Live with Rebecca M - From SBW to Subscription Box Owner

Hey everybody, welcome back. I've got another great interview for you today. Super excited to introduce you to Rebecca. We're going to talk about where Rebecca started and where we're at now. Basically a little, a year later. No, we're not even a year later from when she launched. So we're going to talk all about it. But Rebecca's journey with me started right here in Subscription Box Week. We're going to talk about how that week felt for her because so many of you watching are from subscription box week. You might be feeling all the things that Rebecca was feeling. She launched her subscription box last fall with 17 whole subscribers. How did that feel for Rebecca? And then where we're at today, what, like 8, 9 months later? Is that where we're at in the journey?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, Rebecca, talk to me. Tell everybody what you do and what your subscription is about.

So my name is Rebecca with Evergreen Cypress, and I have a subscription with Bible Study Journals here. And so I started with teen girls, and I wrote bigger journals about 2019 or so. And then 2020, people said, we probably should start getting these published. And then I found, uh, Sarah, and Subscription Box Week was— I think it was October of 2021.

Okay, so it was fall of 2021. I was thinking it was last summer, so I may have mentioned that in the post, but it was actually my coaching week that I did in October of 2021. Okay.

Yeah, because I'm a bit of a lurker, maybe. I just, I wait a bit. I just kind of wait.

You need to process things. And this is why I'm, I'm bringing this story to you, because last night we were having our new member Zoom call last night, and somebody was like, I'm loving the interviews, but is there anybody that doesn't have a giant subscription box? I'm like, yes, you're going to meet Rebecca. And that's why I brought Rebecca here. So when you came to Subscription Box Coaching Week, tell me where you were at in business. Were you brand new? Had you been having a business? Like, where were you at in that stage?

It's a good question. I was just starting, so I had just started. My other journals were more spiral bound. They were bigger. It took me a little bit longer to do. Uh, but I had like different thoughts and ideas, and I just love the thought of being able to do something monthly. And then especially for women, the need was women who wanted to study the Bible consistently but not having something to guide them, or kind of just having something fresh every month. So it's like, if I could create a journal that's a monthly journal and send it to them every month. So that was kind of in the back of my head, different ideas as you were talking. And so I just needed to ponder through it.

So you were kind of laying out the plan with me during the Post-it Note Challenge. And then here's the hiccup, and here's the lesson I want you to learn from Rebecca. She waited an entire year to start her subscription box, and I don't love that for her. I don't love that for her. But tell everybody why you waited for a year. You were just kind of overthinking things. Let's talk through that, because I bet there are people here in the same feeling that you are feeling right now.

I'm sure. Yeah, I tend to— yes, I tend to overthink it sometimes and I try to bounce it off different family and friends as I can. But that's why Launch Your Box was so wonderful. I joined Launch Your Box in a couple— a few months later in February of '22. And so I was just soaking it all in. I was listening to all the different things that you put out and just kind of thinking through what I wanted to do. And I know I didn't have to get it right. I just had to get it going and try to start everything. So, and I, but I was also doing, I was still teaching the teen girls and making the spiral journals at the same time. So I still make 4 other journals a year besides these every month. So there was a lot of other things, there were a lot of other things going on in the background. But yeah, I definitely took my time and before I started this.

And how, how was your audience? Did you have a small audience? Did you have any audience when you started with me? Zero. Okay, I love that because Everybody yesterday was like, yeah, I had this great audience. All I had to do was launch my subscription box. Okay, so here's Rebecca, no audience. Tell everybody what you did to start building your audience.

Well, I tried posting on social media, so I feel like I'm just now being more consistent. I'm trying to do 3 posts a day, you know, 3 or 4 posts that you recommend. And, but it took a while to get me there. But I also did something a little different in that I go to different conferences and have like booths set up for that. So that helped a little bit. So between that and social media and then now I'm starting ads, that's all kind of coming together to, to add a little bit.

So one thing at a time.

Yes.

You started social media, you started getting consistent, you started to do things and one thing led to another. Like you were building on, 'cause you can't run ads if you don't have great social media. You can't run the ads if you don't know what actually works on social media. So you need all that data to help you run the ads. So you started getting consistent, Did one thing at a time. You went posting. Were you doing video? Because we talked about this last night in our group.

Yes, the lives took me a second, so I was the same. And honestly, it's still a little bit of a— I don't schedule my lives, which I know I need to because that helps people connect at the right time. Like Monday Momentum, I love every Monday. I know 9 o'clock, okay, Sarah's going to talk to me. So that's my next step.

I'm gonna kick your butt on Monday morning, right? So are we doing short video at this point?

Yes, I've started to integrate that more, like more of me journaling through the journals and kind of showing it in real time. So I'm trying to do better at that.

Okay, so we're building our audience, we're getting consistent with social media, we're doing video, we started ads. We launched last fall and you launched with 17 subscribers. Tell me how you were feeling during that launch.

Uh, during the launch week that I was launching?

Yeah, I felt pretty good actually, because why did you feel good about your launch?

Because Sarah has this great resource for how to do your social media, how to do launch week. I, I felt so prepared, and I watched like a lot of things, even how you do your launch week, how you plan everything out, um, looking at your social media. So it just helps. Sarah has all of these things that if you just watch her do it, then it's easy to copy kind of what you do based off her.

Implement. Yeah, just emulate what I'm doing. I was even telling them last night about the page like ad. I'm like, y'all can copy exactly what I say in the page like ad. Just say— you just can't put, I'm a small town girl from Texas and I like monograms and big earrings. Like that, you just have to change that line is the only thing. So, um, yeah, I want you to emulate what I'm doing because what I've been doing, it works. I want you to emulate what our community is doing when something works. And that's the best part about our community, is that when we have a win, we share it. And we don't just share it like, oh my gosh, I got 100 subscribers, but we share it in a way of, this is how I got 100 subscribers. And people are sharing their tactics and their strategies. So all you have to do is follow behind them and implement them. And I think that's the best part about our community.

For sure. There's so many different pieces that I've taken from other people, like even without them knowing.

So thank you already to all of you, everyone that has gone before me and shared your win in the group, because we do, we got to test and try things. Building a business is all a big giant experiment and we have to be willing to experiment at things and we have to be willing to say some things are going to work and some things aren't going to work. Not everything that we do is a win. As long as we just win more times than not, we're going to get ourselves in a better position. And if there are people before us that are winning at something, we're gonna try it. Like, okay, they want it, that I want to try that too. And we just adapt it to our own industry, our own subscription box, and our own way that we do things. And a lot of times that success from somebody else builds on another success from another person. Like, oh yeah, I tried this one thing from Lexi. You're gonna meet her, I think, Saturday. Um, Lexi tried this one thing and I implemented what she was doing and I had success from it too. And so now I'm sharing it with other people. Like, Oh, Lexi taught me this thing. We should all be doing this. And so you launch, you've got the plan out in front of you, the step-by-step. And this is what I was also saying yesterday is that I give you so much of the plan because I know it's really hard to figure out, especially when you're doing this the first time. But you take the plan and you just follow it and you, and you felt very prepared in that launch. And I think that's where a lot of us keep putting off of a launch. We, keep putting off the launch because we don't feel ready. We don't feel prepared. We don't feel like we know what we're doing. But when you've got the plan in front of you and you say, okay, this is what I need to do for social media. This is what I need to do to go live. This is what I need to do for my emails. This is what I need to do for my ad plan. That's the marketing plan to launch your subscription box. And as long as you've been building your audience, you're going to have somebody to market to. And so, um, that you just put the plan into place, you launched, you got 17 subscribers. How did that feel having your first 17 subscribers?

It was so fun. Double digits. That's just amazing. And, and that was— it's cool because like we said before, that, that's monthly, you know, that they keep coming back.

So, and then tell everybody where you're at now. So 9 months later, we started with 17. Where are we at today?

76.

76 monthly subscribers. Let's talk about what that's done for your business.

Well, I was able to hire a very part-time photographer to help with pictures, which was a huge— I enjoy taking pictures, but doing all the things can be too much. And so that's the biggest one for me, is that I was able to have her— I think it's like once a month even, or every 2 weeks, but we just spend the day taking pictures of the journals and me journaling. And, uh, that's helped a lot with me being able to do social media and ads and everything.

So that's because you have quality images that you can use now, right?

Exactly. Yeah, that's just the first—

we got 17 in our first launch. Some people launch with 5, some people launch with hundreds. We heard Jenny talk yesterday how she sold out in like 2 hours with 125. Um, some people launch big and some people launch small, and that's why I wanted to introduce you to Rebecca, because we don't always have have the big wins, but we have to get started because we couldn't get to 76 if we never got the first 17. So talk to me about how you've continued to grow and double and triple and quadruple and 10x and 20x your subscription over the last 9 months.

So it's still been the mix of the different things. So going to different conferences, some have been smaller, some have been bigger. Sometimes You know, they're like a dozen women that sign up for it at one conference. Sometimes it's a little bit more crickets, but doing that and then doing— keeping the social media going, and then with the ads, just kind of reaching out more people that I couldn't reach otherwise.

Okay, so it's audience building.

Yes.

You've been going to these conferences, you've been getting in front of and meeting your perfect person in these environments, right? So you've been audience building, you've been bringing new people into your world. It's that visibility factor. We talked a lot about it yesterday too, um, and And the ads also are putting you in front of people that you've never been in front of before, right? What kind of ads are we running?

So I, I'm experimenting a little right now. So I have a video ad, I have some still shots, just like a picture. And I know it's taken me a while, but I have a lead magnet to like, it's just like a 10, the first 10 pages of one of my journals. So that's okay. Magnet to kind of let them see what it's about, if that's something to be interested in. And so I'm— it's really helping with the emails. It's been— I've been super shocked about that. I shouldn't be, but I was, because your lead magnet is bringing in your— it's—

you're building your email list, and you also started your email list from scratch as well.

Definitely.

Yeah. I want to read you this comment here, but Heather says, I'm so thankful you're doing an interview with someone that started and launched small, it's not so intimidating. And I think that that's important. Like, I started with 44 subscribers. The thought of starting with thousands of subscribers, figuring out the monogramming and the sizing and how much product I need— I probably would have shut down and my business would have suffered greatly because I would have not had great customer service because I hadn't figured it out yet. Like, when we start small, we figure out the bumps, and the bumps aren't so big because we don't have so much, you know, logistics going on. And that's really what you did too.

Yeah, for sure. It's— it would have been too much otherwise.

Nikki's wanting to know what type of conferences that you have been attending.

So it's just, um, different, like, Bible conferences, different— and they're different areas. So I've been kind of different states if they're like women's conferences specifically, or like youth rallies, doing that more. That's more for my other journals. But it took me a while to find the different ones. And so I remember very specifically thinking, where do I go to share I share this. And then these just kind of went after another. Once I started going to a couple of them, then I started getting to know the other people who did conferences like selling, and they're like, oh, have you heard of this one? And so I was like, oh, I haven't, let me try that one. So it's just kind of learning as you go a little bit. I know it can be intimidating to try to know where to start, but just kind of start somewhere and build from there.

Yeah, Carrie Ann's got a great question over here in the group, and she said, is there anything else in your box besides the journals?

Yes, I'm happy to show you. So this is— and I don't have a— okay, camera. I don't have a box, I have a mailer because, um, my— what's inside is so small I don't need a huge box, and it helps a little bit on shipping.

So it's a mailer like that, and so it's flat, it's probably very cheap to ship, it looks great. Um, you don't have to overdo everything, right? It's a craft mailer. Is that printed or stamped?

So I have a very nice friend who does screen printing on the mailer. Yes. So I do these by hand every month, so I'm getting other people to help me, but, um, it's just a nice press and, and then you dry it out. And so, but it has kind of a vintage look, which is kind of my vibe anyway, so it works out if I don't get it perfect. So yeah, that comes in that. And then I was going to do inserts like I love making all the cute things, obviously, but the, um, I realized that the cheapest and best option for me to begin with, and it's what I'm doing right now too, is, uh, just doing it on a piece of paper. Okay, so this is my, my insert, so to speak, and I have like a little blurb that I give to them each month, and then I have the like what's in the mailer. Okay, that goes with it. Okay, and And then this is with— so each month is a little bit different, but I'm sorry, it's kind of tattered. I've been traveling. But it— there is always washi tape inside and then something a little bit different. So this one was kind of artsy. So this was the— this was the journal, and then I just put— I had a subscriber who was more of an artsy person, so we did two little paints. We did some paintbrushes for them to do it inside the journal. Because I print black and white because it's cheaper. I couldn't do it otherwise. And then some washi tape. There's always washi tape. So every month is different. Last month was with a, a keychain. Before I did, like, for February I did like a little love note that was wax sealed. Um, I don't know, I've done a little bit of everything. Some pens, you know, journaling, um, journaling supplies. So it's kind of fun to think about all the different cute things to put in them.

Yes, I love this. Okay, so you've been growing. Now I want to know for all of our beginners out there, when did you start audience building and when did you— how long before you launched when you started audience building? Because I recommend that we got to give it at least 90 days. But talk to me about when you really like dug in and started audience building.

So I took the 90 days to heart. So I definitely made sure that I did it 90 days beforehand. I had a full-time job that I kind of scaled back a little bit into part-time so I could do this as well. So once I got out of the very full-time job, I was able to keep more, keep up with this more. So that was more, I guess, kind of when I started Launch Your Box, I was a little bit, it was about the same time. And so I was a little bit about 2022.

So about a year, maybe a little less because what day did, when, what month did you launch?

August of '23.

Okay, so March, April, May, June, July— 5 months. So you spent 5 months audience building?

The February of 2022.

Oh, okay, so a full year you spent audience building.

It wasn't very much to start with. I was like, the audience building was a slow go.

Um, so how big was your audience when you launched?

I don't know, actually. It was very small. I'm still pretty small in the Definitely in the hundreds. I was, I was—

you don't even have thousands of followers. You have hundreds of followers.

I was, I was happy to get like 100. So definitely in the hundreds. Yeah.

Okay. And then how big is our email list at this point?

I'm just about to hit 1K, just about to hit the 1,000 mark.

So listen to this, listen to this. She doesn't have even 1,000 followers and we're about to just hit 1,000 people on her email list. So essentially, she has a very small audience. She's very niched down with her Bible journaling, um, journals. And, um, she has 72 subscribers. It's all about finding the right person, and it's all about continuing to find the right person. If she hadn't continued her audience building efforts, doing the conferences— and she researched that and, and sought that out herself— she leaned into training and doing Facebook ads, trying to get in front of people. Had she not done that, she might still be at 17 or 30. Honestly, we have to keep growing in order for us to keep growing. We have to keep growing the people that we put in this in front of us in order for us to keep growing our subscriptions. And so Rebecca is a great example of just getting consistent, figuring out what needs to be done. And she didn't have to figure that out on her own. I'm, I'm telling her what needs to be done. And this year I decided my mantra for this year was how do we build healthy habits into our business so that we can sustain them? It's not about being extreme. You didn't hear Rebecca say, oh, I went viral. Oh, I did. Oh, I have tens of thousands of followers. This was easy for me. No, she started at ground zero and it's taken her time. She says a little more time than she would like it to take her because she was working a full-time job. She had things that she had to figure out, but she started at ground zero and she made it happen. Now what's, what's the plan? What's the plan for the rest of this year? What do you want for your subscription?

I would just love for it to blossom, to keep going and to keep gaining traction and really reach the people that need it and really trying to get the ad thing going because I'm, I'm not as good at that. So just trying to figure out, like you said so many times, you have to like do trial and error with that. I'm really trying that trial thing.

And that's a learning curve in itself. Can I just talk to you about how proud I am that you dug into that? A lot of people will never dig into that because they, they are overwhelmed. But I think it's like everything we do in our business, we have to figure it out. We have to learn. We have to teach ourselves. We have to dig in and just start somewhere. And we might make mistakes. But that's what business is. We're going to make a lot of mistakes. Rebecca, I've made a lot of mistakes in the last 11 years running a business. I didn't go to college to be an entrepreneur. I didn't take fancy classes that taught me how to run a business and a website and, and to sell things and all that. I didn't do that. I, I went to school for marketing, and it's been very useful as a business owner to have a marketing degree, but I— this was never the path for me. Like, I didn't grow up thinking I would have my own business. I sure didn't grow up thinking I would coach people to have their own business. It's something that we realize along the way that we can do this, and it's something that we realize along the way that we really want to do this and we have a passion to do it. And if we're passionate about something, we figure it out. Just the way that you figured out how to build an audience, now you're figuring out how to run ads, and you're going to get better and better at that. Trust me, I know. It's scary for me still. I'm working on ads today for my teacher launch that I'm having next month, and I'm like, do I do that? I gotta go back, I gotta, I gotta look at my notes, I gotta figure out what to do because it's been a minute since I've done it. But if we're so scared to get in there and try to figure things out, we're never going to be successful because we're always going to be tiptoeing around our business thinking, I'm not smart enough, I'm not talented enough, I'm not good enough. And if we continue to tell ourselves that we won't move forward, right?

Yeah. I feel like it's okay to get ready, but not to purposefully put it off. So I think—

purposefully put it off. We got to write that down. We got to quote Rebecca on that. That's good.

Because I think we all know that there's a point when we are like, okay, everything's ready. I'm just procrastinating. And there's procrastinating. I've heard that before. There's a place for learning, and that's fine. And we still learn as we go. Obviously it's not going to be perfect, but when we know we're ready, we should go for it because then we'll keep learning as we go. But yeah, it just, it comes as it comes in its own time, but not waiting too long for it.

So our goal this year is to continue to grow. Do you have a number in mind? Do you have a bullseye you'd like to hit by the end of the year?

I would love to hit 100 by the end of the summer. I don't know if that'll be the end of the summer.

Oh, that's soon. Let's go. I know.

So we'll see. We'll see what happens. But that's my— that's the only goal I have right now. I would love for it to go crazy.

But Rebecca, what advice would you give for all those people watching? Larissa says she's the chief procrastinator. She is. Larissa, let's put it into action, girl. Let's go. What advice would you give for someone watching right now that says, I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I can learn all the things that I need to learn. I don't know if I can be successful at that. I'm starting from ground zero. What advice would you give them?

Don't give up. And if you— this is something that you have to pursue. And like Sarah says, she gives you everything that you need. So for me, being in Launch Your Box was huge because I was constantly surrounded by all this encouragement and resources, and I was able to build what I needed. So I knew what I needed for my specific— what I was doing. But being able to just plug it into the formula almost was huge to me. So don't give up. Don't think because you have— you're starting from like nothing, like just an idea, like our ideas are worth a lot and they can become reality. And it's, it's just beautiful to see that happen and unravel like that. And it's totally possible. So don't think it's impossible. It's definitely doable. Just take it a little bit at a time. Don't get overwhelmed. If you have to, like, write a very small to-do list— I've started to have to do this. I'm like, I have to do the website, I have to do emails, I have to write the journals, I have to decide what I'm putting in it. And I start to get overwhelmed, and then I think, okay, today I'm just going to do a website, and tomorrow I'm just going to do the journal. I'm the same way.

I get overwhelmed with the amount of tasks that I have to do every day and the amount of people that need something from me, right? For, for my team at least. So I— and what happens when I get overwhelmed is I shut down and I watch Netflix. Well, that's not productive for me. I have wasted a whole day binge-watching a series because I'm shutting down because everything's overwhelming me. And I do the same thing. I think, okay, I got 97 items on my task list today. Let me pull 10 of them that seem to be the most important, and I'm gonna write down these 10, and I'm gonna feel really good about getting 10 things done today, and I'm not going to worry about the other 87 things that I didn't get done. I'm going to pick 10 more tomorrow, and I have to do that because, um, somebody says, I shut down and play games on my phone. Same. You just start scrolling endlessly, and I'm like scrolling Facebook thinking, oh my gosh, I have all this work to do, but I don't even know where start. And so I'm just shutting down and I go lay in my bed with a bag of chips and I watch Netflix. And that's really what happened. Like, that's not a joke. That's really what happens. And I'll be laying there after like episode 3 and I'll think, what am I doing? I got to get it together. I can't waste a whole day. I've got to go. And so I say this a lot and I think Rebecca is saying the same thing. When you eat an elephant, one bite at a time. You're going to build your business one Lego at a time, okay? It's not built overnight. We're not— and we're also not going to have 1,000 subscribers overnight. So that's not a reality. But what is a reality is that you can build an incredible, sustainable, long-lasting business that can pay you well, that can get you out of the 9-to-5 rat race, or it can bring additional money to your 9-to-5 if you need a side hustle, if you want to pay for it. We heard Lauren paying for her kid to go to college— mine leaves for college in August as well— if that's paying off a car, if that's just getting some extra money in the bank to go on a vacation or just to have a buffer so you're not stressed, all we have to do is start.

And it's been encouraging. It's encouraging to me to hear, to hear you say that you've done that. I was like, okay, I'm okay, because I'm like, Sarah Williams, I'm not different.

I've just been on this road a little bit longer than you, Rebecca. I get overwhelmed by things. I get overwhelmed by technology and I gotta sit down and I either gotta, I say, okay, I've gotta figure out these ads for my teacher launch, right? So I gotta go back through my notes. I gotta go back through my past ads. I gotta reteach myself how to do this because if not, it's not going to get done. And then I'm not gonna have a successful launch because I didn't get my ads going or I didn't get my lead magnet going or I didn't get my giveaway up in time. And so we have to just force ourselves to take time to learn and do. And Rebecca said she's, you know, a procrastinator learner. She just likes to learn and learn and learn and learn and then not actually implement. So don't be like Rebecca, right? Implementing, because that 17 will get you started. And once you have that 17, you're going to be ready for 25 and 50 and 76. Like Rebecca. And now she's like, I'm gonna get to 100 by the end of the summer because I started and I figured out how to grow and I know what to do now. It's just about being consistent, right?

That's right, exactly.

And we'd love for you to come join us in Launch Your Box. Tell them your favorite part about Launch Your Box.

There's so many. Um, the community is great. Sarah's team is great. They're always there to answer a question, or else the community's there. But I really love Monday Momentum. Monday Momentum gets me started. I kind of plan by it, 9 o'clock, and then I know that there's going to be something rich every week that Sarah brings. So I know you've heard it several times before, but Sarah is an incredible mentor and she hits all the different things. Like if you're, if you're not sure about one certain spot, like, well, what do I do about Facebook such and such, or what do I do about my emails? Then you just look back in the Facebook group or you look at the trainings in the library it's probably been covered already. And if not, you can just ask the community. So 24/7 being able to have all that, it just makes it so much easier. And just knowing that people are with you going through the same journey because you can ask questions.

Yes. You're gonna get to a sticking point knowing that you have somewhere to say, okay, I know we talked about this, but where did we talk about this? And what do I do next? And then someone's like, it's right here. Here you go. Right?

Exactly. For sure. I've done that more than once and I'll keep doing it because there's so many different things and I've said, well, I've seen that before, but I don't remember where it is. So yeah, it's incredible.

You're on the road to your first 100 subscribers. Yes. That's a big milestone in our subscription box journey is getting to our first 100 subscribers. What does 100 subscribers mean for you? What does it mean for your business?

It means that I can expand my space a little bit more. So I'd be able to have more of an area to do assembly line for my mailers and kind of have a, have more of a place to do that and not just do everything in one spot. So that's my next goal. Okay.

So your goal is to get to 100 so you can expand your workspace. I love that goal. All right. Come join us. Come join Rebecca and I over in Launch Your Box. And if you're part of Subscription Box Week right now, because we're streaming on YouTube and the public page, but if you're inside Subscription Box Week, We have one more VIP chat tonight, so you can join Launch Your Box and get in on our VIP chat tonight. And we also have another bonus tomorrow that is expiring, so you don't want to miss these two last bonuses. Go ahead and join Rebecca and I, and let's get your first 17 subscribers. If you think about it in that way, it's totally doable. Rebecca doesn't have a big audience. She doesn't even have a medium-sized audience. She has a very small audience. And she got her first 17 subscribers and has grown that to 76 in the last 9 months. And she's going to hit 100 by the end of the summer because I can see it in her. I know she's going to do it. She knows what to do and she knows how to implement at this point. So let's go. I'm ready. Rebecca, I'll see you over in Launch Your Box. Thank you for joining me today. Come join us. We'll see you there. Bye, guys. Bye.