Jenny (00:29)
Do you ever dream of quitting your nine to five job and flower farming instead? If you had asked me this question 10 years ago, I would have been raising both of my hands up all the way up to the sky right now. So if that's also you, I am so excited for you to learn from my conversation today with Brooke Palmer of Jenny Creek Flowers. Brooke took my workshop, Six Figure Flower Farming in 2023, invested in her own education in a bunch of different ways, and was able to successfully scale her farm
so she could quit her nine to five job, all while working a full -time job as a high school English teacher. Brooke is the owner and flower farmer at Jenny Creek Flowers, which is a small specialty cut flower farm just outside of Ithaca in the Finger Lakes region of New York. So she's really close to me here in New York State. And at her farm, Brooke cultivates a variety of seasonal blooms all the way from January through October.
with a special focus on winter grown tulips that bring color and joy to all those cold, harsh winter months that we have here in New York. She also offers DallyaTubers and hosts on -farm workshops that invite people to connect with the beauty of flowers and build a really amazing community around her farm. So without further ado, let's get into business and start talking about quitting nine to five jobs and flower farming full -time instead.
Jenny (01:51)
Well, welcome, Brooke. I'm so excited to have you here.
Can you just start off by telling everyone a little bit about you and your farm and your story?
Brooke (02:02)
Yeah, thanks so much for having me. So I'm Brooke and I own Jenny Creek flowers. So I'm not Jenny. I'm often called Jenny, but there seems to be a few Jennys in the flower farming world. I'm not one of them. And so, so many of them. Yeah. So I have a small scale flower farm that's about 10 miles outside of Ithaca in the Finger Lakes region of New York. So not too far from you as you know. And
Jenny (02:17)
So many of them.
Brooke (02:30)
Our specialty is growing winter tulips from January through April. But then I do grow cut flowers January all the way through October. I'm primarily selling through retail outlets. So that's my CSA. And then I also have this really wonderful bakery setup where I basically have, I kind of like to think of it as like my farm stand inside of a bakery that's like well loved and really busy.
And that's been so successful that it's replaced my attendance at the farmers market. So that's, that's been really exciting this last year. And then now I'm just about to start in a couple of days, that'll be my first time not going back to school. So I've been a full time teacher for over 20 years. And then for the last few years, I was a full time teacher and
growing my flower farm on the side. And then in June, I took the big leap and I resigned from my position and school starts on Thursday and I'm going to be here on my farm instead.
Jenny (03:40)
That's so exciting. I, it's the best. Like, so you messaged me like earlier in the year to tell me, like it's official. I'm not going back to school to work this fall. And so I know I said congratulations before, but I just have to say like congratulations again, because it's no easy fee to do that. And you have worked so hard and we're going to talk about it during the podcast, but,
Brooke (03:43)
It's so exciting.
Jenny (04:09)
How are you feeling right now about achieving that giant goal of yours?
Brooke (04:15)
I'm, I'm feeling a lot of emotions. would say excitement is right up there. I feel really excited and, and like ready for this, ready to just grow my business in this full -time capacity. And I'm a little nervous, you know, it's a, it's a, it's a leap. Like you don't, one of my mentors said to me, you can't get a full -time return on a part -time investment, which was really helpful. And you seem like there's a point where.
You just like, it may not be here to here. It's like you do have to take the leap. And so I think that I've done a lot of things that making me feel like I'm ready to do that and I'm gonna land on solid ground. So yeah, I'm kind of back and forth between excited and nervous.
Jenny (05:03)
I feel like there's no other way to be when you make such a big jump like that. Cause I feel you and I think it did things similarly where we had full -time jobs. started the farm on the side, grew it on the farm and then grew it on the side. And then you get to this point where you're like, I can't keep doing both. And so I have to like basically pick and it's very rare, I think for somebody to have like their new business.
Brooke (05:20)
Mm -hmm.
Jenny (05:29)
all figured out, like ready to go, going to like totally replace their income or like feel 100 % ready for it. I think it's very rare for someone to feel a hundred percent like, okay with it. Like, I don't know, there's always going to be a little bit of nervousness there, but, for you to take, you know, make that decision, like how hard was it for you to make that decision to know that like now is the time. And now that you're, you're ready to do that.
Brooke (05:43)
Yeah.
It's been a complicated year in the sense that I lost a parent in December last year. And so that also, thank you, that also really played into it because not only was I last fall full -time teaching and being a mom and running my flower farm, but I had a parent in hospice who was dying of brain cancer and
Jenny (06:07)
I'm sorry.
Brooke (06:22)
Then it was like, this is all way too much. And so I think what it really came down to for me is I was like, you know, I've been doing things really methodically, I'm growing my customer base, and there's more demand for my flowers in a couple of ways than I can provide. And so I also just kind of looked at that big picture. Like you said,
there's never this perfect time to do it. So it comes down to like making, deciding it's the perfect time, not looking for everything to be in place. So yeah, that perspective, I thought I'll never be satisfied if I don't run this out and try and see, you know, we just have one life. So.
Jenny (07:05)
my God, I love that so much. I 100 % agree with it. So it's okay. There, you just said so many things that I like want to hit on, so many different things of them, but so how many years did you grow your farm on the side while you were working full time? Three years. Okay. And during that time,
Brooke (07:27)
Three years.
Jenny (07:34)
Tell us about how that was. Like, obviously when you are dealing with other life circumstances, like you're a sick parent, like that is awful and horrible. And then when things like that aren't happening, you're still like dealing with your family stuff that you have to do, household stuff, you're working full time, you're getting the business up on the side. So how did you manage?
working your full -time job and then also working on the farm. Like what was that journey like while you were still building up your business?
Brooke (08:07)
It was a crazy journey. If I knew then what I know now, no, it was a lot. required, I guess, two things that come to mind immediately. One is, ironically, I was a better teacher for it. I think that I went into the classroom really fulfilled and inspired, and I think that I was able to bring that into the classroom.
It made my teaching experience better and a little bit more lovely. But the other thing that it did was I had to really, I had to get clear. Like if I'm going to work these crazy long days, am I really in it to do flowers? And I felt clear. Like I want to grow these flowers. I love growing these flowers. I love making people happy with flowers. So it made me more committed to my business goals, you know, along the way.
But you know, on a more granular level, like I was up at five every day and I had a checklist of like six or eight things that I did every single morning just until I like put on my work clothes and went into my teacher life. And then when the end of my teaching day approached and I already had been farming in the morning, already been being a parent, teaching full time, I knew I had a couple hours of farm life waiting for me. So,
They were very long days. But again, I felt, I felt really clear that I wanted to be growing flowers and growing my business. And so I just found this energy that, I don't know, I was a force to be reckoned with, I guess.
Jenny (09:49)
Yeah, I think that's how it was for me too. I, I worked from before sun up to well past sundown and you just like have to do that for a period if you're going to build it up on the side. And I don't think that a lot of people really think that through or maybe not think that through is the right thing to say, but they don't realize like.
Brooke (09:58)
Mm -hmm.
Jenny (10:14)
how much energy it really takes to get a business off the ground. I'm not saying that to be discouraging in any way possible. I'm just saying that to be prepared for the amount of commitment it's going to take, but then as you have proven, and I have proven in so many other people that if you take that first little time to make the commitment, put the energy in, you can come out on the other side.
Brooke (10:27)
Mm -hmm.
Jenny (10:38)
living a life that you are going to be super excited about and super inspired by and would you say that that's worth it?
Brooke (10:45)
Yeah, I think that's exactly right. All of it. Like you have to be willing to put in this time commitment. There are so many things. mean, growing flowers aside, all of the business aspects is a part -time job and nobody's born knowing how to do any of that stuff. Yeah, so you have to be willing to really commit hard and then, but yeah, that's reality now is now I'm like, I look at my calendar in the week and it's
Jenny (10:59)
yeah.
Brooke (11:13)
mostly scheduled the way that I feel comfortable with. And I'm looking at like, where do I have these breaks in my year? And I feel like I'm really trying to build a lifestyle business that works for me, you know, that not only is profitable, but is helping me have the family life and the quality of life that I want. So that is really exciting. And I'm like in teaching, I can go to the bathroom whenever I want to.
Jenny (11:37)
Yeah, that, that must be something you're definitely not going to miss. yeah. I, I have another teacher friend who was pregnant the same time that I was. And you know, when you're pregnant, you gotta pee a lot. And she was like, I'm having the worst time at school. I, so I can't imagine going back to something like that now that I've been working for myself for so long, just like silly little things like that is so crazy.
Brooke (11:39)
No, not at all.
yeah.
Jenny (12:07)
so was it always your goal to farm full time or was your goal different when you first started growing flowers?
Brooke (12:07)
Yeah.
Yeah, I felt like if I'm gonna do this, I wanna do this. I graduated when I was 17 and I started teacher college when I was 17 years old and I started teaching when I was 21. So I really feel like I've given decades to my educational career and I've loved it, but I knew that I was ready for something else. And so when I got this notion of...
doing a flower farm and I did some of my market research and really thought like, think I can make this viable. I was like, if I'm doing it, I'm going to, I'm going to go all in and I'm going to phase out teaching.
Jenny (12:56)
And something I wanted to come back to while you said that you want to make it viable before you're saying that the business should be viable, not only financially, it should be profitable, but also should be based around your lifestyle. And I think that is so valuable. And it's something that I started teaching in our online six -figure flower farming course. The very first module is all about like.
Your lifestyle, what you want your ideal day to look like, because I felt like when I started my business, I was like, I will do literally anything to not work the job I'm working at that moment. Cause I, I didn't like it. It was not for me. And so I just kind of like threw caution to the wind and was like, I will do literally anything. So I ended up working even well after I quit my government job. I was working like.
Brooke (13:25)
Okay.
Jenny (13:50)
15 hour days every day. And then I like burned and crashed and I got to this moment where I was like, this is not the business that I want. And I had to like go back and like, re -figure things out and really focus on the lifestyle that I wanted, how I wanted my days to look. And so I think that you're so smart that from the very beginning, you are looking at your business as a piece of your life, your lifestyle, and building it the way that you want it to look because.
Brooke (13:59)
Bye.
Jenny (14:18)
You can do whatever you want. It's your business, right? Yeah.
Brooke (14:20)
Yeah, that's the most exciting thing about owning a business. I can't imagine why somebody would want a business if you don't build it around a lifestyle. It's like there's the freedom, that's kind of the essence of it. I agree with you though, it's constantly a process of revision and I even just
Jenny (14:32)
Yes.
Brooke (14:43)
Right now I'm like, okay, I'm about to go into the fall and schedule is gonna be different. And I feel like if I need to sit down and make sure that my schedule is right and that all the pieces are in place so that it feels manageable. And I think that I'll just continue to do that every phase of it.
Jenny (15:01)
Yeah, it's always a work in progress. Like I'm nearly a decade in here and have all the time. I'm always revising and improving and changing my schedule up from, you know, season to season and even week to week sometimes. which I don't like to do, but trying to keep everything, you know, the way that I want it to be and keep like moving in that direction. So you obviously have worked super hard to get your business up to a point where you can quit your.
Brooke (15:17)
Mm -hmm.
Jenny (15:30)
teaching job, start farming full time. I want to know what are the major steps that you took to achieve this goal? Like what are the major skills that you had to learn or things that you had to put in place for you to come to this part in your life?
Brooke (15:49)
Well, the first thing is that I did actually do market research and I wrote a business plan and that felt super important. And I, and I do think that that is something unique that can happen in flower farming where like, if I was going to open up a sneaker store or a hat shop or something, I would definitely do that. But then sometimes in, flower farming, seems like we, people can step over, like jump over that step. so.
Jenny (15:57)
Awesome.
Brooke (16:17)
I had to make sure like, is there room in my market? know, what am I going to do? And who's my customer? So I did all of that stuff. Then I pretty much took every dollar I made and I invested it in my infrastructure. I really tried to get a season extension. That was really important. You know, like what our growing, the length of our growing season is. And so that was kind of the next big thing. And then
Jenny (16:17)
I don't think so.
Brooke (16:46)
building my customer base was huge. So I really put some time into learning marketing skills and trying to build that email list because at the end of the day, I could have a high tunnel full of flowers, but if I don't have anyone to sell them to, then you know, that's rough. That's, that's rough. and those were kind of like the first big three things. And then after that,
Jenny (17:03)
Yes.
Brooke (17:12)
what I realized once I had those going was I just continued to invest in myself. So I'm that person who, you know, the first two years, I, if there was a course being offered, I took it and I felt like I was not born knowing how to run a business. I was not, I was a gardener for 15 years. So I felt really comfortable that I grow flowers, like crop planning is different than putting some seeds in a vegetable patch to make it pretty. Right. So there's,
difference there. So I invested in myself a lot, know, in one of those ways was taking your course last summer.
Jenny (17:50)
Yeah. Two summers. Well, I guess it was last summer, not this summer. Like, my God, I can't believe this, this year has been going by so fast. yeah, I think that investing in yourself and your education is one of the most valuable things that any business owner can do for themselves. Because like you said, none of us are
Brooke (17:52)
Two summers ago? It wasn't a summer. Yeah, I know it is. It is almost two summers ago in a couple of weeks.
so fast.
Jenny (18:16)
born knowing how to do this. We're not born knowing how to run a business. And it's not something that you should just like expect to just figure. I mean, you can figure it out on your own, but I think you are a primary example of if you invest in yourself and your own education, you will get to where you want to go so much faster than if you didn't. Right. So what do you think that the biggest
Brooke (18:39)
Absolutely. Yeah.
Jenny (18:45)
takeaways from taking six -figure flower farming, the coursework for you.
Brooke (18:50)
Yeah, there's a few things that were immediately changed my business. And the first one, it's not that sexy sounding, but the reality is I came home the first day after the workshop and I organized my barn. And I felt like I was a train wreck, right? Here I was like out there, 5 .30 in the morning, time to do whatever, throw whatever I had going on into the barn after work.
after school, grab it, leave stuff around the field. And I knew it wasn't working efficiently and it drove me crazy and I lost time. I didn't have looking for things, but it was like, I came out of that workshop and just gave myself permission to slow down and get organized. And I think that even means I had one week where, and I would, I think I was still at the market at the time. I was like, I'm just not even gonna harvest as much this week. I'm just going to set things up.
So I got my barn organized, I figured out where I needed tools and better places and that really helped me start to calm down a lot. And I felt like I wasn't as frustrated. I honestly, I think even going into my third year of working full time and side hustle farming, it allowed me to maximize my time a lot better. So that was huge for me. The second thing though was you showed us your standard
operating procedures. And as I got closer to realizing like, can't run a farm myself, and I need to hire someone, it was clear that I needed to get things out of my brain and out of paper, not only to like, plan to hire a person, but also for myself, like, I don't always remember like, soaking the ranunculus corns, and how long do I do it for? And so I, I spent time like, in those couple of weeks after the workshop, and I
wrote out a ton of standard operating procedures. And it was like, I just felt lighter. I felt like I could trust that there were these processes in place. And then even once like I didn't maybe have time to write, I literally made a sheet that said like, it is. So I know in my master document where everything's hyperlinked, like I'll get to it. And that's really changed how I would say like, my efficiency has increased greatly because
I'm always doing something like as if I'm going to write a standard operating procedure for it. And therefore I can decide like, right, should I do this step or that step? And so I just feel like I've gotten really streamlined. And that has been just indescribably helpful in using the time that I had to do more.
Jenny (21:38)
Hey, flower farmer, real quick. Do you find that you are wanting to start a flower farm business or maybe you already have one, but you're struggling to know if you're doing things right on the business side of things. A lot of beginning flower farmers are really unsure about three different things when they start their businesses. The first one is the legalities associated with starting a flower farm. So things like business structure, insurance, your business models, that kind of stuff. The second thing is finances. So.
basic financial definitions, taxes, common startup expenses, bootstrapping from the beginning, or finding funding ideas. And then thirdly, the things that a lot of flower farmers struggle with is marketing. So setting up ways to get paid, finding your first customers, or attracting more ideal customers to your business. So if you feel even a little bit unsure about any of these things and you need some help with it, I have a free business course for you.
Yep. It's totally free. It's an entire online business course for beginning flower farmers that doesn't cost you a penny. It's called the flower farming business foundations course. And I recommend everyone takes this free mini course before they take my paid online course called six -figure flower farming. It's several hours of instruction of topics ranging from general tips for success, business structures and legalities, finances, marketing, efficiency, and more.
And I did this, I put this free business course together because I just see so many people struggling with the business side of things when they get started. And I want to help as many people as possible get their flower farm business off the ground with ease without complete overwhelm. Cause I've been there and I know how much it sucks. And I just don't want people to worry about if they're forgetting something or if they're not sure about like taxes or finances or anything like that.
So if you're unsure about any of these things, do yourself a favor and sign up for the free business course now at www .trademarkfarmer .com forward slash startup. It's S T A R T U P trademark farmer .com forward slash startup. There's also a link in the show notes of this episode that you can just go click on.
And I recommend, so you don't forget to pause this episode. Go ahead and pause it right now. Go sign up, then come back to the rest of this episode. Okay. I really mean that you'll save yourself so many hours of research, frustrating over different pieces of information and just wondering if you've done everything you need to make your business official by signing up for this totally free course. So go sign up now and I'll see you right back here in just a second.
Jenny (24:23)
Yeah, it's so important when time is really our limiting factor. And you obviously realize that because you're trying to juggle a million things while you're doing your full -time job, teaching family and the farm. And so the more efficient you were, the more organized you were, the more you're probably getting done. And something that you said that's really important is the clearer that you felt because I can just imagine you because I have been there.
way back when I started my business where you're just rushing, trying to get things done and you feel totally frazzled all the time. And like, it just doesn't feel good. And then when you finally get organized and you're like moving more smoothly and stuff, things tend to like just happen more smoothly and therefore you get more done. And when you get more accomplished and you're focusing on the right things, you're, move in the needle in your business, right?
Brooke (25:02)
Mm -hmm.
100%. Yeah. I think it's like, it is this like that the lack not losing time because things are inefficient, but also just feeling better. And then the juggling act felt so much more manageable because my spirits were uplifted. And I was like, okay, I'm doing this and I'm not a train wreck and everything feels like it's I'm taking a step forward. So yeah, it was really helpful.
Jenny (25:42)
That's And now about the SOPs. So do you have employees or other people that help you on the farm or is it just you right now?
Brooke (25:50)
Yeah, I have an employee now who's 12 hours a week, year round. So I brought her on with that because I do grow winter tulips. So we have a really busy winter production. And that's also kind of just keeping me motivated, like, hey, I'm going to build this business that someone can come along with me. And so, yeah, and I think too, that so, you know, I can give her SOPs, like if I got sick or something, you know, I could hand
that over to her. She's also helping me figure out how to do things efficiently. Like I might do it a certain way and she might do it a different way. And so then that's really useful to be able to play off of somebody's ideas.
Jenny (26:33)
Yeah, I think that having employees is number one, a great way to hold yourself accountable or have them hold you accountable. Yeah, it's like the best way to do it. And it like forces you to get more organized and streamlined. And I know that when like I had.
Brooke (26:40)
Mm -hmm, it really is.
Jenny (26:53)
my first baby last spring and not this past spring, spring before, but if I did not have those SOPs in place, like my business would have burnt to the ground because I was completely unavailable. And I'm sure, you know, maybe that's not a situation that you're in right now, but if you ever like broke a leg or you know, you had another family member get sick and you had to leave the farm to go take care of them, like.
Brooke (27:14)
Mm -hmm.
Jenny (27:18)
That's what's going to keep your business running when you're not able to be right there. And so for you recognizing the importance of that is so great.
Brooke (27:26)
Yeah, and it is, it's like this, I don't know, this like assurance feeling that I have. Like I even have like, you know, like she helps me prep CSA, but I have it all there, driving to the CSA or making the CSA bouquets or whatever. And it's like, yeah, I feel like I could step out and just leave everything on paper. One, a really exciting, I had a couple of students help over the summer and our biggest task is filling our cistern.
which we do once a week. And if it's not raining, then we fill it from the pond. And I did it one week with my husband and my son, and I wrote everything out. It's my longest set of standard operating procedures. Like I want to say it's three and a half pages. And the first week, because there are just so, there are so many things to it, but I wrote it down. And the first week that I needed two students to do it, I gave it to them with a clipboard and I said,
Jenny (28:12)
Wow.
Brooke (28:23)
go ahead and just cross everything out. And if you have any questions, ask me. And they disappeared for 40 minutes. They filled the cistern, they crossed up all of these steps, and then they handed me back the clipboard and I was like, I'm free. Now I'm totally free because you need water. And so that just made me even more motivated to realize like, that's how I empower other people to help me.
Jenny (28:46)
Yes. And I love that you said that empowering other people because, first of all, your SOPs must be dang good if two high school kids can follow them and not mess them up. So that is a great achievement. And yeah, I love that. But also you're empowering other people and they, most people, they want to be helpful and they just, they want to do a good job. mean, the majority of people, and when they
Brooke (28:58)
That's my teaching background.
Jenny (29:13)
are empowered to do something, you're giving them this gift of like fulfilling their self -esteem and their self -worth. And then they're just going to want to do more things for you. And you're going to create a better team culture and environment. And so that is awesome. So even really complicated tasks, like it sounds like that must be a complicated task. I don't know anything about filling cisterns. You can hand those things off to other people and
Brooke (29:24)
Mm -hmm.
It really is.
Jenny (29:40)
Another important thing about that is that it frees you up to do important work that is like business ownership stuff. So not just like a day to day things, it frees your mind up for the bigger picture. So like marketing and running the business and getting more customers, right? I mean, I imagine that you're probably spending quite a bit of your time doing things like that.
Brooke (30:01)
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. There's that expression like working like in the farm versus on the farm, right? And so I feel like, you know, the way my summer schedule has looked is that all the field work is done by 1130 every day. And then the rest of the day is either, you know, transporting flowers if need to be, or I have office time and it's incredible because I, because I do feel like I get to work on the, on my farm, on my business quite a bit.
Jenny (30:33)
which anyone has to, if they want to see the results, right? Like you have to set aside time for marketing and sales and like writing your email newsletter and making social media posts. And like we batch a lot of that stuff on our farm. But if you're not learning how to do those things and taking the time to actually do it, you know, every week or every month or whatever your schedule looks like, like your farm's not going to be growing and maybe not even
Brooke (30:38)
Yeah.
Jenny (31:03)
maintaining itself. So you have to have time to run the business, but yeah, absolutely. So what would you say to someone who is maybe in your shoes, but like a year or two ago, who has maybe started their flower farm business on the side and they want to quit that job and farm full time in the future, but they're not quite sure like.
Brooke (31:05)
Thank you.
Absolutely.
Jenny (31:28)
how to make that happen yet or what skills to acquire, what to do in order to get there. What would you say to someone? What advice would you give them?
Brooke (31:37)
Well, I would definitely say invest in your education. If they're feeling drawn, like if it's your course they're feeling drawn to, there's so many things out there now, I would say do it. Like take the time because I think like you said is you get there faster. And like, always think of it when I took all these courses, I thought of that like game shoots and ladders and I felt like it was like a ladder. It was like every time I took a class, I was just like, boom, like moving up.
Jenny (31:47)
so many.
Hahaha!
Brooke (32:06)
faster, know, getting better faster. So that's the biggest thing that I would say. But then I think back to like what we said in the beginning of this conversation is taking a hard look at what your goal is. Like if your goal really is to be a full time flower farmer, then making sure that that's in alignment with the your ability to devote the time to it, you know, hopefully in the short term while going through those first years of
of building up the business.
Jenny (32:38)
Yeah, I loved your analogy of the shoots and ladders game. Like every time you take a course and you learn a new skill, you're like leveled up, leveled up.
Brooke (32:47)
Yeah, it feels that way because it's like, there's like, there's nothing like it. I mean, you know, I came out to your farm for two days and there's just the way that that accelerated everything for me is it's hard to even describe because just to see it and place to take the time to take notes, to take pictures of things and to just get it in my head, like I'm going to do my version of this.
and I wanna do it as quickly as I can. I mean, I was inspired. I felt like I had tools that I needed. Yeah. And it's like, how many years would I be out in my field, tripping over my tools or looking for a thing rather than phasing out that career that I felt like I was ready to let go of.
Jenny (33:35)
Yeah, I love that so much. And I have to say that I totally agree with that feeling of like, just learning from other people who've gone before you is such a gift. like, I'm still learning and I will never stop. And I don't think that like, you know, now that you're going to be farming full time, like it's, it's not going to just end for you. Like it's a continuous journey because
Brooke (33:58)
Enough.
Jenny (34:01)
Like I'm still taking, like right now I'm taking a class on ads because like, I don't really, I feel like I've run ads before, but I don't feel like I'm an expert in them and I want to learn about it. And so like, I am still always learning things and taking classes. And I just think it's like the best thing that you could do. And so I love that you also feel that same way. And you echo that thought of, you know, investing in yourself is the best investment that you can make. And I really think that really learning the business skills.
like lean and efficiency and marketing and the numbers and crop planning and stuff like that. I mean, like you said earlier in the episode, you can grow the most beautiful flowers in the world, but if you don't have the skills to like move them, then it's kind of like a wasted effort, right?
Brooke (34:33)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah, it is. I think sometimes I hear the idea, like, I don't like to sell. It's like, if you don't want to learn how to sell flowers, then you want to be a gardener. There's just a difference. that's OK. I think that it's OK to be in love with flowers and not want to grow a of them and not sell them. But just to be clear, there's no way that I could run a business
Jenny (35:05)
Yes.
Brooke (35:20)
growing and selling flowers if I didn't want to do the selling part. So like getting really comfortable with that and figuring out how to do that in a way that feels like you see it as service rather than like it feels sleazy or something. I think that's really important.
Jenny (35:35)
Yeah. I think that's a huge mindset shift is going from like, feel sleazy and like slimy trying to like sell people things where like what I teach in the new, in the online six figure flower farming course is like, when you are selling something to someone, you are serving them. are like giving them something that they really want. Like my customers.
want flowers, they really want the feelings that they want to feel joy, they want to feel happy when they pick up the bouquets every week. like, you're just the middle man, you're just connecting them to what they want basically. And so I think that that is a hard thing for people to understand where maybe they want to have a business selling flowers, but that they get stuck on that selling point where, like you said, it's just, it's, it's just like a shift you have to make.
Brooke (35:58)
Yes.
Mm -hmm.
Jenny (36:25)
Either a hobby or a business, you can't kind of treat it like both. And a lot of times it's just like a, like a mindset shift kind of, you know?
Brooke (36:29)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah, I think that's exactly what it is. I think it's it is it's like, you know, what are we doing? Like we're creating joy and beauty and, you know, self care and all those things. And it's like, that's a wonderful thing to be providing people, right. So just getting in that mindset of like, that's what it is really. And then committing to that side to like really build a business that's going to work.
Jenny (37:02)
Yeah. Are there any sales or maybe marketing tips that you would want to share with someone who might be in a position like you? Are things that they should maybe work on and learn?
Brooke (37:11)
Yeah, well, I mean
Yeah, I would say that like, I mean, email marketing 100%, but like really just even starting that email list. And that was something that I started right away, like super early, I guess I just, you know, I went looking like, okay, how do I sell and that's what everybody tells you. So figuring that out, like, how do you have your lead magnet? And how do you have your email list, you know, and like, I think my first lead magnet was like pretty cringy.
But like you just have to start. just like, have to do it. And then there's, cause there's so many steps that you learn and like what's what email marketing service do I use and all of it. And it's like, just do it and don't worry about it being like, you know, elevated to the level you really want it at. You just got to get going on it.
Jenny (37:40)
Mine too.
I love that to just start, even if it's not going to be perfect, because we also teach about websites and email marketing and starting your list and building your list and lead magnets and opt -ins and all like the tech behind them and everything in the online course. And it doesn't have to be perfect in the first time you do something, it's always going to feel really hard. So like a lot of people, I feel like have like this bigger version to kind of learning that stuff. Cause it sounds like very techie and you know, advanced or whatever, but
Brooke (38:17)
Mm -mm.
Jenny (38:30)
The first time you do it, it's going to be hard. And then every time after that, it's going to be so much easier. And you're going to get so much better. Like you said, my first lead magnet was very awful looking and gross. I have it somewhere back in my files. And I'm like, we'll never look at it ever again. like.
All the ones that I've made since then, like they get better and better every time. And then my conversions get better each and every time. And it's like, you just continue to improve and there's always levels to this stuff. so I think it's great that you started your email list from the very beginning because I like half started mine. I didn't really start mine from the beginning. I had like a piece of paper at the farmer's market where I'd have people sign up, but I like, didn't really know what to do with it at first, but.
Brooke (38:53)
Yep.
Jenny (39:18)
I at least started and so it's so cool that you started yours from the beginning and I'm sure it's probably doing pretty well for you now.
Brooke (39:27)
Yeah, was definitely, yeah, it's like the number one thing I would tell someone to do if they want to work on their marketing. Yeah, and even like back at the market, because you brought that up, I sometimes if I felt like my sales were slow, like one of my mindset shifts would be okay, well, what if right now it's not about selling flowers, it's about getting people to sign up on my email list, right? So there's like ways that you can kind of utilize an experience, you know, or like if someone doesn't.
a lot of products like when you first start growing maybe you don't feel like you have a ton of bouteilles to bring somewhere but shift it to think well I'm just going to get to know people in my community and I'm going to maybe try to get them to sign up for my email list like that's a real win even if not everyone's buying a bouquet.
Jenny (40:12)
That's a huge one. Yeah. Just making connections with people. Yeah. Someone first told me when I first started business, they were, they said, business is all about relationships. And I was like, I don't understand that from the beginning. I was like, I'm not forming a relationship with someone, but like I was so freaking wrong. And now I'm like, it really is all about relationships and just building relationships and having this.
Brooke (40:14)
Mm
huh.
Jenny (40:40)
building this community of people and it makes it so fun and so special to look at business from that standpoint where you're building relationships with people, you're building communities with people, you're not just like trying to like sell people stuff and make money. Cause that's really not what a business is all about.
Brooke (41:00)
Yeah, no, absolutely. And then you get to know your customers and like, you know, who's obsessed with Dahlia's or he loves who had like Lizzy Ampis at her wedding or whatever, you know, and I love that stuff. And then that like ties back into marketing where I feel like when I write emails, like I'm writing to very specific people. And I think that's part of it's part of the mindset ship, but it's also like part of like the relationship.
Jenny (41:07)
You
Yes.
Brooke (41:27)
based marketing, you know, where it's like, know, I know like Sarah's going to read this email and she's really excited about Roman Tula's season.
Jenny (41:36)
Yes, I love that. And I honestly think the best part about owning a small business is like becoming friends with your customers. Like it sounds like that's the experience that you've had and I know it's been the best thing for me. Yeah, it's the best. So, so Brooke, is there anything else that you would like to share or any like words of advice for anyone who's like you, anything else that comes to mind right now that you want to share?
Brooke (41:44)
Yeah.
Yes, so lovely. Yeah.
I would say, know, like along the lines of like, you know, investing in your education is like finding, find other flower friends who are on the same kind of mission as you. Like I met a few friends in your course and we're still like in a group chat or like, you know, we chat a lot, but it's like, we're talking about profitability together and we're, we're at like the same level, you know.
basically and that's been really motivating because there's so many forums. mean, obviously everybody who grows flowers knows all the forums, but it's different to have connections. Like I have a tulip friend and we just put our heads together all the time and we're really focused on that crop. so it's really helpful to have people who also have profitability in mind.
want to build a successful business rather than just being like, hey, what's that pretty variety? Because that's really helpful too. But like getting on the business side with a friend is something I would really recommend.
Jenny (43:05)
Yeah, it's so important to have support within the industry because most people I would say are not going to understand like why Brooke wants to start a flower farm. know, I know none of my friends and like my friends that are outside flower farming, like they don't have any idea what I do and they are like not into it. None of them are business owners either, or very few of them are. And so.
Brooke (43:27)
Mm
Jenny (43:33)
Just having that support, like bounce ideas off of people and having relationships with other growers is really going to help you on your bad days, right? Like, have you had bad days where you're like, maybe you don't want to throw in the towel, but you kind of feel like it and you kind of reach out to a flower friend and just like, they talk you off the ledge.
Brooke (43:42)
Mm
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Yeah, and just normalizing the cycle and like the August exhaustion and all of the things.
Jenny (44:00)
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So Brooke, I am so happy for you that you are finally going to be a full -time flower farmer. I can't express how proud of you I am because I feel like I've known you for a super long time. Didn't you come to, and I just thought about this, didn't you come to a Dalia workshop I had years ago? OK. I was like, maybe I made that up, but no.
Brooke (44:11)
Thank you.
I did. I did. Yeah. I actually, no, and I actually, I'm starting like the workshop arm of my business and I have a workshop happening in a couple of weeks. like, again, like I saw your workshop and I was like, this is amazing. It was such a good experience. So it's like helped me kind of feel into like how I want to build workshops.
Jenny (44:32)
Yay!
awesome. I love that. yeah, it's just been like just going to a workshop. You meet people and then you get to like talk to them three or four years later and they're quitting their jobs and becoming flower farmers. And like it's the coolest thing ever. And so yeah, it's just been super fun to watch your journey. And I feel like I'm so impressed with you and you're so smart because you've invested in yourself and you just really dug in.
Brooke (44:59)
mm -hmm
Jenny (45:15)
learned as much as you can. And the important thing is you've learned it and put it into practice. Like you've taken action on everything and you just sped up your process so much. So I'm just so thrilled for you. So thank you so much for coming onto the show and talking about your experience and your journey and giving advice to other people. I I'm just so happy that I get to know you.
Brooke (45:37)
Thank you, Jenny. I really appreciate you having me on to talk.
Jenny (45:40)
Yeah, so Brooke, just tell everyone real quick where they can find you, your Instagram, your website, where they can learn more about you and what you do and maybe go take a workshop with you at your farm.
Brooke (45:50)
Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah, so you can find me at jennicreekflowers .com and then also on Instagram at jennicreekflowers and on Facebook, the same handle.
Jenny (46:00)
Awesome alright so everyone go follow Brooke at Jenny Creek flowers and we will see you guys next time on the next episode of the six figure flower farming podcast.
Jenny (46:09)
one more thing before you go. Remember earlier in this episode when I mentioned that free business foundations course for beginning flower farmers. just want to remind you to go and sign up for that because I'm only going to be offering this for a limited amount of time. We're doing a big cohort in the business foundations course right now. And then I'm going to take a break from teaching it. I'll probably teach it again in the future. But if you want access to this information anytime soon, go ahead and sign up right now. So as a reminder, it's trademark farmer.
dot com forward slash startup s t a r t u p trademark farmer dot com forward slash startup to go put your email address in there and then I will send you all the information you need to get access to the course via email so make sure you check your emails and there's also a link in the show notes of this episode so you can go sign up right now so go sign up and I'll see you next time during the six -figure flower farming podcast
