The Floral CEO

  Friends, this is Jen, and on this week's episode, I wanna talk about building a brand. I have over at the million years that I've been doing this, I have rebranded my business so many times from the ages of like. I was making logos in Vistaprint, before there was all the cool AI tools for you to do that, to really like hiring a brand designer and doing that and hiring.

A company called Design Crowd that is a kind of brand powerhouse that helps you rebrand your business and create logos, create projects, and million other things. So I wanna talk about like 10. Ways without a rebrand, without all these things that you can build a brand and really start to shift and change everything into being the business that you want.

I went through a phase where I had a business. For like 17 years, you guys, and the business name was simply stated, elegance. I feel like that brand said budget. That brand did not say luxury. Did not say high end. Did not say I didn't really speak to my personality 'cause honestly you guys, there's nothing simple about me.

And when I would get inquiries, I would really pay attention to the language that was in the inquiries and they would say they want a simple wedding. Well, I equate a lot of times simple with budget, simple with, low revenue and I. I really it was a struggle because I was trying to elevate, I hired business, a business coach.

I hired several different business coaches that really, like, I was just evolving and here they are talking to me about really changing how my brand was being perceived and how my brand. Was currently because of not only how my logo looked, and not only because of how I had positioned myself forever, it, it was literally like ingrained in my heart that I didn't deserve higher budget clients.

And like that felt like shit because I know that I did and I know that I was this, turning, especially evolving into this. Higher end self and like I felt like my brand was keeping me stuck. And my brand previously, DIY logos that looked very DIY and so simple. If your logo is in Canva and you tweaked it.

Like it potentially has a lower budget vibe. You can always vibe the shit out of anything, you guys. I don't think that you need to necessarily spend money, but I had hired a designer. I did all these things to try to elevate a brand that in my heart I had built this brand to be budget driven and I, in my heart, like just felt like that was holding me back so.

That inevitably is what drove me to completely rebrand, completely change my name and regretfully. So, and then in, in retrospect, I wish I didn't do this I completely started a new business and from a legal. Standpoint because I just thought it was the simplest thing to do. And in looking back, if I did it again, I wouldn't do that because then I lost all of that business history, which kind of sucks.

But when I'm thinking about a brand and really having brand focus, I want you to start thinking about three brand words. So go in and choose three words that you want your brand to embody. What are, like, it could be something like, you know, what are the things that you really wanna be doing?

And like when you visualize what that is. Like I envision like at one of my workshops or at one of my styled shoots or like one of my really fancy weddings bold editorial, like colorful dripping flowers, just like all the things. So what words, three brand words that you can really start to instill in everything that you were doing, posting how you're talking about your business and.

What really sets you apart? That could be bold, calm, editorial, colorful, warm, modern, whatever it is. Like what three words and how can you take those three words and guide your content? Then number two, I want you to write a one line known for statement like mine. I am known for color, I am known for cultural weddings.

So like, those are two big things that I really bring, but I also bring calm. I am very calm, even keeled confidence. So how can I take and build a one line that I am known for? Like I create blank for blank who want blank? You can put this in your bio, your website, your inquiries, like who are you and what are you known for, and how can you write a one line statement?

Use chat TPT for this. Use Chachi BT to help craft like this statement so that when you're building an elevator pitch, you know you can really use that to your advantage. And, and when you dig into build identity and brand, a lot of times you think I'm doing it to, you know, my website and update my website.

It's like, it is so not that it is. Ingraining in you when you are at a networking event, you to go, I am and I am known for like when I do my elevator pitch. Hi, I am Jenny from Green Goddess Floral. I'm a wedding and event florist that specializes in color and colorful weddings and I or cultural weddings.

I also do a ton of cultural weddings. And you know, like that those, I said color and cultural, those can be two different things. Or I mean, often cultural weddings are very colorful. So you could just say, I specialize in colorful, natural, colorful, organic, you know, whatever. Whatever you want. Then. Use like number three is like using a signature phrase everywhere, own your own catchphrase and clients will start repeating it.

Like example, like the calm on wedding days or like my catchphrase is I'm the queen of color, you guys. I do, 90% of my weddings are color. That is a very high. Color percentage. I bet most florists operate in 50 50. Bill, I am writing probably like 80, at least 80 to 90 of my weddings are colorful. And so if you are, like known for something foam free you know, just whatever it's.

Grab a signature phrase and that you can use it e everywhere, like I am the queen of color. And so if you were you have a colorful wedding in mind, I am your girl. Like, how can you have that confidence going into your, marketing, your branding? All right. And then number four, I want you to really standardize the tone.

Do you want to be friendly? Do you wanna be calm? Do you wanna have like a cheeky and bold feel to it? Then make like captions or emails that sound like you every time? Like how can you come across as like you are like even like super calm, like people love calm. How can you like bring whatever vibe that makes you as a person?

How can you bring that into your world? And make it your own so that you are just like creating a tone, creating a, a catchphrase can, creating like a brand identity. These are things that don't require a ton of money, but kind of start with you developing these like pillars in your head, these principles in your head, these kind of guiding facts in your head to really drive your business forward.

All right. Number five, I want you to create, and I've talked about this in almost every social media episode I've ever done content pillars and rotate them. So you can create brand consistency. You can create brand, really like recognition because somebody needs to see something like seven times before it registers.

So if you have like, content pillars to me are like fundamental parts of your business and supporting them. So as a wedding florist, uh, or wedding and events, florist, I would say my content pillars are, uh, about us because I want somebody to fall in love with me as the business owner. I want somebody to fall in love with just how we do business, how easy we try to make it, our process. Um, so the about us can really like invite someone in to explain how you do business and potentially how you do business differently. Then like you could have like you work. So mine are about us. Full service, a la carte. So flowers I talk a lot about, so flowers and cultural weddings.

Sometimes I, you know, focus, okay, if I am not doing a ton of cultural weddings, don't have a ton of cultural wedding content, which usually it's never, but sometimes I'll focus on like gardening, growing flowers, the farm. And so I'm kind of rounding that out to be a little bit more organic, whimsical, like my brand kind of is.

You could have a content pillar if you are a funeral expert, that could be another contact pillar. If you are really have a ton of rentals, like rentals could be a content pillar there. You just need to look at like your revenue buckets and also like you as a person and fit, fit those together so that you can create a consistent marketing plan and rotate them.

Because when you do that, you are creating this brand consistency, this brand that is recognizable. This brand. Like I, it was so funny 'cause I was at this Minnesota Bride launch and there was a shoot that I did that was a tomato inspired Judo was absolutely beautiful you guys, and I loved it. It was you know, kind of in the middle of the book.

And then I walked over to this table and it was a couple of girls that used to be in my mastermind. And 'cause you know, they were there in, in the Mastermind for like over a year. And so they like really knew my work. Well, they had freelanced for me before and they said, oh, you were published. And they said, we knew it was you before we even saw your name.

Because of my like signature style of how I design. So that was like, that was there. That was there and it was a beautiful thing that here's these people that like recognize that right away. And so I have built a brand around because they saw the color, they saw the shapes, the styles, everything was alluding to this brand.

So very, very interesting. Next is now that you've got these content pillars, hopefully you, your story, your about you, about your business, how they do business with you, et cetera, you show your face weekly. It doesn't need to be perfect. It does. It just. Presence. Basically a quick story and your voice builds trust, fa faster than any fucking bouquet photo you could ever show.

People do business with you, not with your bouquet photo, so you need them to fall in love with you. In my business, bouquets and branding. We like literally dive into how to do a video. So if this is something you're like, this scares the shit out of me. I am showing you how to do a video, like literally we practice it.

You guys, it is not that crazy. And I know that all these fraud feelings come in all these things. Like, I mean, it can just feel like shit, like showing up can be scary. I'm telling you, it doesn't need to be as scary because people I know, they will just love you. And you know what? Like my videos over the years, I have been doing videos for years and years and years and years, and my videos have just gotten better.

You get better, like practice and what is the worst? Somebody's gonna think like what is the, and honestly, do we even care? Do we care what those people think? You are showing up in your business because you're showing up for yourself. You're showing up for your brand. You are showing up to build a brand that makes money.

You deserve to make money. This is not a question about like, oh, I'm so scared. Like I have seen people come out of their shell and start to like put themself out there and their business has blown up. 'cause they're very lovable. I am very lovable you guys, and that's why I show up on video and I know you are just as lovable if, probably not even more because I'm a little sassy when I show up on video.

So showing up on video and just saying, hi, my name is Jenny Beck. I'm the owner of Green Gods Floro. We're a wedding and event studio located in the Twin Cities area. We specialize in color. We actually absolutely love organic, locally grown product. We actually grow flowers ourself on our family farm, and we would love to be a part of your special day.

This is how you work with us and like explaining that process. How easy was that? But I've also practiced that is my elevator pitch. And your elevator pitch is so important because you never know when you're gonna need that bad boy. You never know when you're gonna be at a networking event and you indeed need to pitch a wedding planner.

You never know when you're gonna be somewhere and you have that moment, that moment to shine. And if you don't take that moment, like that's, you could miss out from like an amazing opportunity. And I just want more for you. Practice, practice, practice. If you are scared shitless, practice doing a video and DM it to me on Insta at the floral ceo.

Send it to me. So you send it to somebody. I won't share it, I won't show it, I won't anything but like put it out there to one person and I will be that one person. I will give you feedback on what I think of your video. I want you to be brave. 2026 is the year of putting your big girl panties on you guys and being brave.

I want so much more for you and, and it starts with little things like this, being able to be unapologetically afraid because you deserve to be here. You deserve to be seen. Alright, so showing your face weekly. Number seven, one signature offer that is stupidly clear. Your best clients should know in five seconds what you do.

You do full service. Weddings, you do a la carte, you do you specialize in soap flowers, you specialize in, um, you're a flower farmer, whatever it is. Somebody should be able to tell clear and concisely what you do within five seconds. This shouldn't be them looking and thinking. You have multiple personality disorder, so how can you make what you do so clear?

And if you're multi-passionate about a million different things like I am, how can you make your prime revenue source abundantly clear right away? Look at all the different areas you show up. How can that be so clear you guys? Because when there's clarity, it makes it really clear for that person who wants to do video business with you, what they can give you money for.

All right? Then add recognizable visual cues, A consistent photo style. So like I always. Edit my photos in Photoshop Express. It's called PS Express. It's an app, and in the business Bouquets and Branding workshop, I teach you guys how to edit photos beautifully, and I teach you how to take your own damn photos.

This is not that hard. I'm gonna teach you how to take. Because if you look at my Green Goddess Floral Instagram, so much of that was taken by me and edited by me because I don't wanna depend on anybody else for capturing my amazing work. I depend on me. So if you want to be able to put more work out there, especially like when you're practicing, if you don't have the work.

That you've com done and you need to make work to be able to share, to show you wanna be able to capture it. And you can't do that with a styled shoot every time, 'cause you will go broke doing that many styled shoots. So how can you personally learn to do those things on your own? And in my workshop, which is coming up on April 26th through the 28th, I show you that exact thing.

We're actually going to do it here. On the farm. So I'll show you like, you're in your studio, this is how you can do this, which is gonna be so impactful. All right. Then you could also implement things like a framing style, like how you take the photos, a backdrop that you have, um, hands in your flowers, shots some florists, like they'll have, like, they're putting a bouquet together and they have.

Like against a white backdrop. And if you're watching on YouTube, you can kind of see they're like holding it out and then they're kind of twisting the bloom and then they're capturing like seven or eight of those, or 10 ingredients, what, however many ingredients that you have. They're capturing those and then they go you know, in this whole, whole like montage of these stems together going into the bouquet.

So just creating like this signature, like I do what I teach in the business bouquets and branding workshop, like a kind of over the top of this white kind of board that I have. And I have a couple different ones and I make it really easy, like it's. You lay it down on the ground and I have all these cheese cloths and like, it's super simple.

It's fast for me to do because if it's going to take forever, you're not gonna do it, especially on a busy wedding week. And then you could, could, could miss out on some of your favorite. Bouquets or favorite, kind of photo opportunities because you were too busy to implement that, and I just, you need that content.

If you were starting your business, especially, you need that content and you need to create a low entry to success. All right, then. Putting some brand boundaries, AKA, like your CEO, energy office, hours, response times, minimums. What do you wanna do? Boundaries are branding, and if you are an unapologetic like pushover, like I'll do anything.

I'll do anything. Like I used to be that person. I used to be like, I will do anything. And I mean, that's like my era of doing a hundred and twenty five, a hundred thirty five weddings in a year. Being burnt out, being broke. 'cause I didn't make any money because I also didn't feel like I was worth my value.

I also felt like being the cheapest and doing volume was going to give me, clout and give me really meaning and all these other things and like. Inevitably, I know all those things are not true, but I didn't know that then. You know, I had to, I had to go through a big learning curve and I just don't want that for you.

So if you can envi envision your perfect business, your perfect, like stress level, what that would, what would that look like? Every, it was so fun. 'cause in the fluoro CEO Mastermind, you know, we did a Valentine's recap. Everybody in there was just like, Valentine's felt so much better because of the boundaries.

And the boundaries, like we talked about putting in place and with all these beautiful women in the group being to this fuck that era I am not going to feel like shit like that to me was, is so impactful. That somebody has grown to a place that they can have these amazing boundaries and not feel bad, because when you get to that point, you know that you are stepping into your CEO energy and not letting other people step on you.

All right, next stuff with the recognizable visual cue that we kind of talked about earlier. I wanna make sure that like it looks consistent and when you're going in and taking these photos, like you need to make sure that if you're collecting photos, especially from other photographers, the, there's all some consistency in it.

So what I call is like your. Your kind of vibe or look, and this was so apparent because, you know, I am the director of programs for WPA Minneapolis, and we were going through and um, looking at photographers that we would like to partner for our next event. And when I was going through, we were like, this photographer is dark and moody.

This photographer is a film based or kind of, um. Like flash-based, like looks Polaroid this is a light and airy. So when you're building that kinda like signature, like all the different cues in there, I want you to think about that in the mix because it definitely can deter someone potentially if all of a sudden you get a bunch of photos from a wedding, you're blasting that wedding.

And it's very like sepia, dark and moody, and that's not your vibe. Um, I want you to be consistent as possible because that is how you build a brand. All right? And then another part of your brand is I want you to collect and reuse. Brand receipts. So like people basically saying how fucking awesome that you are.

So screenshot client compliments Google reviews, the not reviews. If you do not have, and I actually went through this with one of my coaching clients. If you do not have all the places people can do reviews on. You need to go and make sure you're getting that on your to-do list to set up. Because getting apl, you need to have places where people can actually do reviews.

So getting those places set up is so important, so then you can screenshot them or you can go in and create a Canva graphic that is consistent to your brand. And go in and set that up. And one way you could easily do that is in Canva, you can set up a brand guide, like you can go in and preload your fonts and your colors and everything, and so that you can easily go in and apply those items to any graphic that you are creating to help create that perfect brand.

On your on any graphic you're creating. So collecting all of these like brand receipts, these dms, whatever, really can help solidify that social proof that building a brand requires. Brands are not built in a day, but they are built with repetition and I would love for that repetition. To build a brand that you adore.

If you need help going like, I need help building a brand, I. The business bouquets and branding workshop, you guys is amazing. And the price. Soon, the early bird price is going to be expiring because we are nearing on about like six weeks away, seven weeks away, seven weeks away. I think it is in um, actually on two locations.

So it, on the 26th, you guys are going to come to my family farm, to my home studio. And we are going to do a studio tour. So you're gonna see how my studio is set up for success. Then we are the, and then plus you're gonna meet 'cause you're spending a couple days with all these amazing women. Um, I have not had men yet come to one of my workshops, so I should say amazing women.

And so then you're gonna go in and meet all these, we have like, you know, some charcuterie and just, we make it really kind of fun. Then the next day we are gonna be on the farm again, and it is in Denison, Minnesota, which is about 45 minutes away. There is a hotel in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, that's 12 minutes away from the farm.

So really close by and we're going to dive into making the perfect spiral technique. Okay. Then we're going to, while we're doing designing, we're gonna be talking about business. We're gonna be, if you've had any burning questions, like this is your chance. You can ask me anything. I am an open book and I am here to help you grow your business and be successful.

And this is your space to do it. So bring any questions you have, any questions that anybody has or any topics that they wanna talk about, we go through while we're, we're making our bouquets and we talk about it, then we are going to build a whole. Styled shoot. I'm actually probably gonna have to start on it earlier, um, because we have a all order of items that we're going to be making.

'cause on day three it is going to be at Woodhaven, which is this beautiful light and airy. And if you want a portfolio that looks light in the airy, this place is beautiful. It is like white, beautiful windows, and we have such a fun style shoot planned. We are gonna make this giant U-shaped head table.

It's gonna have this beautiful backdrop of a mantle fireplace. It's, it's gonna perfectly frame the head table. We're gonna have a really fun kind of setup for our, our tables that are gonna be just like our representative tables. And then our ceremony backdrop is gonna be like that really fun kind of chaos draping that's got, like, the things kind of pulled everywhere, but it's gonna have a purple peekaboo kind of fabric coming.

And then these beautiful flowers, um, lining the side. It also is gonna have a little area that's gonna have this like fun lavender lemonade signature drink. And we're gonna have like lemon slices hanging in there. It's gonna be like this kind. Find a fun de desserty drink kind of corner, and we're gonna have like these ice cubes in it that are just beautiful.

So super fun. But during, you know, this. While we're kind of setting everything up for the styled shoot in the morning, I have a makeup artist who's absolutely amazing. Michelle Dunlap designs, and she's gonna come and do makeup re retouches on you guys and then. You create you know, some fun outfit and you're gonna get branding photos.

You can bring your bouquet from when we were on creating it the day before and then you know, you are going to get these fun branding mini shoots done and you are gonna get the portfolio. For all of it. So your branding images, the you know, shoot images, the complete style shoot images, you get all that.

So you're gonna have. Several different looks to be able to use in your portfolio. The color palette is a beautiful lavender and buttery yellow, like a really light yellow. And we're gonna use like spring flowers, like alium and tulips and creme to the creme roses and candlelight roses. I absolutely love candlelight roses and it's just gonna be so refreshing and, uh.

If you are a florist, starting out like this is gonna be a portfolio that attracts money. The images are gonna be done by my friend Alexander Robin, who is an amazing photographer, and I absolutely love her work and you will too. So please go check out floral ceo.com/workshop. It is for the price. An unbelievable value because you would spend more than this on flowers.

You are not having to coordinate anything other than getting your ass here and you're gonna get all of this amazing value from a business perspective, from a branding and from a mechanics, like a spiral technique. Bouquet, to me, is like one of the most critical things that we need to learn and. This is a huge opportunity for you to really start putting yourself out there and being seen in the way that your business needs to be seen to make money.

So please go check that out. Thank you so much for listening, flower Friend, and you have an amazing flower filled day.