3 Ways to Close Out the Year Strong

Good morning, happy Monday. Today we're going to talk about closing out the year strong, and there's a couple things that I want us to focus on. Um, how we can maximize some last-minute sales. Um, specifically I'm talking about digital sales. I want to talk about how we can reduce subscriber churn, so that's going to be really important over the next 30 days. And just setting ourselves up for a great new year. So that's what we're talking about this morning. I'm so glad that you're here. Let me know in the chat that you are here with me this morning. I would love to say hi to you. Y'all, I'm tired. I don't know, like, your level of tiredness— put your level of tiredness in the chat from 1 to 10, 10 being completely exhausted and 1 being like, I'm normal. I'm tired and I think I've been doing really great this month. And I think it finally hit me this weekend how tired I am. There's only so much that our bodies and our brains can continue to, you know, do like, you know, constantly nonstop before we hit the burnout stage. And, and I'm tired and I can see it. Not only do I feel tired, but I'm making mistakes. I made email mistakes this weekend, putting the wrong links in the emails. I forgot to post videos on time. I don't know whether I've done something or not, so I'm having to check back. Like, Myra says I'm too tired to think of a number. I'm gonna check something really quick because I'm only seeing my YouTube people here, and I wonder if something didn't happen, if I didn't make it to Facebook. Um, so let me know if you're on Facebook, um, watching, because I don't see any of my Facebook people over here yet. Um, it says I'm live, but I'm not in the feed, which is so weird. This happened to me, um, the other day. So, um, you click on— okay, I'm not in the feed, which is weird. Like, I don't know if you guys— this happened to me the other day, um, on Framed. But let me show you, like, you have to actually click on where it says I'm live because when you look in the feed, I'm not live in the feed. It's so weird. So I may have to repost this video. But anyway, it's just the glitching of all the things. I don't know why it's not streaming directly to the page anymore. Facebook, Rebecca, Facebook is tired too. So I don't know if it's a new setting, something I'm gonna have to change. Um, Jen, maybe you could look into this for me today and see if there's something different where StreamYard is not connecting to the feed anymore. I may have to do StreamYard and live on Facebook. I don't— quit changing things, people. I'm so tired, I can't think. Good morning, Andrea. Hey, Crystal, good to see you. Good morning, Christina. Uh, good morning, Myra. Good morning, everybody. Hey, Lisa. Um, Jen is with me in the chat. Like, y'all, I don't even know. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Good morning, Jamie. So I don't know why, but it did the same thing with me this week on Framed. It would not post to my feed. And so when I'm done being live, like, I'm not there anymore. Like, it's not in the feed at all. So it's so weird. We'll get it posted in the feed for people watching it on the replay. But I want to talk a little bit about closing out the year strong. And I know we're tired, and that's why I started off with I am tired. So you know that you can— I can relate to you right now because I walked in to get my hair done this morning and she goes, you look tired. I'm like, thanks, because I've already been feeling it and now I look tired. We're going to get through this. Technically, I have one more week left, so I've got one week left. We can do anything for the week. We can push through. The best entrepreneurs are the ones that push through the harder things, that are pushing through the mental blocks, that are pushing through pushing through and not quitting before you get to the finish line. And the finish line is coming. And so I want to give you a little bit of light at the end of this tunnel that the finish line is coming. But there's a couple of things that I want, I want you to do. Okay, so let's talk about last minute sales. Now, this is really dependent on when your cutoff date is for your shipping cutoff. So when we're talking about our shipping cutoff was yesterday, so everything's going to go out this morning and tomorrow. So we'll get everything out. But now that our shipping cutoff is, is here, I want to think about easy ways to continue to make sales for Christmas. And that's really our digital, our digital offers. So for product-based businesses, there's a couple digital offers that we have. We can do gift cards. So that's a great digital offer. We can promote our gift subscriptions. Again, that's a great digital offer. And it doesn't require any additional work for us. So once you hit your shipping cutoff, I want you to put a little campaign together for some of those digital offers that you have. If you have digital products, this would be a great time. If you have tutorials or printables or things that people download, um, that they can purchase, let's put together a campaign for those digital items once you're done with your shipping dates so that we can still continue to maximize our sales for the end of the year. So push gift cards, let's push our gift subscriptions one more time. At the salon that I own, we're pushing the memberships, get a free blowout. We're pushing, you know, gift cards over there. We're going to push gift cards here this week and gift subscriptions. We already have all that set up from our other promotions, so we're going to go ahead and just push, push that through because it doesn't require us to do anything right now. And so that's a great way as we're finishing up all of our shipments we can push these digital products. I want you to think about that, um, this morning. Nikki, thank you, thank you. Can you just come hang out with me today and just, you know, give me compliments today, get me through the day? Um, I've got, I've got meetings back to back today, and then I was looking at my schedule. My daughter has a soccer scrimmage at 4, then she's got a band concert at 7, and then we have an out-of-town basketball game tomorrow at 6, and I'm in charge of the snack bags, so I gotta do that too. Like, it never ends. Like, you think, okay, I just got to get through the work day. No, I gotta get through the work day and I've got to get through mom life. Like, every— let me know in the chat if you're dealing with mom life right now too. There's so many, like, things that are going on with— my daughter plays two very, um, she plays soccer and basketball, so those are very heavy sports right now, um, at this time of year. It's the worst time of year for her to play sports. And then she, you She's in band, so luckily our— not luckily, that's a terrible thing to say— our football team didn't make it to further playoffs, so we haven't had football games in a while. So that's been great. But parties, social events, she's like, Mom, will you help me? Will you take me shopping so I can get some gifts for my friends? I'm like, sure, let me finish this email. This is why I'm making mistakes, all the mom things. And yes, I'm running on coffee. I walked in the warehouse this morning, they're like, oh, you're double fisting it today. I said, yes, I am. I need all the coffees today. So we're gonna get through this, but let's focus on some digital products, okay? So gift cards, gift subscriptions, you could run a last call type of campaign for those digital items, kind of creating that urgency, final chance, last call. You can, I've been saying you can shop from your couch, you don't even have to leave the house 'cause it's really people-y out there. Go ahead and just grab a gift card or a gift subscription for someone. You could offer a bonus item. You could, you know, whatever you want to do, but think digital so that it relieves any more workload on you that you have to do. Okay, and then if you are still shipping, like I know some of you are still shipping, um, through Wednesday, we could highlight things that are just ready to ship, things that you don't have to make. For me, things I don't have to personalize, like ready to go. I've got this great bundle here, it can ship today. Like highlight those kinds of things that that you have that can just go out the door really quickly. It doesn't require any extra, you know, thing from you to have to like make or personalize or do anything to. But you've got something, and people are in this mode, they're like, oh no, it's like 9 days till Christmas and I still haven't, you know, done the things. So highlight something that can go out the door today. That'll be great for social media, it'll be great for lives. Like 10 items that can ship today, go live and show the 10 items that don't require any extra work from you. That be a great way to help maximize sales as we get through this week. Okay. Now, the other thing I wanted to talk about, and I, I want to put it on top of your mind, because if you haven't already seen a spike in cancellations, we're going to see that over the next probably 30 days. So I want you to really dig in and think about how can we engage our subscribers right now in this moment to reduce all the possible churn that we can. Okay, so what I'm thinking about is we did a surprise and delight in their subscriptions this month— a coupon to our shop, a discount. It's good through mid-January. So is there something you can surprise and delight them with? And if your subscriptions have already gone out, that's okay. You can send them a dedicated email, um, you could do a post. Like, I'm running, um, in my salon It's Member Appreciation Month. And so everyone that's a member, I added a free blowout to their account. And anyone that would like to be a member before the end of the month, I'll give them a free blowout too. So think about ways that you could really encourage retention of your subscribers so that we don't take a dip in cancellations. And I'm thinking about this for my own subscription. I want to kind of highlight the first quarter of my boxes. So, um, I want to, I want to give them something to look forward to so they don't want to cancel. So that's really what I want you to engage, um, your subscribers with right now. Like, here's what's coming in January, here's a little teaser for February. Do you know what's happening in March? I'm having something custom made and it's in this pattern. I want you to tease that a little bit right now and really get them to keep their subscription because they're excited about what's coming up the next 3 months. So I want you to really find a way to— I want you to use that in a marketing campaign. Okay. So we could do that the week of Christmas. We could do that right after Christmas. You can do it now. But we need to engage our subscribers to really look forward to something that's coming. That could be, I have a big surprise for you in our January subscription box. I can't wait. Maybe it's a bonus item that you put in their January box. Maybe it's a bonus coupon. Maybe it's a free gift. Maybe you're just teasing and showing them, here's what's coming. Here's a sneak peek for January. Here's a sneak peek for February. Here's a sneak peek for March. And you're really showing them what's coming up because that's going to keep them engaged. That's going to keep them wanting their subscription. It's going to keep them subscribed. So I want you to really sit down and brainstorm on how you can keep your subscribers subscribed over the next 30 to 45 days, because these two months are going to create our highest churn for us usually all year long. So how do we keep them engaged? You can also— I think a really great thing would be to send them like a holiday email or holiday text early next week, just really thanking them for their support of your small business. Make it personal. Thank them for being a subscriber. Thank them for supporting your small business and what it means to you. Really a genuine, heartfelt thing. Talk a little bit about why you started your subscription and why you're glad that they're there. That stuff goes a long way because when then they hit that cancel button, you're now a person to them. You're now connected to them. Okay. And so they're less likely to cancel when they feel a connection to you. So I want you to send some type of holiday connection email or text to all your subscribers. I want you to be sneak peeking and teasing what's coming in the first quarter to help them stay. Okay, I want you to engage them. I want you to ask questions. You could really involve the community here, like ask them to share photos of them when they receive their December box. Use that in a marketing campaign. Run a giveaway, do some unboxing, run a, run a video of unboxing. But I really want you to have your subscription box top of mind before year end so that they really have a reason not to cancel. Give them a reason not to cancel before the end of the year because that's going to help us reduce our churn as we go into the next year. Okay, so that's really, really important. I don't want you to lose sight of that because it's easy to add new subscribers when we're not backfilling all the time. And, and we're going to have some churn because people are cutting their finances, people are trimming the fat, people are, you know, New Year's resolutions, I'm going to get better about my spending. And the first thing they cut is something that's a want and not a need. And so I want you to make sure that you're engaging with them now so that they— they're— you're top of mind of This is something I don't want to cut, you know? Okay. And then let's start talking about New Year's resolutions and how doing something for yourself is good for your mental health. Let's, let's spin it back on them about how— what does this box mean to you? Let's get that in our feed. Let's get some testimonials on what this box— how does this box make you feel when it comes, when it shows up at your door? Let's spin that in our New Year's marketing campaign. This is the year that's about you and your mental health. And this is how my product can help with that. So that's what I want you, I want you to do. All right. Now here's something else that I really want you to check on for the fourth quarter. I want you to just kind of run some numbers for fourth quarter, and I want you to look at what products sold best for you for Q4. You could actually run this for the whole year if you want to. And I want you to take a look and reevaluate what products are selling the best for you to help you with curation into the next year. Trends change, seasons change, buying habits change, okay? And so for me, I'm 8 years into my subscription box, and if I would have just kept with the same thing that I started with, I'm not evolving at all. So I like to look at my top products that have sold this year? What are people buying? Okay. And how can I add those items into their subscription boxes in 2025? So I want you to do a little bit of analysis with that, and you can run it for each quarter and kind of give you like, if I ran Q1, what were my top selling items in Q1? And then how do I incorporate some of those into subscription box in this Q1? Let's run Q2. What are people buying in the spring? What are people buying in the summer? What are people buying in the fall? And then that's that's going to help you with your curation process in the new year. We have to constantly reevaluate what we're putting in our boxes. And as I'm working on 85, box number 85, I've had 85 different boxes over the life of my subscription. Um, how do I make it better than the last? How do I make it different than the last? And those are the things that I want you to start looking at as we close out the year. Okay, so maximize your sales right now with some of your digital offerings or some things that are ready to ship today and say ships today, order by noon, ships today, or whatever that is like it's ready to go out the door. I want you to promote those gift subscriptions and gift, gift cards right now to help take some workload off of you. I want you to engage with your subscribers right now before year end, and I want us to keep a a solid engagement plan going into the new year. How can I tease what's coming up? How can I get in front of the cancellations by making them excited about the new year's offerings? I want you to create a plan for that. Okay. And then let's take a look at what we did this year and how can that help us improve our subscription for 2025? Those are the things that I want you to wrap your brain around for the end of this year. I know our brains are tired, so write it down because you're going to get off this live and go pack orders or do whatever you do and you're going to forget. But I want you to make some notes real quick so you can come back to this later in the week, early next week, whatever that is, and really sit down and make a dedicated, you know, to-do list from these 3 things. Maximize your sales right now, engage your subscribers, and let's figure out what we want to sell in the new year and what we want to put in our products based on our habits and our data from this year. All right, y'all, we've got this. We have literally a few days. We have 9 days until Christmas. And then I want to make sure that everybody has some— I call it white space on your schedule. We need some downtime. And I'm not saying downtime is Christmas Day and Christmas Eve with the family because there's a lot to do. You're going to be busy. Downtime is downtime for yourself, away from every responsibility that you have. Maybe that's a day at the spa. Maybe that's a day with your girlfriends, having, you know, hanging out, going, having lunch. Maybe that's just binge-watching some Netflix show in your bed, in your PJs. What— whatever that is for you, I want to make sure you put that in your calendar because we've got to reset. We can't keep going at this pace. We've been going at a really high pace for 60 days now. We need a break. We need a refresh. We need a reset. We need to clear our mind and be excited about what's coming for the new year. So when we're done, I need you to shut it off, and I need to give— you need to give yourself some time. I will not be here next Monday because I am shutting things off and I'm taking the entire week off next week. Um, so I will not be here next Monday. So I just want to tell you guys Merry Christmas. I hope you've had a great holiday season, whether that was you had a great holiday Q4. Um, I, I know in my mastermind some of the ladies are like, I have worked less and been less stressed this year than any other year before. Whatever your win is for this season. Um, I want you to remember that, and, um, I just want to wish you a very, very Merry Christmas. And I'll be back the Monday right after the holiday, and we'll get started on 2025 because, um, it's here and we need to be prepped for it and ready for it. So y'all have a wonderful holiday with your friends and family. Um, let's keep going. We got a few more days. Okay, go drink— go chug some coffee or tea or whatever you're drinking this morning, and let's Let's get everything done that we needed to do. Let's not quit before we get to the finish line. All right, y'all got this. Cheers. I'll see you soon. Bye, guys.