maybe I can make printables. So I started testing it knowing that I might have to give this up. And I slowly started putting some on the website and people started liking it and started buying it. And at one point, and then I realized, okay, this is viable. I can make this decision to pivot, but it was still really scary because I was in debt at a warehouse, but things lined up and I got out of my lease luckily, which is very unusual. And after speaking with you in September, because I remember sitting there and I felt I don't know, I might have even cried. I don't know.

You did. I remember you did. Yeah, because it was heavy, Denise. It was this heavy decision to stop doing everything you had been doing to create your income and start something from scratch again. And that feels heavy, not knowing if it's going to work or not, but knowing Plan A is no longer working for you. And you really weren't making any money at that point anyway between the warehouse house and the shipping and all the things. And so, and I know you went through a period of having issues with product, like, and things like that. And so now it was like, okay, do I give this thing up that's really not working anyway? But what if this fails too, right?

Yeah. And because it wasn't making money, we were actually losing money, and we, we were getting in debt. But I had I've been in your world for a couple of years by this time and you have taught me. I took everything that you have taught me, build your list, get your traffic, put your lead magnets out, do, and literally I just did what you told me to do. Just do what Sarah says. And I put all that into action. So I knew I had that. I had that as a net because I had been building my audience. I had been building, I had still had all my community. So basically that September I decided that we were going to close it. I went back from the mastermind and I just started making all the decisions, closing things up, getting everything set up and selling and start to sell out completely my stock of things that I was selling for other people. But in the meantime, I started immediately with my membership. So I folded it over. I wasn't going to just stop and then start in January. I literally start— got back, set up the subscription and sold it. And I think I hit— I don't remember how many people I got on the first one. I think it might have been 150 people that signed up.

Okay, let's, let's pause here because I know there's some people listening right now. This is— they're like, what is a printable? I don't understand. For all of us non-crafters out in the world, tell us what a printable is.

So a printable is basically, it's artwork that I create on my iPad. So I get images that I buy rights to, I change them up, I, I put backgrounds to them and I create the artwork. And then people, I send that digital file to people, they download it and they can either put it in a frame, which we do, but then we also just cut it up and do crafts like junk journaling. Ephemera, all of that kind of stuff. So that is our medium, is, is the paper.

Were you concerned? Because when you said a little bit ago that my audience is 60 years plus, were you concerned about going to this digital subscription? Because not everybody at 60 years old is as tech savvy as you are. And so was that a concern for you as you were switching, knowing your ideal customer?

No, because I think I had done enough testing that, that couple of months ahead of time and putting them on my website. So I knew it was going to sell because I was selling them one-off.

Okay. So you tested that before you just went all in with the subscription?

Absolutely. Yeah. Okay.

So now it's December 2023. You're launching your membership, which is, what is it called?

The Digital Print Clubhouse.

The Digital Print Clubhouse. And you get 150 members. Tell me how you're feeling in that moment.

Pretty good. I actually was very relieved. Once I had made the decision to make the change, I'm all in.

Yeah.

So I'm all in once I had made the decision. And then I just, I just got going creating more and, and getting, I have some team members now, so I was getting them to, to to put things in place for me. So I had gotten to a point where I was still paying for my team even though we had made a switch. So it has been rough. I'm not making— we're not making a million dollars over here. Yeah, but I, I work from home now, and so I don't have any overhead.

No overhead, no extra expenses, no product costs, no rent and utilities and all the things that you were dealing with over there. And we had a one-on-one a couple months ago. And in that one-on-one conversation you and I had, you said, I just hit 6 figures with my digital subscription.

Yes.

And I was like, you what?

I kind of whispered to you like, matter of fact.

You did. And you hadn't told anybody. And I was like, I, I got on our Voxer channel for our mastermind and I'm like, do y'all know what? Denise just hit 6 figures. Because I remember the Denise that sat into that September mastermind and sat there full of tears, thinking you needed to pivot, but you were really— you were going to do it. But you were, you were mourning the loss of that other business. And you were fearful of what was to come. But you knew you had to do it. And that's something I just admire about you is that you You said it before, like you don't give up. The Denise I know is all in. She goes, she gives it her 100%. You don't give up. So when, when you had to make the decision to let that go, it was very painful for you because you're not someone that gives up on something. But I think letting that go allowed you to go all in with the Digital Print Clubhouse. And because you were able to go all in, You went from 150 members to over 400 members, and you're getting that digital recurring revenue every, every single month. And you've made over $100,000 in digital revenue in 10 months. And, and, and you're 60 years old, Denise. I don't want you to forget that because that's important to be able to not only recognize when something's not working and then being able to change. It's really hard for us, and I think it's harder for us as we get older because we're so used to something, right? But for you, you knew that something had to give and you weren't afraid to ultimately make that decision. And gosh, I'm just so proud of you. Let's talk about life now. Life now as the business owner, Crafty DIYer. Tell me what's different now. Oh, wow.

It— the stress level has gone down.

Yeah.

I have joy again, like more so than I ever did, even when I had the physical box. I enjoyed putting the box together, but I didn't enjoy all the other stuff. I didn't enjoy shipping. I don't have to ship. I can sit downstairs on my couch and create printables. I can get in that mode and do that. I still kept all my team. I kept them employed and I've added to my team. So I think I kept one. Yes, I kept one and then I've added two more. And it's just, it's actually quite mind-boggling that I went from zero to $100,000 in 10 months. Like I didn't, until you made a big deal of it, I really thought it was just because I don't stop. I didn't stop. To rejoice in it or, or take that in. I was just like, okay, next one, let's just keep going.

I just did a reel today about this very topic, Denise, about how we're like, on to the next, on to the next, on to the next, and we never stop and celebrate something. And because it's— and this is probably what you were thinking a little bit, because sometimes we think it's bragging or boastful, or does anyone even care, or— but that's actually not true, because what we're celebrating is a lot of hard work. What we're celebrating is that we didn't give up. What we're celebrating is that we push through when things always don't work out. And that is always worth celebrating. When you look at yourself today versus 1 year ago, like, that is a complete change for you. And I think about what that means for you. And that's so worth celebrating. And we've got to stop. We've got to stop just going on to the next, on to the next, bigger, better, more, more, more, and say, you know what I did? I made $100,000 sitting on my digital—

digital—

sitting on my couch. Sitting on my couch. I made $100,000. $100,000. Denise, there's not a lot of people in this world, whether they're in Canada or the United States, that can say that. And that's because you didn't hesitate to change when you needed to change. You didn't hesitate to pivot when you needed to pivot. You gave it your all. And there's nothing that you should feel less than because that didn't work out long-term for you. There was a lot of other circumstances. That same thing in a different person and a different time might have worked out flawlessly. But there were so many things happening that you had to pivot. But a lot of times we don't pivot and we end up stopping. We end up quitting. We end up not having our business anymore because we either wait too long to pivot. We're too scared of the change. Or we don't think we have it in us to start over again. Right?

Yeah. And here's the thing. Like, even though I was starting brand new, like, literally, I was in debt.

You weren't afraid to pivot, though. Right?

Yeah. I wasn't afraid to pivot. And you said this. I was mourning. I was mourning the fact that it wasn't working.

You're mourning the loss of that business that you worked really hard to build, that you really enjoyed at one time. You were mourning the good parts of that business. You weren't blinded by the negative.

Yeah. And I remember saying in that meeting that pivot did not mean failure.

It doesn't. Everybody needs to write that down. Pivot does not mean failure.

It actually means strength.

There you go.

Yeah. And faith in yourself.

And courage.

And, oh, you got to need a lot of courage. Yeah, because even though I was starting over, I had built an audience. I had done everything that you've told me, so I had a good base. So I had faith in that. I had faith in myself. And then I just went and got busy and started doing it and didn't look back. And it was the best thing I'd ever done.

And if someone's listening to us right now, I feel like if they're listening to us right now and they are feeling this stress, they're feeling the burnout, they're probably— if they're emotional like you and I, because we're both Pisces, if they're emotional like us, they are— they probably have tears in their eyes right now, right?

Yeah.

Thinking about how they feel lost in their own business. Denise, what advice would you give to that person that feels stuck, that feels like they're drowning in debt, that feels like there's no way out of this and they need to pivot but they're really scared?

Well, it's okay to be scared and it's okay to feel those feelings. And I, I I say to myself, okay, you can feel this for either an hour or a day or a week, but then after that, you gotta pull up your big girl pants and get going because there's freedom on the other side, because you're going to feel so much because you faced the fear, you had the courage, and you did it. You— and what I would suggest too is you, you need a group of people, you need a group of women behind you. And I'm very lucky to have the mastermind, but even in your group, your Launch Your Box, you need that group behind you. You need to be around women who support you and understand you because my family has never understood me. They don't. I'm the unicorn in the family. I'm the oddball in the family, and that's okay. And so face the fear, have the courage because deep down in your gut, what's right. And don't care what anybody else thinks and don't compare yourself. I was comparing myself. Oh, these people are making it go. This is making it go, but I'm not them and they're not me. So I had to look at my own situation and go with it and not compare myself to anybody else other than myself. And I would have felt terrible if I hadn't have.

I don't know.

I can't imagine. That was only a year ago. I can't imagine where I'd be if I hadn't done it.

You'd probably be, you wouldn't have a business.

No. Well, no, absolutely not. Yeah.

All right, Denise, if you are listening to us right now, you want to go get crafty with Denise and get a little— be inspired by her. Everybody needs a little Denise in their life. Denise, where can they find you and follow you?

I'm mostly on Facebook, Crafty DIYer. My website is iwanttocraft.com. So, but Facebook is usually where I am. A little bit on YouTube, but Facebook is where I'm every week. Yeah.

All right. In the words of Denise Parks, a pivot does not mean a failure. All right. We'll see you guys back here next week for another great episode. Thanks for joining us on the Launch Your Box podcast. If you're looking to grow your audience, head over to launchyourbox.com and grab the 10 Steps to Help You Start Building Your Audience guide. It's packed with practical tips to help you connect with your future subscribers. Until next time, keep launching and growing on your subscription box journey.