The Floral Hustle

[00:00:00]
Jeni: Hello, flower friends. This is Jen. And you're listening to the floral hustle podcast. And today we have a special treat. We are doing another business breakthrough coaching call, and we are doing it with my friend Roberta from I'm just going to say it the Minnesotan way, the Hiawatha Floral Co, uh, she actually came up to my installation rockstar tour, um, that we did here in Minneapolis.
Jeni: That was all about sustainability because she is a sustainable florist. So I'm so excited to have you on the podcast and talk about your business. So welcome. Um, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from and all those fun things?
Roberta: Thank you, Jenny, for having me on. So I'm Roberta of Hawatha Floral Design Co.
Roberta: I'm based out of Indianapolis, Indiana. Um, my niche, I guess you could say, is sustainable floral design. Um, I'm sorry, what was the other question? No, that's good. So how long have you been in business? [00:01:00] So I've only been in business for about a year. Okay, and you have
Jeni: another job, so you work full time as a nurse, I think, if I understood?
Jeni: X ray tech. X ray tech, okay, so even fancier. Uh, and how long have you been doing that? I've been doing X ray for about 20 years. Okay, and what's drawing you to flowers? I mean, how can you not be drawn to flowers, but what's drawing you, um, specifically to flowers?
Roberta: So, I've always loved flowers, um, but my flower journey began with my grandmother, um, At the last end of her, uh, battle with Parkinson's, she was in a rehabilitation facility.
Roberta: So I would go visit her weekly and I would bring flowers to her. And so it was therapeutic and I saw how she responded to it and it helped me as well. [00:02:00] So that kind of started my full, uh, Journey. So, um, I leaned towards it initially as a form of therapy. Um, and then I just, I mean, I just loved flowers and just kind of fell in love with the whole process and of how it makes people happy and, um, just learning all the different flowers.
Roberta: And so that's kind of where I started.
Jeni: So where are you adding your business? So like, what, what are you doing or want to do with your business right now? So right now
Roberta: I'm just trying, I'm kind of narrowing down what it is that I want to do. Um, I know what I don't want to do, I guess you could say. I don't want to do grand weddings.
Roberta: So I've kind of figured that out. I was involved with like a wedding that was pretty, Big and it was my first one. It was on a volunteer basis, but, um, it was very [00:03:00] stressful and I don't like stress cause I have more of an anxious temperament, so I realized that big weddings are not for me. Okay. Um, and I also realized that I love the creative process.
Roberta: So a lot of times with weddings, I feel like. It's more of like green or yeah, like you're kind of hindered. So I know that a lot of people say that, um, doing every day designs are kind of, um, not as efficient, but I actually like it. I like having someone tell me, Oh, I need flowers for, you know, my sister who has, who's sick or.
Roberta: Um, I have a friend who just lost his mother last week, so I made flowers for him. Like, I actually enjoy that. So, um, also like small events and I want to get into [00:04:00] funeral work too, which, um, at first, initially I said, no, absolutely not. Because I don't. I don't really like being around death and things and sad
Jeni: things, but
Roberta: I like being around sad things.
Roberta: But, um, but then I learned that, you know, it's a last way to honor someone, um, who's gone in their family. So I kind of like, Oh, that's, that's a good way to look at it. So,
Jeni: okay. So what, what would you, I think if I hear you correctly, you kind of want to do some every day just cause that gives you joy. You want to get into funerals.
Jeni: And probably stay on the smaller wedding and event side, but want them to have fun. Is that kind of something?
Roberta: Okay. So I've actually kind of marketed myself a little bit, um, on my website and on Instagram as like micro and, um, uh, the word is escaping me. Elopement? Elopement. Yes. Thank you. Elopement. [00:05:00] Okay.
Roberta: Um, weddings.
Jeni: Okay. And how do you feel that's going so far? Do you feel like it's the traction you want so far or you feel like, I don't know what the hell I'm doing? Uh, I mean, what, how do you feel about where, where everything is at right now for how long you've been doing it?
Roberta: I'm not happy with what's going on.
Jeni: Okay. Okay. And what are you happy with?
Roberta: Um, I'm not getting any traction and I'm just trying to figure out why. I kind of feel like I'm doing all the things that I've been told I should do. I'm building up my portfolio. I have a website. I'm posting on social media quite frequently, I think. Um.
Jeni: But how frequent is quite frequent just so I understand
Roberta: like every other day or every other day.
Roberta: Okay.
Jeni: Yeah, okay and So what it's just giving you kind of sporadic [00:06:00] business right now or is the sporadic business really coming from like friends and family? Yeah
Roberta: Businesses coming through word of mouth through family and friends and co workers that kind of thing
Jeni: Okay, so a couple things. Where, where do you want, like, what, if, if it was like, Roberta is happy now because this is happening, what, what does that look like financially or like, you know, creatively, whatever?
Roberta: Happy for me, the end goal is to do floral design full time. That's my end goal. That's my goal. That's my dream. Um, I don't necessarily know if that means I'll end up in a shop or not. Or having my own shop, um, yeah, I don't really, I mean, I kind of have some thoughts about that. I kind of would like to just because I love being around people and the aspect of people [00:07:00] coming in and, um, that kind of gives me joy.
Roberta: So I kind of have this idea of having my shop. Around the design of people will come in and I would make something for them on the spot. I don't know. That's kind of crazy, but I don't know. That's kind of, that
Jeni: sounds fun. Yeah, that
Roberta: sounds fun.
Jeni: So, and I'm guessing just like, if you're like every other human in the world, you need to make a certain amount of money.
Roberta: I do.
Jeni: Yes. And I'm guessing based on you being an x ray tech for 20 years, you're probably making decent money. And would you need to replace that income to be able to do this dream?
Roberta: Yes. I need to match it.
Jeni: Match it. Okay. And if you don't want to share this, totally. Okay. But is that like a hundred thousand dollars?
Jeni: Is that 80, 000? Is that 150, 000? No, it's close to a
Roberta: hundred thousand.
Jeni: Well, close to a hundred. Okay. So, [00:08:00] Let, let's just talk about mapping out what a hundred, paying yourself. So this isn't like, you know, somebody's writing you a check, paying yourself a hundred thousand dollars. Often we would go through a process of figuring out, okay, to pay yourself a hundred thousand dollars, we need to figure out what your profit margin currently is.
Jeni: We probably don't have enough data to make that call. Let's just say you were running a home based studio because we'll use that example and then we're going to go through the exercise because it sounds like this is a pretty big dream and this is a dream a lot of florists have owning a retail shop.
Jeni: And I've kind of just talked through the numbers when I'm usually coaching someone on this exact situation to, for somebody to wrap their head around, like how much would this actually cost for me to do? And then what would I actually need to gross? So do you know what gross revenue is? Do you understand that?
Jeni: Yeah. [00:09:00] So gross revenue, we would have to look at, let's just say you're operating by time that you buy your flowers, you pay. Help because if you want to make 100, 000, let's just do rough numbers of saying that you're at a 50 percent profit margin,
Roberta: which
Jeni: a 50 percent profit margin is probably for that volume would be decent.
Jeni: I mean, of course you could tweak it to lower, but this is including like paying somebody, paying your, um, phone for your phone, paying for your website, paying for any tools and education that you have, paying for supplies, paying for water and electricity and all these things, paying yourself rent. So I pay myself as a home based business rent for my space.
Jeni: So if you wanted to pay yourself a hundred thousand dollars. That means that you would probably at a 50 [00:10:00] percent profit margin need to have a 200, 000 a year business. And I know you listen to the podcast, so I know you've probably heard me talk about, um, these numbers. That means if you were doing, I'm guessing your average like daily order will just say 100.
Jeni: Do you think it's more than that?
Roberta: Well, right now it's less than that because it's like family and friends. That's another issue. I'm kind of I would say, well, yeah, I'm kind of, yeah, I'm operating at a loss because I'm giving things away because I'm like, Oh, I want them to be happy. Or I kind of like Let's talk through this, that, that.
Jeni: So if we just said we're, we're doing a hundred dollars or orders, and right now it sounds like we're not operating at a 50 percent profit margin, that would mean we'd have to do 2000 orders. I don't know about you, but that's a lot. [00:11:00] That would be a lot for me. And I'm a floral rock star. That would be me probably being a straight jacket, like doing all that.
Jeni: So that's why so many people preach and so many educators preach getting bigger amounts because then we're chipping away in bigger chunks at that, you know, 200, 000 that we would have to make. So, with that, let's just say we separated and figured out a way to have several revenue sources. So, we had weddings as one of them.
Jeni: Let's just say that with that weddings, you had 50, 000 of revenue. Your average wedding, you know, then it's all a numbers game. My average wedding right now is 5, 500. So I can average like if I went and pushed more, maybe I would [00:12:00] be taking a little bit less attractive, but maybe it's 5, 000 average. So that's easier to chip away at that 200, 000 a lot faster than 100 orders.
Jeni: So you figuring out, I think what a number that feels good, like does a 2, 000 wedding feel good? Does a 5, 000 wedding still feel good? Is it when we get in 10, 000 wedding, though, that we're like, this is too much. So that's something that I would, which means pushing yourself, getting yourself out there to figure out like, okay, I love doing this.
Jeni: What, where is the breaking point that this just doesn't feel good anymore? Because if you work for that other, Florist and like that didn't feel good. Do you know how big of a wedding that was by chance? Was that a 20, 000 wedding? A 10, 000 wedding?
Roberta: No, actually, it's, I know what it should be, but I don't know what [00:13:00] it, I don't know.
Roberta: I'm just being honest. I don't know. It should have been a pretty large wedding, and it was very stressful.
Jeni: Okay, what was stressful about it, just so I understand that?
Roberta: So, okay, so to back up, the wedding was something that, um, was like a volunteer type thing. Okay, so
Jeni: that's weird, by the way. Yeah, yeah. Like, I never ask people to volunteer their time.
Roberta: Yeah. So, it was more of a, um, How do I say it? Um, I want to say experiment. I don't want to say too much because I don't, um, want to get myself in trouble. Um,
Jeni: Oh no, no,
Roberta: that's totally,
Jeni: but like what, what felt stressful no matter what it was, but like what felt stressful there? Did it not feel organized? Did it feel like there was too much work for that amount of workers?
Roberta: Yes, it was very chaotic, very disorganized, a lot of moving parts. Parts. And is it
Jeni: partly because you didn't know what [00:14:00] was going on? Because maybe you weren't looped in because you were volunteer help?
Roberta: Yes.
Jeni: Okay. Yeah. So that might be why that situation was stressful to me. I can do 35, 000 hours of weddings in a weekend and that's not really stressful for me.
Jeni: It's a little stressful when things get messed up, which I had one of those weekends recently. Normally, like, that's not stressful because we're organized. We have a plan. We know, like, that we have enough help. We've mapped out that help. We mapped out what the help is doing. We've mapped out our recipes.
Jeni: Honestly, not every florist is good at that. They're just, they're just not. And that's something I love helping florists with. But like that person also needs to all of a sudden figure out, like you've kind of figured out that you're not operating at the profit margin that you should be. And then you start going, okay, why, well, I overordered people use too much because I had no recipes.
Jeni: You know, all of these things kind of start popping up and going [00:15:00] like red flags, but most of it is like experience and someone really. Um, managing the team to a way that doesn't feel good. I try not to have people in my studio feel stressed out. Like it shouldn't be stressful when they come here. It should be like we have a plan.
Jeni: We're going forward. We, you know, if something gets messed up, we just communicate. Somebody tells me I take photos of it. Like there's just a process built into the studio. You sound like you got thrown in the deep end of the pool with no waders on. So I wouldn't throw in the towel that a, uh, a bigger wedding.
Jeni: is something that's not on the radar because I would love for you to make revenue. And I think that you are a organized person that especially if you got a big wedding, you know, you could reach out to me and I would help you. You know what I mean? You also have tools to help you. And I think you're a person that would ask for help, which is also
Roberta: Yeah, definitely.
Jeni: Well, [00:16:00] ego gets in the way of a lot of people's success. And I know my ego got in the way for a long time because I never, I was just like, I've been a florist for 20 years. Why do I need to take a course? Why do I need? Because everybody knows something that you don't. And I like to pick up little bits and pieces from people.
Jeni: And that's why freelancing might be a really good idea for you. And That's a way for you to experience and also to experience others, their, their circus. Like what does their circus feel like? Cause that circus didn't feel good. I'm going to go and try to be the monkey over here and see how that goes.
Jeni: And you might be like, this is a totally different situation. And it feels really good. Or you know what? Like, I don't like that person's design style. I don't like the flower choices they use. So maybe I'll put myself out to a different person that I'm, you know, see on Instagram. I'm like, their stuff is amazing.
Jeni: Hey, if you'd ever, you don't need to volunteer. Your time is worth money and you deserve to be paid for it. [00:17:00] And so then you just move forward. with opportunities. Just keep looking for different experiences because then you're going to really feel you don't have any frame of reference right now. So that's going to give you that frame of reference that I think is so invaluable and it's not going to cost you a bunch of money making mistakes on ordering because you're part of everybody else's circus.
Jeni: You know, then you can build up, okay, I learned this over here. I saw how they, you know, wrote the recipes or I saw how they pulled for bouquets. I saw how they did this. And then you can start building your confidence to start really going forward and making a plan for you to start bringing on your own.
Jeni: Does that, does that part make sense? Yeah.
Roberta: So I have three piggyback questions. So the first is, um, I don't know if I should do the bigger question last because I want to
Jeni: do,
Roberta: um, so as far as freelancing, I have [00:18:00] tried to reach out with like florists in my area, but I don't know. I just feel like it's weird here where people just, we just look at each other as competition.
Roberta: So I, I don't know what else to do. I mean, I've reached out to a lady that said she was pretty busy and she would get back to me, but.
Jeni: You know what? I've tried like several times. She might be really, really busy. What I would do is since you came to the workshop, I would say, here is like, send her your brand, a couple of those branding photos that you did at the workshop.
Jeni: Here's some examples of some of the work that I've been a part of. And, you know, you can check out my portfolio at here, but I'm really serious about, um, you know, freelancing for people and your work say something nice. I call it a compliment sandwich, you know, he started saying nice things and then you pat it at the back with the bread.
Jeni: Saying, you know, I would love to be considered for freelancing for you. [00:19:00] And I think I would be a valuable part of your team.
Roberta: And then, so the second question is because I have more of a sustainable approach. I'm the only person here that I found that does that. So trying to reconcile my Um, beliefs. Yeah, beliefs with, with I guess the person that would say, oh yeah, sure, I would love to have you.
Roberta: But then I don't necessarily like,
Jeni: so do you not wanna be a part if they're designing in flower foam, do you not want to be a part of that? Because that's gonna be I think I would, yeah. I think that's
Roberta: gonna be my biggest issue, I think. But I think I would still do, I just won't like it. But
Jeni: yeah, sometimes you gotta do things you don't like to get experience and I know.
Jeni: Um, you know, we, we do both here. So I have, um, actually I have a cultural decorator that I have to do all sustainable with. Um, and there's other, you know, [00:20:00] wedding planners that I work with that are sustainable, but I also do flower foam. And if I always try to. Give somebody the autonomy to do what they're good at.
Jeni: And, but newer people often are doing things that are more systematic and rudimentary like, Hey, we're greening these things or we're applying the base flowers. And so the, the picking of the job is not as easy, but I also, to make yourself more approachable and more. Like, hey, look at me, you want to choose me.
Jeni: I think putting yourself out there that I won't touch flower foam would be a hard one that people would probably stay away from, especially if you're the only one. We in my market, we have probably a dozen different florists that are sustainable florists. So it's like a bigger thing. Um, and so that wouldn't be, if somebody said that, I wouldn't be like that bitch, like who the You know what I'm saying?[00:21:00]
Jeni: I'm like, okay, but that's because it's norm here. It's not norm in your market yet. It probably will be someday. But until then, I just. For your best interest of getting that experience. I would maybe just say, you know what? I'm personally a sustainable florist So if there's anything in that room, I would love to do that, but i'm not Um opposed to helping you with any of the things that you're creating Especially hands on during design days a lot of installations.
Jeni: I mean you saw like at at the workshop We had to especially like on our hanging installation Doing that with foam would have made that so heavy that it wouldn't have been viable. So there's just those opportunities that I think naturally are going to be foam free. And you could also maybe lend your insight into that, which might be helpful.
Jeni: Or somebody even might want to be a sustainable florist and honestly have no idea how. And so you might be able to be that person that just says, you know, if I [00:22:00] would do something like this as a sustainable florist, like I would have done this. And that might be really valuable, um, which I think also positions you in a different light.
Jeni: Hmm.
Roberta: Okay.
Jeni: But I wouldn't stop. I would make a portfolio sheet and send it to people. Okay.
Roberta: I'll write that down. So, uh, of, um, just things that I've done and like the branding shoot.
Jeni: I would do of things that you've done that really stick out, the branding shoot, if you want to grab a few of the installations that you really, you know, had a part, um, you know, like you felt like you impacted, I would put those in there.
Jeni: Because I think that that is going to position you and they have if you go in and put portfolio into Canva because I think you know how to use Canva, I'm guessing if you go and put portfolio, um, in Canva or even like if you just want to make a one sheet mood board or something, [00:23:00] I think something like that that you're sending would be helpful.
Jeni: Okay. Just say like, look what I can do, you know, take me serious because look what I can do. Um,
Roberta: Okay. I love that. And then, um, so then my final question is, so I think the biggest reason why I, to be honest, why I'm scared off of weddings is because I'm intimidated and I don't feel like
Jeni: Okay. What are you intimidated
Roberta: about?
Roberta: I'm not good enough.
Jeni: You don't feel like you're good enough? Yeah. I think that's, I think that's the core. Okay, in what way are you not good enough? Like to make the items, to talk to the client, to, or is it a combination? Like you're worried because it's a very special day or maybe just in general, do you have a, like a feeling of I'm not good enough?
Jeni: Like in, in life sometimes I don't feel like I'm good enough because it was kind of, you probably have listened to me talk about it on the podcast because like my [00:24:00] mother beat it. Yeah. in a stick of you're not good enough. I, is that your case or where does that come from?
Roberta: Um, so when you were saying earlier that a lot of people have, their ego won't let them, um, reach out for help.
Roberta: I'm opposite. I don't have, I'm, my ego is very little. I'm like, Oh no, I worry. So.
Jeni: Okay. Um, you worry it'll be good enough or perfect enough or. Yeah.
Roberta: Cause I, I feel like if it's not perfect, then I don't want to do it. I feel bad. So I have like this really high standard of perfectionism. And so I'm like, if it's not perfect on someone's special day, then I'm going to be really upset with myself.
Jeni: You think they're going to say something or is it your own judgment that's getting in the way?
Roberta: I think it's my own judgment because I feel like I know what it's supposed to look like. I know what it's supposed to be like and feel like. And if it's not up to that standard, then I'm like, [00:25:00]
Jeni: And what do you think, what's holding it back from being perfect in your eyes?
Roberta: Or potentially
Jeni: perfect.
Roberta: I don't know. I just want it to be perfect. Like, you know what? I feel like it has to look exactly like the pictures or the inspiration photo. Like it has to like nothing can go wrong. Which I know that's impossible.
Jeni: Here's a couple things that I think could help with that. For one, I never duplicate a picture.
Jeni: I'm always at least taking two or three pictures and hopefully smooshing them together into a bouquet sandwich because I don't want that pressure of duplicating that. I had a, I will say she is batshit crazy bride that kept like showing me this picture and I was like, Oh yeah. And I even had the picture and it was in the studio.
Jeni: And I even told this woman, I am afraid of taking on your job. And I [00:26:00] almost didn't. This was like five years ago because I'm worried you're not going to be happy and respect. I shouldn't have took that. I had everybody in the studio look at it and they were like, Jen, you nailed it. It looks exactly like the picture.
Jeni: She didn't like it when I brought it. See, that's what I'm afraid of. She was crazy though. It, like every single person who looked at that said it looked like the photo, but in her mind, she had unrealistic expectations. She had a picture in her mind that was not on that piece of paper. And so you can never guarantee that everybody's going to be happy, but you can just say, you know what?
Jeni: I told her I am. A florist that has been doing this for a very long time. There's no one more qualified to do this, but I'm a little afraid of your expectations being just hard to satisfy. And I tore that bouquet apart that day and made it airier, as she said, and she was fine with it then. But it broke my heart.
Jeni: It's the only bouquet I've [00:27:00] ever torn apart in almost, I think I've been a florist 28 years. So that's happened one time. When she is like, I honestly think she has mental problems, like that's how bad that whole interaction. And I took her on because it was a referral from a bride that I absolutely loved.
Jeni: So if she was an inquiry, I would have probably never gotten that far. I learn lessons every day. You learn lessons every day. It's just part of growing as a business owner, as a person. And if that happens, I step back and I go, what can I learn from this? Okay. Mm hmm. Like, I for one shouldn't have had that one picture.
Jeni: That one picture was the kiss of death because taking three pictures is then an interpretation. I also never promise exact flower choices. You can get yourself in trouble fast and feeling like crap faster when you promise exact blooms [00:28:00] and you don't get them. Like, I automatically feel disappointed in myself, like I didn't try as hard as I should.
Jeni: I didn't reach out early enough. I didn't find a farm that I just had it shipped in, whatever. Like that's pressure you don't want, especially if you're a perfectionist. So I say I'm using these are the flower inspirations, not like this is what is happening. And I use a script with them. Flowers are nature.
Jeni: And nature does crazy things sometimes. I, I had a situation where I, Do you know what amnesia roses are? They're those lavender y gray ones that look vintage y. Oh
Roberta: yeah, I have some of those. I got some this weekend actually.
Jeni: Yes, so I had a bride that was in love with those. There was a hurricane and all the, the ports were shut down in Miami.
Jeni: No flights were getting in here. Those roses were only coming from South America. So they, I could not [00:29:00] get them and literally three days went by and the airports, everything was closed. So I am panicking. They came on Friday. Her wedding was on Saturday. I was supposed to get them Tuesday. I was worried they were going to be dead, you know, a million different things.
Jeni: They came and I limped them along. But I decided that day I will never promise an exact rose type because I can't control a hurricane, you know, I can, I maybe could have tried to find somewhere in California, but what if there's forest fires in California or something? So I, I tell people that story when they start to push me, like, I really want these, you know what, and I really want to get them for you, but I'm also really rational.
Jeni: You know? when it comes to these things because I don't want you disappointed and I don't want to disappoint you. And so I'm going to do my best job to get the best flower choices that are available at that time.
Roberta: And
Jeni: usually I shut it down so that [00:30:00] this is not like hanging over me like Eeyore and a big cloud is following me around about one of them that I absolutely hate is white and panda anemones, the white with the black center, anytime somebody wants them, they are always crap.
Jeni: But the next week I will go in and I'm like, you are killing me here. Look at how beautiful these are. It's just like, they're beautiful. The I don't know law of attraction or something that I because I want them. They're not great
Roberta: See, I remember you I'm one of your pockets I remember hearing you talk about that and I've actually written up as a disclaimer similar to what you said on my website Just to kind of put that out.
Roberta: I have it in my contract too.
Jeni: Do you have a contract? Okay,
Roberta: have
Jeni: you booked a formal wedding yet
Roberta: No.
Jeni: Okay. So that would probably be the next steps kind of figuring out. It sounds like if you want to start small, I think doing a la carte flowers or [00:31:00] micro weddings, elopements, petite weddings, whatever you want to call them, um, would be a really good idea because that is something that gives you creative freedom, gives you autonomy, gives you something that's different.
Jeni: I'm guessing if I'm a betting woman in your market, there isn't a lot of people doing that. No,
Roberta: no. Um, and actually, actually on my website before you even start talking about a la carte weddings, I guess it's a thing now. I didn't even know it was a thing, but I just had been putting out boutonnieres and corsages and just things like that as like, like one of my things that I do.
Roberta: But now that I know, like you've talked about it, I'm going to probably, um, leap into that. Who
Jeni: is your website company? Uh, WordPress. WordPress, okay. So there is plugins that you can use with WordPress for stores. And I, I personally have a Wix store for mine, but I know [00:32:00] a lot of different florists. I mean that WordPress is obviously something from an SEO standpoint, especially.
Jeni: Um, and then I would start building a cadence in your social media of talking about it. So, I think some things on Instagram that if I were you that I would be talking about is that when you launch this, this would definitely be something to talk about, a la carte flowers. I think you should talk about being a sustainable florist and what that actually means.
Jeni: You can be all the way from like, I don't know if you compost your stems. But, like, I take all my stems and compost them. Um, I have yard waste. I, uh, do cardboard recycling. I mean, all of those things, like, breaking down what does that mean, because you're, that's going to matter to somebody. And then, from that point, I would be talking about, like, We're accepting weddings.
Roberta: Okay.
Jeni: [00:33:00] And if you got your first wedding and you were freaking out, you know, we could just book a time together and we'd figure it out. Okay. I think sometimes I've known it's, it helps when you know that like, I'm not going to have to just like pull this out of my, you know what, and figure it out. I've had so many florists that just like, we have a session, we, we plan out their wedding.
Jeni: We do that in my mastermind all the time. We just plan out their wedding, figure out like, What should they be ordering or what do you think is a good sub for this because this isn't available. Like having somebody in your corner to help you, I hope will give you a little bit more confidence. Yeah. I know it does for me.
Roberta: And I don't know why I'm so hard on myself. It's not like I'm not doing the work. I'm attending workshops and I'm, I've bought courses. I've got a whole floral book library and I'm doing like all the hands ons that I can do. I'm buying flowers to practice on and to make and so it's not like I'm not, [00:34:00] you know, doing the work.
Roberta: So I'm just, it's one of those things where I'm just being hard on myself.
Jeni: Have you naturally been hard on yourself? Yeah. For your full life though? Okay. Yeah. So what would make you feel like you were good enough in this situation?
Roberta: Um, I can't even say a pat on the back or recognition because people tell me all the time they like my work. And I'm like, oh, okay, yeah, thanks.
Jeni: So why, why doesn't that fill your cup?
Roberta: It should, shouldn't it? Because I, like, my love language is words of affirmation, so I don't know why. That's like, like, oh, you're just sitting there, but thanks.
Roberta: That's something I have to work on internally. So, yeah.
Jeni: Well, that's something that's probably going to be a core ingredient of this. I mean, I became a life coach and a florist business coach because I think So often you have a [00:35:00] life problem that is holding your business back as well. And I think that this is one of those instances, not feeling like what you're doing is good enough.
Jeni: You're not feeling like you're producing like amazing things and you not feeling like, I honestly sometimes will stand back and I purposely will go. Damn, Jenny, like you did this. And so if you have that moment, you need to give yourself a pat on the back. If you don't have somebody or your partner, like you've probably heard me talk, I have such a supportive partner that he's like, Oh my God, did you see what you did?
Jeni: Like, look at these photos. Like after the workshop you came to, he was like, Like, this is amazing. The model looks beautiful. He actually wasn't a fan of the model. He thought like it didn't fit. And I was like, whatever you're a boy, you know what you're talking about? But like, he was like, that is so beautiful.
Jeni: And, and like you, you sound like you, you might need that. So maybe you need to have a discussion. Are you in a relationship?
Roberta: No, not [00:36:00] currently. Are your
Jeni: kids, are your kids supportive or are they not? They're
Roberta: teenagers, so they're, nothing is cool. Okay,
Jeni: never mind. They're in the take stage of their life.
Roberta: Yeah, it's all take.
Roberta: If you have
Jeni: a friend, if you have somebody, like, tell them, like, Hey, if you notice something like it would just mean a lot to me if, if you just like gave me an attagirl cause I'm really trying hard and I'm having a hard time like having the confidence come out of my shell. And that sounds like a key ingredient.
Jeni: You need that feed, that positive feedback to really start pushing yourself forward. And I'll make sure I go on Instagram and give you attagirls whenever I can. Okay.
Roberta: Cause you know, I think that's another thing. It's one thing when your circle congratulates you, but it's also another level when it's someone that's like a peer or a, you know, um, that says, yeah, you really did a good job.
Roberta: Yeah. So, yeah.
Jeni: Yeah, well, I think this is [00:37:00] a, a, a very deep, bigger conversation that I'd love to have some time, but like, I think that anywhere you can give even yourself that, like, step back and say, like, Roberta, you did the damn thing because I know you could, I'm, I've seen your Instagram. I know you can do the damn thing.
Jeni: Like, you can. Thank
Roberta: you. And,
Jeni: you know, don't always look for external validation because that's what's tricky, is when you get tied up into everybody else's opinion and everybody else's feedback, like, then you start to shrink internally yourself a little bit and start to think that my opinion doesn't matter.
Jeni: And honestly, my opinion is the one that matters most to me. Like, I need to feel good. About how something looks, I need to feel good about the way a wedding went down or that, you know, the bridesmaid, whatever it is, like my opinion matters, your opinion matters. And so start [00:38:00] practicing anytime you do a great job, like, even if I don't know if you're a fan of Mel Robbins, but that high five, like high five yourself in the morning in the mirror.
Jeni: Like those things work because you're starting to really pump yourself up. And it sounds like. That would be helpful in any way we can do that. Yeah, thank you. Any other questions? Um, yeah, so you know, I think you have a list
Roberta: Yeah, I do. I'm going to go through them quickly. Okay. So I know the one, um, one question is my SEO.
Roberta: Um, I don't know what I'm doing wrong with that. Um, I had someone to kind of help me with it, but, um, how do you think it's not working? Because I'm not getting any traction, so I feel like it's not working.
Jeni: Okay, so one thing about SEO is, let me, I'm actually going to pull up your website really quick. All right, and it is Hiawatha Floral Co.,
Jeni: or? Floral [00:39:00] Design
Roberta: Co.,
Jeni: do you need me to spell it? Oh, and then you're in, in, let's just see if it pops up. Oh, it popped up. All right.
Jeni: So, you look like you, when I look at what the first, I'm going to share my screen so we can actually look at it together.
Jeni: Okay. So, this is me Googling it out of the Minneapolis market. So, that does matter where your geo located is going to produce different results often. A lot of times florists, what's tricky about this is that we're googling not necessarily your direct name, but floral in your area. So like, let's just say that, um, you know, we want to send [00:40:00] flowers to, um, Plainfield or Greenfield or Greenwood or Indianapolis.
Jeni: Like, somebody's going to probably put floral delivery, but right here. All of your text, it said, this florist delivers exceptional quality, stunning arrangements, blah, blah, blah. This is speaking to everyday arrangements. To flowers and plants. So, your voice of your website is talking about attracting everyday orders.
Jeni: Is that what you want it to do? Yes and no. Yes and no. Okay. So, my second Like, yes,
Roberta: I do want everyday, but I also want to do, um, Like, micro weddings and things like the events.
Jeni: Okay, so then I'm going into your website. On this main page, it says shop now, romantic, colorful, whimsical, sustainable. Um, I honestly think that this text is [00:41:00] a little bit simple.
Jeni: I think a little bit more elevated text might help bring the, um, you know, the, the vibes up a little bit. But in your main navigation, you do not have one thing that says wedding or micro wedding or elopement. Okay, as a main navigation tool, this picture on your home screen does not have a bridal bouquet.
Jeni: Okay. So I think I'm guessing under services. Do we have weddings? Um, yeah, but it's just kind of tells a little things of what I do. Okay. And these aren't clickable?
Roberta: No.
Jeni: Okay. So I would have under services, these would be drop down pages. So you have, um, but I honestly, if you want weddings to be a, you know, mainstay, um, I would have that be a [00:42:00] navigational page.
Jeni: So weddings should have their own page. Then you can put daily deliveries and subscriptions. Okay, as a separate drop down. That would be a separate drop down. Okay. Or if you had, you just wanted to keep your services page, I would have, you know, you're going to have weddings first, daily deliveries, uh, and subscriptions.
Jeni: I think, do you do a lot of wearables or personal
Roberta: flowers? That was one thing that I really wanted to do. Um, like a lot of my has been like mommy, daughter or mommy, or I'm sorry, daddy, daughter, um, corsages, bracelets, um, boutonnieres, that kind of thing.
Jeni: Okay. So I think that's not where a huge chunk of money is going to come from.
Jeni: So again, I want that focus to be like, where are your revenue [00:43:00] producing items? And honestly, a subscription. A event, a wedding, or a funeral are going to be larger dollar amount items. So we want to give more real estate on our website to those. We want to give more weight to those. You have about us and meet me in two tabs.
Jeni: Those could probably be combined. And then let me look at your store. So in your store. Let me just see what happened.
Jeni: Okay, so these are shoppable? Mm hmm. Okay. And somebody can completely check out on here? Mm hmm. Okay. Yeah, I think that this is a good start. We probably can get rid of Mother's Day. Mm hmm. Uh, let's look under base arrangements. Like this, I would start to dial [00:44:00] in, like, you have an everyday section. And then if you want to drill into those services that you were mentioning, you got your, uh, let's just say, Your birthday, your anniversary, like your subcategories, you could put those under that separately.
Jeni: Do you know what I mean? Like you could have collections of those items, which right here you have bouquets, vase arrangements, specialty arrangements, seasonal arrangements. Like to me, like those could be Squashed kind of together, and then you just, you're shopping birthday, you're shopping the, um, anniversary rose arrangements, um, things like that, but you don't have any shoppable weddings on here, which we talked about.
Jeni: So I definitely would dig into something shoppable. Um, I do think that this is weird when I was on the homepage where your name logo was, it does [00:45:00] say Roberta. That's confusing, I don't know why that's there, so I would maybe, like, figure out how to remove that, get rid of that, and then you have none of the workshop pictures on here.
Roberta: Yeah,
Jeni: I
Roberta: haven't updated
Jeni: it yet. I like this, this happy clients, and Instagrams on here, which is great. And then you have, I don't know if down here you can develop by, if you could take that out, because I don't, for one, I don't like, that's your last name, if I'm correct, right? Like, or whoever.
Roberta: Yeah. You assume it was the developer, so I didn't know if I could take it off.
Roberta: I usually
Jeni: you can. Yeah. Okay. And then are, do you have, um, a Twitter and all these things down here?
Roberta: [00:46:00] No, I would get rid of
Jeni: the extra accounts. Okay. Yeah. And then this contact us the when it blows up. It's a little bit pixelated. Okay. I don't know if we can choose a different photo. Okay, but I mean, I think you probably just need to update it from Mother's Day.
Jeni: I would definitely choose a different photo. This one's kind of dark and moody and most, most, you know, like everyday flower orders are a little bright and cheery, but I'd figure out those are just some like quick things that I noticed that I think would elevate that. But then I would develop an. I think you probably have listened to my episode talking about content pillars.
Jeni: Uh, so in your, you know, strategy on social media, I would develop like content [00:47:00] pillars that you want to talk about, and even if that's three things. That's great if you pick that you're going to consistently post on those three things. So maybe on Mondays you have some type of, um, meet us Monday, I call it, but you don't have to put the word meet us or, you know, about us or anything.
Jeni: It can just be like, Hey, my name is, and it's the, I'm the face behind, you know, floral design. Or if you want to talk like a different post about something that you really love, I did a throwback of my high school graduation photo with me and photos, I could be the first thing that you ever made that you took a photo of, uh, it could be how you work with you, what services you offer, uh, there's a pretty lengthy kind of, um, you know, different topics you can do.
Jeni: And then I would pick one day that you're talking about weddings. And that could be posting pictures from the workshop or something like [00:48:00] that. And then I would pick a day that you're going to talk about a la carte weddings or micro elopements, petite weddings, whatever you want. I would start talking about that and then like pick a day each week.
Jeni: Like I'm going to talk about this on this day, this on this day, this on this day. And then if you want to say on two other day, I'm just going to post pretty pictures just so I can give some context. All right. Is there more questions in there?
Roberta: Um, I was going to ask about doing corporate. How do you get into that?
Roberta: But I think I probably should just work with what I've already got going on. I
Jeni: think when you start to focus on so many things, your effort and your energy and your messaging gets diluted. So that, you know, building those initial like foundations up, I think would be really helpful. Okay.
Roberta: And then would you like for the weddings?
Roberta: Yes. Since I don't have any clients, would you suggest, like, doing mock ups, [00:49:00] like, um
Jeni: So I just did an a la carte flowers, like, shoot. So I put a mini photo shoot together and I made all the different items and had them photographed, like, in partnership with a photographer and a venue and a dress company.
Jeni: So I made it kind of a next level shoot. But you could get somebody that's You know, cute wearing a white dress on a solid background wall and make those things. Um, my, I have an episode on the podcast, uh, how I made 12 items out of 75 of flowers. So if you listen to that episode, like I took the flowers started with the biggest, tallest, longest stemmed item, and then kept.
Jeni: Like remaking them, cutting them down, taking pictures, doing it again, all the way down to like the corsages and boots where I was basically had the nubs left on the flowers.
Roberta: I've done that before. Um, [00:50:00] where you just kind of start with centerpieces and then just kind of work your way. Yeah. Like a
Jeni: memorial type of arrangement or a base, you know, a collar base arrangement, then go down to.
Jeni: Um a regular glass vase arrangement like a six by six cylinder then go about down to a compote bowl and that progression
Roberta: but it doesn't have to be fancy because I think I listened to one episode where you were telling someone that That if they were to do a mock up, but do it in a place that they thought or that they would use for A wedding but
Jeni: if they have a relationship with the venue, I don't Think that that is going to look more elevated Ed But I also have a table here.
Jeni: I have
Roberta: plates
Jeni: and spoons and all those things that if I want to do a mock up here, I have a solid base wall. I can make that mock up here if I want. Uh, so that is also an, an option. Uh, but a lot of people have, relationships with a venue. And so [00:51:00] that, you know, they, because they've delivered stuff there, or they're trying to make a relationship.
Jeni: And, you know, if you know, a photographer, like starting those friendships is something that I would do on Instagram is start liking other wedding professionals ages. You've probably heard me talk about that before.
Roberta: I mean,
Jeni: honestly, I had one of the best photographers I think in my market did my photo shoot.
Jeni: Um, I helped her do a styled shoot that she was dying to do. So I got amazing photos out of that as well. There's a videographer that just thinks like that. My workshops. Oh, you've met him, Tim. He just thinks they're so fun. And he thought that styled shoot thing sounded so fun. And so like he came and did a whole like video shoot day, the venue I, we, I was at the The, the venue that you came to, I have a great relationship with them.
Jeni: So it's all about like building relationships with, with places. And then you're just like, Hey, you know, I'm thinking about doing this. Would this be [00:52:00] something you would be interested in? And they're, and you're, they're like, yeah, sure. You can do that. And you're just like, every time like somebody says yes to me, I'm doing like a little happy dance inside.
Jeni: Cause like, they're giving me something of extreme value, you know? And, uh, I also do nice things for them. Like I brought them a gift and, you know, I send Christmas presents and those kinds of things. Cause I'm cultivating those relationships at a deeper level.
Roberta: Does that make sense? So should I do something like that with, um, elopement, like, officiants?
Roberta: Because I kind of liked, like you said, like, liking photographers, but I started doing that with, like, um, elopement officiants and, like, small chattels.
Jeni: If they're specializing that, and especially if they have a package, that they're doing like a micro elopement package and they're including, like, these kind of items, trying to get on something like that could be really interesting.
Roberta: Okay. Okay. Okay. And then as far as, um, my social pillars, do you suggest that maybe I should [00:53:00] do like a blog on my website?
Jeni: So I think for driving, especially about sustainability, I think So what I call a blog is your queen content. That is like your kind of a pillar or foundation for you to get lots of little pieces of content out of.
Jeni: So if you have a blog then you can post that on your social and then you can post that in your stories with a direct link to your blog and you, you just create this like kind of consistent content that's easier for you And then that's filling your SEO cup because you're writing about, like, 10 tips to have a sustainable wedding.
Roberta: Um,
Jeni: you know, like, I don't know if you've used ChatGBT yet, but if you could go in there and just ask it to write blog posts. Um, 10, 10 ways to have a sustainable wedding, 10 or three ways to reuse your flowers after your wedding to be more [00:54:00] sustainable. Five things to look at in a sustainable florist.
Jeni: You're going to be the only one.
Roberta: Mm.
Jeni: Okay. Uh, and then you can do something on a blog post on what's a micro elopement. What is appropriate for flowers for a micro elopement?
Roberta: Okay.
Jeni: Does that make sense?
Roberta: Yeah, that makes a good sense.
Jeni: So then you take that content and delineate it down and if you really put your brave girl panties on, then you could do a little video that just says, hey, head to my blog and check out.
Jeni: And you'd be like, I would die, but I think you can do it.
Roberta: Yeah. Okay. I'll work on that. Work on the courage. Like I'll get
Jeni: right on that gem.
Roberta: Okay. This is really good. Really good. Helpful.
Jeni: Good. Well, that's what I intended, and, uh, I think we're good. I, it's great to finally connect with you because I, I got to meet you and I know we went back and forth, [00:55:00] but it's nice to actually connect a little bit and learn a little bit more about you.
Jeni: And then if anybody else that's listening wants to do a biz breakthrough call, please head to my website. There's an application on there and also in my Instagram because I thought every one of them that I've done so far has been really different and yours is completely different than the other two I did.
Jeni: So that's, that's great. That's always fun to, to be able to have some diversity in it. But, uh, any other questions or are we good? No, I think we're good. This has been a lot
Roberta: and this has been so good. It's very encouraging to, it's like, I have a plan of where to
Jeni: go. I know you can do this. You can take x rays of people's stuff and do that.
Jeni: I mean, this is, this is easy.
Roberta: Yeah. I've done some really wild things in my x ray career.
Jeni: I'm sure. I'm sure you probably could write a podcast just about the weird things that, yeah, that I've taken [00:56:00] x rays of, um, and that probably would actually be really fascinating. But, uh, so I know you can do this. This is, this is, this is easy.
Jeni: This is fun. This is like giving and you deserve that too.