#081 - This episode is your official invitation to Year In A Day Workshop at SubSummit 2021 with the Sparkle Hustle Grow and Subscription Box Bootcamp team.
The workshop will be done in-person where you will learn a framework on how to plan an entire year's worth of boxes in just one day. It's going to be in the morning of Tuesday, September 21st, from nine to noon just before the SubSummit 2021 event starts.
The team is going to walk you through the details of the framework we use in Sparkle Hustle Grow to curate our 2021 boxes. We are going to provide you with templates to do your own year in a day planning. We're going to give you inspiration on how to make this work, how to do the pre-work, and how to involve your team.
Tune in as Julie and Renae talk about what to expect and why you wouldn't want to miss this workshop.
You may also check SubscriptionBoxBootcamp/AYearInADay for details on how to register.
Links:
Get all the details and your ticket at SubSummit.com, THE conference for sub box businesses. We'll see you in Dallas this June!
#081 - This episode is your official invitation to Year In A Day Workshop at SubSummit 2021 with the Sparkle Hustle Grow and Subscription Box Bootcamp team.
The workshop will be done in-person where you will learn a framework on how to plan an entire year's worth of boxes in just one day. It's going to be in the morning of Tuesday, September 21st, from nine to noon just before the SubSummit 2021 event starts.
The team is going to walk you through the details of the framework we use in Sparkle Hustle Grow to curate our 2021 boxes. We are going to provide you with templates to do your own year in a day planning. We're going to give you inspiration on how to make this work, how to do the pre-work, and how to involve your team.
Tune in as Julie and Renae talk about what to expect and why you wouldn't want to miss this workshop.
You may also check SubscriptionBoxBootcamp/AYearInADay for details on how to register.
Links:
Get all the details and your ticket at SubSummit.com, THE conference for sub box businesses. We'll see you in Dallas this June!
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 here today with my right-hand gal, my ride or die. Your director of customer experience at sparkle hustle. Grow the one and only Renae Gonzalez. Hey Renae. Hello, and thank you for that intro. I am excited to be back and excited to chat with you today and can't wait to tell our listeners what we're talking about. Oh yeah. So today we are talking about the upcoming SubSummit. And if you listened to the last episode, you will know what's SubSummit is. You will have heard all the amazingness that is to come, but we alluded to a workshop that we are running at the actual SubSummit actually right before it starts. And so that's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to tell you how you can plan your entire year's worth of boxes in just one day. I am so excited because this is the actual framework that we use at Sparkle Hustle Grow. And let me tell you, it has so many benefits. So Renae and I are going to talk you through that, what to expect at this upcoming workshop and consider this your personal invitation to join us, right, Renae?
Renae:Yes. We would love to see everyone in person at not only SubSummit, but at this plan your, year of boxes in a day workshop. And the amazing thing about this workshop is if you are planning to come to SubSummit or after listening to the last episode in this one, you want to come, this is just an extension of the conference. So it'll be that first day it'll be in the morning. You'll still have time to listen to all of the SubSummit has to offer. It is just an extension and it starts right before all their fun kicks off.
Julie:Exactly. And so this is a collaborative effort, and we're going to tell you more about the tickets later, but just know that it's a bundle deal. So if you are thinking about going to SubSummit, this might be that thing that pushes you over the edge, or if you were already going to SubSummit, you can talk to the SUBTA team to upgrade your ticket. So either way, we'll tell you all those details later, but let's first talk about the problem that we're going to solve at this workshop. So when it comes to a product based business that's on a recurring model, that means you're going to have to do the same things over every month or every quarter or however long your cycle is. And that can get really, really exhausting. So think about this, like you're reaching out to vendors, you're placing product orders and coordinating the logistics to make sure that they arrive on time and then you're going to pack your boxes and do it all over again. It feels like a lot of back and forth. And that's exactly why we came up with this framework to solve that problem, to make it less labor intensive, more streamlined and efficient. So we feel like this is a better way to actually plan out your boxes. And we're not kidding when we say you're going to plan out an entire year in one day. And so I think the first place to start Renae would be talking a little bit about how this panned out for Sparkle Hustle Grow, how we got together as a group, as a small team to make this happen, like how we used to do it and how we do it now. And, I can definitely tell you as the founder and the CEO of Sparkle Hustle Grow, it takes so much weight off your shoulders. So let's start there. Shall we take them back to Q4 of 2020?
Renae:Yes. Let's travel back in time. And as Julie mentioned that this is what we use and how it came about is before we started doing this poor Julie and I know many of you will relate to this did most of the product sourcing on her own. She would come to our team with like,"Hey, this or that". We would talk to our subscribers and get their feedback. But a lot of the planning and the month to month was really on her shoulder. So she expressed that to both or to our whole team, but to Amy and myself, and we were going to all be in person anyways. So she decided,"Hey, I'm going to bring what we have. We can all sit down and we're going to plan out the year. We'll see how far we get." We weren't exactly sure what we would be planning when we first started it, but the day was a dream. And I know I can speak on Julie's behalf too, because we were able to not only plan for the first quarter, not only planned for the second quarter, but we had a rough outline for all of 2021. And now that we are over halfway into the year, it, we know it's a proven plan because it has made our whole team's life so much easier not only on the planning part for knowing what is going into your box, but for the implementing it and planning it of your marketing and things where you need to fill in the gaps. So that is a sort of a quick overview of how we decided, Hey, this, this actually works and this is what we're going to do without giving out too much details. But yeah, it worked out really well for our team and continues to work well for us.
Julie:Yeah. Let me paint a picture of what this looked like in action. So one of the things about our team is that we all love to travel. And so we like to travel together. It gives us a chance to pour into each other. It gives us a chance to spend time in person together because right now we're all across the United States. I'm in Western North Carolina. Renae is in California, Amy's in Virginia Beach, Carmen, our graphic designer, she's down in Greenville, South Carolina. So we're all over the place. And so any chance that we can, we want to get together and when we're together, we want to make the most of it. So let's Renae paint the picture of our trip. We all decided we wanted to go somewhere fun somewhere on everyone's bucket list off the beaten path. Now this, this part is not required. Like you can do this virtually if you want it to, you could do the entire Year In a Day in your own home, your home office virtually. But you know, we were looking for our chance to travel. So we decided to go to Sedona. And just a quick note, if you've heard this story already, it's because you probably listened to episode 49. If you haven't, when this episode is over, go all the way back to episode 49, because we really, really detail it and tell the story from, you know, beginning to end. So here we are, right Renae, we met in Phoenix. It was a, I think about a four-hour flight for me. And we decided to do a photo shoot, right? Like that afternoon.
Renae:Right off the off the airplane. Yeah.
Julie:Oh my gosh. That was not the best decision, but we had got some really great photos that we use all the time. And that was another, there wasn't necessarily part of the Year In a Day planning, but those, those photos gave us social media content for the whole year. So if you are getting together with your team, like piggybacking this with the photo shoot is definitely a good idea.
Renae:Absolutely. And our love for travel. And if you're coming to SubSummit, we assume you're eager to travel too. So it's a good, fills both our motto at both Subscription Box Bootcamp and Sparkle Hustle Grow is Work Hard, Play Hard. And it fills both those buckets because you get the travel in, you get to not only really learn from about the subscription box industry, but if you add on this Year In a Day workshop, you get to leave with your 2022 off a weight off your shoulders. I mean, you still will do that reaching out, but you'll at least have a plan and system in place for the whole upcoming year.
Julie:Absolutely. It was such a weight off my shoulders. Okay. So back to Sedona, I show up with a suitcase that has, you know, my clothes and my toiletries and my shoes, but I also show up with a suitcase entirely packed full with, I think it was like 51 pounds of books, office supplies and tech gadgets.
Renae:And you're probably like, why would you do that? Well, this is part of the, what we decided we wanted it to be. We wanted, I wanted the rest of the team to, you'll be able to flip through the books, to touch the products, to check out the quality, to see if they liked them. And so, you know, over the next couple of days, we spent time together, hiking, brainstorming by the pool, planning out promotions. And then we had our Year In a Day planning. And so Renae, what did that look like? We went to your hotel room and I came with my 51 pound bag of office supplies. Why don't you tell everyone then what we did and how we laid that out? Yeah. So at first it looked like snow angels and office supplies because office supplies are our love language. And we were so giddy to be surrounded by 51 pounds of future products. But after I got my snow angels out of the way, we really were able to first separate. So for our box, we always include a tech gadget, a stationary supply. We have a personal development books in each, so we really divided and conquered. So we could start to look through what Julie had brought. And then we started to weed out things that we knew wouldn't be a good fit for our subscribers. And then we really took it from there. And again, I know Julie in episode 49 goes more into detail on what the exact process we were able to do, but having our collective brains altogether really helped us decide what themes we wanted to do for the year. And then from there, or sometimes a book would spark our interest and that would help develop a theme, but we really were able to lay out 12 themes, 12 books, 12 office supplies, fill all of our checklists for each and every box that we have. And depending on whatever niche you are in, if you have certain categories or if you don't have categories that you include in your box, I think that probably is the biggest takeaway. Whether you come and do this with us or not, it simplifies your life so much knowing that each month of the year, if you have a dog box, you need to find a, a treat for your dog. So, or whatever for us, the book is a big one because the book is something that we put our whole, our book study around. So really finding those big ticket items for us helped. And then we are able to fill in the blanks as a team, too.
Julie:Yeah, it was really actually a lot of fun and it made my heart so happy to see my team just kind of like sifting through things and providing feedback. And you could probably relate to this, the listener, as far as product sourcing, you're probably doing all your product, sourcing yourself. So wouldn't it be nice to have some of that weight off your shoulders and to have feedback so that you can be more confident when you send out the box that you curated. Now we gave you a quick picture snapshot, if you will, of what that looks like. Again, go back to episode 49 for more details while we're going to do, actually in the workshop, it's an in-person workshop. It's going to be how the morning of Tuesday, September 21st, from nine to noon. And during that time, we are going to walk you through the details of the framework. We are going to provide you with templates to do your own Year In a Day planning. We're going to give you inspiration of, you know, how to make this work, how to do the pre-work and how to prepare for that day plan that Year In a Day planning session, how to involve your team. And if you have a small team, you may be able to do this Year In a Day planning, and then hand it off to them to execute. Can you even imagine the time that you're going to regain on your schedule, if you have this planned out and you can pass it off. So the idea behind this is to have a clear plan to enjoy your product sourcing again, because you're going to have this streamlined system on autopilot. And it's a system that you can use year after year after year. You plan ahead for this one time a year and you're set. And that's, that's the most beautiful thing about it. The other thing that I really, and another thing that I really love about it is when you have a plan and Renae was talking about categories. So say let's just talk about books because we have to buy 12 books every year. When I know I need 12 books, I can really create better relationships with publishers. And I can say to them, if I guarantee that I will buy four of your books in all of 2022, can I get free shipping or can I get a deeper discount? And it just helps so much because if you commit to them, then they're going to commit to you in most cases, they're going to give you a better deal. They're going to give you, different types of offers. And this is one of the biggest ripple effects. I had a publisher that I said, I will buy four books. Here's the four books. Here's the four dates. I need them. My account rep just ships them, checks in with me beforehand to make sure they've got the quantity, right. And the shipping address, right. Collects their payment and ship. It is so much easier to work with that same person once a quarter than it is to find a new book and a new publisher or a new author, and try to foster those new relationships. They love it because they know I'm committing to that inventory. I love it because it's pretty much on autopilot and I'm getting a better deal. So that is just another one of the ripple effects. Well, another thing that I love is that it's going to regain hours of time that you can then work on your business or take time off. Like we like to go travel. It's much easier to go on a business trip or a fun, you know, family trip when I don't feel tied to my desktop, tied to my laptop all the time, because I have to check in on product orders. So, and then of course, like I said, you can use this, this entire framework year after year, which makes you a better business owner.
Renae:And speaking the categories thing one more while you were talking something that popped into my head too, using the books, again, as an example, we were able to lay out the books and be like,"Oh, this one will be a longer read." So maybe we should put it next to one. That's a quicker read, just really thinking of our subscribers and their needs and sometimes their complaints and not just for books.other things like we include sometimes a notebook. So we were able to really look at our whole year and be like, we don't want to have two back-to-back months where there's notebooks are back to back months where there's the same office supplies. So I think when you have, and that is something that I think for our team was one of the biggest takeaways because it, we knew throughout our whole 2021, we were eliminating those customer service complaints of like,"Oh, we just got that." And it was something when we were on the fly in years past, we may have not seen or even noticed because we were just focusing on that one, one month or one quarter curate. And we wouldn't realize we had just done that. So giving it the big picture, whether you're doing it with less in person, or you decide to end up doing it on your own, it has been so big for us on the customer service end as well.
Julie:Yes, and you know, what else is, I was just thinking about this. So Renae handles our, not only our customer service, but also our social media marketing and our email marketing and with her knowing the theme and advance. And what's what the contents of the box are going to be. She's able to batch out what she's going to post on social media. And she's going to be able to batch out more like farther in advance, what content she's going to create. It just, it makes it so much easier for the entire team.
Renae:Yes, that was a game changer. I knew that was one of the things I knew as we were doing that day. My heart was just so giddy because I knew he had just done the pictures a couple of days before. And then we had all of our themes planned out. I was like,"Oh my gosh, my job is just about to get so much easier." And again, being what is it now, nine months past that point. But more than that, half a year into implementing what we planned it is so, so nice knowing that I've already have things all ready to go on the first of the month, because we had already talked about that plan and we know that theme. So it definitely both on customer service and marketing, which both happened to be my realms on our Sparkle Hustle Grow team planning a year in advance mix or a Year In a Day makes the rest of the year such a, a breeze when it comes to all the implementing.
Julie:Yeah, it's so true. And so hopefully by hearing us just like, talk about it back and forth, you guys can see the huge benefit that this planning session can can have for you. So in the workshop, let's, let's talk about the SubSummit. And let's talk about what's included in the workshop because this is a live in-person event. Yay. For in-person events again.
Renae:We're back. Yay!
Julie:Yes. So this is live and in person. So right now I'm so sorry, but we will not have this as a virtual event. However, after SubSummit, we're going to regroup as a team and we are going to record this and it will be available digitally. So if you go to this workshop, the live in person workshop with us, you're automatically going to get access to that. But the only way that you can do this right now will be on Tuesday, September 21st in-person Dallas, Texas at the SubSummit, 2021. You definitely don't want to miss it. It's going to be so much fun. So let's just talk about SubSummit. If you have never heard of it, it's the world's largest conference dedicated to direct to consumer subscriptions. There's going to be panels. There's going to be presentations and workshops. There's going to be an expo hall so you can meet your future vendors. There are chances for networking. There's the Cube Awards, which is the award ceremony. They have the pitch competition. Like there's so much fun stuff that's going to happen there. Now they do have a virtual event, but, we, as the Subscription Box Bootcamp and Sparkle Hustle Grow team, we're going to be there in person. And we would very much love to meet you and teach you this Year In a Aay framework. So if you want to see some videos, if you want to see past speakers or any information about the SubSummit, you can go to SubSummit.com, but keep in mind that the workshop has a bundle option. So if you didn't already get your tickets to SubSummit, you can bundle it with your Year In a ay workshop. We'll tell you the, all the details at the end of this episode, but I just wanted to share that URL, the SubSummit.com, if you're kind of on the fence and you really want more details on it, go there.
Renae:All right. And now I am going to deep dive into the agenda of the actual Year In a Day workshops. So in normal Sparkle Hustle Grow and Subscription Box Bootcamp fashion, we want to start the morning off with not only you having a little light breakfast and some coffee and mimosas, but we are going to reserve that first half hour for networking. And I know that both Julie and myself are so excited to meet all of you in person. So not only do we get a chance to meet you, but you also get a chance at the very beginning of an event to meet your business besties, your subscription box besties that you have possibly connected online with possibly haven't met at all yet. But that networking at the beginning, I think will be so huge to make the rest. What is it the next three days, two, three days so much more enjoyable because you're connecting right from the get. So I love that the morning we'll start with networking and then we will deep dive into trainings and really helping you. So by the end of the time, when you are leaving at noon, you have the framework and you are ready to plan your own Year In a Day, whether it is with yourself or with your team, but you really feel that you are ready to deep dive and make your life easier.
Julie:Yes, I have so many thoughts. So first of all, the, one of the reasons we wanted to do some networking at the beginning is we have been to so many conferences and retreats and in-person events in the past where it can be awkward. If you're going to spend two to three days with people, you don't know, if you're able to find a handful of people that you can do the event, the entire event with, I promise you, you're going to make so much more out of the event. You're going to have someone there to,"Hey, will you meet me for lunch?" So there's so much accountability that can happen between people at different events there. And when you have someone that you've met at the beginning, it just takes that pressure off. So that's what we're going to provide you with in that networking time. And of course, the mimosas, come up people. So during the workshop we are going to, like Renae said, we're going to present you with the framework. We're going to give you all kinds of resources to make it easy. We promise, but this is going to be fun and interactive. And it, we have this work smarter, not harder mentality behind it. Doesn't that sound like something that you want to adopt in your own business. So after the workshops, after we do the training, we will actually do some mini huddles where we're going to break down into small groups that you don't have to do this alone. Even if you're a solo preneur, you don't have to do this alone. We're going to do some of that implementation. So that like Renae said, when you are done with the workshop, you have a solid plan. You are ready to move forward. It's going to be so much fun. And what we didn't mention is Amy's not on here with us, but, Amy Lochran, who is our operations coach here at Subscription Box Bootcamp. She's going to be there too. So listen, even if you don't want to network with other people, you're going to have an opportunity to talk with the three coaches at Subscription Box Bootcamp. And there's nothing we love more than talking shop. So you're going to have me as the head coach. Renae's your marketing coach had. Amy's the operations coach all in one room and it's limited capacity. We want to make sure that we have time to do some one-on-one stuff and small group stuff and to be available. So we have a, we have limited seats available. So you definitely don't want to hesitate on signing up. Now let's talk about the what's included in the ticket. If you go to Subscription Box Bootcamp.com forward slash Year In a Day, and we'll make sure to put those in the show notes, we will have all of the information for you, but let's just talk about Renae, how this bundle ticket works.
Renae:Yeah. So if you have not purchased your ticket yet, if you go to our website, which is Subscription Box Bootcamp. com slash Year In a Day, you'll be able to register for the bundle and the bundle not only includes your SubSummit ticket, but you also get your Year In a Day workshop with us, your ticket for that plus bonus, you get three months of a premium SUBTA membership. And that alone has so much value from the SUBTA team. But that bundle is all included altogether for$595. And that includes access to again, the full conference, plus our workshop, plus the bonus of the premium membership. So if you haven't purchased yet, the perfect place to go is our website. And then if you also go to our website, you'll be able, and again, in the show notes too, you'll be able to find if you have already purchased your ticket, that email to reach out to the SUBTA team, to let them know you would like to add on the workshop as an addition, if you already have your SUBTA tickets.
Julie:Yeah. So if you have your ticket already, you can email, letstalk@ subta.com. They will work with you to upgrades. If you're on the fence and you don't have your SubSummit ticket yet, this is what you need, because it's just gonna bring so much more value. And your bundle price also includes that virtual workshop. When we turn this into a digital course, you're automatically going to get access to it. So you can refer to it and use it year after year after year. So I'm really, really excited to share this framework with you. We only share the content that we really believe in, that makes a difference in our life. And you guys know how we feel about work hard, play hard, work smarter, not harder. And we want to share that with you. So this is your official invitation to join us at SubSummit 2021, and join us in the Year In a Day workshop so that you can learn how to do this for your own subscription box business. You are on the fence at all. You can reach out to myself or Julie through our Instagram at Subscription Box Bootcamp.
Renae:We are both in our direct messages daily. So either one of us can get back to you. We will talk back and forth with you for the network. I mean, I know we're really pushing the day or the Year In a Day workshop because we find so much value in it. And we want to teach others that framework, but the networking portion of it too, just even if it's just Julie and myself and Amy, that you, if you feel you're on the fence because you don't know anyone. Well you do because you know us. So talk to us before. Julie and I have mentioned in past episodes that we met through it live in person event. So I can tell you firsthand, there is no better person to go knowing no one at an event than Julie, because I literally cried my first day before I met her at an event. And then the next day she is now one of my besties. So, and I feel like I have a similar energy. I will welcome you as well. So if you don't know anyone you do now, you know Julie, Amy, and myself, and chat with us before, but we would love to love, to love to see you in person. And if, hopefully it's at our workshop.
Julie:I couldn't agree more. And if you have concerns about maybe this is your first in-person event since you know, over a year or so, make sure you listen to the last episode because Paul Chambers from SUBTA, he is one of the key players in organizing the SubSummit and they are putting into practice a lot of, what's the word I'm looking for? A lot of things to help you feel comfortable at your first, maybe your first back in-person event. And that's not only, you know, the fact that the hotel is a world-class hotel, that's going to have massive procedures and safety protocols in place already that you don't even have to think about, like that stuff's just going to happen in the background. But I know they're very cognizant of the fact that some people might be uncomfortable in an in-person event. And I'm just being real here, you know what I mean? Because it could be, it could be awkward when you're, you're coming back, releasing yourself back into the wild, right? Well, they have some really, really cool things, that will be available at the event. One being a lanyard, that's either going to be red, yellow, or green, and that tells people visually in advance without having to have an awkward conversation or whatever what your level of comfort is as far as social distancing. And are you cool with like a handshake and things like that. So they're going to be putting that stuff into place. So have no fear when it comes to that, they are really going above and beyond to make sure that you feel comfortable. And we fully backed that we a hundred percent we'll do the same in the workshop. The actual Year In a Day workshop is the morning before SubSummit starts. There is a buffer time in between. So you have time to like go back to your room and recharge or go grab some lunch. We've thought about all of those things. So I invite you Renae, invites you, Amy, on our team. We all invite you to join us. And we hope to see you hit us up in the DMs with any questions. And man, I cannot wait. We'll see you SubSummit 2021, September Dallas, Texas.
Renae:See you all soon in person.
Julie:That's right. Thanks for listening guys. And we'll see you in the next episode.