Use Mystery Boxes to Reduce Inventory & Bring in Revenue

Good Monday morning, everybody. It's time for Monday Momentum. Today we're talking about mystery boxes, and I've got a special guest for you that's going to be joining me in just a minute. So if you're joining me right now, let me know that you're here live, or let me know that you're joining on the replay. I would love to know where you're watching from on this Monday morning. I just got back from Alaska, so I just came back from my cruise. It was amazing. I feel refreshed and just reinvigorated. I'm excited to be back at work this morning. There's a lot going on today and I'm going to tell you this and I just— I'm going to need you to be proud of me for just a minute. I never ask, you know, for you to be proud of me, but I'm going to need you to be proud of me for just a minute because I only checked my email box one time in 7 days and I'm really proud of myself for that. I did not work at all. There was one day that I was laying out on my balcony just tanning and I was feeling creative and I made a t-shirt design. And that is literally the only work that I did for 7 days. And I feel like that is the first time ever, ever since starting my company 10 years ago that I have not worked on vacation. And I'm really proud of myself and I want you to be proud of me too. But here's the thing about taking time off. We've talked about it several times this year. You have to do that for yourself, whether you do a staycation and just stay home, but you have to unplug from work. You cannot take a vacation and continue to work, work, work because you never get that reset. You never get that refresh. And so I need you to put it in your schedule. If that's a long weekend, if that's a few days off this week to go do some things with your kids or your spouse or your family, Block some time out for yourselves. We can keep going nonstop year round. We could work 365 days a week. I've done it before. I've done it a lot of years. But I'm telling you, it's not good for you. You're going to get burnout. You're going to get exhausted. You can't think clearly when all you do is work, work, work. I'm going to need you. I'm going to need you to rest. Because what happens when we don't take time for ourselves? We don't rest. We don't put some white space on our calendar. Is we get in this rat race of constantly doing more. Sure, were there things that I could have done last week? A ton of things I could have done last week. Um, did I need to? No. And, um, I need you to understand that our rest is really important to us so that our brains can function at full capacity. If I would have worked every day last week, um, my brain wouldn't be as refreshed as it is today. I'm ready to go. We've got a lot on my calendar today, and I'm excited about it. I'm excited to dig into our content. I'm excited to dig into our t-shirt course. I'm excited to talk to Marissa with sourcing. I've got a meeting with my mentor. Like, I've got so much going on today, and I'm really excited about that. If I had not taken the time to reset, I would have been dreading today because there's a lot on the calendar. So also, what's really fun, um, if you guys have been watching my stories today I'm giving you a day in the life of Sarah. I have a jam-packed day today and I thought it would be a great way for you guys to follow along with how I do everything all day long. And so I— whoa, hang on, let me turn the volume off. I started this morning, yes, very candid, straight out of bed at 6:34 this morning. And I'm gonna give you a play-by-play of what my day looks like on a Monday. And so you can follow along in my stories today. They're on Instagram and Facebook, and you can see what I'm up to all day long and how I, how I get through a day like a Monday. A Monday is always crazy and there's a lot going on, so I'm going to share that with you. Lots of behind the scenes. This was the first one. Here's the second one. I'm going to get my hair done. Like, you're gonna follow my day, okay? So follow along, and that's in my stories. Just another way for me to connect and engage with all of you again back from my vacation. All right, so if you don't have any time off in your schedule, this is your first part of your homework. I want you to sit down with your calendar, second half of the year. Let's do it now before we get into the fourth quarter. Okay, so make some time and, um, also go follow along on my stories. Okay, so Brenda, the accounts are my Instagram, which is How to Start a Sub Box, and my Facebook page, which is How to Start a Subscription Box with Sarah Williams. So you can follow along on either one of those, either one of those pages for my day in the life of Sarah. It's not that glamorous. Don't— I mean, don't be shocked by how unglamorous it is, but it is what it is. I do a lot of stuff all day long. And so I'm just sharing it with you today so you can have a little behind the scenes look at my day. So let's get into it. We're talking about mystery boxes today, and I have a special guest for you. Now, last week I didn't do a Monday Momentum because I was on the cruise ship and I was in Alaska. And so I just did a quick little post of some things that you could work on throughout the week just to get you going and, um, to help bring some momentum to your week last week. One of those things I talked about was mystery boxes. And what I noticed is that several people took action on mystery boxes last week. I saw a post over in Scale Your Box this morning that I wanted to share with you. And then I'm going to bring my guest on, my mystery guest, to talk about mystery boxes because she killed it last week with mystery boxes. And as I was Voxering her this morning about what she was doing, she was like going on and on about all these great things. I'm like, girl, are you camera ready? Can you just jump online with me? She's like, no, but I can be. And so I'm bringing her on. But I want to talk to you about a couple of my Scale Your Box members. Scale Your Box is my membership for, um, the higher level members that have already launched their subscription box and are working on scaling. And so Jane posted a message yesterday. Jane is in Australia. She said, just wanted to share that I added mystery boxes yesterday to move some excess stock. Sent 1 email, sold 12. Almost $1,000 back in the bank. So glad I joined this group. So I want to give Jane a high five. She is probably sleeping right now due to the time difference, but that's all it is. She made $1,000 with one email and sold 12 mystery boxes and got some stuff off her shelves. And that's what we're talking about. And then also on that post, Lisa with Cash Crate said, uh, that's awesome. I did 2 on Friday afternoon and I sold 40 so far. And so that's a big deal, 40 mystery boxes. Can you just imagine how much product that you're gonna get out of your warehouse or out of your stock and how much money cash flow back in your bank? And so, um, I know if you did a mystery box last week, um, I want you to pop it in the chat, tell me what you did. I'm gonna bring Tamara on. Tamara did mystery boxes last week and we're gonna talk about it today because she had some strategy behind it and that's what I was, when she was talking to me this morning, I'm like, girl, just come live with me, let's talk about what you did. And all 3 of these people that I just mentioned are in different industries. And so you can really do this no matter what your niche is, whatever's going on. Whatever you're selling, you can put this together. I did an end of summer mystery box this month last year, and I'm going to do it again. I'm going to get rid of all my summer stuff. Um, I'm going to get rid of all my products so I'm not sitting on it for another year, and my customers are going to have a great, great time. So Tamara, talk to me. Hey, thanks for getting camera ready for me this morning.

Your team is bragging on me for being camera ready so fast. If Sarah says get camera ready, I'm like, yeah, I'm down.

I'm like, girl, are you camera ready? She's like, no, but I can be.

I can slap this face on in like 5 minutes.

You've got it down and you're looking good. Um, so talk to me about what you— first of all, for anyone that doesn't know what you do, tell everybody a little bit about what you sell, what your subscription box is.

So I teach how to paint door hangers like this right here. All the pieces are laser-etched So this is the finished piece, obviously, after it's been painted. But, you know, if you were starting out with something like this with no lines on it, you would be super intimidated. But on this side of the board, you have like laser-etched lines exactly where the words are, where the flowers are. So it's almost like paint by number, except there's no actual numbers on here. You just can paint inside the lines. And so I have tons of these laying around all the time because we have a large warehouse at the back of our property where we cut out um, all of these. And we have a mystery box, and we're constantly, uh, just cutting out pieces. Because when you put like a big 8-foot sheet of plywood— or MDF, actually— on the laser machine, um, you've got like little spots where there's just dead space in between the pieces you need to cut. And so we'll just throw little random pieces in there to kind of fill up the rest of the sheet so we don't have a ton of waste. So we always have tons of pieces sitting around that weren't necessarily sold, but we wanted to use up the rest of the sheet. So we have product because since we make our own product, we have tons of product laying around all the time. This was actually my third time doing mystery boxes. I think I did them last summer, and then I did a round of them close to Christmas last year because I had a ton of fall and Christmas door hangers. So I think it was around October last year that I did them. So this was my third time, and I had more strategy this time than I did the last two times. So I've learned a little bit along the way, and Yeah, it was a big success last week.

Okay, so you had extra product laying around and you said, okay, I'm gonna put together some boxes of all this extra product that I just have laying around. You didn't go cut anything new, right?

Right.

Okay, so tell us about what you did.

One of the things that I forgot to mention to you earlier today, Sarah, that I did was I went on my stories like a day or two in advance and I was like, I'm thinking about doing mystery boxes, who's in? And so I had people like, you know, sliding the little like praise hands on the stories where they're, you know, kind of like doing a poll. And then I did a poll like the next day that said, would you want small pieces or would you want large pieces or both? So I was kind of like trying to figure out, should I put together just a box of small ones or just a box of large ones or a box that had both sizes in it? And the majority of the people said, I want a box that has all the sizes, like a variety. Um, well, I didn't have enough product to do of the large pieces to do too many of those large boxes, but I did do 30 large boxes and 15 small, and we sold out of every single box in 2 hours. It was crazy fast.

Okay, back it up.

I know that's a lot of stuff.

You said large boxes, so tell me, um, what was in those boxes, how much did you price it for, and what was the value of that box?

Okay, so the value was $150. We sold them for $100. They had 2 large pieces this size and then a variety of sizes that were smaller than that, all the way down to like a 4-inch ornament piece.

Okay, you sold 30 boxes at $100 a piece. What does your subscription box sell for?

$65.

So it's higher than your subscription box. Yeah. So can you see my brain working here? Your average order value just increased because you went for a larger box that had a lot of value in it, and you sold out how quickly?

In 2 hours.

2 hours with 1 email, right?

1 email, 1 text, 1 Facebook post, and it may be a story.

Okay. Yeah. So then you've made $30,000 or $3,000 with these?

With the cost of the small ones we sold, it ended up being closer to $4,000.

Okay, so you sold the big ones, you sold some small ones, you made $4,000 in a couple hours. I say that's a, that's an easy day's work, right? And you didn't have to cut anything, you already had it, right?

So talk to me about the hard work on the front end of packing those boxes. So I didn't— all I had to do was put a label on them.

Yeah, after they put them together to know how many you had, right? And so tell me your marketing strategy, um, behind that. So you said you did a story and you were asking what they wanted, so you're getting their buy-in already. You're getting them to come in and say, yes, I do want that. So now you've planted the seed that you're about to do this, you've got their buy-in. And so when people are along on the process, they have more buy-in, right? Like, they're helping you make that decision, now they're bought in. What happened after you did the story?

Um, so after the story, we sent out an email. This was about 4 hours prior to dropping them in the shop and making the product active. And what I wanted to do was I wanted to hit those people who are my diehard people, who are watching my stories, who are paying attention to my texts and my emails. Like, I didn't go live and say we've got mystery boxes, because I want those people who only catch me once in a while to feel like, oh man, I should have been paying attention, you know, I missed out on it. And it worked because we sent out that email about 4 hours before we made the product link live. And in the email we said, if you want to get a direct link and a reminder, text me here. And we had several people— I don't even know how many it was— text me over on my texting service and said let me know when the mystery boxes drop. So just that text alone sold a ton really quick.

Okay, so you email them out, you say this is coming, if you want to be the first to know, get on my text list. Now they're opting into your text list. Again, genius, by the way. Um, and so now you've got them on email and text. And so you drop the text, you send another email saying they're live, and they're all gone in 2 hours. Yeah, because you prep them.

Yeah, and I was busy that night. I pretty much made the product link live and walked away. Yeah, you know, I just went on about my business doing whatever else I had to do, and you sold out.

So what kind of tips would you have for anyone that hasn't done a mystery box before?

Um, keep— okay, so don't feel like you have to put together 100 boxes. Even if it's just 10 boxes, I almost feel like the smaller quantity you have, the higher like ability you have to make it exclusive and to sell out fast, and then that's going to make the people want them more. So if I had said I have 50 mystery boxes, that's a whole lot more. I wouldn't have sold out in 2 hours. It was because I had such a small number of them that people jumped on it so quickly. And of course, like I said, seeding it 2 or 3 days in advance, my diehard fans were like, I'm waiting, I'm waiting, I know she's about to do this because she's talking about it. And anytime Tamara talks about she's thinking about doing something, she does it pretty quick.

Well, that's the thing. You trained them. So like you said, I didn't go live. I wanted the people that were paying attention to get this. And so you have trained your audience that they have to pay attention. And so by doing that and only doing that story and that email, the people that were paying attention got it. The people that weren't paying, paying attention didn't see it. And so now that makes them want to pay attention more. We train people how to buy from us. So if we are always in stock, people think they can always buy from us. If we are running out, selling out, we don't have them all always available, we're creating that urgency and that scarcity that is a huge sales tactic in our industry. And so that's exactly what Tamara did here. She created that urgency and scarcity, and, and she is training her people how to show up. Next time she has mystery boxes, they're going to be gone at the same rate because she's training them how she wants to sell to them. And so I think it's genius. Um, do you guys have questions for Tamara and I? We would love to answer those. Um, let's see, here's, here's a question here. Only ran the mystery box sale for a week, at 20 sold, so thinking of adding one more special mystery day. Thoughts? It went so well, we decided to do one more day. I think that's a great thing. Last chance. I would say this is your last chance to grab a mystery box. You guys are loving them. We're gonna extend it for 24 hours. Give that time urgency on it so, um, that you can make sure that they know it's not going to continue. And yeah, I would send out— I would do it today for sure.

We had people asking us to do a round 2, so we actually did a round 2 this last Friday, um, and I probably put together too many for that round 2. I put together like 20, and in 2 days we sold all but like 7, so we sold 13 more. And so I was telling Sarah, I deactivated the link on Sunday because I do have 7 more sitting there that haven't sold, but I'm gonna hold those until I have more large ones, and I'll do like a round 3 at some point. Um, so I just wanted to have that exclusive, uh, exclusivity.

Yeah, you don't want to have it available all the time because then it loses its luster. So, um, now Tamara's really great at list building, and she works on list building year-round. So do you know how many email subscribers you have, Tamara?

We're around 50,000.

Okay, and that, that's from someone that list builds year-round. So if you're list building year-round, you're going to have 10, 20, 50,000 people on your email list. Um, so, um, that's a great question here. Um, Stacy says, did you tell them how many boxes there were?

I think I did. In— yeah, I think I did, because even if I hadn't, when they go to the shop, they can see how many are left. They can see last, you know, one left or whatever. So there was no point in trying to hide that information.

And you did put different seasons in there. How did you describe the mystery boxes so that they knew they might get some Easter, they might get some patriotic things? Like, how did you— what was your description like?

I just put that these are pieces for all different kinds of seasons, um, you know, that these aren't necessarily for upcoming seasons. I can't remember how I worded it, but it just said these are for all seasons, all time, all year round, like So some of them had Fourth of July, there might have been a couple of Easter pieces. I think the majority of them, or every box at least, had something they could paint for fall in it, so they weren't going to be like disappointed, you know.

Yeah. Um, what if your regular subscription box is a mystery box? Your subscription box is a mystery box. They don't know what they're getting before that. So tell us a little bit about your box and how this was different.

So this one's different because my regular box, they know they're getting 3 door hangers and 3 tutorials. The mystery box is different because it's literally just a box with wooden pieces and no video tutorial links provided. They can paint these however they want. If they want a video tutorial, they'll have to go look and see if I have one, but, um, for probably the majority of them, I did not. Um, so I, I think For some customers that come to my shop, we have over 1,000 SKUs. Like, we have a ton of options. This kind of takes all the thinking out for the people who don't want to have to pick. They're like, I'll just let Tamara pick, I'll just get a variety of whatever, and it's kind of fun for them.

Yeah, I think that's, that's the case too. Like, when I put together like an outfit or something, it just takes all the thinking away. They don't have to figure out the jewelry or the kimono or anything. Like, I put it together and they're appreciative of that. So you just putting a box together where they can get a variety of things is really great. Can you talk a little bit about that lower level one that you did and what was in the smaller boxes?

It was a $125 value and we sold it for $75. So it had 20 ornament-sized pieces, anywhere from 4 inches up to 6 inches.

Okay. And these were available to anyone, right? Anyone on your email list, anyone that was watching your stories, anyone that was paying attention. They didn't have to be box subscribers.

Right. Anybody.

Yeah. Shannon has a question. Would this be a good thing to do before a launch? Buy sample products and sell it that way? I wouldn't confuse before a launch. This would be something that I would do after I had subscribers, because what would happen here is they might think that that mystery box is actually what they're going to get for their subscription, and you don't want to confuse them before you get started. So I would focus on your launch first and I would do this at a later date. Um, let's see. What do you do to hook people who haven't had your product before? I think if they haven't had your product before, they're— and they're watching, like Tamara's audience, they know what she does.

These were not new customers buying these.

Yeah, they're going to be people that know you. They're going to be people that trust that whatever you put in their box, they're going to love. These typically aren't going to be first buyers. If they are, they've been watching you for a long time and just haven't purchased. For whatever reason. But these are going to be people that are in your warm audience. This wouldn't be a cold audience, um, for that.

But to answer her question about what I do to hook people who haven't bought before, we have like an opt-in where they can get a free tutorial, and in that tutorial there's the option to buy a wood piece, uh, for that tutorial. And so we see those, those orders come through all the time from first-time customers. Yes.

That's great. Um, did you charge shipping on top of the cost of the box?

Yes, it was flat rate, $8.99.

Boom.

And if they added multiple items, they got free shipping, which I won't do again because that did mess up my whole, like, being able to just slap a label on it.

Yeah, put more stuff in.

Yeah.

Um, Tamara's box does go out quarterly, so her big box of blanks is a quarterly subscription. And then you said you did mystery box around the holidays and you did mystery box last summer, so she's done mystery boxes about twice a year at this point, um, and I think it would be good for her to do it again, um, in the fall as well.

So I really feel like I could do them about once a quarter. Any more frequently than that, they would lose their luster, I think.

Yeah, it'd be— they feel like they could just get one the next time, but because you're only doing it twice a year at this point, um, you know, they know that it only comes up twice a year, and so they need to snag one while they can.

So So this makes me wonder, Sarah, in the moment, if strategy-wise, if I should do this like a couple of weeks after my box, my actual subscription box goes out.

So when does your next box go out?

FOMO of those people who missed out on the subscription box, but they can buy a mystery box. So my next box goes out October 1st. So if I did another mystery box mid-October, I'd be snagging those people who missed out on the, on the big box I think that's great.

And I think you could— from now until then, you're probably going to cut a lot of fall pieces, extra pieces with your— so you could call it a fall mystery box, um, and just have it chock full of fall stuff. Like, we'll do an end of summer mystery box. It'll have like all like beach towels, all summery things in it, so they know they're getting summery things. But we need to do it in the summer. If I do it at the end of July, it's still summer. People still in summer mode. If I do it August 1st, people are in back-to-school mode. It— that month from July 30th to August 1st, like, it's a whole mindset shift. So you need to do it before November 1st because now they're in Christmas mode. October, they're still in fall mode. And so, um, that's what— that's what you should definitely do. And I think you could do that again then, um, with your winter box in January after it goes out, and you could do it's a little different because it's after Christmas, um, but if you focus on cutting extra pieces that are more winter themed during that season, get a little more strategic about what you're cutting knowing you're going to use it for a mystery box, I think that would be really great for you.

Yeah, I'm excited to have a strategy because I've just done these at random and making 4 grand on the fly.

I'm not mad about it, Tamara. I'm not mad about it. All right, so that's your Monday Momentum. If you haven't tried a mystery box strategy, I want you to put that together this week. Even if you don't sell it this week, put a plan together to do that this month. Um, get a strategy together. You heard Tamara say she did one story, one email, one text, and one post. Everybody here can do that. Um, you just have to have a plan. Put them together. Let's get them sold. Let's put some extra cash flow in our bank account this month and let's rock into fall. So, all right. Thanks, Tamara, for joining. Thanks for getting camera ready for me. I appreciate you. And if you do a mystery box this week, I want you to share it with me inside Launch Your Box or Scale Your Box so that we can all learn from each other. Tell me what your strategy was, what you did, because we're all going to do things a little bit differently. So go sell some stuff. And I'll see you back here next week. Thanks, Tamara.

Bye.