November 5, 2018 • 46 mins
FYI!!! Carla Marie is no longer the host of a morning show in Seattle but she is still supporting small businesses in every way possible. She’s even started her own small business with her radio cohost and best friend, Anthony. All of the links below will help you stay up to date!
Follow Carla Marie on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/thecarlamarie/
Watch Carla Marie and Anthony’s Show on Twitch
twitch.tv/carlamarieandanthony
Sign up for The Carla Marie and Anthony Show newsletter to stay up to date:
https://view.flodesk.com/pages/5f516ae62c60490027b9ec20
Email Carla Marie
SideHustlersPodcast@gmail.com
Text Carla Marie and Anthony:
201-305-0894
Follow Carla Marie and Anthony on Instagram
http://instagram.com/carlamarieandanthony
Subscribe to Carla Marie and Anthony on YouTube:
YouTube.com/CarlaMarieAnthony
Follow Carla Marie and Anthony on Facebook
http://facebook.com/carlamarieandanthony
Email Carla Marie and Anthony
CarlaMarieandAnthony@gmail.com
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Side Hustlers. If this is your first episode, Hi,
my name is Carla Murray. I'm the host of Side
Hustlers and today is episode number thirty one. We are
talking to Julie Reese. She's the creator of Boxed Home Decor,
a monthly subscription service of home decor items with a
farmhouse feel. You're totally going to freak out and be
(00:20):
obsessed with everything of Box Home Decor. Julie is a
mom of four who started her side hustle because our
husband went back to school. Box Home Decor is more
than a side hustle now for Julie, it's turned into
an incredible bonding time with her daughters. And in this episode,
she's got a promo code for you. So here we go.
For a lot of people, you know, why are you
(00:42):
when you know what you want to do and this
is what you want to do it. I'm a hustle
side side hustle do it. I'm a hustle h do it.
I'm a hustle side. I'm a hustles side slow. I'm
a hustle side side hustlow. Come on, ask about yo, yo.
(01:02):
It's the side Hustless podcast. We call the roof. So
this week's guest is Julie. Hi, Julie, Hello, good morning.
Well it is morning right now, and we're recording this
no idea when anyone is listening. But you are coming
to us from Utah. We're smack dab in the middle
of Utah, the middle of you. Was gonna say, how
far are you from Salt Lake City. It's about a
two hour drive. Okay, all right, So you said you
(01:23):
live in a town with one stoplight. It does. It
has one stoplight. Okay, So let's get into boxed home decor.
This is your side hustle. You're a mom of four girls, which,
oh my goodness, is craziness. I'm sure it's pure craziness.
I have no idea what I'm doing, but it works.
I don't know that anyone does. So why did you
(01:46):
launch box home to car? I guess let's start there
with the y. So basically, my husband he was working
in a coal mine. Um, he's been there for fifteen
years and decided it's about time to get out. The
industry's questionable at times, and we on into better ourselves.
So he decided to go back to school to become alignman.
When he went. It put us in a financial situation.
(02:08):
We essentially have two house payments because he works away
from home and then we're here, so we needed another income.
I knew business previously. I owned a previous company. I
knew that the best way to make that extra income
without working outside of my home too much was to
start another company. So you said, I really love home decore.
(02:28):
Let me put it in a box and send it
to everyone. Yes. I like the idea of being in
a box. I don't have to worry about all the
products on a website. It's one single box every month.
I think customers like it because if you're in a
rural area like me, I can't go to a Target
to get products. I can't go. I can't go anywhere.
(02:49):
I either shop online or I drive two hours. She's
you know what, Okay, I need to tell you. They're
literally building a Target as we speak, next to my apartment.
I mean literally, the door to Target will be like
ten ft away from the door to my apartment building.
I wish that it was two hours away because there
goes all my money. So you're lucky. There is truth
(03:14):
to that. But when you said target, it actually doesn't
remind me, I'm trying to figure out the best way
to describe box home Decore or why you would want
to subscribe. And I looked at it, I was like,
there's so many times where I go to the home
decore section of Target and I'm like, I wanted all,
I wanted all. I don't know, I don't know. I
wish someone would just like tell me what I need.
And you kind of take that part of I'm gonna
(03:37):
pick the cutest things that I'm sure you love and
you're gonna send them to people, and it takes the
guessing game out for the rest of us of what
should I do? What should I do? And it opens
our minds up to new things that we normally wouldn't buy. Absolutely,
our style is more of a farmhouse phil And if
you notice, like the bloggers, they always seem to have
their houses just loaded with stuff I don't. I don't either. Honestly,
(03:59):
my kids would story at all. Yeah, my cats will
destroy at all. I totally get it. So my purpose is,
and the whole point to this box is to give
you little pieces that you can build upon throughout the year.
It's not a big chunk of money that you have
to go out and spend, but it will just build
that throughout your home. The last month's box had a
blanket in it and the books, and this month has
(04:22):
stuff for your kitchen, the tea tawel ladder and the
the tea towel. And so we want to just compile everything.
You don't have to go searching. You don't have to
spend hours at a store deciding what to buy. So stressful,
right and for me as a mom, taken four kids
into a store. Is that's true? I'm sure you're sitting
(04:43):
you think about all the money you're saving by not
taking your kids to a store where they want you
to buy everything. Oh look, guys, that just showed up,
and this is all you're getting, true, right, So not
that I might get to my car and they've added
stuff that I didn't even know I was by say exactly,
you're saving for moms right there. So your full time
job is working for the school district in your area,
(05:05):
what are those hours? Like those hours I can go in.
It's not my own time, so I get to pick
my hours. I do have a baby at home, and
so I work around her schedule as much as possible.
I also get to work from home for the school district.
So when she goes down for and now that's when
I work the most amazing. It's worked well. It is
a little extra, you know, that's another job on top
(05:27):
of this. It makes a little bit of a chaos,
but managing time and family, you know, it's it's part
of the part of the industry. So once a month
you release these boxes. What is that process like? Just
walk us through everything of picking what goes in it,
order it, where do you order it from, how do
you pack it? And all of that. Oh man, it's
(05:47):
a definite one. It is. I want the boxes to
be worth the value. I don't want someone to get
the box and think, wow, I this this wasn't worth
the value of what I spent. That is my main priority.
So basically we start and last month we did a
kitchen themed box. I like to go kind of room
by room and a lot of the products you can
(06:08):
use in different rooms. They don't necessarily have to be,
you know, a specific room, but that that's kind of
how my mind works. So I find a spot in
the room and that's what we're going to focus on.
This next month's box is a little bit more Christmas
themed that has a cute little breathed. It's just stocked
full of just some fun Christmas items. The goal was
to help create that mantle you know when you have
(06:29):
a match for Christmas, it just makes you feel all
warm and funny. Well, it's smart to pick a part
of the house and go from there because otherwise, like
me at Target, you're going to have one dish towel,
one pillow for your bedroom, throw something that makes no
sense and you're right, Then you just have all this
random stuff. But when you focus on one part of
(06:50):
the house, I'm sure it really helps you also and
helps people who want to buy it. Yes, the best
advice I ever received was when you start decorating, pick
one wall and shop for at one space. Because when
you go to the store and you end up with
all these randoms, you're like, what do I do with
all of you? I know, hence my apartment right now,
it's what it looks like, So save me. When you
(07:13):
pick your spot of the house or home, whatever you're
working for. And then where do you get these products from?
Do you order in bulk? How do you narrow it down?
Do you sample some? We do sample a lot. We
have some vendors that that offer wholesale. There's a lot
of vendors out there that that do home decre We've
went to the shows in Vegas. They're they're just stocked
with home decre My goal as this company is to
(07:36):
find those small businesses and work with them. Our last
box had a tea tail ladder, and the table runner
and a wreath. Those all come from small business. It's amazing.
It was amazing, and it's amazing to meet these people.
The lady that did our table runner, she she reached
out to me and she had been to our store
here in Mount Pleasant. She was saying how cute it
(07:58):
was and that she made these, and I said, well,
let's put some in the store. And when I got him,
I'm like, no, these have to go in a box.
And I reached out and I says, do you offer wholesale?
And she's like, well, I've never thought about it, but
that's you know, I would love to do that. So
she did it for me. I can't imagine how much
sewing she put into these. I mean, that's a lot
of work. I'm sure how many so for just so
(08:20):
that we're all trying to wrap her head around how
many boxes did that go into? How many boxes did
you ship that month? Just under fifty. So our company
just started out. We've only done that was our third box.
There's a lot for table runners and like for just
starting fifty boxes in your home or let's go back
to you have a store. I missed that part. Yes,
(08:41):
So I just have a friend of mine owns a
clothing store here in town, and she asked if I
would put some home decor in it. She has just
this small little area and I said absolutely, that would
be a little way, another way to bring in a
little bit of income. So that's where our company first started.
And then after that I was like, you know one
and is where it's that. I I love the online
(09:02):
I love having the store here and I'll keep it
here as long as we can. But I wanted to
make it bigger. That might be one of my downfalls.
Bigger is better. No, that is a good thing. To
want to make it bigger. It is a good thing.
I so yeah. So so after we had the store,
we decided to to go online and launch this boxing.
(09:23):
I thought it was kind of one of those things
that it could be a good idea. I think it
would be great to get. And then after our first
month we had we had only promoted the box the
first month for two weeks promoted just on Instagram. We
found some incredible bloggers that would help, you know, bring
in our bring in word and and spread the word
about the company. After they promoted it, it was like
(09:46):
this flood of people just coming and I was like,
I actually think this is gonna work. My long term
goal was to hit a hundred boxes, and I'm half
way better that goal. I know. I really thought, you know,
they say have a high standard, and I thought that
was high. And at this point, I'm like, wow, this
(10:07):
this is going to be a game changer. Well, by
the way, I totally forged to say this in the beginning,
but if you're you want to check out box home
decre you can do it on Instagram. It's at box
home decre or go to box home to core dot
com and you're totally gonna get sucked in. Because so
that's what happened to me. So we got to talk
about how we connected. So I get a message on
Instagram a few weeks ago and I think all you said,
(10:30):
let's see I have. The first message was, hey, we
are a home to court descript subscription box company. I'm
reaching out in hopes that you would review our box.
If this is something you might be interested in, please
let me know. Thanks for your time, literally, that's all
you said. And I click on your Instagram and this
is why it's so important and we see it and
we hate reading it. But having a branded Instagram that
(10:52):
goes with your flow and makes sense when you're a
company like yours really works. And I looked at it
and I was like, oh my god, this is like
like this company is awesome. Oh my god, I can
get box home too. Core look and it's a farm out.
This is so like I was hoocked immediately. That is
so happy. That makes me so happy. And that was like,
without actually looking into it, like looking at your profile page,
(11:14):
that's what I saw, and I was like, um, absolutely,
And then I start going to the questions of hey,
does this happen to be a side hustle? And I
asked you how did you find me? And you said,
I honestly don't even know. You were so deep in hashtags,
which right there is proof that using hashtags actually works.
When marketing, hashtags make the biggest difference. They have an
(11:36):
insight on your business page and it will go through
and tell you how many impressions you had on hashtags
and how many you know, just general impressions you had.
And it's unreal the difference that a hashtag can make
and for me to be able to connect with you
from the hashtag. I mean, this is a game Tiger
and saying, I'm also curious what I have to know,
(11:56):
Like what hashtag you possibly could have been searching that
I popped. It's like, I have no idea. Honestly, have
you ever got into Instagram and you you literally are
so far deep that when you get done, you're like
hit in the back button. It's like when you realize
how many oreos you just say, you the whole sleeve
(12:17):
has gone. You're like, how did I do that? It's
the same thing usually at the same time, Yeah, exactly.
You're right. You have no idea what just happened. You
don't remember the last two hours of your life, but
you're that far into Instagram? Was no oreos left? So true?
It's so true. I think what's really cool about this thing, though,
is when we send you the message. Most of the
(12:38):
time when I send bloggers are big companies messages. Not companies,
but big bloggers messages. I don't expect a response of
the time. It's kind of a shot in the dark.
When they do respond, it's like the happiness all over again. Well,
it's so smart for you. If you were to send
me a box to review, Like you said, a box
(12:58):
cost how much per month? Okay, so for you, it's
going to cost less than that because obviously you're selling
it at that rate to make money. So if you
send me a box, I review it, say twenty people
bought the box. That was unbelievably worth it for you,
So worth it for you, it's so smart. Bloggers are
a game changer. It's crazy, even if they're not bloggers,
(13:22):
just people who public figures, anyone who can just get
your name out. I want an honest review of the box.
And everyone I have sent this too has been so
amazing to hear. I love hearing the good about the company.
So often we hear the bad, you know, and and
so to hear that good is it makes it all worthwhile. No,
(13:44):
when you say that, has there ever been anyone that's like, hey,
I love what you're doing. But my recommendation is I
tweak this. Does anyone ever help you with that kind
of stuff where they're just like, I love it, don't
change anything. I actually most of the time they're like, oh,
I love it, but I like the honest truth. I
had a one of our bloggers reach out and she's like, hey,
when I got the box, it wasn't taped on the end.
(14:07):
She's like, I was worried that, you know, someone could
get into it really easy, and I thought it's just
was shipping. But that's such a great idea. You know,
it does connect really well, but you never know what's
going to happen. And just that little tippet advice, I
mean that helped our company a ton. I don't want
someone's box to go all over in the postal service.
(14:28):
That was great advice. So just little things like that,
they're they're so welcome. So you used to own a
clothing company. How what did you? Where did you get
the clothes? Tell me about that. I don't even know,
So I did I own a clothing company. It all
started because my daughter I had really bad complications with
the pregnancy and then she got hospitalized for pneumonia RSC.
(14:51):
Just a couple of weeks after she was born, and
it was horrible because she was born in October. So
we had met that deductible, but still had a lot
of bills, and then she was hospital lies on New
Year's even, so our deductible started over. Like what. So
we were in a lot of medical debt and I
had been shopping on a lot of daily deal sites
(15:12):
and I had seen what they had sold and the
amount of products they would move, and I thought, you know,
I think I can do this. And we've reached out
to a big company and asked them and they agreed
we had done I mean, we had done a lot
of work prior to this photo shoots, getting the product,
you know, all of that. When they agreed it was
it was unreal. We actually became one of their spokespersons.
(15:36):
We went up and soaked at their blogger convention. You're
talking about Jaine dot Com. Yes, Jane, Yeah, Jane dot
Com is awesome, especially when you're you're shopping for I
guess your basics, I like to say, and at affordable
prices and I love, love, love that website. So that's
who you reached out to about selling your clothes. Yes,
(15:56):
So Jane was unreal. They're actually based out of Utah.
Did I don't know that. Yeah, they're not too well,
not too far there, an hour and a half away
from us. But we raiched out to them and they
agreed when I went up and met with them. Because
I would go up and meet with them quite often,
I like to see what what they want from us,
you know, what we can give to them and what
(16:18):
vice versa. You know. We went up and met with
them and they asked us to be keynote speaker at
one of their bloggers conventions and so we got to
go and be a part of that. That was an
unreally experience. Anyways, back to the this company. We we
sold on Zu Lily. Our jewelry was one of the
top selling jewelry that Christmas. We we got an awesome
(16:41):
contract with them. It was it was really fun. The
problem came it was time. It all come down to time.
I had three girls at the time and my family
and it was just chaos. There was so much going
on and it got so big and I just couldn't
handle it anymore. I could see my family dynamic just
I mean, it was just going downhill. So I mentioned
(17:04):
to my husband one day, I'm like I just want
to sell this company. And he's like, sell it? And
I listed it and it's sold that night. How do
you we kind of I don't even listed it. Where
do you? How do you like? Is there a posh mark? Like?
How do you sell a clothing company? Right? That's the
funniest part. So a cousin of mine, she's she's owned
(17:25):
several businesses, her and her husband, and I was asking
her that they have sold and I asked her, how
do I sell this? And she's like, honestly listed on Facebook?
You would be shocked. No way. I mean, there's no
way I listed it. And I can't tell you how
many people were like I want to, I want to.
We sold it. I mean they got a killer dill.
(17:47):
We we gave it away basically, but I wanted that.
I wanted it gone. I didn't care what I sold
it for as long as it was gone. After we
had sold the company, I was like, I will never
ever have a company again in my life, Like never.
We are, right, But I think it was really important
to have that first company because I've seen what I
(18:08):
didn't like. We were shipping thousands of packages a week
and that takes a lot of time. So when I
can sip it once a month, that's where that all
came in. And plus, you know your deadlines. In this situation,
it's not someone ordering something expecting it five days later.
This is okay. You have to have your you know,
your order in by this day because we ship on
this day. And you can plan your life around that,
(18:30):
your vacations, your stuff with your kids, everything. Yes, when
I had the other company, we went to Mexico on
vacation and I remember sitting up doing customer service and
ordering in the hotel room and it's just awful. There
needs to be there needs to be a balance. It's
hard to find as a business owner because there's always
something you could do, but the balance is key. And
(18:51):
so with this one, I have that balance. The end
of the month is insane, for sure, but the rest
of the time it's pretty laid back. So you how
old are your daughters? What is the a raint? So
Macy is eleven, Brindley is a alias six, and my
baby Charlie just turned one. Oh my goodness. Okay, And
I was reading when you sent me over a little
(19:13):
description about box home decor. I love this. I didn't
even think about it they can literally help you box
the items they do, and that's been the best part
about this company. In fact, they asked me the other day, well,
what can we do to put in the box to
make money? Mom? And I'm like, I'm like, okay, here
we go. But we sat down and I'm like, I
(19:35):
will pay you. I will pay you to put product
in the box, but you have to come up with
a good idea. Will we come up with the idea
of putting just a little quote in the box. It's
just a little piece of paper, a cute little one
of our favorite quotes that month, and they can cut
that out. They can help design it. Obviously I face
the design right, but they cut it out. So when
(19:58):
you get this box and you see this little piece
of paper in it, that's from my girls, and they
so cute. They get a quarter for each box, but man,
that's up. I'm sure, yeah, so it. But it's been
fun to include them. They get excited and I want
just I want to share that with them. I as
(20:19):
a mom, I really want them to know their potential.
And whether it be business or they by stay at
home moms, I don't care. I just want them to
know their worth. It's so important to me. And just
by giving them something to work towards, you know, that
value of hard work to earn that quarter. I mean
that that to me is it's it's really neat to
(20:42):
watch with my girls. Well, you think about all this
stuff like when we were younger, what do we do
with our moms? You know, you bake, you shop, you
do things. It's no different in that sense. What's when
you're thinking about like time spent with your kids or
with your mom. But they are actually learning and earning
something from this and gaining so much from this experience.
It really is amazing. And when I was reading what
you wrote me, I was like, this is actually really cool.
(21:05):
How you can sit there with your daughters teach them
lessons that they're not going to learn in school, they're
not going to learn anywhere else. I'm sure they're way
ahead of their classmates just because you're running a business
like this from home that they literally have their hands in,
and it's it's such a wonderful thing. I was like,
I love that she's doing this. It's been so fun
to watch them. It gets me emotional just thinking about
(21:28):
you know, the other day we made the tea tail
ladders that go in the box. They obviously can't make
anything like that, but we brought in some wood and
we were all sitting around the table and they and
then they're little paints, so they were sitting there painting
while I was staying in assembling and just it is.
It's still that quality time where we are working. But
(21:48):
they think it's the coolest thing in the world. It
is I want to come over and do this with you.
Come over. No, it's it's me. They are that I
even forced for everything. So on this, I guess this
is like a mini side on the side of box.
Home decor. You also do custom books and not actual
(22:10):
books that you read, but it is a decoration, So
describe what they are because I'm going to do a
terrible job at it. I'm going to have you do it.
So they're basically just old books that we have cut
down and printed on them and you can print anything
you want. They're customizable, so you can do names, birth dates.
My girls. My six year old has just random letters
(22:31):
on her or wedding like if someone's getting married, their
wedding dates, yes, anything. We did one at Home Sweet Home.
We have a few that are there's Christmas stacks, there's
inspirational stacks. We did one that says be the good,
Oh holy night, I love to be the good. One
that it's the options are unlimited and we'll just we
take the books when we stack them up and wrap
(22:52):
them in some jew and some lace and then ship
them out. They're so cute. So those you can also
get on box home decore dot com or is there
another website. No, it's on that same website that there's
two different leaks. So one will lead you to the
subscription box and one says books and just click on
the books and you can you can view all the
ones that are available or customize your own. And if
(23:14):
you want to get your own books, you can use code.
Carla Murray Julie is doing a fifteen percent off code.
So that's amazing, So thank you. So yeah, go get
your books. I might have to. I'm gonna order a
side Hustlers one. That's so cool. I'll make my own
little studio. That would be amazing. We will send that
to you. Thank you. That's awesome. I just collected. I'm like,
oh my god, I can build my little studio just
(23:34):
off the stuff that you send in your box. That's
what I'm gonna Okay, I'm quite ahead of myself here.
Now you said something to me about going back to school.
Is that why you want to go back to school
and finish your degree? Or did you start your degree?
How that whole thing? You know? I did start a degree.
This is this is like the worst bad luck in
the world. So I started right after I graduated. I
(23:57):
went to school. I went to college. Right during finals,
I was hospitalized for pneumonia and I said, seven days
in hospital. So my grades were all s right. So
fast forward a few years. I had had my first
child and I decided schooling really is important to me.
I had my first child, I decided I'm going to
go back. I go back to school. The week of finals,
(24:18):
my brother was actually killed in an accident at work,
and I mean, I wasn't going back. You know, my
grades went to an F again. So I'm like, I
don't know if I dare go back to school at
this point. But that's something that's really important to me.
And why it's important is because I have three not three,
(24:39):
I have four girls that I want them to get
a degree, whether they use it long term or not.
I just want I want to show them it's possible.
I totally understand that, So I would. I would love
to go back to school. I'd love to get business degree.
I feel like there's so much I missed not having
that education behind me. You also, I mean, you're self
(25:02):
taught right now with your business, and then I'm sure
going back to school while you're running a business would
probably be super helpful for you both ways, in school
and with the business. I think so, I think it
would benefit Yeah, just like you said, both sides. It
can benefit the business by giving us ideas and in
different ways that we could make it progress and make
(25:22):
it better. The financial side of things, that accounting side,
oh man, that's not my four day. So it's any
any type of information that I could learn about that
would be so incredibly helpful, And it is a goal.
We'll we'll do it. We've got to get my husband
through school first, and then that's definitely something I'm going after.
(25:42):
How much longer will he be in school for He's
got almost two and a half years left. I know
it's gonna kill us all. But when you live in
a small town like we do, the opportunities just aren't there.
You know, there's very limited jobs. A lot of people
that live here actually can you up north for their job.
There's just very limited, limited careers here. So for him
(26:07):
to go back and and get this degree, it will
help us all out in the end. It's just just
get into that finished. Like, so when you sit to
your husband, I want to create a monthly subscription box
that's going to put decronate for people. I'm gonna send
it to them. What what did he say? You know
at this point, nothing show. I'm sure he's always been
(26:28):
so supportive. And when he listens to this, I hope
he puts his headphones on so he's listening to well,
he can, like better block out this one so he
doesn't get a big head. You know. But every time
when I first started my very first company and I
told him I think I can do this, his response was, yeah,
you know, you should do it. Go try it. He
later told me I was scared to death. He's like,
(26:51):
I thought for sure we were going bankrupt. But he's
never ever limited me or put restrictions or been just
a negative comment. And for that I appreciate that so much.
That support system is huge. So when you have all
of these boxes that you're shipping out and all these things.
Are they in your home or they're at the store.
(27:12):
So the store we just have a little space, so
we can't have them there. We've compte. I know it's
there at they are at home. They're at home in
our basement. Our basement is not finished, so we've kind
of set up shop there so when we go down
and like I said, painting and assembling the ladders and
the rest, it's all done in my home. It's I'm
just picturing because you're the boxes aren't small. They have
(27:34):
home before items and them. Yeah, they're a decent size
box and you've got, at this point fifty of them
sitting in your house, Like that's crazy. It's crazy. Honestly,
I did not realize it would take off like it did,
or I probably would have been searching for something, you know,
somewhere to put it. We'll keep it in the basement
as long as we can, but once it hits that
(27:55):
point of just taking over, I would love to get
us a warehouse and an expand there. What is the
because I know you have dates on the website about
when people can order what by or when that month
box ship so explain that and then how that plays
into your schedule with finding the items, boxing them, and
your day to day. You have to place the order
(28:16):
by you have from the first of the month to
buy this box. After that, the box is no longer available,
the items are gone forever, and you'll have to go
to the next month's box. The boxes sell out really fast.
We've always I've always added a ton thinking there's no
way they're going to sell out, and we've added even
(28:37):
more this month, so we're hoping. I don't want them
to sell out just for the sake of the customers.
I don't want someone to miss out, you know. So
so once they once they sell out or the deadline
day on, that's when we reach out to our vendors. Now,
like I said that, the lady who did our table
runner and the tea towel, they all knew that this
was the deadline, and I kept them in the loop
(28:59):
throughout the month. You know, Okay, this is how many
we've sold at this point, this is how many project
yourself for the rest of the month, Just so they
have an idea. So once I email them on they
and give them a grand total. They just have a
few days to put that all together and ship it
to me. I know, poor poor vendors, but they know
throughout the month, so that's also kind of helpful. Once
(29:21):
I get all the product. Yesterday and the day before,
we've been assembling these boxes non jobs. So they're all
shipped ready to go. They shipped last night, they'll and
they'll be out to our you know, the customers here
in a few days. So people are getting they're not
the Christmas box. Now which box? I'm so confused month.
(29:41):
It's confusing though, So we actually are a month ahead,
so we just shipped the November box on November one
because we want people to enjoy it all year long.
We figured with Thanksgiving they would want kitchen items, Okay,
got it. So that's why we include you know, the
table running, the tetawel, the tea towel ladder, and the
(30:02):
little breathe. We wanted them to be able to spruce
up their kitchen right before everyone came for the holidays. Smart.
So this month, starting today, will release the contents of
this box and what we call it the December box
because we are a month ahead, and that box will
ship December one, but we'll promote all month long, and
you'll be able to get on our Instagram and see
(30:24):
different ideas from our bloggers of how to style the product,
what's in the box, what their reviews are of this box.
So it kind of gives you an idea of how
to use it before you actually get the product, and
then you can make the assumption of if this box
is right for me or if it's not, we want
you to love it. That's so smart. I just realized
what you said about your showing what other bloggers do
(30:45):
on your Instagram, because one, you can only style it
so many ways in your own home, but to add
a variety to Instagram and other people's ideas is so
smart and just how they do it in their home,
no matter where they live, whether they have a house,
so they're in an apartment in the middle of the city,
like I am. Don't take any decor tips for me,
but I love that you. That's so smart that you
(31:07):
do that, get the boxes out to them and then
steal their ideas. Yes, and I think it helps the customers.
We had a girl up in Idaho. She was one
of our bloggers. She's a smaller blogger, but she's amazing.
Her name is everyday. Casey on Instagram she took our
teetol ladder and put out on her front porch. It
was the cutest thing in the world. I never would
(31:29):
have come up with that. So to have other people's
ideas come to life and to be able to see
their their posts, I really do feel like it helps
our customers as well as it's like wow, that that's
a really cool item. Do you have an Instagram schedule
when it comes to posting for you, because, like I said,
your Instagram. Check it out. It's at box home decor.
(31:50):
I love your just the aesthetic you have. So do
you sit there and say, okay, I need to plan
around when I'm posting, or you just do it as
it happens kind of a hell Mary type of and
we just we just post when when we get a
photo when we were tacked in a photo from a blogger,
you know, they all come in and we get to
see so we rearrange it to where it's a little
(32:11):
bit different. You know, we'll have this blogger all this time,
and then tomorrow will do another one, and then throughout
the month we'll post pictures of the box total. Because
sometimes it gets confusing, like well, what's actually in the box?
Why is that couch in the picture? It doesn't fit
in the box. So yeah, like we want to be
able to like rain you back in and be like, okay,
(32:33):
but this is an actual product. So we just kind
of go through our feet and when we feel like
we've posted a little too much about how to style it,
that's when we bring in another post about you know,
the box, what what actually you're getting. I like that
you do tell people what you're getting, because, yes, getting
a subscription box that you have no idea what's going
to be in there this month is fun. But also
sometimes it's like, well, that was just a waste of
(32:55):
my money because I don't need any of this stuff.
So month to month people can check out if they
want to buy it, or is there anything where they
can lock in for a year or a few months,
so they basically subscribe. If they decide that that month's
box just isn't for them, you can email us and
we can skip you to the next month, or we
can just cancel your subscription altogether, no questions asked. But
(33:17):
I don't want someone to be stuck with a box.
I just don't any money. I do too money is
tight for us. I don't want someone to get something
and be like, well, this was this was just a
waste of money. Again. I want them to actually love
it and look forward to how many pieces we can
fit into the next box. Well. I also feel when
that's your business model and I, as a customer come
(33:39):
and see, Okay, I have to I have to get
the whole year. I'm not ready for that commitment. I
feel like it doesn't help in the end, because that's
not how people are thinking anymore. We're like, I want
it now and then all of a side, and then
I'll go from them yes. And I want people to
have that option. I never want someone to be stuck
with our box. There's a lot of people that maybe
had that detail ladder, so why would you order another one?
(34:00):
You know, I don't want anyone to feel obligated. The
boxes are not returnable. Um, if you don't like a
product that's in it, you can read gift it options
like that, or just cancel for that month. You know,
make sure the box works for you. That's my priority.
I don't want someone to get something they don't like.
It actually is a great The whole box itself is
a great gift idea, especially for the holidays. If you're
(34:22):
going to someone's house for dinner or something, why not
bring this months you know, gift and or for the holidays.
It's it really is a cool gift idea, especially because
we all know that person or life who is obsessed
with home to court. So it is a great gift
because there's nothing like this out there, at least I
haven't seen it. Yours is the first for me. Well,
thank you, yes, I to me. I think again. Financially,
(34:46):
I can't afford to give somebody three months worth of
the box, but I could spread that over three months,
so you could go to them and be like, hey,
I got you a subscription box and it's for the
next three months. You're only charged those next three months.
You don't have to pay the lump sum up up front,
and it kind of it doesn't hurt. It doesn't sting
as bad come Christmas time and you know you have
(35:07):
all these expenses, or just give him one box, you
know what, It really doesn't matter. Just I love packages.
It is our motto on our website is it says,
it's like Christmas every single month, and it is like,
as an adult, you don't really get Christmas. I mean,
I guess I my husband, he doesn't really buy my
(35:28):
Christmas presents. I go buy them and wrap them myself
and tell him what I buck. So so for me
to get a box every month, it's exciting. It's mine.
I don't have to share. I'm I see like the
glimmer in your eyes, and I totally get it, because
that's like what it's me with Amazon. I never know
what I order. It's actually a surprise every time it
(35:49):
gets here. But with something like this, you know, you
can see it on Instagram, you can see it on
your website. But when you finally get that box, it's
got to be super exciting for people, like, oh, let
me actually see these products in real life. You see
what the blockers have done all month long. You see,
You've got to be in your head processing like, oh,
this is gonna be perfect mantles, this is going to
(36:09):
be perfect outside. You know, there's all these different options
that you have, and so when you finally get it,
it's it is like Christmas, like go redecorate your house.
Go you know, just rearranging things in your home makes
a huge difference. So just having those few little pieces
you're rearranging your home every single month. I love, I'm
obsessed with all of this. And when did you decide
to launch the books and the custom books? How did
(36:32):
that whole things start so crazy? In our September box,
we actually did a stack of vintage books, where we
just got a stack of old books and we tied
them with the street. The idea came, well to customize them.
Everything is customized these days, and why not have home
to court that's customized too. I mean, you can get pillows,
you can get blankets, you can get a lot of
different things. But a stack of books that just sit
(36:54):
on your mantle or your nightstand anywhere in your home
that just have whatever saying you want on them, that
was really cool. So I reached out to a really
good friend of mine. She's kind of been a really
good driving force behind this company, always supportive, and I
asked her, Hey, would you want to be a part
of this and she said absolutely, So she does a
(37:14):
lot of the printing on the books. The subscription has
us crazy busy as it is, so to reach out
and have her do this. She was staying at home
mom and she just needed a little income on the side.
So it works for her too, and you can partner together.
It's and it's not like she has to do everything
on her own. She still gets to do what she loves,
(37:36):
makes money off of it, and work with you. That's
really cool. Yes, and she it's been good. It's it's
always good to have someone else. It's it's invested as
you are in the company to give you that good,
solid advice that's not just oh yeah, this is lovely,
Like I really like him. Yes you do to be like,
oh that was bad. That don't do that, you know.
(37:59):
So I for having her and as my right hand man.
So something I ask everyone is an app that they
use that is not Instagram, because I know you're good
at using Instagram, So is there another app that is
your go to? I have a couple. I feel like
downtime is so important. I am a killer, awesome card
game player. I love games. So I have a Sequence
(38:19):
I don't know if you ever played that game. It's
the funniest game ever. So I have a Sequence app
and I just get on there and it's basically just
to like not have thought. My biggest weakness is my
brain doesn't shut off. There's no offpun and sometimes I
need to go back from working to being with my
kids and that transition, you know, as you're walking them
down the hall and they're talking to you, and but
(38:40):
you're still thinking about other things. Like you just have
to decompress your brain. And so I'll get on and
I'll play sequence or Solitaire and just to let my
mind relax. I know a lot of people who play
games just so like like you're saying, literally not think
of anything. It's just got to be the point where
you know, Okay, I need to stop playing this game now.
I just wasted an hour. But yeah, it's true. It
(39:02):
does help you decompress and just to just to kind
of bring you back to reality. I think when when
you get in the business mode and the work mode,
it's NonStop. You know, you could work from SunUp to
sun down and and not even blinking eye. So to
be able to just be like, okay, I've got to stop,
as stupid as it sounds, just to play a little
game to go back to reality, It's it's key for me.
(39:25):
What other apps do you recommend? You said, he got
a bunch, so I'll give him all. So the only
other one that I was thinking of is I have
a sound machine app because of my little girl. So
when she goes to sleep and I go to work
at my computer in my bedroom, I have to turn
the app on so that it doesn't wake her up,
so I can print the labels or print things off
or you know. So it sounds so stupid, but that
(39:47):
those are the two apps that are basically used the
most on my phone because I need to drown out
my sounds so that she can sleep. That's do you
know what it's called the machine one or just probably
I think it's just white noise or something that's too funny.
I even think that's great. Those are great app suggestions
that no one's ever said before something do. Yeah, they're
(40:10):
probably random, but they worked really well for me. Your
logo is super simple, but I really do love it.
Is that something you made or do you know someone
who does logos? How did that whole thing come about? Yeah?
So our store isn't called box home decre obviously, I
mean we don't have it's not going to be called that.
So when I decided to launch the website, I the
(40:31):
girl that owns the clothing company. She does a lot
of graphic designs, hair and there. She's a really good
at photoshop. So I went to and I was like, look,
I need a logo like yesterday. What can we do?
It's got to be something that's catchy. I'm not quite
a hundred percent share of the company name. So we
sat there and she had a pencil and we kind
of just were sketching things out, and I said, I
(40:53):
really like the idea of box home decre because you
know exactly what you're getting. It's not like a questionable
what exactly is this? Like? It can't get more supable
than that. And so when we were sitting there, she's like, well,
we should put a house in it, and I'm like absolutely,
So we do the house. And then because you get
(41:13):
a gift, the o in box is a little gift
and it just clicked. It came together really quickly, and
she's very good at designing things like that, and and
bailed me out in a tough spots super hug. That's
why it's something that did pop out to me. I'm like,
this is simple and I really like it, and good
job telling thank you, good job. So I will let's
(41:36):
hear your day to day. You wake up, bring the
kids to school, that's what you did so far today.
So now what happens? So basically, every day I take
my older to go to school. My six year old
doesn't go to school and tell noon, so I have
that morning time with her and my baby. Once noon hit,
you know, she's off to school and my baby usually
goes down for a nap at that time I go
(41:56):
to work. So she'll sleep from about noon to two.
This is on a good day. I'm not saying this
happened every day, but when she decides to take a
good nap, it's about from noon to two, so that
gives me two solid hours. My kids are still pretty
young and I need my time that that's a must
for me. So I put them in their bed about
seven thirty eight o'clock at night. So when after after
(42:19):
two o'clock, you know, they'll get home about two thirty
and we have I mean we've run to cheer and
Violin and I mean everywhere you can think of we
run to. And so after that, what's eight o'clock hit, Um,
they're in bed, and that gives me time to work
from about eight o'clock to midnight. There are some days
that I have to shut my family out not in
(42:40):
a rude way, but be like, I have got to
get this done. And then there are days that we
just shut everything off and we're like, you know what,
it's it's time to go with the family today every day, berries,
But I try to work around their schedule. So where's
are your six year old? And you're almost one year
old right now? You know what? My husband actually miraculously
come home last night from out of town, and so
(43:01):
I'm like, you have to take them, I mean, get
them out of here, because they don't know they have
no quiet mode. Of course that's I'm like, where did
they go? Right now? I can't hear them. I did
not lock him in the basement, I promise, but I'll
be back later, guys, one day. I can't wait for that. So, yeah,
(43:23):
he took him out. I told him he couldn't come
back and tell I texting because I'll come back and screaming.
You know, I'll excited about what they did. I'm sure
with a bunch of sugar presence whatever, all the things
to keep them quiet for him, not so much for you. Yeah,
by the way, when did you launch? Like, what was
your official launch date of Box Home to Core? So
our first box was the September Box, and of this
(43:44):
year stop it yeah, like just barely. I mean, it's
a that's what I mean for us to be at fifty.
To me, it blows my mind. I can't quite wrap
my head around it just yet. I'm grateful and be
on grateful for everyone and the support we've got. But yeah,
it started in September. That was our first box when
we started promoting at the middle of August, so I mean,
(44:06):
it wasn't even like a full month. And but again
going back, I don't like to wait for things. I
wasn't going to wait two more weeks for the next
month to start, like I was going to start right
then because that's when I wanted to start. I didn't
realize it because you keep seeing the September Box. I
wasn't really thinking, like, it's only November right now when
we're recording this. So good for you, this is so cool.
(44:28):
I can't wait to see all the amazing things that
come of this. Thank you. I can't either. I I
just can't wait. I feel is going to put you
in favorite things maybe next year, maybe not this year,
but maybe next year. I feel like she should she
totally should I'm telling you something big is going to happen.
I can feel it, and I'm excited. I am so
excited just being able, you know, to to launch this
(44:50):
company and and help my family out. That's the most
important thing for me. I don't want my husband to
come out of school and s b in so much debt.
I want it to be a really big just a
big help for the for the family, not just financially,
but for my girls too. It is it's it's amazing
for them here you talk about what they do with you.
(45:11):
It's it's cool for me. You're really loving that you
get this time with them, and you know one day
they're gonna be like, my mom did this thing. And
it's by the way, everyone probably knows what it is
at that point because it's going to be huge, but
they're going to have these moments that they're not going
to forget with you. So it's an all around amazing
thing that you've created. I think so I think the
family time to be able to find something that can
(45:34):
combine into both both family time and your work time
and make it cohesively work together and grow to help
the girls develop those skills of how important family time
is because obviously that's more important than any company ever
will be. But to have to be able to do both,
you know, hopefully they can take over this company one
day and it's big enough that that's that's what they
(45:54):
can go to school for. So you're right, it's awesome.
I'm excited for you. It'll be huge, even huger than
it is right now. So go go help Julia. Check
out what she's doing. It's amazing. It's Box Home decre
dot Com, Boxed Home Decor on Instagram. And if you
buy the custom books, use code Carla Marie so you
can get off. Julie. Thank you very much. I know
(46:15):
your schedule is crazy and I did not make it
easy planning this, so thank you very much. Thank you
for having us. I truly appreciate it. Thank you so
so much for your time today. I appreciate you very much.
I appreciate you being here, taking time out of your
day to spend with me. You can listen to any
episode of Side Hustlers, doesn't have to be in any order,
if you can jump around however you want. If you
(46:37):
can rate and review this podcast, that would be super awesome,
whether you're on iTunes or or Google Podcasts or I
Heart Radio, and of course subscribe or follow so you
never miss an episode. See you next week.
Welcome to Side Hustlers. If this is your first episode, Hi,
my name is Carla Murray. I'm the host of Side
Hustlers and today is episode number thirty one. We are
talking to Julie Reese. She's the creator of Boxed Home Decor,
a monthly subscription service of home decor items with a
farmhouse feel. You're totally going to freak out and be
(00:20):
obsessed with everything of Box Home Decor. Julie is a
mom of four who started her side hustle because our
husband went back to school. Box Home Decor is more
than a side hustle now for Julie, it's turned into
an incredible bonding time with her daughters. And in this episode,
she's got a promo code for you. So here we go.
For a lot of people, you know, why are you
(00:42):
when you know what you want to do and this
is what you want to do it. I'm a hustle
side side hustle do it. I'm a hustle h do it.
I'm a hustle side. I'm a hustles side slow. I'm
a hustle side side hustlow. Come on, ask about yo, yo.
(01:02):
It's the side Hustless podcast. We call the roof. So
this week's guest is Julie. Hi, Julie, Hello, good morning.
Well it is morning right now, and we're recording this
no idea when anyone is listening. But you are coming
to us from Utah. We're smack dab in the middle
of Utah, the middle of you. Was gonna say, how
far are you from Salt Lake City. It's about a
two hour drive. Okay, all right, So you said you
(01:23):
live in a town with one stoplight. It does. It
has one stoplight. Okay, So let's get into boxed home decor.
This is your side hustle. You're a mom of four girls, which,
oh my goodness, is craziness. I'm sure it's pure craziness.
I have no idea what I'm doing, but it works.
I don't know that anyone does. So why did you
(01:46):
launch box home to car? I guess let's start there
with the y. So basically, my husband he was working
in a coal mine. Um, he's been there for fifteen
years and decided it's about time to get out. The
industry's questionable at times, and we on into better ourselves.
So he decided to go back to school to become alignman.
When he went. It put us in a financial situation.
(02:08):
We essentially have two house payments because he works away
from home and then we're here, so we needed another income.
I knew business previously. I owned a previous company. I
knew that the best way to make that extra income
without working outside of my home too much was to
start another company. So you said, I really love home decore.
(02:28):
Let me put it in a box and send it
to everyone. Yes. I like the idea of being in
a box. I don't have to worry about all the
products on a website. It's one single box every month.
I think customers like it because if you're in a
rural area like me, I can't go to a Target
to get products. I can't go. I can't go anywhere.
(02:49):
I either shop online or I drive two hours. She's
you know what, Okay, I need to tell you. They're
literally building a Target as we speak, next to my apartment.
I mean literally, the door to Target will be like
ten ft away from the door to my apartment building.
I wish that it was two hours away because there
goes all my money. So you're lucky. There is truth
(03:14):
to that. But when you said target, it actually doesn't
remind me, I'm trying to figure out the best way
to describe box home Decore or why you would want
to subscribe. And I looked at it, I was like,
there's so many times where I go to the home
decore section of Target and I'm like, I wanted all,
I wanted all. I don't know, I don't know. I
wish someone would just like tell me what I need.
And you kind of take that part of I'm gonna
(03:37):
pick the cutest things that I'm sure you love and
you're gonna send them to people, and it takes the
guessing game out for the rest of us of what
should I do? What should I do? And it opens
our minds up to new things that we normally wouldn't buy. Absolutely,
our style is more of a farmhouse phil And if
you notice, like the bloggers, they always seem to have
their houses just loaded with stuff I don't. I don't either. Honestly,
(03:59):
my kids would story at all. Yeah, my cats will
destroy at all. I totally get it. So my purpose is,
and the whole point to this box is to give
you little pieces that you can build upon throughout the year.
It's not a big chunk of money that you have
to go out and spend, but it will just build
that throughout your home. The last month's box had a
blanket in it and the books, and this month has
(04:22):
stuff for your kitchen, the tea tawel ladder and the
the tea towel. And so we want to just compile everything.
You don't have to go searching. You don't have to
spend hours at a store deciding what to buy. So stressful,
right and for me as a mom, taken four kids
into a store. Is that's true? I'm sure you're sitting
(04:43):
you think about all the money you're saving by not
taking your kids to a store where they want you
to buy everything. Oh look, guys, that just showed up,
and this is all you're getting, true, right, So not
that I might get to my car and they've added
stuff that I didn't even know I was by say exactly,
you're saving for moms right there. So your full time
job is working for the school district in your area,
(05:05):
what are those hours? Like those hours I can go in.
It's not my own time, so I get to pick
my hours. I do have a baby at home, and
so I work around her schedule as much as possible.
I also get to work from home for the school district.
So when she goes down for and now that's when
I work the most amazing. It's worked well. It is
a little extra, you know, that's another job on top
(05:27):
of this. It makes a little bit of a chaos,
but managing time and family, you know, it's it's part
of the part of the industry. So once a month
you release these boxes. What is that process like? Just
walk us through everything of picking what goes in it,
order it, where do you order it from, how do
you pack it? And all of that. Oh man, it's
(05:47):
a definite one. It is. I want the boxes to
be worth the value. I don't want someone to get
the box and think, wow, I this this wasn't worth
the value of what I spent. That is my main priority.
So basically we start and last month we did a
kitchen themed box. I like to go kind of room
by room and a lot of the products you can
(06:08):
use in different rooms. They don't necessarily have to be,
you know, a specific room, but that that's kind of
how my mind works. So I find a spot in
the room and that's what we're going to focus on.
This next month's box is a little bit more Christmas
themed that has a cute little breathed. It's just stocked
full of just some fun Christmas items. The goal was
to help create that mantle you know when you have
(06:29):
a match for Christmas, it just makes you feel all
warm and funny. Well, it's smart to pick a part
of the house and go from there because otherwise, like
me at Target, you're going to have one dish towel,
one pillow for your bedroom, throw something that makes no
sense and you're right, Then you just have all this
random stuff. But when you focus on one part of
(06:50):
the house, I'm sure it really helps you also and
helps people who want to buy it. Yes, the best
advice I ever received was when you start decorating, pick
one wall and shop for at one space. Because when
you go to the store and you end up with
all these randoms, you're like, what do I do with
all of you? I know, hence my apartment right now,
it's what it looks like, So save me. When you
(07:13):
pick your spot of the house or home, whatever you're
working for. And then where do you get these products from?
Do you order in bulk? How do you narrow it down?
Do you sample some? We do sample a lot. We
have some vendors that that offer wholesale. There's a lot
of vendors out there that that do home decre We've
went to the shows in Vegas. They're they're just stocked
with home decre My goal as this company is to
(07:36):
find those small businesses and work with them. Our last
box had a tea tail ladder, and the table runner
and a wreath. Those all come from small business. It's amazing.
It was amazing, and it's amazing to meet these people.
The lady that did our table runner, she she reached
out to me and she had been to our store
here in Mount Pleasant. She was saying how cute it
(07:58):
was and that she made these, and I said, well,
let's put some in the store. And when I got him,
I'm like, no, these have to go in a box.
And I reached out and I says, do you offer wholesale?
And she's like, well, I've never thought about it, but
that's you know, I would love to do that. So
she did it for me. I can't imagine how much
sewing she put into these. I mean, that's a lot
of work. I'm sure how many so for just so
(08:20):
that we're all trying to wrap her head around how
many boxes did that go into? How many boxes did
you ship that month? Just under fifty. So our company
just started out. We've only done that was our third box.
There's a lot for table runners and like for just
starting fifty boxes in your home or let's go back
to you have a store. I missed that part. Yes,
(08:41):
So I just have a friend of mine owns a
clothing store here in town, and she asked if I
would put some home decor in it. She has just
this small little area and I said absolutely, that would
be a little way, another way to bring in a
little bit of income. So that's where our company first started.
And then after that I was like, you know one
and is where it's that. I I love the online
(09:02):
I love having the store here and I'll keep it
here as long as we can. But I wanted to
make it bigger. That might be one of my downfalls.
Bigger is better. No, that is a good thing. To
want to make it bigger. It is a good thing.
I so yeah. So so after we had the store,
we decided to to go online and launch this boxing.
(09:23):
I thought it was kind of one of those things
that it could be a good idea. I think it
would be great to get. And then after our first
month we had we had only promoted the box the
first month for two weeks promoted just on Instagram. We
found some incredible bloggers that would help, you know, bring
in our bring in word and and spread the word
about the company. After they promoted it, it was like
(09:46):
this flood of people just coming and I was like,
I actually think this is gonna work. My long term
goal was to hit a hundred boxes, and I'm half
way better that goal. I know. I really thought, you know,
they say have a high standard, and I thought that
was high. And at this point, I'm like, wow, this
(10:07):
this is going to be a game changer. Well, by
the way, I totally forged to say this in the beginning,
but if you're you want to check out box home
decre you can do it on Instagram. It's at box
home decre or go to box home to core dot
com and you're totally gonna get sucked in. Because so
that's what happened to me. So we got to talk
about how we connected. So I get a message on
Instagram a few weeks ago and I think all you said,
(10:30):
let's see I have. The first message was, hey, we
are a home to court descript subscription box company. I'm
reaching out in hopes that you would review our box.
If this is something you might be interested in, please
let me know. Thanks for your time, literally, that's all
you said. And I click on your Instagram and this
is why it's so important and we see it and
we hate reading it. But having a branded Instagram that
(10:52):
goes with your flow and makes sense when you're a
company like yours really works. And I looked at it
and I was like, oh my god, this is like
like this company is awesome. Oh my god, I can
get box home too. Core look and it's a farm out.
This is so like I was hoocked immediately. That is
so happy. That makes me so happy. And that was like,
without actually looking into it, like looking at your profile page,
(11:14):
that's what I saw, and I was like, um, absolutely,
And then I start going to the questions of hey,
does this happen to be a side hustle? And I
asked you how did you find me? And you said,
I honestly don't even know. You were so deep in hashtags,
which right there is proof that using hashtags actually works.
When marketing, hashtags make the biggest difference. They have an
(11:36):
insight on your business page and it will go through
and tell you how many impressions you had on hashtags
and how many you know, just general impressions you had.
And it's unreal the difference that a hashtag can make
and for me to be able to connect with you
from the hashtag. I mean, this is a game Tiger
and saying, I'm also curious what I have to know,
(11:56):
Like what hashtag you possibly could have been searching that
I popped. It's like, I have no idea. Honestly, have
you ever got into Instagram and you you literally are
so far deep that when you get done, you're like
hit in the back button. It's like when you realize
how many oreos you just say, you the whole sleeve
(12:17):
has gone. You're like, how did I do that? It's
the same thing usually at the same time, Yeah, exactly.
You're right. You have no idea what just happened. You
don't remember the last two hours of your life, but
you're that far into Instagram? Was no oreos left? So true?
It's so true. I think what's really cool about this thing, though,
is when we send you the message. Most of the
(12:38):
time when I send bloggers are big companies messages. Not companies,
but big bloggers messages. I don't expect a response of
the time. It's kind of a shot in the dark.
When they do respond, it's like the happiness all over again. Well,
it's so smart for you. If you were to send
me a box to review, Like you said, a box
(12:58):
cost how much per month? Okay, so for you, it's
going to cost less than that because obviously you're selling
it at that rate to make money. So if you
send me a box, I review it, say twenty people
bought the box. That was unbelievably worth it for you,
So worth it for you, it's so smart. Bloggers are
a game changer. It's crazy, even if they're not bloggers,
(13:22):
just people who public figures, anyone who can just get
your name out. I want an honest review of the box.
And everyone I have sent this too has been so
amazing to hear. I love hearing the good about the company.
So often we hear the bad, you know, and and
so to hear that good is it makes it all worthwhile. No,
(13:44):
when you say that, has there ever been anyone that's like, hey,
I love what you're doing. But my recommendation is I
tweak this. Does anyone ever help you with that kind
of stuff where they're just like, I love it, don't
change anything. I actually most of the time they're like, oh,
I love it, but I like the honest truth. I
had a one of our bloggers reach out and she's like, hey,
when I got the box, it wasn't taped on the end.
(14:07):
She's like, I was worried that, you know, someone could
get into it really easy, and I thought it's just
was shipping. But that's such a great idea. You know,
it does connect really well, but you never know what's
going to happen. And just that little tippet advice, I
mean that helped our company a ton. I don't want
someone's box to go all over in the postal service.
(14:28):
That was great advice. So just little things like that,
they're they're so welcome. So you used to own a
clothing company. How what did you? Where did you get
the clothes? Tell me about that. I don't even know,
So I did I own a clothing company. It all
started because my daughter I had really bad complications with
the pregnancy and then she got hospitalized for pneumonia RSC.
(14:51):
Just a couple of weeks after she was born, and
it was horrible because she was born in October. So
we had met that deductible, but still had a lot
of bills, and then she was hospital lies on New
Year's even, so our deductible started over. Like what. So
we were in a lot of medical debt and I
had been shopping on a lot of daily deal sites
(15:12):
and I had seen what they had sold and the
amount of products they would move, and I thought, you know,
I think I can do this. And we've reached out
to a big company and asked them and they agreed
we had done I mean, we had done a lot
of work prior to this photo shoots, getting the product,
you know, all of that. When they agreed it was
it was unreal. We actually became one of their spokespersons.
(15:36):
We went up and soaked at their blogger convention. You're
talking about Jaine dot Com. Yes, Jane, Yeah, Jane dot
Com is awesome, especially when you're you're shopping for I
guess your basics, I like to say, and at affordable
prices and I love, love, love that website. So that's
who you reached out to about selling your clothes. Yes,
(15:56):
So Jane was unreal. They're actually based out of Utah.
Did I don't know that. Yeah, they're not too well,
not too far there, an hour and a half away
from us. But we raiched out to them and they
agreed when I went up and met with them. Because
I would go up and meet with them quite often,
I like to see what what they want from us,
you know, what we can give to them and what
(16:18):
vice versa. You know. We went up and met with
them and they asked us to be keynote speaker at
one of their bloggers conventions and so we got to
go and be a part of that. That was an
unreally experience. Anyways, back to the this company. We we
sold on Zu Lily. Our jewelry was one of the
top selling jewelry that Christmas. We we got an awesome
(16:41):
contract with them. It was it was really fun. The
problem came it was time. It all come down to time.
I had three girls at the time and my family
and it was just chaos. There was so much going
on and it got so big and I just couldn't
handle it anymore. I could see my family dynamic just
I mean, it was just going downhill. So I mentioned
(17:04):
to my husband one day, I'm like I just want
to sell this company. And he's like, sell it? And
I listed it and it's sold that night. How do
you we kind of I don't even listed it. Where
do you? How do you like? Is there a posh mark? Like?
How do you sell a clothing company? Right? That's the
funniest part. So a cousin of mine, she's she's owned
(17:25):
several businesses, her and her husband, and I was asking
her that they have sold and I asked her, how
do I sell this? And she's like, honestly listed on Facebook?
You would be shocked. No way. I mean, there's no
way I listed it. And I can't tell you how
many people were like I want to, I want to.
We sold it. I mean they got a killer dill.
(17:47):
We we gave it away basically, but I wanted that.
I wanted it gone. I didn't care what I sold
it for as long as it was gone. After we
had sold the company, I was like, I will never
ever have a company again in my life, Like never.
We are, right, But I think it was really important
to have that first company because I've seen what I
(18:08):
didn't like. We were shipping thousands of packages a week
and that takes a lot of time. So when I
can sip it once a month, that's where that all
came in. And plus, you know your deadlines. In this situation,
it's not someone ordering something expecting it five days later.
This is okay. You have to have your you know,
your order in by this day because we ship on
this day. And you can plan your life around that,
(18:30):
your vacations, your stuff with your kids, everything. Yes, when
I had the other company, we went to Mexico on
vacation and I remember sitting up doing customer service and
ordering in the hotel room and it's just awful. There
needs to be there needs to be a balance. It's
hard to find as a business owner because there's always
something you could do, but the balance is key. And
(18:51):
so with this one, I have that balance. The end
of the month is insane, for sure, but the rest
of the time it's pretty laid back. So you how
old are your daughters? What is the a raint? So
Macy is eleven, Brindley is a alias six, and my
baby Charlie just turned one. Oh my goodness. Okay, And
I was reading when you sent me over a little
(19:13):
description about box home decor. I love this. I didn't
even think about it they can literally help you box
the items they do, and that's been the best part
about this company. In fact, they asked me the other day, well,
what can we do to put in the box to
make money? Mom? And I'm like, I'm like, okay, here
we go. But we sat down and I'm like, I
(19:35):
will pay you. I will pay you to put product
in the box, but you have to come up with
a good idea. Will we come up with the idea
of putting just a little quote in the box. It's
just a little piece of paper, a cute little one
of our favorite quotes that month, and they can cut
that out. They can help design it. Obviously I face
the design right, but they cut it out. So when
(19:58):
you get this box and you see this little piece
of paper in it, that's from my girls, and they
so cute. They get a quarter for each box, but man,
that's up. I'm sure, yeah, so it. But it's been
fun to include them. They get excited and I want
just I want to share that with them. I as
(20:19):
a mom, I really want them to know their potential.
And whether it be business or they by stay at
home moms, I don't care. I just want them to
know their worth. It's so important to me. And just
by giving them something to work towards, you know, that
value of hard work to earn that quarter. I mean
that that to me is it's it's really neat to
(20:42):
watch with my girls. Well, you think about all this
stuff like when we were younger, what do we do
with our moms? You know, you bake, you shop, you
do things. It's no different in that sense. What's when
you're thinking about like time spent with your kids or
with your mom. But they are actually learning and earning
something from this and gaining so much from this experience.
It really is amazing. And when I was reading what
you wrote me, I was like, this is actually really cool.
(21:05):
How you can sit there with your daughters teach them
lessons that they're not going to learn in school, they're
not going to learn anywhere else. I'm sure they're way
ahead of their classmates just because you're running a business
like this from home that they literally have their hands in,
and it's it's such a wonderful thing. I was like,
I love that she's doing this. It's been so fun
to watch them. It gets me emotional just thinking about
(21:28):
you know, the other day we made the tea tail
ladders that go in the box. They obviously can't make
anything like that, but we brought in some wood and
we were all sitting around the table and they and
then they're little paints, so they were sitting there painting
while I was staying in assembling and just it is.
It's still that quality time where we are working. But
(21:48):
they think it's the coolest thing in the world. It
is I want to come over and do this with you.
Come over. No, it's it's me. They are that I
even forced for everything. So on this, I guess this
is like a mini side on the side of box.
Home decor. You also do custom books and not actual
(22:10):
books that you read, but it is a decoration, So
describe what they are because I'm going to do a
terrible job at it. I'm going to have you do it.
So they're basically just old books that we have cut
down and printed on them and you can print anything
you want. They're customizable, so you can do names, birth dates.
My girls. My six year old has just random letters
(22:31):
on her or wedding like if someone's getting married, their
wedding dates, yes, anything. We did one at Home Sweet Home.
We have a few that are there's Christmas stacks, there's
inspirational stacks. We did one that says be the good,
Oh holy night, I love to be the good. One
that it's the options are unlimited and we'll just we
take the books when we stack them up and wrap
(22:52):
them in some jew and some lace and then ship
them out. They're so cute. So those you can also
get on box home decore dot com or is there
another website. No, it's on that same website that there's
two different leaks. So one will lead you to the
subscription box and one says books and just click on
the books and you can you can view all the
ones that are available or customize your own. And if
(23:14):
you want to get your own books, you can use code.
Carla Murray Julie is doing a fifteen percent off code.
So that's amazing, So thank you. So yeah, go get
your books. I might have to. I'm gonna order a
side Hustlers one. That's so cool. I'll make my own
little studio. That would be amazing. We will send that
to you. Thank you. That's awesome. I just collected. I'm like,
oh my god, I can build my little studio just
(23:34):
off the stuff that you send in your box. That's
what I'm gonna Okay, I'm quite ahead of myself here.
Now you said something to me about going back to school.
Is that why you want to go back to school
and finish your degree? Or did you start your degree?
How that whole thing? You know? I did start a degree.
This is this is like the worst bad luck in
the world. So I started right after I graduated. I
(23:57):
went to school. I went to college. Right during finals,
I was hospitalized for pneumonia and I said, seven days
in hospital. So my grades were all s right. So
fast forward a few years. I had had my first
child and I decided schooling really is important to me.
I had my first child, I decided I'm going to
go back. I go back to school. The week of finals,
(24:18):
my brother was actually killed in an accident at work,
and I mean, I wasn't going back. You know, my
grades went to an F again. So I'm like, I
don't know if I dare go back to school at
this point. But that's something that's really important to me.
And why it's important is because I have three not three,
(24:39):
I have four girls that I want them to get
a degree, whether they use it long term or not.
I just want I want to show them it's possible.
I totally understand that, So I would. I would love
to go back to school. I'd love to get business degree.
I feel like there's so much I missed not having
that education behind me. You also, I mean, you're self
(25:02):
taught right now with your business, and then I'm sure
going back to school while you're running a business would
probably be super helpful for you both ways, in school
and with the business. I think so, I think it
would benefit Yeah, just like you said, both sides. It
can benefit the business by giving us ideas and in
different ways that we could make it progress and make
(25:22):
it better. The financial side of things, that accounting side,
oh man, that's not my four day. So it's any
any type of information that I could learn about that
would be so incredibly helpful, And it is a goal.
We'll we'll do it. We've got to get my husband
through school first, and then that's definitely something I'm going after.
(25:42):
How much longer will he be in school for He's
got almost two and a half years left. I know
it's gonna kill us all. But when you live in
a small town like we do, the opportunities just aren't there.
You know, there's very limited jobs. A lot of people
that live here actually can you up north for their job.
There's just very limited, limited careers here. So for him
(26:07):
to go back and and get this degree, it will
help us all out in the end. It's just just
get into that finished. Like, so when you sit to
your husband, I want to create a monthly subscription box
that's going to put decronate for people. I'm gonna send
it to them. What what did he say? You know
at this point, nothing show. I'm sure he's always been
(26:28):
so supportive. And when he listens to this, I hope
he puts his headphones on so he's listening to well,
he can, like better block out this one so he
doesn't get a big head. You know. But every time
when I first started my very first company and I
told him I think I can do this, his response was, yeah,
you know, you should do it. Go try it. He
later told me I was scared to death. He's like,
(26:51):
I thought for sure we were going bankrupt. But he's
never ever limited me or put restrictions or been just
a negative comment. And for that I appreciate that so much.
That support system is huge. So when you have all
of these boxes that you're shipping out and all these things.
Are they in your home or they're at the store.
(27:12):
So the store we just have a little space, so
we can't have them there. We've compte. I know it's
there at they are at home. They're at home in
our basement. Our basement is not finished, so we've kind
of set up shop there so when we go down
and like I said, painting and assembling the ladders and
the rest, it's all done in my home. It's I'm
just picturing because you're the boxes aren't small. They have
(27:34):
home before items and them. Yeah, they're a decent size
box and you've got, at this point fifty of them
sitting in your house, Like that's crazy. It's crazy. Honestly,
I did not realize it would take off like it did,
or I probably would have been searching for something, you know,
somewhere to put it. We'll keep it in the basement
as long as we can, but once it hits that
(27:55):
point of just taking over, I would love to get
us a warehouse and an expand there. What is the
because I know you have dates on the website about
when people can order what by or when that month
box ship so explain that and then how that plays
into your schedule with finding the items, boxing them, and
your day to day. You have to place the order
(28:16):
by you have from the first of the month to
buy this box. After that, the box is no longer available,
the items are gone forever, and you'll have to go
to the next month's box. The boxes sell out really fast.
We've always I've always added a ton thinking there's no
way they're going to sell out, and we've added even
(28:37):
more this month, so we're hoping. I don't want them
to sell out just for the sake of the customers.
I don't want someone to miss out, you know. So
so once they once they sell out or the deadline
day on, that's when we reach out to our vendors. Now,
like I said that, the lady who did our table
runner and the tea towel, they all knew that this
was the deadline, and I kept them in the loop
(28:59):
throughout the month. You know, Okay, this is how many
we've sold at this point, this is how many project
yourself for the rest of the month, Just so they
have an idea. So once I email them on they
and give them a grand total. They just have a
few days to put that all together and ship it
to me. I know, poor poor vendors, but they know
throughout the month, so that's also kind of helpful. Once
(29:21):
I get all the product. Yesterday and the day before,
we've been assembling these boxes non jobs. So they're all
shipped ready to go. They shipped last night, they'll and
they'll be out to our you know, the customers here
in a few days. So people are getting they're not
the Christmas box. Now which box? I'm so confused month.
(29:41):
It's confusing though, So we actually are a month ahead,
so we just shipped the November box on November one
because we want people to enjoy it all year long.
We figured with Thanksgiving they would want kitchen items, Okay,
got it. So that's why we include you know, the
table running, the tetawel, the tea towel ladder, and the
(30:02):
little breathe. We wanted them to be able to spruce
up their kitchen right before everyone came for the holidays. Smart.
So this month, starting today, will release the contents of
this box and what we call it the December box
because we are a month ahead, and that box will
ship December one, but we'll promote all month long, and
you'll be able to get on our Instagram and see
(30:24):
different ideas from our bloggers of how to style the product,
what's in the box, what their reviews are of this box.
So it kind of gives you an idea of how
to use it before you actually get the product, and
then you can make the assumption of if this box
is right for me or if it's not, we want
you to love it. That's so smart. I just realized
what you said about your showing what other bloggers do
(30:45):
on your Instagram, because one, you can only style it
so many ways in your own home, but to add
a variety to Instagram and other people's ideas is so
smart and just how they do it in their home,
no matter where they live, whether they have a house,
so they're in an apartment in the middle of the city,
like I am. Don't take any decor tips for me,
but I love that you. That's so smart that you
(31:07):
do that, get the boxes out to them and then
steal their ideas. Yes, and I think it helps the customers.
We had a girl up in Idaho. She was one
of our bloggers. She's a smaller blogger, but she's amazing.
Her name is everyday. Casey on Instagram she took our
teetol ladder and put out on her front porch. It
was the cutest thing in the world. I never would
(31:29):
have come up with that. So to have other people's
ideas come to life and to be able to see
their their posts, I really do feel like it helps
our customers as well as it's like wow, that that's
a really cool item. Do you have an Instagram schedule
when it comes to posting for you, because, like I said,
your Instagram. Check it out. It's at box home decor.
(31:50):
I love your just the aesthetic you have. So do
you sit there and say, okay, I need to plan
around when I'm posting, or you just do it as
it happens kind of a hell Mary type of and
we just we just post when when we get a
photo when we were tacked in a photo from a blogger,
you know, they all come in and we get to
see so we rearrange it to where it's a little
(32:11):
bit different. You know, we'll have this blogger all this time,
and then tomorrow will do another one, and then throughout
the month we'll post pictures of the box total. Because
sometimes it gets confusing, like well, what's actually in the box?
Why is that couch in the picture? It doesn't fit
in the box. So yeah, like we want to be
able to like rain you back in and be like, okay,
(32:33):
but this is an actual product. So we just kind
of go through our feet and when we feel like
we've posted a little too much about how to style it,
that's when we bring in another post about you know,
the box, what what actually you're getting. I like that
you do tell people what you're getting, because, yes, getting
a subscription box that you have no idea what's going
to be in there this month is fun. But also
sometimes it's like, well, that was just a waste of
(32:55):
my money because I don't need any of this stuff.
So month to month people can check out if they
want to buy it, or is there anything where they
can lock in for a year or a few months,
so they basically subscribe. If they decide that that month's
box just isn't for them, you can email us and
we can skip you to the next month, or we
can just cancel your subscription altogether, no questions asked. But
(33:17):
I don't want someone to be stuck with a box.
I just don't any money. I do too money is
tight for us. I don't want someone to get something
and be like, well, this was this was just a
waste of money. Again. I want them to actually love
it and look forward to how many pieces we can
fit into the next box. Well. I also feel when
that's your business model and I, as a customer come
(33:39):
and see, Okay, I have to I have to get
the whole year. I'm not ready for that commitment. I
feel like it doesn't help in the end, because that's
not how people are thinking anymore. We're like, I want
it now and then all of a side, and then
I'll go from them yes. And I want people to
have that option. I never want someone to be stuck
with our box. There's a lot of people that maybe
had that detail ladder, so why would you order another one?
(34:00):
You know, I don't want anyone to feel obligated. The
boxes are not returnable. Um, if you don't like a
product that's in it, you can read gift it options
like that, or just cancel for that month. You know,
make sure the box works for you. That's my priority.
I don't want someone to get something they don't like.
It actually is a great The whole box itself is
a great gift idea, especially for the holidays. If you're
(34:22):
going to someone's house for dinner or something, why not
bring this months you know, gift and or for the holidays.
It's it really is a cool gift idea, especially because
we all know that person or life who is obsessed
with home to court. So it is a great gift
because there's nothing like this out there, at least I
haven't seen it. Yours is the first for me. Well,
thank you, yes, I to me. I think again. Financially,
(34:46):
I can't afford to give somebody three months worth of
the box, but I could spread that over three months,
so you could go to them and be like, hey,
I got you a subscription box and it's for the
next three months. You're only charged those next three months.
You don't have to pay the lump sum up up front,
and it kind of it doesn't hurt. It doesn't sting
as bad come Christmas time and you know you have
(35:07):
all these expenses, or just give him one box, you
know what, It really doesn't matter. Just I love packages.
It is our motto on our website is it says,
it's like Christmas every single month, and it is like,
as an adult, you don't really get Christmas. I mean,
I guess I my husband, he doesn't really buy my
(35:28):
Christmas presents. I go buy them and wrap them myself
and tell him what I buck. So so for me
to get a box every month, it's exciting. It's mine.
I don't have to share. I'm I see like the
glimmer in your eyes, and I totally get it, because
that's like what it's me with Amazon. I never know
what I order. It's actually a surprise every time it
(35:49):
gets here. But with something like this, you know, you
can see it on Instagram, you can see it on
your website. But when you finally get that box, it's
got to be super exciting for people, like, oh, let
me actually see these products in real life. You see
what the blockers have done all month long. You see,
You've got to be in your head processing like, oh,
this is gonna be perfect mantles, this is going to
(36:09):
be perfect outside. You know, there's all these different options
that you have, and so when you finally get it,
it's it is like Christmas, like go redecorate your house.
Go you know, just rearranging things in your home makes
a huge difference. So just having those few little pieces
you're rearranging your home every single month. I love, I'm
obsessed with all of this. And when did you decide
to launch the books and the custom books? How did
(36:32):
that whole things start so crazy? In our September box,
we actually did a stack of vintage books, where we
just got a stack of old books and we tied
them with the street. The idea came, well to customize them.
Everything is customized these days, and why not have home
to court that's customized too. I mean, you can get pillows,
you can get blankets, you can get a lot of
different things. But a stack of books that just sit
(36:54):
on your mantle or your nightstand anywhere in your home
that just have whatever saying you want on them, that
was really cool. So I reached out to a really
good friend of mine. She's kind of been a really
good driving force behind this company, always supportive, and I
asked her, Hey, would you want to be a part
of this and she said absolutely, So she does a
(37:14):
lot of the printing on the books. The subscription has
us crazy busy as it is, so to reach out
and have her do this. She was staying at home
mom and she just needed a little income on the side.
So it works for her too, and you can partner together.
It's and it's not like she has to do everything
on her own. She still gets to do what she loves,
(37:36):
makes money off of it, and work with you. That's
really cool. Yes, and she it's been good. It's it's
always good to have someone else. It's it's invested as
you are in the company to give you that good,
solid advice that's not just oh yeah, this is lovely,
Like I really like him. Yes you do to be like,
oh that was bad. That don't do that, you know.
(37:59):
So I for having her and as my right hand man.
So something I ask everyone is an app that they
use that is not Instagram, because I know you're good
at using Instagram, So is there another app that is
your go to? I have a couple. I feel like
downtime is so important. I am a killer, awesome card
game player. I love games. So I have a Sequence
(38:19):
I don't know if you ever played that game. It's
the funniest game ever. So I have a Sequence app
and I just get on there and it's basically just
to like not have thought. My biggest weakness is my
brain doesn't shut off. There's no offpun and sometimes I
need to go back from working to being with my
kids and that transition, you know, as you're walking them
down the hall and they're talking to you, and but
(38:40):
you're still thinking about other things. Like you just have
to decompress your brain. And so I'll get on and
I'll play sequence or Solitaire and just to let my
mind relax. I know a lot of people who play
games just so like like you're saying, literally not think
of anything. It's just got to be the point where
you know, Okay, I need to stop playing this game now.
I just wasted an hour. But yeah, it's true. It
(39:02):
does help you decompress and just to just to kind
of bring you back to reality. I think when when
you get in the business mode and the work mode,
it's NonStop. You know, you could work from SunUp to
sun down and and not even blinking eye. So to
be able to just be like, okay, I've got to stop,
as stupid as it sounds, just to play a little
game to go back to reality, It's it's key for me.
(39:25):
What other apps do you recommend? You said, he got
a bunch, so I'll give him all. So the only
other one that I was thinking of is I have
a sound machine app because of my little girl. So
when she goes to sleep and I go to work
at my computer in my bedroom, I have to turn
the app on so that it doesn't wake her up,
so I can print the labels or print things off
or you know. So it sounds so stupid, but that
(39:47):
those are the two apps that are basically used the
most on my phone because I need to drown out
my sounds so that she can sleep. That's do you
know what it's called the machine one or just probably
I think it's just white noise or something that's too funny.
I even think that's great. Those are great app suggestions
that no one's ever said before something do. Yeah, they're
(40:10):
probably random, but they worked really well for me. Your
logo is super simple, but I really do love it.
Is that something you made or do you know someone
who does logos? How did that whole thing come about? Yeah?
So our store isn't called box home decre obviously, I
mean we don't have it's not going to be called that.
So when I decided to launch the website, I the
(40:31):
girl that owns the clothing company. She does a lot
of graphic designs, hair and there. She's a really good
at photoshop. So I went to and I was like, look,
I need a logo like yesterday. What can we do?
It's got to be something that's catchy. I'm not quite
a hundred percent share of the company name. So we
sat there and she had a pencil and we kind
of just were sketching things out, and I said, I
(40:53):
really like the idea of box home decre because you
know exactly what you're getting. It's not like a questionable
what exactly is this? Like? It can't get more supable
than that. And so when we were sitting there, she's like, well,
we should put a house in it, and I'm like absolutely,
So we do the house. And then because you get
(41:13):
a gift, the o in box is a little gift
and it just clicked. It came together really quickly, and
she's very good at designing things like that, and and
bailed me out in a tough spots super hug. That's
why it's something that did pop out to me. I'm like,
this is simple and I really like it, and good
job telling thank you, good job. So I will let's
(41:36):
hear your day to day. You wake up, bring the
kids to school, that's what you did so far today.
So now what happens? So basically, every day I take
my older to go to school. My six year old
doesn't go to school and tell noon, so I have
that morning time with her and my baby. Once noon hit,
you know, she's off to school and my baby usually
goes down for a nap at that time I go
(41:56):
to work. So she'll sleep from about noon to two.
This is on a good day. I'm not saying this
happened every day, but when she decides to take a
good nap, it's about from noon to two, so that
gives me two solid hours. My kids are still pretty
young and I need my time that that's a must
for me. So I put them in their bed about
seven thirty eight o'clock at night. So when after after
(42:19):
two o'clock, you know, they'll get home about two thirty
and we have I mean we've run to cheer and
Violin and I mean everywhere you can think of we
run to. And so after that, what's eight o'clock hit, Um,
they're in bed, and that gives me time to work
from about eight o'clock to midnight. There are some days
that I have to shut my family out not in
(42:40):
a rude way, but be like, I have got to
get this done. And then there are days that we
just shut everything off and we're like, you know what,
it's it's time to go with the family today every day, berries,
But I try to work around their schedule. So where's
are your six year old? And you're almost one year
old right now? You know what? My husband actually miraculously
come home last night from out of town, and so
(43:01):
I'm like, you have to take them, I mean, get
them out of here, because they don't know they have
no quiet mode. Of course that's I'm like, where did
they go? Right now? I can't hear them. I did
not lock him in the basement, I promise, but I'll
be back later, guys, one day. I can't wait for that. So, yeah,
(43:23):
he took him out. I told him he couldn't come
back and tell I texting because I'll come back and screaming.
You know, I'll excited about what they did. I'm sure
with a bunch of sugar presence whatever, all the things
to keep them quiet for him, not so much for you. Yeah,
by the way, when did you launch? Like, what was
your official launch date of Box Home to Core? So
our first box was the September Box, and of this
(43:44):
year stop it yeah, like just barely. I mean, it's
a that's what I mean for us to be at fifty.
To me, it blows my mind. I can't quite wrap
my head around it just yet. I'm grateful and be
on grateful for everyone and the support we've got. But yeah,
it started in September. That was our first box when
we started promoting at the middle of August, so I mean,
(44:06):
it wasn't even like a full month. And but again
going back, I don't like to wait for things. I
wasn't going to wait two more weeks for the next
month to start, like I was going to start right
then because that's when I wanted to start. I didn't
realize it because you keep seeing the September Box. I
wasn't really thinking, like, it's only November right now when
we're recording this. So good for you, this is so cool.
(44:28):
I can't wait to see all the amazing things that
come of this. Thank you. I can't either. I I
just can't wait. I feel is going to put you
in favorite things maybe next year, maybe not this year,
but maybe next year. I feel like she should she
totally should I'm telling you something big is going to happen.
I can feel it, and I'm excited. I am so
excited just being able, you know, to to launch this
(44:50):
company and and help my family out. That's the most
important thing for me. I don't want my husband to
come out of school and s b in so much debt.
I want it to be a really big just a
big help for the for the family, not just financially,
but for my girls too. It is it's it's amazing
for them here you talk about what they do with you.
(45:11):
It's it's cool for me. You're really loving that you
get this time with them, and you know one day
they're gonna be like, my mom did this thing. And
it's by the way, everyone probably knows what it is
at that point because it's going to be huge, but
they're going to have these moments that they're not going
to forget with you. So it's an all around amazing
thing that you've created. I think so I think the
family time to be able to find something that can
(45:34):
combine into both both family time and your work time
and make it cohesively work together and grow to help
the girls develop those skills of how important family time
is because obviously that's more important than any company ever
will be. But to have to be able to do both,
you know, hopefully they can take over this company one
day and it's big enough that that's that's what they
(45:54):
can go to school for. So you're right, it's awesome.
I'm excited for you. It'll be huge, even huger than
it is right now. So go go help Julia. Check
out what she's doing. It's amazing. It's Box Home decre
dot Com, Boxed Home Decor on Instagram. And if you
buy the custom books, use code Carla Marie so you
can get off. Julie. Thank you very much. I know
(46:15):
your schedule is crazy and I did not make it
easy planning this, so thank you very much. Thank you
for having us. I truly appreciate it. Thank you so
so much for your time today. I appreciate you very much.
I appreciate you being here, taking time out of your
day to spend with me. You can listen to any
episode of Side Hustlers, doesn't have to be in any order,
if you can jump around however you want. If you
(46:37):
can rate and review this podcast, that would be super awesome,
whether you're on iTunes or or Google Podcasts or I
Heart Radio, and of course subscribe or follow so you
never miss an episode. See you next week.
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.