Julie Ball: Take The First Step! This Entrepreneur Says Action Is The Key To Building Confidence

I do really believe 100% from every part of me that everyone has the capacity to be able to do the things that they want and not to be held back by the mental baggage that's in our head that we want to push through.

Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. In each episode, we get down and personal with people who go after the things they want to make all their wildest dreams come true. Join us as we unveil and dissect a formula for what it takes to do the thing. Here is your host, Stacy Lauren.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. This is your host, Stacy Lauren. One of the things that I love about this podcast is getting to meet people that are doing really amazing things. And I am so fortunate to have the ability and the opportunity to interview our next guest. And I actually heard of her from a really good friend of mine who had sold her business or helped her sell her business. And then I listened to their podcast interview and I was just blown away with this guest's ability to be open and the vulnerability that she had with sharing such an important milestone in her life. And she then later moved on to now helping other people do the same thing with building businesses in the same arena of the business that she just sold. And so I'm so excited to get a chance to talk to her about her story and what she's been up to now and all the good things that are going to come out of this interview from how she does the thing. So I am welcoming Julie to the show. Hi, Julie.

Hi. Thank you so much for having me for inviting me on today. I'm very excited to chit chat with you.

Oh, good. And I love this when I like we haven't really talked yet, so I'm so excited to hear really just all the great things that you've been doing and how you're helping other people do the thing as well.

Well, I am an open book, so let's do it.

Yes. Okay. Well, let's start off. I'd love to just have you tell the listeners more about you and your story.

Sure. The long story short is I've been an entrepreneur since 2011. I did about 10 years of time, I call it in corporate America in music marketing. And there became a time in my career I was a I'm digital sales manager at CBS Radio and I was looking for my out like a reason to leave because I was kind of unhappy in my job. And it just came in the form of having a baby. And so I decided when I found out I was pregnant, that that was going to be my exit strategy. And when I took that leap of faith of leaving my 10 + corporate career, I didn't know how long it was going to last. I didn't know if I could do a side hustle, if I was going to go back to corporate America in three months, three years, any of that. It was all just unknown. But I started doing a side hustle and I really believe where there's a will, there's a way. And what I loved about that was running my own schedule, being there for my daughter and that's just what worked for us. And so in 2011 I started my first side hustle. It was building websites for other small business owners. And then Fast forward to 2016. I launched my subscription box called Sparkle Hustle Grow. And it was to serve female entrepreneurs. And within nine months of starting that subscription box, I was able to replace my full time career, my full time income. And so I went all in on that. And then again, Fast forward to 2022, that's when I sold the box for multiple six figures. So that's the, the short story of my entrepreneurial career. But as far as me as a person, I am originally from Western Pennsylvania, but live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina with my husband Kenny daughter McKenna. And we have a mini labradoodle named Bobo. And we love the outdoors, we love sports, and I love helping other women succeed in business as well. I feel like that's really, I've determined that that's pretty much my, my life mission is to empower other women in a very supportive, safe and cheerleader esque way.

I love that idea of when you are basically becoming an expert at something from doing it yourself and then now because of your experience and because of your heartache and like, and like all this work that you've done to get to where you are now, you're able to pay it forward and help these women who are wouldn't even be able to even remotely think of these possibilities without having you there to guide and support them through the hardship and all the stuff that you've gone through yourself to be able to do this thing.

Yeah, I pieced it together myself along the way and like I said, where there's a will, there's a way. You have to be resourceful. And I'm that type of person who's very type A and it's going to figure it out. But I know there's a lot of women who aspire to have their own Business to stay at home and be a stay at home mom with a side hustle, or just to get out of the daily grind of corporate culture. And so they might need someone to hold their hand or someone to just give them that step by step guidance. And in 2018, after running my subscription box business for a couple of years, I started coaching as well. Because I had so many people reach out to me and say, hey, can I pick your brain? Or hey, how about this? And coaching allowed me to help them, but I created a course to do it so that I wouldn't have to repeat myself over and over again. You know, I could just point them to the course and now the podcast so that they have a place to start. But it's just been so fun. There's been a lot of pivots along the way. Such as life, right?

Oh, totally. Yeah. No, I think that's so cool. So I want to start off, I want to go back to that for sure, but I wanted to start with the side hustle and you building these websites and helping companies in that way. What made you. My first question is like, what made you kind of, besides like having your, your baby and then kind of getting a break from the corporate world for a minute, what made you decide on that business to start with?

Sure, I had a marketing background and was familiar with how to market businesses and helps other small businesses do that, but I'm a self taught WordPress creator. So WordPress is a template or it's a WordPress. WordPress is the software platform for building a website. And so I went through some training, learned how to do that myself. And honestly the reason why I created websites was I would reach out to these small businesses and I would say I'd love to help you with your marketing. And, and the problem was these small businesses didn't, didn't have good websites. So we could market all day long. But then nothing was going to happen because people would get to their websites and then drop off or the website was so amateur that they didn't have that trust factor. So I taught myself how to create these websites. I knew it was something that I could do nights, naps and weekends. And that's the time that I had during those first, you know, couple of years of being a new stay at home mom.

And so you already had some baseline because of your corporate background with marketing, of being able to reach out to people and handle whatever they say, right, with rejection and things like that was, that was the kind of the skills that you built from that job and then you were able to easily transfer those to this side hustle.

Yeah, definitely. I'm pretty extroverted too. So I can walk. I don't have any problem just walking in somewhere and striking up a conversation with the business owner. Um, simply because of my sales experience. I've had years of working in sales, and over time, the fear of rejection and the fear of how do I start this conversation? You just get honed in on it.

You.

You get more polished. Just when you work on any other thing, over time, you get better and better at it.

Okay, we're gonna, we're gonna definitely talk about that in the future if you're interested. I'm. I'm actually gonna be putting a panel together of people that have sales backgrounds and talking about how that's helped them in their life. Cause I just think so much to that that a lot of people don't realize.

Yeah, that's a great idea.

Cool. So my question is, is so with you already having that experience and then you getting into the side hustle, how do you recommend someone? Because I think that's the thing, right. We take for granted some of the things that now come naturally to us because we've had experience doing it through so many other ways, whether it's working for someone else or doing something. I mean, for me, it was door to door sales in college, you know, and so to me, like, same thing, right? I don't have any. I mean, there's just no inhibition that I have of like reaching out to someone, whether it's for help or to get a podcast interview. And so. And it sounds like you have a very similar kind of line, but there's. There might be someone else that might be just have worked this like 9 to 5 job or hasn't had that experience. What's been your best way to help that person just get over that angst that they would feel from not having any of that experience? Because I think a lot of people think of the idea of someone saying no. Is this like, really scary thing?

Yeah. My advice would be twofold. One is find a mentor. That's what I did with a lot of the things that I wanted to learn. I would find a mentor that was a couple of steps ahead of me and start paying attention to what they were doing. Read their blogs, watch their social content or YouTube videos, and just start immersing yourself in their life to see how they handle those types of things. And then the other thing is action really improves your confidence. So, yeah, the first few times that you try that outreach or you invite someone to have they call it cold call. If you cold call someone, it's going to be really scary at first, but the more times that you do it, the less scary it becomes and the more confident you become in it. So really, action inspires that confidence.

Love that. So good. And I love that you also said specifically finding a mentor a couple steps ahead of you. Because I think there's so many people that think they have to look at the person that's like a hundred steps ahead of them. And then it's really hard to kind of see where that access point is between you and them. But when you're just finding someone, even if they've been doing it a few months longer than you or a year longer than you, you can still learn something from them.

Yeah, I a hundred percent agree. And you want to find someone too, that you really trust to learn from. And so that doesn't mean you have to go down and deep dive of YouTube videos and Googling all day long, maybe find, ask some questions of your existing network. Maybe someone else already knows someone who would be a good role model or mentor for you. So I feel like we spend so much time going down that Google scroll hole or spending time on social media and then we compare ourselves to our day one to someone else's day 100, and it's just not fair to ourselves. So, you know, don't try to spread yourself thin. Find someone that aligns with your values and follow them, learn from them as a mentor.

So good. Okay, so then you decided to start Sparkle Hustle Grow. And I love that name, by the way. That is like so good. So what made you decide to get into the subscription box business? And how did that, how did that happen?

So it was 20, it was the middle of the summer of 2016, May, that we moved from Charlotte, North Carolina to the Asheville, North Carolina area. And so I found myself in a new community. I didn't know anybody, so I didn't have any local friends yet. I hadn't had time to focus on it either because I was more focused on registering my daughter and preparing her for kindergarten. And so I. All the work that I did building websites and helping people with their marketing was all behind the screen. So I felt really lonely. And one of the ways that I filled the gap at that time, as bad as it sounds, was retail therapy. Add to cart and happy mail was kind of filling this gap, this sadness that I had behind the screen. And so I'd get these boxes in the mail and an example would be Stitch Fix. Stitch Fix is a subscription box of clothing. And so I knew that it would delight me if it. If I found a new shirt or a new dress that came in that box. And when I looked good, I felt good and I felt more confident. And so then I subscribed to Yogi Surprise so I could go deeper in my yoga practice. And I realized as I was receiving these boxes how much joy it was bringing me. And so I thought to myself, how can I do that for my existing audience? I already serve female entrepreneurs by helping them with their web presence and their social media, their marketing. How can I help them with a physical product and bring them joy as well? Because I know that it sometimes can feel like you're working on an island when you run your own business, especially if you're a solopreneur. And so I grabbed one of those boxes and I looked at my own expenses as a female entrepreneur. What am I spending my money on? And I found it was books. It was office supplies. So cute. Office supplies. Not just a regular black or blue pen, but something that made me feel inspired and made me feel happy. So maybe that was a planner or maybe it was a colorful pen or, you know, something like that. And I spent my money on courses, online courses, to help me learn new skills in my business. So I thought to myself, what if I put all of those things into a box? Would that be a viable business? I had no idea. I started kind of throwing it out there on social media, asking people for almost like validation for my idea. And then I decided to give it a go. It was something that was really interesting to me. I loved new projects. It was fun to have a physical product after having worked on only digital projects for so long. And so I launched it in September as my pre launch. And then October is when I started sending my first boxes. And by the end of the year, I had 100 subscribers. And that gave me that confidence that, okay, this business has legs. This is something that is serving my audience in a way that there's a gap there.

I love that you basically took the existing people that you were already helping and then kind of taking from it what you were missing inside in terms of the holiness and then seeing what made you happy and then actually kind of being able to just add another layer to your existing. Your existing sphere of influence, basically with the people.

Yeah. And it's so interesting because when I launched the business, I thought, okay, this is going to be all about products. Well, I decided to incorporate a community aspect of it. So we, I created a private Facebook group just for paying subscribers. And after doing some. Some customer research, people would tell me they joined for the stuff, but they would stick around month after month after month because of the community and that support, meeting other women in business that were like minded, ambitious and could celebrate their wins with them or answer questions when they were stuck.

So important. And actually we were talking before we got on, you had said I'm game. And I haven't released the do the thing formula publicly yet. So I just thought it was funny that that came naturally to you. But that is the do the thing formula is I'm game and the M in game is my people. So it's surrounding yourself. Nice letter. Just, you know, that are doing the same thing as you that want the same thing and they give you the community and the connectedness to grow. And that's like such a huge piece of people being able to do the things they want.

Yeah. I find that so often the most valuable piece of a coaching program or a course is the access. Access to other people. Not only access to that mentor, but access to other people that are going through the journey with you so you don't have to feel so lonely. And I'm not talking about getting in a community that's an echo chamber. I'm talking about a diverse community of people who have similar goals but can provide different points of view.

Yeah. And I've also found like by giving them that community, you're also giving them a safe place to fail so they can share. Share the things that are going wrong, but in a way of. Not in negativity, in a way of learning.

Yeah. And. And to feel safe and, and to be in a place where you feel safe enough to be vulnerable because that's where a lot of your biggest growth is going to happen.

I would love to also hear more about. Because you had the community already. So you had this, you had this community of people that you'd already been helping with websites and, and things like that. And so it seemed like a pretty natural progression to switch over as you were realizing you wanted to do the subscription boxes. What were some roadblocks that you had to come against that you needed to get through that really felt. Paving the way for some. Oh, let me just think of how to ask that question. Yeah. What are some roadblocks that you hit as you were building this subscription business?

One of the roadblocks that I hit was being spread thin. It's tough to be a mom and a wife and a business Owner and be good at all the things. And so what I found was that I had to be more. What's the word I'm looking for? More intentional with my time. So, for example, when I was working, I was working. When I was doing. When I was having family time, it was family time. And try not to jump back and forth between the two at the same time, because then I'm not showing up 100% for anybody. And that was one of my biggest challenges throughout my entire entrepreneurial life. And it's something that I have to be cognizant of even now. So I find that if I carve out the time to get my work done, I can focus more on that. My family knows not to interrupt during that time, and they want to show up for family time or date night or whatever it is, then I don't feel pulled in multiple directions. And the other roadblock that I had to face was when I was scaling my box business. I got to where I was at a couple of hundred subscribers. So I was building 3, 400 boxes in my home, filling them on my. On my dining room table. There was crinkle cut all over the floor. It was really making a dent in our lifestyle as far as the time that it took for me to physically build and ship those boxes, but also it was taking up space in a small rental home that we had. And so the challenge was, how do I get out of my own way? And that was hiring help. That was the first person that I hired was a virtual assistant to help me with customer service. I used to take it very personally if I would get a cancellation or if I would have someone who's not being so kind in my inbox. So a virtual assistant helped me there with customer service. And then I finally decided to outsource my fulfillment. I found a local warehouse that would pick, pack, and ship these boxes on my behalf. I would still be the face of the brand and run the business, but instead, having all the packaging and all the items sent to my residential address, my home, it would be sent to this warehouse, and they would do that labor for me instead. So those were definitely two big moments where I hit a roadblock where it felt very just like, what do I do next? How do I get over this? And the answer to those was hiring out, getting help. And sometimes it's scary to do that, but it definitely helped me manage the time better, manage actually the work and what had to get done each week and each month, as well as open it up for me to scale and.

What was your favorite way for learning as you're tackling these new things? What was like. And we talked about, like, maybe finding a mentor. That's two steps ahead of you. And I was just curious, how did you like, by starting a subscription business? That's a lot of logistics, right? With what you're saying, like finding, like, figuring out how to ship and which products to buy and sourcing and all that. How did you attack the learning side of it?

Well, I mean, at the time, there wasn't a course or a lot of training honestly on it. So I did piece a lot of it together. And as far as, like, the subscription box logistics and whatnot, and that's why I created Subscription Box Bootcamp, my course, because that. I wish I would have had that when I started my box. So otherwise, just learning about business in general, like marketing yourself and learning about how to run an E commerce store and SEO, all those things. The beautiful thing about running Sparkle Hustle Grow was we included a course in every single month. And so it was partly my job to find guest experts that could teach our subscribers different business tactics. And so I was lucky enough to meet some amazing people through that and then go through some incredible trainings because that was the platform that the subscription box actually had. Like, we had monthly trainings. So it made it really easy for me because I love learning and I love connecting with new people. So that's how I found a lot of my mentors. That's how I continued to learn how to grow my own business outside of, you know, the subscription box logistics side of it.

Yeah, I like this so much because so the E in game is educate. And so educate is both learning from mentors, coaches, books, podcasts, but it's also educating others. And it sounds like that's what you did, right? Like, you learned this stuff and then as you're learning, you're okay, I'm going to now hire experts to help me teach it even better. And then you're then learning from the experts, but then you're learning more as you're teaching.

Right. I kind of felt like air traffic control. I would ask everybody, what do you want to learn about? What do you need in your business right now? And then I would go seek out those experts and I would be learning alongside my subscribers with, when we were featuring this guest expert who would come in and teach us about how to speak on stage or how to maximize your social media, all these different things that we would learn about business in general. And so it was a lot of fun And I couldn't believe that I got to do that for a living. You know what I mean? That's just one of those moments where you're like, oh, my gosh, I have the best job ever.

Yeah. So I. I think there's something really important in this because you're not seeming like you know everything to get this started. Right. You, like, action breeds confidence. How did you get yourself to do that and not get into that analysis paralysis. Like, I need to know all this information before I can do this thing. Instead, you're moving and learning and growing and evolving as you're doing it.

I think that that's just part of my nature, honestly, because like I said, I'm extroverted. I'm type A. I'm an action taker, and I'm not afraid to take risks because I know that I can always pivot. And I want to think back about this one exercise that I remember learning from Christy Wright, who was a business mentor of mine.

And.

And she said, write down all the things you're afraid of, and then write down the worst thing that could happen. If that doesn't. If that. That fear comes true, if you're still going to be living and breathing the next day, then what? Why would you not try it? Even if you fail, it's okay. Do it anyway. And so I like to think back at that. If I think of something that I'm afraid to do but I know would be good for me as far as a business strategy or something that I want to do but I'm just scared of, I try to think about, okay, what's the worst thing that could happen? And if I think of the worst thing that can happen and it's still going to be okay, then I give it a go. I try. I'm not afraid to fail. I've made mistakes, and I acknowledge that I'm human. And I think a lot of people don't want to make mistakes or that's like their biggest fear is making a mistake. So what? So what if you make a mistake? It's okay. I've made some big mistakes. I'm still here to talk about it.

So. Good. And it actually makes me want to bring up our mutual friend and where our paths aligned. Christine McDaniel. Because she actually. She had gotten me this shirt once, and it says, but did you die? I love that. And it comes from that movie where. Where he, like, does all this crazy stuff and he's like, but did you die? And it's so cool, right? Because it's pretty much what you're saying. And I love the idea of writing that list down because it gets it to not be so scary because you're then making uncertain certain of what could happen and what is the worst thing. And it's like, oh, that's not as scary as I would think it would be.

Right? Yeah.

So, okay, speaking of, Christine, let's, let's go to where you decided to sell your business. So what, what did, what made that decision happen?

So it was 2021 when I first started thinking about selling my business. I had run the subscription box business for about five years to that point. And you know that feeling you get in your gut where you're like, I think I'm ready for my next season. I'm not sure what that looks like yet. I'm just going to be open to it. That's where I was at. And so I'm again a lifelong learner. And so I said, okay, I need to learn what it looks like to sell your business. Because I feel like that's not a conversation that's being had in the subscription box industry. It's all about, you know, launch and scale, launch and scale, and no one's talking about selling. And so I was on a mission to figure out what that even looked like to see if that was going to be a good fit for me. So I started doing some research and I interviewed someone on my podcast who taught about, you know, what are the first steps of selling your business? What does that even look like? That got me more intrigued, but I kind of put it on the back burner. There was a lot going on. I was still running the business. I was still running my coaching business as well. So I felt a little bit spread thin. So then fast forward to early 2022 and I was recording a specialty podcast. It was like a pop up podcast. It was a 12 episode season and it was called A Better Way to Hustle. And it was all about the fact that you didn't have to live that, the toxic life of the hustle culture, the 24 7, 365 hustle all the time culture, but rather you could find a better way to hustle. Like, you got to define what hustle meant to you, what success means to you. You don't have to do this by yourself. And you know, I shared on this podcast ep on this 12 episode podcast how I felt about the hustle culture and ways to combat it. And I thought that that podcast was going to attract new subscribers because new box subscribers, because I was Sharing them that there's another way sharing with them that there's another way that you can run a side hustle or you can run your own business, and it doesn't have to feel so difficult. Well, little did I know that that podcast recording was going to be like therapy for me. And when I was done recording it, I just felt like this. This moment of it's time to sell. I think this is my moment. So I sat down with my husband and my daughter and had a glass of wine. He had a beer. McKenna had a juice box. And we sat down and did, like, this dream life session. We said, what is our dream day, week, month look like? What do we want more of in our life? What do we want less of in our life? And it was really clear after we sat down and had that family discussion, that Sparkle Hustle Grow wasn't going to be a legacy brand for us. Where in that I would. I wasn't going to pass it down to my daughter. She wasn't interested in it. And we were ready for our next season. And so that was the moment where I was like, okay, let's take action now. My family's in agreement that it's time to sell. And. And I felt ready, and I felt emotionally ready as well. And it's funny because that was one of the first questions that Christine asked me when I set up a consultation call with her. She said, we can sell your business quickly. Are you emotionally ready to hand it over? And I was like, oh, my gosh, that's such a good question. Like, thank you for asking me that question. And the answer is yes. And good thing, because after she listed the business, we. We were done. We sold it in 94 days. Wow.

That's incredible. It's so good.

Crazy. Yeah. Can you imagine, like, as a listener thinking, 90 days from now, like, what could be different in your life? And for me, during the summer, that difference was selling that the box business. It was. It was really incredible. I had such a good experience with her and highly recommend her and the Magnolia firm.

Yeah, I know. She sells businesses faster than anybody on planet Earth. It's so cool. And.

And to dream buyers, too, like, to good people. She helped find our dream buyers, which made it so much easier to hand over the keys, so to speak.

And I think we'll stay here for a minute because I think she's a really good example of someone that's lived through because of her lived experience. Like, she sold more than, I don't remember how many, but more than eight businesses of her own businesses that she built. And so I think that's why she's able to be so in tune with the people she helps. Which kind of leads back to you now. And as far as the thing that I really. There's so much that I. That you just said. But the thing that's really speaking to me right now, because this is where I'm at right at the moment, is I was about to start a challenge for my community called Start do the things start a podcast challenge. Because I really believe how powerful podcast is for your life and how many doors it opens. But I realized through my listeners journey, they're just like, it's too far for them outside their comfort zone. So I'm doing a find your voice challenge and there's something really powerful about what you said about when you did that podcast episode because you're speaking to this thing that's true for you with Hustle. Right. And redefining what that means. And then it was after that episode that you realized you were ready to make a change and to change your season. And there's something about that activation of your voice being able to like, speak, even if it's just into your computer or your phone or whatever you're speaking into, and then being able to have that power. And I just thought we could stay here for just for a minute if you could just see what comes alive for you as I. As I say that.

Yeah, I liken it to a lot of people journal, and that's where they dig deep and they kind of figure out, like, what's really going on with my emotions or what's really going on with my gut instinct. And for me, I don't really like to journal, but I'll talk it out all day long. And so maybe that's what I needed was when I was recording those notes, only was I saying it out loud. But then you run a podcast, you listen to it again as you edit it, and hearing it from my own voice was just really powerful for me. And something just clicked. I almost snapped my fingers like, oh, I get it now.

Yeah, it's so true. So true. That's why I was so passionate about it. And then I realized it was just too far for them. So I was, okay, let me do this find a voice challenge and then I'm going to give them dares every day. And I actually had the one on there. One of my dares was like, what's your dream day? Record about it. But I like, I'm going to probably add to It. Because I like what you said about what do I want more of and what do I want less of? I think that idea is also really powerful as well. And I love that you did that as a family. I think that's so. Oh, my God, what an amazing lesson you're teaching your daughter.

Yeah, it was fun. It was definitely impactful for us. And I think it was important too, because everybody got a chance to feel heard when it came to the business. We had brought the warehouse back to our house and renovated a two car garage. And my husband, he was. He had left a teaching career and was homeschooling our daughter. And then he got to pack all the boxes as a, as, like a. As his side hustle. So he was homeschooling and running our warehouse. So I knew that anything that I chose with this business needed to involve him. And it. It obviously impacted our daughter. And so I wanted them to make sure, like, I wanted to make sure they felt heard and, and I wanted them to be able to speak candidly about, like, how do you really feel? You know, sometimes you're like, hey, how are you? And someone's like, good, how are you? And it's so just surface level. But this was one of those moments where it's like, no, really, how do you feel about this? And it was. It definitely was impactful for our family. And everybody felt heard. And I got to hear different perspectives that I might not have if I didn't make that time and space to really listen so good.

Because it's so rare that people do that, right? Where you're just taking. It's like you're taking a time out, you're getting out of the fire and you're like, what's really happening here? And what. And then the way that you framed that, it's not a legacy business. I really. I really like that too.

Yeah, it's. I don't know that I would have wanted it to be, but I needed to hear it from her that this isn't something I want to do, Mom. But here's things that I am interested in, like, it. It gave us those conversations. And she is a middle schooler now, Miketta, as we're recording this, she's in sixth grade. And I think that it has definitely brought us closer together because one, I'm not so spread thin running two businesses, the box business and my coaching business. But two, she felt really involved in the process, and that made her feel. She wasn't a kid, she was a part of this family making big decisions so good.

And I'd love to go there now because now you went from doing the thing to now you're teaching others to do the thing. And so you went the coaching business. You mentioned the subscription bootcamp. Is that primarily what you're doing now or do you mind sharing a little bit more about. About what the coaching business looks like?

Yes. After I sold the business, I took about two months off to kind of just decompress to help the new owners transition into learning the systems and such and then pouring into some of the team members that I had along the way. And one of the gals that ran the business with me, she was my right hand gal. She was my first hire, but was with me for five years. She now is a co host on my podcast. We decided to rebrand and go all in on the coaching. The podcast is called Subscription Box Basics and it's for the new and aspiring subscription box entrepreneur. So it's people who have an idea and don't know where to start. So her name is Renee. So Renee and I coach together now on the podcast, we have one on one programs, we have group coaching programs, and then we have our signature course, which is Subscription Box Bootcamp. We've been spending a lot of time updating it lately with new ideas, with updated tactics, that type of thing. And it's just, it's given us a lot more time to pour into our students. Now that we're not also running the actual subscription box business, we are able to tap into those years of experience where I swear we've seen it all, you know, and we've helped hundreds, hundreds of other people over the years launch their own subscription box. But now we get to really, really pour into it full time. And it's so fulfilling. It's so fun to hear about all the ideas that people have for subscription boxes. People are, are creating these ideas and these boxes that are life changing. And it's not just people sending boxes of stuff. We're talking about boxes that support ER nurses or moms with kids that have disabilities, like people who need poured into. They're creating these boxes that give them that monthly inspiration and support on repeat. And you can probably just hear it in my voice like I'm, I feel like a proud mama bear when I talk about some of my students, because they truly are creating businesses that matter and that change lives. And they're creating the life of their dreams by managing their own schedule and running their own business. And it's just so fun. And again, it's one of those Moments where I sat down and I'm like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe I get to do this for a living.

Amazing. And it's all from you constantly pivoting and learning and going through all these different challenges and getting through it, like, through your lived experience. Now they're benefiting.

Yeah. I think it's important for people to realize and acknowledge in their own life that you'll go through seasons, and sometimes that means pivot, sometimes that means pulling back. Sometimes that means, you know, moving forward and growing, and it's okay. Any season of your life is okay. You have to decide for yourself that you're going to be present in it and you're going to make the decisions that are right for you in that season season. And I never would have thought 10 years ago that I would be doing what I'm doing now, but I was open to change, and I was open to pivoting, and I think that's an important lesson.

I would love to talk about the people that you're helping. Have you noticed any common patterns with them on what's been able to help them overcome, like, and be able to do the thing in terms of create this box?

Yes, I definitely have one of the things that I've uncovered, and I. I kind of knew this along the way, but I also spent a lot of time interviewing, doing, like, zoom chats with some of my students just to get to know them better and to be able to improve the experience in my courses and in my coaching. And one of the things that I learned is that confidence is a major, major mindset block for most of the. The students, because so many of us are launching a business for the first time, and that's scary, and it can feel really difficult, and you might not be sure of something, whereas maybe you had a corporate career and you're confident in it because you've done it for so long. But this is new. And so confidence, or lack of, has been something that's been a roadblock for so many people that I've worked with, and so much so that we started to include training and pep talks and trying to talk through how to improve your confidence and feel worthy and to not be afraid to ask for the sale. That's definitely confidence is. Is my answer to that one.

What do you think is the biggest thing that helps them either develop it or kind of overcome that hurdle of confidence to be able to kind of move forward?

There's a lot of things, but I think having a support system is definitely one of the major players there. So that's why we include a community with our course as well. So that you don't feel alone, that you have people that you can lean on for support and you can ask questions. And that is one way to improve your confidence is sharing vulnerably and asking questions and listening to other people and leaning on them for that support.

So good. And then. Okay, I'd love to actually tackle a few more pieces of the formula. So with the I'm game part of the do the thing formula, the I is identify the why. And I was just wondering, is that something you do with your community is be able to really help them get into why they want to start it in the first place? It sounds like it actually, from what you were talking about earlier with the missions behind some of their boxes.

Yeah, definitely. We talk about that in the very early stages because you need to get clear on your why. So that one, you have that kind of as your North Star of future decisions. But two, when things get tough, you can go back to your why and remember why you're doing this in the first place and why that's so important to you.

And what about SO M is part of the I'm acronym? What. What about with mindset? What's been your. It sounds like confidence has been a big thing, but is there anything else that you've noticed can really help them with their mindset?

Yeah, I like podcasts and I like to read a lot of books. That's how I have personally overcome some of my mindset challenges. And I still, to this day, even after running a business for 10 plus years, still work on those things. It's an ongoing process for me. Comparisonitis, you know, the comparison trap is sometimes one of my challenges. And then money mindset. Even though I've sold, you know, almost two and a half million dollars worth of subscription boxes, I still have money mindset challenges in different scenarios. And so I think it's one of those things where the grass is greener, where you water it. So if you focus on, okay, I have this issue with mindset. I have money mindset issues, so how can I combat that? And so for me, there's certain books and certain podcasts that I really like to listen to that helps me kind of get my head right around that mindset challenge. So it's just an. It's one of those lifelong things. It's not like you can just erase a mindset issue. It's going to pop back up along the way unless you're continuously working on it.

Yeah, I like that. And you're making me think too. It's like you can only see as big as you can only think as big as you see. And so the more you surround yourself around that next level is where you're going to be able to expand and evolve more.

Yeah, and that's a good point. And those challenges may manifest in different ways along the way too. You know, when I started my business, I had a different money mindset issue than when I was selling my business. So those mindset challenges definitely can, you know, rear their ugly head in different ways throughout your own journey.

Okay, so now is we're going, we're on the G in game, which is goals. So I'd love to hear how you either tackle those for yourself or help your community tackle them.

Yes. So I love the concept of finding your sweet spot. And for me, that means finding what you need each month as far as like financial goals in this season of your life. Don't look at what it was last year or what it will be next year or what some guru is doing or chasing some seven figure, six figure, five figure mark that some coach tells you you need to hit. I really believe in figuring out what your sweet spot is for you personally. And, and so how I do that is we look at what's our need number? Like what do we need each month to pay the bills and then what's the want number? If you want travel, if you want to be generous with gifting, if you want to enroll your kid in a traveling soccer league, whatever that want is, what is that want number? And then you back into it, you back into your goals financially based off of what your need number is and what your want number is. And I find I call that the sweet spot. And, and for subscription boxes, it's kind of easy because you know how much money you're going to make off of each box. And so you figure out how many boxes do I need to sell each month to hit that number? But it can be done in with any type of business. If you sell coaching programs or if you sell products, how many coaching sessions do you need to sell just back into that number? How many products do you need to sell back into that number? I think so often, especially newer entrepreneurs will get kind of starry eyed by seeing mentors or coaches saying, like, you need to hit this number, you need to scale. Those numbers are kind of just milestones. But what do you really need in this season of your journey right now that's so much more important? And that's what success looks like. It doesn't look like what anybody else's version of success looks like. You need to figure out what it looks like for you and then you can do all your goal setting based around that. Based off of what does success look like to you and what is that sweet spot financially that you need? Yeah.

And I love this because the reason why this is so powerful, what you're just saying, and I wanted to kind of hone this in on the listener as well, is there's so many people that are like, what's your big hairy goal? It's like almost side what you can even believe right now because you haven't reached the halfway point. And once you, what you said with the need, once you're no longer burning energy on like your expenses, then it's almost like your, your brain is open to everything because you're not burning energy on like what you actually need to live on. Yeah. So I really like that. I really, I haven't heard, I don't think I've heard anyone speak to that yet. So I appreciate you, you saying that because that's been real, that's been really coming up for me a lot is I don't think people realize once they no longer need to worry about what they have to live on, money wise, then that's when everything's open to them because they're not burning energy on daily living anymore.

Yeah. And you can get clarity by just sitting down and looking at your finances and having the, the big picture view will give you so much freedom because you know, it's not just a pie in the sky goal. You know what you need, then you know what you want. Like what, what can, what is that padding? That would help you create the dream life. For me it's travel. I love to travel. And so beyond our need number, I make sure that I budget in for travel and so that helps us set our goals as a family and for me as a business owner.

And so the other, the other pieces we spoke to, but I wanted to do the A in game. So the A in game is accountability. And I'm imagining that's being done in the group. But I'm curious, have you found a favorite form of accountability? Because for me I'm learning, mine evolves. I keep learning each time I do things on what I need to hold myself accountable. And I was just curious what's come up for you.

My favorite form of accountability is having besties, like business besties, where you're available to connect with Them I use the app called Voxer. I don't know if you've heard of Voxer. It's a walkie talkie style app so you can send text, audio or short video messages. And there's a lot of different ones, a lot of different apps that do that same purpose. But for whatever reason, I like Voxer and I have a handful of business besties that we just check in with each other on the regular. We ask each other questions, ask how can I support you today? And having them has provided so much accountability. And, and I will say that those business besties are kind of in the same stage of business as I am. They're not two steps ahead, they're not two steps behind. They're right around that same place that I am. And I think that's really helpful because we're going through similar things. And so that's, that's the form of accountability I like is that personal touch, that close circle that I can feel really vulnerable with. I can get to know them on a personal level too. Like I know all their families and their kids and where they spent Christmas, things like that. And it's building that relationship with them has been so impactful from an accountability perspective.

So good. Okay, Julie, the time is here. So what would be your number one piece of advice for the listeners on doing the thing?

I think I could tap into what we talked about earlier, about doing it anyway. When you are afraid to launch something or to share your idea, that's totally normal. As entrepreneurs, we all have some sort of fear, some sort of mindset around it. But I just encourage you to be resourceful, to take action and do it anyway because it's, it's where it's worth it if you've thought it through. If you have big dreams, big goals, taking steps, taking action towards that goal is the only way you're going to make it happen. So do it anyway.

So good. Please share where people can learn more about you and your coaching program.

Yes, thank you. I appreciate that. You can find more about me at subscription box basics.com that's the website, but also the name of the podcast, Subscription Box Basics, and where you'll find me on Facebook and Instagram as well.

Thank you so much for coming on. This has been such a great interview and I really appreciate you. Just your vulnerability and just being able to be open about everything you've gone through, I think is going to be really impact people.

Aw. Well, thank you for having me on. I appreciate it.

Thanks for listening to the do the thing podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show, but even more, we hope you'll be inspired to do the thing. Do you have a burning question on Doing the Thing that you'd like answered? How about an inspiring do the thing story of your own that you'd like to share? We'd love to hear all about it. Just leave us a voice message at dothething callcast. Co or email us at hello at dothingpodcast. Com.