Stop Launching So Much: A Smarter Way to Scale Your Subscription

Good morning. Good morning. Happy Monday. We are back for Monday Momentum and listen, if Julie doesn't bring momentum to your life this week, I don't know what will. I thought it would be really fun to share Julie's story with you today because it comes, it is a long journey. So, first of all, I want to recognize that that is normal. We have long journeys with this. It's not overnight success, but there is something super special about Julie's journey that she's going to share with you today. She started one subscription. It grew to about 100 subscribers. I'm feeling like maybe I remember this or not. She's going to tell you. Then she pivoted, started a new subscription, and it has exploded over the last several years. So we're going to chat with Julie. Let me know in the chat if you're here. I would love to say hi to you before we get started. This morning. I can see our YouTubers are hopping in. It's a little bit slower for our Facebookers to get over here, but our YouTubers are here. My team is here with us in the chat. I can see Beth is here. Good morning. Rebecca's here. Good morning, Rebecca. Christina's here. Good morning, everybody. All right, Julie, let's just jump— oh, Carolyn, Carolyn, everybody, let's jump, um, right into it this morning. So, Julie, Let's go way back. Let's go back, um, and let's, let's talk about the start of things because it wasn't always the Pilot Wives Club, was it?

That's right, that's right. No, yeah, it started, um, with the Tea Towel of the Month Club. And, um, Sarah, I think I joined your group like 5 years ago, 5, 6 years. I mean, like, in the beginning.

In the beginning, I was telling, I was telling my husband this morning that I was talking with you, and I'm like, I think she's an OG. Like, was it 2020 when you were with me? When you started? Was it 2021?

2021, I think. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

So we, we, you come to launch your box, you're excited, um, you are going to start a tea towel of the month club subscription. Talk to me about that and how that went.

Okay, yeah. So, um, I had the— so let me go back even a little further. I had a painting company with a friend of mine, and we were flipping furniture in our garages. And we got like older, and our backs hurt. We're like, we can't do this anymore, anymore. And our kids were getting older and busy and stuff. So we decided, what else could we do? Let's do something. And so we decided— I was folding towels one day, and I'm like, 'Hey, this is kind of replenishable and, um, cute and fun. Let's try this.' Um, so we did and, um, shipped out just a cute tea towel that we'd picked out and did that every month. And, um, that was a little different because I did it with a business partner, and, um, that has its own kind of challenges, but, and, and benefits. But, um, but yeah, we, um It was a great, great learning experience, learning process. We grew it to about 100 subscribers and, you know, it kind of went up and kind of went down and it was like, yeah, I'm not sure this is going to, you know, go where I want it to. And so I kept hearing you say, Sarah, the riches are in the niches, right? And so I was like, what? You know, 'cause as an entrepreneur, I feel like I'm a little bit crazy sometimes where I'm just always thinking about what can I do and what can I try? And so I was thinking about the niches in my life and I'm a woman engineer. I was like, okay, there's that. Oh, that seems kind of boring. I'm married to a pilot and I actually—

Yeah, let's just go back because I want to celebrate the fact that you are a woman engineer. That is not boring. That is awesome and incredible, and you should be very proud of that. So, uh, thank you. Thank you. Right there. Okay.

Okay. Yeah, yeah. I wasn't, um, I didn't have— feel excited about doing something related to that, I guess I should say. And so, um, like, uh, now it's been about 10 years ago, I started a Facebook group for pilot wives, um, just like on a whim because I was feeling lonely and feeling like doing all the stuff and my husband's out somewhere fun and I'm, you know, it was kind of hard and I didn't have family nearby. So I just was like, there's got to be other people out there like me. And I mean, I was sitting at one of my kids' practices and just started it. Like, that's how I do things. I just like, just do it, you know?

So I just started it.

Yeah. And so I already had that community. And I think at the time there were probably 5,000 women in that Facebook group. And it was just like on its own. I really didn't have to do much to it other than, you know, maybe temper drama once in a while, but it was just, you know, active and stuff going. And so I thought, okay, well, that's a niche, right? Maybe that would be something kind of fun. And so now it's been, it would have been 5 years ago at Thanksgiving. I sent a message to my Facebook group. And I'd set up a survey and set and, and made it so that, you know, I collected their email address at the end and all of that. And just was like, would you like it monthly, quarterly, you know, and what would you like in it? And is this a good idea? And, you know, whatever. And so I sent that out Thanksgiving because all of our husbands were working, flying people around. And I got about 1,000 people responded to that survey. And a lot of them left their email. Yeah.

Wow. That's amazing. 1,000 people responded. That's pretty incredible. And that's when you're like, okay, I've got people interested, right?

Yeah. Yeah. That's right. That's right. So I had that audience kind of built in and they felt like they, they knew me, right? They kind of just felt like they did even, you know, from a distance, I guess. And then March, the following March, about— so that would have been 4 months later— was my first box, and it sold out. I had 100 boxes, and it, it just sold out right away. And it kind of just continued.

Yeah, let's pause, because here's what I want them to understand. You worked a long time to get your Tea Towel of the Month to 100 subscribers.

Yeah.

Now you're like, this is something I'm passionate about, this is something I'm part of, I'm gonna try this. And you sold out on your very first launch to 100 subscribers, something that took you, I want to say, like a year or so to get the tea towel. I'm trying to remember this.

Yeah, that's right.

But it was incredible, and it was like instant switch went off, like, this is what I need to be doing.

Yeah.

And so you sunset the tea towel subscription, and you're like going all in with the Pilot Wives Club.

Right, right. That's right. Yeah, that's exactly. And you know what, I'm thankful for the tea towel because I, I did learn a lot and it gave me the ideas and everything. But yeah, yeah, definitely. So, so yeah, so that was March was our first box 4 years ago now. I'm coming up on 4 years and it kind of went that way for the first 9, maybe the first year. And I am a bi-monthly box, so it's every other every other month. And so that first year was really— everything was exciting and I'd click the update the quantity and it would just sell out. And that was fun and exciting.

It's like a dopamine hit. It's like the entrepreneur dopamine hit when you sell something or it goes viral or whatever. It's like, yes, let's do more. That's what keeps fueling, right?

For sure. For sure.

Yeah. Yep.

And I was just going to say, yeah, go ahead.

Go ahead.

Well, in those early months, you know, I'm working a full-time job and I have teenagers. And so I would get up at like 5 in the morning every morning and just work on it for a couple of hours. Then I'd go to work and, you know, you're always thinking, you're kind of, things are running through your head, but I had to like really be focused on what I needed to do during that little window of time that I had to get it set up.

Yeah, you had to use the— you had to maximize that little short window of time before you went to work and then before your kids got home at night. Right. And so you were probably the most productive and efficient than any of us at that point because you don't have time to spare. You don't have to waste. You have to get in and get it done. So now we launch, we're at 100. Every time we bump the quantity, we're selling out. We get to about 600 subscribers. Yeah, we're at about 600 subscribers. I'm gonna say this is about 18 months ago. And here's what happened, y'all. This is what happened. You guys know if I've shared inside the group that, um, I'm getting ready to transition to a fulfillment center for the first time in 9 years. Okay. And so I'm on a call with Ryan from the fulfillment center right after my honeymoon in November. And he said, man, Julie is just growing like crazy. And I'm like, she is? She hasn't told me anything. He's like, I think she's up to like 1,700 subscribers right now. And I'm like, what? I knew Julie was 1,700 subscribers. So I immediately get off the phone with Ryan. I'm like, Julie, what is going on? Tell me all the things. And so that sparked a conversation. And she said, I've done this without launching. So Julie, I want you to take me back to about 18 months ago and tell me what changed. I mean, you went from 600 to 1,700 In our world, it's overnight. It doesn't feel like that because it is 18 months. But for you to almost triple your subscription in the last year and a half has been incredible. And I sat and listened like a sponge, and it's inspiring. And that's what I want you to hear from Julie today. So take it away, Julie. Tell me what—

Okay, sure. You know, I feel like in building your business, it's just, it's layers, like adding layers on layers, right? And so I was doing all the organic posting. I did the live unboxings, not as often as you do, Sarah, but I did go live, you know, where my people knew, knew me, right? Well, then I started dabbling in ads and, and really that's what has given me the ability to grow and, you know, not have to launch and, you know, do crazy, you know, do crazy things. It's really trying to figure out the marketing and, um, and running profitable ads. Sometimes that takes a little bit of, um, you know, practice and trial and error. And, you know, I, I looked back at last year at my ad spend, and like, I had months where I was acquiring people for $30, and I had months where they were more toward the $60 to $70. You know, it kind of was back and forth, and just keep trying to try new things and see what will entice people to join and stay with us. So it's kind of been it.

What I love is that, first of all, Julie still works her full-time job. Okay. First of all, we're just going to put that out there. What I love is that she said, I love my job. I have a great job. I don't want to quit my job. My goal with this business was not to quit my job. Okay. So she loves her job. She's not looking to quit it. Maybe not right now. She feels like she might be bored when her kids go off to college and stuff. But what I love is that she figured out a way to not only run her business in a short amount of time in a week, she found a way to be profitable with her business. She's at a fulfillment center, which means she's not manually laboring in the business. And when she started ads, she no longer had to launch because it took some trial and error. She just said that. But once she figured it out, it was like, okay, I just have to spend more money. And that was what our conversation was not too long ago was like, and it was this epiphany for me because I'm over here doing all the things, right? I'm going live, I'm posting, I'm, I'm doing all the things. And Julie's like, yeah, I don't really do all the things. And she felt guilty about it.

I'm like, more.

And she said, I really looked into ads. And her ad spend is significant at this point, but she's dialed it in. She didn't start out with a crazy amount of money. She started out and learned and then figured out what was working. And when— after I got off the phone, after we got off the conversation, I said, jump on a Zoom call with me, Julie. After we got off that Zoom call, it just hit me in that moment. This was December. And I just was like, I'm not spending enough to make a difference. I'm spending enough to get a little bit, that little bit is not counteracting my cancellations. And therefore it's not allowing me to grow. I'm not even getting as many of the people that are canceling a month. So therefore, my bucket is still leaking every month, I needed to just spend more. And you know, it's weird because I'm the coach, right? And I know all the things that we need to do. But when you said, all I'm doing is spending more money, all I'm doing is spending X amount of money a day, and I'm growing like crazy without launching, without having to give away the farm, without doing all the things. And I thought, okay, I just need to spend more. Got off the phone, got off the Zoom call with Julie, and I started a new ad campaign. I've gotten over 200 new subscribers since mid-December, um, and all I had to do was double what I spending, and it made a huge difference in my business. I'm now growing. When I ran my January numbers, I'm up 13% in subscription revenue. I have not been up in subscription revenue since 2022. All it took was this one conversation with Julie. And so I'm here to thank you for that. But I'm also here to share with everyone that you don't have to have it all figured out all the time. That you don't have to, you don't have to have all the time in the world either. You're running this very successful 1,700 subscribers on a very short window in a week, right? How many hours do you spend working?

Um, I try to work 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. That's my goal. Sometimes things I wanted to do that the mornings before your job.

Is that before you go to your job, right?

Or in the evening, you know.

Um, we don't need to make it public knowledge what she's spending. Um, we, um, we talked about it in Scale Your Box. Julie's in Scale Your Box. We're open in there. Um, but the ads that she's doing are conversion ads. So she's doing sales ads. Um, so when you go into Ads Manager and you drop down and, and do sales ads, and, you know, I've tested some things and I've tested I did kind of some more evergreen style ads. So they're not like the last month's box or the next box. They're kind of just, you know, overall general, this is what you get. Those are working really well. And you know what? I had a couple days recently where 48 hours went by and I got no new subscribers. And at this point I've been getting like 4 to 7 new subscribers a day. And I'll share, 'cause this is my page, but I'm spending only $200 a day right now and I'm getting 4 to 7 new subscribers a day. And so I had 2 days, I had 48 hours where I got no subscribers. And I said, okay, let me reset my ads. And I just went and I turned off everything that was in there and I started fresh new ads. And immediately I got 6 subscribers the next day. And so I think that you just have to keep trying and you just have to keep looking at it as an experiment. There's no like foolproof answer for this. Ads help her grow. Ads didn't get her launched. Ads didn't help her get to her 600. She worked her business. And that's what I, that's what I want you to understand. When you're new, I don't want you to focus on ads. I want you to focus on content and building a strong customer base and getting to your first 100 subscribers. And when you get there, then you've got stuff dialed in. You've got your messaging dialed in, you've got your customer dialed in, and that's when we start to explore ads for scaling. So we've got to have proof first before we throw money at it. And so that's what I want you to focus on. Ads aren't the answer to everything, but they are the gasoline to your fire that you've already built. And so, um, Julie, for anyone watching, um, what would you say besides ads have been the most significant thing that you got from your business?

Um, you know, I think, um, just building this community, um, has been, you know, like I said earlier, like people think, feel like they know me and they have access to me in different ways where, um, like I was mentioning the other day, we're getting ready for our annual getaway where I take some, you know, some people sign up and we go somewhere fun and spend the weekend. And, you know, we're— I think there's just kind of a know, like, and trust factor that plays into, um, you know, the group that I've built where everything I do, I sign it, you know, love Julie, and, you know, hey, this is Julie. And, you know, I think that they just feel that connection that, um, that where I— that I felt when I first started, where I felt lonely. And like, it just makes them feel like, oh, I know, yeah, I know Julie, she does the same thing, and, you know, she manages okay. So, um, So I think that's the big part.

That's a huge part of it. It's— and it's a free Facebook community, right? Any PilotWife can join. They don't have to be a subscriber. She built a community first, loved and nurtured them, and then she sold to them. And I think that's where we try to do it backwards. We try to sell something to build a community with. But if we start building a community with something that we're passionate about that can learn, that can turn into something very profitable. I'm super excited for you. What does it mean she doesn't launch? She doesn't jump through hoops for 5 days. That's what she doesn't do. So when we talk about the launch, we're talking about the launch plan where we're open now, get in, here's a freebie, here's an email every day, here's a live every day. She's not launching. Launching is amazing. But she's figured out how not to launch and just use ads with a significant ad spend month over month to keep filling her cancellations and growing her subscription. And so that's what it means she doesn't launch. She doesn't do a dedicated launch window. And so I've been testing it to see if I can grow this year without launching. And so, so far so good. I increased March by 50 subscribers. And so we're going to to see how that, how that plays out. And so we're going to see if I can just do a slow increase every few months and then I have a couple hundred new subscribers by the end of the year and I haven't had to launch. We're going to see. And if not, you know what? I got a launch plan. We got it in the library. I'm going to pull that sucker out and I'm going to do what I know how to do. But this is, this is the way that Julie's been doing it and I'm excited. Yes, Kate, the cart is always open until she sells out. So once she sells out, it's closed, it goes to a waitlist. But while she has spots, I looked last night, she's open right now. If you are aviation fanatic, you can get in. Yes, the Facebook group as well as a Facebook page. So she uses the Facebook group for her community. That's how the know, like, and trust factor is built. She's using her Facebook page to promote the subscription. And that's where she's running ads from the page. You can't run them from the group. So if this is something you want to do, you gotta have both. All right, Julie, any last words of advice for our watchers this morning?

I guess I would only say that, you know, the ad side of things is a continual process. You know, it's like I have some ads I've been running for 9 months and I just let them, let them be. But, you know, it's just, you know, continually trying to tweak and make them better and test. And see what works. I had my cost per acquisition was going up at the end of the year, so I kind of dialed back down in January and I'm trying some new things. So it's sort of a, you know, you can spend your time doing that or launching or, you know, the different levers you can pull to grow. Yeah.

And that's the thing, like if you don't have the money to put into the ad spend right away, and here's the thing, you didn't until you had a big pool of subscribers where you were making revenue. And that's the thing that we have to remember. This is why I I don't teach ads in— I just teach the page-like ad in Launch Your Box, and I wait till you get to Scale Your Box to teach the full ads module is because I need you to have a proven concept. I need you to have it built. I need you to have worked through the process before, because the ads aren't the end-all be-all. They are a tool that you can use to grow, but you have to have that fire built before we throw gasoline on it. We can't just throw gasoline on dirt. It's not going to go anywhere. So we have to have that built. All right, all right, y'all, thank you for hanging out with Julie and I today. Have a wonderful week. Um, I've got Tech Talks this week inside Launch Your Box. I'll be live with Nicole later this week. All right, talk to you soon. Bye, y'all.