Commit to Showing Up in Your Subscription Box Business

Happy Monday. I hope everybody is doing great on this Monday morning. Today I want to start off with a quote, and this is a quote from my book, but it said, the fear was big, but the desire to see my subscription box business grow was bigger. I want to talk about it today. I have made several notes in chapter 1 of my book today, and I want to talk about it with you. Because I'm going to give you a little bit of a push to commit to show up today and to show up this week and to show up next week and to show up the rest of the month. But I'm also giving you a little bit of insight of what you can find in this book that literally comes out tomorrow. And so I dissected Chapter 1. I was getting my hair done this morning. And I'm, I'm struggling with this committing to show up myself. And I've talked about it a couple of weeks ago. This book launch is a really emotional thing for me, a lot like when we launch our subscription boxes, whether that's our first launch or our relaunch. But we can really get in our head about it. We can really let that self-doubt creep into what we're doing. We can do that when we're you know, putting our new— a new box out there. Like, how many times, um, have your boxes shipped out the door and you're like, I hope they like this box, I'm so nervous about this? Like, how many times have you felt this way? Or how many times have you been getting ready to launch a new product or something new in your business and you're like, I just don't know how this is gonna go? And that's the feeling that I'm having. And I went through I went through the book this morning and I really settled on chapter 1, and there was some things that I want to talk about today that I really made some notes on. And I want you to do this when you get this book. If you, if you've ordered your book, let me know in the chat. Just say book ordered. Some of you are going to have the book tomorrow on the release day. Some of you are going to have the book on Wednesday depending on where you've ordered it from. But you're going to have the book this week. And so I want you to dig into it with me as we talk about it. So I want to talk about Chapter 1 today. If you have not ordered the book yet, it is One Box at a Time. We have the link here. And today's the last day that you can preorder the book, which also means it's the last day that you can get my free masterclass. So if you've ordered the book, please, please, please make sure you've gone back to my website that's in the chat here and put your receipt in. Giving me your receipt is the only way you're going to get the masterclass. I don't know if you've ordered the book unless you tell me, okay? So I need your receipt. Um, but today's the last day, so if you've been thinking about ordering the book, you've been putting it off, do it today because tomorrow the masterclass is gone and you'll have to purchase it for $97 from my shop if you want Okay, so let's just spread the word. Okay. But I want to talk to you a little bit about this chapter this morning because I've been having a little bit of that self-doubt creeping back in as we— as I'm getting closer to my launch date, which is tomorrow. And so as I was kind of sitting with my thoughts this morning, I was just sitting with my thoughts, thinking about this live. I was thinking about how I'm feeling in this moment. And I am betting, I'm betting that a lot of you feel the exact same way that I'm feeling in this moment right now. And I want to talk about it. So this is how Chapter 1 starts. Okay. Chapter 1 is called Commit to Show Up. My phone beeped and the message flashed on my screen. Where are you? My virtual assistant texted me from several states away. She was waiting for me to go live. In that moment, I had the hardest time just hitting the damn button to go live. I was sitting there overthinking everything. I was sitting there doubting my abilities. I was sitting there wondering if I even had to do this, if I even had to show up in this way. I didn't want to show up in this way. I didn't want to go live. I didn't want to put myself out there. Because that came with a lot of fear and it came with a lot of risk. And that fear was big. 10 minutes passed. I was scheduled to be on. I couldn't push the button to go live. My legs shook. My breath came into shallow gasps. My armpits and palms started sweating. I felt my face getting hot. My phone beeped again. Sarah, where are you? In that moment, I was panicking. I was panicking because I had all these things going through my head that I wasn't worthy, that I wasn't good enough, that I couldn't do this. Why did I even need to, to show up? I had built this business organically without ever going live. I had built my business to 300 subscribers without ever having to do this. Why did I feel like I needed to do this? Why did I feel like I needed to show up? When I launched that first month with 44 subscribers, and then I hit 100 subscribers in 3 months and 300 in 9 months, I felt invincible. It was one of the most exciting times in my business until it wasn't. Until it wasn't, because you know what happened at this point? I hit a plateau. I hit this plateau. Here is a little graphic from the book. I started with 44 and then I got to 100 within the first 3 months, and then within the first 9 months, I had hit 300, and then a year went by and I was still at 300, and then another 4 months went by and I was at 300, and now I was dropping. It started to decline after this. That's what I want to talk to you about. When something isn't working anymore, we have to make a shift, okay? We have to make a shift. And I write in Chapter 1, I needed a bigger pool. I knew out-of-town subscribers would be the key to my continued growth. I had hit that plateau with my local audience. I'd hit the plateau with my already built audience. 300 was as good as it was going to get for me. That's what I thought. This is it. 300 is all I'm going to hit. And I had to settle with that and I had to be comfortable with that. And I thought about that. 300 is great. 300 subscribers was great. But was that really it for me? And I questioned myself a lot on that. Was that really it for me? I needed a bigger pool. I knew that. I knew that being in business, I needed more traffic in my funnel. I need more leads in my funnel. I need more traffic. And that meant what I had known— all local traffic needed to shift, and I needed to commit to showing up. But I needed to step into who I was, and I need you to step into who you are. Because when you get to a certain level— and a lot of you have gotten to that level, you've gotten to 100 subscribers, you've gotten to 300 subscribers, What got you there won't get you to the next step. Okay, so I need you to remember that what gets you to one point won't always get you to the next step. And that's where we have to commit to showing up. That's where we have to flip our thinking and think, what can I do differently? And this quote in this book, the fear was big, but the desire to see my subscription box business grow was bigger. I want you to write that down or take a screenshot of this quote right here. The fear was big, but the desire to see my subscription box business grow was bigger. I had the fear of showing up. I had the fear of having to do this, but the desire for my box and my business to grow was bigger than that fear that was trying to hold me back. And I said trying to hold me back. Because I wouldn't let it hold me back. I had to remind myself that I wasn't for everyone. You're not for everyone. And when you try to be for everyone, you're going to be for no one. And when you worry about what every single person watching me live right now is thinking about what I'm talking about, It's gonna get in my head. It's gonna get in your head. This chapter isn't actually about going live on social media, but it's about showing up. You don't have to go live to show up. You just have to show up in whatever way that you can. You'll be scared, embarrassed, hesitant, anxious, even panicked. But starting a business isn't just about knowing your customers. It's about showing up and letting them know you. There's 3 things that I wrote in this chapter that I want to share with you this morning to help you show up, and I want you to commit to showing up. Okay. Number 1, if you're taking notes, I want you to write these down. This might even be like sticky note-worthy material to write down and to put somewhere bulletin board, office desk, computer, wherever. Okay, remind yourself of these 3 things. I had to remind myself of these things as I started to break through this fear. Okay, number 1, you can trust yourself. You can trust yourself. Number 1, you can trust yourself. There's going to be times where you're not going to know what to do. Trust that you will figure it out. Trust yourself that it will keep— you'll keep taking the next step. The road will reveal itself. Trust that when you make a mistake, you can fix it. Trust yourself. That's the most important thing. You've gotten yourself to this point. You You've gotten yourself to this point. Trust yourself to get to the next place. Okay, trust yourself. Trust that you'll figure it out. Trust that you will keep moving to the next step. Trust that when you make a mistake, you'll fix it. Trust yourself. Number 2. You have to show up. Show up completely as you are, even when you don't want to. Who doesn't want to show up right now? Put, that's me, in the chat. There are so many days that I didn't want to show up, and I still have days where I don't want to show up. But you have to commit to that, and you have to do it anyway, even when you don't want to do it. This is what makes us great entrepreneurs. We have to push ourselves. We have to motivate ourselves. We have to get through the hard days. Because here's the reality: if you don't make yourself go to work today, you don't have to. You're an entrepreneur. No one's telling you you have to go to work today. So if you don't have the self-motivation, the self-drive, the commitment to yourself to keep showing up, you're not going to make it. You got to show up even when you don't want to, even when you're not feeling well, even when something personal has happened and you're just bummed out, even when things aren't going your way. There's a problem at the warehouse and there's chaos, and I just— I need to fix that. I don't need to show up right now. Stop it. You need to show up. If it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you. So showing up is challenging you, challenging you right now. I need you to lean into that. All right. Number 3. You are enough. You are enough. I write a little, I write a little paragraph here about my mastermind. I've since started my own mastermind group and regularly see my talented creative students serving and connecting with their customers, making a difference in their lives. They're taking a chance on themselves, bringing an idea into the world, and yet they still doubt themselves. These are some 7-figure business owners that I work with every— on a regular basis in my mastermind that still feel like they're not enough. They struggle with the feeling that I do, that I feel like I'm not enough sometimes. The important thing is that you feel those emotions and feelings and you still push the damn button anyway. You can have self-doubt, nothing's wrong with you. You can feel like you're not good enough, nothing's wrong with you. You can feel all those feelings, all those fears, all those things, but I need you to push the damn button anyway. I need you to commit to showing up anyway. Because that's the only way that we get past those feelings. You can trust yourself. You've, you've made it this far. You have to commit to showing up, and you are enough, every one of you, no matter what season you are in your business. If you're in the beginning stages and you're just getting started, You got here. You're here. Let's keep taking the next step. I need you to commit to me, and I need you to commit to yourself, to showing up. This is a crucial pivot moment in our year. It's December 13th, not December, it's November 13th. We have a lot of sales to go get over the next month. And I need you to— I need you to show up. I need you to make that commitment to yourself right now that whatever fear, whatever self-doubt, whatever you're telling yourself in your head, you're not too busy to show up. It's okay if you don't know everything. It's okay if you've never done it before. It's okay if this is your first time to show up. What are you waiting for? Borrow some of my self-confidence and take it with you. It was a struggle back then. And even in this moment with my book launch tomorrow, I'm struggling. With feeling worthy enough, with feeling good enough. But I'm going to show up, and I've made that commitment to myself. Okay, I've scheduled lives every day this week. I'm going to be live with one of the students that I feature in this book, and we're going to talk about their stories, and we're going to inspire the heck out of people this week. And I know that's what I bring to the table, and that helps me show up Melissa says, I'd love to learn how. Melissa, I got action steps for you. One of the best things about my book, every chapter has action steps. So let's go through those for Chapter 1. Identify what's holding you back from showing up. For me, I'm introverted and I thought talking in front of people was just really, really hard. It was enough to make me shut down. I thought I was going to puke and cry every time I did it. I didn't like the way I looked. That was a big barrier for me. So I had to identify what was holding me back. And that was I needed to feel good about myself. So I got up at that morning, got my hair done. And I asked for support, because I didn't want to be an island out there alone going live. So I asked for support from my friends. Hey, can you, um, ask me about my t-shirt that I'm wearing while I'm live and then ask me how you can be a subscriber? Can you ask me about my earrings? Can you ask me when the boxes are going to ship? I would feed them things so that they could help me. Help them help you, okay? Identify what it is that's holding you back and then do something to overcome that. Challenge yourself. If you're struggling with showing up, I want you to set a date and a time. I want you to do something and I want you to hold yourself accountable. Okay. That's all we have to do. We just have to push past it. It can be a baby step. It could be, I'm going to create a short video with my face today. I'm not live. I can create a short video. With my voice, with my face, or maybe it's my voice with my hands doing something. Let's take action to get us there. If we can't just jump all the way in, how can we get there slowly? Show up on socials, show up in the comments, show up on email, show up in your business and for your audience. And I want you to make the commitment today because we're selling stuff, y'all. We're selling stuff right now. And it's a direct reflection of people knowing, liking, and trusting you in this moment. And if you don't show up, they can't know, like, and trust you. All right, challenge yourself this week. Do something different. Make a commitment to yourself. Pop it in the chat. I'm committed to doing what? I'm committed to going live every day this week and talking about my book. As uncomfortable as that is, I'm going to find a way to talk about my book. I don't like to be salesy, Sarah, but you know what I did today? I thought about a way that I could talk about my book with you guys without feeling salesy. I'm teaching. I love to teach. I love to serve. I love to help. And so I just took a chapter of my book and I served it up to you today. That's how I talked about my book today, and I'm going to find a way to talk about my book every single day this week because I'm going to commit to showing up to myself. That's the first barrier. Okay, tell me what you're committed to. Jessica says, I'm committed to reaching out more. It's a great commitment. Lexi says, I'm committed to going live and sell some sweatshirts. There is no reason why you can't be selling hundreds of sweatshirts right now, girl. Show up. Sherry says, I'm committed to making 2 videos this week and to start reading your book when it gets here tomorrow. That's a great commitment, Sherry, because you're going to get— you're going to get the mindset shift. You're going to see where my mindset is. And I want you to highlight and I want you to make notes and I want you to grab your favorite pen and, and just go through this. And I really want you to think about what is calling to you, what is, what is coming to you when you're reading this. Okay. Because it's a lot of mindset and a lot of tactical, practical information for you. And I want you to absorb both of it. As you're going through this. Highlight, make notes, write in this book. Don't— it doesn't have to be perfect. Make it messy. Get your thoughts on here. All right. Tabitha says, I'm committed to the sale smell-good boxes. I'm committed to selling smell-good boxes. Cynthia, I'm committed to showing up by doing at least 2 times lives weekly and social media. Yes, Cynthia. Sarah says, I'm committed to put focus on email marketing and social media posting every day. Sarah, you can do this. I'm committed to, to test a live environment to become familiar with how it works and then go live once a week. That's the barrier, right? You're so unfamiliar with it, you don't know how it works, and that makes you feel very uncomfortable. So that's what's holding you back. I love that you have identified this and we can push forward. I'm committed to talking about my December art box on video. Yes, yes, let's make a commitment. Make one to yourself, make one to me. I'll help you hold— I'll hold you accountable. I'm committed to walking in my purpose. That's a great commitment. Commit to showing up. Chapter 1, One Box at a Time. Today's the last day that you can pre-order the book. It comes out tomorrow. Many of you will have it in your hands tomorrow. And make sure that you, if you pre-order, that you go submit your receipt so that you can get my free Subscription Box Marketing Masterclass, because you definitely don't want to miss that. All right, I'm committed to helping all of you get through the next 45 days in our business. It's the most crucial. All right, let's go have a great Monday. My book's coming out tomorrow. I can't wait for you to get it. And also, here's a little thing. My book's coming out tomorrow. I'm going to need pictures with you guys holding my book. I'm going to need you to go out into bookstores and look for it and send me video and pictures. If you bought it on Amazon or Barnes Noble or wherever you purchase it, if you'll go give me a review when you get it, it's going to help me so much. Y'all, it's here. Thank you. Now I want you to go show up. Commit to showing up. We got this. All right. Okay. I'll see you guys soon. Have a great Monday.