#073 - Julie is joined by Jenn Collins of Mama Needs Subscription Box which is a box curated especially for Mamas with gifts, tools for self-care, and even simple ideas to make self-care a habit. Jenn is a star student of Subscription Box Bootcamp and one of the first cohort of Sell More Boxes.
Tune in to hear Jenn's journey from launching to scaling Mama Needs subscription box.
Summary:
Links:
#073 - Julie is joined by Jenn Collins of Mama Needs Subscription Box which is a box curated especially for Mamas with gifts, tools for self-care, and even simple ideas to make self-care a habit. Jenn is a star student of Subscription Box Bootcamp and one of the first cohort of Sell More Boxes.
Tune in to hear Jenn's journey from launching to scaling Mama Needs subscription box.
Summary:
Links:
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 and welcome back to Subscription Box Basics. I'm Julie Ball, your host, and today I have a guest with me that I know you're going to love. She is a subscription box boot camper, and she's become my friend. We have a lot in common and I know you're just going to love the box that she puts together. So I'd like to introduce to you Jenn Collins. She is the founder and chief self-care officer of the Mama Needs subscription box and host of the Mama Needs podcast. Welcome, Jenn!
Jenn:Hey, thanks for having me.
Julie:I'm so excited. So full disclosure, before we started recording, we just started chatting and you know, 15, 20 minutes goes by. It's just like sitting down with an old friend again. So I just love that. And I know this conversation is going to flow that way and everybody's gonna love it. So a lot of people will be meeting you for the first time. So why don't you tell everybody a little bit about you and about your background?
Jenn:Sure. So I'm Jenn. I live in Franklin, North Carolina, which is in the Western side of the mountains with my husband and our three kids. I have a 12 year old girl, a nine year old son and a five-year-old son. And I started Mama Needs subscription box in 2018. And my husband owns his own business and I also get to stay at home. I get kind of get the best of both worlds. I love having a flexible business where I can be home with the kids and also make a difference and do something that I love doing.
Julie:That's awesome. And so you're married to your high school sweetheart, which is so cool. I love that you're in Western, North Carolina, North Carolina like me. So we've got just so much to chat about. So you're on this mission, right? To help moms understand the need for self care and give them the tools and the inspiration to prioritize it through your boxes and through your podcasts. It's almost like it's not that we need permission, but sometimes we need that push, that someone to say, you need to take care of yourself. So tell us a little bit about your subscription box and how you came up with that idea. And a little bit more specifically how you solve the problem.
Jenn:Yeah. So as a mom, myself, I know being a mom now 12 years, I've seen patterns in my own life and in my friends' lives of just, you know, that up and down kind of mom guilt, mom shaming. I remember being a first time mom and I didn't even know that existed-mom shaming other mom, guilting other moms, you know, all of a sudden on Facebook and Pinterest whenever that first came out. I was just, I felt this load of guilt on myself. And I constantly felt like a bad mom. I don't know really why I think it's just, cause I didn't know what I was doing, you know?
Julie:Yeah, same.
Jenn:I think all moms would admit that if given the chance that they don't know what they're doing, and I fell into those patterns of just giving, giving, giving to my kids and my husband and, you know, she's our family. And although that's obviously my job and I love doing it, there were or have been, and still are so many times where I forget about myself and I wanted to make a box that would remind moms that they matter too. That, you know, self care is important. It's a necessity. It's not something that is like a huge, you know, once in a lifetime spa day type of thing, you know, it's something that really we can work into our everyday lives. Something that we can do all the time and just something to make us feel special and also just fill our cups. And then that way we can give from the overflow to our family, give from that abundance rather than from that place of burnout and overwhelm. I've been there so many times where, you know, I'm yelling at my kids and I'm like, this is not the mom that I wanted to be. And, you know, that part of that was I was working full time. Years ago when my kids were really little, I was working outside of the home and I would just come home at the end of the day, completely burned out, feeling like I was feeling either at work or at home or both. And I just was tired of that. And so starting a box was a great way for me to use my kind of creative abilities, get that outlet. But also to just serve moms and you know, coming up with this idea, I just would get a notebook. And literally I was just brainstorming, you know, over the course of a few months, just brainstorming and trying to think of what kind of box would people want? What kind of box could I sell? And one day I just wrote down self-care for moms and something clicked. And I just could not write fast enough with all the ideas that I had and what kinds of things I wanted to put inside. And I just went off running and I knew then that, that was what I wanted to do.
Julie:That's awesome. I can so relate to that. I left a corporate job to become a stay at home mom and I did not have any experience with babysitting or, you know, taking care of their neighbor's kids or anything. Okay. I'm going to tell you an embarrassing story and this is going out into the world now because it's on the podcast. My husband and I didn't have any experience with diaper changing. And so McKenna's first diaper change. We recorded on our cell phone. We're like nurse, walk us through this, you know, from A to Z, just tell us what we need to know and he's recording it. And we're like talking through it and I'm like,"Oh my gosh, this is so ridiculous." And then we, when we go home and we're like, okay, we're supposed to give her her first bath at home, but we know it's like, you don't just put a newborn in a bathtub. Like, so we got a book out. Like we have a picture of me standing there holding her under the faucet, like wiping her head down while he's got the book, open reading how to do it. I feel that so deeply like that, we don't know what we're doing and we're just winging it. I always said, like, I figured out how to be a mom of a two year old when she became two. And you know, I became, or I figured out how to become the mom of a three-year-old when she became three, you just kind of learn as you go,
Jenn:Oh my gosh, I can so relate to that because yeah. And I think we talked about this on my podcast. I don't remember, but I remember hearing that story. I don't know where we talked about it, but I, Sadie, our daughter she's 12 now she was our first diaper change ever. I had never changed a diaper. I had babysat, but I knew I wouldn't babysat. I wouldn't babysit any kids under two. So I, she was my first diaper change. My mom came over to help us with her first bath because we didn't know what we were doing.
Julie:I feel so much better. Yeah. I like what you were saying too about like mom guilt is definitely a real thing. I experienced a lot of it and I feel like I lost my identity because I left, I was a corporate ladder climber, like very ambitious going somewhere. And then I realized I had this mindset shift when I was pregnant and I was, I didn't want to commute anymore. I didn't want to be that far away from where my daughter would be if she was going to be in a daycare. And so I decided to do the stay-at-home mom thing and I felt like I lost my identity. And in all of that, I, I never was pouring into myself. And I really struggled because I started going through adrenal fatigue where like my body was physically just breaking down, like so tired. And so I can definitely see how this is really needed. The Mama Needs subscription box is going to help fill that cup. And even if it's just, you know, the one time a month where you get like your cup completely filled, because you get this box of things with affirmations, telling you that you matter and things, and tools and resources to help you do the self-care. So what I was thinking about is how did you decide that you wanted to make it a subscription box instead of just a community or an online shop?
Jenn:You know what, that never even crossed my mind because when I was trying to figure out what I kind of wanted to do, just for some background, we used to live in South Florida. That's where I'm from. I'm a native Floridian. I miss it so much, but we were in that whole hustle culture of just non-stop go, go, go, never saw my kids. Like I said, I just felt like a failure all the time and long story, but we moved to Western, North Carolina where we are now, so we can get that slower pace, lower cost of living. We wanted a different, something different for our family. And so I stayed home. I had a third baby that was unexpected, but awesome. And when my kids finally got to that age of going to school, all three of them, I kindly finally felt like I could come up for air and be like,"Oh, I'm a person." I can do things. I was just longing for something to do that, you know, just outside of, of being a mom. Um, but something flexible and I didn't want to work outside of the home again. And Joel, my husband, he said,"Why don't you look into subscription boxes and just see what that's all about?" And, you know, I had gotten a couple in my, the last couple of years just to see what they were all about. And when I was researching, I found Cratejoy and I signed up for something. And then I got emails from you somehow. I think I signed up for, I guess I signed up to hear about your course.
Julie:Yeah.
Jenn:And it was funny cause I saw, like your name and that you were in North Carolina too. Like not far from me. And I was like,"Oh my gosh, it's meant to be." And this was your first, your first class ever. And so I thought,"You know what, if I did a subscription box, I feel like I could do that." And I just looking at you as another fellow mom, you know, around my age, that's doing this and I thought I could do this too. And this might be something that would be really fulfilling and could make a difference. The thing that I want to do. And so it was never going to be anything else, but a subscription box. It just from day one when I found your course and I had the idea and it just all came together. Yeah. And I was just like, that's what it's going to be.
Julie:I love it. So when I started Sparkle Hustle Grow, it was just a couple of months after McKenna started kindergarten. So it was almost that same thing where she started with. So I sent my first boxes in October, I started my pre-launch or my, you know, building my list and everything that summer. So it was the same kind of situation where I had some extra time on my hands that I knew I wanted to pour into my business because we needed to be a double income household. And so I had been working kind of just during naps and nights, weekends prior to that. And now she did go to preschool. So I was used to having like a certain period of time where I had to hustle and get my work done, get my appointments done in that period of time while she was at preschool. But then, you know, when we moved to Asheville and she started kindergarten, it just did feel like a breath of fresh air. And like I wanted to start something new, so I can definitely relate to that. So tell everyone what type of things and experiences you curate through your box?
Jenn:Yeah. So inside the box I put in between five and six self-care items and about 95% of those products and items are from small local and female owned businesses. That is a huge, huge, huge value of Mama Needs box because I always want to support small and local and in our fellow mamas and females. I came from a family where my father owned a small business and I just know how it is to feel like we rely on every sale. And so that has just always been a value for me. So we support those businesses and everything inside is for the mom and it's with a theme. And so we theme every single month. We just sent out last month, our Mama Needs coffee boxes.
Julie:Yes, yes we do.
Jenn:There are some themes that are like static every year. We do them, and coffee is one of those because everybody loves most people love coffee. And so every, every coffee box is, is a little bit different. But again, we just include the coffee products. We include include anything self-care related spa, beauty snacks, any of that, any of those things. And then we also include self-care tips inside each box. They're different every month. And they go along with the theme and also the products that are inside. And we also curate a Spotify playlist that also goes with the theme. It's just super fun. It's like an experience. And I love it because a lot of the moms will, you know, email me or message me and say like, I wait until I have a free moment when my kids are not around so that I can open the box myself and enjoy it because the kids just, they gravitate towards this box. And especially the daughters, like my daughter loves everything inside of the box. And so, you know, they just, I have like a friend who gets the box and she's like,"I go in the bathroom." The only place where moms can have like a half a second, she goes,"I go in the bathroom and I open each thing up and I put it, you know, I put it in the shower, I put it by the bath or whatever, and that's, that's my time." And so I I love that. it's meant to be an experience it's meant to just be for you. Of course we can share. But yeah. My daughter helps pack up the boxes with us and her payment is in product.
Julie:That's awesome. Oh man. Okay. So there's a couple of things that I'm thinking about right now is one, have you talked to an accountant? You can actually put your daughter on payroll and there's some sort of tax benefits where her payment could be. And I don't want to say this out of line because I'm not a tax person. This is not tax advice. But from what I understand, there's a way that you can pay your daughter and it can be put into like a future scholar account or something like that. And there's a lot of tax benefits. I need to look into that. McKenna is going to be 10 this summer and, I definitely need to put her to work, huh?
Jenn:Sure. For sure. It's a family event here. I just shared the whole process on Instagram yesterday in a post of how we pack, how we ship, all the steps that lead to it. And I'm like, this is a family affair, everybody chips in.
Julie:You can put that link in the show notes so people can see that. The other thing I was thinking about is I love that you're creating an experience and I think that's so important. I talked to our students about that a lot is you don't want to be just another box of stuff.
Jenn:Right.
Julie:You know, because people could take it or leave it. But when you curate an experience, you're actually adding value, you're changing lives and you're giving them self-care tips. You're giving them a music playlist to put on maybe when they're doing their spa day or when they're using some of the other items, drinking their coffee, whatever it is. And I think that, that's a really, really great thing that you're doing. The mom feels special that this was curated just for them. And I don't blame your customer for hiding in the bathroom because I hear that a lot with Sparkle Hustle Grow is a lot of teenage daughters like to steal some of those office supplies that come in the, you know, the pops of bright colors and stuff. So we hear that as well. I love that story. So what are some of the other themes that you've done? You've done. Momma needs coffee. What are some of the other ones that are really popular?
Jenn:Yeah. Well, just the last couple I'll say. Mama Needs friendship was in February to celebrate kind of Galentine's day. Mama Needs Joy was one we did at Christmas time. Momma Needs To Get Cozy. The one we're about to do, send out on April is Mama Needs to Smile. Just talking about, you know, just we miss people's smile and faces because of the masks. Obviously the masks are super important, but we just, we miss, we miss that smile. And so everything in that box is going to be, to help you smile.
Julie:Yeah. Well, you're bringing a lot of joy to people, so I'm so proud of you for what you're doing, and I know your business continues to grow, but let's take a step back to when you launched. What was one of your biggest challenges at launch?
Jenn:I will say, I remember telling my parents that I was going to be starting a subscription box in my own business. And you know, of course they were really proud and excited for me, but I remember my mom going"Well, Jenn, you're going to have to develop some thick skin." And she's a hundred percent obviously, you know, our moms know us better than anybody. And, she was right. I really, I'm a people pleaser. I have a hard time with rejection, criticism, things like that. And so I have, that's been something I've had to overcome just, and I think it's just happened with time. Honestly, it's not something that I can like, you know, flip a switch and all of a sudden I'm okay with it. It's just come with time and experience. I love how you say, like if somebody gives a bad review or somebody sends a nasty email and you're just like respond and then bless and release. And I love that that has, that's something that I have really brought into my process, my mental process to kind of just get through that and just be like, it's not personal that person's probably having a bad day, and just move on with it, you know, just address it and move on. So that's a major lesson for sure.
Julie:It's it hurts when you get a bad review, but I love that you love bless and release. That is definitely something that we use on our team. But here's another thing that really helped me by friend Brandy said to me, one day, she said,"I know I'm not for everyone. And I'm just gonna wear a t-shirt that says I'm not for everyone." Just so everybody else knows it too. And when I adopted that mindset that I'm not for everyone and that, that mindset, that my subscription box isn't for everyone that just took so much weight off of my shoulders. And it allowed me to see a negative review and realize it's okay, I'm not for them. They're not for me. Let's move on. Yes. And that, that mindset really adopting it, not just to saying it and being like,"Hey, I'm not for everyone." But like really feeling it deep down inside that it's okay. That I'm not for everyone. I don't remember which one it is, but there's an Aesop's fable that, you know, those fables that there's like a moral at the end of the story, the one that I always think of, and it just came to mind was please all and you'll please none.
Jenn:Yes, totally.
Julie:It's like you, and you can probably relate to that. Being a people pleaser. I also am a people pleaser. And I like that feeling of validation, like a good job, or I love the box, that type of thing. So yeah, if, no matter what type of business you're running, you're going to have to develop some sort of thick skin to bounce off those, you know, those hurtful comments or when someone writes in all caps to your, to your support email, like it's just sometimes again, bless and release.
Jenn:Bless. Yeah. You know, and also it's good to know that, to remember that when you're starting a business anyway, it's like, you can not be for everybody. That can't be your thing. You have to have a niche. You have to have like the person, the ICA, the person in your head that you're always thinking of. And you're talking to her and in my case, it's a mom. I know who my person is. And I, I frame everything around her and what she likes and what she needs. And so when I, when I do that, yeah, it's, you know, if the box is not a good fit, that's okay. Let's move on.
Julie:Yes. And if you guys are listening and you heard Jenn just say, ICA, that stands for ideal customer avatar or ideal client avatar. And that just means, think about one very specific person in your target audience and take a piece of paper and just write down everything that you know about him or her. And what is that person's name? What do they do for a living? What's their income? Are they a family person? Where do they shop? What magazines do they read? What books do they read? You know, that all these habits can help you really hone in on who that person is. And even if you feel like it, go into a magazine and find a picture of a person that you feel embodies, what your ideal client avatar would be, and just put it on the wall and every time you're creating your box, or you're coming up with new marketing, or you're writing an email, look at that person and pretend like you're speaking directly to that one person. Now, of course, there's always going to be outliers people who might not fit that specific mold, but still love your subscription box or your brand that's okay. But you, the more clear that you are with who you're trying to reach, the more clear it will be to that person when they find you. And they'll say,"Take my money, please." This was made just for me. So I'm glad that you brought that up because that's really, really important, especially at when you're first building your brand. You don't want to, a lot of people think that they want to serve everybody, but you know, that's just, that's just not the right route to go because you'll fall short with everybody.
Jenn:Yeah. I mean, I could have been like, I'm for all moms, but I'm not, and that's okay. I've also heard along those lines. And I also heard that if you think of your ICA as who you were like a couple of steps back like who you were five years ago, or 10 years ago, because if you're, if it's something you're passionate about, then you're solving that problem that you solved for yourself. And so you're already a few steps ahead of your ICA. So if you think about yourself, you know, back when you had the problem that can be, you know, who your ideal customer is. So...
Julie:That's exactly what I try to do with bootcamp. I try to channel like the 2016 Julie Ball.
Jenn:Yes, yes. I love that.
Julie:I was Google searching and, you know, piecing it all together. I try to channel, like, what did that feel like? What did that overwhelm feel like? And then with bootcamp, I try to just erase all that and make it all very easy. So, yeah.
Jenn:Yes. And you, you, you did it. I mean, yeah. I can't even imagine having to try and read everything I could and research, without your course, it would have taken me 10 times longer. I mean, I launched in three months, I followed your exact plan in three months and I'm just, yeah, I'm super proud of it.
Julie:Awesome! Well, I'm really proud of you and, and you've been in the industry for a couple of years now. What is your favorite thing about working in the subscription box industry?
Jenn:Yeah. You know, I think it's just that not every day is the same and, you know, interacting with the customers is super fun. Getting to be creative, getting to dream and just use kind of those talents that I, that I had kind of laid dormant for a while. Um, it's just, it's just so much fun. I just try to keep it light and fun as much as I can because you know, this is a privilege. This is like a get to for me. I get to stay home. I get to build this business from my house and still be with my kids. And, and, and, so I love, I just, I love the flexibility of it. There's so much that I love about the subscription box world, but those are kind of the main things that just make it easy for me to love.
Julie:Aw, that's, I love the way you put that. And it gets me to thinking about, you know, you're juggling being a stay at home, mom being a business owner. And I know that a lot of our listeners can really relate to that. That's either something that they're in the middle of or something that they aspire to do. So do you have any tips for them on, you know, what that's really like managing that time? I know that I struggled a lot when I was a new mom and a new business owner in trying to be both at the same time. And I found that I had to really start to carve out like, this is non-negotiable family time. This is when I can do my work. And then I was, I wasn't pulled in so many directions, but it took me a while to figure that out. So what are some, some tips or maybe some mom hacks that you have that help you manage that, you know, all the things?
Jenn:Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, having moved from South Florida where I was working full time outside of the home, I was working in ministry and so there is no hours, you're just always on the clock. And so coming from that lifestyle, I knew I never wanted to, um, to work like that again, just, I wanted to be able to be flexible. I wanted to be able to do what I needed to do with my family. And, so coming from that, I think I stray as far as possible from that like 24/7 work type of thing. And, again, it's, it's helpful that my kids are in school, so I try to get as much work done as I can while they're gone now being in the pandemic and the quarantine last year, like it's all coming full circle now. That was rough. I'm not gonna lie. And my husband also owns his own business. And so it was kind of like a back and forth between us, like, okay, you, you have two hours to work and I'll be with the kids. And then we'll flip flop. You know, he works from home, but he also goes out on shoots. He's a real estate marketer. And so it's just, it's just that kind of delicate balance that we were a good team. And so we worked that out, but there was some tension times where I was like, no, I need, I need like quiet. And so I even remember during quarantine, I was getting ready for my mother's day launch and like my mother's day promo. And I was, I needed time to focus and I hadn't had that time. And so I ended up staying up from like 9:30 to like one in the morning. And that's really, that's the only time I've had to like hustle to like get stuff done. It was during quarantine. So I just, I try to plan as much as I can. I try to, you know, my husband and I worked together and then I also just try to do as much focused work as I can when my kids are at school and when they come home. I'll get some stuff done here and there, but mostly when they come home, I try to help them, you know, with homework, whatever, make dinner. We usually have some kind of afterschool activity soccer or whatever. And so, honestly, I can't get any work done and then I can go to bed when they go to bed. I'll, I'll do some work here and there. So, and it has like you just take in time to kind of get in that groove. You, you don't know until, you know, what your schedule is going to be like, what's demanded of you. And, yeah, I think you just have to put up some healthy, healthy boundaries and just know what's best for your family.
Julie:I think that's really good advice about healthy boundaries. And the other thing is to involve them in your business. And that's something that you do, right? Your daughter helps you pack.
Jenn:Yep. She helps me pack. She helps me count inventory. When the products come get delivered, she helps me count them all. We put them all in a closet. My sons don't really care about any of them. They, you know, once in a while, they'll make an appearance here and there. But mostly it's our daughter. And so I'm really thankful. And she's also, our state of North Carolina has six through 12th graders only going to school twice a week in person. And so she, you know, since August has only been going two days a week, so having her home three days a week virtually she gets her work done super fast and she's been able to just chip in and help a lot more. So I'm really grateful.
Julie:That's awesome. You're teaching her some really great skills too, that will carry on throughout the rest of her life. So that's awesome. Good job, mama.
Jenn:Thank you. I'm trying.
Julie:Okay. Let me ask you this. What's one piece of advice that you can share with new and aspiring subscription box business owners.
Jenn:Yeah. I would just say to stay in your lane as much as possible. Know what your business is, who you're serving and just stay focused on that. Keep your face forward. Don't turn to the side. You know, it's really easy to get on Instagram or Facebook or whatever and see what other subscription box owners are doing. And that's great and they're doing a great job. I cheer them on. I love the other subscription boxes that are for moms. I think we all have the same end goal and that's to help moms. And so I love that we all do it in different ways and we serve different people. And so, but I just really try to focus on what I'm good at and the people that I'm serving. And so that just helps keep that kind of comparison at bay and any competition that might be, you know, kind of rearing its ugly head. Like you won't find it over here. I'm cheering those people on. I love their boxes. And I just try to stay, just stay in my own lane and do what I'm good at. So...
Julie:Great advice. Okay. So I'm going to close it out with one more question. So you were recently a part of, one of our newest training programs called Sell More Boxes. And guys, if you haven't heard about it yet, it's a higher level coaching program. It's like this hybrid where we do, we have a small group, there was four of you ladies in the first cohort and we really dive deep on like, what are some of the problems in your business and let's fix them. How can we improve the processes? Would you mind just telling a little bit about your experience in that program?
Jenn:Yeah. Oh my goodness. It was so helpful. I knew whenever you announced it, like it was for me, like every, every piece of marketing ops, like Julie's literally talking to me. That's it.
Julie:I really, we honed in on that ICA that we talked about and we knew exactly what we wanted to do with the program. And granted you were the first round again, just like you were in the first round of bootcamp. So kind of like this, I don't want to call you a Guinea pig, but you were kind of like this tester for us where we wanted to try something and really get some great feedback to see where we can make the most impact for someone who's in a position like you where, you're not a beginner anymore, but you are in this middle ground where it's a new unique set of challenges that are in the way of scaling. So okay. You get the floor. Tell us about your experience.
Jenn:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's perfect because, um, you know, obviously I'm still in the subscription box bootcamp, Facebook group and new people are joining all the time and it's wonderful to watch. And I love to go in there and ask questions and get like feedback about stuff. And, you know, if I have a problem, I'll go in there and ask the question, which I love, love, love that community. But it it's something that I didn't even know that I needed was like that next level of coaching where I'm not, you know, not really getting it in the bootcamp because it's for beginners.
Julie:Correct.
Jenn:Sell More boxes is really for t he, the ones that have been doing it a little bit longer and need kind of that help to get to the next level. And so that's what it was for me. I'm so glad I did it. It really helped so much of the really like the non-sexy things that like nobody sees nobody would ever know, what actually I did, but I know, and it has to be so much, just efficiency with packing day was huge for me. Packing days really can be really stressful. And so you really helped me kind of hone in on that process and get rid of some things that weren't necessary. Amy really helped me with, you know, operations and processes. And I started doing a project management system with one of my team members and we just like, that's how we communicate now. Like that's a thing that I've worked into the business. It will never go away at this point. You know, before I was just literally writing in a notebook, which is fine.
Julie:Yeah. That's not unusual. That's how so often, how many of us operate our businesses? We are the visionary, but we're also like the implementer and the soldier and like the everything. And so we keep a lot of that in our head and then maybe use a notebook for our, to do lists or like to write down ideas, but then when you're ready to scale, all of that stuff needs to come out of your head and into processes or into, you know, delegating and that's, that's kind of where you are at. And I think that was a big motivator for you to join the program.
Jenn:Yes, for sure. I did a lot of backend things on the website, you know, I hired my awesome web designer to do some things and literally no one would ever know, but they are things that needed that were kind of just, you know, on the backend, the back burner, like things that nobody really cares about, but that are essential for just ease of use and efficiency. And so she really helped me to get a lot of that stuff done. And so, yeah, it was really great for, you know, the administrative, back end efficiency, things that just, you know, really did need to be fixed and honed in on. So I'm grateful for it.
Julie:Oh, good. Well, I'm glad you had a good experience and we're always looking to improve it and we cannot wait to welcome our next cohort, but thank you for giving us, what's the word I'm looking for taking another chance on us? You know, you keep jumping in on our, on the front end of our new programs and it's working for you. So I'm really happy for you.
Jenn:Well, thanks for providing the services. It's so great. I mean, helping us all grow, helping us sell more boxes. That's that's the, that's the idea, right? Yeah,
Julie:Exactly.
Jenn:It's really great.
Julie:Awesome. Okay, Jen, thank you so much for joining me today. Where can people follow you online? Like the website, where are you hanging out in social media? Where, what are those handles?
Jenn:Yeah, I'm just at MamaNeedsBox.com and I spell mama M A M A and then on Instagram and Facebook. I'm at Mama Needs box and I love Instagram. It's my favorite, but I also love hanging out over on Facebook too. So...
Julie:Awesome. Well, thanks again for joining me on today's podcast. It has been such a joy to follow you along these last couple of years too. And I just appreciate you and your, what you do for us mamas and the way you make moms feel like they do matter through what you're doing with your subscription box. Thank you so much.
Jenn:Thanks for having me.
:Yeah. All right guys. Well, make sure that you take a moment to go check out mama needs box and share it with all the moms, you know, so that they know that they matter too. Thanks as always for joining me and we'll see you on the next episode.
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