ОБ ЭТОМ ЭПИЗОДЕ
Can you imagine waking up one morning with an idea that merges your passion for storytelling and your background in marketing, then seeing that idea become a thriving business? That's exactly what happened to our guest, Tori Scott, author, media veteran, and the innovative founder and CEO of Scribbler, a game-changing subscription box company curated for aspiring novelists. Tori's engaging journey from scribing young adult fantasy novels to launching Scribbler is an entrepreneurial adventure filled with insights, highs, lows, and everything in between.
Tori's media veteran background laid the foundation for her authorship, but it was her keen business acumen that led her to identify a market gap - a subscription box for writers. As Tori takes us through her 'eureka moment' and the process of launching Scribbler, you'll get a front-row seat to learn how she used content strategy, supplier relationships, and community building to successfully grow her company. Get ready to be inspired by Tori's dedication to keeping novelists motivated, her ingenious way of managing inventory, and her persistence in overcoming challenges.
The final part of our conversation with Tori addresses the realities of running a subscription box business. From tackling customer churn rate to managing inventory, every challenge is an opportunity to learn and grow. Tori even shares her tactical tips on content virality, the power of customer relationships, and her unique perspective on patience and persistence in business. Whether you're an aspiring novelist or an entrepreneur, Tori's authentic insights and invaluable lessons are a must-listen.
ПОКАЗАТЬ ЗАМЕТКИ 🔗
РАСШИФРОВКА 🔗
00:00:01.304 --> 00:00:03.870
Hello everyone and welcome to Retails.
00:00:03.870 --> 00:00:07.583
I'm Caroline Baldwin, and this week I spoke to Tori Scott.
00:00:07.583 --> 00:00:22.783
She is the founder of Scribbler, a multi-million dollar e-commerce company specifically tailored to writers, as well as Luminary, a content consulting firm that helps small businesses scale organically, and she's actually renamed this business recently to find your followers.
00:00:22.783 --> 00:00:26.237
I think you're all going to really enjoy this episode.
00:00:26.237 --> 00:00:32.371
She's just so passionate at building communities and for her, it isn't about the hard sell.
00:00:32.371 --> 00:00:47.228
When she spent years building all of these communities, she had this ready-built fan club for when she launched this subscription product, and these fans yeah, I want to call them fans they were even willing to chip in about the design of this product.
00:00:47.668 --> 00:00:55.627
I loved hearing about this wholesome community because, at the end of the day, for retail, it's just what everybody wants, because money cannot buy that kind of dedication.
00:00:55.627 --> 00:01:00.968
So, as well as that, she talks about how businesses really need to stay in the game.
00:01:00.968 --> 00:01:03.604
You need to stay positive, you need to stay energised.
00:01:03.604 --> 00:01:16.902
Listen to that podcast, watch that documentary, listen to your favourite music to get you energised in the morning, because it's all well and good if your business goes viral or takes off tomorrow, but you have to be in the mindset and ready to take on that challenge today.
00:01:16.902 --> 00:01:18.844
So I hope you enjoy.
00:01:18.844 --> 00:01:20.849
From Bright Pearl, this is Retails.
00:01:24.280 --> 00:01:35.793
Welcome to Retails e-commerce growth stories, when we unveil captivating tales of triumph, hard earned lessons and the secrets to success in retail and e-commerce.
00:01:35.793 --> 00:01:48.331
Join us as we sit down with e-commerce titans, disruptive challenger brands and industry experts to explore winning strategies, market and leadership insights, and future shaping trends and innovations.
00:01:48.331 --> 00:01:57.323
From AI to venture capital, global expansion to automation these powerful conversations will fuel your growth trajectory.
00:01:57.323 --> 00:02:01.031
We believe every story contains valuable lessons.
00:02:01.031 --> 00:02:04.905
Retails is your ultimate destination to uncover them.
00:02:04.905 --> 00:02:08.031
Now to our host, Caroline Baldwin.
00:02:09.979 --> 00:02:11.242
My guest today is Tori Scott.
00:02:11.242 --> 00:02:17.929
She's an author, media veteran and the founder and CEO of Scribler, and she's now launching her latest startup, luminary.
00:02:17.929 --> 00:02:30.235
An MBA graduate with an extraordinary background in marketing and business, she's the acclaimed author of 11 published novels and has used her storytelling prowess to forge impressive paths in entrepreneurship.
00:02:30.235 --> 00:02:44.953
She's the founder of Scribler, a multi-million dollar e-commerce company specifically tailored towards writers, and Luminary, a content consulting firm that helps small businesses scale organically, and she's actually renamed this business recently to find your followers.
00:02:44.953 --> 00:02:58.822
Not only has she managed to create successful ventures, but Tori's unique skills in brand development, content strategy and social media marketing have also earned her recognition from USA Today, buzzfeed, abc and more.
00:02:58.822 --> 00:03:01.207
Tori Scott, welcome to Retails.
00:03:01.207 --> 00:03:02.431
How are you doing?
00:03:03.719 --> 00:03:06.766
I am fantastic, especially after that introduction.
00:03:06.766 --> 00:03:07.808
It's a lot of hype.
00:03:07.808 --> 00:03:09.032
I got to live up to it now.
00:03:10.381 --> 00:03:11.423
I'm sure you will.
00:03:11.423 --> 00:03:13.548
Oh, we're so pleased to have you with us.
00:03:13.548 --> 00:03:20.092
I would love to get straight into hearing about your journey to becoming an author.
00:03:20.092 --> 00:03:25.070
I feel becoming an author is probably one of those pipe dreams that many, many people have.
00:03:25.070 --> 00:03:30.413
They would love to have a book on their shelf and say oh hey, I wrote that, but you did that with 11 books.
00:03:30.413 --> 00:03:36.830
So tell us how you came from retail and media into becoming a successful author and how has that been for you?
00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:40.727
Yeah, I mean, it was a piece of cake, just a total piece of cake.
00:03:40.727 --> 00:03:43.112
Barely any effort, no.
00:03:43.112 --> 00:03:54.336
So at a college, I went to Texas A&M University to get my marketing degree and then got an MBA with a concentration in marketing and I went straight into working in media.
00:03:54.336 --> 00:03:59.760
I worked for radio stations, I worked for print, I worked for streaming services, I worked for agencies.
00:03:59.760 --> 00:04:11.631
And then the great recession hit in 2008, I believe, in the United States and myself, my boss, my boss's boss, tons of people in my office we all got laid off.
00:04:11.631 --> 00:04:13.527
But we get nine months of severance.
00:04:13.527 --> 00:04:14.754
I'd never even heard of severance.
00:04:14.754 --> 00:04:17.947
At that point I was like four years out of college and I'm like what's that?
00:04:17.947 --> 00:04:18.970
What are you going to do to me?
00:04:18.970 --> 00:04:24.165
And they're like we're going to pay you to just sit on your hands and do nothing and I'm like that's fantastic.
00:04:24.165 --> 00:04:41.326
So no, at the time I cried, but in retrospect it was fantastic because the severance came with a stipulation that I could not work for a competitor, and competitor for them was going to be basically anything in the advertising space or media space.
00:04:41.326 --> 00:04:46.646
So I kept submitting ideas of companies that I wanted to work for.
00:04:46.646 --> 00:04:53.865
They kept rejecting them and saying, yeah, you can work for them, but you're going to have full salary that you're getting for the next nine months to go to work.
00:04:53.865 --> 00:04:55.608
And I was like, well, no, that's not a smart idea.
00:04:55.689 --> 00:05:03.093
So I remember distinctly being at my favorite Mexican restaurant eating cheese enchiladas.
00:05:03.093 --> 00:05:05.086
The cheese enchiladas is very important to the story.
00:05:05.086 --> 00:05:07.524
You should always remember stories of cheese enchiladas.
00:05:07.524 --> 00:05:09.937
And my husband said, well, what are you going to do?
00:05:09.937 --> 00:05:11.444
Like you can't work in advertising?
00:05:11.444 --> 00:05:11.944
What are you going to do?
00:05:11.944 --> 00:05:12.788
And I was like I don't know.
00:05:12.788 --> 00:05:13.521
And he's like what do you?
00:05:13.521 --> 00:05:15.084
If you can do anything, what would you do?
00:05:15.084 --> 00:05:24.153
And I'm like write a book question mark, you know, because I love to read and that was a completely different field for me and I thought you know how hard could it be?
00:05:24.153 --> 00:05:29.869
Just put some words on the page and turned out to be the hardest thing I've ever done besides building a company.
00:05:29.869 --> 00:05:33.663
So, yeah, I did it and I.
00:05:33.764 --> 00:05:44.932
The first one was complete and utter garbage, as most iterations of things are, but we'll call that my minimum viable product, which was not at all viable.
00:05:44.932 --> 00:05:51.824
Then I wrote another book and I ended up submitting what you do when you have a book as you send it out to literary agents.
00:05:51.824 --> 00:06:00.283
You send them what's called a query letter, which is basically an email, begging them to read your book, and I sent that out to several agents, got rejected by time.
00:06:00.283 --> 00:06:05.673
It's all rejection same thing as building your business rejection after rejection from investors, from everyone.
00:06:05.673 --> 00:06:13.800
And then finally one said I see the potential, I'm excited that you, I'm excited about your potential, but I don't see it in this book.
00:06:13.800 --> 00:06:19.339
And so I sent her what I had of the next one, and that one was enough to get me signed.
00:06:19.339 --> 00:06:22.713
And then they pitch them to publishing houses and you become an author.
00:06:22.713 --> 00:06:24.399
So that's all that jumped happened.
00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:26.699
I got laid off and then I wrote some books.
00:06:27.081 --> 00:06:32.673
So I mean sometimes those scariest things, in hindsight turn out to be these, like wonderful gifts.
00:06:36.221 --> 00:06:51.526
Yeah, when my co-worker, he came up to me the day that I was getting laid off he wasn't getting laid off, by the way, and he was like you know, sometimes these things turn into like blessings and disguises I was like, not the message I want today, but, like you know he was he was correct in hindsight.
00:06:51.547 --> 00:06:55.093
Yeah, I'm not sure you need that from the person that's not being laid off at that moment.
00:06:55.093 --> 00:07:02.891
Unless it's coming with a side of Cheesy Angelard as which then maybe I might be a little bit more open.
00:07:02.891 --> 00:07:09.252
So, tell our audience a little bit about the books that you were writing then, and what did you end up writing?
00:07:09.252 --> 00:07:12.050
A series, you wrote 11.
00:07:12.071 --> 00:07:19.882
So yeah, I wrote a trilogy first, and when they buy them they usually buy the first book and the second book and with a Option to buy the third.
00:07:19.882 --> 00:07:24.153
So you have to pitch the third one to them first and then they can decide whether they want it or not.
00:07:24.153 --> 00:07:25.223
So I wrote a trilogy.
00:07:25.223 --> 00:07:27.591
They bought two, then they ultimately bought third.
00:07:27.591 --> 00:07:34.139
Then I wrote a duology, so two books and then after that it was all single titles.
00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:36.629
I just kind of I realized that I got tired.
00:07:36.629 --> 00:07:42.913
As Entrepreneurs are prone to do, we get tired of an idea after a number of years and we want to like do something different.
00:07:42.913 --> 00:07:45.586
So writing a book takes at least me.
00:07:45.586 --> 00:07:52.000
It took about a year to write the, the write it and then you bet it's been about a year editing it and then you spent about a year promoting it.
00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:56.410
So at that point I'm like ready to move on to different characters in a different world.
00:07:56.410 --> 00:07:59.023
So but yes, I wrote All fiction.
00:07:59.023 --> 00:08:00.627
You know books can be, of course, nonfiction.
00:08:00.627 --> 00:08:01.410
So all fiction.
00:08:01.410 --> 00:08:04.560
And I was writing specifically in the young adult world.
00:08:04.560 --> 00:08:07.800
I was in my 20s at this time, so kind of made sense for me.
00:08:07.800 --> 00:08:11.333
But young adult is like Twilight, hunger Games type stuff.
00:08:11.333 --> 00:08:12.980
So yeah, fantasy.
00:08:12.980 --> 00:08:17.543
I wrote all kinds of different stuff in that space excellent, excellent.
00:08:17.603 --> 00:08:22.108
So Fast forward to 2018 and you've launched your own business.
00:08:22.108 --> 00:08:22.629
What?
00:08:22.629 --> 00:08:23.973
What happened there?
00:08:24.642 --> 00:08:25.387
Yeah, okay.
00:08:25.387 --> 00:08:26.860
So another story for you.
00:08:26.860 --> 00:08:29.230
I know, isn't it crazy that I want to tell stories.
00:08:29.230 --> 00:08:31.720
So I was living in Philadelphia at the time.
00:08:31.720 --> 00:08:38.190
I mean, I'm in Dallas, texas now, but I was in Philadelphia and I had this idea that I wanted to go to the Hamptons.
00:08:38.190 --> 00:08:45.513
The Hamptons like this little place Outside of in, you know, outside of New York City, where all the super rich people go to like vacation.
00:08:45.513 --> 00:08:52.644
I was like let's go, act like we're rich people and like go to me and go to the Hamptons, right, so we go out there and there's this.
00:08:53.500 --> 00:09:14.875
The Starbucks was the first place we stopped when we hit the Hamptons and I go in and I just saw these people and you know, when you see people who are like Uber rich, you can just tell, like you can tell like you see it in their Face and their hair and the way they hold themselves, like it's just a, it's a whole vibe, right.
00:09:14.875 --> 00:09:17.639
So I remember distinctly we're gonna get a snack.
00:09:17.639 --> 00:09:24.186
I go in the bathroom to wash my hands and I looked at myself in the mirror and I was like girl, you got to get you a piece of this.
00:09:24.186 --> 00:09:26.315
Like you got to do something like this.
00:09:26.315 --> 00:09:27.740
Like what do I have to do.
00:09:27.740 --> 00:09:29.770
So I was like, all right, well, it's too late.
00:09:29.770 --> 00:09:44.630
Probably it wasn't, it wasn't really too late, but it felt like I was too late in my old age of like you know, probably 30 to like I think it was more like 30, 34 at this point to like go back and be like a neurosurgeon or be like you know this attorney who it makes partner.
00:09:44.630 --> 00:09:46.379
But I was like, but I could start a company.
00:09:46.600 --> 00:09:52.644
So for about six to nine months I just kind of opened my mind to the idea of Having a company.
00:09:52.644 --> 00:09:56.926
I was like I want to have a company and I went through so many terrible ideas, just like when you're writing books.
00:09:56.926 --> 00:10:00.977
It was like I'm gonna, I'm gonna make t-shirts and everyone's like cool, how are you gonna make a different?
00:10:00.977 --> 00:10:01.828
I'm like I don't know.
00:10:01.828 --> 00:10:27.908
I don't know, there'll be t-shirts, right, and one day I'm working on edits for my last book, which I loved as my best book and my editor liked as my least bar she referred to as her least favorite book, right, at least she never said that, but she basically said it and I was going through round after round after round of edits, the kind of edits that like ripped your soul out as like a quote and doing air quotes like artists, right.
00:10:28.812 --> 00:10:41.386
And I was looking through subscription boxes instead of editing a subscription box, by the way, if you're not familiar, it's like it's basically a shipment that comes to you once a month or maybe quarterly, and it's filled with like Things that you don't know.
00:10:41.386 --> 00:10:44.019
They're gonna be there surprises, but they're around a theme.
00:10:44.019 --> 00:10:48.073
It could be like a box for like cat lovers and be like toys.
00:10:48.073 --> 00:10:49.600
I don't know something like that.
00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:55.629
So I was looking through subscription boxes instead of editing and then I smumbled to myself when is my subscription box?
00:10:55.629 --> 00:10:56.940
It's gonna finish these edits for me.
00:10:56.940 --> 00:11:00.559
And then I was like wait a minute, there's gotta be a box of writers, right.
00:11:00.822 --> 00:11:03.899
And I start looking and I don't see one and I'm like this is it?
00:11:03.899 --> 00:11:09.763
Like I called my writing partner, who was like a New York Times bestseller, and I was like this is an idea, right, this is an idea.
00:11:09.763 --> 00:11:11.288
She's like a totally an idea.
00:11:11.288 --> 00:11:13.940
I called my husband and I'm like this is it, this is it.
00:11:13.940 --> 00:11:14.861
I'm gonna build this.
00:11:14.861 --> 00:11:17.087
So that's what I ended up doing.
00:11:17.087 --> 00:11:17.669
It's just.
00:11:17.669 --> 00:11:27.672
I think, paramount to this story is hearing the fact that I Wanted to be an entrepreneur and for nine months went through bad ideas.
00:11:27.672 --> 00:11:42.307
But just knowing that you want to do this thing, just having it out there and then let it, letting the idea and the timing catch up to it, and just being patient until that happens, it's easy to stay in retrospect.
00:11:43.041 --> 00:12:03.741
There's probably two types of entrepreneurs, it you know, to really narrow it down into two camps the ones that are just like like you, really wanting to go into that space and got ideas but not quite sure what it is, refining it and then suddenly having that eureka moment, or somebody that's Started off with that eureka moment and being like oh, I've suddenly become a business person, and I didn't even know that's what I wanted you so?
00:12:03.942 --> 00:12:04.904
that's really interesting.
00:12:04.904 --> 00:12:13.272
So for our guests who have not opened a scribbler box, why don't you detail and tell us what is inside one of those boxes?
00:12:13.953 --> 00:12:15.437
Yeah, so it is.
00:12:15.437 --> 00:12:20.833
In a nutshell, it's a box to help someone writing a fiction book.
00:12:20.833 --> 00:12:27.436
So you want to be a novelist, that's that term Finish your book and stay inspired while you're finishing the book.
00:12:27.436 --> 00:12:32.413
So things that come in it's usually three to four, almost always four writing gifts.
00:12:32.413 --> 00:12:37.293
So it might be like journals and like pens, and we customize pretty much everything at this point.
00:12:37.384 --> 00:12:46.254
We didn't in the beginning we would work with like Etsy sellers and get like 20 of something and put it in the box or whatever, but we'll never 20, but a lower number.
00:12:47.206 --> 00:12:56.730
And then it also comes with a live chat with a professional in the space, so a literary agent, an editor, a publisher, maybe a bestselling author.
00:12:56.730 --> 00:13:06.854
And then we include a book, and the book that we include is almost always a new release and it can be from a bestseller, it can be from a new debut, what's called a debut author.
00:13:06.854 --> 00:13:09.472
And then they include teaching materials.
00:13:09.472 --> 00:13:18.873
So there's an inside look at the publishing process, whether that's your edits, your query letter that you send to that agent to try to get an illiterate agent.
00:13:18.873 --> 00:13:26.556
And then we also have what's called a writing passport, which is probably our bestselling thing.
00:13:26.556 --> 00:13:32.410
We then created a shop later that you could buy just the little pieces from the box and other things that we put in there.
00:13:32.410 --> 00:13:34.511
So we have the box and we have an e-com shop.
00:13:34.511 --> 00:13:44.673
Now the writing passports are our bestsellers because they're just little booklets that we put in different colors and they're an essay from almost always a bestselling author on a certain theme.
00:13:44.804 --> 00:13:54.312
So characters, plot, storyline, you know whatever Like general themes that writers need to tackle in order to write a bestseller book for themselves.
00:13:54.312 --> 00:13:56.767
Fantastic, yeah.
00:13:57.625 --> 00:13:57.785
Right.
00:13:57.785 --> 00:14:04.774
So let's talk a little bit about you starting that in 2018 and then building it to the business that it is right now.
00:14:04.774 --> 00:14:14.292
So market share and brand and how you built that brand, because it's all and good having that great idea, but if it's not in front of the right people, then that's a whole different story.
00:14:14.292 --> 00:14:18.873
So talk to me about the process, about creating a buzz behind your product.
00:14:19.485 --> 00:14:19.846
Yeah.
00:14:19.846 --> 00:14:22.370
So I'm really, really.
00:14:22.370 --> 00:14:40.159
I think all founders, small business owners, content creators that are trying to make themselves the brand, we all have one thing in common right, we need to find a customer base, and it is difficult to do when your budget is limited.
00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:43.504
Right, we have these huge ideas and we want to get it out there.
00:14:43.504 --> 00:14:49.049
We want to get customers and everybody is like, oh, just spend advertising dollars and then you'll get your customers.
00:14:49.049 --> 00:14:50.831
Right, that's like it's a foolproof plan.
00:14:50.831 --> 00:14:53.552
It's not exactly foolproof, but it is pretty dang close.
00:14:53.552 --> 00:14:55.951
But we don't have ad budgets.
00:14:55.951 --> 00:15:02.232
Right, like, most of us are bootstrapping, most of us are trying to get customers so that we can grow the company and we can scale.
00:15:02.232 --> 00:15:08.038
So I think every founder has a strength.
00:15:08.038 --> 00:15:10.451
I have lots of weaknesses.
00:15:10.451 --> 00:15:13.254
My one strength is building community.
00:15:13.254 --> 00:15:15.953
That can also just be called content strategy.
00:15:15.953 --> 00:15:18.594
So I am huge into content.
00:15:18.705 --> 00:15:29.669
And to tell you everybody what content is, if you're unfamiliar, is it's blog posts, it's Facebook groups it's really not Facebook, but Facebook's kind of in there.
00:15:29.669 --> 00:15:32.634
But let's stick with blog posts and then social media posts.
00:15:32.634 --> 00:15:35.851
That is pretty much it.
00:15:35.851 --> 00:15:51.769
Newsletters that can be in content, it's all the free ways that you can give people a way to be, and these are my two keywords that I always remind anyone on my team to do If they're working with our social media platform or they're putting content out there.
00:15:51.769 --> 00:15:56.672
Your content needs to do one of two things educate or entertain.
00:15:57.125 --> 00:16:02.309
And please notice how I did not say talk about your product, like I always like.
00:16:02.309 --> 00:16:10.611
It's like a person standing on a really busy street in Manhattan, right, and they're screaming about their product.
00:16:10.611 --> 00:16:20.253
Let's say we all wanna scream about our product because we're like please, god, buy my stuff so I can keep this business open and pay my bills and not have to, I don't know, go back to my humdrum job.
00:16:20.253 --> 00:16:22.312
So they're screaming about this product.
00:16:22.312 --> 00:16:26.183
Let's just say their product is like Yellow glass orbs.
00:16:26.183 --> 00:16:28.188
I don't even know what that is, but it's yellow glass orbs.
00:16:28.249 --> 00:16:30.682
Right, you put them in your garden, they're pretty, they're little balls.
00:16:30.682 --> 00:16:33.486
Right, they're glass orbs, but they're screaming about them, right.
00:16:33.486 --> 00:16:40.860
If someone is screaming about their product and you're walking by them on the street, it's like you want to like, put your hand up next to your eyes and like, be like, don't make eye contact.
00:16:40.860 --> 00:16:43.934
Don't make eye contact because this person wants something from me and that's.
00:16:43.934 --> 00:16:46.466
It's so awkward, it's like one of the most awkward things.
00:16:46.466 --> 00:17:07.590
But if that person stops talking about their product and they instead, let's say, start handing out sheets that's talking about gardening tips and there's nothing about their product on there, it's just gardening tips, like, and that's all they ever hand out every day, then people start they might not stop yet but they're at least gonna kind of look in that direction.
00:17:07.912 --> 00:17:09.305
Or that's education.
00:17:09.305 --> 00:17:16.256
Or if you entertain them, if that person stops talking about their yellow glass orbs I don't know why we keep coming back to that, but apparently somebody needs to start this company.
00:17:16.256 --> 00:17:23.792
Apparently, I'll buy one, but if that person starts dancing instead, like you're dancing, right, people are starting to look.
00:17:23.792 --> 00:17:35.451
So I always say, when you're building a brand and I did this, of course, with Scribbler and, honestly, was trying to get my book sold it is, it is all about putting content out there, that is, getting entertained or educate people.
00:17:35.631 --> 00:17:42.211
And there's, there's a percentage rule at least that I use, which is 80-20.
00:17:42.211 --> 00:17:51.332
So when you're picking an initial platform and I, of course, did this with Scribbler you, you want to pick one of the premier ones already has a built-in audience.
00:17:51.332 --> 00:17:58.521
So you're talking like maybe mediumcom is a big blogging platform in which millions of readers are already exists there.
00:17:58.521 --> 00:18:00.907
Or you pick like a social media platform.
00:18:00.907 --> 00:18:05.444
Usually that's gonna be YouTube, tiktok, instagram, facebook is fine, but that's more.
00:18:05.444 --> 00:18:10.279
People generally will go there after they've already heard about you, versus they're hearing about you for the first time.
00:18:10.480 --> 00:18:18.255
So you go to those places and you start putting out content and you want 80% of your content to be entertaining or educating.
00:18:18.255 --> 00:18:23.346
So if that is a person, I'll give you an example.
00:18:23.346 --> 00:18:25.012
So there was a client that I had.
00:18:25.012 --> 00:18:26.799
This is for Lemonary, my other company.
00:18:27.481 --> 00:18:39.343
I had a client who had made educational content for, like, children that parents could buy, teachers could buy whatever, and she was posting about it a lot, as we almost all do we almost all make the mistake.
00:18:39.343 --> 00:18:42.392
We want to just talk about our business and get people interested in it.
00:18:42.392 --> 00:18:52.210
And of course, the first conversation I was like I know I'm gonna tell you this thing and it's gonna hurt and I have to tell myself this every day no one cares about your product.
00:18:52.210 --> 00:18:57.288
No one cares about it Like, I'm sorry, unless you're selling beer or ice cream.
00:18:57.288 --> 00:19:04.990
That's pretty much the only two, and if you're in those two spaces you've got so much competition to deal with, like, but unless you're selling those things like, no one cares.
00:19:04.990 --> 00:19:13.626
So you have to find something adjacent that is you know, I'll use the word sexier to talk about, to bring people close to you.
00:19:13.626 --> 00:19:19.311
Then, once you have a captive audience, then you start talking about your product and they care.
00:19:19.311 --> 00:19:23.811
So, with this client, I told her let's come up with this list or not let's.
00:19:23.811 --> 00:19:34.988
I came up with a list for her and I was like here's all the ideas that I have which is my favorite part in doing the consultation stuff and like you pick then what you think makes most sense.
00:19:34.988 --> 00:19:53.387
And what she chose was prompts for parents to like ask their children, after they pick them up, either from school or around the dinner table or, you know, pick her up from sports, like just questions every single day, to get like closer to their families or their children.
00:19:53.387 --> 00:20:02.364
So she would post those like you know, every you know, I think, every other day, and then about 20% of the time she'd be like oh, by the way, I sell these like educational stuff.
00:20:02.364 --> 00:20:14.431
But even even the by the way has to be very, very subtle, like it's really and really, when you're launching or if you're, if you're in a lull and you need to use content to to, you know, get your numbers back up.
00:20:14.431 --> 00:20:18.925
It really I would, I would challenge yourself to start a hundred zero.
00:20:19.990 --> 00:20:21.012
I'll give you one more example.
00:20:21.012 --> 00:20:23.521
I have my daughter as a figure skater.
00:20:23.521 --> 00:20:26.089
She has an account on Instagram.
00:20:26.089 --> 00:20:29.180
It's Lucy skater, lucy with an I and I run that for her.
00:20:29.180 --> 00:20:30.344
I started a year and a half ago.
00:20:30.344 --> 00:20:34.900
She's got 40, I think 44,000 followers at this point.
00:20:34.900 --> 00:20:36.041
She's eight years old, by the way.
00:20:36.041 --> 00:20:39.188
It's insane, and it took 18 months.
00:20:39.248 --> 00:20:47.520
Yes, it's a long time, but now we have an audience and we can sell them something Like you don't have to do it in that way, by the way.
00:20:47.520 --> 00:20:50.191
You obviously can just launch your company, lemonary.
00:20:50.191 --> 00:20:53.262
I am launching, and then I will build community for it.
00:20:53.262 --> 00:20:53.884
It doesn't matter.
00:20:53.884 --> 00:20:55.932
It either way is totally fine.
00:20:55.932 --> 00:21:18.355
But those are the two things I would that I walked away from Scribbler, which is to entertain and educate people, to get them to pay attention, and then to use about 80% of your time in front of them to talk about stuff that's going to be entertaining or educating, and then you can use secondary stuff, like you can bring them into a newsletter, then you can bring them to your website, and so on.
00:21:18.455 --> 00:21:31.080
So yeah, and the joy of one you have that captive audience is the fact that then you have a subscription model and you can keep selling to them again and again and again, because you're giving them more things that they need.
00:21:31.080 --> 00:21:33.807
So I'm such a fan of the subscription boom.
00:21:33.807 --> 00:21:36.252
It seemed to hit over in the UK about 10 years ago.
00:21:36.252 --> 00:21:38.967
Some of them went mad.
00:21:38.967 --> 00:21:46.066
I remember there was a subscription box once called the cheese posties, so cheese posties sent in the post.
00:21:47.367 --> 00:21:56.445
I don't think, sadly, that that one's still going, but you know there was a bit of a boom and obviously then there was a bit of a lull of the really strong ones that were left.
00:21:56.445 --> 00:21:59.198
Quite a lot of them were in the beauty space, for instance.
00:21:59.198 --> 00:22:02.509
There's also a really good art one that I'm aware of so.
00:22:02.509 --> 00:22:07.807
I can see where the scribbler again is solving that need, whereas, yeah, I could probably make a cheese toastie on myself.
00:22:07.807 --> 00:22:10.022
I don't really need that necessarily sent in the post.
00:22:10.443 --> 00:22:23.865
But how have you found that the subscription has really helped and leading into loyalty and brand advocacy and with all of that content, I suppose it all goes hand in hand, right?
00:22:25.200 --> 00:22:25.690
Yeah, kind of.
00:22:25.829 --> 00:22:30.682
You know, I don't know if the subscription helped that much.
00:22:30.682 --> 00:22:36.790
I mean, I honestly think if it was a one-time box as long as we had other products available, and we do.
00:22:36.790 --> 00:22:56.559
We offer editing services and we offer writing contests that we do once a month, and some other stuff we do like a featured shop item, which we usually will either create a custom shop item or we'll work with a third party to make, like, a specific notebook just for our audience and we'll sell it only for like until it's sold out.
00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:00.941
So I think subscription model, yes, has so many benefits.
00:23:01.290 --> 00:23:11.659
Eight, it's harder to get customers on, though I will say on the flip side, it's harder to get people to subscribe because they know that you're going to charge them every single month, but then, once you have them, you have them for a while.
00:23:11.659 --> 00:23:17.890
Our turn rate is like around 7%, which is it's very great, but it is hard to get them right Like.
00:23:17.890 --> 00:23:18.231
It's hard.
00:23:18.231 --> 00:23:23.000
But a community, I think, can benefit any field.
00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:25.576
Let's say you're a plumbing service.
00:23:25.576 --> 00:23:37.397
It seems like it would be really hard to come up with content, but no, that could be make for the most hilarious YouTube videos or social media reels, like in TikToks, like I would have a lot of fun with that.
00:23:37.397 --> 00:23:45.923
But that community could be your actual community that you can drive to and you entertain those people and yeah.
00:23:46.463 --> 00:23:47.065
That's interesting.
00:23:47.065 --> 00:23:52.915
So, talking of the numbers, are there any growth stats that you can share about the company over the last what like five years or so?
00:23:54.078 --> 00:23:56.657
Okay, I'll share some stats that I am proud of.
00:23:56.657 --> 00:24:03.723
So I've talked a lot about how you can either launch with a community or you can launch and then build your community.
00:24:03.723 --> 00:24:06.333
Either works, as I've said, but we so.
00:24:06.333 --> 00:24:15.539
I was an author and my business partner, who I had for a number of years, was also an author, and we had about I want to say about 30,000 followers each.
00:24:15.539 --> 00:24:23.821
We both wrote young adult fiction, so there was some crossover, and so we knew that a lot of our customer base was writers.
00:24:23.821 --> 00:24:26.558
We thought that they were readers, but then they wouldn't buy our books really.
00:24:26.558 --> 00:24:30.740
So we were like, okay, I think these are more writers that just want to write their own books, which is fine.
00:24:30.740 --> 00:24:32.474
Then we built a writing product for them.
00:24:33.130 --> 00:24:41.150
So we did a really big pre-launch campaign, and what that means is we spent about 90 days really teasing the product Again.
00:24:41.150 --> 00:24:47.435
We were putting in tons and tons of other content and talking about other things that were entertaining, and writing tips and stuff.
00:24:47.435 --> 00:24:51.317
In between we kept saying something is coming, something is coming, something is coming.
00:24:51.317 --> 00:25:02.376
And then finally, about 45 days out, we revealed what it was, and then we started inviting our followers to vote on things like should this be the design of the box or this be design of the box?
00:25:02.376 --> 00:25:04.336
Should we put this in it first or this in it first?
00:25:04.336 --> 00:25:05.759
What do you guys value most?
00:25:06.191 --> 00:25:28.660
So by the time we launched, we really had kind of buy-in from them and we opened up just a pre-launch page, just one single page that I built on, I believe, wix, and we had a newsletter sign up and we said hey, we kept saying like the drop is coming soon, the drop is coming like within three weeks, and then we would say like two weeks, one week, and then we never even revealed the day that we were going to open.
00:25:28.660 --> 00:25:30.476
We knew what day and time we were going to open.
00:25:30.476 --> 00:25:47.300
We kept saying like, oh, we're really just fine-tuning some things, but you just need to stay on your email because it's coming and we only have a certain number and once we hit that number, we have to sell out because we don't we can't buy too much product, which was total you know, it was total baloney.
00:25:47.549 --> 00:25:48.634
I almost cursed there.
00:25:48.634 --> 00:25:51.236
But we're live, so we'll hold that back.
00:25:51.236 --> 00:25:54.778
But so when we finally launched, I fell asleep.
00:25:54.778 --> 00:25:58.901
My husband was up working late and he came in and he said hey, we have a buyer.
00:25:58.901 --> 00:26:00.996
And I was like what, what time is it?
00:26:00.996 --> 00:26:01.939
He was like it's midnight.
00:26:01.939 --> 00:26:03.915
I was like, how do we have a buyer?
00:26:04.450 --> 00:26:09.298
We didn't even send out the email yet, but we opened it the night before, knowing the email was going to go out at like seven in the morning.
00:26:09.298 --> 00:26:16.078
And then by the time the email went out, we'd already sold so many because people just kept checking the website to see if it was open.
00:26:16.078 --> 00:26:28.362
So, long story short, we had 200 sales our first day, just from the prelaunch buzz of building excitement, of utilizing a community, of getting excitement there and getting buy-in from them.
00:26:28.362 --> 00:26:32.119
And then we had 300 subscriptions by the end of the first month.
00:26:32.119 --> 00:26:41.141
We had $10,000 within the first 10 days in revenue and then we made about $200,000 in revenue the first year.
00:26:41.141 --> 00:26:43.875
I think it was actually more than that, but it was around there.
00:26:43.875 --> 00:26:51.726
And then we more than doubled it in our second year and then grew quite a bit larger from there.
00:26:51.925 --> 00:26:53.410
So incredible work.
00:26:53.410 --> 00:26:57.540
That's so interesting about involving your community and getting them to design the box.
00:26:57.540 --> 00:26:59.266
That's fantastic.
00:26:59.266 --> 00:27:00.328
Thank you, right.
00:27:00.328 --> 00:27:06.663
So let's go on to talking about suppliers, inventory management and capital management and such.
00:27:06.663 --> 00:27:09.479
So how do you work with your suppliers?
00:27:09.479 --> 00:27:16.816
I can imagine in a subscription box type thing it's fairly interesting because you must have different suppliers for different boxes.
00:27:16.816 --> 00:27:18.520
Yeah, they're constantly keeping it changing.
00:27:18.520 --> 00:27:23.441
I know kind of in the beauty world they often provide sample sizes, not necessarily full sizes.
00:27:23.441 --> 00:27:27.839
Do you have to kind of work with your suppliers to get bespoke products?
00:27:27.839 --> 00:27:28.381
I suppose?
00:27:28.381 --> 00:27:29.693
Talk to us a little bit about that.
00:27:30.676 --> 00:27:39.419
Yes, so in the beginning, like I said, we worked with places like Etsy and stuff like that, and then we very quickly started pivoting to creating our own stuff.
00:27:39.419 --> 00:27:44.020
So now we were in the space of not looking for suppliers but looking for manufacturers.
00:27:44.020 --> 00:27:48.980
We just needed people to produce the stuff that we were designing in-house.
00:27:48.980 --> 00:27:52.819
So we work with three different kind of manufacturers.
00:27:52.819 --> 00:28:04.640
One is a printer, and that was simply a matter of going online and looking for best prices for the printing sizes that we wanted to create and then also seeing could we adjust our sizes a little bit to make them cheaper?
00:28:04.640 --> 00:28:22.517
And then we started working with the manufacturers that were going to print our stuff, which one of our big ones that we just went to was Quality Logo Products I think it's QLPcom and then like discount mugs, stuff like that I mean just really places that you can find on Google.
00:28:22.517 --> 00:28:25.026
That was.
00:28:25.101 --> 00:28:26.675
There were some pros and cons there.
00:28:26.675 --> 00:28:31.144
I mean, there was a product that would come broken or doesn't look the way it's supposed to look.
00:28:31.144 --> 00:28:39.079
We figured out pretty quickly that we could get samples, and so we would just email the company and say, hey, this is our company size.
00:28:39.079 --> 00:28:41.017
This is when we would need the product by?
00:28:41.017 --> 00:28:45.237
This is when we would buy it by, this is when we would need it to ship by.
00:28:45.237 --> 00:28:47.676
Can we get a sample of this, this and this?
00:28:47.676 --> 00:28:49.314
And here's the shipping address?
00:28:49.314 --> 00:28:51.058
And they pretty much all of them would send it.
00:28:51.058 --> 00:28:56.957
So really, the only thing you're not seeing is the product with your you know spin on it.
00:28:56.957 --> 00:29:03.631
So these are, these are products, at least, I will say, up until about six months to a year ago.
00:29:03.631 --> 00:29:11.268
Most of these were products where we could see the notebook, we could see the packet pens, we could see it just didn't have our specific design on it yet.
00:29:11.268 --> 00:29:16.067
So that's been a pretty good oh, and then, I'm sorry, more recently in the last year.
00:29:16.067 --> 00:29:24.269
So we've moved international so that we can actually design everything inside of the notebooks, outside of the notebooks, and that's been great.
00:29:24.641 --> 00:29:53.651
The hardest part about this and anybody that's in this kind of world that has to get actual product in those it's stuff just doesn't show up on time a lot of times and that has been difficult because it's forced us to hold inventory that we don't want to hold, because we used to say, oh, this month we have exactly 750 subscribers in the beginning, so we could call and say we need 750, please ship them.
00:29:53.651 --> 00:30:00.502
But as our numbers got, bigger companies were like oh, it's going to take us a while to create all that and we'll ship it.
00:30:00.502 --> 00:30:02.942
We'll try to get it for them by then, but we don't know.
00:30:02.942 --> 00:30:12.446
So then we had to kind of overshoot by like a couple hundred subscribers and then just whatever showed up, we would piecemeal the boxes together and be like, okay, this looks good and then send it out.
00:30:12.446 --> 00:30:16.230
So sometimes we'll get like a snack in that we really wanted to have, in that.
00:30:16.230 --> 00:30:18.221
We always have a writing snack, by the way, because it's like who?
00:30:18.241 --> 00:30:19.045
doesn't want a snack.
00:30:19.045 --> 00:30:26.671
So we really would have wanted that snack to go in that box, but instead the chips showed up and the gummy worms didn't.
00:30:26.671 --> 00:30:29.308
So we have to like swap them and like make everything make sense.
00:30:29.308 --> 00:30:37.567
And then we're at the dining table or at my office like moving stuff around and being like no, if we're doing gummy worms, then we need to have this with it, and like that hasn't shown up yet.
00:30:38.604 --> 00:30:43.448
So yeah, you touched on your churn rate earlier, which was an amazing only 7%.
00:30:43.448 --> 00:30:46.588
But there is still a churn rate in this business, Absolutely.
00:30:46.588 --> 00:30:52.112
So what are you doing to make sure that you at least keep the business at that stable level?
00:30:52.112 --> 00:30:56.431
What are you doing in terms of customers at the moment and getting more on board?
00:30:57.260 --> 00:31:01.449
Yeah, I want to first say that 7% did not always look like 7%.
00:31:01.449 --> 00:31:08.709
If I would have read that 7% in my first year or two, I would have probably shut down, because our number was way higher than that.
00:31:08.709 --> 00:31:11.468
It was probably closer to like 15% plus.
00:31:11.468 --> 00:31:19.469
And I was reading all these things like, oh, your churn should be 10% or less, and I was like, oh my gosh, everybody hates our product.
00:31:19.469 --> 00:31:20.282
Like, what are we going to do?
00:31:20.282 --> 00:31:29.904
A, it's patience, right, it's just waiting until your product gets to a point where it's hitting that sweet spot of, yes, people like this.
00:31:29.904 --> 00:31:43.172
Now, the other big part of it that also feeds into patience was waiting until we built a brand for ourselves that had a reputation for being customer first.
00:31:43.172 --> 00:31:48.406
And by that I just mean if somebody emailed us and said, hey, I didn't get the box, we'd be like, cool, here's your refund.
00:31:48.406 --> 00:31:51.630
Like, or hey, I'm missing a product, cool here, let me send you another one.
00:31:51.630 --> 00:31:59.920
Like, we don't ask a lot of questions unless it's pretty apparent that there's like, maybe some benign going on there.
00:31:59.920 --> 00:32:01.180
So that's part of it.
00:32:01.784 --> 00:32:03.839
Number two is you know I'm going to keep coming back to content.
00:32:03.839 --> 00:32:06.319
Is we keep putting content out there?
00:32:06.319 --> 00:32:07.771
We have a blog.
00:32:07.771 --> 00:32:08.819
We have our Facebook community.
00:32:08.819 --> 00:32:11.220
We have Instagram account.
00:32:11.220 --> 00:32:22.000
We spend a lot of time continuing to put content out there and bringing in new customers as we lose customers, but keeping the current customers happy.
00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:27.599
A big part of that has been our Facebook group and asking questions.
00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:29.400
And oh, okay, here's a big one.
00:32:30.125 --> 00:32:43.440
Okay, so every time we send out a box, instead of waiting until your customers go online and say this company is garbage, we get in front of it as fast as we can and say hey, we just sent a box out.
00:32:43.440 --> 00:32:53.279
And most of them are on our Facebook group because when they subscribe, we send an email that's like hey, please don't forget to go into this community.
00:32:53.279 --> 00:32:56.519
It's a free part of the box where you guys can talk.
00:32:56.519 --> 00:32:58.201
We're not going to spam you about products.
00:32:58.201 --> 00:32:59.200
We're not going to even talk about it.
00:32:59.200 --> 00:33:00.665
It's just for y'all to talk.
00:33:00.665 --> 00:33:07.428
But we do the effort to keep it a safe, productive place and we add to it sometimes, but never about the box.
00:33:07.428 --> 00:33:15.114
We have our own Scribbler Facebook page, but then we have a group that's called Scribblers and that is just that.
00:33:15.114 --> 00:33:16.036
We run for them.
00:33:16.036 --> 00:33:23.026
So a big part of it is so my example was going to be we will send that box out.
00:33:23.160 --> 00:33:24.404
As soon as we know everybody has it.
00:33:24.404 --> 00:33:31.925
We post a poll to say what did you like, what did you not like, rank them and then tell us in the comments what did you love and what was garbage.
00:33:31.925 --> 00:33:41.266
And it gives everybody an opportunity to get out their frustrations and to say, hey, you sent us a notepad and it's been like the third month in a row, Like I'm tired of these notepads.
00:33:41.266 --> 00:33:45.326
And other people will jump on and be like, oh, I'm so tired of them too.
00:33:45.326 --> 00:33:47.207
But then other people might be like what are you talking about?
00:33:47.207 --> 00:33:54.625
I want a notebook in every single box and it just kind of gives people a place to vent and for us to read it.
00:33:54.819 --> 00:34:01.429
And in the beginning that was hard for me because I wanted to like talk back to everybody in the screen and be like no, you're wrong.
00:34:01.429 --> 00:34:04.525
Like that was amazing, but I don't know.
00:34:04.525 --> 00:34:07.208
I think that has helped our attrition.
00:34:07.208 --> 00:34:10.889
A lot is to be very like tell me what you think.
00:34:10.889 --> 00:34:14.605
Then it's like when you get in that argument with, like, your partner or spouse.
00:34:14.605 --> 00:34:24.847
When, like, you're able to like, tell them everything you're upset about it and really let loose, then afterwards you're almost like I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I yelled at you so much.
00:34:25.362 --> 00:34:28.527
You're bringing that so yeah, that's been a big part of it.
00:34:28.527 --> 00:34:37.007
And then also just learning over time, like I said, patience of really learning exactly what they want, and that 7% that fluctuates.
00:34:37.007 --> 00:34:47.909
I mean, come on, we have holiday months where, after December rolls up, we sky high because so many gifts and then we're plunged again, but as an average, highs and lows over the year.
00:34:48.420 --> 00:34:49.947
And how about new customers right now?
00:34:49.947 --> 00:34:53.646
Are you going down the Google ad space or you just content?
00:34:55.362 --> 00:34:58.972
Yeah, we do more social media ads than we do Google AdWords.
00:34:58.972 --> 00:35:02.663
Adwords works for us too, but because our product is more visual.
00:35:02.663 --> 00:35:07.009
If I was a electrician, I would be doing more Google AdWords and stuff like that.
00:35:07.009 --> 00:35:14.300
But because we're a very visual product and people react to seeing the box because it says really big on it, right, you know?
00:35:14.300 --> 00:35:16.621
Like if you were, like I'm a writer, you know what's this.
00:35:16.621 --> 00:35:25.110
We also added a lot of ads to like newsletters and stuff, but that one didn't shake out for us, as well as other things.
00:35:25.110 --> 00:35:27.206
So now we mostly speak to social media ads.
00:35:27.679 --> 00:35:30.947
Interesting and looking towards the future.
00:35:30.947 --> 00:35:37.148
You know the world's still a little bit of a scary place right now and the restaurants are kind of holding back on spending.
00:35:37.148 --> 00:35:42.545
How are you feeling about, you know, potential recession and the economy at the moment?
00:35:42.545 --> 00:35:52.487
I guess boxes like this you know they are a little bit of a treat, but it is the kind of thing that people look at straight away when they're going through their bank details to see which direct debit so that they can get rid of.
00:35:52.487 --> 00:35:54.606
How are you feeling about that?
00:35:55.739 --> 00:36:12.108
So I am somewhat optimistic, only because I was a writer myself and it would have taken probably one of my last paychecks for me to stop the dream of writing, and because it is around 40 bucks.
00:36:12.108 --> 00:36:16.500
I mean, it is an expense but it's not $404,000 a month, like.
00:36:17.302 --> 00:36:26.367
One of the big reasons and let's be honest that Scribbler has been successful is because we're not a box of although I love my boxes of beauty products and stuff.
00:36:26.367 --> 00:36:32.208
This is something that supports people's dreams, right, and that's a big thing for people, right?
00:36:32.208 --> 00:36:40.949
When you're holding onto a dream and this box gets you and it supports you and it keeps you motivated, it's a big thing and it can survive a lot.
00:36:40.949 --> 00:36:43.262
The company can survive a lot because of that.
00:36:43.262 --> 00:37:02.514
Having said that, if this is another reason that I like to diversify not even just within the company and offer different products, so we offer things like editorial services and writing contests and stuff, because that might be a cheaper option.
00:37:02.514 --> 00:37:12.210
Maybe you need to unsubscribe from the box for a while, but you want to get your query letter critiqued for 20 bucks because you just want to focus on getting in front of an agent and you need it to be as strong as possible.
00:37:13.072 --> 00:37:15.987
We also rolled out a Scribbler Slim.
00:37:15.987 --> 00:37:23.572
So it is without all of the gifts, it just has the teaching materials and that is 20 bucks, so that's like almost half price.
00:37:23.572 --> 00:37:34.929
I think it's like $5 shipping also, so that's helped too, but in my mind, if I'm being honest as an entrepreneur, that is another reason for me to open another company.
00:37:34.929 --> 00:37:39.885
Yes, to kind of offset, just like we do when we're investing our money.
00:37:39.885 --> 00:37:42.900
You know it's bonds and index funds and CDs.
00:37:42.900 --> 00:37:46.416
You got to put the money everywhere and make sure that it grows.
00:37:46.416 --> 00:37:50.021
When one is down, the other is up.
00:37:50.302 --> 00:37:56.175
Which segues perfectly, because I was about to say, before we let you go, we need to hear a little bit about your latest startup, luminary.
00:37:56.175 --> 00:38:01.976
So what exactly is it and what problem are you hoping to solve for small businesses?
00:38:02.445 --> 00:38:05.092
Yeah, so Luminary is my newest baby.
00:38:05.092 --> 00:38:07.619
It's Luminary, it's like so.
00:38:07.619 --> 00:38:13.099
One day I was talking again with my husband about building Scribbler and it was so hard in the beginning.
00:38:13.099 --> 00:38:13.842
It's so hard.
00:38:13.842 --> 00:38:20.068
If you walk away from this conversation with anything, please God walk away with the fact that this was not like we didn't.
00:38:20.068 --> 00:38:22.655
Just it seems like it was easy.
00:38:22.655 --> 00:38:26.369
I guess when I say we got 300 subscribers in the first day, it was not.
00:38:26.369 --> 00:38:27.030
It was.
00:38:27.030 --> 00:38:29.940
It was years of building community before this.
00:38:29.940 --> 00:38:32.851
That was not working, that I was thinking nobody wants to follow me.
00:38:32.851 --> 00:38:35.824
This is so hard, like no one wants to push, follow.
00:38:35.824 --> 00:38:38.652
So it was hard.
00:38:38.773 --> 00:38:46.878
But my husband and I were talking about how hard this was and he said, yeah, you know, I guess it's just like making lemon.
00:38:46.878 --> 00:38:48.083
You know, lemonade out of lemons.
00:38:48.083 --> 00:38:52.019
And I was like, no, it's like making lemonade, but all I have is the lemons.
00:38:52.019 --> 00:38:59.358
I don't even have sugar, I don't have water, I don't have a pitcher, I don't have glasses like I don't have anything because I don't have budget right, like it's just all I've got is the lemons.
00:38:59.358 --> 00:39:04.719
So that lemon has been kind of a key funny word in my brain for the last like five, six years.
00:39:04.719 --> 00:39:08.976
And then luminary, of course, just this person of influence or product.
00:39:08.976 --> 00:39:11.927
In my mind it's a product of influence, so it's luminary.
00:39:11.927 --> 00:39:13.231
But yeah, it's it's.
00:39:13.371 --> 00:39:20.878
I did a bunch of consulting a few years ago to help people create a content strategy, so that it's not just about.
00:39:20.878 --> 00:39:27.505
You know, I can sit here and, you know, beat a dead horse about how important I think it is and getting a product off the ground cheaply.
00:39:27.505 --> 00:39:36.240
But there's also some tactical stuff in it and what days to post, what times to post, what hashtags to use, how many hashtags to use, how to look.
00:39:36.240 --> 00:39:44.293
One quick thing, like on hashtags when you're pulling your hashtags, make sure that they are used between 100,000 times and about 500,000 times.
00:39:44.293 --> 00:39:50.635
That's the sweet spot to like so that you can have a chance of being on the explore page when you're trying to get content to go viral.
00:39:50.775 --> 00:39:55.590
Viral is 200,000 views or more in a 24 hour period.
00:39:55.590 --> 00:40:06.793
It's really impossible to really pick what's going to go viral, but you have to make sure all the boxes are checked so that if it does perform well, it doesn't just grow to like 50,000 views, it goes to millions.
00:40:06.793 --> 00:40:11.798
One of my daughters, my daughter's seventh reel is going viral right now.
00:40:11.798 --> 00:40:20.121
It just I checked like it hit like 3.3 million this morning and it's going nuts Like, which is great, and one of her's hit 59 million, I mean.
00:40:20.121 --> 00:40:22.690
But this is you got to have the check boxes.
00:40:23.293 --> 00:40:36.677
So that's part of what I'm doing with Liminary is just teaching people how to do this, and then also what your side, your jacid product, is that you can talk to people about to get them to get closer so that you can sell your actual product.
00:40:36.737 --> 00:40:42.922
It's like you know the person with the yellow orbs right Like Gardening, giving them a list of ideas of how to do this.
00:40:42.922 --> 00:40:44.128
So, yeah, I've been doing that.
00:40:44.128 --> 00:40:56.893
Now we were just getting it off the ground and it's like, well, I won't say price in case this is like two years later you're hearing this, but it's like a 40, 50 minute call and you can get pretty much everything you need from me in that one call.
00:40:56.893 --> 00:41:11.739
Like if you book again, it's just because you like me, like it all seriousness, about half my clients rebook again, but that at that point it's like they're just wanting another marketing expert that they don't want to have to hire full time, but they want a quick.
00:41:11.739 --> 00:41:13.005
Like what do I need to do with this?
00:41:13.005 --> 00:41:17.204
Just tell me in 50 minutes so I could pay your one check and then go back to not spending.
00:41:17.224 --> 00:41:18.871
So much money.
00:41:18.871 --> 00:41:25.030
Tori, it sounds like such another adventure for you and, yeah, we really wish you all the best with the luminary as well.
00:41:25.030 --> 00:41:33.793
And lastly, we have our rapid fire, quick fire round of questions, so don't think too much about them, kind of just coming at you.
00:41:33.793 --> 00:41:36.139
Right, so are we ready?
00:41:36.139 --> 00:41:40.096
Yes, what do you do to stay mentally and physically fit?
00:41:42.846 --> 00:41:43.932
Workouts obey.
00:41:43.932 --> 00:41:45.885
Obey fitness best workout app ever.
00:41:45.885 --> 00:41:47.048
Oh, I've not heard of that.
00:41:47.048 --> 00:41:48.313
What's that so good?
00:41:48.313 --> 00:41:55.043
It's like if they put them in a 80s type box, and it's like if you want instructors to make you laugh and cuss at you the whole time.
00:41:55.043 --> 00:41:56.608
That's what you need, obey fitness.
00:41:56.608 --> 00:41:57.409
It's amazing.
00:41:57.710 --> 00:41:58.192
Fair enough.
00:41:58.192 --> 00:42:00.838
What is your Sunday morning guilty pleasure?
00:42:02.565 --> 00:42:03.708
Reading always.
00:42:03.708 --> 00:42:06.396
You can see the bookshelf in the back If you're watching clips.
00:42:07.786 --> 00:42:10.679
If you had five minutes with the president, what would you ask for?
00:42:11.382 --> 00:42:12.045
Oh my gosh.
00:42:12.045 --> 00:42:21.574
Oh, you know, I want to say something like world peace, but can he just like cut me off a check, like just give me like a house or something like that.
00:42:21.574 --> 00:42:29.257
Like, yeah, without getting too political, I just ask for personal stuff just to be super selfish, super.
00:42:29.778 --> 00:42:31.864
And Netflix or Disney.
00:42:31.864 --> 00:42:32.827
What are you watching right now?
00:42:32.827 --> 00:42:35.278
I don't even need to hear the second option, it's Netflix.
00:42:35.278 --> 00:42:35.880
Come on.
00:42:36.423 --> 00:42:36.704
Be real.
00:42:38.931 --> 00:42:40.175
What do you typically have for breakfast?
00:42:41.338 --> 00:42:42.201
Oh okay.
00:42:42.201 --> 00:42:48.161
It used to be like whatever I wanted and now my trainer has me on a high protein breakfast called three wishes cereal.
00:42:48.161 --> 00:42:50.007
It's garbage, but it's doing the trick.
00:42:50.329 --> 00:42:51.735
Yeah, I'm not sure if I'm on board with that.
00:42:51.735 --> 00:42:57.215
And then, finally, what do you know now that you wish you'd known at the beginning of your career?
00:42:57.215 --> 00:42:58.498
Oh my gosh.
00:42:59.481 --> 00:43:00.445
I okay here it is.
00:43:00.445 --> 00:43:07.240
The most important thing that I can part with is this Be patient.
00:43:07.240 --> 00:43:08.543
Please, god, be patient.
00:43:08.543 --> 00:43:20.204
There is going to be huge breakthroughs in your company and in your life and you have to be doing the work and staying there for it to happen, like, because it's when those breakthroughs happen.
00:43:20.204 --> 00:43:24.018
It's just like videos that you put up, content that goes up.
00:43:24.018 --> 00:43:36.221
Most of it is going to be tinkering along and then you're going to get a phone call or you're going to have something go viral, or you're going to have some product breakout or some influencers going to talk about your, your restaurant all of a sudden and you're going to have a huge spike.
00:43:36.240 --> 00:43:38.387
But you've got to be in business when it happens.
00:43:38.387 --> 00:43:39.510
You've got to keep going.
00:43:39.510 --> 00:43:44.639
And the other part is just keep working, like.
00:43:44.639 --> 00:43:48.378
Keep like listening to music that inspires you on the way to work.
00:43:48.378 --> 00:43:53.159
And like listen to that loud, crazy music that makes you want to kick a door down.
00:43:53.159 --> 00:43:55.789
And like keep watching documentaries that inspire you.
00:43:55.789 --> 00:44:01.835
Keep watching movies, like, keep reading books about inspirational people and don't get frustrated that you're not there yet.
00:44:01.835 --> 00:44:02.920
You will get there.
00:44:02.920 --> 00:44:06.974
Whether it's one company or it's 15 companies, you'll get there.
00:44:06.974 --> 00:44:11.690
You will Like just be patient, be in the game when it happens for you.
00:44:11.690 --> 00:44:13.938
That's what I would tell myself today.
00:44:13.938 --> 00:44:15.164
I'm going to tell myself about liminary too.
00:44:15.164 --> 00:44:17.224
Like, be in the game, be patient.
00:44:18.409 --> 00:44:22.382
Oh, Tori, that is a perfect way to end this really great conversation.
00:44:22.382 --> 00:44:24.728
Thank you so much for being with us today.
00:44:25.371 --> 00:44:26.373
Thank you for having me.
00:44:26.373 --> 00:44:27.356
This has been so much fun.