The Floral Hustle

  📍 Hello, our friends. This is Jen and you are listening to the Floral Hustle Podcast. On this week's episode, we are going to switch it up. I am going to give you a wedding season pep talk because I literally just had to give this to myself. I, uh, the other night was looking at my calendar and I had just met with my decorator friend.

And like things felt heavy, like, holy shit, it's gonna get real this year again. And so then I felt like, how am I going all these, I'm very transparent and I want people to know that everybody struggles. I was like worried like, how am I going to do all of these things? How am I gonna make sure I'm producing the content?

Because I've made promises to myself. To make sure that I'm doing two podcasts a week to make sure I'm showing up on Monday, motivation on social media to make sure that I'm showing up in my social media and interacting and creating value to make sure I'm sending an email that adds value to anybody that's on my email list list.

So, And by the way, go to my website and join, uh, my floral awesomeness emails that I send out every week. I send a lot of time. I, I share the podcast episodes that are coming out and the links to them, but I'm also sharing like, content in there, free guides. Uh, there's also a bunch of free guides that are on my website right now, including the pricing and the social media, the florist starter kit.

Like, there's just so much value that I want to deliver and I wanna make sure that I'm showing up for that. So I. I was feeling panic and feeling like overwhelmed, and then all of a sudden I just, I snapped myself out of it and I said, I don't do overwhelm, so how am I going to fucking fix this? And I changed my whole mindset because I also, from last year, am going to CrossFit three days a week.

And I want my kids to like, I think it's weird in school now. I just like played softball and basketball and soccer and all these things, and like it's just not a thing as much anymore. And so I'm trying to find like camps and swimming lessons and all this stuff, and I'm like, how am I going to do all the things?

So then I stood back and I was like, snap out of it. I don't do overwhelm. How am I going to fix it? What strategies am I going to put in place to help this feel lighter, feel easier? And then I thought, you know what? I wonder if all my flower friends are trying to figure their stuff out right now and feeling the same way.

And I'm guessing a lot of you are feeling heavy, feeling like, or you could be feeling the opposite. And, um, very interesting thing I heard, uh, about people are saying that like everything from a Flores perspective feels actually a wedding industry perspective feels lighter and the average engagement.

Takes three years from when somebody meets to when they get married. What were we doing three years ago? People, our friends, we were stuck in our fricking houses and so there might be a lull because people weren't out out socializing. They might have been online dating, but that was weird cuz you were always afraid probably that that person might have cooties just saying.

So there, there might be a little bit of a pause in the volume because for one, I think the backlog of Covid has literally corrected itself and for two people were in isolation for a quite a long time and that created a little bit of a, a sticky point that we are in right now, potentially. So I just thought that was an interesting theory to, to think that.

If the average engagement, which totally makes sense, like three years, it's a little long to me, but I guess if you're gonna spend the rest of your life, you probably should be around for three years or maybe that people moved in together. Way too soon because that was kinda really the only option when they started dating.

And then they realized sooner than later that person wasn't their person. And so then it didn't move past that. That point of, oh well let's get married and move in together cuz they already did it. And they're like, I don't wanna get married to you cuz you're kind of mildly horrible just saying, but so let's just say even like things aren't going.

So where you want 'em to be? What are you going to do to fix it? Like that is my biggest pep talk. If you do not take action to get back on a track that feels good to you, that feels lighter, that feels he, you know, less heavy, like less panic if, if you're getting tight in your chest. When you're thinking about your business this summer, what are you gonna do to get that off your chest?

Because you can do something. You can make a difference. You can create a different habit, a different pattern, a different whatever, by putting some thought and strategy behind it. So I was feeling like I have a lot of weddings. I have the podcast, I have working out like all these things that are important to me.

So what am I going to do to fix it? So first thing I thought of. I need to hire someone to make my graphics, to help with my social media, to help with my admin stuff, because I put a value higher than what I can pay someone on my time than what it would cost to pay somebody to do those things. And I know it's going to be a expense every week that I'm taking on, but for that three hours of time that I'm paying for, if I recoup that three hours.

And it actually gets done on top of it because you know, even if you say you're going to keep doing it, then things get busy cuz of a wedding, then you're not doing it, then you're really not saving that time cuz it's just not getting done. So I host it on social media couple different times. Uh, And what's interesting, and this is just throwing this out there, is I made some pretty graphics in Canva and I posted them, but then I just did a talking stories.

Like I literally just hit in stories. I hit record. I just said, I'm looking for somebody to help with social media for two to three hours a week. I need help with Canva. I need help scheduling an email every week. Uh, I, if you want more hours, I potentially could have you help with processing and cleaning and organizing and whatever.

Like I had nine people respond to that. I had one person respond to my beautiful graphics that I made that took me a while. But nine. I was like, this is so crazy. So I took action. I interviewed a bunch of people and I found a girl that is actually a photographer, so it's even a bigger bonus because she could also take pictures, um, for social media while she's here potentially of me designing of, um, arrangements or whatever.

So I found a solution to that problem. Then my next thing to tackle, I need more help. I looked at what I spent in labor last year, and I should have spent more because what happened is because I didn't wanna have to worry about loss of product or not having enough and scrambling, I, I overbought product on weeks that were really busy because I didn't want to feel pressure.

When there was already going to be pressure, so I just overstaffed because then I'm not worrying about having to source a bunch of things last minute, but that also cut away at my profit margin those weeks. So literally, I need more help. To execute weddings. So I'm not out here till 11 o'clock at night.

I wanna spend time with my children, I wanna do things with my husband. I want to be able to go to CrossFit, so I need more help. So I made posts to, you know, share. I have done, um, you know, some of those talking videos and literally like I am, you know, now inlaying the help that I need in those weeks. So is help one of your biggest issues?

How do you find freelancers? I actually, um, think it's a lot easier than a lot of people think You could literally post in your stories if you have other flos following you strategically as part of that, uh, whole thing to grow your Instagram or your TikTok or your Facebook, you should be following other Floris.

Because you making flower friends is also going to help grow your business. Gonna help you find freelancers, is gonna help you do all sorts of things in your business. So you need to have flower friends. You need to be following people on social media. They also might be posting that they're looking for for freelancing work, and you can see that and take advantage of that opportunity.

So that is another thing, finding the work. But then also I thought, okay, so I'm not dealing with sourcing a bunch of crap in the middle of wedding season trying to find it. What can I do to make that feel lighter? So I went and talked to one of my wholesale reps and said, I wanna order all of this Oasis product.

I want a bunch of glue. I want a bunch of all of this stuff. So I, I just, I have it and I'm not worried. I literally never ran out of glue in this glue pandemic that we have had because I am a think ahead person. I literally have a tote with probably 15 to 20 tubes of glue in it. So I never run outta glue.

I am thinking ahead of time, like. Like when you're on a motorcycle and I actually, I rodee a motorcycle ever since I was like 17 until I had children. I am not looking right in front of me. You don't look in right in front of you because obviously then you're not looking far enough ahead and you will crash into something.

I am looking to where I want my motorcycle to go, where I want my floral business to go so that I can literally almost like know. Okay. Like if we curved on this road, I'm gonna have everything that we need. If we curved on that road, I'm gonna have everything that we need. Because I have thought where we are going, not this week, next week, I never deal with shit that last minute.

I don't do overwhelm because I don't do that kind of stuff last minute. So what can you do to prepare? For wedding season, if you know you have a ton of gold composts, that you spray gold and you're kind of having a down period until like maybe the end of may, get your spray paint, get your bowls, get your, if you're using foam or chicken wire, whatever it is, get them ready.

Find an area to put them in. I have a shelf that is for pulling orders ahead of time. Get 'em ready if you have foam cages for big, tall arrangements, cuz those are time consuming. Get them ready like you have time. Do it because now is the best time to be prepared for a successful season. But then I also want you to think that being prepared is going to help you be more profitable.

Last minute decisions cost, last minute charges. You're paying increased prices potentially on product. You're paying additional delivery fees. You're paying for additional labor if you have to scramble, and if you're not doing anything right now, you could be utilizing this time to kick ass and take names in your business this summer and get prepared.

If you could do some organizing, you could do cleaning of your bases. There are so many things that you could just, you would feel lighter if that was out of the way. So how can you feel lighter in your business? Like what feels heavy? If something feels heavy this summer, like how could I make it not feel that way and then take action on that?

Because literally things don't have to be overwhelming. Get more help. It will be worth it. And I know everybody's like, I can't afford to get more help. I literally felt that same way for so many years, and I just worked my butt off and then like, just was exhausted. And then you just don't wanna do it anymore because you're not making any money because you're always exhausted and you know, you're not hiring enough people to really grow, and so you're doing it all yourself.

And so there's just this constant backwash of icky feelings and you just want to, you want, I, I make the decision that I want. This year to feel good, to feel light, and you can make that decision. I make the decision. I don't do overwhelm. And like when I started thinking all of these icky thoughts, because it happens to everybody.

I just, I don't do overwhelm. What am I gonna do to fix it? And then come up with a strategy. Come up with a strategy to help you feel less overwhelmed. Come up with a strategy to help things feel lighter. It's going to be worth it. You deserve it. Because you are the c e o of your business and you make the decisions and those decisions can help you feel lighter, can help you feel so much better at the end of the year that you're not counting down the days till end of wedding season.

You're literally just looking at all of this opportunity. I hope this was helpful. I hope I felt like I needed a pep talk earlier, um, this week. And if you need a pep talk, I hope this is hitting you at the right time because you deserve an amazing business. You deserve to be profitable. You deserve to not be overwhelmed.

You deserve so much more than you're probably giving yourself credit for. So take action, build a strategy, build a plan to get rid of all those icky feelings that you have stuck right now, and move forward into feeling good and feeling at ease. Feeling like I own the business. I own the business that I a, and I absolutely adore my business like you should feel that way.

I feel like I adore my business. I love would I love to have some fun, funky, different stuff coming my way periodically. Yeah. You know what? My business is pretty awesome and I love working with the people that I love, that I work with. I love all my freelancers that I work with. I, I love being able to come out and design and then at lunch going in and I.

Hugging my, my little boy and telling him I, you know, mommy needs you to pay the toll and give me a kiss. Um, and then I'm gonna go back out and he can come say hi to me. Like, I love all of these things of how I've structured my business and you can too. So start today. Think of what you can do to make this year feel lighter and take 📍 action.

Have a great day, flower friend.