Bryan McAnulty [00:00:00]:

What if you could turn your passion into a thriving business and help others do the same? That's exactly what Sarah Williams does. 5 years ago, she had this dream to start a subscription box service that would offer women a way to prioritize self care with personalized items shipped every month. Now that dream has become a reality and not only does she have her own subscription box business, but she's teaching thousands of creators how to launch their own. Sarah is known as the subscription box queen and in 2023 her business Launch Your Box was named in the Inc 5000 list of the fastest growing companies in America. Today, Sarah's here with us to share her proven strategies for growing a successful subscription business and to help you create compounding revenue in your business whether you sell physical or digital products.

Sarah Williams [00:00:43]:

And that that's what I see most with entrepreneurs that I work with is they're so afraid to get started. 1, because they're afraid of failure. Number 2, they're afraid of growth and success. And also number 3, they think they have to have it perfect before they get started. And, really, I just need you to let go of all those things and just love it out there. And I'm so glad that I did because, you know, we've grown so much over the years, and it's also allowed me to have this incredible coaching membership that I have as well.

Bryan McAnulty [00:01:12]:

Today we're gonna learn how to succeed with a subscription based business, how to reduce churn in your subscriptions, and the difference between selling subscriptions of physical and digital products. Welcome to the creator's adventure where we interview creators from around the world hearing their stories about growing a business. Hey, everyone. I'm Brian McAnulty, the founder of Heights Platform. Let's get into it. Hey, Sarah. Welcome to the show.

Sarah Williams [00:01:43]:

Thank you for having me.

Bryan McAnulty [00:01:45]:

First question for you is, what would you say is the biggest thing that you either did or you are doing that has helped you to achieve the freedom to do what you enjoy?

Sarah Williams [00:01:54]:

Wow. The biggest thing I would say getting out of my own way. I think as entrepreneurs, we have the ability to get in our own way a lot. And when we can just get out of our own way and open up, you know, our thought process and being open to what transpires, we we grow a lot quicker than when we have to feel like we control everything that we do.

Bryan McAnulty [00:02:18]:

So what what was an example of that for you where you had to learn to get out of your own way?

Sarah Williams [00:02:22]:

I think showing up. Showing up is a big part of my story and my journey, in in a lot of different ways. Showing up live on camera was a big challenge for me in the beginning of my ecommerce business, But I also knew that if I could go live and I could showcase products and I could share who I was, it would draw an audience closer to me and create more, you know, revenue and more loyalty. And so for me, it was getting over myself thinking I had to be perfect to show up on camera. So that was, like, one of the biggest ways that I just really needed to get over myself. And then always thinking I had to be the smartest, the most intelligent, the the number one on everything that I did, but just really being consistent with it instead. I think that's another part of just getting over yourself and getting out of your own way. It's just doing the things, doing them messy, doing them scared, doing them unprepared, and figuring out along the way.

Bryan McAnulty [00:03:19]:

Yeah. I like that. A way that I found helpful to kind of frame that is to just do the thing because even if you're not good at it, like, the fact that you are doing it is already putting you above many people who just will never do it. They may want to, but like you, like, in the early on, they're, like, they're struggling, and for some reason, they're just not getting to it. So just by doing it, you may be bad at it even when you start, but you will get better. Yeah. And, you can go from there.

Sarah Williams [00:03:49]:

Yeah. I think the I think one thing for me was, you know, I think along the way, I would see people do things. You know, I always thought I had to be the smartest or the best at at to do things. And I would see people do things and be successful, and I think, well, they're not the greatest at that. How are they so successful? And those things would trigger me to be like, well, I can do that and I can do it better. You know, as far as, I saw a subscription box, and my subscription box is called the monogram box. And so, I saw another subscription box that personalized their box, and I thought, well, they're doing it. They were super successful.

Sarah Williams [00:04:26]:

They had 10, 20000 subscribers, and I was watching them on social media, and I thought, man, I could do this and I could do this better. And I think everything along the way that I've done, I thought about it in that way. When I was working for corporate America, I decided to quit that job and work for an entrepreneur. I never had dreams of being an entrepreneur. I went to college. I got my MBA. I went to art school. Like, I just followed the the path that, I just learned as a kid watching my parents do the same things.

Sarah Williams [00:04:56]:

But I started I went to work for an entrepreneur and I watched her run this business and I watched myself really build this business, and I thought, if she can do this, she's scattered, she's unorganized, like, she doesn't have her stuff together, but she's really good at the things she's good at, I can do this. So that was kinda my first thing of, like, oh, she can do this. I can do it. Then I saw this subscription box. Oh, they can do it. I can do it. And so I think those little confident boosts along the way, when I went into coaching and started coaching entrepreneurs, I saw another coach in my space, who I was actually more successful than and I thought, well, she's doing it. I can do this too.

Sarah Williams [00:05:33]:

And so I think along the way, that was a big motivator to get out of my own head and realize that I have to be the best. But I had a lot of knowledge, and I had a lot of my own expertise building my own business, and I just needed to lean into it. Yeah.

Bryan McAnulty [00:05:47]:

That's great. Yeah. I really think sometimes also just seeing that it's possible is such a big unlock for yourself to realize, like

Sarah Williams [00:05:55]:

Mhmm.

Bryan McAnulty [00:05:55]:

Oh, okay. This is something that can be done. And, like, in your case, well, I think I can do that better too. So Yeah. Cool. So, yeah, you have the subscription box business. How like, what inspired you to start that, and how did you decide on the niche that you landed in?

Sarah Williams [00:06:14]:

So I had a brick and mortar store. It was a local gift shop and, I did a lot of handmade things. This is kind of my side hustle while I was working for this other entrepreneur. And, when I decided to part ways with that entrepreneur and just go out on my own, I knew that I really needed to kinda step up because I had to make a full time income instead of a side hustle income on it. And so what I was noticing was that, I would have kinda the same customer come in regularly. Like, they would watch me on social media, they'd come in, and a lot of times I would be sold out of the things that they saw on social media. And they're, like, oh, I didn't get here quick enough, or, oh, I didn't I didn't get any of that. And I wasn't selling online at that time.

Sarah Williams [00:06:56]:

I was strictly in person in my brick and mortar store. And so it got me thinking, like, how could I create an experience for this customer that comes in maybe once or twice a month on a regular basis where they feel like they're the VIP of this business? They get first dibs, they get early access, they get exclusive products. And so that was really the idea around it. And then I told you I saw this other subscription box company that was much larger than my little small town business, doing this subscription box. Well, that's what I I specialized in in my brick and mortar store. I personalized everything. So we monogram items, we had your name to items, we engraved, we embroidered, we did all of those things at my gift shop. And so I was like, how could I put those things that is my specialty in my brick and mortar and create this VIP experience for those regular customers.

Sarah Williams [00:07:46]:

So I had that thought and kinda sat on it for, like, a year, a year and a half because I told you I wasn't even online yet. I didn't know logistically how to make all of that work. I didn't know about reoccurring payments. I'd never shipped anything. And so the idea of kinda doing this in bulk was a little bit overwhelming for me because, I was just like I said, I'm a small town Texas girl, and I had a great I had a great following, and I had great sales that supported a full time income for me and my family, but I wasn't sure logistically how I was gonna make this work. So I kinda sat on my subscription box idea for about a year, year and a half, and, my web developer came by. We were updating some images on my website, and my website was literally, like, here's my store hours and my phone number and and things like that. It was nothing like, I would I didn't have any ecommerce going on.

Sarah Williams [00:08:36]:

And, so we were updating some things, and he said, is there anything else I could do for you? And I really just blurted it out. I had never spoke about this to anyone. I just said, I wanna start a subscription box. And he was like, really? And I was like, yes, but I I don't know. I don't know how to do this online. I don't know how to set up payments. He goes, if you can figure out your packaging and what you wanna put in it, I will figure out the tech. And I was like, okay.

Sarah Williams [00:09:00]:

And 3 months later, we launched, my subscription box, which is called the Monogram Box.

Bryan McAnulty [00:09:05]:

Awesome. Yeah. And I bet, after doing that, you probably wish you did it earlier even. Right?

Sarah Williams [00:09:11]:

For sure. Because, you know, I had in my mind, if I could get a 100 subscribers, like, this was my big goal. If I could get a 100 subscribers, it'd pay the rent for my building, my utilities, and my one employee. It would pay my fixed costs. And so that meant that every walk in, every sale at the register was was extra. It was additional. It was above and beyond my fixed cost in my business. And so my big goal was to get a 100 subscribers, and what happened is in month 3, I got a 100 subscribers.

Sarah Williams [00:09:41]:

And so within my first kind of 8 months, I had hundreds and hundreds of subscribers that I never imagined this could turn into. And now, you know, years later, we've got thousands of subscribers, monthly subscribers across 3 different subscriptions, and we're in a big beautiful warehouse now. I'm no longer in that little, brick and mortar store, and I ship all over the country, and it's kind of an incredible feeling. And I just wish I wouldn't have sat on it for a year. Right? I wouldn't have not said anything to anybody. I think it's like that fear that if this comes out of my mouth, someone's gonna think I'm stupid. Right? Or someone's gonna judge me for this, whatever I'm about to say, because who was really doing this in 2016? Big big brands were. Small businesses weren't doing subscription boxes, so people would think I'm crazy

Sarah Williams [00:10:28]:

is really what I thought.

Sarah Williams [00:10:28]:

And so I never spoke about it to anybody, and just that day, I just blurted it out. And I'm so glad that I did because, you know, we've grown so much over the years, and it's also allowed me to have this incredible coaching membership that I have as well.

Bryan McAnulty [00:10:46]:

Yeah. Yeah. That's great. I mean, I am mostly involved in the software and, like, digital product space now, but I tried an e commerce store as well. I mean, I still have it. And it was a similar experience in some ways that I thought, like, okay, I wanna start this, but I just sat on it for so long because I was worried, like, am am I gonna figure out how to fulfill this the right way? What if it gets What if too many people order and I can't figure out how to handle it? And I was worried about all these problems that once I actually did launch it, I realized were not as big of a problem that I would've thought. And the 1st month that I launched it, it started bringing in revenue, and it's like, wow. I wish I just did this earlier.

Bryan McAnulty [00:11:29]:

It would have made things better. So I think the lesson is just to to try to get it out there. And it doesn't have to bring in revenue immediately, but now you have something that it can, and you can grow it instead of

Sarah Williams [00:11:40]:

Yeah. You have something to build on. And that that's what I see most with entrepreneurs that I work with is they're so afraid to get started. 1, because they're afraid of failure is the first one. Number 2, they're afraid of growth and success. So, like, what if I launch this and I get a whole bunch of sales just like you said? And also number 3, they're really just over perfecting everything. They think they have to have it perfect before they get started. And, really, I just need you to let go of all those things and just love it out there.

Sarah Williams [00:12:09]:

And if that means you get 20 subscribers, great. You can figure out how to do logistics and fulfillment and shipping with 20 subscribers instead of 200 subscribers or 2,000 subscribers. And so, I I love just getting it out there, and and that's really what happened for me. I didn't have a huge, online presence at that point. So it was really just my local subscribers that were subscribing at first, and so that meant pickup. I didn't have to ship hardly any of the boxes. They came to my store and picked up their boxes, which was also amazing, and it there became this after effect to that because now I had foot traffic. Every single month, I had a huge amount of foot traffic coming into my little boutique, picking up their subscription boxes, and buying other things while they were there.

Sarah Williams [00:12:54]:

So I created foot traffic for my brick and mortar and now starting to grow online because I was showing up, doing the lives like we talked about in the beginning. I knew that I had to do that in order to grow because people that came into the store, they knew me. They knew me because they came and shopped, and I and I I talked with them and I got to know them as they came in over and over again. And so for me, it was like how do how can I replicate that in the online presence? And the only way to do that was for me to show up live and let people outside of my town get to know me in the same way that someone walking through that front door was getting to know me. And so that's how I grew my online social media presence, and that's ultimately how I grew the subscription.

Bryan McAnulty [00:13:36]:

Awesome. And I like how you described it because I'm not really familiar with, like, physical subscription boxes and what goes into that.

Bryan McAnulty [00:13:45]:

And I like how you described, like, that it's kind of the offer for your VIPs and loyal customers to give them that experience. And so I'm curious for somebody who's interested in saying, okay. Well, is the idea of having the subscription box model like the right model for my business? How do they figure that out?

Sarah Williams [00:14:06]:

There's a couple things. So if you are currently selling products right now, maybe you're selling one off products. You know, the way that I figured out my subscription was I took my top three categories in my store, so I had data to pull from. I knew that, drinkware was one of my top, categories. I knew that graphic teas was one of my top categories, and I knew that accessories were my my 3rd best category, and that meant, like, earrings and purses and and things like that. And so I took those best three categories from my gift shop, and I said, how can I curate a box, with these items? And then the other piece of data that I really took was what was my AOV in the store? So what were people spending on average? And at that time, again, that was 2016. It's much different now, but the average order value was $40, And so how could I take these things and create a create a $40 a month subscription? Because I knew people regularly paid that when they came in my shop, and could I give them big value in this and charge them $40 for it. So that was where I started.

Sarah Williams [00:15:10]:

I took the top three categories. I took that AOV, and that's how I launched the subscription. And then through the years, we've created upgrades and add ons. But I think you can also take this if maybe you have a service based business right now. Are there physical things that would complement what you, what you provide with your services? So if I'm teaching something, if I'm a coach, if I'm, you know, whatever whatever I'm doing, is there something physically that those people that pay for my services would like to have? Because what we've learned over the last, several years is that people want tangible things. And a lot of businesses, since COVID have all gone online and we're all doing these online things, but people still want to get that package off their front door. People still want to hold and touch and feel the things. And so is there something you can provide if your coach, what do they need to help them with your programs? For me, you know, that could be notebooks and pens and, office supplies and, laminated cards for whatever, swipe files for emails, things like that that I can physically deliver them and create a fun experience with it.

Sarah Williams [00:16:22]:

And that's what we need to think about, no matter what business we're in.

Bryan McAnulty [00:16:27]:

Yeah. So I'm curious if you can help address this too because I'm not personally, like, a consumer of subscription boxes. And for me, like the way I look at it is I kinda wanna just buy the things I wanna buy, and then, like, I also don't imagine myself wanting to necessarily get something every month from it. I don't know. So maybe I'm just not, like, the ideal customer persona, but how do you figure out how to, like, target the right kind of person, and how do you then retain them so that way they stick with you versus, like, okay, I'm gonna buy this one month and then not ever again.

Sarah Williams [00:17:07]:

Right. And you're gonna have that. That's the nature of our business. We're gonna have cancellations every single month. The goal is to have, you know, a high retention rate. And with my subscription, I have about a 95% retention rate. I'm keeping my subscribers on average of 18 months. They're getting a lot of boxes from me.

Sarah Williams [00:17:23]:

And so what I have to do to retain them is to create a different experience every single month. So for me, I what I really teach my students is that every box is an experience. We don't want a random box. You people don't want a box of random things thrown together that have no meaning. Right? And so for us, it's about curating an experience with our products. So I start with the main item, you know, which could be a sweatshirt this month. I might have a sweatshirt in there. Let's just call it game day.

Sarah Williams [00:17:53]:

I'm just gonna give you some thoughts of my curation process. Say this is our game day box. I'm gonna put a game day sweater in there. I'll probably go neutral colors because I don't know what team you're you're, you're loving, so I may go gray or black or something like that. And then I'll do some accessories. If I'm going to game day, I have to have a clear bag because in stadiums, you have to have a clear bag in a lot of the college stadiums. So So I'm gonna give you a clear cross body bag that you can put all your things in when you go watch game. I might add some other little accessories into that, but the whole theme of this is that it all goes together.

Sarah Williams [00:18:25]:

Next month, I might do something fall. The next month is gonna be our Christmas theme. So I'll do Christmas pajamas and a monogram t shirt and maybe scrunchies or a satin pillow cover for your bed, but I'm creating experience. All the colors match, everything goes together, and it's usable together. And what I try to do most of all is make sure it's functional. I want you to get it out of the box and consume it, and that's what we need to do as, subscription box owners is we have to make our contents of our box consumable. If you open it and go, and you set it off to the side, you're gonna cancel because it's gonna stack up on you. I need to get them to pull it out of the box.

Sarah Williams [00:19:01]:

I need them to use it, wear it, consume it in some way, and so that's what a lot of my content is created around is consuming that box. The other thing I want you to think about is convenience, and I'm gonna give you a couple examples of subscription boxes that I subscribe to. Okay? So to help you understand why I love a subscription box for someone that's not a subscription box consumer. I have a pet subscription for my dogs. I have 2 dogs, pet subscription. Every month, I get a box that has a couple toys and a couple bags of treats in it and some fun dental thing for their teeth. It's convenience. I never have to buy dog treats.

Sarah Williams [00:19:39]:

My dogs always have a fresh toy, and I can throw the chewed up one away, but it's something new and it's creating inconvenience for me. Another subscription box that I love that I have is a quarterly dermatology box. As women in their forties, our skin changes a lot and I never know what to put on my skin for skin care, and so this box is put together by a licensed dermatologist, a doctor, and so every season I get a box full of things that are good for my skin in that season, in summer, in winter, in spring, and in fall. And so I get to consume these products. And what I love about her box is that there's information about these products. I can buy more of these products after I've tested them. They're all full size products, and they really get me through the whole season. Those full size products get me through that full season, and then the next box shows up and I'm ready to switch up my skin care again because the weather is changing.

Sarah Williams [00:20:32]:

That's one that I really love too. I also have a bakery box, that I get bimonthly, and it's full of like cookies and snacks and fun little treats. I'm not a I'm not a person that bakes a lot, so having those things around when I'm going to a party or I have friends over, I always have something there to snack on that looks homemade and fresh. So those are some of the subscriptions that I love, but I want you to also think about, if you're not a physical subscription person, what are those digital subscriptions that you have? Because we all have them. We have them in the form of streaming TV. We have them in the form of newspapers or magazines. We have them in the form of memberships to clubs or, things like that, but we all have those, and we have them because they're a convenience factor for us. Right? Like, we want to consume that stuff, and it's conveniently delivered to me on my TV, on my tablet, you know, or wherever I want to consume that.

Sarah Williams [00:21:34]:

But the convenience factor is a really big factor in both physical and digital subscriptions.

Bryan McAnulty [00:21:40]:

Yeah. Yeah. That totally makes sense to me. And I know that we do my family does subscribe to a bunch of, like, Amazon auto deliveries and things Mhmm. Exactly for that convenience. And so that totally makes sense. And I wanna also touch on more, I guess, on the retention because you mentioned 95% retention. Like, that's incredible.

Bryan McAnulty [00:21:59]:

Yeah. And so I don't know exactly the subscription box business, but, like, that's good for any recurring revenue business, I think.

Sarah Williams [00:22:06]:

Yeah. It is. And I

Bryan McAnulty [00:22:07]:

would imagine

Sarah Williams [00:22:08]:

for subscription boxes. Very high. Yeah.

Bryan McAnulty [00:22:10]:

Yeah. I would imagine for subscription boxes, it's very, very good.

Sarah Williams [00:22:13]:

It is.

Bryan McAnulty [00:22:15]:

I think a lot of people who wanna start some kind of recurring revenue business, like, there's it is the dream of recurring revenue. Right? It's like, oh, if I can get somebody to pay me, then they're just gonna keep paying me, and then it all compounds. And, like, okay. That's great. But the retention is necessary. Otherwise, you're just you basically have somebody paying you once and you've got to get those customers every time. I think it can be kind of disheartening as an entrepreneur to not find out about that retention until, like, a year later and you realize, like, oh, I can't actually sustain myself because people aren't staying subscribed. And so I think what you touched on there is really powerful already about, like, building it around a specific thing and making sure that people actually use it.

Bryan McAnulty [00:23:00]:

I know, like, for a lot of our viewers and listeners, they may have, like, a membership community or something like that. And it's the same kind of thing. I would say that for retention, like, you wanna get it, yeah, around, like, a 6% churn is really great. You wanna make sure people can stay at least a year, ideally. And so, like, you've got all that. You've got better than all of that with your business. And it's definitely, like, a growing process, though. I don't think most people will launch their recurring revenue business, and then immediately it's like, oh, wow.

Bryan McAnulty [00:23:38]:

Everyone stays for 18 months. Like, great. So I'm curious, were there any other things that you found along the way that you realized that you can do certain things to improve that retention?

Sarah Williams [00:23:49]:

I think one of the biggest things we can do, no matter if we're in a digital space or a physical space is create community around our brands. And what I mean by that is when I look at my, my fizz my retail brand, when I look at that business and I think about I don't have private Facebook groups, I don't have any apps or anything like that, what I do is I speak to my subscribers when I show up on social media. That could be through posts, that could be through a live, that could be whatever I'm doing on social media. I want my subscribers to feel like they're part of the family. And so I'm speaking to them, I am engaging them them with them. I'm getting a touch personal on social media. Social media is about being social. It's not about just advertising.

Sarah Williams [00:24:37]:

And I think people see through that so much, and they want real life. They want behind the scenes. They wanna know, hey, I'm wearing this to the airport, you know, and it could be my shirt and the bag I'm selling and whatever else. And I'm promoting my products, but then they're like, where are you headed? And then, you know, that creates a conversation. And so you don't have to show up and share every little detail of your life. I'm not I'm not that personal, but I give them an insight like, hey, I'm a mom of teenagers, you know, I live in Texas, you know, I'm bound to say y'all a few times on a live, and so they get a little bit personal and they can relate to

Sarah Williams [00:25:12]:

me in that way. A lot of my subscribers are southern, so they relate to me in in that way.

Sarah Williams [00:25:13]:

A lot of my subscribers are southern, so they relate to me in subscribers are southern, so they relate to me in in that way. A lot of my subscribers are moms, so when I show up with a with a funny mom story one day on a live, they can relate to that. I just took my son to college. Like, there's so many people that can relate to that, when I'm showing up and sharing those kinds of things. But so we can get as personal or as impersonal as we want to, but we need to be social, and that creates a community. And then it's engaging in the comments, you know, when they're sharing what they're doing, or where they're headed, or what they're wearing their new shirt to, or where they've taken their bag to, or how that box made them feel when they opened it. You know, I don't know how many times I get a message that I was having a really, really bad day, and I showed up and your turquoise box was sitting on my front door. And that is I need to respond to that.

Sarah Williams [00:26:01]:

I need to respond in a personal way and not in a just over automated response that we've gotten used to, and and that's how you build community. And then this in the same respect with my coaching business, you know, I'm I'm showing up live every week for my students. We're creating connection calls where they get to jump on Zooms and meet each other. We're doing, posts where we're talking about specific topics and I'm engaging in all those. I'm answering questions every single day. I'm commenting. I'm looking at your your website or your landing page or whatever your box design. Like, I'm engaging with that community, and that's why I have thousands of students that pay me month over month, there too.

Sarah Williams [00:26:41]:

My retention rate on the membership is 93%. So it's it's one of those things that you've got to engage for people to stay, and we focus so much on acquisition and not enough on retention, and that just caused this leaky bucket to be constant. You're gonna be constantly selling. I don't love to sell. I don't love to sell at all, Brian. I just wanna serve, and somebody else can sell. But when I serve, my students sell for me. When I serve, my subscribers sell for me.

Sarah Williams [00:27:13]:

And so and I'm also don't have to keep filling a leaky bucket all the time because my students and my subscribers are staying.

Bryan McAnulty [00:27:20]:

Yeah. And and how can you serve them properly if you're always working on a leaky bucket trying to just be more fluid and all the time?

Sarah Williams [00:27:27]:

I feel like a used car salesman, and I don't wanna be that person. I wanna be I wanna be the serving person, not the selling person. And it's necessary to sell. And when it's time to sell, I show up and I sell my face off. But I don't have to do that year round because I've got a leaky bucket going on.

Bryan McAnulty [00:27:44]:

Yeah. Yeah. That's great. And I think it's really useful that you described everything the way that you did because even in something that's not directly a community, that the importance of the community. And you can't just say if you are selling directly a community membership, you can't just say, oh, I have a community. Here, you guys can connect. And, like, that's the end of it. You have to really make it a community.

Bryan McAnulty [00:28:08]:

You have to be involved in it. You have to make everybody feel that they're really part of something in order for them to wanna stay part of it.

Sarah Williams [00:28:15]:

It's and a lot of people think it's just a, let me get rich quick. Let me recreate this group. Let me get paid for that. It's work. Like, everything that we do is work, and that's what makes it sustainable. If you just leave something like, if you just leave a plant outside to fend for itself, it's going to die. If you leave a community in a group to fend for itself, it's going to die without or it's going to turn sour or it's gonna get negative. You've got to be able to control the narrative in your own space.

Sarah Williams [00:28:45]:

Give people freedom to share, encourage them to share, and then follow-up with their questions, or they're gonna leave. And that's just the that's just what it is. And so we focus a lot on customer care, customer connection, and just creating, a community so someone feels a part of something bigger than themselves.

Bryan McAnulty [00:29:06]:

Yeah. And I think also you talked about the big brands earlier. Mhmm. Having that really deep connection and really serving your customers is something that you, as a smaller brand, can do so well that the bigger brands just can't.

Sarah Williams [00:29:19]:

Yeah.

Bryan McAnulty [00:29:19]:

And so it's, like, an easy advantage if you're thinking, oh, man. I wanna do this, but how can I compete when, like, there's this giant company? Well, you can serve the your customers better. And it's something where it it doesn't have to be directly part of your product, but that customer experience is part of your product in a way. So

Sarah Williams [00:29:39]:

Right. And when they email customer service, there's a real person there answering and helping them with a name. It's not just customer service specialist. Like, this is, hey. I'm Lauren. I'm gonna take care of this for you today. I'm shipping it out, your replacement out. Here's your tracking number.

Sarah Williams [00:29:54]:

Let me know if you need anything else. Like, that's what we don't get anymore. And, you know, I'm a I'm a eighties kid, and so, like, it was the customer was always right. Well, we don't many people don't have that mentality anymore, and I'm not saying that's the right or the right way to run your business. But we have to take care of our customers because, they won't ever come back, and they're also going to tell other people that won't come back. And I think that even though our world is very big, our communities are very small, and so we have to protect, our brand that way. And you're right. We, as small business owners, I call it our superpower.

Sarah Williams [00:30:32]:

Our ability to connect our person to our brand and to have a brand that's a person and not just a brand is a superpower that we possess that the big brands don't. And they pay a lot of money for their branding, and that's how we don't have to pay a lot of money. I'm free. Being me is free. So I'm going to show up and be me all the time.

Bryan McAnulty [00:30:52]:

Yeah. I completely agree with that. And, like, I made the mistake of with my business now, its platform. I thought, now I have this big brand. I've got all these customers, and I can just say, hey. Look. I'm this big brand. It's bigger than me.

Bryan McAnulty [00:31:07]:

It it shouldn't be me anymore. And that was the wrong move because we're we're doing well, but, like, we're not this, like, faceless corporation. I'm a creator myself. I should show everybody that, and that is is so much better than just saying, hey. We're this brand because people don't care about the brand. Like, they will care and connect with the individual.

Sarah Williams [00:31:31]:

Yeah. Absolutely.

Bryan McAnulty [00:31:33]:

Awesome. Alright. I guess I have a couple more quick questions. One is so I think we've made it clear the importance of retention. But if you are trying to grow that subscriber base, what is your favorite channel for acquiring customers?

Sarah Williams [00:31:50]:

Well, Facebook. And I know people think it's old school, but, it's my demographic, you know, and, I've tried a lot of channels. I have tried TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, all the things, and Facebook always comes out a clear winner. I can very, very well target my ideal customer. I can connect with them the best on that channel as well. And so Facebook is still my my, drug of choice when it comes to marketing, and, it works very well for me.

Bryan McAnulty [00:32:24]:

Awesome. And my last question is something I like to ask every guest on this show. If you could ask our audience anything, whether it's something you're curious about or wanna just get people thinking about, what would that be?

Sarah Williams [00:32:38]:

For me, I would want you to kinda I wanna get you thinking. So what could reoccurring revenue do in your existing business? What could an extra $1,000 a month do for you right now? What could an extra $10,000 a month do for you right now? What could an extra $100,000 a month for you do for you right now? And no matter where you're at on that spectrum, it could be life changing. It could be business changing. It could be a game changer for you. And so I want you to think about is the one off sales, what you've been doing, working for you? What if you could sell it one time and it pay you 18 more times without you ever having to sell it again, whatever you're doing. And when you think about it that way, you know, I think a lot of a lot of people when we sell one time products, whether that's courses, whether that's, products, it's like this feast and famine. We do really well. We have a great launch.

Sarah Williams [00:33:36]:

We sell. And then, oh, okay. I don't know if I can pay the mortgage this month. And so what reoccurring revenue has done for my businesses, it is really just leveled the playing field and created stability. It created growth because I was able to hire and continue to uplevel those businesses, and, and I don't know what I would do without reoccurring revenue right now. So what could that 1,000, 10,000, or a $100,000 a month change in your life? That's my question for you.

Bryan McAnulty [00:34:05]:

Yeah. It's a great way to think about it, and I think recurring revenue is I think it's sometimes a little bit harder to grow than a one time payments business, but it's definitely more rewarding. It's more stability, and then you can reinvest back into your business so much easier because you know, okay. I'm gonna make gonna be making this month this much money, and then you can grow it from there, with sometimes less stress.

Sarah Williams [00:34:31]:

Yes.

Bryan McAnulty [00:34:31]:

So, yeah, that was great. Sarah, thank you so much. Before we get going, where else can people find you online?

Sarah Williams [00:34:37]:

You can go listen to my podcast. It's called the Launch Your Box podcast, or you can find me at launchyourbox.com.

Sarah Williams [00:34:44]:

Awesome.

Bryan McAnulty [00:34:45]:

Thanks, Eric.

Sarah Williams [00:34:46]:

Thank you.

Bryan McAnulty [00:34:47]:

I'd like to take a moment to invite you to join our free community of over 5,000 creators at creatorclimb.com. If you enjoyed this episode and wanna hear more, check out the Heights Platform YouTube channel every Tuesday at 9 AM US Central. To get notified when new episodes release, join our newsletter at thecreatorsadventure.com. Until then, keep learning, and I'll see you in the next episode.