The Lunch Club Podcast
A space for wedding vendors and creatives. We are offering you a seat at the table as we share all the behind the scenes and details to get you feeling creative and celebrated.
The Lunch Club Podcast
High Risk: High Reward
Ever stepped off the well-trodden path to chase a dream? I've been there, and in this raw episode, I'm peeling back the curtain on the risks that have defined my entrepreneurial spirit. With a nod to my husband Cody, who's been my rock, we'll take you through our unorthodox love story and the year that turned everything on its head. From a daring foray into floral design to redefining how we approach our careers and relationships, this journey is all about the power of trusting your gut.
Navigating the wedding industry's chaotic seas is no small feat, and I'm laying out the strategies that have not only kept me afloat but propelled my business forward. Listen as I share the transformation of my pricing model from a tentative guessing game to a confident statement of worth, and the revolutionary impact of a well-crafted welcome guide for potential clients. These tools didn't just streamline my workflow; they opened doors to a clientele that truly appreciates the art of floral design and wedding coordination.
And for those kindred spirits in the industry, or even if you're just wedding-curious, I'm excited to talk about the bespoke Zoom classes that are reshaping the game. Tailored advice, real-life solutions, and the thrill of connecting with others on the same path—it's all about fostering growth and success in a field that never stands still. So tune in, get inspired, and let's talk about how to turn those high-stake risks into the most rewarding of rewards.
Hi you guys. Andrea here and I am so excited to have you back on the Lunch Club podcast. Today is kind of fun. It's my first solo episode since I've started this year with season two and I am kind of nervous because solo episodes were a lot harder for me and I also just am going to be getting pretty vulnerable as far as things that I've done in my business, risks that I've taken. My topic today is going to be risky business and high-risk, high reward, kind of the combination of those two concepts. So yeah, I'm a little bit nervous but I'm hoping that you guys will find this impactful.
Speaker 1:I also like to always preface any advice or suggestions I give or, obviously, my opinions, my experiences. I can't speak for everybody. Maybe some of the things that I might say might feel controversial to you. I'm sure there are opposing views to everything that I have to say, but that's kind of my whole point in this whole podcast is just kind of sharing with you guys my insights, what works for me, things that I've learned, and take or leave any of these opinions or suggestions. So, all of that being said, let's get into it. Welcome to the Lunch Club podcast, a space I've created for entrepreneurs. Come sit with us as we share the highs and lows of building and maintaining successful businesses.
Speaker 1:I'm your host, andrea Zahoggan, and let's get into it, okay, so two weeks ago the podcast episode that I released was the award for Best Supporting Husband Goes To, and my husband, cody, and I talked a little bit about kind of our dynamic in me running a business, how involved he is or isn't, and we kind of started the beginnings of our story and kind of told you guys a little bit about that. But I kind of wanted to go a little bit deeper for my first example of this high-risk, high-reward concept that has really kind of fueled and kind of driven me in my business. That's kind of my main tagline that I remind myself so often. So Cody and I discussed a little bit about how he had kind of challenged me from the very beginning before we were romantically involved with each other Just as friends. He had kind of said you know, you know, if this is your goal to buy yourself a Range Rover, I bet you could do it faster than you think, which is something that I really valued about him and his personality, that he was such like a cheerleader from the beginning, as just a friend. But what you don't know is how he ended up dating. So we kind of discussed that.
Speaker 1:We were friends for quite some time, probably about eight months. We were just friendly in our LDS ward. We would talk every Sunday. We would kind of chat here and there on Instagram and just like nothing really happened. But every time we talked we'd have a great experience, like we'd be laughing, we'd have good conversation and I always would leave the conversation thinking like I feel like there's a vibe here, but he's never really like taken it to the next level, like asked me to hang out, asked me on a date, like it was actually really frustrating because, as like most of us will say, I feel like in society it's this very I don't know straightforward concept that like the male in the relationship should make the take the initiatives, make the efforts. If a girl you know shows how she feels, it's considered desperate, and I know that there's a large population who don't feel this way. But that's kind of the mentality that I was like that was given to me as I was growing up and getting into dating. It was always like, oh, don't tell them how you feel. You wait for them to make the move. You wait for them to say how they feel before you say anything Like don't reveal your feelings, like all of these stupid concepts, um. And so, yeah, I just kind of waited and I'd get frustrated because I was, like, you know, I feel like I'm making it pretty clear of what I want and it's just, you know, not happening. So a little bit of minor context. Um, this was a really good time for me.
Speaker 1:The time that I met Cody was July of 2019. Um, and during that time, I had decided to kind of just like, really follow my dreams, follow my passions, try and pursue, um, hobbies and kind of just this self discovery time in my life. So I was going on lots of dates with no expectations at all, because prior to that, I had been putting so much weight into like, if I want to say yes to a date, I have to genuinely be interested, and I would just get so wrapped up in it. And so I kind of was like you know what? I'm just going to have some fun, I'm just going to keep this lighthearted, you know, just have a good time. Figure out really what I'm looking for in life. Um, and this was kind of the same mentality.
Speaker 1:This is when I started exploring floral design as an actual, real career option. I was in the middle of working on, you know, the planning and prep for my first wedding. That would happen that fall, um, and so I was in a good time in my life where I was, you know, trying not to get too caught up in things, um, but I was definitely interested in my husband and I thought I had made it very clear to him. Um, so that's July 2019,. You know, during those months, again, I was playing with flowers. I was kind of trying to figure out what I wanted to do with school after. Um.
Speaker 1:You know, once the fall semester had started, I'd been changing my major time time and time again and I'm going to get into that in a minute, um, and in the fall, I had dated a couple different people, probably for like a month, at a time where I was, you know, we were really going to go for it, and both times it just was kind of like man, it's just like, isn't it the right fit? Um, and both ended very well and like a mutually like. I don't know one of those, like you know, let's just be friends and we actually did continue to be friends, um, but I was definitely starting to get frustrated. So this takes us to like January of 2020. Um, you know, me and this person had just kind of broken up and I was feeling good about it, but I was still just kind of frustrated, like man. I feel like I'm trying, um and I should mention this as well I was in the point in my life where I felt like I was really ready to kind of settle down and find like a lifelong partner to kind of help me, um, in this journey. And I don't know, I was just ready to do life with somebody, um, so that was kind of a goal and that's kind of why I was really trying to like go after this whole dating experience. Um, and I know this is probably so much information, but I'm really trying to give you a peek into, like where I was at emotionally, um, and like the motivation behind this all. Anywho, it was January of 2020.
Speaker 1:Me and this person have been broken up only like a couple weeks, Um, but again, I was feeling really optimistic about it, and Cody and I it was another Sunday where we were talking and we'd had like a great conversation and we're laughing and we're kind of in the hallways, um, of our LDS church and it's really busy. There's lots of people, you know, bustling around and loud conversations and lots of different people kind of moving around and you know we're chatting and I don't even remember what we were talking about Prior Um, but it had been several minutes. One of his best friends was sitting next to him and we're all just kind of having a good time. And then, um, the most unexpected thing happens to me that I do, which is the phrase comes out of my mouth why haven't you asked me out yet? Um, and immediately I'm thinking, like what just came over me? Who possessed my body? Like why did I just say that? Again?
Speaker 1:Like, I've grown up with this idea that, like, a phrase like that is so desperate it's not going to look good, it's not going to be received very well, and I'm sure everyone who was looking at me directly could probably see my eyes popping out of my head. Like the embarrassment was palpable and, lucky for me, cody kind of laughed and was just like, do you want to go out? And of course I'm trying to recover from this kind of desperate, obvious. Like I don't know, I just couldn't believe I had done it and I just kind of was like maybe, like why don't you ask me and find out which I feel like was the best way to recover from this situation? So we'd kind of talked for a minute just literally everyone I haven't even mentioned like there's some like old lady, bishop's wife, who kind of was nearby and her whole head turned and looked at me like you just said what? And I'm sure everyone was just caught off guard because, again, I didn't even know I was going to say it, it just kind of came out.
Speaker 1:Anyway, so I'm trying to recover from this very awkward. It wasn't awkward, it just was like I don't know why, I just did that and anyway. So we got to make our plans. He's kind of like well, you know, what would you want to do? I'm not really good at planning things and we kind of we get things nailed down, we pick a day, like all right here, like in front of everybody. I still can't believe I did this Seriously I can't stress that enough, because at the time that's not something that I would ever do and then at the end he kind of explained like the reason he hadn't asked me out was just like you know, he didn't want to make things uncomfortable, like we're in this same community together and he didn't want to make me uncomfortable and, you know, have it be weird, like he enjoyed our friendship and and he also pointed out that I was a lot younger than his typical dating pool, which we I think we talked about in our episode. But we have a seven year age gap and I actually didn't neither of us realized how big that age gap was, and so it was kind of one of those challenging. I had to challenge him because he had already made up his mind on, like you know, oh, I can only date someone at this age and of course it pushed me to be like to prove him wrong that like no, I am mature enough for this relationship. We can make it happen. So any who?
Speaker 1:My point in this whole long story is that I took a high, high risk, right, if I, if this had gone badly, like it would have been uncomfortable to keep seeing these people all the time, everyone would know me as that awkward, desperate girl and it could have totally ended badly. But I think, all in all, I was willing to take that risk because I knew there was a potential there. I knew that we had really good chemistry. I knew that I he was a friend that I trusted and there were a lot of qualities I could just already see within him without even having to, like, seriously date him. And obviously I got the high reward right Of we ended up getting married a year and a half later and best decision of my life right. But I really had to be. I had to be ballsy enough to take that big risk in in putting myself out there and really telling him exactly what I wanted, which was necessary. I don't think it ever really would have happened had I not made it so clear that I was interested, just because my husband is very reserved and very shy and it's just hard for him to put himself out there. And so I kind of needed to do that, and of course I'm so glad that I did, and so that's just kind of my first little example of like this high risk, high reward concept. Now, like I said, I also wanted to kind of get into this experience that I had in leaving college, which was another big decision, and I talk about this in my first couple of episodes.
Speaker 1:I grew up with a traditional household mindset of you know, an education is necessary. It's not really optional and it was stressed very much in my home that that was kind of the expectation. And so I got into BYU and I had been in school for about two years and I changed my major. Every single semester I would take the prereq. I would, you know, meet the people who were also interested in whatever field it was I was, you know, dipping my toes into and I just really felt like it fit and it was really hard because, again, I was kind of taught and I think society is definitely changing. But, for sure, when I graduated high school, it was like you can't do anything without a college degree. You know it's necessary to to make ends meet and I really do feel like that is true for a lot of careers.
Speaker 1:But I didn't really explore this idea of more of a trade. That's a non-traditional look. And so when I was kind of playing with the idea, really romanticizing with it, of leaving college, I kind of started asking myself like, well, what would that look like? You know, how would I? How would I support myself? Is that an option? And I kind of just started thinking like, well, what happens if I stay in school? You know, like what am I going to do and when am I ever going to graduate? Because I've only taken like I don't know nine prereqs and I'm not making a lot of progress here. By the time I graduate Am I even going to like the job? Like? I kind of had to play with both sides and the scarier option to me, honestly, was staying in college and ending up with a degree I didn't even want to use or just didn't love.
Speaker 1:And that was scarier to me is getting into a career that I didn't love, just because working is such a big part of my personality. I love working and being busy and I just couldn't imagine feeling so trapped in a corporate world where I'm like I don't even like what I do, like going to work is such a pain because I mean I've done that. I'm sure we've all done that or maybe you're still doing that. But I had jobs that I loved going to and you know I would pick up extra shifts just to go and that was working at the bridal shop for me. I knew I loved the wedding industry. I loved working with brides. It was a passion of mine. I loved working with vendors to do little photo shoots and at the time. Those weren't even great shoots I was doing, but I loved what I did and so I just kept thinking like, well, that's what I want to do. And so I had to kind of really think about you know, well, what happens. I just kept going back and forth, right, what happens if I leave? What happens if I stay? And I really had to paint the picture to myself what happens if I leave college. And I love what I do and you know I make it work and like I'll never know unless I try. So that was definitely a big risk for me.
Speaker 1:But I also kind of went into it with the expectation of I'm going to continue my education in a different way, and I've talked about this in several of my episodes. But this is one thing if you end up taking the plunge and ditching traditional, you know educational values, or just taking a break from it, even for a little bit, is that it's so important to continue taking opportunities to further your education, rather than simply hiring someone to do it or paying someone to do it just for the sake of like it's. It's important and I think it's so beneficial to learn new skills. So you know, right away out of college I started hanging out on Google, like for hours and hours and hours. I would just Google. You know how to set up a business license. You know the most suggested website providers or processors, or you know what sales tax like and you know how do you, like just started googling all the things to start a business, even though I wasn't planning on doing that right away.
Speaker 1:I wanted to start learning about it. I started, you know, looking up and researching different social media tactics and just kind of trying to gain knowledge so that it would just come more naturally to me. I'm really glad that I did because, you know, I ended up starting my business and it was a little bit easier for me because I had spent A few months kind of playing around and researching and listening to different theories on. You know, oh, you should do a LLC versus a sole proprietorship. Here's the differences. And you know, if you want to do e-commerce on your website, I recommend this website and I would play with. I would literally just download, I would pretend like, do a mock up website and just play around with it. So I, you know, I play with Honey book and see how I liked it and do a free trial and all of these things that I really explored.
Speaker 1:That really helped me to just feel like I had more knowledge and I would also just Google different floral contracts and just kind of see what was normal out there. And this is also during the time when I was googling like what am I supposed to charge for bouquets and what are the people charging? And At that time it was so hard because there was like nothing out there. No one would post surprising, no one would tell me, and that's part of why I struggled so much at the beginning with pricing myself correctly, which, again, I've gone into this in another episode, so I don't want to bore you with that if you've listened. But that's something I've always been grateful for doing because I do feel that I have skills that I'm sure I might have learned in college. But I really kind of tailored the education I needed to specifically run my business Rather than a business in general, and it just helped me to get my goal faster.
Speaker 1:But it was absolutely a high risk, just because you know it is scary. There have been times when this market is. It's always fluctuating. It's only been four years but I've already seen how much, how much. You know how much things can change, how much people are willing to spend one year versus another, and it can be really scary. But I think again, it's just an opportunity to push yourself to learn and to grow. So I'll kind of quickly get into.
Speaker 1:For example, it can be a high risk when you know if it's not wedding season, like how are you gonna make ends meet? And it's really pushed me to ask myself that question. When you have a lot on the line, you're so much more Motivated to make it work and I feel like that's kind of my whole belief in this is like when you have a lot of skin in the game, you're going to push so much harder because you know what's at stake and you can feel it. And it's definitely hard and it's not emotionally the best scenario for everybody. Like it can be so stressful and take a lot out of you. But and you know I've been there in the slow season thinking like, okay, I literally don't have any money in my bank account. What am I gonna do about that? And so it's helped me to think outside the box and I'm always grateful for that. So that's what's pushed me to do more education. That's really what it was at the beginning is I had a passion for teaching and sharing my passion for floral design, but I also was feeling this need of income during the season that I wasn't as busy or booked. It's also pushed me to kind of think, well, hey, maybe I should do you know the Valentine's Day orders, or why don't I do? You know, I'll make 10 centerpieces and I'm going to do like a pop up sale. I'm going to post on social media and my personal feed and my you know my business feed and offer discount if anyone buys and then just kind of make a bunch of extra money and really just kind of thought about ideas like that and there's tons of different ways. You can obviously maximize that. But those have been opportunities in which I've kind of had to think outside the box, like I've said, and work harder to make it happen, and I'm always grateful. It can be really risky and it's again, it's not for everybody. But I feel so much happier with where my business is at, knowing, knowing what's at stake. Almost if that makes sense, it makes every day more impactful and more intentional, just because I know how hard I've had to bust my butt to get here.
Speaker 1:Now I'm kind of dipping back into this pricing topic that I talked about, where it was really hard for me to price myself at the beginning, mostly because I wasn't well educated in this concept. It was also really hard to again find someone willing to share any information, and there weren't a lot of educational resources out there either that were very accessible to me. And so at the very beginning I will be very candid I was charging $90 for a spiral bouquet, so something pretty small really. What I would charge, what my bridesmaids bouquets look like now was, honestly, the value that people would get, and this was based off of one floral shop that did post-sur pricing. I just kind of matched that and just kind of assumed that was going to work for me, rather than asking like I don't know why it was such a hard concept for me to just price it all out, right. But I was like, okay, yeah, $90, and then I would charge $150 for what I'd call a cascading bouquet.
Speaker 1:So this was like 2019-2020 where, like lots of eucalyptus greenery and, you know, drapey greens and heavy greenery was very in at this point in time, which, again, is not even that long ago, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do Again is not even that long ago, but trends changed so quickly where right now, we're in this very bloom, heavy, minimal greenery moment, which actually makes it. Things cost more money, which is not important. But if you haven't been paying attention, that's what I've observed, that's what's happened with my style personally. But I was charging that little and just kind of, you know, assumed like that's a lot of money. I've also talked about this before, but you know I didn't grow up in a household with a lot of excess money. Spending money at all was definitely like not something I was used to.
Speaker 1:I'm very sensitive to money. Even now, I struggle most with pricing just because I get like sick to my stomach, being like, wow, that's so much money for someone to spend on a wedding, just because I grew up with a scarcity mindset and so it's still a big hurdle for me to get through. And so, you know, once I started realizing, you know, this pricing isn't really reflecting how much I'm spending on my wholesale costs, like I need to charge more, I just kept telling myself like, well, no one's going to pay that and then I'll be out of business because no one will book with me. And this happens so often to people, when they want to make that, jump into increasing pricing and they're just telling themselves, like, well, no one's going to book me. And then what you know, I can't afford to lose business, I'm just going to keep sticking with this. But just like I've discussed, you know, but if you're not making money, you're not making money.
Speaker 1:So I really got to a point where I was like okay, like if I want this business to succeed, I have to up my pricing. Like it wasn't even like a like ooh, I'd love to make more money. It was like I'm not making money and I need to. So then I upped my pricing to 120 for that smaller size bouquet and then 200 for a larger bouquet, and again that even felt like so much to me. But I kind of got that little bit of confidence when I still had business and I was like, okay, well, people are still, you know, willing to book me. And then I finally upped it. Probably gosh, two years later I was at 250 for a large bouquet and that's all I was offering.
Speaker 1:I wasn't doing the spiral, tight, small bouquets anymore, because I had kind of found my style. I'd found what I really liked to design with and I didn't really want to kind of be doing this whole switching back and forth styles or changing my style based on what a client wanted. I kind of wanted to create a specific brand and style within my business and so, anyways, even at that point I was like that's the max I could ever, you know, charge for a bouquet Again, mostly because that's kind of what I was aware other people were pricing. This is also the time when the floral community really started to get in touch with each other and get vulnerable with each other and kind of give each other insight on what we're charging and what we should be charging, and that was also just kind of helping build me up. But again, I had this like I don't know if I could build my pricing any higher. I just don't think anyone would book me.
Speaker 1:And at this point too, I will say that none of my clients were ones that none of the weddings I was booking. I loved my clients, but none of the weddings like basically, you know I wasn't doing centerpieces or tablescapes or large installations, I was kind of just doing personal items and table greens, like nothing that was getting me giddy and excited and like just stoked about my job, and so I kind of had that thought again of like, well, if I raised my pricing someone had said it at some point like you will tap into a different market, you're going to have different customers. They won't be the same. You're gonna be with someone who's willing to actually pay for that, and they want to. And so finally I was like, okay, I'm doing it, I'm going to jump onto what the market standard is, what my friends are charging, that are similar experience, level and style, and so right now I charge about 350 to 375 for one bouquet.
Speaker 1:And you know I've upped my Bridesmaids bouquets. Those are minimum, starting at $100, which is so much money and a lot of people don't want to pay that. Like, guess what, there is a market that does want to pay that and those are the clients that I am giddy about. Those are the weddings that I literally cry when they book. I have taken several selfies this year, have myself crying when I get an inquiry or when someone books, just so that I can remind myself of that feeling of like, oh my gosh, like I'm doing it, I'm living my dream, I'm making money, I'm doing projects I'm excited about and it makes all the difference in the world because it makes taking time away from my family, it makes those really long days where you lay down for the first time in eight hours and just feel like so much tightness in your back, like just the exhaustion. It makes it so much worth it.
Speaker 1:But again, there's definitely that hurdle I had to get over on. Like okay, like this feels risky, like what happens if I raise my prices and no one wants to book me. And I think that that's a false understanding people have, is they always assume like if people aren't booking me it's cause I'm not charging a price they're willing to pay? And that's just not true. I would say it has more to do with you're just not marketing to the right people. Like you just need to change your approach, find a different crowd to be, you know, in touch with, marketing with, and you'll find those clients. They're out there and it doesn't have to do with pricing. You would just kind of move out of one market and into the next. I'm here to say that those people are here, they are out there, I have found them. I've been so blessed this summer with the clients that I've booked and seriously I am beyond blessed.
Speaker 1:Now the last little bit I wanna talk about in high risk, high reward specifically, is also style shoots. Same thing it's so insane to me. This concept has always proven time and time again, and every time it's still so hard for me to like take that risk. I think that's just kind of what we're programmed to do, or programmed to be cautious and to be weary, which is a good thing, but at a certain point it can kind of be hindering our ability to grow our business. And so for me, I got to this point with style shoots where I was trying to minimize my risk and I was just kind of putting a tiny bit of money into it and just kind of thinking like, oh, I'll just get one photographer that I trust, you know, I'll just do one bouquet, keep it simple, that way I won't be disappointed and it would be great.
Speaker 1:But I didn't really get a ton of content that way and I realized I wasn't maximizing my ability to connect with other vendors and what them posting my work would do for me in my business. And so I started thinking like, okay, I'm gonna invest more into this shoot In order for that to make sense. For me, that means I'm going to have to ticket this out, or you know, in order to make sure that I'm I have my basis covered. Meaning, in the scenario I don't get any pictures back, I need at least some compensation to help me cover my costs. But I'm going to take the time to find all these models, to find you know apparel, to get in touch with someone to provide me rings. To get in touch with someone to do you know paper suite and invites you know all of those items you know. Getting in touch with a photographer who can give me their insight on what's gonna work. And it took a lot of time and investment in that scenario, I guess, but I got a ton of high reward, I guess I would say, by getting to know other vendors a lot better and also just what comes with social media.
Speaker 1:I mean, even if I don't wanna post the images that someone has taken because maybe they're editing style, it's a little different from what is kind of going on my page and making sure things look cohesive. Having someone tag you in your business is not a bad thing. It's still a really great thing. You don't necessarily need the images in order to be reaching another audience, and that has proven one of the best things that I've done for my business that I really enjoy. But it can feel really scary to invest so much money into a styled shoot, wondering am I gonna like these pictures? Are the photographers gonna like this shoot? Am I gonna be happy with it? But again, every time I do something where I'm nervous about it and I'm weary or just anxious nine times out of 10, I'm really glad that I did it and I wish I had done it sooner.
Speaker 1:Now I wanna get vulnerable with you guys. I'm still in the oh, this is a big risk phase, but I am trying to overcome it the best that I can. I, for over a year, have been kind of toying with the idea of also adding minimal planning services onto something I offer my brides and my clients in general. Now, a lot of the risks that I feel like coming with this is you know A what if I'm not good at it and I make people unhappy and you know it's really hard right? Some of the other thoughts I've had are like I don't want planners to think that I'm trying to take business from them. I wanna keep good relationships. I don't wanna step on any toes and just in general I've thought like well, what are people gonna think? Are they gonna think this is stupid? Just a lot of the negative thoughts of doing something that's uncomfortable or different. And really where this came from.
Speaker 1:If you've been listening to my podcast at all, you know that I have a joy and an excitement and a passion for the wedding industry as a whole. I started my I don't know journey into the industry working with wedding dresses and designing wedding dresses and that's something I really really loved working with brides on and getting creative with, before I even thought about doing floral design. And since then I've planned several content days and photo shoots and I love like every aspect of weddings and so it's kind of made me think, like, if I love planning a photo shoot, which is a lot of high stress and I'm in contact with so many vendors and timing things and trying to budget things, you know I might be able to make planning work as well. And it was really my husband who kind of brought the idea up of you know, hey, have you considered, you know, doing wedding planning. But again, I've kind of talked myself out of it for at least a couple of years.
Speaker 1:But this year I kind of said like I'm gonna I'm just gonna kind of barely put it out there. So I just added a question on my inquiry for on this as are you interested in planning services? And just kind of doing it that way so I could have the knowledge on is this something someone's looking for? And then I would decide, even if I wanted to bring it up and say anything about it at all. I'd either make a recommendation for a planner or I would just kind of bring it up.
Speaker 1:I seriously am still really like nervous about it, mostly just out of like it's different and it's something that I know some people agree with and don't agree with and, you know, have feelings about if a florist should be able to, you know, add something on like that and just all these things right, lots of feelings behind it. But I kind of just put it out into the universe a little bit of like. Okay, I'm gonna make a little bit of or maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. Either way, you know, we'll just see how it goes. And so I, you know, did some research on pricing and again, I've not pitched it to every client, depending on what my weeks prior to that look like and if I think it's actually a good fit for me and this client and I've been really excited that there've been four different scenarios in which it's just kind of naturally come about where a client ends up seeing this need and I've just been able to kind of be upfront with them and my experience level, letting them know it's something that I'm just kind of starting to really go for and we have such a good relationship about that point that it feels like the right move for both of us.
Speaker 1:And I will say I've really, really, really been loving it and it's just been so much fun. And I did three family friends last year and that was really kind of me really testing the waters on coordinating and being there all day long and, you know, putting together their timelines and being in touch with their vendors, and you know it was one of it was that same feeling I got after my first floral wedding I did. That was like that was absolutely exhausting but I was craving more of it and so I've had so much fun this season. You know two of them I'm just doing the day of coordinating essentially, but I'm obviously still involved even in those early stages. Just because obviously I'm doing florals, I already know who their other vendors are. You know we're always touching base and so it's just kind of a different dynamic than a typical planner because I'm already so involved from the beginning and that's kind of been fun to really explore.
Speaker 1:And it's been again that moment of like this is risky what if I hate it or what if people are upset with me and you know what people are gonna. People are not gonna love everything you do, no matter what it is you're doing or not doing. And it's just been fun to kind of find this other passion and be able to feed it a little bit more. And I'm also able to really maximize, you know, the time I'm taking away from my family. Like I said, I'm already pretty involved with these brides up front. It's not like I'm having to really put a ton of extra effort in, and a lot of these weddings I'm already going at 10 am and then ending up there in the evening and so it's just been. It's been a fun thing to explore and it's just been that high risk, high reward reminder that you kind of just have to put it all out there into the universe and just kind of wait and see what awesome things happen. So those are kind of my experiences I wanted to share with you guys. Maybe they're motivating to you or maybe I don't know. Something stood out to you and I'm really hoping that's the case.
Speaker 1:I wanted to take the last little bit of this episode to do a little bit of shop talk, kind of give you a look into what my year is looking like. Some of the business practices I've changed this year that have really, really helped me. I know that booking season has been really rough for a lot of people. A lot of my friends are feeling that it's a little bit off from their norm, and the feedback I've gotten from a lot of people is it's not even like they're not booking the weddings, it's like they're not even getting the inquiries. And as far as why that's happening, I couldn't tell you. That's literally what happened to me last year and I couldn't find a rhyme or reason for why it was happening. But I did change things before inquiries and started this year and I'm kind of curious if that went into play for my success in booking this year. So thought I'd just kind of share that with you guys and maybe it's helpful moving forward maybe not Now.
Speaker 1:The biggest thing that I've done is I created a pricing PDF or like a welcome guide for my clients and also my planners that I got in touch with in the late fall, so somewhere around November. I sent this to all the planners that I worked with or that I was hoping to work with this season, and then any client that inquires with me I give this to. So currently, what I do at the moment is, after receiving an inquiry from a potential client or even a planner, I just send them over my welcome guide. This just has the basic information about me. So the first page is a photo of myself. I just kind of say you know, hey, this is me, this is my style, these are the services I offer, and that's kind of it. That's the first page. Second page is just the steps to my booking process. So there's three steps. So say you know, inquire will set up a meeting and then you just sign and pay. So basically what I do is, you know, I send this PDF.
Speaker 1:The third page has the pricing, my base pricing. I specify this doesn't include tax or labor, that's gonna be an added charge. And so I send them an email and say, hey, I'm available, check this out, see if it's pricing. And you know my style booking process is all something you wanna work with. If you're interested, let's set up a meeting and I'll get all the details from you.
Speaker 1:And so I would say, about 70% of the time people don't even respond. They, you know they ghost me at that point normally because the pricing is just not realistic for them, which is fine. I'm not out any time or energy because I just copy and paste the same email, same PDF, over and over again. But if they are interested, we set up a one hour Zoom call. I get all the details from them on what their floral needs are. We kind of talk through some ideas, I brainstorm with them and then after that call, I spend another hour on working on their proposal and their bid and so I put together, you know, pictures representing each item we've discussed and I feel much more confident providing that pricing to them just because we've talked about it at length. And then they just have to sign the contract and pay the deposit and I would say 95% of the brides actually, no, it's been 100% of the brides I've had a consultation with and provided that information to have actually booked me, and I just think that that process has just really helped me specifically in avoiding burnout, but I also think it's helped my clients up front, giving them pricing. Although it's something that I offer on my Instagram, I have a highlight of pricing. I also have it on my website. People just don't take the time to do that research, and so it really saves my time and you know the clients who are actually willing to spend the money that these flowers are going to cost them. They're willing to pay that. You know. It's just a better experience for us all. So that's something that I really changed. That's been really great.
Speaker 1:Another thing that I've changed this year is I'm going to have a team of interns that are going to be helping me kind of manage my day to day in all of these events that I've taken. I have about 10 events total. Starting May 2nd is my first wedding and then my last one is in August. I'm sure that those later fall weddings will come, but the bulk of my weddings are May and June. I've just one in July and one in August and I'm actually really happy with that and it's been really nice to kind of have that schedule in mind.
Speaker 1:And another thing I'm really excited about that I'm doing this year is I really took the time to really pitch table decor and designing to each of my clients and I think every single one of them has added my decor package. So I just charge a flat fee for anything in my inventory and it's really something that I think is worth it for me, because I love those pictures, I love the details of a tablescape and having my hands, you know, literally in that process really helps me to be happy with the overall aesthetic of the wedding. Making sure that I'm, you know, doing weddings that really represent me and my style so I can continue getting referrals that you know are going to be a good client for me, you know, moving forward in the future, and that's been really fun. They've all been, you know, spending my $4,000 minimum and higher and that's also just helped me to ensure that the weddings that I am booking are ones that really kind of share the same values and style as me. So we're doing lots of large scale installations, lots of like major tablescapes with large centerpieces and all the candles and you know just all the little small details. I have two weddings that are doing the cute bridesmaids baskets. That also has me so excited because I've been loving that style and I've kind of just continued pitching it to people and I've been so excited to those that are like really all about it.
Speaker 1:The other thing that I changed earlier this year actually the end of last year is on social media. I've literally just been posting whatever I want and whenever I want and I've stopped worrying about what people say the algorithm wants you to do, because I found that that's just never worked for me and I do feel like that's really impacted kind of the amount, the percentage of inquiries that I'm getting that say that the lead came from Instagram. I think when you post authentically to how you are and your personality and you're showing up like 100%, you clients can kind of see that they the comments that I get a lot is that people feel like they can connect with me. They get a sense of my personality and my style very easily. That makes them more inclined to want to reach out to me and to book because they feel like they know me, they feel like we're friends even before we've met, and so that's helped me a lot in just kind of doing what I want instead of what people say Instagram wants me to do, and I've had a lot of fun with it.
Speaker 1:I literally don't have any kind of schedule. I mean, I try to post at least every other day, but there's totally been times when I don't post for several days in a row. Whether I'm doing reels or posts or whatever, it literally just comes down to like whatever I'm feeling inspired to do at the moment and I just kind of post it, and that's been a lot of fun for me. I've been able to avoid feeling burnt out. But again, I also feel like I've had more clients saying that they found me through Instagram than ever before. So that's something that I feel like I've done differently this year, where last year I tried to actually plan my feed, which I normally would suggest doing and I've done up until this point. I would plan my feed in advance and, for whatever reason, I just feel like I wasn't really getting very much reach. I was still feeling overwhelmed, even though I would like batch, create all my content. So right now, I literally just scroll on Instagram. I find an audio that I like and then I go find some pictures that I think will work with it. I use the InShot app to just like throw something together and then I post it right then. So that's kind of been things. I've changed up a little bit of what my summer is going to look like and I'm really excited about it.
Speaker 1:The last thing I kind of wanted to share is I'm still offering my mini business and design course. So this is a PDF I offer. It's $120. You get access to this business and design PDF. It's 15 pages. It includes information, everything from starting your business, like information on what you might want to name it, getting a business license, making sure you're charging tax appropriately. I talk about websites, a little bit about social media. I give you like a tool bag list of things that you should purchase that are going to be really helpful, and then I also even include, like flower names and pictures and general costs to kind of help you get familiar with that.
Speaker 1:So you get access to that PDF and then what we do is you submit questions ahead of time for a one hour Zoom class that we do together of your specific pain points, things you want advice on, things you want to help brainstorming. We take that hour, I address all of them and then you kind of leave feeling confident, ready to either jump into your business or to adjust some of your business practices. So if that's something you're interested in, just reach out to me. I just schedule those as needed, so there's not like a set time, so we just work with each other's schedules, and that's been something I've been doing during the off season. I've really enjoyed and I'm planning to continue making time for. So I hope this was an impactful episode and I'm hoping that you're getting excited about this upcoming wedding season, whether you're another vendor, a florist or just someone who likes the wedding industry. And, yeah, I hope to hear your feedback. Let me know any of the insights that were helpful for you and if you have questions, as always, just reach out.