Ten things to know about your Subscription Box Coach Julie

#061 - So many of you have met Julie through the subscription box industry, but there's so much more to know about her than just running a subscription box and coaching others to do the same. So in this episode, we're going to talk about ten things that you might not know about Coach Julie.

Are ready to start my subscription box business? Then you are in luck because Subscription Box Bootcamp opens at a discounted rate at the end of this week. Mark your calendar February 19th through the 22nd 2021. So make sure you are on the list. If you're not on the list to get those details, head on over to SubscriptionBoxBootcamp.com right now.

Links:
https://www.subscriptionboxbootcamp.com
https://www.sparklehustlegrow.com

Transcript

So you want to launch a subscription box and don't know where to start? Girl, you are in the right place. I'm Julie Ball, a subscription box coach and your host here at Subscription Box Basics, a podcast for new and aspiring subscription box entrepreneurs that want to avoid overwhelm. So grab a coffee, some pen and paper and let's have some fun!

Hey everybody, welcome back to Subscription Box Basics. Thanks for joining me today. I decided today that I wanted to do a solo episode and tell you 10 things that you might not know about me. So many of you have met me through the subscription box industry, but there's so much more to know about me than just running a subscription box and coaching others to do the same. So that's what we're going to talk about today. It's going to be a pretty short episode. I think I tend to talk, so I will try to keep it short and give you those 10 things that you should know about me.

But before I dive in, I want to let you know that if you've been listening and you're like, I'm ready to start my subscription box business, then you are in luck because Subscription Box Bootcamp opens at a discounted rate at the end of this week. Mark your calendar February 19th through the 22nd 2021. So make sure you are on the list. If you're not on the list to get those details, head on over to SubscriptionBoxBootcamp.com right now. Make sure you're on that list and you are ready when we open the doors. We would love to support you in your subscription box business journey.

All right. In no particular order, these are 10 things you should know about your subscription box coach Julie, that's me. Okay. So I am originally from Western Pennsylvania. And if you know anything about Western Pennsylvania, you know that we bleed black and gold and it's one of those things.

It didn't feel like it was a choice. It was just a part of growing up. So I am a big sports fan. I love the Pittsburgh Steelers. I love the Pens, which was the Pittsburgh Penguins. It's the hockey team. And I like the Pirates. And for college, I did my undergrad at Penn state and I did have season tickets. So I went to so many Penn State games and I loved it. It was so much fun. We would tailgate. Sometimes we didn't even go out the night before and set up tents and sleep over right outside Beaver stadium. And I remember very specifically, some friends of ours had some tents and I would make chili in the crock pot. And I would bring it up because it was cold, very cold. Penn State is in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania, and it gets very cold during football season.

So I am a big sports fan, which you wouldn't think of because, you know, I run Sparkle Hustle Grow, and that's very girly. But as I'm recording this, I literally have on a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey t-shirt or a sweatshirt. It was way that I was able to really connect with my dad and bond with him. And my husband is a Detroit sports fan. So we butt heads a lot when it comes to that. But the Steelers always are better than the Lions. So I guess it doesn't really matter. I digress.

Okay. So the next thing you need to know about me is prior to being an entrepreneur, I did 10 years of corporate America, but it was in the music industry, which is fun and stressful at the same time. So I worked for a couple of different companies in the music industry. I started out with Live Nation and they are a concert promoter.

So if there's a large amphitheater in the closest big city, there's a high likelihood that Live Nation might either run that amphitheater or book the concerts through there. So I worked for Live Nation in Charlotte and there was an amphitheater there. And so I've easily seen over 200 concerts. It was part of my job and every summer we had 30 plus concerts. My actual office was backstage, which was super cool. I, my gosh, some of the stories I could tell you, maybe that's a podcast on its own. Met lots of rock stars and never went on anyone's tour bus. I'll tell you that because that's a big no-no. And some of like the most memorable moments where I got to meet Stevie Nicks, who's like my rock goddess idol, and I got to meet her and I got to give her puppy dog a treats. And that was super fun.

I do remember when the 80's and 90's like hair bands would come through, like, it was just wild. I remembered they, who was it? I think it was maybe Poison or something like that. They came through our amphitheater and they took over our conference room and turned it into a tattoo studio, a tattoo parlor and groupies were coming in. I kid you not and getting tattoos. I remember that very specifically that the country Western shows were almost always some of the most rowdy ones, a lot of marital disputes, a lot of drunken fights, and then I remember also doing like Warped tour and Ozzfest. And can you imagine me in the middle of that stuff? It was fun. It was really, really fun.

I made a lot of lifelong friends and I went into the music industry because it was one of my passions.

And so the last job that I held before becoming an entrepreneur was I was the digital sales manager at CBS radio in Charlotte, North Carolina. And I managed the digital streaming assets and websites and sales of those assets, for that market. And it was a very, very stressful corporate job. Yeah. There was some perks to it, you know, radio stations throw a lot of concerts and parties and fun stuff like that. But, it was easy for me to see towards the end of my career there, that it was time for me to do my own thing. So that leads me to the third thing.

I am a huge Music fan and I really, really do like all kinds of music. On any given day, I'll be listening to boy bands, NKOTB for life. I listened to a lot of Snoop and 90's rap. I love Fleetwood Mac even before they became popular again, because of that TikTok video, been following Fleetwood Mac forever, as I mentioned, huge Stevie Nicks fan Love bands like the Beatles and you know, a lot of that classic rock, but also I love Green Day. It's so random.

I have been low key crushing on Billy Joe Armstrong since I was in junior high. So when he decided to do Broadway Idiot, I was so excited because I love show tunes. I love musicals. And to have one of my favorite bands actually on Broadway and brought into like this musical production on a different level. I was so, so excited. Okay.

So the next thing you need to need to know about me is that I thrive in community. I am an extrovert, actually, I'm an ambivert. I call it an ambivert because I am super extroverted and I love being around people and going to events and things like that. But then I hit a wall and when I hit that wall, I retreat like I need downtime immediately. So I'm an extrovert until I'm not, then I need to do some self-care and do some recharging and then I'll be good to go the next day, just do it all over again.

But I thrive in community. So it was such a struggle for me, during COVID to fill that bucket. And so I do a lot of video chats and I really tap into the communities that I'm a part of, especially the Subscription Box Bootcamp community, and the Sparkle Hustle Grow community they've really, really have helped me through this in keeping in touch with people.

And then next thing you need to know about me is that I am obsessed with personal development. And so I put together the Sparkle Hustle Grow boxes every month with my team and every single month there's business trainings and there's books. And yes, I read all the books. I do the trainings. It is so much fun to be able to have that as a part of the work that I do, the business that I run, because I already loved that stuff. So it's really easy to get excited about it and to follow through with the work and that kind of leads to, you know, office supplies and the whole Sparkle Hustle Grow box really, really fills my bucket because of that obsession with personal development.

Okay, halfway done. Doing good time here, huh? Okay. So the next thing you need to know, number six is that I am outdoorsy. So I live Western North Carolina, the Blue Ridge mountains, and I love to get outside. We literally live on the side of a mountain. It's called rainbow mountain. We have about an acre and a half, and it's just beautiful here. We have beautiful mountain range views. And so we love to hike as a family. We all have standup paddle boards. And so we like to go on our paddle boards in the summertime and fun fact, I was in the ski club in high school. And then when I went to Penn state, I switched to snowboarding and I was able to pick it up pretty quickly. And I was on the Penn state snowboard team. However, that was a long while ago. I graduated Penn state in 2001.

So you do the math. So my family and I went to the mountains recently deeper into the mountains. So like where the ski resorts are. And we went snow tubing and we went ice skating, McKenna went ice skating for the first time. It was super fun. And I was like, let's just go hang out at the lodge for a little bit. And we can watch all the people skiing and snowboarding. And so we did, and by the time we left, both of my husband and my daughter were like, I'll go to ski school, let's go to ski school. And I was like, yes, mission accomplished.

So we are going to go to ski school as a family, something to do together, whether it's this winter, or maybe next winter depends on how things pan out, but I'm so excited to get back on the mountain to go skiing. And yes, I still have my snowboard. I just haven't touched it in a few years. So hopefully I will be brave enough to pull that baby out and get back on the board.

Okay. The next thing you need to know about me is that travel is my love language and my lifeline. I love to travel. My I'm very lucky that my team loves to travel as well. So we plan retreats from time to time. We've hosted retreats, women's retreats in the past, and really love to go to things like the sub summit. And, you know, we do a leadership retreat. And so I've been to 12 countries and 27 States when I was in college, my roommate and I went to Europe and we did this 30-day like tour where we jumped on and off trains.

We had some sort of paths we could just jump on and off trains. And we visited a whole bunch of countries, a whole bunch of cities and tasted a whole bunch of amazing food and had a lot of crazy experiences that was, you know, pre-911 stuff. So it was a little bit different than what that might look like these days and obviously pre COVID. So it looked really different now, but it, I just think back what an amazing time, what an amazing experience. I carried everything in a backpack for 30 days, and we met so many incredible people and it almost feels like a lifetime ago.

Alright the next, one's a little silly. The next thing you need to know about me is that jelly beans are my guilty pleasure. Like I really, really, really, really love jelly beans, Jelly Belly's are my favorites. I don't like the spicy ones. I like fruity ones. And I like the ones like the buttered popcorn. That's amazing. If you have not tried a buttered popcorn Jelly Belly, you need to get out there and try one right now. So I love to sit with a bag of the jelly beans and my daughter and I will, we'll split them up and we'll just like taste test and see which ones we like and try to figure out what the flavor is. And then we have that BeanBoozled game. I don't know if you guys have heard of that one, but they try to trick you. So say there's like a yellow jelly bean. So it might be lemon, or it might be like dog food flavored or sour milk flavored, or like dirty socks flavored. It's so disgusting, but it's a really, really fun game to play with your kids. So if you have kids check that out, BeanBoozled is the name of the game, but it's just another excuse for me to eat some jelly beans.

The next thing you need to know about me is, okay, this might seem weird, but I'm really love to sleep. Like I need a lot of sleep. I'm not that kind of person that can run on five or six hours a night. I have some team members that can, but I need a solid eight to nine hours. And so I tend to sleep in and I know that most personal development and like, professional coaches and stuff say, you need to be an early riser and you need to get this routine done in the morning. It just doesn't work for me. At least this, this season of my life. It doesn't work for me. And so I don't pressure myself anymore to be in the office by a certain time.

I typically work about 10 AM to like 3 PM or so sometimes 4PM depending on, you know, what's going on. Sometimes I'll get in earlier and sometimes I'll stay in later. I'm really trying to set a lot of my boundaries better when it comes to work-life balance and trying not to work as many nights and weekends. And I didn't have that luxury when I first started my business. So if you're not there yet, don't worry. Just keep working towards it. But yeah, I am, I really need my sleep. I like to sleep in and contrary to what most gurus or coaches say, you don't have to get up at 5:00 AM or 6:00 AM or whatever AM to do this like lengthy routine that might work for some people. It just does not work for me right now in this season when my daughter's a little bit older, maybe, when we're not homeschooling, maybe I do remember when I was taking her to the public school in the morning, we had to get up earlier and it was refreshing and I got a lot accomplished in the morning, but it also had a hard stop time at 2:00 PM because I'd pick her up from school shortly after.

So in this season right now, I get to sleep in which I love. I was always like that though. Even as a teenager, like I would sleep til 11 o'clock. And I remember my parents being like, you lost half the day, cause you slept through it. So it is what it is.

And then the last thing, the 10th thing that you need to know about me is that I do things even though I'm afraid, like I love to face my fears. So a quick example is I used to be afraid of heights where I thought I was afraid of heights. So I started rock climbing in college. And when I got there, I was like, I realized that it wasn't really the height that I was afraid of. It was, I was afraid of falling. So what did I do instead? I decided to go skydiving so I could face that fear of being afraid to fall. And I did it and it was amazing.

And I loved the adrenaline and being able to conquer something that I was afraid of. But trust me, like every day in my business, I swear I face fears. I am not a huge fan of showing up on video, but I do it anyhow. I'm nervous when I do it. Sometimes when I do these podcasts interviews, I'm nervous depending on the topic or, you know, what we might cover or just trying to get things right. I face my fears all the time. And the reason I think that's important for you to know is that if you're listening to this and your afraid to move forward with your subscription box or just any business idea or other things in your life, just know that we all are afraid to do things and you can be afraid and brave at the same time.

And I think it's really important. I read a book, we included it in 2020 bucks. It was called Do It Scared. It was such a great book. And I took a lot from it and it just re you know, solidified that idea that we're scared, but do it anyhow. And I know one of my mentors, Christy Wright from the Dave Ramsey Group, she says that all the time to like, do it scared, do it anyhow, face your fears. And you know what, if we fall flat, that's okay, we're human. We're not going to be perfect. Just more about how well you pick yourself back up.

So those are the 10 things that you should know about me. I know this was kind of a random podcast topic. I just wanted to pull back the curtain a little bit because you guys have been listening for so long and you've been following along with my business and you've been learning from the different people and the different colleagues box owners that I've had on the podcast. So I just thought I would give you a little closer glimpse into my life. Hopefully you relate to some of it. Hopefully it helps you see like who I am and why I am the way I am.

And guys, I know I am not for everybody. I'm a bit much for a lot of people and that's okay. Totally okay with me. I accept that. I'm not for everyone. And I'm kind of glad about that. And that's the way we should look at our, our box businesses too. Like our boxes shouldn't be for everyone. That's okay. If someone doesn't like it, you made it for a specific niche audience. And so you want to focus it on that, but it's just, I just want to encourage you and just let you know, like it's okay. You're not for everyone either. Probably there's an Aesop's fable that I don't remember the name of the story, but I remember the moral of the story. It said, "please all, and you will please none". And I carry that quote with me all the time, especially when I have people that say I'm a bit too much for them, or like too basic or too this or too that, or not enough, this or not enough that. Same thing with my box business. I just have to remember it, "Please all and you'll please none".

Okay. That's a wrap guys. I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about me. I would love to learn more about you if you resonated with any of these things, or if you have any funny stories to tell me, just hit me up in my DMs on Instagram. I'm over @SubscriptionBoxBootcamp, both on Instagram and Facebook. I'd love to hear from you.

And I know I don't always ask you to, but if you feel like it, if you have an extra minute today, go and rate and review this podcast, those ratings help push it up in the algorithm. So I can reach more people with this podcast and help them launch their own subscription box businesses.

Guys, thank you so much. I'm sending so much gratitude for you as you tune in every week. And, one more thing. If you have any topics you want me to cover, I am planning out the schedule for the next few months. So make sure you let me know what podcast topics you want me to cover.

And finally, last thing don't forget. Subscription Box Bootcamp opens for enrollment February 19th through the 22nd. I hope to see you there. I hope you enroll and that my team and I can support you. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you on the next episode.