Celebrating 200 Episodes with My Biz Besties – Real Talk from 5 Women in Business

Ever wonder what happens when 6 creative, opinionated, slightly messy, big-dreaming entrepreneurs get on one Zoom call? Well, there's laughter, there's life advice, and there's a whole lot of truth bombs. For my 200th episode, I brought in my biz besties, women I've built life and business with for the last 7 years, to spill what it really takes to grow a thriving business and survive paint parties, product sourcing, and all kinds of tech fails. You're in for a treat. 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 celebrating today because this is the official 200th episode of the Launch Your Box podcast. I mean, I feel like I I talk a lot, but I just didn't realize that I have talked through 200 official episodes. And we were brainstorming in our planning session about what we wanted to do for this particular podcast. We knew it needed to be big. We knew it needed to be epic, but we also felt like it needed to be a little different. And so the idea came up that we should get Sarah's biz besties together and just talk about what life is like as entrepreneurs, where we started, where we're at now, a little laughter and fun, a lot of challenges along the way, and just have some real candid conversations. So you're in for a treat today because I have 5 of my business besties with me right now, people that I have done life and business with for the last 7 years. We met in 2018. We live all across the country. We met in 2018 when we were taking a course, much like our Launch Your Box community. It had a Facebook group and we took this course. We jumped into the community and we found each other and we started connecting and we wanted to go through the training of the course together. We were all very like-minded and we were in like-minded industries back then. And so we connected and there was a much bigger group than just the 6 of us. There was about 30 of us. And over time that kind of dwindled into like 14 of us and then a really core group of 8 of us that we travel with. And now I have 5 of them here to talk about it, to talk about the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur. Every lady here on this call is a 6 or 7-figure entrepreneur. And so we're going to take you through, I'm going to take you through some questions. We're going to have a lot of fun and I'm going to introduce them to you. So I'm going to introduce them to you one at a time. I want you to kind of hear hear their voices. And let me just tell you that all of us are Southern, so you're going to hear our Southern drawl. Some of them are a little more Southern than the others, and you're going to pick that up. But ladies, as we're talking, just say, this is Tamara, this is Cindy, so that when someone's talking and they're listening, if they're not watching us, um, that they can see, they can hear who's talking. So we're going to start with Tamara today. Tamara is also my bunkmate. Um, Tamar and I, would we go on trips? I'm going to tell you that we do business and life together. We do business and life together. We go on vacations together at least once a year. A lot of times we sneak in 2 or 3. Um, Tamar's my roommate because we're very— we have very similar, uh, rooming habits. We're not late night people, we're kind of early risers. She's very clean, I'm very messy, so she keeps me in line. Um, some of the bunkmates together are hot messes because they're both messy. I've got the clean one in my room, so she keeps me organized. But Tamara, let's start with you. So I'm gonna, we're gonna go through the whole group, but I wanna know what year you started your business. I wanna know what your business is, and then take me back to what you did before you started your business.

Hey, I'm Tamara. I started my business back in 2015, and prior to that, I was pretty much a stay-at-home mom who had a teach—

I—

well, okay, going further back, I was an elementary school teacher for 1 year, and then they cut 5 teaching positions at the end of that year. So then I transitioned into just substitute teaching and being a stay-at-home mom, and I really liked that flexibility, and I got spoiled to it. And so I was doing a lot of crafting at home, and eventually it kind of evolved into starting a business. And during this time, I'm also raising two little boys. My husband was in the military and had been deployed to Afghanistan. And so this was the thing that, like, saved my sanity— the crafting and the painting. And so eventually, once all of the military deployments were over, uh, we were like, hey, we need a little extra income. So I ended up starting a business, and it just kind of all organically happened. It started out as just craft nights in my home that I then took into other people's homes. And then of course Facebook Live came on the scene, and that was that. I just started teaching online, and it became a little bit half, half in person and then half online, to eventually fully online. So I've been in this business for 10 years, and it's changed and evolved a lot during that time.

And tell everybody listening what the name of your business is.

Oh yes, my business name is Southern Adornments Decor, and I don't think I actually told what kind of crafting we do. I teach door hanger painting. So if you've never heard of a door hanger, it's wooden piece that's cut to a certain shape, and you hang it on your door in place of like a wreath, or you could attach it to a wreath. And so these items are hand-painted, and I focus on the teaching of the painting.

Okay, I love it. And if you think— let me— let's just, let's just throw this out there, Tamara: stay-at-home mom to 7-figure business owner in the crafting space. Like, I don't know if that sounds any better than, um, like somebody just really fulfilling their dreams. And you were a little further ahead of me in that space when I first met you. And, um, you were like, I'm all in on this membership thing. And, um, I watched you launch before I was even prepared to launch. And I remember you got something like 400 members on that first launch. And I was like, this is amazing. And so we're going to dig into that a little bit more about life being an entrepreneur, but from stay-at-home mom 7-figure crafting entrepreneur. Like, let's, let's, that's just something to be excited about. Um, speaking of an epic story, let's go over to Heidi Easley. Um, Heidi, why don't you tell me what year you started your business, what your business is, and then what you did before that?

Hey, okay, so I'm Heidi, and I don't have the most southern accent yet, but I think I'm going to. I just moved to Tennessee, so I think it's eventually going to be be more. Um, so yeah, so, um, I was in corporate for 5 years, um, working for a cell phone company and doing numbers and spreadsheets. It was so boring. I hated every minute of it. And then, um, was a teacher for 10 years. And so I had been doing paint parties for 18 years. So basically, as soon as Pixie was born, I've been teaching paint parties pretty much when the boom happened and paint parties were kind of a thing, when Painting with a Twist came out. And but now I teach people how to make money teaching paint parties. And so, um, yeah, it's, it's amazing.

I love it.

We have around 3,000 members, and I teach people all over the world how to make money teaching paint parties. So it's been fun.

It's been so fun. And you're gonna learn kind of the dynamics of this group as they start talking. But Heidi's an Enneagram 7, right? You're a 7. And, um, there's another one of those that we're going to talk to in a minute, but Heidi loves to do all the things all the time. And I get exhausted by just watching her or listening to her talk about all the crazy, fun, exciting things that she does. And she just picked up and moved her whole life to another state recently. Something very Heidi of Heidi to do. And so she's just a ball of fun and I love being around her. Cindy, let's come over to you. Give us the deets.

Nope. You're—

see, this is so Cindy. I'm just going to say because we're on this podcast right now. Cindy would be the one to be muted and talking right now, and she knows it's true. Okay, Cindy, try again. Okay.

Hey, Cindy, uh, with Art Shattered, and I am actually a serial entrepreneur. I was in the accounting— I was doing accounting for years and years when my kids were little, but I started my own business, my very first business, in the early '90s. Um, every business I've ever started has been art related. Um, and in the— I guess around 2014, I tore my rotator cuff and I started just doing art and just selling art, um, off Facebook, Etsy, that sort of thing. And there was— and I do glass art with resin, um, and people were asking me so many questions all the time. I was getting 10 emails a day about how you do this, how do you do that, where do I find this, where do I buy that? So just like you guys, in 2017, I believe, I decided to start teaching. And that's where that all— that's how it all started.

Okay, Cindy, let's, let's go down this road because a lot of people really don't understand what it takes to build a successful business. And a lot of times they see our middle or maybe we're further along and they never see our beginning. Let's give them an honest look at how long did it take for you to actually start making enough money to live with your entrepreneurship?

Well, I started, I launched in 2018 to 54 members and I thought that I was So thrilled and excited about that. Um, and I'm just hearing Tamara had 400.

I was like, that—

so, uh, yeah, 54 members on my first launch. And so it's been, what, 7 years?

Yeah.

And I think 2020, so I was 3 years in before I actually started, uh, making enough money to actually support myself. And that was very, uh, fortunate because I did get a divorce and needed to support myself.

Yeah, it was necessary at that point, right?

It was very much a necessity to either— I was either going to have to get a J-O-B or I was going to have to make this work. So, um, in 2020, um, it— my business exploded. And I think it was either last year or the year before I hit 7 figures. So that's pretty exciting.

We just celebrated that with you, Cindy, um, celebrating your first million-dollar year last year. And when you think about it, the road from 54 subscribers to hitting that $1 million revenue mark in your business— and what people don't understand is there— this panel right here today is full of women. Only 1.6% 1.7% of women make an annual revenue of $1 million in the entire, in the entire world. Only 1.7%. And I got, I got a lot of those 1.7%ers sitting right here with me. So let's go talk to another one. Christie Hawkins, talk to us. When did you get started? What do you do now and what did you do before?

Um, so I had started in 2013. Um, it was, um, actually my oldest daughter Kylie's 10th birthday. And I own The Social Easel, and I teach women how to paint. Um, so at the time, she wanted a paint party for her birthday, and I'm like, sure, I'll throw something together. I thought nothing of it because that was the kind of mom I always did big extravagant birthday parties on the other 7. Um, so I thought nothing of it. And then the moms were like, wait a second, you just taught our kids how to paint in an hour and a half. Like, you need to do this for grown-ups. So that was where the idea came from. Um, prior to that, I was in retail management before becoming a mom. And then after I had my girls, I stayed at home and was high-level management in a multi-level marketing company for 10 years. Um, but I grew up being an artist. I went to college to be an artist. And so during that, like, 15-year span of time, I wasn't doing anything creative, and it just made me sad. I felt like a piece of me was missing. And so after I had Sophie, my youngest, um, I decided to go back to college to finish my art degree because I thought at that point in time, um, that would be the only way I could ever make money with art. I had to be a graphic designer. Like, who was going to pay me to paint? That didn't happen. So I did that. I was in my senior year about to get my college degree, and then that was when Kylie's birthday happened. And so I started this little side gig paint party business, and that quickly turned into local paint parties. I sold out every restaurant, became best girls night in 417 for 3 years in a row, and it became a huge success. But then I was missing all my time with my kids. I didn't want to be gone 3 to 4 nights a week doing paint parties. And so I started looking at the online space, and that is when I met these ladies and moved the Social Easel online. And yeah, here we are 7 years later. I went from teaching 40 to 50 women a night to now teaching over 2,000 women a month through my 2 memberships.

I love that. It's so, it's so fun to hear our backstories. I mean, I've known you ladies so long, I forget sometimes about our backstories. Like, I forget where we all started before we met each other, and it's really cool. Casey, we've been talking about what year we started. We've also talked about what we do now, but what did we do before we started this? So jump in. And Casey's got the biggest accent, I'm just gonna tell y'all that.

I don't know about the biggest. I'm just glad to be on here, and if I get cut off, just know I'll come back somehow. I have so much tech problems. Um, but A school teacher, went to, um, went to college for elementary ed. I love teaching first and second grade. And then in 2007, whenever I was expecting my first baby, decided to business for myself. And so that's when we opened Pizzazz. Um, we started by teaching kids classes, just kids classes. And little did I know, whole Sip and Paint would start like right then, like that year. And so then we started teaching, um, teaching adults, and then it just evolved. So now, um, we still have our brick and mortar where we teach locally, but now because of the online space, we teach women and kids how to, uh, do art and hand letter and peace and play through that art, um, to people all over the world. So we've got over 2,000 members within all of our memberships.

I love that. And I, I, I can, I can just feel what you want to ask me right now, everyone that's listening. Like, all these women are in the art space All of these women have memberships where they're teaching people how to do arts or crafts or whatever their specialty is. Sarah, how do you fit into this? Because I don't get it. And I'm going to tell you, I started my business in 2013 and I was working at an art studio when I started my business and we were painting on these panel canvases. So I was teaching acrylic paint classes. I was working for someone. It was not my business. I was just one of the teachers there and I was running her actual business. These panel Canvas needed to go into frames and I went to go frame some of my artwork and realize how expensive and how ugly these frames were. And I started my side business through that. I started Framed. That is why my retail store is called Framed. I don't make frames anymore, but that's a long story. But I started to build and paint frames to match our artwork and it was just a side hustle. So I would teach 3 or 4 nights a week at the, at the studio and then after class I would sell anywhere from 20 to 30 frames a night. And I was like, oh, this is amazing. This is like extra money on my paycheck. Then I did an art show, um, one Christmas. I sold $5,000 in 2 days, and I was hooked. I was now an official entrepreneur. I left the studio, I started my own gig, and then somewhere along the way, I started monogramming things. And so that's how we got here. That's what drew the 6 of us together was that we all have this background in art, in teaching. You can see a lot of them are teachers. I was never a teacher, but it was something that was natural to me because I was teaching painting classes and I was really good at it. And so we had this commonality when we met each other and it really helped us really form these really great relationships. So let's get into a few, let's get into some fun questions because people really want to know these things. Okay. So Heidi, I'm going to start with you on this one. What is one behind the scenes thing that nobody sees but takes a ton of your time? Heidi, what do you got for me?

Oh my gosh.

Everything.

But one of the ones I wrote down to share during this time was a 30-second reel. Like, you'll look at one of the reels I've done, and to have that 30 seconds took about 4 hours of editing, of filming, of lighting. And so people are like, well, just do that. And I'm just like, you have no idea how much time it takes to make a whole thing. So you make a whole weekend in 30 seconds. So you show flying across the country to go to a podcast interview and, and meeting the people. And you're the whole time, not only are you thinking of like, wait a minute, let me come in and give you a hug, and I'm gonna capture that moment. So it's awkward in person It's awkward when you ask the guy beside you in the plane, can I please hold up a little snowman from Tamara's event so I can show the snowman traveling around the world? Like, all of it's awkward. It's all awkward, but you got to do it. And then you got to sit there for freaking hours, and you got to cut it and edit it. And then you go, oh, this was 2 minutes, and now I got to go, well dang, I got to make it 30 seconds. I got to make it punchier, as Tamara would say. It's got to be punchy. And so now I'm trying to make it punchy.

It's It's, it's a lot. We are all busting out laughing. Like, if you can't see, if you're not watching this on YouTube right now, like, we all— like, I was gonna say the same thing. How many of you were gonna say the same thing? It's the dang videos.

Like, what?

So much work.

And it's not just—

it's like, you got— like, my team will be like, hey, can you just record me a quick minute? Like, we just need a talking head video of you. And I'm like, okay, well, I'm not like all these girls who look pretty. It's like every day they're like camera ready. I usually look homeless most of the time, and they know that. Like, I'm in pajamas with my hair in a bun, and I'm like, well, now I have to go get ready. I have to put a face on. Now I have to get the lighting right. I've got to pick an outfit out. It's a whole process.

It's exhausting. It's exhausting, honestly.

And that—

and that's what I was thinking too. Like, there's— I just need a 30-second video. You don't understand what an interruption a 30-second video is to my workload during the day, because there's— there's the getting ready for it, there's the setup of where you're going to do it, there's the figuring out what you're going to say, then there's actually filming it, and that might take 2 or 3, 4, 5, 6 takes. Then there's the editing of it, and then like there's so much involved in that. Oh my gosh, it's so funny that we all think the same thing. Is there anybody here that has something else they would say about like what one behind— what one thing, um, takes a ton of time that we haven't mentioned?

Tamara, I would say just the planning, content creation, design work. Like not just the forward-facing stuff that everybody sees, I'm talking about our— each of us have memberships. And so I spend a lot of time planning out what we're going to be teaching over the next quarter in that membership. And then on top of that, we sell digital designs of all of our door hangers. And we are— have been for years producing 20 designs a month just for the public. That doesn't even count the 2 or 3 that we create for our own membership. And I do have a design team that now helps me with all of that, but I still have to come up with like the themes and the concepts and then divvy that out to our designers. And then there is the whole part that my team then has to do, which is creating all the file types for each design. And so, uh, we are currently simplifying that in my business a bit by cutting back from doing 20 a month to now 10 a month. And I think that's going to really free us up a lot to create higher quality designs and not just try to just just, you know, be on that hamster wheel every month.

I love that.

That was actually going to be exactly what I said— the planning and the strategy and everything that goes into our business behind the scenes that people don't see. You guys see us like holding up a new project or a painting, like, come and paint this with me, and it looks so fun and simple, like, I just painted that, here, come do it. There's so much that goes into it. And in fact, like, I mean, I'm flying my team out to Arizona on Monday and spending 5 days together to plan out the rest of our year. Like, and you have to be strategic about it. Like, it's— there's so much that is involved in just the planning of our businesses inside our memberships to the public. There's so many, I think, layers for each one of our business. And I, I think almost all of us, if not everyone on here, also sells physical products as well. So we have digital, we have physical, we have a team, we have memberships. Like, it's a lot.

There's a lot of moving parts. And Tamara, did you want to add something to that?

Well, what Christy said sparked something in me that I thought the reason we spend so much time doing all of this is because we're making it easier for our customer. We're taking all the thought work out of it by planning all of it for them, and it provides a convenience.

Yeah, I, I have one that I want to add kind of on the different side, but this is the product curation, and it might be as similar to you guys with the, um, with your designing and painting your projects. But when I design a bag say I'm designing a bag for one of the subscription boxes and I think about that. Sounds really fun, right? Like, ooh, I get to design the bag, right? No, I'm going to tell you that sometimes I'm just like, can you give me a catalog and let me pick something? Because designing something takes so much work. First, I have to figure out what shape I want the bag, how many pockets, where do I want the pockets located? What kind of zippers do I want? What kind of hardware on those zippers do I want? What kind of stitching would I like? Would I like the soft leather, structured leather, what kind of lining would I like with that? Then I've got to pick a pattern for the— and I'm like, it's so much work. Then you have to get samples, and if it's not what you had planned on, then you have to redo the samples. Like, it's so much work for one bag. And you're thinking about, like, I have a subscription box where you get 3 to 5 items every single month. Designing all of that takes so much work. And there are a lot of times I'm just like, tell me what you got. Let me pick something cute. I don't want to have to think about it. I love designing the things, but the amount of time it takes from start to finish to designing one bag or one shirt or one mug or whatever that is, is so tedious. And people don't see that. They just see the cute finished bag and they have no idea the work that has gone into that. Right. Okay, let's do this. Give me what's the best best or worst piece of advice that you've ever gotten when you first started your business? Who wants to go? Heidi's got one. She's like, I'm ready for this one.

Okay, so I, I know you said they don't have to take notes, but I definitely think you should write this down.

Okay.

Okay.

Their understanding is not required for your progress. I remember one time I was teaching a paint party. It was like 117 people. And I was walking around saying hi to everybody. And this old man— it was an old man and his wife— and he was like, this is the stupidest thing I've ever seen. And I was just like, really? He's like, oh my gosh, whoever is running this, this is just a racket. This is so dumb. And I turn around and I look at all these women who are just laughing, having a blast, drinking, you know, margarita, whatever. And it just really hit me, like, we all have different interests in life and we all have different things we want to pursue. He had no idea that I was the one running it until I said, okay, hope you have a great night, and I walked off and went to the microphone. But before then, he didn't know. And it just always reminded me, like, their understanding is not required for our progress. So anytime you're doing your business and your family doesn't understand, your cousin doesn't understand, your, your best friend— I mean, even some of our best— that's why we've connected here is because a lot of our our best friends in, you know, that are doing other jobs don't understand are crazy. You know, we're a little crazy doing this entrepreneur thing. And so I think it's really, really important to remember that you can still run and create a really cool business without anybody understanding what the heck you're doing.

Yeah, 100%. Casey, did you have something you wanted to share here?

Yeah, so I just remember my dad, he was also an entrepreneur, and he say, make sure you make time to think. And I just remember thinking, okay, like, that just seems real basic, but once you get into the thick of running the day-to-day everything, if you don't make time to just stop and think— like, you, for me, on Sunday afternoons, I'll let everybody like have their time.

Hang on, Casey, hang on. Uh, I think— are you guys hearing Casey cut, cut through? Okay, Casey's saying her dad told her you've got to make time to think. Um, Casey, why don't you see— okay, come back on. Let's see if it's— let's see if it's back together here. We'll get you— Casey's having technical difficulties. And here's, here's another little piece of advice here. Um, we're all going to have technical difficulties. It doesn't matter how much money we make or how long we've been in business, but we're going to have technical difficulties. Casey's having some technical— I think she's frozen for me right now. Um, so Casey, if you want to— one of y'all message Casey and tell her to drop out and come back. We'll get her. But take time to think, because sometimes we're just going through the motions all the time that we don't actually take time to think. I love that her dad told her that. Cindy, do you want to add something to this conversation?

I do. And, you know, Heidi was talking about this core friend group that means so much to me. And the reason I say that is when I first started talking about creating a membership for painting, or doing the art and resin and glass. Every person— my husband at the time, my family, my immediate core friend group— told me how dumb it was. Nobody was ever going to pay me for that. Nobody. I actually started like a little Facebook community with some of my artsy friends from the faux finishing world, and there were like 10 of And so I was running ideas by them and they all across the board told me how dumb it was and how I was never going to be able to get people to— I was never going to be able to get people to pay me to teach them how to do art. My husband said the same thing, my family. And now it's like, oh, really? So yeah, yeah, don't listen to negative Nellies. If it's in your heart, Just do it.

Mine kind of goes almost like on top of that. Mine was going to be like, only take advice from people who are where you want to be. Do not take advice from people who haven't succeeded. Do not take advice from people who have never been an entrepreneur, who have never done anything in business. It is— it makes me laugh when people like that want to give me advice and tell me things I need to do, and I'm like, okay, that's like just, you know, and like, you are who you surround yourself with. It's, it's like twofold. Take it, but like, in— so I want to always be the person in the room who's going to learn something from others. I don't want to be the smartest person in the room. So like, surround yourself with people who challenge you and push you and that you learn from. And I think that's what we all do for each other in, in different ways. Like, we've all obviously grown our businesses in these 7 years together but some are more successful in some areas than others, and we learn from everyone. Um, so just be careful who you take advice from. So don't, don't take advice to those people who don't know anything about business.

Yeah.

Um, I've got one of the best pieces of advice that I got in the beginning of building my business, and one of the best pieces of advice that I received was build the business around your schedule and your life. And I think that's really hard for us to figure out when we're first starting. Because like when I first started my business, like I was— whatever anybody wanted me to do, I would make time for it. I would jump through crazy hoops to make something that probably took me 10 hours to make, and I charge them $30 for, right? Um, like we— I think we all kind of did things like that randomly. But one of the best pieces of advice was, no, I'm not going to go live at 8 o'clock at night. I'm tired. I am unwinding. That is not what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go live at 9 o'clock in the morning. And I know that's not an ideal time, but that's what time that I go live still to this day. It works for me. I'm up early I'm ready to go away and then I don't dwell on it all day. I don't have anxiety about it all day that I have to do this later. You've got to work it around on your schedule, not what we think people are going to be there, right? Because most people are going to watch that live on a replay anyway. So how do you work your business around your life and your schedule? And if you start that right away, you don't ever have to undo things. So that was one of the best pieces of advice that I got. Okay. Let's shift over to what's a small win that felt huge for you? I think we should go back to Cindy's small win when she started her business, because I feel the same way. Mine was 44. Yours was 54. You're killing it. You were beating me big time with those 10 people. But let Cindy talk about that feeling in that moment. When you launched and you got 54 people to basically hand you their credit card and say, charge me every month. Cindy Manley, you are on mute again. This is okay.

First of all, I do have my glasses on.

Listen, we have to tell this story because we're being really candid today. We play this game when we're together and it's called Catchphrase. And I don't know if you've ever played this game, but it's super fun, especially if you're competitive. You need to play this game with your friends and family. But you basically have this little thing that's like a little timer bomb in your hand and you have to pass it around the room and you have to get people to say the word you need them to say and then pass it before the timer goes off. It's like a hot potato. And Cindy, every time it gets passed to her, she's got a glass of wine in her hand and her glasses on the top of her head. So when it gets passed to her, like you're thinking hot potato, like you gotta go fast, right? She has to put down her glass of wine very delicately so we don't spill anything, get the glasses from the top of her head, put them on, and then read the word, the buzzer's already gone off. Like, it's lost. Like, it's gone. Cindy, she's on mute again. What are we doing over here? Let's talk about those 54 subscribers, Cindy.

Hey, I'm gonna blame my age. I'm old. Okay, so yeah, those 54 members were like, um, confirmation to me that I could make this work when all my friends were naysaying and my family, everybody was telling me you're not ever going to make this work. And to get 54 people to say yes, I mean, it was everything to me. I knew at that point that I could do it and that, you know, it just meant everything. It was just— it was so rewarding. I don't even know how to explain it.

Yeah.

Tamara, what's a small win that felt huge to you?

Um, the thing that comes to mind is anytime I get to meet my customers in person.

Okay.

When they walk up to me at one of my live events and they tell me what— how what I'm doing matters to them. Because being in the online space, it can be easy to feel disconnected from your customer and you forget like the deeper why behind what you're doing. But hearing the ladies tell me a story about how painting has helped them overcome the grief or loss of a child or a loved one, um, it really just takes this deeper in me as to why what I'm doing really matters.

It—

I'm not doing it just for the money anymore, you know. I'm doing it because it really is making a bigger impact in the world. And so that's not something that's going to make a huge splash in my business hearing that, but it, it does in, in a small like ripple effect sort of way because it makes me continue to not give up on this business and to continue to strive to serve that person in a deeper and better way.

I love that. Heidi, what about you? A small win that felt huge.

Oh my gosh. And I still remember, so I love, love funnels, like love them. And I remember start spending days on this funnel. I was so excited. And I— Bobby came home from work and I was like, okay, you got to go through this. And so it's so funny looking back now because I've learned so much more. But I think— and the reason I wanted to share this story specifically is because, you know, a lot of us feel like we are so tech challenged and that we can't do tech. And it's like, especially like if you're, you know, I'm mid-40s, you know, mid-40s and above, like we We didn't have a cell phone when we were in high school. We didn't grow up with that stuff. So it's like we were learning it later in life. And so we, a lot of times just think, oh, we're not good at tech. And we literally like tell ourselves that. And so I just sat there at the computer and I made this funnel and this funnel had so, it was like a freaking maze. Like you had to click a blog thing to go to an opt-in. I mean, it had all these all these little things. And so Bobby's feeling like he— he's like, are you freaking kidding me? Like, where am I supposed to go? But I was so proud of myself because every single link worked. And so I just want y'all to hear, like, if you feel like you're tech challenged, we can learn things. Like, I think a lot of times we have this block in our brain where we can't get any better, but we can. We can learn things. We can be patient. And especially in this online world, it's, it's not going anywhere. And so why not just dedicate some time and know that you're going to get it?

Yeah.

And I think that every time we learn something that's out of our comfort zone, it gives us this new courage level and it gives us this new confidence as business owners. And so I love that. Christy, let's talk small win that felt huge to you.

I mean, I would say for me it probably has to do with just the time freedom. It's kind of not a small one, it's a big win. But I can still remember when I replaced my income in that first year of the membership to what I was bringing in when I was doing paint nights. And I went from working, you know, like I said, 3 to 4 nights a week hauling all this stuff from my house to the restaurant, back and forth. And oh my gosh, I mean, if you've ever done a paint party, you know all the time and effort that goes into it. To it. And I mean, that was my livelihood. That was all I knew in this business. And then as I started transitioning and like lowering the amount of classes I offered locally until we could finally replace that income, and I was able to take that one— that, that first year, I took all summer off with my girls. I was still working online, but I didn't do any paint nights. I took 3 months off, and that just felt like the most amazing thing in the world to me. And, and now I don't do any paint nights at all. Like, now that's permanent. Like, and just like Sarah said, like, I— we all structure our business around our life. Like, when I plan anything in my calendar, I look at what my family's doing first, where's our vacation, and then I put work around it.

And that is such a blessing. Yeah. And that's, that's kind of the opposite of what we've been taught our whole lives, right? Like, you go work at a job, you get 2 or 3 weeks vacation, so you plan when you can have a vacation around your job, right? And so it's like, okay, I have a holiday weekend off, I have 3-day, 3-day weekend this weekend, let's go do all the fun things that I don't get to do. But like this 3-day weekend, I'm just gonna sit around and enjoy that house because I don't need to go anywhere. I get to go anywhere I want to any day of the week. And I think that that's really a mindset shift for people that have worked a 9 to 5 for a really long time. They work their life around their job, and this is very different than Um, Casey, let me see if we can hear you. Um, we're talking about a small win that felt huge to you. Do you have something you want to add here?

Yeah, I remember when I was first starting— not first starting, I was probably 3 to 4 years in. And no, take that back, 2 years in, because I had a toddler. And I remember a hire of just hiring my cousin to go grocery shopping and running errands for me. and it felt the biggest win. I was like, oh my gosh, time in my day to do things. And I could like just hide— like, I didn't have the mindset of I can get help. I was trying to do everything all on my own and be a mama and be the designer and, you know, everything. Like, design it, promote it, teach it, and be a mama and grocery shop and clean your house. Like, it was so much. And so, um, So just, just having that first hire win, and it was just a small little something, like, to me it felt like a huge win. And then it shifted my mind to, wait a second, I can have help in more areas in life, you know what I mean? I can hire more people.

I love that. It's such a huge win when you realize and, and you're not afraid to do that, because that's something as women that we do. We take on all the things, right? We take on all the things for ourselves, for our household. And so being able to give yourself yourself permission to do that is really powerful. There's, there's one small win that I want to share, and what I think is special about this small win is that all of you are with me when I have this small win. Um, we were in Toronto and, um, I had this thing. I was like, I think I want to start a coaching business. I think I want to teach people how to build a subscription box like the one I had. And I— we were at an event, we were all speaking on stage, and everyone's like, you Do it now. Like, all the 7s in this room were like, let's do it now. You're going to be on stage tomorrow. We got to do this. And I'm like, I don't know what to do. And they're like, make a video. And just like Heidi told us, it is awful. Like, making a video is awful, especially when you've never made a video of yourself before. And y'all already know how I feel about being confident on camera. I didn't like the way I looked. I didn't like the way I sound. I did— I just wasn't comfortable in my own skin. And I couldn't even make a video in front of them. I had to go outside on the front porch where nobody was looking and nobody was watching and make a video. And I did that. And that's what started Launch Your Box. And that was in the fall of 2019. And had these women not been with me in that moment, I don't know how long it would have taken for me to do what I'm doing right now. And I feel so grateful for that moment. It was such such a small thing that created the giant momentum for me in this business. And it's because I had the support of these ladies. I would have never done that on my own. I would have never been sitting around my house thinking, I need to make a video and start a coaching membership today. I would have never done that. And so had I not done that, I wouldn't be on my 200th episode right now. I wouldn't be coaching thousands of people and having so many success stories in this, in this community. And I'm so grateful for that moment. And it was such a small thing. But that just shows you that if you can just take one little step towards what you've been thinking about, it's going to help build momentum and it's going to snowball. And you can see my snowball over the last 6 years has really been great in, in this space. And so I'm just going to give you that to encourage you. And what I'd like to do now, ladies, I want to get a little, get a little touchy-feely. Y'all know how I feel. I'm an Enneagram 4. Like all the feels. Let's talk about two things and we'll wrap it up one by one in this section. I want you to talk about what's one thing that you've learned about yourself since starting the business, and, um, what would you go back and tell your day one self, um, if you could go back in time? So who wants to start this conversation? Nobody. Nobody's ready. Okay, Heidi's always up for it. This is what I love about her. She's always up. I'll go. Okay, Heidi.

And so the thing I've learned about myself is I hate confrontation, like physically hate it. I hate like having arguments with people. I want everybody to be happy. I want everybody to be friendly. Like I just, I've learned that, but I've also learned that the reason I went into entrepreneurship is to work alone. However, when you grow a business, you realize is, yeah, if you want to grow it, you can't work alone. You have to work with the team. So it's so— it's kind of an oxymoron because you go into this wanting to just be your own boss, whatever. Now I'm like, okay, I have 3,000 bosses and I also have to run a team. And so that's been a little bit of something that I've learned about myself that I'm trying to grow. For the past 2 years now, I've really been working on growing my leadership skills, and it has hurt. It's been hurting. And then the one thing I would tell myself is it's going to be way, way harder than you think, and it's going to take way longer than you think. However, the sacrifice of showing my daughter what she can build and that she can build anything she wants, I would do it 1,000 times over if it's just for showing my daughter the possibilities of what she can do in life. And so I think from her seeing all of it from bankruptcy to losing everything to moving homes, all of this to now, you know, getting to go on trips and us paying for her college and just all of that. Like, I would do it 1,000 times over even though it's, it's, it's hard. But yeah, that's what I've learned.

I love that. That's so special. Tamara, talk to me.

I would say that, and this has kind of been a recent development that I've discovered about myself, is that my superpower, be underneath everything, is encouraging others and bringing people together. Like, that is at the core of what I'm doing. Yes, I'm teaching them to paint, but bringing people together in community and encouraging them and making them feel empowered is my true superpower. And what the cool thing about that is, is that I can take that into anything I want to do in life. It doesn't have to be teaching people to paint. So, okay, what was the second part of the question?

Second one is, if you could go back in time and tell your day one self something, what would it be?

That you're more capable and, uh, more capable of anything than, than that you've ever imagined. Because back then I never would have imagined that I could have a 7-figure business. I was such a small thinker back then, and I— back then I considered myself a big thinker and a dreamer, but it even had limits back then to what I thought was possible. I remember thinking, I can probably not grow this page, this Facebook page, past 50,000. There's probably not more than 50,000 people in the world that want to learn how to paint door hangers. Isn't that silly now? I grew that page to like 300,000 followers, and it's because now I look at it like I'm almost like a door hanger painting evangelist. I I'm creating the audience as I go.

That is the best thing I've ever heard you say.

I don't have to go out and find people who want to learn to paint door hangers. I am literally creating them as I create content.

You are the best. This is why— this is why we're friends. Do you see all the personalities that are just in this room alone? Like This is the best. Oh, okay, Casey, talk to me. Um, what is one thing you learned about yourself since starting your business, and what would you tell your day one self?

So I think that— I think I've always known this, but I have seen it come more full, and I've understood more about myself through having a business, is that I'm very driven by, um, wanting to impact, make an impact with what I do. And I think we all are, um, but sometimes the decisions that we make don't always, you know, reflect that. I feel like as a business owner, I have very much, um, learned about myself that my best decisions, my best routes, my best, um, business plans are when I can make a positive impact for somebody else. Um, I'm gonna keep talking as if you can hear me, but I don't actually— you can't Okay, okay, it just went black, black on my screen. Um, so yeah, so that is, uh, kind of what I knew about myself, but I have seen it more so, um, through being in business and the decisions making there. And then as far as my day one self, I think I would tell myself, like, there's the, uh, the verse that, you know, how God can do more than you ask or imagine. I would just whisper that into my day one self and say, look, girl, God can do more than you can ask or imagine, so just hold on and get ready because you're not going to believe what's about happen. I would not have believed this. I would not have believed that I can be an art teacher and teach thousands of people around the world, you know, like, and, and all the other things that we've said before— make impact in people's lives, go on vacation whenever we want to, you know, all the things. Like, I wouldn't have even believed it was possible.

Yeah, I love that. Love that. All right, Cindy Manley, I'm gonna remind you to unmute yourself.

I was already— I already had my finger on the button. I, I kind of ditto, uh, what Casey said. You know, when I first started, um, this business and I was first thinking about how I was going to work through it all and structure it, it was literally about making money. That was like forefront. I would— I knew I was about to go through a divorce. I knew I did not want to go get a job. I knew I didn't want to work in corporate anymore. And so for me, it was about bringing in an income. And then it turned in, just like Casey and Tamara were saying, it turned into serving people. It turned into changing people's lives and the encouragement that comes from teaching somebody who also has no confidence that they can create this masterpiece, and then seeing how happy and fulfilled they are by the end result. That, I think, it surprises me. Oh, you know, because in the beginning it was just like, I gotta make some money, and then it turned into something so much more special, and that I'm so grateful Yeah.

What would you tell day one Cindy now?

Trust yourself.

I think that's a great one. Trust yourself. Trust yourself. Okay, Christy.

Okay, well, you know, I'm getting all emotional.

I noticed that already. I noticed you pulling tears away from your eyes already, so hit me with it because you know I'm gonna cry with you. Like, that's what I do. I just feel all the feels, so hit me.

Um, I've got to squeeze my butt cheeks like Heidi would say.

Okay, Heidi would always say when you get scared or emotional, squeeze your butt cheeks because that's all you can think about then.

You can't squeeze your butt cheeks and cry at the same time. Um, so I think, um, I'm trying to like go back to the question. One thing I've learned about myself since starting this business is, um, I think, um, that I could— that, that I can do these hard things, that I can, I can create this business that I had no idea what I was stepping into, that, um, that I'm capable of learning and I'm capable of failing and picking myself back up. I think prior to coming into this, um, you have a lot of self-doubt and you don't think your art is good enough, um, or there's, you know, better teachers out there, or they know how to do it, my business will never be like theirs. And I just dealt with so much, um, you know, I've struggled my whole life with depression and anxiety, and I've always been super hard on myself, um, But I think this business has taught me, um, and it's the same thing I tell my students when it comes to painting, like, it's okay to fail. And we have to change the way that we think about that. And I call it failing forward. Like, you have to fail forward. We have to make mistakes to grow. And I think I've learned that making— every time I make a mistake now, I'm no longer mad at myself. I'm no longer beating myself up over it. I'm like, what am I going learned from this, and how much better is it going to be next time? And I didn't have those thoughts when I started. I started in fear and a lot of doubt, and I've proven to myself over this last 7 years that I can do it and we can grow and we can do the hard things. Um, but yeah, so that's my— I think that's like what I've learned. What I would tell my day one self kind of is in line with this, but to really just trust your journey and not compare it to everyone else around you, because it's easy, especially in an online space, to— and even now, even 7 years in, you know, there's— when, when we all started this in 2018, we were like it. Like, there was not a lot of competition out there. In our fields, and it felt much easier back then than it does now. But then, like, as new people started kind of, you know, coming into the space, you start thinking that same thing. You start comparing, you start like kind of picking yourself apart. And I would just tell myself to trust my journey and that I'm exactly where God wants me to be, and I don't need to focus on what everyone else is doing. Their job is their job, and, and mine is mine. And there is enough people in this whole world, which is why we're all here supporting each other. We're not competing with each other. Each person that just chooses to follow us or paint with us and do something with us, they connect with us or connect with our art or connect with what we do. We don't need to be— I don't need to be the same as Tamara or Cindy or Heidi, right? Like, what is unique about each one of us and our personalities and how we are with our members that's part of what draws them to us. And to just stay in your lane, don't get, don't get focused on all this craziness on all the sides of you.

It's that, it's that racehorse analogy. They stay in their lane, they have those intentional blinders on, they're only looking forward. And if we can adapt to that mentality, it's going to cause so much less heartache for us. Um, I'd love to share I'd love to share my— with the biggest thing that I've learned about myself. You know, I think the biggest thing is that I didn't realize how much your own self-confidence can really hold you back. And it's something that held me back for so long in my business. And I felt, I felt like I was light years behind most of you because that wasn't something that held you back. Y'all were showing up on camera, y'all were going live every time I turned around. One of y'all was live and I was so afraid of it. I was so scared to show up and it really held me back. And if you're someone that battles with self-confidence, just know that I see you. And because I am that person too, and you may see me now and you're like, how do you have self-confidence issues? You're live every time we flip on the camera. I am now. And it took a lot of struggle and a lot of this community right here that we're talking to to help me through my own self-confidence issues. And if I were to go back back to day one Sarah that started her business, I would just look her in the eye and I would tell her that you don't need to be anybody else but who you are. And I think I struggled with that for many years when I started my business, is feeling like I wasn't good enough, feeling like I was overweight, I was too old, I didn't have good hair, um, didn't know that money could buy good hair. I learned that later. Um, but there were so of those things that I told myself I wasn't worthy because of the way I looked. And, um, I can tell you that that's so wrong. That's so far from being true because every one of us here look different. We attract different people. We attract people like us that are different from us, that are different ages. And it— you just have to be authentic to yourself. And if you can you could start day one being authentic to you and not going through this hurdle of feeling really insecure about you, you're going to be so much further. And if you're feeling that way and there's a lot of self-confidence issues, I'm going to tell you to go get a Dr. Phil because he changed my whole life. Shout out to Dr. Phil if you're listening. Dr. Phil is not the real Dr. Phil, um, it was— I got a life coach when I was struggling a a lot, and it helped me work through those issues. Everybody needs a little good therapy in their life, and I think if you're struggling with that, it's going to hold you back in your business. And so the best way that you can grow in your business is to work through that particular issue so that you can move forward faster, not hold yourself back, not play small, not dim your own light, because when you do that, you're dimming, you're dimming all your possibilities of who you can be. We're living proof. Like, I brought these women here to tell you we didn't start out millionaires. We didn't start out with these big fancy businesses that we just walked right in, flipped on the light with our fancy pantsuit, put our briefcase down, and boom, we're making money. That's not the reality. We started scrappy. We started from our kitchen tables. We started from our garages. We started schlepping paint supplies around to every barn and church and restaurant that would take us. And we made money and we made money, $40 at a time, $100 at a time, and that started to multiply. And we learned as we went and we started new things and we put ourselves out there and we really grew an incredible business. And you need two things to do that. You need a passion for what you want to do. You need a community to help you move through that because none of us would be where we were if we didn't have each other. And it's so important to find your people that get you, that understand you, and feel that community. Because every day we talk, every day. Some days we're more chatty than others. Every day we talk. We meet in person multiple times a year. We help each other through life events. We support each other. You know, like Christy's got a daughter that just graduated from high school. I went through a divorce. Through a divorce. Like, we've got kids growing up, we got kids moving out, we're moving to different states, we're getting new chickens. Like, there's all kinds of things that are happening in our lives. And so having business friends is not always about business. It's about doing life together and building each other up from the inside out. And I think that's what we do for each other. And I wouldn't want to spend my 200th episode with any other people in the entire world. You could have given me like I don't know, Dave Ramsey, or— and I said, nope, bring the girls. I want to interview the girls. I love them dearly. They are all very, very special to me. And I am just going to encourage you to find your own group of people. And all it takes is putting yourself out there and connecting. And then it takes work because friendships don't just happen by accident. We have to actively engage with each other on a daily basis. We have to actively jump on a plane, fly to Colorado Springs and go look at wedding dresses with each other sometimes. That has to happen. But we are actively involved in each other's life and our businesses. And that's what makes this group special. And I'm just going to encourage you that no matter what stage you're at, if you're in the I need to get started, but I haven't figured out how to do that stage, this is your push. We all just had to get started. If you're in that I've started, but I've kind of gotten stuck, here's your push to try something new, try something different, get out of your comfort zone, and find some people to do it with. All right? Thank you for listening to the Launch Your Box podcast. Thank you for joining me for the 200th episode. I can't wait for another 100 episodes coming up. We've got lots to talk about. I'll see you soon.