Episode 107: Unpacking The Business of Subscription Boxes with Julie Ball of Sparkle Hustle Grow

Lauren dives in with Julie Ball, the Founder and Chief Sparkler of Sparkle Hustle Grow, a monthly subscription box and online community for female entrepreneurs. Julie leads thousands of women through personal development and business training in a way that’s fun and supportive.

Julie is an author, speaker, community builder, subscription box coach-- featured in Forbes, Business Insider, Thrive Global, POPSUGAR, Hello Sunshine, and US Weekly.

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Transcript

Lauren LeMunyan:

I hope that you brought your sunglasses because we're going to be sparkling. We're going to be hustling, we're going to be growing. We are talking to Julie Ball, the Maven of Merchandising the Boss of Boxing, the Sultan of Subscriptions.

She is killing it in the subscription box world and beyond. Julie, thank you so much for joining me today. 

Julie Ball:

Yes. What an intro. Thank you so much. 

Lauren LeMunyan:

So, you are based in Asheville, North Carolina, right? You are in an amazing place and you take these amazing products. I'm not going to speak for you because I feel like you know your business model best. I want to dive into subscription boxes, sourcing, contract employees, marketing, branding, all the things in a small package.

Let's dig it is the subscription box model.  Tell me, how did you get into this?  

Julie Ball:

I had been running my own website design and development firm for about five or six years. And then we moved from the Charlotte area to Asheville. So I was in a new town and I didn't know a lot of people and all my work was being done behind the screen.

I was getting a little bit lonely, a little bit antsy and I was looking for that community. So I thought, why don't I start a community? There already are a lot of Facebook groups for female entrepreneurs and I was getting involved in those and having a really good time.

And I guess at that point too, I also thought about wanting a tangible product, like something of my own to hold and to create. I love getting happy mail. Doesn't everyone? I was subscribed to a few boxes at that point and I thought, well, what if I just put stuff into to serve my existing audience?

What would that look like? So I looked at my finances just to see what I was spending my money on. That's an eyeopener, by the way, you should try that. And I saw a lot of office supplies, a lot of personal development, like training courses, books, that type of thing. So I thought, okay, let's try to put those in a box, and see if it has legs.

And I was really just starting it as a side hustle. I was still doing the web agency. Fast forward nine months and I have replaced my full-time income and I stopped taking new clients. Eventually I phased out that side of the business and went all in on the subscription box business nine months.

Lauren LeMunyan:

That's incredible. So you've got those financial indicators of, I'm gonna be all right, but what was that moment where you were like, okay, this is that time to pivot and to change? 

Julie Ball:

That's a good question. I think it was, there wasn't like one specific moment, but there was a month or two where I could tell that I was getting in my way.

You need to get out of your own way to move forward, that means like hiring people, outsourcing things, finding your systems, that type of thing. That was about mid 2017 where I was not able to scale because I was holding myself back and what I landed on was it was because I was spending a lot of time still on my web agency work, even though my heart was pulling me towards the subscription box business. I had contracts to fulfill and obligations with those plus I didn't want to let my clients down. 

So, I told them what was going on and I gave them a date. I said, this is when your contract will end and we won't be renewing, but I'll help you find a replacement for me. So that made me feel better and made them feel better, and it allowed me to make that pivot and go all in on the box business.

Lauren LeMunyan:

That's awesome. I hear from people all the time, they're like, I want to grow, but I don't trust people coming on. I don't know how to let go. So how were you able to delegate and to trust people, to bring people into your world so that you could scale? 

Julie Ball:

Yeah. There's a couple of answers I have for that one.

It is a leap of faith. I mean, there's just, there's some amount of uncertainty in it. When you hire someone or when you get a, for us, it was like getting a warehouse to fulfill for us. We also were at a point in our house, we were renting a house, I think it was about 1200 square feet, and we were physically running out of space and the postman's like how much stuff can come in and out of this house?

At some point it's got to stop. We took care of our, our postal workers always, you know, treating them to cookies and gift cards and stuff to make them feel appreciated. But it got to the point where I couldn't physically lift all these boxes anymore because they were so heavy with books.

That’s when I realized I needed to hire out and put it in a warehouse. The people that pack and ship the boxes, that's definitely a scary thing handing over cause that's like you're handing over your baby to daycare for the first time.

I am type A, so I had done time studies. I had laid out like this is exactly how the boxes get packed and this is how our postage works. We were able to find a warehouse locally here in Asheville.

We are at a point now where we're switching over to a new warehouse this year because we're taking the next level, taking it to the next level in our business. So, another scary moment where we're handing our baby over to someone new, but that's part of it. 

Lauren LeMunyan:

As you're moving up and you transition out of doing contract client work, how many subscribers, how many boxes were you sending out each month? 

Julie Ball:

Oh, that's a good question. I think when I started having the conversation with my clients, I was probably around the 500 mark.

I must've been somewhere around the 800 mark by the time I was closing down shop. The thing with subscription boxes is when you, the more you buy as far as your products and your custom boxes, the more you save. You know, it's like a typical economies of scale type thing. As I would grow my business, I'd get better pricing on things, so it was able to improve that profit margin.

It's definitely not a get rich quick scheme by any means. It's one of those like slow and steady wins the race. It's just I was sprinting at that time.  I had to get control of the growth so that it wasn't overwhelming me. 

Lauren LeMunyan:

How many boxes are you at that point? 

Julie Ball:

Well, we started using the fulfillment center right around that. I think it was right around 400 to 500 Mark, if I remember correctly, cause that's when we were busting out the seams. We were finding crinkle cut everywhere in the house, even in the laundry.

It got to a point where It was like do-or-die, you're going to have to get this out of the house. 

Lauren LeMunyan:

So just people like a visual representation, each subscription box. What's the dimension on that? 

Julie Ball:

It's a  6 x 9 x 3 box. So think of like if you buy a new pair of flat shoes, like flats.

That's about the size of it. It’s just enough to fill with a book and then four to six items like stationary, tech gadgets, that type of thing. It's pretty small box, but we also sprinkle crinkle got on top and it gets messy and it's sparkly and fun. 

Lauren LeMunyan:

And then multiply it by 500 in your house. I'm looking at my closet right now, and I have one of those over the door hangers for my shoes.  probably 40 pairs of shoes there. I think it's a lot. Multiply that by 10 and then the width and everything else, and you start to really see the magnitude of this, and this is just that the inception of.

So where are you now as you're evolving into the second warehouse? 

Julie Ball:

Depending on time of the year, because we've got some seasonal slumps that's just typical for the subscription box industry, anywhere from a 1,000 to 1300 subscribers. And let me tell you why we're not looking to be the next Fab Fit Fun.

We intentionally cap it at that kind of, that kind of, um, quantity, that volume level, because we want to create an environment that's still intimate enough that you get to know the people. Um, part of the subscription is. There's an online community and so many people say they join for the stuff, but they stay for the community.

And in that community, we have guest experts, we do masterclasses, we cheer each other on, support each other, and it's this wonderful place to be. But. We felt the larger that it got, the less intimate and impactful it felt. We intentionally stay around those numbers. Now I do coach other people how to launch and scale their own subscription boxes, businesses, and many of them have volumes way beyond what I sell. It really depending on what the experience, like the full customer experience you're trying to create.

Lauren LeMunyan:

I'm so glad you mentioned that because if you don't have a clear idea of what success looks like for you, then things get out of control really fast. So, you have found this sweet spot of, capping it at this point because beyond that, you start to lose potency or that intimacy and connection.

That’s a huge takeaway. 

Julie Ball:

Yeah, I agree. And it's funny because when I talk to vendors and a lot of times, they'll so you're just say you're at 1200 subscribers right now. Where do you see yourself in a year? And I'm like, about 1200. But don't mistake that for lack of ambition, that's just focus. That's what we know that where we're good at. 

So, the reason why we're switching warehouses is to improve our systems. We love our existing warehouse. It was a mom and pop local warehouse. We got to know them, like family, which was awesome. Now we're taking it to the next level where we're going to have the software in place to take some other things off of my plate. 

It's kind of moving into more of that CEO role and less of the foot soldier role, at the same time, it’s scary. 

Lauren LeMunyan:

If you can see yourself in different phases of leadership throughout your business, how would you describe yourself as a leader back in the day? 

Julie Ball:

I questioned myself a lot more. I knew what I wanted, and I made decisions very quickly. I just didn't have a mentor in my specific industry that had already paved the way, or said, “When you get to that, this is what you do.”

A lot of my leadership style was through trial and error. To be honest with you, I'm now three and a half years in. That's really shifted because now I have a team and I have people that are really good at what they do.

For example, I have an operations person named Amy, and she knows more about operations than I do, but I know more about logistics from a fulfillment side. So, we ask each other, we still, you know, ask and listen, I, some of this is still trial and error, but now it's like the collective wisdom of experts that we bring it together.

I think that's what makes it different, as far as teams too. One of the most important things that I've done for my team is to learn their love languages. Everyone has a bucket. What can you do to fill their bucket?

And so different people on my team have different love languages. Luckily travel is all of our love languages is at least one of our top ones and so that works out really good for us because we like to travel as a team. We're spread all across the U S but I think that's what's, that's what's really helped me be a leader as to learn those love languages.

Lauren LeMunyan:

What is your leadership love language? 

Julie Ball:

Ooh. Probably validation. I like to hit goals and when I get that hat tip that, you know, people said, “Hey, good job” or “I like when you did this or that really helped me when you said this.” Getting that kind of validation or that acknowledgement is really important to me.

Lauren LeMunyan:

It's good to know that because if you're not clear on it, then you don't know how to communicate it. And then you're like, I'm not getting what I need. My bucket's empty when else is full. 

One of the things that I love about you and Sparkle Hustle Grow is connection to paying it forward. You give other vendors, other professionals, entrepreneurs, different people opportunities. My book, it was my first book ever written and when I was in your subscription box, it was a game changer for me. I was magically in the hands of people I never would have reached.

I want to take this opportunity to really thank you for that. 

Julie Ball:

I just got chills. Thank you. I appreciate you saying that big and we've got to, we've got to share it. 

Lauren LeMunyan:

But I mean it was huge. And I see all, I'm still involved in the community and I see all of these people who are putting themselves out there and people are like, yes, please, I need more of that and they're able to then share their own experience. 

Julie Ball:

So more often than not. If you have a question, you're going to find someone in that group that has an answer or at least can direct you to a resource.

Lauren LeMunyan:

I've noticed that, uh, the subscription box, uh, model has become a family affair.

Julie Ball:

It has. Yes, it has. My husband has gotten involved in the game. I'm a coach and because I was getting asked a lot about the industry and can I pick your brain? I became a coach to teach other people how to do it. Once we learned the business model, we're like well, we can just duplicate the business model with a different idea.

My husband and daughter, she's eight and a half, they started a box called Together Unplugged and it is a box for families with young children to unplug and play together. He is a former middle school teacher and he was seeing some trends in the classroom that really pointed out some problems with screen time and not getting quality time with parents and the people that in your family. 

He creates a box of puzzles, games, team building activities, conversation starters because a lot of times we don't even know how to talk to our kids at the table anymore. He started that about a year ago and our daughter is the Chief Game Tester.

Lauren LeMunyan:

That's awesome. Did I see something about camping too? 

Julie Ball:

Yeah, it's been really fun to see my family joining on this, but also my friends. One of my good friends, Brandy, she launched recently a box called the Happy Glamper, and it's for the glamping enthusiasts. 

Lauren LeMunyan:

That's awesome. You are spreading the box seeds all around you, everywhere you go. 

If you could like ballpark it, how many subscription boxes do you think you've inspired or been a part of?

Julie Ball:

That's a great question. So in, um, subscription box bootcamp, my group coaching program, we have over 200 students.

I think that there's a couple of hundred boxes out there that have either learned from me or been inspired by me. We recently launched a podcast too called Subscription Box Basics, which will evolve. So, if you have any listeners that are thinking about maybe they have this subscription box business idea and they don't know where to start, that would be a great place to send them.

Lauren LeMunyan:

Awesome. I attempted to start a subscription box, and I was like, this is like way beyond my skillset. Sourcing is not for me. I'm an ideas person and I will happily hand it off. 

Yeah. I'm really good at being the emotional support CEO, where it's safe space to soundboard, but ultimately I don't want to be in charge of the decision.

Which is an interesting place when you're running your own business. 

Julie Ball:

Yes. I'm glad you brought that up because that's what I really lean on my team for that. So the two core team members, one is my yes girl and one is my like, Oh, let's think about this girl and it's awesome. Yeah. It's such a great combination, the three of us working together. 

But one of my problems in my leadership is that I get decision paralysis where I have to make so many decisions on so many different levels of my business and at some point, sometimes I'm just like make the decision and I trust you. It's really helpful to have team members that you can trust when you get to those points of decision paralysis.

Lauren LeMunyan:

So along with the leadership pain points, what do you see as industry pain points? 

What do you see coming up that that has your attention?

Julie Ball:

As far as being the box owner, as, as you know, in information is scattered. If you tried to launch something, information is scattered and the execution is difficult unless you have a roadmap or something to guide you. So that's or the boxer. 

I think from the industry perspective, it's just the fact that the industry is growing. There's no doubt about that. I don't believe it's necessarily even a trend anymore. I look at it as an industry that stands on its own.

But part of the problem with the industry is that people are not always putting out a new product that's unique. so I talk a lot about that with my boot campers where, and you've probably talked about this before, and all business owners need to know this, is to niche down, know exactly who you serve and how exactly you solve their pain points.

I always give a quick example of something like, there's a lot of boxes out there that sell tea, like coffee or tea, things like that. But if you say it's a tea box for new moms, then that new mom will be like, Oh, that box was made just for me, and it's going to have very specific product in there.

Probably one that's got like lots of caffeine, probably one that is like a stress relief tea. You know what I mean? So I think I would like to encourage people to be unique and niche down, niche down, and niche down again, because otherwise you get lost in the sea of same. 

Lauren LeMunyan:

his reminds me of The Experience Economy.

I listened to a HBR webinar on it and it essentially takes things from commodity to goods to services to experiences and now to the transformation.

I think people got locked into services and even experiences, but what you're talking about with this ultra-niche down is the transformation that your users, your customers are going to experience in receiving this and being part of the community.

How are they going to be different after coming in contact with your product? 

Julie Ball:

Not only that is when the transformation of receiving the product, but in marketing, lead with the transformation. Tell them what's going to happen through that product or that service. I love that. It's all, it is about the transformation.

Lauren LeMunyan:

Yeah, and that's a differentiator. Like anyone can do a subscription box, but what are you allowing? What are you catalyzing in someone's life? How are they going to be different after, after being with you?

Julie Ball: 

Yeah. It’s important to not just make decisions with data. Me and my colleagues make a lot of choices based off of heart too. Like what is truly my mission and my vision for the business and what is best for my customers? Where does my heart take me?

I think as women, a lot of times we struggle with that. They are not independent. They work together. 

Lauren LeMunyan:

So, if you had to plant a seed for future success for you, for Sparkle Hustle Grow for the subscription box world, what would it be?

Julie Ball: 

Well, for the world, for the subscription box world is that whole concept of niching down and being unique. I really come from an abundance mindset. I believe that there is more than enough to go around. I see people that launch a box similar to mine on the regular, and you know what? I'm cheering them on because they are hopefully going to be unique and what they do is going to be different than what I do.

The way I position it, the way I deliver it, the way people get to interact personally with me in the Facebook group and personally with our guest experts, I think it just as long as you're unique, you've got a place in this world. 

I've seen it happen time and time again where people are doing the copy and paste thing and it’s not unique.

Be yourself, show up. I think that's where it comes down to.

Lauren LeMunyan:

That's a great takeaway for anyone, whether you're making a subscription box or you're an entrepreneur or you're just out in the world. Don't try to be someone else. You ain't going to be Oprah.

Julie Ball: 

And it takes mindset work to get through that and I've done a lot of that work already, and that's something that we include a lot of mindset work in the box. Throughout the years we've had topics that have covered that over and over again. It's natural to compare yourself, but you just gotta work on your mindset and be, you.

Lauren LeMunyan:

Awesome. Well thank you so much for joining me and sharing your wisdom backstep in a nice little cute package on our podcast and I can't wait to see what Sparkle Hustle Grow does!

Keep spitting that fire!