The True Cost of Styled Shoots (and Why You Don’t Have to Do It Alone)
Hello Flower friends. Today we're gonna talk about style shoots, and I've been reminded of really like the costs, not only from a, you know. Actual phy physical costs, like money, you have to pay for the flowers and all these things, but like the emotional costs and the mental energy that you're using there, it's so much bigger than I think somebody looking in on Instagram at somebody's magical moment really is.
So, style shoots are super glamorous on Instagram, but let's really talk about the actual cost you. Because that's way, way, way, way, way more than flowers. All right, so let's start off with the real cost of flowers. You are usually not putting your shoddy foot forward, so we're not usually putting in things that are leftovers or are maybe not at their peak of their prime, usually not basic Betty Flowers you're using.
Buying premium blooms, you're designing multiple pieces for content. So a ceremony, a table, a bouquet, an installation on and on. Flowers are often not easily repurposable for paid work, so you're not like able to just, I'm gonna take all these and then tear it apart and then use it for a paid job. Usually there isn't that like great opportunity to do that.
And then there's a risk of waste if designs don't photograph well, like you could potentially have something that just doesn't photograph well for some reason. Um, this is a marketing expense, not a fun creative project. It costs money to market. In styled shoots are a way to market your business in several levels.
Marketing with the pictures that you're getting in the long run. Marketing, hopefully if you have a team on board that is stellar and is, you know, uh, people who are usually kind of at their top of their game that are, are vendors that like to be submitted for styled shoots for potential publication.
Then there's a relationship capital. The relationships that you build at these, it's just, there's just domino of value, and I would love for you to get that value out of those situations, but I would love for you not to blow your marketing budget on one. All right, the next one. Is really the time costs, and nobody really talks about this, but as someone who backs into what my hourly wage is.
Often and does that with coaching clients, like things take time, mood boards, conceptions, like all of those things, take time. Emailing with collaborators, coordinating schedules, chasing deliverables, packing and loading, and set up and tear down, editing content, posting, tagging, following up. You could easily put in 24 40, 22, 40 hours into one shoot.
Easy. Um, and that's time you could have spent designing for paying clients, working on your business or imagine this resting. All right. The next one is the mental and emotional load. This part is exhausting. Will the photographer deliver the actual. Like look and feel that I'm going for, will this venue share the images?
Will this even attract my ideal client? Do I choose? Did I choose? Like, you know, you're always looking at something and you're just like, oh my God, it's so beautiful. But really, did you choose the right color palette, concept model, and all of that for the right. You know, venue and all of that with the right photographer.
'cause like all these things kind of meld together. The emotional labor on this is totally real. All right. Then there is the collaboration tax. Even with donations, you are still coordinating a mini production. You are often carrying the creative and logistics load because like the flowers are the prettiest part of that.
I care about things being really fucking pretty when I'm doing these types of things, and that can sometimes be dicey, so I, I wanna make sure that I'm getting the right team in place. All right, and then you're relying on other people's professionalism. You can't, don't control timelines, edits, or brand alignment, and sometimes you walk away with images you don't even want to use, which is a complete truth.
I had this exact example when gay marriage was legalized in Minnesota. Somebody invited me into a inclusive shoot that was basically like a pride themed. It was in June, so it was going to be published in like a local pride, um, themed magazine and on and on, and. The photographer, like I really liked them as a person, but that was some dark and booty shit.
Like they just have a darker photo style than I like to fill my feed with. I like light and airy. I think light and airy speaks to money, and so I spent close to a thousand dollars of flowers and I mean, I can say that I did it and I did it for a good reason to celebrate, but. I didn't post those photos because they were too dark and it just wasn't my jam.
All right, then here's the hard truth. Style shoots are high effort, high emotional output, like high cost, low certainty from an ROI perspective. They can be, but. They're not only the one way to build a portfolio or elevate your brand, and I think that's how most people think that they need to do it. So I wanna talk about why workshops could be depending on where you're at, a smarter move.
So instead of spending potentially a thousand dollars on flowers, coordinating with six vendors, hoping the photos turn out, crossing your fingers, that everything comes together, that your model shows up, that your, you know, photographer delivers and doesn't take a million years, and your makeup artist shows up and just all of those things.
Those are all like you're resting a lot of the success of this on other people. But when you go to a workshop, you get this curated high-end installs, professional photography, intentional design for portfolio use. You get education strategy, hands-on, skill building and content that actually aligns with higher end clients.
So I. I want you to remove the guesswork and the what if anxiety and the production stress and wasted time, and really replace it with strategic brand positioning, portfolio content. You're proud of education and confidence and an excellent real ROI like. You actually did something. This wasn't just objective.
You're like, you did something that you have this experience, you learned and you got this portfolio. It's just like so magical. I know 'cause I have designed and put together so many styled shoots that this can be a beast. And I have seen Floris go in and spend three, $4,000 get horse shit. Direction from the person running the style shoot.
I realistically won't really do a style shoot unless I am collaborating with a, an event designer. So somebody that really lives in the design space and I have heavy impact, I. In the decisions I, and also I potentially brought the initial VIN vision to fruition. I normally just like to do run with myself, you know, like, here's the concept, I'm gonna run with it because I don't want to get.
Bogged up in details that are easy for me to figure out, but we have to have like 30 minute conversations about fucking glasses. I just don't have time for that. Like I'll figure out the glasses, they'll be fine. They'll be beautiful. Like I just went and figured out all the linens for four different things that are coming up and it was just absolutely stunning.
So. If you're feeling exhausted by trying to DIY, your brand elevation through style shoots or maybe your portfolio, uh, elevation, there's an easier way, and I have three workshops coming up that will nail any one of these goals. And if you want to even do two even better because then you would get a more diverse portfolio.
The three Floral Rockstar workshops are coming up, and they were designed to give you high level content, real installations, real education, without the emotional and financial burnout of doing it alone. So go check out floral ceo.com/workshop. Otherwise it'll be located in the show notes, your time, your energy and creativity are worth planning for.
So make sure you're giving yourself the space that you deserve because you deserve big, amazing things to make this business go forward. Thank you so much for listening. Flower Friends, we have three workshops coming up. We have our Installation Rockstar Workshop coming up on March 10th and 11th, and it is not too late to buy tickets for that.
Then in April, April 26th through the 28th, we are going to have an amazing workshop. Um, it starts here on my family farm and you're going to see how my studio is set up. We're gonna drive in, dive into business things. We're gonna make bouquets, we're going to talk business, we're gonna talk about branding.
Then the next day we're doing a full style shoot. So you guys are gonna watch us make all the stuff, then go do the style shoot. It is going to be fantastic, and I'm so excited. Please go check out floral ceo.com/mastermind. I would love to hear from you and if you have any questions, please reach out because these workshops are so, they're such a good value, guys, like I, I wanna make sure my workshops.
An unbelievable value, and I am so confident in saying I deliver that. So check it out. I would love to have you. I would love to get the portfolio of your dreams moving in the right direction and make you feel more confident. The next time you get that email that says, Hey. We're looking for a florist for a styled shoot, or, Hey, you know, we're putting together some activity.
I want you to dive deep into really being able to feel confident when you get that email sent your way. Thank you so much for listening, flower friends, and you have an amazing flower filled day.
So, style shoots are super glamorous on Instagram, but let's really talk about the actual cost you. Because that's way, way, way, way, way more than flowers. All right, so let's start off with the real cost of flowers. You are usually not putting your shoddy foot forward, so we're not usually putting in things that are leftovers or are maybe not at their peak of their prime, usually not basic Betty Flowers you're using.
Buying premium blooms, you're designing multiple pieces for content. So a ceremony, a table, a bouquet, an installation on and on. Flowers are often not easily repurposable for paid work, so you're not like able to just, I'm gonna take all these and then tear it apart and then use it for a paid job. Usually there isn't that like great opportunity to do that.
And then there's a risk of waste if designs don't photograph well, like you could potentially have something that just doesn't photograph well for some reason. Um, this is a marketing expense, not a fun creative project. It costs money to market. In styled shoots are a way to market your business in several levels.
Marketing with the pictures that you're getting in the long run. Marketing, hopefully if you have a team on board that is stellar and is, you know, uh, people who are usually kind of at their top of their game that are, are vendors that like to be submitted for styled shoots for potential publication.
Then there's a relationship capital. The relationships that you build at these, it's just, there's just domino of value, and I would love for you to get that value out of those situations, but I would love for you not to blow your marketing budget on one. All right, the next one. Is really the time costs, and nobody really talks about this, but as someone who backs into what my hourly wage is.
Often and does that with coaching clients, like things take time, mood boards, conceptions, like all of those things, take time. Emailing with collaborators, coordinating schedules, chasing deliverables, packing and loading, and set up and tear down, editing content, posting, tagging, following up. You could easily put in 24 40, 22, 40 hours into one shoot.
Easy. Um, and that's time you could have spent designing for paying clients, working on your business or imagine this resting. All right. The next one is the mental and emotional load. This part is exhausting. Will the photographer deliver the actual. Like look and feel that I'm going for, will this venue share the images?
Will this even attract my ideal client? Do I choose? Did I choose? Like, you know, you're always looking at something and you're just like, oh my God, it's so beautiful. But really, did you choose the right color palette, concept model, and all of that for the right. You know, venue and all of that with the right photographer.
'cause like all these things kind of meld together. The emotional labor on this is totally real. All right. Then there is the collaboration tax. Even with donations, you are still coordinating a mini production. You are often carrying the creative and logistics load because like the flowers are the prettiest part of that.
I care about things being really fucking pretty when I'm doing these types of things, and that can sometimes be dicey, so I, I wanna make sure that I'm getting the right team in place. All right, and then you're relying on other people's professionalism. You can't, don't control timelines, edits, or brand alignment, and sometimes you walk away with images you don't even want to use, which is a complete truth.
I had this exact example when gay marriage was legalized in Minnesota. Somebody invited me into a inclusive shoot that was basically like a pride themed. It was in June, so it was going to be published in like a local pride, um, themed magazine and on and on, and. The photographer, like I really liked them as a person, but that was some dark and booty shit.
Like they just have a darker photo style than I like to fill my feed with. I like light and airy. I think light and airy speaks to money, and so I spent close to a thousand dollars of flowers and I mean, I can say that I did it and I did it for a good reason to celebrate, but. I didn't post those photos because they were too dark and it just wasn't my jam.
All right, then here's the hard truth. Style shoots are high effort, high emotional output, like high cost, low certainty from an ROI perspective. They can be, but. They're not only the one way to build a portfolio or elevate your brand, and I think that's how most people think that they need to do it. So I wanna talk about why workshops could be depending on where you're at, a smarter move.
So instead of spending potentially a thousand dollars on flowers, coordinating with six vendors, hoping the photos turn out, crossing your fingers, that everything comes together, that your model shows up, that your, you know, photographer delivers and doesn't take a million years, and your makeup artist shows up and just all of those things.
Those are all like you're resting a lot of the success of this on other people. But when you go to a workshop, you get this curated high-end installs, professional photography, intentional design for portfolio use. You get education strategy, hands-on, skill building and content that actually aligns with higher end clients.
So I. I want you to remove the guesswork and the what if anxiety and the production stress and wasted time, and really replace it with strategic brand positioning, portfolio content. You're proud of education and confidence and an excellent real ROI like. You actually did something. This wasn't just objective.
You're like, you did something that you have this experience, you learned and you got this portfolio. It's just like so magical. I know 'cause I have designed and put together so many styled shoots that this can be a beast. And I have seen Floris go in and spend three, $4,000 get horse shit. Direction from the person running the style shoot.
I realistically won't really do a style shoot unless I am collaborating with a, an event designer. So somebody that really lives in the design space and I have heavy impact, I. In the decisions I, and also I potentially brought the initial VIN vision to fruition. I normally just like to do run with myself, you know, like, here's the concept, I'm gonna run with it because I don't want to get.
Bogged up in details that are easy for me to figure out, but we have to have like 30 minute conversations about fucking glasses. I just don't have time for that. Like I'll figure out the glasses, they'll be fine. They'll be beautiful. Like I just went and figured out all the linens for four different things that are coming up and it was just absolutely stunning.
So. If you're feeling exhausted by trying to DIY, your brand elevation through style shoots or maybe your portfolio, uh, elevation, there's an easier way, and I have three workshops coming up that will nail any one of these goals. And if you want to even do two even better because then you would get a more diverse portfolio.
The three Floral Rockstar workshops are coming up, and they were designed to give you high level content, real installations, real education, without the emotional and financial burnout of doing it alone. So go check out floral ceo.com/workshop. Otherwise it'll be located in the show notes, your time, your energy and creativity are worth planning for.
So make sure you're giving yourself the space that you deserve because you deserve big, amazing things to make this business go forward. Thank you so much for listening. Flower Friends, we have three workshops coming up. We have our Installation Rockstar Workshop coming up on March 10th and 11th, and it is not too late to buy tickets for that.
Then in April, April 26th through the 28th, we are going to have an amazing workshop. Um, it starts here on my family farm and you're going to see how my studio is set up. We're gonna drive in, dive into business things. We're gonna make bouquets, we're going to talk business, we're gonna talk about branding.
Then the next day we're doing a full style shoot. So you guys are gonna watch us make all the stuff, then go do the style shoot. It is going to be fantastic, and I'm so excited. Please go check out floral ceo.com/mastermind. I would love to hear from you and if you have any questions, please reach out because these workshops are so, they're such a good value, guys, like I, I wanna make sure my workshops.
An unbelievable value, and I am so confident in saying I deliver that. So check it out. I would love to have you. I would love to get the portfolio of your dreams moving in the right direction and make you feel more confident. The next time you get that email that says, Hey. We're looking for a florist for a styled shoot, or, Hey, you know, we're putting together some activity.
I want you to dive deep into really being able to feel confident when you get that email sent your way. Thank you so much for listening, flower friends, and you have an amazing flower filled day.
