Welcome to the six figure business mastery podcast, where every week,

Kirsten and Jeanne dive into the essential topics to fuel your business

growth from copywriting to course creation, mindset to video marketing.

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Your business potential and take it to the next level.

Hey everyone.

Thanks for being here and welcome to our podcast episode today.

We are thrilled to have back our amazing friend, Sarah Williams.

Her company has launched your box.

She is the subscription box queen.

She's a powerhouse entrepreneur, coach, and bestselling author.

She propels businesses to new heights, sharing her proven strategy in her

acclaimed book, One Box at a Time.

She doesn't just teach, she actually manages her subscription box business,

offering real world insights.

She also has a community at launchyourbox.

com who unlock the secrets of sustainable, profitable ventures.

So Sarah is a dynamic force reshaping the entrepreneurial landscape.

One subscription box at a time.

So we are thrilled to have you back, Sarah.

Thank you for coming and joining us.

Thanks for having me back.

That's so fun.

It is fun.

And we're so excited because last time we had you here on the podcast

afterwards, we were chit chatting.

And one of the things that you have done so well is build community.

And that was what we wanted to pick your brain about today is.

What does it look like for you as you're building community around your

business and with customers or potential customers, and I know you have some great

practical advice for other entrepreneurs out there who are thinking about how

they could build better community.

with their customers and prospects and use that to help grow their

business and build their brand.

So thank you so much for joining us for this topic.

I think it's going to be such a fun conversation.

It's such a needed conversation because I think sometimes in our

world, we feel like we Our job is to sell, but I think that when we build

a community, we don't have to sell.

And I just, I don't love selling.

Like I will sell when I need to, but I don't love the everyday feeling like a

used car salesman showing up for my ad spot on the commercials all the time.

And so 1 way that has felt really authentic for me is

to just build a community.

And when you can build a really strong community.

Community, whether that's a public free community, whether that's a private

paid community, like once you build those connections, like things just sell

themselves and people underestimate them.

And I think it's one of my superpowers.

And I do this in really both of my businesses.

I can do it on the e commerce retail side with my subscribers.

And I do this, I just rinse and repeat and do this with my coaching

business, with my entrepreneurs.

And it's such a, I think, I don't know if it's just like a.

woman thing, but it's such a fulfilling thing to look at your business as a

community instead of a big transaction.

Like it's just a big transactional thing.

And I think that's what keeps me motivated.

That's what keeps me going.

And that's what keeps me inspired.

Yeah.

I think that's definitely a female perspective, right?

Like we think of so many of our clients become friends or they're people

that we've met online in a community or locally networking, they become

friends and then they become clients.

So I feel like.

It's, it doesn't have to be one or the other.

Having these great people in your world and you need to be a

part of their world is amazing.

So what is your number one strategy around building community?

When I first started building my coaching group, I knew that

I needed to get them together.

I needed to collect them and I needed to get them together because.

It's not just about me, right?

Like, I'm the leader of the community, but I'm not the community.

And so I needed to get them together because I think that's another

really important thing that we saw during covet is that people need

community people need interaction.

So, yeah, you can go buy an online course and self.

Teach yourself through it, but if there's no community to ask questions and to go

through it, there's no accountability.

There's no, it's just out there alone.

And I think entrepreneurs in general feel alone.

A lot of times we're working from our home by ourselves.

We don't have a lot if we have a team, they might be across the country

somewhere that they work remote for us.

And so I think having this community was really important.

And so, when I started launcher box.

I started it with a Facebook group, a private member, only Facebook group,

and that's how we started to connect.

It was also the biggest research for me.

I could see what they were feeling, thinking, doing during

the process of training them.

If something was overwhelming, I could see it in the chat and I could clarify it.

I could update the training.

It was It's such a good research point for me, but it was also building

these connections with each other that helped them with accountability

on learning what they needed to do, launching their subscription box

and getting it out in the world.

And that was an easy free Facebook group.

And they're still free.

I still have the communities there and I have different programs now.

So I have a community.

a Facebook group.

It's only paid members.

I also have a community, a free face, a paid Facebook group for scale your box.

That's my next level coaching program.

And then I've through the process of learning and

figuring out what people need.

I created a newbie group.

Because what I found when people would come into my world, I have

thousands of members, so they would come in and they would be feel

like I'm asking a newbie question.

I'm asking a brand new question.

That's been answered a million times.

And the people in here are tired of me asking these new questions.

So I created this little launcher box newbie group where they felt.

Open to asking those brand new questions, they could connect with

people that were at the same season or the same level that they were.

And then when they were ready, they could graduate and it's completely

up to them when they want to be out of the newbie group, or if they

want to stay in the newbie group.

But it was a secret, not a secret, but it was a safe place for them to

feel like they could ask any question.

And I think that's what we have to do in our communities.

If you have a private Facebook group, Or maybe it's not on Facebook, maybe it's

like mighty networks or another platform.

You have to create an environment.

That's safe for people to share because your community won't thrive.

If people feel like they can't have open and honest discussions.

And that means you can't have a bunch of negativity.

That means you can't have people stealing each other's work.

That means you have to have people being respectful.

And it also means you have to have people that are actually

answering each other's questions.

And so it's this dynamic that you have to create.

And once you create, like, what you will stand for, and what you

won't stand for in this community.

That's what makes it a safe place.

And if people see you taking charge of that community and saying, no,

we're not going to do that in here.

This is what this is.

And this is what this isn't.

And they see you being a part of that.

They feel safe and comfortable sharing and asking questions.

And that's the biggest research platform that you can have as a

business owner, as a coach, as someone that's teaching educational

information, like I'm constantly seeing.

What they need that I'm not giving them so I can fill those

gaps in my training programs.

Yes, Sarah Do you also have a live coaching call as part of your?

Coaching programs or you just have the community.

I call them deliverables, but my deliverables for the

LauncherBox membership consist of one, the Facebook group.

They can ask questions.

It's an open forum.

I have community managers that manage that community for me and they make sure

everything Everybody has answers to their questions and they can talk to each other.

Then every single week we have a live, I do a live in that group.

And so we have different kind of deliverables there.

So I will do a new training every month, or I will update an older training.

So a lot of times that is just a prerecorded training that's dropped into

our library and that's put in there.

Then the next week, I'll do the live Q and a let's talk about this training.

Let me answer your questions.

They can come live, ask me questions.

And I answer as many as I can for an hour.

We also do a session once a month called tech talks.

I have some tech experts that they can get all their tech questions

because that's the biggest I learned this from my community.

That is the biggest thing that holds people back is getting their tech in

place to launch their subscription box.

So we do tech talks.

I do some reviews with Sarah, so I'll do social media reviews one month.

I'll do website reviews one month.

I'll do subscription box reviews where they physically send me

the box and I'll open those live.

So we have a different deliverable and we do one every week.

So you get the live component inside the group.

And then the other thing is, I know how important it is for

people to connect with you.

And a live is so important to that.

I do a live every Monday.

It's a public facing live.

It's called Monday Momentum.

I do it public facing, but I also stream it into the private group.

It's another opportunity for them to talk with me.

It's another opportunity to get to know my mannerisms my quirks.

They get to know me and they feel connected to me.

And I just take 1 simple thing.

It's usually something I'm working on and I'll say, this is what's working or.

Let me tell you how I messed this up, or let me give you some ideas of some email

campaigns you can send out this week.

And so I'm just giving them the little Monday morning pep talk with

an action item attached to that.

And so they're getting me live most of the time, twice a week.

And so that makes them feel very connected to me.

When someone hears your voice.

When someone sees your face, they feel very connected to you versus a

picture of you and a written post.

It's a very different connection.

So anytime that I can do that.

And at this point in my career, I'm so easy for me to flip on the camera and

just talk about something with them.

And that is it.

Really important connection point for building a community.

Interesting, because for both of our programs, we have a live Q&

A call, but we house it on Zoom.

So even though we have a Facebook group for quick questions and things like

that, we tend to have that weekly call where people get to know each other.

So I like that you're doing it all through Facebook.

I am.

Now with my Scale Your Box community, I do that one on Zoom.

Because it's a smaller group and it feels more intimate and I get to see their

faces and I get to know their names and their business on a more intimate level.

And I do that 1 through zoom, because I've got thousands over here.

So hosting a zoom call with thousands of people is really challenging.

So I go live and launch your box and we do zoom and scale your box.

And so that's they get a little closer access to me too.

So I'm just giving them a little more access.

I get to know their businesses a little bit better, but I think you just

have to work with what works for you.

And for me, that's.

The lives in the community.

And I also find, and I don't know how true this is for you, but people show

up for the lives a lot more than they show up for a zoom call is something

about maybe having to be on camera or being called out or something like that.

But I have a lot of members that show up for the lives and some that

will never come to a zoom call.

They'll watch it on replay.

Please don't call me out.

So I don't know what the deal is with that.

Yeah, it could be that I want to be called out or that they don't want, if they can

only come for a little while, they don't want you to see that they're leaving.

There can be lots of reasons for that, but we do love our Tuesday

calls and we have people who come and they don't even have a question.

They just come and listen.

Cause they're like, I just learned so much.

And plus Like you alluded to earlier, sometimes as an entrepreneur and a

solopreneur you're working on your own.

And so this is a time when we can all come together and they always say we

just love the energy and sometimes we just come for that just to be inspired.

Yeah, I think Jeanne what's interesting for us is a lot of

our clients once they have their virtual assistant up and running,

they really don't need us anymore.

Like I feel like people really graduate out of meeting us.

And so we've had clients who joined our program who've never been to a live call.

They just go through the portal, we place their virtual assistant with

them, and they're off and running.

We have a few people that'll come to a couple of calls, get their virtual

assistant, and they're up and running.

And like Jeanne said, we have other people that'll come back on a regular

basis because they do like The community aspect of it, but to your point, our

state kind of small because people really do graduate out because it's

a done for you program with a virtual assistant does most everything for them.

So once they've got the foundation, they don't only need us, but I love

the fact that you do have both options based on the size of the group and the

type of relationship you have with it.

It's important to, I make it a point, even when I'm live in the

bigger group, I make it a point to recognize who's there with me.

So I want to get them engaged in the chat.

I want them to feel like they're part of the discussion.

I also do this on my Monday morning lives when I'm publicly, whether

they're commenting on YouTube or Facebook or whatever, I need

them to feel seen and heard.

And I think that's really important in building a community.

I take time and say, hi, maybe 60 seconds.

Hey, Jeanne, I see you.

Hey, I'm Susie.

Hey, Kristen.

Hey everybody.

And so I will take a minute to do that.

So they.

I feel seen because they made the time to show up for my life.

I don't take that for granted.

I thank them for taking the time to spend the morning with me.

I encourage them.

And so I think that's an important part about making them feel like

they're part of the community.

Even if they're just watching you live versus zoom.

So you've got, I love the whole part about going live.

I think that's amazing with what you're doing and with your group,

you go live in YouTube and Facebook.

Is that correct?

On my public lives on those Monday morning lives, I do that.

That's my, it's my audience building.

I think if people can connect with you, like, for so long, I only did

that inside the private groups and I felt, man, if people only knew

what we did inside the groups.

They would want to join.

If people could connect with me before joining the group, that would

make them want to join the group.

If they could see what kind of a coach I am, if they could see how much knowledge

I have, that would make them want to join.

So I just started doing this public live.

I started it like December of 21.

And I was like, I'm going to go live every Monday.

And I just started it and I've never stopped it.

And it's really been amazing because.

People will just come watch me for free every Monday, and at some point,

they're ready to dig in deeper and I like to tease a little bit about what

I've got going on inside the community.

So they feel like a little bit left out.

Like, they want to come join us.

Like, oh, I'll be in the group on Wednesday and we'll be doing X.

Y.

Z.

I want to tease that a little bit.

So they feel like they're missing something and they are.

They're missing this great community and all this great training and

what I give them on Monday is just.

Little tiny tip, a little tiny boost, a little tiny action step so they can keep

moving forward, but they really get to see what it's like to be coached by me.

And I think that's really important for a coach.

I love that.

You talked about doing a private group and going live, but what about doing

a little bit of a behind the scenes?

Do you get involved in that kind of thing as well?

My business is so transparent and I think that's.

Why people gravitate towards me as a coach, a lot of business coaches have

this super successful coaching business.

And then they stopped doing the thing that got them there.

And it's something that I've struggled with for a while because

the coaching business is bigger than my e commerce business.

And it's a lot easier.

Most days before we got on, I just told you all the crazy things that

are happening at the warehouse.

Yeah.

Today.

And so there are days where, man, if I could just focus on being a coach,

things like my life would be a little bit easier, but here's how I feel about it.

And this is why I haven't made, I haven't sold my business or anything like that.

There is so much that I get to test and try and then teach.

From my own business and that it makes me so relevant.

Like, I know what they're dealing with in this moment today, because

I'm dealing with the same things.

I know what's changing on Facebook ads.

I know what's changing what's happening with the ports and

sourcing issues overseas because I'm in the middle of it too.

I know these things because I'm in the middle of it.

And if you take that away.

Then I'm just, Hey, this is what you should do.

And I'm not actually doing it.

And so there's this kind of push and pull with my heart on this is that I love my

business, but it takes a lot of time.

But I also feel like I wouldn't be as great of a coach if

I didn't have my business.

So that's why I keep it.

And I take them, I pull back the curtain of my business.

I tell them when I've had a 10, 000 loss.

I tell them when I failed miserably, I tell them when my Facebook ads

suck and they're not working and I don't know what to do anymore.

I tell them those things.

And then I also tell them how am I going to problem solve?

This is what happened.

This is how I'm going to fix it or what's working in my business this week.

I'm getting acquisitions for 4.

I haven't seen that since 2018.

This is my ad set.

This is my audience.

This is my creative.

I'm sharing that with them so that they can have the wins too.

And I think it's so important for us to get personal in that way as a business

owner, when we're coaching business people, because they can see the facade

of, oh, she has this amazing multimillion dollar subscription box business.

I have 50 subscribers.

I'm never going to be there, but if I don't share that, I've had a crappy.

Month in sales.

If I don't share that, I don't have it all figured out every day either.

If I don't share those, I'm not perfect moments, then they don't realize that they

can do it too, because I'm not perfect.

I'm not special.

I'm nobody different than them.

I just kept going when things got hard.

And that's what I try to do with my business is I test a lot of things

and I just pull back the curtain.

Here's what I did.

It was a complete flop.

Don't do this.

Here's what I did in sales.

And it was super success and this is why I think it was a success.

So if you could rinse and repeat these four things for your own business, I

think you're gonna have winning product here or whatever the case may be.

And I think that coaches that wanna coach on a particular topic, but

they wanna hold everything close to their chest and not share.

You can see it, you can see it in what they're teaching, you

can see it in how they move.

And I think that's, again, one of those.

Superpowers of building a community.

They know they're going to get the real Ross era.

They know they're going to get me when I've had a bad day.

They're never going to get me when I've had a good win and I'm sharing

it from good to bad all the time so that they don't feel as alone when

they have the bad day or when they make a 10, 000 mistake, or when they,

something doesn't go right in their business, they don't feel like a failure.

We just have to figure out what to do next.

And when they can see that in their business.

This coach that makes them feel very connected to them.

Yeah, Jeanne and I joke that where we are today is because of

all the mistakes we made, right?

You probably feel the same way.

We are here, not because it was smooth sailing.

It was because you made a ton of mistakes.

You got knocked down a lot and you got up and we just joke about it.

Having a great podcast interview and then realize that you forgot to hit record.

These are things that happen in real day life.

Or because we are still constantly interviewing and hiring and

we manage this big team.

We're able, we're still in the trenches with that.

So we understand what other people are going through.

So we understand what our clients are dealing with as far

as their virtual assistants.

And because I do have a virtual assistant getting me booked on podcasts.

I know sometimes things are really busy and then sometimes things slow down, even

though my VA is still doing the same work.

And so when they're like, Hey, I haven't been getting as many bookings.

It's yeah, me either.

Like sometimes there's just holidays or things happen then.

Sometimes people like we're booking in the next year for

our podcast for both of them.

So that's something else I'm getting booked, but it's not for next.

It's not until next year.

That's normal for a lot of podcasts are planning ahead.

But yeah, I think if you're not doing the things, it is hard to share

what's working, what's not working.

It's also hard to be empathetic, right?

Because sometimes we forget you get so far away from the problems that

you forget what those problems are.

But if you're still in the trenches, and you're still experiencing the challenges,

and you are rising above them, then you do have that opportunity to say,

Yeah, this is happening to us too.

This is what we're doing.

So I love that that's your philosophy and that probably, you know, definitely

Bill, it definitely says a lot about how you build your community.

Yeah, I think it's important because when you're struggling as a business owner,

you always think that it's just you.

Right.

And so when you can see, and then when I share.

When I'm struggling and then the community says, Oh, me too.

Oh, me too.

I'm glad it's not just me.

Then you don't feel as alone.

And that, that right there, you're building that community.

You're building it with your known trust factor, but you're also

building it within each other.

And then they're having side conversations and then they're.

Finding a buddy, oh, you just went through this too.

Let's talk about it.

You wanna jump on a call with me later today?

Or whatever.

And they're working through it together.

And it doesn't always feel like everything I do is a failure, right?

Because people are experiencing that too.

The ups, the downs, the, I'm not booking anybody on the podcast.

You know what?

Me either.

And so then they're like, oh, now suddenly I don't feel like a failure.

I feel like this is normal.

And then they can press through that.

And I think that's an important part of a community.

If I only had a course that you took by yourself.

All that mindset work.

That we have to do as an entrepreneur is not included.

So where are you going to get that?

And the great thing about having a community in your coaching

business is that they're all working on the same thing.

They're all working on their subscription box business for me.

They're all working on marketing.

They're all working on packaging.

They're all working on products.

And so they can relate to each other.

And it's just such a great, it's just a great thing.

I love that.

So if somebody doesn't have a community, How would you recommend that they start?

Maybe they have a product or service that they offer, but they

haven't built that community.

I think a Facebook group is like, it's my go to.

It's the easiest way to start something like that because it's completely free.

And when I look at my ideal customer, they're on Facebook, right?

They're at that age.

They're there in our world.

They're on Facebook.

That's a lot of my people are.

So figure out where your ideal client is.

Hangs out and let's build a community there.

It might be a private YouTube channel.

It might be Mighty Networks.

It might be another platform, but at the end of the day, a lot of them

are on Facebook and that, that whole thing's in your hand all day long.

And so they're able to engage in that community.

And so I would, that would be the first place I would start.

Just build a Facebook group and then see what happens next.

You have to engage them.

And this is the hardest thing about starting a brand new Facebook group.

When I first started my launcher box, I had 19 members.

Do you know how hard it is to keep 19 people engaged?

It's extremely hard.

You're dragging every conversation out of people.

You're posting with no response.

When you can get that group to about a hundred, it feels like

it's creating its own community.

So if you have a small community and it feels like crickets, that's normal again.

This is the transparency that I give you, right, like totally normal.

The goal would be, how do I get it to a hundred members?

And then once I had my first hundred members, I was like, Oh, they're

finally talking to each other.

I don't have to talk to everybody all day long anymore.

They're finally talking to each other.

And then when that community became 500, I'm like, Holy smokes.

I need somebody managing this.

Cause I don't have time to talk to all these people all the time.

And I don't have time to monitor what these conversations are looking like.

And so then the community became 1500.

And then at this point, we've, I've had 7, 000 students come through lunch or box.

But you got to start somewhere and just know that it's a progression.

So if you're starting a community, it's going to feel like crickets.

You got to get them talking about themselves.

That's what people love to do.

They love to talk about themselves.

So how do you get them to talk about for me?

What are you working on in your business?

What is your packaging look like?

Share what your launch date is.

Like I need them to talk about themselves because that's

what starts the conversations.

That is great.

And I do love how you talk about small groups because it is, it does

feel like pulling teeth sometimes.

And even when your group gets a little bigger, some people have had groups

that have calmed down, if you will, and they haven't been interactive.

So to get that group back going again.

I think sometimes it's bringing in fresh blood, if you will,

your group isn't active.

I'm going to say that you're probably not going live in there.

And that's just a speculation that I have any time that I am live in my group.

It creates so much buzz so much interaction.

So, if your group is a little quiet.

I'm going to guess you're not doing any live interaction and you should

just go ahead and start that today.

Just put that on your to do list later this afternoon.

Go ahead and go live and start creating a rhythm for them to show up with you.

Like I have a schedule that comes out every month.

These are when Sarah's live.

I send them all text reminders.

Hey, I'm about to go live.

Come join me.

They know they can find me every Monday at 9am live in the

group to come say, hi, grab your coffee and come hang out with me.

I'm gonna give you a little pep talk for the week.

So we've got to create a rhythm for them to join us.

And once we do that, the conversations take over themselves.

And I have a schedule, like on Tuesdays, I pop into the newbie

group and I ask them a question.

And you know what that question's about.

It's about them.

It's not about me.

It's about them.

And I get them interacting and I get them talking and then they

start talking to each other.

So we've got to do that.

We've got to create that environment that we want, but we can't do

it if we're not active in there.

If our group is not going to be active without us, they're there for us.

Right in the grand scheme of things, they're there for us what

we build after they come for us.

That's our community.

And so we have to be involved in our community.

And what I see a lot of coaches do is when they get big enough, they're not

involved in their community at all.

And that's something that I don't ever want to do.

I'm busy, but it is on my Asana task board.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday, go interact in the group, go live on Tuesday,

go ask a question on Thursday.

You're going to see Sarah Williams is in the group answering questions,

going live and creating engagement.

Because at the end of the day, That group pays me very well.

And so I know they're there for me.

I want them to be there for each other.

And I'm creating that by the questions that I'm asking.

I've created a huge library of training that could get them

going if I never showed up at all.

But that's not how we create a community.

And that's what I actively do.

You are brilliant.

We knew that when we first spoke with you about building community.

So thank you so much for being here again with us.

I feel like you always just bring so much knowledge, I always end

up leaving with a page of notes.

You just always have so many great ideas.

And just, it's great to get people thinking about, maybe you have a

community, maybe this will help you level it up, maybe you've been thinking

about starting a community, but these tips will really help you get going.

And that's the goal of these conversations is just to help all

of us learn more, learn And make it easier for us to grow our businesses.

Thank you.

I'm going to give them just a couple more tips.

If you've got a community that you feel like is dying, you can totally revive it.

Okay.

So I want you to think about what you would show up for, and

you just have to be present.

Don't get so busy with the task of your job or your group or

your business that you don't make time for the people that pay you.

Ultimately, that's what it is.

That group pays me very well.

Why all of a sudden do I think I'm too busy to show up for them just because

I've dropped all the videos in there and I've provided the worksheets and all the

things that they need to be successful.

That group pays me very well.

And I, every day I show up in that group in some capacity.

And when you think about that for your own business, if your group is small,

The goal is, how do I grow this group?

How do I get a new member every day?

How do I get more engagement every day?

Because once people start to connect with you, they're going to

talk about you and other groups.

They're going to get people to come join you.

And so if you can build connections, revive your group, it doesn't, but

you've got to make it fit your schedule.

I go live Monday mornings at 9 a.

m.

Central.

You know what?

It's 7 a.

m.

on the West Coast.

That's fine.

That's what works for me.

And that allows me to be consistent.

You can't always do things in hopes for other people.

You have to do what works for you.

And if you can do that, set yourself a routine, get in a rhythm.

You're going to build connections.

You're going to have a super strong community and the

community will sell your program.

Better than you can, sir.

You do always inspire us when you come.

So thank you for being here today.

So how can people reach out to you?

You can come watch me every Monday morning at 9.

AM.

You can find that on Sarah Williams subscription box coach that's over

on YouTube or how to start a sub box.

You can also listen to my podcast weekly.

If you're a podcast listener, that's the best.

Launcher box podcast, but I would love to just help inspire you every single week.

Thank y'all for having me back again.

It's always fun hanging out with you too.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Thanks for listening to the six figure business mastery podcast.

If you enjoyed listening to this episode and you are ready to leverage video

marketing on all online platforms, or maybe even start your own video

podcast, then you need to check out the done for you and done with you

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