179: From Blogger to Subscription Box Owner with 1200 Subscribers in Less Than a Year

Today I'm chatting with a successful influencer who made the pivot from blogger to subscription box owner and saved her business. Put your headphones on and come join us for this great conversation.

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 special guest from our Scale Your Box membership. I have Jenny Fenk here with Love Me Gluten Free, and we're going to talk about how she went from 0 to over 1,000 subscribers in less than a year. Jenny, welcome to the show. Why don't you introduce, introduce yourself to everyone? Talk about— let's just tell them what you do and what your subscription box is. Let's start there.

Okay. Yes. Thank you so much for having me. This is like awesome. I listen to your podcast forever, so thank you so much. But I, Jenny, and I started Love Me Gluten-Free subscription box in April of last year, and I'm 10 boxes in. I just shipped my 10th box yesterday. But it is a gluten-free subscription box, 100% dedicated gluten-free subscription box for people with celiac disease, gluten intolerance, or just people who are dabbling in a gluten-free or healthier lifestyle. And that's the basis of what my box is. But like, as I've been in this industry for 10+ years with a blog and a book and all this stuff, and so I— as much as it sounds amazing to go from zero to 1,000 boxes in less than 10 months, there was a 10-year journey behind that story.

Yeah, so let's go back there because this is something that's very near and dear to you. This is a topic that you kind of were forced to really dig into and research. And so Let's go way back and talk about how this all really started.

Yeah. So it started out of my own need to heal my broken digestive system. I was diagnosed with celiac disease in April 2012, and at that time, like everyone just said, go gluten-free, you'll feel better. And that's what my doctor even said, go gluten-free, you'll feel better. And it really was such a process. You don't just go gluten-free. You have to think about food all day long. That's what sustains us. You go to events, you travel, all the brands that you grew up eating are now off limits to you and you somewhat don't know what to eat anymore and you still feel kind of broken and you still feel kind of sick. And so I went on this journey to really learn how to heal my broken body. And in that time, I enrolled in the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I wanted to learn about nutrition, figure out what was going on. Maybe I was eating in a way that wasn't good for me. Not just gluten-free doesn't always mean good for you, right? Like, sugar is gluten-free after all. So I was really trying to learn how to eat in a way that really healed my gut because it was really damaged. And in that time, I decided to launch a blog which is called Good for You Gluten-Free. And I would share recipes, I would share stories, I would share products, I would share advice about probiotics or all different topics that I would cover that were both nutrition-focused and/or just gluten-free. Like, can you eat at the Olive Garden? Things like that. And so I was learning these things and I was writing about them. And over the past 10-plus years, I amassed a good readership. I had over several million people reading my blog every year. And it was, it was, it was really exciting. I also wrote a book about how I broke up with gluten. And it wasn't until about October 2023 when another subscription box who does like gluten-free— not gluten-free, they do organic snacks— they approached me as an influencer and asked me if I would I mention their box on my blog and mention it to my community. And I vetted the box and I mentioned it, and oh, she did me dirty because fast forward 30 days, that box had gluten in it.

Okay.

And meanwhile, yeah, let's pause there.

Okay, we went through a whole bunch of stuff and I don't want to gloss over that because it is a huge part of your story and how we got to those 1,000 subscription boxes, right? So you're learning about your own nutrition and your own gluten tolerance and what you needed to, to do to kind of free yourself from your celiac disease so you wouldn't have— you wouldn't be sick all the time, right? And so one of the ways you did that was learning. Through learning, you learned a lot, but you also were then sharing what you were learning on your blog. And so you built that blog. You said you had millions of views. You probably also built a good following. Did you have a good following on social media because you're just feeding them back to the blog? Is that how you promoted the blog?

Yeah, I did really well with the blog, like through Google searches and pinning Pinterest. And then, yeah, um, I didn't get as much traffic to my blog through social media, but all the while I was growing an Instagram account and I never was, I never really thought of myself as this like Instagram influencer.

Yeah.

But I guess you sort of become that when you're sharing things within your own niche. And so. I, I did have, I guess, influence in the gluten-free industry and I was sharing things and building that, like you always say, that know, like, and trust factor within my community through both social media and my blog.

Okay. So, and you say that your social media accounts got over 100,000 followers like you were, and you're just giving free advice. You're not charging for anything at this point, right?

Yeah. No, it's all, it's all free advice. And the way that as an influencer that we make money is like through ad networks that we have on our blog or sponsorships with brands or affiliates where a brand will maybe want you to be an affiliate. And if you share your affiliate coupon or code or whatever it is that you get a little percentage of the sale. So I was sort of on the other side of what a lot of your community was doing.

So this is how this other subscription box that had organic snacks reached out to you and said, we have this gluten-free— I'm using air quotes because you just said they did you dirty. Was not gluten-free. They had this gluten-free option. They wanted you to share it on your platform as the influencer. Okay, so talk us through what happened at this point.

Yeah, so I vetted the box and I, and I was like, it wasn't like my favorite gluten-free box. Like, you can tell when someone's gluten-free and they know the brands. Um, and I even said that to my community, like, it's exciting that we have a subscription box for our community, an option, but I want you to know, like, it's not from a dedicated company and it's maybe not products you may not know. A bunch of people took me up on that mention in my newsletter. I have several thousand people on my newsletter. I think at the time I probably had like 24,000 or 25,000 people on my newsletter. And so when I mention it, I'm putting my name behind it. And a lot of people bought that box. And like I said, fast forward about 30 days when they got their first box, it had gluten in it. And that's because this subscription box had both a regular and a gluten-free option, and obviously something got mixed up. So my— I got a bunch of emails from people in my community who have followed me for a long time, said, I bought the box from your recommendation, and I think you should know that there was gluten in it. And I, I hadn't even opened the one I got. Like, I got mine in the mail, and so I opened mine immediately. I was like, oh my gosh, there's ramen noodles in here that are not gluten-free. And before I could even reach back out to the company, because it was the CEO who had approached me to be an affiliate for her, she had called me. She had called me on my phone. I saw her number pop up and she was pretty mortified too. And she was apologetic. And I said, I'm willing to give you another chance. Why don't you issue an apology and I'll publish it in my next newsletter. And so I write this newsletter every Friday. I put her apology into the next newsletter, but some people had bought 3 or more month subscriptions. And so fast forward, I didn't think much of it. Fast forward another 30 days. There was gluten in the next box. And, um, I was done. I'm like, I don't even want to include you. I took her off my website because I had like an article about subscription boxes. I just can't put my name behind something. I gave you the second chance. I can't do it anymore. But meanwhile, I knew my community wanted this. Like, I knew there was a need. And so I said, if no one's doing it right, I'm gonna do it. And that's how it happened.

Okay, so you're like, I'm starting a subscription box. Where did you start in this process? Because you've already built an audience, so you don't have to start in the audience building stage. Where did you actually start?

Yeah, well, there's— like you said, you have to build an audience, and I had learn the basics of subscription box. And, and I had built like my website, like I knew how to do some of the tech things. Along the way, I discovered you and your podcast. That's actually how I first discovered you, just through podcasts and listening to your podcast and getting some great advice. That is a great place to start. If anyone, go binge listen to these podcasts. And then I also knew I needed to start building some relationships with brands because it's not easy to get products from brands. A lot of them, like, I can't work through distributors. And like Whole Foods orders through these distributors. I don't have that kind of strength, I guess, to do that or powwow. So I had to make these relationships with brands, but I already had a lot of relationships as— I hate using this word. I'm going to use air quotes too— influencer.

Listen, Jenny, let's stop. You are an influencer. And I know that when we think I'm an Instagram influencer, Jenny's not out there posing in cute clothes and showing off and dancing and all those things. You are an influencer, especially in this, in this space, because you're the expert. You've written a blog for years. You've written a book, published a book. You're giving— you are an influencer in this space. And I don't want you to— I think you kind of feel like that word is a negative connotation about who you are because you're so smart. You, you share freely, but you are an influencer. And I want you to own that because You're a pretty big influencer in this space. Let's not sugarcoat this. You're a pretty big influencer in this space. And anyone listening that might be in this space, you probably know of Jenny or her blog or her book or her subscription box. Like, let's just be honest. I want you to own this because you have done so much work to be the influencer. So let's just step in. No more air quotes. You're an influencer.

And so I, I had relationships with a lot of brands. I worked with them over the years. As I put my plan together for the year, which I did after watching some of your videos and things like that, I put a plan for the year and what kind of themes I wanted for every box. And I made my first theme for April. I set like a 90-day ramp up for myself. April 1st was going to be my first box and the theme was going to be Love from Colorado because that's where I'm from. And that's where I had a lot of relationships, like I I knew the team at Justin's, which is based in Boulder. I knew the Canyon Bakehouse folks, and that's a popular gluten-free bread brand. They're based in Colorado. So I already knew a lot of these people. And of course, the relationships that I had built over 10 years as an influencer, I knew that I could at least approach them and make some deals with them and get them in this box. And so it took me about 30 days, or I'm sorry, 90 days to ramp up and getting getting both the brands on board, getting the technology and all that kind of stuff. That, that was sort of the icky stuff of the startup process, but that's how it all started.

So then you launch in April of 2024, and how many subscribers are you launching with at this point?

Yeah, so I didn't probably do the math well on this, but I, I didn't— I should have planned for way more boxes than I did, but I said I'll make 125 boxes. That's what I said. And that's how stuff I ordered from all the brands that I was going to include in my First Love from Colorado box. And within about, at less than 2 hours, all 125 boxes were gone. So I emailed all of the brands and I said, is there any way we can get 25 more items together last minute? And I couldn't go over that because I had ordered these canvas totes to go in the, in the box and I only ordered 150 of them. So I was able to get 25 more items from each of the brands. And then so put those up for sale, boom. And that's how we had 150 within the day.

And I remember this launch so vividly because you're like, I just sold out in like 2 hours. I don't know what to do now. And I'm like, okay, we figure out how to grow next month. Right. And so now you're down this path of, okay. And I, and I love that you didn't go huge because sometimes people go huge and they're disappointed. So I'm more of a, I'm not as I'm not a big gambler, Jenny. I'm kind of a play it safe kind of girl. And so I would rather lowball my numbers and make sure I hit them than go too grand and then I'm feeling disappointed. You went $150, you could have easily tripled that on your first launch, I'm sure. But then you started to increase as you went along and within 9 months you were over 1,000 subscribers. And let's start, let's talk about the fulfillment because that is a short period of time to go to 10x your business. So you started in your basement, right? Let's talk about the fulfillment journey that you went on as you were growing so rapidly.

Yeah. So I started in my basement for those first 150, and most people were shipping me just UPS or FedEx to my house, 150 items. And then I said, I'll go to 250 next month because, yes, I'm in my basement. There's only so much space in my house, and carrying boxes up and down my stairs was, was quite a treat for us, I guess. But then I'll never forget where I was going to put in my, my May box, my second box, I wanted to put this flour and it was about 2 pounds of flour in this brand that I was ordering. And so I ordered 250 2-pound bags of flour. So that was my first pallet that was going to come to my house. And so it was this big deal. Like, can you get pallet deliveries? I'm like, I think so. I don't know. But yeah, this 18-wheeler rolls up in front of my house and drops off like 500 pounds of flour or something crazy. I don't remember how many pounds it was, but all this flour and just puts it on my driveway. And then my husband and I are carrying all of this flour into my basement and we're like, this, this is, this is not working. And then we had, we, I remember that packing day too, because we packed the 250 boxes in my basement. I had my parents. Who were retired, no more, came and helped. And some of my friends and other family were helping me pack them up. And then they all left, which was beautiful that they helped me. But then I looked at these 250 boxes, which each had like 2-some-odd pounds of flour in there, plus other products. And my husband and I carried them up the stairs. And I remember our hearts were like, oh my gosh, we could barely breathe carrying all these boxes. I could only carry like 3 at a time and he could do 4 or 5 at a time. And it just took us took us a long time to get those boxes up our stairs. So we knew we needed a warehouse, but you don't just snap your fingers and find a warehouse. So we looked for a warehouse, but we knew we had to do a couple more boxes in our basement before this would happen. And so June and July, we sort of froze at 300. We just said we physically don't have the space or energy to go above that. And all the while, we were securing a warehouse space that we could start with our August box in to then elevate how many we wanted, how many subscribers we could take on.

Yeah. So you get into the warehouse. How's warehouse life?

Warehouse life is challenging too, because I don't really want to sit in my warehouse all day, but then these deliveries are coming in nonstop and there's a lot of work. So if you're ordering 1,000 items of something and let's say they come 6 in a case, then you have to take those 6 out of the box, flatten the box, throw out the box, and rinse and repeat until you get through or 1,000 times 12 items in a box, it takes a really long time. And so we— and we are about to outgrow our warehouse space as well. It's just, it's definitely tight in there. And so we are— we were at 1,000 subscribers for December. We just packed our January box yesterday, actually. We had 1,200 subscribers, and we are in talks with a fulfillment center that is here locally so that I I can still go and supervise but also make content. I am an influencer, I'm gonna own it. And so I want to be able to go and make content. People love when I share what's going on in the warehouse, but I definitely need more arms and legs because bootstrapping it with just me and my husband and our family, it's, it's very hard.

Yeah, it's very challenging, and it just probably gets more and more challenging because you're just growing non-stop. Like, you just add 200 more subscribers this month, and so you're— if you're going to keep growing, we've got to keep— you've got to make it easier on yourself. Like, I am picturing you taking 3 boxes at a time up your stairs times 250. So you're probably going up the stairs maybe 90 times that day. And I'm thinking, oh my goodness. Yeah, like, I would be like, no more subscribers until we're out of the basement.

Yes, you're a very sweaty buns of steel going up the stairs.

You're working it, girl. Okay, so So through this growth, okay, I want to talk about— we've established this influencer word today, and I'm proud that you're owning it. You also, you're on the other side of influence. When we talk about, when we talk about using influencers for our own subscription box business, you really have insight to that. So talk to us and just share some of your takeaways as far as when someone is wanting to get an influencer to promote their product. Product, what recommendations would you have for them?

Yeah, there, there's so many ways to approach this, but honestly, if you're in a specific industry, you should be following the influencers that are big in your industry, and even middle, medium size. Like, start following them, start looking for them on TikTok and Instagram, and engage with their content. That's gonna put, put you on their radars. But also, it's send them a quick DM and tell them what you're doing. Say, hey, I have this subscription box. I'd love to send you one. And I will tell you, most influencers, if they're interested, they will accept it. And a lot of them who are, I'd say if they're under 10,000 followers, they will likely even do a little post on you. When you get to larger influencers, they may ask you to pay them. And I think that is a hard thing to do. Like, I don't know if it's the right means to do, but I will say there, there's a balance between influencer and an affiliate program and paying an influencer or paying an affiliate. And because subscription boxes are e-commerce businesses, I think an affiliate relationship is, is better for working with influencers where maybe you're giving them 20% of the sale because people have to buy that product through you. They can't just go to Walmart and buy your box. And so they're going to actually get some sales. And so let me illustrate this a little bit. I get approached probably weekly from a different flour, gluten-free flour company that wants me to be an affiliate for them. Well, to promote a flour is a lot of work. Like I have to go bake a cake with that flour and show it to my community. And then they might just go into Walmart or Kroger and go buy that flour blend. They may not just go buy it on that website. And if they do buy it on the website, we're talking like $10. And if I get 20% of the sale, it's not that much money we're talking about for all the work that I put into baking a cake. To show this flower, and most people just went into Walmart to go buy that flower. And so, but when the affiliates, they do really well because if you're having a $50 box or a $60 box and you're giving them 20% of the sale and the only way they can get that box is through your website, they're going to actually cash in. They're going to be successful with it. And it's not that hard to do an unboxing video as an influencer. It's a lot harder for me to bake a cake.

Absolutely. I was just thinking that. I'm like, it's going to take a more prep and work and cleanup to bake a cake than it is to open a box and clean up whatever shreds might be on the floor after you get done. Right? Exactly.

And it's a higher value. So the percentage makes sense. And the reason I know this is just being on both sides of the spectrum is that— remember that box I told you about that approached me with the organic snacks that had gluten in it, even though they said it was gluten-free? That converted really well for me. I made quite a bit of money on that, sad as it sounds, but I did make money on that sales because people use my affiliate link and went and bought that box for better or for worse, supposedly right now. But yeah, so I was able to make a decent amount of money on that where if a flower wants to work with me and they want me to create a recipe, that might be a deal where you might want to pay me to interact with your product because there's so much time involved with doing that and sharing that with my community. And so I do think affiliates are much better for subscription box, being on both sides of the spectrum.

Yeah, it's definitely a win-win because you're able to track how much— like on, on my side, if I sent you a box, Jenny, I'm able to track on my side how many link clicks you got. Like somebody can't just go to the grocery store and buy it, put it on their Walmart list when they go next time. I'm able to actually to see how much traffic you're sent my way. And then on your side, you're also able to see how well it did as well, because you're going to get that payment. And my affiliate commission for my subscription box is recurring. So once you get me a subscriber, Jenny, as long as they stay, you're going to get paid for them every single month. And so it's just about creating a win-win for you and, and for the customer. And I do it recurring because I wouldn't have that subscriber without you. And so if they stay 2 months, you're going to get paid 2 months. If they stay 18 months, you're going to get paid 18 months. And that also encourages that influencer to really do a box opening every month. So a lot of times they become subscribers, so they get a box every single month so they can do an opening. So they're just compounding their payment from me every single month because they're continuing to get new subscribers for me, but they're also nurturing the ones that they already got and they're staying longer, so their payment life is longer. For that affiliate. So I really love the recurring aspect of it too.

Yeah, and everyone has skin in the game. You're not just paying them to talk about your box. They actually are talking about it because they like it and they get a little kickback, and you don't have— it's just a really— it's a better ecosystem and a better model to compensate influencers. But the first step really would be to reach out to these influencers and tell them you're interested in sending them a box and seeing what they think, and not just expecting them to do something with it, but getting their feedback on And then if they really like it, say, hey, why don't you become an affiliate? I'll give you a special rate. I'll give you a special coupon code for your audience. And if you want to make it recurring, that's amazing. You can also give them a free box every month, whatever your incentive structure is to get them to continue to talk about your box. And I think you'll find a good group of influencers who will do that. And then I think at some point you may want to graduate into paying like a team of influencers that just always talk about your box. Like there are other levels as you grow. That can keep influencers engaged in your content.

Let's talk a little bit about how this has changed your business because you were blogger, influencer, book writer. How has building a subscription box into that business changed your business?

Yeah, it kind of saved my business in middle of last year, middle of, I'm sorry, middle of 2023. Google was changing its algorithm left and right. And if you, if you search for something on Google now, you'll see the full effects of AI. And it basically just summarizes the results that you're searching for. So if you're like, uh, is lasagna gluten-free or whatever, it's going to summarize the results versus having you click on websites to find out that information. And so without that click, my blog was dying. My traffic was less than half of what it used to be, and it was declining. It was circling the drain a little bit. And so I was sort of thinking, what am I going to do? Like, I have built this community and I've built this blog, but my income and my ability to help more people is dwindling as Google continues to change its algorithm. And so this business sort of came at a beautiful time. Like, I was really looking for a new way to serve my community and to continue to work in the gluten-free industry. So many of my blogger friends went out and got real jobs, I guess you could say, real jobs, because the blogger industry was dying. And so I feel really fortunate that I was able to transition into this new role. And so it's really changed my life financially. It's kept me afloat and being able to stay in this industry and work in the gluten-free industry and just like a great feeling inside. Like, I love being able to continue to serve my community in this way. And know that they're going to get this box and they're going to open it and everything inside is safe for them. And they're going to be like, yeah, Ginny sent this to me. Like they know I sent this to them and they know it's safe. And I think it's very overwhelming for a lot of them because we are told almost every day, you can't eat this, you can't eat that. That's not gluten-free. We can't go to this restaurant because they're not good with gluten-free. And so like to have something arrive on their doorstep that is safe for them is so amazing. And so it's just, it's improved my life so much watching that and realizing that I am helping so many people and serving so many people in a new way.

It feels so personal. Like, I don't have any food allergies or anything like that to really understand what that's like for people, but it feels very personal to me. And I think what you're doing is, is very personal to them, right? Because they have— they trust you with their their, their life, right? Like, they're trusting you without being sick, without— to help them enjoy food without worrying about getting sick. And you've done so much back work, you've done so much research, you've done so much legwork that most people don't do. I mean, you signed up for the Institute for the nutrition classes to learn about this. Most people don't do that. And so for you to be able to provide this for them, it feels so personal to me. And I feel like this is why you're growing just hand over fist month after month. And I think you're going to continue to do that because if I'm gluten-free and I meet someone that needs to be gluten-free and I tell them about this wonderful box that you get, I mean, I feel like it's just this community that's just gonna spread for you and, and grow and grow and grow. And you have to feel so good about what you're doing because it really is helping people. I want to just touch on briefly on going from blogger to subscription box owner. And if there's someone listening right now that was in the blogging world and built a nice revenue stream off of blogging, they probably understand exactly what you're saying about Google. And I was just thinking how awesome that Google AI feature is because then I don't have to click on stuff and, and go down the rabbit hole of all these YouTube videos and links and stuff. But now I'm seeing it from your perspective of now I don't have to do that, right? And I'm, I'm not clicking on things. I'm not seeing those ads pop up where you were getting paid in those scenarios. So if I have a blogger that's listening that built their income, they don't know, they don't know what to do. How could they revive their community in this way? What advice would you give for them?

Oh gosh. I mean, they definitely need to pivot. Like, I think that there are blogs that will survive this long-term with new expectations, but I think they need to look at diversifying their revenue streams, whether they're going to write a cookbook or they're going to create some courses or do group trips or whatever those experiences are they're going to create. And for me, it was creating the gluten-free subscription box. Box, but I do think a lot of bloggers and influencers could benefit from creating a subscription box because we already have communities that know and love us that we've been working with for years. And this is just another way to serve them. And so I think we all have to just create and recreate ourselves and go with, roll with the punches. Google's not going back and I like the AI feature too. So it's very helpful. Well, it's not great for my job, but it was very helpful. It's a very helpful tool. And so what is what it is. You, you have to pivot. You have to reinvent yourself.

Yeah, we have to keep up with the changing world around us, and right now that includes all the AI everywhere, right? And so there's still, there's still a way to monetize that blogging business, just in a different way. That community that probably so many bloggers spent years building. Like, it's not an easy thing to build from scratch. It takes quite a long time to really build up your blog presence, and having a way to monetize that in a different way that used to bring you revenue every single month, a nice substantial revenue every single month, now you just have to do it in a different way because you've already spent the time to build that community. So I love, I love your story so much, Jenny, and I cannot believe believe that you are at 1,200 subscribers. Like, it just feels like every time, okay, we just added 200 more subscribers, no big deal. But that's the power of your influence. And I want you to own that. And I want you to just be super proud of what you're doing because I'm super proud of what you're doing. And I know that so many people are so grateful for what you're doing for them. Jenny, if I have a listener right now that would love to try your gluten-free or check out your blogs or an upcoming new podcast coming out, where can— I just threw that out there. Now it's— now you have to make it happen, right? Where can they find you, Jenny?

Yeah, so my boxes are at lovemeaglutenfree.com, and then you can also just follow me on my blog for information and my Instagram account, Good 4 U Gluten Free. Um, and the podcast is coming soon. It's called Gluten Free and wrapped, and we are putting the wheels in motion to do that soon.

So you have a launch date for the podcast?

I don't have a launch date quite yet. We're still getting everything under wraps, and then hopefully I'm in my new fulfillment center and I can have a little more time to actually like record, like quiet space to record it and get it going.

Yeah, it's going to be great for you. I'm super proud for you. Thank you for joining me. Go over and follow Jenny, grab one of her subscription boxes if you can get one, and we'll be back next week with another 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.