Craft Kit Side Hustle to 1,800 Subscribers & a Full-Time Family Business

Hey everybody, sorry I'm a few minutes late. I'm waiting for Christy. Um, we got our wires crossed a little bit about the time. I had her scheduled at 1 o'clock, um, and then we moved her to 11, and you know, things happen. So while we're waiting for, um, Christy to join us, I can see, um, there's there's— she's trying to get connected right now. There's an issue. Let me send her a message really quickly. Um, hang on. Hey Krista, can you message Christy and tell her that it says her camera and her mic is not connected to my stream, please? Thank you. See, this is what you do. You just— there's a Voxer app. Um, you just start messaging people to make it happen. Let's, um, while we're waiting for Christy to join us, Uh, let me know that you're here. Christy's worth the wait, by the way. Christy's worth the wait, so we'll just wait for her to jump on. Um, let me know, uh, let me— let's answer some questions while we're waiting for Christy to pop on with us. Let me pull it up on my laptop here, and we'll just— we'll make the most of our time, and then we'll get Christy going here in just a second. Um, hey Missy, good to see you! Hi Michelle! Hey Caitlin! Nicole's here, thank you Nicole! Um, I recently had my colors done. I see Christy now. Christy, I see you. Can you see me? I recently had my colors done. Um, this is not my color, by the way. This, this color is like telling me that it's going to be washed, that I'm going to be washed out, but it's one of my favorite colors. I like a soft pink. And so, um, you know, I'm a cool winter. If you've ever had your colors done, I'm a cool winter. Christy's here. She looks like she's sweating because she is like probably ran across the house.

I'm like, panic, panic, Tim, help! I can't— there's no camera, there's no sound, there's no nothing.

There's nothing. 911, Tim to the rescue.

I had to click allow. So complicated.

Even the best of us— they have seen me be a hot mess this week. I've been sick all week. I, you know, I— last night, I was coughing and then ripped my earring out of my ear. Like, it's a whole thing. So we're fine. And I told them, This is a great way to see that you can be a hot mess and still be an amazing business owner, right?

Oh, absolutely. You can be as real as real can be and struggle, and you can still figure it out.

You figure it out. Okay, Christy, now that you're here, I want, I want to introduce you. Now, I was talking last night on the Zoom call, um, so we have these after-hours Zoom calls for anyone that joins from Subscription Box Week into Launch Your Box, right? And so we had about 80 people on last night, and I was telling them about you last night, and they're like, we know Christy. So many people knew Christy. So let's— I want to go all the way back. Like, let's go back. I was telling them last night how I used to do like, um, holiday craft shows, and I used to schlep my stuff, and that's how I got started. So, um, they loved that. They loved hearing like I'm a real person and a regular person. So I thought, let's start your journey all the way back before you were selling anything, and let's just— let's dig into it.

Yes. So I— you guys, I did all the things. I tried all the things. Like, I did the craft shows every year or two. I would change up. I sometimes I would do things where I was sewing things. Sometimes I did things where I was, um, hand stamping custom jewelry. I've done— I used to sell shotgun shell wreaths and light strings and fun stuff like that. Was probably the best product I had at the craft shows. The ladies loved it. They made great gifts for their husbands, all the things. Um, but it was a lot of work. I mean, it was hours and hours of making, making, making, and then packing it all up safely to get it there, going to the show, spending the entire, you know, day sitting at the show selling, packing it all up, taking the extras home, and it was so, so much work. It was fun, and I got to meet a lot of amazing people. But, um, you know, you would find a product, it would do good for a couple years, and then, you know, it kind of cycles out, and then you got to find something else, it seems like, with the craft shows. And, um, I did that for a lot of years. I did photography, which I loved. I still enjoy having fun with it a little bit, um, but the hours— it was nights, it was weekends, it's when families were available. And I was missing all my family's big milestones and activities because I was stuck to everybody else's schedule. So I knew I wanted something different. I knew I wanted to change it up a little bit. I didn't know what that looked like, um, and then I started a craft page and was doing live crafting tutorials.

Okay, let's, let's Let's slow down right here. Okay, because this, to me, this is where I— this is like your start to me.

So you started—

so you were schlepping all your stuff to these shows and you're like, let me start a Facebook page, um, and I'm just going to start crafting with people, right? Were you selling anything off of this page or just— you just started crafting, right?

I wasn't selling anything. The re— the way it started was I used to host little craft nights at my house for my family, for my friends, and And it started growing and my friends would invite their friends. So like people I didn't know were starting to come and I only had so much space in my house and I'd have friends who would come each month or each time we did it and then they couldn't come and a couple of them were like, well, you should just do like a tutorial online and then we can just get the kit. And I'm like, I don't even know what that means. Like I didn't even know that existed. And then I have a niece who had a page, and she came to visit. She's like, wow, you're, you're, you know, you've got a craft room. You're perfectly set up. And that's kind of where it just— I couldn't think of a name. I'm not good at naming things. So I'm like, well, I have a craft room. My name is Christy. Christy's Craft Room sounds good. So I say Christy's Craft Room. And, um, so I just started doing little online tutorials, just showing people how to do different things with things they had around their craft room, using up supplies we had at home, stuff you could get locally at the store. And And I wasn't selling a thing. I was just thinking, well, I don't know, it'll just— I'll just teach people some things. Maybe it'll turn into something. I don't really know what that looks like, but maybe it'll be something. There was just this pull at me, you know, of multiple people saying you should do this. And then some other personal things happened where I just felt like the Lord was directing me that, yes, this is what you need to do. Some, some, some signs, if you will. And I started doing it. And then people followed, and then they kept coming back, and they kept sharing, and more people started following. And so I really worked hard to build that audience initially. And then they started asking me, can I get a kit? Will you make a kit and send it to me? I really don't want to go shopping for all the things. If you just send a kit, then we can craft the same thing as you. And same thing, I didn't know this was a thing at the time. Like, I didn't even know that this world existed out there. And, um, so I started making kits, and first kit I sold 12. 12 people wanted to buy my kit, and I was—

listen, everybody write this down because what— when Chrissy finishes her story here, you're gonna be blown away. She sold 12 one-time kits, not 12 subscriptions, 12 one-time kits. Yeah. How many people in the comments right now feel like they could sell 12 boxes of something right now? Not a subscription, just 12 one-time things. That's where Christy started. Okay, Christy, now what happens next?

So I was over the moon at 12 people wanted something I had, and I was like, remember telling my husband, like, 12 people bought my kits, I'm so excited! I'm making these little kits and I'm sending them and I'm so excited. And then the next kit I did, it was like I was like, well, I'll make a few more available. So I sold like 20-some kits. And then the next time I, I bumped it up. I just kept like adding 10 each time. So I sold 30-some, then I sold 40-some, and then I told 50-some, and then 60-some. And it was right around that time where it was— I noticed something. It was the same people kept coming back and buying the kit each time. And there were also people who bought the kit in the past that were like, well, I missed the kit, you sold out, I was at work, I had my kid's baseball game and I missed it, do you have any more kits? They were so bummed. And I remembered seeing Sarah being interviewed in a group that she was in, and a coaching group that I was in, and she was talking about this subscription thing. And I was like, okay, so I went back to the group and I'm like digging, you know how hard it is to search things on Facebook groups, right? I'm just looking, I remember her name Sarah, and that's all I really remembered. And I found it and I watched it, and she was talking about the subscription membership, um, and recurring revenue. And I was like, okay, I can do this. All right, so I kind of started setting it up really simply on the back end, and I think I offered like 75 subscriptions and we sold out right away. And then I just kept doing that. The next month we added 10 more, the next month we added 10 more, and we would sell out each time. And the people who had missed out on kits in the past, they loved it because they were— they didn't have to worry about being there in that moment when we released it for them to be able to get a kit. They were guaranteed a kit. They joined the subscription, they were guaranteed they were going to get that box no matter what. That spot was saved for them. Um, and it just continued to grow, and I think we got up to right around 300 over time. And then I saw Sarah. I actually got to meet Sarah in person. I was at a business retreat and Sarah was a speaker, and I was super excited that Sarah, the one who I was watching her videos— and I found her on Facebook and was kind of stalking, you know, all her, her, her, her videos, tutorials, and things like that, the little bits that she gave away for free all the time. And so I walked up to her at the end, and I'm like, hey, I introduced myself, I have a group, I want to scale it, I wanted to grow, I'm kind of magnet at this like $300. We had been kind of stuck there for a while, and I think, you know, I just need a little bit more. So that's when I joined Launch Your Box and dove headfirst in and started watching all the tutorials and got a little overwhelmed. I, I will admit, like, I was like watching video after video after video. I should have taken a little bit slower and just did one thing—

video, implement, video, implement, right? We're not Netflix and chill, we're not Love Is Blind. 'cause it dropped last night. Like, don't binge watch me. Watch and implement, right?

Yeah, it's not going anywhere. Those trainings are going to be there. Watch, implement, and then watch the next. Yes, baby steps, because otherwise you're going to overwhelm yourself. But, um, but yeah, I grew. I want to say it was like June, July-ish when I joined, and I want to say it was by like December, January when we hit 1,000 members implementing Sarah's launch plan. And I wasn't doing it perfectly, guys. Like, there were things I was missing. I was just adding tidbits of the things she was teaching of her launch plan, and each time trying to add a little bit more. And, um, it just worked, and it got us up over 1,000.

Um, okay, wait, before we go further, she sold 12 one-time things. And she just kept doing the things. She kept being consistent. She kept adding more, adding more. Then she switched it to a subscription so she didn't have to sell one time, one time, one time every time. Automatic. And then she's like, oh, let me add 10 more people. Oh, let me add 50 more people. Oh, let me add 30 more people. And she got to over 1,000 people within a very short period of time. What did that do for you at that point?

Oh my goodness, that just— like, Tim and I would look at each other and Tim would be like, what, what is happening here? Like, what is going on? Like, it was suddenly this, like, almost this role reversal of, you know, Tim was always the, the breadwinner of the family. He was always the career one. He was always the one out there hustling and working and putting in the hours. And I was home. We sacrificed a lot for a lot of years for me to be able to be home with our kids. We 4 kids. Daycare for 4 kids is expensive, you know, getting someone to get your kids all the places is expensive. So it made sense for us, for me to stay home and take care of the kids. And I would do the craft shows and that stuff. And that would be supplemental. That wasn't paying the bills. That was letting us go on a family vacation. That was getting the kids into summer camp. That was buying the kids sports equipment. That was the extras, a little bit icing on the top for us to be able to do some of the fun things. But suddenly this became a, Wow, we can pay bills with this. Wow, we just paid our mortgage with this. Wow, we were able to take a family vacation with this, like a real vacation, not let's just go 2 hours away and have a car with snacks and let's go, right? This was like a real vacation. Like, we took our family on a cruise and we never dreamed that we'd be able to do that before. So it just really, really changed a lot at that point. And then eventually, as it continued to grow and we continued to build the business, it came to a point where I needed more help. I needed someone running the equipment. I needed somebody to be more than just hiring an hourly employee. So ultimately we ended up bringing Tim home from his corporate job. And he works full-time for Christy's Craft Room now. So he's an employee here, but on paper. In all other sense of the imagination in the world, he is so much more than just an employee. He's truly my partner in this. And, um, it's just been incredible getting to work every day with him, building this with him. We're working together. We have this common goal that we're both powering through and working on. Um, we work a lot of hours But we're doing it together, so it's fun.

And tell everybody where you're at right now with your subscriptions.

So about a year and a half ago, I started doing another one-off box. So I had our main subscription, our first one was our VIP craft kit group, and we would send a kit every single month with just one single kit in it intended for one person. We were seeing a draw for a lot of people, like during COVID time, you saw a lot of people wanting to connect back with people because we were all pulled away from our families, we were ripped away from being face to face with people. And we got really used to being on Zoom and just talking and not getting together as much. And I saw a lot of people wanting to get together. Whenever we would do something to bring people together, everyone would get excited. So we started a box that's intended for a group of people. We call it our Craft Night in a Box. We send everything they need to host a craft night. They get their cutouts, they get their paint, they get their glue, they get their embellishments, they get everything they need for 4, 8, or 12 people. So we did this as a one-off Christmas box, and I literally thought of this in the shower on a Friday night. By Tuesday morning, I was launching this one-off box. I was super excited, and we sold 600 boxes. And then we had to put all these boxes together. Yeah. So we did that and then everyone's like, we want more, we want another one. So we did a spring box and it went really, really well. And I think we sold like 500 or something. For springtime, that's pretty good. Christmas is always gonna be like the biggest time of year no matter what you're doing. So by summer I was like, all right, we need to, I think we need to turn this into a subscription. So we took the summer, we didn't do a summer box. We focused on prepping to turn it into a subscription in the fall. And in the fall of last year, so one year ago, we launched our Craft Night in a Box membership. And we do a fall box, a spring box— sorry, a fall box, a winter slash Christmas box, a spring box, and a summer box. And we closed it out with right about 600 subscribers for that second box. And We added a little bit each time, and when we launched our fall box this year, we broke 1,000 members. So we had 1,004 members of our Craft Night in a Box membership, and we're at about 850 right now with our VIP membership. And we're working— our goal is to get that back up to 1,000 by the end of the year, um, is my big goal for this year.

And let's just talk about this launch was— what month was this, your last launch?

My last launch was August.

In August in 2025, you just went from— you just hit 1,000 subscribers in this.

We almost doubled.

Almost doubled in one launch, in one month, in what some people would say a bad economy. Um, things in the— you know, everything's more expensive. We give ourselves excuses of why we can't do something. So we tell ourselves, should I be launching right now? Are people buying? Gas is high, food is high, rent is high, everything's high right now. She just doubled her subscribers while gas is high, food is high, rent is high, for a craft box that nobody needs. That nobody— it's not a survival mechanism for— it's not food, it's not clothing, it's not— it's not housing. And what I want you to hear is that it doesn't matter. What she's providing is what people need right now. They want connection, they want community, they want a sense of belonging. We want to feel seen and heard. And that is so important. And that's why we talked about on Tuesday creating an experience. It's not just the stuff. And I'm going to open Christy's box later today during box openings. I have one with me. Do you have anything in your office to show them all the cute things you make?

Um, I do. Hold on.

I love her Post-its behind her and all her pictures of her family. If you can see her little, her little, um, notes behind her, she's organized with her little Post-its back there.

I'm obsessed with Post-it notes. I am a note—

and we're gonna call the post office in Michigan too because I've got her number now.

Oh, oops, it's only for our local, so only if you're like— okay, okay. So this is one of our VIP kits, and, um, this one we actually offered them additional little, um, interchangeable sets. So the center pops out and they can change it out for the different seasons. So, and these are exclusive. We don't sell these in our shop to anybody else. We've made— these kits are specific for them and only them. Here's another one. Um, this was a spring one that we did. And, um, I think this one's Tim's actually, that Tim painted. My husband Tim paints them.

I love this.

Isn't it super cute?

So a little duck.

So for like, it was like around Easter time, um, so of course little ducklings are super cute. And then two of our Craft Night in a Boxes. This one we did around the same time as the big duck so that, um, they could use them together. So our VIP members who were also Craft Night in a Box members, they could display them together. So you got Mama Duck with all her little babies. And then our summer box for Craft Night in a Box was a cute little truck, and the little sun comes out, and we had different options that they could put into the back, like little Christmas trees and hearts and flowers and things like that, so they can change it out for the different times of year.

Awesome, I love it. Um, now there's a couple things I want to address in the, um, in the chat. Some people are saying this is giving me motivation. Everyone's telling me the economy's bad, blah, blah, blah. These are all the reasons why I shouldn't do this right now. Chrissy has one story, but I have another. Like, I launched my teacher subscription in July and I launched my monogram box subscription in August. And in those two months, in two months, in two different launches that were one week each, I added 761 new subscribers to my subscription. In the same time period, in the same year, in the same economy. And much like Christie's, nobody needs my things. Nobody needs a cute tumbler. Nobody needs a cute bag. Nobody needs a cute t-shirt with your initials on it. Nobody needs what I have. But people want to feel something when they buy something. And what we're delivering is not only product, but it's an emotion. And I want you to think about that. There is also a question I can see over, um, on the Facebook quick page that says, how— I don't unders— Jen says, I don't understand how you found your audience so quickly. Let's go back, because remember how we were talking about you got to serve before you sell to people? People don't want to hear buy me, buy me, buy me, buy me. Christy was showing up week after week with a craft. She'd grab her supplies, plop them on the table, set up the camera. Hey guys, I'm gonna make this I was gonna say, hey y'all, but you don't say that in Michigan.

I do sometimes because I have a lot of Southern friends and they rub off on me.

I'm gonna make this cute thing and here's how I'm gonna paint this and here's how I'm gonna do this. And no expectations from anyone. She's serving people. And I think that we, we don't understand what it's like just to give without any expectation. And sometimes it's hard for our minds to wrap around that. Why do you think I do a podcast? It takes time. It takes a lot of time to research, write, record, and edit a podcast every single week. And I do it for free. I serve an audience because if they can see what I give for free, can they imagine what I give to the paid people, right? And so that's how we build audiences. How can you serve an audience? Samantha wants to know how in the world Do you make 1,000 kits of anything? Can you tell them a little bit about the process behind the scenes?

So we have, um, this didn't happen overnight. We slowly built it. We managed the growth to what we could do. We started the very first kits we made, the very, very first kit we made. Let me grab it. My dad actually hand cut these kits on a— I don't even know what it's called— one of those saws that has a blade that goes doot doot doot doot doot doot, and you put your wood through it. Jigsaw. Jigsaw. My dad hand cut every— and they're a little wonky and they're not perfect, but my dad, it's very special. And people who have this kit, they've, they've grown to know my family as well, so they know they have a kit that my dad hand cut for them. Um, so we started by hand cutting, and then the second kit, Tim, um, had a couple of the guys he works with helped him cut those ones on the same type of saw. Then we went and bought one so we'd have one at the house And then we were like, well, as this is growing— we were at like maybe 150 kits at that point— it was getting really hard and really time-consuming to hand cut. So we ended up buying a, um, a CNC machine. So it just has like a router tool on it and it automatically cuts. And that was amazing. We could cut like 8 at a time. We could set it up, it would cut 8 of them, and we just have to keep re-pull out the wood, put new wood in. And when we did that, we had serious conversations. I remember Tim and I sitting at the kitchen table. It was like, all said and done, it was gonna be like $2,500 for this machine. And we were like, can we afford this? How long is it going to take for us to make our money back from this? Like, we didn't just have money to throw at starting a business. We had to be really strategic and really careful and spend our money where it really mattered. And we— thankfully we did it because within a few months we were buying a second one. And it just helped us to increase that production. And then when we were moving spaces, they were giving us a little bit of pushback about having that type of equipment in the space. And I had been thinking about switching to lasers. We switched to lasers. We bought one— sorry, we bought two lasers. Um, and now we're at 4 lasers, including— we also have— or not including— we also have a metal cutting laser for embellishments. And, um, Tim cuts everything. That's his full-time. He is 7 days— sometimes 7 days a week. We shoot for 5 days a week.

So it works hard. Tim works hard.

Sometimes it's 7 days a week, but on average, 5 days a week, he's cutting all day in the back. We have a team anywhere from 1 to 3 people depending on where we're at and what's going on, who actually pack the kits. Sometimes I'm there on a Saturday packing additional kits. For the most part, they've kind of got that handled. And I mostly handle the, like, the tech stuff, the, the coming up with ideas, doing live videos, making crafts, um, making all the prepping, all the, the pictures and things like that, um, is mainly what I do now. But it's a team, and we've slowly built a team. Um, it's not a big team, we just work really hard and we work together, and we have a month to do it. But the thing is, is we know we have a month to do it, and we know ahead of time, and that's the best thing. I could never do Craft Night in a Box at 1,000 kits kits, having them sign up on the first of the month and shipping by the end of the month. I could never do that because I wouldn't know how many to prep for. Yeah, because I know we have 1,000 members right now. In August when we closed our launch, we were at 1,004. We immediately finished up packing the kits for fall and we immediately started working on the Christmas boxes because we know we have 1,000. We know some are going to cancel Cancellations is part of it. Don't take it personal. I used to take it really personal, like they don't love me, they don't like my stuff, they don't want to be part of this, I did something wrong. Oh no. Um, it's just normal. People in life, people come, people go. You're always going to have some cancellations, but then you're also— when you're open, you're going to get new people too. So we know if we base it on that number of 1,000, we may need to make a few more kits, we may have a few kits left over, and that's okay. But we can start now to prep for those 1,000 kits, um, because we have to order stuff. We, you know, we do make a lot of stuff in-house, but like the paint and the glue and stuff like that, I have to order that. I have to be able to get that in in time. I could never do that if it wasn't a subscription membership.

You wouldn't know your numbers. No. I love how you're talking about how you just— you bought one machine and then you kept growing. And I think that's what we, we need to slow down. Don't think about what happens when we get to 1,000. Think about what happens when we get to 100. And this The same with me. I had to finance my first embroidery machine. So I went to the sewing store and I applied for their little credit card, and I bought my first sewing machine on a credit line of credit from the sewing store. And I made payments every month with my subscription payments, like, so I knew I was coming in, I made payments, I paid off my first machine, and I was like, oh goodness, I think I need another machine. Like, I think I'm spending 10 hours a day, 10 days a month behind this one machine. It's time for me I can, I can hoop another one while this one's stitching. Like, let's go, Sarah, come on, let's work smarter. And so, and then I was able to buy another machine, and then my third machine I bought in cash, my fourth machine I bought in cash, my fifth machine I bought in cash. And so it's like one of those things that you don't— don't plan for a thousand. Like, plan for your first 10, plan for your first 50, plan for your first 100. Use what you have, use the jigsaw until you can get a laser. Use the jigsaw until you can get a CNC. I mean, I wasn't hand embroidering anything. I, I embroidered from the start, but it was one machine and I was one person that did it. And so I would stitch all the things, I would pack all the things. I was one person. And then that grew and that grew. And so, and now we have the DTF machine and we have, we have all kinds of things, but when you're making $50,000, $60,000, $70,000, $80,000 a month from your subscription, you can afford to buy the new machine. And you know it's going to hit your bank account every month. And that's the beauty of it, is because I don't have to worry like, okay, if we make 1,000 kits, what happens if they don't sell? We know they're gonna sell. We have 1,000 subscribers. We know they're gonna sell. So let's get on it. Let's the kits, and let's not worry about making too many kits, cutting all of these things that may never sell. We know they're going to sell, and that's the beauty about having a subscription. You can plan better, you can control your inventory better, you can, um, hire help because you know you have the recurring revenue coming in. And so I don't want you to get stressed about 1,000 of anything. I want you to think about how are you going to handle your first 10, and what happens when you get your first 100. And then we figure things out from there. We couldn't— I couldn't have figured out how to, how to pack 1,000 monogram boxes in, in my first couple months. I was like, 44, I got this, right? A 44, one at a time. And as that grew, we built systems and processes in place, like, okay, we're going to monogram everything first and then we're going to pack everything second. And so you'll build that in over time. And so I really, I really love that. I've got a question in the chat over here from Deanna. First, she says congratulations. She says, what do you feel was the biggest factor from Launch Your Box from getting you from 300 to 1000?

I think it was a couple of things. One thing was just having a plan, just someone else who's been through it, someone else who's done it. That can guide you and say, don't forget X, Y, and Z. And even if you forget one of them, at least you've got the two more that you didn't have before. I, I was literally just throwing posts up on Facebook. Come join my group, going live, come join my group. I wasn't doing things like sending out emails, building my email list. I wasn't— I was going live, but I wasn't maybe doing as many of the static posts. It's all the different elements and bringing them together that kind of create this magic sauce, if you want to call it. There's not really any magic anything. It's just putting in a lot of hard work, but doing all the things and using them to work together, that was a big part of it. The other part was the tech behind it. Tech isn't easy. I am the least tech-savvy person there is in the world. Okay. I spent a lot of time watching videos, and then going to Google, what does that word mean? Going to YouTube, how do I do this on my site? Watching videos step by step on how to put it all together. But just having that plan and having Sarah explain some of the tech of how things connect on the back end and having the, the resources here in the group. That's the other big thing is she's got the tech team that's there to answer questions and help. She's got resources on custom boxes and packaging and seeing the box openings of how other people package theirs, you're like, oh, I never thought to put a sticker on the lid of my box with information. Oh, you know, I really think that's cute the way that they did an insert and had, you know, important information on it. Just seeing the different things. I know Sarah hates shred. You're going to see shred in my box.

Oh my goodness.

She's not a fan of shred. I'm not either. I can't stand shred. It's messy, but sometimes it's necessary. It's, it protects things and gets things there safely. Um, so, you know, but just seeing those different elements and the customer experience and seeing how Sarah reacts when she opened other people's— but we would just throw everything in a box. Now for our VIP, they get a little extra. They get a layer of tissue, they get their stuff in the box, then they get their little paper insert, and then they get they get shred in there to keep things from shifting. But then we close up the tissue, we put a little custom sticker on there, so when they open it, it's like, it looks all perfect and pretty, and they feel special instead of just put in a box with shred. So, you know, it's just all those elements. I've seen not just Sarah, but other people in the group who have gotten success in their subscription businesses, and being able to kind of cherry-pick what's gonna work and be able to implement into my business that my people are gonna love. So I guess it's not one thing, that's multiple things, but there's just so many things that I can say about being part of Launch Your Box. The community, if you're struggling and you're stuck, you have a place to go and throw a post in there and be like, help, I don't know how to do this, or help, my subscriptions aren't renewing, whatever it is, I'm having a tech issue. There's always somebody there who's been there and done that and gotten through it to help encourage you and, and kind of help you pivot and fix whatever's going on. Um, it's just, it's invaluable. It really truly is.

I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell them, because you already know this. Oh, I'm gonna tell them what I think changed for you to get from 300 to 1,000. When I first met Christy, she's just like hustler crafter. I'm just make the cute things. Christie now is the CEO of her business. And there was so much personal growth between that $300 and that $1,000 that changed her business. I watched her learn things that were really hard for her. I watched her step into being the, the business owner instead of the business doer. And I think she just felt comfortable as the doer for so long and having to hire and fire people and train people and and all the things that she— knowing her numbers and, and conversion rates and all the things that felt very uncomfortable for Christy. And I just kept nudging her and I just kept pushing her and I just kept putting it back in front of her. And she kept saying, okay, I'm going to learn this today. Okay, I'm going to learn that this month. Okay, I'm going to do this now. You know how she was telling you, I didn't have X, Y, and Z. Sarah said do X, Y, Z. I might have done X and Z. Why? I'll figure that out later. She just kept doing more of the things. She kept taking one piece at a time, doing what she could do, and then learning the rest. And she didn't give up on herself, and she didn't give up on the business. And I see her now, and I'm so proud of the business owner that she has become. Whether she has 8 subscribers or 1,800, it doesn't matter, because what's changed for her is personal. It's very personal. And to be able to retire her husband from his corporate job, they get to go and do whatever they want whenever they want. Nobody has to request a day off. Nobody has to make sure I have vacation time. They get to go and do and live life. They work hard. Like, these two are some of the hardest working people that I know. But you know what? They live now. They get to, you know, be there when her family needs her to be there. They get to go and do— they get to be a part of their kids' lives. And so I just want everyone to see what I see in you, and that's the way you've changed from being a hobbyist to a true business owner. And that is the difference. In, in having a few subscribers and making it work on the side and doing it here and there, to really owning who you are, owning that this is a business, and doing the things that you need to do to make your business successful. Because that's what we all want, right? We want this to pay us well month after month after month. We don't— like, please don't ever make me have to go work for somebody else. Please don't ever make me have to clock in a punch ever in my life again. And, and I know too much now. And Christy, you know too much to ever go back to working for someone else. And that's the freedom that you have. That's the freedom that growing into the business owner that you are has given you. And it doesn't matter if nobody ever crafts again in 10 years from now. You're gonna figure it out. You're gonna have the next best thing. You're gonna make it work. And I think that's the best part, is learning how to be a business owner. Because if I took a poll of everybody watching here right now and I asked you, did you go to school to be a business owner? We would say no. I would, I would bet you 95% of us would say no. We lucked upon it. We just sold some things and we kind of got an itch for it, and We gotta figure it out. It's like having an education on how to be a business owner, um, and I think that that's so important.

Yeah, can I add to that just a little bit?

Yep.

Um, so I, I would be what the world would call uneducated. Like, I don't have a degree, I don't have—

I—

oh, don't get emotional. Okay, um, So, and I haven't shared this a lot, but I know there's— I don't know, I just feel the need to share this, and I've not ever shared this publicly. Um, Sarah knows. Um, but I was what the world would have thought would be a failure back in the day. I got pregnant in high school. I didn't, didn't graduate. I don't have a high school diploma. I've always been ashamed of that. I've always struggled with that. My biggest goal in life is to get my kids through high school. I want them to do better than me. I want them to be better than me and have more opportunities than me because that's what I was always told. And I ultimately ended up just working jobs and I got married and I had kids and I ended up staying home and that was super fulfilling and I would not change that for the world. I have an amazing supportive husband. Who has always done everything he could do to make sure we had food on the table, a roof over our head, all the things. And like always just did the little extras to feel like I'm contributing to the family. And when this went from just a hobby to actually being a business, to actually being the number one and only supporter of our family, not only can I support myself and my husband and my kid, but I can help my parents. I can help them. I can, if I need to drop everything and go today, I can drop everything, I can go today, I can be there for my mom and dad. If I need to help them financially, if they get a struggle and they're stuck, I can help them. And we've been in that position and it feels so good to be able to help my family. I cannot say enough about this group and what I've learned. When Sarah says it's like an education, it truly is. You are going to learn exactly what you need to know to be a successful subscription box business owner. The best part is you don't have to waste your time on all the things that you don't need to know about being a business owner. You're not spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to get a degree and to get an education, you're going to get everything you need for a whole lot less, and you're not going to go into debt doing it. And if I can do it— this, like, I struggled with imposter syndrome a lot. I still have those moments where I— who do I think I am? What do I think I'm doing? Why do people even like what I have? They, you know, I don't know, I don't understand it. But that's my own voice in my head saying you're 'You're not good enough. You're not smart enough. You didn't get enough education. You can't do this. You're just small town little Chrissy that isn't going to be anything.' But the reality is, I'm Christy from Christy's Craft Room who has created an amazing community. I've touched so many people who have in turn touched me, and We get to impact these people's lives every single day. We get to bring hundreds, and I can say a thousand, and hopefully thousands soon in the future, of families together to create memories that they're going to cherish forever. Yeah, we give mostly women— we have a couple men in our VIP group— we send them a kit every month. We invite them to come to our virtual craft night where they can connect with other women where they can just forget all the other troubles they have in life, they can forget all those voices in their head of all the things, and they can just be in a positive environment for a couple hours and craft. And we call it crafting therapy because it's very therapeutic. Just anything creative that you do is very therapeutic. We get to provide that for them. And like, I would do that, volunteer my time to do that for people, but I get to get paid to do that. And support my family with that. So I don't know, I'm using a lot of words right now and I'm rambling, but the end of the day, if I can do this, you can do this. Don't— I don't want anyone watching to think, yeah, but she's got something I don't have. Trust me, I don't got anything that you don't have. You can do this. I started this from nothing, like sitting at that dining room table struggling, are we going to be able to pay all of our bills and buy this machine?

Yeah.

To now my husband doesn't have to go to work every day for a job that causes him so much stress and so much anxiety. His blood pressure was up, his health was bad, he was stressed all the time, he would snap at the littlest thing just because he was so stressed out. He is a different man today. My nieces and nephews joke. My nephew actually said to his little boy, Tim walked up and was like, hey, here's some little donut holes. And my nephew goes, Ezra, you get to grow up with fun Uncle Tim. I had to grow up with mean, scary Uncle Tim. We all see it. He's just, he has this relaxation about him, this lightness about him that he gets to come and he gets to do something that he enjoys. And we get to do it together. And he doesn't have to go to that stressful environment every day, clocking in, clocking out. You know, it's life-changing in so many ways that you just can't even put into words.

And you made me cry. You made me cry because I'm so dang proud of you. And I want, I want to say this because I don't feel like you maybe hear it enough, but I'm Christy from Christy's Craft Room, and I generated over a million dollars in my business last year. Yeah. And you're gonna hit it again. Yeah. And we already know because we talked about this with Lexi that only 0.7% of female entrepreneurs ever hit a million dollars revenue in a year. Only 0.7, not even 1%. That's just so crazy.

It's so hard to just wrap your mind around that, that I'm in that group of people.

You are, and it's incredible. And if Christy can do it— I'm just— I tried to lend you my courage the other day. I'm gonna lend you Christy's courage. Christie is a hustler. She is a hard worker. She didn't have it figured out. She didn't know how to do all the things, but she came with an open mind and she said, teach me, I'm ready to learn. She said, okay, this is hard, but I'm gonna figure it out. Okay, this is hard, but I'm gonna do X and not XYZ because that's too hard. And she just kept going and going, and I'm so freaking proud for you right now, um, because you're like, you're the most amazing person I probably have ever met in my life. And I'm just so inspired that I get to be on your journey with you. Um, and I know that Tracy's in the comments here, our sweet, our sweet friend Tracy. She said it's better than a formal education. Learning from Sarah, who has experienced all the things that you will experience, is going to give you the plan to succeed and support to help you meet, achieve your goals. Tracy's another rock star, right? Another rock star. We just figure it out day by day. And if you're ready to figure it out, come join Christy and I. Come join us in Launch Your Box. Tracy's there, Lexi's there, Rebecca's there. You're going to meet, uh, Nicole tomorrow who's there, who helps all kinds of people in Launch Your Box get past their fears. Um, but there's a— there's not just a few of us. There are hundreds of women and men over in Launch Your Box that are building incredible businesses, um, from something that they love. Christy loved crafting, and she's built an incredible business. So this is your formal invitation from us to just come on, just come join us. You're going to get training every month. You're going to get me. I know I answered a question in this group. Chrissy, maybe you can confirm this for everyone. I answered a question this morning about, I have bought programs before and then the person selling the program was never in the group. Tell them how much I'm in the group.

Oh my goodness, Sarah, Sarah's in the group. Sarah is in the group. You're gonna see her. She, she literally pours her heart and soul into this. I don't know how Sarah does all that she does with everything that she does, but somehow she manages. And, and I think it's because she loves teaching and loves sharing her experience. So it's just natural and easy for her because people are like, how do you come up with your craft ideas? I just love it. It's just something that comes natural to me. I think this comes natural to Sarah, and she wants you to be successful. I mean, Sarah, she'll be in there 11 o'clock at night answering questions, 6 o'clock in the morning answering questions. Like, she'll be drinking her coffee out by the pool answering questions. Like, like she just— it's what she wants to do. It's— she wants everybody to be successful. She is going to be your biggest cheerleader. She's also going to set you straight, okay? I'm not going to sugarcoat this. Sarah Williams, sometimes it's— sometimes she'll be like, listen, put on your big girl panties, get up, get it done, pivot, adjust, you've got this. Um, but she'll cheer you along the whole way, and she'll give you the tools to be successful, to do it. Um, but she has a perfect balance of being a little bit tough when she needs to be, but then also cheering you on and encouraging you.

Um, and I'm very action-oriented. Like, I'm not a fluffy person. I'm not gonna give you this over— like, you need to be this, I'm going to tell you how to get there, right? So I'm very action-driven. I want you to take actions because the more action steps that you take, the more we're going to get there. It's not this overarching, oh, someday you're going to get No, this is how we're gonna get there. I need to do step one today. And I may— I call it my ranty pants. Sometimes I get my ranty pants on. I'm like, listen, y'all, stop griping about going live and just turn the camera on and do it. And once they do, it's like, oh, you were right. Why did I— why did I not do this for a whole year? I'm like, I told you. Sometimes I have to get a little ranty, um, because sometimes we like to give ourselves excuses. Excuses, and I'm not going to let you give yourself an excuse.

So we are in a— I'm in her mastermind group as well, and we had shirts made one meeting, and we all showed up with the shirts on to surprise her, and it says, "Just do what Sarah says." I might have to wear it later for the box opening. Yeah, because what Sarah says, like, she knows what she's talking about. She's not just gonna tell you to do something for the sake of telling you. She's telling you because she's done it and she's proven that works and it can be successful. So just do what Sarah says. At the end of the day, just do what Sarah says and you'll be golden.

Sarah says come join us in Launch Your Box. Grab the link. We have one more after-hours session tonight. We're going to talk about packaging and shipping tonight. I'm going to answer more questions. Sarah says join Launch Your Box. So come join us. Christy, thank you so much for joining me today. I know that you've just inspired the heck out of people in the comments. And remember, I'm opening Christy's box today at 1 o'clock, so in an hour I'll be back and right here in Subscription Box Week, and I will be opening Christy's box. If you want to go check out Christy, you can find her at Christy's Craft Room all over the internet. Um, and thank you so much for being here. We'll see you about in an hour.

Bye, guys. Thanks, Sarah. Bye-bye.