From One-Time Journals to a Thriving Subscription Box | Interview with Rebecca McCready

Hey everybody, we are connecting all the stream keys right now, but I am with Rebecca McCready here today. Sorry, we're a tad bit late. I don't know, I think my email went to her junk folder, but we got it all sorted out now and we're ready to roll. I cannot wait for you to hear Rebecca's story because it wasn't that long ago that Rebecca was sitting in subscription box week just like you. Doing the Post-it note challenge just like you, trying to figure out if this would work for her. And so I'm so glad that she's here so we can talk about where she was, what's happened since, and then where she's at now. So if you're joining us, let me know in the chat. I would love to say hi to you. Rebecca, let's just start a little bit with your business. What you do, and then let's talk about your subscription. What is it? How does it differ from the everyday business? Let's just give them a little insight. And I'm going to pull this up on the laptop here while you're doing that.

Sounds good. So my business is Evergreen Cypress. I create Bible study journals for women and teen girls, and I started with a more of a one-time product. So this is my very first journal that I wrote. And it's a one-time larger product that I sell in my shop, and it's still a bestseller, I guess you could say. But it was a very, um, touch and go to have sales come in every month because it's, it's like feast and famine, right?

Like, you can sell like 10 things today and then you could go 10 days and not sell anything, right?

Exactly. It's rough, especially— I'm— this business is not— I didn't go to school for business or anything, so it's brand new to me. So then I heard about Sarah and subscription boxes. So now I have, um, Overseeking, which is my— I have a mini subscription too, but it's mainly the main one, which is I send it out every month. And they're much smaller journals, but it's kind of a monthly study for women that I send every month. And so that has made a huge difference for me.

Okay, so let's, let's rewind a little bit because I want, I want our people that are watching in Subscription Box Week. So we're streaming on YouTube and Facebook, but we're also streaming inside Subscription Box Week. And so what I wanna do is I want to take them back to, you've gone to Subscription Box Week, you've done all the things with me for the week, you decide to join Launch Your Box. Talk to me about the journey that you've been on from kind of the start, where you started, and then we'll get to where we are at now.

Well, mine's a little bit of a different journey. I started very small and I went very slowly, but it was kind of the slow and steady growth. So I did Subscription Box Week in 2021 in the fall, and I actually didn't join Launch Your Box until February of the next year. Okay. It takes me a while to think because once I commit to something, I don't wanna back out. So, and then even then I had a full-time job and I was still doing that. and it was the struggle of I have a full-time job, I don't really have time to do all this, but I want to, and I love creating this, and I love— I was loving everything I was brainstorming about and getting feedback from my ideal customers saying this is something we would love. So it took me until August of 2023 to actually launch.

Okay, so let's talk about that a little bit because I know there's a lot of people here that work a full-time job and they're wanting to start this, and What was it that— what clicked for you that said, I need to work on this and I need to get busy? What was that turning point for you?

There are a lot of several— there are a lot of little moments. So it takes me a while, but it was kind of getting all of the different pieces of what does this look like? Like I said, this was completely outside of what I normally do. So what does it look like to run the business in this way? What does it look like to have consistency? And can I do this every month and sending something out? Can I create a new journal every month? Can I find everything I need? And for me, it was just the not knowing. That was the biggest thing for me is I didn't know anything. So coming into your world and you gently telling me all the things, things I didn't even know I needed to ask because I didn't know what I didn't know.

That's the biggest part of entrepreneurship. We go into these things and we don't know what we don't know. And so we need someone kind of guiding us through what we don't know because we haven't been taught these things. There's not like an entrepreneurship start a business 101 book that we grabbed and we just are learning all the things. We don't know what we don't know. So you decide this is the path that you want to go down, and you start putting together Ever Seeking. And so that is a month— tell, it's a monthly subscription of what?

Yes. So I have a couple examples here.

Okay.

I actually just did my, my unboxing live right before this.

Okay, great.

So this is— there are different kinds, but it's a journal, and I try to do it kind of seasonal that go with the season.

So they're getting a new journal every month. So it's like a 30-day journal, basically.

That's right. So this was October one we just sent out. This was one in July. So it's a journal and then it has extras with it. So this has magnets and washi tape. This had like— this was August, so this was like verse cards and a pen. And so each journal has a different page that they do a day. This was the very first one I did. So each page is a day of study for them, and then it's 20 days for the main study. So if they get behind, because because the whole point is for them not to be overwhelmed with Bible study. So it's the main study is 20 days, and then there are 10 optional pages if you want to do the full 30 days. But it's that way they can, you know, if they miss a little bit, it's okay, they still get the main study. So it's trying to give gentle accountability but encouragement every month.

I love that. I love that you don't, you don't want them to feel behind, because we talked about this a little bit last night, Rebecca, about how we've got to get them to consume what we're delivering, right? So if it's not consumable, like if it's not like food or lotion or something that's consumable that we use up and throw away. We have to figure out a way to get them to take action, right? To get them to use the things so that they feel good about their purchase and they stay subscribers. So now you get your audience together, you're doing all the things, you're going through Launch Your Box, you're learning all the things, and you launch. Tell me how many subscribers you got on your first launch.

I think it was 17.

17.

Okay.

This is important because I had to remind them last night that I started with 44 people. Okay. Rebecca started with 17 people. You just have to start. And then what has happened since you launched with 17 people? Where are we at now?

I, I can't even believe it, but I'm at 240 now.

You've even grown since you sent me your notes. You're at 240. Like, let's just talk about this because I'm going to tell you a little bit about Rebecca. Because she's quiet, as you can tell. She's not— you're going to meet some— you're going to meet Lauren, who is the most vibrant, vivacious person that I'm going to interview this week. You're going to meet Lexi, full of life. You meet Rebecca, she's subdued, she's calm. She has like this calming presence about her. She doesn't get too excited about things. But you know what Rebecca does? Rebecca shows up for every training. She shows up for every Zoom call. She shows up and does the work. And she's like this little slow. It's like the turtle, the tortoise and the hare, right? Like she's the tortoise. She shows up, she does the thing, she keeps going, and now she has 240 subscribers. And here's what I want to— I just want to celebrate with you for a minute because you got over 100 of those in the last 2 months. It's been a, it's been a slow growth for Rebecca, but she keeps learning, she keeps showing up. And that's, I think, the thing that I love about what we do. It's like not a one and done. We have to keep learning. We have to keep growing. We have to keep finding new ways to build this business of ours. And it takes the support and accountability to do that. So talk to me now that we're celebrating. Yes, all in the chat, they're celebrating. And yes, Missy, 17 feels realistic. And that's why I brought Rebecca here, because sometimes it's hard for you to see me right? I've got thousands of monthly subscribers, and you're like, I will never get there. Well, guess what? I never— my big goal was to have 100 subscribers when I started this thing, right? So when you see Rebecca start with 17, she put the work in slowly but surely, and now she— here she is at 240 monthly subscribers. Something that she creates every single month, something that is her creativity, her passion, her love. We talked about this last night as well, like, if you're not sure what you want to sell. You're your ideal customer. Rebecca is her ideal customer. Okay, and so that's what I want. They're just celebrating you, and I love this. If you haven't, Rebecca, look in Subscription Box Week because they are in here celebrating the heck out of you. Those comments don't show up on this, on the StreamYard, but they are celebrating for you. Now let's talk about the growth. There's been a big turning point for you recently where you've gotten over 100 subscribers in the last few months. And let's talk about what happened. Like, where did that come from? What did you do differently? Um, I think I know, but I'm gonna let you tell me.

It's one word. Yeah, yeah. You always have said that if you don't run ads, you have a hobby, not a business. And that is— that's just— and I know that. And I think for me, because ads was new to me too, when you did a training that kind of walked me through pretty much step by step what I needed to do. That helped me a lot to know. And y'all, Sarah, Sarah is in it. She knows, she's been doing this and she does this. So I love being able to tune in every week, every month, because I know that she has the updated info. Like if there was that book of how to do entrepreneurship, it'd be outdated in a week, you know?

Right.

So I love being able to take things. That's why it's like moments, little moments, at a time, and I'm still learning. But for me, I was building so many things. My website, I was trying to figure out, I was writing the books every month that I still am, trying to find the extras, all the customer service, so many different things. And ads kind of took a back burner. So when I—

Scary, right? They're unknown and they're scary, right? Yes. And so if you look at Rebecca's journey, you're going to see She grew organically, and that's where I want you to start. I really want you to start by growing organically. Once— I always call it a fire, right, Rebecca? It's like we're building a fire. When we grow organically, those are the logs we're putting the logs down. We're making sure the fire is stable. We're building content, we're getting subscribers, we're getting success stories, we're getting testimonials and reviews. These are all the logs that we're using to build a fire. And once you've got stable structure for your fire. Ads are the, are the lighter fluid. It's the gasoline on the fire. And but you have to have that foundation. And what the ads have done for Rebecca, they've helped her get visible. And that's something that we struggle with. And we think that if we post it on social media, everybody should see it. And that is just not reality, right? We've got to have the content on social media. We've got to have content on our website. We've got to make sure it aligns with our messaging. There's a lot of things that we need to do before we throw that gasoline on the fire to make sure that the gasoline doesn't fizzle out. It doesn't just hit the dirt and it's gone. We've got to get our logs, we got to soak our logs with it. So we have to have that foundation before we can put the fire. And that's what happened with you. You were working on content. I remember reviewing your website more than once and you made lots of great changes. She has the most beautiful website now. And that took time, right? It's not like an instant thing. And what I love about this, and what I'm trying to tell you here— and I'm looking down because Subscription Box Week is down here on my laptop— I'm telling you here is that we have to start in order to improve, and we have to let go of our perfectionism, um, in order to, to start, right?

That was me too. Like, I, I knew what I wanted. Like, I, I could envision what I wanted in my head but I couldn't do it. Like, it was, it was frustrating. And there'll be those moments where it's frustrating. Like, I know what I want, I just can't quite make it happen. And so it— but it takes time to do it, and that's okay. It doesn't mean that we— like, I, I realized that when I look at past me, that I had— I kind of knew what I wanted, it just took time to build it. And that's fine because, like you're saying, those are the different logs that's building the fire. So it's a good analogy.

What, what obstacles do you feel like you faced, um, as you were getting ready to launch?

Uh, I guess just the not knowing. That really is the biggest thing, I think, because I just don't have any background in that. So I didn't want to miss anything, and I knew that once I— like I said, once I started with it, I wanted to be able to keep going. So I didn't, I didn't want to get into it and then be like, 3 months in, I don't know what I'm doing, I don't have a way to get what I need, or I don't have any more ideas. So I, I have my, um my ideas planned out from for a year. I have the titles and everything planned out. So that helps me at least feel like, okay, I kind of know where I'm going. So I don't— I can procrastinate very well. So it leaves room for that.

What made you decide to join Launch Your Box?

Because it was all the things that I needed that I didn't know, all the things I didn't know. I knew I was going to get that in Launch Your Box. So Subscription Box Week, it gave me the sneak peeks of this is what it's going to be like. Because there are some where it's kind of a big membership and you feel kind of lost in the kind of jostle in the crowd. You're just one of the numbers. That's, that's not like Launch Your Box. Launch Your Box is so different in that you show up, you're there. And if you have any questions, the community is amazing. Sarah's team is amazing and Sarah's always there. So she gives us things weekly to think about. And it might be like a small thing that you'll say in a live. I'm like, oh, that's what I needed. That's where I was stuck in this certain thing.

That's the trigger for this week, right?

Yeah. Like a very, like, alive thing that helps me even now. I— there's some things like, oh, I'm stuck on this thing, or I go back and listen to something that you've done, or I know that it's— something's coming up. So it's, it's a continual encouragement and accountability for me. And it's— I, I wouldn't be— I wouldn't still be doing this if I wasn't part of Launch Your Box.

It's because we need that, right? We need accountability. And this is the other thing that I think we need, because I have really close business friends, right? And I think that we need to be able to have these conversations with people that get it. So if you're excited because your new boxes showed up, nobody in our regular world will understand that excitement, right? If you're having a rough day because you had 10 cancellations, you're like, the world is falling apart. We can voice that in this group because everyone's doing the same thing, right? And I think that's the part of it. It's like the silent encouragement that, oh, she got 10 subscribers, 10 cancels. I got 12. I don't feel, you know, okay, somebody else is, is, is feeling the things that I'm feeling. And that kind of keeps you going. Because on the outside, entrepreneurship is pretty lonely, right? Um, both you and I are sitting in our home, in our, in our offices at home. We work alone a lot of the time. Some of us, we do have some part-time help and things like that, but in— at the end of the day, all the decisions come back to you, all the mistakes come back to you, all the finances come back to you. And that's a, that's a lot of pressure. And so if you can have a community around you that is feeling those same pressures You have an outlet, you have a community, you have somewhere to ask questions when something's not working. You have somewhere to celebrate when you're ready to celebrate. You have somewhere to vent when things just aren't working. Because we all know entrepreneurship is like a little roller coaster all the time. It's up and down, up and down. And we've got to have the people there that understand it. Because, you know, there was a long time that I would go to lunch with my friends like once a week or once a month or whatever, and I would talk about business. And at at some point they stopped inviting me for chips and queso because I would just talk about business and they don't understand it. They don't understand what I'm going through. They're like, oh, whatever, you know, you, you're, you're whatever, you know. And so I feel like the community is so— it's just as important as the knowledge, um, because a lot of, a lot of what we do is in our mind. It's our mindset as an entrepreneur that helps us keep going. Um, Rebecca, you just shipped out your 25th box. Talk to me about the process of curating 25 different subscription boxes for you.

It started obviously very small, so it's just like an evening of putting it together, but now I have like a designated studio area where we have all the journals come in and all the extras, and then we just have like spend the day putting it together, putting it mailers. And this is a little sample of, of the journals that I've been doing. I think this is— I don't know how many months this is, but I love this.

Okay, so I just want— I want the inside look at your curation process. Okay, you told me you've lined out the themes for the next year, right? Okay, so then at what point do you sit down? Do you write all the pages of the journals? Tell me your process of this.

Yeah, so I have them, I have the titles, I have the designs, and then I run it past I'm currently running 2026 past select people just to make sure what they think, get different ideas and variations. And then I have it set. So then about a month or two ahead of time, I start writing it. I have my writing days and I sit and I just write it. Some journals are super easy to write and it just takes me the afternoon or the day. Others I struggle with it. I have people that edit it and then they're like, I just don't really feel like this is the right thing. So I have to do it over again. But, uh, yeah, and then I send it to the print shop, they send it to me— which lovely print shop— and then I look for all of the extras that go with it. So it's always washi tape and then one or two extras that just match, and they're journaling extras because it's all about journaling, like stickers and page things and all the little things that you love to have with stationery, right? Yeah, October was this, like a fall sticker sheet, and then this little, um heart leather bookmark that goes on the, on the edge of that. There's always the washi tape. I got to design one of the extras for July. I can open this thing, and it was a magnet, which I hadn't done a magnet before. So it's kind of fun to think of new things. Sometimes you redo things, and that's okay. But I designed this magnet, and that went with the study, so that was fun. So yeah, just a little bit of— it's, it's so much fun to write the journal, but also to just the creativity of finding the different things that go, and then seeing them come to life.

Like, I think about it with my t-shirts, right? Like, it's one thing to put the designs together, then choose the ink colors and choose the color of the shirt, and then when I see them actually in person, like, I get my hands on, I'm like, oh, so much better than in my mind what it was going to be. And so it's like, it's like this evolution of something that you've birthed, right? Each one of those journals you've birthed, and it becomes a reality. And now 240 women are getting those journals every single month, and you have an impact on their monthly, daily activities. Like, and I think sometimes we don't think about that. Like, we don't think about what we do as having impact on other people. And it's so fulfilling. And, and women are so much different than men. And I know there's some guys with us tonight, um, and not— I'm not gonna— I'm not categorizing every guy. There's some guys out there with us, but women are naturally more purpose-driven, and most men are naturally more transaction-driven, more analytical-driven. And so when we can do something that feels purposeful for us, like when I see someone tell me like they feel great in their shirts that I give them, they had a cute kimono that matched this and wore it to church on Sunday, or they had date night or whatever the thing is, like that is the impact that I'm having on someone's life. It doesn't have to solve the world's problems. It doesn't have to be this big, you know, thing, but that's me. I, you know, I was overweight my whole life and I never felt good in my own skin. And being able to provide something to my subscribers to help them stand a little taller and feel good, like that's the impact that I'm having. These journals, you're in their daily lives and that's the impact that you're having. And so as you're thinking, sitting here thinking and you're thinking about your own subscription box, what impact do you want to have? Because I can see it on your face when you talk about the journals. I can see the smile on your face. That lights us up. Having that impact is what lights us up, and it keeps us going through the hard days, and it keeps us pushing forward. Because the more subscribers that you have, the more impact that you have, right?

It's mind-blowing. Yeah.

Well, let's, let's talk to everybody watching that has been thinking about starting their subscription box. Um, what would you say to them?

I'm excited for you because this is— this could be the beginning of you don't even know what yet. And all the things that you're dreaming about can very much become a reality. It just— it takes some work and it takes some time, and there'll be different times where you'll be able to work on it more. There'll be times when something will pop up in life and you kind of have to hold off on on it for a little bit, and that's okay. But everyone has a different pace, but it's totally doable. You can start from zero knowledge and zero following and build it, and it's incredible what can happen. But being surrounded by people who know what you're going through and who can encourage you and have the knowledge to keep you keep going, that's priceless. Yeah.

And I love your story so much because what you just said is very true. Everybody's on their own journey. Like, no one's behind on any journey. People just take things at a different pace. And I love your story so much because you were just— I call you Steady Eddie. You're just steady. You're just showing up. You're doing the things. You're checking the boxes. And you keep learning. And you keep asking questions. And you keep going. And you've got 240 subscribers to show for it. And I have a feeling that that's going to continue to grow and multiply and have such a bigger impact on, um, the people that you serve. And I'm really, really excited for you. Um, I mean, at this point we should just invite them to come join us in Launch Your Box, right?

Absolutely. Like, you won't forget it. There's, there's so much in there. And if, if you're serious about it, even if you're serious about the dream, even if it's like, I don't, I don't know if I can start tomorrow, that's okay. Join and dream about it, think about it, and just plan.

Yeah, start to set things up the right way, right?

Absolutely.

There's so much you can do now even if you're not ready to sell yet. There's so much you can do behind the scenes that's going to set yourself up for success. Um, Rebecca's in there. A lot of people like Rebecca are in there. Um, also, if you're in Subscription Box Week right now, you have a coupon code to get the money that you spent for Subscription Box Week back off of your first month of Launch Your Box, and that code expires at midnight tonight. So Rebecca and I are just going to invite you to come join us. Come hang out with us and all the amazing subscription box owners inside Launch Your Box. We would love to have you. And it doesn't matter where you're at. You're going to start where you're at. Start with what you have. Start with what you know. And it's just your journey. Just like Rebecca, it's your journey. So Rebecca, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm going to be back in Subscription Box Week tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM Central. We have training number 2 tomorrow. So I will see you guys in the morning. Y'all have a great night. Rebecca, thank you so much. And we'll see you soon.

Bye.