So you want to launch a subscription box and don't know where to start, girl, you are in the right place. I'm Julie Ball and I'm Renee Gonzalez, your host here at subscription box basics, a podcast for new and aspiring subscription box entrepreneurs wanting to avoid overwhelm. So grab a coffee, some pen and paper, and let's have some fun. hey everybody and welcome back to subscription box basics this is the episode you've been waiting for If you're looking for a new strategy to grow your email list and get more subscribers and get some publicity street cred visibility all those good things Then you're going to love my guest today her name is susie moore She's been featured in over 300 media publications like Oprah Cosmo business insider, even the today show.. So that's why I'm bringing Susie on the podcast today. Okay. I feel like there should be a little drum roll here because I'm about to introduce you to a friend of mine that legitimately was my all time favorite guest expert when I was running Sparkle Hustle Grow. Please everybody. Welcome Susie Moore to the podcast. Hey, Susie. Oh, Julie. What a joy to be with you. Thank you so much for having me. It's such a pleasure to spend any time with you that I can. Oh, you were so sweet. I featured you in the past in Sparkle Hustle Grow, and we featured a couple of your books, which are some of my favorites. So this is such a treat. I really am excited for our audience to get to know you. So I want to talk about media. Obviously, because that's, what the whole topic is here today, and we're going to share a special offer towards the end of the episode, an invitation, if you will, to a special workshop with Susie and I, but let's just dive right into it, because the people who are listening to this Podcast are new and aspiring subscription box entrepreneurs. And one of the things that is a challenge for them and oftentimes myself is growing my email list, getting new subscribers. And so you have these tactics that you've been using that have really helped you grow your email list, grow your business. And so let's talk about that. big question is like, how do you even get the media to work for you? Oh my gosh, Julie, I love this topic. I could talk about it for hours because the media has changed my life. I know that it's a tool that is available to anybody who has a story to share advice to give knowledge that could be useful to other people. And Julie I've actually never met anyone. No matter how new they are to business, whether they've been in business for maybe 30 years, or if they're just two or three months in just setting up their website, et cetera, I've never met anyone who's got a desire to be seen in a bigger way, who hasn't potentially got a hundred or more media stories, media features within them. So the media is hungry for the stories from regular people. Just like you and me, and if we are willing to show up and be generous, share what it is that we know, tell our tell a bit about our experiences, share what it is that we've learned along the way. Maybe it's, I don't know, recipes, maybe it's to do with parenting, maybe it's to do with finance, maybe it's to do with books, whatever it is. If we're willing to really give our voice a microphone, there are so many media outlets that want us, to share what it is that we know with them. Yeah. And we all have stories, whether we think they're big deals or not. So many of our students here at subscription box basics are creating their business to solve a pain point like most people, but also from personal experience. And so when you open up and you're willing to share some of that personal experience, whether it is. Yeah. Something you went through, or maybe it's your expertise or anything like that. We all have stories within us. Don't you agree? Oh my gosh. And I have to say, being in the media now for over a decade, having been featured in hundreds of different media outlets, I can tell you that. With a lot of editor and producers now being my friends, they often tell me, especially when they meet people through me, that most people, Julie have no idea how interesting their stories are. Like they just count them so quickly. We're just like, Oh, but everyone knows that, or, but everyone has a fertility journey or everyone started a business. So everyone's had this. This issue at work. And it's simply not true. Like we, we want to learn from people who are maybe a little bit farther ahead than us or someone who's moved country or learned a language or gone through a divorce or who set up a business from their kitchen table. We want to be inspired. We want to hear from just regular human beings, like people just like us. And when we're willing to share our experiences and we're willing to be seen in a bigger way. I find it so incredibly generous. I mean, haven't you learned Julie along the way from other people as you've gone through in life, like whatever it may be in business, our personal stuff, whatever it is, I always find that. There've been so many people who will never even know about me, who've inspired me because I've managed to find them. And I know that the number one job of any entrepreneur, of course, it's to be wonderful at what we do, but the number one job is to be visible because we can only serve a few people if only a few people know about us. And you might have the best product or service in the world, but if not many people know about it, you're going to be really limited in terms of the impact you're actually able to make. And I know that we go into business to make an impact, right? So the media is you're on your side. It's your friend. It's there to support you. It's just waiting to hear from you. Yeah. And it reminds me of this lyric in an Avent brothers song that says, you got to show up if you want to be seen. And sometimes, it's hard to show up. I know you're going to share with us some tactics of easier ways to show up. But the other thing I was thinking about is I remember when I was brand new at entrepreneurship and I was. Trying to seek out clients. I was trying to seek out visibility. And I thought to myself, I don't have a rags to riches story. Nobody cares. I don't have a dramatic story. It's, I left corporate America because I had my daughter and I started a side hustle. But when you think about it, I know I was going to say, I didn't know that. I didn't know it at the time. But that story was inspiring because there was a lot of other women who maybe wanted to do that. And then I had a background in digital marketing and I had to actually have a friend tell me this. I didn't know this, but she's like, I don't know what you know, I don't know how to do what you do. So I need you to teach me. And a couple of like those two moments together made me realize that I do have a story to tell even if it's not dramatic or rags to riches again. So I just share that to inspire our listeners that they have stories as well. Oh my gosh. I mean, think about that. How many people do you think are stuck in corporate jobs right now that they don't love and how many of them also maybe have children or would like to have children or in that kind of transitional phase. Like we want to hear from Julie, we want to hear from someone who's been there who's done that who's taken that leap who's taken the risk. What are the three things that you learned? What's one thing that you wish you knew if you had to go back, if you could speak to you or way back when you made the decision, what are some things that you considered? What helped you? What mistakes did you make? You can already see, we have five to six media features here in terms of like ready to take to market. I mean, most people, like I said we, skip over our accomplishments. We skip over. What it is we live through thinking unless I'm a billionaire or unless I have had lunch with Oprah or unless X, Y, or Z has happened, I've been into space. I'm not interesting. Like not true. In fact, I can tell you that some of the most successful media features that I've helped craft have been kind of the more humdrum ones. The ones that the most relatable. In fact, I've even noticed, yes, I've actually even noticed recently with my students, Julie, that the stories that are more like. Right now, here's how I make an extra 900 a month reviewing rock climbing equipment on YouTube. That's more interesting than your Starbucks to seven figures story, right? We want to know, I'll make my hundred bucks a month. I rock climb. I want to, I can show people the equipment and how I use it. We there was this one story that was so interesting. One woman shared that she was this was her cool side hustle using an existing asset. She lets people with dogs use her backyard so they can just go roll around in the grass with their dog. And she's like, I don't do anything. I just opened the gate. They have two hours and that's fascinating. It's like, I don't know about that. Maybe you have a backyard. You can be inspired by this woman. She's not on the Forbes list yet. Right. But we want it. We want to hear from something that's real, relatable, something that we can just trust, follow and be inspired by in big and small ways. Okay, so you're saying that you don't have to have big credentials already for media to want to feature you? No, you don't need a following. You don't need any type of existing media already. You don't even need a website. When I got started, Julie, I was working in the tech sector in my sweet little cubicle and I had nothing, not even a Facebook page set up. I only, a business page. I only had a Gmail account. And a Twitter account. And I just shared an idea. That was it. And it was published in MindBodyGreen. It was shared nearly 4, 000 times. And that was my very first feature. And as soon as that happened, and I just shared some productivity tips because I was going to ask you. Yeah, I was working in a corporate job plus side hustling as a brand new life coach at the weekends and evenings. And my, story was about how to say no, have to say no with grace so that you get your time back. It was called Noah's the new year. So this was 2014. And when that was shared nearly 4, 000 times, I was like, I'm getting a, I am getting a message right now from the universe that this is a big mess. Like, this is a big way. This is something really, solid that you can use to grow your business because we don't just want to get like a trickle of clients. Right. Right. I mean, look, that's fine. All, business is great business, but we're not here to, for it to be a huge struggle and my mantra, as you can see here, right. It's like, let it be easy. So why not tap into huge audiences that want to hear from you? There's appetite. There's thirst. Editors need content. Producers need content. Why not just show up and be the content? It's generous for everybody. I love that. Oh, it's such a good story. You were doing this side hustle and you, did you just pitch then you didn't use a publicist, right? No, In fact I always suggest, well it's, my strong recommendation now that everyone learns how to be their own publicist. Even if you have the budget for a publicist and you have one, you will know how to manage your public, your publicity team or firm well, if you know how the process works. And I can tell you this, Julie, A good publicist is a minimum six figure investment. And even then I've had friends who are like my book's out. I'm not getting any placements. Can you help me? And they've already invested six figures. This has happened more than once. It is such a skill to learn that lasts with you. It lasts in your life, in your business forever. Once you know how the media works, you have some of your own connections. You're really set up for success in the short and long term. So if you know that the media wants stories, you know how to approach them, you know how to come up with good ideas, you know how to manage those relationships and then leverage all media that you win, then it just gets easier and easier. Two at a time. Like I've actually, I I joke a lot, Julie, if there's anything better than the media to grow your business, give you credit and authority, bring you opportunities, put you really out there on the main stage, really bring your expert status level up rapidly. Grow your email list. I mean, the benefits are endless. If there were any other method that did it as swiftly. As the media does, I would be doing it like, and I test all the things I love all the things I'd be doing it all yesterday, but there's a reason I'm so consistent with this one method. It's just because it works. And I think that more and more people are realizing that slowly, especially with a lot of turbulence in other, areas of business growth that we see with the cost of ads, algorithms changing, constantly shifting platforms, et cetera. I just think the media is so steady. It's not going anywhere. It's got a long history. History and the time is now like, I mean, we're already in the second half of 2023. If we want to like, if we want to rock it, then look, it's available. What are we waiting for? Gift guides are coming out soon. And that is a hot thing for subscription boxes and I am on team media as well. I've been able to successfully get some great media features for Sparkle Hustle Grow in the past. I'll tell you what for coaching for what I do with now subscription box coaching, having that as kind of street cred, it turns heads. It helps me book speaking gigs. It helps. It helps the new student when they approach us as subscription box basics say, okay, these guys know what they're doing. They clearly have been. Featured in all these places. So I will tell you this one story. Sparkle Hustle Grow got featured as the best subscription box for the boss, babe. This was like 2019 Christmas time right during the holidays. Our gift sales tripled that year compared to normal. So it's not just like a pat on the back, like, Oh, I put the logo on my website. It actually can translate into sales for a product based business for sure. Oh my gosh. It's, always, it's so funny to me, Julie, because people tell me these stories a lot. I actually had one woman yesterday. She told me that she, featured her planner in a guide. That she wrote for, and this is actually in Europe. So she wrote for a European publication. She, included her guide. She linked her guide and she sold 700 of her planners with one guest post, one media feature, and so this is like money in the bank, right? Like you said, it's not just pat on the back, getting paid attention. Yeah, it's good for the ego. La nothing wrong with that. Well, I care a lot about leverage and getting a real return for every ounce of my energy spent every ounce of like my time spent. And because I also value so much, Julie, time away from work, like time away from all the business stuff that fills your days. So I think, how can I. Put the effort just into the right channels that pay me back in a big way. So I'm not just spinning my wheels, right? So I'm putting stuff out that, that brings me a return in all the ways, right? Not just in one, not just with email subscribers or not just with sales, but think about it. Why do people, if they're coming out with a book or if they launch a site or any marketing materials, why is it always the media logos that lead? Like, why is it X person has been featured in fast company, CNN? Like, why does that always lead, even if they're making a hundred million dollars for media? We'll always take precedent when it comes to authority. And so why not give yourself the gift of all of the benefits, give yourself the edge in that way. There's no reason not to, I'm yet to find a single reason someone shouldn't do this. Actually, maybe if you've got a criminal pass and you're running and you're on the run from the law, like maybe then don't, go for it. But I can't think of any good reason that you wouldn't want to be seen go bigger. Put your work out there in a bigger way and and get all the blessings, the returns, the money, even the access you get to people. I've noticed that opens up your circle a lot to the more you're out, there and seen, and probably even opportunities. You might not even realize you're missing out on. Right. Okay. So our listeners are probably saying okay, I'm in. So what if you're just starting out? Like you don't have a big, fancy website. Like where did it even begin? Well, that was just where I was when I got started. I had nothing to link to. I didn't, I mean, I was taking payments in cash back then, Julie, I mean, or check, right? Like I was taking cash. I mean, I had nothing. I don't even know if Stripe was around. There was like PayPal. I was seeing clients on Skype. Like you don't have to have anything set up, right? The only thing that you do need is something that can be of value to an audience. So that's what an editor or a producer cares about. Does what this person have to say or share, can it bring value to my audience? And it can be anything, right? It can be, maybe you help really picky toddlers picky parents of toddlers, help them eat healthier food, or maybe you help people with financial literacy, or maybe you help people get organized and declutter, or maybe you help people create a really beautiful home or office environment. Maybe help people speed read amazing books. Whatever it is, if you can share a tip, some advice, some knowledge that you have, that someone can read it and take something from that and go, Oh, I'm glad I spent five minutes with that. That's enough. So value first, not you're not like approaching it like a pitch. Yeah. Well, the thing is the pitch is basically conveying the value that you have. That's it. That's all it is. You're sharing something of value and you are then the expert in that topic. Yes, exactly. So for example, right now, think about it. We're in summer. I was just workshopping something with someone yesterday who actually works in the travel industry. She helps people plan their travel. I'm like, okay, so what do people need to know now heading into. The third month of the summer, like, what do we need to know? And she just was spitballing all this stuff. And she's like, the U S is expensive. Go to Europe, save money. I was like, what? I didn't know any of this again. We think that what we know is obvious, right? It's right. It, and I was like, okay, wait, there are so many ideas here. So think about it. What can someone take away? Like, what is it that you have to say? That could also even be tied into the moment. Maybe it's like mother's day. Maybe it's summer. Maybe it's the holidays. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe it's back to school. Like what? I mean, there are always so many themes that we right now, artificial intelligence is a huge thing. Maybe you have an opinion. Like what is it? You don't have to be some expert or guru. You're just joining a conversation and adding your opinion. Oh, I loved it. So we have a special workshop that you and I are hosting together. So let's go ahead and talk a little bit about that. You guys, you are all invited. It is going to be marked the calendar for July 20th at 1 PM. We already have registration open. So go to the show notes to get the link, but listen, if you can't be there live, that's okay. get a limited time repla tell you this yet Susie, of copies of your book. S away some free copies for that show up live. So the involved. But why don't y Oh my gosh. Well, the masterclass itself is called overnight rockstar, which is all about really skyrocketing your reputation, getting you noticed, getting you out there in a bigger way, having you share what it is that you have inside of you. That's meaningful and helpful to others by my tools that will help you become your own publicist. And look. There is a long way you can go about this, kind of like I did in the beginning, right? Making a lot of mistakes, kind of following up the wrong way, doing kind of all sorts of odd research that can land you in places that maybe aren't where your ideal audience are. And not all media is created equal, Julie. So on this masterclass, we're breaking down some of the steps that you need in order to make your media dreams a reality and to make it happen quickly. Right. I mean, I love long term results and I certainly plan for the future, but I also want quick wins. And I know that people who attend this masterclass, you take action. They've had wins within a week, even less, some people in two to three days. So if you want to go bigger, if you want to grow your email list, if you want to make more sales, if you want to have those cool media logos, if you want to open yourself. Up to new and exciting possibilities and opportunities. This is definitely the class that you want to be joining us live at. And look, I'm hanging around, right? So you bring your questions, like, let's go, let's workshop. Let's brainstorm some ideas together. It's one of my. Favorite things to do. And one other thing too Julie, a lot of the feedback that we get on this class is when you start tuning into what the media thinks about content, it benefits content in all areas of your business because you're like, Ooh, this is the media love. I should be speaking more like this on social media. I could give my audience more on these topics. This is what people care about. It benefits your entire business, even outside of just the amazing direct media wins that already give you so much. The ripple effect. Yes. There is such an echo. Look, if you have any desire or tug or curiosity about this topic, then you definitely want to be there and be there live. Because it's not always the case where you get to join something live and fun, where you jam creatively and learn some new things. So girl, I rarely do live workshops. It is. It is very rare that I do this. So that's why I'm so excited about this for my audience to meet you in person, to learn from you so they don't have to trudge through all the mistakes and, waste their time and waste even potential money. And time is money though, too exactly. Yes. Yeah. I'm. I'm really excited about this. I'm going to be there. Renee is going to be there. Susie's going to be there. We're going to be talking about media and you all are invited. So if you want some of Susie's best tips, and I'm telling you this, class, I've been through it before. You are going to walk away with actual things you can do. This is not like a fluff workshop. So if you want in on this workshop, join us live July 20th at 1 PM, but you got to register in advance for it. So that link again is in the show notes and yes. There will be a replay. That's always the biggest question. Is there going to be a replay, but it's a limited time replay. So this is intended to help you take action. I know for me, having action steps, but also having deadlines, things like that is it makes me take action. It makes me move forward faster. And so that's what we've got planned. I, again, I've got some copies of Susie's books. Let it be easy and stop checking your likes that I'm going to be giving away live at the workshop and there's going to be some other special things going on. So we can't wait, Susie. I'm so excited. Julie. I'm excited. I bring it on. I wish you went today. I know. Well, soon, very soon, my friend. Well, thank you so much. We are very much looking forward to this and I will see you Susie and the rest of you listening on July 20th. Can't wait. Thank you, Julie and everybody. See you soon. Thanks everybody for listening and we'll see you in the next episode. Bye.