The Floral Hustle

Hello flower friends. This is Jen and you are listening to the Floral Hustle Podcast on this week's mini. So we are gonna talk about all things. freelancing. I had a couple people in dms cuz I commented on a post on social media, ask me how you become a freelancer and what are ways that you can really gain exposure to be a freelancer in your area.
So I wanted to talk about like ways that you can really put yourself out there. I personally in the Minnesota market have created this group, it's called the Minnesota Floral Collective. So MN Floral Collective, that's a group for people to like post when they need help or that they are seeking. Um, you know, I'm looking for freelance jobs, things like that.
And I've actually hired several people from that. But not every market or city has a group like that. So how can you, as an action taking, problem solving, Kick butt florist really put a plan together to try to get exposure to other flott who are needing freelancers because most people need them. They're going to find them.
That's just, they're doing the digging. And if you could be at the top of their mind because of these strategies that I'm going to talk about, I think it would be really helpful. So the first thing is in your area, are you following? Lots of flos because that is step one. They need to know about you and know about your business and following them is like the first part of that process.
I actually am not a huge fan of when I've gotten a message from someone and they're not following me, and they're asking me if I'm looking for freelancers, do you know what I'm about? Do you have any clue about what type of weddings I do? You know, those things. So I. Following them. So literally you could go and go to, like, here we have Minnesota Bride.
So you could go to the Minnesota Bride Floral Directory, you could go to Google, uh, you could, um, put in wedding Florist, Minneapolis, whatever it is, and find a list of florist, find them on social media and go start following them. And then you need to start interacting with them. So I know. You know, social media feels like a big time suck for a lot of people, and this is a way for you to go and build relationships and make flower friends by strategically taking 10 minutes a day and interacting with other vendors posts.
It is so easy to go on somebody that they took all of this time to, for one, they made this beautiful thing, then they're posting it or whatever. Or maybe they're doing a video on something informative for you to write a purposeful comment. Not an emoji, not a thumbs up, not something lame like that. Like you put intentional thought into posting something as a comment to help them see.
You want to be seen by them. So putting a thumbs up emoji or a smiley face or a heart or the, you know, hands raised up, go and praise or, um, fire, flames, , all of those emojis. Let's just stay away from them unless you write a sentence and then you put an emoji at the end of it. We want them to think that you.
Saw them. People want to be seen. They want to feel like they're being understood, and so you interacting with that post is step one. Then I want you, with all these florist that you are following, to make sure that you are going through a stories rotation at least once a day. And in that you will see a lot of times, especially during wedding season, that they are posting from their progress from whatever, some kind of behind the scenes content, and they are tagging their freelancers screenshot that that means that that florist is hiring freelancers.
That is a critical component. of knowing who is actually hiring freelancers. Some Flos do stick to their own. They're doing a small amount of weddings and they're doing it theirself. Those are not the floris that you want to be interacting with as much as they might occasionally need. But you want the person like me, I literally, you know, hired, um, I think.
10 freelancers throughout this year and a couple of them I had on a very consistent basis and like it, they should, if they were looking for freelance work, like that's the type of person you wanna be finding. You wanna be finding someone like me who, for one, I don't wanna have to work in my business all the time.
So it's people that are getting to a level that they need the help. For working on, you know, their business. They need the help so they can go and strategically grow their business, work on their business, and not in their business by doing buckets and all these things. So with that, you wanna screenshot that and I have a file folder that I would make in my, um, photo section of Freelancing Florist, or, you know, something like that.
Um, Floris who need, who use freelancers or f. Uh, florist and freelancers, whatever it is. Then you dump that in there and then when you have time, those florist, you should start interacting with them more. I mean, it's, it's people who are going to need people like you, so like how you want to marry that effort.
if you've went and you, you followed their page, you've interacted with them for a little while. It doesn't need, need to be like a million years, but I would spend a little bit of time so that they, they've seen your name popping up in their comments. Comments are hard to get, and so if you're commenting on them that you're probably being seen.
If they don't have a following count of like 50,000 people, your, your comments are being seen, your name's being seen by then, then. , you want to send them a dm, you want to send them a little message. , I absolutely love your work. I love your style. Your photos are insert whatever descriptive word that it, like, they're so breathtaking, they're so airy and light.
I love your use of color and texture and I just, I, I am looking for freelance work for this, um, wedding season and I just wanted to see if you have any, um, needs for freelancers because I would. To work for you. You're making them feel good. You're validating that their work is awesome and then it's attracting you at a level because it is that awesome.
So with that, why would they not want to like say, oh yeah, I am looking for freelancers like. You're just saying a bunch of nice stuff about them and telling them that you took time and intention to dig into their, their posts. They've seen your name because you've been interacting with them. It's just like this little, you're planting little seeds.
You will never just be able to walk into a, a like field of flowers and just pick so. it, it, it just doesn't work that way. You need to plant seeds to get the biggest crop. So, what else I would be doing with these freelancers? If you feel that the DM is in too intrusive, um, I would go and literally send them an email, go to their website.
Do not submit the contact us form. Like then that's an inquiry that they're going to have to handle like in a different way. It's a different process for most people. So I would find their email address and send them an email. Attach a like portfolio of sorts. You can make that in a million different ways using Canva by plugging in images that you've done.
You could make a one sheet with your name, a picture of you, almost like a resume. You could put, list your skillsets on there and then you could just send them, here's my resume, my portfolio resume that I wanted to share with you. I love your work, your, your stuff is just so stunning. I am inspired by you and I would love to see if you are looking for freelancers because I just, uh, I think it would be so amazing to work for you.
So that's another way that you can re reach out then. A whole other direction. If maybe you're dabbling in everyday orders, maybe you're dabbling in doing, you know, five, six weddings in a year, but you wanna fill your calendar with freelancers. I would make sure that a component of my whole like strategy would be going to the wholesaler and making flower friends.
Some wholesalers, I feel like aren't a super friendly environment, but if you were taking that time, taking that intention, To literally, you know, go in and say hi to someone. Try to brighten someone's day. Just be an upstanding human like, For one, you're just making the world a better place because sometimes the wholesaler can feel not great cuz people are just stressed out because a lot of flos are just stressed out.
So you're, you gotta smile on, you are bringing your A game energy into whatever you're doing and that is going to show up. and people are gonna be like, oh, I really like, I, I literally love when somebody is coming to me with positive energy anywhere I meet them, because that is elevating my energy in a positive manner.
So if I am having a crappy day as a florist at the wholesaler, somebody's like, Oh my God, your cart is so beautiful. I, um, I saw your work. Are are you, oh, you, you're Jenny. Um, hey, I'm, I'm Sally. I, I do some freelancing and I, I do some weddings, but, um, I think your work is stunning. I've been following you on Instagram and I just absolutely love everything that you post.
And are, are you by chance looking for freelancers? Put yourself out there, and I'm gonna say a very funny thing. Put your lady balls out and put them out there and cuz then you're putting yourself out there. If we're going to be timid, we are going to get timid results. You need to get uncomfortable, you need to get out of the box because you are just not gonna go to the store and put yourself on a cart as a freelancer that they can shop for.
You need to do some work to get your name. Portfolio, your energy, your everything you need to do work to get that in front of people. So think about these strategies. And then there's of course the strategy. There are companies that literally you can get hired by them and then they get hired by different event companies to bring in a huge arrange, um, like basically like a whole team of freelancers.
And so there are companies like. that you also can look for. Uh, you also could, um, post on your own page, I am looking for freelance opportunities. Create a Canva graphic that you can repeatedly post in your stories. I have a bunch of dates open that I'm saving, so you're creating scarcity. I'm saving these dates for freelancing opportunities.
Um, so please send me a DM and I'd love to connect and you could post that once a. Once a week, you just go in, grab that out of your a folder that is pre-done graphics folder, put it on your stories and share it. I hope this was helpful. I really, if you wanna get into freelancing and. It you have some very specific situations around like, I used to own a business, or I'm in a smaller town, or I moved, or, you know what, I've, I've always been a retail shop and I close my retail shop.
I mean, whatever your story is, if you need help and support on figuring out how to, to break into freelancing, please. Send me a dm, maybe we can set up a 15 minute call just to see if I'm the right fit for you as a coach. But I would love to help you build a strategy so you can get this figured out and make this goal in 2023 happen.
There are going to be a lot of weddings and you deserve that opportunity and people need help. Don't feel bad about cannibalizing on that opportunity, cuz people need help. Thank you so much for our friends and I so appreciate you for everything you do for following along on my floral journey 📍 and having me be a part of yours.