The Floral Hustle

Jeni: [00:00:00] [00:01:00] Hello, flower friends. This is Jen, and you are listening to the Floral Hustle podcast. I almost forgot what to say because I'm so excited for my guest today. I have been following her on Instagram, and you know what? You guys probably follow her as well, and if you don't, you're going to be running to follow her now.
So this is my friend Courtney, and Courtney, tell me about your business and kind of just a little bit about yourself.
Courtney: Yeah, of course. Well, first, thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be on here. , so kind of how I started is that I graduated from Texas A& M University. It's a big college in Texas.
And like two weeks later, I had some girlfriends asked me to do their wedding flowers because I graduated with a BA in horticulture. And I was like, oh my gosh, like I'm not doing this. Like I just graduated. I don't know what I'm doing. , and my parents really encouraged me to do my own company because they knew I was going to work so [00:02:00] hard for somebody else, like under their name.
And they just pushed me and we launched Coneflower Designs in 2018. And here we are, we do weddings and events. Where did the Coneflower come from? Like, do you love Coneflowers or? Well, I did. I mean, now I love them even more. Um, so cone is actually a nickname that my family calls me, um, and then a cone flower is an actual type of flower.
And then I just added on designs to make it fancy.
Jeni: I like it. And you've had the same name the whole time then it sounds like? The same name, the same logo, all the things. All the things. Okay. And so you primarily do weddings. Do you do any other? Weddings and events. Okay, so no like everyday deliveries or things like that?
No,
Courtney: no, I, I worked in a flower shop in college and I knew immediately, I was like, I don't want to be a daily florist. Like, it was just so much. Yeah, it
Jeni: takes [00:03:00] a certain breed of person to do that, but some people prefer it. So to each their own, like I would do a big event, then 30 little things, but some people That's just how I'm wired.
And what's like, do you do a lot of bigger events? How many events do you do usually do a year?
Courtney: So typically in a year we do probably do average like 200 between weddings and events, 200. So we do volume over like massive events. So I thrive in having like 10 smaller events in a weekend versus one massive one.
So a lot of ours are very like, I would say average, maybe 2, 500 to 5, 000 and like, those are my people. Like, I love it. But yeah, big events, I will freelance for other people, but I typically don't prefer to take them on. I will. And I have, but the stress that comes with it is just like insane to me.
Like I do not, I do not like it.
Jeni: Like what's stressful about it. That's [00:04:00] fascinating to me. Cause it's stressful for me to have a lot of little weddings.
Courtney: Yeah, it's weird. People are like, you're crazy. I honestly I don't know what like the key point is about it But I just literally like the money like that much money for one thing.
Does that I maybe in a sense But for us like I don't do a lot of rentals So I used to do candles when I first started and I like after a year I was like no like I don't like it. It was just not in my eyes like profitable and I What's really kind of different from what we do is that we don't do strikes.
So we don't clean up at the end of the night. So everything that our clients purchase, like it's theirs to keep. So the containers, like everything. So I kind of shifted towards it. So in the beginning, of course, you're trying to get your name out there. You're doing whatever you can. You're taking on anything, honestly, whether you're making money or not, you just, you just say yes to everything.
And these bigger events, it just seemed more demanding. And [00:05:00] that's not every client, but a lot of the clients and their planners and kind of team that they had just didn't really seem to care a lot about my input in it, in my professional opinion. And so I was like, you know what, this isn't making me happy.
Like it's making me really stressful. Like I'm going to do what I really want to do and take on a lot of smaller events than bigger ones. So I don't know what it is about it, but I'm like, I'll help anybody else do it. But I don't want to be the head person for it.
Jeni: I'm putting some math together. If we have, if you do 2, 500 to 5, 000 and you do 200, 000, do you have like a 400, 000 a year business?
Is that like about where it falls? Because mine was 325, 000, but I did 356, 000.
Courtney: Probably around there. Yeah, so that's like average. So, yeah, I mean, it's been, it's been really overwhelming. I feel like we've grown. Very, very fast. But like this year we definitely won't even probably come close to that number like this year is a very like [00:06:00] slow weird year.
So I wouldn't say every year has been that good, but the past few years.
Jeni: Last year was a good year. So this, are you noticing things are looking slimmer?
Courtney: Yeah, for, for sure. Like, our bookings right now is just super low. Like, people, the inquiries are still coming, but they're just, like, not following through, and it's across this, like, industry right now, so that's a comfort in the fact that knowing that it's not just florists are going through it, but photographers, venues wedding planners, so I don't, I think the economy plays a big role in it and somebody told me that when COVID hit, people couldn't date, um, For a year and so the
Jeni: average person from when they meet to when they get married is three years.
Three years in lockdown. Dating, I mean, the world was weird. Can you imagine dating? Dating? The world was that weird. And you're like, you seriously could have cooties. Just like I [00:07:00] thought when I was a little kid, like, I had to stay away from the boys because they might have cooties. People seriously could have had cooties.
And so, it's, yeah, it's, it's funny that That that's affecting us now. Isn't that weird? Cause like then I didn't even think that it would be on the radar, but it definitely is. Do you, what are you going to do to fill your time then? Like, I saw that you launched a program doing some coaching and then you have a flower library.
So tell me about those.
Courtney: Yeah, so with this slow time that we have, I was like, obviously, like, you own a business to make money. Like, you have to do something to fill your time and have that income. And with our Instagram kind of taking off for whatever reason, people love to see the behind the scenes and, you know.
All the little things that we do, a lot of people were asking me for like one on one time, which I think is just a huge compliment and something that I'm still not over, like I still, I'm like, I just turned 29, like, why do you want to talk to me? I share [00:08:00] silly little videos. Um, and so I launched
Jeni: it. I have so many of your things they're not, they're not silly.
Like, when you learn how to do this job simpler and easier, things just feel better. You know, you're not, and like being a florist is surprisingly overwhelming to a lot of people. And so anytime you can make it simpler and feel better, I think who doesn't want to feel better and your products that you're talking about from Amazon are like, I'm going to make this easier.
If it
Courtney: makes sense to me. Okay. Well, I appreciate that. Thank you. So when all of that happened, we launched coaching calls just to basically see what would come of it. Because my parents are always like, well, at least you tried, right? Like if it doesn't work, at least you tried. You can never like hold that against yourself.
And so we launched it. We've had a few here and there, which have been great. Like, and what's crazy about it is it's people asking like questions that I take for granted, like very simple [00:09:00] things that I'm like. Wait, how do you not know that? Or like, how have you been doing it? When we do it like this, which seems so much simpler, but yeah, so we launched that.
And then with coaching calls I have something called a flower library that I created for my team. So a lot of people that come into the industry, they don't really have experience. At least with my team, I don't require it because I feel like you can teach anybody about flowers. So what I was doing is that I was taking pictures of every single product that came into our studio.
I'd have a picture in the very front, I'd have the name of it, and then how many stems come in a bunch, or if it's weighted the colors that it comes in. And how to process it, what size bucket it goes in, just to make it easier for my team to learn. So instead of asking me a million times in a week what the same flower was, they could just go to our binder, to our flower library, and look it up.
I mentioned it. It's like
Jeni: in your studio, so like. I mean, for anybody who's seeing this on YouTube, like, it's just like a binder, like, like, kind of [00:10:00] like,
Courtney: okay. Yeah, so we have, I call it our, like, Code Flower Bible, because we have that section and then we have a bunch of other sections in it, but I had mentioned it.
Or, like, process sections, or? Processes systems, like how to pull supplies, how to, how to wash buckets, how to clean the vans. Like you have your everything,
Jeni: your
Courtney: SLPs. Yep. Yeah. So yeah, I mentioned it on stories one day or maybe I posted a video and it was like, I was looking at something and people were like, what is that?
Like, what are those pictures? And I was like, I went back to, I was like, What are they talking about? And I asked my team, I was like, do you think they're talking about this like flower library that we created? And they were like, yes, absolutely. And so at that point, I had just been doing it like page by page and printing it.
Like I didn't have it all in one place. Electronically.
Jeni: Yeah.
Courtney: Because I just, I was like, oh, it's for my team. Like. Who cares. Yep. And [00:11:00] so the past few months we like basically redid the whole thing and put it in a PDF and we add to it every single week and we update it and we launched it. So people could buy it and it like it's inexpensive.
I remember correctly. Like
Jeni: it's not crazy. It's
Courtney: 130.
Jeni: Which for all of that to do that yourself would take so much time. Yeah, it's
Courtney: a lot. It's, it's a lot. But we are going to re launch it every season. So like in the fall we'll re launch it with more pages added to it. So the people who have bought it already will get it at like a lesser discount to get the update.
If that makes sense. Yeah. Because they don't need to pay for the same thing twice in a sense when we're only adding maybe like, 30, 40 pages to it. 30,
Jeni: 40 pages is a lot.
Courtney: Yeah, no, I think right now it's 135 maybe or so, but we've already added probably, I'd say 15 pages in like a month maybe. That's
Jeni: bananas.
Courtney: So, but [00:12:00] it's, it's crazy though, because little things like that, like, I was just like, Oh, like my team needs something to reference too, because they can't learn. Like, I can't be in all the places at once. Right. So if we have something they can reference before they need me, like that just cuts out time and they thrive in it too.
So one of my girls was like, can I take this home and like, just close myself out? I was like, absolutely. Like, of course you can, because it shows they want to learn and they really want to like fine tune everything. Flashcards. Yeah, exactly. Bye. Yeah, so it's been, it's been a really great tool and I think other people have just like loved it because they can add their own little notes or how they process things or whatever it might be, but it is really helpful.
So
Jeni: you, do you love organization? Are you like a serial organizer? Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. I, I have someone like that works in my studio. She just loves organizing everything. It's like in your box. Yeah. I thrive on it. You have systems and The girls were all talking in the studio about your Lazy [00:13:00] Susan race, racetrack.
I don't know what the name, but it was like, that was the craziest thing. I don't know where you would store it because it looked huge, but if you're making and banging out 20 centerpieces, that is the thing to have. Cause I'm guessing you assemble everything.
Courtney: Yeah, so typically like if we know we have a big event we'll use that.
So one person will be on one side, I'm on the other, and then I'll use one greenery, she uses one greenery, and we just rotate it. But yeah, it's amazing. It all breaks down. Of course, I have it in a little bin that's labeled, and it fits perfectly. But yeah, that was something that I found last year. And I saw it and was like, Hmm, I wonder if this will work.
So the trays don't actually spin, um, but they rotate around on the track. Yeah. So nobody knows this, but I actually bought like little six inch Lazy Susans that I'm going to glue on top of them. So it'll rotate and you can rotate the design on it. It's crazy. It's crazy, but it works so [00:14:00] well. So it's like products that you wouldn't normally see.
Like ever think of to use in our industry, but you just have to tweak it. And it helps so much. It's really, really efficient.
Jeni: So you have an Amazon store. And I think that, I mean, obviously I bought things out of there. Like, do you get a lot of people buying those things? I would just think that that's probably a real thing right now for you.
Courtney: Yeah, it's it's crazy. Honestly, I'm still I'm still just not like over it like people asking me in it now It's not even like floral related stuff. So I went to Massachusetts this past weekend and people were like, what is that? Like, can you link that? Can you share that? Like what are your travel must haves?
What is that? And I'm like, I talked to my mom. I'm like mom these people it's like weird because I don't see myself like that Well, you don't think I ever will Yeah. I'm just like, wait, mom, they want to know like where my cups from, like, are you kidding? But it is crazy. So I did start the Amazon storefront because multiple people were asking me about the same thing.
Um, and it's not about getting, [00:15:00] you know, it being like an affiliate marketing type situation. It's more about like, cause it's hard to make it easy. Yeah. Yeah. And being helpful for people who are supporting my business online. And if I can help them by linking something to my storefront, then why wouldn't I do it?
Jeni: So what are, I don't know if you've noticed, because with an affiliate, you could look at what, you know, is selling. Like, what do you think your, like, top three Amazon products that you refer are? The top three would
Courtney: be the collapsible cart. Okay. I love that. Um, our bud vases that we get from Amazon are pretty popular.
Okay. The pop up trash can that we were talking about. I have those. Yep. Yeah. And then recently a few weeks ago, I shared these little like mosquito patches that I wear. The natural patch ones, like there, you put them on and they keep the bugs away. People like died over them. That was like our [00:16:00] number one selling product.
Since we shared it, it was crazy. So
Jeni: I, do you, have you seen the ones that are actually for bug bikes? So natural patch, like my kids are highly reactive to bug bites. I mean, my son looked like he got a baseball bat to his head. Like, cause they jump up really big and these natural patches. They look like little almost like tic tac toe.
Little, like little band aids and you stick it directly on the the, whatever bug bite and it puts, you know, like a Benadryl type of antihistamines in it. And we, I just, I like put them all over my kids all the time and they are so helpful. These patches are so weird, but so helpful when, especially when you have a kid that's so reactive.
And that's why those patches are probably helpful because so many kids are just hyper reactive to bug bites. We especially are around so many different I've had stuff [00:17:00] crawl out of my flowers when I've been unboxing it. There was, I, I seriously, there was a slug, I don't know what the craziest thing you found, but there was a four inch slug.
Oh, heck no. I was like, I mean, I've had lizards. Lizards! Oh my god, I haven't heard of lizards. Um, but this 4 inch slug, because it was like dark black, and it was so, I still can't, obviously I still can't get over it. That's crazy! And ours, um, I'm in Minnesota, so like, they're in a lot of coolers, so I'm like, how are you alive?
Like how it's happening because they're in a cooler all the way from Miami trucked up to here. So like 3 days and cold truck. And then at my wholesaler, I just, I don't understand, but there's some, there's some things that come out of flowers. Sometimes that we all need, we all need bug patches. We do now.
Now I need you to send me the link to that because I need this. I've been actually thinking because I [00:18:00] get asked some of the things that I have I've been thinking of starting an Amazon store, but it's just overwhelming sometimes because it's like I have to have a landing page for them to approve it.
Uh, all the things, I don't know.
Courtney: I'll get to it. It is, it is a lot. I mean, I would definitely recommend it, but it is a lot to keep up with. I will say it's, I'm pretty much on my computer and my iPhone. I've had my phone all day until I go to bed. Because I just feel bad. Like I have this guilt that like, Oh my God, people are asking questions and they're waiting for an answer.
Like they're waiting to hear back from me and I do try to get back to everybody, but it is, it has just been so overwhelming lately. Your DMs have been overwhelming. I
Jeni: know I had to stalk you. I
Courtney: know.
Jeni: I felt so bad. I'm sorry. You know what? I knew that that was the case. And what's funny is that maybe you need to get ManyChat to automate some of these conversations so you're not I do.
So I
Courtney: do, I do use it for like the, the links, like you comment. The word [00:19:00] and it'll extend it. So I do use that, but I haven't used it for anything else. I'll have to look into that. Yeah, maybe,
Jeni: maybe figuring out because that's, I mean, when you're trying to run a business and you're trying to help people and you're doing potentially coaching calls and things, it is kind of a lot.
But has organization always been like a super strength of yours?
Courtney: I feel like it has and my parents are always like, where did, like, where did this come from? Cause they were like organized, but not nearly like I am. And I think with having my garage converted to my studio, like I knew that stuff had to be in order or else I was just going to be anxious all the time because we couldn't find anything.
And so, I mean, we still move stuff around. We kind of have it fine tuned now, but the organization, it just like, honestly, it just comes natural. Like I just. like things in order. I like things color coded. If I can find a little product to help, help it be more organized, then why not use it?
Jeni: Yeah. And I mean, with the volume of [00:20:00] events that you were doing. You have to be organized because like at I'm doing, you know, last year was like 56 and some were big. I had some 20, 000 weddings like that is a lot. Like, that's just keeping track of 56 people, you know, and 56 things keeping track of 100. I, the most I ever did was 125.
And that was when I was working full time though, and it before children, thank God, otherwise I probably would have been a straight jacket, but
Courtney: it's a lot. It's a lot of all those. It's a lot. And I will say it's not like, so 250, it could be like just personal flowers, not even like a full blown event.
It might just be like bouquets for, you know, a wedding. So I hopefully people hear this and they're not like, there's no way she's doing like full blown. If it's a la carte. Like, is it a la carte? It's a la
Jeni: carte. Do you have it on your webpage? Or do you only do it like via email and sending a brochure or something like [00:21:00] that?
Courtney: It's so, We didn't even talk about this before. I have a cone flower, which is all customized work. So if people want something custom, then they chat with me. They might chat with Danielle. Who's like my assistant. She does emails and helps me on the backend, but it's all customized. So they get their quote, we go over it, they can change things.
But then I found that a lot of people were just wanting like white and green wedding flowers. They didn't really care about what type of flowers. So when COVID happened, I noticed a lot of people had lower budgets. Yeah, because they were having a small wedding, too.
Jeni: Yeah,
Courtney: they had smaller weddings. And to have custom work.
I mean, you know, you're still ordering 25 cents of roses just to use three roses for a bouquet. Like, they, they weren't meeting our minimum in a sense to get custom work. So I actually launched a second flower company called simply code which is 12 collections. They're pre designed items that they can choose from.
They're set pricing, but they can't customize it. So people [00:22:00] loved that option because it was cheaper. It was still me designing it, they just couldn't customize exactly what they wanted. So it's, that is with the 250 events, if that makes sense. That is Olcart, but it is a separate company.
Jeni: But is it the majority, are they going through that process or are they going, is the majority that or full service?
The
Courtney: majority
Jeni: is full service.
Courtney: Okay, yeah, that's
Jeni: a lot.
Courtney: Yeah, it's it's a lot. I mean, it's two literally two completely separate companies. It's still me doing everything. It's just What you see online with Simply Cone is what you get. And you fill out the contact form, you get a quote, the pricing is on the website.
So that process is super easy. But if we have clients come to Coneflower and their budget isn't where it needs to be, but it's a white and green wedding, I'll tell them like, Hey, we have a collection called Luigi that will be perfect for you. It's within your budget, like go check it out. And they love it.
Luigi, yeah. Cause it's white and green. White [00:23:00] and green. And they all have meanings behind the name, so my nephew, his name is Lucas, but we call him Louie, and then white and green, Luigi, so it just fit the name with that, but yeah, it's a whole, it's a whole thing. We're busy over here.
Jeni: Just because it's fascinating to me, do you, like, actually have two completely separate different companies on paper and everything?
So you have, like, two sets of taxes you do. Yeah. Or are they umbrella companies underneath?
Courtney: Uh, well, actually, yeah, no, I think it's under one because it's just me, so I file everything under one, but it is, uh, separate companies. Yeah. So we have separate websites, we have separate like
Jeni: everything. I think that like a lot of people talk about like how simple, Oh, I have this other company that does that.
But like the logistics behind that is hard for a lot of business owners to wrap their head around. So I like my coaching business so that I don't have to do two sets of taxes. And so this might be helpful for yours as well. I have a company underneath. My [00:24:00] main company, so I could get an EIN and have a separate sales tax and all those things.
But then at least as a corporation, I'm not filing because taxes are too expensive. Oh, they're outrageous. Yeah. And I don't want to spend another, huge amount, another QuickBooks subscription, another everything. So I just have that under that to file once, but some people do start completely separate companies and then all of a sudden they're going through it and going.
Oh, this is a lot more work and paperwork. Why did I do this? Why did I do this? Yeah. So, it's logistically always kind of interesting to figure out, but that's kind of genius. And so it's all online and then it's by Luigi on your website. And who do you use to facilitate that? Because that's also an interesting question that I get a lot.
Like, how do you set up a easy a la carte program?
Courtney: So it's on, we use Wix as our like website domain and everything. But [00:25:00] we just have landing pages for each collections. We did a photo shoot with all of them and they can click through all the items. So like I said, the all about pages has all the prices listed for each item.
So say if you wanted like, we have a collection called rival, which is orange and maroon because of UT, which is the Texas law in a and M. I mean, I'm a diehard Aggie and I just thought it was fitting to have, you know, orange and maroon mixed in there. But you can go through, you can find whatever collection you love, you fill out the contact form and you just list the items that you want.
So you put like one bridal bouquet. Oh, so you don't check out on, on your site? No, you don't. I used to do that. But then it took out the kind of personal kind of interaction between it. Like I didn't want people to feel like, Oh, well, we're just ordering flowers online. Like I wanted there to be a face behind it.
So we're still creating like a custom quote for them, which is basically just listing their items and sending it back and saying, Hey, here's your delivery fee or you can pick it up. So that's the other thing is that we don't set up. Well, we only deliver or you can pick a rolling [00:26:00] stop, throw it out
Jeni: and go.
Courtney: Yeah, pretty much. So there's still a personal interaction and obviously people know it's me or it's my team that they're talking to. But everything that we do online is me. Like I'm the main person behind it. I have help, but. Like I don't want that personal touch to be taken out. Like I want people to know that I'm the one answering their DMs.
Like I'm the one answering the comments. It's me. It's not somebody who doesn't really know what they're doing.
Jeni: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I have a Wix site, but I have them able to check out and or I tell them I can send an invoice and send an invoice. I mean, I haven't like that's interesting about the personal touch.
I've never really thought through that because I do have people go on my website and they completely check out online and I'm not talking to them, which. You know, sometimes for a 300 order or 500. I mean, I've woke up and had a 2, 000 order in there, you know, is kind of fun to wake up and then all of a sudden, like 2, [00:27:00] 000 is sitting in your email.
But yeah, that's an interesting way to, everybody looks at something different and obviously you've strengthened your process, like a. Like a machine about that many weddings. So you're going to be filling your time this year when things are a little bit slower with doing some coaching. What does that look
Courtney: like?
So coaching. So we have three different kinds of tiers. So you basically have like a floral tier, which is just like design questions, like specifically about like, how do you design a bouquet? So if somebody were to book that one on one call, we would. you know, go over the process on how I design bouquets.
So that's the thing that people, I sometimes feel like have a hard concept about is that everything that I'm sharing is how I do stuff. It's not how the end, what the industry standard is, because to be honest, I'm probably one of the main floors that goes against the industry standard. And then we have a business.
tier, which is all things taxes, quick books, you k started, [00:28:00] keeping track of the last tier is organiza and what we use to basica Like, here's your Tuesday to do list, basically what they know to do. So it's nice because we basically do like three questions in a sentence. So you have 15 minutes, 15 minutes, 15 minutes.
And then the last 15 minutes is kind of like an open chat. So you can ask me whatever you want. But obviously if, you know, we need more time, then they can book another call. And I'm I'm not the person to be like, Oh, well, it's been an hour. You're cut off. You have to book another call. If we're in the middle of a conversation.
Yeah. Like I'm not going to, I'm just not that type of person. It doesn't mean that you, you can't talk to me for like three hours. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So I'm hoping to get more into that because I feel like. A lot of people might just be kind of hesitant and scared because they don't really know the exact questions to ask.
So it's something that's definitely evolving. But it is a resource for people, [00:29:00] but I haven't talked a lot about it recently. Like, we launched it in April and then I've kind of gone quiet because I feel like There's a lot of pressure on me too, because what if they're asking me questions that I'm like, not very confident in?
I don't see there is some stuff that I'm just like taxes and everything like that. Like my mom helps me with it. She's like on my payroll because she's kind of like my accountant in a sense. So she's the one who handles my QuickBooks and stuff. I mean, she's a pro. So if there's stuff like that, then obviously I'll ask her questions, but it is a very nervous thing.
I mean, you put yourself out there, like. For basically the world to see and trust me, there's negative stuff that comes our way too. But the coaching calls, I'm really excited about to help for the next few weeks. I can get more.
Jeni: How do you deal with, I think that's a great like segue into how, I mean, you have put yourself out there and you do seem like you maybe were a little bit gun shy about doing that and maybe sometimes get a little anxiety.
About things like how do you [00:30:00] deal with somebody's going to be a total douchebag and like
Courtney: So it definitely it definitely comes With the territory. Like, if you're gonna do it, you need to fully do it and just know that there are mean people out there. There are people that literally scroll online just to put mean comments down.
Yep. Yeah, and it's just part of it. So, in the beginning, like, I remember there were a few people and they were just, like, coming at me about stuff. And, which, like, You know, everyone has an opinion. Everyone has a right to say whatever, but I don't listen to it anymore. Like in the beginning, it really got to me because I was like, how can somebody be so mean?
Like, you don't know who I am. You're seeing what's going on on the screen. Like you don't know anything about my personal life and I've kind of, I've gotten a lot better. I will say that you just really block them out. I mean, you can block them. You can. Say things back to them. Like, just say like, It's usually not helpful.
You're being mean. Yeah, but I literally, I just normally block them. [00:31:00] Like, and ignore it. Or if somebody puts, like, not a nasty comment on a reel or a post, but says something like, Well, you're doing it wrong. Like, this is how you need to be doing it. I'll respond to it and say, like, Oh, like, thanks for your comment.
I really appreciate it. But, like, I'm just sharing what we do. You know, like, I don't want people to think, like, Oh, there's a, there's a mean comment. She just deletes it. So I do answer some of them just to basically say, like, Hey, like, thanks for taking the time to say this, but you can clearly see, like, I'm just sharing what we do and how we do things, and I'm not saying that anybody else is wrong.
Jeni: Yeah, and I think, you know, I mean, naturally, I mean, we're a very woman dominant industry. When, I mean, it's like this in male dominated industries as well, but a lot of times when someone has an opinion, they're just like that in their life. And there are a lot of mean girl florists. Like I call it florist mean girl.
And I mean, but instead of pink, they're wearing like floral tops. Like I'm wearing, [00:32:00] uh, yes. I, because I, I mean, I'm kind of a disruptor, especially in my area as well, because I started like the Minnesota Floral Collective, which is like a Minnesota based floral like group that we, I've had, I host events now and I was, I started that because I was like thinking all these.
AIFD ladies that seem a little bossy pants around here, we're gonna be like, who does she think she is? Well, I did something and you're doing something as well. And yeah, that takes guts that I hope more people can admire than shun. But it's not always the case. Like everybody's like, well, why didn't I do that?
Or who does she think she is? Because they feel inadequate. So when I started digging into why is this person being mean girl florist edition, there's probably bigger reasons what's going on with them and you just got to let it go. But it's hard to do that when you're not used to that.
Courtney: It is for sure.
And I was very hesitant in the beginning to like [00:33:00] really invest and do the reels and share. A lot of behind the scenes stuff because, like you said, there's mean people in our industry, just like any other industry. There are people out there that do not want to share behind the scenes. They don't want to share their secrets and their tips and tricks and what we do.
And for me, I, when I first started, like, I was the one, I was like, I don't really know what I'm doing. Like, I would see somebody post about something and just message them and be like, Hey, like, Can you tell me, like, how you connected the smilex to the wall, or, you know, whatever it might have been, and people would read it and not respond, or they would read it and be like, you can figure it out yourself.
They would tell me no. People were very, like, secretive about it, and that's their right to do that. Like, I'm not against them for saying that, because if they don't want to, they don't have to. But whenever all the Instagram took off and all this came about, I was like, here, I have this. Small platform that I can help somebody else.
Like they're in the position that I was in where people wouldn't help me, but I could help them. So I'm telling [00:34:00] somebody that I use command hooks to put. It's on a wall. Like, what is it going to hurt? That's what's been
Jeni: such a mystery to me is why? Like, yeah, why? Is that you telling that person? There's a florist in town here that uses the most beautiful drieds and I emailed them or I DM them and I was like, hey, where do you get your drieds?
Reddit, no response. And I was like, If anybody asks me a question, I am a complete open book. I will send them my sales rep info. Like my Silex I get from Blumology out of Texas. So like, if somebody wants to know that, like I will send them my sales reps information because I don't care. There is enough around
Courtney: for everybody to go around.
That's what I tell people too. I'm like, and you know, I'm sure you have it in your town too, in your areas that florists are popping up left and right, like they're, you know, And not, not all of them, but a lot of them are like, Oh my God, I love flowers. Like I could do this. This isn't actually their true job and what they're [00:35:00] like living for.
Like I make money to live my life. And when we first launched, I remember there's a group of people that just did not like me. They didn't like what I was sharing and what I was doing. And that's completely fine. Like if you don't just don't follow me, I know how easy it is. Don't follow me. Like, instead of like, Talking crap about somebody, why don't you just not?
Like, I'm not affecting you, I'm not calling anybody up, I've never, like, name dropped people to call them out because that's not who I am, and it's not gonna help anything. Do I want to? Absolutely. Do you want to send,
Jeni: like, thorns their way? Absolutely. Yeah, but I, I would never do that. Yeah. Yeah, I, it just, it's fascinating to me why we can't be more of a community supporting each other because, like, I just, it's never on my radar to be, like, not sharing something.
Courtney: Yeah, and I, and I, I'll say this, that it's not everybody, like, in our area we have a solid group of people [00:36:00] that we all help each other, like, I've given weddings to my friends because I can't take it on, or they've asked me to come in and help them, and we, there is a solid group of people here, but there are definitely, Definitely some companies that they don't want to.
Jeni: So it's interesting because in my mastermind, so I have the, a mastermind, the floral CEO mastermind, and I've had three girls from Texas in there. I've had one on one coaching clients from Texas. And so I hear about the dynamic of florists. So you know what
Courtney: I'm talking about. I totally know what
Jeni: you're talking about.
It, I feel like it's changed here because I've tried to, Really push and cultivate. I mean, we, we've had events where like 50 Minnesota florists have come. That's amazing. You know, like it doesn't need to be this way. And I hope like people seeing people like us. Can really start to go like, Oh, I don't need to be bougie like that.
I don't need to. I don't need to go get my pink flower outfit out and be mean [00:37:00] to people. Like I even make a point and I don't know if you just like to say hi, hi to people at the wholesaler to introduce. Oh, yeah. To cultivate like a culture that like. I am not your adversary. I am like here to support you.
And
Courtney: yeah,
Jeni: I think those little steps are things that people don't think about that make a big difference in the end because I had somebody when the great glues shortage of 2020 money. Happened. Of course, you probably didn't run out of glue. I'm guessing. I didn't. I didn't either. Lockdown and frantic that they had to make risk corsage.
And I gave her a tube of glue. She paid me whatever the rate was. And I just saw her. That was years ago. I just saw her at the hospital. She's like, you saved me so much. And I just wanted to say, thank you. That happened like last week. And I was like, being kind makes a difference. And just being. A normal human that doesn't have to have and [00:38:00] being being authentic
Courtney: like that.
I'm this same way. I'm like, and I've, I've literally shipped supplies to people on Instagram that are like, Hey, like, where can I find this? Spray paint this floral spray paint. I'm like, Hey, I have like four bottles. I'll just ship you one. Like, it's not, it's not a big deal to like help other people.
And I think that's like with the Instagram and the platform and everything. My mindset is that there's nothing wrong with like helping people in your industry succeed. Like you said earlier, there's enough to go around. There's enough for everybody. Like we have a florist in town. Her main focus is funeral work.
She's a daily florist, but she loves funeral work. I don't like funeral work. It makes me sad. So when people ask me about it, I'm like, Hey, like we could definitely do it, but I would recommend, you know, this lady in town, why wouldn't you do that? Like you're helping the customer. Like you're being a good person.
It's just a weird, it's a weird time right now and I don't really understand why it has to be so cutthroat.
Jeni: I think that it being slower [00:39:00] a little bit is also has, yeah, a little panicking. And just because things were really, really good for the last couple of years doesn't mean that that's normalized quite yet.
I do believe you start to normalize as your business grows, as your mindset grows. I used to think like a 5, 000 hour weekend was stressful and like, like this last weekend was like, you know, around 20 and that was just like a Saturday. So you start to normalize things, but
Courtney: yeah,
Jeni: I've normalized being busier and I think are a little bit panicky.
And so that their claws come out and it's just not needed. It'll come
Courtney: back. And that's. Thanks. That's the thing. So I had a neighbor because I grew up in DFW and he said if you don't adapt, you're going to perish. Right. And that is, that's so true. So like with us being super slow, like this is the slowest year that we'll probably have besides like our first year in business.
And that's scary because like you said, you've been so busy the past few years that you just, You know, like, hey, we have five weddings this week, and the next [00:40:00] weekend we have six and now you have one, and then you have maybe like three weeks where you have nothing going on, but that's, you just pivot.
Like, you do the Amazon storefront, you do coaching calls, you launch digital products, like, you go freelance for other people, like, you still make money. I'm going to be
Jeni: launching, like, a silk flower rental, and I'm redoing my a la carte. I love that. Yeah. I'm using this time to come up with a revenue stream and develop another revenue stream because I know micro weddings.
Are growing and plus it creates this opportunity to start cultivating relationships with planner or with whoever, which people never go back to. Okay things are slow. What could I do? They just feel like it's out of their control. Yes, you are totally in control of just, hey, I need to come up with a game plan.
I. I still feel like I have a pretty good book this year, but I'm still going to be filling my funnel back.
Courtney: Yeah. And that's the time [00:41:00] where you make. Like all any connection that you can make, like any person that you meet, I tell everybody I'm like, especially my team, if I'm not on site with them, I tell them, like, you're on your best behavior.
You're respectful to everybody. If somebody's telling you something, and it's not right, or they're being mean, like, you call me, but every relationship that you make will eventually lead back to that. Like, like you said, years later, you help that one person and they remembered that, like, every connection can be a potential booking.
And with our industry, like, there are a ton of planners, there's a ton of venues, but you could lock in with one planner and they could have 50 events in a year, and you get all of those just because of, you know, how you are. So it's a, I don't know, it's a weird industry right
Jeni: now. Yeah, it is. Do you, do you work with a lot of planners?
I know you kind of mentioned planners in the beginning, or do you work more, it seems like you work more direct.
Courtney: More, more direct for sure. So Danielle, one of my girls who works for me, she's actually has her own business and she's a planner. You know, I'll work [00:42:00] directly with her, but there's a few, there's a few planners that I'll work directly with.
But honestly, outside of that, it's one on one with the clients. Like I, I personally would rather go through a client versus their planner.
Jeni: Is it just because planners are more complicated sometimes? I don't
Courtney: think it's necessary. I think maybe sometimes, but Like floral is our profession. So when a planner is telling me, unless it's like a client who's hired a planner and has, 200, 000 budget and they're like, here, plan my wedding.
We don't want to talk to clients. I feel like that's, or sorry, we don't want to talk to vendors. I feel like that's different. But a lot of the times, like we see it. All the time in our, in our inbox is that it's the same contact form that people just plug in the couple's names, their budget, here's a list of it.
Like they're not respecting our process. Like you go on the website, you fill out the contact form. Like if I feel like more planners did that and [00:43:00] respected our process and used our questionnaire versus telling me like, Hey, I need this quote back in 24 hours. Like, this is what I need and not giving me anything, then I wouldn't have a problem working with them.
But I think that, oh, I feel like people are going to come at me. I feel like sometimes some planners might have like a hierarchy, because they're the ones dealing with everybody else that they're like, well, here's the information I need. I want to quote back. And what frustrates me is that they need a quote back super quick.
We get it back to them. You don't hear anything back and that's what infuriates me because I know that there's probably three other floors that they sent the same exact email to everyone's bidding for it, and they're just going to pick the lowest or show their clients the lowest, which, you know, it might not be true, but I have a feeling it's true because we don't ever get an email back from them.
And again, that's not every planner. It's not everyone. Everybody. Some of them. But it is some of [00:44:00] them and it is frustrating. So I would just rather go directly to the client. And I mean, word of mouth is huge. So you can do one wedding and get, you know, five, six bookings just from that one because of their friends, you know, some, I don't know.
I can go all day about planners.
Jeni: Yeah. I, I think it, it, it's just, It's so interesting because some planners are so amazing and sometimes you're just like, seriously, who do you think you are? You're not going to fit through the door. I think that they can be really valuable. And I think if you're trying to really focus on, cause a lot of, especially like my coaching clients, they're really focused on growing their Instagram, but not growing their Instagram in a way that's strategic and will be impactful.
And They're hoping all of these clients are going to follow them. Well, why wouldn't you want to get in front of, to me, I like getting in front of a planner that's going to have 30, You know, clients, and if I built a relationship with them that I [00:45:00] could potentially be in front of 30 clients instead of finding this 1 random, like, it's like a drunken stumble through Instagram trying to find a bride and groom or a couple.
Well, this person is at the party late and like, is, is the go to person and I always teach to strategically, but that's people who want to be in bigger budget land. You know, you want to be in that five to 10 or 10 to 15 range. A planner is an easy way to do that, but also it's a totally different experience as a florist to navigate through that and to almost like push your agenda.
But also honor their agenda, um, can be synergized. And I think,
Courtney: I think that one thing that affects me the most with it is that a lot of planners don't know the actual pricing of floral. So you're sending me a quote, as a planner, if you're sending me a quote and they want a grounded arch, they want tall centerpieces, they want, [00:46:00] you know, uh, hanging install, they want all this, their budget isn't going to be like, it can't, it can't.
That I don't think that there's enough education on the planner's side about FORL for them to be telling me exactly what their budget is and what they want. Yeah, so that's a lot of the frustration.
Jeni: I had a planner that like, they reached out to me and I have this wedding in a couple weeks and it's a big wedding.
It's close to, you know, 17 that they wanted to make a bud vase place card, you know, so like 250 bud vases. Yeah. They were going to have some type of thing attached to it for the place card thing. So I counted it out because they were like, I, I quoted it anywhere from like 16 to 20 depending on the flowers that we use, which is, I was about to say that's cheap.
Yeah. I mean, we were going to use like a dollar tree type base and like a couple of blooms. Pretty simple. But with all that, they were like, why is it so [00:47:00] expensive? And I broke down the 17 steps. That I have to go through with each bud vase and that this was a deal because they were doing 250 of them and they were just like, I don't get it.
And I'm like, how is a planner? Do you not know how much a bud vase costs? Like, this is not Trader Joe's. We're not manifesting a 5 bud vase like I know how that is even in your thought process. They're like, well, we'll buy the bud vases but then interesting at the same, uh, the same planners I go to the mock up meeting, which I normally don't do mock ups because I think they're ridiculous.
Uh, and all of a sudden, you know, we had greenery in the chandeliers before they were like, oh, well, there's this 10 by 10 structure that's hanging 10 chandeliers and we need to cover that. And then I, when I left, I'm like, how did they not know that there was a 10 by 10 structure to be covered? So I do think there's also [00:48:00] just planners that are.
They just don't,
Courtney: just don't move. They're like the
Jeni: village idiots running around planning weddings. And she's not, I mean, can you imagine? That was like an expense that she had no clue. Cause I had put like 500 to put a couple greenery things in the chandeliers. And now we're in the thousands of dollars.
Like, I mean, I quoted out like 4, 000 and she was like, I did not know, but they let the rains go. And that's what happened there. She was like, I don't like these planners. I was like, well, to tell you the truth, I'm not a big fan either, but, um,
Courtney: We were supposed to have an, we were supposed to have an event this weekend.
And it was a pretty, it was a pretty big one. Bigger than our normal ones loved, loved our client is actually the mom planning it and there was their Texas reception and the sweetest lady like me and her. We taught we hit it off like everything was good to go. And then a [00:49:00] planner got involved. Oh, boy, which, you know, whatever is fine.
We had already had everything set, like, in place. We had our vision. We had everything the planner gets involved. Then she starts questioning me. And she's sending some pretty direct and rude emails, if I may say so. And just basically telling me that I was overcharging, my pricing wasn't accurate what I was showing, our designs that we were showing weren't matching the pricing.
And it was just bad, negative juju. I was like, what is happening? And I honestly made the decision. I called my client and I told her, I was like, look, I was like, I love you and I'm happy to work with you, but I will not work with this person. Like for the sake of your daughter's reception, like I'm going to have to cancel this event.
And I'm really sorry. Like there's other people that I recommend, but I will not work with somebody who's not showing me respect and is questioning my every move. And it would make me really sad, but [00:50:00] the client understood. Which also made me sad. The planner sent the follow up email? Like Well, so we were going back and forth in email.
So we had a Zoom call with the planner.
Jeni: Oh boy. Um,
Courtney: and it, even the Zoom call getting started and like, the emails leading up to it, I was like, Honestly, I don't really want to do the, do this. Um But we did it and it was very weird because we don't offer candles and you could tell that the planner didn't really listen to anything that we said.
And I told her, I was like, Oh, well we don't offer like candles. She's like, what do you mean you don't offer candles? You're a florist. I'm like, we don't offer candles. Cause I don't want to, it's my business. I can do whatever I want. And there were some other things and it just became this whole negative relationship that I knew the day of the day of the event that it wasn't going to be good anxiety.
Yeah, super anxiety. Like, there was already going to be tension. I knew it wasn't going to be good. Like, [00:51:00] from the get go, you're talking to somebody that you don't even know. And you're basically telling them, like, you're terrible at your job. Like, you don't know how to price things. You don't know what you're doing.
Well, then. One of the emails that I got sent, she sent me pictures of a florist that she works with in the town that she's in. Of course. Of arrangements, of arrangements that were in the price range that she wanted. Saying that the florist that she works with quoted like, you know, four or five hundred dollars for it.
You're talking massive, tall centerpieces that are completely filled with like minimal greenery, garden roses, standard, I mean, there's no way. No way. There's no way. Even wholesale. There was no way and right then and there. I'm like, you know what? I'm not doing this. Like, I'm not going to sit here and defend myself.
You know, and it made me sad, but at the same time, like, I don't have to sit here and take that from somebody and you're a planner. Who's not in my area. You clearly [00:52:00] don't know floral pricing at all. And. You're basing my pricing off of somebody else who's in a different town, like their markup might be different, their overhead is probably different, and I would never, I would never do that to somebody and question what they're saying, especially when we're not even in the same industry.
Like you're a planner and I'm a florist, like, you know, it was just weird.
Jeni: So it made us normalize is like, this is something even successful florists deal with. Like, cause I think sometimes you're like, is this just me and everybody goes for this. So I think this conversation normalize that and, and that I think is, is hugely helpful.
Cause I, I think you always wonder like, is this just me? And that's not a great show to be in when you're trying to grow a business. Yeah.
Courtney: Yeah. And I think. That's the kind of stuff people don't talk about, like, right. You don't talk about the negative things that happen in your business. Whereas me, I'm like, this is something we need to talk about because it's okay.
It's [00:53:00] okay to cancel contracts if it's not working out, or if you don't think you can live up to what they're envisioning, like that's okay. Because I feel like as a professional, you are being, you know, the upfront one and saying, Hey, this is a little bit more than what I'm comfortable with. Here's a florist who does this.
They exceed at it, like, I would recommend them and that's okay, like, it's not a bad thing to talk about. Right. It's been so delightful to talk to
Jeni: you today. Well, same here. I appreciate it. I love this conversation. I hope everybody else garnered some things out of it. So how do they connect with you? How do they find you on Instagram and all the things?
Courtney: Yeah, obviously Instagram, Cone Flower Designs, our main, our main thing. We're on TikTok, we're on Facebook. Uh, we have them on our website and Simply Cone also has an Instagram and a Facebook. But yeah. And then your Amazon store,
Jeni: storefront is accessed through your Instagram, the Cone Flower Designs. And then your shopping stuff, how do they find that?
Courtney: [00:54:00] Coaching. So we have a stand store. Um, it's kind of kind of like, uh, kind of like an Amazon storefront, but you can buy things through that too, like digital products and everything. So that's also linked in our Instagram. Uh, we also have a Benable, which is products outside of Amazon that we link, um, that you can get to, which is really cool.
I really liked that one. So all of those are in our bio on our Instagram.
Jeni: Cool. Well, it was amazing to have you and I hope everybody just absolutely got so many little nuggets in this. So thanks so much for coming. [00:55:00]