0:29

So you want to launch a subscription

0:31

box and don't know where to start? Girl,

0:33

you are in the right place. I'm

0:35

Julie Ball, a subscription box coach and

0:37

your host here at Subscription Box Basics,

0:40

a podcast for new and aspiring subscription

0:42

box entrepreneurs that want to avoid

0:44

overwhelm. So grab a coffee,

0:46

some pen and paper and let's have some fun! Hey everyone

0:51

and thanks for tuning into another episode

0:53

of subscription box basics. I'm

0:55

your host Julie Ball and today's episode

0:58

is super special to me. A

1:00

couple of years back, a local entrepreneur

1:02

friend of mine launched a summer camp

1:05

for middle school girls that just, it

1:07

just spoke to my heart and to my mission

1:09

of of the bigger picture of Sparkle Hustle Grow

1:12

and it's called Camp Girl Boss and it

1:14

teaches all about leadership and

1:16

entrepreneurship to middle school girls.

1:19

And today I've got part of the Camp

1:21

Girl Boss team here with me.

1:23

So I'd like to welcome Emily Breedlove, founder

1:26

of Camp Girl Boss and Aryelle, camp

1:28

counselor. Hey ladies.

1:30

Hi!

1:31

Hey!

1:31

How's it going?

1:31

Awesome. Thanks

1:33

for having us.

1:34

Yeah, thanks for

1:36

joining me. I'm super thrilled. This has

1:38

been something that I've been a part of for a couple years now

1:40

and I just love what you're doing.

1:43

So a lot of our listeners will

1:45

be hearing about this and meeting you guys

1:47

for the first time. So let's start with some introductions,

1:49

Emily.

1:51

So I am a mompreneur.

1:53

I'm a mother of two and I've been a serial entrepreneur

1:56

for way too long before

1:58

I really even knew what it was. yeah,

2:01

so , I worked specifically in

2:03

, business development and public

2:05

relations and Camp Girl

2:07

Boss has been what started as a

2:09

labor of love and now has just become a phenomenon,

2:11

so much bigger element

2:14

of my business. but it's actually actually

2:16

is a nonprofit, so I get to wear

2:19

both hats and just riding this roller

2:21

coaster that is Camp Girl Boss.

2:24

So awesome. All right, Aryelle.

2:27

Yeah. So I am , Arielle I

2:29

am the Camp Girl Boss counselor. So I

2:32

facilitate the lessons that we hear

2:34

in Camp Girl Boss and I , I work with some

2:36

of the girls to , to just think

2:39

about the things that are, they are really

2:41

passionate about that excite them that they

2:43

want to lead with. I am also a college

2:45

student at the University of North

2:47

Carolina at Asheville and I am the

2:49

author of "A is for Awkward: A Guide to

2:51

Surviving Middle School". And I am

2:54

just here to support Camp

2:56

Girl Boss in any capacity I can.

2:59

I am so passionate about this project. I've seen

3:01

it change lives and it's changed

3:03

me too.

3:05

That's awesome. Well what a powerhouse

3:07

group of gals. Again, thanks for joining

3:09

me . And let's , let's just

3:11

talk about Camp Girl Boss cause some people are,

3:13

you know, they here it's an entrepreneurship and

3:16

leadership camp for middle schools, but you know,

3:18

what is it on a bigger level?

3:20

It's like you said, it's changing lives. So

3:22

Emily, do you want to tell us more about the

3:24

actual camp and we're actually how

3:27

it's pivoted and changed a lot this year.

3:30

Well. So it started as a week

3:32

long day camp, right? For middle school girls

3:34

between 10 and 13. And

3:36

we've been hosting these camps

3:39

all across our region for the past two

3:41

years. Aryelle and you Julie,

3:43

you guys have been part of our local camps here and

3:45

what we found. Yeah. So I

3:48

just have to say too that having a 19 year old

3:50

involved, there are things that Aryelle can

3:52

say that a mom can't say and the

3:55

girls love hearing it from a 19 year

3:57

old. So she definitely brings a lot

3:59

of that fresh perspective. That's

4:04

what we found is that, you know, creating a space for us to

4:06

be able to show up

4:09

with these girls at a time

4:11

when they are really trying to

4:14

, get comfortable with their ideas and get comfortable with

4:16

showing up in a big way. this is

4:18

the age where girls decide whether or not to be big or

4:21

whether to be small, right. Where they're really

4:23

testing kind of the volume

4:25

of their personality. And so what we've

4:27

seen, I know it's such a big thing. and

4:29

what we've seen with this camp is

4:32

that, you know, entrepreneurship is

4:34

a really great gateway topic.

4:37

So we're able to, to use entrepreneurship

4:39

as a way of, of talking to these

4:41

girls about topics that are very challenging

4:43

to talk about. looking at leadership,

4:45

looking at wellness, looking at boundaries, looking

4:48

at conflict resolution, looking at money and

4:50

how to have impact in the world. And

4:52

so it's, it's really presented this great

4:54

opportunity to meet girls at

4:56

this time, at this age, we

4:59

surround them with powerhouse

5:01

women and really talk about

5:03

how their ideas have power, their voices

5:05

have power and that we

5:08

value them. And , it really can

5:11

be transformational in the way that , that it's tackled. And so

5:14

being able to see that we were really

5:16

onto something when we started this

5:18

camp. Gearing up for this

5:20

summer, we were getting ready to do a national rollout where

5:22

we were hosting a hundred camps all over the

5:25

country, but then COVID happened, right?

5:27

And so we're actually really lucky in

5:29

that we had already built an online

5:31

training system for all of our

5:33

women that we had to onboard and train all of the

5:36

camp organizers. And so we already had kind

5:38

of the digital version of all of this

5:40

material. And so we were able to

5:42

very quickly pivot to

5:45

restructuring this camp. So that is

5:48

100% virtual. And that went from, you

5:50

know, hosting a hundred camps was already

5:53

hard. but you know, we were only hosting about 1500

5:55

girls through those 100 camps.

5:57

Moving it completely virtual was

5:59

what opened us up to be able to make this

6:01

available for a hundred thousand girls,

6:04

which is like mindblowing , right? We

6:06

would have never tried to tackle this this

6:09

year. but especially now that these girls are

6:11

home, they're stuck at home in a really

6:13

challenging space. You know, we,

6:15

we really had to choose to make

6:18

this available to the girls that

6:20

just cause they're sitting in their living room doesn't mean

6:23

they have to stop dreaming big.

6:24

Right!

6:24

And yeah, really making it accessible

6:26

and , and opening it up to the country. In a way that we

6:29

weren't really expecting , but ended

6:31

up being a huge blessing. So , it's, it's

6:33

pretty cool.

6:34

That's awesome. And I, one of the things I think

6:36

about a lot with Camp Girl Boss is that

6:38

, personally I thrive

6:40

in community and I

6:42

know a lot of the women that I work with also

6:45

do. And having someone to

6:47

ask questions to and to

6:49

throw ideas against the wall with or just

6:51

sometimes get a hug or a high five from

6:54

that says, "you're doing a good job". I

6:56

think it's so important to surround these girls with

6:59

that positivity. When I know

7:01

a lot of other areas of the world, they're , they're

7:04

being brought down. Yeah. So

7:06

that's one of the big things I love about it. So, okay.

7:09

Who, one of you could tell me about what

7:11

does a week long, what are the week long camp look

7:13

like? What are some of the topics that you cover

7:16

and what is the transformation

7:18

during the week?

7:19

Aryelle, why don't you do that one?

7:21

Yeah, totally. so

7:23

we cover topics from

7:25

what is entrepreneurship. A

7:27

lot of times when we actually start camp, the girls

7:29

don't even know how to pronounce that

7:31

word cause it's big and it's tricky for sure. but

7:34

we start with that what is entrepreneurship? What is

7:37

being an entrepreneur? And then I

7:39

think the transformation is that they go from

7:41

kind of being vague about this term, not

7:43

really knowing what it is to becoming an entrepreneur.

7:46

we talk about things

7:48

like financial literacy , which I learned

7:51

from every time that I've had to teach it

7:54

or any time that we have to learn.

7:56

talk about in camp . we talk about

7:58

public speaking. why is this important?

8:00

We talk about , logos and designs

8:02

and graphic designing and

8:05

how that's important element of

8:07

your business. We also really focus in

8:09

on who are you, who are

8:11

you?, What are you

8:13

passionate about? What are the

8:15

things, what are the changes you

8:18

want to make in the world? And use those driving factors

8:20

to drive what you build because your

8:22

business will be sustainable if you

8:25

have that underlying passion. If you

8:27

find your why and for able

8:29

to do that, you will create

8:32

something incredible that you will continue to be excited

8:34

about and gain momentum on.

8:38

I love that. I remember when

8:40

when I was doing a mentorship where

8:42

I would come in and I would sit with some of the girls at lunchtime

8:45

and stuff, learning their why

8:47

and seeing the changes that they wanted

8:49

to make in the world. I mean

8:52

mind blowing. I was so

8:54

impressed by the percentage

8:56

of girls that had social good, like

8:58

baked into their business that

9:01

, were tackling real problems with

9:04

their product or their service. And it

9:06

was just, it was so inspiring to see it

9:08

pan out. So, okay, so you talked to

9:10

them about some marketing, some branding about

9:13

carving out their concept of what their

9:15

actual business is about. And

9:18

then you take it a step further though, right? Cause

9:20

you guys like do, do you , websites and

9:22

tell them how to talk about their

9:24

business. So tell us a little bit more

9:27

about that curriculum.

9:29

Well. So , you know, we, we saw very

9:31

early on that these girls don't just

9:33

want to talk about making money, right? From

9:36

day one, they want to talk about making a difference and

9:39

that , right? Exactly. And so, you

9:41

know, this is the generation of influencers, right?

9:43

They're raised by influencer celebrities

9:45

of what's on

9:48

YouTube and what's on Snapchat and Tik - tok and

9:50

, and so, you know, they have a

9:52

very different idea of being

9:55

visible. And so, you

9:57

know, we help kind of walk them through the

10:00

different levels of opportunity and what goes

10:02

with that of what is an entrepreneur? What

10:04

is a thought leader? What is an influencer? How

10:06

do you really get grounded? And the

10:09

element of prosperity within each of

10:11

those things that , how you create

10:13

, the sustainable model for

10:15

yourself based upon the kind

10:17

of way you want to show up in the world. And so part

10:20

of that is teaching them how to

10:22

use the same digital tools that actual entrepreneurs use,

10:24

right? That these girls, if

10:27

it's not online, it doesn't matter, right?

10:29

The world does not exist if

10:31

it's not online. And so what we've

10:33

done , especially with this camp is

10:36

that we are able to really lean on the same platforms

10:38

that we use as entrepreneurs to teach these girls

10:41

how to create a custom logo on Canva. how

10:43

to build a single page WordPress website.

10:45

Yeah. How to create an Instagram social

10:47

media marketing calendar and an editorial

10:49

calendar. how to use Dropbox in

10:52

order to share files, how to conduct a Zoom webinar,

10:55

right? These are the, the same exact

10:57

tools. And to be relevant, you have

11:00

to have these pieces, but that this is

11:02

also for this generation. This is their

11:04

currency. They're not looking for a brick and

11:07

mortar, right? They don't want to write a business

11:09

plan. That's not why they're doing this. And

11:11

so we had to really lean into what is their language

11:14

right, what are their values? And

11:16

what do they find fun? They

11:19

look at the world through the lens

11:21

of social media. And so if we aren't teaching them

11:23

the elements of like what are hashtags and

11:26

how do you build a marketing

11:28

strategy that looks at social media marketing

11:31

and web design and selling a

11:33

product and having impact . So

11:36

partnering with nonprofits, you know,

11:38

this is, this is the

11:40

world that they want to play in. And so,

11:42

you know, it was surprisingly easy to

11:44

take the same platforms that we

11:47

were using in the classroom and bring

11:49

them into this virtual

11:52

camp because they were the same exact platforms

11:55

that it was just expanding out

11:57

our Canva templates and expanding out our WordPress

11:59

sites. but that at the end

12:02

of the camp, the girls have created all of those

12:04

things. By the end they have a logo, they

12:07

have a headshot, they have a website, they

12:09

have social media marketing campaign, they have an editorial

12:11

calendar. Like most adults, both adult women, we

12:14

don't even have that

12:17

for ourselves. And these girls will,

12:19

by the end of nine weeks, they will

12:21

have, if they wanted to have a full blown business,

12:23

they would have it.

12:27

Okay. So that was going to be my next question. How

12:29

long does participation last

12:31

? Because the, in the past when we did the

12:33

in person camps, you would show up for five

12:35

days straight and it was like, game

12:37

on, let's do this. So what if five

12:39

all day long.

12:40

So what we did

12:42

this year is we, we extended

12:44

it out so that the girls have

12:47

nine weeks to complete the camp.

12:49

Okay.

12:49

For those super aggressive type

12:51

a personalities, they could still do it in a week if

12:53

they wanted to, but we recognize

12:55

that now it's a different model. It's,

12:57

you know, them making time, popping in and out

13:00

, taking a few hours going back and

13:02

working in their playbook. we did, we

13:04

did want to make sure

13:06

that we still honored some of the , the programmatic integrity that

13:08

came with the printed book, right. Of

13:11

the actual drawing in , drafting

13:13

your logo and, and having

13:15

journaling prompts and giving them time to

13:18

kind of write in the tactile printed book. Yeah.

13:20

That's a powerful thing for these girls.

13:22

And so when they register , we

13:24

then mail them the, the Girl

13:27

Boss box, which has , the

13:29

printed playbook, which is

13:31

110 pages of activities and journals and

13:34

all this great stuff. all the

13:36

material that goes with the videos.

13:40

Okay .

13:40

So all of the training is done in

13:43

Kajabi where we have over

13:45

40 , educational videos of

13:47

Ella, who's my 10 year old daughter who's

13:50

walking the girls through the process. And so she interviews

13:52

with Aryelle and you were one of

13:54

the interviews, you and your daughter.

13:55

Me and McKenna . That was so fun. Thanks

13:57

for including us.

13:58

It's awesome. well, so

14:00

the girls I'm work through those videos in

14:03

conjunction with their, their printed booklet and

14:05

then they have all of the material in order to

14:07

tackle using the digital tools. so

14:10

we've tried to pair all of the different ways in which

14:12

they can engage with this content. But then the

14:15

best part is we now have an

14:17

online community of thousands of girls that are

14:19

going through the process. And so we have an online forum. We're going

14:22

to live stream every week. So we've got actual real world

14:25

girl bosses as well as some girl boss celebrities that are

14:27

gonna come on and do a live stream interview with the girls.

14:29

I mean we're trying to really

14:31

make this as engaging as possible because for a

14:34

lot of these girls they are stuck at home.

14:35

Yeah. So does it have a start

14:38

date and an end date then? Or is it an ongoing thing?

14:40

So it is ongoing. It's, so camp starts

14:42

June 1st we will only be in

14:44

camp until mid September. So we're

14:47

committing every Monday we

14:49

roll in the next batch of girls. And so when you

14:51

sign up, you pick the Monday, then

14:53

what you want to start, we're going to shut

14:55

down, sign up for each one about 10 days

14:57

before because we then have to mail the packets

14:59

out. Right. So you pick your week that you want to

15:01

start, you then have nine weeks from that start date.

15:04

All of the live streaming will then be recorded

15:06

and available. So if you miss some of the celebrity interviews,

15:08

she can still go back and view them.

15:10

Perfect. Okay. And what's the cost

15:12

to enroll?

15:12

So it's 99 bucks,

15:14

nine weeks for 99 bucks. But

15:16

on top of that, we are giving

15:18

away 50,000 scholarships for this.

15:21

That's unbelievable. Tell us how

15:23

that works and how we can get that

15:25

out into the community.

15:26

Yeah, so you know, from Dave one,

15:28

we've really believed that if a girl

15:30

is of age and she wants to be part of this camp,

15:33

we want to make it so that she can, we've always had

15:35

half all of our seats, half

15:37

on scholarship. and we fundraise. We

15:39

make it possible. So what we're doing with

15:41

this camp, you know, we are nonprofits and we

15:43

work with a lot of great partners. and we're able

15:46

to , to ensure that , so we

15:48

have a thousand scholarships per state. so

15:50

there's 50,000 altogether. the codes are super

15:53

simple. It's literally your state abbreviation

15:55

plus 1000. So for us it's

15:57

NC1000. You can get in as long as

16:00

there scholarships available, you can use it. And so that

16:02

gives you full access. For the nine weeks, I'm

16:04

with a 100% scholarship. and then we also, we're

16:07

just constantly , collecting donations. So if

16:09

you would like to sponsor a

16:11

girl boss , it's 99 bucks to cover a girl. but yeah,

16:14

I mean it's, this is literally a hundred

16:16

thousand girls across America, which is crazy.

16:22

Unbelievable. Okay. So if someone

16:24

wants to either sign up, donate,

16:26

become a partner, they all should just go to CampGirlBoss.com right?

16:30

Everything is there.

16:30

Okay. Awesome.

16:32

And then you guys are also on Facebook,

16:35

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

16:37

We're everywhere. We're eventually

16:39

going to create a Tik-tok channel. But first I have to learn

16:41

what that is.

16:42

Yeah, good luck.

16:42

That's why

16:45

I have Aryelle.

16:49

So, Oh my gosh. Okay. That's so much

16:52

good information. so those are

16:54

ways to support are to share the

16:57

information about the scholarships. sponsor a

16:59

scholarship at $99. and

17:01

then there's other ways to

17:03

become partners, right?

17:05

Yeah. So to be

17:08

a partner, you're able

17:11

to be what we're calling our Camp

17:13

Girl Boss ambassadors, which are the cheerleaders all

17:16

across the country that are helping, yeah . To spread

17:18

the word. And what's really cool too is that, you

17:21

know, when we are able to reengage again

17:23

, we will go back to

17:25

hosting camps. And so , we want to make sure that women

17:27

who are passionate about this are able to get

17:29

into the ambassador program, help spread the word in their community

17:32

and that are in place for when we

17:34

are able to then release a local camp.

17:36

if they're interested, they're already in the

17:38

list. So it's , if you are interested

17:41

no matter what , what level it is, you're able to sign up for

17:43

the newsletter or partner as an

17:46

ambassador. And yeah, we've got a great , a lot of great stuff

17:48

that can help make it easier to spread the word.

17:50

Awesome. All right, everyone that's watching or listening,

17:52

I challenge you to go over to CampGirlBoss.com right

17:55

now, after you're done listening and

17:57

, sign up to become an ambassador or

18:00

, or think about how you might be

18:02

able to make a tax deductible donation to

18:04

the group. So , that is your

18:06

challenge. before we wrap it up, I

18:08

wanted to bring up one point , that I remember very

18:11

specifically about when we were all together that

18:13

in the curriculum. You guys

18:15

work in self care and mindsets

18:18

and it is so

18:21

important because as entrepreneurs we suffer

18:23

burnout when we

18:25

do too much on when we're not taking

18:28

care of ourselves . So Aryelle, tell us a

18:30

little bit about what that, what that mindset training

18:32

or what the self care it looks like

18:34

, both when it was in person

18:37

and how you've translated that to the online space.

18:41

Yeah, I think one of the biggest misconceptions

18:43

, about girls at this age are that they

18:45

don't want to talk about big things are

18:47

that they don't know what they're capable of. That is

18:50

so false. Girls want

18:52

to build their own empires and during that

18:54

they want to take care of themselves too. And

18:57

so talking about that is a really important element

18:59

of camp. We talk about the importance of

19:02

having boundaries and that sometimes as

19:04

women we're taught that, you know, you

19:06

have to say yes to everything. You can't

19:09

say no, it's a sign of weakness or some,

19:11

some sort of thing like that. And

19:13

we teach them actually saying no

19:16

is a good thing. Saying no is

19:18

an act of self love and self care that

19:20

is so beautiful and that will

19:22

help to sustain your business and just

19:25

to seeing your passion, your mission, your underlying why

19:27

being able to take care of yourself is

19:30

so critical to being an

19:32

entrepreneur. If you lose that self

19:34

care, if you lose that self compassion, you

19:37

use it for your customers, you use it,

19:39

you lose it for your employees. So being able

19:41

to have that base will create a

19:43

sustainable business model for them and it will

19:45

also create an incredible healthy, beautiful life

19:48

for these girls too.

19:50

Definitely, well said! It's

19:52

so important to have that self care and I'm glad that

19:54

you're baking it into this and

19:56

teaching them early because so many

19:58

of us are learning it in hindsight, you

20:00

know?

20:01

Well and Julie, I want to add too that that the

20:03

girls get a copy of Arielle's book, which

20:06

looks at some of those concepts. Yup . Because

20:09

she does such a great job of really framing out some

20:11

of these big topics like resiliency

20:13

and and self-love. We

20:16

made sure that everybody gets a digital version of

20:18

her book.

20:19

And that book is called "A is for awkward" Right?

20:21

It's "A is for awkward".

20:22

Yeah. I love that! Y'all,

20:25

this is such an amazing organization to

20:27

support and I'm so thankful

20:29

to be a part of it and to be able to chat with you

20:31

ladies today. Moms, get your girls

20:33

signed up. Boss ladies get

20:36

involved by becoming a partner and

20:38

then anyone and everyone can make an impact

20:40

with a tax deductible donation to Camp Girl Boss.

20:43

So again, head over to CampGirlBoss.com and

20:47

we'll be sure to include all those show links or

20:49

all those links in the show notes. Ladies,

20:52

it was such a pleasure to spend some time with you today

20:54

and on behalf of my community,

20:57

thank you so much for your commitment to the next

20:59

generation of girl bosses.

21:01

Oh and thank you so much for your support, Julie.

21:02

Yes, thank you so much.

21:04

Of course. So I hope everyone

21:06

that's listening feels inspired by today's

21:08

message, and we'll see you in the next episode.

21:11

Bye.

21:11

Bye.

21:11

Bye.

21:21

[inaudible] .