The Floral CEO

  📍 Hello flower friends. This is Jen and you are listening to the Floral CEO podcast. I had a DM come across and it was a flower friend, basically saying they have a difficult situation going on with a freelancer. And you know, they, they asked me if I would do an episode completely on freelancers and.

Freelancers are a critical part of my business. I actually try to have. Appreciation for my freelancers because I couldn't do all the things that I do. I couldn't be the mother that I, I am, I couldn't be the coach that I am. I couldn't do the weddings that I do without their help. And I realized that at a very, kind of early phase in my business, um, that.

Especially when I was working full-time when I had Bella and I was a single mom and I was working full-time, like, it was really apparent to me how critical freelancers are at a very early stage of my business. I remember there were times, you know, I'm working full-time at car soup.com. I had one my biggest weekend that I had.

From a sheer vol, not like a volume, but like a quantity was nine weddings and a funeral. So I had nine different weddings and I would not recommend this. This was me being young, crazy ambitious, probably kind of stupid because it, it really was a tornado. It was, it was crazy. I didn't really sleep that week and you know, at this point in my life, like that just doesn't seem fun for me anymore.

I would rather do like one really, really big wedding or two, pretty big weddings instead of nine. I mean, one of them was a bigger wedding. It was actually an Indian wedding. But there was a bunch of little weddings and I've now at least streamlined the process for littler weddings so that it's not time consuming and very high touch.

But it wasn't always like that. It was like a lot of handholding and just kind of crazy. So I have learned a lot. Over the years and last year alone, I invested about $65,000 in freelancers, so not a little bit. A good chunk. Um, and I have freelancers from anywhere, from, you know, helping get ready for an event, preparing vessels, cleaning them.

You know, they are people that help process flowers but don't do any design work. I have, uh, one freelancer that literally just kind of helps me tear down weddings. And with the move I've. Kind of set up my storage unit just so he can actually bring the items after tear down, and then I can pick them up during the day.

Or you know, when I'm coming back to the cities, I can figure out disposing of the flowers or whatever. So I have built my business on freelancers. It is something that. I value extremely, and I try to make sure that my freelancers feel valued, feel appreciated, and also have some autonomy like I feel like the most important thing that you can do in your studio is set the tone of energy.

And if you are a high strung mess, which I had a freelancer that worked for me for 10 years that worked for this other florist, and they, she had so much anxiety going over there because they. Operated on very, very tight flower counts. And so if a couple stems broke, like the recipes, like we didn't have enough flowers, there was just stress involved and so it was a very high stress and I could actually.

I could see, like on day one after she spent a week over there, like I could just see all of her nerves and a, just a ball of nerves. And I'm like, I don't ever want somebody to feel like that. And so some key things that I think are really important is, is really communicating with your freelancers. And so this person who messaged me had a difficult con conversation that really needed to happen, but they had made a mockup and this has ha happened repeatedly, it sounds like. And this person was a newer florist, so not a super established florist, but she would show her how to do it and then. It wouldn't be like how she wanted. And so then it would turn into like this person having their feelings hurt and really being sensitive about the feedback.

Feedback in general is hard, but as the CEO in your business, if somebody is not executing your vision at how you want. As the person who is running the business and the person who is running the show and inevitably is accountable for the end product, if it's not meeting your standards. I, I know it's a hard conversation because we are often women sensitive creatures.

We are, you know, of course. Like wanting to be people to feel appreciated that are helping you, all those things, but not having a conversation is not helpful. I know I can look back to years ago and I would have a freelancer that, they would make something and I'd be like, holy hell, that is not at all what I explained, and that looks like a tornado, and so then I wouldn't say anything and then I would fix it, and then I would be like, what next time?

Why didn't I say something to them when that opportunity was there? To help really show them what I wanted, to articulate what I wanted better. But instead I chose like it's the end of the wedding week. Fucking tired. They're tired, everybody's sensitive. Everything is just like, you know, higher stress because like we have the sheer volume of what we're doing or you know, whatever.

And so I would let it slide and I just. After time, like when you repeatedly let things slide and don't give feedback, you are only hurting your business because you are probably spending more time, you're probably spending more mental energy than you need to, and it's just like this domino effect of ineffectiveness.

If you want to be an effective leader, you need to set the tone and set the expectations. And if you are a business owner and you are having people work for you from a freelance capacity, you are leading the charge. You are setting the tone, you are setting the bar of what is okay in the studio, and do I know that there can be some extreme studio floral shop?

Vibes or just issues that definitely can happen. But again, setting the tone for the vibes in the studio. What you want in the studio, what even down to like how a person feels. Welcome into your studio. Is so critical. So some things to kind of set the tone, I think is for one, having a welcoming space for your freelancers.

So if you have like a cubby for them to put their items in, if you have a setup for them to eat lunch. Or you know, you even on a really busy week, I often will buy lunch because I'm appreciative of them working so hard. So setting the tone of like, you are welcome here is really important because if somebody is just coming into your space and they're taking a part of your space, instead of them being a part of the space.

So I make sure my space feels like it's everyone's space. I'm not like a kid who is guarding the sandbox. So a welcoming, inviting space that they have a place in. They have a place to, and I even will like often when I get somebody new, I'm like, let me show you around. I just had a new freelancer on the farm.

It was my first new freelancer on the farm. And I said, let me show you around. I, I want you to know that you're welcome to go and check out anything here. Like nothing is off limits. I want you to feel like this is a welcoming space and a really like a really positive nurturing experience when you come down here, because that's the point of me buying the farm.

I want people to feel good when they come to it. And I know this person's driving, so I want them to feel good because they're driving. Almost like 50 minutes to get here. And so that has to be worth it. And so creating that experience for me is important because I'm gonna get people to drive because of that experience.

So I walked her like, here's the flower shop, here's our flower friends. Introduced, I walked them to the, um, animal pens. I showed the flowers that I'm growing. I just kind of like the vibe of the farm. And then I showed them where the bathroom was. I showed them, you know, if you want to eat wherever. So really laying out and explaining your space, how it's used and how they fit into it.

Um, having a designated work spot for them so they're not just coming in and not knowing where to go is really important because like if somebody feels like, I don't know where I'm gonna go, it's confusing, here is your workstation. Is so much better than like, where should I go? So really having that workstation set up for that person.

And then a plan next thing. You need to have a plan when they get here, if you do not know what they're gonna be working on. Uh, I've had people who are really proactive and just know what needs to be done in the studio and they've just like kind of attacked it. But I've also had people just will fucking wait for the next instruction.

You never know what freelancer you're going to get. I literally like, can you please pick up a broom and help clean this mess up? Like I don't overly enjoy. Freelancers in my studio that are those type of freelancers that need to be told. I like self-starters, who are self-motivated, that if they just know the overall vision of what needs to be done, they can execute that vision.

I do not like handholding. I do not like babysitting. I often am not even in the studio, and so. Minimal guidance is pretty critical to me because I'm with my children. I am running up to go get flowers. I'm delivering flowers. Like I spend kind of a minimum amount of time during the week actually designing, um, because I'm out doing a million other things, which is why I have freelancers, so I can accomplish those things.

But. Making sure that they understand. And so one of the things that I love to do is have our list of to-dos and I have magnetic dry erase boards that I ordered on Amazon. And we have a, this is same processes followed down to the farm. We have these stuck on a metal door. And we write like this is due by Friday, this is due by Saturday.

Then we can cross things off the list and start kind of chipping away at all the items that we do. So I often, when it's the beginning of the week and we're writing everything on the board, we'll kind of almost have a debrief. Of course it's great for you to assign individual tasks, but I think it's really important for people to understand the overall vision of what needs to be accomplished in the week.

So if. I'm debriefing everyone. Hey everybody. We have three weddings this week. One is an Indian wedding that, um, we're gonna be doing a month up. We're gonna be doing some centerpieces. The next one is a traditional wedding, and we're just doing bridal bouquets and a ceremony piece. And then the third one is an a la carte.

That has five bouquets and like we go and we write this down so everybody understands the vision of what we're looking to accomplish. If you go into somewhere and you have no idea the volume of work that needs to be done, you have no idea what actually needs to be created if you have no idea like where the ship is headed.

It's really hard to get like that energy behind getting things done and that momentum as a team, we're getting all this work done in support of our end goal of these three weddings being done. So I think really understanding and, and debriefing the freelancers as a group is really helpful. Then of course, having your individual tasks for people.

📍 I always ask freelancers when, especially they're new to me, what do you like to create? Because I like to make bouquets. That is one of the funnest things to me. I do not love, but I am good at. But I do not love making huge tall centerpieces. I can make them really fast but they're just not inspiring to me.

They're kind of mundane and like, not my favorite, but I can do them. But I want somebody to be doing something that fuels like their creative soul. And so I ask newer freelancers always like, what do you like to create? What is it like your jam? What do you love to make? And I've had people tell me personals, which I'm like, Ooh, ooh, not my favorite.

Um, I've had to, people tell me bouquets, I've had pe people tell me centerpieces. I've had people tell me that they love to do Bud VAEs. You know, like I, it's amazing what you get for feedback when you actually ask questions. And so asking questions is. A great way to find somebody's strengths and even ask that before they even get there.

If you're posting out there, Hey, I'm looking for freelancers for X and X date, and then somebody sends you a dm, Hey, what is your floral superpower? What are you really good at? What like brings you joy? What is fun for you? What is inspiring to you? Like those are things that are really. I think important to understand 'cause you're playing to that person's strengths and not putting them in their weaknesses.

If you have three different tasks that need to be done, and one of them is this freelancer superpower and one of 'em is that freelancer superpower, it's best to allocate where people shine. Because you're going to probably have less time invested from them, which it will be cheaper labor for you, and you're getting them to do things that make them happy, not things that they are begrudgingly doing, which is never fun.

So always have a conversation with a newer freelancer and just ask them, you know what? What do you love to do? I think the next thing is if they are creating and designing for you, is creating the expectation of what they can share. I've had freelancers that wanna document every fucking thing, and I personally do not care if they created something in collaboration with being freelancing for me, as long as they basically post that and tag that accordingly.

So if somebody's coming here and say, I was freelancing for Green Goddess Floral this week and I helped create this, if it's not something they didn't even touch, I don't want them posting it. But having clarification on posting with a freelancer is also a pretty important for step. I personally do not care if somebody posts something that I designed, did the recipe for everything.

If they were a big part of the execution, this is a differing opinion than many florists. And I think part of that is that I always want people to succeed. I always want good things for people, especially people who are helping me, and if them posting something is beneficial, like I don't care. I want them to win.

I want them to be successful. I want big things for them. And with that, if that includes them posting and just tagging properly, that's great. But I have talked to other florists that are sideways about this, that can't believe the audacity that these people would wanna post stuff that they did not design recipe, et cetera.

So it, I think really just creating the expectation around this is what's okay in my studio is a perfect way to make sure that you are on the same page because it is way better to address it ahead of time instead of cleaning up a mess afterwards that you weren't comfortable with, that you're upset that you're sideways.

Because they didn't know what your expectations were, but you were expecting them to know them. All right, now let's go back to having difficult conversations. This is something I also have had to do a multitude of times over the years. One conversation, which was particularly tough. I had a freelancer who was older.

I seem to get. I mean, I have Elaine, um, you guys have probably heard me talk about her. She was my mom's neighbor and she is like going, she just turned 86 and she's like a cornerstone in my business. So I have always been amenable to someone who was older, retired, helping. Like I have had people in their seventies designing that have been florist for a million years.

I. I love, honestly, like love their energy usually. 'cause they're grateful, they're excited to do something. They're excited to get outta the house. Like I think e Elaine in particular, like, I mean she's, we call her Grandma Elaine. She's part of our family now. She comes to. Thanksgiving and Easter and we just celebrated her birthday and ordered pizza and celebrated her 'cause we love her.

But like this is giving her purpose and I am all about always making the world a better place. But she can be opinionated, she can be kind of snappy at me. Sometimes I have to have a difficult conversation and say, I know that you think you're being helpful, but how you're approaching it isn't being helpful.

And I know it's different because we have a different dynamic. I literally, if somebody does something shitty to her, like is trying to scam her or like whatever I am, her daughter and I will call in yell at people. So it's a different dynamic, but I feel like honest conversations. In the midst of something happening our way.

People can't improve if they don't know. So it is hard for us to give feedback that we're afraid we're gonna hurt somebody's feelings. We're afraid that they're not gonna wanna come back, especially if we need help. We're afraid that we're gonna come off wrong. We're afraid that they're gonna think that we're mean.

I mean, a million things can go through your head that don't feel good. So part of what I think is really important in having a conversation is starting a conversation with, I feel not, you did this, not pointing fingers. Really think going, coming from a perspective of like, you feel this way about something.

So I had a freelancer who I can tell, like anytime I mention something was sensitive and whenever I texted very short answers, I, so I texted her and I said. I have a feeling something in our communication isn't working right now, and I truly value you as a freelancer and I wanna make it better if I can.

And so is there something going on? She honestly felt like anytime I gave her feedback that I was being super critical. And I said, I didn't mean it that way at all, but I appreciate you sharing that. It came across as critical. I said, I often am more of a direct communicator, and so I was just being direct and not wasting time and telling you that I thought that this.

Thing need to be changed or it needs to be done this way. And I said, I appreciate you sharing with me that you took it as being critical, and I apologize that's how you received it. That was not my intention. And I do value you, but I also need to make sure that the work produced in my studio is up to a certain level.

And that was not a super. Fun feeling conversation, but I feel like after that conversation we were able to move forward in a different kind of capacity of working relationship because I knew that my feedback with her could be received wrong. And so if I could sense. That it wasn't that I knew immediately to check in with her.

I do feel that often the younger generation can be more sensitive. We are in the age of feelings like we never have been before. My daughter has I mean, and she's 11, you guys. So many feelings about how something can be delivered that like I sometimes can't even fathom that she would receive something I said in a way she did.

So with understanding that especially potentially the younger generation, uh, is just set up different than my generation. I'm in my mid forties. Um, I am. Not very sensitive. I'm a direct communicator. I'd rather communicate by talking to you than texting you or I don't Snapchat. You know, I like, there's just things that like fundamentally are more traditional about my approach.

I'm not gonna be passive aggressive. I'm just gonna kind of tell you the way it is. Sometimes that's not received well, so. I always go into feedback and say, you know what? I really appreciate how you took the initiative to do whatever, but this doesn't look like the mockup that I made, and so I'm wondering if you could help me kind of change it.

I try to make those teachable moments, not spank able moments, if that makes sense. I'm not here to spank anybody and tell them that they did a bad job. I'm here to help them be better florists, better teammates, better freelancers for me. So it's my job to help them. I have a freelancer that, like one of her big struggles is she makes bouquets kind of lopsided, so there's like a flat part.

Often, and instead of just telling her that I took pictures of when I'm going and putting them, I had to end up fixing them, like there's all these flat spots on the back. Literally two stems needed to be pulled up and it helped fix that flat part, but I needed to show her the photo. Then I fixed it and then showed her the photo and I explained what I did.

I took two stems and pulled them up, and that would help fix that spot. But if you're just telling somebody they did a shitty job, basically, that it's not up to your standards and didn't tell them how they could meet your standards. That is going to create an environment that someone is not gonna be wanna be in very long term.

So I always take, I am helping this person. I am naturally a coach. I love helping people. I love teaching people. I get fired up making someone the best version of themself. And even if they learn one thing, I want to add value. And that night might not be where you're at. You might give two shits about adding value to anybody, but this person is adding value to your business.

So how can you reciprocate, teach them how to be a better freelancer for you? Also, making sure that there's really clear expectations. Going into any freelancing situation is so much more helpful. So having initial conversations of about what you're exactly looking like, 'cause I've heard all the stories.

This person hired me to do design work. All I am is doing grunt work and they're bitter about it. When you aren't going into a relationship on the same page, it's really fucking easy to get bitter fast. You want to be welcoming and just like this person that they want to freelance for if you want them to freelance for you, of course, but normally you never know.

Like I think I'm almost overly accommodating because I never know when shit's going to hit the fan and I might need extra help. I wanna make sure that I have people who want to be that extra help. That is so important to me that I have really just this like arsenal of people that I can contact. That has definitely gotten trickier and made me more appreciative since I moved to the farm.

But I also had one of my sweetest freelancers. Basically say that she just wanted to, she just wants to work for me because it's, it's not, doesn't feel high stress. It doesn't feel like critical. It doesn't feel icky. She wants low stress, something that feels good, something that's relaxing, something that she can feel good about.

And so she's driving like 45 minutes. And we'll go out and see the animals and say hi to them. Bring her grandkids down here to visit the animals whenever she wants. Like I wanna create an environment that feels good. I went and bought like a little mini fridge here in the studio for people. I want people to be able to put stuff.

I went and bought a kitchen table for my key. I'm gonna set up a little lunch station. We have a bathroom in the studio. One thing that I really, really wanted because I wanted people to feel like they're not intruding into our house to go to the bathroom, and those were all like goals. 'cause I wanted my freelancers to really enjoy coming here.

So just be yourself. Create an environment that you would wanna work in. Create an environment that feels good for everybody. Just because somebody is working for you does not mean that they dictate. You are the leader in your studio. You set the tone, you set the expectations, and you. Realistically need to make sure that your needs are met first, because if you keep getting clients that aren't happy with your work, your client load will keep dwindling down, so you need to make sure you're executing at a level that really feels good to you.

Then my last tip for handling freelancers is creating expectations about being paid. I so struggled with this for a while 'cause I would have all of these people immediately when they're done because these are often people who are creative souls that are following their passion that might not have a day job.

They're kind of not making a lot of money 'cause they're trying to build their own business. And I would have them text and like wanna get paid almost immediately. And I'm like, I can't fucking drop everything to pay. Like I, I, one week had 13 different people freelancing for me. I can't drop everything for 13 people to pay 13 people.

So if I created this process. Text me by the end of Sunday, your hours, and I will make sure that I pay you via Venmo or Zelle. I prefer Zelle because it comes automatically outta my checking account and I will pay you by the end of day. And then end of day was not clear enough because I had a couple freelancers at five o'clock.

5 0 5. End of day to me is midnight because I often will do my work 'cause I am with my children at five o'clock. So creating clear payment standards is also an easy way for you to set this relationship up for success. People are coming to work for you because they're getting paid, hopefully because they're also getting other things like joy, creative, fulfillment, all those things.

But. Understanding how they will get paid is a critical part of it. So that is my last tip. Thank you so much for listening. Flower Friends, if you didn't hear the announcement, I'm plugging it again just in case you didn't hear the next Floral Rockstar Retreat. Is on the books for September 21st, the 23rd, and it is going to be this restorative experience that you can reconnect with your creativity, where you can relax and recharge your battery, where you can connect with like-minded flower friends.

You can get re-inspired with these amazing designs, these amazing installations. You can leave here with a portfolio of incredible images from the styled shoot, and we're gonna be doing still life shoots. It's going to be so good. It is limited and within hours. We were already sold out to 20% of the tickets were sold within hours, so please go check out floral ceo.com/.

Workshop or go on any of my posts on Instagram and comment Rockstar. Thank you so much for listening, flower Friends, and thank you for listening to the show. You mean a lot to me, and I've been so grateful for the reviews that have been coming in lately, and I see you and honestly, send me a DM if you have a question.

Just like this person did, 'cause I did a whole episode to help them because it is so important to me to be adding value to you guys and making a difference on real life issues that you are facing. So thanks so much, flower friend, and you have an amazing flower filled week. 📍