Stop Researching. Start Selling Your Subscription Box.

Let's be honest, how long have you been almost ready to launch your subscription box? Has it been 6 months, a year, maybe longer? I get it because I stayed in that safe kind of research zone for 18 months before I ever sold a single box. But here's the truth, all that planning didn't teach me nearly as much as what I learned in my first 30 days of actually selling. In today's episode, we're going to talk about the 10 signs you're stuck perpetual research mode and the hidden fears keeping you there. And then I've got 5 steps you can take this week to finally get your first box out the door. If you've been waiting for the perfect moment, this is it. Come listen. Welcome to the Launch Your Box podcast with weekly tips, tricks, and strategies to start, launch, and grow your subscription box. Now here's your host, Sarah Williams. Welcome back to the Launch Your Box podcast. Today we're going to talk about breaking free from that perpetual learning mode that lots of people like to stay stuck in and actually taking some imperfect action towards launching your subscription box. Now I'm going to just call you out right here today. If you've been almost ready for 6 months, 8 months, a year, or even longer at this point, this episode is for you. When I first started my subscription box, I sat on my idea for almost 18 months. I was watching, I was researching, I was overthinking every little detail from tech to products to marketing. I was dreaming a lot of that time. I would lay in bed at night thinking about those first few boxes, like, over and over and over again. But in reality, what I learned from just starting that very first month when I finally pulled the trigger was way more than I learned in that 18 months researching. I had been in my head about it. And so I want to acknowledge that there's a lot of good intentions behind learning and researching. But the hidden cost here is that you're going to continue to have no sales, you're going to continue to have no momentum. And at the end of the day, you have no recurring revenue stream. And so what we're going to talk about today is how we got in that trap, what our triggers are, and how we can push forward. Because understanding why you're stuck how to take that one imperfect step forward is going to be very important for you to get out of that perpetual research trap. Okay. So I want to talk about the 10 signs that you're in this perpetual research trap. So if you're listening to me right now and you're near your desk, jot down, jot down a score. If you're thinking, if you're on a walk, you're listening, you're in the car, just I want you to score yourself. And I want you to rate yourself. Just give yourself a 1 for each of these if you identify with them. And then we're going to talk about it because we have to identify that this is a problem before we can fix the problem. So let's walk through the 10 signs. First one, number 1, you've gathered a ton of information, but you haven't acted on any of it yet. Maybe you've attended webinars, you've saved Instagram posts, you filled notebooks with ideas from maybe listening to this podcast. But your box is still just a concept. Knowledge without action is wasted energy. Okay, so number 1, you're just gathering information, but you're not taking action. If that's you, give yourself a 1. Number 2, your launch date keeps moving. It's this fuzzy target that keeps moving. Every time you get close to it, you push it back because I just need to tweak one more thing. If that's you, give yourself a point for that one. Number 3, your logo has been redesigned more times than a piece of furniture. Perfection with your branding, with your packaging, it's not going to sell your first box if nobody knows you actually exist. So if you've been spinning in the details, give yourself a point for that one too. Number 4, You change your box idea every time you see someone else's box. You started with maybe a self-care for moms box. Then you saw, oh, I can do a spa at home box. And then maybe you thought, no, I shouldn't do that. And said, oh, but what about wellness and journals? If you have that rapid thought every time you see something, oh, that could work better. You keep questioning your original idea. Give yourself a point for that one too. Number 5, you're waiting for the perfect item before you launch. So you tell yourself, once I find that one signature product, then I'll be ready. But months later, you're still scrolling wholesale sites, you're still adding things to your cart, and you've never actually ordered anything. Give yourself a point if that's you too. Number 6, you've spent more time studying your competitors than talking to your own audience. You can name every popular box in your niche, their price points, even what they shipped last month, but you haven't asked a single question to your audience. You don't know what they want from you yet, but you're spending so much time studying your competitors. If that's you, give yourself a point for that one. Number 7, you keep reworking your box details instead of locking in and moving forward. One, one week you're changing your product mix, the next week you're tweaking your pricing, then maybe you're changing your shipping schedule. Because if it's always in progress, you never actually have to launch. If you keep reworking your box details, give yourself a point for that one too. Number 8, you're afraid to post about it until it's ready. Here's the problem though, without talking about it, You're going to have no audience there when you launch. If you haven't posted anything about your subscription box, give yourself a point for number 8. Number 9, you have more notebooks, spreadsheets, Trello boards than you actually have orders. Organization is great, but it's not the same as progress. You can keep telling yourself you need more research. You can keep telling yourself you don't know enough. But you have to make some sort of forward-moving progress. Number 10, you're secretly relieved every time something happens to delay your launch because it means you can stay safe, you can stay comfortable, and you're comfortable in this planning stage. You're not comfortable putting it out there. So if you went through these 10 and you gave yourself for 5 or more of them, it's time to make a change with that. And let's talk about this because you're in this safe spot and it feels safe because nobody can reject you if you don't put yourself out there, right? Staying in that research mode means that there's no risk of hearing a no, or that's a dumb idea, or what are you— what is she doing, right? It feels safe because it feels like you're working on your business. You can tell yourself you're making progress without facing the messy reality of actually showing up and selling. It feels safe because you get to avoid hard decisions. As long as you're still deciding, you don't have to commit to a product lineup, a price, a launch date. You're still deciding. So you get to avoid these hard decisions that are going to help propel you forward. That's your safe spot. There's no pressure to deliver. You don't have any customers. There's no deadlines, no orders. I don't have to fulfill anything. So you're giving— you're taking the pressure off yourself. By staying in the safe zone, right? It's safe because it feels comfortable. Learning feels familiar to a lot of people. I went to college way too long. I went to college and got, you know, my bachelor's degree and then my master's degree. Oh, and then I went to architectural art school. I just— learning felt comfortable. It felt like I didn't have to go out in this real world and actually like make something of myself. It's familiar. There's low stakes involved. Launching is high stakes. There's a lot of unknowns. It feels uncomfortable. It also kind of keeps you in control when you're in this learning mode. It keeps you in control. It lets you control every variable. But selling means you have to give up some of that control because that's controlled by your customer. Right. If this is you, if you feel like I'm talking to you, I want you to— I want you to really hear me on this. Every week that you spend researching instead of selling is just another week without customers. It's another week without feedback. It's another week without income. And that's what we're here for. The truth really is you're not preparing. You're postponing. Write that on a sticky note if you need to hear that again. You're not preparing, you're postponing. And the only thing standing between you and that actual first sale, that actual first launch, is taking action. So now that you know the signs, and maybe you can relate to those signs I want to talk a little bit more about these hidden reasons and which one you identify with, because the trap really isn't about needing more time or more research. It's what's underneath that constant learning and planning mode that you're in. These are often in our subconscious, and I know that feels a little woo-woo from me because I'm a very much action-driven person, but you have to get to the core of that so that you can take action. And you may not even realize what's keeping you stuck. There's really 5 core reasons that are keeping you stuck, and I want you to listen, and I want you to understand which one of these is your core reason for keeping stuck. Okay, the first one, which is probably the highest percentage of people relate to this one, and it's the fear of failure. What if nobody buys? What if people think it's terrible? Research feels productive, but it's risk-free. But here's the reality: if you fail when you start small, it's how you learn faster. You can spend all this time researching and prepping and it could be a failure, right? And that's what we're afraid of, so that's why we don't push go. But you can't fix problems for something you never started. And this one's hard for me to relate to because I don't ever feel failure, and I have failed plenty of times in my life. I have had— I don't call them failures, but I've had you know, bad— I'm gonna say bad launches, terrible ideas. I don't call them failures. I don't have fear of that. I have fear of regret. I have fear of the what-if. What if I don't do this? How could my life be different? When I was on the verge of starting my business, I was working for a Fortune 500 company. It was safe. I had a good salary. I had great benefits. I had 2 small kids, but there was some fear in me of regret. If I don't take this chance, will I always wonder what this could have been? If I don't step into this right now, will I regret it? And that was the fear that was driving me to move forward. I knew I could always come back. To a 9-to-5 job. I knew I had a great resume and I could all— if this didn't work out, I'll find a job, I'll be fine. But that fear that I had was regret of what if. And I'm so glad that that fear drove me because look at me now. You would have never known that I was like, okay, plan B is I go back to work. This doesn't work, but I got to give it a shot because I don't want to live the next 10, 20 years wondering if I would have just started my business, how would my life be different? Because I I could have never imagined the way it is now. So I want you to understand that you're gonna have failures. They're gonna come. They'll be small, they'll be big, they'll be in different areas of your business, but you can't fix things that you don't start. Number 2, it's the fear of success. Some people— and I know it sounds odd if you don't have this fear, but it's a very relevant fear, and that's why I put it listed as number 2. Some people fear success. What if this takes off and I can't keep up? That's a fear. What if I get 100 subscribers when I launch this? I don't have any help. I don't know how to ship these things. What if I don't know how to handle all these orders? What if? What if you get 100 subscribers? What would that change for you? Success forces us to leave our comfort zone in new ways and figure it out. More responsibility, more visibility, more pressure. You can figure out scaling after you have something to scale. You don't need to have a 500-subscriber systems and process and team before you ever have your first 20. And in people's mind, they have this fear of success, so they feel like they have to be overly ready. I'm going to tell you the story about my— one of my launches for Launch Your Box. I was about 9, 10 months into building Launch Your Box. I had a few hundred members. It was really going great. I was doing virtually everything by myself at that time. I was in the community every day myself. I was the community manager, I was customer service, I was developing all of the training content. For this membership. So I was basically doing everything by myself. And then I hosted my very first subscription box coaching week, and it was my breakthrough launch. And in that launch, I added 1,100 new members in 5 days. I now had 1,400 members. I now had 1,400 people needing me, and I was one person. And as that number went from 600 to 800 as the launch was progressing, I wanted to shut it all down. I panicked. I'm like, I gotta shut this launch off. I can't handle this many people. I don't have any infrastructure in this business yet because it wasn't paying me very well and I was the only one doing everything. And I reached out to my mentor, Stu McLaren, and I said, OMG, I need to shut my launch down. I have too many people joining. And he says, whoa, whoa, whoa, Sarah, this is happening for you, not to you. You keep going and we will figure this out. All of this is— we can figure out. Do not lose momentum with this launch. Keep going. And he encouraged me and we were on a call together and he even sat there and wrote like my another email to send out because I was like, I'm not sending any more emails. I'm shutting off ads. Like, I'm not going live anymore. He's like, oh, yes, you are. And you know what? I figured it out immediately. I had to hire people. I hired a community manager. I hired a customer service person. I started to build a team. I had people on the other business, on my retail business, that I pulled in to help me while we got people hired. I had people doing my blog and my, and my content on the other side of the business that said, hey, you're now going to do this too. I need your help over here too. And I figured it out. Yes, it was a hot mess. Yes, I was overwhelmed. But look where we're at now. I get the fear of success, but sometimes we're worried about that 500 subscriber count and we don't even know that it just starts with 20 people. Number 3, perfectionism. This is what perfectionism sounds like: I'm not ready yet. I'll launch when it's perfect. I don't have the right products. I don't have the right packaging. I don't have the magic number of followers or people on my email list yet. If you're battling perfectionism, you believe that your customers are going to expect flawless branding, packaging, and execution from you on day one, and that's a lie you're telling yourself. Those early customers, those first 20, those first 50 customers, they're buying into you and your vision, not your pretty packaging, not your pretty branding, not because everything's perfect. Imperfect action beats perfect inaction every time. I'm going to say that again for all my perfectionists listening. Imperfect action beats perfect inaction every single time. I get that you might be a perfectionist wanting everything to be the best that it can be, but honestly, that's keeping you stuck. I want you to have subscribers. I want you to figure things out and keep growing, and you're going to make it better and better. But if you don't get started because it's not perfect yet, you're never going you're going to have a business. Number 4: comparison. I always say comparison is the thief of joy. Comparing yourself to others will really steal your joy. This kind of sounds like, well, I can't launch until my website looks as good as hers. Oh, her unboxing videos are so professional. I need to be at that level before I can launch. Oh, she has thousands of subscribers. I don't. I will never have that many. You're seeing other people's middle. You're seeing like the highlight reel of their business. And that convinces you that you're not good enough. But the reality is those polished boxes didn't start that way. You're looking at someone's years of growth. You can't compare your day one to someone else's year five. And I see it happen over and over and you get discouraged by that. So you shut down, you pull back, you don't show up. If we compare day ones, so many of your day ones were better than my day ones. When I started my subscription box and I was heavily watching a competitor, They had tens of thousands of subscribers. I could never beat their price. I could never offer the products that they offered. But if I constantly compared what I could do to that bigger brand, I would have never started. Because the reality was I didn't need 10,000 subscribers. At that time, I needed 100. And I felt confident in myself and the way I had been building my audience that I could find my 100. So I want you to remove this comparison guilt that you have. I want you to let it go. This world is big enough for all of us. You don't need 50,000 subscribers. You need 50 to start. Okay, let's get, let's get out of the comparison out of our head. And here's number 5. You're hiding in your comfort zone because you have a lack of clarity. I'll just keep learning. I'm not ready yet. I'm still figuring out exactly who my box is for and what's going to go in it. And this keeps you in the planning, learning stage that's safe and predictable and familiar. The reality check is that confidence and clarity come faster when you test your idea with real people instead of this weird theory or this weird idea that you tell yourself. Growth only happens when you're willing to step outside of that comfort zone, and it's supposed to feel uncomfortable. Every time we do something, every time that fear of failure or success or comparison or perfectionism comes in, it means we're uncomfortable. But clarity comes faster when you test your idea with real people instead of all the things you tell yourself in your head. The reason you haven't launched isn't because you need more information. It's because you're protecting yourself from the discomfort. And I, I can relate to this so much. But here's the truth. The discomfort that you're avoiding is the exact doorway you need to walk through. You need to take that opportunity and walk through. So here's our action plan, because you know I'm not giving you a podcast without any action. The goal here is to help you commit to one tangible action that you can take in the next 7 days and the next 30 days that moves you forward from reset research mode into selling mode. Okay. If you're a note-taker, this is where I need you to take notes. This is your homework. This is your action plan. If this episode is relatable to you in any way, let's take action. Number 1, I need you to pick a launch date. A date makes it real. Without it, you're still talking about someday. Well, in the fall. Well, in, in the new year. Wherever, whatever that is, it's not concrete. I need you to pick a date within the next 30 to 90 days, not 6 months from now. You can take action in the next 30 to 90 days. I want you to put it on your calendar. I want you to tell someone who holds you accountable. And I also want you to tell your audience. Here's something that you can relate to. I was set to launch launch your box in March of 2020. And, um, in the fall of 2019 and bleeding into January of 2020, my mother got very, very sick and she was hospitalized for several months. I was driving back and forth to Dallas every few days to sit with her at the hospital to give my brother and sister a break, and it was heavy. And I had not done the work that I needed to do to get Launch Your Box ready to launch. But I had told people I was launching in March. I had told people the launch date. And so here it was, the end of January. I'm like, I can't launch this thing. I have nothing built. And I remember getting a DM that day that I was like, I got to push this back, saying, I'm so excited to join Launch Your Box in March. I can't wait. And I thought, okay, Sarah, you told people. It held me accountable. I spent all of February working my tail off to get ready to launch in March, and I launched in March and I got 104 members on my very first launch. And when you put that date out there, when you tell somebody, when you make it out and put it out in the world, it holds you accountable. You've got to choose a date that gives you just enough time to prepare, but it doesn't have to be perfect. OK. Number 2 action step, I need you to curate your first 3 boxes. You've probably been laying in bed thinking about this over and over again. We got to put it on paper. You don't need a forever vision. If you would have told me when I started my subscription box that I needed to plan 101 different boxes because that's where I'm at right now, almost 9 years later, I would have told you, forget it. I don't know. I don't have that in me. All I needed to do was plan those first 3 boxes. I didn't even know if this was going to work. So why would I plan an entire year? And that's funny because people ask me all the time, do you have a yearly option? I'm like, no, because I didn't even know if it was going to work for a year. So I only had a monthly option and I still only have a monthly option. It works for me, but I needed to sit down and map out my first 3 months boxes. This is my starting point. This is my starting version. Decide on the simplest version of your box that you can deliver right now. Is that a one thing of the month? Is that a curated box? You've got to figure that out and let's make plans. But I want you to limit your first box to like 3 to 5 products, not 10 or 12. Because I see that too, and it's too much. And if you need help with this, I have a free workshop that you can go watch. It's called the 6 in 60 workshop, and I help you lay out 6 months. So you could do that with 6 months, or you could just watch it till you got to 3 months. You need to plan for now, not the future. You can go watch that workshop at 6in60workshop.com. That's also in the show notes. Okay, so step 2 is to curate your first 3 boxes. Number 3 is to simplify your offer. Too many options create decision paralysis for you and your customer. I see it over and over again. Here's what I want you to do. One subscription option, one price point. It's where I started. $40 monthly box, period. That's all you could purchase. It had a clear description, clear benefits, and a clear price point. You can always add options later like I did, but don't confuse your buyer right out front. Simplify the offer so they understand it or they won't buy at all. They'll have decision fatigue when they go to your checkout page. Simplify. Don't overthink this. 4, announce it publicly. We talked about this a little bit, but public commitments build momentum and accountability. Post an announcement on social media, email your list, even if it's small. You can show some behind-the-scenes prep, build anticipation coming forward, but let people see the journey that this is coming. And if it's not perfect, it's okay. It's still coming. It's still going to happen. It's like wedding planning right now. I'm getting, you know, I'm in the thick of wedding planning. I'm getting married in a couple of months. And, you know, you spend a year planning your wedding. The date is on the calendar. Everyone's invited. You're showing up whether it goes off well or not. And a lot of times there's a lot of things that don't happen on your wedding day that you have planned, but you can't change it. That's what I want you to— I want you to have that mindset here. Plan your wedding. Everyone's coming. It doesn't matter if it's perfect. Number 5, I want you to set up your product listing and test it. Many people delay their launch because they get stuck or they get scared with the tech. Your checkout page is not going to build itself, and without it, nobody can buy. So I want you to get your product listing up on your website. I want you to make sure you have clear photos, descriptions, price, and a buy button. Test the entire checkout process yourself. Or have a friend do it too, or both, and make sure it works smoothly. Do not wait for the perfect website design. A simple, functional product page is enough to get started. Stop overthinking it and stop waiting for the last minute to get your tech set up, because that's where people delay their launch, and now they're delaying again. Do it now so it's not a last-minute stressor. Number 6, I want you to learn from your first 10, 20, 50 customers. These first customers are your most valuable resource. They're going to give you real feedback. They're not actually buying your box, they're buying the idea of it because you haven't put it together, which means their reaction to it is priceless in your business. You're going to learn more from them in a month than you could from 6 months or more of planning and researching. You can do it in several different ways. You could follow up personally. That's a great part about starting small. Send them a short email, send them a DM, ask them what they loved, ask them what could be better, ask them what they want to see next time. Watch their behaviors. Are you seeing that they're sharing it on their socials? Are they tagging you? What products get mentioned the most? Ask them when you do a live unboxing, what was your favorite product from this box? I always ask that. And then see, do they say— do they stay subscribed after they get their first box? Are they leaving? Are they staying? Maybe they're referring a friend. That's how my box started. I started to see these little pockets in the same towns, and I knew that people were sharing with their friends. That's a sign it's going real well for you. Treat your first batch of subscribers like they're VIP insiders, like they took a chance on you. I will never forget my first 44 subscribers. Offer them some incentive to give you some feedback. Maybe it's a discount code. Maybe it's a box bonus item from their next box. And then keep their testimonials because their words become marketing copy for your next launch. And here's just a little mindset reminder because I know you're going to need it because I needed it a lot. Don't take negative feedback personally. It's so hard, Sarah. It's so hard not to take it personally. It's like you've birthed your own baby here. Your box is like birthing a child, but you can't take it personally. You got to look at it as data and not stock of your own worth, positive or negative. Every response is going to help you get better. Okay, it's hard. Have somebody that you can talk to when you get negative feedback so that you can process it out loud. You can talk through it with somebody. Those are your homework. There's 6 of them. Let me read them to you real quick, and then we're going to talk about a couple mindset shifts for you to end this. Number 1, pick a launch date. Number 2, curate your first 3 boxes. Number 3, simplify your offer. Simple is better than complicated. Number 4, announce it publicly. Number 5, set up your product listing and test it early. And number 6, learn from your first customers. Now here's what I'm going to tell you. This isn't going to shift your brain overnight, but I want you to really work through this for yourself. Done is better than perfect every time. Put that on a Post-it note. I need to make a sign and send it to all of my members. Done is better than perfect. Dan Martell says 80% done is 100% awesome. So if you can tell yourself, I just need to get this 80% Great. It doesn't have to be 100%. Perfection is a moving target that you will almost never reach. Every day you wait to be perfect, you delay sales, you delay learning, you delay growth. Think of this first launch as version 1.0, and we're just going to keep making it better and better. 2.0 is going to be your next launch, and you're going to have learned so much by then. Okay. Every person that you admire started messy. No one's first box looks like their year 5 box. If we just put them side by side, my first box to my now box, you would be like, is that the same person? Yes, because I learned as I grew. I learned as I had time to understand. Social media is people's highlight reel, not their messy, raw, real start. So remember that. You don't get to skip messy. You have to grow through it. Fear is a sign that you're doing something new and important. If you feel fear about this, it means you're stretching beyond your comfort zone, and that's okay. It's normal to feel fear. If it feels scary to you, it's probably worth doing. If it feels too comfortable, you're not stretching enough. If you feel scared, it matters. So I want you to feel that. I'm a feeler, but we have to push past it. Progress creates confidence, not the other way around. You have to make progress. Action fuels confidence. And your small wins, they compound each other. Each imperfect step, each imperfect box that you send out builds your experience and your customer base and your knowledge base and your confidence that the next one is better. You can't research your way into a successful subscription box. You have to sell your way there. So in the next 7 days, in the next 30 days, I want you to take one bold, one imperfect action that moves you from the research mode to the selling mode. We've gone through all those action steps today. Post your launch publicly, create and publish your listing on your website, curate your first 3 months' boxes, send an email announcing your launch, announce it on social media. You don't need 500 subscribers worth of systems before you actually start. You don't need a perfect website. You need a way for people to say yes and give you their money. Every successful subscription box owner that you admire or look up to had a messy first box. And I want you to imagine 30 days from now you're that much closer to launching, or you've actually shipped your first box. You got customer feedback, you know exactly what you're going to do differently for month 2. But it only happens if you start now. You can't fix a box that doesn't exist. You can't fix an idea that's sitting in your head. That's all for this episode, but I know you can do this.